"Do you know where this tree of death is rooted? In the height of pride, which is nourished by their sensual selfishness. Its core is impatience and its offshoot is the lack of any discernment. These are the four chief vices, which together kill the souls of those I have called trees of death, since [...]
"He who loves Jesus dwells with Jesus, and Jesus with him: 'If any one love Me... My Father will love him; and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him' (St. John xiv. 23). When St. Philip Neri received the Holy Communion as Viaticum, on seeing the Most Blessed Sacrament enter [...]
"How much happier people would be if instead of exalting their ego to infinity, they reduced it to zero." Source: Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, Way to Happiness, St. Pauls, 1998.
"Active participation in the eucharistic liturgy can hardly be expected if one approaches it superficially, without an examination of his or her life. This inner disposition can be fostered, for example, by recollection and silence for at least a few moments before the beginning of the liturgy, by fasting and, when necessary, by sacramental confession." [...]
"That many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances, and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end. That this appeared plainly by their works, and was the reason why we see so little solid virtue." Source: Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence [...]
"In the Mass, the faithful are already present on the altar under the appearance of bread and wine. At the moment of the Consecration of the Mass, when the priest as Christ pronounces the words 'This is My Body' and 'This is My Blood,' the substance of the bread becomes the substance of the body [...]
"This sacrament confers grace spiritually together with the virtue of charity… as Gregory observes in a Homily for Pentecost, 'God's love is never idle; for, wherever it is it does great works.' And consequently through this sacrament, as far as its power is concerned, not only is the habit of grace and of virtue bestowed, [...]
"Let us note straight away that the Greek Old Testament uses the word eros only twice, while the New Testament does not use it at all: of the three Greek words for love, eros, philia (the love of friendship) and agape, New Testament writers prefer the last, which occurs rather infrequently in Greek usage." [...]
"And so ought we always to judge our neighbor as charitably as may be; and if his actions are many-sided, we should accept the best." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
"It would be better not to receive the body of Our Lord than to take It into our heart, if stained with habitual sins. He enters but with disgust. We do violence to Him. He is bound, and He obeys us. But at the hour of death, we shall see His vengeance! His voice will [...]