Top Quotes: Jesus’ Nature, Jesus’ Life.
Last updated: 7th January, 2021.
(Full quotes, further quotes, and sources of quotes are below these.)
- “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (Jesus)
- “Jesus did not say to Peter and to His Apostles “Know me”; He said, “Follow me!” And this following of Jesus makes us know Jesus.” (Pope Francis)
- “Again and again, he healed the sick, associated with ‘undesirables’ and ate with social outcasts.” (Fr Peter McVerry)
- “Nowhere in the Gospel has Christ ever uttered an expression of rejection. Rather, we always find an invitation: ‘Come to me.’” (Mother Teresa)
- “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jesus)
- “the supreme witness of patient love and of humble meekness” (Pope John-Paul II)
- “Other redeeming encounters can be explored…. The pattern recurs: the disciples or an individual are in trouble: Jesus enters the scene and transforms it. There is no fault-finding, but instead an expansive acceptance. Repentance comes unobtrusively, and will express itself in a changed way of relating to others.” (Fr Brian Grogan, SJ)
- “Everything Jesus says or does reveals God.” (Fr Eamon Devlin, CM)
- “God loves us…. Christ enables us to open our hearts to this mystery of love and to live as men and women conscious of being loved by God.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
- “What, though, is most important? That Jesus heals? No, that is not the most important thing. That he teaches us? That is not the most important thing [either]. [The most important thing] is that he saves! He is the Savior and we are saved by him: this is the most important thing.” (Pope Francis)
- “Even now, in every moment, Jesus intercedes. In this prayer: ‘Lord Jesus, only have mercy on me,’ he intercedes for me. Turn to the Lord, asking for this intercession.” (Pope Francis)
- “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Jesus)
- “He spoke to all without distinction… he brought God’s mercy and forgiveness; he healed, he comforted, he understood; he gave hope; he brought to all the presence of God.” (Pope Francis)
- “Christ is not a judge in any human sense: He is FOR both sides in the conflict. He has died for ALL. He acquits us all.” (Fr Brian Grogan, S.J.)
- “Some ask, ‘Is Jesus a spirit?’ Jesus is not a spirit! Jesus is a person, a man, with flesh like ours, but full of glory.” (Pope Francis)
- “Love, truth, life, beauty: Jesus is all this to the full.” (Pope Francis)
- “The life of Jesus tells us that not to be in control is part of the human condition.” (Henri Nouwen)
- “He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin.” (Vatican II)
- “To me, Jesus is the Life I want to live, the Light I want to reflect, the Way to the Father, the Love I want to express, the Joy I want to share, the Peace I want to sow around me.” (Mother Teresa)
- “Jesus chose to reveal the Father to anyone who would listen.” (Sister Wendy Beckett)
- “God knows we need him in more than the abstract. We need skin! That is why he chose to become incarnate in it. But he didn’t shed his earthly skin after 33 years; once enfleshed, he has remained in skin. We are his body now.” (Fr Ron Rolheiser)
- “The Beatitudes present a sort of veiled interior biography of Jesus, a kind of portrait of his figure…. Following Christ is not comfortable—and Jesus never said it would be.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
- “Jesus doesn’t want admirers, but followers.” (Fr Ron Rolheiser, OMI)
- “You must make your choice:
Either this man was, and is, the son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (CS Lewis) - “Jesus is the Righteous One; he is not a sinner. But he wished to come down to us, sinners, and he prays with us, and when we pray he is with us, praying; he is with us because he is in heaven, praying for us. Jesus always prays with his people, he always prays with us: always. We never pray alone; we always pray with Jesus.” (Pope Francis)
- “Interceding is what Jesus does in heaven, because the Bible tells us that Jesus is before the Father and intercedes for us. He is our intercessor.” (Pope Francis)
- He asks for more than we ourselves are capable of giving… He becomes in us His own bread… He wants to consume our life in order to change it into His.” (Elizabeth of the Trinity)
- “the risen Jesus walks beside us. He manifests himself to those who invoke and love him.” (Pope Francis)
- “the reflection of God’s glory and the the exact imprint of God’s very being” (St Paul)
- “When one looks beyond Luke, it is evident that Jesus cannot be characterised as a preacher of repentance. He was, emphatically, preacher of forgiveness. One thinks, for instance, of Zacchaeus in his sycamore tree.” (Wilfrid J Harrington, OP)
- “Christ wants to go to many places in the world, and to enter many hearts, through you.” (Pope John-Paul II)
- “essentially what Jesus offers us in the Gospels, not an intellectual answer but a relationship.” (Fr Ron Rolheiser)
- “The Lord walks next to us, as we have seen here with these two disciples. He listens to our restlessness, He knows it, and at a certain point He says something to us. The Lord likes to hear how we speak, to understand us well and to give the right answer to that disquiet…. In the moment in which our restlessness meets Jesus, that is where the life of grace begin, life in its fullness, the life of the Christian journey.” (Pope Francis)
- “Jesus’ love is great, Jesus’ love is merciful, Jesus’ love forgives; but you have to open yourself and to open oneself means to repent, to accuse oneself of the things that are not good and which we have done.” (Pope Francis)
- “The presence of the Lord broadens horizons, heals thoughts and emotions, and gives us the strength to overcome difficulties and trials.” (Pope Francis)
Jesus’ Nature, Jesus’ Life:
Full Quotes and Sources of Quotes
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
— Jesus (John 14:6) to the Apostle Thomas
“I am among you as the one who serves.”
