February 26th

St Porphyrius (353-420), Confessor, Bishop of Gaza; Macedonia

"It is not just that I who am come hither to beg pardon for my sins, should be eased by any one: rather let me undergo some labour and inconvenience, that God, beholding it, may have compassion on me."

Padre Pio (1887-1968), Confessor, Stigmatic; Pietrelcina, Italy; Feast day September 23rd

"In the spiritual life, one must always go on pushing ahead and never go backwards; if not, the same thing happens as to a boat which when it loses headway gets blown backwards with the wind."

St Bernard (1090-1153), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Fontaine-les-Dijon, France; Feast day August 20th

"There are many who are full of sweetness as long as things go their way; but when they meet with contradiction they break forth in fire and flames, and fume like a veritable Vesuvius.  They are like the coals that glow beneath the ashes."

February 25th
St Victorinus and Six Companions (d. 284), Martyrs; Corinth, Greece

"We rather pray that if you have any other more exquisite torment you would inflict it on us.  We are determined never to violate the fidelity which we owe to God, or to deny Jesus Christ our Saviour, for he is our God, from whom we have our being, and to whom alone we aspire." (Spoken to his executioner.)

St John of the Cross (1542-1591), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Fontiveros, Spain; Feast day November 24th

"A soul that is attached to any creature will never attain perfect union with God, even though that soul possess many other virtues."

St Mary Magdalena de Pazzi (1566-1607), Virgin; Florence, Italy; Feast day May 29th

"Say nothing of an absent brother that you would not wish to say in his presence."

February 24th
Ss Montanus, Lucius, Flavian, Jullina, Victoricus, Primolus, Rhenus, and Donation (d. 259), Martyrs; Carthage

"Wherefore, brethren, let us love, cherish, and promote, with all our might, peace and concord.  Let us be here unanimous in imitation of what we shall be hereafter.  As we hope to share in the rewards promised to the just, and to avoid the punishments wherewith the wicked are threatened: as, in fine, we desire to be and reign with Christ, let us do those things which will lead us to Him and His heavenly kingdom."

St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Virgin, Doctor of the Church; Avila, Spain; Feast day, October 15th

"Separate your heart from creatures and seek God; you will surely find Him then."

St Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Haute Savoie, France; Feast day, January 29th

"With what love would we be inflamed, did we but see the flames of love that burn in the heart of Christ!  What a happiness for us did we glow with the fire that consumes our Lord and God!  What joy, to be bound with the bonds of love for God!"

February 23rd
St Serenus (d. 307); Martyr; Greece

"It has pleased God to reserve me for this present time.  It seemed awhile ago as if He rejected me as a stone unfit to enter His building, but He has the goodness to take me now to be placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for His name, that I may have a part in His kingdom with His saints."

Saint Boisil (d. 664); Prior, Confessor; Melross, England

"Never cease giving thanks to God for the gift of your religious vocation; always watch over yourself against self-love and all attachment to your own will and private judgment, as against your capital enemy; converse assiduously with God by interior prayer, and labour continually to attain to the most perfect purity of heart, this being the true and short road to the perfection of Christian virtue."

February 22nd
Saint Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297), Penitent; Alviano, Italy

"I neither seek nor wish for aught but Thee, my Lord Jesus."

Padre Pio (1887-1968), Confessor, Stigmatic; Pietrelcina, Italy; Feast day September 23rd

"The sacred gift of prayer is in the right hand of Our Saviour, and according to the measure that you empty yourself of yourself, that is of love of your senses and of your own will, and make progress in rooting yourself in holy  humility, to that extent the Lord will speak to your heart."

February 21st
Jacinta Marto (1910-1920), Fatima Visionary; Aljustrel, Portugal; Feast Day, February 20th

"Tell everybody that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; that people are to ask her for them; and that the Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at his side.  Tell them also to pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for peace, since God entrusted it to her."

Padre Pio (1887-1968), Confessor, Stigmatic; Pietrelcina, Italy; Feast day September 23rd

"Humility is truth; truth is humility."

February 20th
St Sadoth (d. 342), Bishop, Martyr; Seleucia, Persia

"I saw in my sleep, a ladder environed with light and reaching from earth to the heavens.  St. Simeon was at the top of it, and in great glory.  He beheld me at the bottom, and said to me, with a smiling countenance: "Mount up, Sadoth, fear not.  I mounted yesterday, and it is your turn today:' which means, that as he was slain last year, so I am to follow him this."

Bl Francisco Marto (1908-1919), Fatima Visionary; Aljustrel, Portugal

"How beautiful God is!  How beautiful!  But He is sad because of the sins of men.  I want to console Him; I want to suffer for love of Him."

February 19th
St Joseph Calasanctius (1557-1648), Confessor, Founder; Aragon, Spain; Feast Day August 27th

"He who loves God does not wish to appear holy, but desires to be so."

St Francis de Sales (1567-1522), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Haute-Savoie, France; Feast Day January 29th

"Humble meekness is the virtue of virtues, which our Divine Redeemer has most urgently recommended to us; therefore, we must practice it everywhere and at all times."

