Despair makes priests and friars.

Well, there is nothing we can do about it. We have to put up with these snakes, dogs, and swine surrounding us and corrupting the Gospel both in doctrine and in life. Wherever there are faithful preachers they always have to take this. Such is the fortune of the Gospel in the world.

For the Lord does not speak in vain, nor does He offer His Word to the lazy and smug, but to those who are in need, who toil, who are afflicted and are undergoing a very difficult conflict against the flesh and all external appearances, that is, against those things which according to human sense and reason fight against faith, as Heb. 11 says, so that the afflicted can rely on the sole protection of the Word of God and be sustained by it.

Though my enemies and all the world oppress me, persecute me, and drive me out, I still have a Lord who is, and wants to be, my Lord because God has promised this to me.

Therefore when we are afflicted and disciplined, our heart must be aroused against the feeling of evil, and we must say (cf. Ps. 118:17): "I shall not die, but I shall live, however different it may appear. Although I may, indeed, be compelled to despair of myself, I shall nevertheless hope in Him who made all things out of nothing and can restore me intact after being reduced to nothing, to my very great benefit and that of others.

He would like best of all to persecute us with fire and sword, but this method has availed him little because through the blood of martyrs the church has been watered.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.

We all face storms in life, whether it is a storm like Katrina, a storm in a marriage, or a storm in our finances.

certainly lived through more troubles than Tina, though Tina's own life couldn't be considered an easy one.

Maizy swallowed hard, a motion that almost strangled her in this blasted dress, and she nodded.