Voice actor James T. Majewski brings to life classic Catholic works, with a special emphasis on St. John Henry Newman and the Fathers of the Church.
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St. Henry Walpole—Upon the Death of M. Edmund Campion
"You thought perhaps when learned Campion dies, / His pen must cease, his sugared tongue be still; / But you forgot how loud his death it cries / How far beyond the sound of tongue and quill."
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St. John Henry Newman—Reverence, a Belief in God’s Presence
"They are the class of feelings we should have—yes, have in an intense degree—if we literally had the sight of Almighty God; therefore they are the class of feelings which we shall have, if we realize His presence."
Pope Benedict XVI—Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love) | Part 1
“This is love in its most radical form. By contemplating the pierced side of Christ, we can understand the starting-point of this Encyclical Letter: 'God is love'. It is there that this truth can be contemplated. It is from there that our definition of love must begin. In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move.”
G.E.M. Anscombe—Contraception and Chastity
"For we don't invent marriage... any more than we invent human language. It is part of the creation of humanity and if we're lucky we find it available to us and can enter into it. If we are very unlucky, we may live in a society that has wrecked or deformed this human thing."
St. John Henry Newman—Three Poems on the Angels
"My oldest friend, mine from the hour / When first I drew my breath; My faithful friend, that shall be mine, / Unfailing, till my death..."
St. John Henry Newman—The Self-Wise Inquirer
"In proportion as we lean to our own understanding, we are driven to do so for want of a better guide. Our first true guide, the light of innocence, is gradually withdrawn from us; and nothing is left for us but to 'grope and stumble in the desolate places,' by the dim, uncertain light of reason."
Pope St. Paul VI—Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life)
"But to experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of conception is to acknowledge that one is not the master of the sources of life but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator. Just as man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in general, so also, and with more particular reason, he has no such dominion over his specifically sexual faculties, for these are concerned by their very nature with the generation of life, of which God is the source."
Pope St. Gelasius I—Famuli Vestrae Pietatis: On the Two Swords
"For there are two, O emperor Augustus, by which the world is principally ruled: the sacred authority of pontiffs and the royal power."
St. John Damascene—Sermon on the Assumption
"And just as the all-holy body of God's Son, which was taken from her, rose from the dead on the third day, it followed that she should be snatched from the tomb, that the mother should be united to her Son; and as He had come down to her, so she should be raised up to Him."
St. John Henry Newman—Appearance of the Cross in the Sky to Constantine
"Constantine's submission of his power to the Church has been a pattern for all Christian monarchs since, and the commencement of her state establishment to this day; and, on the other hand, the fortunes of the Roman empire are in prophecy apparently connected with her in a very intimate manner, which we are not yet able fully to comprehend. If any event might be said to call for a miracle, it was this."
St. Aphrahat—On Penitents
St. Aphrahat is known in the tradition as “the Persian Sage.” Born in the late third century in the Persian Empire, he flourished amid persecution and is the earliest prominent witness to Syriac Christianity. He wrote in a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, and maintained close contact with Judaism, demonstrating a profound knowledge of Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish customs. He is best known for his collection of twenty-three writings called the "Demonstrations."
St. John Henry Newman—Many Called, Few Chosen
"Your very perplexity in reconciling the surface of things with our Lord's announcements, the very temptation you lie under to explain away the plain words of Scripture, shows you that your standard of good and evil, and the standard of all around you, must be very different from God's standard."
The Shepherd of Hermas | Pt. 4 (Parables 9-10)
“Keep his commandments, and you will have a cure for sin.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Work of the Christian
"It cannot be said, then, because we have not to bear the burden and the heat of the day, that therefore we have returned to paradise. It is not that our work is lighter, but our strength is greater."
The Shepherd of Hermas | Pt. 3 (Parables 1-8)
“You who repent must cast off the wickedness of this world which wears you down; if you put on every excellence of justice, you can observe these mandates and keep from committing any additional sins.”
The Shepherd of Hermas | Pt. 2 (Mandates)
“Put the Lord in your hearts, then, you who are empty and fickle in the faith. You will then know that nothing is easier, sweeter, or more gentle than these mandates. Be converted, you who walk in the commandments of the Devil, commandments that are hard, bitter, cruel, and foul. And do not fear the Devil either, because he has no power against you. I, the Angel of Repentance, who have overcome the Devil, am on your side.”
