Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546 Continuing a short series on prayer: I have so much to read more

Commemoration of Martin Luther, Teacher, Reformer, 1546 Continuing a short series on prayer: I have so much to do (today) that I should spend the first three hours in prayer.

Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof, and the worshiping read more

Feast of Peter & Paul, Apostles The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof, and the worshiping heart needs none.

Feast of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher, 407 The surest symbol of a heart not yet fully subdued read more

Feast of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher, 407 The surest symbol of a heart not yet fully subdued to God and His will is going to be found in the areas of money, sex, and power: in wanting these things for ourselves. The surest symbol of spiritual earnestness will be the checkbook, the affections, and the ego-drive surrendered to Him. A disciple must have discipline. He must not be afraid of being asked by God for some of the time, the money, and the pleasure he has been in the habit of calling his "own". This does not mean that there will not be time for the family, and time for some healthy diversion. But it does mean that we are never -- on vacation, or wherever we may be -- exempt from our primary commitment to Him.

Feast of Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Order of Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253 Commemoration of John Henry Newman, Priest, read more

Feast of Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Order of Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253 Commemoration of John Henry Newman, Priest, Teacher, Tractarian, 1890 We are made for action, and for right action -- for thought, and for true thought. Let us live while we live; let us be alive and doing; let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish. Let us believe what we do not see and know. Let us forestall knowledge by faith. Let us maintain before we have demonstrated. This seeming paradox is the secret of happiness. Why should we be unwilling to go by faith? We do all things in this world by faith in the word of others. By faith only do we know our position in the world, our circumstances, our rights and privileges, our fortunes, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our age, our mortality. Why should Religion be an exception? Why should we be unwilling to use for heavenly objects what we daily use for earthly?

Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650 In his enthusiasm, the evangelist often finds it read more

Commemoration of Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester (Oxon), Apostle of Wessex, 650 In his enthusiasm, the evangelist often finds it difficult seriously to imagine that anyone could be called not to be an evangelist. The man of vision and imagination finds it difficult to see the value of those who do no more than plod on faithfully along a well-tried road. The man whose concern is in personal dealing with people and leading them to understand God better finds it difficult to be patient with the theologian or the Christian philosopher whose work is in the quiet of a book-lined study. Yet the truth is that the wholeness which God is working to achieve is never complete in an individual, but through individuals living together as one body, each supplying the deficiencies of the others.

Concluding a series on God and the human condition: Those old Greek gods are not just poetry and legend. read more

Concluding a series on God and the human condition: Those old Greek gods are not just poetry and legend. In them the Ancients personified living realities -- intelligence, beauty, love, or lust, which are still at work in our hearts, and which fashion our persons. The language they speak is that of image and myth, which touches the person much more directly than the explicit language of science and the intellectual dialectic of the modern world. It is also the language of the Bible, of the parables of Christ, which the rationalist of today finds it so difficult to understand, of the Word of God which demands of us not a discussion but a personal decision.

Funds are low again, hallelujah! That means God trusts us and is willing to leave His reputation in our hands.

Funds are low again, hallelujah! That means God trusts us and is willing to leave His reputation in our hands.

Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 We may look into a church, almost any read more

Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 We may look into a church, almost any church, and discover someone who, though he is offered a gospel of love, must subtly convert it into a gospel of hate before he can receive it. The gospel of love -- with its emphasis upon brotherhood, equality before God, the dignity of every human being, and man's social responsibility toward man -- does not satisfy the lack that he urgently feels. That calls for something altogether different, for an assurance that he is superior, that he is right where others are wrong -- a kind of cosmic teacher's pet.

We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.
Spech in March 1976.

We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.
Spech in March 1976.