The ignorance of some is greatly to be pitied, who load themselves with unwise penances of their devising, putting all their confidence in them, and expecting to become saints by their means. If they would put half of this labor upon mortifying their appetites and their passions, they would gain more in a month than by all their own exercises in many years.

Prayer is a wine that makes glad the heart of men.

-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux

If you should ask me what is the way of God, I would tell you that it is humility. Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are fruitless.  

-- St. Augustine

No one should follow what he considers to be good for himself, but rather what seems good for another. They should display brotherly love in a chaste manner; fear God in a spirit of love.

You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all you will remain.

Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.

It is not the actual physical exertion that counts toward a man's progress, nor the nature of the task, but the spirit of faith with which it is undertaken.

-- St. Francis Xavier

It is possible to contemplate God not only outside us and within us but also above us: outside, through vestiges of Him; within, through His image; and above, through the light that shines upon our mind.

-- St. Bonaventure

Take caution to see priests only as the dispensers of the Blood of the humble, Immaculate Lamb and overlook the faults you may see in them. A priest is a man and therefore fallible and capable of making mistakes, but this does not prevent him from being the Annointed of the Lord, marked forever with the indelible sign and having the power to consecrate the Body of Christ and administer the sacraments and to preach to the people in the name of God.

-- St. Catherine of Siena

A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil.

-- St. Dominic de Guzman

Faith is not a wish to believe or a will to believe something contrary to reason. Faith is not living as if something were true. Faith is the acceptance of a truth based on the authority of God's revelation, as manifested in the Church and in Scripture.

-- Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

I will go up to the foot of the Cross; I will press my arms tightly around the cold body, the corpse of Christ, with the fire of my love.....I will unail it, with my reparation and mortifications....I will wrap it in the new winding-sheet of my clean life, and I will bury it in the clean rock of my breast, where no one can tear it away from me, and there, Lord, take your rest! Were the whole world to abandon you...serviam! I will serve you Lord.

-- St. Josemaria Escriva

The quiet solitude of the night make it a favorable time for prayer and most suitable for those who watch. With worldly occupations put aside and the attention undivided, the whole man, at night, stands in the divine presence.

-- St. Niceta of Remesiana

God is love, and all his operations proceed from love. Once he wills to manifest that goodness by sharing his love outside himself, then the Incarnation becomes the supreme manifestation of his goodness and love and glory.

-- St. Lawrence of Brindisi

Have you sinned? Go into church and wipe out your sin. As often as you might fall down in the marketplace, you pick yourself up again. So too, as often as you sin, repent and confess your sin. Do not despair as the devil wants you too.

-- St John Chrysostom

Don't have Jesus Christ on your lips and the world in your hearts. I would rather die and come to Jesus Christ than be king over the entire earth.

-- St. Ignatius of Antioch

In this day in which the Rich became poor for our sakes, let the rich man make the poor man share with him at his table. On this day came forth to us the Gift, even though we had not asked for it! Let us therefore bestow alms on those who cry and beg from us.

-- St. Ephraem the Syrian

If you should ask me what is the way of God, I would tell you that it is humility. Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are fruitless.

We must mortify our tongue. An impure word spoken in jest may prove a scandal to others, and sometimes a word of double meaning, said in a witty way, does more harm than a word openly impure.

To rely on our talents is a cause of great loss. When someone places confidence in his own prudence, knowledge, and intelligence, God, to make him know and see his insufficiency, withdraws from him His help and leaves him to work by himself. This is often why our undertakings miserably fail.

-- St Vincent de Paul

As the result of sin, the virtues have become painful to us; we shrink from them because they mean humiliation and suffering. " You do not want to be humiliated?" Humilation is an honor, suffering a joy, because Jesus Christ has placed in them true honor and true joy.

-- St. Peter Julian Eymard

It is not in human nature to deceive others for any long time, without in a measure deceiving ourselves also.

-- John Henry Cardinal Newman

The soul possesses freedom; and though the devil can make suggestions, he does not have the power to compel you against your will.

-- St. Cyril of Jerusalem