christian-nuns

"Margaret's ardour as a catholic was always remarkable."

"She was a woman of great gifts both natural and supernatural, she had marvellous faith and wonderful determination."

"She was a very clever woman, full of energy, with a wide sympathetic nature and a remarkably retentive memory."

"God, who entrusts to us their religious education, has a right to be set before them as truly, as nobly, as worthily as our capacity allows, as beautifully as human language can convey the mysteries of faith, with the quietness and confidence of those who know and are not afraid, and filial pride in the Christian inheritance which is ours. The child has a right to learn the best that it can know of God, since the happiness of its life, not only in eternity but even in time, is bound up in that knowledge."

"Mother de Gramont's remarkable intelligence and influence were of great value in the important work entrusted to her, and she established the school in the Rue de Varenne so firmly in its position that the only anxiety of the foundress of the society concerning it was the success, almost too brilliant for her love of hiddenness and simplicity, which attended the work."

"The personal experience of living with the Xirima people of Macúa and their living environment was a precious opportunity for me to deepen the meaning of the mission and the mission as a Consolata missionary. Happy and infected by the Macua perspective, I found myself enjoying and appreciating in a new way the feminine and maternal dimension inherent in our charism. The recognition, respect, hospitality and care for every seed of life present in people, peoples and history appeared to me more than ever as essential and specific characteristics of the missionary work of the Consolata Missionaries."

"Of works of charity she never wearied."

"In the far days of the past, so far back that they seem like a beautiful, hallowed dream, I learned to know and love Don Bosco, then in the zenith of his great achievements, a living and powerful force for good."

"Great spiritual desolation purified her soul during a great portion of her religious life, but she cheerfully took the royal road of the cross."

"The marking features of her personality were breadth of view and rapid intuition that appeared unerring as an instinct, directness of intention and strength of purpose which lay concealed under a timid exterior, but astonished by their force when circumstances called for prompt decision and action - and a characteristic grace of humility which seemed to be her distinguishing supernatural gift."

""Lord do what you want with me," this is the song that gave me courage to go out of the bush and to go back to the town to identify the women who were displaced, the women who were traumatized."

"Up to now I have tried to make my life a gift for him. What is most important is that my life belongs to the Lord. He has often led me to hear him, unexpectedly, and this time he has come to me and I could not say no to what the Lord was asking me."

"As an institution the Church cannot subject its authority to a certain social relation with society."

"It made me very, very, very, very happy, because I met all those I love and I thank the heavens for giving them to me. I thank God for the trouble they went to."

"I never considered my decision as “walking away from Hollywood,” I felt it was more — walking into something more significant and by that, I took Hollywood with me. I really loved my work and the people I worked with."

"[...] I wanted to open the New Testament, the only book I want to have here in front of me, in a hidden corner of the attic, where I retreat, in the light of a poor glass tile, to escape human eyes as much as possible. My knees serve as a table; an old suitcase serves as a chair. ‘Why don't you write in your cell?’ some may ask. The good Lord saw fit to deprive me of a cell, even though there are several empty ones here in the house. [...] But I am content and I thank God for being born poor and for living, through His love, even poorer. [...] And that's fine. I need nothing else: obedience and abandonment to God, who works in me. In reality, I am nothing more than the poor and miserable instrument He wants to use, and soon, like the painter who throws his brush into the fire so that it is reduced to ashes, so too will the Divine Painter reduce His useless instrument to the ashes of the grave, until the great day of eternal hallelujah. And I ardently desire that day, because the tomb does not destroy everything, and the happiness of eternal and infinite love begins there. (pp. 132-133)"

"Sometimes I was asked if Our Lady indicated in any apparition what kind of sins offended the Lord most. Well, according to what they say, Jacinta mentioned the sin of the flesh in Lisbon. Perhaps, I think now, since it was one of the questions she asked me, she happened to ask Our Lady about it in Lisbon, and that is how she was told about that sin. (pp. 122-123)"

