Where it all started:

 "When in this age of ours when revolution walks like a destroying angel among the nations of the earth and breathes death from its nostrils among the peaceful inhabitants thereof; when the rulers upon their thrones are unsafe; when in this very land of liberty, calling itself Protestant, a Booth strikes down the most peaceful of men, the kindly Lincoln; a Guiteau destroys the useful life of a Garfield; when at the dawn of the twentieth century a ruler chosen by his fellow citizens is murdered by the hands of the assassin Czolgosz while enjoying the quiet hospitality of a sovereign state; and when you ask for the reason that produced such murderous outrages, we bid you turn to Luther and his rebellious teachings announced and embodied in the work falsely styled "Reformation"  producing the result of a deformation. Luther is its father, the sixteenth century its cradle, and autocracy its protector and high priest."

The Facts about Luther

 

Make it the fixed purpose of your life to make all others happy as far as it is in your power, and so (for that will be necessary) to put self out of view altogether.  This then, ought to be the first thought on awaking:  "Dear Mother, for thy honor I will take care that everybody who speaks to me today shall go away happier".  This thought  is to be the first thought in your examen at night:  "How many have I failed to make happy today."

 

Go out into the world with your heart full of gentleness and pity, and you shall find the response of kindliness from others; you will not only protect yourself from being hardened, but you will draw out the gentler side of others.

Father Maturin

 

Giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light:  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, In whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins; Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature: For in Him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and in Him.  And He is before all, and by Him all things consist.  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He may hold the primacy: Because in Him, it hath well pleased the Father, that all fulness should dwell;  And through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven.

Colossians 1:12-20

 It is not possible , as long as we are on this earth to think exactly as those think  with whom we live; therefore it is necessary to have a large fund of sweetness to oppose sudden movements of anger, so that we may not lose the peace of our soul.

St. Francis de Sales

 

There are some who appear sweet while every thing prospers and goes according to their wishes, but at the least adversity, the least contradiction, their sweetness disappears, they are on fire.  They may be compared to a coal hidden under ashes.  Their meekness is not of the kind Our Saviour asks when He tells us to be like unto Him.

St. Bernard

 

O Lord!  if we are mistaken, it is Thou who hast led us astray; because this Faith is proved by such signs and prodigies that Thou alone couldst work them.!

Richard of St. Victor