Advent increases our hope. A hope which does not disappoint. The Lord never lets us down.
—Pope Francis

Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.
—Henri Nouwen

Advent: the time to listen for footsteps―you can’t hear footsteps when you’re running yourself.
—Bill McKibben

God withholds Himself from no one who perseveres.
―Saint Teresa of Ávila

It is by the works of mercy that we shall be judged.
—Dorothy Day

Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst, and privation. Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering the kingdom.
—Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 544)

Love is the final word.
—Dorothy Day

We desire peace but not the things that make for peace.
—Thomas À Kempis

Fear only two: God, and the man who has no fear of God.
—Hasidic proverb

God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.
—Meister Eckhart

The Wisdom of God . . . comes forth, reaching from "end to end mightily." She wills to be also the unseen pivot of all nature, the center and significance of all the light that is in all and for all.
—Thomas Merton, "Hagia Sophia"

Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation.
—Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

The times we find ourselves having to wait on others may be the perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord.
—Joni Eareckson Tada

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
—Abraham Lincoln

If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.
—Saint Teresa of Calcutta

God favors the humble. Scripture tells us that he resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. In fact he gives them everything . . . . He cannot refuse it. He gives himself entirely to humility. 
—Cardinal Jean Verdier

Priesthood is not about power, prestige, or privilege. The pedestal has been struck down. The status lost. The Lord cautioned his disciples not to be seeking places of honor.
—Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas

We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw close to God to bring him close to others, be sanctified to sanctify, lead by the hand and counsel prudently.
—Saint Gregory of Nazianzus

I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.
—Vincent van Gogh

The measure of a country’s greatness should be based on how well it cares for its most vulnerable populations.
—Mahatma Gandhi

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.
—Abraham Lincoln

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
—Winston Churchill

Any day, any minute we bless God for our being or for anything, for food, for sunlight, we do and are what we were meant for, made for—things that give and mean to give God glory.
—Gerard Manley Hopkins

To accept the invitation . . . is to be taken into Christ’s living Body, finding there a company of unlikely people who have received and answered the same invitation.
—Rowan Wiilliams

We are all of us from birth to death guests at a table which we did not spread. The sun, the Earth, love, friends, our very breath are parts of the banquet. . . . Shall we think of the day as a chance to come nearer to our Host, and to find out something of him who has fed us so long?
—Rebecca Harding Davis

Holiness is not the accumulation of virtues. Holiness is being possessed by God.
—Father John Riccardo

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.
—Winston Churchill

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
—Psalm 118:22-24

Things may not be logical or fair, but when God is directing the events of our lives, they are right.
—Luci Swindel

The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.
—Joan Didion

You need only to look at the vine to be reminded of your own nature. . . . Each of us has been grafted onto the church by faith the Lord calls branches, and he urges us to bear much fruit.
—Saint Basil the Great