— Jesus (Luke 22:27)
“Learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart.”
— Jesus (Matthew 11:29)
“So are you a king then?” said Pilate. “It is you who say it,” answered Jesus. “Yes, I am a king. I was born for this. I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.”
— Jesus (John 18: 37)
“This first question for Peter — ‘Who am I for you?’ — can only be understood along a path, after a long path, a path of grace and of sin, a path of a disciple.
Jesus did not say to Peter and to His Apostles “Know me”; He said, “Follow me!” And this following of Jesus makes us know Jesus. Following Jesus with our strength, but also with our sins, but always following Jesus.
It is not a study of things that is necessary, but a life of a disciple.”
— Pope Francis I, in a homily the 20th February 2014 as reported by RomeReports.com quoting Vatican Radio
“Reading the Gospels for the first time I think what is most striking about the life of Jesus is that, again and again, he healed the sick, associated with ‘undesirables’ and ate with social outcasts.”
— Fr Peter McVerry, SJ, page 14 of his book ‘Jesus: Social Revolutionary?‘, Veritas Publications, Dublin, 2008
“Christ hungers for souls. Nowhere in the Gospel has Christ ever uttered an expression of rejection. Rather, we always find an invitation: ‘Come to me.’”
— Mother Teresa
“Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
— Jesus (Matthew 11: 28-29, the New Jerusalem Bible translation)
“… the image of her crucified Lord, the supreme witness of patient love and of humble meekness.”
— Pope John-Paul II in his 1994 letter ‘Tertio Millenio Adveniente‘, section 35 and also in ‘Pope John-Paul II: A Reader’, edited by O’Collins SJ, page 94, published by Paulist Press: Mahwah, New Jersey, 2007.
“In the gospels Jesus encounters people individually and to their surprise their hearts are changed….
Consider the lakeside encounter (Jn.21)…. When Jesus has met the disciples’ immediate needs he initiates a dialogue with Peter. The agenda is clear: it’s all about love! Jesus searches Peter’s heart: Peter’s past failure underlies the conversation, but is dealt with so delicately! Jesus approach is positive, not critical. ‘Do you love me?’ is the all-important question, asked three times, surely with a wry smile. Peter is drawn out of himself into total trust: ‘Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.’ No need for an act of contrition: his statement of love is enough to indicate his change of heart. Humbly grateful to find his friendship with Jesus so simply restored, he became a different and more loving man.
Other redeeming encounters can be explored: with the Samaritan woman (Jn.4:1-29), with the woman taken in adultery (Jn.8:1-11), with the woman at the feast (Lk.7:36-50), with the doubting Thomas (Jn.20:24-29), with Saul who becomes Paul (Acts 22:2-20) etc. The pattern recurs: the disciples or an individual are in trouble: Jesus enters the scene and transforms it. There is no fault-finding, but instead an expansive acceptance. Repentance comes unobtrusively, and will express itself in a changed way of relating to others. Friendship is created or restored, with a sense of belonging again in the koinonia.”
— Fr Brian Grogan, S.J., in the September 2014 printed edition of ‘The Sacred Heart Messenger’ magazine in an article ‘Where To From Here (21): Remedial Education in Loving’, one of a series of articles adapted from his book ‘Where To From Here? The Christian Vision of Life After Death’ (Dublin, Veritas, 2011)
“Everything Jesus says or does reveals God.”
