Catholic Quotes

“Love is something worth suffering for...”
― Scott Hahn, Hope for Hard Times

“The way to begin healing the wounds of the world is to treasure the Infant Christ in us; to be not the castle but the cradle of Christ; and, in rocking that cradle to the rhythm of love, to swing the whole world back into the beat of the Music of Eternal Life.”
― Caryll Houselander, Wood of the Cradle, Wood of the Cross: The Little Way of the Infant Jesus

“The intellectual climate of the 1970s, for which the 1950s had already paved the way, contributed to this. A theory was even finally developed at that time that pedophilia should be viewed as something positive. Above all, however, the thesis was advocated-and this even infiltrated Catholic moral theology-that there was no such thing as something that is bad in itself. There were only things that were "relatively" bad. What was good or bad depended on the consequences.
In such a context, where everything is relative and nothing intrinsically evil exists, but only relative good and relative evil, people who have an inclination to such behavior are left without no solid footing. Of course pedophilia is first rather a sickness of individuals, but the fact that it could become so active and so widespread was linked also to an intellectual climate through which the foundations of moral theology, good and evil, became open to question in the Church. Good and evil became interchangeable; they were no longer absolutely clear opposites.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times - A Conversation with Peter Seewald

“One day, when I thought I was alone, I prayed in church. While making this offering before the cross, a parishioner came up to me, put her arm around my shoulder and prayed, ‘Dear God, please heal Father Jim. And give me his cancer.’ I was incredulous. I looked at her, and then back to the Lord and quietly prayed, ‘If she insists, Lord, hear our prayer!’ Later I was able to pray, ‘Lord, rather than give my cancer to her, give her heart of love to me – the love that prompted her to deny her very self and pray in such a loving way.”
― Jim Willig, Lessons From the School of Suffering: A Young Priest With Cancer Teaches Us How to Live

“An historic institution, which never went right, is really quite much of a miracle as an institution that cannot go wrong.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“Why, observe the thing; turn it over; hold it up to the window; count the beads, long, oval, like some seaweed bulbs, each an amulet. See the tint; it's very old; like clots of sunshine, aren't they? Now bring it near; see the carving, here corrugated, there faceted, now sculptured into hideous, tiny, heathen gods. You didn't notice that before! How difficult it must have been, when amber is so friable! Here's one with a chessboard on his back, and all his kings and queens and pawns slung round him. Here's another with a torch, a flaming torch, its fire pouring out inverted. They are grotesque enough; but this, this is matchless: such a miniature woman, one hand grasping the round rock behind, while she looks down into some gulf, perhaps, beneath, and will let herself fall. 0, you should see her with a magnifying-glass! You want to think of calm satisfying death, a mere exhalation, a voluntary slipping into another element? There it is for you. They are all gods and goddesses. They are all here but one; I've lost one, the knot of all, the love of the thing.
Well! Wasn't it queer for a Catholic girl to have at prayer?”
― Harriet Prescott Spofford, The Amber Gods and Other Stories

“To be the altar boy at the first Mass of the day was a sacred initiation rite. It was like being hazed at a fraternity, only more Catholic.”
― Ian Morgan Cron, Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me: A Memoir. . . of Sorts

“The Rosary is a sure means of curing oneself of sin and of embracing a Christian life.”
― Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, The Secret Of The Rosary

“We must make it clear that we will not allow any interpretation of the Council to be used to browbeat us into changing a single article of our traditional Catholic faith, and that far from regarding it as some sort of super-council, we regard it as the least of all the councils; that when seeking clear and definite guidance we will look back to its predecessors. (page 229)”
― Michael Treharne Davies, Pope John's Council

“They who live in prosperity and have no experience of adversity know nothing of the state of their souls. In the first place, tribulation opens the eyes which prosperity had kept shut. St. Paul remained blind after Jesus Christ appeared to him and during his blindness he perceived the errors in which he lived. During his imprisonment in Babylon, King Manasseh had recourse to God, was convinced of the malice of his sins, and did penance for them. And after that he was in distress. He prayed to the Lord his God and did penance exceedingly before the God of his fathers. The Prodigal, when he found himself under the necessity of feeding swine and afflicted with hunger. exclaimed: "I will arise and go to my father.”
― St Alphonsus Liguori