"Some people, even pious ones, do not want to talk about hell to children so as not to frighten them; but God did not hesitate to show it to three, one of whom was only six years old, and whom He knew would be so horrified that, I dare say, she would be weakened by fear. She would often sit on the ground or on a rock and exclaim thoughtfully: – Hell! Hell! How much compassion I have for the souls who go to hell! And the people there, alive, burning like wood on the fire! And, trembling all over, she would kneel with her hands clasped to recite the prayer that Our Lady had taught us: – O my Jesus! Forgive our sins, deliver us from the fire of hell, take all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need. Now, Most Reverend and Most Honourable Bishop, you will understand why I was left with the impression that the last words of this prayer referred to the souls who are in greater or more imminent danger of damnation. And she remained kneeling for a long time, repeating the same prayer. (p. 121)"

"[...] we raised our eyes to Our Lady, who said to us with kindness and sadness: – You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If they do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and will have peace. The war is about to end, but if they do not cease offending God, a worse one will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God is giving you that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, through war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If they accept My requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed. In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. (pp. 119-120)"

"Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire, which seemed to be underground. Immersed in that fire, the demons and souls, as if they were transparent and black or bronze embers, with human form, were floating in the fire, carried by the flames that came out of themselves together with clouds of smoke, falling on all sides like sparks in great fires, without weight or balance, amid cries and groans of pain and despair that filled one with horror and made one tremble with fear. The demons could be recognised by their horrible and repulsive forms of frightening and unknown animals, but transparent and black. (p. 119)"

"We had been told to recite the Crown after our snack, but since we felt we didn't have enough time to play, we found a good way to finish it quickly: we passed the beads, saying only: Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary! When we reached the end of the mystery, after a long pause, we said the simple words: Our Father! And so, in the blink of an eye, as they say, our Crown was finished! (p. 43)"

"[...] Our Lady said that we must recite the Rosary to obtain graces during the year. And she continued: – Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for your love, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. [...] When you recite the Rosary, after each mystery say: “O my Jesus! Forgive us, deliver us from the fire of hell, bring all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need”. (pp. 172-174)"

"– What do you want from me? – I asked. – I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to recite the Rosary every day, and to learn to read. Then I will tell you what I want. I asked for the healing of a sick person. – If he converts, he will be healed within the year. ‘I would like to ask you to take us to Heaven.’ "Yes, Jacinta and Francisco, I will take them soon, but you will remain here for some time. Jesus wants to use you to make Me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. – Will I stay here alone? – I asked sadly. – No, my child. Does this cause you great suffering? Do not be discouraged. I will never leave you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. As she uttered these last words, she opened her hands and communicated to us, for the second time, the reflection of that immense light, in which we saw ourselves as immersed in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light that rose towards Heaven, while I was in the part that spread over the earth. In front of the palm of Our Lady's right hand, there was a heart crowned with thorns that seemed to be stuck in it. We understood that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, which wanted reparation. (pp. 171-172)"

"Francisco did not seem to be Jacinta's brother, except in his facial features and in the practice of virtue. He was not as capricious and lively as she was. On the contrary, he was peaceful and accommodating in character. [...] He did not show the same passion for dancing as Jacinta; he preferred to play the flute while the other children danced. In games, he was quite lively, but few enjoyed playing with him because he almost always lost. I myself confess that I had little sympathy for him, because his peaceful character sometimes irritated my overly lively nerves. (p. 134)"

"The little girl also loved to go to the threshing floor in front of our house at dusk to watch the beautiful sunset and the starry sky that followed. She was thrilled by the beautiful full moon nights. We challenged each other to see who could count the stars, which we called the angels' lamps. The moon belonged to Our Lady and the Sun belonged to the Lord. For this reason, Jacinta sometimes said: – I like Our Lady's lamp better because it doesn't burn us or blind us, whereas the Lord's does. (p. 40)"

"Before the events of 1917, apart from the family ties that bound us together, I had no particular affection for Jacinta and Francisco that made me prefer their company to that of any other children. In fact, her company sometimes became quite unpleasant because of her overly touchy character. The slightest issue, of the kind that arises between children when they play, was enough to make her sulk in a corner, imitating a mule, as we used to say. To get her back into the game, even the sweetest caresses that children can give in such situations were not enough. It was necessary to let her choose the game and the companion with whom she wanted to play. However, even at that time, she had a very kind heart, and the good Lord had endowed her with a sweet and tender character, which made her both lovable and attractive. (pp. 36-37)"

