Commemoration of Anne & Joachim, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary God is none other than the Saviour of read more

Commemoration of Anne & Joachim, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary God is none other than the Saviour of our wretchedness. So we can only know God well by knowing our iniquities... Those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified him, but have glorified themselves.

Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788 I know Thee, Saviour, Who Thou art: Jesus, read more

Feast of John and Charles Wesley, Priests, Poets, Teachers, 1791 & 1788 I know Thee, Saviour, Who Thou art: Jesus, the feeble sinner's friend! Nor wilt Thou with the night depart, But stay and love me to the end. Thy mercies never shall remove; Thy nature and Thy name is Love.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and read more

We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

Feast of Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher, Martyr, c.200 It is quite possible to perform very ordinary actions with read more

Feast of Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher, Martyr, c.200 It is quite possible to perform very ordinary actions with so high an intention as to serve God therein better than in far more important things done with a less pure intention.

Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189 It is well to have specifically holy read more

Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189 It is well to have specifically holy places, and things, and days, for, without these focal points or reminders, the belief that all is holy and "big with God" will soon dwindle into a mere sentiment. But if these holy places, things, and days cease to remind us, if they obliterate our awareness that all ground is holy and every bush (could we but perceive it) a Burning Bush, then the hallows begin to do harm. Hence both the necessity, and the perennial danger, of "religion".

If man is not made for God, why is he not happy except in God? If man is made for read more

If man is not made for God, why is he not happy except in God? If man is made for God, why is he so opposed to God?

Maundy Thursday There is joy and strength, of course, in this holy food and drink, but it is also read more

Maundy Thursday There is joy and strength, of course, in this holy food and drink, but it is also an inevitable joining forces with the vast Scheme of reconciliation and redemption. Now there is something in our natural selves that may well make us wary of such a contact. The man who in his heart intends to go on being selfish or proud, or who has already decided how far his Christian convictions should carry him, is probably obeying a sound instinct when he keeps away from this glorious but perilous Sacrament. For, if the truth be told, men are often willing to put their trust in a god who in the end must be triumphant, simply because they want to be on the winning side; but they are not nearly so ready to bear any part of the cost of that winning. Yet the fellowship of the broken bread and the poured-out wine can mean no less than that.

Of this I am certain, that no one has ever died who was not destined to die some time. Now read more

Of this I am certain, that no one has ever died who was not destined to die some time. Now the end of life puts the longest life on a par with the shortest... And of what consequence is it what kind of death puts an end to life, since he who has died once is not forced to go through the same ordeal a second time? They, then, who are destined to die, need not be careful to inquire what death they are to die, but into what place death will usher them.

[He said] that it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other read more

[He said] that it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times; that we are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer. That his view of prayer was nothing else but a sense of the Presence of God, his soul being at that time insensible to everything but Divine Love; and that when the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with God, praising and blessing Him with all his might, so that he passed his life in continual joy; yet hoped that God would give him somewhat to suffer when he should have grown stronger.