Of all the theological virtues, hope is the one spoken of the least. Faith and charity are readily celebrated; hope is often taken for granted, as if it were a kind of optimism available to each according to their temperament. The saints, however, never treated hope at arm’s length: they named it, sang of it, defended it, and above all lived it as the strength that keeps the soul standing when all seems lost. To gather their words is to discover that the virtue reputed to be the most lukewarm is in reality the most daring—the one that dares to expect everything from God.
This article is an anthology: it brings together the distinctive voices of the saints, doctors, and mystics on hope, letting their texts speak for themselves. For doctrine and practical guidance—the nature of hope, its two objects according to St. Thomas, its two enemies, and concrete ways to make it grow—see How to Grow in Hope. For common misunderstandings—hope confused with optimism, fatalism, or escapism—see Frequent Errors Concerning Hope. For the filial and affective side of this virtue, see How to Grow in Trust and How to Grow in Abandonment to God. And for the voice of the saints on the two sister virtues, see What the Saints Say About Faith and What the Saints Say About Charity.
A Virtue We Think Is Easy
"Hope Does Not Come Naturally"
The first service the saints render is to destroy the illusion of an easy hope. The poet Charles Péguy, in The Portal of the Mystery of the Second Virtue — who is himself neither saint, nor doctor, nor mystic — expressed with rare force that it is faith, not hope, that comes naturally:
"Faith comes naturally. Faith walks all by itself. To believe, you only have to let yourself go, you only have to look. [...] But hope does not come naturally. Hope does not walk all by itself. To hope, my child, you must be very happy, you must have obtained, received a great grace." — Charles Péguy, The Portal of the Mystery of the Second Virtue[1]
Péguy draws a sobering consequence: if hope is the most difficult of the three virtues, its opposite—discouragement—is the soul’s natural slope. "It is hoping that is difficult," he writes; "the easy thing, the slope, is to despair, and that is the great temptation."[2] All the teaching of the saints on hope is aimed precisely at climbing back up this slope.
What the Saints Call "Hope"
Before singing of hope, the doctors define it, so that it is not confused with vague optimism. St. Augustine sets the first marker: hope is concerned neither with the past, nor the present, nor with evil, but only with a good yet to come.
"Hope has for its object only good things, and only things to come, and which concern the one of whom it is said that he bears this hope." — St. Augustine, Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Charity[3]
St. Thomas Aquinas clarifies the structure of this object: hope is directed toward "a future good, arduous, possible to obtain"[4]. Four inseparable notes: a good (not an evil), future (not yet possessed), arduous (difficult, beyond the reach of our own strength), and yet possible—possible because Another helps us. For the distinctive mark of the theological virtue of hope, adds the Angelic Doctor, is not to rely on oneself but on God:
"Insofar as we hope to obtain something by divine help, our hope reaches to God Himself, on whose aid it relies." — St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 17, a. 2[5]
This is summed up by the Catechism when it defines hope: "Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the Kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit"[6]. To hope, in the sense of the saints, is therefore not to foresee that all will go well: it is to expect God Himself from a God who has promised.
“Hoping against all hope”: the boldness of the saints
Abraham, father of those who hope
The figure that Scripture gives to the saints as a model of hope is not a peaceful dreamer, but an old man without descendants to whom God promises an innumerable posterity. Saint Paul forges, concerning him, the formula that sums up all Christian boldness:
“Hoping against all hope, he believed; and so he became the father of many nations.” — Letter to the Romans 4:18[7]
To hope “against all hope”: not when the odds are good, but when they are nonexistent. The hope of the saints begins exactly where human hope ends. And Paul gives its foundation: this hope “does not disappoint,” because it does not rest on us.
“Affliction produces perseverance; perseverance, proven virtue; proven virtue, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” — Letter to the Romans 5:3-5[8]
That is why Paul can write that salvation itself is given to us in the mode of hope: “For we have been saved, but it is in hope [...] we await it with perseverance”[9]. Already saved, and yet still on the way: such is the condition of the pilgrim, which the saints have never ceased to meditate upon.
