Karol Wojtyla was ordained a priest in Poland on All Saints Day 1946. On Divine Mercy Sunday 2014 the Church gave him the title of Saint John Paul the Great.
St. John Paul the Great was known as the patron of the youth. He began the tradition of having World Youth Days. The following quotes remind us of the powerful teachings of St. John Paul the Great.
1. The cross means there is no shipwreck without hope; there is no dark without down, nor storm without haven.
2. The most beautiful and stirring adventure that can happen to you is the personal meeting with Jesus, who is the only one who gives real meaning to our lives.
St. John Paul the Great
3. Do not be afraid of getting lost. The more we give of ourselves, the more we will find ourselves.
St. John Paul the Great
4. The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being.
St. John Paul the Great
5. How to pray? This is a simple matter. I would say: Pray any way you like, so long as you do pray;
St. John Paul the Great
6. Future begins today, not tomorrow.
St. John Paul the Great
7. Darkness can only be scattered by light. Hatred can only be conquered by love.
8. Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
St. John Paul the Great
9. Faith leads us beyond ourselves. It leads us directly to God.
St. John Paul the Great
10. Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
St. John Paul the Great
11. As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.
St. John Paul the Great
12. Remember that you are never alone. Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives.
St. John Paul the Great
13. In God’s plan, nothing happens by chance.
St. John Paul the Great
14. Confession is an act of honesty and courage–an act of entrusting ourselves beyond sin, to a loving and forgiving God.
St. John Paul the Great
15. We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures. We are the sum of the Father’s love for us.
St. John Paul the Great
16. From Mary we learn to trust when all hope seems gone.
St. John Paul the Great
17. It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you.
St. John Paul the Great
18. There is no evil to be to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us and does not now bear with us.
19. If He asks much of you, it is because He knows you can give much.
20. Let us remember the Past with Gratitude, Live the Present with Enthusiasm, and look forward to the Future with Confidence.
St. John Paul the Great
21. An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.
St. John Paul the Great
22. Let Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament speak to your hearts. It is he who is the true answer of life that you seek.
23. Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and halleluiah is our song.
St. John Paul the Great
24. The worst prison would be a closed heart.
St. John Paul the Great
25. Freedom consist not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.
St. Teresa of Avila was a Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic. She was born in Avila Spain on March 28, 1515, one of ten children. Her mother died when Teresa was 15.
Invoked against bodily ills, headaches, and sickness, St. Teresa was canonized a Saint by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622. The Feast Day of St. Teresa of Avila is celebrated on October 15.
Saint Teresa of Ávila was proclaimed Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI on 27 September 1970.
St. Teresa has written many books. These include: The Interior Castle, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, and The Way of Perfection. Her spirituality has led many to a much deeper prayer life.
Reflecting on the life of this Carmelite nun, let’s ponder her many quotes which reveal her spirituality.
1. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things pass away. God never changes. Patience obtains all things. He who has God, finds he lacks nothing. God alone suffices.
St. Teresa of Avila
2. Leave it all to God and leave your interests in His hands. He knows what is fitting for us.
St. Teresa of Avila
3. Often, the Lord allows a fall so that the soul will be more humble, and when it returns to the right way of acting and grows in self-knowledge, it advances further in the service of our Lord, as we see among many saints.
St. Teresa of Avila
4. We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.
St. Teresa of Avila
5. True humility consists in our being satisfied with what is given us.
St. Teresa of Avila
6. Tear your heart away from everything else, then seek God and you will surely find him.
St. Teresa of Avila
7. There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
St. Teresa of Avila
8. Hope, O my soul, Hope! You know neither the day, nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience turns a very short time into a long one.
St. Teresa of Avila
9. The chief object of the devil’s work on earth is to fill us with pride.
St. Teresa of Avila
10. You pay God a great complement by asking great things of Him.
St. Teresa of Avila
11. Prayer is an act of Love, words are not needed.
St. Teresa of Avila
12. Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
St. Teresa of Avila
13. To have courage for whatever comes in life…everything lies in that.
St. Teresa of Avila
14. The measure in which you desire God, is the measure in which you will find Him!
St. Teresa of Avila
15. Remember, that you have only one soul: that you have only one death to die: that you have only one life…if you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.
St. Teresa of Avila
16. Truth suffers, but never dies.
17. It is love alone that gives worth to all things.
St. Teresa of Avila
18. When we accept what happens to us and make the best of it, we are praising God.
St. Teresa of Avila
19. In this life our lot is not to enjoy God, but to do His Holy Will.
St. Teresa of Avila
20. Look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for all.
St. Teresa of Avila
21. The smallest thing when done for the love of God is priceless.
St. Teresa of Avila
22. Life is to live in such a way that we arenot afraid to die.
St. Teresa of Avila
23. The feeling remains that God is on the journey too.
St. Teresa of Avila
24. Learn to suffer for Jesus Christ without letting others perceive it.
St. Teresa of Avila
25. Christ has no body on earth but yours. no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out to the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless others.
