Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433 Too many of us have a Christian vocabulary rather than a read more

Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433 Too many of us have a Christian vocabulary rather than a Christian experience. We think we are doing our duty when we're only talking about it.

Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373 The witness has never failed. Repeatedly, the light has shone read more

Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373 The witness has never failed. Repeatedly, the light has shone forth in the darkness, held aloft by hands that perished in the destruction of the institution that failed. Christians tend to defend the institution of their own creation with tenacity. It is institutional Christianity that has often shackled the Church... Many of the missionary institutions of the Church are expendable. They should always be treated as expendable. ... Leonard M. Outerbridge, The Lost Churches of China July 24, 1996 Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471 Men stand much upon the title of 'orthodox', by which is usually understood, not believing the doctrine of Christ or His apostles, but such opinions as are in vogue among such a party, such systems of divinity as have been compiled in haste by those whom we have in admiration; and whatever is not consonant to these little bodies of divinity, tho' possibly it agree well enough with the Word of God, is error and heresy; and whoever maintains it can hardly pass for a Christian among some angry and perverse people. I do not intend to plead for any error, but I would not have Christianity chiefly measured by matters of opinion. I know no such error and heresy as a wicked life... Of the two, I have more hopes of him that denies the divinity of Christ and lives otherwise soberly and righteously and godly in the world, than of the man who owns Christ to be the Son of God and lives like a child of the devil.

Continuing a short series on topics of Christian apologetics: I desire to exercise my faith in the most difficult read more

Continuing a short series on topics of Christian apologetics: I desire to exercise my faith in the most difficult point, for to credit ordinary and visible objects is not faith, but persuasion. Some believe the better for seeing Christ's Sepulchre, and when they have seen the Red Sea, doubt not the miracle. Now contrarily I bless myself, and am thankful that I lived not in the days of miracles, that I never saw Christ nor His Disciples; I would not have been one of those Israelites that passed the Red Sea, nor one of Christ's patients, on whom He wrought His wonders; then had my faith been thrust upon me, nor should I enjoy that greater blessing pronounced to all that believe and saw not.

No wonder if the Christians made an impression out of all proportion to their numbers. Conviction in the midst of read more

No wonder if the Christians made an impression out of all proportion to their numbers. Conviction in the midst of waverers, fiery energy in a world of disillusion, purity in an age of easy morals, firm brotherhood in a loose society, heroic courage in a time of persecution, formed a problem that could not be set aside, however polite society might affect to ignore it: and the religion of the future turned on the answer to it. Would the world be able to explain it better than the Christians, who said it was the living power of the risen Saviour?

Easter Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631 God, who is Almighty, Alpha and Omega, First and Last, read more

Easter Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631 God, who is Almighty, Alpha and Omega, First and Last, that God is also Love it self; and therefore this Love is Alpha and Omega, First and Last too. Consider Christ's proceeding with Peter in the ship, in the storm: First he suffered him to be in some danger in the storm, but then he visits him with that strong assurance, "Be not afraid, It is I": any testimony of his presence rectifies all. This puts Peter into that spiritual confidence and courage, "Lord bid me come to thee"; he hath a desire to be with Christ, but yet stays his bidding: he puts not himself into an unnecessary danger, without commandment: Christ bids him, and Peter comes: but yet, though Christ were in his sight, and even in the actual exercise of his love to him, so soon as he saw a gust, a storm, "He was afraid"; and Christ lets him fear, and lets him sink, and lets him cry, but he directs his fear and his cry to the right end: "Lord, save me"; and thereupon he stretched forth his hand and saved him... God puts his children into good ways, and he directs and protects them in those ways; for this is the constancy and perseverence of the love of Jesus Christ to us, as he is called in this text (Matt. 21:44), a stone.

Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356 Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, read more

Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356 Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932 Now what ought to have been the attitude of thoughtful Christians towards ecclesiastical authority, resulting from our Lord's whole attitude towards it? I think that the Catholic Church ought to have maintained and used ecclesiastical and sacerdotal authority, but that its maintenance and its use ought to have been accompanied with a continual fear. Because they had before them this fact, that however divinely authoritative, however securely resting on a basis of legitimate and genuine inspiration, yet the ecclesiastical authority of the Old Covenant, by no process of sudden revolution, but simply by a process of gradual development, was capable of becoming something so utterly alien in spirit from what it was intended to be, that when the Christ came, to prepare for whom and to welcome whom was the one reason for which it existed, it did in fact reject Him utterly.

Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326 If we with earnest effort could succeed To make our life one long, read more

Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326 If we with earnest effort could succeed To make our life one long, connected prayer, As lives of some, perhaps, have been and are; If, never leaving Thee, we have no need Our wandering spirits back again to lead Into Thy presence, but continued there Like angels standing on the highest stair Of the Sapphire Throne: this were to pray indeed!

Commemoration of Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945 He said to Judas when he betrayed Him: read more

Commemoration of Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945 He said to Judas when he betrayed Him: "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" Just as if He had said: "Thou hatest me, and art mine enemy, yet I love thee, and am thy friend." ... As though God in human nature were saying: "I am pure, simple goodness, and therefore I cannot will or desire or rejoice in, or do or give anything but goodness. If I am to reward thee for thy evil and wickedness, I must do it with goodness, for I am and have nothing else." ... Theologia Germanica June 7, 2002 Some will not believe in miracles because the laws of nature work uniformly. But their uniformity is undisturbed by human operations; the will of man wields, without cancelling, these mighty forces which surround us: and why may not the will of God do the same?

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 Having tried, we must hold fast [to the truth] (I read more

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 Having tried, we must hold fast [to the truth] (I Thes. 5:21), upon [the penalty of] the loss of a crown (Rev. 3:11); we must not let go for all the fleabitings of the present afflictions, etc. Having bought truth dear, we must not sell it cheap, not the least grain of it for the whole world; no, not for the saving of souls, though our own most precious; least of all for the bitter sweetening of a little vanishing pleasure.