Saint John of the Cross: “One obtains as much as one hopes for”
No saint has pushed the boldness of hope further than the mystical Doctor of Carmel. In one of his poems, Saint John of the Cross states a spiritual law that the whole tradition will retain: hope receives in exact measure to what it dares to expect.
“For the hope of Heaven obtains as much as it hopes for.” — Saint John of the Cross, Tras un amoroso lance[10]
The formula is dizzying: God cannot be measured, and hope is the hand that draws. The wider it is, the more it receives; small, it receives only little—not because God gives sparingly, but because the soul offers Him only a thimble. The sin against hope, in this light, is not to expect too much from God: it is not to expect enough.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: the confidence that dares all
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus made this maxim of John of the Cross the heart of her “little way.” Her sisters report that she loved to repeat it, applying it to the boldness of trust:
“One receives from God exactly as much as one hopes for.” — Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, quoted in Counsels and Reminiscences[11]
Here lies her entire discovery: it is not the greatness of merits that touches God, but the greatness of trust. The more a soul knows itself to be small and poor, the greater it can hope—provided it expects everything from mercy, and nothing from itself. This is the meaning of her now-famous saying, written to her sister Marie a few months before her death:
“It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love.” — Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Letter 197[12]
This confidence is not naïveté: Thérèse held to it in trial, from her first years at Carmel. “I suffer!... but the hope of the Homeland gives me courage,” she wrote to her sister Agnès in 1889, “soon we shall be in Heaven”[13]. In her, hope is never a feeling: it is a renewed act against all evidence, “against all hope.”
Hope, anchor in the storm
“A sure and steadfast anchor”
The symbol that Scripture gives to hope is not a wing but an anchor—that which holds the ship steady in the storm, planted in a depth one cannot see.
“This hope we have as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul; it enters behind the veil, into the Sanctuary.” — Letter to the Hebrews 6:19[14]
The anchor of the soul is not fastened to this world, but to Heaven where Christ has already entered. This explains the strange calm of the saints in trial: they are held from above.
Saint Teresa of Avila: “Let nothing disturb you”
The great reformer of Carmel left, on a bookmark slipped into her breviary and found at her death, the most famous verses ever written on the peace of hope:
“Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you; all things pass, God does not change; patience obtains all things; whoever possesses God lacks nothing: God alone suffices.” — Saint Teresa of Avila, “Nada te turbe”[15]
Everything is there: hope disarms fear (“let nothing frighten you”) because it puts all that passes into perspective (“all things pass”) and clings to the only One who remains (“God does not change”). The conclusion—“God alone suffices” (Sólo Dios basta)—is the summary of all theological hope: whoever has God as their goal cannot be disappointed, for God cannot be lost.
Saint Claude de la Colombière: the act of trust
The director of Saint Margaret Mary composed an Act of Trust in God that is perhaps the purest act of hope in the tradition. He pushes the reasoning of hope to its logical extreme: since God cannot deceive those who rely on Him, hope is strictly sheltered from all failure.
“My God, I am so convinced that You watch over those who hope in You, and that nothing can be lacking to those who expect all things from You, that I have resolved to live from now on without any anxiety, and to cast all my cares upon You. [...] I am sure that I cannot hope too much in You, and that I cannot receive less than what I will have hoped for from You.” — Saint Claude de la Colombière, Act of Trust in God[16]
“I cannot receive less than what I will have hoped for from You”: this is exactly the maxim of John of the Cross, unfolded in prayer. Here, hope becomes a certainty—not of our own strength, but of God's faithfulness.
Saint Padre Pio: “Pray, hope, and do not worry”
The Capuchin of San Giovanni Rotondo summed up an entire spirituality of hope in a formula attributed to him by tradition that has become proverbial: “Pray, hope, and do not worry” (Prega, spera e non ti agitare)[17]. Worry is the opposite of hope; and prayer is its breath. Padre Pio explained this to his spiritual children:
“Continue to live wholly in God amid the trials to which His goodness exposes you. What happiness to be wholly in God, for He loves His own, He protects them, He guides them, and leads them to the gates of the longed-for eternity.” — Saint Padre Pio, Words of Padre Pio[18]
Against Despair and Presumption
The saints do not merely sing of hope: they guard its two flanks. For hope has two precisely opposite enemies—despair, which ceases to expect from God, and presumption, which claims to save itself without Him or to obtain forgiveness without conversion[19].