The Feast Day of the Rosary is celebrated on October 7th. The Rosary was a devotion begun by St. Dominic after experiencing a vision. The following quotes reveal the power the rosary had on the lives of the saints.
1. The Rosary is a fortress against evil. It is a sign to satan that you belong to Our Lady.
8. The Rosary is a long chain that links heaven and earth. One end of it is in our hands and the other end is in the hands of the Holy Virgin. The Rosary prayer rises like incense to the feet of the Almighty.
17. In times of darkness, holding the Rosary beads is like holding your Blessed Mother’s hand. Pray the rosary everday, abandon yourself in the hands of Mary. She will take care of you.
Mother Teresa will soon be officially declared a saint!
The day before the feast day of Bl. Mother Theresa Pope Francis will proclaim that she is a saint. Her feast day is celebrated on Sept. 5. The world remembers her as a “living saint”.
Bl. Teresa of Calcutta was born to parents Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1916 in Skopje of Macedonia and named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was baptized on August 17, 1910 in Macedonia. She was the third child in her family, following sister Aga and a brother, Lazar. Her father, Nikola died, when she was eight years old. Her father was a traveler, an extrovert, and a businessman who spoke five languages. Her mother, Drana, was extremely pious, adopting several orphans. She was known as Gonxha (pronounced gon’KHA) which means “flower bud”.
Gonxha desired early to become a missionary. At the age of eighteen, she joined the Sisters of Loreto. Here she took the name of Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux. She was sent to Calcutta, India to teach at St. Mary’s High School for Girls, which was run by the Sisters of Loreto. On May 24, 1937, she took her final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. She then became known as Mother Teresa. In 1944, she became principal of the school.
Mother Teresa received a second calling while on a train. Christ spoke to her, asking her to work in the slums of Calcutta, caring for the sickest and poorest of the people.Pursuing this calling changed her life forever. In one year, she received approval to do the work she was being called to do. After six months of basic medical training she went to the slums to aid the needy and dying. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charitywith 12 members, most of them students from St. Mary’s. She established a leper colony, an orphanage, a mission house, and several health clinics.
In 1971, Mother Teresa visited New York City, where she opened a soup kitchen and a home to care for HIV/AIDS sufferers. In 1979, she received the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1983, Mother Teresa suffered her first heart attack. After suffering from lung, kidney and heart problems for several years, she died on Sept. 5, 1997, which is now her feast day. At the time of her death her Missionaries of Charity numbered over 4,000. She had 610 foundations in 123 countries.
Mother Teresa was beatified on October 19, 2003, after confirmation of her first miracle. The miracle was reported that a woman who had a large and very visible tumor, had stayed with the Missionaries of Charity. After she and the Sisters had prayed for Mother Teresa’s intercession, the growth, six to seven inches in length, had disappeared within several hours. Finding no other medical explanation for the sudden cure it was declared her first miracle. Over 3500 other reports are being investigated as possible miracles.
After accepting a second miracle, Pope Francis cleared the way for Mother Teresa to be declared a saint. Pope Francis signed a decree declaring that the inexplicable 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man who suddenly woke from a coma caused by a viral brain infection was due to the intercession of the Albanian nun, who died in 1997.
The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator spearheading Mother Teresa’s canonization case, stated that the man fully recovered following his wife’s prayers and he has since returned to work as a mechanical engineer. The couple also have had two children.
In 2003, Mother Teresa’s private correspondence revealed she had experienced a “dark night of the soul”… feeling abandoned by God and lacking in faith. This lasted unusually long; for fifty years. Many saints have experienced such feelings, described by John of the Cross, in his book Dark Night of the Soul. She was filled with loneliness, and torture, due to this lack of consolation from God.
Each image in the following list is accompanied by a quote or prayer of Mother Teresa. The images are all public domain images.
As we celebrate the sainthood and feast day of St.Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 5, let’s remember the remarkable things she did and said.
Sisters of Charity
Prayer of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus. Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from you. None of it will be ours. It will be you shining on others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching, not by words, but by our example; by the catching force – the sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
Amen
Mother Teresa with Child/Associated Press
Mother Teresa: Smile
“Let us always meet each other with a smile for the smile is the beginning of love.”
“Peace begins with a smile.”
“Every time you smile at someone it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: God and Faith
“We are nothing without God, but if we put our lives in God’s hands miracles happen.”
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
“Faith in action is love, and love in action is service. Byt transforming that faith into living acts of love, we put ourselves in contact with God Himself, with Jesus our Lord.”
