Living and Preaching the Gospel

(134 quotes)

The minute you walk outside of your church on Sunday you’re in mission territory.
Father Robert Barron

The world was won for Christ not by arguments but by sanctity: “What you are speaks so loud, I can hardly hear what you say.”
Peter Kreeft

You love Jesus only as much as the person you love the least.

Your faith will grow only in the measure that you give it away.
Father Robert Barron

Be a moon: Reflect the Son.
Paul Colman Trio

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to a garage makes you a car.
Bridget Willard

Bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ.

Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.

Preach the Gospel at all times, and for the love of God, use words!
Emily Stimpson

We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak with our lips.
Saint Peter Claver

It is no use walking somewhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.
Saint Francis of Assisi

I like their Christ, but I don’t like their Christians.
Mahatma Gandhi

I will believe in the Redeemer when the Christians look a little more redeemed.
Friedrich Nietzsche

You might be the only Bible someone ever reads.

Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.
Pope Paul VI

The only way to win audiences is to tell people about the life and death of Christ. Every other approach is a waste.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Stay where you are – find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, the lonely, right there where you are – in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and schools.
Blessed Mother Teresa

Voltaire took Thomas Aquinas to task for having dared to say that he wished all the world were Christian, accusing him of being intolerant. But for Aquinas, that was the same as saying he wished all men to be happy.
Father Thomas Williams

What I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do.
Donald Miller

People will remember the faith you had, not the words you preached.
Cardinal Francis George

You are a billboard for Christ.
Father Mike Schmitz

Tell others about the truth that sets you free.
Pope Benedict XVI

Jesus is my quarterback.
Charlie Quinlan

To see a priest making his meditation before Mass does more for an altar boy’s vocation than a thousand pieces of inspirational literature.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

The Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot.
Saint Augustine

I am a Christian, and I shall die for God, and for Him I will give many thousands of lives if I had them. And so, do with me as you please.
Saint Lorenzo Ruiz

The only good case against Christianity is Christians.

We must all try to be preachers through our deeds.
Saint Teresa of Ávila

We must beat the Gospel into peoples’ heads incessantly because it’s the one thing we’re prone to forget.
Martin Luther

Joy is the net of love by which you can catch souls.
Blessed Mother Teresa

Incarnation trumps information.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Facts tell, but stories sell.

If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Live in such a way that those who know you but don’t know God will come to know God because they know you.

To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Love is the most necessary of all virtues. Love in the person who preaches the word of God is like fire in a musket. If a person were to throw a bullet with his hands, he would hardly make a dent in anything; but if the person takes the same bullet and ignites some gunpowder behind it, it can kill. It is much the same with the word of God. If it is spoken by someone who is filled with the fire of charity – the fire of love of God and neighbor – it will work wonders.
Saint Anthony Mary Claret

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
Coach John Wooden

Love is the greatest form of evangelization because it makes an invisible God visible.
Jason Evert

Cook the truth in charity until it tastes sweet.
Saint Francis de Sales

Teach by works more than words.
Saint Teresa of Ávila

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been difficult; and left untried.
G.K. Chesterton

A story can sing the truth and not just tell it.
Father Robert Barron

Give me ten truly detached men, and I will convert the world with them.
Saint Philip Neri

If you don’t live what you believe, you will end by believing what you live.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

There’s some good left in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.
Samwise Gamgee, from The Lord of the Rings

The will of God will never take you to where the grace of God will not protect you.

Put your creed in your deed.

