A Rotating List of Citations from the Writings and or Biographies of the Saints ABANDONMENT--------AFFLICTION--------ALMSGIVING AUTHORITY---------ANGER BAD COMPANY---------BITTERNESS---------CHARITY CHILDREN---------CHRIST----------CHRISTMAS CHURCH, THE CATHOLIC--------COMMUNION OF SAINTS CONVERSION----------- CREATION---------THE CROSS DEFECTS, FAULTS-----------DESIRE-----------DETACHMENT THE DEVIL------------DRESS ABANDONMENT OF SELF TO GOD Let us throw ourselves into the ocean of His goodness, where every failing will be canceled and anxiety turned into love. --------St.  Paul of the Cross AFFLICTION Tribulation is a gift from God-----one that he especially gives His special friends. --------St. Thomas More Comfort in tribulation can be secured only on the sure ground of faith holding as true the words of Scripture and the teaching of the Catholic Church. -------- St. Thomas More Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases. --------St. Rose of Lima ALMSGIVING We must give alms. Charity wins souls and draws them to virtue. --------St. Angela Merici ANGER There is no sin nor wrong that gives man such a foretaste of Hell in this life as anger and impatience. --------St. Catherine of Siena You will accomplish more by kind words and a courteous manner than by anger or sharp rebuke, which should never be used except in necessity. --------St. Angela Merici This deadly cancer of anger from which so much harm grows: It makes us unlike ourselves, makes us like timber wolves or furies from Hell, drives us forth headlong upon the points of swords, makes us blindly run forth after other men's destruction as we hasten toward our own ruin. --------St. Thomas More 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 we should see two men fighting together over serious matters, we would still think them both crazy if they did not leave off fighting when they saw a ferocious lion coming toward them, ready to devour them both. Now considering that we surely see that death is coming on us all, and will undoubtedly within a short time devour us all-----how soon, we don't know-----isn't it worse than insanity to be angry and bear malice to one another, more often than not over trivial matters, in the same way children fight over cherry stones? --------St. Thomas More There is a holy anger, excited by zeal, that moves us to reprove with warmth those whom our mildness failed to correct. --------St. John Baptiste de la Salle AUTHORITY Men desire authority for its own sake that they may bear a rule, command and control other men, and live uncommanded and uncontrolled themselves. --------St. Thomas More BAD COMPANY Nothing can be more dangerous than keeping wicked companions. They communicate the infection of their vices to all who associate with them. --------St. John Baptiste de la Salle BITTERNESS The recollection of an injury is . . . a rusty arrow and poison for the soul. --------St. Francis of Paola CHARITY It can only be disgraceful for some Christians to snore while other  Christians are in peril. --------St. Thomas More Charity is that with which no one is lost, and without which no one is saved. --------St. Robert Bellermine The school of Christ is the school of charity. On the last day, when the general examination takes place, there will be no question at all on the text of Aristotle, the aphorisms of Hippocrates, or the paragraphs of Justinian. Charity will be the whole syllabus. --------St. Robert Bellermine CHILDREN Both the raven and the ape think their own young the fairest. --------St. Thomas More Children should never be taken to church in dress that would not be thought good enough for appearing before company. --------St. John Baptiste de la Salle CHRIST The Church has always taught that all our penance without Christ's passion is not worth a pea. --------St. Thomas More Here learn the science of the Saints: All is to be found in the passion of Jesus. Make every effort to remain hidden in the wounds of Jesus, and you will be enriched with every good and every true light, enabling you to fly to that Perfection which is consonant with your way of life. --------St. Paul of the Cross The passion of Jesus is a sea of sorrows, but it is also an ocean of love. Ask the Lord to teach you to fish in this ocean. Dive into its depths. No matter how deep you go, you will never reach the bottom. --------St. Paul of the Cross Make a little bouquet of the sufferings of Jesus and carry them in the bosom of the soul. --------St. Paul of the Cross The Child, the Lord Jesus Christ . . . Word in our flesh, Wisdom in infancy, Power in weakness, and in true Man, the Lord of Majesty. --------Pope St. Leo the Great CHRISTMAS Celebrate the feast of