The scribes asserted that only God could forgive sins, yet Jesus not only forgave sins, but showed he also had another power that belongs to God alone: the power to disclose the secrets of the heart.
—Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347-407)

Nothing is today as it was yesterday. But this kind of new is old almost as soon as it appears . . . Yet sometimes a new thing appears which does not age so easily, which makes life possible again, in both our personal and our historical existence, a saving new, which has the power to appear when we least expect it, and which has the power to throw into the past what is old and burdened with guilt and curse. Its saving power is the power of the Eternal within it.
—Paul Tillich (1886-1965), The Shaking of the Foundations

Always we begin again.
–Benedictine motto

To seek God is nothing more than to respond to one’s maker, the Creator who keeps us in being, who cares for us and pursues us. To seek God is really to allow oneself to be found, and to say yes in the light of wisdom that is clearly greater than all human thought.
—Bishop Donald Wuerl, Our Catholic Faith

Each one of us can be healed by God every day. We have only to worship him with humility and love, and wherever we are to say with faith: Lord, if you want to you can make me clean. It is by believing from the heart that we are justified, so we must make our petitions with the utmost confidence, and without the slightest doubt of God’s power.
—Saint Paschasius Radbertus (c. 785-860)

Jesus’ compassion is not skin-deep, it is an upheaval of the depths of his being. There is not true compassion without passion: Those who are compassionate really suffer in their persons. Compassion is a communion in suffering.
—François Varillon (1905-1978)

I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper’s wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself.
–Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Sometimes listening to people becomes monotonous and extremely boring, till one is nearly collapsing; but in such cases it helps to remember that even when Jesus was about to fall for the third time, he patiently consoled the women-folk and children of his persecutors, making no exceptions. How can we ever be as grateful as we ought for such a vocation?
—Solanus Casey (1870-1957), Franciscan Capuchin monk who conducted a ministry of healing and listening as the doorkeeper of his monastery

We know how to make beautiful speeches on suffering. I myself have spoken of it with enthusiasm. Tell the priests to say nothing about it; we don’t know what suffering is. I weep to think of it.
—Cardinal Pierre Veuillot, when he was dying from cancer

So Jesus took her by the hand, and the fever left her. Here you see how fever loosens its grip on a person whose hand is held by Christ’s; no sickness can stand its ground in the face of the very source of health. Where the Lord of life has entered, there is no room for death.
—Saint Peter Chrysologus (c. 400-450)

Unless the gospel is preached with contemporary relevance, it has not been preached.
—Martin Luther (1483-1546)

To believe in the relevance of God is to believe in the presence of prophets among us who show the relevance of his Word. To believe in the faithfulness of God and in his church is to believe that he will not let it fall asleep, be overwhelmed, lose its vigor and the dynamism of its hope.
—Jésus-Maria Asurmendi

At the time appointed Christ came forth from the Father and showed himself in this external word, first as its creator, then as its teacher, the revealer of secrets, the mediator . . . and the express image of his person.
—John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

God’s will is to save us, and nothing pleases God more than our coming back to God with true repentance.  
—Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662) 

The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!
—Luke 11:32 

Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god . . . . Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts.
—Eugene Peterson​ 

Parent of parents and Friend of all friends,
Your intent in thus disposing was different from this;
For here without entreaty you took me into your care,
And by degrees led me from all else
That at length I might see and settle my love in you.
—Mary Ward (1585-1645)

We cannot be fishers of men and women if in our hearts we are haters of them. This truth . . . reveals a nonviolent ethic: Love even your enemies; become fishers of them. We will not win people to our convictions if we despise them.
–Susan B. W. Johnson, Christian Century (1/15/97)

Christian faith is lived in discipleship to Jesus Christ. As disciples, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives become increasingly centered on Jesus and the kingdom he proclaims. By opening ourselves to him we find community with all his faith-filled disciples and by their example come to know Jesus more intimately. By following the example of his self-giving love we learn to be Christian disciples in our own time, place, and circumstances.
—Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us: A Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation in the United States, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

John points to [Jesus] and says: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” [Jesus’] taking away sin is still going on, he is taking it away from every individual in the world, till sin be taken away from the whole world, and the Saviour deliver the kingdom prepared and completed to the Father.
—Origen (182-251)

Vocation doesn’t come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about . . . or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my expectations.
—Parker Palmer

In the year 2000, the Boston Globe reported, the number of adults being baptized as Catholics was up by up to 10 percent, and the number of Catholics baptized as infants but who received First Communion and were confirmed as adults rose at a slightly higher rate.

