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.

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.

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 to all things. The one who possesses God is lacking in nothing; God alone is enough.

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.

Advent has a twofold character: as a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ's first coming to us is remembered; as a season when that remembrance directs the mind and heart to await Christ's Second Coming at the end of time.

--Roman Calendar, 1969

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.

--A. J. Muste (1885-1967)

We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom.

--Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-386)

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

--Cyril of Alexandria  (376-444)

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 (1090-1153)

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

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

--Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)

God is with those who persevere.

--The Koran

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 (1662-1714)

Lord my God, you have formed and reformed me.

-Anselm (1033-1109)

Unless we perform divine service with every willing act of our life, we never perform it at all.

We descend by self-exaltation and ascend by humility.

Justice . . . is the virtue that gives each what is due them.

It is no small matter to forsake the ancient tradition of the church that was upheld by all those who were called before us, whose conduct we should observe, and whose faith we should imitate.

The secret of the constancy of grace and virtue lies in the perseverance in prayer.

Going often to prayer is an act of faith. . . . Trying to be attentive in your prayers is an act of faith. . . . These are acts of faith, because they are acts that you would accomplish if you saw and understood that God is present, though your eyes and ears neither see nor hear him.

-John Henry Newman (1801-1890)