jesus

"Let us turn, then, to the heart of Christ, that core of his being, which is a blazing furnace of divine and human love and the most sublime fulfilment to which humanity can aspire. There, in that heart, we truly come at last to know ourselves and we learn how to love."

"E' piei conficti ti sonno scalone acciò che tu possa giognere al costato, il quale ti manifesta el segreto del cuore. Però che salito in su' piei de l'affecto, l'anima comincia a gustare l'affecto del cuore, ponendo l'occhio de l'intellecto nel cuore aperto del mio Figliuolo, dove truova consumato e ineffabile amore."

"For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. [...] And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. For He testifies: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek."

"Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. [...] And he [Abraham] gave him a tithe of all."

"As He also says in another place: / “You are a priest forever /According to the order of Melchizedek”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek"."

"Blessed be Abram of God Most High, / Possessor of heaven and earth; / And blessed be God Most High, / Who has delivered your enemies into your hand."

"The Lord has sworn | And will not relent, | “You are a priest forever | According to the order of Melchizedek.”"

"If Mary was thus strengthened against every movement of sin by her first sanctification, much more did grace grow in her and much more was concupiscence weakened or even completely uprooted in her, when the Holy Spirit came upon her, according to the angel’s word, to form of her the body of Christ. After she had been made the shrine of the Holy Spirit and the tabernacle of the Son of God, we may not believe that there was ever any inclination to sin in her, or that she ever experienced any pleasurable feeling of carnal concupiscence. And so we must view with revulsion the error of Helvidius who, while admitting that Christ was conceived and born of the Virgin, asserted that she later bore other sons to Joseph."

"Faith in Mary's Assumption is not an exaltation, with impossible images, of a glorious body that we do not know where to place: everything is in the mystery of God, which we cannot enter because he is beyond the veil of the sanctuary that will not open to our eyes until it is torn apart. What matters, instead, is to be able to live in the world a story that repeats the wonders that Mary sings here and which are wonders of salvation in time."

"Surely we cannot deny that Your Reverence was perfectly justified in rebuking him on the score of Mary's children, and that you had good reason to be horrified at the thought that another birth might issue from the same virginal womb from which Christ was born according to the flesh. For the Lord Jesus would never have chosen to be born of a virgin if he had ever judged that she would be so incontinent as to contaminate with the seed of human intercourse the birthplace of the Lord's body, that court of the Eternal King. To assert such a view is to do nothing less than to accept as a basis that Jewish falsehood which holds that He could not have been born of a virgin. And once the weight of episcopal authority is gained for the view that Mary gave issue to many children, they will strive with even greater zeal to attack the truth of [Christian] faith."

"The divine Christ, Who was conceived by this perpetual Virgin through the activity of the Holy Spirit, and was clothed by her with flesh animated by a rational soul, has called her to Himself and in His turn has clothed her with an unequalled glory. He has made her take part in His inheritance; for she is His most holy mother."

"Live in hope. And in hope, we are guided to put ourselves on the path which leads us to the goal of following in the footsteps of the Lord and his mother Mary, who is our mother."

"We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."

"4 Q. Why is it said of Jesus Christ that He ascended, and of His Most Holy Mother that she was assumed, into heaven?"

"He [Eutyches] did not realize what he was bound to hold on the Incarnation of the Word of God. Nor he was willing to seek the light of understanding through a diligent search of the wide range of the Sacred Scriptures. And yet, he might have listen attentively to that common and universal confession in which the whole body of the faithful acknowledges it's belief in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary. By these three statements, the devices of almost all heretics are overthrown,...Unquestionably, therefore, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit within the womb of His Virgin Mother. She brought Him forth without the loss of virginity, even as she conceived Him without its loss...That birth, so wondrously unique and so uniquely wonderful, must not be understood in such a way that the distinctive properties of His humanity were excluded through this newness of His creation. For while it is true that the Holy Spirit gave fruitfulness to the Virgin, yet the reality of His body was received from her body; and "Wisdom building itself a house" (Prov. 9,11), "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn. 1:14)-that is, in that flesh which He took from man and which He quickened with the breath of a higher life..."