— Fr Eamon Devlin, CM, in a sermon 30th January, 2011
“God loves us…. Christ enables us to open our hearts to this mystery of love and to live as men and women conscious of being loved by God.”
— Pope Benedict XVI, part of a Prayer Vigil during World Youth Day in Madrid, 20th August 2011
“What, though, is most important? That Jesus heals? No, that is not the most important thing. That He teaches us? That is not the most important thing [either]. [The most important thing] is that He saves! He is the Savior and we are saved by him: this is the most important thing, and this is the strength of our faith.”
“This is relevant today. Jesus stands before the Father, offering His life — the redemption – He shows His wounds to the Father, the price of salvation — and so it is that every day, Jesus intercedes. When we, for one thing or the other, are feeling a little down, let us remember that it is He who prays for us, intercedes for us continually. So many times we forget this: ‘Jesus … but yes, it’s finished, he’s gone to heaven, sent us the Holy Spirit, the story’s over.’ No! Even now, in every moment, Jesus intercedes. In this prayer: ‘Lord Jesus, only have mercy on me,’ He intercedes for me. Turn to the Lord, asking for this intercession.”
— Pope Francis, in his homily of 22nd January 2015, as translated by Vatican Radio and published on Rome Reports
“In his earthly mission Jesus walked the roads of the Holy Land;
he called twelve simple people to stay with him,
to share his journey and to continue his mission.
He chose them from among the people full of faith in God’s promises.
He spoke to all without distinction:
the great and the lowly,
the rich young man and the poor widow,
the powerful and the weak;
he brought God’s mercy and forgiveness;
he healed, he comforted, he understood;
he gave hope;
he brought to all the presence of God who cares for every man and every woman,
just as a good father and a good mother care for each one of their children….
Jesus lived the daily reality of the most ordinary people:
he was moved as he faced the crowd that seemed like a flock without a shepherd;
he wept before the sorrow that Martha and Mary felt at the death of their brother, Lazarus;
he called a publican to be his disciple;
he also suffered betrayal by a friend.
In him God has given us the certitude that he is among us. “Foxes,” he, Jesus, said, “have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20).
Jesus has no house, because his house is the people,
it is we who are his dwelling place.”
— Pope Francis I, at his first ‘General Audience’, St Peter’s Square, March 27th 2013
“God, in Christ, “reconciles the whole world to himself” (2 Cor 5:18-19)… Christ is not a judge in any human sense: he is FOR both sides in the conflict. He has died for ALL. He acquits us all (see Rom 8:31-39). He is the great reconciler! Our task is to live out this reality here and now.”
— Fr Brian Grogan, S.J. in the November 2014 issue of The Sacred Heart Messenger magazine in the article “Where to From Here?: Universal Reconciliation”
“Jesus is the Kingdom of God in person.”
— Pope Benedict XVI in his first book as Pope: ‘Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration’, 2007
“Some ask, ‘Is Jesus a spirit?’ Jesus is not a spirit! Jesus is a person, a man, with flesh like ours, but full of glory. Jesus has the wounds on his hands, feet, sides, and when he prays to the Father, he shows the price of justification, praying for us, as if to say: ‘Father, let this not be lost!’
— Pope Francis I, in a homily during his daily morning Mass, as reported in print and video by Rome Reports, on 28th October, 2013
“If I feel attracted to Jesus, if his voice warms my heart, it is thanks to God the Father, who has put in me the desire of love, of truth, life, beauty … and Jesus is all this to the full!”
— Pope Francis I, in a Angelus/Regina Caeli address as reported by Vatican Radio, 21st April 2013
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser…. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is like a branch that has been thrown away–he withers…. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit, and then you will be my disciples.”
— Jesus (in John 15: 1-8)
“The eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.”
— Jesus (in Matthew 28:16-20, Jerusalem Bible translation)
“The life of Jesus tells us that not to be in control is part of the human condition.”
— Henri Nouwen
“Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals human beings to themselves and brings to light their most high calling.”…. “He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin”
— Vatican II (specifically: ‘Gaudium et Spes, 22‘, one of the four key documents of Vatican II), as quoted by John-Paul II in ‘John-Paul II: A Reader’ edited by O’Collins SJ,
published by Paulist Press: Mahwah, New Jersey, 2007, in the section ‘Christ the New Adam’, page 57.
