09/29/2005
Vocation
To be a priest today is to be a midwife to most of the profound aspects of human existence. Sacramental life embraces many of the most definitive moments of one’s life. Baptism welcomes the new born into the world and the Church and Christian community. Funerals, Marriages, Ordination and Anointing the sick all have the signification at moments of change. A Priest is a vital and important leader in the community to guide the faithful and be a sign of the presence of hope, of the presence of God and the kingdom by being another Christ acting in the person of Christ. A Priest is there to santify others through service and to teach the faithful. Priest work through the obedience of their Bishop being at service to the local Church. The hierarchy of the Church ensures its direction and effectiveness as an institution. By giving one’s life to God through ordination, the Gospel can be heard, the imprisoned can be visited and the lonely can be made conforted. By the self giving of a priest one hopes that faith, hope and love may be the fruits of sacerdotal ministry.
God ensures us that we all have our vocation in life, in some potential productivity in the world. The Second Vatican council acknowledge the universal call to holiness heard by all the faithful and God has great plans for every one of us should we choose to co-operate with him. Jesus told us that we were chosen by him, not in any predestinarian way, but one must felt called to the life of a priest. He told us that there were few laborers in the vineyard and one needed to pray to send more labourers into the vineyard. Priests need to be perfect, to aspire to the greatest holiness and to an intimacy with God. Being a priest means being a man for others, serving and fulfilling the will of the Lord in the world today. St Ignatius said, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will, all that I possess. You have given it all to me; to you, O Lord, now I return it; all is yours, dispose of me wholly according to your will. Give me only your love and grace, for that is enough for me.” Such self giving ensures that holiness of many.
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New York Photos
Please see the fantastic photos of New York with the link below.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/londonwildcat/album?.dir...
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Marriage and relationships
Article on Relationships.
Building relationships….
Choosing and finding good husbands etc…
Motivating people with the right attitudes….
Church’s vision for relationships
The most important aspect of one’s life is to love and be loved, to give and receive love. This is most radically realised in the gift of oneself to others. In the words of the Second Vatican Council: “Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” (Gaudiem et Spes, n.24) This is because, as Christ himself said, “Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it, and anyone who loses it will keep it safe.” (Luke 17:13). As it is better to give than to receive, this should be the foundational criteria for all our relationships, whether they be human or supernatural.
John Paul II has written of the “genius of women” and expounded on the dignity and meaning of femininity with great accuracy.
We should embrace the sacramental nature of the human body. A sacrament actually makes present what it symbolises. In everything we do our will is stamped on our actions provided it is carried out. Our work by its very nature has the signature of our own heart written all over it. Within a personal relationship with a member of the opposite sex, we should not compromise Christian values just for the sake of conforming with contemporary secular values. The Gospel calls us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48). St Paul develops a treatise on love and reminds us that we should “strive for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I will show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Cor 13:31). Weddings vows within the Church are understood as love is proclaimed, freely, totally, faithfully and fruitfully, loving others as God loves, as Christ loves the Church. It is only these acts that have a dignified effect on the human heart.
Marriage
Love can never be bought or sold but only received as a gift. Trust must remain integral to any relationship. Marriage is to be not partial but total- and any attempt to disintegrate the totality of marriage is to corrode the institution. Pre nuptial agreements would be a good example of this. Marriage has always had a special status in British law and society. The recognition of the civil partnership bill will however totally undermine any Christian sense of marriage. Marriage provides stability for families and for all society. The declaration of commitment must be both public and private. When people marry, they commit themselves not only as emotional and sexual partners, but they also take care of one another. This is through the ups and the downs, to illness and in health, through the Sahara and beyond the Himalayas. The promises and the trust that is built encourages partners to make sacrifices for the good of one another. Within such important relationships it is essential that we put oneself in the shoes of the other person and see their infinite value.
Shame
Due to the natural sinful nature of humanity, from time to time we experience shame as part of the consequence of sin. It is a natural response when we fail to live the laws that are stamped into ourselves. Shame can come from lust, from using another, or being used by another, or realizing our capacity to do so. We are ashamed when we ignore the law of the gift of ourselves. Reconciliation and forgiveness provide the way for rejoining the path to desire a higher, more excellent happiness which St Paul calls us for. And yet we must recognise certain marks in order to counter our desires.
Contemporary society has shown a failure to appreciate the unique status of marriage and other factors in relationships have changed profoundly in the last 40 years, partly as a consequence of the sexual revolution. There has been a decrease in commitments as a fear has prevailed that people will break their pledges. Free unions have no commitment to one another and have a profound lack of trust in one another, or in the future for that matter. The inability to make long term commitments offends the dignity of marriage, the idea of the family and also the sense of fidelity.
Successful relationships are based on the “total and definite gift of persons to one another.” (Familiaris Consortio n.80). This is because love in the fundamental and innate vocation of every human person. In creating us man and woman, God gave personal dignity equally to one and the other. Man and woman on this basis should accept their sexual identity. Within developing relationships we should attempt to base our lives on developing 3 key areas. We should test a discovery of mutual respect. This should involve learning how to interact as a couple, communicate and support on another. We should also acquire an apprenticeship in fidelity. 80% of marriages end in failure because of infidelity. In learning to live together as a couple, we should learn how to integrate honesty and love to one person uniquely. Lastly we should hope to receive one another from God.
As Christians, we are called to live a chaste life. Rather than being unfashionable, in essence, this is quite liberating and chastity is a moral virtue and well as being a gift of the Holy Spirit. It provides for the successful integration of sexuality within the person leading to the inner unity of spiritual and bodily beings. Far from being countercultural, this frees us from the wrath of sin. The consequences of not living a chaste life can lead to sexually transmitted diseases, infertility, abortion, broken families and broken hearts. Although we all fail, the Christian ideal provides us with protection against the pitfalls of these consequences and the consequences of sin.
Either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy. Those who are sexually obsessed are enslaved in sin.
St. John Chrysostom told us in a romantic recollection,”I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us… I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.
We must never use another person as a means to an end in body or soul. We must never settle for a counterfeit love, as it will keep us from true happiness and holiness. We must always respect and revere creation, which is the purposeful design of God given to the person. The design of the human person serves the person’s true good, happiness and fulfilment. We must also treat the fruits of authentic love and the creation of new life as entitlements, not gifts.
