Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says "Amen" read more

Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says "Amen" and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving Him your ideas.

Feast of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899 Commemoration of Cedd, Founding Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop read more

Feast of Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899 Commemoration of Cedd, Founding Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664 When God would make His name known to mankind, He could find no better word than "I AM". "I am that I am," says God, "I change not." Everyone and everything else measures from that fixed point.

We have to repent of our blindness, our lukewarmness, and our disobedience, and turn back to the central truth of read more

We have to repent of our blindness, our lukewarmness, and our disobedience, and turn back to the central truth of Christ as Lord and Saviour; an ethical system will not save us here, nor a timid sentimentalism, nor an excited emotional return, nor a dilettante mysticism. We have to find that deep contrition which is the condition of His abiding. Repentance is not a mere feeling of sorrow or contrition for an act of wrongdoing. The regret I feel when I act impatiently or speak crossly is not repentance... Repentance is contrition for what we are in our fundamental beings, that we are wrong in our deepest roots because our internal government is by Self and not by God. And it is an activity of the whole person. Unless I will to be different, the mind will not follow. True repentance brings an urge to be different, because of the sense of the incessant movement of what I am, forming, forming, forming what I shall be in the years to come. ... The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn January 11, 1996 Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915 Every virtue is a form of obedience to God. Every evil word or act is a form of rebellion against Him. This may not be clear at first; but, if we think patiently, we shall find that it is true. Why were you angry? You will probably find that it was because you were not willing to accept the world as God has made it, or because you were not willing to leave it to God to deal with the people that He has made.

Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877 Nobody seriously believes the universe was made by God read more

Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877 Nobody seriously believes the universe was made by God without being persuaded that He takes care of His works.

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.

Men have, for the most part, done with lamenting their lost faith. Sentimental tears over the happy, simple Christendom of read more

Men have, for the most part, done with lamenting their lost faith. Sentimental tears over the happy, simple Christendom of their fathers are a thing of the past. They are proclaiming now their contempt for Christ's character, and their disgust at the very name of love. Scorn and hatred, difference and division, must be more than ever our lot, if we would be the followers of Christ in these days. Conventional religion and polite unbelief are gone forever.

Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974 What will move you? Will pity? Here is distress never the like. read more

Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974 What will move you? Will pity? Here is distress never the like. Will duty? Here is a person never the like. Will fear? Here is wrath never the like. Will remorse? Here are sins never the like. Will kindness? Here is love never the like. Will bounty? Here are benefits never the like. Will all these? Here they be all, all in the highest degree.

He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross -- even when it is read more

He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross -- even when it is leading him through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089 The great danger facing all of us... is read more

Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089 The great danger facing all of us... is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel [that] life has no meaning at all -- not these things. The danger is that we may fail to perceive life's greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to tender the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God -- and be content to have it so -- that is the danger: that some day we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with husks and trappings of life and have really missed life itself. For life without God, to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible. That is what one prays one's friends may be spared -- satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle or thrill that comes from a friendship with the Father.