Scott Hahn Quotes & Sayings

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse — Scott Hahn

The laws of God, like the law of gravity, do not depend upon how I feel about them. — Scott Hahn

A covenant differs from a contract almost as much as marriage differs from prostitution. — Scott Hahn

At the root of all misery is unfulfilled desire. — Scott Hahn

We ... sin not because we want what is evil, but because we want what isn't good enough. — Scott Hahn

When God saw that Abraham had not withheld his only son, he swore to bless all nations through Abraham's seed (see Gn 22:15-22). Since the blessing of a father is reserved for his family, this oath is nothing less than God's pledge to restore the human race as his own worldwide family. That is why the establishment of the Catholic Church must be attributed to God's faithfulness and power. It represents nothing less than the historic fulfillment of God's sworn covenant to Abraham. — Scott Hahn

The fact is, there can be no true evangelization without the Eucharist. It's not simply that the Eucharist is the context in which evangelization unfolds or even the goal of evangelization. It's the content of evangelization. It's what we — Scott Hahn

If God welcomed newborns into Israel by means of ritual circumcision for two thousand years, why would He suddenly close the kingdom to babies because they could not understand ritual baptism? — Scott Hahn

The first Christians were eucharistic by nature: they gathered for "the breaking of the bread and the prayers." They were formed by the Word of God, the "apostles' teaching." When they met as a Church, their worship culminated in "fellowship" - the Greek word is koinonia, communion. The Mass was the center of life for the disciples of Jesus, and so it has ever been. Even today, the Mass is where we experience the apostolic teaching and communion, the breaking of the bread and the prayers. — Scott Hahn

10 Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" 11And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. — Scott Hahn

You wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the — Scott Hahn

As Catholics, we are free to cultivate a rich life of piety, drawing from the treasures of many lands and many ages. — Scott Hahn

If we do not fill our mind with prayer, it will fill itself with anxieties, worries, temptations, resentments, and unwelcome memories. — Scott Hahn

Judgment, then, is not an impersonal, legalistic process. It is a matter of love, and it is something we choose for ourselves. Nor is punishment a vindictive act. God's "curses" are not expressions of hatred, but of fatherly love and discipline. Like medicinal ointment, they hurt in order to heal. They impose suffering that is remedial, restorative, and redemptive. God's wrath is an expression of His love for His wayward children. — Scott Hahn

The problem of corrupt clergy haunts God's family in every age. Priests who misuse and abuse their authority inflict untold damage upon the people of God. — Scott Hahn

The family is the key of Christmas. — Scott Hahn

Only when we cease to rely on our own strength can we discover that God's strength is always there for us. — Scott Hahn

I was steeped in the understanding that if 'something is Roman [Catholic], it must be wrong. — Scott Hahn

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. 2For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people. 6For among them — Scott Hahn

Love is something worth suffering for... — Scott Hahn

Mary is God's masterpiece. Have you ever walked into a museum where an artist was displaying his work? Can you imagine him being offended if you were viewing what he considered to be his masterpiece? Would he resent your looking at that instead of at him? 'Hey, you should be looking at me!' Rather, the artist would receive honor because of the attention you were giving his work. And Mary is God's work, from beginning to end. — Scott Hahn

The Mass-and I mean every single Mass-is heaven on earth. Literally. — Scott Hahn

It would be more accurate to say that human fatherhood is metaphorical, a temporal sign of an eternal reality. God's fatherhood is true fatherhood in the truest sense. — Scott Hahn

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. 29They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. — Scott Hahn

The effect of our sharing in the body and blood of Christ is to change us into what we receive. ~ — Scott Hahn

As we grow detached from things, we come (with God's help) to master our desires, and we give the mastery over to God. Discipline and divine grace heal the intellect and the will of the effects of concupiscence. We can begin to see things clearly. — Scott Hahn

The family is the key to Christmas. The family is the key to Christianity. Pope Saint John Paul II noted that everything good - history, humanity, salvation - "passes by way of the family."1 When God came to save us, he made salvation inseparable from family life, manifest in family life. Since the family is the ordinary setting of human life, he came to share it, redeem it, and perfect it. He made it an image and sacrament of a divine mystery. Salvation itself finds meaning only in familial relations. — Scott Hahn

Down through the centuries, the Church has carefully preserved, protected, and defended its Marian teachings, because to give them up would be to give up the gospel. — Scott Hahn

