"Proud is many a man who looks down on his neighbor because the wool of his gown is finer! Yet as fine as it is, a poor sheep wore it upon her back before it came upon his back, and all the while she wore it, she was after all still only a sheep. And why should he now think himself better than she was simply by having that wool-----wool that, even though it is now his, is still not so truly his as it was truly hers?"

-St. Thomas More (H/T Jason Sims)

In the long run, it’s not the side that can inflict the most damage, but the side that can bear the most suffering that inevitably wins. History leaves no doubt that people of faith are unmatched in enduring hardships

-commenter Brian Niemeier on John C. Wright's blog (April 7, 2014)

Second, there is the idea that the universe should contain ‘traces – evidence of His involvement’. Dawkins questions whether the apparent ‘fine – tuning’ of the universe for life is one of those ‘traces’. He also asks what it would be like ‘if God did indeed set things up so that life would evolve, but covered His tracks so brilliantly that no clues remain; if He made the universe look exactly as it would be expected to look if He did not exist’. But Christian theology does not envisage the universe as being different from what it might have been if God did not exist, rather that there would be no universe. It is the whole universe that is the ‘traces’, not some little piece tacked on by way of a signature. To think otherwise bears certain similarities to searching the components of a jet engine for traces of Frank Whittle. The search is in vain; it is the whole engine which owes its being to Whittle’s creativity, rather than any individual part bearing his signature. Furthermore, to expect the existence of God to be open to scientific tests is like trying to treat the existence of Whittle as an engineering question!

Michael Poole

Do not make an effort to overcome you temptations, because these efforts would strengthen them. Despise them and do not dwell on them. Call to your imagination,... Jesus Christ Crucified in your arms and on your breast, and say, "This is my hope; the living source of my happiness. I will hold you tightly, Jesus and will not let You go until You have placed me in a safe place.

-St. Padre Pio (Letters III, pp. 573-574)

"Most Protestants have no problem saying 'The Lord told me this' and 'the Lord told me that,' but they won’t believe that the Lord speaks through the pope. At least the guy has some credentials."

-Rich Mullins