... They haled him, trembling, to the Judgement Seat. "O Lord, behold the man who made the nails that read more

... They haled him, trembling, to the Judgement Seat. "O Lord, behold the man who made the nails that pierced Thy feet!" The Master laid a thin, scarred hand upon the shame-bowed head. "They were good nails," he said...

Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642 To have faith is to rely upon Christ, the Person, read more

Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642 To have faith is to rely upon Christ, the Person, with the whole heart. It is not the understanding of the mind, not the theological opinion, not creed, not organization, not ritual. It is the koinonia of the whole personality with God and Christ, ... This experience of communion with Christ is itself the continual attitude of dependence on the Saviour which we call faith.

Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170 Owing to the pressure of an ever-increasing number of subjects read more

Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170 Owing to the pressure of an ever-increasing number of subjects introduced into the curriculum of a school, it is only too possible for men to be held to be educated and intelligent without ever having seriously tested their intelligence upon, say, the Book of Job, or upon the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. No doubt there are very good excuses for this lack of discipline. Many forward-thinking men will tell you that the Bible is not worth serious attention, that it is simple, trivial, and out-of-date; and so, even though you may hear the Bible read, read it yourselves, or even study it, the tension of your energy may be relaxed -- subtly relaxed. But is quite certain that a widespread relaxation of the tension of Biblical interpretation has disastrous effects. For there is no corruption that threatens a country so surely as the corruption or sentimentalizing of its religion; and there is no corruption of the Christian religion so swift as that which sets in when the Church loses its strict Biblical discipline.

One who receives this Word, and by it salvation, receives along with it the duty of passing this Word on... read more

One who receives this Word, and by it salvation, receives along with it the duty of passing this Word on... Where there is no mission, there is no Church, and where there is neither Church nor mission, there is no faith.

Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866 The word "carnal" is ambiguous. "Flesh" means sin and corruption, and read more

Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866 The word "carnal" is ambiguous. "Flesh" means sin and corruption, and is opposed to the Spirit; but embodiment, outward manifestation, concrete form, is not opposed to the Spirit. "Carnal" means sinful and hostile to God; the evil spirits, who we suppose possess no bodies, are carnal, but the Son of God became man, the Word was made flesh, He took upon Him a human body as well as a reasonable soul. God's ways and thoughts are not ours. While the abstract and ethereal imaginations of human reason create a god, who is not spirit, and whom they do not worship in spirit and truth, the God of the Bible is God manifest in the flesh -- Emmanuel... Did not Jesus, after His resurrection, eat before His disciples, who gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and honey? Is not the earth to be the scene of God's triumph and manifestation? Whatever is revealed in spiritual, whatever man imagines is carnal; the end of the ways of God is embodiment.

We must face the recognition that what the early Christians saw in Jesus Christ, and what we must accept if read more

We must face the recognition that what the early Christians saw in Jesus Christ, and what we must accept if we look at him rather than at our imaginations about him, was not a person characterized by universal benignity, loving God and loving man. His love of God and his love of neighbor are two distinct virtues that have no common quality but only a common source. Love of God is adoration of the only true good; it is gratitude to the bestower of all gifts; it is joy in holiness; it is "consent to Being." But the love of man is pitiful rather than adoring; it is giving and forgiving rather than grateful. It suffers for them in their viciousness and profaneness; it does not consent to accept them as they are, but calls them to repentance. The love of God is nonpossessive Eros; the love of man pure Agape; the love of God is passion; the love of man, compassion. There is duality here, but not of like-minded interest in two great values, God and man. It is rather the duality of the Son of Man and Son of God, who loves God as man should love Him, and loves man as only God can love, with powerful pity for those who are foundering.

Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary Concluding a Lenten series on prayer: Prayer is read more

Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary Concluding a Lenten series on prayer: Prayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us. It may be that one of our great faults in prayer is that we talk too much and listen too little. When prayer is at its highest we wait in silence for God's voice to us; we linger in His presence for His peace and His power to flow over us and around us; we lean back in His everlasting arms and feel the serenity of perfect security in Him.

Next to the wicked lives of men, nothing is so great a disparagement and weakening to religion as the divisions read more

Next to the wicked lives of men, nothing is so great a disparagement and weakening to religion as the divisions of Christians.

Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460 Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: As a read more

Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460 Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy has failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. It is the only power in the world that seems to overcome the so-called "laws of nature"; the occasions on which prayer has dramatically done this have been termed "miracles". But a constant, quieter miracle takes place hourly in the hearts of men and women who have discovered that prayer supplies them with a steady flow of sustaining power in their daily lives.