Feast of Richard of Chichester, Bishop, 1253 Commemoration of Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, Moral Philosopher, 1752 If indeed read more

Feast of Richard of Chichester, Bishop, 1253 Commemoration of Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, Moral Philosopher, 1752 If indeed there had been anything better and more profitable to the health of men than to suffer, Christ would surely have shown it by word and example.

Feast of Columba, Abbot of Iona, Missionary, 597 Commemoration of Ephrem of Syria, Deacon, Hymnographer, Teacher, 373 When everything read more

Feast of Columba, Abbot of Iona, Missionary, 597 Commemoration of Ephrem of Syria, Deacon, Hymnographer, Teacher, 373 When everything we receive from him is received and prized as fruit and pledge of his covenant love, then his bounties, instead of being set up as rivals and idols to draw our heart from him, awaken us to fresh exercises of gratitude and furnish us with fresh motives of cheerful obedience every hour.'.

It is characteristic of the thinking of our time that the problem of guilt and forgiveness has been pushed into read more

It is characteristic of the thinking of our time that the problem of guilt and forgiveness has been pushed into the background and seems to disappear more and more. Modern thought is impersonal. There are, even today, a great many people who understand that man needs salvation, but there are very few who are convinced that he needs forgiveness and redemption... Sin is understood as imperfection, sensuality, worldliness -- but not as guilt.

I believe that pure thinking will do more to educate a man than any other activity he can engage in. read more

I believe that pure thinking will do more to educate a man than any other activity he can engage in. To afford sympathetic entertainment to abstract ideas, to let one idea beget another, and that another, till the mind teems with them; to compare one idea with others, to weigh, to consider, evaluate, approve, respect, correct, refine; to join thought with thought like an architect till a whole edifice has been created within the mind; to travel back in imagination to the beginning of the creation and then to leap swiftly forward to the end of time; to bound upward through illimitable space and downward into the nucleus of an atom; and all this without so much as moving from our chair or opening the eyes--this is to soar above all the lower creation and come near to the angels of God.

Feast of the Conversion of Paul In his opinion the leaders of the Church had grown so used read more

Feast of the Conversion of Paul In his opinion the leaders of the Church had grown so used to the spectacle of the world neglecting the wisdom of Christ that they had ceased to be shocked by it and what was wanted was a renewal of the apostolic spirit among cardinals and archbishops and papal nuncios. It was no use preaching the gospel only to those who came to church to hear it. The gospel ought to be preached to those who didn't want to hear it as well: to industrialists in their offices, to clubmen in their windows, to workers in their yards and factories, to bibbers in their taverns, to harlots in their doorways, to all those should the sweet tidings of Christ be taught. It was a sorry matter for reflection that it was only heretics who dared to brave the sneers of the mob by crying aloud the Name of Jesus at street corners and in the market place.

Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles No man can be without his god. If he have not the true read more

Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles No man can be without his god. If he have not the true God to bless and sustain him, he will have some false god to delude and to betray him. The Psalmist knew this, and therefore he joined so closely forgetting the name of our God and holding up our hands to some strange god. For every man has something in which he hopes, on which he leans, to which he retreats and retires, with which he fills up his thoughts in empty spaces of time, when he is alone, when he lies sleepless on his bed, when he is not pressed with other thoughts; to which he betakes himself in sorrow or trouble, as that from which he shall draw comfort and strength -- his fortress, his citadel, his defence; and has not this a good right to be called his god? Man was made to lean on the Creator; but if not on Him, then he leans on the creature in one shape or another. The ivy cannot grow alone: it must twine round some support or other; if not the goodly oak, then the ragged thorn -- round any dead stick whatever, rather than have no stay or support at all. It is even so with the heart and affections of man; if they do not twine around God, they must twine around some meaner thing.

Commemoration of Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, 1556 One of the catchwords in contemporary read more

Commemoration of Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, 1556 One of the catchwords in contemporary Protestantism is that religion must aid man in "becoming human" or even "truly human" -- whatever that means -- and the "model" is Christ. Take the "obvious things" about Christ as listed by a contemporary minister: He was a popular and controversial preacher; He gathered a group of followers; He spent most of his time with the disinherited; He taught with authority; He never married; He never (so far as we know) held a job; He did not participate in public affairs; He did not have income, property, or an address; He was in bitter and frequent conflict with the religious and political authorities; He seemed to expect that the world would be eminently, radically, and supernaturally transformed; He attacked the traditions and values of his own people; He practically forced the authorities to prosecute and execute him. There is nothing exclusively religious, much less Christian, in this description, which, with a few exceptions, might apply also to Socrates or to "Che" Guevara. I asked many socially oriented ministers why they were Christians at all. Some said through faith, and some said that Christianity gave them courage and the motivation to endure (but so do other beliefs). Some said they hardly knew and that, if another, more acceptable, ideology came along, they would embrace it.

Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922 The truth is neither mine nor his nor another's; read more

Commemoration of Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator of the Scriptures, 1922 The truth is neither mine nor his nor another's; but belongs to us all whom Thou callest to partake of it, warning us terribly, not to account it private to ourselves, lest we be deprived of it.

Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397 It is a great mystery of divine love, that not even read more

Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397 It is a great mystery of divine love, that not even in Christ was exception made of the death of the body; and although He was the Lord of nature, He refused not the law of the flesh which He had taken upon Him. It is necessary for me to die; for Him it was not necessary.