Feast of All Souls We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than read more

Feast of All Souls We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.

Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546 Here is the truly Christian life, here is faith really working by read more

Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546 Here is the truly Christian life, here is faith really working by love: when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works of that freest servitude, in which he serves others voluntarily and for naught; himself abundantly satisfied in the fulness and richness of his own faith.

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 If I mistake, He will read more

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 If I mistake, He will forgive me. I do not fear Him: I only fear lest, able to see and write these things, I should fail of witnessing and myself be, after all, a castaway -- no king but a talker: no disciple of Jesus, ready to go with Him to the death, but an arguer about the truth.

Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915 A conversion is incomplete if it does not leave read more

Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915 A conversion is incomplete if it does not leave one with an intense social consciousness, if it does not fill one with a sense of overwhelming responsibility for the world. It has been said... truly that the Church exists for those outside of itself. The Church must never be in any sense a little huddle of pious people, shutting their doors against the world, lost in prayer and praise, connoisseurs of preaching and liturgy, busy mutually congratulating themselves on the excellence of their Christian experience.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546 Let every man recognize what he is, and be certain that we read more

Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546 Let every man recognize what he is, and be certain that we are all equally priests, that is, we have the same power in the word and in any sacrament whatever.

The 'outsider' who knows nothing of the mixture of tradition, conviction, honest difference, and hidden resentment, that lies behind the read more

The 'outsider' who knows nothing of the mixture of tradition, conviction, honest difference, and hidden resentment, that lies behind the divisions of the Christian Church sees clearly the advantage of a united Christian front and cannot see why the Churches cannot 'get together'. The problem is doubtless complicated, for there are many honest differences held with equal sincerity, but it is only made insoluble because the different denominations are (possibly unconsciously) imagining God to be Roman or Anglican or Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian or what have you. If they could see beyond their little inadequate god, and glimpse the reality of God, they might even laugh a little and perhaps weep a little. The result would be a unity that actually does transcend differences, instead of ignoring them with public politeness and private contempt.

Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433 The blessed and inviting truth is that God is the most winsome read more

Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433 The blessed and inviting truth is that God is the most winsome of all beings and in our worship of Him we should find unspeakable pleasure.

He has great tranquillity of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men. He will easily read more

He has great tranquillity of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men. He will easily be content and pacified, whose conscience is pure. You are not holier if you are praised, nor the more worthless if you are found fault with. What you are, that you are; neither by word can you be made greater than what you are in the sight of God. Thomas à Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ [With thanks to Roger E. Doriot] February 12, 1997 Ash Wednesday Were Christians duly instructed how many lesser differences in mind and judgment and practice are really consistent with the nature, ends, and genuine fruit of the unity that Christ requires among them, it would undoubtedly prevail with them so as to manage themselves in their differences by mutual forbearance and condescension in their love, as not to contract the guilt of being disturbers or breakers of it. To speak plainly, among all the churches in the world which are free from idolatry and persecution, it is not different opinions, nor a difference in judgment about revealed truths, nor a different practice in sacred administrations, but pride, self-interest, love of honour, reputation, and dominion, with the influence of civil or political intrigues and considerations, that are the true cause of that defect of evangelical unity that is at this day amongst them.