Patrick Madrid > Quotes

“A Prayer for Grace and Illumination Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You. Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often. Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life, and without You, I am without fervor. Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light, and without You, I am in darkness. Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will. Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You. Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much, and always be in Your company. Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You. Stay with me, Lord, for as poor as my soul is, I wish it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love. Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close, and life passes, death, judgment, eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches. I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile! Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need You. Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart. Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love. Stay with me, Jesus, I do not ask for divine consolation, because I do not merit it, but, the gift of Your Presence, oh yes, I ask this of You! Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for. Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more. With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen. —Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina”
― Patrick Madrid, A Year with the Bible: Scriptural Wisdom for Daily Living

“The sacraments, especially baptism, confession, and the Holy Eucharist, are powerful antidotes to combat and suppress our concupiscence in a way reminiscent of how certain drugs, such as quinine and chloroquine, suppress the parasite that causes malaria.”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“Sanctifying grace is internal to the soul; it’s inside you and “inheres” in the soul in a way analogous to how blood is inside the body and inheres in every part of it, vivifying all the members down to the smallest cell. Sanctifying”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“Baptism is the sacramental doorway into the Church established by Jesus Christ. It removes our innate condition of original sin, washes away all actual sin and their effects, infuses sanctifying grace, illuminates with God’s own presence, and incorporates the one baptized into the Body of Christ.”
― Patrick Madrid, A Year with the Bible: Scriptural Wisdom for Daily Living

“So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter. (2 Thes. 2:15)”
― Patrick Madrid, Answer Me This!

“Grant, O Lord, that none may love Thee less this day because of me; that never a word or act of mine may turn one soul from Thee; and, ever daring, yet one more grace would I implore: that many souls this day, because of me, may love Thee more. Amen.42”
― Patrick Madrid, Search and Rescue

“IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER … Do I trust in God my loving Father or in my own puny efforts to “control” the circumstances of my life? Do I worry so much that I have become a person “of little faith?” CLOSING PRAYER Lord, I know that you love me. Please grant me the graces I need each day to have faith and confidence in your loving providence, come what may. Jesus, I trust in you.”
― Patrick Madrid, A Year with the Bible: Scriptural Wisdom for Daily Living

“consolations. As Francis affirms: We should approach holy prayer purely and simply to do our duty and give witness to our fidelity. If it pleases His Divine Majesty to speak to us and aid us by His holy inspirations and interior consolations, it is certainly a great honor and the sweetest of delights. But if it does not please God to give us this grace, ignoring us as if He did not see us or as if we were not in His presence, we must not leave on that account but remain there devotedly and peacefully. The Lord will infallibly be pleased with our patience and note our diligence and perseverance, so that when we come before Him again He will favor us with His consolations and enable us to taste the delights of deep prayer.9”
― Patrick Madrid, On A Mission: Lessons from St. Francis de Sales

“I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us. . . . I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.”
― Patrick Madrid, Surprised by Life

“refutes such a notion. Third: Jesus promised that he would be with his Church “to the close of the age,” or, to the end of the world (Matt. 28:19–20). This is another way of saying that the Church he established would last until the end, literally, come hell or high water. The Catholic Church is “visible,”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” There is a great deal of important theological truth packed into this brief passage, and it’s not my intention to explore that here, except to point out the particular line that sheds light on the Church the Lord was going to establish. He says, “On this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.” This clue told me that, whichever Church it was, it had to be able to trace itself back in an unbroken line of continuity from the”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“uses a striking analogy to explain what happens when one receives a sacrament worthily: “As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.”5 Three key effects are accomplished in the soul of one who receives the sacraments. First, the soul is further purified, cleansed from those base things that pose a barrier to God’s holiness. Second, the soul is strengthened and inured against the corrosive effects of sin. And third, the soul’s capacity for grace—in a sense, similar to the lungs’ capacity to breathe in air—is expanded. This is the meaning of the Church’s”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“Second: Jesus Christ, not some other man or woman, is the founder of his Church. In Matthew 16:13–19, Jesus asks his apostles, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” This elicits a series of incorrect answers: “Some say John the Baptist, others say Eli’jah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“his hearers: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14–16). This statement has a twofold significance. First, it describes what each individual Christian is called to do and to be in this world: to shine forth to others the light of Christ. Christ is also describing the Church he would establish as visible, not obscure or hidden. I asked myself: Why would Jesus have gone to all the trouble of establishing a Church just to make it so arcane and obscure that no one could ever really know for sure if he had found it? What good would that do? Similarly, since Jesus never did things halfway or for no good reason, I asked myself what purpose it would serve for the Church he established to be hard to locate and how this would square with his statement that, individually and corporately, his followers, the”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“former Evangelical anti-Catholics—Gerry Hoffman, Bob and Julie Swenson, Scott and Kimberly Hahn, Thomas Howard, John Henry Newman, and others—to show me”
― Patrick Madrid, Surprised By Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic

“THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH are the primary means by which God spiritually feeds, heals, and strengthens us. This is not to suggest that the sacraments are the only way God does things—far from it. He imparts grace however He wishes. But as the Bible shows, Christ gave the apostles certain specific ways of unleashing the power of God’s grace known today as the sacraments. There are seven: baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, confession, holy matrimony, holy orders, and holy anointing (aka extreme unction,”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question