Saint John Eudes on Living in Imitation of Christ

Saint John Eudes, was a 17th century missionary priest who spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary throughout his native France and beyond. Known for his prayerful piety and deeply inspiring homiletics, he founded the Society of Jesus and Mary (Eudists) to preach parish missions, direct seminaries, and conduct retreats for the clergy. The quotations below evidence his great love for the wisdom and eternal beneficence of God.

A Christian has a union with Jesus Christ more noble, more intimate and more perfect than the members of a human body have with their head.

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Faith is a beam radiating from the face of God.

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A man is no true Christian if he has no devotion to the Mother of Jesus Christ.

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Every Saint belongs to the court of the Queen of All Saints.

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No one who shall invoke this Mother of Grace with devotion and perseverance can possibly perish forever.

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The crosses with which our path through life is strewn associate us with Jesus in the mystery of His crucifixion.

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Any innovation in matters of faith is extremely pernicious and utterly damnable!

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Let us therefore give ourselves to God with a great desire to begin to live thus, and beg Him to destroy in us the life of the world of sin, and to establish His life within us.

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While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as his servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

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I ask you to consider that our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head and that you are a member of his body. He belongs to you as the head belongs to the body. All that is his is yours: breath, heart, body, soul and all his faculties. All of these you must use as if they belonged to you, so that in serving him you may give him praise, love and glory.

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There will be no true life for you except in [Christ], for he is the one source of true life. Apart from him you will find only death and destruction. Let him be the only source of your movements, of the actions and the strength of your life. He must be both the source and the purpose of your life, so that you may fulfil these words: None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master.

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O admirable Mother of God! How many sins have I committed for which thou hast obtained pardon for me, and how many others would I have committed if thou hadst not preserved me? How often have I seen myself on the brink of Hell in obvious danger of falling into it but for thy most benign hand which saved me? How often would the Roaring Lion of Hell have devoured and swallowed up my soul had not the charity of thy heart opposed him? Alas! Without thee, my dearest and my all-good Mother, where should I be today? I should be in the fiery furnace of Hell from which I would never emerge!

St. John Eudes, pray that we may be perfect disciples of Christ our Savior.