The Shepherd of Hermas | Pt. 1 (Visions)
“So I wrote the commands and parables as he bade me. If you hear them and keep them, and walk in them, and fulfill them in a pure heart, you will receive from the Lord what He promised you. But if you hear them and do not repent, or even add to your sins, you will receive the contrary from the Lord.”
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Part 5 & Conclusion
"By that love He won for you all good things that you were ever to have, and amongst them your good resolutions."
St. Basil the Great—On the Right Use of Greek Literature
"... it is incumbent upon us, for the present, to trace, as it were, the silhouette of virtue in the pagan authors. For those who carefully gather the useful from each book are wont, like mighty rivers, to gain accessions on every hand."
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Part 4
“If anyone strives to be delivered from his troubles out of love of God, he will strive patiently, gently, humbly and calmly, looking for deliverance rather to God’s goodness and providence than to his own industry or efforts; but if self-love is the prevailing object, he will grow hot and eager in seeking relief, as though all depended more upon himself than upon God.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Duties of the Church towards Knowledge
"If the Catholic Faith is true, a University cannot exist externally to the Catholic pale, for it cannot teach Universal Knowledge if it does not teach Catholic theology. This is certain; but still, though it had ever so many theological Chairs, that would not suffice to make it a Catholic University... a direct and active jurisdiction of the Church over it and in it is necessary, lest it should become the rival of the Church with the community at large in those theological matters which to the Church are exclusively committed."
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Part 3 (Ch.36-41)
"No indeed, I would not even have people wish for more wit or better judgment, for such desires are frivolous, and take the place of the wish everyone ought to possess of improving what he has. We ought not to desire ways of serving God that He does not open to us, but rather desire to use what we have rightly."
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Knowledge Viewed in Relation to Religion
"True Religion is slow in growth, and, when once planted, is difficult of dislodgement; but its intellectual counterfeit has no root in itself: it springs up suddenly, it suddenly withers."
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Part 3 (Ch.23-35)
"Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily... If you do all in God's name, all you do will be well done."
St. Philip Howard—A Fourfold Meditation: On the Four Last Things
"Thou findest here what thou wilt wish at last, / And that account which none can ever shun; / Then frame thy life before thy time be past, / As thou wilt wish that thou in time hadst done..."
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Knowledge Viewed in Relation to Professional Skill
"If then the intellect is so excellent a portion of us, and its cultivation so excellent, it is not only beautiful, perfect, admirable, and noble in itself, but in a true and high sense it must be useful to the possessor and to all around him; not useful in any low, mechanical, mercantile sense, but as diffusing good, or as a blessing, or a gift, or power, or a treasure, first to the owner, then through him to the world."
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Pt. 3 (Ch.11-22)
"In the world those who aim at a devout life require to be united one with another by a holy friendship, which excites, stimulates, and encourages them in well-doing."
Pope St. John Paul II—Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth) | Ch. 3
“While exchanges and conflicts of opinion may constitute normal expressions of public life in a representative democracy, moral teaching certainly cannot depend simply upon respect for a process: indeed, it is in no way established by following the rules and deliberative procedures typical of a democracy... Opposition to the teaching of the Church's Pastors cannot be seen as a legitimate expression either of Christian freedom or of the diversity of the Spirit's gifts.”
Pope St. John Paul II—Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth) | Ch. 2
"Circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act subjectively good or defensible as a choice."
Pope St. John Paul II—Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth) | Ch. 1
“No damage must be done to the harmony between faith and life: the unity of the Church is damaged not only by Christians who reject or distort the truths of faith but also by those who disregard the moral obligations to which they are called by the Gospel.”
The So-Called Letter of Barnabas
"The helpers of our faith are fear and patience; our allies are long-suffering and self-control."
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Knowledge Viewed in Relation to Learning
"I say, a University, taken in its bare idea, and before we view it as an instrument of the Church, has this object and this mission; it contemplates neither moral impression nor mechanical production; it professes to exercise the mind neither in art nor in duty; its function is intellectual culture... It educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it."
St. Thomas More—Poems from the Tower of London
St. Thomas More wrote poems while languishing in the Tower of London.
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Pt. 3 (Ch.1-10)
"Anyone who will calmly consider what he has done without God, cannot fail to realize that what he does with God is no merit of his own; and so we may rejoice in that which is good in us, and take pleasure in the fact, but we shall give all the glory to God alone, who alone is its author."
St. Ignatius of Antioch—Letter to the Magnesians
"It is not enough to be Christians in name. It behooves us to be such in fact. [...] So let us become his disciples. Let us learn to live the life that Christianity calls for. No one with any other name than this can belong to God."