“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa with Pope John Paul II
Mother Teresa: Prayer
The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.”
Mother Teresa
Young Mother Teresa
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhju (Mother Teresa)
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is life, fight for it.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Abortion
“Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love but to use any violence to get what it wants.”
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
“There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Love and Forgiveness
“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the doing.It is not how how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.”
“I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
“If we really want to love we must learn to forgive.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Helping the Sick
“Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely, and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.”
“Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not come, we have only today. Let us begin.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa in service
Mother Teresa: Service
“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous, be happy anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God, it was never between you and them anyway.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa Praying
Mother Teresa: Prayer
“Love to pray. Feel often during the day the need for prayer and take trouble to pray Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own.”
“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Silence
“We need to find God and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature; trees, flowers, grass, grows in silence. See the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
The Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena is celebrated by the Catholic Church on April 29. St. Catherine is the patron saint against fire, illness and miscarriage.
St. Catherine was the 25th child to Giacomo and Lapa Benincase. She was born in 1347. Her father was a wealthy wool dyer in Northern Italy. She began having mystical experiences at the age of six, seeing guardian angels clearly. She also had visions of Heaven, helland purgatory. She consecrated herself to Christ at the age of seven.
At the age of 16, Catherine became a Dominican tertiary (lay Dominican), continuing to have visions of Christ, Mary and the saints. In many of her ecstasies, Catherine fell into fire; however, she was untouched by the flames. This is why she is the patron saint against fire.
St. Catherine received a divine call to enter the public life. She began writing letters to princes and republics of Italy. She was consulted by papal legates. She persuaded Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from Avignon and reform the clergy and the Papal States. She referred to the pope as “sweet Christ on earth”. St. Catherine also cared for the sick (working among lepers), served the poor and worked tirelessly to convert sinners. St. Catherine’s reputation for holiness grew.
On the 4th Sunday of Lent, 1375, she received the Stigmata, (the wounds of Christ). They were only visible after her death.
At the age of 33, on April 29, 1380, Catherine died of a mysterious and painful illness which came on without notice. It was not diagnosed. Her body was discovered to be in-corrupt in the year 1430. In 1970, Pope Paul VI declared St. Catherine of Siena to be a Doctor of the Church.
Enough of all this soft soap! All it does is cause the members of Christ’s Spouse to stink!
The Feast Day of the North American Martyrs is celebrated on October 19 in the United States. In Canada it is celebrated on September26th.
In the 1600’s, eight French Jesuit missionaries lost their lives while trying to spread the news of the gospel to the Huron, Iroquois, and Mohawk Indians. Three of them died in what is now New York State, five of them died in what is now Canada.
Isaac Jogues, René Goupil and Jean La Laude died in New York.
John DeBrebeuf, Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier, Anthony Daniel, and Noel Chabanel died in Canada.
St. René Goupit was a Jesuit Lay brother. He was the first to be martyred. He was killed by tomahawk at Osermenon, (Auriesville, NY)) in 1942.
Father Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit priest, was held captive by the Mohawks for thirteen months. He had several fingers cut off his hand. He escaped and returned to France. He later returned to the mission. He was killed by tomahawk by a Mohawk brave in 1946.
St. Jean de La Lande, a Jesuit donné (not a member of the Society, but at their service) tried to retrieve Father Isaac Jogues’ body, but was killed also.
These martyrs were the first saints of North America.
The martyrs were canonized by Pope Pius XI on June 29, 1930.
The Feast Day of Carlo is celebrated on October 12. Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991 in London to Italian parents who working there. He was raised in Milan, Italy. Carlo died at the age of 15 in Manza, Italy of leukemia on October 12, 2006.
St. Carlo Acutis was beatified by Pope Francis in 2020 and Canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 7, 2025. He is considered the first millennial saint and the patron saint of the internet.
At a young age of 11, Carlo became very interested in Eucharistic Miracles. He visited the birthplace of many of the saints and sites of the Eucharistic miracles. His passion for the Eucharist led him to use his skills as a coder to build a website cataloging over 150 Miracles. He listed them by country and date. His site is still active at Carlo Acutis La dlinea del tempo di Carlo Acutis
St. Carlos was known for being very generous. He helped the poor and defended students in his school from bullies. He enjoyed helping the elderly and disabled. His passion for his faith inspired his parents to become active in their faith. They enrolled in a theology class so they could answer questions which came up.
At the age of 14, Carlo fell ill. At first, they believed he had the flu; however he was diagnosed with acute Myeloid Leukemia. Afte r suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage, he went into a coma and died on October 12.
