Lord, come away; Why dost thou stay? Thy road is ready and thy paths made straight With longing expectations wait read more

Lord, come away; Why dost thou stay? Thy road is ready and thy paths made straight With longing expectations wait The consecration of thy beautious feet. Ride on triumphantly; behold! we lay Our lusts and proud wills in thy way. Hosannah! welcome to our hearts: Lord, here Thou hast a temple too, and full as dear As that of Sion; and as full of sin -- Nothing but thieves and robbers dwell therein; Enter and chase them forth, and cleanse the floor, Crucify them, that they may never more Profane that holy place Where thou hast chose to set thy face. And then if our still tongues shall be Mute in the praises of thy deity, The stones out of the temple wall Shall cry aloud and call Hosannah! and thy glorious footsteps greet.

Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: I have called my material surroundings a stage set. In this I can read more

Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: I have called my material surroundings a stage set. In this I can act. And you may well say "act". For what I call "myself" (for all practical, everyday purposes) is also a dramatic construction; memories, glimpses in the shavinglass, and snatches of the very fallible activity called "introspection", are the principal ingredients. Normally I call this construction "me"' and the stage set "the real world". Now the moment of prayer is for me -- or involves for me as its condition -- the awareness, the reawakened awareness, that this "real world" and "real self" are very far from being rock-bottom realities. I cannot, in the flesh, leave the stage, either to go behind the scenes or to take my seat in the pit; but I can remember that these regions exist. And I also remember that my apparent self -- this clown or hero or super -- under his grease-paint is a real person with an off-stage life. The dramatic person could not tread the stage unless he concealed a real person: unless the real and unknown I existed, I would not even make mistakes about the imagined me. And in prayer this real I struggles to speak, for once, from his real being, and to address, for once, not the other actors, but -- what shall I call Him? The Author, for He invented us all? The Producer, for He controls all? Or the Audience, for He watches, and will judge, the performance?

Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 I find more marks of authenticity in the Bible read more

Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 I find more marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatever.

One way to recall the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not read more

One way to recall the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times. You should keep it strictly in the Presence of God; and , being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wonderings.

Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 Our wills are not ours to be crushed and broken; they are read more

Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 Our wills are not ours to be crushed and broken; they are ours to be trained and strengthened. Our affections are not ours to be blighted and crucified; they are ours to be deepened and purified. The rich opportunities of life are not held out to us only to be snatched away by an invisible hand patiently waiting for the hour when the cup is sweetest; they are given to us that we may grow, alike through their rise or their withdrawal. They are real, they are sweet, and they are worthy of our longing for them; we gain nothing by calling them dross, or the world an illusion, or ourselves the victims of deception, or by exalting renunciation as the highest virtue. When these opportunities are denied us, it is a real, not an imaginary, loss which we sustain; and our part is not that of bare renunciation, of simple surrender; our part is to recognize the loss, to bear the pain, and to find a deeper and richer life in doing the will of God.

Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957 When once a man begins to read more

Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957 When once a man begins to build a system, the very gifts and qualities which might serve in the investigation of truth, become the greatest hindrances to it. He must make the different parts of the scheme fit into each other; his dexterity is shown, not in detecting facts, but in cutting them square... I hope you will not forget that the Bible is the history of God's acts to men, not of men's thoughts about God. It begins from Him. He is acting and speaking in it throughout.

Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836 Let no one suppose that we may attain to this true light read more

Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836 Let no one suppose that we may attain to this true light and perfect knowledge, or life of Christ, by much questioning, or by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor yet by high skill and great learning. Yea, so long as a man taketh account of anything which is this or that, whether it be himself, or any other creature; or doeth anything, or frameth a purpose, for the sake of his own likings or desires or opinions or ends, he cometh not unto the life of Christ.

Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Teacher, 430 Too late came I to love thee, O thou Beauty so read more

Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Teacher, 430 Too late came I to love thee, O thou Beauty so ancient and so fresh, yea too late came I to love thee. And behold, thou wert within me, and I out of myself, where I made search for thee: I ugly rushed headlong upon those beautiful things thou hast made. Thou indeed wert with me; but I was not with thee: these beauties kept me far enough from thee: even those, which unless they were in thee, should not be at all.

Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 Christians must learn again what Christians have always known -- how read more

Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 Christians must learn again what Christians have always known -- how to live without immediate hopes in the world.