St. Melito of Sardis—On the Passover
"For the one who was born as Son, and led to slaughter as a lamb, and sacrificed as a sheep, and buried as a man, rose up from the dead as God."
Pope St. Leo the Great—Three Lenten Sermons
"People are shown to be not particularly spiritual at other times if they do not prove themselves to be more spiritual in these days."
St. Patrick—Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus
"I don't know which is the cause of the greatest grief for me: whether those who were slain, or those who were captured, or those whom the devil so deeply ensnared."
J.R.R. Tolkien—On Fairy-Stories
"God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves."
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Knowledge Its Own End
"The artist puts before him beauty of feature and form; the poet, beauty of mind; the preacher, the beauty of grace: then intellect too, I repeat, has its beauty, and it has those who aim at it."
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Pt. 2 (Ch.16-21)
"Therefore, my child, communicate frequently, as often as you can, subject to the advice of your spiritual Father... and by reason of adoring and feeding upon beauty, goodness, and purity itself in this most divine Sacrament you too will become lovely, holy, pure."
Pope Benedict XVI—Regensburg Address: Faith, Reason and the University
"The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur - this is the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time."
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Pt. 2 (Ch.10-15)
"Now, in the practice of this spiritual retreat and of these brief prayers the great work of devotion lies: it can supply all other deficiencies, but there is hardly any means of making up where this is lacking."
St. John Henry Newman—The Lapse of Time
“We are now entering on a fresh stage of our life's journey; we know well how it will end, and we see where we shall stop in the evening, though we do not see the road.”
Urban Hannon—The Politics of Hell
I want you to imagine a society—a society made up of self-absorbed, atomized individuals—a society in which the various members tolerate each other, because they know they need each other, but only so that each of them can achieve his own private ambitions and desires—a society, moreover, that is in open rebellion against its own origins. Sound familiar yet?
John Dryden—Two Poems in Honor of St. Cecilia’s Day
But bright Cecilia rais'd the wonder high'r; / When to her organ, vocal breath was giv'n, / An angel heard, and straight appear'd / Mistaking earth for Heav'n.
Pope Pius XI—Casti Connubii: On Christian Marriage | Full
“Matrimony was not instituted or restored by man but by God; not by man were the laws made to strengthen and confirm and elevate it but by God, the Author of nature, and by Christ Our Lord by Whom nature was redeemed...”
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Bearing of Other Branches of Knowledge on Theology
"If you drop any science out of the circle of knowledge, you cannot keep its place vacant for it; that science is forgotten; the other sciences close up, or, in other words, they exceed their proper bounds, and intrude where they have no right... no science whatever, however comprehensive it may be, but will fall largely into error, if it be constituted the sole exponent of all things in heaven and earth, and that, for the simple reason that it is encroaching on territory not its own, and undertaking problems which it has no instruments to solve."
Richard Crashaw—A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa
"Thou art Love’s victim, and must die / A death more mystical and high!"
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Pt. 2 (Ch.1-9)
"It may be, my child, that you do not know how to practice mental prayer, for unfortunately it is a thing much neglected nowadays. I will therefore give you a short and easy method for using it..."
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Bearing of Theology on Other Branches of Knowledge
"In a word, Religious Truth is not only a portion, but a condition of general knowledge. To blot it out is nothing short, if I may so speak, of unravelling the web of University Teaching."
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Theology a Branch of Knowledge
"Religious doctrine is knowledge, in as full a sense as Newton's doctrine is knowledge. University Teaching without Theology is simply unphilosophical."
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Introductory
"The views to which I have referred have grown into my whole system of thought, and are, as it were, part of myself. Many changes has my mind gone through: here it has known no variation or vacillation of opinion..."
St. John Henry Newman—The Idea of a University | Preface
"The view taken of a University in these Discourses is the following: That it is a place of teaching universal knowledge."
US Supreme Court—Majority Opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health
"The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives."
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Pt. 1 (Ch.19-24)
"There is no disposition so good but it may be made bad by reason of vicious habits, and neither is there any natural disposition so perverse but that it may be conquered and overcome by God's grace primarily, and then by our earnest endeavor."
Gerard Manley Hopkins—The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo
Hopkins considered this to be the most musical of his poems, and among the most dramatic.
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Pt. 1 (Ch.9-18)
"Use them one after another, in the order in which they come, only taking one each day, and using that as early as possible..."
