Feast of Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers' Union, 1921 Thou knowest well how to excuse and color thine read more

Feast of Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers' Union, 1921 Thou knowest well how to excuse and color thine own deeds; but thou art not willing to receive the excuses of others. It were more just that thou shouldest accuse thyself, and excuse thy brother.

Let no man deceive you with vain words or vain hopes or false notions of a slight and sudden repentance. read more

Let no man deceive you with vain words or vain hopes or false notions of a slight and sudden repentance. As if heaven were a hospital founded on purpose to receive all sick and maimed persons that, when they can live no longer to the lusts of the flesh and the sinful pleasures of this world, can but put up a cold and formal petition to be admitted there. No, no, as sure as God is true, they shall never see the Kingdom of God who, instead of seeking it in the first place, make it their last refuge and retreat.

Continuing a short series about the early church: Christians love one another. They never fail to help widows; read more

Continuing a short series about the early church: Christians love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If a man has something, he gives freely to the man who has nothing. If they see a stranger, Christians take him home and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don't consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God. And if they hear that one of them is in jail, or persecuted for professing the name of their redeemer, they all give him what he needs -- if it is possible, they bail him out. If one of them is poor and there isn't enough food to go around, they fast several days to give him the food he needs... This is really a new kind of person. There is something divine in them.

Does not the public repudiation of the whole Christian scheme of life in a large part of what was once read more

Does not the public repudiation of the whole Christian scheme of life in a large part of what was once known as Christendom force one to confront the question whether the path of Wisdom is not rather to attempt to work out a Christian doctrine of modern society and to order our national life in accordance with it? Those who would give a quick, easy or confident answer to this question have failed to understand it. It cannot even be seriously considered without a profound awareness of the extent to which Christian ideas have lost their hold over, or faded from the consciousness of, large sections of the population; of the far-reaching changes that would be called for in the structure, institutions and activities of existing society, which is in many of its features a complete denial of the Christian understanding of the meaning and end of man's existence; and of the stupendous and costly spiritual, moral, and intellectual effort that any genuine attempt to order national life in accordance with the Christian understanding of life would demand.

The New Testament is uniformly consistent in seeing something as being wrong in man himself... These analyses of man are read more

The New Testament is uniformly consistent in seeing something as being wrong in man himself... These analyses of man are based on man's responsibility for his evil actions; they are not saying that it is simply his motions that have gone astray: it is man's will that is the central problem.

Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274 My God, I love Thee -- not because I hope read more

Feast of Thomas Aquinas, Priest, Teacher of the Faith, 1274 My God, I love Thee -- not because I hope for heaven thereby, Nor yet because who love Thee not must die eternally. Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me upon the Cross embrace; For me didst nails and spear endure, and manifold disgrace. Why, then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, should I not love Thee well? Not for the hope of winning heaven, or of escaping hell-- Not with the hope of gaining aught, nor seeking a reward, But as Thyself hast loved me, O ever-loving Lord! E'en then I love Thee and will love, and in Thy praise will sing Solely because Thou art my God and my eternal King. ... Anonymous Latin Hymn (Edward Caswall, translator) January 29, 2001 No man desires anything so eagerly as God desires to bring men to the knowledge of Himself. God is always ready, but we are very unready. God is near us, but we are far from Him. God is within, and we are without. God is friendly -- we are estranged.

In the days of His earthly ministry, only those could speak to him who came where He was: if He read more

In the days of His earthly ministry, only those could speak to him who came where He was: if He was in Galilee, men could not find Him in Jerusalem; if He was in Jerusalem, men could not find Him in Galilee. His Ascension means that He is perfectly united with God; we are with Him wherever we are present to God; and that is everywhere and always. Because He is "in Heaven" He is everywhere on earth: because He is ascended, He is here now. Our devotion is not to hold us by the empty tomb; it must lift up our hearts to heaven so that we too "in heart and mind thither ascend and with Him continually dwell": it must also send us forth into the world to do His will; and these are not two things, but one.

Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 The term "baptism in (or of) the read more

Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 The term "baptism in (or of) the Spirit" conjures up the idea of a separate initiatory experience which every Christian ought to enjoy, whereas evangelicalism is noted for its stress upon a "conversion" experience which marks the beginning of the believer's relationship to his Lord. Too often, alas, conversion has been the end as well as the beginning, with the result that some Christians have looked back, with mingled delight and wistfulness to a past event that now seems to have diminished relevance to daily living. We can fully understand, then, the appeal of a movement which promises a new dimension of Christian living, there in the New Testament, and now available in everyday experience.

Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, & John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535 We must always speak of read more

Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, & John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535 We must always speak of the efficacy of the ministry in such a manner that the entire praise of the work may be reserved for God alone.