“Keep your eyes on him who becomes poor with the poor, weak with the weak, and who is rejected with the rejected. That one, Jesus, is the source of all peace. Where is his peace to be found? In weakness… In our weakness we are forced to let go from doing much, thinking much, and relying on our self-sufficiency. Right where we are most vulnerable, the peace that is not of this world is mysteriously hidden.”
— Henri Nouwen
“…. This was the context in which Jesus grew up as a child. Nazareth was a small village, probably with a population of about 200 to 400, about 70 miles north of Jerusalem. However, Nazareth was only 4 miles from a city called Sepphoris, which had been the centre of revolt against Roman rule in 4BC when Herod the Great died…. Sepphoris, compared to Nazareth, was both very large and very wealthy. Jesus would no doubt have been struck by the enormous disparities between the lives of the citizens of Sepphoris and the poverty of the lives of his own people in Nazareth. He would have heard stories about the harshness of Roman rule, the revolt against Rome and the brutality of Rome’s response.”
— Fr Peter McVerry, SJ, page 107 of his book ‘Jesus: Social Revolutionary?‘, Veritas Publications, Dublin, 2008
“To me, Jesus is the Life I want to live, the Light I want to reflect, the Way to the Father, the Love I want to express, the Joy I want to share, the Peace I want to sow around me. Jesus is everything to me.”
— Mother Teresa
“We must think of the son always, so to speak, streaming from the father, like light from a lamp, or heat from a fire, or thoughts from a mind. He is the self-expression of the father, what the father has to say.
— CS Lewis
“It seems to me that the most important thing in life is that all I am should be Jesus‑orientated. I say Jesus, because I am wary of using the word ‘God’. Essentially, this is a meaningless word. No thoughts can encompass God. There is no box into which you can him. He, or for that matter, she, completely transcends any human concepts. When we say ‘God’, we are doing no more than pointing a finger. It is a directional word….
But none of this holds true for Jesus. With him we are on our own ground. Here is one who is as human as we are, whose words are written down for us in the scriptures. Jesus chose to reveal the Father to anyone who would listen.
— Sister Wendy Beckett in ‘Sister Wendy On Prayer’
“In Jesus of Nazareth God shows his face and asks man to choose to recognize and follow him.”
— Pope Benedict XVI in his weekly General Audience of December 12, 2012 (vatican.va)
- “Jesus is grace visible.” (page 8)
- “The holy name Jesus means ‘Saviour’” (page 39)
- “The words that the Father speaks call Jesus ‘my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ In Mark and Luke, the words are addressed directly to Jesus: ‘You are my beloved Son.’ Can it be that this was the first explicit manifestation to Our Lord himself of exactly what he was in relation to the Father? That his Father filled his life and gave it meaning, he knew. At twelve years old he could refer to the Temple in Jerusalem as his Father’s house, and be taken aback to discover his mother had looked for him “everywhere” and thought him lost.
But these words at the baptism are a solemn proclamation. They are made aloud and the Holy Spirit who overshadowed his conception appears again. Jesus must have felt, clearly and forcibly, for the first time what his role was, and the sacred responsibility. As Son he must teach his brothers and sisters about the Father.”
(page 45, part of a reflection on the painting ‘The Baptism of Christ’ by Pietro Perugino)
— Sr Wendy Beckett, in her book ‘The Art of Christmas’, Redemptorist Publications, Hampshire, England, 2008 (ISBN 978-0-85231-354-1)
“We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.”
— CS Lewis, in his book ‘Mere Christianity’ (in the chapter ‘Faith’, page 118 of the 1997 edition, Fount Paperbacks, London)
“And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.”
—Jesus (Mt 28: 16-20)
“We have only gradually become aware of the hook in Jesus’ promise, ‘I will be with you all days, even to the end of the world.’ This not only means he will not go away but that we cannot get rid of him! He continues to roll back the stone from the caves we entomb him in.”
— John Shea in his ‘The Challenge of Jesus’, as quoted by Ron Rolheiser
“Where is the reality of Christ? Was the incarnation only a 33-year experiment, a one-shot incursion by God into human history? No! The marvel of the mystery is that God took on human flesh and has never since ceased to have human flesh. In St. Paul’s words, “We are the body of Christ.” We don’t replace Christ’s historical body, we are not like his body, nor are we even his mystical body, we are his body; flesh, blood, tangible, in history, and to the extent that we live in grace, the on-going incarnation, God in flesh in history.
