"If the piety of our days is so languishing, so shallow, it is because people attach themselves too much to its practices, neglecting the principle. They warm the sentiments, they set the imagination boiling. They do not force themselves to reflect sufficiently, to study, to fathom, and so they fall into the piety of routine." [...]
"So, then, this sacrament benefits recipients by way both of sacrament and of sacrifice, because it is offered for all who partake of it… But to others who do not receive it, it is beneficial by way of sacrifice, inasmuch as it is offered for their salvation… And our Lord expressed both ways, saying (Mat. [...]
"Joseph was only too happy when, as the sacred Scripture tells us, God descended by His grace into his prison to comfort him: 'She went down with him into the pit, and in bands she left him not' (Wisd. x. 13). But we are yet more highly favoured; for we have always with us in [...]
"Because when a person regards the height of goodness in his mind, he then builds a high wall of faith by virtue of the work of God. Then he ascends above that rational faith, which shows him God in the power of His Divinity, and on it he builds bulwarks of virtue higher than the [...]
"Take ye heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants: that so, whatsoever ye do, ye may do it according [...]
"If a word, we are like the Paphlagonian partridge, which has two hearts; for we have a very tender, pitiful, easy heart toward ourselves, and one which is hard, harsh, and strict toward our neighbor. We have two scales, one wherein to measure our own goods to the best advantage, and the other to weigh [...]
"If sensual affection wants to love sensual things, the eye of understanding is moved in that direction. It takes for its object only passing things with selfish love, contempt for virtue, and love of vice, drawing from these pride and impatience. And the memory is filled only with what affection holds out to it. This [...]
"The life of faith is endangered when we lose the desire to share in the celebration of the Eucharist and its commemoration of the paschal victory." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007
"Love – caritas – will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love… The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very [...]
"To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: 'Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a [...]