Lenten Quotes

• O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones.
  Let me find you again. Amen.

  Henri Nouwen

  Different, Lord, Amen

  Henri Nouwen (2013). “A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee”, p.25, Image

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• Lenten practices of giving up pleasures are good reminders that the purpose of life is not pleasure. The purpose of life is to attain to perfect life, all truth and undying ecstatic love - which is the definition of God. In pursuing that goal we find happiness. Pleasure is not the purpose of anything; pleasure is a by-product resulting from doing something that is good. One of the best ways to get happiness and pleasure out of life is to ask ourselves, 'How can I please God?' and, 'Why am I not better?' It is the pleasure-seeker who is bored, for all pleasures diminish with repetition.

  Fulton J. Sheen

  Giving Up, Practice, Perfect

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• As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus' thirst...'Repen t and believe' Jesus tells us. What are we to repent? Our indifference, our hardness of heart. What are we to believe? Jesus thirsts even now, in your heart and in the poor -- He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you.

  Mother Teresa

  Jesus, Believe, Love You

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• Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: Prayer is co-operation with God. It is the purest exercise of the faculties God has given us - an exercise that links these faculties with the Maker to work out the intentions He had in mind in their creation.

  E. Stanley Jones

  Prayer, Exercise, Work Out

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• Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.

  Pope Francis

  Ash Wednesday, Lethargy, Shakes

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• Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Faith, Inspiration, Catholic

  Pope Benedict XVI's Address delivered during The General Audience on Ash Wednesday In St. Peter’s Square, zenit.org. March 1, 2006.

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• During Lent, let us find concrete ways to overcome our indifference.

  Pope Francis

  Overcoming, Way, Indifference

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• The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.

  Pope Gregory I

  Love, Faith, Christian

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• No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.

  Pope Francis

  Sleep, Fasting, Ashes

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• Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Spiritual, Jesus, Easter

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• Prayer does not change the purpose of God. But prayer does change the action of God.

  Chuck Smith

  Prayer, Doe, Purpose

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• Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity.

  Saint Augustine

  Heart, Humble, Fire

  "Why Do Christians Fast? Three Reasons Explained by St. Thomas Aquinas" by Gretchen Filz, www.catholiccompany.com. March 23, 2017.

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• Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.

  Andy Murray

  Letting Go, Prayer, Sacrifice

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• Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.

  Pope Francis

  Hurt, Giving Up, Real

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• Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy, and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast.

  Thomas Merton

  Christian, Joy, Ashes

  Thomas Merton (2010). “Seasons of Celebration”, p.100, Macmillan

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• Fasting makes sense if it really chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else, if it helps us cultivate the style of the good Samaritan, who bent down to his brother in need and took care of him.

  Pope Francis

  Brother, Style, Fasting

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• For nothing, how little soever, that is suffered for God's sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Sight, Catholic, Littles

  "The Imitation of Christ".

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• 'Tis spring; come out to ramble
  The hilly brakes around,
  For under thorn and bramble
  About the hollow ground
  The primroses are found.
  And there's the windflower chilly
  With all the winds at play,
  And there's the Lenten lily
  That has not long to stay
  And dies on Easter day.

  A. E. Housman

  Easter, Spring, Wind

  A. E. Housman (2012). “A Shropshire Lad”, p.20, Courier Corporation

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• Here the whole world (stars, water, air, And field, and forest, as they were Reflected in a single mind) Like cast off clothes was left behind In ashes, yet with hopes that she, Re-born from holy poverty, In lenten lands, hereafter may Resume them on her Easter Day." (Epitaph for Joy Gresham)

  C. S. Lewis

  Easter, Stars, Clothes

  Clive Staples Lewis, “Here The Whole World”

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• Lenten fasts make me feel better, stronger, and more active than ever.

  Catherine of Genoa

  Feel Better, Stronger, Christianity

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• One should never initiate anything that he cannot saturate with prayer.

  S. D Gordon

  Prayer, Should, Initiate

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• The most important thing a born again Christian can do is to pray.

  Chuck Smith

  Christian, Prayer, Important

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• I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.

  Pope Francis

  Hurt, Catholic, Doe

  Pope Francis' Lenten Message, w2.vatican.va. December 26, 2013.

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• Prayer strikes the winning blow; service is simply picking up the pieces.

  S. D Gordon

  Prayer, Blow, Winning

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