Inspirational thoughts

“He who knows how to forgive prepares for himself many graces from God. As often as I look upon the cross, so often will I forgive with all my heart.”

-St Faustina, St. Faustina’s diary

“Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.” Bob Dylan

“The aesthetic value of creation cannot be overlooked. Our very contact with nature has a deep restorative power; contemplation of its magnificence imparts peace and serenity. The Bible speaks again and again of the goodness and beauty of creation, which is called to glorify God.” St. John Paul II

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” Amish proverb

“Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sm 16:7). And Mary’s heart was fully disposed to the fulfilment of the divine will. This is why the Blessed Virgin is the model of Christian expectation and hope… In her heart there is no shade of selfishiness: she desires nothing for herself except God’s glory and human salvation. For her, the very privilege of being preserved from original sin is not a reason to boast, but one for total service to her Son’s redemptive mission.” St. John Paul II

“The important thing is to stop lying to yourself.  A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself as well as others.  When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal, satisfying his vices.  And it all comes from lying – lying to others and to yourself.”  Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Brothers Karamazov”

“God provides the wind, but man must raise the sails.” St. Augustine

I’ve spent my life trying to be better than I was, and I am a brother to all who share the same aspiration.

“It’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.” — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Athletic competition develops some of the noblest qualities and talents in people. They must learn the secret of their own bodies, their strengths and weaknesses, their struggles and breaking points. They must develop the capacity to concentrate and the habit of self-discipline through long hours of exercise and fatigue as they learn to take account of their own strength. They must also learn how to preserve energy for the final moment when victory will depend upon a burst of speed or a last push of strength.” St. John Paul II