Christmas every day, even every moment in the interior temple of your spirit, remaining like a baby in the bosom of the heavenly Father, where you will be reborn each moment in the Divine Word, Jesus Christ. --------St. Paul of the Cross CHURCH, THE CATHOLIC Since the Church began aiming more at temporal things than at spiritual, things have gone from bad to worse. --------St. Catherine of Siena Comfort Either Christ has a Church in the world continually and until the end of the world, or else He has a Church sometimes, and sometimes not at all. Could we think that He had a Church while He was here Himself, and perhaps awhile after, but-----mysteriously-----none since? . . . No . . . that can in no way be, since He must necessarily still preserve His Church somewhere; otherwise, how could He be with His followers continually until the end of the world? -------- St. Thomas More COMMUNION OF SAINTS Those in the Catholic Church, whom some rebuke for praying to Saints and going on pilgrimages, do not seek any Saint as their savior. Instead, they Seek saints as those whom their Savior loves, and whose intercession and prayer for the seeker He will be content to hear. For His Own sake, He would have those He loves honored. And when they are thus honored for His sake, then the honor that is given them for His sake overflows especially to Himself. -------- St. Thomas More Considering that when the Saints lived in this world they were at liberty to roam the earth, do you really think that in Heaven God would have them tied to a post? -------- St. Thomas More You say you see no reason why we should pray to the Saints since God can hear us and help us just as well, and will do so gladly, as any Saint in Heaven. Well, then, what need, I ask, do you have to ask any physician to help your fever, or to ask and pay any surgeon to heal your sore leg? For God can both hear you and help you as well as the best of doctors. He loves you more than they do, and He can help you sooner. Besides-----His poultices are cheaper and He will give you more for your words alone than they will for your money! -------- St. Thomas More If Saint Paul exhorts us to pray for one another, and we gladly think it right to ask every poor man to pray for us, should we think it evil to ask the holy Saints in Heaven to do the same? -------- St. Thomas More CONVERSION First let a little love find entrance into their hearts, and the rest will follow. -------- St. Philip Neri CREATION AND CREATURES Listen to the sermon preached to you by the flowers, the trees, the shrubs, the sky, and the whole world. Notice how they preach to you a sermon full of love, of praise of God, and how they invite you to glorify the sublimity of that sovereign Artist who has given them being. --------St. Paul of the Cross THE CROSS The Cross is the way to Paradise, but only when it is borne willingly. --------St. Paul of the Cross In uniting yourself to God's will, you take on new life and gather great courage, willingly embracing the cross and kissing His hand even when it chastises you, a hand that reaches out to you in love and has no other intention but your greater spiritual well-being. --------St. Paul of the Cross DEFECTS, FAULTS Peace and union are the most necessary of all things for men who live in common, and nothing serves so well to establish and maintain these as the forbearing charity whereby we put up with one another's defects. --------St. Robert Bellermine There is no one who is without faults, and who is not in some way a burden to others, whether he is a superior or a subject, an old man or a young one, a scholar or a dunce. --------St. Robert Bellermine DESIRE He who desires anything but God deceives himself, and he who loves anything but God errs miserably. --------St. Philip Neri DETACHMENT Give me ten truly detached men. and I will convert the world with them. --------St. Philip Neri THE DEVIL Remember that the Devil doesn't sleep, but seeks our ruin in a thousand ways. --------St. Angela Merici The Devil never runs upon a man to seize him with his claws until he sees him on the ground, already having fallen by his own will. -------- St. Thomas More DRESS Proud is many a man who looks down on his neighbor because the wool of his gown is finer! Yet as fine as it is, a poor sheep wore it upon her back before it came upon his back, and all the while she wore it, she was after all still only a sheep. And why should he now think himself better than she was simply by having that wool-----wool that, even though it is now his, is still not so truly his as it was truly hers? -------- St. Thomas More HOME--------------IMAGE AND QUOTE OF THE WEEK www.catholictradition.org/Saints/saintly-quotes3.htm