Choosing hope and the future in the last analysis implies choosing God ... It means choosing Christ, the hope of every human being. ~Bl John Paul II

It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is the beginning of blessedness and the consummation of humility is the perfection of all joy. Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the life of the soul. It is the only key to faith, with which the spiritual life begins: for faith and humility are inseparable. In perfect humility all selfishness disappears and your soul no longer lives for itself or in itself for God: and it is lost and submerged in Him and transformed into Him. ~ Thomas Merton

We must insist upon the positiveness of the divine life in us. The Christian spirit is a positive and aggressive force in the world. It is not on the defensive. It is not a mere shrinking from evil and abstinence from wrong-doing. It is the shedding of a new light into the world. It is a triumphant marching onward in the Name and faith of Christ. It is a confident, joyful challenge to the armies of unrighteousness. It expels bad passion by introducing true love. It conquers the disease of sin by increasing the amount and improving the quality of vigorous righteousness. It overcomes evil with good. ~Thomas F. Gaylor; from his article, Lent: Not Negative, but Positive

People do not mortify themselves during Lent out of a sick desire to suffer. God did not make us for suffering. If we fast or do penances or pray, it is for a very positive goal: by overcoming self one achieves the Easter resurrection. We do not just celebrate a risen Christ, distinct from us, but during Lent we prepare ourselves to rise with him to a new life and to become the new persons that are what the country needs right now. Let us not just shout slogans about new structures; new structures will be worthless without new persons to administer the new structures the country needs and live them out in their lives. ~Archbishop Oscar Romero

The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. But there too is God, the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasuries of grace—all things are there. ~ St. Macarius

Love is a fire. It must spend itself in service. Service is the dry wood for the fire of love that makes it burst into a bonfire that reaches into eternity and burns there. We must be a flame in the darkness, a lamp to our neighbor’s feet, a place where he can warm himself, a place where he can see the face of God. It is to love, to burn, that we have come together! Our life is senseless if we are here for any other reason than loving---utterly, passionately, completely. The very word “love” implies sacrifice and surrender. ~Catherine Doherty, from her book, The People of the Towel and the Water

The Paschal Mystery is above all the mystery of life in which the Church, by celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ, enters into the Kingdom of Life which He has established once for all by His definitive victory over sin and death. We must remember the original meaning of Lent, as the ver sacrum, the Church's "holy spring" in which the catechumens were prepared for their baptism, and public penitents were made ready by penance for their restoration to the sacramental life in a communion with the rest of the Church. Lent is then not a season of punishment so much as one of healing. ~Thomas Merton, from Seasons of Celebration