30 June 2023
No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No
one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.
Saint Leo the Great
The Fulfillment of Joy
29 June 2023
Joy is not something one can define or analyze. One is entered into joy. “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21). And we have no other means of being entered into that joy, no way of understanding it, except through what has been for the Church both the source and the fulfillment of joy, the very sacrament of joy, the Eucharist.
Alexander Schmemann
Joy is not something one can define or analyze. One is entered into joy. “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21). And we have no other means of being entered into that joy, no way of understanding it, except through what has been for the Church both the source and the fulfillment of joy, the very sacrament of joy, the Eucharist.
Alexander Schmemann
Serving God
28 June 2023
No one can serve God without rising above every worldly preoccupation.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa
No one can serve God without rising above every worldly preoccupation.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa
Turn to Jesus
26 June 2023
Let us turn to Jesus! He alone is the way that leads to eternal happiness, the truth who satisfies the deepest longings of every heart, and the life who brings ever new joy and hope, to us and to our world.
Pope Benedict XVI
Let us turn to Jesus! He alone is the way that leads to eternal happiness, the truth who satisfies the deepest longings of every heart, and the life who brings ever new joy and hope, to us and to our world.
Pope Benedict XVI
Beauty
13 June 2023
The Father makes beautiful by means of the Spirit what he creates by means of the Son.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
The Father makes beautiful by means of the Spirit what he creates by means of the Son.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
In His Image
12 June 2023
God has made you in his image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth.
Saint Peter Chrysologus
God has made you in his image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth.
Saint Peter Chrysologus
Gifts
11 June 2023
We are invited to rejoice in the many ways the Lord has of giving His gifts. This excludes the logic which concludes that since the forgiveness given a fellow Christian by a royal priest is no other forgiveness than given by a pastor in Holy Absolution, royal priest and pastor are the same or differ only in degree. To measure degrees and quantify is the way of the Law and turns away from the Gospel and the gift given. Each gift is each its own precious gift gladly to be received and not to be measured or diminished by its likeness or unlikeness to another gift. Most precious is what can only be confessed of each gift, its proprium.
Norman Nagel
We are invited to rejoice in the many ways the Lord has of giving His gifts. This excludes the logic which concludes that since the forgiveness given a fellow Christian by a royal priest is no other forgiveness than given by a pastor in Holy Absolution, royal priest and pastor are the same or differ only in degree. To measure degrees and quantify is the way of the Law and turns away from the Gospel and the gift given. Each gift is each its own precious gift gladly to be received and not to be measured or diminished by its likeness or unlikeness to another gift. Most precious is what can only be confessed of each gift, its proprium.
Norman Nagel
The Christian
10 June 2023
The Christian is one who imitates Christ in thought, word and deed, as far as is possible for human beings, believing rightly and blamelessly in the Holy Trinity.
Saint John Climacus
The Christian is one who imitates Christ in thought, word and deed, as far as is possible for human beings, believing rightly and blamelessly in the Holy Trinity.
Saint John Climacus
On Reading
9 June 2023
Read good and useful books, and abstain from reading those that only gratify curiosity.
Saint Vincent de Paul
Read good and useful books, and abstain from reading those that only gratify curiosity.
Saint Vincent de Paul
The Holy Spirit
8 June 2023
We must realize that the grace of the Holy Spirit is necessary not only for those who teach but also for those who are taught. Unless the Spirit is present in the heart of the listener, the teacher is wasting his breath. Unless there is a teacher within us, the teacher without works in a vacuum.
Rabanus Maurus
We must realize that the grace of the Holy Spirit is necessary not only for those who teach but also for those who are taught. Unless the Spirit is present in the heart of the listener, the teacher is wasting his breath. Unless there is a teacher within us, the teacher without works in a vacuum.
Rabanus Maurus
The Treasure Of Grace
7 June 2023
We should have frequent recourse to prayer, and persevere a long time in it. God wishes to be solicited. He is not weary of hearing us. The treasure of His graces is infinite. We can do nothing more pleasing to God than to beg incessantly that He bestow them upon us.
