The word "Comforter" as applied to the Holy Spirit needs to be translated by some vigorous term. Literally, it means read more

The word "Comforter" as applied to the Holy Spirit needs to be translated by some vigorous term. Literally, it means "with strength." Jesus promised His followers that "The Strengthener" would be with them forever. This promise is no lullaby for the faint-hearted. It is a blood transfusion for courageous living.

Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387 In the pure soul, whether it sing or pray, The Christ read more

Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387 In the pure soul, whether it sing or pray, The Christ is born anew from day to day. The life that knoweth Him shall bide apart And keep eternal Christmas in the heart.

Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461 From subtle love of softening things, From easy choices, weakenings, (Not read more

Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461 From subtle love of softening things, From easy choices, weakenings, (Not thus are spirits fortified; Not this way went the Crucified;) From all that dims Thy Calvary, 0 Lamb of God, deliver me. Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire; Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God!

Great is the difference betwixt a man's being frightened at, and humbled for, his sins. One may passively be cast read more

Great is the difference betwixt a man's being frightened at, and humbled for, his sins. One may passively be cast down by God's terrors, and yet not willingly throw himself down as he ought at God's footstool.

Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525 God does not lead His children around hardship, but leads them straight read more

Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525 God does not lead His children around hardship, but leads them straight through hardship. But He leads! And amidst the hardship, He is nearer to them than ever before.

Common-sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

Common-sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

If there had anywhere appeared in space Another place of refuge where to flee, Our hearts had read more

If there had anywhere appeared in space Another place of refuge where to flee, Our hearts had taken refuge from that place, And not with Thee. For we against creation's bars had beat Like prisoned eagles, through great worlds had sought Though but a foot of ground to plant our feet, Where Thou wert not. And only when we found in earth and air, In heaven or hell, that such might nowhere be That we could not flee from Thee anywhere, We fled to Thee. ... Richard Chevenix Trench April 8, 2000 Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877 It is the recognition of this divine necessity -- not to forgive, but to forgive in a way which shows that God is irreconcilable to evil, and can never treat it as other or less than it is -- it is the recognition of this divine necessity, or the failure to recognise it, which ultimately divides interpreters of Christianity into evangelical and non-evangelical, those who are true to the New Testament and those who cannot digest it.

[The] doctrine of progress sustained our fathers in the carrying of capitalistic democratic culture to most parts of the globe. read more

[The] doctrine of 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". 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 which was the substance of its belief.

Feast of the Holy Innocents Christian freedom, in my opinion, consists of three parts. The first: that the read more

Feast of the Holy Innocents Christian freedom, in my opinion, consists of three parts. The first: that the consciences of believers, in seeking assurance of their justification before God, should rise above and advance beyond the law, forgetting all law righteousness... The second part, dependent upon the first, is that consciences observe the law, not as if constrained by the necessity of the law, but that freed from the law's yoke they willingly obey God's will... The third part of Christian freedom lies in this: regarding outward things that are of themselves "indifferent", we are not bound before God by any religious obligation preventing us from sometimes using them and other times not using them, indifferently... Accordingly, it is perversely interpreted both by those who allege it as an excuse for their desires that they may abuse God's good gifts to their own lust and by those who think that freedom does not exist unless it is used before men, and consequently, in using it have no regard for weaker brethren... Nothing is plainer than this rule: that we should use our freedom if it results in the edification of our neighbor, but if it does not help our neighbor, then we should forego it.