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"The mighty Oak was once a little nut that firmly stood it's ground"
Sign of Contradiction:
When someone ordinary like myself reads the personal writings of the saints I often scratch my head and sigh. Like Father Paul always says, "English is my first language, but I have no idea what that means." I too am perplexed and often unable to decifer what the saints are teaching. In these situations, which are not uncommon for me, I then ask God my Father, in the name of Jesus, to send me the Holy Spirit. I beg the Holy Spirit to give me the wisdom and humility to understand. The saints will often appear strange and that is a good thing. They only lived here in this realm temporarily as their real home is not of this world but of Heaven. May their writings and wisdom also cause you to be on fire and go crazy for the love of God and no longer wish to converse with man but with angels.
The mighty oak was once a little nut that firmly stood its ground. A lot, probably most, of all the saints were thought to be nuts. However, these nuts grew into mighty oaks that have produced a huge harvest of acorns. These acorns have been ground into a fine flour in volumes of books on the saints. This web page is aimed at helping you to ingest this fine and holy flour so you too can become a mighty oak. Eat up!!
L.E.
2 Cor 6:1-10
Brothers and sisters: As your fellow workers, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says:
In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry; on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left; through glory and dishonor, insult and praise. We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful; as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
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"See how those Christians love one another", was not a joyous exclamation but rather an envious admission. Would that the pagans of today had to make such an admission."
"The difference between a saint and a stubborn mule is that a saint is a single minded and a stubborn mule is a simple minded."
"We should try to be apostolic. But if you stand alone, so be it. Let the rest of the world go by. St. Thomas More went to the block convinced that he was the only man in England that kept the faith."
"Respect the Word. How good God is that He would reveal Himself and even let sinful man proclaim the Word. Only Divinity could survive such treatment."
Fr. Denis E. O'Brien M.M.
Quotes taken from Celebrate Life, a publication of The American Life League.
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"You are called to stand up for life! To respect and defend the mystery of life always and everywhere, including the lives of unborn babies, giving real help and encouragement to mothers in difficult situations. You are called to work and pray against abortion."
Pope John Paul II the Great
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"It is an act of charity to cry out against the wolf when he is among the sheep."
St. Francis de Sales
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"The most evident mark of God's anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clergy who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. Instead of nourishing those committed to their care, they rend and devour them brutally. Instead of leading their people to God, they drag Christian souls into hell in their train. Instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they are its innocuous poison and its murky darkness....
"When God permits such things, it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people, and is visiting His most dreadful anger upon them. That is why He cries unceasingly to Christians, 'Return, O ye revolting children...and I will give you pastors according to my own heart' (Jer. 3, 14-15) Thus, irregularities in the lives of priests constitute a scourge upon the people in consequence of sin.
"On the other hand, the greatest effect of God's mercy, the most precious grace He bestows upon mankind, is to send worthy priests, men after His own heart, seeking only His glory and the salvation of souls. The greatest blessing that God bestows upon a church, the most single manifestation of divine grace, is to have a saintly shepherd, be he bishop or priest. This is indeed a grace of graces and the most priceless of all gifts for it includes within itself every other blessing and grace. What is a priest after God's heart? He is an inestimable treasure containing an immensity of good things.....
"The [holy] priest is a sun cheering the world by his presence and bearing. He brings heavenly blessings into every heart. He dispels the ignorance and darkness of error and radiates on every side bright beams of celestial light. He extinguishes sin and gives life and grace to the multitudes. He imparts new life to the weak, inflames the lukewarm, fires most ardently those who are aglow with the sacred flame of divine love...."
St. John Eudes
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ON THE WORD OF GOD
No matter how insensible the sinner may be, the Word of God will touch him: "However cold or frozen or hard his heart may be, he need not be without hope."
"If he is a man steeped in sin, no matter; for: "No heart is so hard that it cannot be softened by the Mercy of God."
Many love the clear truth, but hate those who censure them."
"The Word of God is the food of the soul."
"Christ teaches; let us listen to Him with a holy fear and do what He tells us."
St. Augustine
"The words of a preacher bear no fruit unless the holy Ghost touches the heart of the hearer."
St. Gregory
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ON THE PRESENCE OF GOD
"The mind that is occupied with the thought of God has little room for other thoughts, especially evil ones."
"The more firmly we are convinced that God sees us, the more we shall check our audacity and keep from sin."
"Remember God and you will not sin!"
"The presence of God is a twofold check to sin, because God sees us and we see Him."
St. Ignatius
"No one ever wavers if he considers that God is always present with him."
St. Clement
'He is never absent and yet, He is far from the thoughts of the wicked; nevertheless He is never absent from the place from which He is far off, because He is not present by His grace, He is present by His vengence."