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World Youth Day Quotations
7. Dear young people, the Church needs genuine witnesses for the new evangelisation: men and women whose lives have been transformed by meeting with Jesus, men and women who are capable of communicating this experience to others. The Church needs saints. All are called to holiness, and holy people alone can renew humanity. Many have gone before us along this path of Gospel heroism, and I urge you to turn often to them to pray for their intercession. By meeting in Cologne you will learn to become better acquainted with some of them, such as St Boniface, the apostle of Germany, the Saints of Cologne, and in particular Ursula, Albert the Great, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and Blessed Adolph Kolping. Of these I would like to specifically mention St Albert and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who, with the same interior attitude as the Magi, were passionate seekers after the truth. They had no hesitation in placing their intellectual abilities at the service of the faith, thereby demonstrating that faith and reason are linked and seek each other. (World Youth Day message for 2005, John Paul II)
4. This is why I now wish to repeat the motto of my episcopal and pontifical service: "Totus tuus". Throughout my life I have experienced the loving and forceful presence of the Mother of Our Lord. Mary accompanies me every day in the fulfilment of my mission as Successor of Peter.
Mary is Mother of divine grace, because she is the Mother of the Author of grace. Entrust yourselves to her with complete confidence! You will be radiant with the beauty of Christ. Open up to the breath of the Spirit, and you will become courageous apostles, capable of spreading the fire of charity and the light of truth all around you. In Mary's school, you will discover the specific commitment that Christ expects of you, and you will learn to put Christ first in your lives, and to direct your thoughts and actions to him.
Dear young people, you know that Christianity is not an opinion nor does it consist of empty words. Christianity is Christ! It is a Person, a Living Person! To meet Jesus, to love him and make him loved: this is the Christian vocation. Mary was given to you to help you enter into a more authentic and more personal relationship with Jesus. Through her example, Mary teaches you to gaze on him with love, for He has loved us first. Through her intercession, she forms in you a disciple's heart able to listen to her Son, who reveals the face of his Father and the true dignity of the human person. (World Youth Day 2003 message, John Paul II)
For a long time, salt was also used to preserve food. As the salt of the earth, you are called to preserve the faith which you have received and to pass it on intact to others. Your generation is being challenged in a special way to keep safe the deposit of faith (cf. 2 Th 2:15; 1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:14).
Discover your Christian roots, learn about the Church’s history, deepen your knowledge of the spiritual heritage which has been passed on to you, follow in the footsteps of the witnesses and teachers who have gone before you! Only by staying faithful to God’s commandments, to the Covenant which Christ sealed with his blood poured out on the Cross, will you be the apostles and witnesses of the new millennium. (World Youth Day, 2002 message, John Paul II).
In this secularized age, when many of our contemporaries think and act as if God did not exist or are attracted to irrational forms of religion, it is you, dear young people, who must show that faith is a personal decision which involves your whole life. Let the Gospel be the measure and guide of life’s decisions and plans! Then you will be missionaries in all that you do and say, and wherever you work and live you will be signs of God’s love, credible witnesses to the loving presence of Jesus Christ. Never forget: "No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a bushel" (Mt 5:15)!
Just as salt gives flavour to food and light illumines the darkness, so too holiness gives full meaning to life and makes it reflect God’s glory. How many saints, especially young saints, can we count in the Church’s history! In their love for God their heroic virtues shone before the world, and so they became models of life which the Church has held up for imitation by all. Let us remember only a few of them: Agnes of Rome, Andrew of Phú Yên, Pedro Calungsod, Josephine Bakhita, Thérèse of Lisieux, Pier Giorgio Frassati, Marcel Callo, Francisco Castelló Aleu or again Kateri Tekakwitha, the young Iroquois called "the Lily of the Mohawks". Through the intercession of this great host of witnesses, may God make you too, dear young people, the saints of the third millennium!
(World Youth Day message, 2002, John Paul II).
6. My dear young people, do not think it strange that, at the beginning of the third millennium, the Pope once again directs you towards the Cross of Christ as the path of life and true happiness. The Church has always believed and proclaimed that only in the Cross of Christ is there salvation.There is a widespread culture of the ephemeral that only attaches value to whatever is pleasing or beautiful, and it would like us to believe that it is necessary to remove the cross in order to be happy. The ideal presented is one of instant success, a fast career, sexuality separated from any sense of responsibility, and ultimately, an existence centred on self affirmation, often bereft of respect for others.
(World Youth Day message, 2001, John Paul II)
5. Before ascending to the Father, Jesus entrusted to his Church the ministry of reconciliation (cf. Jn 20:23). So, a repentance that is only interior does not suffice in order to obtain God’s pardon. Reconciliation with God is obtained through reconciliation with the ecclesial community. So, acknowledgment of sin is made through a concrete sacramental gesture: repentance and confession of the sins, with the intention of amendment, in presence of the Church’s minister.Today, unfortunately, the more people lose the sense of sin the less they have recourse to the pardon of God. This is the cause of many of the problems and difficulties of our time. This year, I invite you to rediscover the beauty and the wealth of grace in the sacrament of Penance by carefully rereading the parable of the prodigal son, where what is stressed is not so much the sin as the tenderness of God and his mercy. Listening to the Word in an attitude of prayer, contemplation, wonder and certainty, say to God : “I need you, I count on you in order to exist and to live. You are stronger than my sin. I believe in your power over my life, I believe that you are able to save me just as I am now. Remember me. Pardon me!”
(World Youth Day Message 1999, John Paul II)
8. It is therefore indispensable for each one to seek and to recognize day after day the long path on which the Lord is leading him to his personal encounter with him. Dear friends, question yourselves seriously about your vocation and be ready to answer the Lord who is calling you to take the place he has prepared for you from eternity.Experience teaches that in this work of discernment the figure of the spiritual director is of great help: choose a competent person recommended by the Church, who will listen to you and guide you on the path of life, who will be close to you in difficult choices and in moments of joy. Your spiritual director will help you discern the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and progress on a path of freedom: freedom to be won by spiritual combat (cf. Eph 6: 13-17), which should be lived with constancy and perseverance.