Saint John Baptiste de la Salle
We should have frequent recourse to prayer, and persevere a long time in it. God wishes to be solicited. He is not weary of hearing us. The treasure of His graces is infinite. We can do nothing more pleasing to God than to beg incessantly that He bestow them upon us.
Saint John Baptiste de la Salle
Living By The Spirit
6 June 2023
The Lord died in those days, that we should no longer do the deeds of death. He gave His life, that we might preserve our own from the snares of the devil. And, what is most wonderful, the Word became flesh, that we should no longer live in the flesh, but in spirit should worship God, who is Spirit.
Saint Athanasius the Great
The Lord died in those days, that we should no longer do the deeds of death. He gave His life, that we might preserve our own from the snares of the devil. And, what is most wonderful, the Word became flesh, that we should no longer live in the flesh, but in spirit should worship God, who is Spirit.
Saint Athanasius the Great
The Catholic Church
5 June 2023
The Catholic, or universal, Church gets her name from the fact that she is scattered through the whole world from the one end of the earth to the other, and also because she teaches universally and without omission all the doctrines which are to be made known to mankind, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with heavenly or earthly things. Then again because she teaches one way of worship to all men, nobles or commoners, learned or simple; finally because she universally cures and heals every sort of sin which is committed by soul and body. Moreover there is in her every kind of virtue in words and deeds and spiritual gifts of every sort.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
The Catholic, or universal, Church gets her name from the fact that she is scattered through the whole world from the one end of the earth to the other, and also because she teaches universally and without omission all the doctrines which are to be made known to mankind, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with heavenly or earthly things. Then again because she teaches one way of worship to all men, nobles or commoners, learned or simple; finally because she universally cures and heals every sort of sin which is committed by soul and body. Moreover there is in her every kind of virtue in words and deeds and spiritual gifts of every sort.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
On Our Efforts
4 June 2023
To turn away from God and carry on with our efforts to sort things out is to turn away from where alone the final answer is – with him.
Norman Nagel
To turn away from God and carry on with our efforts to sort things out is to turn away from where alone the final answer is – with him.
Norman Nagel
God's Will
3 June 2023
Our obligation is to do God’s will, and not our own. We must remember
this if the prayer that our Lord commanded us to say daily is to have any
meaning on our lips. How unreasonable it is to pray that God’s will be done,
and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world!
Saint Cyprian of Carthage
The Church
2 June 2023
The church is a collection of souls, brought together in one by God’s secret grace, though that grace comes to them through visible instruments, and unites them to a visible hierarchy. What is seen, is not the whole of the church, but the visible part of it.
Blessed John Henry Newman
The church is a collection of souls, brought together in one by God’s secret grace, though that grace comes to them through visible instruments, and unites them to a visible hierarchy. What is seen, is not the whole of the church, but the visible part of it.
Blessed John Henry Newman
The Eucharist
1 June 2023
This food we call “Eucharist,” and no one may share it unless he believes that our teaching is true, and has been cleansed in the bath of forgiveness for sin and of rebirth, and lives as Christ taught. For we do not receive these things as if they were ordinary food and drink. But, just as Jesus Christ our Savior was made flesh through the word of God and took on flesh and blood for our salvation, so too (we have been taught) through the word of prayer that comes from him, the food over which the Eucharist has been spoken becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus, in order to nourish and transform our flesh and blood.
Justin Martyr
This food we call “Eucharist,” and no one may share it unless he believes that our teaching is true, and has been cleansed in the bath of forgiveness for sin and of rebirth, and lives as Christ taught. For we do not receive these things as if they were ordinary food and drink. But, just as Jesus Christ our Savior was made flesh through the word of God and took on flesh and blood for our salvation, so too (we have been taught) through the word of prayer that comes from him, the food over which the Eucharist has been spoken becomes the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus, in order to nourish and transform our flesh and blood.
Justin Martyr
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)