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.

Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957 We have spoken throughout of the Divine read more

Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957 We have spoken throughout of the Divine Commonwealth. That phrase represents Paul's "ecclesia of God". It is a community of loving persons, who bear one another's burdens, who seek to build up one another in love, who "have the same thoughts in relation to one another that they have in their communion with Christ". It is all this because it is the living embodiment of Christ's own Spirit. This is a high and mystical doctrine, but a doctrine which has no meaning apart from loving fellowship in real life. A company of people who celebrate a solemn sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood, and all the time are moved by selfish passions -- rivalry, competition, mutual contempt -- is not for Paul a Church or Divine Commonwealth at all, no matter how lofty their faith or how deep their mystical experience; for all these things may "puff up"; love alone "builds up". In the very act, therefore, of attaining its liberty to exist, the Divine Commonwealth has transcended the great divisions of men. In principle, it has transcended them all, and by seriously living out that which its association means, it is on the way to comprehending the whole race. Short of that its development can never stop. This is the revealing of the sons of God for which the whole creation is waiting.

Continuing a short series on forgiveness: With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always read more

Continuing a short series on forgiveness: With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I have at the same time laboured incessantly to cultivate the deepest humiliation before God. I have never thought that the circumstance of God's having forgiven me was any reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me (Ezekiel 16:63).

Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr The man who will not act until he knows all will read more

Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr The man who will not act until he knows all will never act at all.

Even the Bible itself is interpreted and understood in various ways, and so always becomes the center of sectarianism. Just read more

Even the Bible itself is interpreted and understood in various ways, and so always becomes the center of sectarianism. Just in the same way, dogmas and creeds cannot bring Christian unity, because human minds are not so uniformly created that they can unite in a single dogma or creed. Even our understanding of Christ Himself cannot be the basis of unity, because He is too big to be understood by any one person or group, and therefore our limited understandings do not always coincide. One emphasizes this point about Christ, another that; and this again becomes the cause of divisions. If we will only take our fellowship with Christ as the center of Christian faith, all Christians will realize their oneness... All our fellowship, however varied, is with the same Lord, and the same Saviour is our one Head.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the read more

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

Feast of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr, c.107 There is a false self-distrust which denies the worth of its read more

Feast of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr, c.107 There is a false self-distrust which denies the worth of its own talent. It is not humility -- it is petty pride, withholding its simple gifts from the hands of Christ because they are not more pretentious. There are men who would endow colleges, they say, if they were millionaires. They would help in the work of Bible study if they were as gifted as Henry Drummond. They would strive to lead their associates into the Christian life if they had the gifts of Dwight L. Moody. But they are not ready to give what they have and do what they can and be as it has pleased God to make them, in His service -- and that is their condemnation.

It is wrong to suppose that for Paul faith is a meritorious act on man's part, which wins salvation, or read more

It is wrong to suppose that for Paul faith is a meritorious act on man's part, which wins salvation, or even, in a more modern way of speech, a creative moral principle in itself. Paul does not, in fact, speak (when he is using the language strictly) of "justification by faith", but of "justification by grace through faith," or "on the grounds of faith." This is not mere verbal subtlety. It means that the "righteousness of God" becomes ours, not by the assertion of the individual will as such, but by the willingness to let God work.

You meet a thousand times in life with those who, in dealing with any religious question, make at once their read more

You meet a thousand times in life with those who, in dealing with any religious question, make at once their appeal to reason, and insist on forthwith rejecting aught that lies beyond its sphere -- without, however, being able to render any clear account of the nature and proper limits of the knowledge thus derived, or of the relation in which such knowledge stands to the religious needs of men. I would invite you, therefore, to inquire seriously whether such persons are not really bowing down before an idol of the mind, which, while itself of very questionable worth, demands as much implicit faith from its worshipers as divine revelation itself.