When an unskillful servant gathers many herbs, flowers, and seeds in a garden, you gather them out that are useful, read more

When an unskillful servant gathers many herbs, flowers, and seeds in a garden, you gather them out that are useful, and cast the rest out of sight; so Christ deals with our performances. All the ingredients of self that are in them He takes away, and adds incense to what remains, and presents it to God. This is the cause that the saints at the last day, when they meet their own duties and performances, know them not, they are so changed from what they were when they went out of their hand. "Lord, when saw we Thee naked or hungry?" So God accepts a little, and Christ makes our little a great deal.

Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304 It is not in the gifts He received but in the read more

Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304 It is not in the gifts He received but in the virtues He practiced that Christ is our model. That which is asked of you, so that you may resemble Him, is to make the same use as He did of the gifts of God, according to the measure in which you have received them.

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.

Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626 Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392 read more

Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626 Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392 The manifestation of God in the flesh, the Evangelists set down by way of a history; the Apostle goes farther, and finds a deep mystery in it, and for a mystery commends it to us. Now there is difference between these two--many, this for one: that a man may hear a story and never wash his hands; but a mystery requires both the hands and the heart to be clean that shall deal with it.

Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597 The man who will and can go to our Lord in all freedom... read more

Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597 The man who will and can go to our Lord in all freedom... must be such that his love for the Sacrament and for our Lord grows more and more by this [Holy Communion], and that the reverence is not diminished by frequently approaching it. For often what is one man's life may be another's death. Therefore you should observe yourself, whether your love for God is growing and your reverence is not destroyed. Then, the more frequently you go to the Sacrament, the better you will become, and the better and more profitable it will be. And therefore be not turned away from your God by words and sermons.

Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387 Augustine shows clearly the religious character of sin. Sin for read more

Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387 Augustine shows clearly the religious character of sin. Sin for him is not a moral failure; it is not even disobedience. Disobedience is a consequence but not the cause. The cause is: turning away from God, and from God as the highest good, as the love with which God loves Himself, through us. For this reason, since sin has this character -- if you say "sins", it is easily dissolved into moral sins; but sin is first of all basically the power of turning away from God. For this very reason, no moral remedy is possible. Only one remedy is possible: return to God. But this of course is possible only in the power of God, and this power is lost. This is the state of man under the conditions of existence.

God is ever seeking to get down to us -- to be the divine man in us. And we are read more

God is ever seeking to get down to us -- to be the divine man in us. And we are ever saying, "That be far from Thee, Lord!" We are careful, in our unbelief, over the divine dignity, of which He is too grand to think. Better pleasing to God ... is the audacity of Job, who, rushing into His presence, and flinging the door of His presence-chamber to the wall, like a troubled -- it may be angry -- but yet faithful child, calls aloud in the ear of Him whose perfect Fatherhood he has yet to learn, "Am I a sea or a whale, that Thou settest a watch over me?"... The devotion of God to His creatures is perfect; He does not think about Himself, but about them; He wants nothing for Himself, but finds His blessedness in the outgoing of blessedness. Ah! it is a terrible -- shall it be a lonely glory, this? We will draw near with our human response, our abandonment of self in the faith of Jesus. He Lives Himself to us -- shall we not give ourselves to Him? Shall we not give ourselves to each other whom He loves?

Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633 Love is that liquor sweet and most divine Which my God feels as read more

Feast of George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633 Love is that liquor sweet and most divine Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 If bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and read more

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 If bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and turn back thy love upon their Maker; lest in these things which please thee, thou displease. If souls please thee, be they loved in God: for they too are mutable, but in Him they are firmly established. ... The Confessions of St. Augustine June 15, 1996 Feast of Evelyn Underhill, Mystical Writer, 1941 Jesus remains unshaken as the practical man; and we stand exposed as the fools, the blunderers, the unpractical visionaries.