Beginning a short series of verse on Christ: ... They haled him, trembling, to the Judgement Seat. read more

Beginning a short series of verse on Christ: ... They haled him, trembling, to the Judgement Seat. "O Lord, behold the man who made the nails that pierced Thy feet!" The Master laid a thin, scarred hand upon the shame-bowed head. "They were good nails," he said...

Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461 Perhaps there cannot be a better way of judging of read more

Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461 Perhaps there cannot be a better way of judging of what manner of spirit we are of, than to see whether the actions of our life are such as we may safely commend them to God in our prayers.

Continued from yesterday: This is Paul's meaning. The state of slavery described in Romans 7 is a slavery to read more

Continued from yesterday: This is Paul's meaning. The state of slavery described in Romans 7 is a slavery to wrong desires; not merely to "flesh" in the abstract, as implying our material nature and environment, but to the "mind of the flesh" -- the lower nature and environment made a part of one's conscious self. What the Law could not do, God has done by the gift of the Spirit of Christ: He has given the victory to the higher self. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (II Cor. 3:17) "The Law of the Spirit -- the law of a life in communion with Christ Jesus -- has made me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:2) Whereas life was a hopeless struggle, it now becomes a struggle in which the handicap is removed, and victory already secured in principle, because God has come into the life. The Law was external; it was the taskmaster set over against the troubled and fettered will of man. The Spirit is within, the mind of the Spirit is the mind of the man himself, and from within works out a growing perfection of life which satisfies the real longing of the soul. In the full sense freedom is still an object of hope; but the liberty already attained makes possible the building up of a Christian morality.

God is not a deceiver, that he should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should read more

God is not a deceiver, that he should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us.

Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330 The heart's slavish and dogged devotion to its idol read more

Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330 The heart's slavish and dogged devotion to its idol is what fathers of the Church have called "the bondage of the will". This bondage becomes most painfully apparent in our lives when we earnestly feel the need of changing but cannot; when we are attracted to another value that for one reason or another conflicts with the desires of our true god --that value nearest and dearest to us. But our true god lies so deeply inside us that often we are not even consciously aware of its presence or of what it actually is.

Feast of Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179 "He cannot deny Himself" [II Tim. 2:13], means at the read more

Feast of Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179 "He cannot deny Himself" [II Tim. 2:13], means at the same time He cannot deny His grace to the sinful, and He cannot deny the moral order in which alone He can live in fellowship with men; and we see the inviolableness of both asserted in the death of Jesus. Nothing else in the world demonstrates how real is God's love to the sinful, and how real the sin of the world is to God. And the love which comes to us through such an expression, bearing sin in all its reality, yet loving us through and beyond it, is the only love which at once forgives and regenerates the soul.

There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us well-nigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds read more

There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us well-nigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God. He is always whispering to us, only we do not always hear, because of the noise, hurry, and distraction which life causes as it rushes on.

Since such uncultivated and rude simplicity inspires greater reverence for itself than any eloquence, what ought one to conclude except read more

Since such uncultivated and rude simplicity inspires greater reverence for itself than any eloquence, what ought one to conclude except that the force of Sacred Scripture is manifestly too powerful to need the art of words?

Feast of the Holy Cross Teach me. O God, to use all the circumstances of my life read more

Feast of the Holy Cross Teach me. O God, to use all the circumstances of my life to-day that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin. Let me use disappointment as material for patience: Let me use success as material for thankfulness: Let me use suspence as material for perseverance: Let me use danger as material for courage: Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering: Let me use praise as material for humility: Let me use pleasures as material for temperance: Let me use pains as material for endurance.