Love is something we learn; love is something we live; love grows as it is forged by the concrete situations which each particular family experiences.
—Pope Francis

Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.
—Jean Paul Richter

Nazareth is a kind of school where we may begin to discover what Christ’s life was like and even to understand his gospel. Here we can observe and ponder the simple appeal of the way God’s Son came to be known, profound yet full of hidden meaning. And gradually we may even learn to imitate him.
—Pope Paul VI, homily given at Nazareth, 1964

The Holy Family is the beginning of countless other holy families.
—Pope John Paul II, Letter to Families, 1994

Christmas is not just a seasonal celebration or the memory of a beautiful event. Christmas is an encounter!
—Pope Francis

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!
—Benjamin Franklin

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

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 Christmastime.
—Laura Ingalls Wilder

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more!
—Dr. Seuss

(Some of this Christmas issue material has been published previously in PTW.)

On my table I have an image of Saint Joseph sleeping. . . . So when I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little note and I put it underneath Saint Joseph, so that he can dream about it! In other words I tell him: pray for this problem!         
—Pope Francis

What emanates from the figure of Saint Joseph is faith . . . . Joseph of Nazareth is a “just man” because he totally “lives by faith.” He is holy because his faith is truly heroic.
—Pope John Paul II

The name God-with-us signifies that two natures are united in Jesus’ one person. Before time began, he was God, born of the Father, but in the fullness of time he became Emmanuel . . . in the womb of his mother, because when the word was made flesh and lived among us he deigned to unite our frail human nature to his own person.
—Venerable Bede

From [David’s] descendants, God, according to his promise, has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.
—Acts 13:23

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains be joyful and all that is in them. Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.
—Psalm 96:11-12

Patience attains all things. The one who possesses God is lacking in nothing; God alone is enough.
—Teresa of Ávila

You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, a single power, a single salvation . . . and that is called loving.
—Hermann Hesse

Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it.
—Simone Weil

Truly, when the day of judgment comes, we shall not be examined as to what we have read, but what we have done, not how well we have spoken, but how we have lived.
—Thomas à Kempis

Focus on the journey, not on the destination. Joy is found not finishing an activity, but doing it.
—Greg Anderson, founder of the Cancer Recovery Foundation

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.
—A. J. Muste

God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness. 
—Henry Ward Beecher

Christ has dominion over all creatures, a dominion not seized by violence nor usurped, but his by essence and by nature.
—Cyril of Alexandria

Perseverance is the sister of patience, the daughter of constancy, the friend of peace, the cementer of friendships, the bond of harmony, and the bulwark of holiness.
—Bernard of Clairvaux

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

By patient endurance you will win life for yourselves, although to this must be added wholehearted thanksgiving, and prayer, and humility. For you must be ready to bless and praise your benefactor, God the savior of the world, who disposes all things, good or otherwise, for your benefit.
—Nilus of Ancyra

You are called to care for creation not only as responsible citizens, but also as followers of Christ.
—Pope Francis

Love makes the whole difference between an execution and a martyrdom.
—Evelyn Underhill

The truth does not change by our ability to stomach it.
—Flannery O’Connor

Some people do not like to hear much of repentance; but I think it is so necessary that if I should die in the pulpit, I would desire to die preaching repentance, and if out of the pulpit I would desire to die practicing it.
—Matthew Henry

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?
—Ezekiel 18:23

Lord my God, you have formed and reformed me.
—Anselm