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.

Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944 Gambling challenges the view of life which the Christian Church read more

Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944 Gambling challenges the view of life which the Christian Church exists to uphold and extend. Its glorification of mere chance is a denial of the Divine order of nature. To risk money haphazard is to disregard the insistence of the Church in every age of living faith that possessions are a trust, and that men must account to God for their use. The persistent appeal to covetousness is fundamentally opposed to the unselfishness which was taught by Jesus Christ and by the New Testament as a whole. The attempt (which is inseparable from gambling) to make a profit out of the inevitable loss and possible suffering of others is the antithesis of that love of one's neighbour on which our Lord insisted.

Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 We took tea, by read more

Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 We took tea, by Boswell's desire; and I eat one bun, I think, that I might not be seen to fast ostentatiously. When I find that so much of my life has stolen unprofitably away, and that I can descry by retrospection scarcely a few single days properly and vigorously employed, why do I yet try to resolve again? I try, because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal. I try, in humble hope of the help of God.

Feast of Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher, Martyr, c.200 Too many Christians still live with crossed fingers, sweating out read more

Feast of Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher, Martyr, c.200 Too many Christians still live with crossed fingers, sweating out their good luck as a portent of calamity. To see them, you would never guess that God's good pleasure, and not the goddess of fate, rules human destiny.

Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644 The first service one owes to others in the fellowship read more

Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644 The first service one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins in listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him.

Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417 Wealth and riches, that is, an estate above what sufficeth our read more

Feast of Juliana of Norwich, Mystic, Teacher, c.1417 Wealth and riches, that is, an estate above what sufficeth our real occasions and necessities, is in no other sense a 'blessing' than as it is an opportunity put into our hands, by the providence of God, of doing more good.

Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543 There are many people who... speak to God in prayer, but hardly read more

Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543 There are many people who... speak to God in prayer, but hardly ever listen to Him, or else listen to Him only vaguely.

Concluding a short series on authenticity: Think thyself at that Tribunal, that judgment, now: Where thou shalt not read more

Concluding a short series on authenticity: Think thyself at that Tribunal, that judgment, now: Where thou shalt not only hear all thy sinful works, and words, and thoughts repeated, which thou thy self hadst utterly forgot, but thou shalt hear thy good works, thine alms, thy coming to Church, thy hearing of Sermons, given in evidence against thee, because they had hypocrisy mingled in them; yea, thou shalt find even thy repentance to condemn thee, because thou madest that but a door to a relapse.

The love of Christ both wounds and heals, it fascinates and frightens, it kills and makes alive, it draws and read more

The love of Christ both wounds and heals, it fascinates and frightens, it kills and makes alive, it draws and repulses. There can be nothing more terrible or wonderful than to be stricken with love for Christ so deeply that the whole being goes out in a pained adoration of His person, an adoration that disturbs and disconcerts while it purges and satisfies and relaxes the deep inner heart.