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)

The most holy Eucharist holds within itself the whole  spiritual treasure of the church, namely Christ himself, our passover and our living bread.
—Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)

We speak of the real presence of Christ in us . . . . he is in us, through his flesh, and we are in him; and with him, what we are is in God.
—Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315-367)

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrow, but we can choose to live in joy.
—Mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)

Those who eat and drink the Lord’s flesh and blood live in the Lord and the Lord lives in them. A marvelous and inexplicable union occurs by which God is in us, and we are in God. Does this not fill you with awe as you listen?
—Saint Theophylact (c. 1050-1109)

Love is fully sufficient to itself; when it enters the heart, it absorbs all other feelings. The soul who loves, loves and knows nothing more. To God alone, honor and glory. But God accepts these only when seasoned with the honey of love.
—Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

Jesus asks only that we unite ourselves to his most divine life by imitating it to the best of our ability so as to enter into a real communion with God and God’s divine mysteries.
—Attributed to Denis the Areopagite (5th-6th centuries)

Give me persons who love and they will understand what I am saying. Give me persons who desire; who are hungry; who, after a pilgrimage in the wilderness, are thirsty and pine for the source of the eternal homeland; give me such persons and they will understand what I am saying.
—Saint Augustine (354-430)

The Eucharist shows us in the glorified flesh of the Risen Christ the world already transfigured, and it inaugurates the definitive harmony of earthly things, the harmony of glory. Rise, my soul, take and eat the pledge of all salvation and glory for all flesh.
—Karl Rahner (1904-1984)

I long to understand in some degree thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand.
—Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Yes, the time has come for conversion, for personal transformation, for inner renewal. We must get used to thinking in a new way, of humanity, of common life among humans, of the roads of history and the destiny of the world.
—Pope Paul VI (1897-1978)

Whoever believes in this bread will never hunger, will  never be famished for want of hearing the Word of God; nor will such a person be parched by spiritual thirst through lack of the waters of baptism and the consecration imparted by the Spirit.   
—Saint Theophylact (c. 1050-1109)

Since once again, Lord . . . I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself above these symbols . . . I, your priest, will make the whole Earth my altar and on it will offer you all the labors and sufferings of the world.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)

Bread plays so many roles! We have learned to recognize, in it, an instrument of the human community, because of the bread we break together. We have learned to recognize, in it, the image of the nobility of work, because of the bread we earn by the sweat of our brow. We have learned to recognize, in it, the essential vehicle of pity, because of the bread we distribute in times of want.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944)

This is what it means to really take pity on the poor, and on those who have no one to guide them: to open the way of truth to them by teaching, to heal their physical infirmities, and to make them want to praise the divine generosity by feeding them when they are hungry . . . .
—Venerable Bede (c. 673-735)

We are called to solitude where we can struggle against our anger and greed and let our new self be born in the loving encounter with Jesus Christ. It is in this solitude that we become compassionate people, deeply aware of our solidarity in brokenness with all humanity and ready to reach out to anyone in need.
—Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. . . . You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.
—Matthew 5:17; 22:37-40