If you complain to someone, you assume that it's someone who really cares about you. — Scott Hahn

Shouting from the rooftops tells us that many people sitting in church on Sunday don't know why they're there or what's taking place. They've received the sacraments, but they've never encountered Jesus Christ in a meaningful and personal way. — Scott Hahn

IF THE LORD IS OUR JOY, OUR JOY CANNOT BE TAKEN AWAY. IT CANNOT BE LOST ... JOY HAD COME TO THE WORLD, AND IT HAD COME TO STAY. — Scott Hahn

Salvation history reveals sin as literally a broken home. — Scott Hahn

He gave our pain and struggles a holy significance, a redemptive power, which makes it a privilege for us to suffer with Christ. — Scott Hahn

If human beings had really tried to invent a god, we would never have invented the God of Christianity. He's just too terrifying. Our God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-holy, and omnipresent. There's no place to run and hide from Him, no place where we might secretly indulge a favorite vice. We can't even retreat into the dark corners of our minds to fantasize about that vice without God knowing it right away. — Scott Hahn

[God] disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. — Scott Hahn

Thus, for Aquinas, the New Law goes beyond the Sermon on the Mount and the other teachings of Jesus. It is nothing less than divine grace - divine life and power. Grace is the New Law that enables us to keep the commandments in a way that we as children of Adam couldn't on our own. — Scott Hahn

9And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. — Scott Hahn

When it comes to explaining the Blessed Virgin Mary, having a lot of love is more important than having a lot of answers. When we come up lacking, she'll make greater goods out of our deficiencies, as only a mother can do. Whenever we're humiliated and shown our weakness, we should get ready for something better than we could ever plan and prepare to accomplish. Evangelize with joy, then, and with confidence. Know from the start that you don't have all the answers-but your Savior does, and He loves His mother. He will give you everything you need, even if sometimes you need to fail. — Scott Hahn

[In Baptism] [W]e didn't really die. We weren't really buried. We weren't really crucified and raised again. We imitated these symbolically - yet our salvation was a reality! — Scott Hahn

Properly understood, the marital sacrament is an encumbrance that paradoxically yields freedom. The wife is free to grow old and wrinkled without fear of divorce, while the husband is likewise free to become bald and potbellied without fear of his wife's abandonment. Covenants — Scott Hahn

Loving difficult people will refine us. Perhaps only in heaven will our love be so perfected that we can actually like these people, too. St. Augustine spoke of a man who, on earth, had chronic gas problems; in heaven, his flatulence became perfect music. — Scott Hahn

To go to Mass is to go to Heaven. — Scott Hahn

Our Father GOD is the measure by which we know the shortcomings of earthly dads and earthly clergy; for their vocation is to be His image on earth. GOD allows them to fail so that we might seek perfect fatherhood in Him. — Scott Hahn

God sometimes gives us what we want so we'll learn to trust Him to give us what we need. — Scott Hahn

Thus, I repeat, anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism are spiritually destructive and stupid. In the words of Pope Pius XI: "Spiritually, we are Semites." You cannot be a good Catholic until you've fallen in love with the religion and people of Israel. WALK — Scott Hahn

Proclaim when we evangelize, and it's what makes our efforts at evangelization fruitful. — Scott Hahn

The primary witnesses to Christmas are the accounts of Matthew and Luke. They were written as history, though for two different audiences, each with its own culture and conventions for preserving history. Matthew, the early records tell us, wrote originally in Hebrew for a Jewish-Christian audience. Luke wrote for Greek-speaking Gentiles and Jews. — Scott Hahn

What the first Christians knew as the "New Testament" was not a book, but the Eucharist. In a cultic setting, at a solemn sacrificial banquet, Jesus made an offering of his "body" and "blood." He used traditional sacrificial language. He spoke of the action as his memorial. He told those who attended to repeat the action they had witnessed: "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). — Scott Hahn

Faith and reason are indeed complementary faculties that we use to think about the truth. When any winged creature (or mechanism) tries to fly on just one wing, it falls to the ground. In a similar way, when we human beings try to wing it with just one faculty, we crash. — Scott Hahn

People who give a shit are sexy. — Scott Hahn

A joyless Catholic is the devil's best tool. A joyful Catholic is God's greatest instrument. — Scott Hahn

