It takes one person to forgive, it takes two people to be reunited.

It takes one person to forgive, it takes two people to be reunited.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and read more

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.

This outer world is but the pictured scroll Of worlds within the soul; A colored chart, a blazoned missal-book read more

This outer world is but the pictured scroll Of worlds within the soul; A colored chart, a blazoned missal-book Wherein who rightly look May spell the splendors with their mortal eyes, And steer to Paradise.

Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942 Love... makes the whole difference between an execution and a read more

Commemoration of Martyrs of Papua New Guinea, 1942 Love... makes the whole difference between an execution and a martyrdom.

Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877 The truth of Christ's supremacy over all the powers in the universe read more

Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877 The truth of Christ's supremacy over all the powers in the universe is one which modern man sorely needs to learn. He is oppressed by a sense of impotence in the grasp of merciless forces which he can neither overcome nor escape. These forces may be Frankenstein monsters of man's own creation, or they may be horrors outside his conscious control; either way, he is intimidated by the vastness of those fateful currents which threaten to sweep him on to destruction, whether he will or no. And to modern man in his frustration and despair, the full-orbed gospel of Christ, as Paul presents it to the Colossians, is the one message of hope. Christ crucified and risen is Lord of all; all the forces in the universe, well-disposed and ill-disposed, are subject to Him. To be united to Christ by faith is to throw off the thraldom of hostile powers, to enjoy perfect freedom, to gain the mastery over the dominion of evil -- because Christ's victory is ours.

Feast of Andrew the Apostle Devotion is the real spiritual sweetness which takes away all bitterness from mortifications, and read more

Feast of Andrew the Apostle Devotion is the real spiritual sweetness which takes away all bitterness from mortifications, and prevents consolations from disagreeing with the soul; it cures the poor of sadness, and the rich of presumption; it keeps the oppressed from feeling desolate, and the prosperous from insolence; it averts sadness from the lonely, and dissipation from social life; it is as warmth in winter and as refreshing dew in summer; it knows how to abound and how to suffer want, how to profit alike by honour and by contempt; it accepts gladness and sadness with an even mind, and fills men's hearts with a wondrous sweetness.

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 It is sometimes said that even if no rules were laid read more

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 It is sometimes said that even if no rules were laid down for the conduct of its affairs, the Church, being created by Jesus to "further the work of the Kingdom of God", can be judged by the extent to which it is successful in continuing his work. This supposition rests upon a misunderstanding of what is meant by "the Kingdom of God"... The Kingdom itself is not something to be "furthered" or "built" by men's efforts. It is something which we are invited to recognize as already present, after a manner, in the life and work of Jesus. It is something to be inherited or entered into by those who believe. The task of the Church, in other words, is not to set the stage for a better world than this one but to draw the curtain from it, to reveal something that is already there.

Feast of Joseph of Nazareth Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: Jeremy Taylor gives us some fundamental rules for read more

Feast of Joseph of Nazareth Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: Jeremy Taylor gives us some fundamental rules for prayer. And the chief of them is this: "Do not lie to God." And that curt piece of advice, so bluntly thrown down for us, is indeed all-important. Do not burn false fire upon God's altar; do not pose and pretend, either to Him or to yourself, in your religious exercises; do not say more than you mean, or use exagerated language that goes beyond the facts, when speaking to Him whose word is truth.

Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566 After all, Brethren, the whole end of Theology read more

Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566 After all, Brethren, the whole end of Theology is love. It seems hard to realize that that is so, but so it is. If your theology does not make you more loving, it has not Christianized you and to that extent is not a Christian theology... All ecclesiasticism and all doctrinalizing are in order to form character, and the soul of character is love. Preach the truth in love, and for the development of love.