"Latin is also important for maintaining the unity of the Church, because when people travel, and people travel more and more abroad nowadays, it is important for them to find the same echo that they heard from a priest at home, whether in the United States, South America, Europe, or anywhere else in the world. They are at home in any (Catholic) church. It is their Catholic Mass that is being celebrated. They have always heard the Latin words since childhood, their parents before them, and their grandparents before them."

"[Jesus] was born in time with a rational soul, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, from Mary, ever virgin; he has two births, one eternal from the God the Father, the other in time from his mother."

"Canon 3. If anyone does not in accord with the Holy Fathers acknowledge the holy and ever virgin immaculate Mary as really and truly the Mother of God, inasmuch she, in the fulness of time, and without seed, conceived by the Holy Spirit God the Word Himself, who before all time was born of God the Father, and without loss of integrity brought Him forth, and after His birth preserved her virginity inviolate, let him be condemned."

"In vernacular language, it is said that the Precious Blood was shed “for all,” whereas in the Latin text (even the latest revised Latin text) it is said that the Precious Blood is “for many” and not “for all.” [...] The new Offertory prayers do not express the Catholic notion of sacrifice. They simply express the concept of a mere sharing of bread and wine. For example, the Tridentine Mass addresses the prayer to God: “Accept, O holy Father, almighty and eternal God, this Immaculate Victim which your unworthy servant offers to You, my living and true God, in reparation for my countless sins, offenses, and negligence.” The new Mass says: “We offer this bread as the bread of life.” There is no mention of sacrifice or victim. Interviewer: Could you cite a translation that actually contradicts Catholic dogma? Mgr. Lefebvre: Yes. For example, in the Latin text, the Virgin Mary is called Semper Virgo, “Ever Virgin.” In all modern translations, the word “ever” has been removed. This is very serious, because there is a big difference between ‘Virgin’ and “Ever Virgin.” It is very dangerous to tamper with translations of this kind."

"O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon thy holy name, and as suppliants we implore thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin Immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel St. Michael, thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of souls. Amen."

"There are two methods by which Catholics may know that a teaching of the Church is infallible and therefore must be obeyed by all Catholics in order to remain Catholic. The first of these, of course, is an ex cathedra pronouncement. Popes use this mechanism very infrequently, and then only to address the very fundamentals of Catholic faith. Only once since 1870 has the Pope spoken ex cathedra; on November 1, 1950, when Pope Pius XII declared the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Many pro-life theologians have debated the wisdom of having the Church's teachings on birth control and abortion be formally declared infallible, and have decided that this would not be wise in the larger scheme of things. The reason is that such a pronouncement in an area of morals (as opposed to fundamental beliefs) would give the impression that all other moral teachings of the Church were optional. This might lead to a situation where disbelief would run rampant in the areas not specifically addressed ex cathedra, and would lead to more and more demands for such pronouncements in almost every area of Church teaching."

"A striking image, suggested by a verse from the Canticle of Canticles, evokes the triumph of the risen Mother of God. "Who is that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved" (Canticles 8,5). Fathers, exegetes and preachers (cf. Pseudo-Damien, Serm. 40, In Assumpt. B.V.M.; St Bernard, Serm. IV, In Assumpt.; Pierre de Blois, Serm. 33, In Assumpt. B.M.; Cornelius a Lapide, Comment. in Cant., VIII), and with them the liturgy in its most expressive language (cf. J. Linden, Die leibliche Aufnahme Maria in der Himmel", Zeithscr. f. kath. Theologie, t. XXX (1906), pp. 215-221), recognize in this beloved Spouse the Mother of the Son of God mounting to heaven thanks to the omnipotence of her divine Son and Spouse-"She ascends to her Son but only through her Son", says an old writer-shining with glory and completely filled with happiness"."

"Christ ... was born of a most undefiled Virgin."

"It was fitting that such a holy Son should have a holy Mother."

"93 Q. Having made the sign of the Cross what should you say?"

