Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968 We must remember that our experience of union with God, our feeling of His presence, is altogether accidental and secondary. It is only a side effect of His actual presence in our souls, and gives no sure indication of that presence in any case. For God Himself is above all apprehensions and ideas and sensations, however spiritual, that can ever be experienced by the spirit of man in this life.
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Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century In questions of this sort there are two things read more
Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century In questions of this sort there are two things to be observed. First, that the truth of the Scriptures be inviolably maintained. Secondly, since Scripture doth admit of diverse interpretations, that no one cling to any particular exposition with such pertinacity that, if what he supposed to be the teaching of Scripture should afterward turn out to be clearly false, he should nevertheless still presume to put it forward, lest thereby the sacred Scriptures should be exposed to the derision of unbelievers and the way of salvation should be closed to them.
When all is done, there is no such error or heresy, nothing so fundamentally opposed to religion, as a wicked read more
When all is done, there is no such error or heresy, nothing so fundamentally opposed to religion, as a wicked life.
The principal part of faith is patience.
The principal part of faith is patience.
Like many of the leaders and teacher [in the church], perhaps I failed to prepare people for the way of read more
Like many of the leaders and teacher [in the church], perhaps I failed to prepare people for the way of suffering. I had not suffered much myself and did not help people to be ready for it. But the fact is: when you follow Jesus, what happened to Him happens to you.
Feast of Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179 "He cannot deny Himself" [II Tim. 2:13], means at the read more
Feast of Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, Visionary, 1179 "He cannot deny Himself" [II Tim. 2:13], means at the same time He cannot deny His grace to the sinful, and He cannot deny the moral order in which alone He can live in fellowship with men; and we see the inviolableness of both asserted in the death of Jesus. Nothing else in the world demonstrates how real is God's love to the sinful, and how real the sin of the world is to God. And the love which comes to us through such an expression, bearing sin in all its reality, yet loving us through and beyond it, is the only love which at once forgives and regenerates the soul.
Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; read more
Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture men from the devil's clutches and the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The purifying worth of prayer consists in the increasing contrast which it sets up between the holy God and the read more
The purifying worth of prayer consists in the increasing contrast which it sets up between the holy God and the creature; subordinating that creature's fugitive activities and desires to the standard set by this solemn apprehension of Reality.
CHRISTMAS DAY Thou hast not made, or taught me, Lord, to care For times and seasons -- but this one read more
CHRISTMAS DAY Thou hast not made, or taught me, Lord, to care For times and seasons -- but this one glad day Is the blue sapphire clasping all the lights That flash in the girdle of the year so fair When thou wast born a man -- because alway Thou wast and art a man through all the flights Of thought, and time, and thousandfold creation's play.
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.
