Well, to begin with, you can pray. Pray!, you say scornfully, pray! I knew it would all fizzle out, and read more

Well, to begin with, you can pray. Pray!, you say scornfully, pray! I knew it would all fizzle out, and come to nothing. I could pray! Yes, you could pray, and, whatever you may think about it -- using it as a poor makeshift of a thing much lower than a second-best, not really a best at all, on which men fall back only when they can do nothing effectively, and are too fidgety to be able to do nothing at all -- Christ holds that prayer is a tremendous power which achieves what, without it, was a sheer impossibility. And this amazing thing you can set into operation. And the fact that you are not so using it, and simply don't believe in it and its efficiency and efficacy as our fathers did, and that so many nowadays agree with you, is certainly a major reason why the churches are so cold, and the promises seem so tardy of fulfillment.

Men expect that religion should cost them no pains, that happiness should drop into their laps without any design and read more

Men expect that religion should cost them no pains, that happiness should drop into their laps without any design and endeavor on their part, and that, after they have done what they please while they live, God should snatch them up to heaven when they die. But though "the commandments of God be not grievous", yet it is fit to let men know that they are not thus easy.

Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647 Christ claims our help in many a strange disguise: Now, read more

Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647 Christ claims our help in many a strange disguise: Now, fever ridden, on a bed He lies; Homeless He wanders now beneath the stars; Now counts the number of His prison bars; Now bends beside us, crowned with hoary hairs. No need have we to climb the heavenly stairs And press our kisses on His feet and hands; In every man that suffers, He, the Man of Sorrows, stands. ... Anonymous March 5, 1998 When we have, through Christ, obtained mercy for our persons, we need not fear but that we shall have suitable and seasonable help for our duties.

Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 You can also offer your prayers, obedience, and endurance of dryness read more

Feast of Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 You can also offer your prayers, obedience, and endurance of dryness to Our Lord, for the good of other souls, and then you have practiced intercession. Never mind if it all seems for the time very second-hand. The less you get out of it, the nearer it approaches to being something worth offering; and the humiliation of not being able to feel as devout as we want to be, is excellent for most of us. Use vocal prayer... very slowly, trying to realize the meaning with which it is charged and remember that... you are only a unit in the Chorus of the Church, so that the others will make good the shortcomings you cannot help.

The mystical union, on the one hand. The resurrection of the body, on the other. I can't reach the ghost read more

The mystical union, on the one hand. The resurrection of the body, on the other. I can't reach the ghost of an image, a formula, or even a feeling, that combines them. But the reality, we are given to understand, does. Reality is the iconoclast once more. Heaven will solve our problems--but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.

Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604 The task is not, in essence, the securing read more

Feast of Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, Teacher, 604 The task is not, in essence, the securing of uniformity, or cooperation, or Church reunion, or any of the external forms, through which nevertheless the unity may be manifested. Within the wide bounds of the Christian Church there is abundant scope for the multiplicity of races, languages, and social conditions; room also for separate organizations with different traditions of faith and order, and much diversity of operation. But there is no room for strife or hostility, for pride or selfassertion, for exclusiveness or unkind judgments, nor for that kind of independence which leads men to ignore their fellowship with the great company of believers, the communion of saints. These things are contrary to the revealed will of God, and should be made at once to cease. As these disappear, the outward manifestation of unity will come in such ways as the Spirit of God shall guide.

Feast of Evelyn Underhill, Mystical Writer, 1941 Christianity is a religion which concerns us as we are here and read more

Feast of Evelyn Underhill, Mystical Writer, 1941 Christianity is a religion which concerns us as we are here and now, creatures of body and soul. We do not "follow the footsteps of his most holy life" by the exercise of a trained religious imagination, but by treading the firm, rough earth, up hill and down dale.

Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672 God is always present and always working towards read more

Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672 God is always present and always working towards the life of the soul and its deliverance from captivity under flesh and blood. But this inward work of God, though never ceasing or altering, is yet always and only hindered by the activity of our own nature and faculties, by bad men through their obedience to earthly passions and by good men through their striving to be good in their own way, by their natural strength and a multiplicity of holy labours and contrivances. Both these sorts of people obstruct the work of God upon their souls. For we can cooperate with God no other way than by submitting to the work of God, and seeking, and leaving ourselves to it.

Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326 If I now want to add something of my own read more

Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326 If I now want to add something of my own (i.e., inner assurances) to this faith, if this great and glorious faith is defective and saves me not till I can add my own sense and my own feeling to it at such a time or place, is not this saying in the plainest manner that faith alone cannot justify me? ... All I would say of these inward delights and enjoyments is this: they are not holiness, they are not piety, they are not perfection, but they are God's gracious allurements and calls to seek after holiness and spiritual perfection.