”The whole life of Christ upon earth was a continual lesson of morality, but He in a special manner proposed to us His humiliation for our imitation. The Son of God says not to us: Learn of Me to make Heaven and earth, to create all visible things, to work miracles, to raise the dead; but learn of Me to be meek and humble of heart, for solid humility is much more powerful and safe than empty grandeur.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Have these three things always present to your mind: what you were, what you are, and what you will be.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”When trees are much loaded with fruit, the quantity weighs down, nay, sometimes breaks the branches; whereas, those which are not so laden remain straight; and when the ears of corn are full, they hang down, so that the stalk seems ready to break; but when they stand up, it is a sign there is little in them. Just so it is as to spiritual things. They who bear no fruit continually shoot upward, but they who are laden with the fruit of grace and good works are always hanging down their heads in a humble posture; they make the favors they have received from God a subject of further humiliation and fear.”
-Saint Dorotheus
”We are only worth the price at which God values us. True merit must be weighed in His scales, for it is His judgment which alone can decide between real and counterfeit virtue.”
-Saint John Berchmans
”Nothing can tend so much to humble us before the mercy and justice of God as the consideration of His benefits and our own sins. Let us, then, consider what He has done for us, and what we have done against Him; let us call to mind our sins in detail, and His gracious benefits in like manner, remembering that whatever there is of good in us is not ours, but His, and then we need not be afraid of vainglory or of taking complacency in ourselves. If, however, when reflecting on the graces with which God has favored us, we should be assailed with thoughts of vainglory, the consideration of our ingratitude, imperfections, and wretchedness will be an infallible remedy against them. If we consider what we have done when God was not with us, we shall see at once that what we do when He is with us is not our work or production; we shall, indeed, rejoice in the possession of it, but we shall give all the glory to God, Who alone is the author of it, as the Blessed Virgin proclaimed that God had done great things in her behalf, but only to humble herself and glorify God. ‘My soul,’ said she, ‘doth magnify the Lord, because He has done great things for me.’”
-Saint Francis of Sales, Doctor of the Church
”A treasure is secure so long as it remains concealed: but when once disclosed and laid open to every bold invader, it is presently rifled; so virtue is safe as long as secret, but, if rashly exposed, it but too often evaporates into smoke. By humility and contempt of the world, the soul, like an eagle, soars on high, above all transitory things, and tramples on the backs of lions and dragons.”
-Saint Syncletica
”Believe me, that a little attention to acquire humility, and an act of this virtue, are worth more before God's infinite wisdom than all the learning of the world . . . Humility drew the Son of God from Heaven to the womb of a Virgin, and by the same humility we can draw Him into our souls. The more the flower of humility blossoms in a soul, the greater is the good odor it imparts to her who possesses it, to those who behold her, and to those who are about her.”
-Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church
”It is foolish to be puffed up with human favor, or to be proud of earthly honor. For what is great before men is abominable before God, and what a man is in the sight of God, that he is and no more. It cannot be known how much humility or patience a servant of God has, when he has everything according to his own wishes or necessity. But when the time comes that those who ought to befriend him turn against him, then he has as much humility and patience as he shows, and no more.
-Saint Francis of Assisi
”God takes especial delight in the humility of a man who believes that he has not yet begun to do any good.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Humility is a Divine shield and veil which conceals our good works and virtues from our own too curious eyes. Penance awakens us; holy sorrow knocks at Heaven's gate; humility opens them. This virtue is the only one no devil can imitate. If pride made demons out of Angels, there is no doubt that humility could make Angels out of demons.”
-Saint John Climacus
”Humiliation is the road to humility, as meekness in suffering tribulations and injuries produces patience. If you do not exercise humiliations, you cannot attain to humility.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”In the order of the virtues, humility holds the first rank,-in this sense, that it drives from us pride, which sets us at war with God; and that, on the contrary, it renders man submissive and entirely open to the effusions of Divine grace”.
-Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
”As, when the sun is eclipsed, the whole earth is dark, so, if there is a want of humility, all our works are blighted, and are nothing but blemish and corruption.”
-Saint John Climacus
”No man can attain to the knowledge of God but by humility. The way to mount high is to descend; for all great falls which ever happened in this world were caused by pride, and all spiritual advantages arose from humility.”
-Blessed Giles of Assisi
”By humility a man finds grace before God and peace with men.”
-Blessed Giles of Assisi
”This is the path to salvation, to rejoice in every advantage, and to grieve for every misfortune of your neighbor, to see and acknowledge your own evils and miseries, and to believe only good of others; to know others and despise yourself.”
-Blessed Giles of Assisi
Friday, July 4, 2008
On Fraternal Charity...
”Let each one love his brother in charity. We have each our faults. He who has to put up with his brother's fault today will have to be borne with himself tomorrow.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”How patiently Christ, the King of Heaven and Earth, bore with the Apostles, enduring at their hands many incivilities and unbeliefs, they being but poor and rough fishermen. How much more ought we to bear with our neighbor, if he treats us with unkindness.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”In order to avoid contention, never contradict anyone, except in case of sin or some danger to a neighbor; and when necessary to contradict others, and to oppose your opinion to theirs, do it with so much mildness and tact, as not to appear to do violence to their mind, for nothing is ever gained by taking up things with excessive warmth and hastiness.”
-King Saint Louis
”Our enemy the devil, who fights with us, in order to vanquish us, seeks to disunite us in our houses, and to breed quarrels, contests, and rivalries, because, while we are fighting with each other, he comes and conquers us, and makes us more securely his own.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Dismiss all anger, and look a little into yourself. Remember that he of whom you are speaking is your brother, and, as he is in the way of salvation, God can make him a Saint, notwithstanding his present weaknesses. You may fall into the same faults or perhaps into a worse fault. But supposing that you remain upright, to whom are you indebted for it, if not to the pure mercy of God?”
-Saint Thomas of Villanova
”Oh! Could you but see the beauty of a soul in the grace of God, you would be so much enamored of it that you would do nothing else but ask souls of God; and, on the contrary, could a soul in mortal sin be placed before your eyes, you would do nothing but weep, and you would hate sin more than the devil himself, and always pray for the conversion of sinners.”
-Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
”The highest among all Divine works is to co-operate in the salvation of souls.”
-Saint Dionysius
”Those who attend to the regulation of their own consciences are not much given to form rash judgments; far from wasting their reflections in dissecting the actions and intentions of their neighbors, whose conduct may appear cloudy and obscure, they enter into themselves, and use their utmost endeavors to reform and perfect their own lives, like bees which, in misty and cloudy weather, return to their hive to pursue their home labors. Rash judgment produces detraction, which is the bane of conversation. Were detraction banished from the world, numberless other sins would be banished together with it.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
”If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His Heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he says the Pater Noster, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”To leave our prayer when we are called to do some act of charity for our neighbor, is not really a quitting of prayer, but leaving Christ for Christ. Even in the midst of a crowd we can be going on to perfection.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”We must sometimes bear with little defects in others, as we have, against our will, to bear with natural defects in ourselves. If we wish to keep peace with our neighbor, we should never remind anyone of his natural defects.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Everyone ought to yield readily to the opinion of another, and to argue in favor of another, and against himself, and take things in good part.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Be as gentle always as possible; and remember that you will catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar. Such is the nature of the human mind; it rebels against severity, but gentleness renders it amenable to everything. A soft word appeases anger, as water extinguishes fire. No soul so ungrateful, but kindness can make it bear fruit. To speak truths sweetly is to throw burning coals, or rather roses, into a person's face. How can anyone be angry with another who fights him with pearls and diamonds?”
-Saint Francis of Sales, Doctor of the Church
”I know well that many of the rich show mercy to the poor, but they do it by the hands of others. They give their gold, but not their personal services, because the sight of misery inspires disgust and makes them ill. I will not find fault with this weakness, nor will I call it unmerciful. But I must be allowed to say that true love and perfect faith raise the mind above such infirmities and make it strong for holy services of love.”
-Saint Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Alas! if we consider our neighbor outside the Heart of Our Lord, we run the risk of not loving him fondly, nor constantly, nor impartially. But within It, who would not love him, live with him, tolerate his imperfections, who would find him disagreeable or tiresome?”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Father and Doctor of the Church
”But our neighbor is in the Heart of Our Saviour, and he is so much loved by It, and considered so worthy of love, that the lover dies for love of him.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
”Why should we not bear with those with whom He has borne, keeping before our eyes the great example of Jesus Christ praying on the Cross for His enemies? For they have not yet crucified us, they have not yet persecuted us to death, we have not yet resisted unto blows. But who will not love this beloved enemy for whom Jesus Christ has prayed and for whom He has died?”
-Saint Francis de Sales.
”There are so many sorts of troubles in this world, and so many people who are afflicted in different ways, that we ought to be very glad when we can help anyone to carry their cross.”
-Saint Chantal
”Love the worst men, love in them the remains of faith which they still preserve, or, if they have lost it all, love the virtues of which they are bereft, love the sacred image they bear, love the Blood of Christ with which you believe them to have been redeemed.”
-Saint Ignatius, Father of the Church
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”How patiently Christ, the King of Heaven and Earth, bore with the Apostles, enduring at their hands many incivilities and unbeliefs, they being but poor and rough fishermen. How much more ought we to bear with our neighbor, if he treats us with unkindness.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”In order to avoid contention, never contradict anyone, except in case of sin or some danger to a neighbor; and when necessary to contradict others, and to oppose your opinion to theirs, do it with so much mildness and tact, as not to appear to do violence to their mind, for nothing is ever gained by taking up things with excessive warmth and hastiness.”
-King Saint Louis
”Our enemy the devil, who fights with us, in order to vanquish us, seeks to disunite us in our houses, and to breed quarrels, contests, and rivalries, because, while we are fighting with each other, he comes and conquers us, and makes us more securely his own.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Dismiss all anger, and look a little into yourself. Remember that he of whom you are speaking is your brother, and, as he is in the way of salvation, God can make him a Saint, notwithstanding his present weaknesses. You may fall into the same faults or perhaps into a worse fault. But supposing that you remain upright, to whom are you indebted for it, if not to the pure mercy of God?”
-Saint Thomas of Villanova
”Oh! Could you but see the beauty of a soul in the grace of God, you would be so much enamored of it that you would do nothing else but ask souls of God; and, on the contrary, could a soul in mortal sin be placed before your eyes, you would do nothing but weep, and you would hate sin more than the devil himself, and always pray for the conversion of sinners.”
-Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
”The highest among all Divine works is to co-operate in the salvation of souls.”
-Saint Dionysius
”Those who attend to the regulation of their own consciences are not much given to form rash judgments; far from wasting their reflections in dissecting the actions and intentions of their neighbors, whose conduct may appear cloudy and obscure, they enter into themselves, and use their utmost endeavors to reform and perfect their own lives, like bees which, in misty and cloudy weather, return to their hive to pursue their home labors. Rash judgment produces detraction, which is the bane of conversation. Were detraction banished from the world, numberless other sins would be banished together with it.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
”If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His Heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he says the Pater Noster, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”To leave our prayer when we are called to do some act of charity for our neighbor, is not really a quitting of prayer, but leaving Christ for Christ. Even in the midst of a crowd we can be going on to perfection.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”We must sometimes bear with little defects in others, as we have, against our will, to bear with natural defects in ourselves. If we wish to keep peace with our neighbor, we should never remind anyone of his natural defects.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Everyone ought to yield readily to the opinion of another, and to argue in favor of another, and against himself, and take things in good part.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Be as gentle always as possible; and remember that you will catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar. Such is the nature of the human mind; it rebels against severity, but gentleness renders it amenable to everything. A soft word appeases anger, as water extinguishes fire. No soul so ungrateful, but kindness can make it bear fruit. To speak truths sweetly is to throw burning coals, or rather roses, into a person's face. How can anyone be angry with another who fights him with pearls and diamonds?”