(World Youth Day, 1998, John Paul, II)
3. Dear young people, like the first disciples, follow Jesus! Do not be afraid to draw near to Him, to cross the threshold of his dwelling, to speak with Him, face to face, as you talk with a friend (cf. Ex 33:11). Do not be afraid of the «new life» He is offering. He Himself makes it possible for you to receive that life and practise it, with the help of his grace and the gift of his Spirit.It is true: Jesus is a demanding friend. He points to lofty goals; he asks us to go out of ourselves in order to meet Him, entrusting to Him our whole life : «Whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it» (Mk 8:35). The proposal may seem difficult, and, in some cases, frightening. But – I ask you – is it better to be resigned to a life without ideals, to a world made in our image and likeness, or rather, generously to seek truth, goodness, justice, working for a world that reflects the beauty of God, even at the cost of facing the trials it may involve?
Break down the barriers of superficiality and fear! Recognizing that you are «new» men and women, regenerated by the grace of Baptism, talk with Jesus in prayer and while listening to the Word; experience the joy of reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance; receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist; welcome and serve Him in your brothers and sisters. You will discover the truth about yourselves and your inner unity, and you will find a «Thou» who gives the cure for anxieties, for nightmares and for the unbridled subjectivism that leaves you no peace.
(World Youth Day, message, 1997, John Paul II)
4. "Lord, to whom shall we go?". The goal and target of our life is he, the Christ, who awaits us — each one singly and all together — to lead us across the boundaries of time to the eternal embrace of the God who loves us.But if eternity is our horizon as people starving for truth and thirsting for happiness, history is the setting of our daily commitment. Faith teaches us that man's destiny is written in the heart and mind of God, who directs the course of history. It also teaches us that the Father puts in our hands the task of beginning to build here on earth the "kingdom of heaven" which the Son came to announce and which will find its fulfilment at the end of time.
It is our duty then to live in history, side by side with our peers, sharing their worries and hopes, because the Christian is and must be fully a man of his time. He cannot escape into another dimension, ignoring the tragedies of his era, closing his eyes and heart to the anguish that pervades life. On the contrary, it is he who, although not "of" this world, is immersed "in" this world every day, ready to hasten to wherever there is a brother in need of help, a tear to be dried, a request for help to be answered. On this will we be judged!
(World Youth Day message, 1996, John Paul II)
As the faithful guardian and representative of the wealth of faith transmitted to her by Christ, she is ready to enter into dialogue with the new generations; in order to answer their needs and expectations and to find in frank and open dialogue the most appropriate way to reach the source of divine salvation.The Church entrusts to young people the task of proclaiming to the world the joy which springs from having met Christ. Dear friends, allow yourselves to be drawn to Christ; accept his invitation and follow him. Go and preach the Good News that redeems (cf. Mt 28:19); do it with happiness in your hearts and become communicators of hope in a world which is often tempted to despair, communicators of faith in a society which at times seems resigned to disbelief, communicators of love in daily events that are often marked by a mentality of the most unbridled selfishness.
(World Youth Day message, 1995, John Paul II)
There are also false prophets and false teachers of how to live. First of all there are those who teach people to leave the body, time and space in order to be able to enter into what they call "true life". They condemn creation, and in the name of deceptive spirituality they lead thousands of young people along the paths of an impossible liberation which eventually leaves them even more isolated, victims of their own illusions and of the evil in their own lives.Seemingly at the opposite extreme, there are the teachers of the "fleeting moment", who invite people to give free rein to every instinctive urge or longing, with the result that individuals fall prey to a sense of anguish and anxiety leading them to seek refuge in false, artificial paradises, such as that of drugs.
There are also those who teach that the meaning of life lies solely in the quest for success, the accumulation of wealth, the development of personal abilities, without regard for the needs of others or respect for values, at times not even for the fundamental value of life itself.
These and other kinds of false teachers of life, also numerous in the modern world, propose goals which not only fail to bring satisfaction but often intensify and exacerbate the thirst that burns in the human heart.
(World Youth Day message, 1993, John Paul II)
Do not be afraid of presenting Christ to someone who does not yet know him. Christ is the true answer, the most complete answer to all the questions which concern the human person and his destiny. Without Christ the human person remains an unsolvable riddle. Therefore, have the courage to present Christ! Certainly, you must do this in a way which respects each person's freedom of conscience, but you must do it (cf. Redemptoris missio, n. 39). Helping a brother or sister to discover Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6) is a true act of love for one's neighbour.It is not an easy task to speak of God today. Many times one finds a wall of indifference and even a certain hostililty. How many times will you be tempted to repeat with the prophet Jeremiah: "Ah, Lord God, I know not how to speak; I am too young"! But God will always answer: "Say not ?I am too young'. To whomever I send you, you shall go" (cf. Jer 1:6-7). So, do not be discouraged, because you are never alone. The Lord will not fail to accompany you, as he promised: "Know that I am with you always, until the end of the world" (Mt 28:20).
(World Youth Day message, 1992, John Paul II)
Holiness is the essential heritage of the children of God. Christ says: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48). This means doing the will of the Father in every circumstance of life. It is the high road that Jesus has pointed out to us: "Not every one who says to me, ?Lord, Lord', shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 7:21).(World Youth Day message, 1991, John Paul II)
XX World Youth Day “We Come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2)
XIX World Youth Day"We wish to see Jesus" (Jn 12,21)
XVIII World Youth Day "Behold, your mother!" (Jn 19,27)
17th World Youth Day “You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world” (Mt 5,13-14)
16th World Youth Day“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me”(Lk 9:23)
15th World Youth Day “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14)
14th World Youth Day “The Father loves you” (cf. Jn 16:27)
13th World Youth Day“The Holy Spirit will teach you all things”(cf Jn 14:26 )
12th World Youth Day“Teacher, where are you staying? Come and see”(cf. Jn 1:38-39)
11th World Youth Day“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68)
9th-10th World Youth Day “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you” (Jn 20: 21)
8th World Youth Day“I came that they might have life, and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10)
7th World Youth Day“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel” (Mk 16:15)
6th World Youth Day “You have received a spirit of sonship” (Rom 8:15)
5th World Youth Day“I am the vine, you are the branches” (Jn 15:5)
4th World Youth Day “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6)
3rd World Youth Day “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5)
2nd World Youth Day “We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves” (1Jn 4:16)
1st World Youth Day "Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you" (1Pt 3, 15)
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John Paul II legacy and quotes
Robert Colquhoun
3/4/05
Events:
End of communism and his role/ reinvigoration of Poland / Solidarity
Unity and peace in Europe
Influence on international policy
Ensured the reforms of the Second Vatican Council were put in place
Guided the Church in a difficult period after Vatican II mixing reform and tradition.
