Quotes from Joseph F. Girzone

If you want to have peace of soul, learn to forgive. Jesus' secret was His ability to see into people's hearts. Seeing their anguish and pain helped Him to understand their nastiness. So He could pity them rather than become angry with them. That is what we have to do: try to understand the pain in people's lives...and not take personally what they do to us.

I learned that I was never alone, that there was Someone always very close by and, indeed, within me, giving me strength in times of weakness and desolation, light in times of darkness, joy in times of great sorrow and pain, and the will to struggle on when continuing seemed futile.

I think most decent people would be horrified at what happens today, even in our enlightened country. There are still mean, self-righteous Pharisees, who have a sick need to punish others whose troubled lives they can never begin to understand, much less feel compassion for.

He was one of those souls destined by God to understand just how little and insignificant they are, even though divine love makes them important to God. But they never have the joy of knowing that they are important. Society will always prevent that. They are just unwanted nuisances pricking the consciences of people who wish they would just disappear.

For the first time he began to understand why Jesus had such compassion for the poor. Jesus could identify with them because they were treated with the same contempt as the religious officials and the law-obsessed hypocrites treated him.

God has graced you with many gifts, and you are very dear to Him, because you allow Him to use you as a partner in the work He has planned for your life.

Carlo felt sad losing the companionship of his new friends and thought about how fortunate Americans were to have immigrants in ever-increasing numbers blessing their country with their presence. He realized that as hard-working and industrious as they are, they would in time raise the spiritual level throughout the whole country by sharing their deep faith, their gentle, unselfish spirit, and their beautiful family life.

You probably know more about life, real life, than most people. You never really know what life is all about until you have suffered and been humbled and beaten down by life. Then it all of a sudden becomes very real. Jesus did not understand what life was going to be like for him, and he was God, until he went off on his own. He also was one of us, a homeless beggar with nowhere to lay his head.

The world needs to understand Jesus' teaching on forgiveness, and when it does, the world will find its way to peace.

After the soldiers finished with Jesus, they took off the purple cloak and put on him his own clothes, then led him out into the street to begin the march to his crucifixion. Jesus was considerably weakened by the brutal lashing, which left him bleeding profusely