God made the human person with passion, intellect, and will. We ought to expect Him to speak to us through all three. You are made with certain interests, curiosities, and desires exactly because these are the doorways through which you can find your vocation, the context for offering your unique and unrepeatable self-gift. How God must be thrilled when we follow and fully develop the interests and talents and dreams He has fashioned within us!
Education is critical to this self-discovery and self-realization. This is why, through history, so many Catholic missions and religious orders were formed to educate. Here are some insights from our cloud of witnesses as many of us embark upon a new academic year.
Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection.
+St Benedict
“I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.”
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them—every day begin the task anew.
+St Francis de Sales
Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to Him. That is all the doing you have to worry about.
+St Jane Frances de Chantal
You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones.
+St Augustine
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.”
Beloved sons and daughters of the Catholic Church, brothers and sisters in the faith: Catholic education is above all a question of communicating Christ, of helping to form Christ in the lives of others.
I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God.
+St. Dominic Savio
Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.
+St Catherine of Siena
Now to Him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work with us.
Love follows knowledge.
+St Thomas Aquinas
In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. And that you may obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps. With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall, under her protection you have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal.
+St Bernard of Clairvaux
In all your deeds and words you should look upon this Jesus as your model. Do so whether you are walking or keeping silence, or speaking, whether you are alone or with others.
+St Bonaventure
Always remember that every subject you study is part of a bigger picture. Never allow yourselves to become narrow. The world needs good scientists, but a scientific outlook becomes dangerously narrow if it ignores the religious or ethical dimension of life, just as religion becomes narrow if it rejects the legitimate contribution of science to our understanding of the world. We need good historians and philosophers and economists, but if the account they give of human life within their particular field is too narrowly focused, they can lead us seriously astray.
+Pope Benedict XVI
Do not lose heart, even if you should discover that you lack qualities necessary for the work to which you are called. He who called you will not desert you, but the moment you are in need he will stretch out his saving hand.
+St Angela Merici
Do you desire to study to your advantage? Let devotion accompany all your studies, and study less to make yourself learned than to become a saint. Consult God more than your books, and ask him, with humility, to make you understand what you read. Study fatigues and drains the mind and heart. Go from time to time to refresh them at the feet of Jesus Christ under his cross.
+St. Vincent Ferrer
For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe-that unless I believe I shall not understand.
+St. Anselm
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P.S. If you're looking for some good resources, we have written several award-winning books and complete programs for various Catholic topics:
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