"The Immaculate Conception of Mary could be called a gift that the Father gives to the Son. Mary is certainly saved by the Son, but in this there is a kind of accompaniment of the Son's work by the Father. Like a trial before the trial. Like the certainty that the Father gives to the Son on his journey, that everything will be fine. The original sin from which we are all marked has the property of giving rise to new sins. In the Immaculate Conception, Mary receives the task of proclaiming the ever-greater purity of the Son and his divinity. She is like a wedding ring that the Father gives to the Son, a pledge of the success of the work of redemption."

"I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste, immaculate Virgin Mary."

"At that time, the Saxons grew strong by virtue of their large number and increased in power in Britain. Hengist having died, however, his son Octha crossed from the northern part of Britain to the kingdom of Kent and from him are descended the kings of Kent. Then Arthur along with the kings of Britain fought against them in those days, but Arthur himself was the military commander [dux bellorum]. His first battle was at the mouth of the river which is called Glein. His second, third, fourth, and fifth battles were above another river which is called Dubglas and is in the region of Linnuis. The sixth battle was above the river which is called Bassas. The seventh battle was in the forest of Celidon, that is Cat Coit Celidon. The eighth battle was at the fortress of Guinnion, in which Arthur carried the image of holy Mary ever virgin on his shoulders; and the pagans were put to flight on that day. And through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the power of the blessed Virgin Mary his mother there was great slaughter among them. The ninth battle was waged in the City of the Legion. The tenth battle was waged on the banks of a river which is called Tribruit. The eleventh battle was fought on the mountain which is called Agnet. The twelfth battle was on Mount Badon in which there fell in one day 960 men from one charge by Arthur; and no one struck them down except Arthur himself, and in all the wars he emerged as victor."

"I say then, first, that holy virginity is like a divine balm which preserves the body of Mary from corruption, and you will be convinced of it if you meditate attentively on what was the perfection of her virginsl purity...Why, you will never form a just idea of it, you will never comprehend its perfection until you have understood that it wrought in the Virgin Mother a perfect integrity of soul and of body...An extraordinary grace gas diffused over her an abundant heavenly dew which has not tempered, as in the other elect, but quenched the fire of concupiscence, that is, not only evil works, which are as it were the conflagration that concupiscence excites; not only evil desires, which are as it were the flame it thrusts forward, and evil inclinations, which are the intense heat it produces, but even the furnace and the hearth itself. In the words of theology the 'kindling of sin', that is , the deepest root and the most intimate cause of sin. After this, how could the flesh of the holy Virgin have decomposed, that felsh from which virginity of soul and body, and perfect conformity with Jesus Christ has taken away every principle of corruption together with the fire of concupiscence?...Mary was all pure and she ought consequently to be incorruptible."

"We have diligently considered the authorities and reasons that have been presented before this holy Council for many years in public relations on both sides, and having seen many others on this same point, and having weighed them with mature consideration; we define and declare that doctrine which says that the glorious Virgin Mother of God, Mary, by a singular grace of the divine Spirit, never succumbed to original sin, but was always immune from all original and actual sin, and was holy and immaculate,be a pious doctrine and in accordance with ecclesiastical worship, the Catholic faith, right reason and Holy Scripture; and therefore must be approved, held and embraced by all Catholics; and it shall no longer be lawful for anyone to preach or teach to the contrary: furthermore, renewing the institution of celebrating her holy Conception, which is celebrated in both the Roman Church and other Churches on 8 December according to ancient and praiseworthy custom, we decree and order that this same celebration be held on the aforementioned day in all Churches, monasteries and convents of Christendom under the name of the Conception."

"Mary was conceived without sin. Behold! what the Church of Paris glories in professing and maintaining; what her Doctors hold it an honor to teach and defend; what her children are jealous of preserving as one of their dearest possessions after the sacred dogmas of faith; what they do not hesitate to regard as an immediate consequence of their faith, not believing it possible to separate in Mary, the title of Immaculate Virgin from that of Virgin Mother of God, and not considering it possible to refuse the privilege of a Conception without spot, to her who was to receive and who indeed did receive, that of the divine Maternity."

