7 Inspirational Quotes From Mother Angelica

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She could make crowds of people laugh out loud. And she could bring those same crowds to heartfelt tears. She could rebuke her most ardent critics in one breath and lovingly invite them to return to Jesus in the next. When she walked among us, Mother Mary Angelica, the Poor Clare nun who founded the Eternal Word Television Network in 1981, was a force to be reckoned with. But that force was beautifully powered by God’s love and Word, gifts of the Holy Spirit and an unwavering and uncompromising devotion to Jesus. Feisty and spirited, Mother Angelica did more than establish the EWTN cable network. She harnessed the power of technology in order to further the Kingdom of God.

In doing so, the dynamic nun had a tremendous and enduring impact on the world. In her nearly 93 years of life on earth, she also said some remarkable things. One of her quotes that reflects how she lived her life is “God wants you to be in the world, but so different from the world that you will change it. Get cracking.” She touched the hearts and souls of many with her words. Here are seven other inspirational quotes from Mother Angelica that might have the same effect on you.

Salvation

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In a document entitled “Jesus My Savior” that Mother Angelica wrote, she said “Salvation brings the soul a deep awareness of God's love. Life takes on more meaning, for it now has a purpose.”

And she knew that, partly, from personal experience. It’s not surprising that when Mother Angelica, who was born in Canton, Ohio in 1923 and named Rita Antoinette Rizzo, discovered that God loved her – after she was healed from ptosis of the stomach by Jesus through a mystic – she contemplated salvation. While contemplating it, at age 20, after completing the Way of the Cross, looking at a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, she suddenly found her calling. Since she knew her mother would object, she kept her calling a secret from her, but she didn’t let that or her poor grades from high school stop her. As soon as she was able to, she entered a Cleveland convent and became Sister Mary Angelica of the Annunciation.

Listening to God

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In her first pamphlet, which is entitled “Journey Into Prayer” and which was published in 1972, Mother Angelica wrote “I must listen as God speaks to my soul through good thoughts, inspirations, and intuitions.”

In the document, she advises readers to reflect upon that thought. But, for her, it was more than a reflection. It was God who inspired the nun – who hadn’t even seen a television until 1961, when she was in her late 30s – to produce and host a cable show just months after visiting a Baptist-run television station in 1978. After seeing it, she walked out of the studio and said “Lord, I gotta have one of these!” God showed her how many people could be reached through television. Even though she didn’t have any experience or previous knowledge in that area, she took the leap of faith and did what she believed God was calling her to do.

Trusting God

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Another pamphlet she wrote that inspired many people is entitled “The Father’s Splendor.” In it, she praises God’s perfect infinite wisdom. She wrote “The wisdom of God is so great that He also knows exactly what I would think and do under every possible circumstance and situation, and He placed me in that state of life and situation best suited for my salvation.”

And that unabashed trust in God’s wisdom remained in Mother Angelica, despite the frequently harsh circumstances of her life. Not only was she born into a household in which her dad’s abuse of her mother and the resulting divorce forced little Rita to take on adult responsibilities (such as taking care of her mother, running the mother’s small dry cleaning business and trying to collect child support), she also grew up in poverty, struggled in high school and experienced much suffering from serious ailments, injuries and strokes.

Being Bold

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That deep trust in God and His infinite wisdom also prompted Mother Angelica to be bold in all that she did. She once quipped “Boldness should be the eleventh commandment.”

And that belief was evident throughout her life. When she promised God that she would build a monastery in the South if He would let her walk again after having risky spinal surgery, she followed through with her promise despite lack of funds and threats of violence against her and her fellow nuns. In the 1970s, when her publisher would no longer publish her religious pamphlets, she bought a small printing press, and she and the nuns published the books themselves.

And when EWTN studio was repeatedly on the verge of bankruptcy for the first few years, Mother Angelica kept praying, working and expanding. Today, EWTN reaches more than 230 million people in more than 140 countries through its television, radio and online presence.

Being Humble

Despite being bold, outspoken and “on fire” for the Lord, Mother Angelica was also humble. She put God’s will first and foremost, and she strived to always be obedient to Him. She took her vows, The Bible and Catholic doctrine very seriously. She also gave God credit for all the amazing things He accomplished through her, His servant.

While giving God all the glory for the miracles He worked for her and for the accomplishments she achieved through His grace, she unceasingly turned to Jesus. She looked to Christ for wisdom on how to live her life. And following the example of Blessed Mother, she guided everyone to do the same.

In the pamphlet entitled “In the Shadow of His Light,” which she authored in the early 1970s, Mother Angelica wrote “Jesus told us to learn from him how to be meek and humble of heart. We must look at his life if we are to have any concept of what humility is all about.”

Forgiveness

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In “Journey Into Prayer,” the EWTN founder also wrote about forgiveness. In the pamphlet, she wrote “When anyone arouses my anger, I will immediately pray for them and regain my peace of soul.”

If she hadn’t done so, she might not have found her calling. When she was growing up, there were many people she had to forgive. In addition to her dad’s abuse of her mother and his neglect of her, there were other people who could have left her bitter. Besides the criminals who killed a priest from her neighborhood for trying to move his parish to a safer place, there were nuns at her Catholic school who ridiculed little Rita because of her mother’s divorce. Because of the nuns’ behavior and the scorn of a priest who heard her mother’s confession about the divorce, Rita and her mom stopped attending Mass for around ten years, and the child transferred to a public school.

Reflecting Jesus

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But while Mother Angelica understood the importance of forgiveness, she also understood the importance of upholding her Christian values. In “The Father’s Splendor,” the Poor Clare nun also wrote “I am a mirror to my neighbor, and in that mirror, he must see a reflection of Jesus. If that mirror is cloudy or distorted, Jesus' reflection will be so vague it will hardly be seen.”

She strived to imitate Jesus in all things – even when doing so seemed to compromise her convent’s material sustainability or her dream to spread God’s Word. When the local TV station that she originally taped her show at planned to air a film that was blasphemous, she threatened to pull her program from the station and build her own studio at the convent, even though she knew she would have a crew of 12 cloistered nuns with no television experience and $200 to work with. They aired the film, and she built her studio.

Prior to that time, Mother Angelica and the other nuns produced packages of peanuts for various venues, in order to keep the convent going. But when someone went to the convent looking for a kickback, she pulled the nuns out of that venture. She once revealed, on “Mother Angelica Live” that she told the corrupt man “Look. If I’m going to hell, it’s not going to be over a peanut.”