May 3rd
Ven. Louis of Granada (1505-1588), Confessor; Granada, Spain

"Make it a point of honor to owe no  man, and you will thus enjoy peaceful slumbers, a quiet conscience, a contented life, and a happy death.  The means of acquiring these precious results is to control your desires and appetites and to govern your expenditure by your income, not by your caprices.  Our debts proceed from our ill-regulated, uncontrolled desires more than from our necessities, and consequently moderation is more profitable than the largest revenues.

"Let us be convinced that the only real riches, the only real treasures, are those which the Apostle bids us seek when he tells us to fly covetousness and pursue justice, godliness, faith, charity, patience, and mildness, for godliness with contentment is great gain.  Be contented with the position in which God has placed you.  Man would always enjoy peace did he accept the portion which God gives him; but, seeking to gratify ambition or cupidity, which craves more than God has given him, he exposes himself to trouble and disquiet, for real happiness or success can never be known by one who strives against the will of God."

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

"It often happens that one who was tepid and indifferent before his fall becomes, through repentance, a strong and fervent soldier of Christ."

"We gain no merit from good works if we have not learned to endure injuries with patience."