It’s still Easter. We Catholics like to party—for a while! After rising from the dead, but before the Ascension, Jesus was so kind and affectionate to want nothing more than to visit the holy women, Mary Magdalen, the disciples of Emmaus, the Apostles, and his Blessed Mother. And don’t forget his affection when Jesus went to Limbo to once again and was able to visit once again his earthly father Joseph, as well as his grandparents St. Anne and St. Joachim and all the holy men and women from the Old Testament.
During these forty days between Jesus’s Resurrection and Ascension, he preached about hierarchy, doctrine, and Sacraments. In addition, he preached about his kingdom, which is in heaven and also which we pray in the “Our Father” that his “kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” Here are seven saint quotes on heaven that are also practical for our earthly journey.
St. Therese of Lisieux
“To bear my exile now, within this world of tears,
the holy tender glance of Christ, my Lord, I need.
That glance, surcharged with love, consoles me through the years;
His loveliness displays foretaste of heaven indeed.”
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
“Love Mary!…if you are troubled, she will console you. If you are sick, she will bring you relief. If you are in need, she will help you. She does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants you to love her. She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you, embraces you and consoles and serves you. She will even be at hand to accompany you on the trip to eternity.”
St. Augustine
“Let us sing alleluia here on earth, while we still live in anxiety, so that we may sing it one day in heaven in full security.”
St. Therese of Lisieux
“I feel that I am about to enter into my rest. But I feel especially that my mission is about to begin, my mission to make God loved as I love him, to give my little way to souls. If God grants my desires, my heaven will be spent on earth until the end of time. Yes, I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth. This isn’t impossible, since from the bosom of the Beatific Vision, the angels watch over us. I can’t make heaven a feast of rejoicing. I can’t rest as long as there are souls to be saved. But when the angel says; ‘Time is no more!’ then I will take my rest. I will be able to rejoice, because the number of the elect will be complete, and because all will have entered into joy and repose. My heart beats with joy at this thought.
St. Josemaria Escriva
“In the moment of temptation think of the Love that awaits you in heaven: foster the virtue of hope.”
St. Therese of Lisieux
“I believe the Blessed in heaven have great compassion for our miseries. They remember that when they were weak and mortal like us, they committed the same faults themselves and went through the same struggles, and their fraternal tenderness becomes still greater than it ever was on earth. It’s on account of this that they never stop watching over us and praying for us.”
St. Francis of Assisi
“Let us have charity and humility, and give alms, for almsgiving cleanses our souls from the filth of sin. At death we lose all that we have in this world, but we take with us charity and the alms deeds we have done, and for these we shall receive a great reward from God.”
