Holiness is not first a matter of doing anything. It is first and foremost a matter of letting it be done. Holiness is to conceive the love of God within and to bring it forth to the world.

In a world that has lost a sense of sin, one sin remains: Thou shalt not make people feel guilty (except, of course, about making people feel guilty). In other words, the only sin today is to call something a sin.

The free exchange of consent properly witnessed by the Church establishes the marriage bond. Sexual union consummates it - seals it, completes it, perfects it. Sexual union, then, is where the words of the wedding vows become flesh.

Marriage is the most basic expression of the vocation to love that all men and women have as persons made in God's image.

Marriage is a living sign that truly communicates the love of Christ and the Church.

In Christ, man who made himself God encounters God who made himself man. Unrivaled self-importance and pride encounters unrivaled self-emptying and humility.

Marital love is a reflection of how God loves. It is free, total, faithful and fruitful.

God's plan remains God's plan despite our sin.

In the sacraments, spirit and matter kiss. Heaven and earth embrace in a union that will never end.

The Church's basic moral principle regarding reproductive technologies is this: if a given technology assists the marital embrace in achieving its natural end, it can be morally acceptable, even praiseworthy. However, if it replaces the marital embrace as the means by which the child is conceived, it's not in keeping with God's design.

If we want to know what's most sacred in this world, all we need to do is look for what is most violently profaned.

For those with the purity to see it, a nursing mother is one of the most precious, most beautiful, and most holy of all possible images of woman.