-Saint Francis of Sales, Doctor of the Church
”I know well that many of the rich show mercy to the poor, but they do it by the hands of others. They give their gold, but not their personal services, because the sight of misery inspires disgust and makes them ill. I will not find fault with this weakness, nor will I call it unmerciful. But I must be allowed to say that true love and perfect faith raise the mind above such infirmities and make it strong for holy services of love.”
-Saint Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Alas! if we consider our neighbor outside the Heart of Our Lord, we run the risk of not loving him fondly, nor constantly, nor impartially. But within It, who would not love him, live with him, tolerate his imperfections, who would find him disagreeable or tiresome?”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Father and Doctor of the Church
”But our neighbor is in the Heart of Our Saviour, and he is so much loved by It, and considered so worthy of love, that the lover dies for love of him.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
”Why should we not bear with those with whom He has borne, keeping before our eyes the great example of Jesus Christ praying on the Cross for His enemies? For they have not yet crucified us, they have not yet persecuted us to death, we have not yet resisted unto blows. But who will not love this beloved enemy for whom Jesus Christ has prayed and for whom He has died?”
-Saint Francis de Sales.
”There are so many sorts of troubles in this world, and so many people who are afflicted in different ways, that we ought to be very glad when we can help anyone to carry their cross.”
-Saint Chantal
”Love the worst men, love in them the remains of faith which they still preserve, or, if they have lost it all, love the virtues of which they are bereft, love the sacred image they bear, love the Blood of Christ with which you believe them to have been redeemed.”
-Saint Ignatius, Father of the Church
On the Love of God...
”God has loved us from all eternity. Children of men, says the Lord, remember that I first loved you. You had not yet been born, the world itself did not exist, and even then I loved you. As long as I am God, I have loved you; I have loved you as long as I have loved Myself.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”Is not Jesus worthy of thy heart's warmest affection? If thou feelest no very ardent love, still wish and pray to thy Blessed Saviour that the holy fire may be kindled within thy breaSaint Think often that thy Redeemer's labors and pains were endured for thee, an ungrateful sinner. For thy sake Jesus shed His Blood and died upon a Cross; submitting to a temporal death, that thou mightest attain to life eternal. He took upon Himself thy delinquencies, and cancelled thy outstanding debt by fastening it to His Cross. In fine, He parted with all His precious merits to enrich thy poverty-stricken soul.”
-Ven. Blosius.
”The love of God is never idle. When it really fills a soul, it never fails to operate great things in it. Whenever it does not work, but is inactive, we may be certain there is no true love, but only the appearance of it.”
-Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Father and Doctor of the Church
”The greatest security we can have in this world that we are in the grace of God, does not consist in the feelings that we have of love to Him, but rather in an irrevocable abandonment of our whole being into His hands, and in a firm resolution never to consent to any sin great or small.”
-Saint Francis of Sales, Doctor of the Church
”Two loves have made two different cities: self-love hath made a terrestrial city, which rises in contempt of God; and Divine Love hath made a celestial one, which rises in contempt of self. The former glories in itself-the latter in God.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”To love God as He ought to be loved, we must be detached from all terrestrial love; we must love nothing but Him, or if we love anything else, we must love it only for His sake.”
-Saint Peter Claver
”What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He caresses us, and to be cold immediately when He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart.”
-Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
”To love God! oh, how beautiful it is! We must be in Heaven to comprehend love. Prayer helps us a little, because prayer is the elevation of the soul to Heaven. The more we know men, the less we love them. It is the reverse with God; the more we know of Him the more we love Him. This knowledge inflames the soul with such a love that it can no longer love or desire anything but God . . . Man was created by love; therefore he is disposed to love. On the other hand, he is so great that nothing on earth can satisfy him. He can be satisfied only when he turns to God. Take a fish out of water, and it will not live . . . Well, such is man without God.”
-Saint John Marie Vianney
”One day, while conversing with Saint Bonaventure, Blessed Giles said to him: "My Father, God has shown you great mercy, and loaded you with many graces in giving you that knowledge which helps you to praise Him. But we, poor ignorant creatures, how can we correspond with His goodness and attain to salvation?" The Saint replied: "If God had given man His love alone, that would be enough." "What?" returned Blessed Giles, "can an ignorant man love God as much as the most learned doctor?" "Certainly," answered Saint Bonaventure, "an old woman who knows nothing can love God as much and more than a master in theology." At these words, Giles, transported with delight, ran into the garden, and cried out to the passers-by, "Come, simple and unlearned men, Come poor, wretched, ignorant women, come, listen to me. Do you wish to love Our Lord? You can love Him as much and more than Brother Bonaventure and the most learned theologians."
-Blessed Giles of Assisi
“O my sweet Love, who shall prevent me from loving Thee? Shall it be my body? Rather will I reduce it to dust. Shall it be my past sins? I will immerse them in the sea of Thy Blood, and after that, behold my body and soul, make me suffer whatever it may please Thee in order to annihilate them in such a manner that they may be no obstacle to my loving Thee.”
-Saint John Eudes
”To love God as we ought, it would be necessary to have three hearts in one. The first, all on fire for God, would cause us to think continually of God, speak habitually of Him, act constantly for Him, and support with patience, during the term of our life, the sorrows and trials which it may please Him to send us. The second heart, all love for our neighbor, should cause us to help him in his temporal wants by our alms, and still more in his spiritual needs by instruction, counsel, example, and prayer. This second heart should be, above all, full of tenderness for sinners; asking continually of God to enlighten and bring them to sorrow for sin; it should also be most compassionate toward the Holy Souls in Purgatory. But the third heart should be hard as bronze toward self, shunning every kind of sensuality, resisting constantly all self-love, renouncing one's own will, chastising the body by fasting and abstinence, -in fine, putting to death all the inclinations of corrupt nature.”
-Saint Benedict Joseph Labre
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”Is not Jesus worthy of thy heart's warmest affection? If thou feelest no very ardent love, still wish and pray to thy Blessed Saviour that the holy fire may be kindled within thy breaSaint Think often that thy Redeemer's labors and pains were endured for thee, an ungrateful sinner. For thy sake Jesus shed His Blood and died upon a Cross; submitting to a temporal death, that thou mightest attain to life eternal. He took upon Himself thy delinquencies, and cancelled thy outstanding debt by fastening it to His Cross. In fine, He parted with all His precious merits to enrich thy poverty-stricken soul.”
-Ven. Blosius.
”The love of God is never idle. When it really fills a soul, it never fails to operate great things in it. Whenever it does not work, but is inactive, we may be certain there is no true love, but only the appearance of it.”
-Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Father and Doctor of the Church
”The greatest security we can have in this world that we are in the grace of God, does not consist in the feelings that we have of love to Him, but rather in an irrevocable abandonment of our whole being into His hands, and in a firm resolution never to consent to any sin great or small.”
-Saint Francis of Sales, Doctor of the Church
”Two loves have made two different cities: self-love hath made a terrestrial city, which rises in contempt of God; and Divine Love hath made a celestial one, which rises in contempt of self. The former glories in itself-the latter in God.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”To love God as He ought to be loved, we must be detached from all terrestrial love; we must love nothing but Him, or if we love anything else, we must love it only for His sake.”
-Saint Peter Claver
”What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He caresses us, and to be cold immediately when He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart.”
-Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
”To love God! oh, how beautiful it is! We must be in Heaven to comprehend love. Prayer helps us a little, because prayer is the elevation of the soul to Heaven. The more we know men, the less we love them. It is the reverse with God; the more we know of Him the more we love Him. This knowledge inflames the soul with such a love that it can no longer love or desire anything but God . . . Man was created by love; therefore he is disposed to love. On the other hand, he is so great that nothing on earth can satisfy him. He can be satisfied only when he turns to God. Take a fish out of water, and it will not live . . . Well, such is man without God.”
-Saint John Marie Vianney
”One day, while conversing with Saint Bonaventure, Blessed Giles said to him: "My Father, God has shown you great mercy, and loaded you with many graces in giving you that knowledge which helps you to praise Him. But we, poor ignorant creatures, how can we correspond with His goodness and attain to salvation?" The Saint replied: "If God had given man His love alone, that would be enough." "What?" returned Blessed Giles, "can an ignorant man love God as much as the most learned doctor?" "Certainly," answered Saint Bonaventure, "an old woman who knows nothing can love God as much and more than a master in theology." At these words, Giles, transported with delight, ran into the garden, and cried out to the passers-by, "Come, simple and unlearned men, Come poor, wretched, ignorant women, come, listen to me. Do you wish to love Our Lord? You can love Him as much and more than Brother Bonaventure and the most learned theologians."
-Blessed Giles of Assisi
“O my sweet Love, who shall prevent me from loving Thee? Shall it be my body? Rather will I reduce it to dust. Shall it be my past sins? I will immerse them in the sea of Thy Blood, and after that, behold my body and soul, make me suffer whatever it may please Thee in order to annihilate them in such a manner that they may be no obstacle to my loving Thee.”
-Saint John Eudes
”To love God as we ought, it would be necessary to have three hearts in one. The first, all on fire for God, would cause us to think continually of God, speak habitually of Him, act constantly for Him, and support with patience, during the term of our life, the sorrows and trials which it may please Him to send us. The second heart, all love for our neighbor, should cause us to help him in his temporal wants by our alms, and still more in his spiritual needs by instruction, counsel, example, and prayer. This second heart should be, above all, full of tenderness for sinners; asking continually of God to enlighten and bring them to sorrow for sin; it should also be most compassionate toward the Holy Souls in Purgatory. But the third heart should be hard as bronze toward self, shunning every kind of sensuality, resisting constantly all self-love, renouncing one's own will, chastising the body by fasting and abstinence, -in fine, putting to death all the inclinations of corrupt nature.”
-Saint Benedict Joseph Labre
On Charity...
”He who does not acquire the love of God will scarcely persevere in the grace of God, for it is very difficult to renounce sin, merely through fear of chastisement.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”The heart into which Divine Love enters no longer makes any account of all that the world esteems. Saint Francis de Sales says that when the house is on fire, all the goods are thrown out of the window; by which he means, that when the heart is inflamed with Divine Love, man, without sermons, or exhortations from his Spiritual director, of himself seeks to divest himself of all worldly goods, honors, riches, and other earthly things, that he may have nothing but God.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”In the royal galley of Divine Love, there is no galley slave; all the rowers are volunteers.”
