I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
—Maya Angelou

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
—Charles Dickens

To say “they shall call him Emmanuel” means nothing else than they shall see God among us. Admittedly God has always been among us, but never before so openly.
—Saint John Chrysostom

Patience is the companion of wisdom.
—Saint Augustine

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
—Mother Teresa

Jesus must become the heart of my heart, the fire of my life, the love of my soul, the bridegroom of my spirit. He must become my only thought, my only concern, my only desire.
—Henri Nouwen

Patience attains all that it strives for.
—Saint Teresa of Ávila

The God who creates justice for those who suffer violence . . . that is the God of hope for the new world of righteousness and justice and peace.
—Jürgen Moltmann 

John the Baptist was supposed to point the way to the Christ. He was just the voice, not the Messiah. So everybody’s calling has dignity to it and God seems to know better than we do what is in us that needs to be called forth.
—James Green Somerville

Advent is patience. God has made us a people of promise in a world of impatience.
—Stanley Hauerwas

If you want peace, work for justice.
—Pope Paul VI

To prepare the way means to pray well; it means thinking humbly of oneself.
—Saint Augustine of Hippo

It is Advent again. We call this time Advent because it reminds us what comes from God for the creation of his Kingdom on Earth.
—C. F. Blumhardt

God’s intervening into human history came about with an almost frightening quietness and self-effacement, and . . . he will come again with the same silence and the same devastating humility into any heart ready to receive him.
—J. B. Phillips

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.
—Mary Oliver

May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love.
—Teresa of Ávila

A leader . . . is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.
—Nelson Mandela

Only wonder understands anything.
—Saint Gregory of Nyssa

In order that your prayer may be real, you must deal with the arduousness of work. . . . Your prayer becomes whole when it is of a piece with your labor.
—Rule of Taizé

Endurance . . . is peace in time of war, calm in rough waters, safety amidst treachery and danger. It makes those who practice it stronger than steel.
—Nilus of Ancyra (d. c. 430)

I am not dying, I am beginning to live.
—Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-97), at her death

Resurrection does not simply spell the survival of the soul but requires the transformation of the world as we know it.
—Elisabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza

The question of death is really a question about life.
—Pope Francis

Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person's life.
—Jackie Chan

Let us go and wake up the universe and sing God’s praises.
—Blessed Mariam Baouardy

God creates out of nothing. . . . but he does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.
—Søren Kierkegaard, Journals

Charity even for one person does not make sense except in terms of an effort to love all Creation in response to the Creator’s love for it.
—Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace

Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.
—Cornel West

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.
—Eleanor Roosevelt

The existence of the Bible, as a book for the people, is the greatest benefit which the human race has ever experienced.
—Immanuel Kant 

All saints began their conversion by prayer, and through prayer they persevered.
—Saint John Vianney