Spiritual Quote of the Day (G. K. Chesterton, on Faith, Hope, and Charity)

“Charity means pardoning the unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.” — English man of letters (and Catholic convert) G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), Heretics (1905)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Pope Francis, on ‘Brothers and Sisters Who Are Weaker’)

“Take care of brothers and sisters who are weaker … the elderly, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and strangers, because we will be judged on this.” —Pope Francis quoted in Cindy Wooden, “Pope Francis’ Suggested New Year’s Resolutions,” Catholic News Service, Jan. 1, 2015

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Pope St. Leo the Great, on the Paramount Importance of Mercy to the Poor)

“Although a man be full of faith, and chaste, and sober, and adorned with other still greater decorations, yet if he is not merciful, he cannot deserve mercy: for the Lord says, blessed are the merciful, for God shall have mercy upon them [Matthew 5:7]. And when the Son of Man comes in His Majesty and is seated on His glorious throne, and all nations being gathered together, division is made between the good and the bad, for what shall they be praised who stand upon the fight except for works of benevolence and deeds of love which Jesus Christ shall reckon as done to Himself? For He who has made man's nature His own, has separated Himself in nothing from man's humility. And what objection shall be made to those on the left except for their neglect of love, their inhuman harshness, their refusal of mercy to the poor? As if those on the right had no other virtues those on the left no other faults. But at the great and final day of judgment large-hearted liberality and ungodly meanness will be counted of such importance as to outweigh all other virtues and all other shortcomings, so that for the one men shall gain entrance into the Kingdom, for the other they shall be sent into eternal fire.”— Pope St. Leo the Great (c.400-461), “Sermon 10,” translated by Charles Lett Feltoe from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace

Quote of the Day (Blaise Pascal, on the Magnitude of ‘The Smallest Act of Charity’)

“All bodies together, and all spirits together, and all that they can produce, are of less value than the smallest act of charity, because this is of an infinitely higher order.”—French mathematician and Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensees (1669)

Quote of the Day (St. Vincent Ferrer, on Charity, ‘The Greatest of All Virtues’)

“If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask God simply to fill you with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish what you desire.”—St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419) quoted in Jill Haak Adels, The Wisdom of the Saints: An Anthology (1989)

The image accompanying this post is St. Vincent Ferrer Preaching, a painting by Alonzo Cano (1644 - 1645).

Quote of the Day (Cardinal Newman, on ‘The Love of Our Private Friends’)

“The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.” —John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), “Love of Relations and Friends,” Sermon 5 in The Newman Reader: Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume 2

Quote of the Day (St. Vincent Ferrer, on Charity)

“If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish what you desire.” —St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), Treatise On the Spiritual Life

Quote of the Day (St. Catherine of Siena, on Virtue and Charity)

“Every perfection and every virtue proceeds from charity. Charity is nourished by humility. And humility comes from knowledge and holy hatred of oneself, that is, of one’s selfish sensuality. To attain charity you must dwell constantly in the cell of self-knowledge. For in knowing yourself, you will come to know my mercy, in the blood of my only-begotten Son, thus drawing my divine charity to yourself with your love.”—St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), The Dialogue (Classics of Western Spirituality), translated by Suzanne Noffke, O.P.

The image accompanying this post is an oil-on-canvass painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, St. Catherine of Siena.