What to Say to the Tempter

Each of us can say to the tempter, “Unlike you, I have not yet become an outcast from heaven through my pride. By my baptism I have become one with Him. It is you that should fall prostrate before me.”

SAINT GREGORY NAZIANZEN

Feeding the Hungry Christ

Although he is the Lord, and a real lord who has no need of our goods, yet he has deigned to be hungry in his poor so that we might do something for him. “I was hungry and you gave me to eat,” he says. “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” “When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me.” [See Matthew 25:35-37, 40.] In a word, let everyone hear and consider worthily how great the merit is for having fed the hungry Christ, and how great the crime is for having scorned the hungry Christ.

SAINT AUGUSTINE Sermons 60.11.11

God’s Providence

Is Providence not always with us? Two sparrows are not worth very much, and who can count the hairs on your head? But the Lord cares for the sparrows and counts the hairs on your head. Will He not also care for our souls, our life itself? So there is nothing to fear, for nothing can happen to us without our Father knowing. The Lord is the Creator of the sparrows, but to us He is even more: He is our Father.

SAINT JOHN XXIII

God Willed to be Seen in the Flesh

I think this is the principal reason why the invisible God willed to be seen in the flesh and to converse with men as a man. He wanted to recapture the affections of carnal men who were unable to love in any other way, by first drawing them to the salutary love of his own humanity, and then gradually to raise them to a spiritual love.

SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

A World of Iniquity

Although it runs contrary to the way we normally use our tongues, God's Word tells us: “do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters” (James 4:11). Being willing to speak ill of another person is a way of asserting ourselves, venting resentment and envy without concern for the harm we may do. We often forget that slander can be quite sinful; it is a grave offense against God when it seriously harms another person’s good name and causes damage that is hard to repair. Hence God’s Word forthrightly states that the tongue is “a world of iniquity” that “stains the whole body”; it is a “restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Whereas the tongue can be used to “curse those who are made in the likeness of God,” love cherishes the good name of others, even one’s enemies. In seeking to uphold God's law we must never forget this specific requirement of love.

POPE FRANCIS Amoris Laetitia

The Root of Virtue

At the root of all virtues there ought to be humility: not only that humility which is exterior and formed with words, but humility of the heart; not a forced humility that comes from delusions, displeasures, or the fear of not succeeding, but humility of the heart, willed for the love of God, born of the knowledge that God alone is great, while we are nothing. Our Lord surely does not love humility that is melancholy, sad, or of bad humor, urging us to set ourselves apart and to remain inactive. Rather, he loves that humility of heart that is happy to act and sacrifice self for God.

FR. GARRIGOU-LANGRANGE, O.P. Knowing the Love of God: Lessons From a Spiritual Master

Drawing Benefit From Holy Communion

If we often draw so little fruit from Communion, it is because we take it to be something it is not. People think they are supposed to experience some kind of sacred emotion or thrill. Such an attitude is entirely sterile; it prevents us from getting out of ourselves. It is still a search for self. To derive from Communion the benefit that should be drawn from it, we must above all remember that Christ wished to be our food in the Eucharist. We take in nourishment in order to replenish and increase our strength. We take Communion in order to increase our spiritual strength. We eat when we are hungry: our appetite decides the matter here, the equivalent of the physical appetite is the infinite (but powerless) passion to get out of ourselves, to forget ourselves—this being our only means of being assimilated to the Truth. Once this passion arises in us, we will soon experience a painful need of strength to achieve this “ecstasy”—and we will go to Communion to obtain this strength.

FR. CHARLES NICOLET, SJ