Never Rely on Oneself
Against presumption, which relies on one's own strength, the Imitation of Christ — the work of the canon regular Thomas a Kempis, who was never beatified nor canonized — numbers among the clearest statements of spiritual tradition:
“Foolish is the one who puts his hope in men or in any creature whatsoever. […] Do not rely on yourself, and rest only in God alone.” — Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, ch. 7[20]
Saint Augustine set forth the exact balance between grace and our freedom, which forbids both despair and presumption: man can neither believe, nor hope, nor love without willing it, but this very willing is itself a gift of God — “it is God who produces in you both the will and the deed” (Phil 2:13), and “it does not belong to the man who wills, nor to the man who runs, but to God who shows mercy” (Rom 9:16)[21].
Holding both ends—to expect everything from God, while refusing nothing of the effort—is precisely the work of hope.
Hope in Mercy: Saint Faustina
Against despair, which doubts forgiveness, the great messenger of Divine Mercy sets a trust stronger than sin. The entire Diary is summed up in the motto inscribed at the bottom of the image of Christ: “Jesus, I trust in You.” Saint Faustina teaches the soul to dwell in the present under the gaze of a God who never tires of giving:
“O gray and monotonous life, how many treasures you contain! No hour is like another […]. The grace given to me at this hour will not return at the next.” — Saint Faustina, Diary, § 62[22]
Here, hope does not anxiously project itself into the future: it receives each moment as a grace sealed “with the eternal seal”, and entrusts the rest to mercy. “Therefore, we must entrust to God whatever the future holds,” she writes elsewhere[23].
Turning One’s Gaze Toward Heaven
Hope, because it awaits a good yet to come, tears the gaze from the earth to turn it toward the Homeland. This is perhaps the most constant theme among the saints: we are here only as travelers.
We Are Only Travelers
Saint Augustine gave this intuition its classic formulation:
“Our homeland is heaven; there, we will no longer be as strangers. Here below, each of us is a traveler even in his own house.” — Saint Augustine, Sermon 111[24]
Saint Basil of Caesarea draws the consequence for the whole conduct of life: what matters is measured by the standard of the life to come.
“It is much higher that we place our hopes, and all that we do, we do to prepare ourselves for another life.” — Saint Basil of Caesarea, Small Ascetical Collection[25]
Do Not Claim the Crown Before the Race
But this gaze toward Heaven is not an escape: it is patience. Saint Ambrose reminds the impatient that the reward is promised after the struggle, not during:
“Why do you claim the crown too hastily, before you have conquered? Why do you desire to rest? […] The people are still watching, the athletes are still in the arena, and you already long for rest?” — Saint Ambrose, Treatise on Duties (De officiis ministrorum), Book I, ch. 16, § 59[26]
Hope does not shorten the journey: it gives the strength to endure it to the end. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, ill, expressed it in the image of the harbor finally reached:
“Oh! how hard it is to live, to remain on this earth of bitterness and anguish… But tomorrow… in an hour, we shall be in port, what happiness!” — Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Letter 94[27]
This is the exact echo of the Epistle to the Hebrews: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come”[28].
Hope, the Mother Who Brings Peace and Gives Strength
A twentieth-century mystic, the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, left behind pages of rare depth on hope, dated to the year 1899. In them, she gives hope an unexpected face: not the timid youngest of the three sisters, but the mother who reconciles faith and charity and restores peace to the troubled soul.
