We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
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Feast of Barnabas the Apostle Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change; and when we read more
Feast of Barnabas the Apostle Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change; and when we are right, make us easy to live with.
Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012 The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men read more
Commemoration of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1012 The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.
Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796 [Dr. Johnson to a Quaker:] Oh, let us read more
Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796 [Dr. Johnson to a Quaker:] Oh, let us not be found, when our Master calls us, ripping the lace off our waistcoats, but the spirit of contention from our souls and tongues.
If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.
If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.
Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525 God does not lead His children around hardship, but leads them straight read more
Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525 God does not lead His children around hardship, but leads them straight through hardship. But He leads! And amidst the hardship, He is nearer to them than ever before.
[Magic] is not mere superstition. It can corrupt people who otherwise carry on their daily duties with apparent reasonableness and read more
[Magic] is not mere superstition. It can corrupt people who otherwise carry on their daily duties with apparent reasonableness and common sense... It exploits man's urgent desire for all the material good things of life -- health, prosperity, success, "good luck" -- and at times, it may even descend to aggressive acts against one's competitors and supposed enemies and rivals. It rests upon an assumption, not always explicit, that divine power can be manipulated and used for human ends. And it is the more dangerous among people who assume that since God is love, He will do whatever they ask, provided they use the right formula in asking. Magic mocks God's freedom no less than His purpose. For it binds men more and more in a prison of fear and selfishness. Far from liberating divine power, it shuts out the free and creative forces of love and self-sacrifice that alone ennoble life and remove the alienation of men one from another. Love, not compulsion, casts out fear.
Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888 Much of today's Christianity is almost completely read more
Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888 Much of today's Christianity is almost completely earthbound, and the words of Jesus about what follows this life are scarcely studied at all. This, I believe, is partly due to man's enormous technical successes, which make him feel master of the human situation. But it is also partly due to our scholars and experts. By the time they have finished with their dissection of the New Testament and with their explaining away as "myth" all that they find disquieting or unacceptable to the modern mind, the Christian way of life is little more than humanism with a slight tinge of religion.
If criticism has made such discoveries as to necessitate the abandonment of the doctrine of plenary inspiration, it is not read more
If criticism has made such discoveries as to necessitate the abandonment of the doctrine of plenary inspiration, it is not enough to say that we are compelled to abandon only a "particular theory of inspiration..." We must go on to say that that "particular theory of inspiration" is the theory of the apostles and of the Lord, and that in abandoning it we are abandoning them.
Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285 The word "sinner" often proves a great obstacle to read more
Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285 The word "sinner" often proves a great obstacle to understanding, but let us use other words. Let us say that man is the kind of creature who naturally sees the world from a very limited perspective, that he tends to be self-centered and to prefer the interests that are closest to himself and to his own social group. Let us say that man is naturally unwilling to accept his limited or finite status, that he is always seeking to extend his control over others, that he seeks to maintain his own security by means of power over all who may threaten it, that he likes to be in a position to compare himself with others to their disadvantage, that he seeks to be self-sufficient and to deny in effect his dependence upon God and to set up his own group or system or ideal in the place of God.