Role in ensuring peace in the world: 1978- Chile and Argentina – direct peacemaker. Calls for peace worldwide. “War is always a tragedy.”
Survival from 3 assassination attempts
Promoter of authentic ecumenism and dialogue with other religions
Extraordinary travels to everywhere!
Most seen man ever.
Mixture between charismatic/authority
Engaging of philosophy and the modern world, rejection of false philosophies
Canonization of many holy men and women
Extraordinary array of writings: encyclicals, apostolic exhortations, motu propio, urbi et orbi, audiences, addresses, 5 books etc etc. Oversaw- Catechism, 1983 Canon Law revision.
Creation of Pontifical council of family, JP2 institutes and expansion of Holy see in influence, size and interaction with world.
Devotion to Mary
Outstanding leadership of the Church in the modern age
Interaction with youth - WYD
No fan of excessive capitalism or communism
Wonderful interventions at the United Nations
Champion of orthodoxy and the poor
A true genius on women, marriage, family, life and love
Freedom/Truth/Dignity – universal themes of papacy
Phrases:
Crossing the threshold of hope
Culture of life/culture of death
Be not afraid
Truth and freedom go hand in hand or perish in misery
Phenomenon to foundation
The luminous mysteries
Theology of the body
Witness to hope
“Totus Tuus” – All yours
Love and responsibility
Collection of quotes of John Paul II:
Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2). (John Paul II, Introduction to Fides et Ratio)
“Truth and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery.” (John Paul II, Fides et Ratio n. 90, in Light of John 8:32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”)
Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is meaningless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. (John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, n.44)
The future of humanity passes by way of the family (John Paul II, Familaris Consortio, n.86)
“Family is the sanctuary of life.” (John Paul II, Centismus Annus 1991)
“Respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, freedom, peace and happiness! (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae).
John Paul II Evangelium Vitae-
-“Secularism and its ubiquitous tentacles”
-“When the sense of God is lost, there is also the tendency to lose the sense of man.”
-“Without the creator the creature would disappear… but when God is forgotten the creature itself grows intelligible.” (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n.36)
-“Practical materialism breeds individualism, utilitarianism and hedonism.”
-“Family should guard, reveal and communicate love.”
-Incomparable and inviolable worth of every human life.
-Trivualization of sexuality leads to contempt of new life.
“Democracy cannot be a substitute for morality” (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae)
“Democracy without values turns into an open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.” (John Paul II, Vertatis Spendour, commenting on the risk of alliance between democracy and ethical relativism).
Marriage- “bond reciprocally assumed…strengthens in turn on the love which it arises, fostering its permanence to the advantage of partners, children and society itself.” (John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio).
“Children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward… Blessed is the man whose quivers are full, they will never be shown contended with foes at the gate.” (Ps 127:3-5, cf. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio)
Ethical relativism perverts democratic societies, “Democracy can be idolized to the point of making it a subsitute for morality or a panacea for immorality.” (John Paul II, Letter to Families, 1994)
“Masculinization of women should be avoided as it is contrary to feminine originality. Will not reach fulfilment but deform what constitutes their original and essential richness.” (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem)
“Jesus Christ a promoter of women’s true dignity.” (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem).
“Man can be condemned by his own conscience… the proximate norm of personal morality… conscience not exempt from the possibility of error….gradually becomes almost blind from being accustomed to sin, ….(or when contrary to the universality and immutability of natural law).” (cf. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor).
“DeChristianization usually combines with demoralisation. Subjectivism, utilitarianism and relativism try to claim the full cultural and social legitimacy (John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor)
Christian faith has “consoling certainty, source of profound humanity and extraordinary simplicity.” (John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor)
“Love of truth, sought with humility, is one of the greatest values capable of reuniting the men of today though the various cultures.” (John Paul II speech, Geneva 1982)
The human person “is the kind of good which does not admit of use and cannot be treated as an object of use and as such the means to an end.” (John Paul II, Love and Responsibility, New York 1981, Farrar Stars Liroux, p41).
“Love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.” (Familiaris Consortio, n.11)
“Yes, let us give time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction… Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained.” (John Paul II, Dies Domini)
“The advancement of the poor constitutes a great opportunity for the moral, cultural and even economic growth of all humanity.” (John Paul II, Centimus Annus, n.28)
“All too often, the fruits of scientific progress, rather than being placed at the service of the entire community, are distributed in such a way that unjust inequalities are actually increased or even rendered permanent (…) The Catholic Church has consistently taught that there is a “social mortgage” on all private property, a concept which today may also be applied to intellectual property and to knowledge. The law of profit alone cannot be applied to that which is essential, for the fight against hunger, disease and poverty.” (John Paul II, 23/9/99, Address to delegation of Jubilee 2000 debt program).
“The dignity of the person is manifested in all its radiance when the person’s origin and destiny are considered: created by God in his image and likeness as well as redeemed by the most precious blood of Christ, the person is called to be a ‘child in the Son’ and a living temple of the Spirit, destined for eternal life of blessed communion with God. For this very reason every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offense against the Creator of the individual.” (John Paul II Christifideles Laici, n. 37)
“Man’s true identity is revealed to him through faith.” (Centismus Annus n.54)
“We are only co-workers, and when we have done all that we can, we must say: ‘we are unworthy servants; we have done out duty.’(Lk 17:10)” (Redemtoris Missio n.36).
This is merely the smallest of introductions to his work…………
Further reading:
Witness to Hope by George Wiegel
The encyclicals of John Paul II (www.vatican.va)
Description on USCCB (www.usccb.org)
Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyla (aka John Paul II)
Audiences made into book called “Theology of the body” (A theological bombshell).
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Christian Quotes
Robert Colquhoun 20/12/04
O Lord, you are not only that there which nothing greater can be conceived…. (non solum es quo maius cogitori requit)…. But you are greater than all that can be conceived…. (quiddam maius quam cognitari posit)… If you were not such, something greater than you could be thought, but this is impossible. (St Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion, Proemiumand Nos. 1,15: PL 158, 223-4, 226,235)
“Man cannot find himself except through a sincere gift of himself, the only creature on earth willed for itself.” (Gaudium et Spes, n.24)
“Truth and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery.” (John Paul II, Fides et Ratio n. 90, in Light of John 8:32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”)
“Christ fully reveals man to man himself.” (Gaudium et Spes, n.22)
Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is meaningless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. (John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, n.44)
“Natural religion is based upon the sense of sin, it recognises the disease, but it cannot find it does not but look for the remedy. That namely, both for guilt and moral impotence, is found in the central doctrine of revelation, the mediation of Christ” (John Henry Newman)
The future of humanity passes by way of the family (John Paul II, Familaris Consortio, n.86)
“Family is the sanctuary of life.” (John Paul II, Centismus Annus 1991)
“Respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, freedom, peace and happiness! (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae).
