"The humility of love. That is the royal virtue, which puts in practice the gift and the sacrifice of personality. It is from it that all your other virtues ought to draw their strength. If you have it not, although possessing the others, you are laying up in a perforated sack. It is the characteristic [...]
"Be sure then often to examine your dealing with your neighbor, whether your heart is right toward him, as you would have his toward you, were things reversed – this is the true test of reason." Source: St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
"The Holy Spirit does not speak to a soul that is distracted and garrulous. He speaks by His quiet inspirations to a soul that is recollected, to a soul that knows how to keep silence. If silence were strictly observed, there would not be any grumbling, bitterness, slandering, or gossip, and charity would not be [...]
"Taking part in the liturgy and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ intensifies and deepens our belonging to the one who died for us. Truly, whoever eats of Christ lives for him." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007
"Oh, could I but always remain in Thy Presence, to adore Thee, and to make Thee acts of love! Arouse, I beseech Thee, my soul, when through tepidity or worldly affairs it neglects to visit Thee. Enkindle in me a great desire always to remain near Thee in this Sacrament." Source: St. Alphonsus Liguori, [...]
"Christ opposed it (external moral purity) in a radical manner: nothing makes a man unclean 'from the outside'; no 'material' dirtiness makes a man impure in a moral sense. No washing, not even ritual washing, is by itself suited to produce moral purity. Moral purity has its wellspring exclusively in man’s interior: it comes from [...]
"The practice of the Presence of God strengthens us in Hope. Our hope grows in proportion as our knowledge; and in measure as our faith by this holy practice penetrates into the hidden mysteries of God, in like measure it finds in Him a beauty beyond compare, surpassing infinitely that of earth, as also that [...]
"To prepare for worthy reception of this sacrament, the faithful should observe the fast required in their Church. Bodily demeanor (gestures, clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when Christ becomes our guest." Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church #1387
"When we are before the Blessed Sacrament, instead of looking about us, let us close our eyes and open our hearts. The good God will open His. We will go to Him. He will come to us, the one to give, the other to receive." Source: St. John Vianney, The Meditations of the Curé [...]
"Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. Saint John’s Gospel describes that event in these words: 'God so loved the world he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in [...]