The earth also shall yield its fruit ten-thousandfold and on each vine there shall be a thousand branches, and each branch shall produce a thousand clusters, and each cluster produce a thousand grapes.
—The Apocalypse of Baruch 29:5, Second century

The best way to fulfill one’s obligations of justice and love is to contribute to the common good according to one’s means and the needs of others.
–Gaudium et Spes, no. 30
 

Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God’s new Temple. They are . . . places where heaven and earth meet.
—N. T. Wright
 
In baptism the form of Christ’s death is impressed upon [one’s] own. . . . Anybody living in the strength of Christ’s baptism lives in the strength of Christ’s death.
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
 

Small vessels may hold great gifts.
—Saint Ephrem the Syrian (d. 373)
 
The same Christ who in Bethlehem, as a child, accepted the gifts of the Magi kings, is still the one to whom . . . whole peoples “open their treasures.”
–Pope John Paul II

A child needs both to be hugged and unhugged. The hug lets her know she is valuable. The unhug lets her know that she is viable.
—Polly Berrien Berends, Gently Lead
 
As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
–Pope John Paul II

Elizabeth was the first to hear the voice but her son John was the first to feel the effects of grace.
—Saint Ambrose of Milan (340-397)
 
The food of real love is sacrifice.
–Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Quotes
The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.
—Julian of Norwich (1342-c. 1416)
 
The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ.
–C. S. Lewis

To find joy in another’s joy, that is the secret of happiness.
—George Bernanos
 
John was called a voice and not a word, because, through John, God . . . was planning to do something great through human history.
–Anon. early Christian homily on Matthew

See, days are coming . . . when I will raise up a righteous branch for David; as king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land.
—Jeremiah 23:5

No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There’s too much work to do.
–Dorothy Day

A man who was completely innocent offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.
—Mahatma Gandhi

We believe that we have . . . inherited the kingdom of the heavens, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
–Saint Athanasius, A.D. 325-370

To bear other people’s afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare.
—Benjamin Franklin

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
–T. S. Eliot