Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373 If the wounds of millions are to be healed, what read more

Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373 If the wounds of millions are to be healed, what other way is there except through forgiveness? Jesus, at least, leaves us no alternative. The command is stern. The terms are set: "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.".

We should always pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God; we should always act with read more

We should always pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God; we should always act with as much energy as those who expect everything from themselves.

Feast of Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells, Hymnographer, 1711 [The] doctrine of [inevitable] progress sustained our fathers read more

Feast of Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells, Hymnographer, 1711 [The] doctrine of [inevitable] progress sustained our fathers in the carrying of capitalistic democratic culture to most parts of the globe. Its core was the conviction that, in thus extending the range of western liberal culture and developing its assumptions, they were in effect establishing on earth that which would grow into the kingdom of God. Some put it sharply but un-Biblically: "building the kingdom"; others, of a more secular turn of mind, echoed J. A. Symonds' hymn, "These Things Shall Be". That whole view exists today only as debris, for it has foundered on the rocks, not so much of human sin, as of the contradictions and complexities of the very western culture that was the substance of its belief.

Too many people regard prayer as a formalized routine of words, a refuge for weaklings, or a childish petition for read more

Too many people regard prayer as a formalized routine of words, a refuge for weaklings, or a childish petition for material things. We sadly undervalue prayer when we conceive it in these terms, just as we should underestimate rain by describing it as something that fills the birdbath in our garden. Properly understood, prayer is a mature activity indispensable to the fullest development of personality -- the ultimate integration of man's highest faculties. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strengths.

Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739 In that age they will neither read more

Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739 In that age they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be as the angels. We are destined to a better state -- destined to rise to a spiritual consortship. So we, who shall be with God, shall be together: since we shall all be with the one God, though there be many mansions in the house of the same Father; and, in eternal life, God will still less separate them whom He has joined together, than, in this lesser life, He allows them to be separated.

What makes life worth living is the mutual enrichment of people through understanding, intelligence and affection. It is just here read more

What makes life worth living is the mutual enrichment of people through understanding, intelligence and affection. It is just here that our awareness that Jesus is our contemporary and that Calvary is relevant to our present human situation ought to help us greatly. And that is not merely because in his relationships with others during his earthly life in Palestine Jesus exemplified all that I have tried to say about human relationships. In every genuine human encounter with another person we may become aware of Jesus, and meet with him. This may sound fanciful, but there is much in the Scriptures and in Christian experience which suggests that Jesus is frequently met in the traffic of person with person, provided that there is a genuine encounter between them. Jesus himself showed that for this to happen demands courage and a willingness to move from a life that is centred in itself. So if we are to pass out of that lonely world of isolation then we must be prepared to take the risks that are always involved when we allow persons to confront us as persons and do not regard them as things. Yet, dangerous though it may be to live in this way, it is the only way to live.

Love does not inquire into the character of the recipient but it asks what he needs. It does not love read more

Love does not inquire into the character of the recipient but it asks what he needs. It does not love him because he is such-and-such a person but because he is there. In all this it is quite the opposite of natural love: it "does not seek its own". It does not perform the characteristic natural impulse of love and life. Therefore it is basically independent of the conduct of the other person; it is not conditional but absolute. It wants nothing for itself but only for others. Therefore it is also not vulnerable. It never "reacts" but is always "spontaneous", emerging by its own strength -- rather, from the power of God. Love is the real God-likeness of man for which he has been created. In so far as love is in man he really resembles God and shows himself to be the child of God.

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 The greatest curse which read more

Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660 The greatest curse which can be entailed upon mankind is a state of war. All the atrocious crimes committed in years of peace -- all that is spent in peace by the secret corruptions or by the thoughtless extravagances of nations -- are mere trifles compared with the gigantic evils which stalk over the world in a state of war. God is forgotten in war -- every principle of Christian charity is trampled upon.

It is for us, in whom the Christian Church is at this moment partially embodied, to declare that Christianity, that read more

It is for us, in whom the Christian Church is at this moment partially embodied, to declare that Christianity, that the Christian faith can do that for the world which the world needs. You say, "What can I do?" You can furnish one Christian life. You can furnish a life so faithful to every duty, so ready for every service, so determined not to commit every sin, that the great Christian Church shall be the stronger for your living in it, and the problem of the world be answered, and a certain great peace come into this poor, perplexed phase of our humanity as it sees that new revelation of what Christianity is.