Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155 To worship effectively is to enable men to become free.

Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155 To worship effectively is to enable men to become free.

Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
Issue to me, that the contending kingdoms
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Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up
Issue to me, that the contending kingdoms
Of France and England, whose very shores look pale
With envy of each other's happiness,
May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction
Plant neighborhood and Christian-like accord
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

Feast of All Saints He took upon Him the flesh in which we have sinned, that by wearing read more

Feast of All Saints He took upon Him the flesh in which we have sinned, that by wearing our flesh He might forgive sins; a flesh which He shares with us by wearing it, not by sinning in it. He blotted out through death the sentence of death, that by a new creation of our race in Himself He might sweep away the penalty appointed by the former Law... For Scripture had foretold that He who is God should die; that the victory and triumph of them that trust in Him lay in the fact that He, who is immortal and cannot be overcome by death, was to die that mortals might gain eternity. (Continued tomorrow) ... St. Hilary, On the Trinity November 2, 2000 Feast of All Souls In this calm assurance of safety did my soul gladly and hopefully take its rest, and feared so little the interruption of death, that death seemed only a name for eternal life. And the life of this present body was so far from seeming a burden or affliction that it was regarded as children regard their alphabets, sick men their draughts, shipwrecked sailors their swim, young men the training for their profession, future commanders their first campaign -- that is, as an endurable submission to present necessities, bearing the promise of a blissful immortality. ... St. Hilary, On the Trinity November 3, 2000 Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600 Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639 People make mistakes when they believe. They may even want something so badly that passion creates its own evidences. Reprehensible though these habits are, they nonetheless fall within the pale of man's general effort to conform the self to things as they are. But when a person acknowledges the deficiency of evidences and yet goes right on believing, he defends a position that is large with the elements of its own destruction. Any brand of inanity can be defended on such a principle.

The final reality, and the ultimate fact of our total situation to which we need to be adjusted, is God. read more

The final reality, and the ultimate fact of our total situation to which we need to be adjusted, is God. That indeed would be my definition of God: God is He with whom we have ultimately to do, the final reality to which we have to face up, and with whom we have, in the last resort, to reckon.

Commemoration of Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, 1556 One of the catchwords in contemporary read more

Commemoration of Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, 1556 One of the catchwords in contemporary Protestantism is that religion must aid man in "becoming human" or even "truly human" -- whatever that means -- and the "model" is Christ. Take the "obvious things" about Christ as listed by a contemporary minister: He was a popular and controversial preacher; He gathered a group of followers; He spent most of his time with the disinherited; He taught with authority; He never married; He never (so far as we know) held a job; He did not participate in public affairs; He did not have income, property, or an address; He was in bitter and frequent conflict with the religious and political authorities; He seemed to expect that the world would be eminently, radically, and supernaturally transformed; He attacked the traditions and values of his own people; He practically forced the authorities to prosecute and execute him. There is nothing exclusively religious, much less Christian, in this description, which, with a few exceptions, might apply also to Socrates or to "Che" Guevara. I asked many socially oriented ministers why they were Christians at all. Some said through faith, and some said that Christianity gave them courage and the motivation to endure (but so do other beliefs). Some said they hardly knew and that, if another, more acceptable, ideology came along, they would embrace it.

God does not lead all His servants by one road, nor in one way, nor at one time; for God read more

God does not lead all His servants by one road, nor in one way, nor at one time; for God is in all things; and that man is not serving God aright, who can only serve Him in his own self-chosen way.

Maundy Thursday Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945 What do I mean by "interpret in a religious read more

Maundy Thursday Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945 What do I mean by "interpret in a religious sense"? In my view, that means to speak on the one hand metaphysically, and on the other individualistically. Neither of these is relevant to the Bible message or to the man of today. Is it not true to say that individualistic concern for personal salvation has almost completely left us all? Are we not really under the impression that there are more important things than bothering about such a matter? (Perhaps not more important than the matter itself, but more than bothering about it). I know it sounds pretty monstrous to say that. But is it not, at bottom, even Biblical?... It is not with the next world that we are concerned, but with this world as created and preserved and set subject to laws and atoned for and made new. What is above the world is, in the Gospel, intended to exist for this world -- I mean that not in the anthropocentric sense of liberal, pietistic, ethical theology, but in the Bible sense of the creation and of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The principal part of faith is patience.

The principal part of faith is patience.

Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631 When all is done, the hell of hells, the torment of torments, read more

Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631 When all is done, the hell of hells, the torment of torments, is the everlasting absence of God, and the everlasting impossibility of returning to his presence; sayes the Apostle, it is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Yet there was a case, in which David found an ease, to fall into the hands of God, to scape the hands of men: When God's hand is bent to strike, it is a fearefull thing, to fall into the hands of the living God; but to fall out of the hands of the living God, is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination.