More random quotes

"The final end of abortion in America will come when every human being begins to appreciate his own life as a gift from God and the lives of those entrusted to his care as the true blessings they are. A culture that affirms life will not practice contraception nor will it murder its progeny." Judie Brown

“For the knowledge of God is received in Divine Silence.” St. John of the Cross

Kristine Napier, “Sex involves not just the sexual organs, but also the heart and mind. Teaching only the mechanics of sex and contraception ignores this. It ignores the concept that sexual intercourse is about total love and commitment, about sharing the singularly spectacular gift of oneself… We must help people understand the human sex- the emotional and human qualities that make it distinctly human.” (The power of abstinence, New York, Avon Book, 1996, p60-1).

The average person between 2 and 18 years old sees 14,000 sexual references, innuendos and jokes each year on TV. Fewer than 175 deal with real issues of pregnancy, birth control, abstinence or sexually transmitted diseases. On soap operas sex is 24 times more common between unmarried partners than spouses. (Nathalie Bartle, Venus in Blue Jeans, Boston, Houghton Miffline, 1998, p104-5).

 "Love is not just an affirmation, but a negation; it implies sacrifice - a surrender of our will, of our selfish interests, for the good of the other. It looks not to the lover's pleasure, but to the happiness of the beloved." ~ Fulton Sheen

"We can believe what we choose.  We are answerable for what we choose to believe."

Ven. John Henry Newman 

"No one in the world can alter truth. All we can do is seek it and live it."

St Maximillian Mary Kolbe

"About the only way we can know whether we believe or not is by what we do..."

Flannery O'Connor

“Don't you know that when you sleep with someone, your body makes a promise whether you do or not.” From the film, Vanilla Sky.

"The passion, the sexual element was there: and sexual harmony like sexual playfulness was an important dimension of our love. But it wasn't itself the whole thing; and we knew that to make it the whole or even the most important element was to court disaster. Those who see love as only sex or mainly sex do not, quite simply know what love is. They are the blind man assuming what the trunk of the elephant -or perhaps the phallus - is the whole creature. Sex is merely part of a greater thing. To be in love , as to see beauty, is a kind of adoring that turns the lover away from self." (p43 A severe mercy, 1977, Harpercollins, New York).

If you are going to be a Christian at all, you might as well live entirely for God.

Blessed Cyprian Tansi

"Modesty is important, not because we judge by appearances, but because how we act reflects what we believe." – Bishop Walker R. Nickless

"We pray you, O Blessed One, for the grace that you found, for those prerogatives that you deserved, for the Mercy you bore, obtain that the One who for your sake deigned to share in our wretchedness and infirmity, through your prayers may make us share in his graces, in his bliss and in his eternal glory, Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who is above all things, Blessed God for ever and ever. Amen" (Sermo 2 "de Adventu", 5:  PL 183, 43). St Bernard

St Ambrose, commenting on Mary's "haste", says: "the grace of the Holy Spirit admits of no delay" (Expos. Evang. sec. Lucam, ii, 19:  PL 15, 1560).