St. Augustine—Letter to the Lady Felicia: On Bad Shepherds
"I advise you not to be too deeply disturbed by these scandals, because their coming was foretold so that, when they came, we might remember that they had been foretold and might not be greatly troubled by them."
Romano Guardini—Christ’s Offering of Self
"The Lord’s memorial is the central mystery of our Christian life. It has taken the form of a meal at which He offers Himself as the food. We were taught this in the Communion instruction of our childhood; we hear it repeated again and again in sermons and retreats; we read it in religious books. Yet are we really aware of the stupendousness of the thought?"
St. Francis de Sales—Introduction to the Devout Life | Pt. 1 (Ch.1-8, w/ Preface)
"Be sure that wherever our lot is cast we may and must aim at the perfect life."
St. John Henry Newman—The Power of Prayer: 3 Poems
In this episode from the archives, a selection of three of Newman’s poems is read, all of which were composed within a few days of one another and all reflecting on the efficacy of prayer.
St. John Henry Newman—Knowledge of God’s Will without Obedience
"If you hate your own corruption in sincerity and truth, if you are really pierced to the heart that you do not do what you know you should do, if you would love God if you could, then the Gospel speaks to you words of peace and hope. It is a very different thing indolently to say, "I would I were a different man," and to close with God's offer to make you different, when it is put before you. Here is the test between earnestness and insincerity."
Pope Leo XIII—Rerum Novarum: Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor | Full
“Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism—community of goods—must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal.”
Armand Jean de Rancé—On Compunction
"Be solicitous only to pour out tears abundantly, and leave to God the care of drying them up."
St. Vincent Ferrer—On the Last Judgment: Sheep and Goats
"In the second coming when He will come for rendering repayment, He will not come in humility and poverty, but in such majesty and power that the whole world will tremble."
St. John Henry Newman—The Reverence Due to the Virgin Mary
"For, truly, she is raised above the condition of sinful beings, though by nature a sinner; she is brought near to God, yet is but a creature, and seems to lack her fitting place in our limited understandings, neither too high nor too low. We cannot combine, in our thought of her, all we should ascribe with all we should withhold."
St. Patrick—His Confession
"You can judge and believe in all truth that it was a gift of God. This is my confession before I die."
St. John Chrysostom—Homily 33 on the Gospel according to St. Matthew
“So long as we are sheep, we conquer: though ten thousand wolves prowl around, we overcome and prevail. But if we become wolves, we are worsted, for the help of our Shepherd departs from us: for He feeds not wolves, but sheep.”
T.S. Eliot—Ash Wednesday
"This is the time of tension between dying and birth"
St. Peter Damian—The Lord Be With You
"Holy Church is both one in all its members and complete in each of them."
St. Bernadette Soubirous—My Name Is Bernadette
“Holiness and prayer are simple. God's Mother taught me so."
St. Thomas Aquinas—Beware of the False
“Hypocrites seduce souls in order to have followers and honors."
St. Ignatius of Antioch—Letter to the Trallians & Letter to the Philadelphians: Obey Your Bishop
“When you are obedient to the bishop as you would be to Jesus Christ, you are living, not in a human way, but according to Jesus Christ…”
J.R.R. Tolkien—From a Letter to His Son, Michael
"The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion."
St. Ephrem the Syrian—Hymns on Mary | Hymn Ten
“When He began to cry / she got up and gave Him milk; / she embraced Him as she sang to Him, / swaying her knees until He became still.”
St. John Henry Newman—Omnipotence in Bonds
"My Brethren, it is plain that, when we confess God as Omnipotent only, we have gained but a half-knowledge of Him: His is an Omnipotence which can at the same time swathe Itself in infirmity and can become the captive of Its own creatures... We must know Him by His names, Emmanuel and Jesus, to know Him perfectly."
St. Alphonsus Liguori—Uniformity With God’s Will | Full
“True, we should esteem the things that make for the glory of God, but we should show the greatest esteem for those that concern the will of God.”
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet—St. Joseph: Guard What Has Been Entrusted to You
An Advent meditation on the hidden life of St. Joseph.
St. John Henry Newman—The Patristical Idea of Antichrist | Pt. 4: The Persecution of Antichrist
"Here then we have a sign of Antichrist's appearance—I do not say of his instant coming, or his certain coming… still, so far as it goes, it is a preparation, a warning, a call to sober thought..."