John Paul II Evangelium Vitae-
-“Secularism and its ubiquitous tentacles”
-“When the sense of God is lost, there is also the tendency to lose the sense of man.”
-“Without the creator the creature would disappear… but when God is forgotten the creature itself grows intelligible.” (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n.36)
-“Practical materialism breeds individualism, utilitarianism and hedonism.”
-“Family should guard, reveal and communicate love.”
-Incomparable and inviolable worth of every human life.
-Trivualization of sexuality leads to contempt of new life.
“You formed by inmost being” (Ps 139:13, quoted in EV)
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” (Jer 1:5, quoted in EV)
“Democracy cannot be a substitute for morality” (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae)
“Democracy without values turns into an open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.” (John Paul II, Vertatis Spendour, commenting on the risk of alliance between democracy and ethical relativism).
“The passing of such laws (that are in contravention of the moral order) undermines the very nature of authority and results in its shameful abuse.” (John XXIII, Pacem in Terris)
Aquinas- “Unjust law ceases to be law and becomes an act of violence” (De Libero Arbitonio).
Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2). (John Paul II, Introduction to Fides et Ratio)
“Selfishness is the enemy of true love.” (Paul VI, Humanae Vitae)
Marriage- “bond reciprocally assumed…strengthens in turn on the love which it arises, fostering its permanence to the advantage of partners, children and society itself.” (John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio).
“Children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward… Blessed is the man whose quivers are full, they will never be shown contended with foes at the gate.” (Ps 127:3-5, cf. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio)
“You did not choose me, I chose you” (John 15:16 quoted in John Paul II, Letter to Priests 2002).
Every Priest “A steward in the mysteries of God.” (I Cor 4:1)
“One cannot do anything with a heart that is vain and full of itself, it is of no use, either to itself or to others.” (St Francis de Sales).
“What shall I render to the Lord for all this bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.” (Ps 116:12-3, quoted in John Paul II, Letter to Priests 2001).
Love covers many a sin (Pr 10:12, Tb 12:9).
“Let you Yahweh, rule from eternity, your throne endures from age to age.” (Lm 5:19)
“As a dog returns to its vomit so a fool reverts to its folly.” (Pr 26:11)
“It is natural for any man to err, but only for a fool to persist in his error.” (Cicero)
Pride is the queen and mother of all vices (Aquinas)
Ubi Caritas et Amor, deus ibi est
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor
Exultemus, et in unum Christi amor
Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur
Timeamus, et amemus deum vivum
Et ex corde dilgiamus nos singero
Where charity and love are, there God is
We have been brought together as one in the love of Christ
Let us exult and rejoice in him
May we fear and love the living god,
And may we love with a sincere heart (Maurice Dunifle).
God willed man to remain “under the control of his own decisions.” (Sir 15:14, and Gaudium et Spes).
Jesus- “The Physician of the body and the spirit.” (St Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians).
Mass- “The medicine of immortality” (cf. St Ignatius of Antioch, letter to the Ephesians)
- “A sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 47)
“Worry makes a heart heavy.” (Proverbs 12:25)
“Large population monarch’s glory, dwindling population, ruler’s ruin.” (Proverbs 14:28)
“Come back to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love.” (Joel 2:13).
The Catholic Church manages to amalgamate “Personal piety and liturgical ritual, evangelistic outreach and social actions, spiritual fervour and intellectual rigour, academic freedom and dynamic orthodoxy, enthusiastic worship and reverent contemplation, powerful preaching and sacramental devotion, scripture and tradition, body and soul, individual and the corporate.” (Scott and Kimberley Hahn, Rome Sweet Home).
Ethical relativism perverts democratic societies, “Democracy can be idolized to the point of making it a subsitute for morality or a panacea for immorality.” (John Paul II, Letter to Families, 1994)
“Masculinization of women should be avoided as it is contrary to feminine originality. Will not reach fulfilment but deform what constitutes their original and essential richness.” (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem)
“Jesus Christ a promoter of women’s true dignity.” (John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem).
“Thou art just Lord, and righteous are thy judgements” (Ps 118:137).
“You are my hope and my crown, You o Lord are my joy and honour.” (Thomas Kempis, Imitation of Christ, p86)
“Aquinas is the lodestar of intellectual sanity” (Crocker, The power and the glory).
“Church is like a pilgrim in a foreign land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God.” (St. Augustine City of God, XVIII).
“It has always seemed to me possible, and even probable, that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons and guardians would see the renewal of the tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and for 1000 years its greatest opponent.” (Belloc, Heresies).
“Holiness is simply complete loyalty to God’s will.” (Jean Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence).
“The human soul is of inifinite worth because it cost the blood of God.” (John XXIII, Journal of a soul).
4 virtues of a cleric – piety, studiousness, self denial, strength of character. (Council of Trent, session XXII, quoted in John XXIII, aka Angelo Roncalli, Journal of a soul)
John XXIII – Journal of a Soul:
-Familiarity breeds contempt
-secularism and nationalism are 2 great evils, morbid nationalism contradiction to Bible
-Holy Church mother of all nations.
“Let the devil bay and scream at the door of your heart, offering you a thousand images and untimely thoughts. As he cannot enter except through the door of consent, keep this firmly closed and put your mind at rest. Do not get anxious when the waves batter against your boat; have no fear while God is with you.” (St Francis de Sales, Spiritual letters, Vol II, letter to an abbey).
