Ana O

“was created for eternal happiness with God in Heaven. Everything else must take second place in my life, because if I lose Heaven, I will be losing everything. The sure guide to Heaven is God’s holy Will. If I follow it in my daily life, every moment on earth will be a sure step toward the perfect happiness which my heart craves.”
― Fr. Anthony J. Paone, My Daily Bread

“I don’t understand how you can call yourself a Christian and lead such an idle, useless life. Have you forgotten Christ’s life of toil?” (The Way, 356); “May your behavior and your conversation be such that everyone who sees or hears you can say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ” (2).”
― Josemaría Escrivá, The Way

“He shared with them his own merciful mission. He breathed on them a second time and said, As the Father has sent me, so I send you.... Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. (Jn 20:21-23) That night Jesus gave the Church the ministry of the forgiveness of sins through the Apostles (cf. CCC, no. 1461). By the Sacrament of Holy Orders, bishops and priests continue this ministry to forgive sins “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” In this Sacrament, the priest acts in the person of Christ, the Head of the Church, to reconcile the sinner to both God and the Church. “When he celebrates the Sacrament of Penance, the priest is fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep.... The priest is the sign and instrument of God’s merciful love for the sinner”
― United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him. —G. K. CHESTERTON”
― Marcus Luttrell, Service: A Navy SEAL at War