The Mass is the most perfect form of prayer.
The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune.
Idleness or boredom has no place in the life of a Christian.
You must strive to multiply bread so that it suffices for the tables of mankind, and not rather favor an artificial control of birth, which would be irrational, in order to diminish the number of guests at the banquet of life.
The transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator.
The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.
Lord, to whom should we go? Thy words are the words of eternal life.
The pope-and we know this well-is without doubt the most serious obstacle on the ecumenical road.
The pope is becoming a missionary, you will say. Yes, the pope is becoming a missionary, which means a witness, a shepherd, an apostle on the move.
The freedom or immunity from coercion in matters religious, which is the endowment of persons as individuals, is also to be recognized as their right when they act in community. Religious communities are a requirement of the social nature both of man and of religion itself.
If you believe in peace it is possible. If it is possible it is a duty.
If evils increase, the devotion of the People of God should also increase.
Priestly celibacy has been guarded by the Church for centuries as a brilliant jewel, and retains its value undiminished even in our time when the outlook of men and the state of the world have undergone such profound changes.
Satan’s smoke has made its way into the Temple of God through some crack.
Justice is not always an open and shut case – sometimes we have to work for it. If you want peace, you must work for justice.
Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine, on the bishop. In virtue of power conceded by the law, the regulation of the liturgy within certain defined limits belongs also to various kinds of competent territorial bodies of bishops legitimately established. Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.
In accordance with the centuries-old tradition of the Latin rite, the Latin language is to be retained by clerics in the divine office.
The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services. But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action.
Married love, therefore, requires of husband and wife the full awareness of their obligations in the matter of responsible parenthood, which today, rightly enough, is much insisted upon, but which at the same time should be rightly understood. Thus, we do well to consider responsible parenthood in the light of its varied legitimate and interrelated aspects.
The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows. For the aim and object of apostolic works is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of His Church, to take part in the sacrifice, and to eat the Lord’s supper.
If every man, as much as he can and as best he can, will work for justice and peace in the world, then each Christian will have at heart the request that Mary pray with us and for us, so that the peace the Lord alone can give may be granted us.