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January 8 – SAINT SEVERINO
“When I am frightened by what I am for you, then I am consoled by what I am with you. For you I am the bishop, with you I am a Christian. The first is an office, the second a grace; the first a danger, the second salvation.”
Sermon 340, 1

January 7 – SAINT RAYMOND OF PENYAFORT
Keep always in mind that we must love God and our neighbor: Love God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind, and your neighbor as yourself. These two commandments must be always in your thoughts and in your hearts, treasured, acted on, fulfilled. Love of God is the first to be commanded, but love of neighbor is the first to be put into practice. In giving two commandments of love Christ would not commend to you first your neighbor and then God but first God and then your neighbor … By loving your neighbor you prepare your eye to see God.”
Sermon 17

January 6 – THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
To us, too, the heavens have declared the glory of God; we, too, have been led to worship Christ by the truth blazing from the Gospel, as by a star from the sky. We, too, have received with ears of faith a prophecy that was famous in the Jewish nation, like a standing indictment of the Jews for not accompanying us. We, too, by acknowledging and praising Christ, as both king and priest and the one who died for us, have, as it were, honored him with gold and frankincense and myrrh. It only remains for us to spread the good news about him, by pursuing a new way, not returning by the way we came.
Sermon 202

January 5 – SAINT JOHN NEUMANN
The Lord Jesus wished to be a man for our sakes. Don’t hold this kindness cheap; Wisdom is lying there on the earth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. O food and bread of the angels! The angels take their fill of you, they are content with you, and they don’t grow tired of you; they derive their life from you, their wise judgment from you, their bliss from you. And where are you for my sake? In a cramped and crowded hostelry, in rags, in a manger.
Sermon 196, 3

January 4 – SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON
By loving other people and caring for them you make progress on your journey. Where are you traveling if not to the Lord God, to him whom we should love with our whole heart, our whole soul, or our whole mind? We have not yet reached his presence, but we have our neighbor at our side. Support, then, this companion of your pilgrimage if you want to come into the presence of the one with whom you desire to remain forever.”
Homily on the Gospel of John, 17

January 3 – SAINT FULGENTIUS
Having come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who for our consolation was laid in a cramped and crowded lodging house, and now for our exaltation is seated in heaven; let us proclaim him in this land, in this region of our flesh, by not going back the way we came, nor seeking to follow in the footsteps of our former manner of life. That, after all, is the meaning of those Magi not going back the way they came. Change of way means change of life.
Sermon 202, 4

January 2 – SAINTS BASIL THE GREAT & GREGORY NAZIANZEN
“When we say Jesus was born of a virgin, it’s a great thing, you’re astonished. He’s God, don’t be astonished; let astonishment give way to thanksgiving and praise. Let faith be present; believe that it happened. If you don’t believe, it still happened, but you remain unbelieving. He agreed to become man; what more do you want? Hasn’t God humbled himself enough for you? The one who was God has become man.”
Sermon 189, 4

January 1 – MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
“You, to whom I am speaking, are the members of Christ. Of whom were you born? ‘Of Mother Church,’ I hear the reply of your hearts. You became sons of this mother at your baptism, you came to birth then as members of Christ. Now you in turn must draw to the font of baptism as many as you possibly can. You became sons when you were born there yourselves, and now by bringing others to birth in the same way, you have it in your power to become the mothers of Christ.”
Sermon 25

December 31 – SAINT SYLVESTER
“Let us walk in Jesus’ ways, following the paths he has shown us; above all let us pursue the way of humility, since he himself became the way of humility for our sake … But how did he bring himself down? John tells us: The Word was made flesh and lived among us. The Word of God could not be slain; and so, for the immortal word to be able to die for us, he became man and lived among us. The Immortal put on mortality in order to die for us, and by his death to slay the death of us all. This is the Lord’s doing; this is his gift to us.”
Sermon 23A

December 30
“God not only made a written covenant with us to win our faith, but he also gave us a mediator of his pledge. This mediator was not a prince, an angel, or an archangel, but his only Son; through his own Son he meant both to show us and give us the way by which he would lead us to the promised goal. He was not satisfied with sending his Son to show us the way. He made him the way itself.”
Exposition of the Psalms, 109