"I thought of opening the New Testament, the only book I desire to have here in front of me, in this remote corner of the attic, lit by a single skylight, to which I withdraw whenever I can, in order to escape, as far as possible, from all human eyes. My lap serves as a table, and an old trunk as a chair. But, someone will say, why don’t you write in your cell? Our dear Lord has seen fit to deprive me even of a cell, although there are quite a few empty ones in the house … But I am glad and I thank God for the grace of having been born poor, and for living more poorly still for love of Him. … Very well then. I need no more than this: obedience and abandonment to God who works within me. I am truly no more than a poor and miserable instrument which He desires to use, and in a little while, like a painter who casts his now useless brush into the fire so that it may be reduced to ashes, the Divine Artist will Himself reduce His now useless instrument to the ashes of the tomb, until the great day of the eternal Alleluias. And I ardently desire that day, for the tomb does not annihilate everything, and the happiness of eternal and infinite love begins – now!"

"I shall spend every moment loving. One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them. Why must we suffer? Because here below pure Love cannot exist without suffering. O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross when I think of yours."

"[...] We saw on the left side of Our Lady, a little higher up, an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; it sparkled and emitted flames that seemed to set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady emanated from her right hand towards him: the Angel pointed to the earth with his right hand and said in a loud voice: Penance, Penance, Penance! And we saw in an immense light that is God: [...] a Bishop dressed in white [...]. Various other Bishops, Priests, religious men and women climbing a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a large Cross of rough logs as if made of cork with bark; Before reaching it, the Holy Father passed through a large city half in ruins and half trembling with faltering steps, afflicted with pain and sorrow, praying for the souls of the corpses he encountered on his way; When he reached the top of the mountain, he knelt at the foot of the large Cross and was killed by a group of soldiers who shot him several times with firearms and arrows. In the same way, the bishops, priests, religious men and women, and various secular people, men and women of various classes and positions, died one after the other. Beneath the two arms of the Cross were two Angels, each with a crystal watering can in their hands, in which they collected the blood of the Martyrs and with it watered the souls who were approaching God. (p. 209)"

""Remain in Me." It is the Word of God who gives this order, expresses this wish. Remain in Me, not for a few moments, a few hours which must pass away, but "remain..." permanently, habitually, Remain in Me, pray in Me, adore in Me, love in Me, suffer in Me, work and act in Me."

""Because I love My Father, I do always the things that are pleasing to Him." Thus spoke our holy Master, and every soul who wants to live close to Him must also live this maxim. The divine good pleasure must be its food, its daily bread; it must let itself be immolated by all the Father's wishes in the likeness of His adored Christ. Each incident, each event, each suffering, as well as each joy, is a sacrament which gives God to it; so it no longer makes a distinction between these things; it surmounts them, goes beyond them to rest in its Master, above all things."

"I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God and God is in my soul. The day I understood that, everything became clear to me, and I would like to share this secret with all those I love so that they, too, might cling to God through everything, so that this prayer of Christ might be fulfilled: "Father, may they be made perfectly one!""

""Abyss calls to abyss." It is there in the very depths that the divine impact takes place, where the abyss of our nothingness encounters the Abyss of mercy, the immensity of the all of God. There we will find the strength to die to ourselves and, losing all vestige of self, we will be changed into love."

"What we know is as nothing, if we do not love God properly in all things."

"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."

"The secret of life is to let every segment of it produce its own yield at its own pace. Every period has something new to teach us. The harvest of youth is achievement; the harvest of middle-age is perspective, the harvest of age is wisdom; the harvest of life is serenity."

"The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion. If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, or self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God's name, it was bad theology. Compassion was the litmus test for the prophets of Israel, for the rabbis of the Talmud, for Jesus, for Paul, and for Muhammad, not to mention Confucius, Lao-tsu, the Buddha, or the sages of the Upanishads."

"The new radical Islam is not simply inspired by the hatred of the West, however. Nor is it in any sense a homogeneous movement. Radical Muslims are primarily concerned to put their own house in order and to address the cultural dislocation that many have experienced in the modern period.It is really impossible to generalize about the rise of this more extreme form of the religion. It not only differs from country to country, but from town to town and from village to village. People feel cut off from their roots: Western culture has invaded the interstices of their lives."

