"With her commandments and her prohibitions, does not the Church turn to bitterness the joy of eros, of being loved, which urges us toward the other person and wants to be realized in union? In the encyclical, I have tried to show that the deepest promise of eros can bear fruit only when do not [...]
"The remembrance of what Jesus suffered is a cure for remembrance of wrongs, shaming it powerfully with His patient endurance." Source: St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
"St. Teresa says, that all are not allowed to speak to their king; the most that can be hoped for is to communicate with him through a third person. To converse with thee, O King of Glory, no third person is needed; Thou art always ready in the Sacrament of the Altar to give audience [...]
"There are two kinds of love: love for its own pleasure, or love for the sake of another; the first is carnal love, the second is spiritual." Source: Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, Way to Happiness, St. Pauls, 1998.
"The liturgy of the word and the Eucharistic liturgy, with the rites of introduction and conclusion, 'are so closely interconnected that they form but one single act of worship.' There is an intrinsic bond between the word of God and the Eucharist." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007 [...]
"It is constantly assured, especially in our Tolstoyan tendencies, that when the lion lies down with the lamb the lion becomes lamb-like. But that is brutal annexation and imperialism on the part of the lamb. That is simply the lamb absorbing the lion instead of the lion eating the lamb. The real problem is – [...]
"The Eucharist is above all else a sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of the Redemption and also the sacrifice of the New Covenant." Source: Pope St. John Paul II, LETTER DOMINICAE CENAE OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II TO ALL THE BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH ON THE MYSTERY AND WORSHIP OF THE EUCHARIST, [...]
"We cannot love what we do not know." Source: Ven. Fulton Sheen, These are the Sacraments
"O foolish ones of the world, says St. Augustine, miserable creatures, where are you going to satisfy your hearts? Come to Jesus; for by Him alone can that pleasure which you seek be bestowed. 'Unhappy creatures, whither are you going? The good you seek for comes from Him.' My soul, be not of the number [...]
"The Mass, too, has an engagement which corresponds to the Offertory of the Mass, in which the faithful bring gifts of bread and wine, or its equivalent, that which buys bread and wine. As the ring is a symbol of the lover offering himself to the beloved, so too, the bread and wine are the [...]