Receive Christ, receive power to see, receive your light. . . . More delightful than gold and precious stones, more desirable than honey and the honeycomb is the Word that has enlight-ened us. 

—Saint Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215)

The light in which you dwell, Lord, is beyond my understanding. It is so brilliant that I cannot bear it, I cannot turn my mind’s eye toward it for any length of time. I am dazzled by its brightness, amazed by its grandeur, overwhelmed by its immensity, bewildered by its abundance.

—Saint Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109)

When [Christ] humbled himself he lifted the world up. . . . He filled the world with faith in God . . . and gained innumerable blessings beyond the power of myself or anyone else to describe in words.

—Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347-407)

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.

—Helen Keller

All through our life Christ is calling us. He called us first in baptism, but afterwards also, whether we obey his voice or not, he graciously calls us still. If we fall from our baptism, he calls us to repent; if we are striving to fulfill our calling, he calls us on from grace to grace, and from holiness to holiness, while life is given us.

—John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

It is asked of Christians that they let go of riches and many other things, but this is only a gesture of welcome, a preliminary condition to a rebirth that makes us over, renders us able to receive the salvation coming from God alone.

—J. Delorme

Because the divine goodness could not be adequately represented by one creature alone, God produced many and diverse creatures, that what was wanting in one in the repre-sentation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another. 

—Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274)

The cry of the oppressed is God’s voice. . . . The cry of the voiceless and the hopeless is God’s voice. . . . The protest of the poor is God’s voice. . . . And the voice of the countries who are victims of these injustices is God’s voice.
—Dom Helder Camara

The church is not in charge of God. It is a sacrament of God’s reign in the world, sustaining us to live and love the way Jesus of Nazareth did. Our faith is not in the church as a human institution, but rather in God, in Jesus, in the gospel . . . 
—Educator Thomas Groome

If everyone kept only what is necessary for ordinary needs and left the surplus to the poor, wealth and poverty would be abolished.   
—Saint Basil the Great (329-379)

Jesus had just spoken of the little ones who believe in him; and it is as if he suddenly saw in his mind’s eye the horrendous movie of the trampling of the little ones throughout the centuries by those who deem themselves wise, strong, clever, or who simply crush everything without noticing anything. For Jesus, this is sin. . . . How many little ones are mocked, scorned nearby, without our paying any attention to it?
—A. M. Besnard   

To follow Christ by bending down to our brothers and sisters . . . to be everything to everyone, to undervalue nothing that pertains to Christ; to be thirsty for only one thing, to be concerned with only one thing when dealing with the One Christ—Isaac de l’Etoile (d. ca. 1167).

The whole world cannot rob of its peace the soul who really rests in God’s love; no attack . . . will disturb it, even so slightly, because genuine love of God in God is for the soul a rampart that no violence can break down. Christ’s peace is a rock . . . .
—Blessed Paul Giustiniani (1476-1528)

Peace is not built up simply by political means and the balance of power and interests. It is built in the realm of the spirit, in the world of ideas, in the arena of peaceful activity.
—Pope Paul VI (1897-1978)

There is a useful method for strengthening hearts that lack courage. This is to give them the privilege of seeing the poor, of being shown our Lord Jesus Christ not only in holy pictures painted by great artists but of being shown Jesus Christ and his wounds in the person of the poor.
—Blessed Frédéric Ozanam (1813-1853)

 Crucified inwardly and outwardly with Christ, you will live in this life with fullness and satisfaction of soul, and possess your soul in patience.
—John of the Cross (1542-1591)

Faith and charity are the beginning and the end of life: the beginning is faith and the end is charity. The two together are God, and everything else that leads to human perfection is only a consequence of faith and charity.
—Ignatius of Antioch (d. c. 110) ​

If poor people come in . . . make room for them wholeheartedly, O bishop, even if it means that you have to sit on the ground. You must not be a respecter of persons if you want your ministry to be agreeable before God.
—The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles (c. 60-100)

But Satan is wiser than of yore, / And tempts by making rich, not poor.
—Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by  his poverty you might become rich.
—2 Corinthians 8:9

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
—John 15:9-12

What goes into a person can defile a person. Ask a drug addict or an alcoholic. But Jesus’ diagnosis is that there’s a deeper problem that comes from within. Spiritual impurity or moral defilement starts on the inside. It arises from the heart.
—Heidi Husted, The Christian Century

From a controversy on the clean and unclean, on good and evil, on tradition and newness, Jesus leads us into an altogether different perspective: that of an examination of one’s life and of conversion of the heart. . . . In the name of this reality, we must attempt to track down our hidden hypocrisies, this ever-renewed need to cheaply justify ourselves.
—P. Y. Emery

Knowledge is of no avail without the love of God, nor is understanding of mysteries, faith, or prophecy. Without love all are vain and profitless. Love, on the other hand, perfects a person, and one who loves God is perfect both in this world and the next, for we shall never stop loving God . . . .
—Saint Irenaeus (c. 140-200)

The greatness of God remains so firmly in the soul that even had it no faith which will tell it who God is. . . . the soul would adore God as such from that very moment. . . .
—Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582)

Do not regard the bread and wine as natural elements because they are, as the Master declared, body and blood. . . . [D]o not judge by taste but by faith; be fully assured, you who have been judged worthy of the body and blood of Christ.
—Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (315?-386)

That the desire to follow Christ alone and to be with him always is a good thing leading to our salvation is entirely self-evident; yet we may learn this from the Old Testament as well. . . . Keeping with their guide was the Israelites’ salvation then, just as not leaving Christ is ours now.
—Saint Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444)

No one realizes the mystery of the Incarnation but must feel disposed towards that of Holy Communion. Let us pray [to Jesus] to give us an earnest longing after him—a thirst for his presence—and anxiety to find him—a joy on hearing that he is to be found, even now, under the veil of sensible things—and a good hope that we shall find him there.
—Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890)