It is to those who have the most need of us that we ought to show our love more especially.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Love the poor tenderly, regarding them as your masters and yourselves as their servants.

-- St. John of God

But a soul that does not live by the love of God suffers in a different way. It is not happy because it does not correspond generously enough to divine love; it hears a call and feels an attraction to which it does not respond. God punishes it by preventing it from being at peace in the quiet of laziness which it creates for itself. How many times is God sent away in this manner!

-- St. Peter Emyard

It is better for a man to be silent and be [a Christian], than to talk and not to be one. It is good to teach, if he who speaks also acts. There is then one Teacher, who spake and it was done; while even those things which He did in silence are worthy of the Father. He who possesses the word of Jesus, is truly able to hear even His very silence, that he may be perfect, and may both act as he speaks, and be recognised by his silence.

-- St. Ignatius

Before prayer, endeavor to realize whose Presence you are approaching, and to whom you are about to speak. We can never fully understand how we ought to behave towards God, before whom the angles tremble.

-- St. Teresa of Avila

Separate me from myself and from all that is not you, in order to unite and incorporate me with you. Empty me of myself and of all things, destroy me utterly, in order to fill me with yourself and to form and establish yourself in me. Cause me henceforth to be a perfect image of yourself; just as you are a most perfect image of your Father.

-- St. John Eudes

True devotion hinders no one, but rather it perfects everything, and whenever it is out of keeping with any person's legitimate vocation, it must be spurious.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Sorrow is given us on purpose to cure us of sin.

-- St. John Chrysostom

The everlasting God has in His wisdom, foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. This cross He now sends you, He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His Divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with His loving arms and weighed with His own hands, to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His holy Name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God. Our business is to love what would have done. He wills our vocation as it is. Let us love that and not trifle away our time hankering after other people's vocations.

-- St. Francis de Sales

True charity consists in doing good to those who do us evil, and in thus winning them over.

-- St. Alphonsus Liguori

O Truth, you are present to those who seek your help, and at one and the same time you answer all, though they seek your counsel on different matters. You respond clearly. but not everyone hears clearly. All ask what they wish, but do not always hear the answer they wish. Your best servant is he who is intent not so much on hearing his petition answered, as rather on willing whatever he hears from you.

-- St. Augustine

We read in the gospel that when the Lord was teaching his disciples and urged them to share in his passion by the ministry of eating his body, some said: This is a hard saying; and from that time they no longer followed him. When he asked the disciples whether they also wish to go away, they replied: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. I assure you my brothers that even to this day it is clear to some that the words which Jesus speaks are spirit and life, and for this reason they follow him. To others these words seem hard, and so they look elsewhere for some pathetic consolation. Yet wisdom cries out in the streets, in a broad and spacious way that leads to death, to call back those who take this path.

-- St Bernard

You go to pray; to become a bonfire, a living flame, giving light and heat.

-- St Josemaria Escriva

After you have made a decision that is pleasing to God, the Devil may try to make you have second thoughts. Intensify your prayer time, meditation, and good deeds. For if Satan's temptations merely cause you to increase your efforts to grow in holiness, he'll have an incentive to leave you alone.

-- St. Ignatius of Loyola

Unless you strive after virtues and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs.

-- St. Theresa of Avila

Can the life of a good Christian be anything other than that of a man nailed to the Cross with Jesus Christ?

-- St. John Vianney

He who does not meditate acts as one who never looks into the mirror and so does not bother to put himself in order, since he can be dirty without knowing it. The person who meditates and turns his thoughts to God who is the mirror of the soul, seeks to know his defects and tries to correct them, moderates himself in his impulses and puts his conscience in order.

-- Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.

-- Lumen gentium 59

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind that sets bounds to the passions.

-- St. Thomas Aquinas

I see in my neighbor the Person of Jesus Christ.

-- St. Gerard Majella

The Most Blessed Sacrament is Christ made visible. The poor sick person is Christ again made visible.

-- St. Gerard Majella

And pray ye without ceasing in behalf of other men. For there is in them hope of repentance that they may attain to God. See, then, that they be instructed by your works, if in no other way. Be ye meek in response to their wrath, humble in opposition to their boasting: to their blasphemies return your prayers; in contrast to their error, be ye stedfast in the faith; and for their cruelty, manifest your gentleness. While we take care not to imitate their conduct, let us be found their brethren in all true kindness; and let us seek to be followers of the Lord(who ever more unjustly treated, more destitute, more condemned?), that so no plant of the devil may be found in you, but ye may remain in all holiness and sobriety in Jesus Christ, both with respect to the flesh and spirit.

-- St. Ignatius

If you wish to prevent all evil thoughts, let your eyes be modestly reserved, and make a league with them never to desire to look upon anything which is not permitted you to desire.

-- St. Gregory of Nyssa

The Christian must keep in mind that the value of his good works depends on the love that motivates him to perform them for God. Those works are most perfect when wrought in the most sincere love of God, and with the least regard to present or future self-interest, joy, and sweetness, consolation and praise.

-- St. John of the Cross

In our neighbor, we should observe only what is good.

-- St. Jeanne de Chantal

Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.

-- Ash Wednesday

Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil. Fertilize the soil ever so richly, it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains.

-- St John Vianney

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.

-- Genesis iii, 19

Let us work hard every day at making progress toward God. If we are tested or tempted in our children or in our purses, let's not panic but place our hope in God. We are Christians, and our homeland is not here. Like good children, let us turn our steps homeward, that our course may be approved and guided to its conclusion. Heal and open my eyes, Lord, that I may recognize Your will. Put to flight my foolishness that I may know You.

-- St. Augustine

A person is an individual substance of a rational nature.

-- Boethius

The measure of charity may be taken from the want of desires. As desires diminish in the soul, charity increases in it; and when it no longer feels any desire, then it possesses perfect charity.

-- St. Augustine