BIG C CATHOLICS

We are not on earth as museum-keepers, but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life and to prepare for a glorious future.  ***  Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. *** If all men are in the likeness of God, why should I not love them all, why should I despise them? Should I not rather revere them? This is the reflection which must hold me back from in any way offending against my brothers, for I must remember that they are all made in the image of God and that perhaps their souls are more beautiful and dearer to God than my own. — Pope St. John XXIII

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a woman whose tremendous intellect and thirst for truth brought her from avowed atheism to belief in Christ, is a model of humility and heroic virtue. May we follow her example in fully devoting ourselves both intellectually and spiritually to do the Father's will. Below are 25 quotations reflecting St. Teresa Benedicta's great love for the Church and for God. In order to be an image of God, the spirit must turn to what is eternal, hold it in spirit, keep it in memory, and by loving it, embrace it in the will. ***  My longing for truth was a single prayer. ***  On the question of relating to our fellowman - our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love. *** The limitless loving devotion to God, and the gift God makes of Himself to you, are the highest elevation of which the heart is capable; it is the highest degree of pra

This collection of St. John Vianney quotations on prayer reflect his lifelong dedication to knowing and making known the ways of God and the mind of Christ. Man has a noble task: That of prayer and love. To pray and love, that is the happiness of man on earth. ***  Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself. ***  Never forget that it is at the beginning of each day that God has the necessary grace for the day ready for us. He knows exactly what opportunities we shall have to sin, and will give us everything we need if we ask him then. That is why the devil does all he can to prevent us from saying our morning prayers or to make us say them badly. ***  Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When the heart is pure and united with God it is consoled and filled with sweetness; it is dazzled by a marvelous light. ***  What souls we can convert by our prayers. The one who saves a soul from hell saves this soul and his own as well. ***  W

Saint Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists, brought the Gospel to the destitute. As a priest, he worked himself to the point of exhaustion caring for the poor. Witnessing to the Good News in both words and deeds wherever his journey took him was the hallmark of his calling. Below are twenty-five quotations from this beloved saint, bishop and Doctor of the Church: Your God is ever beside you. Indeed, He is even within you. *** The more a person loves God, the more reason he has to hope in Him. This hope produces in the Saints an unutterable peace, which they preserve even in adversity, because as they love God, and know how beautiful He is to those who love Him, they place all their confidence and find all their repose in Him alone. ***  If you pray, you are positive of saving your soul. If you do not pray, you are just as positive of losing your soul. ***  Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence an

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 in the world. ***  If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. — Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Simply proclaim the Lord Christ holy in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their accusations. — St. Peter from 1 Peter 3:15-16 I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of the hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.  — St. Paul from 2 Timothy 1:6-8

A faint faith is better than a strong heresy. *** The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest. *** An absolutely new idea is one of the rarest things known to man. *** If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable.  *** I would have people in time of silence take good heed that their minds be occupied with good thoughts, for unoccupied they will never be. *** Every tribulation which ever comes our way either is sent to be medicinal, if we will take it as such, or may become medicinal, if we will make it such, or is better than medicinal, unless we forsake it. *** But no matter how high in the clouds this arrow of pride may fly, and no matter how exuberant one may feel while being carried up so high, let us remember that the lightest of these arrows still has a heavy iron head. High as it may fly, therefore, it inevitably has to come down and hit the ground. And sometimes it

In honor of Saint John Bosco's feast day, here are twenty-five quotations from the priest and gifted teacher who was a father to the fatherless. Without confidence and love, there can be no true education. If you want to be loved…you must love yourselves, and make your children feel that you love them. *** My life experience has been that only the practice of religion can assure concord in families and the happiness of those who live in this valley of tears. ***  The school was not the end; it was rather the instrumental means for improving the way of life. ***  Be brave and try to detach your heart from worldly things. Do your utmost to banish darkness from your mind and come to understand what true, selfless piety is. Through confession, endeavor to purify your heart of anything which may still taint it. Enliven your faith, which is essential to understand and achieve piety. ***  If one is to do good, he must have a little courage, be ready for sacrifice, de

Despite being acutely aware of her own inadequacy, St. Thérèse of Lisieux was determined to be a saint. Her life of prayer, simplicity and humility shows us that sainthood is possible for everyone. The following quotations of St. Thérèse, illustrate her devotion to love in imitation of Christ. A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul. +++  May you be content knowing you are a child of God.         +++ The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.  +++  Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love. +++  For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. 

Mohandas K. Gandhi The following quote attributed to Mohandas Gandhi has been used as a rhetorical cudgel against Christians, portraying them as vain, materialistic, hypocritical disciples: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." — Mahatma Gandhi Another version attributed to Gandhi elaborates on how Christians are unlike Christ: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time." Despite the ubiquity of this saying on the internet and elsewhere, I find no evidence that Gandhi uttered these words. First, whenever it is invoked, no source is provided. Second, Gandhi says, " your  Christ" and " your  Christians" as if he were addressing a follower of Jesus. Mohandas

The Weapon of the Rosary "Hail Mary Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee! No creature has ever said anything that was more pleasing." Our Lady to Saint Mechtilde. "Never will anyone who says his Rosary every day become a formal heretic or be led astray by the devil." Saint Louis de Montfort. "Recite your rosary with faith, with humility, with confidence and with perseverance." Saint Louis de Montfort. "One day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, Our Lady will save the world." Saint Dominic. "The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary." Saint Francis de Sales. "Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world." Blessed Pius IX. "The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin." Pope Pius XI "The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life." Pope Leo XIII. "When