I offered up a special prayer, a prayer which came with tears and anguish, that some way would open up for me to use what talents I possessed for my fellow workers, for the poor.

If you feed the poor, you're a saint. If you ask why they're poor, you're a Communist.

I cannot worry much about your sins and miseries when I have so many of my own. I can only love you all, poor fellow travellers, fellow sufferers. I do not want to add one least straw to the burden you already carry.

Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again.

I do not know how to love God except by loving the poor. I do not know how to serve God except by serving the poor.... Here, within this great city of nine million people, we must, in this neighborhood, on this street, in this parish, regain a sense of community which is the basis for peace in the world.

You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. You will know. You will know when it's right.

If you have two coats, one of them belongs to the poor.