Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake. If you keep good companions, I can assure you that you will one day rejoice with the blessed in Heaven; whereas if you keep with those who are bad, you will become bad yourself, and you will be in danger of losing your soul.
-St. John Bosco
Good example is the most efficacious apostolate. You must be as lighted lanterns and shine like brilliant chandeliers among men. By your good example and your words, animate others to know and love God.
-St. Mary Joseph Rossello
Think well. Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God, will make a man go to Heaven.
-St. Camillus de Lellis
It is better to be the child of God than king of the whole world.
-St. Aloysius Gonzaga
To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.
-Mother Teresa
The great method of prayer is to have none. If in going to prayer one can form in oneself a pure capacity for receiving the spirit of God, that will suffice for all method.
-St. Jane Frances de Chantal
You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.
-St. Athanasius
In all created things discern the providence and wisdom of God, and in all things give Him thanks.
-St. Teresa of Avila
His Majesty (the Lord) rewards great services with trials, and there can be no better reward, for out of trials springs love for God.
-St. Teresa of Avila
That is how His Majesty [the Lord] rewards our good works—–I mean, by predisposing us to perform better ones.
-St. Teresa of Avila
May I not come before You with empty hands, since we are rewarded according to our deeds.
-St. Teresa of Avila
Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head.
-St. Charles Borromeo
When I see the need for Divine teaching and how hungry people are to hear it, I am atremble to be off and running throughout the world, preaching the word of God. I have no rest, my soul finds no other relief, than to rush about and preach.
-St. Anthony Mary Claret
Not 100 in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is.
-Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Those who commit these types of scandals are guility of the spiritual equivalent of murder, but I’, here among you to prevent something far worst for you. While those who give scandal are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder, those who take scandal- who allow scandals to destroy faith- are guilty of spiritual suicide.
-St. Francis de Sales
The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.
-Pope St. Gregory the Great
Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.
-St. Ignatius Loyola
We cultivate a very small field for Christ, but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds back nothing for self.
-St. Rose Philippine Duchesne
Hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day. All your duties will be performed the better for it, and your soul will be stronger to bear its daily cross. The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you can do nothing that can give greater glory to God or be more profitable for your soul than to hear Mass both frequently and devoutly. It is the favorite devotion of the saints.
-St. Peter Julian Eymard
We should all realize that no matter where or how a man dies, if he is in the state of mortal sin and does not repent, when he could have done so and did not, the Devil tears his soul from his body with such anguish and distress that only a person who has experienced it can appreciate it.
-St. Francis of Assisi
Whoever does not seek the cross of Christ doesn’t seek the glory of Christ.
-St. John of the Cross
It is good to read the testimonies of Scripture; it is good to seek the Lord our God in them. As for me, however, I have already made so much of Scripture my own that I have more than enough to meditate on and turn over in my mind. I need no more . .. I know Christ, the poor crucified One.
-St. Francis of Assisi
Saint Paul tells us, “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life” [2 Cor 3:6]. A man has been killed by the letter of the Sacred Scripture when he wants to quote it only so that people will think him to be very learned, . . . when he has no desire to follow the spirit of Sacred Scripture, but wants to know what it says only so he can explain it to others.
-St. Francis of Assisi
It is almost certain that excess in eating is the cause of almost all the diseases of the body, but its effects on the soul are even more disastrous.
-St. Alphonsus Liguori
Never rise from the table without having given due thanks to the Lord. If we act in this way, we need have no fear of the wretched sin of gluttony.
-St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
One must see God in everyone.
-St. Catherine Laboure
How often I failed in my duty to God, because I was not leaning on the strong pillar of prayer.
-St. Teresa of Avila
Don’t imagine that, if you had a great deal of time, you would spend more of it in prayer. Get rid of that idea; it is no hindrance to prayer to spend your time well.
-St. Teresa of Avila
Jacob did not cease to be a Saint because he had to attend to his flocks.
-St. Teresa of Avila
The most potent and acceptable prayer is the prayer that leaves the best effects. I don’t mean it must immediately fill the soul with desire . . . The best effects (are) those that are followed up by actions; when the soul not only desires the honor of God, but really strives for it.
-St. Teresa of Avila
Anyone who has the habit of speaking before God’s majesty as if he were speaking to a slave, careless about how he is speaking, and saying whatever comes into his head and whatever he’s learned from saying prayers at other times, in my opinion is not praying. Please, God, may no Christian pray in this way.
-St. Teresa of Avila
True virtue has no limits, but goes on and on, and especially holy charity, which is the virtue of virtues, and which having a definite object, would become infinite if it could meet with a heart capable of infinity.
-St. Francis de Sales
You can do nothing with children unless you win their confidence and love by bringing them into touch with yourself, by breaking through all the hindrances that keep them at a distance. We must accommodate ourselves to their tastes, we must make ourselves like them.
-St. John Bosco
When we speak about wisdom, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about virtue, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about justice, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about peace, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about truth and life and redemption, we are speaking of Christ.
-St. Ambrose of Milan