-Saint Francis de Sales
”The way which God takes with the souls that love Him, by allowing them to be tempted, and to fall into tribulations, is a true espousal between Himself and them.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”We must give ourselves to God altogether; God makes all His Own the soul that is wholly given to Him.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Charity is a love of friendship, a friendship of choice, a choice of preference, but an incomparable, a sovereign, and supernatural preference which is like a sun in the whole soul, to embellish it with its rays; in all our spiritual faculties to perfect them; in all our powers to moderate them; but in the will, as its seat, to reside there, and to make it cherish and love its God above all things.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
”Try not to think of yourself when you love; love is ecstatic, it does not leave to themselves those whom it possesses, but delivers them to the One they love.”
-Saint Dionysius
”Under the influence of fear, we bear the Cross of Christ with patience; under the more inspiring influence of hope, we carry the Cross with a firm and valiant heart; but under the consuming power of love, we embrace the Cross with ardor.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”As beholding corporal beauty is the principal cause of sensitive love, so the contemplation of the Divine Goodness is the cause of spiritual love.”
-Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
”The price of Divine Love is not to be appreciated; for it suffices to obtain the Kingdom of Heaven, and the love of Him Who has loved us so much merits the highest degree of our love.”
-Saint Francis of Assisi
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”The heart into which Divine Love enters no longer makes any account of all that the world esteems. Saint Francis de Sales says that when the house is on fire, all the goods are thrown out of the window; by which he means, that when the heart is inflamed with Divine Love, man, without sermons, or exhortations from his Spiritual director, of himself seeks to divest himself of all worldly goods, honors, riches, and other earthly things, that he may have nothing but God.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”In the royal galley of Divine Love, there is no galley slave; all the rowers are volunteers.”
-Saint Francis de Sales
”The way which God takes with the souls that love Him, by allowing them to be tempted, and to fall into tribulations, is a true espousal between Himself and them.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”We must give ourselves to God altogether; God makes all His Own the soul that is wholly given to Him.”
-Saint Philip Neri
”Charity is a love of friendship, a friendship of choice, a choice of preference, but an incomparable, a sovereign, and supernatural preference which is like a sun in the whole soul, to embellish it with its rays; in all our spiritual faculties to perfect them; in all our powers to moderate them; but in the will, as its seat, to reside there, and to make it cherish and love its God above all things.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
”Try not to think of yourself when you love; love is ecstatic, it does not leave to themselves those whom it possesses, but delivers them to the One they love.”
-Saint Dionysius
”Under the influence of fear, we bear the Cross of Christ with patience; under the more inspiring influence of hope, we carry the Cross with a firm and valiant heart; but under the consuming power of love, we embrace the Cross with ardor.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”As beholding corporal beauty is the principal cause of sensitive love, so the contemplation of the Divine Goodness is the cause of spiritual love.”
-Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
”The price of Divine Love is not to be appreciated; for it suffices to obtain the Kingdom of Heaven, and the love of Him Who has loved us so much merits the highest degree of our love.”
-Saint Francis of Assisi
On Hope...
”Wait upon the Lord; be faithful to His commandments; He will elevate your hope, and put you in possession of His Kingdom. Wait upon Him patiently; wait upon Him by avoiding all sin. He will come, doubt it not; and in the approaching day of His visitation, which will be that of your death and His judgment, He will Himself crown your holy hope. Place all your hope in the Heart of Jesus; it is a safe asylum; for he who trusts in God is sheltered and protected by His mercy. To this firm hope, join the practice of virtue, and even in this life you will begin to taste the ineffable joys of Paradise.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Not only think of the road through which thou art traveling, but take care never to lose sight of that blessed country in which thou art shortly to arrive. Thou meetest here with passing sufferings, but wilt soon enjoy everlasting rest. When thou lookest up to the recompense everything thou dost or sufferest will appear light, and no more than a shadow; it bears no proportion with what thou art to receive for it. Thou wilt wonder that so much is given for such trifling pains.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”We must have confidence in God, Who is what He always has been, and we must not be disheartened because things turn out contrary to us.”
-Saint Philip
”When anyone places his whole trust in God, hoping in and serving Him faithfully at the same time, God watches over him, to the extent of his confidence, in every danger. Infinite is the love which God bears to souls who repose in His protection. Diffidence in ourselves and confidence in God are like the scales of a balance; the elevation of the one is necessarily connected with the depression of the other. The more we have of diffidence in ourselves, the greater is our confidence in God; the less we possess of confidence in God, the more presumptuous shall we be of our own powers; but if we have no sort of confidence in our own strength, we may be assured that our hopes center completely in God.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
”A sinner cannot outrage the Deity more than by despairing of Divine mercy on account of the number and enormity of his crimes; for God's clemency is far greater than the iniquity and guilt of an entire world . . . Of God's mercy never despair.”
-Venerable Blosius
”A servant of God should fear nothing, not even Satan, who is soon discomfited when made little account of. If the Lord be mighty, the demons are but His bond-slaves; what evil therefore can they do to the servants of so great a King?”
-Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church
”Confidence in God ought to be greater in proportion to the pressing nature of the necessity in which we are placed. When Jesus cried in the anguish of His Passion, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He was at that time exhibiting a pattern of the highest perfection in the exact fulfillment of the obedience required from Him by His Eternal Father, with Whom He was wholly united. His intelligent soul enjoyed the most perfect bliss; still, as a man, capable of suffering and mortal, He complains of His abandonment, or rather He gives utterance to His perfect confidence in God, in order to teach us, His children, that the more afflicted we are the more we ought to rely on aid from above.”
-Saint Catherine of Bologna
”Whenever you find yourself inclined to diffidence, lift up your heart lovingly to God, and be assured that your defects are, in the sight of His infinite goodness, but as a few threads of tow cast into a sea of fire. Figure to yourself a burning surface, as vast as the hemisphere we inhabit; if a piece of tow were thrown into it, would it not be so absorbed in the fire as instantly to disappear? "Our God is a consuming fire," and our imperfections, compared with His goodness, are what a piece of tow is to the furnace. When, therefore, we have fallen, let us humble ourselves sorrowfully in His presence, and then, with an act of unbounded confidence, let us throw ourselves into the ocean of His goodness, where every. failing will be canceled, and anxiety will be turned into love.”
-Saint Paul of the Cross
”God guards with special protection a confiding client, and such an one may be sure no evil will betide him.”
-Saint Vincent of Paul
”God is so good and so merciful, that to obtain Heaven it is sufficient to ask it of Him from our hearts.”
-Saint Benedict Joseph Labre
”God is certainly more desirous of our best welfare than we are ourselves; and He knows the ways and means of promoting it better than we, for they are in His hands as Ruler of the Universe; wherefore, in all the accidents which befall us, most certainly that happens which is the best.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”As a mother delights in taking her child on her knees, in caressing and feeding him, so does our God delight in treating with love and tenderness those souls who give themselves entirely to Him, and place all their hopes in His goodness and bounty.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”When we have once placed ourselves entirely in the hands of God, we need apprehend no evil; if adversity comes, He knows how to turn it to our advantage, by means which will in time be manifested to us.”
-Saint Vincent of Paul
”When we find ourselves in some danger, we must not lose courage, but confide much in the Lord; for where danger is great, great also is the assistance of Him Who is called our Helper in tribulation.”
-Saint Ambrose, Father and Doctor of the Church
”He who serves God with a pure heart, laying aside all human interests and seeking only the Divine honor, may hope to succeed in his affairs even when to others they seem desperate, since the operations of God are beyond the ken of mortal vision, and depend on a loftier than human policy.”
-Saint Charles Borromeo
”The more a person loves God, the more reason he has to hope in Him. This hope produces in the Saints an unutterable peace, which they preserve even in adversity, because as they love God, and know how beautiful He is to those who love Him, they place all their confidence and find all their repose in Him alone.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”That fear is useful which is buoyed up by hope and is not weighed down by despair.”
-Saint Isid. Hisp.
”True and certain is that Hope which is accompanied by good works. But if it goes alone, it ought to be called presumption.”
-Saint Laurence Justinian
”Behold Jesus Christ crucified, Who is the only foundation of our hope; He is our Mediator and Advocate; the victim and sacrifice for our sins. He is goodness and patience itself; His mercy is moved by the tears of sinners, and He never refuses pardon and grace to those who ask it with a truly contrite and humbled heart.”
-Saint Charles Borromeo
”God wishes us not to rest upon anything but His infinite goodness; do not let us expect anything, hope anything, or desire anything but from Him, and let us put our trust and confidence in Him alone.”
-Saint Charles Borromeo
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Not only think of the road through which thou art traveling, but take care never to lose sight of that blessed country in which thou art shortly to arrive. Thou meetest here with passing sufferings, but wilt soon enjoy everlasting rest. When thou lookest up to the recompense everything thou dost or sufferest will appear light, and no more than a shadow; it bears no proportion with what thou art to receive for it. Thou wilt wonder that so much is given for such trifling pains.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”We must have confidence in God, Who is what He always has been, and we must not be disheartened because things turn out contrary to us.”
-Saint Philip
”When anyone places his whole trust in God, hoping in and serving Him faithfully at the same time, God watches over him, to the extent of his confidence, in every danger. Infinite is the love which God bears to souls who repose in His protection. Diffidence in ourselves and confidence in God are like the scales of a balance; the elevation of the one is necessarily connected with the depression of the other. The more we have of diffidence in ourselves, the greater is our confidence in God; the less we possess of confidence in God, the more presumptuous shall we be of our own powers; but if we have no sort of confidence in our own strength, we may be assured that our hopes center completely in God.”
-Saint Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church
”A sinner cannot outrage the Deity more than by despairing of Divine mercy on account of the number and enormity of his crimes; for God's clemency is far greater than the iniquity and guilt of an entire world . . . Of God's mercy never despair.”
-Venerable Blosius
”A servant of God should fear nothing, not even Satan, who is soon discomfited when made little account of. If the Lord be mighty, the demons are but His bond-slaves; what evil therefore can they do to the servants of so great a King?”
-Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church
”Confidence in God ought to be greater in proportion to the pressing nature of the necessity in which we are placed. When Jesus cried in the anguish of His Passion, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He was at that time exhibiting a pattern of the highest perfection in the exact fulfillment of the obedience required from Him by His Eternal Father, with Whom He was wholly united. His intelligent soul enjoyed the most perfect bliss; still, as a man, capable of suffering and mortal, He complains of His abandonment, or rather He gives utterance to His perfect confidence in God, in order to teach us, His children, that the more afflicted we are the more we ought to rely on aid from above.”
-Saint Catherine of Bologna
”Whenever you find yourself inclined to diffidence, lift up your heart lovingly to God, and be assured that your defects are, in the sight of His infinite goodness, but as a few threads of tow cast into a sea of fire. Figure to yourself a burning surface, as vast as the hemisphere we inhabit; if a piece of tow were thrown into it, would it not be so absorbed in the fire as instantly to disappear? "Our God is a consuming fire," and our imperfections, compared with His goodness, are what a piece of tow is to the furnace. When, therefore, we have fallen, let us humble ourselves sorrowfully in His presence, and then, with an act of unbounded confidence, let us throw ourselves into the ocean of His goodness, where every. failing will be canceled, and anxiety will be turned into love.”
-Saint Paul of the Cross
”God guards with special protection a confiding client, and such an one may be sure no evil will betide him.”
-Saint Vincent of Paul
”God is so good and so merciful, that to obtain Heaven it is sufficient to ask it of Him from our hearts.”