Initially buried in Ternengo his body was reburied in January 2007 in Assisi because of his devotion to St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Carlo is credited with two miracles. The healing of a Brazilian boy born with a malformed pancreas was healed after prayers of intercession to Blessed Carlo in 2020. The second miracle occurred in Costa Rico then a woman was healed in 2024 after suffering a serious head injury. Prayers of intercession were prayed at St. Acutis’s tomb after which she was healed. These miracles led to the canonization of St. Carlo in 2025 by Pope Leo XIV.
Unity in the Church and among the Churches is fostered by forgiveness and mutual trust, beginning with our families and communities. If Jesus can trust us, we can certainly trust one another in his name.
June 29,2025 Pope Leo XIV on X.
The history of Peter and Paul shows us that the communion to which the Lord calls us is a unison of voices and personalities that does not eliminate anyone’s freedom. Our patron saints followed different paths, had different ideas and at times argued with one another with evangelical frankness. Yet this did not prevent them from living a living communion in the Spirit, a fruitful harmony in diversity.
June 29,2025. Pope Leo XIV on X
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN – MAY 8: The newly elected Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV is seen for the first time from the Vatican balcony on May 8, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican. White smoke was seen over the Vatican early this evening as the Conclave of Cardinals took just two days to elect Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who will be known as Pope Leo (Leone) XIV, as the 267th Supreme Pontiff after the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Pope Leo XIV has released the following prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. June is considered to be month of the Sacred Heart.
Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Pope Leo XIV
Lord, I come to your tender heart today, to you who have words that set my heart ablaze, to you who pour out compassion on the little ones and the poor, on those who suffer and on all human miseries.
I desire to know you more, to contemplate you in the Gospel, to be with you and learn from you and from the charity with which you allowed yourself to be touched by all forms of poverty.
You showed us the Father’s love by loving us without measure with your divine and human heart.
Grant all your children the grace of encountering you. Change, shape, and transform our plans, so that we seek only you in every circumstance, in prayer, in work, in encounters, and in our daily routine.
From this encounter send us out on mission, a mission of compassion for the world in which you are the source from which all consolation flows.
Amen
Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us!
Pope Leo XIV during the Regina Caeli prayer on the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican on May 11, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The Feast Day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a moveable Feast day. It is held on the second Friday after Pentecost.
In 2025, this day falls on Friday, June 27th.
This feast reminds us of the mystery of the love of God for the people of all times.
Quote of St. John Paul II
The history of this Feast Day is attributed to St. Margaret Mary.. The Feast Day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is always the day following the Feast Day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
17the Century: St. Margaret Mary Alacoquewas instrumental in beginning devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus after having visions. This devotion involves receiving communion on the first Friday of each month for mine consecutive months to honor the Sacred Heart. Jesus revealed His heart to her and emphasized the need for people to return His love through prayer and devotion.
In 1899 Pope Leo XIII consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is often shown with a crown of thorns and a flame. This symbolizes Jesus’s infinite love, compassion and suffering for humanity.
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The following prayer is from St. Leo XIII when he consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart.
Issued with the Encyclical Letter Annum Sacrum, 25 May 1899
Most sweet Jesus, redeemer of the human race, look down upon us, humbly prostrate before your altar. We are yours and yours we wish to be; but to be more surely united with you, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to your most sacred heart. Many, indeed, have never known you, many too, despising your precepts, have rejected you. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to your sacred heart. Be you king, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken you, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned you; grant that they may quickly return to their father’s house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be you king of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one shepherd. Be you king also of all those who sit in the ancient superstition of the Gentiles and refuse not you to deliver them out of darkness into the light and kingdom of God. Grant, O Lord, to your Church, assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise to the divine heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honor forever. Amen
The Feast Day of St. Andrew Dung and companions is celebrated on November 24. St. Andrew Dung was a priest and martyr of Vietnam.
St. Andrew Dung represents the 117 martyrs of Vietnam; 97 of the martyrs were Vietnamese and 21 were foreign missionaries. The missionaries included 11 Spaniards and, 10 French; 8 were bishops, 50 were priests and 59 were lay people. They were martyred during a period of persecution between 1625 and 1886.
St. Andrew was the born in 1795 to a poor pagan family in North Vietnam. He moved to Hanoi when he was twelve. He was educated by a Christian and after three years was baptized. He became a catechist and continued to study theology.
In 1823, he was ordained a priest. He was imprisoned under Emperor Minh Mang. His congregation made donations to free him. He changed his name to Andrew Lac to avoid persecution and changed locations. He was arrested a second time along with Father Peter Thi another Vietnamese Priest. Again his freedom was bought. They were soon arrested a third time and beheaded after being brutally tortured.
The 117 martyrs were beatified by Pope John Paul IIon May 27, 1900. The memorial celebrates all the Vietnamese Martyrs of the 17th, 18th and 9th centuries.
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who,
in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
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