“Do not believe only what the eyes of your body tell you. What is not seen is here more truly seen, for what is seen belongs to time, but what is not seen belongs to eternity.” St. Ambrose of Milan (4th century, Doctor of the Church)

“From now on, regard this life as a desert through which you pass until you come to the Promised Land, the Jerusalem which is above, the land of the living.” St. Augustine (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“By dying He submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again He destroyed them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity.” Pope St. Leo the Great (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“We must therefore bear this little trial willingly. Little, we may call it, like all our sorrows, because of the brevity of time; since no trial can last longer than our time in this life. How much time have we? It is like the point of a needle.” St. Catherine of Siena (14th-15th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“It is because of faith that we exchange the present for the future.” St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen (16th-17th centuries)

“Time is like loose change. It is given to us here below to buy the real things of eternity.” St. Julie Billiart (18th-19th centuries)

“We must reflect that we have a soul to save, and an eternity that awaits us…The saints did not all begin well, but they all ended well. We have begun badly; let us end well, and we shall go one day and meet them in heaven.” St. John Vianney (18th-19th centuries)

“We have only short moments of this life to work for God’s glory. The devil knows this and that is why he tries to make us waste time in useless things. Oh, let us not waste our time! Let us save souls! Souls are falling into hell innumerable as the flakes of snow on a winter day. Jesus weeps! Instead of consoling Him, we are brooding over our own sorrows. There is only one thing to do during the brief day, or rather night of this life: Love Jesus with all the strength of your heart and save souls for Him, so that He may be loved!” St. Therese of Lisieux (19th century, Doctor of the Church)

“It is never true to say that we have no time to meditate; the less one thinks of God, the less time there will always be for God. The time we have for anything depends on how much we value it. Thinking determines the uses of time; time does not rule over thinking. The problem of spirituality is never, then, a question of time; it is a problem of thought. For it does not require much time to make us saints; it requires only much love.” Ven Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries)

“If we postpone the thought of heaven until the moment we die, we will be very much like the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert. They were at one time within about eleven days of the promised land. It took only three weeks for them to make the journey from Egypt to the promised land, but because of their disobedience, their failures, their backsliding, and their rebellion against Moses, it took them forty years to get into the promised land. That forty years represents a pilgrimage in the lives of most of us. We make progress, and then we slip back. Thank heavens we have a merciful Lord Who puts up with us and forgives us seventy times seven. Therefore, time is necessary in order to gain heaven, but the lapse of time itself does not bring me to heaven. What brings me to heaven is how I live, how I die.” Ven Sheen Fulton