1.

From my point of view, God is the light that illuminates the darkness, even if it does not dissolve it, and a spark of divine
light is within each of us. –Pope Francis
2. Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right. –Pope Francis
3. The royal road to peace is to see others not as enemies to be opposed but as brothers and sisters to be embraced. –
Pope Francis
4. “He should first show them in deeds rather than words all that is good and holy.” –Saint Benedict
5. “Whatever good work you begin to do, beg of God with most earnest prayer to perfect it.” –Saint Benedict
6. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. Saint Augustine
7. It was pride that changed angels into devils, it is humility that makes men as angels. Saint Augustine
8. The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection. Thomas Paine
9. The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. Thomas Paine
10. You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Saint Augustine
ST. JOHN PAUL II QUOTES
11. Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.
12. The future starts today, not tomorrow.
13. As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.
14. Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.
15. I have a sweet tooth for song and music. This is my Polish sin.
16. Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it.
17. Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
18. Love is never defeated, and I could add, the history of Ireland proves it.
19. Social justice cannot be attained by violence. Violence kills what it intends to create.
20. War is a defeat for humanity.
21. Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought. St. John Paul II
22. Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Francis of Assisi
23. For it is in giving that we receive. Francis of Assisi
24. Where there is injury let me sow pardon. Francis of Assisi
25. Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. Mother Teresa
26. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa
27. Teach us to give and not to count the cost. Saint Ignatius
28. It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey. Saint Ignatius
29. It is no small misfortune and disgrace that, through our own fault, we neither understand our nature nor our origin. Saint
Teresa of Avila
"Hindi maliit na kasawian at kahihiyan na, sa pamamagitan ng ating sariling kasalanan, hindi natin nauunawaan ang ating
kalikasan o ang ating pinagmulan.
30. It is a most certain truth, that the richer we see ourselves to be, confessing at the same time our poverty, the greater will
be our progress, and the more real our humility. Saint Teresa of Avila
31. We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.

Maaari lamang nating malaman ang ating sarili at gawin ang magagawa natin - ibig sabihin, isuko ang ating kalooban at
tuparin ang kalooban ng Diyos sa atin.

32. There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
May mga luha sa paglipas ng sinasagot na mga panalangin kaysa sa hindi nasagot na mga panalangin.

33. Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.

34. Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
35. The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.
36. To have courage for whatever comes in life - everything lies in that.
37. To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience.
38. For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.
39. I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
40. We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.
41. I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible.
ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Augustine of Hippo was an early Roman African Christian theologian and philosopher from the Roman province of Africa
whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy.
Born: 13 November 354 AD, Thagaste
Died: 28 August 430 AD, Hippo Regius, Algeria
School: Christian philosophy
Parents: Saint Monica, Patricius Aurelius

ST. JOHN PAUL II

Pope Saint John Paul II served as Pope of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 1978 to 2005. He is
called Saint John Paul the Great by some Catholics.
Born: 18 May 1920, Wadowice, Poland
Died: 2 April 2005, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
Full name: Karol Józef Wojtyła
Feast day: 22 October

SAINT TERESA OF ÁVILA,

also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic,
Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun and author during the ...Wikipedia
Born: 28 March 1515, Gotarrendura, Spain
Died: 4 October 1582, Alba de Tormes, Spain
Feast: 15 October
Parents: Alonso Sánchez de Cepeda, Beatriz de Ahumada y Cuevas

ST. BENEDICT OF NURSIA

is a Christian saint, who is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Catholic Church, the Oriental Orthodox
Churches, the Anglican Communion and Old Catholic Churches. He is a patron saint of Europe. Wikipedia
Born: 2 March 480 AD, Norcia, Italy
Died: 21 March 547 AD, Monte Cassino, Cassino, Italy
Canonized: 1220, Rome, Papal States by Pope Honorius III
Parents: Eutropio Anicio, Claudia Abondantia Reguardati
Siblings: Scholastica

ST. FRANCIS
Pope Francis is the 266th and current Pope of the Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and
sovereign of Vatican City. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi.Wikipedia
Born: 17 December 1936 (age 81), Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Full name: Jorge Mario Bergoglio
Nationality: Argentine
Education: Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy (1980–1980), MORE
Did you know: Francis is the ninth-oldest pope at election (elected at age 76 years, 86 days)
In order to talk about injury and pardon, it is necessary to define each of these words.
According to www.merriam-webster.com, an injury is “an act that damages or hurts; it is a wrong; it is a violation of
another’s rights for which the law allows an action to recover damages.” For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll look not at
the legal aspects of an injury but at the hurt caused by one’s actions.