Pope Pius XI—Casti Connubii: On Christian Marriage | Pt. 3
“As history testifies, the prosperity of the State and the temporal happiness of its citizens cannot remain safe and sound… where the very fountainhead from which the State draws its life, namely, wedlock and the family, is obstructed by the vices of its citizens.”
Pope Pius XI—Casti Connubii: On Christian Marriage | Pt. 2
“The family is more sacred than the State... men are begotten not for the earth and for time, but for Heaven and eternity.”
Pope Pius XI—Casti Connubii: On Christian Marriage | Pt. 1
“Matrimony was not instituted or restored by man but by God; not by man were the laws made to strengthen and confirm and elevate it but by God, the Author of nature, and by Christ Our Lord by Whom nature was redeemed...”
St. John Chrysostom—Homily 46 on the Gospel According to St. John: Bread of Life, Mystery of Faith
“He has given to those who desire Him not only to see Him, but even to touch, and eat Him, and fix their teeth in His flesh, and to embrace Him, and satisfy all their love. Let us then return from that table like lions breathing fire, having become terrible to the devil.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Patristical Idea of Antichrist | Pt. 3: The City of Antichrist
"What a wonderful rule of God's providence is herein displayed which occurs daily!—the Church sanctities, yet suffers with, the world—sharing its sufferings, yet lightening them."
St. Augustine—De Doctrina Christiana | Full
“Whoever, then, appears in his own opinion to have comprehended the Sacred Scriptures, or even some part of them, yet does not build up with that knowledge the two-fold love of God and his neighbor, has not yet known as he ought to know.”
St. Louis IX—Letter to His Son
“Therefore, dear son, the first thing I advise is that you fix your whole heart upon God, and love Him with all your strength, for without this no one can be saved or be of any worth.”
St. Ambrose of Milan—Letter to His Sister: State Authority Over Public Edifices, Not Sacred Ones
“We beg, O Augustus, we do not battle. We are not afraid, but we are begging. It befits Christians to hope for the tranquility of peace and not to check the steadfastness of faith and truth when faced with danger of death.”
St. Edmund Campion—Campion’s Brag
“The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted: So it must be restored.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Patristical Idea of Antichrist | Pt. 2: The Religion of Antichrist
“Surely the world is impregnated with the elements of preternatural evil, which ever and anon, in unhealthy seasons, give lowering and muttering tokens of the wrath to come!”
St. Robert Southwell—Mary Magdalene’s Complaint at Christ’s Death
“One that lives by other's breath, / Dieth also by his death.”
St. Jerome—Against Helvidius: On the Perpetual Virginity of Mary
“The axe of the Gospel must now be laid at the roots of the barren tree and the tree must be delivered to the flames with its unfruitful leaves, so that he who has never learned to speak might learn at length to hold his tongue.”
Ida Friederike Görres—Trusting the Church
“What is up to us is to plead without ceasing for discernment and love, for justice and patience—and for unshakable love for the Church. Because only the lover discerns. And what people who do not love her, maybe secretly hate her, tell us about her need not frighten us.”
St. Ephrem the Syrian—Hymns on Faith | Hymn Ten: Fire and Spirit
“In your bread is hidden the Spirit which cannot be eaten. In your wine dwells the fire that cannot be drunk. Spirit in your bread, fire in your wine: It is a distinct wonder that our lips have received!”
Paul Claudel—“Magnificat”, the third Great Ode
“Like the new mother, burdened with milk for the child, so the poet with the word within him, addressed to others.”
St. Alphonsus Liguori—Uniformity With God’s Will | Pt. 3
“True, we should esteem the things that make for the glory of God, but we should show the greatest esteem for those that concern the will of God.”
Pope St. John Paul II—Redemptoris Custos: On the Person and Mission of St. Joseph in the Life of Christ and of the Church
“...at the moment of Joseph's own ‘annunciation’ he said nothing; instead he simply ‘did as the angel of the Lord commanded him’. And this first ‘doing’ became the beginning of ‘Joseph's way’. The Gospels do not record any word ever spoken by Joseph along that way. But the silence of Joseph has its own special eloquence..."
St. Alphonsus Liguori—Uniformity With God’s Will | Pt. 2
“Sickness is the acid test of spirituality, because it discloses whether our virtue is real or sham.”
St. Alphonsus Liguori—Uniformity With God’s Will | Pt. 1
“Conformity signifies that we join our wills to the will of God. Uniformity means more -- it means that we make one will of God's will and ours, so that we will only what God wills; that God's will alone, is our will.”