“If Faith is king and Charity, queen, Hope is the mediating and peacemaking mother. […] Aware of its misery, [the soul] hardly dares to approach God. Then, this mediating Mother places herself between Faith and Charity and begins to play her role as peacemaker. She restores peace to the soul, urges it to rise again, and gives it new strength.” — The Book of Heaven, vol. 2, September 19, 1899[29]
This motherly hope does not make the soul weak: it makes it unshakable. The same page from 1899 compares it to a pillar standing firm in a storm:
“Hope will give it Strength and Courage so that it becomes stable like a pillar in the midst of storms. That is, the various tribulations of life will not shake it in any way. […] Hope allows the soul to obtain all that it desires. It is the gate of Heaven, the only way to enter. For ‘whoever hopes for everything, obtains everything.’” — The Book of Heaven, vol. 2, September 19, 1899[30]
Here we recognize, in another’s words, the maxim of John of the Cross: “whoever hopes for everything, obtains everything.” Luisa illustrates it in a parable—the one of the “noble traveler” who crosses a hostile land in peace because he knows his inheritance awaits him:
“A soul filled [with hope] is like a noble traveler on his way to take possession of a land that will be his entire fortune. […] Some mock him, others insult him, some tear off his garments, others go so far as to beat him […]. Is he troubled by it? Not at all! […] He is convinced that the more he suffers, the more he will be honored and glorified when he takes possession of his land. […] Thus Hope leads to Love.” — The Book of Heaven, vol. 2, September 19, 1899[31]
And the mystic lends to creation itself the simplest call in all the spirituality of hope: to lift up one’s eyes.
“O man, I beg you, do not be foolish by always looking down at the earth. Rather, look up to Heaven. Your destiny, your homeland, is up there. There is our Creator, and He is waiting for you.” — The Book of Heaven, vol. 2, March 13, 1899[32]
Mary, Mother of Holy Hope
One does not learn a virtue by fixing one’s gaze on it as an abstract ideal, but by contemplating the one who lived it perfectly. The Church greets her every day as its very hope:
“Hail, O Queen, Mother of mercy: our life, our sweetness, and our hope, hail!” — Antiphon Salve Regina[33]
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux gave this Marian devotion its most famous words. In the night of doubt, he writes, one must fix one’s gaze on the star and call upon Mary:
“In dangers, in distress, in uncertainty, think of Mary, call upon Mary. […] By following her, you do not go astray; by praying to her, you do not despair; if she holds you, you do not fall; if she leads you, you do not grow weary; if she is favorable to you, you reach your goal.” — Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, homily Super Missus est[34]
“By praying to her, you do not despair”: Mary is called throughout tradition the “Mother of holy hope.” Saint Bernard even goes so far as to say of her, the “ladder of sinners” by whom we ascend to God, that she is “the whole reason for my hope”[35].
“Saved in Hope”: The Synthesis of Benedict XVI
The teaching of the saints found its highest magisterial expression in the encyclical Spe salvi of Benedict XVI (2007), entirely devoted to hope. The pope brings all human hopes back to their truth: none of them suffices, because only God can fill the heart.
“The true, the great hope of man, which withstands all disappointments, can only be God.” — Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, § 27[36]
And when all human support fails, hope opens the last door that never closes—the door of prayer:
“If no one listens to me anymore, God still listens to me.” — Benedict XVI, Spe salvi, § 32[37]
Here is the final word of the saints on hope: as long as there is God to whom one can speak, nothing is lost. Hope is the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13)[38], the “living hope” born of the Resurrection (1 Peter 1:3)[39], which the “God of hope” (Romans 15:13)[40] pours into the hearts of those who dare to expect everything from Him.