February 18th
Ss Leo and Paregorius (d. 260), Martyr; Southern Turkey

St Leo, on his own impending martyrdom, after the martyrdom of St Paregorius:  "I thank thee, O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for not suffering me to be long separated from thy servant Paregorius.  I rejoice in what has befallen me as the means of expiating my past sins.  I commend my soul to the care of they holy angels, to be placed by them where it will have nothing to fear from the judgments of the wicked.  But thou, O Lord, who wills not the death of a sinner, but his repentance, grant them to know thee, and to find pardon for their crimes, through the merits of they only son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen."

Bl Fra Angelico (1395-1455), Confessor, Painter; Tuscany

"He who does Christ's work must stay with Christ always."

February 17th
Ven. Louis of Granada (1505-1588), Confessor; Granada, Spain

"...the most perfect praise of God is that holy silence and awe wherein the pious soul remains absorbed in great admiration for such incomprehensible majesty."

St Thomas Aquainas (1225-1274), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Roccasecca, Italy, Feast day March 7th

"As a stone, when other forces are removed, naturally falls to the ground, and cannot rise again without the application of some extraneous power, so man, corrupted by sin, ever tends downwards, attracted to earth by the love of perishable possessions, and cannot, without the intervention of divine grace, rise to heavenly things or a desire for supernatural perfection."

February 16th
Bl Joseph Allamano (1851-1926); Confessor, Founder; Castelnuovo d'Asti, Italy

"We belong to Heaven; we must become holy."

St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Virgin, Doctor of the Church; Avila, Spain; Feast day October 15th

"Vocal prayer...must be accompanied by reflection.  A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don't call prayer, however much the lips  may move."

February 15th
St Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682), Confessor; Saint-Symphorien-d'Orzon, France

"After this let us suppose that you turn to God with blind trust and surrender yourself unconditionally and unreservedly to Him, entirely resolved to put aside your own hopes and fears; in short, determined to wish nothing except what He wishes and to wish all that He wishes.  From this moment you will acquire perfect liberty and will never again be able to feel troubled or uneasy, and there is no power on earth capable of doing you violence or giving you a moment's unrest."

St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Virgin, Doctor of the Church; Avila, Spain; Feast day October 15th

"We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can -- namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us."

February 14th
Padre Pio (1887-1968); Confessor; Pietrelcina, Italy; Feast day September 23rd

"Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God's heart.  You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips, but with your heart.  In fact on certain occasions you should only speak to Him with your heart."

Bl Columba Marmion (1858-1923); Abbot, Confessor; Dublin, Ireland; Feast day October 3rd

"We are infinitely rich in Jesus Christ and God's mercies are to our  miseries what the ocean is to a drop of water.  We never glorify God more than when despite the sight of our sins and unworthiness we are so filled with confidence in His mercy and in the infinite merits of Jesus Christ that we throw ourselves on His bosom full of confidence and love, sure that He cannot repel us:  'A humble and contrite heart, Oh God, Thou wilt not despise.'"

February 13th
St Gregory the Great (540-604), Pope, Doctor of the Church; Feast day March 12th

"We never more eloquently praise the works of the Almighty than when our tongue is mute in rapt wonder; silence is the only adequate praise when words are powerless to express the perfections we would extol."

St Augustine (354-430), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Thagaste, Algeria; Feast August 28th

"When I seek my God I seek not corporal grace, nor transient beauty, nor splendor, nor melodious sound, nor sweet fragrance of flowers, nor odorous essence, nor honeyed manna, nor grace of form, nor anything pleasing to the flesh. None of these things do I seek when I seek my God. But I seek a light exceeding all light, which the eyes cannot see; a voice sweeter than all sound, which the ear cannot hear; a sweetness above all sweetness, which the tongue cannot taste; a fragrance above all fragrance, which the senses cannot perceive; a mysterious and divine embrace, which the body cannot feel. For this light shines without radiance, this voice is heard without striking the air, this fragrance is perceived though the wind does not bear it, this taste inebriates with no palate to relish it, and this embrace is felt in the center of the soul."

February 12th
St Meletius of Antioch (d.381); Confessor, Bishop of Antioch; Armenia

"Everyone who rejects the dogmas of the Council of Nicaea stands far from the truth."

St Augustine (354-430), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Thagaste, Algeria; Feast August 28th

"He is a profoundly hidden God, yet everywhere present; He is essentially strength and beauty; He is immutable and incomprehensible; He is beyond all space, yet fills all the universe; invisible, yet manifest to all creatures; producing all motion, yet is Himself immovable; always in action, yet ever at rest; He fills all things and is circumscribed by nothing; He provides for all things without the least solicitude; He is great without quantity, therefore He is immense; He is good without qualification, and therefore He is the Supreme Good."

February 11th
Ss Saturninus, Dativus, and Others (d. 304), Martyrs of Africa

"The obligation of the Sunday is indispensable.  It is not lawful for us to omit the duty of that day.  We celebrated it as well as we could.  We never passed a Sunday without meeting at our assembly.  We will keep the commandments of God at the expense of our lives."

