Saints quotes for Lent
- Aimee Boudreaux MacIver
- Mar 13
- 4 min read
The saints are lanterns that illuminate the narrow way. In all vocations, personal circumstances, and stages of spiritual growth, the saints also experienced the same liturgical year as we do now. They entered the same forty days of Lent, invited as we are to repent and refocus, recommit and restore, receive and renew. As you read their words here, notice which stand out to you. Consider choosing that quote to be your Lenten theme for prayer and contemplation.
Be ashamed when you sin, don't be ashamed when you repent. Sin is the wound, repentance is the medicine. Sin is followed by shame; repentance is followed by boldness. Satan has overturned this order and given boldness to sin and shame to repentance.
+St John Chrysostom
As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus' thirst... He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you.
+St Teresa of Calcutta
Go to your confessor; open your heart to him; display to him all the recesses of your soul; take the advice that he will give you with the utmost humility and simplicity. For God, Who has an infinite love for obedience, frequently renders profitable the counsels we take from others, but especially from those who are the guides of our souls.
+St Francis de Sales
When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul.
+Jesus to St Faustina Kowalska
Confession is an act of honesty and courage—an act of entrusting ourselves, beyond sin, to the mercy of a loving and forgiving God.
+St John Paul II
This is the definition of sin: the misuse of powers given us by God for doing good, a use contrary to God’s commandments.
+St Basil the Great
In times of aridity when I am incapable of praying, of practicing virtue, I seek little opportunities, mere trifles, to give pleasure to Jesus; for instance a smile, a pleasant word when inclined to be silent and to show weariness. If I find no opportunities, I at least tell Him again and again that I love Him; that is not difficult and it keeps alive the fire in my heart. Even though this fire of love might seem extinct I would still throw little straws upon the embers and I am certain it would rekindle.
+St Thérèse of Lisieux
Since it is likely that, being men, they would sin every day, St Paul consoles his hearers by saying 'renew yourselves' from day to day. This is what we do with houses: we keep constantly repairing them as they wear old. You should do the same thing to yourself. Have you sinned today? Have you made your soul old? Do not despair, do not despond, but renew your soul by repentance, and tears, and Confession, and by doing good things. And never cease doing this.
+St John Chrysostom
Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may go to heaven.
+St Rosa de Lima
Do you want to become saints? Here is the secret: confession is the lock; confidence in your confessor is the key. This is how you open heaven’s gates.
+St John Bosco
The good God knows everything, even before you confess it to him, he already knows that you will sin again and, nevertheless, he forgives you. How great is the love of our God that leads him even to voluntarily forget the future in order to forgive us!
+St Jean Vianney
I am certain that even if I had on my conscience every imaginable crime, I should lose nothing of my confidence.
+St Thérèse of Lisieux
Confession and contrition are so beautiful and fragrant that they erase the ugliness and dissipate the stench of sin.
+St Francis de Sales
From confession we should derive two benefits: (1) we confess in order to be healed; (2) in order to be educated; our souls need continual education, like a little child.
+St Faustina Kowalska
Temper all your works with moderation, that is to say, all your abstinence, your fasting, your vigils, and your prayers, for temperance sustains your body and soul with the proper measure, lest they fail. It reminds an honorable person that he is ashes and shall return to ashes.
+St. Hildegard of Bingen
Today, especially in affluent societies, St. Augustine’s warning is more timely than ever: ‘Enter again into yourself.’ Yes, we must enter again into ourselves, if we want to find ourselves. Not only our spiritual life is at stake, but indeed, our personal, family, and social equilibrium itself. One of the meanings of penitential fasting is to help us recover an interior life. Moderation, recollection, and prayer go hand in hand.
+St John Paul II
My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice; these are my invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words.
+St Thérèse of Lisieux
You do not need to wallow in guilt. Wallow in the mercy of God.
+St Jean Vianney
A saint is a sinner who keeps trying.
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