“LIII

Abbott Palladiud said: The soul that wishes to live according to the will of Christ should either learn faithfully what it does not yet know, or teach openly what it does know. But if, when it can, it desires to do neither of these things, it is afflicted with madness. For the first step away from God is a distaste for learning, and lack of appetite for those things for which the soul hungers when it seeks God.”
― Thomas Merton OCSO

“LIII

Abbott Palladius said: The soul that wishes to live according to the will of Christ should either learn faithfully what it does not yet know, or teach openly what it does know. But if, when it can, it desires to do neither of these things, it is afflicted with madness. For the first step away from God is a distaste for learning, and lack of appetite for those things for which the soul hungers when it seeks God.”
― Thomas Merton OCSO

“Once we were not a people; but now we are God's people.”
― Pope Francis, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future

“It is always wiser to place one's trust in the living and true God.”
― Fr Lawrence Lew OP, Entering Heaven on Earth: The Signs, Symbols, and Saints of Catholic Churches

“He was showing how marriage is not a contract, involving merely an exchange of goods and services. Rather, marriage is a covenant, involving an exchange of persons. Kippley's argument was that every covenant has an act whereby the covenant is enacted and renewed; and the marital act is a covenant act. When the marriage covenant is renewed, God uses it to give new life. To renew the marital Covenant and use birth control to destroy the potential for new life is tantamount to receiving the Eucharist and spitting it on the ground.”
― Scott Hahn, Rome Sweet Home

“Scripture is a record of the same story, told again and again, in different ways but always with the same theme, for more than three thousand years. God loves man. Man betrays God. Then God calls man back to his friendship. Sometimes that call involves some very painful suffering, and for good reason. God respects our freedom. But he will not interfere with our choices or their consequences, no matter how unpleasant. As a result, the struggle in the human heart between good and evil-- a struggle that seems burned into our chromosomes-- projects itself onto the world, to ennoble or deform it. The beauty and the barbarism we inflict on one another leave their mark on creation.”
― Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

“When a Protestant praises some aspect of a Vatican II document as a step towards Protestantism, it can be argued that he is in error as this cannot be the case - but prior to the Council, Catholic teaching had been stated so clearly and so explicitly that no such impression could have been given. Only one interpretation, the orthodox Catholic interpretation, was possible. (page 84)”
― Michael Treharne Davies, Pope John's Council

“And yet, as the world moves ever closer to a final apocalyptic event, certain elements in the Vatican seem more determined than ever to consign the Message of Fatima to the past, while persecuting those who continue to proclaim it.

Only one day after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 claimed more than 3,000 lives and stunned the entire world - only one day! - the Vatican press office released a statement condemning Father Nicholas Gruner and his Fatima apostolate and declaring that none should attend the apostolate's conference (scheduled for October 7-13, 2001) on world peace through the Fatima's Message!

Are these Vatican officials more afraid of Fatima than world terrorism? Are they more concerned about a conference on Fatima in Rome than they are about the heresy and scandal which are wounding the Church throughout the world - on their watch? Clearly, these Vatican officials have lost all sense of proportion about the state of the world, and the state of the Church over which they preside.”
― Paul L. Kramer, The Devil's Final Battle: Book Two

“On February 16, 2001, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos sent Father Gruner another letter, renewing the threat of "excommunication" and demanding that he "publicly retract" criticism of Cardinal Sadano, and other matters of free opinion in the Church, found certain articles in The Fatima Crusader - an unprecedented demand, and one that is quite ludicrous considering the profusion of heretical literature, promoted by unfaithful priests and even bishops during his tenure about which Cardinal Hoyos did nothing. (page 215)”
― Paul L. Kramer, The Devil's Final Battle: Book Two

“As the University of Chicago religion scholar Mircea Eliade observed five decades ago, in the famous encyclopedia entry on Catholic Christianity, what is most directly opposed to Catholicism is not Protestantism (which, in any case, has many Catholic elements within it) but sectarianism...For the sectarian, dialogue and collaboration are invitations to compromise, and compromise is anathema.”
― Mark S. Massa S.J.