-Saint Benedict Joseph Labre
”God is certainly more desirous of our best welfare than we are ourselves; and He knows the ways and means of promoting it better than we, for they are in His hands as Ruler of the Universe; wherefore, in all the accidents which befall us, most certainly that happens which is the best.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”As a mother delights in taking her child on her knees, in caressing and feeding him, so does our God delight in treating with love and tenderness those souls who give themselves entirely to Him, and place all their hopes in His goodness and bounty.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”When we have once placed ourselves entirely in the hands of God, we need apprehend no evil; if adversity comes, He knows how to turn it to our advantage, by means which will in time be manifested to us.”
-Saint Vincent of Paul
”When we find ourselves in some danger, we must not lose courage, but confide much in the Lord; for where danger is great, great also is the assistance of Him Who is called our Helper in tribulation.”
-Saint Ambrose, Father and Doctor of the Church
”He who serves God with a pure heart, laying aside all human interests and seeking only the Divine honor, may hope to succeed in his affairs even when to others they seem desperate, since the operations of God are beyond the ken of mortal vision, and depend on a loftier than human policy.”
-Saint Charles Borromeo
”The more a person loves God, the more reason he has to hope in Him. This hope produces in the Saints an unutterable peace, which they preserve even in adversity, because as they love God, and know how beautiful He is to those who love Him, they place all their confidence and find all their repose in Him alone.”
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
”That fear is useful which is buoyed up by hope and is not weighed down by despair.”
-Saint Isid. Hisp.
”True and certain is that Hope which is accompanied by good works. But if it goes alone, it ought to be called presumption.”
-Saint Laurence Justinian
”Behold Jesus Christ crucified, Who is the only foundation of our hope; He is our Mediator and Advocate; the victim and sacrifice for our sins. He is goodness and patience itself; His mercy is moved by the tears of sinners, and He never refuses pardon and grace to those who ask it with a truly contrite and humbled heart.”
-Saint Charles Borromeo
”God wishes us not to rest upon anything but His infinite goodness; do not let us expect anything, hope anything, or desire anything but from Him, and let us put our trust and confidence in Him alone.”
-Saint Charles Borromeo
On Faith...
”We should submit ourselves to the Church so completely, that if we clearly perceived a thing to be white and she were to declare it to be black, we should, with her, declare it black.”
-Saint Ignatius, Father of the Church
”O Holy Mother! O Church of Rome! We poor ignorant creatures, we knew thee not. We knew not thy zeal, nor thy goodness, nor thy labors for our salvation. Thou shewest us the way to Heaven, and the way alone taught by thee is the true way. He who follows it cannot go astray nor stumble against a stone. He, on the contrary, who seeks another way, shall only find eternal perdition.”
-Blessed Giles of Assisi
”Faith is a great virtue; but without charity it can be of no use to us. Keep and preserve, with the utmost care, the precious gift of true faith, pure faith, faith without reproach. Let this burning, fervent, and invincible faith, which obtained an immortal crown for the Holy Confessors, be the immortal ornament of your soul.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Only believe, and you have already found what you seek. In truth, what does Faith not find? It reaches the unapproachable, it discovers the unknown, it comprehends the unsearchable, it has the secret of arriving at the ends of things, and it has but to dilate its bosom to hold even eternity in its embrace.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”The soul is elevated to God by means of a lively faith, that secret and private staircase, of which all the steps are hidden under a mystery impenetrable to the senses or the understanding. Therefore the soul renounces their feeble help to attach itself only to faith, which penetrates the deep things of God: hence its disguise. It transforms the principle of its knowledge, hence the safety of its passage; so that it has nothing to fear from temporal things, from reason, or from the devil.”
-Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church
”Faith is a lamp which gives us spiritual light and warmth.”
-Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
”Faith resembles a lamp. As a lamp lights the whole house, so the light of Faith illuminates the whole soul.”
-Saint John Chrysostom, Father and Doctor of the Church
”If we do not believe God, whom shall we believe? God ought to be believed on His Word.”
-Saint Ambrose, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Reason is the eye of the soul; but like the bodily eye, it needs light in order to see; and how can it see divine things clearly, if deprived of the light of divine revelation?.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Faith is an altar; nothing is pleasing to God unless it be offered to Him in a spirit of Faith.”
-Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
”A tree cannot grow without roots; a building cannot be raised without a foundation; every river must flow from a source. So the Christian life and virtues can neither exist nor flourish, nor become a source of life, unless they proceed from Faith.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Your heart is like to a ship. To have Jesus on board is to have Faith in your heart. If your faith slumbers, Jesus slumbers also, and in this case you are in danger of shipwreck.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”As a vessel that has no anchor is tossed about by the wind, so our mind, when not anchored to Faith, is continually agitated by the wind of human opinions and doctrines.”
-Saint Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church
”A virtuous life is to the soul what food is to the body. For as our body cannot live without food, so Faith cannot subsist without good works.”
-Saint Chrysostom, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Hold in your hand the lantern of Faith; and let the flame of Charity shine from it, to shew you what you must do, and what you must avoid.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”The Church that cannot err, and the Faith that cannot fail, is the Roman Church, and the faith of the Roman Church, whether believed in Rome or in other parts of the world.”
-Saint Antoninus
”As in the sea there are islands which are fruitful and furnish good harbors for the shelter of mariners, who fly to them and once having reached them are secured from the tossing of the tempest; so God has given to the world a holy Church, in whose safe harbor the lovers of truth seek refuge, as well as all those who desire to be saved, and to escape the dreadful wrath of God. And as there are other islands which want water, and are covered with barren rocks, uninhabitable by man and destructive to sailors, on which their ships are dashed to pieces; so likewise are there erroneous doctrines and heresies which destroy those who are seduced and drawn aside by them.”
-Saint Theophilus to the learned Antolychus
-Saint Ignatius, Father of the Church
”O Holy Mother! O Church of Rome! We poor ignorant creatures, we knew thee not. We knew not thy zeal, nor thy goodness, nor thy labors for our salvation. Thou shewest us the way to Heaven, and the way alone taught by thee is the true way. He who follows it cannot go astray nor stumble against a stone. He, on the contrary, who seeks another way, shall only find eternal perdition.”
-Blessed Giles of Assisi
”Faith is a great virtue; but without charity it can be of no use to us. Keep and preserve, with the utmost care, the precious gift of true faith, pure faith, faith without reproach. Let this burning, fervent, and invincible faith, which obtained an immortal crown for the Holy Confessors, be the immortal ornament of your soul.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Only believe, and you have already found what you seek. In truth, what does Faith not find? It reaches the unapproachable, it discovers the unknown, it comprehends the unsearchable, it has the secret of arriving at the ends of things, and it has but to dilate its bosom to hold even eternity in its embrace.”
-Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church
”The soul is elevated to God by means of a lively faith, that secret and private staircase, of which all the steps are hidden under a mystery impenetrable to the senses or the understanding. Therefore the soul renounces their feeble help to attach itself only to faith, which penetrates the deep things of God: hence its disguise. It transforms the principle of its knowledge, hence the safety of its passage; so that it has nothing to fear from temporal things, from reason, or from the devil.”
-Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church
”Faith is a lamp which gives us spiritual light and warmth.”
-Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
”Faith resembles a lamp. As a lamp lights the whole house, so the light of Faith illuminates the whole soul.”
-Saint John Chrysostom, Father and Doctor of the Church
”If we do not believe God, whom shall we believe? God ought to be believed on His Word.”
-Saint Ambrose, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Reason is the eye of the soul; but like the bodily eye, it needs light in order to see; and how can it see divine things clearly, if deprived of the light of divine revelation?.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Faith is an altar; nothing is pleasing to God unless it be offered to Him in a spirit of Faith.”
-Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
”A tree cannot grow without roots; a building cannot be raised without a foundation; every river must flow from a source. So the Christian life and virtues can neither exist nor flourish, nor become a source of life, unless they proceed from Faith.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Your heart is like to a ship. To have Jesus on board is to have Faith in your heart. If your faith slumbers, Jesus slumbers also, and in this case you are in danger of shipwreck.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”As a vessel that has no anchor is tossed about by the wind, so our mind, when not anchored to Faith, is continually agitated by the wind of human opinions and doctrines.”
-Saint Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church
”A virtuous life is to the soul what food is to the body. For as our body cannot live without food, so Faith cannot subsist without good works.”
-Saint Chrysostom, Father and Doctor of the Church
”Hold in your hand the lantern of Faith; and let the flame of Charity shine from it, to shew you what you must do, and what you must avoid.”
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church
”The Church that cannot err, and the Faith that cannot fail, is the Roman Church, and the faith of the Roman Church, whether believed in Rome or in other parts of the world.”
-Saint Antoninus
”As in the sea there are islands which are fruitful and furnish good harbors for the shelter of mariners, who fly to them and once having reached them are secured from the tossing of the tempest; so God has given to the world a holy Church, in whose safe harbor the lovers of truth seek refuge, as well as all those who desire to be saved, and to escape the dreadful wrath of God. And as there are other islands which want water, and are covered with barren rocks, uninhabitable by man and destructive to sailors, on which their ships are dashed to pieces; so likewise are there erroneous doctrines and heresies which destroy those who are seduced and drawn aside by them.”
-Saint Theophilus to the learned Antolychus
Friday, June 20, 2008
Wisdom from Mount Carmel...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
"Mary has made Herself a Mother to Her Scapular-children to such an extent that they cannot be lost. Once She appeared to Blessed Angela de Arena, clothed in the Carmelite Habit and surrounded by Saints who were particularly devoted to Her during life. There were no Carmelites there. "Dear Mother, where are your Carmelites?" exclaimed Blessed Angela. And Mary, quickly pulling back the edges of the white cloak which hung over Her breast, showed her a bunch of roses saying: "Here are my Carmelites." "
-[Pulpito de la Virgen del Carmen, Vol. I, pg. 38.]
Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church
"I made the resolution never to consider whether the things commanded me appeared useful or not.... it is love alone that counts. Forget about whether something is needed or useful; see it (the demand, rule, obligation, etc.) as a whim of Jesus."
"Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk."
“How happy I am to see myself imperfect and be in need of God's mercy.”
“We can never have too much confidence in the good God who is so powerful and so merciful. We obtain from him as much as we hope for.“
“You know that our Lord does not look at the greatness or difficulty of our action, but at the love with which you do it. What, then, have you to fear?”
“Prayer is a cry of gratitude and love, in the midst of trial as well as in joy.”
“The goal of all our undertakings should be not so much a task perfectly completed as the accomplishment of the will of God.”
"Oh my God, You have surpassed all my expectations."
"Let us be one with Jesus... let us make our life a continual sacrifice, a martyrdom of love to console Jesus. May all moments of our life be for Him alone. We have only one task during the night of our present life - to love Jesus."
"I desire no sensible consolation in loving; provided Jesus feel my love that is enough for me. Oh! to love Him and to make Him loved... how sweet it is..."
"She [Mary] is more Mother than Queen."
“In that first ‘fusion’ with Jesus (holy communion), it was my Heavenly Mother again who accompanied me to the altar for it was she herself who placed her Jesus into my soul.”
“In trial or difficulty I have recourse to Mother Mary, whose glance alone is enough to dissipate every fear.”
“What a joy to remember that she [Mary] is our Mother! Since she loves us and knows our weakness, what have we to fear?”