“The soul shows its royal and exalted character… in that it is free and self governed, swayed autonomously by its own will. Of whom else can this be said, save a king? …. Thus human nature, created to rule other creatures, was by its likeness to the king of the universe made as it were a living image, partaking with the archetype both in dignity and in name.” (Saint Gregory of Nyssa, De Hominis Opificio, Ch.4)
“Let us stand firm in the fight on the day of the Lord, for days of affliction and misery are here… we are not dogs that cannot speak, nor silent observers, nor mercenaries fleeing from wolves! Instead we are hard working pastors who watch over Christ’s flock, who proclaim God’s will to people whether important or ordinary, rich or poor… in season or out of season.” (St Boniface, Boniface to Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 767)
“The height of philosophy is to be simple with prudence” (St John Chrysostom, Hom LXII al)
“Conscience has rights before it has duties” (John Henry Newman, Vol 2, 250)
“Conscience- the aboriginal vicar of Christ” (John Henry Newman)
“Conscience is like God’s herald and messenger, it does not command things on its own authority, but commands them as coming from God’s authority, like a herald when he proclaims the edict of a king. This is why conscience has a binding force.” (St. Bonadventure, In II Librum Secectiaram)
“Man can be condemned by his own conscience… the proximate norm of personal morality… conscience not exempt from the possibility of error….gradually becomes almost blind from being accustomed to sin, ….(or when contrary to the universality and immutability of natural law).” (cf. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor).
“All things subject to change and to becoming never remain constant, but continually pass from one state to the other, for better or worse…. Now human life is always subject to change; it needs to be born ever anew… but here birth does not come around by foreign intervention, as in the case with bodily beings…..; it is the result of a free choice. Thus we are in a certain way our own parents, creating ourselves as we will, by our decisions.” (St Gregory of Nyssa, De Vita Mossis II, 2-3)
Xt “forms us according to his image, in such a way that the traits of his divine nature shine forth in us through santification and justice and the life which is in conformity with virtue… the beauty of this image shines forth in us who are in Christ, when we show ourselves to be good in our works.” (St Cyril of Alexandria, IDJE)
“It is not enough to do good works, they need to be done well. For our works to be good and perfect, they must be done for the sole purpose of pleasing God.” (St. Ligouri, Practica di Amor Gesu Cristo, VII, 3)
“Serve the Lord with gladness, in the house of the Lord, slavery is free, it is free because it serves not out of necessity, but out of charity… charity should make you a servant, just as truth should set you free… you are at once both a servant and free: a servant, because you have become such: free because you are loved by God your creator; indeed you have also been enabled to love your creator. You are a servant of the Lord and a freedman of the Lord. Do not go looking for a liberation which will lead you from the house of your liberator!” (St. Augustine, commenting on Psalm 100. Enarration in Psalmium).
Lay People: “Persons of the world for the world” (John Henry Newman, quoted l’osservatore Romano, 11 Aug 2004).
“One can love the difficulties of this world for the sake of eternal rewards” (St. Gregory the Great).
“Origin, subject and purpose of social institutions should be the human person.” (Gaudium et Spes, n.25)
“Root of modern totalitarianism is to be found in the denial of the transcendal nature of the human person…. Who as the visible image of the invisible God, is therefore by his very nature the subject of rights which no one may violate.” (Leo XIII Libertas Prastantissumum, 1888)
“DeChristianization usually combines with demoralisation. Subjectivism, utilitarianism and relativism try to claim the full cultural and social legitimacy (John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor)
Christian faith has “consoling certainty, source of profound humanity and extraordinary simplicity.” (John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor)
Law “Enlivened by grace and made to serve it in a harmonious and fruitful combination. Each element preserved it s characteristics without change or confusion. In a divine matter, he turned what could be burdensome and tyrannical into what is easy to bear and a source of freedom.” (St Andrew of Crete, Oration I).
“Pain is only temporary but glory is forever” (Robert Colquhoun, 2004)
“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
“One cannot have God as a father who doesn’t have the Church as a mother.” (St. Cyprian of Carthage, De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate 6 CCL 3, 253) (“Habere iam non potast Deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem.”)
“Ut habere quis posit Deum Patrem, habeat ante ecclesiam matrem.” (St. Cyprian of Cathage, Epist. 74,7; CCL 3c, 572) (if anyone could translate that it would be great).
“Tenete ergo, carissimi, tenete omnes unamiater Deum patrem, et matrem Ecclesiam.” (St Augustine, In Ps 88, Sermo 2,14: (CL 39, 1244) ) (if anyone could translate that it would be great).
“The glory of God is man fully alive; but the life of man is the vision of God.” (Gloria dei vivens homo: vita autem hominis vivis dei.” St. Iraneus of Lyon, Adversus haereses, IV, 20, 7: SC 100/2, 648. (Footnote 99, International Theological Commission, memory and reconciliation: The Church and the faults of the past, Dec 1999).
“Love of truth, sought with humility, is one of the greatest values capable of reuniting the men of today though the various cultures.” (John Paul II speech, Geneva 1982)
“The Church holds that economic, social and political issues cannot be properly approached unless the transcendental dimension of the human person is taken into account.” (Pontifical Council Cor Unum: World Hunger A challenge for all: development in solidarity).
“Memory is the moral tutor of mankind” (BBC Radio on 60th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz).
“Perfect love casts out fear” (somewhere in Scripture, not sure where, if anyone knows that would be great).
Church is the “greatest religious and political nation known to history” (Karl Adam, The spirit of Catholicism).
Priest’s inheritance is the Lord (cf. Numbers 18:20)
“I will give you shepherds after my own heart” (on priesthood, Jeremiah 3:15)
“The spousal dimension of the priest as pastor will help him guide his community in service to each and every one of its members, enlightening their consciences with the light of revealed truth, wisely guarding the evangelical authenticity of the Christian life, correcting errors, forgiving, curing the sick, consoling the afflicted, and promoting fraternity.” (footnote 174, n. 55 Congregation for the clergy, Directory on the ministry and life of priests).
“I am never less alone than as when I am alone” (St Ambrose, footnote 126, Congregation for the clergy, directory on the ministry and life of priests).
“The body, in fact, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine, it was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immorial in God, and thus be a sign of it.” ( John Paul II, man a subject of truth and love, part of theology of body series, L’Osservatore Romano Feb 25, 1980, vol 13, no.8, no. 19), (quoted in defending the family, a sourcebook ed. Paul C Vitz and Stephen M Krason 1998, The Catholic Social Science Press).
The human person “is the kind of good which does not admit of use and cannot be treated as an object of use and as such the means to an end.” (John Paul II, Love and Responsibility, New York 1981, Farrar Stars Liroux, p41).
“The most intimate and intense human relationship of love is marriage: the partnership of life and love” (Gaudiem et Spes, n.48, Second Vatican Council).
