Only when we cease to rely on our own strength can we discover that God's strength is always there for us.

God sometimes gives us what we want so we'll learn to trust Him to give us what we need.

Only when we cease to rely on our own strength can we discover that God's strength is always there for us.

A joyless Catholic is the devil's best tool. A joyful Catholic is God's greatest instrument.

IF THE LORD IS OUR JOY, OUR JOY CANNOT BE TAKEN AWAY. IT CANNOT BE LOST...JOY HAD COME TO THE WORLD, AND IT HAD COME TO STAY.

To deny the force of divine judgment, then, is to make God less than God, and to make us less than His children. For every father must discipline His children, and paternal discipline is itself a mercy, a fatherly expression of love.

Loving difficult people will refine us. Perhaps only in heaven will our love be so perfected that we can actually like these people, too. St. Augustine spoke of a man who, on earth, had chronic gas problems; in heaven, his flatulence became perfect music.