(This 50-piece vinyl sticker pack contains many of the October saints—how fun for a water bottle, journal, or laptop.)
(Chandler Bing voice): Have you even SEEN the liturgical feast day calendar for October? It's stacked!
We will post our usual saint of the week series throughout October, but I have to tell y'all that choosing one saint from the available options on any given day or week of October is impossible. So I thought we'd at minimum round up a collection of quotes by all these October saints.
St Thérèse of Lisieux (1): Start here for our whole series on Thérèse leading up to her feast.
Guardian angels (2): First, the catechism tells us, “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their [angels’] watchful care and intercession. ‘Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.’ Already here on earth, the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God” (336). St John Bosco's advice: “When tempted, invoke your angel. He is more eager to help you than you are to be helped. Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him; he trembles and flees at the sight of your guardian angel.”
St Francis of Assisi (4):"Do few things, but do them well." Read a longer story and reflection on our chosen saint of the week here.
Bl Bartolo Longo (5): As a former satanic priest (yep, you read that correctly—his is an amazing conversion story), Bartolo Longo attributed his conversion to Our Lady. "I place myself, my God, in your hands; as a son I abandon myself to your fatherly embrace; roll and roll again this mud, it has nothing to say; it is enough that it serve your designs and not resist your will for which I was made. Ask, command, prohibit. What do you wish that I do, or that I not do? Lifted up, knocked down, suffering, dedicated to your works by sacrificing my will to yours, I can only say, as did Mary: 'Behold I am your servant. O Lord, let it be done to me according to your Word."
St Faustina Kowalska (5): She received these words from Jesus: "The more trustful a soul is, the more it will receive. I am pleased when they ask for much, for I want to bestow much."
Bl Francis Xavier Seelos (5): I'll be sharing soon about this saint who worked and died in New Orleans, and whose relics are housed in a beautiful historic shrine in the city. Two favorites from Seelos: “Ah, you sinners, who have not the courage to confess your sins because they are so numerous or so grievous or so shameful—come without fear or trembling! I promise to receive you with all mildness. If I do not keep my word, I here publicly give you permission to cast it up to me in the confessional and to charge me with a falsehood!” And: “O help! O help! O holy Mother of God, let me become so inflamed and sanctified that I am not always thinking of breakfast.”
St Bruno (6): “By your work you show what you love and what you know." (This is not a quote extracted from a letter or piece of writing, but something the hermit was recorded to have said.)
Bl Marie-Rose Durocher (6): ”Let our charity be a bright and burning light, pointing out the path of virtue to all who surround us.”
St John Henry Newman (9): “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.”
St John Leonardi (9): "The medicine of God is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen."
Pope St John XXIII (11): "Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams."
Bl (almost saint!) Carlo Acutis (12): "All people are born as originals but many die as photocopies.” (I'm always telling y'all that teenagers rule!) P.S. Carlo will be canonized in 2025.
Pope St Callistus I (14): "In the Lord's hand is the abundance of all things."
St Teresa of Avila (15): “Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things are passing away. God never changes. Patience obtains all things. She who has God finds she lack nothing. God alone suffices.”
St Marguerite-Marie Alacoque (16): "Cling to God, and leave all the rest to Him."
St Hedwig (16): "The greater one is by birth, the greater one must be in virtue, and the more distinguished we are in station, the more we must distinguish ourselves by our conduct, in order to be a bright example to others."
St Ignatius of Antioch (17): “Take heed often to come together to give thanks to God and show forth His praise. For when you assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith. Nothing is more precious than peace, by which all war, in heaven and earth, is brought to an end.”
St Luke the Evangelist (18): See the Gospel of Luke 1: 46-56. Luke clearly had the mind-blowing privilege of many personal conversations and sharing of memories with Mary, mother of God.
Bl Jerzy Popieluszko (19): "Truth never changes. It cannot be destroyed by any decision or legal act. Telling the truth with courage is a way leading directly to freedom. A man who tells the Truth is a free man despite external slavery, imprisonment or custody.”
Sts Jean de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues (19): “I do not fear death or torture. I come here to show you the way to Heaven.”
St Paul of the Cross (20): "The passion of Jesus is a sea of sorrows, but it is also an ocean of love. Ask the Lord to teach you to fish in this ocean. Dive into its depths. No matter how deep you go, you will never reach the bottom."
St Gaspar del Bufalo (21): "All the mysteries are focused in the infinite Price of our Redemption like the radii of a circle converging in the centre. In this devotion all the truths of faith are summed up. For this reason we say in the consecration of our chalice: the 'Mystery of Faith.'"
Pope St John Paul II (22): Okay, let's pause and remember that choosing only one quote from this man is an existential crisis. He is the source of some of my own life's work in adapting his Theology of the Body. I am going to stick with the deepest theme of his life and ministry: “Be not afraid! Never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid!"
St John Capistrano (23): "Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life. Now a light does not illumine itself, but instead it diffuses its rays and shines all around upon everything that comes into its view."
St Anthony Mary Claret (24): "Christian perfection consists in three things: praying heroically, working heroically, and suffering heroically."
Sts Simon and Jude (28): From the Mass readings on their feast, Psalm 119: 89-90: "O Lord, your word is everlasting; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness remains from one generation to another; you established the earth, and it abides."
Bl Chiara Badano (29): "I have nothing left, but I still have my heart, and with that I can always love."
St Alphonsus Rodriquez (31): "I'm coming, Lord!"
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