There is more hid in Christ than we shall ever learn, here or there either; but they that begin first read more

There is more hid in Christ than we shall ever learn, here or there either; but they that begin first to inquire will soonest be gladdened with revelation; and with them He will be best pleased, for the slowness of His disciples troubled Him of old. To say that we must wait for the other world, to know the mind of Him who came to this world to give Himself to us, seems to me the foolishness of a worldly and lazy spirit. The Son of God is the teacher of men, giving to them of His Spirit -- that Spirit which manifests the deep things of God, being to a man the mind of Christ. The great heresy of the Church of the present day is unbelief in this Spirit.

Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957 Above all, desire to please Christ; dread read more

Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957 Above all, desire to please Christ; dread his disapproval above everything else.

Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866 Continuing a short series of verse on Christ: The day of resurrection! read more

Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866 Continuing a short series of verse on Christ: The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad; The passover of gladness, The passover of God. From death to life eternal, From this world to the sky, Our Christ hath brought us over With hymns of victory. Our hearts be pure from evil, That we may see aright The Lord in rays eternal Of resurrection light, And, list'ning to His accents, May hear, so calm and plain His own "All hail!" and, hearing, May raise the victor strain. Now let the heav'ns be joyful, Let earth her song begin, Let the round world keep triumph And all that is therein; Invisible and visible, Their notes let all things blend; For Christ the Lord has risen -- Our Joy that has no end.

Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525 We should not draw too sharp a distinction between this "barren land" read more

Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525 We should not draw too sharp a distinction between this "barren land" or "wilderness" of our pilgrimage, and the sweet home that God has prepared. We all know the changes and chances of this troublous life; but we can also know in this vale of tears the healthful spirit of His grace. Health for the whole man is God's gracious purpose for us here and now, often frustrated, often prevented by unbelief. The life of the saints in light must not emphasize for us simply the contrast between their state and ours, but rather the beginning of the gift of eternal life and all its benefits of inner strength and peace amid earthly vicissitudes. .

I ought to consider the business which occurs in the daily order of Providence as the work which God appoints read more

I ought to consider the business which occurs in the daily order of Providence as the work which God appoints me; and I should apply myself to it in a manner worthy of God, namely, with exactness and with tranquility. I ought not to neglect anything or be passionately vehement about anything, for it is dangerous to do the work of the Lord negligently, on the one hand; or, on the other, to appropriate it to ourselves by self-love and false zeal. In this latter case, our actions arise from a principle of self-will: we are eager and anxious for the success, and that under the pretense of seeking the glory of God. O, God, grant me Thy grace to enable me to be faithful in action and resigned in success! My only business is to do Thy will, and to do it as Thy will, not forgetting Thee in the performance of it.

The fashion of the day has been to attempt to convert by insisting on conversion; to exhort men to be read more

The fashion of the day has been to attempt to convert by insisting on conversion; to exhort men to be converted; to tell them to be sure they look at Christ instead of simply holding up Christ; to tell them to have faith rather than to supply its object; to lead them to work up their minds, instead of impressing upon them the thought of Him who can savingly work in them; to bid them to be sure their faith is justifying, that it is not dead, formal, self-righteous, or merely moral, instead of delineating Him whose image, fully delineated, destroys deadness, formality, self-righteousness; to rely on words, vehemence, eloquence, and the like, rather than to aim at conveying the one great idea, whether in words or not.

Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942 The apostles were moved, not so much by an intellectual read more

Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942 The apostles were moved, not so much by an intellectual apprehension, as by a spiritual illumination. They met men, and the need of those men whom they met cried aloud to them. Their own desire for the revelation of the glory of Jesus in the salvation of men went out towards those whom they met, and was immediately answered by the recognition of the need of those whom they met for Jesus Christ.

Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865 Let a man but separate himself from read more

Feast of Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and Sweden, 865 Let a man but separate himself from all contingencies and from all works, and there will come over him in this state of emptiness a peace which is very great, lovely, and agreeable, and which is in itself no sin since it is part of our human nature. But when it is taken for a veritable possessing of God, or unity with God, then it is sin, for it is in reality nothing else than a state of thorough passivity and apathy untouched by the power from on high -- a purely negative state from which (if one in arrogance calls it divine) nothing follows but blindness, failure of understanding, and a disinclination to be governed by the rules of ordinary righteousness.

Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200 Frightful this is in a sense, but it is read more

Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200 Frightful this is in a sense, but it is true, and every one who has merely some little knowledge of the human heart can verify it: there is nothing to which a man holds so desperately as to his sin.