The witness of a Christian life and good works done in a supernatural spirit have great power to draw men to the faith and to God. – The Catechism of the Catholic Church #2044
Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. – St. Pope Paul VI (hat-tip Catholic Quotations)
Dear young people: by a real Christian life, by the practice of your religion you are called to give witness to your faith. And because actions speak louder than words, you are called to proclaim, by the conduct of your daily lives that you really do believe that Jesus Christ is Lord ! – St. John Paul the Great, Address to High School Students, Madison Square Garden, New York, 3 October 1979
The duty of Christians to take part in the life of the Church impels them to act as witnesses of the Gospel and of the obligations that flow from it. This witness is a transmission of the faith in words and deeds. Witness is an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known.
All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of their word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they have put on in Baptism and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at Confirmation.
Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude. “let me become the food of the beasts, through whom it will be given me to reach God.” – The Catechism of the Catholic Church #2472-2473
Especially when it is a matter of educating in faith, the figure of the witness and the role of witnessing is central. A witness of Christ does not merely transmit information but is personally involved with the truth Christ proposes and, through the coherency of his own life, becomes a dependable reference point. – Pope Benedict XVI
The aim of all Christian education, moreover, is to train the believer in an adult faith that can make him a ‘new creation’, capable of bearing witness in his surroundings to the Christian hope that inspires him. – Pope Benedict VI, Sacramentum Caritatis
Jesus promised his disciples three things – that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble. – G.K. Chesterton
You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 5:13-14
The first and fundamental mission that we receive from the sacred mysteries we celebrate is that of bearing witness by our lives. The wonder we experience at the gift God has made to us in Christ gives new impulse to our lives and commits us to becoming witnesses of his love. We become witnesses when, through our actions, words and way of being, Another makes himself present. – Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis
Christ’s works testified to what he was; our works will testify to what we are. – Fr. Emil Kapaun
True holiness does not mean a flight from the world; rather, it lies in the effort to incarnate the Gospel in everyday life, in the family, at school and at work, and in social and political involvement. – St. John Paul the Great
Living Differently 