The Great Voices of Hope
| Voice | Era | Key Saying | What It Illuminates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Augustine | 4th–5th c. | "Hope has as its object only good things, and only things to come" | The nature of hope |
| Saint Bernard | 12th c. | "Think of Mary, invoke Mary... you will not despair" | Mary, Mother of hope |
| Saint Thomas Aquinas | 13th c. | Hope "reaches to God Himself, on whose help it relies" | The foundation: God, not our own strength |
| Saint John of the Cross | 16th c. | "One obtains as much as one hopes for" | Boldness: expecting everything from God |
| Saint Teresa of Avila | 16th c. | "Let nothing disturb you... God alone suffices" | The peace of hope |
| Saint Claude de la Colombière | 17th c. | "I cannot have less than what I will have hoped for" | The certainty of hope |
| Saint Thérèse of Lisieux | 19th c. | "It is confidence and nothing but confidence" | The little way of trust |
| Saint Faustina | 20th c. | "Jesus, I trust in You" | Hope in Divine Mercy |
| Saint Padre Pio | 20th c. | "Pray, hope, and do not worry" | Hope against anxiety |
| Luisa Piccarreta | 20th c. | "Hope is the gate of Heaven" | Hope, the mother who brings peace |
How to read the table: from Saint Augustine to Luisa Piccarreta, it is the same virtue unfolding—the confident expectation of a good that only God can give—but each saint sheds light on a different facet: its nature, its boldness, its peace, its certainty, its struggle against despair.
To Go Further
- How to Grow in Hope — doctrine and practical path: the nature of hope, its two objects according to Saint Thomas, its two enemies (despair and presumption), and concrete means to make it grow.
- Frequent Errors Concerning Hope — misunderstandings to avoid: hope confused with optimism, fatalism, or escape from the present.
- How to Grow in Trust — the filial and affective side of hope, the "little way" of abandonment to God the Father.
- How to Grow in Abandonment to God — placing the future in God's hands, the practical heart of hope.
- What the Saints Say About Faith and What the Saints Say About Charity — the voice of the saints on the two sister virtues of hope.
Notes and References
Charles Péguy (1873-1914), Le Porche du mystère de la deuxième vertu, Cahiers de la Quinzaine, 1911; re-ed. Œuvres poétiques complètes, Gallimard, "Bibliothèque de la Pléiade." Full text on Wikisource. Péguy establishes, in free verse, that faith and charity "go without saying" while hope, the most difficult of the three, is also the most pleasing to God.
1Charles Péguy, Le Porche du mystère de la deuxième vertu (1911): "It is hoping that is difficult. [...] And the easy thing, the slope, is to despair, and that is the great temptation." Full text on Wikisource.
2Saint Augustine (354-430), Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Charity), ch. 8: "Hope has as its object only good things, and only things to come, and which concern the one of whom it is said that he bears this hope." Latin text: "Spes autem non nisi bonarum rerum est, nec nisi futurarum, et ad eum pertinentium qui earum spem gerere perhibetur."
3Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Summa Theologiae. The definition of the object of hope—"a future good, arduous, possible to obtain" (bonum futurum arduum possibile adipisci)—is stated in Ia-IIae, q. 40, a. 1 (hope as a passion) and taken up for the theological virtue in IIa-IIae, q. 17, a. 1. Reference edition: Summa Theologiae, Éditions du Cerf.
4Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIae, q. 17, a. 2: the principal object of hope is eternal beatitude, but what it relies on (innititur) is divine help (divinum auxilium); thus "our hope reaches to God Himself, on whose help it relies." On the fact that hope disappears in the heavenly homeland (we no longer hope for what we possess), see q. 18, a. 2.
5Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1817, quoting Heb 10:23: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." Official French edition, Mame/Plon, 1992. Text of the definition verified on vatican.va. Canonical definition of hope as a theological virtue.
6Letter to the Romans 4:18, official liturgical translation (AELF): "Hoping against all hope, he believed; and so became the father of many nations, according to what was said: So shall your descendants be!" Abraham is the Pauline model of hope founded solely on God's faithfulness.
7Letter to the Romans 5:3-5, official liturgical translation (AELF): "... affliction produces perseverance; perseverance, proven virtue; proven virtue, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
8Letter to the Romans 8:24-25, official liturgical translation (AELF): "For we have been saved, but it is in hope [...]. But we, who hope for what we do not see, await it with perseverance." (Spe salvi facti sumus.) Verse placed at the head of the encyclical Spe salvi by Benedict XVI (2007).
9Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), poem Tras un amoroso lance ("In Pursuit of a Loving Dart"), refrain: "porque esperanza de cielo / tanto alcanza cuanto espera" — "for the hope of Heaven obtains as much as it hopes for." The popular saying "one obtains from God as much as one hopes for" is the traditional French rendering. (It does not appear, contrary to widespread attribution, in the Dichos de luz y amor.)
10Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), saying reported in Counsels and Reminiscences collected by Sister Marie of the Trinity: "One receives from God as much as one hopes for." Thérèse explicitly takes up Saint John of the Cross's doctrine on hope. Derniers entretiens / Conseils et souvenirs, Cerf/DDB.
11Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Letter 197 to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (her godmother), 17 September 1896: "It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love." Correspondance générale, Cerf/DDB. Letter linked to Manuscript B.
12Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Letter 95 to Sister Agnès of Jesus (July–August 1889): "I suffer!... but the hope of the Homeland gives me courage, soon we will be in Heaven..." Correspondance générale, Cerf/DDB. Text verified on archives.carmeldelisieux.fr.
13Letter to the Hebrews 6:18-19, official liturgical translation (AELF): "We have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul; it enters behind the veil, into the Sanctuary." Quoted in CCC § 1820.
14Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), "Nada te turbe", verses found on a bookmark slipped into her breviary at her death (Alba de Tormes, 1582). Spanish text: "Nada te turbe, nada te espante, todo se pasa, Dios no se muda, la paciencia todo lo alcanza; quien a Dios tiene nada le falta: sólo Dios basta." Poésies / Poesías.
15Saint Claude de la Colombière (1641-1682), Act of Confidence in God, from his Spiritual Retreat (Complete Works). The prayer interweaves several psalms (Ps 4:9-10; Ps 30:2) and concludes: "I cannot hope too much in you, and [...] I cannot have less than what I will have hoped for from you."
16Formula constantly attributed to Saint Padre Pio (1887-1968) by oral tradition and devotional literature ("Pray, hope, and do not worry"). Not found as such in his Epistolario (4 vols., Edizioni Padre Pio da Pietrelcina, verification vols. I–IV): to be read as a faithful summary of his doctrine — cf. notably Epistolario, vol. III: "confidate, pregate, sperate ed amate sempre" ("have confidence, pray, hope and always love") — rather than as a verbatim quotation.
17Saint Padre Pio, Words of Padre Pio, Salvator, 2019, p. 104: "Continue to live all in God amid the trials to which His goodness exposes you. [...] He protects them, guides them, and leads them to the gates of the longed-for eternity."
18Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2091-2092. The two sins against hope: despair (ceasing to expect from God His salvation, His help, or forgiveness) and presumption, in its two forms (presuming on one's own abilities, or presuming on Divine Mercy by hoping for forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).
19Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471), canon regular of the Windesheim congregation (Mount Saint Agnes, near Zwolle), never beatified nor canonized — the beatification cause, barely begun under Prince-Bishop Max Henry of Cologne, was abandoned at the latter's death in 1688 (cf. Catholic Encyclopedia, "Thomas à Kempis," newadvent.org) —, presumed author of The Imitation of Christ, Book I, ch. 7, 1: "Foolish is he who puts his hope in men or in any creature whatsoever. [...] Do not rely on yourself, and rest only in God alone."
20Saint Augustine, Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Charity), ch. 32, "The freedom of acting well is itself also a gift of God": man can believe, hope and love only if he wills it — but this very willing is worked by God, who "produces in you both the will and the deed" (Phil 2:13) and before whom "it does not belong to the man who wills, nor to the man who runs, but to God who shows mercy" (Rom 9:16). Latin text: Patrologia Latina, vol. 40; reference English translation Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st series, vol. 3. (The old symmetrical formulation cited here — "the human will powerless without mercy..." — was a paraphrase, not a verbatim quotation from the chapter.)
21Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), Diary, § 62: "O gray and monotonous life, how many treasures you contain! [...] The grace given to me at this hour will not return at the next. [...] Time passes and never returns. [...] It is sealed with the eternal seal." Ed. Hovine / Marians.
