For what is faith unless it is to believe what you do not see?

Our life is a gymnasium of desire.... When Christians say "God," what do we wish to express? This word is all that we yearn for."

There can only be two basic loves... the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God.

Doubt is but another element of faith.

If you are silent, be silent out of love. If you speak, speak out of love.

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.

God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.

We cannot pass our guardian angel's bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.

He that is jealous is not in love.

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.

No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.

To seek the highest good is to live well.

To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.

Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.

There is no possible source of evil except good.

If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe.

I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

And I entered and beheld with the eye of my soul... the Light Unchangeable... He that knows the Truth, knows what that Light is; and he that knows It, knows Eternity.

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

We are too weak to discover the truth by reason alone

Punishment is justice for the unjust.

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

Do not believe yourself healthy. Immortality is health; this life is a long sickness.

Sin is believing the lie that you are self-created, self-dependent and self-sustained.

Whoever is still seeking for miracles so that he may believe is himself a wonder, who does not believe while the world around him does.

...But we enjoyed playing games and were punished for them by men who played games themselves. However, grown-up games are known as 'business' and even though boys' games are much the same, they are punished for them by their elders. No one pities either the boys or the men, though surely we deserve pity, for I cannot believe that a good judge would approve of the beatings I received as a boy on the ground that my games delayed my progress in studying subjects which would enable me to play a less creditable game later in life.

Though he avoided outright endorsement of the view, fifth-century Church Father Saint Augustine was clearly familiar with the theory of the spherical earth: "They [those who believe that "there are men on the other side of the earth"] fail to observe that even if the world is held to be global or rounded in shape, or if some process of reasoning should prove this to be the case, it would still not necessarily follow that the land on the opposite side is not covered by masses of water."

Try to acquire the virtues you believe lacking in your brothers. Then you will no longer see their defects, for you will no longer have them yourself.

Heaven forbid that we should believe in such a way as not to accept or seek reasons, since we could not even believe if we did not possess rational souls.

Believe that you may understand,

I believe in order to understand

No one indeed believes anything unless he has first thought that it it to be believed.

Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter in. It is ruinous; repair Thou it. It has that within which must offend Thine eyes; I confess and know it. But who shall cleanse it? or to whom should I cry, save Thee? Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults, and spare Thy servant from the power of the enemy. I believe, and therefore do I speak.

On the altar you are looking at the same thing as you saw there last night. You have not heard, however, what this is, what it signifies, or about the greatness of the reality of which it is a sacrament. Your eyes are looking at bread and cup. This is the evidence before your physical sight. But your faith must be instructed concerning it- this bread being Christ 's Body and the cup containing His Blood. Though perhaps these words may be enough to initiate faith, faith must be further instructed in accordance with the Prophet's words: 'Believe that you may understand'

For what is faith unless it is to believe what you do not see?

I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.

Believe in order to Understand and Understand in order to Believe

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.

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.

What I needed most was to love and to be loved, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me; and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers or jealousy, by suspicions and fear, by burst of anger and quarrels.