20 Quotes that Struck Me on My Retreat

1)      Paul VI: “There is a great disturbance in this moment in the world of the Church and thus it is the Faith that is in question.  What is happening today reminds me of the obscure phrase of Jesus in the Gospel of St. Luke, “When the Son of Man returns, will he still find Faith on Earth?”  Books are being published in which the Faith is denied in important points, yet the bishops remain silent, as if they do not find anything strange in those books.”


2)      “Cadrinal Ciappi, theologian from the pontifical household from 1955 to 1989, in a letter reveals that “in the third secret of Fatima, it is predicted, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”  – Antonio Socci, “The Fourth Secret of Fatima”

3)      [on the unreleased part of the third secret of Fatima, a caller calls in to speak with Father Malachi Martin. Father Martin was able to read the entirety of the third secret of Fatima.  The caller says that they know that the secret] speaks of a Pope who “would be under the control of Satan.  Pope John [XXIII] was reeling, thinking that it could have been him.”  Father Martin responds: “Yes, it seems that this person would have had a means of reading or would have been given the contents of the secret.”  - Antonio Socci, “The Fourth Secret of Fatima”

4)      “One remains horrified in the face of a council [Vatican II] that pronounces itself on everything, but does not proffer a single word on the ideology of a regime [Communism] that since 1917 had realized (and was still realizing in those years) on a planetary scale the most immense and bloody work of eradication, extermination, and persecution of the Church in its bi-millennial history. Pius XII was attacked furiously for years because, according to his critics, he did not formulate clear and public condemnations of Nazism during the war (which is, however, untrue).  But John XXIII has received only applause for having contracted this “silence” with the Kremlin.”  - Antonio Socci, “The Fourth Secret of Fatima”

5)      “All of the priests who maintain the possibility of a dialogue with the deniers of God and with the Luciferian powers of the world are mad, they have lost the Faith, they no longer believe in the Gospel!  They thus betray the Word of God, because Christ came to bring to Earth a perpetual alliance only with men of goodwill, but not ally Himself with men thirsty for power and dominion over their brothers.  The flock is dispersed when the pastors ally themselves with enemies of the Truth of Christ.”  - Saint Padre Pio, 1963

6)      “Union of the soul with God is not accomplished so much in the sweetness of prayer, as in embracing perfectly the holy Will of God.”   - Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen, “Divine Intimacy”

7)      “Even when obstacles are put in the way of good results from his apostolate, we must still be patient and pray much.  Neither must his patience diminish when his capabilities seem to be out of all proportion with the work he has to do.”  - Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange O.P., “The Priest in Union With Christ”

8)      “God never confers a power on anyone without, at the same time, giving them the necessary means for the worthy exercise of that power.”  - Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange O.P., “The Priest in Union With Christ”

9)      “While the Reformation and the Enlightenment begin as allies (The Christian and the secular versions of rejecting the Natural Law and Catholicism), their intellectual grandchildren grew into bitter 21^st century rivals in America.  In fact, you know these grandchildren as the “religious right” and the “secular left”.  – Timothy Gordon, “Catholic Republic”

10)   “What God has told me, take for truth I do.  Truth Himself speaks truly, or there’s nothing true.”  - St. Thomas Aquinas, Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1381

11)   “There is always a danger in human nature of watching self, and in prayer is a worse plague than anywhere else.  Watching self at prayer is not prayer and being too concerned about where we are is a good way to hinder development.  When a person is really fervent in his love for God and totally intent on pleasing Him, he cannot stop to bother about his own progress as though it were some kind of game to acquire points…when we know we have given ourselves wholly to Him and our desire is to cooperate with Him, we do not desire to know where we are but what He wants.”  - “A Guide to the Stages of Prayer According to St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila”

12)   “The miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much upon forces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.”  - Willa Cather, “Death Comes for the Archbishop”

13)   “Ah well, that is a missionary’s life: to plant where another shall reap.”  - Willa Cather, “Death Comes for the Archbishop”

14)   “He did as the angel had commanded him, and he took Mary into his home.”  - Matthew 1:24

15)   “What is this Eucharistic vocation in the opinion of St. Peter Eymard?  It is a special attraction of grace, gentle but compelling – as if Christ were saying to the soul: “Come to my sanctuary.”  Provided no resistance is offered, this attraction gradually becomes supreme.  The faithful soul responding to this invitation finds peace, as though it had discovered at long last its natural home and spiritual food: “I have found my resting place.”  - Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange O.P., “The Priest in Union With Christ"

16)   “The angel awaits an answer.  Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, o loving Virgin, in their exile from paradise.  Abraham begs it, David begs it.  All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death.  This is what the whole Earth waits for, prostrate at your feet.  It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned…”Behold the handmaid of the Lord”, she says, “be it done to me according to your Word.” – St. Bernard, “A Homily in Praise of the Virgin Mother”

17)   “Priests who remain faithful to Mary are fired by her with extraordinary zeal.  This is particularly true of those priests who consecrate themselves to Mary in the way suggested by St. Louis De Montfort.”  - Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange O.P., “The Priest in Union With Christ”

18)   “The fool, who has no understanding of our dignity and our hopes, accuses the Creator of injustice, pointing out signs of imperfection in the designs of Divine Wisdom.  He is like a savage who one day goes into one of our building yards.  There he sees stones scattered about, materials lying on top of one another, workmen carving metals and cutting away marble; and the spectacle preserved by this activity, he sees only a picture of confusion and ruin.  He does not know that the apparent disorder will, one day, engender an order of admirable perfection.”  - Fr. Charles Arminjon, “The End of the Present World”

19)   “Man is alive as long as he waits, as long as hope is alive in his heart…our moral and spiritual stature can be measured by what we wait for, by what we hope for.”  - Pope Benedict XVI, “Angelus Address to Begin Advent, 2010”

20)   “Our heart is an altar.  The victim placed on this altar is our evil inclinations…the sacred fire, which must burn night and day on the altar of our heart, is the love of Jesus Christ.”  - Father Charles Arminjon, “The End of the Present World”