To deny the force of divine judgment, then, is to make God less than God, and to make us less than His children. For every father must discipline His children, and paternal discipline is itself a mercy, a fatherly expression of love. — Scott Hahn

15And he said to them, Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. — Scott Hahn

March 4 CHARITY is being rescued by the LORD I love you just as the Father loves me. ~ John 15:9 Someone asked an old chief "Why're you always talking about Jesus?" The chief didn't say anything. Instead, he collected some dry grass and twigs and put them into a circle. Next he caught a caterpillar, feeding on a nearby clump of weeds. He placed it inside the circle. Then, he took a match and set fire to the dry grass and the twigs. As the fire blazed up, the caterpillar began to search for an escape. At this point the old chief extended his finger to the caterpillar. Instantly, it climbed on to it. He said, "That's what Jesus did for me. I was like the caterpillar, without hope. Then Jesus rescued me. How can I not talk about my Savior's love and mercy?" ~ Mark Link, S.J. How grateful are you for what Jesus did for us? How do you show it concretely? It wasn't the nails that held Jesus on the cross but his love for us. ~ Author unknown — Scott Hahn

St. Thomas Aquinas taught that water has been a natural sacrament since the dawn of creation. In the age of nature - from Adam through the patriarchs - water refreshed and cleansed humankind. — Scott Hahn

Prayer doesn't change GOD. He is unchanging and unchangeable. But it does change us, making us more like Him, and thus more able to accept His will, whatever it may be. Prayer makes us radiate goodness. — Scott Hahn

Saint Augustine said that the New Testament is concealed in the Old, and the Old is revealed in the New. — Scott Hahn

Diotrephes and Demetrius 9 I have written something to the Church; but Diot'rephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge my authority. 10So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, accusing me falsely with evil words. And not content with that, he refuses himself to welcome the brethren, and also stops those who want to welcome them and puts them out of the Church. 11 Beloved, do not — Scott Hahn

New Evangelization is the work of the whole Church - lay, ordained, and consecrated. It's about friends, family, and co-workers reaching out to one another and proclaiming the truth of Christ using all available means - conversation, personal witness, media, and the vast array of intellectual and spiritual riches the Church has built up in her two-thousand-year history. It's about simple acts of kindness, simple challenges issued in love, and simple questions asked with sincerity. More fundamentally, the New Evangelization is more for the baptized than the unbaptized. It's for those who've been inadequately catechized but all too adequately secularized, and it's for those who've been de-Christianized in the very process of being sacramentalized. — Scott Hahn

Marriage and family life give us constant opportunities to deny ourselves for the sake of others. And yet self-denial is not a mask for self-contempt, but the necessary means for achieving self-mastery; for self-mastery makes possible our self-giving and self-fulfillment. Sin is not wanting too much, but settling for too little. It's settling for self-gratification rather than self-fulfillment. — Scott Hahn

Do not be downhearted because of scandals in the Church. Jesus Himself warned that scandals would come, and that the wicked would be judged and punished. We should rest in His promise. We should rest in His one true Church, even if within the Church we find much unrest. — Scott Hahn

Mary is the only possible witness to Jesus's conception and birth. And Luke is a credible witness to Mary's pondering. — Scott Hahn

If the end of human law is the promotion of the common good among men, the divine law has for its purpose nothing less than our friendship with God. — Scott Hahn

We are created for the sake of love. When we experience love in family life, it is heavenly, but it is still only an image of the greater glory we hope to behold in heaven. — Scott Hahn

The Church is the Body of Christ, and as such it is both heavenly and earthly. The Church is the communion of saints, and it includes as members both angels and shepherds - cherubim and seraphim, and you, and me. — Scott Hahn

History of salvation is not a small event, on a poor planet, in the immensity of the universe. It is not a minimal thing which happens by chance on a lost planet. It is the motive for everything, the motive for creation. Everything is created so that this story can exist, the encounter between God and his creature. - Pope Benedict XVI, address at the opening of the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, October 6, 2008 — Scott Hahn

What's wrong with the world?
It's easy to probe the ills of the nation, the Church, and the planet and come up with a grave diagnosis ... But it takes all the strength we can muster to stand at Mass and honestly say, 'I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do ...
Sin is not out there; it's deep inside you and me ... What's wrong with the world? I am, because I sin, and my sins well up from the darkness in my own heart. — Scott Hahn