"He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood."
John 7:18
"If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
John 8:31
"If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But, because I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."
John 8:42
"As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
John 9:5
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father."
John 10:14
"I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."
John 14:6
"Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
John 14:27
"If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you."
God and a soldier all people adore In time of war, but not before; And when war is over and all things are righted, God is neglected and an old soldier slighted.
Taps
Day is done, gone the sun, from the lakes from the hills from the sky, all is well, safely, rest, God is near.
Fading light, Dims the sight, And a star gems the sky Gleaming bright, From afar, Drawing, near, Falls the night.
Thanks and praise, For our days, Neath the sun Neath the stars Neath the sky, As we go, This, we, know, God is near.
...Of all pieces of advice that people have lavished on me--oh, discreetly, courteously, almost without seemingly to do so--I have retained only one, and it's advice that I never follow: "Be prudent!" It would seem that because of present circumstances, as they say, I should be prudent. According to my way of thinking, however, the best way to learn to be prudent is to realize just how imprudent one can be... Prudence is the virtue of happy days, of prosperous periods. When you find yourself well sheltered, why the devil go outdoors to look for trouble? But when trouble is looking for you, it's primarily a question of facing it, since it would be still more dangerous to turn your back on it. In that case, prudence is only the alibi of the cowardly. --Georges Bernanos, "The Last Essays of Georges Bernanos"
Anger is the only cure for cowardice--anger strong enough to overcome fear. Right now people are afraid to get angry."-- Eric Hoffer: Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983
"I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone. "
Francis of Assisi
"Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. "
Saint Augustine
"Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds. "
Saint Teresa of Avila
"One must see God in everyone."
St. Catherine Laboure
"Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made."
St. Peter of Alcantara
"It is certain that the love of God does not consist in experiencing sweetness or tenderness of heart but in truly serving God in Justice, strength and humilty. "
St Teresa of Jesus, OCD
"Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent."
St. John of the Cross
"If I had to advise parents, I should tell them to take great care about the people with whom their children associate ... Much harm may result from bad company, and we are inclined by nature to follow what is worse than what is better."
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
From what does such contrariness arise in habitually angry people, but from a secret cause of too high an opinion of themselves so that it pierces their heart when they see any man esteem them less than they esteem themselves? ... An inflated estimation of ourselves is more than half the weight of our wrath."
St. Thomas More
"If nothing in this world satisfies me, perhaps it is because I was made for another world."
C.S. Lewis
"We are living in an age of intellectual pride, and there are all around us numbers of puffed-up scholars and conceited and critical spirits who have plenty to say against the best established and most solid practices of piety."
St. Louis de Montfort
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
C.S. Lewis
"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything."
G.K. Chesterton
"I have been driven many times to my knees, by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."
Abraham Lincoln
"Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point."
C.S. Lewis
"It is still bad taste to be an avowed atheist. But now it is equally bad taste to be an avowed Christian."
G.K. Chesterton
"Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you."
St. Jerome
"Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing trivial actions - which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives."
St. Teresa
"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions."
G.K. Chesterton
"Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."
St. Francis of Assisi
"Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger."
St. Basil
"We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us."
St. Teresa of Avila
"A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world---and might be even more difficult to save."
C.S. Lewis
"Human things must be known to be loved: but Divine things must be loved to be known."
Blaise Pascal
"I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it."
St. Thomas Aquinas
"All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms."
Blaise Pascal
"Such is the way with sinners. Everything excites their suspicion; they quake at every shadow; they start at every noise; they look upon every man as an enemy."
St. John Chrysostom
"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible."
St. Thomas Aquinas
"The Magi brought gold; you bring a temperate and virtuous spirit. They brought incense; you must offer pure prayers, which are the incense of the soul. They brought myrrh; you must bring a humble and contrite heart along with alms."
St. John Chrysostom
"If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible that main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men had forgotten God; that is why all this has happened."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
"God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain."
C.S. Lewis
"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods."
C.S. Lewis
"Everywhere there is the persistent and insane attempt to obtain pleasure without paying for it....'Let us have the pleasure of conquerors without the pains of soldiers; let us sit on sofas and be a hardy race.' ...All around us is the city of small sins, abounding in backways and retreats, but surely, sooner or later, the towering flame will rise from the harbor announcing that the reign of the cowards is over and a man is burning his ships."
G.K. Chesterton
"Jesus promised the disciples three things---that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy and in constant trouble."
G.K. Chesterton
Look at my unworthiness; look at your kindness, Jesus, Son of Man, my Lord and my God. Forgive me and accept my thanks for allowing me another chance. I know my weakness. I know that without you I am nothing. Help me! Alone I cannot make one step. Let me see myself as I am.
Make me realize these graces that you have allowed. Give me tolerance, understanding, humility, patience! Above all, inflame my heart with an unquenchable love for you. Make me an alert servant, not a sloppy, tired, lazy one as I have been until now. Do not allow me, sweet Lord, to take unto myself any pride about my achievement; make me humbly realize that I am only an instrument. You know it is all for your glory.
Make me more charitable, more gentle, more understanding with people. Give me humility - then I shall be able to serve you as I must. Cure my laziness. Give me strength and determination for sacrifices and mortifications. Make me patient, controlling all irritability, anger, impatience.
Help me, O Master. Look not at the unworthiness of your servant but only on my desire to serve you. Enkindle that desire until, as a flame, it consumes me entirely! Bless all the things I do in your name. Give me understanding of what I should do and what I should run away from. Give me your love! In temporal things, give me my daily bread, and the rest as you will. Your will be done, not mine.
Servant of God Catherine De Hueck Doherty
"About the immediate future of the Republic, I can only remind the reader that an historian has no business with prophecy. But, having read over my last chapter, I have to add that since it was written both Western Europe and America have suffered from greatly underestimating the long-term effects of the Nineteen Sixties' hippie counterculture. There has been a continuous decline in the general respect for an unquestioned authority, either religious or secular. Marriage is no longer Aristotle's essential model of society but, along with single parenthood an "alternative life-style." Drugs have settled in as a chronic social problem in every class of the nation. The highest courts have given up defining adult obscenity or prosecuting it. Unprecedented corruption has been revealed in the world of investment banking and accountancy. Among two generations that have never known either war or hard times, freedom has come to mean freedom to do-as-you-wish, no longer "the luxury of self-discipline." But, against these developing flaws, must be set virtues abundantly exemplified in this book: inventiveness, imagination, idealism, vast philanthropy, a gift for ruthless self-criticism." -forward from Alistair Cooke's America.
