Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622 Be patient, not only with respect to the main trials which beset you, but also under the accidental and accessory annoyances which arise out of them. We often find people who imagine themselves ready to accept a trial in itself who are impatient of its consequences.
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Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433 One can say: "I will, but my body does not obey read more
Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433 One can say: "I will, but my body does not obey me"; but not: "My will does not obey me".
Lord, remove every barrier the enemy has put in place, so that the only barrier which remains is the cross read more
Lord, remove every barrier the enemy has put in place, so that the only barrier which remains is the cross itself.
Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564 We think of the early sacrifices read more
Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564 We think of the early sacrifices of those early Christians; but what struck them was the immensity of their inheritance in Christ. Take that one phrase (surely the most daring that the mind of man ever conceived), "We are the heirs of God." That is what they felt about it, that not God Himself could have a fuller life than theirs, and that even He would share all that He had with them! Tremendous words that stagger through their sheer audacity! And yet, here we are, whispering about the steepness of the way, the soreness of the self-denial, the heaviness of the cross, whining and puling, giving to those outside the utterly grotesque impression that religion is a gloomy kind of thing, a dim, monastic twilight where we sit and shiver miserably, out of the sunshine that God made for us, and meant us to enjoy -- that it is all a doing that nobody would naturally choose, and refraining from what everyone would naturally take: a species of insurance money grudgingly doled out lest some worse thing come upon us.
Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796 If one thing is clear as soon as read more
Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796 If one thing is clear as soon as the Church becomes serious about its missionary and ministerial calling for the world, it is that two difficult roads in particular have to be trodden: first, the road towards overcoming the scantiness of its knowledge of the world of today, and its ignoring of what really goes on in the world under its surface; secondly, the road towards reforming its spirit, atmosphere, and inherited structure, in so far as they give no room for new vitality... What can and must be said and resaid, with all gratitude for what in many places is already happening, is that a fearless scrutiny and revision of structure is one of the most urgent aspects of a renewal of the Church.
Feast of Andrew the Apostle Without ordinances, men would be much more mischievous and ungovernable than dogs and read more
Feast of Andrew the Apostle Without ordinances, men would be much more mischievous and ungovernable than dogs and cattle. And few have come to the knowledge of the truth, but what have begun with holy practices and ordinances, and exercised themselves therein so long as they knew nothing more nor better.
This therefore is a certain truth, that hell and death, curse and misery, can never cease or be removed from read more
This therefore is a certain truth, that hell and death, curse and misery, can never cease or be removed from the creation till the will of the creature is again as it came from God and is only a Spirit of Love that wills nothing but goodness. All the whole fallen creation, stand it never so long, must groan and travail in pain, till every contrariety to the divine will is entirely taken from every creature. Which is only saying, that all the powers and properties of nature are a misery to themselves, can only work in disquiet and wrath, till the birth of the Son of God brings them under the dominion and power of the Spirit of Love.
Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles When our lives are focused on God, awe and wonder lead read more
Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles When our lives are focused on God, awe and wonder lead us to worship God, filling our inner being with a fullness we would never have thought possible. Awe prepares the way in us for the power of God to transform us and this transformation of our inner attitudes can only take place when awe leads us in turn to wonder, admiration, reverence, surrender, and obedience toward God. ... James Houston, The Transforming Power of Prayer July 23, 2000 Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373 Christ came, not so much to preach the Gospel, as that there might be a Gospel to preach.
It may fortune thou wilt say, "I am content to do the best for my neighbor that I can, saving read more
It may fortune thou wilt say, "I am content to do the best for my neighbor that I can, saving myself harmless." I promise thee, Christ will not hear their excuse; for He himself suffered harm for our sakes, and for our salvation was put to extreme death. I wis, if it had pleased Him, He might have saved us and never felt pain; but in suffering pains and death He did give us example, and teach us how we should do one for another, as He did for us all; for, as He saith himself, "he that will be mine, let him deny himself, and follow me, in bearing my cross and suffering my pains." Wherefore we must needs suffer pain with Christ to do our neighbor good, as well with the body and all his members, as with heart and mind.
It's said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies - because you never know when you'll have to read more
It's said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies - because you never know when you'll have to work with them.