Pardon is a word in our society that has been so imbued with legal connotations that it is necessary to completely nullify for
this article its legal definition: “the excusing of an offense without exacting a penalty.” We choose instead the dictionary’s
definition of “the excuse or forgiveness for a fault, offense, or discourtesy.”

To choose “forgiveness” as a synonym for “pardon” is again to load the discussion with all types of emotional baggage
gleaned from the writings of the wisest and most foolish of men and women of all ages, backgrounds, religions, and political
leanings.

To some people, the act of forgiving must include the complete forgetting of the offense. To others, forgiveness means to
dismiss the hurt caused by the offense but to acknowledge that forgetting is impossible. Psychologists would assert that
forgiveness means to release the resentment against the offender. Jesus admonished that one should forgive the offender
seventy times seven; most human beings are totally incapable of this kind of forgiveness.

Some forms of religion teach that one must believe in divine judgment that will eventually punish the offender or that
“karma” will prevail. Those who are able to grasp this concept and espouse it wholeheartedly are most often those who are
able to learn to forgive. Forgiveness is inevitably the encompassing of a capacity for loving. Loving someone who has
offended or hurt you deeply is tough.

Acknowledging the hurt caused by the murderer, the rapist, the slanderer or other “sinner” is the first step in the process of
healing. I read of a case where the father of a young girl, who had been murdered by a boy who did not even know her and
who killed her for seemingly no reason, had sat in the courtroom every day of the trial. When the boy was sentenced to life
in prison, the man said that he was going to visit the boy in prison, not because he was going to try to exact revenge or even
to expect that the boy would eventually feel remorse for what he did. The father was going to look at the boy and talk to him
so that somehow he could learn to forgive him and learn not to hate this murderer. He did not want to be consumed by
anger for the rest of his life and suffer the consequences of ill health that hatred can create in one’s own body.

Forgiveness does little or nothing to or for the person who is forgiven. Forgiveness is about the healing of the one who
forgives.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld said, “We pardon to the extent that we love.”

When anyone is consumed by hatred, anger or grief, the person is in a state of torment. The torment is not something that
affects the person who committed the “unforgivable act,” but tortures the unforgiving one.

Here are a few of the illnesses that have been scientifically linked to lack of forgiveness or hatred: asthma, autoimmune
dysfunction, coronary artery disease, cysts, depression, headaches, heart attacks, high blood pressure, insomnia, intestinal
disorders, low back pain, sexual dysfunction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, paranoia, and ulcers. Not worth letting one’s
life be consumed by another’s misbehavior, is it?
To put this into a larger perspective, glance at the national political scene as it has been heading. The media is full of people
who daily vilify every fault and foible of anyone who doesn’t agree with their point of view. We have become a divided
society depending on one’s political or environmental or even fashion or musical perspective!

We can survive as a nation exactly as is described in the much-quoted phrase, “United we stand, divided we fall.” We can
agree to disagree without pointing guns at each other. We can take criticism without accusing others of exacting blood. We
can work together to find solutions to our problems without lying about the opposition’s heritage or worthiness to be alive.

We don’t need people who justify their positions by saying the person with whom they disagree should be killed.

Our society depends on our ability to express our feelings but it doesn’t need blood-letting as the end game for differing
points of view. People who become so fearful of someone who thinks differently are those who literally become terrorists in
our midst. Encouraging this kind of thinking by appealing to unbalanced minds is ultimately to injure the public
consciousness.

Each person has to ultimately learn how to forgive. It is not the work of a small mind to learn to forgive; it is higher order
thinking and requires the acquisition of compassion.

Where there is injury, let me sow pardon. Help me learn to forgive others and eventually to forgive myself for the mistakes I
have made. We are most likely to be unforgiving of the faults we see in ourselves.

We must learn not grind our brother’s faults over and over in our hearts to the point that we ourselves become sick. If there
is any virtue at all in this person who has offended us, if there is anything to praise, let us remember these things and cast
all hatred forever away.