22Saint Faustina Kowalska, Diary, § 2: "When I look to the future, fear takes hold of me. But why probe the future? [...] Therefore, we must entrust to God what the future holds." Ed. Hovine / Marians.
23Saint Augustine, Sermon 111, ch. 2 (PL 38, 643): "Our homeland is Heaven; there, we will no longer be as strangers. Here below, each of us is a traveler even in his own home."
24Saint Basil of Caesarea (c. 330-379), Little Ascetical Collection, Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 2013, p. 88: "For us [...] we place our hopes much higher, and everything we do, we do to prepare for another life."
25Saint Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397), Treatise on Duties (De officiis ministrorum), Book I, ch. 16, § 59 (chaptering of the Schaff edition, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 10, available on newadvent.org): "Why do you claim the crown too hastily, before conquering? [...] The people are still watching, the athletes are still in the arena, and you already aspire to rest?" Verified Latin text: "Quid praepropere coronam exigis ante quam vincas? [...] Adhuc populus spectat, adhuc athletae in schemate sunt, et tu iam otium petis?"
26Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Letter 94 to Céline (July 14, 1889): "Oh! how hard it is to live, to remain on this earth of bitterness and anguish... But tomorrow... in an hour, we will be at the harbor, what happiness!" Correspondance générale, Cerf/DDB. Text verified on archives.carmeldelisieux.fr.
27Letter to the Hebrews 13:14, official liturgical translation (AELF): "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come."
28Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947), The Book of Heaven, vol. 2, 19 September 1899 ("Fruits of Faith, Hope and Charity"): "If Faith is king and Charity, queen, Hope is the mediating and peacemaking mother..." Passages verified verbatim in the French edition of vol. 2 (Lumen Luminis / La Volonté Divine translation, distributed "for private use").
29Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, vol. 2, 19 September 1899 (same passage): "And Hope will give it Strength and Courage so that it becomes stable like a pillar amid storms... It is the gate of Heaven, the only way to enter. For 'whoever hopes for everything, obtains everything.'" Verified French edition: see [^ldc-mere].
30Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, vol. 2, 19 September 1899 (same passage). Parable of the "noble traveler" on his way to the land that will be all his fortune: mocked, insulted, stripped, beaten, he remains at peace, "convinced that the more he suffers, the more he will be honored and glorified when he takes possession of his land... Thus Hope leads to Love." Verified French edition: see [^ldc-mere].
31Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, vol. 2, 13 March 1899 ("All creation speaks to us of God's love for men"): the call is spoken by the little flower of the fields, in the words Jesus reports to Luisa — "O man, I beg you, do not be foolish by always looking at the earth. Rather, look toward Heaven. Your destiny, your homeland, is up above. There is our Creator and He awaits you." Verified French edition: see [^ldc-mere].
32Marian antiphon Salve Regina (11th century, attributed to Hermann Contract): "Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ, vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve" — "Hail, O Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope, hail."
33Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), second homily Super Missus est (In Praise of the Virgin Mother), § 17. Latin: "In periculis, in angustiis, in rebus dubiis, Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca. [...] Ipsam rogans non desperas [...] ; ipsa duce non fatigaris ; ipsa propitia pervenis." (English translations vary slightly by edition.)
34Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (called Sermon of the Aqueduct), § 7: Mary, "ladder of sinners", is "my greatest confidence, the whole reason for my hope" (tota ratio spei meae).
35Benedict XVI, encyclical letter Spe salvi (30 November 2007), § 27: "The true, the great hope of man, which withstands all disappointments, can only be God." Full text on Vatican.va.
36Benedict XVI, Spe salvi (2007), § 32: "If no one listens to me anymore, God still listens to me." Prayer is presented there as the school and place of learning hope.
37Letter to Titus 2:13, official liturgical translation (AELF): "... awaiting the blessed hope: the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ."
38First Letter of Saint Peter 1:3, official liturgical translation (AELF): "... he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
39Letter to the Romans 15:13, official liturgical translation (AELF): "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
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