St Thomas Aquainas (1225-1274), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Roccasecca, Italy; Feast March 7th

"Were any man created with a heart as large and capacious as the hearts of all men together, and if he were enabled by an extraordinary light to apprehend one of the divine attributes, his joy and delight would be such that, unless supported by special assistance from God, he could not endure them."

February 10th
St Scholastica (d. 543), Virgin; Norcia, Italy

“I asked you a favour, and you refused it me: I asked it of Almighty God, and he has granted it me.” 

St Francis de Sales (1557-1622), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Haute Savoie, France; Feast January 29th

"Let us persevere in prayer at all times.  For if our Lord seems not to hear us, it is not because He wants to refuse us.  Rather, His purpose is to compel us to cry out louder and to make us more conscious of the greatness of His mercy."

February 9th
Bl Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), Virgin; Westphalia, Germany

"Mass badly celebrated is an enormous evil.  Ah! it is not a matter of indifference how it is said!...I have had a great vision on the mystery of Holy Mass and I have seen that whatever good has existed since creation is owing to it."

St Bernard (1090-1153), Confessor, Doctor of the Church; Fontaines, France; Feast day August 20th

"He who devotes himself overmuch to the delights of the world does not deserve those of the Holy Spirit."

February 8th
St Stephen of Grandmont (1044-1124), Abbot, Confessor; Auvergne, France

“I, Stephen, renounce the devil and his pomps, and do offer and dedicate myself to the Father, Son, and Holy Gost, one God in three Persons.” 

St Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), Widow

"If a man were to see the seriousness of a single sin, he would rather be in a fiery furnace, and remain there alive in body and soul, than endure it within him; and if the sea were a vast fire, he would rather cast himself into the midst thereof, right to the bottom, to flee from this sin, nor would he ever go out thence if he knew that on leaving he would have the sin within him."

February 7th
St Romuald (956-1026), Abbot, Confessor, Founder; Ravenna, Italy

"How happy were the ancient hermits, who had such habitations!  With what tranquility could they serve God, free from the tumult of the world!"

St John of the Cross (1542-1591), Confessor, Founder, Doctor of the Church; Feast day 
November 24th

"A soul that is attached to any creature will never attain perfect union with God, even though that soul possess many other virtues."

February 6th
St Amandus (d. 675), Bishop, Confessor; Nantes, France

When his father threatened disinheritance for his entering the monastery, he replied, "Christ is my only inheritance."

St Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), Virgin, Doctor of the Church; Lisieux, France

"'Give me a lever and a fulcrum,' said the man of science, 'and I'll shift the world.'  Archimedes wasn't talking to God, so his request wasn't granted; and in any case he was only thinking of the material world.  But the saints really have enjoyed the privilege he asked for; the fulcrum God told them to use was Himself, nothing less than Himself, and the lever was prayer.  Only it must be the kind of prayer that sets the heart all on fire with love; that's how the saints shift the world in our own day, and that's how they'll do it to the end of time."

February 5th
St Agatha (d. 251), Virgin, Martyr; Sicily

"Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires.  Possess all that I am.  I am your sheep:  make me worthy to overcome the devil."

St Francis of Assisi (1181-1216), Confessor, Founder; Assisi, Italy; Feast day, October 4th

"I am only that which I am before God."

February 4th
St Joan of Valois (1464-1505), Foundress; Nogent-le-Roi, France

"On earth, each of us, well knowing our own deficiencies, must even so conform to the life of the Virgin Mary, to the honor of God and the health of the world."

St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), Virgin; Lisieux, France; Feast day, October 3rd

"Jesus alone is all; anything else is nothing."

February 3rd
Bl. John Nelson (1535–1578), Martyr; York, England

Just before being hanged, drawn, and quartered, he said, "I forgive the queen and all the authors of my death."

Padre Pio (1887-1968), Confessor; Pietrelcina, Italy; Feast day September 23rd

"A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent in sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament."

February 2nd
Candlemas
St Joan Lestonnac (1556-1640), Widow, Foundress; Bordeaux, France

"There is no need for you to fear, if your interests are those of Our Lady."

St. Syncletic (4th Cent.), Virgin; Alexandria, Egypt; Feast day January 5th

"Oh, how happy should we be, did we but take as much pains to gain heaven and please God, as worldlings do to heap up riches and perishable goods!  By land they venture among thieves and robbers; at sea they expose themselves to the fury of winds and storms; they suffer shipwrecks, and all perils; they attempt all, try all, hazard all; but we, in serving so great a master, for so immense a good, are afraid of every contradiction."

February 1st
St Ignatius of Antioch (35-108), Bishop, Martyr

"Suffer me to be the food of wild beasts, whereby I may attain unto God: I am the wheat of God, and I am to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ."

"Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God....They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in His goodness, raised up again.  They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes."

"Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.  It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop.  On the other hand, whatever has his approval is pleasing to God.  Thus, whatever is done will be safe and valid."