Author Archives: admin

FEBRUARY 26 – SAINT ROMEO
“The world continues to grab at us, enticing us with its charms. We like lots of money, we like splendid honors, we like the power to dominate others. We like all these things, but let’s keep in mind the words of the apostle: ‘We brought nothing into this world, neither can we take anything out.’”
Sermon 39, 2

FEBRUARY 25 – SAINT CESARIUS
“Lord, you frighten me! You demand from me what you gave me. You gave me my talents because you want to profit from them. You don’t want them hidden away in some secret place. You don’t want to get back only what you gave me. You want more. You want all your money, every coin that bears your image – i.e., every human soul that ever existed.”
Sermon 125, 8

FEBRUARY 24 – SAINT SERGIO
“There is a place in the Church for the chastity of the virgin, for the continence of the widow, and for the modesty of the married. Indeed, all her members have their place, and this is where they are to follow Christ, in their function and in their way of life. They must deny themselves, that is, they must not presume on their own strength. They must take up their cross by enduring in the world for Christ’s sake whatever paint the world brings.”
Sermon 96

FEBRUARY 23 – SAINT POLYCARP
“What does it mean, let him take up his own cross? … This is not a command for virgins to obey and brides to ignore, for widows and not for married women, for monks and not for married men, or for the clergy and not for the laity. No, the whole Church, the entire body, all the members in their distinct and varied functions, must follow Christ.”
Sermon 96

FEBRUARY 22 – CHAIR OF SAINT PETER
“The medicine for all the wounds of the soul, and the one propitiation for the offenses of men is to believe in Christ … They who believe in him become the children of God; because they are born of God by the grace of adoption, which is by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Sermon 143.1

FEBRUARY 21- SAINT PETER DAMIAN
“The new will which had come to life in me and made me wish to serve you freely and enjoy you, my God, who are our only certain joy, was not yet strong enough to overcome the old, hardened as it was by the passage of time. So these two will within me, one old, one new, on the servant of the flesh, the other of the spirit, were in conflict and between them they tore my soul apart.”
Confessions VIII, 5

FEBRUARY 20 – SAINT MAURA
“When I gave into lust habit was born, and when I did not resist the habit it became a necessity. These were the links which together formed what I have called my chain, and it held me fast in the duress of servitude.”
Confessions VIII, 5

FEBRUARY 19 – SAINT CORRADO
“My true brothers are those who rejoice for me in their hearts when they find good in me, and grieve for me when they find sin. They are my true brothers, because whether they see good in me or evil, they love me still. To such as these I shall reveal what I am. Let them breathe a sigh of joy for what is good in me and a sigh of grief for what is bad.”
Confessions X, 4

FEBRUARY 18 – SAINT SIMEON
“Men go out and gaze in astonishment at high mountains, the huge waves of the sea, the broad reaches of rivers, the ocean that encircles the world, or the stars in their courses. But they pay no attention to themselves.”
Confessions X, 8

FEBRUARY 17 – SAINT DONATO
“Nothing deserves to be despised more than vice; yet I have in more and more to vice simply in order not to be despised. If I had not sinned enough to rival other sinners, I used to pretend that I had done things I had not done at all, because I was afraid that innocence would be taken for cowardice and chastity for weakness.”
Confessions, II, 3