St. John Henry Newman—Mental Sufferings of Our Lord in His Passion
"... as His atoning passion was undergone in the body, so it was undergone in the soul also."
St. John Henry Newman—On the Annunciation
“How, and when, did Mary take part—and the initial part—in the world's restoration? It was when the Angel Gabriel came to her to announce to her the great dignity which was to be her portion.”
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet—St. Joseph: A Man after God’s Own Heart
“Joseph merited the greatest honors because he was never touched by honor. The Church has nothing more illustrious, because it has nothing more hidden.”
The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity
“Possibly such a woman could not have been slain unless she herself had willed it, because she was feared by the impure spirit.”
Joseph Ratzinger—What Will the Church Look Like in 2000?
"The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already… but the Church of faith."
St. John Henry Newman—Moral Consequences of Single Sins
“Day and night follow each other not more surely, than punishment comes upon sin… just as a stone falls to the earth, or as fire burns, or as poison kills, as if by the necessary bond of cause and effect.”
Paul Mankowski, S.J.—Tames in Clerical Life
“The tame commitment to the noncommittal is the engine that powers gay progress in the Church.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Patristical Idea of Antichrist | Pt. 1: The Times of Antichrist
“Is the enemy of Christ, and His Church, to arise out of a certain special falling away from GOD? And is there no reason to fear that some such Apostasy is gradually preparing, gathering, hastening on in this very day?”
St. Augustine—De Doctrina Christiana | Book 4 (Ch.17-31)
“I have discussed in these four books not the kind of man I am, because I have many failings, but the kind of man he should be who strives to labor in sound teaching, that is, in Christian teaching...”
St. John Henry Newman—On the Name of Jesus
“Consider what it is you mean by praying, and you will see that, at that very time that you are asking for the coming of His kingdom, you are anticipating that coming, and accomplishing the thing you fear.”
St. Augustine—De Doctrina Christiana | Book 4 (Ch.1-16)
“Thus, in praying for himself and for those whom he is about to address, [the orator] should be a suppliant before he is a speaker… Who can make us say what we should, and say it in the way we should, except Him in whose ‘hand are both we and our words’?”
St. John Henry Newman—Shrinking from Christ’s Coming
“Consider what it is you mean by praying, and you will see that, at that very time that you are asking for the coming of His kingdom, you are anticipating that coming, and accomplishing the thing you fear.”
St. Augustine—De Doctrina Christiana | Book 3 (Ch.24-37)
“Students of these revered writings should be advised not only to learn the kinds of expressions in the Holy Scriptures… but also to pray that they may understand them.”
Francis Thompson—The Hound of Heaven
"Is my gloom, after all, / Shade of his hand, outstretched caressingly?"
Pope St. Leo the Great—Tome of Leo
“This is the faith by which the Catholic Church lives and progresses, namely, that humanity is believed to exist in Jesus Christ not without real divinity, and divinity, not without real humanity.”
Pope Leo XIII—Immortale Dei: On the Christian Constitution of States
"Since, then, no one is allowed to be remiss in the service due to God, and since the chief duty of all men is to cling to religion in both its reaching and practice-not such religion as they may have a preference for, but the religion which God enjoins, and which certain and most clear marks show to be the only one true religion -it is a public crime to act as though there were no God."
St. Augustine—De Doctrina Christiana | Book 3 (Ch.1-23)
"Reflect for a long time upon what is being read, until the interpretation is drawn over to the sway of charity."
St. Ignatius of Antioch—Letter to the Ephesians
“It is better to say nothing and be a Christian, than to speak and not to be one.”
St. John Henry Newman—Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View
“I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold, and what they do not, who know their creed so well, that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.”
Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP—The Created Pure Spirit, and Its Limits
“Among this ever so numerous throng of pure spirits, the highest of hierarchies is that of the great contemplative angels… Next comes those who are ministers of the Most High… and finally there are the angels who simply execute the orders of God, as are the invisible guardians of men, communities, and nations.”
St. Augustine—De Doctrina Christiana | Book 2 (Ch.19-42)
“Whoever does not refer everything to the praise and love of the one God... may seem to be erudite, but he can by no means be considered wise.”
St. Cyprian of Carthage—Letter to Donatus
“While I was lying in darkness and in the obscure night, and while, ignorant of my real life, I was tossing about on the sea of a restless world wavering and doubtful in my wandering steps… I thought it indeed difficult and hard to believe... that divine mercy was promised for my salvation.”
Paul Mankowski, S.J.—What Went Wrong?