“Love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.” (Familiaris Consortio, n.11)
“True religion is a life hidden in the heart, not egoistical introspection” (Newman).
The Beautitudes are the Christian charter or constitution. (Anon)
“Silence is the cross on which we must crucify our ego” (St. Seraphim of Sarov)
“First step of pride is curiousity.” (St Bernard of Clairvaux on steps of pride and humility, quoted in The love that keeps us sane, living the little way of St. Therese of Liseux, Paulist Press, New York, 1987, ed. Marc Foley).
“God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7)
“To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception, it is an eternal loss for which there is no separation, either in time or eternity.” (Kierkegard)
“If there is harmony in the heart, there will be harmony in the family. If there is harmony in the family, there will be harmony in the nation. If there is harmony in the nation, there will be harmony in the world.” (Confucius, Chinese wisdom BC). (quoted in back to virtue, Peter Kreeft, Traditional moral wisdom for modern moral confusion, 1992, Ignatius, San Franscico).
“Spiritual vices clearly link to one another, one springs from another.” (Pope Gregory the great, Moralia XXXI, 45)
“Strength is an inevitable and natural consequence of submissiveness to God.” (p142 Peter Kreeft, Traditional moral wisdom for modern moral confusion, 1992, Ignatius, San Franscico).
“There are three types of people in the world: those who have sought God and have found him and serve him, those who are seeking him but have not yet found him, those who neither seek him nor find him. The first are reasonable and happy, The second reasonable and unhappy, the third unreasonable and unhappy.” (Pascal, the great philosopher).
“Sow a thought, reap and act. Sow an act reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.” (Eastern philosophy, Buddha)
“The sacredness of human life: whoever touches human life enters into the reserved domain of what belongs to the divine, and the doctor's profession is thus not just any occupation, but a sacred one in a very deep sense. Sacredness implies ethical duty — i.e., it excludes the objectification of the person, who never becomes a thing available for purposes different from himself, but is always sacred. …….. The more we begin to advance today on down to the deepest sources of human life, the more urgent and indispensable awareness of this sacredness of the medical art becomes. Purely technical, utilitarian action would eventually lead to the self-destruction of human dignity.” (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Questions on Bioethics posed for the Church 1991 found on Catholicculture.org, Reflection on Dolentium Hominum p10-15).
A few ways to practice humility
To speak as little as possible of oneself.
To mind one’s own business.
Not to want to manage other people’s affairs.
To avoid curiousity.
To accept contradiction and correction cheerfully.
To Passover the mistakes of others.
To accept insults and injuries.
To accept being slighted, forgotten or disliked.
Not to seek to be specially loved or admired.
To be kind and gentle even under provocation.
Never to stand on one’s dignity.
To yield in discussion even though one is right.
To choose always the hardest.
(Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
“When the state claims the power to regulate family bonds and emits laws that do not respect this natural community, which is prior to the state, it is feared that the state may make use of families in its own interests, and instead of protecting them and defending their rights, it will weaken or destroy them in order to dominate peoples.” (Aristotle noted that Aristotle that the family is prior and superior to the state (Nicomachean Ethics, Ch VIII, no. 15-20). John Paul reaffirmed concept of the sovereignty of the family (cf. Grtissimam Sane, n.17) Pontifical Council for the Family, The Family and Human Rights, Presented by Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo. Footnote 54.
“To defend the sovereignty of the family is to contribute to the sovereignty of nations.” (Pontifical Council for the Family, The Family and Human Rights, Presented by Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, n.72)
“The communications media propagate the total separation of the unitative and procreative purposes of the conjugal union and trivialize pre and para-marital sexual experiences, thereby weakening the family institution.” (Pontifical Council for the Family, The Family and Human Rights, Presented by Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, n.72)
“Broken and marginalized families, through which children suffer very much, generate poverty and marginalization.” (Pontifical Council for the Family, The Family and Human Rights, Presented by Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, n.72)
“Liberal individualism exalted together with a subjectivist ethic encourages the unbridled search for pleasure, causing the family to suffer.” (Pontifical Council for the Family, The Family and Human Rights, Presented by Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, n.74)
“Was it not through a family, the family of Nazareth, that the Son of God chose to enter into human history?” (Pontifical Council for the Family, The Family and Human Rights, Presented by Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, n.75, cf. John Paul II, Apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, n.28).
The Beijing Conference 1995, presumed to introduce the “gender ideology” into the culture of peoples. The ideology affirms among other things that the greatest form of oppression is man’s oppression of women, and that this is institutionalized in monogamous marriage….. According to this ideology, men and women’s roles in society would be merely the product of history and culture, and people are free to choose their sexual orientation, regardless of their biological sex. (------What utter tosh---- Pontifical Council for the Family, The Family and Human Rights, Presented by Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, n.75, footnote 66).
“There is not, and there never was on this earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheater. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight of fable. The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic of Venice was modern when compared with the Papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine, and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila.... Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveler from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's?" (the great English historian McCauley, Essay on L. von Ranke's "History of the Popes." quoted in Karl Adam, The spirit of Catholicism, ch.1, introductory, footnote 9).
"This is the most divine work by God and the one most worthy of the King of the Universe: to bring healing to humanity" (Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1, 12, 100ff)
“By allowing the rights of the weakest to be violated, the state also allows the law of force to prevail over the force of law.” Cardinal Ratzinger Addresses the Problem of Threats to Human Life, An address to the Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals discussing the challenges faced by today's war on life, the reasons for the logic of death and some possible responses. L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican, April 8, 1991
“No one in the world can change Truth. What we can and should do is to seek Truth and serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is within. Beyond armies of occupation and the hecatombs of the extermination camps, two irreconcilable enemies lie in the depths of every soul. And of what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”(Saint Maximilian Kolbe)
“The Physician should and may do nothing else but preserve life. Whether it is valuable or not, that is none of his business. If he once permits such considerations to influence his actions, the doctor will become the most dangerous person in the state.” (Wilhelm Hufeland, 1806).
“If a man loses reverence for any part of life, he will lose his reverence for all life.” (Dr. Albert Schweitzer).
Conscience is the “coming of divine precept to man.” (perventio praecepti divini ad hominem, De veritate, Q. xvii, A.4 ad.2, St. Thomas Aquinas)
“Wherever Catholicism is a living force, the poisonous plant of materialism cannot grow.” (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, ch XII).
“Charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith.” (1 Tim 1,5)- Ascesticism, self control.
“He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife.” (1 Cor, 7:32-3).
“Celibacy derives its meaning, its power and its serious purpose from the apostolate, from resolute self surrender to Christ and his kingdom. The love and care which a married man gives to the restricted circle of his family, are given by the priest and monk to their Lord and master, and to the thousands of souls entrusted to them by the Lord, to the sick, to children and to sinners. So the priest’s personality becomes richer and deeper, the more he sacrifices himself and gives himself to others.” (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, Chapter 12).
We can speak of God only by comparisons. (Wisdon 13:5- “For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen.”)
"Prayer leads to faith, faith leads to love, love leads to service and service leads to joy."
(Mother Teresa)
Chesterton Classic Quotes:
“Madness of tomorrow is not in Moscow but much more in Manhattan.”
“A fashionable fatalism founded on Marx.”
“Exalt lust and forbid fertility.” (on sexual morality of the day).
“There are three stages in the life of a strong people. First it is a small power and fights small powers. Then it is a great power and fights great powers. Then it is a great power and it fights small powers but pretends that they are great powers.”
“When people impute special vices to the Christian Church they seem to entirely forget that the world (which is the only other thing there is) has these vices much more. The Church has been cruel. The Church has plotted much more. The Church has been superstitious but it has never been so superstitious as the world when it is left to self.”
“The only argument against losing faith is that you also lose hope and generally charity.”
Birth control dubbed “no birth, no control.” (predicted it would lead to abortion and then infanticide, and be used in the name of progress).
“We are learning to do a great many clever things… the next thing we are going to have to learn is not to do them.” (Dale Ahlquist, Chesterton, the Apostle of common sense, St Austin Review, Reclaiming culture).
Ample empirical evidence that the 3 facets of the syndrome of an existencial vacuum- depression, aggression and addiction give a sense of emptiness and meaningless. (Victor Frankl, Man’s search for meaning, Pocket Books, 1985, p166)
“live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now.” (method of Logotherapy). (Victor Frankl, Man’s search for meaning, Pocket Books, 1985, p175)
Fr. Maurizio Faggioni O.F.M., theologian and moralist, pointed "health is not simply an absence of disease, but the harmony and integration of all individual, physical, mental and spiritual energies towards a life project that is particular to each individual." (Vatican Information Service email 17/2/05, on Pontifical Academy for life meeting 21-3 Feb, 2005).
Dr. Manfred Lutz, a neurologist, psychiatrist and member of the academy for life, "today we live in the age of the real existence of the religion of health. ... Health, goodness, like almost everything in our society, is seen as a product that can be manufactured." (Vatican Information Service email 17/2/05, on Pontifical Academy for life meeting 21-3 Feb, 2005).
On the authority of God who reveals himself to us, by faith we believe that which cannot be grasped by our human faculties (cf. Catechism, no. 1381).
St. Bonaventure: "There is no difficulty over Christ's being present in the sacrament as in a sign; the great difficulty is in the fact that He is really in the sacrament, as He is in heaven. And so believing this is especially meritorious" (In IV Sent., dist. X, P. I, art. un., qu. I).
"It is the law of friendship that friends should live together. . . . Christ has not left us without his bodily presence in this our pilgrimage, but he joins us to himself in this sacrament in the reality of his body and blood" (St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III q. 75, a. 1).
"If you want peace, work for justice." (Pope Paul VI, "Message of His Holiness Pope Paul VI for the Celebration of the [World] Day of Peace," January 1, 1972).
“Yes, let us give time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction… Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained.” (John Paul II, Dies Domini)
Prayer: “Lord give me this crown: you know how I have loved you with all my heart and all my life. I will be happy to see you and you will give me rest… I want to preserve heroically in my vocation, filling with fortitude the task assigned to me and setting an example to all your people in the east…. I will receive the life that knows no suffering, apprehension or anguish, that know neither persecutor or persecuted, oppressor or oppressed, tyrant nor victim. There I will no longer see the imitation of kings, the terror of prefects or anyone who cites me at the tribunal and frightens me more and more, or who entices and terrifies me. O path of all pilgrims, my sore feet will be healed in you: in the weariness of my limbs will find rest, Chrism of our anointing. In you the cap of our anointing. In you, the cup of our salvation, will the sorrow and joy, the tears of my eyes be wiped away.” (prayer attributed to Simeon, the Catholicos of seleucia-Ctesiphon in Persia, before dying a martyr with many companions during persecutions of King Shapur II: (A. Hamman, Preshiere dei primi Cristiani, Milan, 1955, p80-1), quoted in the Observatore Romano, n3, 19 January 2005.
“The two elements of the spiritual life are the purgation of heart and the direction of the holy spirit. There you have the two poles of all spirituality. By these two ways one arrives at perfection according to the degree of purity one has acquired, and in proportion to the fidelity one has had in co-operating with the movements of the holy spirit and following his conduct. Our whole perfection depends upon this fidelity and one could say that the abridgement of the spiritual life consists in attending to these two ways, the movement of the spirit of God in our souls, and the strengthening of our will in the resolution to follow them, using to that end all the disciplines of prayer, reading, the sacraments, the practice of virtues and good works.” (Louis Lallement, A seventeenth century Jesuit, Doctrine Spirituelle IV, 2, Art. 1,)
“The advancement of the poor constitutes a great opportunity for the moral, cultural and even economic growth of all humanity.” (John Paul II, Centimus Annus, n.28)
“Progress must ensure that the roles of men and women are preserved without driving a wedge between then and without feminizing men or masculinising women.” (Pontifical Council Cor Unum, world hunger, a challenge for all, development in solidarity cf. Mulieris Dignitatem n.6-7, Christifideles Laici n.50)
“All too often, the fruits of scientific progress, rather than being placed at the service of the entire community, are distributed in such a way that unjust inequalities are actually increased or even rendered permanent (…) The Catholic Church has consistently taught that there is a “social mortgage” on all private property, a concept which today may also be applied to intellectual property and to knowledge. The law of profit alone cannot be applied to that which is essential, for the fight against hunger, disease and poverty.” (John Paul II, 23/9/99, Address to delegation of Jubilee 2000 debt program).
“I will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the stony heart from their bodies, and replace it with a natural heart, so that they will live according to my statutes, and observe and carry out my ordinances; thus they shall be my people and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 11:19-20)