Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100 One can believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and feel read more

Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100 One can believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and feel no personal loyalty to Him at all -- indeed, pay no attention whatever to His commandments and His will for one's life. One can believe intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying.

Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642 We do not very often come across opportunities for exercising strength, read more

Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642 We do not very often come across opportunities for exercising strength, magnanimity, or magnificence; but gentleness, temperance, modesty, and humility, are graces which ought to color everything we do. There may be virtues of a more exalted mold, but... these are the most continually called for in daily life.

Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633 If I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, read more

Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633 If I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, surely I am bound, so far as it is in my power, to practice what I pray for.

There is much that is bad and meaningless in the universe, and the universe contains men who know that much read more

There is much that is bad and meaningless in the universe, and the universe contains men who know that much is bad and meaningless. The Christian answer is that this is a good world gone wrong, but with a memory of what it should have been.

Anyone can believe that Jesus was a god: what is so hard to credit is that He who hung upon read more

Anyone can believe that Jesus was a god: what is so hard to credit is that He who hung upon the cross was the God. That is what you are asked as Christians to believe. And it is the sword, glittering but fearful. It must cut your life away from the standards of this world, away from its thought and its measures, no less than its aims and hopes. Hard and bitter is the separation, and you will be parted from many great and noble men, some perhaps your own teachers, who can accept about Jesus everything but the one thing needful. The Christian faith, if accepted, drives a wedge between its own adherents and the disciples of every other philosophy or religion, however lofty or soaring. And they will not see this; they will tell you that really your views and theirs are the same thing, and only differ in words, which, if only you were a little more highly trained, you would understand. Even among Christ's nominal servants there are many who think a little good-will is all that is needed to bridge the gulf -- a little amiability and mutual explanation, a more careful use of phrases, would soon accommodate Christianity to fashionable modes of speaking and thinking, and destroy all causes of provocation. So they would. But they would destroy also its one inalienable attraction: that of being... a wonder, and a beauty, and a terror -- no dull and drab system of thought, no mere symbolic idealism.

Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617 For the saints in the world to come, there can be no read more

Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617 For the saints in the world to come, there can be no change in the object of their faith and hope and love. They have Christ, they have God, and they are satisfied. There can be no monotony in the contemplation and worship of the Infinite. Their great possession is unchangeable, but also inexhaustible; no change is possible where all is love and truth. The centre of the heavenly life is fixed and immovable, but the circumference may ever be advancing towards the centre, the saints may ever be drawing nearer and nearer to the goal which they can never reach. There may be progress in knowledge, progress in enjoyment, progress in service -- a progress which at every point will open up new wonders, new opportunities, new outlooks into a greater future, and as that future unfolds itself, new and unexpected scopes for the energies of redeemed men, new ways of fellowship with God in Christ, new companionships with the good and great of past generations, and with angelic beings who have watched and guarded us in life, and rejoiced over our repentance, and are ready to welcome us into the eternal mansions, and will share our worship and our work, our service and our joy, in the ages to come.

My biological work convinced me that the One who was declared dead by Nietzsche, and silent by Sartre, actually is read more

My biological work convinced me that the One who was declared dead by Nietzsche, and silent by Sartre, actually is very much alive and speaking to us through all things.

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 If you have failings, ask read more

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 If you have failings, ask God often whether it be His honour and pleasure to take them away from you; for without Him you can do nothing. If he takes them away, thank Him; but if He does not do that, you will bear it no more, however, as the defect of a sin, but as a great trial with which you are to gain merit and practice patience. You should be content, whether or not He accords you His gift.

Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary As out of Jesus' affliction came a read more

Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary As out of Jesus' affliction came a new sense of God's love and a new basis for love between men, so out of our affliction we may grasp the splendor of God's love and how to love one another. Thus the consummation of the two commandments was on Golgotha; and the Cross is, at once, their image and their fulfillment.