Pope Benedict XIV on Secret Societies

Pope Pius IX on the Corruption of Youth

Archbishop Fulton Sheen on Tolerance vs Intolerance

Archbishop Sheen Responds to Pope Francis

"America is not suffering so much from intolerance as it is suffering from a false kind of tolerance: tolerance of right and wrong; truth and error; virtue and vice; Christ and chaos...this false broad-mindedness or tolerance of truth and error has carried many minds so far that they say one religion is just as good as another.

Tolerance applies only to persons, but never to principles. Intolerance applies only to principles, but never to persons.
We must be tolerant to the erring, because ignorance may have led them astray; but we must be intolerant to the error, because Truth is not our making, but God's.

Christ was tolerant about where He slept and what He ate; He was tolerant about shortcomings of His fish-smelling apostles; He was tolerant of those who nailed Him to the Cross, but He was absolutely intolerant about His claim to be Divine...Tolerance to His Mind was not always good, nor was intolerance always evil."

How Much It Pleases Jesus Christ That We Suffer for the Love of Him

"If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (Luke 9:23)

[Note that] He does not say "to me" but "after me." We must, therefore, walk in the same road of thorns and sufferings in which He walked...thus it is necessary that everyone deny himself.

"Let him take up."
It avails little to carry the cross by compulsion; all sinners bear it, but without merit. To bear it with merit, we must embrace it voluntarily.

"His cross."
Under this word is implied every kind of tribulation. Some persons when they receive spiritual consolations, offer themselves to suffer as great things as were endured by the martyrs, but they cannot endure a headache, the carelessness of a friend, the ill temper of a relative.
God does not ask you to endure hot irons, piercing nails, and tortures; but he desires that you should suffer patiently this pain, this annoyance, this contempt.

"Daily"
Some persons embrace the cross at the beginning, when it reaches them; but when it lasts long, they say, "now I can bear no more." Yet God wills that we should go on to endure it with patience, and even that we should bear it continually, even til death.

See that salvation and perfection consists in these three words:
1.) Let him deny
2.) Let him take up
3.) Let him follow

God keeps us in the world, that we may bear the crosses He sends us. In this consists the merit of life.
Our Savior, because He loves us, came into this world, not for enjoyment, but to suffer, in order that we might follow in his footsteps. To this end you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:21)
Oh what joy it is, in every trouble that befalls us, to say to Jesus Christ, "Lord, it is Thy will that I should endure this cross? I accept it, and will endure it as long as it pleases Thee."

Many persons are delighted to hear one speak of prayer, of peace, of love to Jesus Christ; but they find little pleasure in hearing one speak of crosses or of suffering. These are satisfied so long as the wind breathes with spiritual delights, but if it ceases, and there comes some adversity or desolation, in which the Lord hides Himself in order to prove them and deprive them of their usual comfort, they leave off prayer, Communion, and mortifications, and abandon themselves to ill-humor and lukewarmness, seeking their pleasure from earthly things.

Souls that love God find their comfort and sweetness in suffering; in recollecting that they sfufer for His love, and say, "How sweet it is, O my Lord!"

If we would love Him, we must love Him as He loved us.

O my Jesus! Thou alone hast been able to teach us these maxims of salvation, all contrary to the maxims of the world; and Thou alone canst give us strength to suffer crosses with patience. I do not pray Thee to exempt me from suffering; I only pray Thee to give me strength to suffer with patience and resignation.
Deprive me of everything, of every earthly good, of relatives, friends, health of body, of every comfort; deprive me even of life; but not of Thy love. Give me Thyself, and I ask no more.

In What Perfection Consists (from Abandonment to Divine Providence by Fr. Pierre de Caussade, SJ)

Perfection is neither more nor less than the faithful cooperation of the soul with [the] work of God, and is begun, grows, and is consummated in the soul unperceived and in secret.

The designs of God and his divine will accepted by a faithful soul with simplicity produces this divine state in it without its knowledge, just as a medicine taken obediently will produce health, although the sick person neither knows nor wishes to know anything about medicine.

Speculation must be laid aside, and everything arranged by God as regards actions and sufferings must be accepted with simplicity, for those things that happen at each moment by the divine command or permission are always the most holy, the best and the most divine for us.

Fiat mihi secundum Verbum tuum

Luke 1:

28 And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

29 Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be.

30 And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.

31 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever.

33 And of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34 And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?

35 And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

36 And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren:

37 Because no word shall be impossible with God.

38 And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

The Nature of the Most Holy Trinity

The nature of the Most Holy Trinity is a mystery. It is hard for the human mind to comprehend.

However, we can liken It to a flame.

The Father is the flame.
The Son is the light of the world, the light which proceeds from the flame.
The Holy Ghost is the flame, the warmth which always proceeds from the flame.
The three are one. There can be no flame without light nor any flame without heat.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.


~Pax et Bonum

St. Maximillian Kolbe (Pictures)