CHRISTMAS DAY ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY This the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son read more

CHRISTMAS DAY ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY This the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heaven's Eternal King, Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing, That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. That glorious form, that light insufferable, And that far-beaming blaze majesty, Wherewith he wont at Heaven's high council-table To sit the midst of Trinal Unity He laid aside, and, here with us to be. Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant God? Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, To welcome him to this his new abode, Now while the heaven, by the Sun's team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet! Oh, run! present them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his blessed feet; Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, And join thy voice unto the Angel Quire, From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire.

Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100 There are great limits upon the human imagination. We can read more

Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100 There are great limits upon the human imagination. We can only rearrange the elements God has provided. No one can create a new primary color, a third sex, a fourth dimension, or a completely original animal. Even by writing a book, planting a garden, or begetting a child, we never create anything in the strict sense; we only take part in God's creation.

Commemoration of Sundar Singh of India, Sadhu, Evangelist, Teacher, 1929 For the first two or three years after my read more

Commemoration of Sundar Singh of India, Sadhu, Evangelist, Teacher, 1929 For the first two or three years after my conversion, I used to ask for specific things. Now I ask for God. Supposing there is a tree full of fruits -- you will have to go and buy or beg the fruits from the owner of the tree. Every day you would have to go for one or two fruits. But if you can make the tree your own property, then all the fruits will be your own. In the same way, if God is your own, then all things in Heaven and on earth will be your own, because He is your Father and is everything to you; otherwise you will have to go and ask like a beggar for certain things. When they are used up, you will have to ask again. So ask not for gifts but for the Giver of Gifts: not for life but for the Giver of Life -- then life and the things needed for life will be added unto you.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

There is not anything I know which hath done more mischief to Religion... than the disparaging of Reason, under pretense read more

There is not anything I know which hath done more mischief to Religion... than the disparaging of Reason, under pretense of respect and favour to it. For hereby the very Foundations of Christian Faith have been undermined, and the World prepared for Atheism. And if Reason must not be beard, the Being of a God, and the Authority of Scripture, can neither be proved nor defended; and so our Faith drops to the Ground like a House that hath no Foundation.

Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus The moment we make up our minds that we are going read more

Feast of the Naming & Circumcision of Jesus The moment we make up our minds that we are going on with this determination to exalt God overall, we step out of the world's parade... We acquire a new viewpoint; a new and different psychology will be formed within us; a new power will begin to surprise us by its upsurgings and its outgoings.

There is in St. Paul's definite, soul-stirring assertion of the wrath of God and the reality of the judgment at read more

There is in St. Paul's definite, soul-stirring assertion of the wrath of God and the reality of the judgment at hand, a truth more profound than any that underlies our somewhat enfeebled ideas of universal benevolence and the determined progress of the race. There is something more true in his denunciation of idolatry as sin than in our denial that it is possible for a man to worship an idol, or in our suggestion that all idolatry is only a road to spiritual worship of the one true God... One day, I think, we shall return to these stern doctrines, realizing in them a truth more profound than we now know, and then we shall preach them with conviction, and, being convinced ourselves, we shall convince others.

Prayer is the creator as well as the channel of devotion. The spirit of devotion is the spirit of prayer. read more

Prayer is the creator as well as the channel of devotion. The spirit of devotion is the spirit of prayer. Prayer and devotion are united as soul and body are united, as life and the heart are united. There is no real prayer without devotion, no devotion without prayer.

Feast of Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down & Connor, Priest, Teacher, 1667 Commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Social Reformer, 1910 Commemoration read more

Feast of Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down & Connor, Priest, Teacher, 1667 Commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Social Reformer, 1910 Commemoration of Octavia Hill, Worker for the Poor, 1912 Let us not inquire into the affairs of others that concern us not, but be busied within ourselves and our own spheres; ever remembering that to pry into the actions or interests of other men not under our charge may minister to pride, to tyranny, to uncharitableness, to trouble, but can never consist with modesty; unless where duty or the mere intentions of charity and relation do warrant it... Knock, therefore, at the door before you enter upon your neighbor's privacy: and remember, that there is no difference between entering his house and looking into it.