The lives of the saints are filled with examples of heroic virtue (faith, hope and love), but they weren’t born with it. And it was never just handed to them, no matter how they came to Christ.
So what they have to say about sin, and about Satan, is advice we’d be wise to take to heart — and soul.
Over the course of the National Eucharistic Revival, I’ve seen several proposals that we need a “Confession Revival,” too. It’s hard not to agree. We’re all sinners in need of God’s grace. We all need the experience of God’s mercy in order to be people of mercy. We need all the help we can get as we press on to live Christ and give Christ.
“Jesus is not afraid to come close to us, even when we ‘stink’ like a dead person buried for three days,” the pope wrote in the preface to the Italian edition of Jesuit Father James Martin’s book, “Come Forth: The Raising of Lazarus and the Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle.”
Pope Francis reaffirmed that homosexuality is not a crime, and that any sexual act outside of marriage is a sin, in a written response to a request for clarification about his remarks during a recent interview with the Associated Press.
Here is a collection of notable quotes from Pope Benedict XVI from homilies, documents, messages and speeches from 2005 to 2013, the years he served as pope.
“Even several times in a single day, I find myself caught up in something trivial, something that took my heart elsewhere, instead of resting in God’s love. This holds especially true during Lent, as I realign my heart and my gaze on Jesus.”
“There is no such thing as a truly private act, for good or bad. Everything we do, no matter how private, affects others.”
Any time an affront to human dignity occurs, whether in the Catholic Church or across broader society, Gloria Purvis explained, people of faith are called to confront it.
