Wisdom of the Saints – Editor’s Choice 2016-2021

“Chastity will be lost where the distinction between the sexes is not observed.” St. Ambrose of Milan (4th century, Doctor of the Church) From purity part 3, September 2018

“There are some who wish to be humble, but without being despised, who wish to be happy with their lot, but without being needy, who wish to be chaste, without mortifying the body, to be patient without suffering. They want both to acquire virtues and to avoid the sacrifices those virtues involve: they are like soldiers who flee the battlefield and try to win the war from the comfort of the city.” Pope St. Gregory the Great (6th-7th centuries, Doctor of the Church) From spiritual warfare part 3, April 2019

“When we are who we are called to be, we will set the world ablaze.” St. Catherine of Siena (14th-15th centuries, Doctor of the Church) From vocation, March 2016

“See now, when Christ comes back to His Apostles for the third time, there they are, buried in sleep, though He commanded them to bear up with Him and to stay awake and pray because of the impending danger; but Judas the traitor at the same time was so wide awake and intent on betraying the Lord that the very idea of sleep never entered his mind. Does not this contrast between the traitor and the Apostles present to us a clear and sharp mirror image (as it were), a sad and terrible view of what has happened through the ages from those times even to our own?” St. Thomas More (15th-16th centuries) From spiritual warfare part 3, April 2019

“Of all the things of life, a happy death is our principle concern. For if we attain that, it matters little if we lose all the rest. But if we do not attain that, nothing else is of any value.” St. Junipero Serra (18th century) From last things part 2, December 2017

“Purity is a precious jewel, and the owner of a precious stone would never dream of making a display of his riches in the presence of thieves.” St. John Bosco (19th century) From purity part 2, April 2017

“The world’s thy ship and not thy home.” St. Therese of Lisieux (19th century, Doctor of the Church) From the world part 4, August 2018

“Be a Catholic: When you kneel before an altar, do it in such a way that others may be able to recognize that you know before Whom you kneel.” St. Maximilian Kolbe (19th-20th centuries) From discipleship part 4, May 2018

“In the heart of Jesus, which was pierced, the kingdom of heaven and the land of earth are bound together. Here is for us the source of life. This heart is the heart of the Triune Divinity, and the center of all human hearts… It draws us to itself with secret power, it conceals us in itself in the Father’s bosom and floods us with the Holy Spirit. This heart, it beats for us in a small tabernacle where it remains mysteriously hidden in that still, white Host.” St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (19th-20th centuries) From the Sacred Heart part 2, Holy Week 2018

“The only science that gives purpose to every other science is the science of Religion…Religion is the science of saving souls.” Bl. Solanus Casey (19th-20th centuries) From religion January 2018

‎”Belief in Purgatory has declined in just the proportion that the modern mind forgot the two most important things in the world: the Purity of God and the heinousness of sin.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th century) From sin part 5, June 2016

“In moments when fever, agony, and pain make it hard to pray, the suggestion of prayer that comes from merely holding the Rosary – or better still, from caressing the crucifix at the end of it – is tremendous.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries) From the holy Rosary part 3, October 2016

“When a woman’s love becomes venal, everything is lost. When it is kept noble, it brings to the world the balm of tenderness and devotion. The level of any civilization is thus the level of its womanhood.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries) From purity part 3, September 2018

“You cannot take a vote on the truth.” Pope St. John Paul II (20th-21st centuries) From truth part 4, June 2019