"All truly creative thought is in some sense intuitive; it demands a leap forward into the dark world of uncreated reality. Seen in this way, intuition is not the abdication of reason but rather reason speeded up, encapsulated in an instant, so that a solution appears without the usual laborious logical preparations. A creative genius comes back from this undiscovered country like ones of the heroes of antiquity, who has wrested something back from the gods and brought it to mankind. It is possible, perhaps, to see religious inspiration in a similar way."

"Far from being the father of jihad, Mohammad was a peacemaker, who risked his life and nearly lost the loyalty of his closest companions because he was determined to effect a reconciliation with Mecca."

"He was decisive and wholehearted in everything he did, so intent non the task at hand that he never looked over his shoulder, even if his cloak got caught in a thorny bush. When he did turn to speak to somebody, he used to swing his entire body and dress him full face. When he shook hands, he was never the first to withdraw his own. He inspired such confidence that he was known as al-Amin, the Reliable One."

"Deeds that seemed unimportant at the time would prove to have been momentous; a tiny act of selfishness and unkindness or, conversely, an unconsidered act of generosity would become the measure of a human life."

"He was simply a nadhir, a messenger with a warning, and should approach the Quraysh humbly, avoid provocation, and be careful not to attack their gods. This is what the great prophets had done in the past.28 A prophet had to be altruistic; he must not trumpet his own opinions egotistically or trample on the sensibilities of others, but should always put the welfare of the community first."

"The word qur’an means “recitation.” It was not designed for private perusal, but like most scriptures, it was meant to be read aloud, and the sound was an essential part of the sense. Poetry was important in Arabia. The poet was the spokesman, social historian, and cultural authority of his tribe, and over the years the Arabs had learned how to listen to a recitation and had developed a highly sophisticated critical ear."

"Monotheism is essentially inimical to tribalism: it demands that a people unite in a single community."

"Muslims respect the pacifist message of Jesus (even though the Qu'ran points out that Christians can be very belligerent but they accept that force is sometimes necessary. If tyrants and loathsome regimes were not opposed militarily, evil would have swamped the whole world."

"There are some forms of religion that must make God weep. There are some forms of religion that are bad, just as there's bad cooking or bad art or bad sex, you have bad religion too. Religion that has concentrated on egotism, that's concentrated on belligerence rather than compassion. … But then you have to remember that this is what human beings do. Secularism has shown that it can be just as murderous, just as lethal … as religion. Now I think one of the reasons why religion developed in the way that it did over the centuries was precisely to curb this murderous bent that we have as human beings."

"Compassion is not a popular virtue. Very often when I talk to religious people, and mention how important it is that compassion is the key, that it's the sine qua non of religion, people look kind of balked, and stubborn sometimes, as much to say, "what's the point of having religion if you can't disapprove of other people?" And sometimes we use religion just to back up these unworthy hatreds, because we're frightened too."

"Ironically, the first thing that appealed to me about Islam was its pluralism. The fact that the Qur'an praises all the great prophets of the past. That Mohammed didn't believe he had come to found a new religion to which everybody had to convert, but he was just the prophet sent to the Arabs, who hadn't had a prophet before, and left out of the divine plan. There's a story where Mohammed makes a sacred flight from Mecca to Jerusalem, to the Temple Mount. And there he is greeted by all the great prophets of the past. And he ascends to the divine throne, speaking to the prophets like Jesus and Aaron, Moses, he takes advice from Moses, and finally encounters Abraham at the threshold of the divine sphere. This story of the flight of Mohammed and the ascent to the divine throne is the paradigm, the archetype of Muslim spirituality. It reflects the ascent that every Muslim must make to God and the Sufis ...the mystical branch of Islam, the Sufi movement, insisted that when you had encountered God, you were neither a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim. You were at home equally in a synagogue, a mosque, a temple or a church, because all rightly guided religion comes from God, and a man of God, once he's glimpsed the divine, has left these man-made distinctions behind."

"All fundamentalist movements… whether they're Jewish, Christian or Muslim or Buddhist, all begin as an intra-religious debate, an intra-religious struggle. Then, at a later stage, fundamentalists sometimes reach out towards a foreign foe and hence the Muslim feeling that American foreign policy … is holding them back."