Inspiring Quotes for the Holy Week

[hubag bohol]

"We ought to fast, and to abstain from all vice, and from all that will lead us into sin, as well as from extravagance and superfluity. We should often visit the churches, and venerate and reverence all ecclesiastics on account of their office, and because they distribute the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ, which they offer in sacrifice, receive themselves, and administer to others. And let everyone know and hold for certain that we cannot be saved except through the sacred Words and the Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which priests preach, announce, and distribute, and of which they are the sole ministers." -St. Francis of Assisi

[hubag bohol]

"As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus' thirst...'Repent and believe' Jesus tells us. What are we to repent?  Our indifference, our hardness of heart.  What are we to believe?  Jesus thirsts even now, in your heart and in the poor -- He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you."  -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

[hubag bohol]

"Nothing, how little so ever it be, if it is suffered for God's sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God." -Thomas a Kempis

[hubag bohol]

“And though every day a man lives may rightly be a day of repentance, yet is it in these days more becoming, more appropriate, to confess our sins, to fast, and to give alms to the poor; since in these days you may wash clean the sins of the whole year.” - St. John Chrysostom

[hubag bohol]

"Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life..." - Pope Benedict XVI 

[hubag bohol]

"The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist." -Pope St. Gregory the Great

[hubag bohol]

"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting." -Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

[hubag bohol]

"Lent is a retreat that the Church gives us in order to re-focus on what should be first in our lives. The purpose of Jesus' life was to glorify the Father and save the world. ..Lent is not first a time of giving up but a time to re-choose to be the victim of Christ, the Lamb. It is a time to live the Beatitudes.” -Fr. Dominique, O.P., founder of the Community of St. John

[hubag bohol]

"Almsgiving, according to the Gospel, is not mere philanthropy: rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a theological virtue that demands interior conversion to love of God and neighbor, in imitation of Jesus Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave His entire self for us. " -Pope Benedict XVI

[hubag bohol]

“Each year, Lent offers us a providential opportunity to deepen the meaning and value of our Christian lives, and it stimulates us to rediscover the mercy of God so that we, in turn, become more merciful toward our brothers and sisters. In the Lenten period, the Church makes it her duty to propose some specific tasks that accompany the faithful concretely in this process of interior renewal: these are prayer, fasting and almsgiving.”   -Pope Benedict XVI

[hubag bohol]

"And eventually, the choosing becomes easier, the darkness lifts, and walking in Jesus' way is not quite such a struggle for a while. But the darkness will always return, often unexpectedly. That is why I need Lent, because it bears witness to the reality of darkness, of doubt, of fear, of pain. And it carries me through those real places, real experiences into one that is more fully and truly Real: the Reality of Resurrection, of Light, of Life." -Kimberlee Conway Ireton

[hubag bohol]

"It is a season of grace, bringing about a communion with Christ. It is season of blessing for all of God's people." -Bishop Michael Jarrell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette

[hubag bohol]

“Christ, like a skillful physician, understands the weakness of men. He loves to teach the ignorant and the erring he turns again to his own true way. He is easily found by those who live by faith and to those of pure eye and holy heart, who desire to knock at the door, he opens immediately.” -St. Hyppolytus

[hubag bohol]

“The observance of Lent is the very badge of Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the cross of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should mankind grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God’s glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.” -Pope Benedict XVI

[hubag bohol]

“It [penance] does not mean sacrifice and self denial in the first place, but a “change of heart,” a victory over sin and a striving for holiness.  The sacrifices of fasting and self-denial are only means and signs of this spiritual penance.  If people understand this well, they will not put the main effort in Lent on technical feats of abstaining from pleasures (which sometimes make them proud or vain), but in sincere contrition, prayer and humble fight against their faults.” - Fr. Francis X. Weiser S.J.

[hubag bohol]

“[W]hen we sinned we lost sight of our last end and the threefold concupiscence blinded us.  Let us loose no time, but return to the Lord our God; a delay might bring upon us that curse, which our prophet says overtakes the unrepenting sinner; he shall not see good, when good shall come*."  -Abbot Gueranger

[hubag bohol]

"The holy season of Lent is fast advancing; the choicest graces are being daily offered us; woe to the man whose mind is distracted by the fashion of this world that passeth away,  and takes no thought for eternity and heaven, and, even in this of grace, is like tamarick, a worthless weed of the desert.  Oh how numerous is this class! and how terrible is their spiritual indifference! Pray for them, O ye faithful children of the Church, pray for them without ceasing.  Offer up you penances and your almsgivings for them.  Despair not; and remember that, each year, many straying sheep are brought to the fold by such intercession as this.” -Abbot Gueranger

[hubag bohol]

"Let works of piety, therefore, be our delight, and let us be filled with those kinds of food which feed us for eternity. Let us rejoice in the replenishment of the poor, whom our bounty has satisfied. Let us delight in the clothing of those whose nakedness we have covered with needful raiment. Let our humaneness be felt by the sick in their illnesses, by the weakly in their infirmities, by the exiles in their hardships, by the orphans in their destitution, and by solitary widows in their sadness: in the helping of whom there is no one that cannot carry out some amount of benevolence. For no one’s income is small, whose heart is big: and the measure of one’s mercy and goodness does not depend on the size of one’s means. Wealth of goodwill is never rightly lacking, even in a slender purse. Doubtless the expenditure of the rich is greater, and that of the poor smaller, but there is no difference in the fruit of their works, where the purpose of the workers is the same."    -Pope Leo the Great

[hubag bohol]

“Renounce yourself in order to follow Christ; discipline your body; do not pamper yourself, but love fasting.” -Saint Benedict

[hubag bohol]

"We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative. A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortificdation are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is GOD’s arrival that is the important event." -Fulton J. Sheen