In Romans 7, St. Paul says, "The law is spiritual." What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of the heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and henceforward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart.
You May Also Like / View all maxioms
Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637 The conduct of disputation by verbal read more
Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637 The conduct of disputation by verbal brickbat, by innuendo, and by light-fingered intellectual dexterity, is a mordant reminder of the time when controversies were settled by faggot and sword. The truth is hardly less the loser because the inquisitor has altered his methods. All of us who seek to explore the wide reaches of God's revelation, and strive to bring the thinking of others under the domination of Christ, do well to seek first to bring our own rhetorical techniques under that same dominion -- under the discipline, that is, of love.
Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915 Continuing a short series on read more
Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915 Continuing a short series on Romans 8: [Of vv. 26,27] Nor are we alone in our struggles. The Holy Spirit supports our helplessness. Left to ourselves we do not know what prayers to offer or how to offer them. But in those inarticulate groans which rise from the depth of our being, we recognize the voice of none other than the Holy Spirit. He makes intercession; and His intercession is sure to be answered. For God Who searches the inmost recesses of the heart can interpret His own Spirit's meaning. He knows that His own Will regulates Its petitions, and that they are offered for men dedicated to His service.
If our common life is not a common course of humility, self-denial, renunciation of the world, poverty of spirit, and read more
If our common life is not a common course of humility, self-denial, renunciation of the world, poverty of spirit, and heavenly affection, we do not live the lives of Christians.
Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 If every call to Christ and His righteousness is a call to suffering, read more
Feast of Edward the Confessor, 1066 If every call to Christ and His righteousness is a call to suffering, the converse is equally -- every call to suffering is a call to Christ, a promotion, an invitation to come up higher.
Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672 Continuing a short series of testimonies on the Scriptures: read more
Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672 Continuing a short series of testimonies on the Scriptures: It is absolutely wrong and forbidden, either to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Scripture, or to admit that the sacred writer has erred. For the system of those who, in order to rid themselves of difficulties, do not hesitate to concede that divine inspiration regards the things of faith and morals, and nothing beyond, because (as they wrongly think) in a question of the truth or falsehood of a passage, we should consider not so much what God has said as the reason and purpose which He had in mind in saying it--this system cannot be tolerated. For all the books which the Church receives as sacred and canonical, are written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost: and so far is it from being possible that any error can co-exist with inspiration, that inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error, but excludes and rejects it as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God Himself, the supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true.
A man may go into the field and say his prayer and be aware of God, or he may be read more
A man may go into the field and say his prayer and be aware of God, or he may be in Church and be aware of God; but if he is more aware of Him because he is in a quiet place, that is his own deficiency and not due to God, Who is alike present in all things and places, and is willing to give Himself everywhere so far as lies in Him... He knows God rightly who knows Him everywhere.
Consider what two petitions Christ couples together in His prayer: when my body, which every day is hungry, can live read more
Consider what two petitions Christ couples together in His prayer: when my body, which every day is hungry, can live without God's giving it daily bread, then and no sooner shall I believe that my soul, which daily sinneth, can spiritually live without God's forgiving it its trespasses.
The radical failure in so-called religion is that its way is from man to God. Starting with man, it seeks read more
The radical failure in so-called religion is that its way is from man to God. Starting with man, it seeks to rise to God; and there is no road that way.
Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189 To realize that you are safe and happy read more
Commemoration of Gilbert of Sempringham, Founder of the Gilbertine Order, 1189 To realize that you are safe and happy standing at God's side, with His love encompassing you because you are forgiven; too happy to take offense any more; too much in love with life to want to be made miserable with an unforgiving heart, and knowing that now every conflict is a chance to learn more of the exceeding beauty of Love: that is worth living for, and surely worth dying to this misery-making self for. [Continued tomorrow] ... The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn February 5, 1998 And let us be grateful beyond words for this: that God will not let us alone until we have learnt it and stand by His side. He troubles us, He brings His disturbing light back and back to us, showing us how coarse and heavy the dying self, seeking her own, is; how horrible it is that any feeling of unforgiveness, accepted and held on to, towards our brother, drives God from our side; how quickly we must do all we can to heal the separation, because we are out in the cold and the dark indeed, if divorced from that Love. ... The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn February 6, 1998 Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597 Prayer is the expression of a good desire. The human heart is full of restless desires, and the prayers of men consist for the most part of the unsifted petitions which are urged by their varying passions. To desire what is right, and to desire it consistently, and passionately, is the first condition of true living; the desires can be corrected only by truth, the mind must apprehend God, and then it will say, "There is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.".