St. Gregory
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WHAT DIVINE PROVIDENCE DOES FOR MANKIND
AND HOW WE SHOULD RESPOND TO IT
"Every sinner lives in order either that he may amend his life, or that the just man may be exercised (and gain more merit) through him."
"Have a firm trust in God and place yourself entirely in his Hands as far as youcan do so. He does not permit anything to happen to you but what is for your good, even though they may not know it to be so."
St. Augustine
"Moreover, in God's dealings with us there are many things that we cannot see clearly; whether it is that He wishes to check our pride or to raise our minds to heavenly and eternal things."
St. Ambrose
"Do not say that: There is no Providence; lest God be angry at they words and destroy all the works of thy hands."
Eccles. v, 5
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THE MERCY OF GOD AND WHAT IT DOES FOR SINNERS
"The mercy of God is so great that it cannot be explained in nay words, understood by any created intelligence, or conceived by any mind. It is above human reason."
St. John Chrysostom
"God knows how to alter his sentence if you know how to change your life."
St. Jerome
"They abuse the patience of God, and while their conscience tells themthey are not free from sin, they come to feel safe through long impunity, though God postpones His vengence only to give them time for repentance"
St. Leo
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THE HOLY EUCHARIST
"O Jesus! on this day, you have fulfilled all my desires. From now on, near the Eucharist, I shall be able To sacrifice myself in silence, to wait for Heaven in peace. Keeping myself open to the rays of the Divine Host, In this furnace of love, I shall be consumed, And like a seraphim, Lord, I shall love You."
"Heaven for me is hidden in a little Host Where Jesus, my Spouse, is veiled for love. I go to that Divine Furnace to draw out life, And there my Sweet Saviour listens to me night and day."
St. Therese of Lisieux
"United with the angels and saints of the heavenly Church, let us adore the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Prostrate, we adore this great mystery that contains God’s new and definitive covenant with humankind in Christ."
"From the Eucharist comes strength to live the Christian life and zeal to share that life with others."
Pope John Paul II
"O King of glory, though you hide your beauty, yet the eye of my soul rends the veil. I see the angelic choirs giving you honor without cease."
St. Mary Faustina Kowalska
"The Eucharist bathes the tormented soul in light and love. Then the soul appreciates these words, 'Come all you who are sick, I will restore your health.'"
St. Bernadette Soubirous
"Nothing is nearer to Our heart than that devotion to the Holy Eucharist grow from day to day throughout the world,"
"You must propagate veneration of the Most Blessed Sacrament with all your might, for the devotion to the Holy Eucharist is the queen of all devotions."
Pope Benedict XV
"Our Lord came to the aid of each great tribulation with a special devotion. The present and future tribulations of the Church and of nations are greater than at any other period, and this persecution is more dangerous than those of previous times. Hence, the devotion which God sends to the succor of His Church and of the nations at the present time is the devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist. It is the highest of all devotions."
Pope Leo XIII
"What happiness do we not feel in the presence of God, when we find ourselves alone at his feet, before the holy tabernacle! … 'Come, my soul, redouble your ardor! You are here alone to adore your God! His look rests on you alone!' Ah! if we only had the angels' eyes! Seeing our Lord Jesus Christ here, on that altar, and looking at us, how we should love him! We should want to stay always at his feet; it would be a foretaste of heaven; everything else would become insipid to us."
St. John Vianney
"The Eucharist had so powerful an attraction for the Blessed Virgin that she could not live away from it. She lived in it and by it. She passed her days and her nights at the feet of her divine Son…. Her love for her hidden God shone in her countenance and communicated its ardour to all about her."
"At Nazareth Joseph's days were filled with work which necessarily took him away at times from his Infant God. During these hours Mary replaced him, but when evening brought him home again, he would pass the entire night in adoration, never tiring, only too happy for the chance to contemplate the hidden riches of Jesus' divinity. For he pierced the rough garments the Child wore, until his faith touched the Sacred Heart. In profound adoration he united himself to the special grace of each one of the events in the life of Jesus. He adored our Lord in His hidden life and in His Passion and Death; he adored in advance the Eucharistic Christ in His tabernacles: there was nothing that our Lord could hide from Saint Joseph. Among the graces which Jesus gave to His foster-father (and He flooded him with the graces attached to every one of His mysteries) is that special to an adorer of the Blessed Sacrament. That is the one we must ask of St. Joseph. Have confidence, strong confidence in him. Take him as the patron and the model of your life of adoration."
"When later he [St. Joseph] carried the Child in his arms, acts of loving faith welled up constantly in his heart. It was a worship that pleased our Lord more than that which he receives in heaven. Picture to yourself Saint Joseph, adoring the little Child in his arms as his God. He tells of his readiness to die for Christ, of all his plans to promote Christ's glory, and to win more souls to his love. No lover builds more scintillating plans for his loved one than a saint."
