Maximus the Confessor, The Four Hundred Chapters on Love

The one who makes provision for the desires of the flesh and bears a grudge against his neighbor for transitory things-such a man serves the creature rather than the Creator.

Maximus the Confessor, The Four Hundred Chapters on Love

Whenever you are suffering intensely from insult or disgrace, realize that this can be of great benefit to you, for disgrace is God's way of driving vainglory out of you.

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Abba Nilus said, "Everything you do in revenge against a brother who has harmed you will come back to your mind at the time of prayer."

St. Augustine, Confessions

By means of men who did not do well you did well for me, and out of my sinning you justly imposed punishment on me. You have ordered it, and so it is, that every disordered mind should be its own punishment.

Meister Eckhart, Counsels on Discernment

People say... "Things will never go right for me till I am in this place or that, or till I act one way or another. I must go and live in a strange land, or in a hermitage, or in a closter."  In fact, this is all about yourself, and nothing else at all... such ways of life or such matters are not what impedes you. It is what you are in these things that causes the trouble, because in them you do not govern yourself as you should.

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate

Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is "mine" to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is "his", what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. I cannot "give" what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice... On the one hand, charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples. It strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice. On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving.

Readings for Twenty-Fourth Sunday of the Year (Year A) 

• The 24th Sunday of the Year

Additional Preaching Resources

• Fr. Francis Martin Website
• Biblius Clerus, a resource of the Congregation for the Clergy 
• The Catena Aurea of St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P., for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John