Ria > Ria's Quotes

“The philosopher Stephen Schwartz has argued that there are only four differences between born and unborn humans, and none of the differences justifies depriving unborn humans of the right to life.143 Schwartz uses the acronym SLED to summarize these differences: Size Level of development Environment Degree of dependency”
― Trent Horn, Persuasive Pro Life: How to Talk about Our Culture's Toughest Issue

“But as we’ve seen, the Bible was not written as an “instruction book.” The biblical authors do not always recommend what they record and sometimes what they record is an abject lesson in what not to do.”
― Trent Horn, Hard Sayings: A Catholic Approach to Answering Bible Difficulties

“The New Testament also primarily places the blame for mankind’s original sin on Adam, not Eve. In Romans 5:12, we learn that “sin came into the world through one man [emphasis added] and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned.” In 1 Corinthians 15:22 Paul declares, “or as in Adam [emphasis added] all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
― Trent Horn, Hard Sayings: A Catholic Approach to Answering Bible Difficulties

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
― Mother Teresa

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
― Mother Teresa

“Peace begins with a smile..”
― Mother Teresa

“It is theologically and anthropologically important for woman to be at the center of Christianity. Through Mary, and the other holy women, the feminine element stands at the heart of the Christian religion.”
― Pope Benedict XVI

“If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One that loves you.”
― Pope Benedict XVI

“Truth is not determined by a majority vote.”
― Pope Benedict XVI

“We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God.”
― Pope Benedict XVI

“Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.”
― Pope Benedict XVI

“Purity of heart is what enables us to see.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration

“Mary is a woman who loves. How could it be otherwise? As a believer who in faith thinks with God's thoughts and wills with God's will, she cannot fail to be a woman who loves. We sense this in her quiet gestures, as recounted by the infancy narratives in the Gospel. We see it in the delicacy with which she recognizes the need of the spouses at Cana and makes it known to Jesus. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus' public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother's hour will come only with the Cross, which will be Jesus' true hour (cf. Jn 2:4; 13:1). When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25-27); later, at the hour of Pentecost, it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).”
― Pope Benedict XVI, God is Love: Deus Caritas Est

“The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. The Church is one of those living forces.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, God Is Love: Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI

“Praying actualizes and deepens our communion with God. Our prayer can and should arise above all from our heart, from our needs, our hopes, our joys, our sufferings, from our shame over sin, and from our gratitude from the good. It can and should be a wholly personal prayer.”
― Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration

“God's love for his people is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice.”
― Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), God is Love: Deus Caritas Est

“There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations might tempt us to become discouraged. But precisely then we are helped by the knowledge that, in the end, we are only instruments in the Lord's hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world. In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord. It is God who governs the world, not we. We offer him our service only to the extent that we can, and for as long as he grants us the strength. To do all we can with what strength we have, however, is the task which keeps the good servant of Jesus Christ always at work: “The love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14).”
― Pope Benedict XVI, God is Love: Deus Caritas Est

“The 'commandment' of love is only possible because it is more than a requirement. Love can be 'commanded' because it has first been given.”
― Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), God is Love: Deus Caritas Est

“The book is intended to help believing Christians “who today have been made insecure by scientific research and critical discussion, so that they may hold fast to faith in the person of Jesus Christ as the bringer of salvation and Savior of the world”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration

“Man is a relational being. And if his first, fundamental relationship is disturbed—his relationship with God—then nothing else can be truly in order.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives

“The sign of the new Covenant is humility, hiddenness—the sign of the mustard-seed. The Son of God comes in lowliness. Both these elements belong together: the profound continuity in the history of God’s action and the radical newness of the hidden mustard-seed.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives

“Moral posturing is part and parcel of temptation. It does not invite us directly to do evil—no, that would be far too blatant. It pretends to show us a better way, where we finally abandon our illusions and throw ourselves into the work of actually making the world a better place. It claims, moreover, to speak for true realism: What’s real is what is right there in front of us—power and bread. By comparison, the things of God fade into unreality, into a secondary world that no one really needs. God”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration

“Admittedly, Jesus’ words to Pilate also remain perennially true: “My kingship is not of this world” (Jn 18:36). In the course of history, the mighty of this world have sometimes tried to align it with their own, and that is when it is put at risk: they seek to link their power with Jesus’ power, and in the process they disfigure his kingdom and endanger it.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives

“We do not define ourselves as men or as women through our work, our house, our health, or our reputation. We define ourselves as men and women through the way we love.”
― Simone Troisi, Chiara Corbella Petrillo

“To discover that you are loved is the center of all existence. And when we are filled with this total and delirious love, little by little, we grow and love in turn. That gradualness in our journeys is a sign of the infinite tenderness of God.”
― Simone Troisi, Chiara Corbella Petrillo

“Then Father Vito gave me this verse for my meditation: ‘When God opens a door, no one closes it; when God closes it, no one opens it.’ [cf. Rev. 3:7].”
― Simone Troisi, Chiara Corbella Petrillo

“Whoever thinks from a distance about his situation lives it with suffering; whoever is close to it lives it with consolation, the fruit of a true wisdom.”
― Simone Troisi, Chiara Corbella Petrillo

“In love one cannot be mediocre, nor can one sustain love without work. The choices in the past were not enough, and it was necessary to choose again.”
― Simone Troisi, Chiara Corbella Petrillo

“On the flight, before touching ground, we became aware of what we truly were: pilgrims reaching toward Heaven.”
― Simone Troisi, Chiara Corbella Petrillo

“Love completely possessed her, in the only way that one could be completely possessed by something, in the Lord.”
― Simone Troisi, Chiara Corbella Petrillo