St. Peter Julian Eymard
"Know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day. True, Our Lord hears our prayers anywhere, for He has made the promise, 'Ask, and you shall receive,' but He has revealed to His servants that those who visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament will obtain a more abundant measure of grace."
St. Alphonsus Liguori
"You come to me and unite Yourself intimately to me under the form of nourishment. Your Blood now runs in mine, Your Soul, Incarnate God, compenetrates mine, giving courage and support. What miracles! Who would have ever imagined such!"
St. Maximilian Kolbe
"A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament."
St. Padre Pio
"I am quite sure that if we could but once approach the Most Holy Sacrament with great faith and love, it would suffice to make us rich. How much more so if we approach it often!"
St. Teresa of Avila
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FROM: THE QUOTABLE FULTON SHEEN
"Modern civilization has little respect for the aged for the same reason it has little for tradition. There is a love for the antique but not for the ancient. Yet the aged are to culture what memory is to the mind." W.I., 117
"...today those who do not have faith do not even know what they disbelieve. Having abandoned all certitudes they have no standards by which to judge their own agnosticism." S.V., 54
"America's greatest enemy is not from without, but from within, and that enemy is hate; hatred of races, peoples, classes and religions. If America ever dies, it will be not through conquest but suicide." P.R., 217
"Bad temper is an indication os a man's character; every man can be judged by the things that make him mad." L.A., 115
"No pig ever had ulcers and not even the most erotic rooster had a mother complex." L. 5, 185
"The conflict of the future will be between a God-religion and a State religion, between Christ and anti-Christ in political disguise." C.P., 39
"If it be true that the world has lost its respect for authority, it is because it lost it first in the home." O.B., 174
"There is something about a baby that disarms, attracts and makes even the evil want to appear good." T.M., 226
"The whole world is dying of hunger; the Eastern world is dying of hunger of body; the Western world is dying of hunger of soul." W.I., 70
(A hypocrite) "He picks up a stone to throw at an adulteress and forgets that he helped to make her one." W.W., 21
"Knowledge without love leads to conceit, intolerance and selfishness." D.L., 37
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
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"The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain."
"You must speak to Jesus also with the heart, besides with the lips; indeed, in certain cases you must speak to Him only with the heart."
"Keep close to the Catholic Church at all times, for the Church alone can give you true peace, since she alone possesses Jesus, the true Prince of Peace, in the Blessed Sacrament."
"The gates of Heaven are open for all creatures.(who repent) Remember Mary Magdalene."
"Ahead! Courage! In the spiritual life he who does not advance goes backward. It happens as with a boat which always must go ahead. If it stand still the wind will blow it back."
"On this earth everyone has his cross. But we must act in such away that we be not the bad, but the good thief."
St. Padre Pio
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If the Christians continue to desert Jesus Christ in His temple, will not the Heavenly Father take away from them his well-beloved Son Whom they neglect? Has He not already taken Him away from nations and kings, who now sit in the shadow of death?
What a sad spectacle it is to see Our Lord abandon a people! He had a tabernacle in the Cenacle; today the Cenacle is a mosque. Since He had no true adorers left, what would you want Him to do there?
Egypt and Africa were formerly the classic land of saints, inhabited by legions of holy monks; but Jesus Christ has abandoned there two countries. And since the Eucharist is no longer there, desolation reigns. But, you may be sure that Jesus Christ was the last to leave the place; He left when He found Himself without adorers.
This cloud of desolation has passed over Europe, jesus has been driven out of His temples and profaned on His Altars. He has never re-entered these Temples
France has seen her faith in and love for the Eucharist diminish; and as a result, how many churches, in which Jesus Christ formerly had fervent adorers, are now devoted to heresy! Wwhen their love died out, Jesus fled. And...He has not returned.
St. Peter Julian Eymard
Quotes submitted by forum members:
Johnmc:
v One of my favorites from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta: “Together we can do something beautiful for God.”
Johnna:
v Although I realise everyone could say this, it certainly gives me hope that even someone as holy as Teresa of Avila could be able to honestly say this. The simple quote is...
"Blessed be Thou, Lord, Who for so long hast suffered me! Amen." –
v Some quotes from Saint Gianna, mother, wife, doctor, prolife wittness.
"One earns Paradise with one's daily task".
"In order to bring true peace back to my soul, the only way that there exists on the Earth is Confession, because Jesus awaits me with his immense heart."
"Look at the mothers who truly love their children: how many sacrifices they make for them. They are ready for everything, even to give their own blood so that their babies grow up good, healthy and strong."
