Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 If I mistake, He will read more

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 If I mistake, He will forgive me. I do not fear Him: I only fear lest, able to see and write these things, I should fail of witnessing and myself be, after all, a castaway -- no king but a talker: no disciple of Jesus, ready to go with Him to the death, but an arguer about the truth.

Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597 Those who charged the Christians with burning down Rome with fire brands were read more

Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597 Those who charged the Christians with burning down Rome with fire brands were slanderers -- but they were, at least, far nearer to the nature of Christianity than those among the moderns who tell us that the Christians were a sort of ethical society, being martyred in a languid fashion for telling men they had a duty to their neighbours, and only mildly disliked because they were meek and mild!

The childish idea that prayer is a handle by which we can take hold of God and obtain whatever we read more

The childish idea that prayer is a handle by which we can take hold of God and obtain whatever we desire, leads to easy disillusionment with both what we had thought to be God and what we had thought to be prayer.

Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012 So long as we are full of self, we are shocked read more

Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012 So long as we are full of self, we are shocked at the faults of others. Let us think often of our own sin, and we shall be lenient to the sins of others.

Forgiveness is a rebirth of hope, a reorganization of thought, and a reconstruction of dreams. Once forgiving begins, dreams can read more

Forgiveness is a rebirth of hope, a reorganization of thought, and a reconstruction of dreams. Once forgiving begins, dreams can be rebuilt. When forgiving is complete, meaning has been extracted from the worst of experiences and used to create a new set of moral rules and a new interpretation of life's events.

Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977 Prodigal sons, forgiven and reconciled with their heavenly Father, could read more

Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977 Prodigal sons, forgiven and reconciled with their heavenly Father, could they do other than forgive one another? A fellowship of prodigal sons came into being -- the church of Christ. Love begets love. A new power ... was let loose upon our suffering world, the power to love those who have not deserved love, the unworthy, the unlovely and unlovable, a man's enemies, and even his torturers. Christians, in imitation of the Saviour, became, as it were, Christs to one another and to the world.

The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign read more

The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.

God wants us to know that when we have Him we have everything.

God wants us to know that when we have Him we have everything.

Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189 Some there are who presume so far read more

Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189 Some there are who presume so far on their wits that they think themselves capable of measuring the whole nature of things by their intellect, in that they esteem all things true which they see, and false which they see not. Accordingly, in order that man's mind might be freed from this presumption, and seek the truth humbly, it was necessary that certain things far surpassing his intellect should be proposed to man by God.