Reflections

We never give more honour to Jesus than when we honour his Mother, and we honour her simply and solely to honour him all the more perfectly. We go to her only as a way leading to the goal we seek – Jesus, her Son.

St Louis Marie de Montfort (1673 – 1716)
Wednesday 21st November is the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady

“Let us all remember this: one cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of one’s life.”

 Pope Francis

“Quanto plus afflictiones pro Christo in hoc saeculo, tanto plus gloriae cum Christo in futuro”

‘the more affliction [we endure] for Christ in this world, the more glory [we shall obtain] with Christ in the next’ (cf. Rom 8).

St Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel (1557 – 1595)

Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.

St Therese of Lisieux (1873 – 1897)

 

• Be a Catholic: When you kneel before an altar, do it in such a way that others may be able to recognize that you know before whom you kneel.
• Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.

St Maximilian Kolbe (1894- 1941), Martyr of Charity, Martyr of Auschwitz

There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not now bear with us. And on the far side of every cross we find the newness of life in the Holy Spirit, that new life which will reach its fulfilment in the resurrection. This is our faith. This is our witness before the world.
St John Paul II (1920 – 2005)

Mary, give me your heart: so beautiful, so pure, so immaculate; your heart so full of love and humility that I may be able to receive Jesus in the Bread of Life and love him as you love him and serve him in the distressing guise of the poor.
(St Teresa of Calcutta, 1910 – 1997)

• Holiness is not rigid, like cardboard; it knows how to smile, to give way to others, and to hope. It is life – a supernatural life!
• Before, by yourself, you couldn’t! Now you have turned to Our Lady and, with her, how easy it is!

St Josemaría Escrivá (1902 – 1975)

In the Acts of the Apostles, St Luke describes the extraordinary manifestation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as a communication of the very vitality of God who gives himself to women and men. This divine gift is also light and power: light, to proclaim the Gospel, the Truth revealed by God; power, to infuse the courage of witnessing to the faith, which the Apostles begin at that very moment.

Pope St John Paul II, 1997