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December 1
“If you put the good things you do down to God and thank God for them, and yet at the same time count yourself a cut above others who are not yet doing good, and consider yourself to be completely and perfectly just because you do not commit murder or adultery or theft, or because you fast or give alms and now consider that you have thereby fulfilled all justice, and scorn those who do not do these things, and are very pleased with yourself like a healthy fellow looking at the sick – even in this case God disqualifies you. What you ought to do, you see, however much progress you are making, is not think about how much ground you have covered but about how much you still have left until you finish the journey and can enjoy yourself in your home country, being lifted up in the king of that country who for your sake humbled himself.”
Sermon 16B, 3

November 30 – SAINT ANDREW
“A good man deposits in the heavenly bank all the works of mercy he does for the people he helps, and he knows that the one who keeps his deposit safe is the faithful and reliable guardian. He doesn’t see it, but he is certain of his account, because nothing can be pilfered from it by a thief, or seized by an invading enemy, or taken away from him as though he were being evicted by a rival or bully or strong man, but it will always be waiting for him because it is being kept for him by the mightiest lord of all.”
Sermon 18, 3

November 29 – FREDERICK OF REGENSBURG, O.S.A.
“Are we, perhaps, continually prostrated on our knees with our hands raised that you ask us to pray without ceasing? If such is asked of us in telling us thus to pray, I feel we cannot pray without ceasing. There is, then, another class of interior prayer, and this is desire … If you do not wish to break off your prayer, do not interrupt your desire. Your continual desire is the continual voice of your heart. Be silent and you will cease to love. Coldness of charity is the silence of the heart and fire of love is the clamor of the heart.”
Exposition on the Psalms 37, 14

November 28 – SAINT CATHERINE LABOURE
“The fullness of the law is charity. But where is charity to be found? In the love of God and love of neighbor; it won’t be genuine unless God is also loved. You chose love of God; it won’t be genuine unless neighbor is also tacitly included … There is absolutely nothing, in fact, that can satisfy you except God; nothing is enough for you, except God. Show us the Father and it is enough for us. So, let us love the works of mercy, while our ills are being healed, so that when our ills have been healed, our desires may be sharpened; being healed may they be sharpened, being sharpened may they be satisfied, so that there will be judgment on us, but with mercy.”
Sermon 90A, 13-14

November 27 – SAINT VIRGILIO
“First and foremost, … remember the poor, so that what you withhold from yourselves by living more sparingly, you may deposit in the treasury of heaven. Let the hungry Christ receive what the fasting Christian receives less of. Let the self-denial of one who undertakes it willingly become the support of the one who has nothing. Let the voluntary want of the person who has plenty become the needed plenty of the person in want.”
Sermon 210.10.12

November 26 – SAINT CORRADO
“God proclaims a Sabbath for us. What kind of Sabbath? Consider first how it is to be observed. Our Sabbath has to be within, a thing of the heart. Many indeed are those who rest their bodies, but their conscience is in a state of turmoil … He, on the contrary, who has a good conscience, is at peace; and this peace is in itself the Sabbath of the heart … It is the joy we have in the serenity of our hope that constitutes our Sabbath.”
Exposition on the Psalms, 91.2

November 25 – SAINT CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA
“Be fervent in the Spirit and burn with the fire of love; make yourselves burn through praise of God and a good life. One man is hot, another cold; the hot one warms the cold. The man who does not burn enough with love must desire a more intense love and pray for help. The Lord is ready to help; we must open our hearts and yearn to receive.”
Sermon 234, 3

November 24 – SAINT ANDREW DUNG-LAC & COMPANIONS
“Because of its weight a body tends to its proper place. Weight does not necessarily urge a body down, but it does urge it to its proper place. Fire tends upward, a stone downward; each is moved by its weight and seeks its proper place. Oil mixed with water rises to the surface of the water; water poured into oil sinks beneath the oil; each is moved by its weight and seeks its proper place. If a being is not in its proper place, it is restless: if it is, it is at rest. My weight is love; it is what carries me wherever I am borne.”
Confessions XIII, 9,10

November 23 – SAINT CLEMENT
“Why did he permit himself to be tempted, if not to teach us how to resist the tempter? The world promises the pleasures of the flesh; answer it: ‘God is ore delightful than that.’ The world promises secular honors and high office; answer it: ‘The Kingdom of God is higher than all that.’ The world promises superfluous, even damnable spectacle to our curiosity; answer it: ‘God’s truth alone does not err.’”
Sermon 284,5

November 22 – SAINT CECILIA
“Let me love you, Lord, and give thanks to you and confess to your name, because you have forgiven my grave sins and wicked deeds. By your sheer grace and mercy, you melted my sins away like ice. To your grace also do I also ascribe whatever sins I did not commit, for what would I not have been capable of. I who could be enamored even of a wanton crime I acknowledge that you have forgiven me everything, both the sins I willfully committed by following my own will, and those I avoided through your guidance.”
Confessions II,7,15