The Better Part Quotes

“You will always face difficulties in prayer. Just accept it.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“If I try by myself to swim across the ocean of this world, the waves will certainly engulf me. In order to survive I must climb aboard a ship made of wood; this wood is the Cross of Christ. Of course, even on board ship there will be dangerous tempests and perils from the sea of this world. But God will help me remain on board the ship and arrive safely at the harbor of eternal life.” - St. Augustine”
― Fr John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“The rules and rituals of Christianity are not its core, but its leaves. Joy, the kind of joy that none of life’s contrarieties can diminish, as the lives of countless saints from every walk of life so powerfully attest to, is its flower. But its root is God’s love, and its fruit is God’s love lived out in the humdrum routine of daily life by the followers of Christ.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“You cannot live out your desire and decision to follow Christ if you don’t know the standards and criteria of thought, speech, and behavior that Christ asks of his disciples.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to perdition is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Think well of others, excuse their faults, speak kindly and generously about them, and you will see your heart expand. Then I will be able to pour into your soul the light and truth that will set you free.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“The mature Christian learns to balance these natural tendencies by taking time to reflect before speaking and acting, and by constantly examining his own conduct in the light of Christ’s wisdom.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“If we are to love the sinner yet hate the sin, we have to be honest about both.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Jesus is simply teaching us to be as generous in our thoughts and words about other people (family members, friends, superiors, strangers, celebrities, politicians, etc.) as we are with ourselves.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Therefore, Jesus is really warning his disciples against thinking and speaking badly of others. Since only God can see the heart, only God can pass sentence on someone’s moral conduct.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Christ is teaching his disciples to be men and women of reflection and discernment.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 ‘Be careful not to parade your good deeds before men to attract their notice; by doing this you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win men’s admiration. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them; I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you…When you fast do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they pull long faces to let men know they are fasting. I tell you solemnly, they have had their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“The founder of no other religion is absolutely essential for that religion in the same way that Christ is essential for Christianity. It is true that the founder was necessary for the founding, but the believer in a particular religion does not enter into the same kind of an encounter that a Christian enters into with Christ. It is the personal relationship to him which is decisive. Christ therefore occupies a different place in Christianity than Buddha does in Buddhism, than Confucius in Confucianism, Mohammed in Islam, and even Moses in Judaism. When you come to Christ, Christianity demands the personal, intimate bond. We have to be one with him, one with him in such a way that we cannot in any way claim to be Christian unless we reflect the person, the mind, the will, the heart, and the humanity of Christ.” - Archbishop Fulton Sheen”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“You know how self-centered and wounded I am. If you don’t change my heart, it will never change. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart more like yours…”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“All you need say is Yes if you mean yes, No if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“But he reaches out to those who need him through us. Our Christian witness and charity can save those whose lives are wasting away because of ignorance and sin, just as salt was used to preserve food from going bad before the invention of refrigerators. Our efforts to radiate Christian truth into society can enlighten those who are floundering in the darkness of mistaken philosophies and blind ideologies. Christ is teaching us that in him, by vocation, we have already become builders of an eternal Kingdom, but it is still up to us to get to work.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“He is the only Savior. His name is “the only one by which we can be saved” (Acts 4:12).”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Therefore, if we are to be his faithful followers, faithful to Christ’s all-encompassing and everlasting mission, we must never put limits on what we will do for him, or on what we will let him do with us.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Christianity is neither a philosophy nor an ideology: it is a personal encounter and a community endeavor, one that demands decision, action, trust, and sacrifice.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“the devil is real. St Matthew leaves no room for doubt on this point. The reason the Spirit led Christ into the desert in the first place, he tells us, was “to be tempted by the devil.” (The forty days of Lent correspond to this forty-day sojourn of Christ in the desert.)”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“While he agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane on the eve of his Passion, he resisted the devil’s onslaught with the prayer to his Father: “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Christ is the Lord, and humility is his scepter.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“We may think it is because Christ had special powers, but the Scriptures don’t present it that way. According to them, the source of Christ’s victory is his humility.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘I will give you all these’ he said, ‘if you fall at my feet and worship me.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Be off, Satan! For scripture says: You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.’ Then the devil left him, and angels appeared and looked after him.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“Why did St John baptize with water from the Jordan River? Why does the Church use water as baptism even now? What role has water played in the history of salvation?”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“That’s what comes across in this account of Jesus’ baptism: it’s all about Jesus taking my part, coming down to my level in order to lift me up to his level. What more could he have done to prove himself our friend?”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“John offered baptism in order to help his fellow Jews repent, but Christ, who was sinless, did not need to repent. Rather, Jesus’ submission to baptism foreshadows his work on the cross, where although he had no sin of his own, he “made himself sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21) in order to wipe away our sins.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“The term “Christ” comes from a Greek translation of the Hebrew word, “Messiah,” which literally means “the anointed one,” the one set aside for a special mission.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer

“As soon as Jesus was baptised he came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And a voice spoke from heaven, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.”
― John Bartunek, The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer