Not for nothing was it written: Your father and I have been looking for you anxiously. The search for Jesus must be neither careless nor indifferent, nor must it be only a transitory affair. Those who seek in this manner will never find him. —Origen (183-253)

Holiness is a state of soul in which all the powers of the body and mind are consciously given up to God. —Phoebe Palmer

The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family. —Morrie Schwartz in Tuesdays With Morrie

Our King and Savior is coming; let us run to meet him! . . . In the words and spirit of Elizabeth . . . . my spirit leapt for joy within me in eager longing to run ahead to meet my God and savior.  
—Blessed Guerric of Igny (c. 1070/80-1157)

The Blessed Virgin's greeting had the effect, on Saint John in Elizabeth’s womb, of the sacramental words of baptism, sanctifying him and imparting the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit . . . Thus the Blessed Virgin . . . confirmed the son of the high priest Zechariah, making him holy and, through the imposition of her power, imprinting the Holy Spirit on him. 
—Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657), founder of St. Sulpice Seminary

Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.
—Edward Hays

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)