"Virtues are formed by prayer.
Prayer preserves temperance.
Prayer suppresses anger.
Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.
Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven."

-- St Ephraem

"Virtues are formed by prayer.
Prayer preserves temperance.
Prayer suppresses anger.
Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.
Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven."

-- St Ephraem

Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be.

-- St Thomas More

Your first task is to be dissatisfied with yourself, fight sin, and transform yourself into something better. Your second task is to put up with the trials and temptations of this world that will be brought on by the change in your life and to persevere to the very end in the midst of these things.

-- St. Augustine

Stretch forth your hand towards God as an infant towards its father to be conducted by Him.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Let my soul live as if separated from my body.

-- St. John of the Cross

So, you will ask me, who then are the people most tempted? They are these, my friends; note them carefully. The people most tempted are those who are ready, with the grace of God, to sacrifice everything for the salvation of their poor souls, who renounce all those things which most people eagerly seek. It is not one devil only who tempts them, but millions seek to entrap them.

-- St. John Vianney

When our hands have touched spices, they give fragrance to all they handle. Let us make our prayers pass through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. She will make them fragrant.

-- St. John Vianney

Certainly nothing can so effectually humble us before the mercy of God as the multitude of his benefits. Nor can anything so much humble us before His justices as the enormity of our innumerable offences. Let us consider what He has done for us and what we have done against Him.

-- St. Francis de Sales

By giving yourself to God, you not only receive Himself in exchange, but eternal life as well.

-- St Francis de Sales

It is not particularly difficult to find thousands who will spend two or three hours a day in exercising, but if you ask them to bend their knees to God in five minutes of prayer, they protest that it is too long.

-- Bishop Fulton Sheen

It is never true that we have no time to meditate; the less one thinks of God, the less time there will always be for Him. The time one has for anything depends on how much we value it. Thinking determines the use of time; time does not rule over thinking! The problem of spirituality is never, then, a question of time; it is a problem of thought. For it does not require much time to make us saints; it requires only much love.

-- Bishop Fulton Sheen

This very moment I may, if I desire, become the friend of God.

-- St. Augustine

God gave Himself to you: give yourself to God.

-- Blessed Robert Southwell

You cannot please both God and the world at the same time. They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.

-- St. John Mary Vianney

Burning the candle at both ends for God's sake may be foolishness to the world, but it is a profitable Christian exercise-for so much better the light. Only one thing in life matters. Being found worthy of the Light of the World in the hour of His visitation. We need have no undue fear for our health if we work hard for the kingdom of God; God will take care of our health if we take care of His cause. In any case it is better to burn out than to rust out.

-- Bishop Fulton Sheen

Father, you guide your people with kindness and govern us with love. By the prayers of Saint Gregory give the spirit of wisdom to those you have called to lead your Church. May the growth of Your people in holiness be the eternal joy of our shepherds.

-- Liturgy of the Hours

All of us can attain to Christian virtue and holiness, no matter in what condition of life we live and no matter what our life work may be

-- St Francis de Sales

O God, who in the heart of Thy Son, wounded by our transgressions, dost mercifully vouchsafe to bestow upon us the infinite wealth of your love; grant, we beseech Thee, that revering it with meet devotion, we may make a worthy reparation for our sins.

-- Collect, Feast of the Sacred Heart - 1945 Missal

Disorder in society is the result of disorder in the family.

-- St Angela Merici

Christ, like a skillful physician, understands the weakness of men. He loves to teach the ignorant and the erring he turns again to his own true way. He is easily found by those who live by faith and to those of pure eye and holy heart, who desire to knock at the door, he opens immediately.

-- St. Hyppolytus (Treatise on Christ and Antichrist)

Your life consists in drawing nearer to God. To do this you must endeavor to detach yourself from visible things and remember that in a short time they will be taken from you.

-- Blessed John of Avila

Necessity urges us to pray for ourselves. Fraternal Charity obliges us to pray for others. God finds the prayer motivated by charity to be more meritorious than the prayer motivated by necessity.

-- St. John Chrysostom

Now that we are reborn, as I have said, in the likeness of our Lord, and have indeed been adopted by God as his children, let us put on the complete image of our Creator so as to be wholly like him, not in the glory that he alone possesses, but in innocence, simplicity, gentleness, patience, humility, mercy, harmony, those qualities in which he chose to become, and to be, one with us.

-- St Peter Chrysologus

Isaiah 9:1-6
Psalm 96:1-3, 11-13
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14


Isaiah 62:11-12
Psalm 97:1, 6, 11-12
Titus 3:4-7
Luke 2:15-20


Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 98:1-6
Hebrews 1:1-6
John 1:1-18 or 1:1-5, 9-14

We know we are traveling together. If our pace is slow, go on ahead of us. We won’t envy you but rather will seek to catch up with you. However, if you consider us capable of a quicker pace, run along with us. There is only one goal, and we are all anxious to reach it....some at a slow pace and others at a fast pace. Let everyone’s sighs be uttered in longing for Christ. Let us run to Him and cry out for Him.

-- St Augustine

If I wish to please God, I must do His Will and not my own.

-- St Alphonsus de Liguori

You people of Vitebsk want to put me to death. You make ambushes for me everywhere, in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, and in the marketplace. I am here among you as a shepherd and you ought to know that I should be happy to give my life for you. I am ready to die for the holy union, for the supremacy of St. Peter and of his successor the Supreme Pontiff.

-- St Josaphat

Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity.

-- St Therese of Lisieux

Because of our good Lord's tender love to all those who shall be saved, he quickly comforts them saying, "The cause of all this pain is sin. But all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." These words were said so kindly and without a hint of blame.So how unjust it would be for me to blame God for allowing my sin when he does not blame me for falling into it.

-- Blessed Julian of Norwich

The crosses with which our path through life is strewn associate us with Jesus in the mystery of His crucifixion.

-- St. John Eudes