Joy does not nullify suffering. On the contrary it transforms suffering. Joy shines bright, takes the power away from evil, and laughs in the face of deception and turmoil. "You will not take me!" joy says, shaking its fist. Because joy comes from outside oneself. It does not come from ourselves but from an act of surrender. Joy comes from surrendering oneself to God.Shemaiah Gonzalez, Undaunted Joy
This was my second favorite book of last year. This quote shows you why. Truth in joyfulness.
Help is humiliating when it appeals to men from below, taking heed only of their material wants. It humiliates when there is no reciprocity. When you give the poor man nothing but bread or clothes, there is no likelihood of his ever giving you in return.
But help honors when it appeals to him from above. It respects him when it deals with his soul, with his religious, moral and political education, and with all that emancipates him from his passions. Help honors when, to the bread that nourishes, it adds the visit that consoles, advice that enlightens, the friendly handshake that lifts up flagging courage. It esteems the poor man when it treats him with respect, not only as an equal but a superior, since he is capable of suffering what we perhaps are incapable of suffering. After all, he is the messenger of God to us, sent to prove our justice and our charity and to save us by our works.
Help then becomes honorable, because it may become mutual. Every man who gives a kind word, good advice, a consolation today, may tomorrow need a kind word, advice or consolation The hand that you clasp, clasps yours in return That indigent family whom you love, loves you in return and will have largely acquitted themselves toward you when they shall have prayed for you.Frederic Ozanam, 1848, "De l'Aumône" (On Almsgiving)published in the newspaper L’Ère Nouvelle.Quoted in Voices of the Saints by Bert Ghezzi
This is the heart of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. It can't be better expressed how we are benefitted by our neighbors while they are being helped by us. Truly, this is something of the Lord. It is also the heart of our founder, Frederic Ozanam. The more I read about him, the more I admire him.
Why was John the Baptist eventually killed?
It wasn't because he preached about God.
It wasn't because he said a Messiah was coming.
It was because he told people to reform their lives.
It was because he told Herod he shouldn't have married his half-brother's wife.
John was preaching a touch message of personal and moral reform.
No one will kill me or get angry with me because I say, "I believe in God." But if I start talking about how the teachings of Jesus should change the world, or how the teachings of Jesus should change the way we live—for this people could get mad at me.Little Blue Book, Advent 2025
If you know that whatever you're worried about would be resolved tomorrow, would you still let it spoil today? If not, then why let it spoil right now?Father Mike Schmitz
This is the thought that makes it possible for me to go back to sleep in the middle of the night when I wake up with something on my mind. I'll let Jesus handle it. And face it tomorrow morning. (To be fair, it calms me in the middle of the day also.)
Bitterness is believing that God got it wrong. Worry is believing that God got it right.Timothy Keller
I don't struggle with bitterness but I am a bit of a worrier. This is solid gold for helping me relax and trust.
It takes readers as well as writers to make literature.Flannery O'Connor, Catholic Novelists and Their Readers
Simple but profound.
In order to allow dexterity and slimness for actions such as piano playng, the finger contains no muscles; tendons transfer force from muscles in the forearm and palm. In all, seventy separate muscles contribute to hand movements.Dr. Paul Brand, Fearfully and Wonderfully ...
This blew my mind. Which is pretty much what the whole book did anyway.
You first loved us so that we might love you — not because youneeded our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you.William of Saint-Thiery, On the Contemplation of God
I've seen this expressed before but never so well.
Mary, you are the vessel and tabernacle containing all Mysteries.
You know what the Patriarchs did not know;
you experienced what was not revealed to the Angels;
you heard what the Prophets did not hear.
In short, everything that was hidden from preceding generations was made known to you;
even more,
most of these wonders depended on you.St. Gregory the Great, Marian prayer
This is simply a lovely reflection and also something that hadn't occurred to me before.
It must once again be stressed that no human being is closed in upon himself or herself and that no one can live of or for himself or herself alone. ... Human beings are relational and they possess their lives — themselves — only by way of relationship. ... Sin is loss of relationship, disturbance of relationship, and therefore it is not restricted to the individual. When I destroy a relationship, then this event — sin — touches the other person involved in the relationship. Consequently sin is always an offense that touches others, that alters the world and damages it.
Cardinal Ratzinger, In the Beginning ...
That point about us possing our lives only by way of relationship is revelatory. How do we see ourselves in relation to others? How do they touch our lives and what does that mean to our journey through the day, the month, the year, to the end of our days?
People today know of no standard; to be sure, they do not want to know of any because they see standards as a threat to their freedom. ...
Thus sin has become a suppressed subejct, but everywhere we can see that although it is suppressed, it has nonetheless remained real. What is remarkable to me is the aggressiveness, always on the verge of pouncing, which we experience openly in our society — the lurking readiness to demean the other person, th hold others guilty whenever misfortune occurs to them, to accuse society, and to want to change the world by violence.Cardinal Ratzinger, In the Beginning ...
This was a superb, thought provoking book and it should have been on my Best of 2025 list. However, you can enjoy this bit in the fullness of the times in which we live. It was written in 1995 and, sadly, seems even more applicable now than then.
Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for -- I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times.
Kate L. Bosher
I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.
Charles Dickens
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
For the spirit of Christmas fulfils the greatest hunger of mankind.
Loring A. Schuler
Fail not to call to mind, in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; for mirth is also of Heaven's making.
Leigh Hunt
Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever.
Mark Twain
I'm a theological novice, but I simply assume that the Christian prism tends to inform Christians, whatever they are reading.Amen, amen. It's why I recently found support for my faith in a couple of parts of a space opera I was reading. I don't think that Sharon Lee and Steve Miller put those bits into Carpe Diem and Plan B in order to inspire but it worked out that way anyhow. Because the prism focused on those bits.William F. Buckley, 1977 interviewBooks and Culture
Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