If I’m not willing to change my schedule so that I can spend time with Jesus than I’m not really a disciple of His.
Father Mike Schmitz

We need to mock false gods publicly.
Father Robert Barron

Don’t be afraid of the radicalness of His demands… If He asks much of you it is because He knows you can give much.
Saint John Paul the Great

Show others that you are converted and others will be converted.
Father Nathaniel Meyers

You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

If you follow Jesus, you’re going to get into some trouble.
Father Mike Schmitz

Your faith is personal, but it is not private.
From the introductory pages of the Catholic Youth Bible

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

If anyone comes to me, I want to lead them to Him.
Edith Stein, also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

For 86 years I have served Jesus Christ and he has never abandoned me. How could I curse my blessed king and savior?
Saint Polycarp

Most Catholics aren’t reading the Bible, the Catechism, or papal documents. They’re reading one another.
Sherry Weddell

There’s someone at your school right now who is begging for someone to acknowledge them. YOU were created to acknowledge them.
Michael Hoffman

To lead an orchestra you must turn your back on the crowd.

Discipleship is spelled T-I-M-E.
Bob Lesnefsky a.k.a. Righteous B

Practice what you preach.

Preach what you practice.

Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians.
Saint Francis de Xavier

A disciple of Jesus is a decision maker.
Father Mike Schmitz

Bring the excitement of Jesus’ friendship to the world, wherever you find yourselves: at work, at school, on WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter. When you go out dancing, or for a drink, when you meet in the town square or play a little match on the neighborhood field. That is where Jesus’ friends can be found. Not by conning others, but by standing beside them and being patient with them. With the patience which comes from knowing that we are happy, because we have a Father who is in heaven.
Pope Francis

If not you, then who? If not now, then when?
Father Mike Schmitz

The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.

Jesus promises two things for those who follow Him: 1. Trouble 2. Victory
Father John Parks

You will learn more about Catholicism when you live out Catholicism.

Go forth and set the world on fire.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola

They who want to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come into conflict with it.
Blessed Titus Brandsma

Saints make saints.

Your behavior shows how much you love your Savior.
Gracie Nelsen

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.
James Crook

It is not that I want merely to be called a Christian, but to actually be one. Yes, if I prove to be one, then I can have the name.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch

When it comes to following Jesus it’s usually not more information that we need, but more guts.
Father Mike Schmitz

We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel!
Pope Francis

We cannot be Christians part-time. If Christ is at the center of our lives, He is present in all that we do.
Pope Francis

An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral.
Pope Francis

Practicing charity is the best way to evangelize.
Pope Francis

If we wish to follow Christ closely, we cannot choose an easy, quiet life. It will be a demanding life, but full of joy.
Pope Francis

A person who is not convinced, enthusiastic, certain and in love, will convince nobody.
Pope Francis

Do not follow any road, but that which Christ trod. This road seems hard, but it is safe.
Saint Augustine

Try to fulfill each day’s task steadily and cheerfully. The life of a true Christian should be a perpetual jubilee, a prelude to the festivals of eternity.
Saint Théophane Vénard

Christians have no business moping around.
Father Robert Barron

The holidays often bring challenging conversations and situations. 
Sometimes holiness demands that we speak, other times it invites us to be silent. In all circumstances, though, we are called to love.
Mark Hart

If you do not live out your faith enthusiastically, maybe you don’t have any faith.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

I’ve never desired to be king, but I sure as hell have always wanted to defend one.
Jared Zimmerer

“Thy Kingdom come” means “My Kingdom go.”
Mark Hart

You can’t do God’s will and satisfy everyone.
Mark Hart

Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did.  As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him.
C.S. Lewis

Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.
Malcolm Muggeridge

We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.
Saint Francis of Assisi

Mature Christians do not have a split personality; they do not lead a double life. We should not hang our faith at the door like a hat when we walk into the office. My wife would be understandably hurt if I took off my wedding ring when entering a bar. Just so with our faith: it is a full-time, integral part of our identity, informing everything we do.
Aaron Kheriaty

I wish not merely to be called Christian, but also to be Christian.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch

We celebrate our intelligence, possessions, looks, talent, and achievements. Heaven celebrates how we used all of it.
Lecrae

Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head.
Saint Charles Borromeo

Live like someone died for you.
Lecrae

All that we do without offering it to God is wasted.
Saint John Vianney

We are all evangelists, but we almost always evangelize about the wrong things.
Matthew Kelly

Speaking the truth with love will not always change minds and hearts. Sometimes all you can do is plant a pebble in someone else’s shoe.