“I will sing even when I must pick my flowers amid thorns. The longer and sharper the thorns are, the sweeter my song will sound.”
"I always want to see you behaving like a brave soldier who does not complain about his own suffering but takes his comrades' wounds seriously and treats his own as nothing but scratches."
-To her Novices
Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church
“It is not so essential to think much as to love much.”
“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 humility.”
“Look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for all.”
“So dearly does His Majesty love us that He will reward our love for our neighbor by increasing the love which we bear to Himself, and that in a thousand ways.”
“Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee; All thing pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing:God alone suffices.”
"Don't trust too much to nuns: I can tell you that if they want anything, they will make you see it in a thousand different aspects. [She laughed at those who] think they are dispensed from choir one day because they have a pain in their head, and the next day because they have had one, and the third day in case they may get one."
Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church
“Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth; mine are the people, the righteous are mine and mine are the sinners; the angels are mine and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God Himself is mine and for me, for Christ is mine and all for me. What then do you ask for and seek, my soul? Yours is all this, and it is all for you.”
“To be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but the greatness of its humility.”
“Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.”
“God desires the smallest degree of purity of conscience in you more than all the works you can perform.”
“A soul enkindled with love is a gentle, meek, humble, and patient soul.”
“What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love.”
"To deprive oneself of the gratification of the appetites in all things is like living in darkness and in a void. ... Hence, we call this nakedness a night for the soul. For we are not discussing the mere lack of things; this lack will not divest the soul., if it [still] craves for all these objects. We are dealing with the denudation of the soul's appetites and gratifications; this is what leaves it free and empty of all things, even though it possesses them. Since the things of the world cannot enter the soul, they are not in themselves an encumbrance or harm to it; rather, it is the will and appetite dwelling within it that causes the damage."
“To reach satisfaction in all,
desire its possession in nothing.
To come to the knowledge of all,
desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all,
desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all,
desire to be nothing.
To come to the pleasure you have not,
you must go by a way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge you have not,
you must go by a way in which you know not.
To come to the possession you have not;
you must go by a way in which you possess not.
To come to be what you are not,
you must go by a way in which you are not.
When you turn toward something,
you cease to cast yourself upon the all.
For to go from the all to the all,
you must leave yourself in all.
And when you come to the possession of all,
you must posses it without wanting anything.
In this nakedness, the spirit finds its rest,
for when it covets nothing, nothing raises it up,
and nothing weighs it down,
because it is in the center of its humility.”
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
“The more lofty the degree of loving union to which God destines the soul, so much more profound and persistent must be its purification.”
“God Himself teaches us to go forward with our hand in His by means of the Church's liturgy.”
“One cannot desire freedom from the Cross when one is especially chosen for the Cross.”
Saint Mary Magdalen de'Pazzi
“Trials are nothing else but the forge that purifies the soul of all its imperfections.”
“You will be consoled according to the greatness of your sorrow and affliction; the greater the suffering, the greater will be the reward.”
Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
"I abyss myself in His magnificence and His wisdom but when I ponder His goodness, my heart can say nothing - I can only Adore."
Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified
“Always remember to love your neighbor; always prefer the one who tries your patience, who test your virtue, because with her you can always merit: suffering is Love; the Law is Love.“
“I desire to suffer always and not to die. I should add: this is not my will, it is my inclination. It is sweet to think of Jesus; but it is sweeter to do His will.”
“The proud person is like a grain of wheat thrown into water: it swells, it gets big. Expose that grain to the fire: it dries up, it burns. The humble soul is like a grain of wheat thrown into the earth: it descends, it hides itself, it disappears, it dies; but to revive in heaven.”
Blessed Mary of Jesus of Toledo
“It is not the soul that makes the progress, but it is Christ, who carries her as a child is carried.”
Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity
“For my heart is always with Him, day and night it thinks unceasingly of its heavenly and divine Friend, to whom it wants to prove its affection. Also within it arises this desire: not to die, but to suffer long, to suffer for God, to give Him its life while praying for poor sinners.”
"Mary has made Herself a Mother to Her Scapular-children to such an extent that they cannot be lost. Once She appeared to Blessed Angela de Arena, clothed in the Carmelite Habit and surrounded by Saints who were particularly devoted to Her during life. There were no Carmelites there. "Dear Mother, where are your Carmelites?" exclaimed Blessed Angela. And Mary, quickly pulling back the edges of the white cloak which hung over Her breast, showed her a bunch of roses saying: "Here are my Carmelites." "
-[Pulpito de la Virgen del Carmen, Vol. I, pg. 38.]
Saint Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church
"I made the resolution never to consider whether the things commanded me appeared useful or not.... it is love alone that counts. Forget about whether something is needed or useful; see it (the demand, rule, obligation, etc.) as a whim of Jesus."
"Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk."
“How happy I am to see myself imperfect and be in need of God's mercy.”
“We can never have too much confidence in the good God who is so powerful and so merciful. We obtain from him as much as we hope for.“
“You know that our Lord does not look at the greatness or difficulty of our action, but at the love with which you do it. What, then, have you to fear?”
“Prayer is a cry of gratitude and love, in the midst of trial as well as in joy.”
“The goal of all our undertakings should be not so much a task perfectly completed as the accomplishment of the will of God.”
"Oh my God, You have surpassed all my expectations."
"Let us be one with Jesus... let us make our life a continual sacrifice, a martyrdom of love to console Jesus. May all moments of our life be for Him alone. We have only one task during the night of our present life - to love Jesus."
"I desire no sensible consolation in loving; provided Jesus feel my love that is enough for me. Oh! to love Him and to make Him loved... how sweet it is..."
"She [Mary] is more Mother than Queen."
“In that first ‘fusion’ with Jesus (holy communion), it was my Heavenly Mother again who accompanied me to the altar for it was she herself who placed her Jesus into my soul.”
“In trial or difficulty I have recourse to Mother Mary, whose glance alone is enough to dissipate every fear.”
“What a joy to remember that she [Mary] is our Mother! Since she loves us and knows our weakness, what have we to fear?”
“I will sing even when I must pick my flowers amid thorns. The longer and sharper the thorns are, the sweeter my song will sound.”
"I always want to see you behaving like a brave soldier who does not complain about his own suffering but takes his comrades' wounds seriously and treats his own as nothing but scratches."
-To her Novices
Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church
“It is not so essential to think much as to love much.”
“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 humility.”
“Look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for all.”
“So dearly does His Majesty love us that He will reward our love for our neighbor by increasing the love which we bear to Himself, and that in a thousand ways.”
“Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee; All thing pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing:God alone suffices.”
"Don't trust too much to nuns: I can tell you that if they want anything, they will make you see it in a thousand different aspects. [She laughed at those who] think they are dispensed from choir one day because they have a pain in their head, and the next day because they have had one, and the third day in case they may get one."
Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church
“Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth; mine are the people, the righteous are mine and mine are the sinners; the angels are mine and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God Himself is mine and for me, for Christ is mine and all for me. What then do you ask for and seek, my soul? Yours is all this, and it is all for you.”
“To be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but the greatness of its humility.”
“Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.”
“God desires the smallest degree of purity of conscience in you more than all the works you can perform.”
“A soul enkindled with love is a gentle, meek, humble, and patient soul.”
“What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love.”
"To deprive oneself of the gratification of the appetites in all things is like living in darkness and in a void. ... Hence, we call this nakedness a night for the soul. For we are not discussing the mere lack of things; this lack will not divest the soul., if it [still] craves for all these objects. We are dealing with the denudation of the soul's appetites and gratifications; this is what leaves it free and empty of all things, even though it possesses them. Since the things of the world cannot enter the soul, they are not in themselves an encumbrance or harm to it; rather, it is the will and appetite dwelling within it that causes the damage."
“To reach satisfaction in all,
desire its possession in nothing.
To come to the knowledge of all,
desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all,
desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all,
desire to be nothing.
To come to the pleasure you have not,
you must go by a way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge you have not,
you must go by a way in which you know not.
To come to the possession you have not;
you must go by a way in which you possess not.
To come to be what you are not,
you must go by a way in which you are not.
When you turn toward something,
you cease to cast yourself upon the all.
For to go from the all to the all,
you must leave yourself in all.
And when you come to the possession of all,
you must posses it without wanting anything.
In this nakedness, the spirit finds its rest,
for when it covets nothing, nothing raises it up,
and nothing weighs it down,
because it is in the center of its humility.”
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
“The more lofty the degree of loving union to which God destines the soul, so much more profound and persistent must be its purification.”
“God Himself teaches us to go forward with our hand in His by means of the Church's liturgy.”
“One cannot desire freedom from the Cross when one is especially chosen for the Cross.”
Saint Mary Magdalen de'Pazzi
“Trials are nothing else but the forge that purifies the soul of all its imperfections.”
“You will be consoled according to the greatness of your sorrow and affliction; the greater the suffering, the greater will be the reward.”
Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes
"I abyss myself in His magnificence and His wisdom but when I ponder His goodness, my heart can say nothing - I can only Adore."
Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified
“Always remember to love your neighbor; always prefer the one who tries your patience, who test your virtue, because with her you can always merit: suffering is Love; the Law is Love.“
“I desire to suffer always and not to die. I should add: this is not my will, it is my inclination. It is sweet to think of Jesus; but it is sweeter to do His will.”
“The proud person is like a grain of wheat thrown into water: it swells, it gets big. Expose that grain to the fire: it dries up, it burns. The humble soul is like a grain of wheat thrown into the earth: it descends, it hides itself, it disappears, it dies; but to revive in heaven.”
Blessed Mary of Jesus of Toledo
“It is not the soul that makes the progress, but it is Christ, who carries her as a child is carried.”
Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity
“For my heart is always with Him, day and night it thinks unceasingly of its heavenly and divine Friend, to whom it wants to prove its affection. Also within it arises this desire: not to die, but to suffer long, to suffer for God, to give Him its life while praying for poor sinners.”
Sunday, February 24, 2008
On Modesty...
"You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment. ... When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent? Tell me, whom does this world condemn? Whom do judges punish? Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion? You have prepared the abominable cup, you have given the death dealing drink, and you are more criminal than are those who poison the body; you murder not the body but the soul. And it is not to enemies you do this, nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity , nor provoked by injury , but out of foolish vanity and pride."
-Saint John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, (347-407 AD)
"After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable.....People's appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair."
-Prophecy of Saint Nilus, (died c. 430)
"Wars are a punishment from God for sin. ... Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much. ... More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason."
-Our Blessed Lady at Fatima in 1917 to Blessed Jacinta
"From this point of view one cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women of every age and condition; made foolish by desire to please, they do not see to what a degree the in decency of their clothing shocks every honest man, and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for those toilettes as for a grave fault against Christian modesty; now it does not suffice for them to exhibit them on the public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of the churches, to assist at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table where one receives the heavenly Author of purity. And We speak not of those exotic and barbarous dances recently imported into fashionable circles, one more shocking than the other; one cannot imagine anything more suitable for banishing all the remains of modesty."
-Pope Benedict XV, Sacra Propediem, January 6, 1921
"A dress cannot be called decent which is cut deeper than two fingers breadth under the pit of the throat; which does not cover the arms at least to the elbows; and scarcely reaches a bit beyond the knees. Furthermore, dresses of transparent materials are improper."