"Our body is a cenacle, a monstrance: through its crystal the world should see God."
v In September 1961 Gianna underwent surgery to remove a large uterine tumor which was causing her pain and pressing on the baby in her womb. She stated: "Yes, I have prayed so much in these days. With faith and hope I have entrusted myself to the Lord... I trust in God, yes; but now it is up to me to fulfill my duty as a mother. I renew to the Lord the offer of my life. I am ready for everything, to save my baby."
In the last week of her pregnancy she repeats: "Whatever God wants."
On Good Friday, April 20, 1962, Gianna went to the Monza Maternity Hospital to deliver her fourth child. Only a few days prior to the delivery she told Pietro (her husband): "If you must decide between me and the baby, have no hesitation: choose -- and I demand it --the baby, save him." Her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, was born the following day. but Saint Gianna expired seven days later, on April 28, 1962.
Lori:
v Pope John Paul II on Parenting
Page 102, Rise, Let us be on our way!!
"SAINTS BEGET AND RAISE SAINTS!"
On May 18, 2003, I canonized Mother Urszula Ledochowska, a great educator. She was born in Austria, but at the end of the nineteenth century the whole family moved to Lipnica Murowana in the diocese of Tarnow....Her sister Maria Teresa, known as Mother of Africa, has been beatified, and her brother, Wlodzimierz, was the Superior General of the Jesuits. The example of these brothers and sisters illustrates how the desire for holiness can develop in a remarkable way if it finds favorable surroundings in a good family. So much depends on life in the home! Saints beget and raise saints!
v Saint Bernadine of Siena
From Sermon 49:
"The name of Jesus is the glory of preachers, because the shining splendor of that name causes his word to be proclaimed and heard. And how do you think such an immense, sudden and dazzling light of faith came into the world, if not because Jesus was preached? Was it not through the brilliance and sweet savor of this name that 'God called us into his marvelous light' (1 Peter 2:9)?"
v Saint Catherine of Siena to the Florentines regarding obedience and submission to Pope Gregory XI.
"Run, run to the arms of your Father. If you do so, you shall have peace, spiritually and socially, you and all Tuscany... I want you to be docile sons, not rebels, obedient subjects for the rest of your lives! My brothers, I tell you will pain and tears from my heart that you are dead! Do not think that God shall overlook the insults offered to his Bride..."
Saint Catherine of Siena to Pope Gregory XI regarding the above mentioned Florentines.
"You must beat them with the stick of benignity, love and peace rather than with that of war. Do not look at their ignorance, the blindness and the arrogance of your sons. With peace you shall extinguish from all hearts war, rancor and division."
From the book, Saint Catherine of Siena by Lodovico Ferretti, page 98.
v The Ratzinger Report on The Devil Page 148 A Service for the world
"Let us leave baptism and come back to sin and the uncomfortable subject we began with.
Rounding off his thoughts, Ratzinger says: "The more one understands the holiness of God, the more one understands the opposite of what is holy, namely, the deceptive masks of the devil. Jesus Christ himself is the greatest example of this: before him, the Holy One, Satan could not keep hidden and was constantly compelled to show himself. So one might say that the disappearance of the awareness of the demonic indicates a related decline in holiness. The devil can take refuge in his favorite element, anonymity, if he is not exposed by the radiance of the person united to Christ."
DiannaM:
v St. Teresa of Avila's Prayer
Christ has no body on earth but yours;
no hands but yours;
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he is to look out-
Christ's compassion to the world.
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless others now.
v Making Monotonous Tasks Easier
Since she [Sister Josefa Menendez] longed to make amends for the sins committed against His love, one day at the laundry she asked Our Lord to “save as many souls as there were handkerchiefs to count. I offered my whole day for this object, uniting my sufferings to His heart and His merits.” Towards nightfall she went into the chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. Our Lord appeared to her, coming very close, and in the wound in His heart she saw a long line of souls prostrate in adoration. “I understood that all these were the souls I had begged of Him that morning….”
Newland, Mary Reed. The Saints and Our Children, pp 174-175
v DO IT ANYWAY
(This poem was written by Blessed Mother Teresa and is engraved on the wall of her home for children in Calcutta)
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
FORGIVE THEM ANYWAY.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
BE KIND ANYWAY.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
SUCCEED ANYWAY.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
BUILD ANYWAY.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
BE HAPPY ANYWAY.
The good you do today people will often forget tomorrow;
DO GOOD ANYWAY.
Give the world the best you have. It may never be enough;
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU”VE GOT ANYWAY.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and GOD;
IT WAS NEVER BETWEEN YOU AND THEM ANYWAY.
v Quotes from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:
"If you have a sick or lonely person at home, be there. Maybe just to hold a hand, maybe just to give a smile, that is the greatest, the most beautiful work."
“Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.”
“Let us make one point, that we meet each other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family.”
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”
v Make the Gospel the guiding principle of your families, and make your families a page of the Gospel written for our time!
Pope John Paul II
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