Religious pictures of themselves will not make a family good. Only when they are contemplated upon, are they a practical way to help true Christian sentiment, and to a true Christian way of living in the family.

-- St. John Vianney

Right reason, that is, reason rightly exercised, leads the mind to the Catholic faith, and plants it there, and teaches it in all its religious speculations to act under its guidance.

-- St. John Henry Cardinal Newman

You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

-- St. James the Apostle

Grant, O Lord, that my heart may neither desire nor seek anything but what is necessary for the fulfillment of Your Holy Will. May health or sickness, riches or poverty, honors or contempt, humiliations, leave my soul in that state of perfect detachment to which I desire to attain for Your greater honor and Your greater glory. Amen

-- St. Ignatius Loyola

The prophet refers to some men saying: When they say to you: You are not our brothers, you are to tell them: You are our brothers. Consider whom he intended by these words. Were they the pagans? Hardly; for nowhere either in Scripture or in our traditional manner of speaking do we find them called our brothers. Nor could it refer to the Jews, who do not believe in Christ. Read Saint Paul and you will see that when he speaks of "brothers," without any qualification, he refers always to Christians. If they say, "Why do you seek us? What do you want of us?" we should reply: You are our brothers. They may say, "Leave us alone. We have nothing to do with you." But we have everything to do with you, for we are one in our belief in Christ; and so we should be in one body, under one head.

-- St. Augustine

You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.

-- St. Therese

Even though you possess plenty, you are still indigent. You abound in temporal possessions, but you need things eternal. You listen to the needs of a human beggar, yet yourself are a beggar of God. What you do with those who beg from you is what God will do with His beggar. You are filled and you are empty. Fill your empty neighbor with your fullness, so that your emptiness may be filled from God's fullness.

-- St. Augustine

There is nothing which edifies others so much as charity and kindness, by which, as by the oil in our lamp, the flame of good example is kept alive.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best.

-- St. Thomas More to his daughter

Thy lightnings enlightened the world: the earth shook and trembled.

-- Ps. lxxvi. 19

Take a moment to think of everything you're proud of about yourself and your life. Then ask yourself if you would have any of this without God's permission and aid? Give credit where credit is due; praise and thank Him, not yourself.

-- St. Francis of Assisi

O most sweet Jesus, who came into this world to give to all souls the life of your grace, and who, to preserve and increase it in them, willed to be the daily remedy of their weakness and the food for each day, we humbly beseech you, by your heart so burning with love for us, to pour your divine Spirit upon all souls in order that those who have the misfortune to be in the state of mortal sin may, returning to you, find the life of grace that they have lost. Through this same Holy Spirit, may those who are already living by this divine life devoutly approach your divine table every day when it is possible, sot that, receiving each day in Holy Communion the antidote of their daily venial sins and each day sustaining in themselves the life of your grace and thus ever purifying themselves the more, they may finaly come to a happy life with you. Amen.

-- Pope St. Pius X

When it's God speaking.....the proper way to behave is to imitate someone who has an irresistable curiosity and who listens at keyholes. You must listen to everything God says at the keyhole of your heart.

-- St. John Vianney

The Lord measures our perfection neither by the multitude nor the magnitude of our deeds, but by the manner in which we perform them.

-- St. John of the Cross

Prayer brings about the perfect absorption of the food of our good actions, and distributes them into all the members of the soul.

-- St Bernard

We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success, but on Jesus alone.

-- St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

Once the eye of the soul has been purified by such considerations we no longer abide within our own spirit in a sense of sorrow, but abide rather in the Spirit of God with great delight. No longer do we consider what is the will God for us, but rather what it is in itself. For our life is in his will.

-- St Bernard

Reason can but ascertain the profound difficulties of our condition, it connot remove them.

-- John Cardinal Newman

The denial of personal guilt makes men ready to surrender their liberty. Better it is for a man to realize he has evil tendencies which must be fought and combated in order that his higher self may emerge.

-- Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Let it be assured that to do no wrong is really superhuman and belongs to God alone.

-- St. Gregory Nazianzen

We are not drawn to God by iron chains, but by sweet attractions and holy inspirations.

-- St. Francis de Sales

My wish for all of you is to die on the cross with Christ in defense of your family's holiness and purity.

-- Padre Pio

Lord, what will Thou have me to do? Here is the true token of a soul absolutely perfect: when one has succeeded in leaving behind his own will to such a degree as no longer to seek, to aim, or to desire to do what he would will, but only what God wills.

-- St Bernard

With regard to doing the will of the Lord, even if someone should be scandalized by what we do, we must not let that hamper our freedom of action.

-- St. Basil the Great

But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me.

-- St. Augustine, Contra epistolam Manichaei

His Majesty, The Lord, rewards great sevices with trials, and there can be no better reward, for out of trials springs love for God.

-- St. Teresa of Avila

A weak minded person is frequently diverted toward pursuing exterior happiness when the breath of popular favor accompanies his good actions. So he gives up his own personal choices, prefering to remain at the mercy of whatever he hears from others. Thus, he rejoices not so much to become but to be called blessed. Eager for praise, he gives up what he had begun to be; and so he is severed from God by the very means by which he appeared to be commendable in God.

-- Pope St. Gregory the Great

To rely on our talents is a cause of great loss. When soneone 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

Apostle of My mercy, proclaim to the whole world My unfathomable mercy.

-- Revelation to St. Faustina

Zeal without knowledge is always less useful and effective than informed zeal, and is very often dangerous!

-- St. Bernard of Clairvaux