-Pope Pius XI, September 24, 1928
"...Numbers of believing and pious women...in accepting to follow certain bold fashions, break down, by their example, the resistance of many other women to such fashions, which may become for them the cause of spiritual ruin. As long as these provocative styles remain identified with women of doubtful virtue, good women do not dare to follow them; but once these styles have been accepted by women of good reputation, decent women soon follow their example, and are carried along by the tide into possible disaster."
-Pope Pius XII, May 22, 1941
"O Christian mothers, if only you knew the future of distress and peril, of shame ill-restrained, that you prepare for your sons and daughters in imprudently accustoming them to live hardly clothed and in making them lose the sense of modesty, you should be ashamed of yourselves and of the harm done the little ones whom heaven entrusted to your care, to be reared in Christian dignity and culture."
-Pope Pius XII, July 17, 1954
"Now many girls do not see anything wrong with following certain shameless styles (fashions) like so many sheep. They would surely blush if they could only guess the impressions they make and the feelings they evoke (arouse) in those who see them."
-Pope Pius XII, July 17, 1954
" A special danger to morals is represented by public bathing at beaches, in pools and riverbanks...Mixed bathing between men and women which nearly always is a proximate occasion of sin and a scandal must be avoided."
-A Pastoral letter of His Emminence Enrique Cardinal Pla y Daniel, Archbishop of Toledo Spain issued this directive in 1959
"The wearing of men's dress by women affects firstly the woman herself, by changing the feminine psychology proper to women; secondly it affects the woman as wife of her husband, by tending to vitiate relationships between the sexes; thirdly it affects the woman as mother of her children by harming her dignity in her children's eyes."
-Giuseppe Cardinal Siri Genoa, June 12, 1960, Notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women
"Wherever women wear men's dress, it is to be considered a factor in the long run tearing apart human order."
-Giuseppe Cardinal Siri Genoa, June 12, 1960, Notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women
The consequences of such violations are not a new outline of man, but disorders, hurtful instability of all kinds, the frightening dryness of human souls, the shattering increase in the number of human castaways, driven long since out of people's sight and mind to live out their decline in boredom, sadness and rejection. Aligned on the wrecking of the eternal norms are to be found the broken families, lives cut short before their time, hearths and homes gone cold, old people cast to one side, youngsters wilfully degenerate and - at the end of the line - souls in despair and taking their own lives. All of which human wreckage gives witness to the fact that the "line of God" does not give way, nor does it admit of any adaptation to the delirious dreams of the so-called philosophers!
-Giuseppe Cardinal Siri Genoa, June 12, 1960, Notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women
"Padre Pio wouldn't tolerate low-necked dresses or short, tight skirts, and he forbade his spiritual daughters to wear transparent stockings. (nylons) Each year his severity increased. He stubbornly dismissed them from his confessional, even before they set foot inside, if he judged them to be improperly dressed...His brothers observed these drastic purges with uneasiness and...fasten(ed) a sign on the church door: 'By Padre Pio's explicit wish, women must enter his confessional wearing skirts at least eight inches below the knees. It is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in church and to wear them for the confessional.' "
-Saint Padre Pio, (1887-1968), from the book "Prophet of the People" by Dorothy Gaudiose
-Saint John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, (347-407 AD)
"After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable.....People's appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair."
-Prophecy of Saint Nilus, (died c. 430)
"Wars are a punishment from God for sin. ... Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much. ... More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason."
-Our Blessed Lady at Fatima in 1917 to Blessed Jacinta
"From this point of view one cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women of every age and condition; made foolish by desire to please, they do not see to what a degree the in decency of their clothing shocks every honest man, and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for those toilettes as for a grave fault against Christian modesty; now it does not suffice for them to exhibit them on the public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of the churches, to assist at the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table where one receives the heavenly Author of purity. And We speak not of those exotic and barbarous dances recently imported into fashionable circles, one more shocking than the other; one cannot imagine anything more suitable for banishing all the remains of modesty."
-Pope Benedict XV, Sacra Propediem, January 6, 1921
"A dress cannot be called decent which is cut deeper than two fingers breadth under the pit of the throat; which does not cover the arms at least to the elbows; and scarcely reaches a bit beyond the knees. Furthermore, dresses of transparent materials are improper."
-Pope Pius XI, September 24, 1928
"...Numbers of believing and pious women...in accepting to follow certain bold fashions, break down, by their example, the resistance of many other women to such fashions, which may become for them the cause of spiritual ruin. As long as these provocative styles remain identified with women of doubtful virtue, good women do not dare to follow them; but once these styles have been accepted by women of good reputation, decent women soon follow their example, and are carried along by the tide into possible disaster."
-Pope Pius XII, May 22, 1941
"O Christian mothers, if only you knew the future of distress and peril, of shame ill-restrained, that you prepare for your sons and daughters in imprudently accustoming them to live hardly clothed and in making them lose the sense of modesty, you should be ashamed of yourselves and of the harm done the little ones whom heaven entrusted to your care, to be reared in Christian dignity and culture."
-Pope Pius XII, July 17, 1954
"Now many girls do not see anything wrong with following certain shameless styles (fashions) like so many sheep. They would surely blush if they could only guess the impressions they make and the feelings they evoke (arouse) in those who see them."
-Pope Pius XII, July 17, 1954
" A special danger to morals is represented by public bathing at beaches, in pools and riverbanks...Mixed bathing between men and women which nearly always is a proximate occasion of sin and a scandal must be avoided."
-A Pastoral letter of His Emminence Enrique Cardinal Pla y Daniel, Archbishop of Toledo Spain issued this directive in 1959
"The wearing of men's dress by women affects firstly the woman herself, by changing the feminine psychology proper to women; secondly it affects the woman as wife of her husband, by tending to vitiate relationships between the sexes; thirdly it affects the woman as mother of her children by harming her dignity in her children's eyes."
-Giuseppe Cardinal Siri Genoa, June 12, 1960, Notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women
"Wherever women wear men's dress, it is to be considered a factor in the long run tearing apart human order."
-Giuseppe Cardinal Siri Genoa, June 12, 1960, Notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women
The consequences of such violations are not a new outline of man, but disorders, hurtful instability of all kinds, the frightening dryness of human souls, the shattering increase in the number of human castaways, driven long since out of people's sight and mind to live out their decline in boredom, sadness and rejection. Aligned on the wrecking of the eternal norms are to be found the broken families, lives cut short before their time, hearths and homes gone cold, old people cast to one side, youngsters wilfully degenerate and - at the end of the line - souls in despair and taking their own lives. All of which human wreckage gives witness to the fact that the "line of God" does not give way, nor does it admit of any adaptation to the delirious dreams of the so-called philosophers!
-Giuseppe Cardinal Siri Genoa, June 12, 1960, Notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women
"Padre Pio wouldn't tolerate low-necked dresses or short, tight skirts, and he forbade his spiritual daughters to wear transparent stockings. (nylons) Each year his severity increased. He stubbornly dismissed them from his confessional, even before they set foot inside, if he judged them to be improperly dressed...His brothers observed these drastic purges with uneasiness and...fasten(ed) a sign on the church door: 'By Padre Pio's explicit wish, women must enter his confessional wearing skirts at least eight inches below the knees. It is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in church and to wear them for the confessional.' "
-Saint Padre Pio, (1887-1968), from the book "Prophet of the People" by Dorothy Gaudiose
Friday, January 4, 2008
On Sacred Music...
"Let the sober banquet resound with Psalms. And if your memory by good and your voice pleasant, approach this work according to custom. You give more nourishment to those dearest to you if we hear spiritual things and if religious sweetness delights the ears."
-Saint Cyprian of Carthage [A.D. 190-258], Letter to Donatus (Letter 1, n. 16) PL, IV, 227.
"Music, that is the science or the sense of proper modulation, is likewise given by God's generosity to mortals having rational souls in order to lead them to higher things."
-Saint Augustine, Epis. 161. De origine animae hominis, 1, 2; PL XXXIII, 725.
"I feel that our souls are moved to the ardor of piety by the sacred words more piously and powerfully when these words are sung than when they are not sung, and that all the affections of our soul in their variety have modes of their own in song and chant by which they are stirred up by an indescribable and secret sympathy."
-Saint Augustine, Confessions, Book X, chap. 33, MPL, XXXII, 799ff.
"They [Bishops] shall also banish from churches all those kinds of music, in which, whether by the organ, or in the singing, there is mixed up any thing lascivious or impure; as also all secular actions; vain and therefore profane conversations, all walking about, noise, and clamour, that so the house of God may be seen to be, and may be called, truly a house of prayer."
-Pope Pius IV, The Council of Trent, Sesion XXII, Sptember 17th, 1562
"Gregorian Chant, which is, consequently the Chant proper to the Roman Church, the only chant she has inherited from the ancient fathers, which she has jealously guarded for centuries in her liturgical codices, which she directly proposes to the faithful as her own, which she prescribes exclusively for some parts of the liturgy, and which the most recent studies have so happily restored to their integrity and purity. On these grounds Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the suprememodel for sacred music, so that it is fully legitimate to lay down thefollowing rule: the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor the Gregorian form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple. The ancient traditional Gregorian Chant must, therefore, in a large measure be restored to the functions of public worship, and the fact must be accepted by all that an ecclesiastical function loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by this music alone. Special efforts are to be made to restore the use of the Gregorian Chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more active part in the ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times."
-Pope Saint Pius X, Tra le Sollecitudini, November 22, 1903
"Although the music proper to the Church is purely vocal music, music with the accompaniment of the organ is also permitted. In some special cases, within due limits and with proper safeguards, other instruments may be allowed, but never without the special permission of the Ordinary, according to prescriptions of the Caeremoniale Episcoporum. As the singing should always have the principal place, the organ or other instruments should merely sustain and never oppress it. It is not permitted to have the chant preceded by long preludes or to interrupt it with intermezzo pieces. The sound of the organ as an accompaniment to the chant in preludes, interludes, and the like must be not only governed by the special nature of the instrument, but must participate in all the qualities proper to sacred music as above enumerated. The employment of the piano is forbidden in church, as is also that of noisy or frivolous instruments such as drums, cymbals, bells and the like. It is strictly forbidden to have bands play in church, and only in special cases with the consent of the Ordinary will it be permissible to admit wind instruments, limited in number, judiciously used, and proportioned to the size of the placeprovided the composition and accompaniment be written in grave and suitable style, and conform in all respects to that proper to the organ. In processions outside the church the Ordinary may give permission for a band, provided no profane pieces be executed. It would be desirable in such cases that the band confine itself to accompanying some spiritual canticle sung in Latin or in the vernacular by the singers and the pious associations which take part in the procession.
