So today we celebrate one of the best days of the year if you're Catholic - ALL SAINTS!
There is such a variety of saints, it gives hope to all that we all are called to holiness and sainthood. Truly anyone who enters into the glory of God in heaven is a saint. But through a really complicated process over the centuries, the church has given special notice and acclaim to certain people of faith. They do this not for pride, or to gloat (we do have A LOT of them), but to give hope and show the many ways we are called to love and be in relationship with God.
Someone started a trend for today on Facebook for Catholics to post as their status their favourite quote from a Saint, and ask them to pray for us. I've just been sitting back marvelling at all the wonderous wisdom being shared and evangelizing the online community! What a cool idea!
I couldn't just read all these great things at once and give them their due time of reflection, so I copied them to share with you... this will expand and maybe see some later versions. But for now, feast your mind, heart and souls on these words of life! Take your time, come back, maybe just sit with one or two. But let them be a gift to you this day. And may we all as my hero, Blessed John Paul II said, "BE NOT AFRAID" - and become the SAINTS we were born to be!
All you holy men and women, ora pro nobis!
-St. Colm of Saskatoon (one day?!!)
"O Father, Son and Holy Ghost, May we keep faith till time shall cease. Grant us a place among your saints: The poor in spirit, souls of peace" (Lauds, Opening Hymn).
"Let us be content with God has given us. But one thing is necessary and it is not beauty, not health, not talent. It is the salvation of our immortal souls." - St. Alphonsus Liguori
“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the best paintings.” - St. Andre Bessette
"Do what you can, and pray for what you cannot, and so God will grant you the ability to do it." - St. Augustine of Hippo
"Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord" - St. Augustine
"What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like." - St. Augustine of Hippo
"You will never know real mercy for the failings of others until you know and realize that you have the same failings."- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
“If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze.” - St. Catherine of Siena
"With him we shall have the courage to risk loving the neighbor. It is a tremendous risk, because we must also love our enemies. Once we have entered into Christ’s law of love, we have the power and the grave, the charisms, to change enemies into friends and beloved neighbors. To love one’s neighbor is the ultimate risk, for it may even mean death for my brother’s sake if need be." -Catherine Doherty, Servant of God
"The blood of Christ reveals God’s gracious will, which neither wants nor seeks anything but that we be made holy. Whatever He gives or permits is given out of love so that we may be made holy in Him. This is how the truth is fulfilled." - St. Catherine of Siena
"Do not neglect the parish of your own soul, do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself. You have to be mindful of your people without becoming forgetful of yourself." ~ St. Charles Borromeo
“I AM safe in all my travels walking with my Father in Heaven... I AM spiritually strong and I AM able to bear what God gives me... God Helps me handle anything I choose to carry” - St. Christopher
"We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing" - St. Clare
"A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil." - St. Dominic
"Oh, I fear nothing; if God sends such great suffering to a soul. He upholds it with an even greater grace, although we are not aware of it. One act of trust at such moments gives greater glory to God then whole hours passed in prayer filled with consolations." - St. Faustina
"I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone." - St. Francis of Assisi
"Be who you are, and be it well!" - St. Francis de Sales
"As the rays of the sun are so rich that we cannot see their many splendors unless they are shot through a prism, which causes them to break into the seven rays of the spectrum, so too, the Life of Christ which the saints reflect, is so infinitely Good, that it takes an infinite variety of saints shot through the prism of love and penance to reflect the holiness of the Son of God. Sinners are always alike, saints are always different." - Archbishop Fulton Sheen
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” - G. K. Chesterton
"Love and sacrifice are closely linked, like the sun and the light. We cannot love without suffering and we cannot suffer without love." - St. Gianna Beretta Molla
"I am God's wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ's pure bread." - St. Ignatius of Antioch
"I hunger for the bread of God, the flesh of Jesus Christ ...; I long to drink of his blood, the gift of unending love."- St. Ignatius of Antioch
'Pursue with invincible courage the end to which you have been called; God has furnished such help and means to aid you in attaining it.' - St. Ignatius of Loyola
"Oh, how much I love to suffer for love of our LORD and our Lady. They greatly love those who suffer for the conversion of sinners" - Blessed Jacinta (9 years old!!!!)
The great method of prayer is to have none. If in going to prayer one can form in oneself a pure capacity for receiving the spirit of God, that will suffice for all method." - St. Jane Frances de Chantal
"Marriage is good for those who are afraid to sleep alone at night." - St. Jerome
"I entered into unknowing, yet when I saw myself there, without knowing where I was, I understood great things; I will not say what I felt for I remained in unknowing transcending all knowledge" -St. John of the Cross
"We are called to be saints, all of us; do not forget that." - St. Katharine Drexel
"I believe in the sun when it isn't shining, I believe in love when there's no one there. I believe in God even when God is silent."- Fr. Keith Sorge
"The meat is done on this side, you can turn me over now." -St. Lawrence
"I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your will." - St. Mary, Mother of God.
“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” - Blessed Mother Teresa
"Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are -- in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. ... You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society -- completely forgotten, completely left alone." ~ Blessed Mother Teresa
"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." - -Blessed Mother Teresa
"We are at Jesus' disposal. If he wants you to be sick in bed, if he wants you to proclaim His work in the street, if he wants you to clean the toilets all day, that's all right, everything is all right. We must say, "I belong to you. You can do whatever you like." And this ..is our strength, and this is the joy of the Lord." - Blessed Mother Teresa
“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love.” - Blessed Mother Teresa
"Life is nothing but a continual struggle against one's self, and it does not open to beauty without the price of suffering." - St. Padre Pio
"Duty before everything else, even before what is holy." ~ St. Padre Pio
"Pray, Hope, Don't worry…" - St. Padre Pio
"He loves, He hopes, He waits. If He came down on our altars on certain days only, some sinner, on being moved to repentance, might have to look for Him, and not finding Him might have to wait. Our Lord prefers to wait himself for the sinner for years rather than keep him waiting for one instant." -St. Peter Julian Eymard
"To live without Faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth, that is not living, but existing." - Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
"The saints are the true reformers. Only from the saints does true revolution come, the definitive way to change the world" - Pope Benedict XVI
"You are not the Sum of your fears and failings... But of the love of your Father in heaven" Blessed Pope John Paul II
"Be not afraid" - Blessed Pope John Paul II
"An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded." -Pope John Paul II
"Do not be afraid! Open the doors to Christ, God works in the concrete and personal affairs of each of us. Don't let the time that the Lord gives you run on as if everything were due to chance. With this expression of my hope I send you all, from the depths of my hope I send you all, from the depths of my heart, my blessing." -Blessed Pope John Paul II
"“Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggles increase." - St. Rose of Lima
"For those who have faith, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation is possible." - St. Thomas Aquinas
"I know now that true charity (love) consists in bearing all our neighbours' defects--not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.” - St. Thérèse de Lisieux
"We are all hosts that Jesus wants to change into Himself." - St. Thérèse de Lisieux
"Love consumes us only in the measure of our self-surrender." - St. Thérèse de Lisieux
"What pleases Him is to see me love my littleness and my poverty. It is the blind hope which I have in His mercy.…There is my only treasure. Why should this treasure not be yours?" - St. Thérèse of Lisieux
"I desire neither suffering nor death, yet I love both; but it is love alone which attracts me. Now it is abandonment alone which guides me. I have no other compass." - St. Thérèse de Lisieux
"where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.” - St. Thérèse de Lisieux
"Most of us are not great conversationalists. That is not needed. Love has its own language[...]Genuine prayer is not talking much but loving much." - St. Theresa of Avila
"If Saint Paul exhorts us to pray for one another, and we gladly think it right to ask every poor man to pray for us, should we think it evil to ask the holy Saints in Heaven to do the same?" - St. Thomas More
"Considering that when the Saints lived in this world they were at liberty to roam the earth, do you really think that in Heaven God would have them tied to a post?" - St. Thomas More
"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart."- St. Vitalis of Gaza
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