"...29. Concupiscence and pride were lurking in the tree of knowledge: the Virgin conceived fruit without concupiscence, that the deadly concupiscence of the human race might through her forever be done away."

"The Christian clergy are, in like manner, attired in the cast-off garb of the heathen priesthood; acting diametrically in opposition to their God's moral precepts, but nevertheless, sitting in judgment over the whole world. When dying on the cross, the martyred Man of Sorrows forgave His enemies. His last words were a prayer in their behalf. He taught his disciples to curse not, but to bless, even their foes. But the heirs of St. Peter, the self-constituted representatives on earth of that same meek Jesus, unhesitatingly curse whoever resists their despotic will. Besides, was not the "Son" long since crowded by them into the background? They make their obeisance only to the Dowager Mother, for — according to their teaching — again through "the direct Spirit of God," she alone acts as a mediatrix. The Ecumenical Council of 1870 embodied the teaching into a dogma, to disbelieve which is to be doomed forever to the 'bottomless pit.' The work of Don Pasquale di Franciscis is positive on that point; for he tells us that, as the Queen of Heaven owes to the present Pope "the finest gem in her coronet," since he has conferred on her the unexpected honor of becoming suddenly immaculate, there is nothing she cannot obtain from her Son for "her Church."*"

"Words cannot tell the abhorrence nature has of the piecemeal captivity of little constraints. And as to little temptations, I can readily conceive a man having the grace to be roasted over a slow fire for our dearest Mother's Immaculate Conception or the Pope's Supremacy, who would not have the grace to keep his temper in a theological conversation on either of these points of the Catholic faith."

"I, Pope Calixtus III, promise and vow to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to the Ever-Virgin Mother of God, to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to all the heavenly host, that I will do everything in my power, even, if need be, with the sacrifice of my life, aided by the counsel of my worthy brethren, to reconquer Constantinople, which in punishment for the sin of man has been taken and ruined by Mahomet II, the son of the devil and the enemy of our Crucified Redeemer. Further, I vow to deliver the Christians languishing in slavery, to exalt the true Faith and to extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless Mahomet in the East. For there the light of Faith is almost completely extinguished. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee. If I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy, God and His holy Gospel help me. Amen."

"There are things which, in your extreme ignorance, you Elvidius had never read, and therefore you neglected the whole range of Scripture and employed your madness in outraging the Virgin, like the man in the story who being unknown to everybody and finding that he could devise no good deed by which to gain renown, burned the temple of Diana: and when no one revealed the sacrilegious act, it is said that he himself went up and down proclaiming that he was the man who had applied the fire. The rulers of Ephesus were curious to know what made him do this thing, whereupon he replied that if he could not have fame for good deeds, all men should give him credits for bad ones. Grecian history relates the incident. But you do worse. You have set on fire the temple of the Lord's body, you have defiled the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit from which you are determined to make a team of four brethren and a heap of sisters come forth. In a word, joyning in the chorus of the Jews you say, "Is not this the carpenter's son?is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? and his sisters, are they not all with us? The word all would not be used if they were not a crowd of them." Pray tell me, who before you appeared, was acquainted with this blasphemy? Who thought the theory worth two-pence? You have gained your desire and have become notorious by crime..."

"She who was conceived without spot and borne without pain, who became mother without loss of virginity, who placed God in the world, who died without suffering, was also preserved from corruption ; and we believe she lives in heaven with her body. It is piously believed."

"The Marian dogmas are, as we know, four in all: perpetual virginity and divine motherhood; then, after almost fifteen centuries of debate and exploration of the mystery, here is the conception without the stain of original sin and the assumption into heaven. Well, these truths have been codified and solemnly protected as dogmas, that is, as basic and indisputable truths of the faith, not so much out of devotion to Mary, but as a defense of faith in Jesus. In fact, if we reflect on their content , we realize that they reaffirm the authentic faith in Christ as true God and true man: two natures in one Person. They then reiterate the fundamental eschatological expectation, indicating in Mary the immortal destiny that awaits us all. And, finally, they secure the faith, now threatened, in a creator God (it is one of the meanings of the more misunderstood truth about Mary's perpetual virginity), a God who can freely intervene even on matter."

