Can I trust a non-saint citation of a saint?

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Francisco_Fernando

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There’s a saint that I like that cites things from people who are not saints. The citations include popes and theologians. They are about things that I like. Does this citation mean that I shouldn’t trust the words of the saints? This saint likes to cite people who are not saints and I don’t want to make it feel that a red X is being put on the passage.
 
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St Paul quotes non-saints, including a Greek poet and a Greek philosopher. St Thomas Aquinas quotes many non-saints.
 
St. Alphonsus Liguori is a Doctor of the Church. In his masterpiece, “The Glories of Mary”, he cites both saints (and blessed) and people who have not been canonized. I don’t think he would quote them unless he agrees with them.
 
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No, you are asking him to prove what he said to you. You are capable of tracking that down on the internet. He doesn’t need to do research for you. You asked a question, and he answered it.
 
How on earth do you get that from what I said? Is it spiritually damaging to read St Paul? Is it spiritually damaging to read Sacred Scripture??

I read things all the time that aren’t written by saints, and aren’t even about religion! There’s nothing wrong with that at all.
 
I’m not a saint. Neither is anyone here. So by your standard, you shouldn’t even read what we say, because you can’t trust it, because it doesn’t have authority.
 
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What would make them spiritually damaging?

I would say that it’s not so simple as “canonized saint=spiritually beneficial writing.” There is writing by saints that can be quite spiritually damaging if you’re not capable of receiving it well. And there is writing by non-saints that is very spiritually beneficial. Lewis’s The Four Loves was very helpful to my discernment. He’s not a saint. And some people read Liguori and struggle with scruples as a result of not knowing how to properly interpret him.

There’s nothing magic about a book by a saint that makes it good, nor a non-saint that makes it bad. That’s just not how books, minds, or souls work. If we want to know if something is going to be spiritually damaging or beneficial, we should look to see whether or not what it says is true, and whether it’s going to be helpful to us as individuals. As with everything, mileage may vary.
 
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Forget about non saints, technically you don’t even have to “trust” saints. As a Catholic all you have to trust is the Bible and official Church dogma.
 
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Great. But non-saints say wonderful things too, and you’re yet to give me a reason why we shouldn’t read them.
 
I do too at least some of them. Just as there are non saints I find wonderful. The most translated and read Christian book after the Bible, The Imitation of Christ, was written by someone who wasn’t declared a saint.
 
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