31 December 2023
O the wise invention of the teacher who contrives that in our singing we
learn what is profitable, and that thereby doctrine is somehow more deeply
impressed upon our souls! What is learned under duress tend not to be retained,
but suavely ingratiates itself somehow abides our soul more steadfastly.
St. Basil the Great
Divine ove
29 December 2023
By a beautiful paradox of Divine love, God makes His Cross the very means of our salvation and our life. We have slain Him; we have nailed Him there and crucified Him; but the Love in His eternal heart could not be extinguished. He willed to give us the very life we slew; to give us the very Food we destroyed; to nourish us with the very Bread we buried, and the very Blood we poured forth. He made our very crime into a happy fault; He turned a Crucifixion into a Redemption; a Consecration into a Communion; a death into Life Everlasting.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
By a beautiful paradox of Divine love, God makes His Cross the very means of our salvation and our life. We have slain Him; we have nailed Him there and crucified Him; but the Love in His eternal heart could not be extinguished. He willed to give us the very life we slew; to give us the very Food we destroyed; to nourish us with the very Bread we buried, and the very Blood we poured forth. He made our very crime into a happy fault; He turned a Crucifixion into a Redemption; a Consecration into a Communion; a death into Life Everlasting.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
Blood and Water
28 December 2023
Do you want to learn the power of this blood from another source? Look from where it flowed initially and from where it had its source, from above the cross, from the side of the Lord. For, it is said, ‘When Jesus was dead but still hanging on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. This was the symbol of baptism and of the mysteries. Therefore, it did not say, ‘Blood came out,’ but ‘Blood and water.’ Why? Because, from both of these, the Church is born, ‘the water, for regeneration, and the blood, for sanctification, the Spirit’s manifestation.’ And the symbols of the baptism and the mysteries came from the side. From the side, therefore, Christ formed the Church, just as He formed Eve from the side of Adam.
St. John Chrysostom
Do you want to learn the power of this blood from another source? Look from where it flowed initially and from where it had its source, from above the cross, from the side of the Lord. For, it is said, ‘When Jesus was dead but still hanging on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. This was the symbol of baptism and of the mysteries. Therefore, it did not say, ‘Blood came out,’ but ‘Blood and water.’ Why? Because, from both of these, the Church is born, ‘the water, for regeneration, and the blood, for sanctification, the Spirit’s manifestation.’ And the symbols of the baptism and the mysteries came from the side. From the side, therefore, Christ formed the Church, just as He formed Eve from the side of Adam.
St. John Chrysostom
Avoid the Deadly Errors of the Docetae
27 December 2023
Flee, therefore, those evil offshoots [of Satan], which produce death bearing fruit, whereof if any one tastes, he instantly dies. For these men are not the planting of the Father. For if they were, they would appear as branches of the cross, and their fruit would be incorruptible. By it He calls you through His passion, as being His members. The head, therefore, cannot be born by itself, without its members; God, who is [the Saviour] Himself, having promised their union.
Ignatius of Antioch
Flee, therefore, those evil offshoots [of Satan], which produce death bearing fruit, whereof if any one tastes, he instantly dies. For these men are not the planting of the Father. For if they were, they would appear as branches of the cross, and their fruit would be incorruptible. By it He calls you through His passion, as being His members. The head, therefore, cannot be born by itself, without its members; God, who is [the Saviour] Himself, having promised their union.
Ignatius of Antioch
Adoring God
26 December 2023
If we really loved the good God, we should make it our joy and happiness to come and spend a few moments to adore Him, and ask Him for the grace of forgiveness; and we should regard those moments as the happiest of our lives.
Saint John Vianney
If we really loved the good God, we should make it our joy and happiness to come and spend a few moments to adore Him, and ask Him for the grace of forgiveness; and we should regard those moments as the happiest of our lives.
Saint John Vianney
On the Nativity
24 December 2023
Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the whole
chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil
confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise
is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out,
truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on
every side, a heavenly way of life has been implanted on the earth, angels
communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.
St. John Chrysostom
On Prayer
22 December 2023
The prayer of the heart is the source of all good, which refreshes the soul as if it were a garden.
Saint Gregory of Sinai
The prayer of the heart is the source of all good, which refreshes the soul as if it were a garden.
Saint Gregory of Sinai
God's Will
19 December 2023
God’s will is like the sun whose rays are like his will for each one of
us. Each of us walks along a ray, distinct from the ray of the person next to
us, but always along a ray of the sun. The closer the rays get to the sun, the
closer they get to each other. For us too, the closer we come to God, by
carrying out the divine will, more and more, the closer we draw to each other.
Chiara Lubich
Season of Advent
6 December 2023
If there is a time that people consecrated to God love to spend in devotion, it is certainly the time of the holy festivals on which the Christian Church contemplates the mercies of God. True, many who are Christian only in name spend the holy festival seasons partly in high living and luxury, partly in pride and in parading new clothes, partly in idleness and unbecoming talk. Because of this, they do not take the love and grace of the Most High to heart. But believing children of God have an altogether different mind. For they hail with joy each coming festival season because in their devotions they are going to place before their mind the gift that the goodness of God has given them.
During the holy season of Advent, they meditate on the love of their heavenly Father, who spared not His only Son but sent Him into the world to suffer and die, and thus acquire salvation for all people. They consider the ardent love of Jesus, who was clothed with our flesh and blood in order that He might bring us to heaven and give us unending happiness. They give praise for the grace of the Holy Spirit, who has placed the gifts lavished on our human race before the souls of believers, who has made them their own, and who causes them to recognize these gifts in such a vivid and effectual manner that they seem to have been given this very day. Accordingly, they make this holy season a time of devotion and prayer, and begin and end it with hearing and meditating on the Word of God, with singing festival hymns, and with a quiet and godly way of living.
Johan Starck
If there is a time that people consecrated to God love to spend in devotion, it is certainly the time of the holy festivals on which the Christian Church contemplates the mercies of God. True, many who are Christian only in name spend the holy festival seasons partly in high living and luxury, partly in pride and in parading new clothes, partly in idleness and unbecoming talk. Because of this, they do not take the love and grace of the Most High to heart. But believing children of God have an altogether different mind. For they hail with joy each coming festival season because in their devotions they are going to place before their mind the gift that the goodness of God has given them.
During the holy season of Advent, they meditate on the love of their heavenly Father, who spared not His only Son but sent Him into the world to suffer and die, and thus acquire salvation for all people. They consider the ardent love of Jesus, who was clothed with our flesh and blood in order that He might bring us to heaven and give us unending happiness. They give praise for the grace of the Holy Spirit, who has placed the gifts lavished on our human race before the souls of believers, who has made them their own, and who causes them to recognize these gifts in such a vivid and effectual manner that they seem to have been given this very day. Accordingly, they make this holy season a time of devotion and prayer, and begin and end it with hearing and meditating on the Word of God, with singing festival hymns, and with a quiet and godly way of living.
Johan Starck
On Love
4 December 2023
Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.
Saint Augustine
Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.
Saint Augustine
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