There is a marvellous story told about a four-year-old child who awoke one night frightened. In the darkness he imagined all kinds of spooks and monsters in his room. In fear he got up and ran to his parents’ bedroom. His father calmed him and, taking him back to his own room, put on a light and reassured him with the words: “You needn’t be afraid. God is here in the room with you!” The child replied: “I know God is here, but I want someone here who has some skin!” God knows we need him in more than the abstract.
We need skin! That is why he chose to become incarnate in it. But he didn’t shed his earthly skin after 33 years; once enfleshed, he has remained in skin. We are his body now. When we forgive, Christ is forgiving; when we bind, Christ is binding; when we console, Christ is consoling. When we suffer anguish over a loved one, the lamb of God is bleeding.”
— Fr Ron Rolheiser
“He who sees Jesus sees the Father.”
— Gospel of John 14:9
“‘You are the Christ, the Messiah’… For Peter, the concept of a Messiah connoted earthly power and especially earthly privilege; whereas for Jesus it meant suffering and dying. Peter had the right answer but the wrong understanding of that answer.
Some scholars speculate that this is the real reason behind the so-called ‘messianic secret’ in the Gospels, where Jesus repeatedly asks his disciples not to reveal his identity. His reluctance to have his disciples broadcast publicly who he is was based upon his fear that they could not, before the resurrection and Pentecost, properly understand his identity and would invariably preach a false message.”
— Fr Ron Rolheiser (ronrolheiser.com, published in 60 newspapers worldwide)(16th Sept 2012: ‘The right answer alone is not enough’)
“God shows us his face in Jesus. In what Jesus does and wills, we come to know the mind and will of God himself….The Beatitudes present a sort of veiled interior biography of Jesus, a kind of portrait of his figure (page 74)…. Following Christ is not comfortable—and Jesus never said it would be” (page 109)
— Pope Benedict XVI in his first book as Pope: ‘Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration’, 2007, in Chapter 4 ‘The Sermon on the Mount’, page numbers are of the Bloomsbury Publising, London edition, 2007
“Jesus took away our sins in the same way as a filter purifies water. A filter takes in impure water, holds the impurities inside of itself, and gives back only the pure water. It transforms rather than transmits. He takes in hatred, holds it, transforms it, and gives back love; he takes in bitterness, holds it, transforms it, and gives back graciousness; he takes in curses, holds them, transforms them, and gives back blessing; he takes in chaos, holds it, transforms it, and gives back order; he takes in fear, holds it, transforms it, and gives back freedom; he takes in jealousy, holds it, transforms it, and gives back affirmation; and he takes in satan and murder, holds them, transforms them, and gives back only God and forgiveness.
He didn’t simply give back in kind, letting the energy simply flow through him. He purified the energy and took the tension and sin out of it by absorbing them. And, in doing this, Jesus doesn’t want admirers, but followers.”
— Fr Ron Rolheiser
“When Jesus stepped into the waters of the Jordan and was baptised by John the Baptist, he did so not because he was in need of repentance, or conversion; he did it to be among people who need forgiveness, among us sinners, and to take upon himself the burden of our sins. In this way he chose to comfort us, to save us, to free us from our misery.”
— Pope Francis in his 2014 Lenten Message as published on the Vatican website on 26th December 2013 (‘Lenten Message of our Holy Father Francis 2014’)
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a par with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell.
You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
— CS Lewis (in his book ‘Mere Christianity’ at the end of the chapter ‘The Shocking Alternative’, page 43 of the 1997 Fount Publications edition, London)
“Here’s how the Gospels describe Jesus’ reaction towards the world that rejected him… Jesus sees what happens when people try to live without God, the mess, the pain, the heartbreak, and, far from rejoicing that the world isn’t working, his heart aches with empathy: If only you could see what you’re doing!
Looking at a world that’s breaking down because of its self-absorption, Jesus responds with empathy, not glee; with understanding, not judgment; with heartache, not rubbing salt in the wounds; and with tears, not good riddance.
…. What frustrated, heartbroken parent hasn’t looked at a son or daughter caught up in wrong choices and self-destructive behavior and wept inside as the words spontaneously formed: If only you could see what you’re doing! …
We are asked by our Christian faith to have a genuine love for the world. The world isn’t our enemy. It’s our wayward child and our loved friend who is breaking our heart. … Good parents don’t respond to the anger of an adolescent child by declaring her their enemy. They respond like Jesus did, by weeping over her.”