-Pope Saint Pius X, Tra le Sollecitudini, November 22, 1903
"To this lofty dignity of the Church's prayer, there should correspond earnest devotion in our souls. For when in prayer the voice repeats those hymns written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and extols God's infinite perfections, it is necessary that the interior sentiment of our souls should accompany the voice so as to make those sentiments our own in which we are elevated to heaven, adoring and giving due praise and thanks to the Blessed Trinity; "so let us chant in choir that mind and voice may accord together."[140] It is not merely a question of recitation or of singing which, however perfect according to norms of music and the sacred rites, only reaches the ear, but it is especially a question of the ascent of the mind and heart to God so that, united with Christ, we may completely dedicate ourselves and all our actions to Him."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei #145, November 20, 1947
"As regards music, let the clear and guiding norms of the Apostolic See be scrupulously observed. Gregorian chant, which the Roman Church considers her own as handed down from antiquity and kept under her close tutelage, is proposed to the faithful as belonging to them also. In certain parts of the liturgy the Church definitely prescribes it;[171] it makes the celebration of the sacred mysteries not only more dignified and solemn but helps very much to increase the faith and devotion of the congregation. For this reason, Our predecessors of immortal memory, Pius X and Pius XI, decree -- and We are happy to confirm with Our authority the norms laid down by them -- that in seminaries and religious institutes, Gregorian chant be diligently and zealously promoted, and moreover that the old Scholae Cantorum be restored, at least in the principal churches. This has already been done with happy results in not a few places."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei #191, November 20, 1947
"St. Paul showed us clearly that sacred chant was used and held in honor from the very beginning in the Church founded by the Divine Redeemer when he wrote to the Ephesians: "Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."[Eph. 5. 18ff; cf. Col. 3. 16.] He indicates that this custom of singing hymns was in force in the assemblies of Christians when he says: "When you come together each of you has a hymn."[I Cor. 14. 26.]
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #8, December 25, 1955
"The choral chant began to be called "Gregorian" after St. Gregory, the man who revived it. It attained new beauty in almost all parts of Christian Europe after the 8th or 9th century because of its accompaniment by a new musical instrument called the "organ." Little by little, beginning in the 9th century, polyphonic singing was added to this choral chant. The study and use of polyphonic singing were developed more and more during the centuries that followed and were raised to a marvelous perfection under the guidance of magnificent composers during the 15th and 16th centuries."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #14, December 25, 1955
"Thus, with the favor and under the auspices of the Church the study of sacred music has gone a long way over the course of the centuries. In this journey, although sometimes slowly and laboriously, it has gradually progressed from the simple and ingenuous Gregorian modes to great and magnificent works of art. To these works not only the human voice, but also the organ and other musical instruments, add dignity, majesty and a prodigious richness."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #16, December 25, 1955
"It must be holy. It must not allow within itself anything that savors of the profane nor allow any such thing to slip into the melodies in which it is expressed. The Gregorian chant which has been used in the Church over the course of so many centuries, and which may be called, as it were, its patrimony, is gloriously outstanding for this holiness."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #42, December 25, 1955
"We are not unaware that, for serious reasons, some quite definite exceptions have been conceded by the Apostolic See. We do not want these exceptions extended or propagated more widely, nor do We wish to have them transferred to other places without due permission of the Holy See. Furthermore, even where it is licit to use these exemptions, local Ordinaries and the other pastors should take great care that the faithful from their earliest years should learn at least the easier and more frequently used Gregorian melodies, and should know how to employ them in the sacred liturgical rites, so that in this way also the unity and the universality of the Church may shine forth more powerfully every day."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #46, December 25, 1955
"The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services."
-The Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium #116, December 4th, 1963
"The singing of the Church comes ultimately out of love. It is the utter depth of love that produces the singing. “Cantare amantis est”, says St. Augustine, singing is a lover’s thing. In so saying, we come again to the trinitarian interpretation of Church music. The Holy Spirit is love, and it is he who produces the singing. He is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit who draws us into love for Christ and so leads to the Father."
-Pope Benedict XVI, "The Spirit of the Liturgy", (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000), p. 142.
" 'Rock' . . . is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe."
-Pope Benedict XVI, "The Spirit of the Liturgy", (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000)
-Saint Cyprian of Carthage [A.D. 190-258], Letter to Donatus (Letter 1, n. 16) PL, IV, 227.
"Music, that is the science or the sense of proper modulation, is likewise given by God's generosity to mortals having rational souls in order to lead them to higher things."
-Saint Augustine, Epis. 161. De origine animae hominis, 1, 2; PL XXXIII, 725.
"I feel that our souls are moved to the ardor of piety by the sacred words more piously and powerfully when these words are sung than when they are not sung, and that all the affections of our soul in their variety have modes of their own in song and chant by which they are stirred up by an indescribable and secret sympathy."
-Saint Augustine, Confessions, Book X, chap. 33, MPL, XXXII, 799ff.
"They [Bishops] shall also banish from churches all those kinds of music, in which, whether by the organ, or in the singing, there is mixed up any thing lascivious or impure; as also all secular actions; vain and therefore profane conversations, all walking about, noise, and clamour, that so the house of God may be seen to be, and may be called, truly a house of prayer."
-Pope Pius IV, The Council of Trent, Sesion XXII, Sptember 17th, 1562
"Gregorian Chant, which is, consequently the Chant proper to the Roman Church, the only chant she has inherited from the ancient fathers, which she has jealously guarded for centuries in her liturgical codices, which she directly proposes to the faithful as her own, which she prescribes exclusively for some parts of the liturgy, and which the most recent studies have so happily restored to their integrity and purity. On these grounds Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the suprememodel for sacred music, so that it is fully legitimate to lay down thefollowing rule: the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor the Gregorian form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple. The ancient traditional Gregorian Chant must, therefore, in a large measure be restored to the functions of public worship, and the fact must be accepted by all that an ecclesiastical function loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by this music alone. Special efforts are to be made to restore the use of the Gregorian Chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more active part in the ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times."
-Pope Saint Pius X, Tra le Sollecitudini, November 22, 1903
"Although the music proper to the Church is purely vocal music, music with the accompaniment of the organ is also permitted. In some special cases, within due limits and with proper safeguards, other instruments may be allowed, but never without the special permission of the Ordinary, according to prescriptions of the Caeremoniale Episcoporum. As the singing should always have the principal place, the organ or other instruments should merely sustain and never oppress it. It is not permitted to have the chant preceded by long preludes or to interrupt it with intermezzo pieces. The sound of the organ as an accompaniment to the chant in preludes, interludes, and the like must be not only governed by the special nature of the instrument, but must participate in all the qualities proper to sacred music as above enumerated. The employment of the piano is forbidden in church, as is also that of noisy or frivolous instruments such as drums, cymbals, bells and the like. It is strictly forbidden to have bands play in church, and only in special cases with the consent of the Ordinary will it be permissible to admit wind instruments, limited in number, judiciously used, and proportioned to the size of the placeprovided the composition and accompaniment be written in grave and suitable style, and conform in all respects to that proper to the organ. In processions outside the church the Ordinary may give permission for a band, provided no profane pieces be executed. It would be desirable in such cases that the band confine itself to accompanying some spiritual canticle sung in Latin or in the vernacular by the singers and the pious associations which take part in the procession.
-Pope Saint Pius X, Tra le Sollecitudini, November 22, 1903
"To this lofty dignity of the Church's prayer, there should correspond earnest devotion in our souls. For when in prayer the voice repeats those hymns written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and extols God's infinite perfections, it is necessary that the interior sentiment of our souls should accompany the voice so as to make those sentiments our own in which we are elevated to heaven, adoring and giving due praise and thanks to the Blessed Trinity; "so let us chant in choir that mind and voice may accord together."[140] It is not merely a question of recitation or of singing which, however perfect according to norms of music and the sacred rites, only reaches the ear, but it is especially a question of the ascent of the mind and heart to God so that, united with Christ, we may completely dedicate ourselves and all our actions to Him."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei #145, November 20, 1947
"As regards music, let the clear and guiding norms of the Apostolic See be scrupulously observed. Gregorian chant, which the Roman Church considers her own as handed down from antiquity and kept under her close tutelage, is proposed to the faithful as belonging to them also. In certain parts of the liturgy the Church definitely prescribes it;[171] it makes the celebration of the sacred mysteries not only more dignified and solemn but helps very much to increase the faith and devotion of the congregation. For this reason, Our predecessors of immortal memory, Pius X and Pius XI, decree -- and We are happy to confirm with Our authority the norms laid down by them -- that in seminaries and religious institutes, Gregorian chant be diligently and zealously promoted, and moreover that the old Scholae Cantorum be restored, at least in the principal churches. This has already been done with happy results in not a few places."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei #191, November 20, 1947
"St. Paul showed us clearly that sacred chant was used and held in honor from the very beginning in the Church founded by the Divine Redeemer when he wrote to the Ephesians: "Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."[Eph. 5. 18ff; cf. Col. 3. 16.] He indicates that this custom of singing hymns was in force in the assemblies of Christians when he says: "When you come together each of you has a hymn."[I Cor. 14. 26.]
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #8, December 25, 1955
"The choral chant began to be called "Gregorian" after St. Gregory, the man who revived it. It attained new beauty in almost all parts of Christian Europe after the 8th or 9th century because of its accompaniment by a new musical instrument called the "organ." Little by little, beginning in the 9th century, polyphonic singing was added to this choral chant. The study and use of polyphonic singing were developed more and more during the centuries that followed and were raised to a marvelous perfection under the guidance of magnificent composers during the 15th and 16th centuries."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #14, December 25, 1955
"Thus, with the favor and under the auspices of the Church the study of sacred music has gone a long way over the course of the centuries. In this journey, although sometimes slowly and laboriously, it has gradually progressed from the simple and ingenuous Gregorian modes to great and magnificent works of art. To these works not only the human voice, but also the organ and other musical instruments, add dignity, majesty and a prodigious richness."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #16, December 25, 1955
"It must be holy. It must not allow within itself anything that savors of the profane nor allow any such thing to slip into the melodies in which it is expressed. The Gregorian chant which has been used in the Church over the course of so many centuries, and which may be called, as it were, its patrimony, is gloriously outstanding for this holiness."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #42, December 25, 1955
"We are not unaware that, for serious reasons, some quite definite exceptions have been conceded by the Apostolic See. We do not want these exceptions extended or propagated more widely, nor do We wish to have them transferred to other places without due permission of the Holy See. Furthermore, even where it is licit to use these exemptions, local Ordinaries and the other pastors should take great care that the faithful from their earliest years should learn at least the easier and more frequently used Gregorian melodies, and should know how to employ them in the sacred liturgical rites, so that in this way also the unity and the universality of the Church may shine forth more powerfully every day."
-Venerable Pope Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae #46, December 25, 1955
"The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services."
-The Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium #116, December 4th, 1963
"The singing of the Church comes ultimately out of love. It is the utter depth of love that produces the singing. “Cantare amantis est”, says St. Augustine, singing is a lover’s thing. In so saying, we come again to the trinitarian interpretation of Church music. The Holy Spirit is love, and it is he who produces the singing. He is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit who draws us into love for Christ and so leads to the Father."
-Pope Benedict XVI, "The Spirit of the Liturgy", (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000), p. 142.
" 'Rock' . . . is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe."
-Pope Benedict XVI, "The Spirit of the Liturgy", (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000)
Thursday, January 3, 2008
On the Supremacy and Primacy of Peter...
"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
-Matthew 16:18
Solemn Declarations by the Church
"We teach and declare that, according to the gospel evidence, a primacy of jurisdiction over the whole church of God was immediately and directly promised to the blessed apostle Peter and conferred on him by Christ the lord."
-Infallible declaration of the First Vatican Council (1869-1870 AD)
“Wherefore we teach and declare that, by divine ordinance, the Roman church possesses a pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other church, and that this jurisdictional power of the Roman pontiff is both episcopal and immediate. Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the church throughout the world.”
