"Forgiveness is beaten, Pardon is condemned, Majesty is mocked, Virtue is ridiculed; the Bestower of rain is drenched with spittle, the One who has arrayed the heavens is restrained by nails of iron, the Giver of honey is fed with gall, the One who makes springs of water flow is given vinegar to drink; and when there is no longer any punishment left, death takes cover, death hesitates, because it does not notice anything there that is its own."
— St. Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons (Volume 3, Sermon 72B)

"Love is proved by adversities, the weight of affection is determined by the dangers endured, benevolence is tested by punishments, perfect charity is confirmed by death... So this is the first reason for the Lord’s Passion, whereby he wanted it to be known how much God loved humanity, since he wanted to be loved rather than feared."
— St. Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons (Volume 3, Sermon 72B)

"Just as, when Christ was being born, conception did not follow its usual order, birth did not proceed according to custom, nature did not observe its own laws, so too at his death Tartarus lost those he was keeping under his sway, hell forfeited the prerogative of its age-old power, and death relinquished what had been guaranteed under the ancient law by decree of the new order."
— St. Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons (Volume 3, Sermon 72A)

"Christ went, but he never left the apostles; the Lord went to death, but he never departed from life; he descended into hell, but he was not absent from heaven, as he himself attests when he says: 'No one has ascended to heaven, except the One who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.'"
— St. Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons (Volume 3, Sermon 72A)

Divine Mercy Novena: Day 2

On April 19th, 2005—twenty years ago today—Pope Benedict XVI began his pontificate.

"We must rejoice a great deal over this transformation by which we are taken from earthly coarseness to heavenly dignity through that ineffable mercy of the one who descended to our state in order to lift us up to his."
— Pope St. Leo the Great, On the Lord's Resurrection, Delivered on Holy Saturday on the Easter Vigil

Don’t pay any attention to politics today.

Jesus conquered hell, defeated death, and freed us from the bondage of sin. Nothing can undo the victory that has already been won!

"Just as the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Lord, holds the first place among all women, even so, this day is the mother of days among all days."
— St. Jerome, Homily 93 on Easter Sunday

He is all things.
He is law, in that he judges.
He is word, in that he teaches.
He is grace, in that he saves.
He is father, in that he begets.
He is son, in that he is begotten.
He is sheep, in that he suffers.
He is human, in that he is buried.
He is God, in that he is raised up.

— St. Melito of Sardis, On Pascha

"Today, Christ, with the thief, has removed the flaming sword and reopened the gate of Paradise that no one has been able to storm."
— St. Jerome, Homily 93 on Easter Sunday

"For it is not on one place, nor in a narrow plot, that the glory of God is established, but on all the ends of the earth."
— St. Melito of Sardis, On Pascha

Divine Mercy Novena: Day 3

Pope Francis, after a penitential Lent in which he underwent great suffering due to his illness, passed on to his eternal reward at 7:35AM in Rome. Pray for the repose of his soul: Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

I will be offering the remaining days of the Divine Mercy Novena for the soul of his holiness Pope Francis.

"[M]any of those who said, His blood be upon us and upon our children (Mt 27:25), later on came to believe the apostles bringing them the good news of the resurrection. His blood was indeed upon them, but it was to wash them, not to destroy them; well, upon some to destroy them, upon others to cleanse them; upon those to be destroyed, in justice; upon those to be cleansed, in mercy."
— St. Augustine, Sermon 229F, Preached on the Monday After Easter

"In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved."
— Pope Francis, On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