John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever. 

—Saint Augustine

The prodigious expanses of time that preceded the first Christmas were not empty of Christ; they were imbued with the influx of his power. 

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)

During Advent opportunities for works of charity abound, calling out for Christians from every side: a sack of food for a needy family, money dropped in a Salvation Army kettle, a donation to an Indian school, a toy for ‘Toys-for-Tots,’ etc. Unfortunately these works of charity so easily can assuage the Christian conscience while doing nothing to bring about a solution to the root causes of the problem. Works of justice, on the other hand, follow the road less traveled of Advent’s hope to pursue solutions for difficult problems. Hope comes through works of justice rather than simply performing works of charity. 

–Father Brian Cavanaugh, T.O.R.

Jesus my Lord has come, then. He has smoothed out your rough places and changed your disorderly ways into level paths, making in you an unimpeded road, a road that is absolutely clear, so that God the Father may walk in you and Christ the Lord make his dwelling in you and say: My Father and I will come and make our home in them. 

—Origen (183-253)

Beneath an outward appearance of indifference, in the heart of every person there is a will to live in community and a thirst for justice and peace. 

—Pope Paul VI

Our God will come openly; our God will come and will not keep silent. The first coming of Christ the Lord, God’s Son and our God, was in obscurity; the second will be in the sight of the whole world.
—Saint Augustine

Love him who loved you when he was a child and who suffered cold for you and wept in the manger for you. . . . And as he grew older, his love grew too and was sown in the works which he did among us. As his body grew, his trials grew, his pains and tortures and crosses. Love, then, him who first loved you and loves you now in heaven.
—Saint John of Avila (1500-1569)

Psychology says, “Let go.” Spirituality says, “Wake up.” In both cases there is a withdrawal from the busyness of daily life (our dream state) and a waking up to the subconscious and spiritual depths of ourselves.
—Alfred McBride, O. Praem., The Priest

When the church celebrates . . . Advent each year, she makes present [the] ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming.
—Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 524)

It is by the works of mercy that we shall be judged.
—Dorothy Day

Love is the final word.
—Dorothy Day

Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst, and privation. Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering the kingdom.
—Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 544)

A strong impression of being loved by God; the assurance of the total forgiveness of one’s sins; a new awareness of Jesus as a real person instead of an abstract figure in ancient history; an ease in practicing virtue; a greater love and understanding of the word of God in scripture and liturgy; the ardent desire to praise God; an eagerness to bear witness to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. These and similar effects clearly indicate the special action of the Holy Spirit.
—Thomas Keating

Virgil Michel, O.S.B., one of the great early voices for the renewal of liturgy—a renewal that included a deeper appreciation of the church year—died on November 26, 1938, the last day of the liturgical year.

We desire peace but not the things that make for peace.
—Thomas À Kempis

May the Lord bless you from Zion, all the days of your life that you may share Jerusalem’s joy and live to see your children’s children’” [Ps. 128:5-6]. Even to the birds was it said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Do you wish to hold as a great blessing what was given to birds? Who can be ignorant, that it was given indeed by the voice of God? But use these goods, if you receive them; and rather think how you may nourish those who have been born, that others may be born.
—Saint Augustine

If faith is understood as a process of trust which develops in the context of an ongoing
relationship with God, doubt makes a great deal of sense as an authentic aspect of the life of faith! Doubt, as the constant reminder of the risk in faith, plays a vital role in the life of faith. The Bible is wonderfully honest about the doubting of the faithful. Giving voice to our struggle, our doubt, belongs ultimately to the life of faith. . . . It is unfortunate that most Christian worship makes so little room for honest wrestling with God, for this only serves to shut real doubt out of the sanctuary and therefore to cheapen the meaning of faith.        
—Douglas John Hall, The Living Pulpit

Today we celebrate another glorious feast: It is the feast of the Lord’s house, of God’s temple, of the city of the eternal king. . . . Let us ask ourselves what this house of God, this temple, this city . . . can be.
—Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

The church is called the building of God. . . . This edifice has many names to describe it: the house of God in which God’s family dwells . . . the household of God in the Spirit; the dwelling place of God among humans; and, especially, the holy temple. . . . As living stones we here on earth are built into it.
—Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church

This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is a flash of lightning in the sky. Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.
—Buddha (c. 563-c. 483 b.c.)

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death. 
—Leonardo da Vinci

I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

The measure of a country’s greatness should be based on how well it cares for its most vulnerable populations.
—Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Any day, any minute we bless God for our being or for anything, for food, for sunlight, we do and are what we were meant for, made for—things that give and mean to give God glory.
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)

From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father.
—Nostra Aetate (1965)