Feast of Boniface (Wynfrith) of Crediton, Archbishop of Mainz, Apostle of Germany, Martyr, 754 It is through dying to read more

Feast of Boniface (Wynfrith) of Crediton, Archbishop of Mainz, Apostle of Germany, Martyr, 754 It is through dying to concern for self that we are born to new life with God and others; in such dying and rebirth, we find that life is lent to be spent; and in such spending of what we are lent, we find there is an infinite supply.

Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist Father eternal, ruler of creation, Spirit of life, which moved ere form was read more

Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist Father eternal, ruler of creation, Spirit of life, which moved ere form was made Through the thick darkness covering every nation Light to man's blindness, O be Thou our aid. Races and peoples, lo, we stand divided, And, sharing not our griefs, no joy can share; By wars and tumults love is mocked, derided His conquering cross no kingdom wills to bear. Envious of heart, blind-eyed, with tongues confounded, Nation by nation still goes unforgiven, In wrath and fear, by jealousies surrounded, Building proud towers which shall not reach to heaven. Lust of possession worketh desolations; There is no meekness in the sons of earth; Led by no star, the rulers of the nations Still fail to bring us to the blissful birth: How shall we love Thee, holy hidden Being, If we love not the world which Thou hast made? O give us brother-love for better seeing Thy Word made flesh, and in a manger laid.

Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675 Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never read more

Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675 Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves -- blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One.

Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951 Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. read more

Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951 Joy is not gush: joy is not jolliness. Joy is simply perfect acquiescence in God's will, because the soul delights itself in God himself... rejoice in the will of God, and in nothing else. Bow down your heads and your hearts before God, and let the will, the blessed will of God, be done.

Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326 If one could talk absolutely humanly about Christ, one would read more

Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326 If one could talk absolutely humanly about Christ, one would have to say that the words: "my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" are impatient and untrue. They can only be true if God says them, and consequently also when the God-Man says them. And indeed since it is true, it is the very limit of suffering.

Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945 There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely read more

Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945 There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as though it were our last, and yet living in faith and responsibility as though there were to be a great future.

The underlying questions are always: What is the Church? What is the Church for? If that is not kept in read more

The underlying questions are always: What is the Church? What is the Church for? If that is not kept in mind, the lay ministry, about which so much is being said at present, remains on the level of a many-sided activity in which the self-assertion of the laity threatens to be more evident than a new manifestation of the Church in modern society. The responsible participation of the laity in the discharge of the Church's divine calling is not primarily a matter of idealism and enthusiasm or organizational efficiency, but a new grasp and commitment to the meaning of God's redemptive purpose with mankind and with the world in the past, the present, and the future: a purpose which has its foundation and inexhaustible content in Christ.

Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970 George Brush, the hero of [Thornton Wilder's] "Heaven's My Destination", read more

Commemoration of Gladys Aylward, Missionary in China, 1970 George Brush, the hero of [Thornton Wilder's] "Heaven's My Destination", a textbook salesman and evangelist extraordinary, is the innocent fool, in the kindliest sense of both the noun and the adjective. He is striving to be the fool in Christ, sowing the inevitable amazement, consternation and wrath that must ensue when Christ's fool runs at large among the worldly wise.

Commemoration of Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers, 1913 & 1936 Now the great thing is this: we are read more

Commemoration of Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers, 1913 & 1936 Now the great thing is this: we are consecrated and dedicated to God in order that we may thereafter think, speak, meditate, and do, nothing except to his glory. For a sacred thing may not be applied to profane uses without marked injury to him.