The gospel today is full of titles: John’s disciples call Jesus Rabbi, a “teacher” or “master” who acted like a traditional rabbinic figure but also claimed special authority; Lamb of God: a reference to the sacrificial paschal lamb—the suffering servant of Isaiah 53:7, who “like a lamb led to slaughter or a sheep before the shearers . . . was silent and opened not his mouth”—and perhaps to the Good Shepherd; and the Messiah: the Anointed One who came to save his people. We also hear of Peter as Cephas, the rock on whom the church will be built.

Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him.
—Saint Gregory of Nazianzen (329?-390)

Each year the Catholic Church baptizes about 1,000,000 infants and 80,000 adults, and receives into full communion almost 100,000 people from other Christian denominations.

Heaven is homecoming. Heaven is the beatific vision, by which we, who are not merely called but are sons and daughters of God (1 John 3:1) will be made perfectly happy. It is the “banquet of life,” a wedding feast that, because God is eternal and infinite, can never be boring but will through all eternity be a fresh discovery of God’s creative love: an eternal honeymoon.
—Godfrey Diekmann, O.S.B., Christmas letter, 2001

Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, a human being in God, God in a human being, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body.
—Saint Peter Chrysologus

The day on which Christ first showed himself . . . as the savior of the world should be held in holy reverence by us. We should experience in our hearts the same joy as the three wise men felt when the sign of the new star led them into the presence of the king of heaven and earth, and they gazed in adoration upon the one in whose promised coming they had put their faith.
—Leo the Great (c. 400-461)

Why do we call this day Epiphany? Because Jesus Christ manifested himself to all people, not when he was born, but, rather, when he was baptized. Until that time he was unknown to the people, as testified by Saint John the Baptist, saying,: ‘There stands among you One, Whom you don’t know!’
–Saint John Chrysostom (d. 407)

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 

—Philippians 2:1-4

The more holy someone is, the more cordial they should be with others.” 

—Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Jesus is the only person in recorded history whose parents thought he was a child of God rather than their own creative project and possession.

—Polly Berrien Berends in Gently Lead

O honored and venerable Simeon, earliest host of our holy religion, and teacher of the resurrection of the faithful, be our patron and advocate with that Saviour God, you who was deemed worthy to be received into your arms. We, together with you, sing our praises to Christ, who has the power of life and death.

—Saint Methodius (826-885)

It is necessary to go back to seeing the family as the sanctuary of life. The family is indeed sacred: It is the place in which life—the gift of God—can be properly welcomed and protected against the many attacks to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes authentic human growth.

—Pope John Paul II in Centesimus Annus, 1991

Father, I abandon myself into your hands, do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me and in all your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands, I commend my soul; I offer it to you with all the love of my heart; for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself: to surrender myself into your hands without reserve and with boundless confidence. 

—Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916)

When persons are convinced that life is short . . . and that eternity is the only subject that really claims or can fill our thoughts, then they are apt to undervalue this life altogether, and to forget its real importance. 

—John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with the flocks, then the work of Christmas begins: Yo find the lost, to heal those broken in spirit, to feed the hungry, to release the oppressed, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among all peoples, to make a little music with the heart. . . . And to radiate the light of Christ, every day, in every way, in all that we do and in all that we say. Then the work of Christmas begins. 

—Howard Thurman, theologian, pastor, mystic, and civil rights activist

I knew nothing. I was nothing. For this reason God picked me out. 

—Saint Catherine Labouré  (1806-1876), on her vision  of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Consider what a dignity is ours, and what a likeness there is between us and Mary. Mary conceived Christ in her womb, and we bear him about in our hearts. 

—Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072)

She who is the mother of Christ is the mother of our wisdom, mother of our righteousness, mother of our sanctification, mother of our redemption.

—Saint Aelred of Rievaulx (1110?-1167)