Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 Incarnate Word! Thou Word of God alone! To live of read more

Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 Incarnate Word! Thou Word of God alone! To live of love, 'tis to abide with Thee. Thou knowest I love Thee, Jesus Christ, my Own! Thy Spirit's fire of love enkindleth me. By loving Thee, I draw the Father here Down to my heart, to stay with me always. Blest Trinity! Thou art my prisoner dear, Of love, to-day.

Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866 Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear, It is not night read more

Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866 Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear, It is not night if Thou be near; O may no earth-born cloud arise To hide Thee from thy servant's eyes.

Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 We must try to be at one and the same time read more

Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 We must try to be at one and the same time for the Church and against the Church. They alone can serve her faithfully whose consciences are continually exercised as to whether they ought not, for Christ's sake, to leave her.

Concluding a short series on authenticity: Think thyself at that Tribunal, that judgment, now: Where thou shalt not read more

Concluding a short series on authenticity: Think thyself at that Tribunal, that judgment, now: Where thou shalt not only hear all thy sinful works, and words, and thoughts repeated, which thou thy self hadst utterly forgot, but thou shalt hear thy good works, thine alms, thy coming to Church, thy hearing of Sermons, given in evidence against thee, because they had hypocrisy mingled in them; yea, thou shalt find even thy repentance to condemn thee, because thou madest that but a door to a relapse.

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 Utopias of historical progress cannot seduce those who believe in Christ. read more

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 Utopias of historical progress cannot seduce those who believe in Christ. Utopias are the straws to which those cling who have no real hope; utopias are as unattractive as they are incredible, for those who know what real hope is. Utopias are not a consequence of true hope but a poor substitute for it and therefore a hindrance and not a help. The hope that is in Jesus Christ is different from all utopias of universal progress. It is based on the revelation of the crucified one. It is, therefore, not an uncertain speculation about the future but a certainty based upon what God has already revealed. One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without knowing for certain that God's victory over all powers of destruction, including death, is the end towards which the time process moves as its own end.

There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own read more

There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other. ... The Confessions of St. Augustine April 4, 1998 The merit of persons is to be no rule of our charity; but we are to do acts of kindness to those that least of all deserve it.

Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633 Love is that liquor sweet and most divine Which my God feels as read more

Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633 Love is that liquor sweet and most divine Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.

Devotion is the real spiritual sweetness which takes away all bitterness from mortifications, and prevents consolations from disagreeing with the read more

Devotion is the real spiritual sweetness which takes away all bitterness from mortifications, and prevents consolations from disagreeing with the soul; it cures the poor of sadness, and the rich of presumption; it keeps the oppressed from feeling desolate, and the prosperous from insolence: it averts sadness from the lonely, and dissipation from social life; it is as warmth in winter and as refreshing dew in summer; it knows how to abound and how to suffer want, how to profit alike by honour and by contempt; it accepts gladness and sadness with an even mind, and fills men's hearts with a wondrous sweetness.

Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167 Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689 God's read more

Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167 Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689 God's unchangeableness is the very foundation of desire and hope and activity in things religious as in things natural. The uniformity of nature's operations in the one, and the constancy of God's promises in the other, give aim and certainty to events.