— Fr Ron Rolheiser in his weekly column, ‘Empathy for the world’ 20th November 2011 https://ronrolheiser.com/empathy-for-the-world/#.X_TKHtj7TIU
“Jesus is the Righteous One; he is not a sinner. But he wished to come down to us, sinners, and he prays with us, and when we pray he is with us, praying; he is with us because he is in heaven, praying for us. Jesus always prays with his people, he always prays with us: always. We never pray alone; we always pray with Jesus. He does not stay on the opposite side of the river — “I am righteous, you are sinners” — to mark his difference and distance from the disobedient people, but rather he immerses his feet in the same purifying waters. He acts as if he were a sinner.”
— Pope Francis, 28th October 2020 in a General Audience
“To know Christ entails accepting his will as norm. When we feel this we draw back, startled for it means the cross. It is better to say honestly: “I can’t yet,” than to mouth pious phrases.”
— Romano Guardini in his book ‘The Lord’ (as documented on the goodreads website [I want to confirm this myself by buying this book sometime soon] https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/284475.Romano_Guardini downloaded 7th January 2020
“Interceding is what Jesus does in heaven, because the Bible tells us that Jesus is before the Father and intercedes for us. He is our intercessor.”
— Pope Francis, 28 June 2019, at the 175th anniversary of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network https://www.popesprayer.va/2019-28-june-speech-of-the-holy-father-pope-francis/ (downloaded 18th Feb 2020)
“Now the love of Christ is generous. All that He has, all that He is, He gives; all that we have, all that we are, He takes away. He asks for more than we ourselves are capable of giving… He becomes in us His own bread… He wants to consume our life in order to change it into His.” (HF 5.2, 18)
— Elizabeth of the Trinity, as documented by Julie Enzler on http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jenzler/elizabeth-of-the-trinity-can-help-you-live-life-as-in-heaven and downloaded 17th January 2020 (HF refers to ‘Heaven in Faith’, a ten-day retreat that she wrote)
“the risen Jesus walks beside us. He manifests himself to those who invoke and love him. First of all in prayer, but also in simple joys lived with faith and gratitude.”
— Pope Francis, as documented on https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/04/22/pope-francis-the-resurrection-is-the-most-shocking-event-in-human-history/ (link no longer working)
‘And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”’
From Mark’s Gospel 1:11
“The name of Jesus, like the Word of God that he is, is a two-edged sword. It is a name that means salvation and life; it is a name that means a struggle and a cross, just as it did for him. But it is also the name in which we find strength to proclaim and live the truth of the Gospel.”
— Pope John-Paul II, ‘Address at Los Angeles, 1987’ (as quoted in ‘John Paul II: In My Own Words’, 1998, London: Hodder & Stoughton, page 6)
“the reflection of God’s glory and the the exact imprint of God’s very being”
— St Paul (Hebrews 1:3)
- “Jesus was too much for the religious authorities of his day. He seems to be too much for the religious authorities of any day.” (p.39)
- “Jesus staunchly refused to categorise people; to him no one was outcast.” (p.44)
- “In spite of Luke’s own emphasis on repentance (15:7,10), the distinctive, and scandalous, conduct of Jesus himself shines through his narrative. When one looks beyond Luke, it is evident that Jesus cannot be characterised as a preacher of repentance. He was, emphatically, preacher of forgiveness. One thinks, for instance, of Zacchaeus in his sycamore tree. A preacher of repentance might have wagged his finger and read him the riot act—a spectacularly captive hearer. Instead, Jesus casually invited himself to dinner in his home. Zacchaeus must nearly have toppled from his perch in surprised delight. A sermon would have left him unaffected—he had too often been preached at. The novel approach changed his life (19: 1-10).” (p.45)
— Wilfrid J Harrington OP, ‘From the Presence of the Lord’, 2006, Dublin: The Columba Press, pages 39, 44, 45
“Christ wants to go to many places in the world, and to enter many hearts, through you.”
— Pope John-Paul II, ‘Homily at Central Park’ New York, 1995 (as quoted in ‘John Paul II: In My Own Words’, 1998, London: Hodder & Stoughton, page 109)
“our crucified Lord, the supreme witness of patient love and humble meekness”
— Pope John-Paul II, in ‘Tertio Millenio Adveniente’, as quoted Michel de Verteuil CSSp, ‘Eucharist as Word’, 2001, Dublin: Veritas Publications ISBN 1 85390 519 4, page 36
“… essentially what Jesus offers us in the Gospels, not an intellectual answer but a relationship.”