"Deviant sexual assault has accomplished what liturgical abuse never could: it has generated secular media pressure and secular legal constraints so overwhelming that the apparat was forced to make its files public."
St. Athanasius—Life of St. Anthony | Full
One of the most influential works in the history of Christian literature, read in its entirety by voice-actor James T. Majewski.
St. Augustine—De Doctrina Christiana | Book 2 (Ch.1-18)
“Everyone devoted to the study of the Holy Scriptures... will find nothing else except that God must be loved for His own sake, and our neighbor for the sake of God.”
St. John Henry Newman—On the Fitness of the Glories of Mary
“Her glories are not only for the sake of her Son — they are for our sakes also.”
Joseph Ratzinger—Aspects of Christian Meditation
“All the aspirations which the prayer of other religions expresses are fulfilled in the reality of Christianity beyond all measure.”
Origen of Alexandria—Homily I on Genesis
“In accordance with the view of the apostle Paul, let us give attention to the text - that we can, as he himself says, receive ‘the mind of Christ’ and know ‘the things that are given us by God.’”
St. Augustine—De Doctrina Christiana | Book 1 with Prologue
“Whoever, then, appears in his own opinion to have comprehended the Sacred Scriptures, or even some part of them, yet does not build up with that knowledge the two-fold love of God and his neighbor, has not yet known as he ought to know.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Danger of Accomplishments
“It is beautiful in a picture to wash the disciples' feet; but the sands of the real desert have no lustre in them to compensate for the servile nature of the occupation.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn—A World Split Apart
"But the fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started."
St. Thomas More—Dialogue on Conscience
“Mistrust Him, Meg, I will not, even if I feel myself faint."
St. Augustine—Letter to Honoratus: On Keeping Sacraments Available
“Because of something uncertain, there should not be a definite abandonment of duty — for, in that event, there is certain ruin for the people, not only in things pertaining to this life, but also in those of that other life which must be cared for with incomparably greater attention and anxiety.”
St. Dorotheus of Gaza—On Self-Accusation
"The man who thinks that he is quiet and peaceful has within him a passion that he does not see. "
St. Thomas Aquinas—Send Out Your Spirit
“Love gives life to the soul, for just as the body lives through the soul, so the soul lives through God, and God dwells in us through love.”
Pope Leo XIII—Rerum Novarum: Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor | Pt. 2
Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner.
Pope Leo XIII—Rerum Novarum: Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor | Pt. 1
Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism — community of goods — must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem—Mystagogical Lectures on the Eucharist
“When the Master himself has explicitly said of the bread, ‘This is my body,’ will anyone still dare to doubt? When He is Himself our warranty, saying, “This is my blood,” who will ever waver and say it is not His Blood?”
St. Athanasius—Life of St. Anthony | Pt. 6
“Do not lose heart, children, for as the Lord has been angry, so will He heal again and the Church shall quickly recover her own good order and shall shine as she has shone.”
Sr. Mary Ada, OSJ—Limbo
Happy feast of St. Joseph the Worker!
Raïssa Maritain—We Have Been Friends Together (excerpt)
"I would have accepted a sad life, but not one that was absurd."
St. John Henry Newman—Keeping Fast and Festival
“None rejoice in Easter-tide less than those who have not grieved in Lent.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Cross of Christ the Measure of the World
“What is given us by revelation to estimate and measure this world by? The event of this season—the Crucifixion of the Son of God.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem—Catechesis II: Repentance, Strong Weapon of Salvation
“Would you know the power of repentance? Would you understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession?”
St. Romanos the Melodist—The Akathist Hymn
"Rejoice, O Bride Ever-Virgin!"
St. Cyril of Jerusalem—Catechesis I
"Sustain the struggle for your soul, especially in these days!”
St. Athanasius—Life of St. Anthony | Pt. 5
“For when did the knowledge of God so shine forth? When did chastity and the virtue of virginity so manifest itself, or when was death so despised, as since the Cross of Christ appeared?”
St. John Henry Newman—Fasting a Source of Trial
"Perhaps this is the truest view of such exercises, that in some wonderful, unknown way they open the next world for good and evil upon us..."
St. Augustine—Two Lenten Sermons
“Do you hate your brother and walk about free from care? Are you unwilling to be reconciled, although God is giving you an opportunity for that purpose? Behold, you are a murderer and yet you live.”
St. Athanasius—Life of St. Anthony | Pt. 4
“I am a servant of Christ. If you have been sent against me, here I am.”