-Infallible declaration of the First Vatican Council (1869-1870 AD)
Further Support
"Where the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be; even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church''
-Saint Ignatius of Antioch, 1st c. A.D
"[T]he blessed Peter, the chosen, the preeminent, the first among the disciples, for whom alone with himself the Savior paid the tribute [Matt. 17:27], quickly grasped and understood their meaning. And what does he say? ‘Behold, we have left all and have followed you’ [Matt. 19:27; Mark 10:28]"
-Clement of Alexandria, "Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved?" 21:3–5 [A.D. 200].
"[T]he Lord said to Peter, ‘On this rock I will build my Church, I have given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [and] whatever you shall have bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. . . . Upon you, he says, I will build my Church; and I will give to you the keys, not to the Church"
-Tertullian, "Modesty" 21:9–10 [A.D. 220].
"Be it known to you, my lord, that Simon [Peter], who, for the sake of the true faith, and the most sure foundation of his doctrine, was set apart to be the foundation of the Church, and for this end was by Jesus himself, with his truthful mouth, named Peter, the first fruits of our Lord, the first of the apostles; to whom first the Father revealed the Son; whom the Christ, with good reason, blessed; the called, and elect"
-The Letter of Clement to James, [A.D. 221].
"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.’ . . . On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all [the apostles] are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?"
-Saint Cyprian of Carthage, "The Unity of the Catholic Church" 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251].
"[Jesus said:] Simon, my follower, I have made you the foundation of the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because you will support all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on Earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is false, you, the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain from which my teaching flows; you are the chief of my disciples. Through you I will give drink to all peoples. Yours is that life-giving sweetness which I dispense. I have chosen you to be, as it were, the firstborn in my institution so that, as the heir, you may be executor of my treasures. I have given you the keys of my kingdom. Behold, I have given you authority over all my treasures"
-Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Homilies 4:1 [A.D. 351]).
"The bishop of Constantinople shall have the primacy of honor AFTER the bishop of Rome, because his city is New Rome"
-Council of Constantinople I, Canon 3 [A.D. 381].
"Likewise it is decreed . . . that it ought to be announced that . . . the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. The first see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it"
-Pope Saint Damasus I, Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382].
(Commissioned Saint Jerome for the translation into Latin of THE most authentic Bible ever (the Latin Vulgate), directly from the most ancient manuscripts at the time, which are no longer in existence now. Thus the most authentic English bible we have today is the Douay-Rheims Bible since it was translated from the Vulgate)
"I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built. Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark of Noah will perish when the flood prevails"
-Saint Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church, Letters 15:2 [A.D. 396].
"There are many other things which rightly keep me in the bosom of the Catholic Church. The consent of the people and nations keeps me, her authority keeps me, inaugurated by miracles, nourished in hope, enlarged by love, and established by age. The succession of priests keep me, from the very seat of the apostle Peter (to whom the Lord after his resurrection gave charge to feed his sheep) down to the present episcopate [of Pope Siricius]"
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church, Against the Letter of Mani Called "The Foundation" 5 [A.D. 397].
"In seeking the things of God . . . you have acknowledged that judgment is to be referred to us [the pope], and have shown that you know that is owed to the Apostolic See [Rome], if all of us placed in this position are to desire to follow the apostle himself [Peter] from whom the episcopate itself and the total authority of this name have emerged"
-Pope Saint Innocent I, (Letters 29:1 [A.D. 408]).
"We enjoin upon you [my legates to the Council of Ephesus] the necessary task of guarding the authority of the Apostolic See. And if the instructions handed to you have to mention this and if you have to be present in the assembly, if it comes to controversy, it is not yours to join the fight but to judge of the opinions [on my behalf]"
-Pope Saint Celestine I, Letters 17 [A.D. 431]. (Sent Saint Patrick to Ireland)
"Philip, presbyter and legate of [Pope Celestine I] said: ‘We offer our thanks to the holy and venerable synod, that when the writings of our holy and blessed pope had been read to you, the holy members, by our holy voices, you joined yourselves to the holy head also by your holy acclamations. For your blessedness is not ignorant that the head of the whole faith, the head of the apostles, is blessed Peter the apostle. And since now [we], after having been tempest-tossed and much vexed, [have] arrived, we ask that you order that there be laid before us what things were done in this holy synod before our arrival; in order that according to the opinion of our blessed pope and of this present holy assembly, we likewise may ratify their determination’" -The Council of Ephesus, Acts of the Council, Session 2 [A.D. 431].
"Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has placed the principal charge on the blessed Peter, chief of all the apostles, and from him as from the head wishes his gifts to flow to all the body, so that anyone who dares to secede from Peter’s solid rock may understand that he has no part or lot in the divine mystery. He wished him who had been received into partnership in his undivided unity to be named what he himself was, when he said: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18], that the building of the eternal temple might rest on Peter’s solid rock, strengthening his Church so surely that neither could human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell prevail against it"
-Pope Saint Leo the Great, Letters 10:1 [A.D. 445].
"We exhort you in every respect, honorable brother, to heed obediently what has been written by the most blessed pope of the city of Rome, for blessed Peter, who lives and presides in his own see, provides the truth of faith to those who seek it. For we, by reason of our pursuit of peace and faith, cannot try cases on the faith without the consent of the bishop of Rome"
-Saint Peter Chrysologus, Father and Doctor of the Church(Letters 25:2 [A.D. 449]).
-Matthew 16:18
Solemn Declarations by the Church
"We teach and declare that, according to the gospel evidence, a primacy of jurisdiction over the whole church of God was immediately and directly promised to the blessed apostle Peter and conferred on him by Christ the lord."
-Infallible declaration of the First Vatican Council (1869-1870 AD)
“Wherefore we teach and declare that, by divine ordinance, the Roman church possesses a pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other church, and that this jurisdictional power of the Roman pontiff is both episcopal and immediate. Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the church throughout the world.”
-Infallible declaration of the First Vatican Council (1869-1870 AD)
Further Support
"Where the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be; even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church''
-Saint Ignatius of Antioch, 1st c. A.D
"[T]he blessed Peter, the chosen, the preeminent, the first among the disciples, for whom alone with himself the Savior paid the tribute [Matt. 17:27], quickly grasped and understood their meaning. And what does he say? ‘Behold, we have left all and have followed you’ [Matt. 19:27; Mark 10:28]"
-Clement of Alexandria, "Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved?" 21:3–5 [A.D. 200].
"[T]he Lord said to Peter, ‘On this rock I will build my Church, I have given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [and] whatever you shall have bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. . . . Upon you, he says, I will build my Church; and I will give to you the keys, not to the Church"
-Tertullian, "Modesty" 21:9–10 [A.D. 220].
"Be it known to you, my lord, that Simon [Peter], who, for the sake of the true faith, and the most sure foundation of his doctrine, was set apart to be the foundation of the Church, and for this end was by Jesus himself, with his truthful mouth, named Peter, the first fruits of our Lord, the first of the apostles; to whom first the Father revealed the Son; whom the Christ, with good reason, blessed; the called, and elect"
-The Letter of Clement to James, [A.D. 221].
"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.’ . . . On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all [the apostles] are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?"
-Saint Cyprian of Carthage, "The Unity of the Catholic Church" 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251].
"[Jesus said:] Simon, my follower, I have made you the foundation of the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because you will support all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on Earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is false, you, the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain from which my teaching flows; you are the chief of my disciples. Through you I will give drink to all peoples. Yours is that life-giving sweetness which I dispense. I have chosen you to be, as it were, the firstborn in my institution so that, as the heir, you may be executor of my treasures. I have given you the keys of my kingdom. Behold, I have given you authority over all my treasures"
-Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Homilies 4:1 [A.D. 351]).
"The bishop of Constantinople shall have the primacy of honor AFTER the bishop of Rome, because his city is New Rome"
-Council of Constantinople I, Canon 3 [A.D. 381].
"Likewise it is decreed . . . that it ought to be announced that . . . the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. The first see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it"
-Pope Saint Damasus I, Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382].
(Commissioned Saint Jerome for the translation into Latin of THE most authentic Bible ever (the Latin Vulgate), directly from the most ancient manuscripts at the time, which are no longer in existence now. Thus the most authentic English bible we have today is the Douay-Rheims Bible since it was translated from the Vulgate)
"I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built. Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark of Noah will perish when the flood prevails"
-Saint Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church, Letters 15:2 [A.D. 396].
"There are many other things which rightly keep me in the bosom of the Catholic Church. The consent of the people and nations keeps me, her authority keeps me, inaugurated by miracles, nourished in hope, enlarged by love, and established by age. The succession of priests keep me, from the very seat of the apostle Peter (to whom the Lord after his resurrection gave charge to feed his sheep) down to the present episcopate [of Pope Siricius]"
-Saint Augustine, Father and Doctor of the Church, Against the Letter of Mani Called "The Foundation" 5 [A.D. 397].
"In seeking the things of God . . . you have acknowledged that judgment is to be referred to us [the pope], and have shown that you know that is owed to the Apostolic See [Rome], if all of us placed in this position are to desire to follow the apostle himself [Peter] from whom the episcopate itself and the total authority of this name have emerged"
-Pope Saint Innocent I, (Letters 29:1 [A.D. 408]).
"We enjoin upon you [my legates to the Council of Ephesus] the necessary task of guarding the authority of the Apostolic See. And if the instructions handed to you have to mention this and if you have to be present in the assembly, if it comes to controversy, it is not yours to join the fight but to judge of the opinions [on my behalf]"
-Pope Saint Celestine I, Letters 17 [A.D. 431]. (Sent Saint Patrick to Ireland)
"Philip, presbyter and legate of [Pope Celestine I] said: ‘We offer our thanks to the holy and venerable synod, that when the writings of our holy and blessed pope had been read to you, the holy members, by our holy voices, you joined yourselves to the holy head also by your holy acclamations. For your blessedness is not ignorant that the head of the whole faith, the head of the apostles, is blessed Peter the apostle. And since now [we], after having been tempest-tossed and much vexed, [have] arrived, we ask that you order that there be laid before us what things were done in this holy synod before our arrival; in order that according to the opinion of our blessed pope and of this present holy assembly, we likewise may ratify their determination’" -The Council of Ephesus, Acts of the Council, Session 2 [A.D. 431].
"Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has placed the principal charge on the blessed Peter, chief of all the apostles, and from him as from the head wishes his gifts to flow to all the body, so that anyone who dares to secede from Peter’s solid rock may understand that he has no part or lot in the divine mystery. He wished him who had been received into partnership in his undivided unity to be named what he himself was, when he said: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18], that the building of the eternal temple might rest on Peter’s solid rock, strengthening his Church so surely that neither could human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell prevail against it"
-Pope Saint Leo the Great, Letters 10:1 [A.D. 445].
"We exhort you in every respect, honorable brother, to heed obediently what has been written by the most blessed pope of the city of Rome, for blessed Peter, who lives and presides in his own see, provides the truth of faith to those who seek it. For we, by reason of our pursuit of peace and faith, cannot try cases on the faith without the consent of the bishop of Rome"
-Saint Peter Chrysologus, Father and Doctor of the Church(Letters 25:2 [A.D. 449]).
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