— Fr Ron Rolheiser, in his weekly column, syndicated worldwide, this one entitled ‘God & Evil’ as it appeared in the ‘Irish Catholic’ newspaper dated October 23, 2008
“Christ alone is the measure and the scale that you must use to evaluate your own life.”
— Pope John-Paul II in Ireland 1979, as quoted in ‘Twenty-Five Years On: A Message for Today’, 2004, Dublin: Veritas, page 17.
“Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus is also gazing, here and now, upon each one of us. He looks at us with love, he asks something, he forgives something and he gives us a mission. He has put great trust in us by choosing us to be his co-workers in the creation of a more just world. We can be sure that his gaze penetrates the depths of our hearts; it loves, transforms, reconciles and unites us. His kind and merciful gaze encourages us to renounce the paths that lead to sin and death, and it sustains us as we pursue the paths of peace and goodness. Here is an exercise that is beneficial, one that we can always do, even at home: consider that Jesus is gazing on us and that it will be this same gaze, full of love, which will greet us on the last day of our earthly life.”
— Pope Francis, speaking to leaders of South Sudan, 11th April 2019
“On his way from Judea to Galilee, Jesus passes through Samaria. He has no problem dealing with Samaritans, who were considered by the Jews to be heretics, schismatics, others. His attitude helps us to realize that encounter with those who are different than ourselves can make us grow.
Weary from his journey, Jesus does not hesitate to ask the Samaritan woman for something to drink. His thirst, as we know, is much more than physical: it is also a thirst for encounter, a desire to enter into dialogue with that woman and to invite her to make a journey of interior conversion. Jesus is patient, respectful of the person before him, and gradually reveals himself to her. His example encourages us to seek a serene encounter with others.”
— Pope Francis, Homily at second Vespers on the solemnity of the conversion of St Paul, 25 January 2015
“A person is Christian because he or she has encountered Jesus Christ, has let him or herself be encountered by Him…. God thirsts for the encounter to the point that He sent Jesus to meet us, to come towards this restlessness.
How does Jesus act? In this passage of the Gospel (see Lk 24, 13-35), we see clearly that He respects our situation, He does not go ahead. Only at times, with the headstrong — think of Paul, when he is thrown down from the horse. But usually He goes slowly, respecting our pace. He is the Lord of patience. How much patience the Lord has with us, with each one of us!
The Lord walks next to us, as we have seen here with these two disciples. He listens to our restlessness, He knows it, and at a certain point He says something to us. The Lord likes to hear how we speak, to understand us well and to give the right answer to that disquiet.
…. We meet Jesus in the darkness of our doubts, even in the ugly doubt of our sins, He is there to help us, in our anxieties… He is always with us.
The Lord accompanies us because He wants to meet us. That is why we say that the core of Christianity is an encounter: it is the encounter with Jesus.
Jesus is always looking for us. Always. And we have our restlessness. In the moment in which our restlessness meets Jesus, that is where the life of grace begin, life in its fullness, the life of the Christian journey.”
— Pope Francis, 26th April 2020 in a homily at Casa Santa Marta chapel, Rome but also, with a ‘live’ audio translation in this video of the Pope giving his homily
“If we close ourselves to the love of Jesus, we condemn ourselves. Salvation is to open oneself to Jesus, it is he who saves us. If we are sinners — and we all are — we ask him for forgiveness and if we go to him with the desire to be good, the Lord forgives us. But for this we must open ourselves to Jesus’ love, which is stronger than all else. Jesus’ love is great, Jesus’ love is merciful, Jesus’ love forgives; but you have to open yourself and to open oneself means to repent, to accuse oneself of the things that are not good and which we have done. The Lord Jesus gave himself and he continues to give himself to us, in order to fill us with all of the mercy and grace of the Father.”
— Pope Francis, 11th December 2013, to a General Audience in St Peter’s Square, Rome.
“Yes, my friends, it is the presence of the Lord that marks the difference between the freedom of goodness and the slavery of evil, enabling us to do good works and draw an intimate joy that can radiate on those around us close. The presence of the Lord broadens horizons, heals thoughts and emotions, and gives us the strength to overcome difficulties and trials.”
“Wherever the Lord Jesus is, there is resurrection; there is life, because He is resurrection and life. ”
— Pope Francis speaking to members of the Pope John XXIII Association, 20 December 2014 as translated here
help with the tough questions 