Commemoration of William Morris, Artist, Writer, 1896 Commemoration of George Kennedy Bell, Bishop of Chichester, Ecumenist, Peacemaker, 1958 read more

Commemoration of William Morris, Artist, Writer, 1896 Commemoration of George Kennedy Bell, Bishop of Chichester, Ecumenist, Peacemaker, 1958 There is an idea abroad among moral people that they should make their neighbors good. One person I have to make good: myself. But my duty to my neighbor is much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make him happy if I may.

Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841 The [Roman] imperial coinage (which was read more

Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841 The [Roman] imperial coinage (which was regularly used as a propaganda medium... is full of the characteristic motifs of Advent and Epiphany, celebrating the blessings which the manifestation of each successive divine emperor was to bring to a waiting world. Among the adulatory formulas with which the emperor was acclaimed, Prof. Ethelbert Stauffer mentions, as going back to the first century, "Hail, Victory, Lord of the earth, Invincible, Power, Glory, Honour, Peace, Security, Holy, Blessed, Unequalled, Great, Thou alone worthy art, Worthy is he to inherit the Kingdom, Come, come, do not delay, Come again" (p. 155) [in Christ and the Caesars]. Indeed, one has only to read Psalm lxxii, in Latin, in the official language of the empire, to see that it is largely the same formal language which is used alike in the Forum for the advent of the emperor, and in the catacombs for the celebration of the "Epiphany of Christ" (p. 251). Who was worthy to ascend the throne of the universe and direct the course of history? Caesar, or Jesus?

Silence, indeed, is the one form of worship which is almost universally thought intolerable by Dissenting clergy. Despite their not-too-distant read more

Silence, indeed, is the one form of worship which is almost universally thought intolerable by Dissenting clergy. Despite their not-too-distant affinity to the Quakers, they think they will be heard for their much speaking. And since their organists too are equally reluctant to let any liturgical action pass without a ruminative obbligato on the Swell manual, congregations are subjected to unrelieved noise during a service which may well have begun with the reading of the sentence, "Be still, and know that I am God.".

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 To worship is to quicken read more

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God.

Continuing a short series on forgiveness: When on my day of life the night is falling, And, in read more

Continuing a short series on forgiveness: When on my day of life the night is falling, And, in the winds from unsunned spaces blown, I hear far voices out of darkness calling My feet to paths unknown, Thou who hast made my home of life so pleasant Leave not its tenant when its walls decay; O Love Divine, O Helper ever-present, Be Thou my strength and stay! Be near me when all else is from me drifting; Earth, sky, home's pictures, days of shade and shine, And kindly faces to my own uplifting The love that answers mine. I have but Thee, my Father! let Thy spirit Be with me then to comfort and uphold; No gate of pearl, no branch of palm I merit, Nor street of shining gold. Suffice it if -- my good and ill unreckoned, And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace - I find myself by hands familiar beckoned Unto my fitting place.

Look in, and see Christ's chosen saint
In triumph wear his Christ-like chain;
No fear lest he read more

Look in, and see Christ's chosen saint
In triumph wear his Christ-like chain;
No fear lest he should swerve or faint;
"His life is Christ, his death is gain."

Feast of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, & his sister Macrina, Teachers, c.394 & c.379 All angels, all saints, read more

Feast of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, & his sister Macrina, Teachers, c.394 & c.379 All angels, all saints, all the devils, all the world shall know all the deeds that ever thou didest, though thou have been shriven of them and contrite. But this knowledge shall be no shame to thee if that thou be saved, but rather a witness to God -- right as we read of the deeds of Mary Magdalene [as] her witness to God and not to her reproof. ... Middle English Sermons July 20, 2002 Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566 Our union with God -- his presence with us, in which our aloneness is banished and the meaning and full purpose of human existence is realized -- consists chiefly in a conversational relationship with God while we are each consistently and deeply engaged as his friend and colaborer in the affairs of the kingdom of the heavens.

Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672 God is always present and always working towards read more

Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672 God is always present and always working towards the life of the soul and its deliverance from captivity under flesh and blood. But this inward work of God, though never ceasing or altering, is yet always and only hindered by the activity of our own nature and faculties, by bad men through their obedience to earthly passions and by good men through their striving to be good in their own way, by their natural strength and a multiplicity of holy labours and contrivances. Both these sorts of people obstruct the work of God upon their souls. For we can cooperate with God no other way than by submitting to the work of God, and seeking, and leaving ourselves to it.