Pope Benedict XVI on Letting Christ Enter Fully into our Lives

‎If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant . . .? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? . . . No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return.

Pope Benedict XVI, April 24, 2005

St. Therese The Little Flower on Jesus Protecting from Harm

No harm can come to me since, in whatever happens, I see only the tender hand of Jesus.

St. Therese, The Little Flower

St. Augustine on Christ Giving His Body to His Disciples

Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples.

St. Augustine – 405 A.D.

Pope Benedict XVI on Leading Others to Christ

Anyone who has discovered Christ must lead others to him. A great joy cannot be kept to oneself. It has to be passed on.

Pope Benedict XVI – 2005 World Youth Day

St. Bernadette Soubirous on Loving

I shall spend every moment loving. One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them. I shall do everything for Heaven, my true home. There I shall find my Mother in all the splendor of her glory. I shall delight with her in the joy of Jesus himself in perfect safety.

St. Bernadette Soubirous

St. Gregory of Nyssa on Holiness

If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what we do in life.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

St. Padre Pio on Living for Jesus

‎May the Heart of Jesus be the goal of all your aspirations.

St. Padre Pio

Brent Stubbs on Christ and the Eucharist

I bend down and whisper into my son’s ear, “That’s Jesus. The entire universe is focused on this one moment.”

Brent Stubbs – Mass 101

Tim Staples on the Importance of Marian Theology

When we understand that all that we are, we are because of Christ, and all that Mary is, she is because of Christ, and her relation to Christ, being in Him, with Him, and through Him, all of a sudden the blinders fall off, and…this is why Marian theology is so important for us as Catholics to know, because in Mary, we see, re-echoed, all of the most important dogmas of the faith, as Vatican II said.

Tim Staples – Called to Communion

Tim Staples on the Blessed Virgin Mary as our Hope

Mary keeps our theology from becoming an abstraction, because in Mary we see (faith) concretized, lived out through her whole life, and she’s gone before us, perfected, hence she’s our hope. Jesus, of course, is the hope of glory, but Mary is our hope in as much as what Jesus promised has been fulfilled in her and we can look at her and see that God fulfills His promises, and in that sense she becomes our hope, and we also see in her our own dignity.

Tim Staples – Catholic Answers Live

St. Clement I on Apostolic Succession

The apostles have preached the Gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ has done so from God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first-fruits of their labours, having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe…Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those presbyters already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry.

St. Clement I – First Epistle to the Church at Corinth, Ch 42 & 44, A.D. 96

Pope Benedict XVI on Communion with Christ and His Church

Communion with Christ is being on a journey, a permanent ascent to the true height of our calling. Journeying together with Jesus is always at the same time a traveling together in the “we” of those who want to follow him. It brings us into this community. Because this journey to true life, to being men conformed to the model of the Son of God Jesus Christ is beyond our powers, this journeying is also always a state of being carried. We find ourselves, so to speak, in a “roped party” with Jesus Christ — together with him in the ascent to the heights of God. He pulls us and supports us. Letting oneself be part of a roped party is part of following Christ; we accept that we cannot do it on our own. The humble act of entering into the “we” of the Church is part of it — holding on to the roped party, the responsibility of communion, not letting go of the rope because of our bullheadedness and conceit.

Humbly believing with the Church, like being bound together in a roped party ascending to God, is an essential condition for following Christ. Not acting as the owners of the Word of God, not chasing after a mistaken idea of emancipation — this is also part of being together in the roped party. The humility of “being-with” is essential to the ascent.

Pope Benedict XVI – Palm Sunday Homily 2010