Take care that all your offerings be free, and of your own, that has cost you something; so that ye read more

Take care that all your offerings be free, and of your own, that has cost you something; so that ye may not offer of that which is another man's, or that which ye are entrusted withal, and not your own.

Maundy Thursday Jesus invites His saints To meet around His board; Here pardon'd rebels sit and read more

Maundy Thursday Jesus invites His saints To meet around His board; Here pardon'd rebels sit and hold Communion with their Lord. For food He give His flesh, He bids us drink His blood; Amazing favor! matchless grace Of our descending God! This holy bread and wine Maintains our fainting breath, By union with our living Lord And interest in His death. Let all our powers be join'd His glorious name to raise; Pleasure and love fill every mind, And every voice be praise.

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.

If I crave hungrily to be used to show the way of liberty to a soul in bondage, instead of read more

If I crave hungrily to be used to show the way of liberty to a soul in bondage, instead of caring only that it be delivered; if I nurse my disappointment when I fail, instead of asking that another the word of release may be given, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Thank God, our Christian chance is not permanently gone from us [in world affiars]. Ecclesiastics seems for the most part read more

Thank God, our Christian chance is not permanently gone from us [in world affiars]. Ecclesiastics seems for the most part to have failed, failed both man and God; but God has not failed, Jesus has not failed. The God-man still remains the only leader into cooperation whose wisdom is sufficient for a permanent, competent, and free Society. The dictators and would-be dictators will not do. They overreach themselves. Eventually they will destroy one another, and kill off most of us. But even that disaster will not eradicate the desire of men and women to lay down lives for that which is more than themselves. Men will continue to demand not the freedom from that degree of unity for which the dictatorships stand, but rather a finer, more noble, more perceptive kind of unity: a human solidarity which is not nationalistic but world-embracing, a human integration which in aim and purpose is not secularist but spiritual. What the world unwittingly is groping after is allegiance to the eternal, the compassionate, the completely integrating Christ.

Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739 There never was a pain that read more

Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739 There never was a pain that befell a man, no frustration or discouragement, however insignificant, that, transferred to God, did not affect God endlessly more than man, and was not infinitely more contrary to Him. So, if God puts up with it for the sake of some good He foresees for you, and if you are willing to suffer what God suffers, and to take what comes to you through Him, then whatever it is, it becomes divine in itself; shame becomes honor, bitterness becomes sweet, and gross darkness, clear light. Everything takes its flavor from God and becomes divine; everything that happens [reveals] God when a man's mind works that way; things all have this one taste; and therefore God is the same to this man alike in life's bitterest moments and sweetest pleasures.

Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor, 1226 The great wonder is the living read more

Feast of Francis of Assisi, Friar, Deacon, Founder of the Friars Minor, 1226 The great wonder is the living fountain of love and joy which Christ poured into and through this 'poor little man'. [Francis] always knew where the real miracle lay. It was not in things that happened to his body, though they were wonderful enough. It was not to be found in the fact that birds and beasts, even the wolf of Gubbio, felt the spell of his spirit. It was the radiance of light and love breaking across the darkness and hate of the world and his time. He loved lepers. He loved robbers and changed their lives. He loved beggars in their rags. He loved rich men, too, and members of the Church, who needed him as much as the robbers did. He brought Christianity out of forms and creeds and services into the open air, in action and into the movements of life. He changed the entire line of march of religion in the Western World. Brother Masseo, half jesting, asked him once why the whole world was running after him, not very comely, not very wise, not of noble birth. "Why after thee?" "God chose me," Francis answered, "because He could find no one more worthless, and He wished by me to confound the nobility and grandeur, the strength and beauty and learning of the world." But the real answer is that here at last in this wonderful man was an organ of that Spirit which was in Christ, and a marvelous transmitter of it to the world. The divine agape went out into men's lives through him. Here was a childlike lover of men, ready, if need be, to be crucified for love, but also ready in humble everyday tasks to reveal this love.

God has called us to shine, just as much as Daniel was sent into Babylon to shine. Let no one read more

God has called us to shine, just as much as Daniel was sent into Babylon to shine. Let no one say that he cannot shine because he has not so much influence as some others may have. What God wants you to do is to use the influence you have. Daniel probably did not have much influence down in Babylon at first, but God soon gave him more because he was faithful and used what he had.

We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic read more

We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.