St. Robert Southwell—3 Poems: The Burning Babe, A Child My Choice, I Die Alive
"Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live."
St. Justin Martyr—Dialogue with Trypho (excerpt)
“I will prove to you, here and now, that we do not believe in groundless myths nor in teachings not based on reason, but in doctrines that are inspired by the Divine Spirit, abundant with power, and teeming with grace.”
St. Athanasius—Life of St. Anthony | Pt. 3
“It is possible, with the help of God, easily to distinguish the presence of the good and the bad: a vision of the holy ones is not agitated.”
St. Athanasius—Life of St. Anthony | Pt. 2
“Do not be fearful when you hear of perfection, nor be surprised at the word, for it is not far from us… the Lord has already told us: the kingdom of God is within you.”
St. Thomas Aquinas—Heaven and Earth Will Pass
“Dearest brethren, how great the delight, how great the pleasure, how great the sweetness that is in the heavenly words of wisdom!”
St. Athanasius—Life of St. Anthony | Pt. 1
“Do not hesitate to believe what you have heard from those who have brought you accounts of him; believe, rather, that they have told but little... for it is probable that, when each one has told what he knows, the account will not do Anthony justice.”
St. Augustine—Letter to Januarius
“... if any of these customs is common to the whole Church throughout the world, it is the most unheard of madness to doubt that such custom is to be followed.”
St. John Henry Newman—The Special Charm of Christmas
"If at any time we might love the world, it is now. If at any time, it is when He is come to be our Emmanuel."
Letter to Diognetus
"This faith, if only you desire it, you can have."
The So-Called Second Letter of St. Clement
"And let us not merely seem to pay attention and to believe now, while being admonished by the presbyters, but also, when we have gone home, let us remember the commandments of the Lord..."
St. John Henry Newman—The Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son
“It was fitting, for His honor and glory, that she, who was the instrument of His bodily presence, should first be a miracle of His grace.”
St. John Henry Newman—Worship, a Preparation for Christ’s Coming
"The season is chill and dark, and the breath of the morning is damp, and worshipers are few, but all this befits those who are by profession penitents and mourners, watchers and pilgrims."
St. Ignatius of Antioch—Letter to the Smyrnaeans
"Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
St. John Henry Newman—A Thanksgiving (poem)
Happy Thanksgiving!
St. John Henry Newman—Christian Reverence
"In heaven, love will absorb fear; but in this world, fear and love must go together."
Pope St. Clement I—Letter to the Corinthians
"But, if some shall disobey the words which have been spoken by Him through us, let them know that they will involve themselves in no small transgression and danger."
St. John Henry Newman—Martyrdom
“The unseen God alone was their Comforter, and this invests the scene of their suffering with supernatural majesty, and awes us when we think of them.”
The Martyrdom of St. Polycarp
"The uproar in the stadium was such that nobody could be heard at all."
St. Polycarp—Letter to the Philippians
"The letter of Ignatius sent to us by himself and all the others we have here we send you... and from them you will greatly profit."
St. Ignatius of Antioch—Letter to Polycarp
"Copy the ways of God in speaking to each as an individual person... Not every wound is healed by the same salve."
St. John Henry Newman—Use of Saints’ Days
"We crowd these all up into one day; we mingle together in the brief remembrance of an hour all the choicest deeds, the holiest lives, the noblest labors, the most precious sufferings, which the sun ever saw."
The Didache: Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
"Do not abandon the commandments of the Lord, but keep what you have received, without adding or subtracting."
St. John Henry Newman—Hope in God, Creator
"God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another."
Pope St. John Paul II—Letter to Artists
"Artists are constantly in search of the hidden meaning of things, and their torment is to succeed in expressing the world of the ineffable. How then can we fail to see what a great source of inspiration is offered by that kind of homeland of the soul that is religion?"
St. Ignatius of Antioch—Letter to the Romans
"I am God's wheat; I am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts that I may end as the pure bread of Christ."
St. John Henry Newman—The Salvation of the Hearer the Motive of the Preacher
"It requires nothing great, nothing heroic, nothing saint-like ... it requires nothing more than faith, a single purpose, an honest heart, and a distinct utterance."
St. John Henry Newman—Trailer: Newman on the Fathers
Happy feast of Saint John Henry Newman! Today it is fitting to drop the trailer for one of CatholicCulture.org’s new podcast series, which will take Newman for its patron. Every week, Catholic Culture Audiobooks will be bringing you...
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