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SFX for Life | A Web Ministry of the Gospel of Life Committee, The Catholic Community of St. Francis Xavier, Hunt Valley, Maryland |
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SFX for Life | A Web Ministry of the Gospel of Life Committee, The Catholic Community of St. Francis Xavier, Hunt Valley, Maryland |
Bits and Pieces - Quotes, Facts, and Inspiration | |
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Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.
The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.
Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
At the altar each day we behold them,
and the hands of a king on his throne
are not equal to them in their greatness;
their dignity stands all alone.
And when we are tempted and wander to
pathways of shame and of sin,
It's the hand of a priest that will absolve us-
not once, but again and again.
Other hands may prepare a feast, but
the hand that will bless and unite us
is the beautiful hand of a priest.
God bless them and keep them all holy for
the Host which their fingers caress;
When can a poor sinner do better than to
ask Him to guide thee and bless?
When the hour of death comes upon us,
may our courage and strength be increased,
By seeing raised over us in blessing the
beautiful hands of a priest!
-Author unknown
From an old prayer card
We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman
“Catholic” is a word that has real meaning. We don't control or invent that meaning as individuals. We inherit it from the Gospel and the experience of the Church over the centuries. We can choose to be something else, but if we choose to call ourselves Catholic, then that word has consequences for what we believe and how we act. We can't truthfully claim to be Catholic and then act like we're not.
~Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
The problem in our life is not the availability of truth, it is the hypocrisy of our search.
(from a talk by Ravi Zacharias)
If you're Catholic and you disagree with your Church, what do you do? You change your mind.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
Christian Love is Not Tolerance. Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it. It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broadminded about sin. The cry for tolerance never induces it to quench its hatred of the evil philosophies that have entered into contest with the Truth. It forgives the sinner, and it hates the sin; it is unmerciful to the error in his mind. The sinner it will always take back into the bosom of the Mystical Body; but his lie will never be taken into the treasury of His Wisdom. Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the buyers and sellers from the temples has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth. Charity, then, is not a mild philosophy of "live and let live"; it is not a species of sloppy sentiment. Charity is the infusion of the Spirit of God, which makes us love the beautiful and hate the morally ugly.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
We do not need a voice that is right when everyone else is right. We need a voice that is right when everyone else is wrong.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Modern man in his technology has something that unites him with magic, while separating him from the wisdom of the ages.
- C.S. Lewis
…and the truth is passed on by the small fervent band of the few. Not by the many but by dauntless, resolute, dedicated few.
- John Henry Cardinal Newman
Only where God is seen does life truly begin.
Pope Benedict XVI
Our weapons are not guns or hatred or religious prejudice -- but courage, honesty, charity, clarity and truth rooted in the person of Jesus Christ. which inevitably means rooted in the Cross He carried for us.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
We know that we’ve been given the truth of the Gospel through no merit of our own. We need to proclaim it humbly and confidently even when other people object -- and even if they’re offended. The laity are Christ’s primary missionaries to the world, and we [priests] have to form them much more deeply for the post-modern world in which they live.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
The lay vocation is not about being a lector, altar server, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion or a member of the parish council, a lay ecclesial minister – although all of these things are important and should be enthusiastically welcomed. The vocation of the Catholic laity -- the Church at its best -- is to penetrate all the various levels of society and convert the culture for Jesus Christ.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
The media have no idea what a real Catholic is. If they did, they would scream for his martyrdom, they would scream for his skin.
H.E. Bishop Williamson, 2005
A priest-friend of mine, who had formerly been a Protestant minister, said that the difference between a dissenting Catholic and a Protestant is that the Protestant has integrity.
Bishop Fabian Bruskevitz
The basic difference between a Catholic and a Protestant is with Protestants they lose their faith and then their morals – with Catholics it’s the other way around.
Msgr. Ronald Knox
Immorality is un-American and a threat to national security.
Fr. Corapi
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
C. S. Lewis
That's one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It's a religion you couldn't have guessed."
C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity
All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery [is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
C. S. Lewis
I am a converted pagan living among apostate puritans.
C.S. Lewis
We don’t realize what we’re doing because we don’t realize what we’re undoing.
G. K. Chesterton
The Catholic Church is the only thing that saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.
G.K. Chesterton
It is an old story that, while we may need somebody like Dominic to convert the heathen to Christianity, we are in even greater need of somebody like Francis, to convert the Christians to Christianity.
G.K. Chesterton
For the convert’s sake, it should also be remembered that one foolish word from inside does more harm than a hundred thousand foolish words from outside…There is many a convert who has reached a stage at which no word from any Protestant or pagan could any longer hold him back. Only the word of a Catholic can keep him from Catholicism.
G.K. Chesterton
The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
G.K. Chesterton
For the modern world will accept no dogmas upon any authority; but it will accept any dogmas on no authority. Say that a thing is so, according to the Pope or the Bible, and it will be dismissed as a superstition without examination. But preface your remark merely with ‘they say’ or ‘don’t you know that?’ or try (and fail) to remember the name of some professor mentioned in some newspaper; and the keen rationalism of the modern mind will accept every word you say.
G.K. Chesterton
We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.
G.K. Chesterton
Heresy is truth gone mad.
G.K. Chesterton
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
G.K. Chesterton, in What's Wrong With the World
A man was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to Push against the rock with all his might...
So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sunup to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might! Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, Feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: (He will do it every time)!
'You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't moved.' Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. Satan said, 'Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough.'
That's what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of Prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to The Lord. 'Lord,' he said, 'I have labored long and hard in Your Service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?'
The Lord responded compassionately, 'My child, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done . Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed.
But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back shiny and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be Obedient and to push and to exercise your Faith and trust in My Wisdom. That you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock.'
At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He Wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.
By all means, exercise the Faith that moves mountains, but know that It is still God Who moves The Mountains.
When everything seems to go wrong - Just P.U.S.H.
When the job gets you down - Just P.U.S.H.
When people don't do as you think they should - Just P.U.S.H.
When your money is 'gone' and the bills are due - Just P.U.S.H.
When people just don't understand you - Just P.U.S.H.
P = Pray
U = Until
S = Something
H = Happens
-From an Email
We’ve committed ourselves to a God who doesn’t really care how bad we think things are.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap