O Emmanuel, our king and lawgiver, longing of the nations and Savior thereof: Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Midnight Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, 2010

Introit for the First Mass of Christmas

Ps. ii. 7. The Lord hath said to me: Thou art My Son, this day I have begotten Thee. Ps. ii. 1. Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things?

Introit for the Second Mass at Dawn

"A light shall shine upon us this day: for the Lord is born to us: and He shall be called Wonderful, God, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the world to come: of whose reign there shall be no end."

Introit for the Third Christmas Mass During the Day

"A child is born to us, and a Son is given to us: whose government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called, the Angel of great counsel. Ps: Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because he hath done wonderful things"

"The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly." -St. John of the Cross

Preparation of the Ashes for Ash Wednesday (Chicago, 1953)

"All the delights and satisfactions of the will in the things of the world compared to all the delight that is God are intense suffering, torment, and bitterness. Those who link their hearts to these delights, then, deserve in God's eyes intense suffering, torment, and bitterness." -St. John of the Cross

"As the tilling of soil is necessary for its fruitfulness, mortification of the appetites is necessary for one's spiritual fruitfulness. I venture to say that, without this mortification, all that is done for the sake of advancement in perfection and in knowledge of God and of oneself is no more profitable than seed sown on uncultivated ground. Accordingly, darkness and coarseness will always be with a soul until its appetites are extinguished." -St. John of the Cross

"Although it is true that the disordered soul possesses in its natural being the perfection that God bestowed when creating it, nevertheless in its rational being it is ugly, abominable, dirty, dark, and full of all the evils here described, and many more besides. One inordinate appetite alone suffices to make a soul so captive, dirty, and unsightly, that until the appetite is purified the soul is incapable of conformity with God in union." -St. John of the Cross

"For though there are no seasons which are not full of Divine blessings, and though access is ever open to us to God's mercy through His grace, yet now all men's minds should be moved with greater zeal to spiritual progress, and animated by larger confidence, when the return of the day, on which we were redeemed, invites us to all the duties of godliness: that we may keep the super-excellent mystery of the Lord's passion with bodies and hearts purified. These great mysteries do indeed require from us such unflagging devotion and unwearied reverence that we should remain in God's sight always the same, as we ought to be found on the Easter feast itself. But because few have this constancy, and, because so long as the stricter observance is relaxed in consideration of the frailty of the flesh, and so long as one's interests extend over all the various actions of this life, even pious hearts must get some soils from the dust of the world, the Divine Providence has with great beneficence taken care that the discipline of the forty days should heal us and restore the purity of our minds, during which the faults of other times might be redeemed by pious acts and removed by chaste fasting." -Pope St. Leo I

"In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God." -St. John of the Cross

Fasting during Lent can change your life