"In our world of darkness, we need to turn to Mary, who gave us Jesus, the light of the world. In our culture of death, we need to turn to Mary, the first disciple to hear and proclaim the gospel of life. In our secularist society, we need to turn back to God. Mary, the mother of God, and our mother, will show us the way and lead us back to her son, our Lord. The nation, the world, who forgets the mother, is in danger of forgetting the Son, in danger of losing our way back to God."

"Christ ... was born of a most undefiled Virgin."

"The Divine Will contains the creative strenght. From within God's one single "Fiat" came out billions and billions of stars. From the Fiat Mihi" of the Mother of God, from which Redemption had its origin, came out billions and billions of acts of grace, which communicate themselves to souls. These acts of grace are more beautiful, more resplendent and more varied than billions of stars! The Divine Fiat is full of life, and in fact It is life itself, and alla lives and things come out from within the Fiat. From the Fiat of God, Creation came out, and in each created thing can be seen the imprint of that Fiat. From the "Fiat Mihi" of the Blessed Virgin, pronounced in the Divine Will with the same power of the Fiat of Creation, Redemption came forth. Therefore everything that concerns the Redemption bears the imprint of her "Fiat Mihi".Even the very Humanity of her Son, His steps, works and words, were sealed with Mary's "Fiat Mihi"."

"The emergence of the epitaphios from the Late Byzantine era 121 is related to the standardization of the Holy Saturday service (called Lamentations and held by anticipation on the evening of Good Friday) in the fourteenth century. Initially, the epitaphios depicted the amnos (lamb), the dead Christ. By the fourteenth century the epitaphios became the epitaphios threnos (burial lament). Instead of a solitary Christ lying dead as in the early epitaphios, the epitaphios threnos, depicting a funeral gathering of figures, includes the lamentation of the Theotokos over the dead son."

"If Mary is full of grace, it is because she is the Mother of God."

"I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste, immaculate Virgin Mary."

"I had a conversation with John Spivak, the Communist writer, a few years ago, and he said to me, "How can you believe? How can you believe in the Immaculate Conception, in the Virgin birth, in the Resurrection?" I could only say that I believe in the Roman Catholic Church and all she teaches. I have accepted Her authority with my whole heart. At the same time I want to point out to you that we are taught to pray for final perseverance. We are taught that faith is a gift, and sometimes I wonder why some have it and some do not. I feel my own unworthiness and can never be grateful enough to God for His gift of faith. St. Paul tells us that if we do not correspond to the graces we receive, they will be withdrawn. So I believe also that we should walk in fear, "work out our salvation in fear and trembling.""

"She was prevented and preserved by God's special grace from contracting original sin, and in the first moment of her conception she was saved not from the sin that was in her, but from the sin that would have been in her, if the Holy Spirit had not redeemed her in a new way of sanctification."

"Adoration is obviously love. "I adore you" are the words lovers speak. If spoken to a human being and meant literally, it is idolatry. Adoration literally means infinite love. It is to be given only to the infinitely perfect, infinitely lovable being, God. The Latin word for adoration is latria, as distinct from dulia, which is finite, human love and respect. Hyperdulia is the highest, greatest finite and human love and respect, which is to be given to the greatest merely finite and human being who ever lived, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, who alone was sinless, "our tainted nature's solitary boast"."

"Immaculate Conception means that Mary anticipated, in some way, the ultimate condition towards which we are heading. In her, our future condition is revealed with privileged transparency."

"This same holy Synod doth nevertheless declare, that it is not its intention to include in this decree, where original sin is treated of, the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary, the mother of God; but that the constitutions of Pope Sixtus IV., of happy memory, are to be observed, under the pains contained in the said constitutions, which it renews."

"It was fitting that such a holy Son should have a holy Mother."