Teach us to give and not to count the cost.
—Ignatius of Loyola

The only gift is a portion of thyself.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law.
—Sophocles

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
—William Blake

Be who you were created to be and you will set the world on fire!
—Saint Catherine of Siena

The one who does a pure and whole work from God merits a whole kingdom.
—John of the Cross

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
—Psalm 119:105

Every baby is an inestimable blessing.
—Mark Twain

The triumphant Christian does not fight for victory; [but rather] celebrates . . . a victory already won.
—Reginald Wallis

Have patience with all things, but, first of all with yourself.
—Saint Francis de Sales

You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you.
—Dorothy Day

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge . . . is itself a frightful despotism.
—George Washington

In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.
—Augustine of Hippo

The Lord was baptized . . . to cleanse waters, so that those waters . . . might have the power of Baptism.
—Saint Ambrose of Milan

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.
–Mahatma Gandhi

Discernment is a grace. Even though it includes reason and prudence, it goes beyond them.
—Pope Francis

Baptism incorporates us into Christ and forms us into God’s people. . . . pardons our sins, rescues us from the powers of darkness, and brings us to the dignity of adopted children, a new creation through water and the Holy Spirit.
—Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults

And the Spirit of God brooded over the waters like a dove which hovers over her young without touching them.
—Talmud

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms / But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation / With an alien people clutching their gods.
—T. S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi

God does not reserve his love for a privileged few, but offers it to all.
—Pope Francis

The Magi . . . perceived one thing with the eyes of their bodies but another with the eyes of the mind.
—Chromatius

Has it ever occurred to you that neither Herod nor his scribes could see the star the Magi saw? Otherwise they might have followed it themselves. . . . only the Magi could see the star and that was because they were visionaries, men who believed in the possibility of the impossible.
—Anne Porter, The Ticket

As mariners are guided into port by the shining of a star, so Christians are guided to heaven by Mary.
—Saint Thomas Aquinas

If you ever feel distressed during your day, call upon our Lady, just say this simple prayer: 'Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.' I must admit, this prayer has never failed me.
—Blessed Mother Teresa

(Some of this material for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been published previously in PTW.)

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