Down, then, with all melancholy. That should never find a place except in the heart which has lost faith. I am joyful. Sorrow is not gloom. Gloom should be banished from the Christian soul.
—Blessed Pier-Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925)

He who binds to himself a joy does the winged life destroy, but he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity’s sunrise.
—William Blake (1757-1827)

The quality of expectation determines the quality of our action.
—Andre Godin (1817-1888)

PREPARE A WAY for the Lord by living a good life and guard that way by good works. Let the Word of God move in you unhindered and give you a knowledge of his coming and of his mysteries.
—Origen (183-253)

To wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. So is to trust that something will happen to us that is far beyond our imaginings. 
—Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996)

FATHER, in the wilderness of the Jordan you sent a messenger to prepare people’s hearts for the coming of your Son. Help me to hear his words and repent of my sins, so that I may clearly see the way to walk, the truth to speak, and the life to live for him, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Messiah did not come without the prepatory period of Israel’s history or without the prepatory responses of fidelity by Mary and Joseph. The liturgy offers a third time of preparation that affects our lives, for Christ will not come in his fullness to us unless we, too, are prepared.

—Raymond E. Brown

We live in between the first coming of Jesus Christ and his second coming, and most of us feel a lot better about the first one. Christmas is about a baby, after all, and that makes everything easier. . . . Altogether we figure out how to manage Christmas so that the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay won’t end up scaring anybody.

—Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

The Advent mystery is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.

—Thomas Merton

Therefore, distrust every claim for truth where you do not see truth united with love; and be certain that you are of the truth and that the truth has taken hold of you only when love has taken hold of you and has started to make you free from yourselves.

—Paul Tillich

What is in fact Christ’s kingdom? It is simply those who believe in him . . . . Everyone who is reborn in Christ becomes the kingdom which is no longer of the world.

—Saint Augustine (354-430)

Do not believe that, because Christ is a priest, he always discharges his function; he was content to fulfill his ministry once, and then he sat down. To stand in the presence of God is the sign that one is a minister, but to sit near God proves that, like God, one receives the sacrifice.

—Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347-407)

I observe, then, that though Christians may be mistaken in what they took to be signs of Christ’s coming, yet they were not wrong in their state of mind, they were not mistaken in looking out, and that for Christ.

—John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

All those who hold to true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and show proof of their faith by good works . . . .   will rise again to hear the king of heaven himself saying to them: “Come, my Father’s blessed ones, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”

—Saint Gregory Palamas (1296-1359)

The poor widow cast only two pennies into the treasury; yet because she gave all she had it is said of her that she surpassed all the rich in offering gifts to God. 

—Saint Jerome (347-419)

In the power of [Jesus’] purity of heart . . . and the infinite love of his act, he faces God as high priest of the world. And though his sacrifice was made in time, in the historical hour of his death, it is celebrated eternally, in the endless present.

—Romano Guardini (1885-1968)

Holiness is not the luxury of a few. It is a simple duty for you and for me.

—Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

Our community with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace and the life of the People of God itself.”

—Lumen Gentium, 1964

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