God will put someone in your path today who doesn’t necessarily need you… but who desperately needs Christ in you.
Mark Hart

If you want to live as a Christian, get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Mark Hart

Oh, how thunderous the applause must be in Heaven, all those times we are mocked on earth for the sake of His name.
Mark Hart

Authentic Christianity is a roller-coaster ride, not a merry-go-round.
Mark Hart

Your faith is measured by how well you love those who can’t stand you.
Mark Hart

God never ceases to help His soldiers, although He sometimes suffers them to be wounded. Only fight, for all depends on this.
Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

Preaching Christ’s truth always bears fruit. Of course, some people will probably end up wanting to throw that fruit at you…
Mark Hart

Don’t make Christ ride shotgun.
Mark Hart

Enthusiasm is contagious – so is a lack of it. Joyless Christians are a greater assault on the gospel than atheism.
Mark Hart

There are 2 main things I’ve learned about following the Holy Spirit: It will never be easy. It will never be boring.
Mark Hart

Simply believing in the existence of God is not exactly what I would call a commitment. After all, even the devil believes that God exists. Believing has to change the way we live.
Mother Angelica

A fish that is alive swims against the flow of water. One that is dead floats down with the water. A true Christian goes against the current of a sinful age. A false one is swept away by its swiftnees.
Saint Philaret of Moscow

The bully needs as much love as the victim.

Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.
Saint Francis of Assisi

So you’re a Christian? If your Twitter feed was pulled up in Church so everyone could see all your tweets, would you get uncomfortable?
Jeremy Vlasin

Evangelization is leading people to Jesus, not ourselves.
Paul George

Friday and Saturday nights have a funny way of revealing what we really believe on Sunday mornings.
Mark Hart

Being holy isn’t always easy. Remember, you follow someone who died for doing what you’re doing.
Mary Zavoral

Here lies the test of truth, the touchstone of evangelization: it is unthinkable that a person should accept the Word and give himself to the kingdom without becoming a person who bears witness to it and proclaims it in his turn.
Pope Paul VI

A good teacher is always a student of Jesus.
Father Gerald Dvorak

When Paul preached, there were riots; when I preach, they serve me tea.
An Anglican bishop (as told by NT Wright)

It is better to keep silence and be a Christian than to talk and not to be. Teaching is an excellent thing, provided the speaker practices what he teaches.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch

A good example is the best sermon.

We are not responsible for making each other happy; only to love each other.
Father John Paul Leyba

If you find it easy to be a Christian, you probably aren’t one.
Matt Walsh

Discipleship and evangelization all happen at the speed of relationship.
Deacon Steve Mitchell

I preached myself, the scholars came and praised me. I preached Christ, the sinners came and thanked me.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Our solid conviction is that Jesus is who He said He is and He can do what He says He can do. Not only that, but if Jesus is who He says He is, then you are who He says you are. And if He is who He says He is, then you can do what He says you can do.
Father Mike Schmitz

It is better to talk to God than about Him.
Saint Thérèse of Lisiuex

There is a difference between renouncing all things and leaving all things. For it is the way of few perfect men to leave all things, that is, to cast behind them the cares of the world, but it is the part of all the faithful to renounce all things, that is, so to hold the things of the world instead of by them being held in the world.
Saint Bede

In middle school, people thought I would play baseball for the rest of my life. In high school, people thought I would be in detention for the rest of my life. In undergrad, no one had any clue what I would do for the rest of my life. Then I fell in love with Jesus and now I will try and make Him famous for the rest of my life.
Stephen Estes

Withholding the truth of Christianity would be even more uncharitable than withholding a cure for cancer.