“[A]t the time of the Reformation, the Catholics had opted for an infallible pope while the Protestants had opted for an infallible Bible, and over the years it has proven easier to change popes.”
― Mark S. Massa S.J. S.J., Catholic Fundamentalism in America

“I can't teach you much about the world, but I can try to keep you from becoming part of it.”
― Allene vanOirschot, I TALKED TO GOD TODAY: 4 Week Devotional Prayer Journal Pain, Suffering and Daily Living

“In a Church beset by widespread clerical corruption that he general tolerated during his tenure, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos attempted to destroy the good name and life's work of a lone faithful priest, Father Nicholas Gruner, simply and only because he would not accept a counterfeit of the Message of Fatima dictated by the Vatican Secretary of State. (page 215)”
― Paul L. Kramer, The Devil's Final Battle: Book Two

“That we ought to give ourselves up to GOD, with regard both to things temporal and spiritual, and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will, whether he lead us by suffering or by consolation, for all would lie equal to a soul truly resigned.”
― Brother Lawrence, Practising the Presence of God

“That to arrive at such resignation as GOD requires, we should watch attentively over all the passions which mingle as well in spiritual things as in those of a grosser nature; that GOD would give light concerning those passions to those who truly desire to serve Him.”
― Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

“And yet, while there has been no "direct action" by the Vatican against priests who sexually abuse nuns, Father Nicholas Gruner was declared "suspended" in the Congregation for the Clergy's only public announcement concerning the "discipline" of any of the Church's 260,000 diocesan priests in 2001 - "suspended" for an offense that has never been specified, for none exists. "Suspended", in fact, for no other reason than that he has not desisted from promoting the authentic Message of Fatima. Such are the Vatican's priorities under the "new orientation" of the Catholic Church and the Secretary of State's Party Line on Fatima. (page 202)”
― Paul L. Kramer, The Devil's Final Battle: Book Two

“Penitence and gloom are not necessarily synonymous. It would be a mistake to think of the great exemplars of sorrow for sin as useless mourners kneeling in the corner, beating their breasts with ear for nothing but their own lamentations. The science of the penitential life is the determination to atone. Into that enters personal mortification, suffering, self-affliction. The body has sinned; it must pay the penalty. It must suffer not only for the evil it has done, but it must be subjected against the possibility of the soul being again dominated by it. Penance looks not only to the past; it looks to the future as well. It wants to make up, to redeem the time.”
― Hugh Francis Blunt, Great Penitents

“It is the second charge that needs specific consideration, namely, that the Church in interfering in politics. Is it true? It all depends upon what you mean by politics. if, by interference in politics is meant using influence to favor a particular regime, party, or system, which respects the basic rights and freedom of persons which come from God, the answer is emphatically No! The Church does not interfere in politics. If by interference in politics is meant judging or condemning a philosophy of life which makes the party, or the state, or the class, or the race the source of all rights, and which usurps the soul and enthrones party over conscience, the answer is emphatically Yes! The Church does judge such a philosophy. But when it does this, it is not interfering with politics, for such politics is no longer politics but a kind of religion that is anti-religion.”
― Fulton J. Sheen

“Missal Written in Latin Why? Because Latin is the Official and Liturgical Language of the Church. Being a dead language Latin words undergo no variation of meaning in the course of time as do the words of a living language. Hence, the dead language crystalizes the form of the principle doctrines of the Church.”
― Joseph W. Princeton, The Catholic Funeral Service

“Kontemplation und Sanftmut fördern einander, sie wachsen miteinander. Fehlt die eine, so verschwindet auch die andere, sie lassen sich nicht trennen, man findet sie nur gemeinsam. Sie sind wie Martha und Maria zwei Schwestern, die sich innig lieben, die den Herrn in ihrem Hause empfangen und sich gegenseitig helfen wollen, um ihm aufs beste zu dienen.”
― Francisco De Osuna, ABC des kontemplativen Betens / Francisco de Osuna. Ausgew., uebers. und eingel. von Erika Lorenz