Christ is Risen!

31 March 2024
     

Christ is risen: the world below lies desolate.
Christ is risen: the spirits of evil are fallen.
Christ is risen: the angels of God are rejoicing.
Christ is risen: the tombs of the dead are empty.
Christ is risen indeed from the dead,
the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Glory and power are his forever and ever.

        St. Hippolytus of Rome

Love Your Enemies

30 March 2024

You don’t love in your enemies what they are, but what you would have them become by your prayers.

        Saint Augustine

Christ Crucified

29 March 2024

Do not hurry by the cross on your way to Easter joy, for we know the risen Lord only through Christ and him crucified.

        Richard John Neuhaus

The Sacraments

28 March 2024

The Sacraments are the salvation of those who use them rightly, and the damnation of those who misuse them.

        Saint Augustine

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

27 March 2024

Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die; Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh. Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell, My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

        Bernard of Clairvaux

On Prayer

26 March 2024

The man who loves God with a true heart, and prizes him above all things, sometimes sheds floods of tears at prayer, and has in abundance of favors and spiritual feelings coming upon him with such vehemence, that he is forced to cry out, “Lord! let me be quiet!” But a man ought not to seek for these sweetnesses and sensible devotions forcibly, for he will be easily deluded by the devil, and will run a risk of injuring his health.

        Saint Philip

The Whole Earth

25 March 2024

The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God. ... I do not worship matter. I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God. Because of this I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with his grace and power. Through it my salvation has come to me.

        John of Damascus

On Misfortunes

24 March 2024

Having witnessed all the good things that spring forth from patience, let us not lose courage when we are hit by misfortunes—no matter how difficult they may be. For there is no human in misfortune who cannot find consolation from Job’s example.

        Saint John Chrysostom

On Repentance

23 March 2024

So now I have shown you the five paths of repentance. First, condemnation of sins. Second, forgiving the sins of those near us. Third, prayer. Fourth, almsgiving. Fifth, humility. So do not be idle, but every day advance along all these paths at once.

        Saint John Chrysostom

The Kiss of Peace

22 March 2024

The fact that the kiss of peace appears in the conclusion of 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Romans and 1 Peter has suggested that the epistle was read as sermon, and that the Pax indicates the transition to the Holy Communion. Only those who receive and give the kiss of peace are welcomed to the Lord’s Table. The “Didascalia” (early third century) evokes the vivid scene of the kiss of peace, which comes from the altar, coming to a sudden halt as it is being given and received all the way round. The presiding minister leaves the altar and goes to where the kiss of peace is blocked. Only after he has worked reconciliation (pacem facere inter eos [Matthew 5:24; 6:15; 7:6]) does the kiss of peace continue on its way all the way round, and only then does the liturgy proceed. We may regret the loss of the actual kiss of peace. Yet whether by kiss or handshake or words, the Pax is given and received. It comes from the Lord and we receive and embrace it together with our Amen. It is His gift, not something we set going. Lamentable is the disintegration of the liturgy at this point into lots of separate heartinesses. The one so-called Pax, from the Lord, was beautifully expressed by the usage with a piece of wood, metal, or ivory upon which a Calvary was carved. It came from the altar and was kissed by the presiding minister, and then in turn by all the communicants. How little chance for such a usage among us time-pressured people is shown by those instances when even parts of the Holy Communion are lopped off—and this at times for the sake of some cozy pleasantries or program promotions.

        Norman Nage

Incalculable Love

21 March 2024

The love that God most high has for our soul is so great that it surpasses understanding. No created being can comprehend how much, how sweetly, and how tenderly our maker loves us. By his Grace and help therefore let us in spirit stand in awe and gaze, eternally marveling at the supreme, surpassing, single-minded, incalculable love that God, Who is all goodness, has for us.

        Saint Julian of Norwich

On Imitating the Saints

20 March 2024

To celebrate a Saint is to imitate the Saint.

        Saint John Chrysostom

God's Mercies

19 March 2024

Our faults are like a grain of sand beside the great mountain of the mercies of the good God.

        Saint John Vianney

On Forgiveness

18 March 2024

God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but he has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.

        Saint Augustine

Saint Patrick's Breastplate

17 March 2024

I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the three in one and one in three. By whom all nature hath creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word: Praise to the Lord of my salvation. Salvation is of Christ our Lord.

On Faith

16 March 2024

I believe though I do not comprehend, and I hold by faith what I cannot grasp with the mind.

        Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

On Prayer

15 March 2024

I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer: many words and long discourses being often the occasions of wandering. Hold yourself in prayer before God, like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man’s gate.

        Brother Lawrence

Extraordinarily Ordinary

14 March 2024

The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.

        G.K. Chesterton

On Vocation

13 March 2024

Each one of us has some kind of vocation. We are all called by God to share in His life and in His Kingdom. Each one of us is called to a special place in the Kingdom. If we find that place we will be happy. If we do not find it, we can never be completely happy. For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God’s will, to be what God wants us to be.

        Thomas Merton

On Prayer

12 March 2024

Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.

        J. C. Ryle

The Will of God

11 March 2024

To neglect your church, your prayer, your Bible study, your devotions, is to tell God that you have no desire to grow, to become more and more His child, that you are satisfied with being a weak and shaky Christian, and that you have had as much as you want from Him. How perilously such a person is slipping away from God. Everything that is not in accord with God’s will is given over to death and the power of darkness. But, my friends, if we cling to Christ and His Word, growing daily in the will of God, striving to bring our lives into harmony with that will, what strength is ours, what then can harm us? When we are given over to the will of God, nothing can destroy, no more than God and His will can be destroyed. The unshakeable strength of the will of God is in us, though the world turn upside down.

        Norman Nagel

A Time For Everything

10 March 2024

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

           Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Clothe With Christ

8 March 2024

We who have once for all clothed ourselves in Christ, and have been made worthy to have him dwelling within us, may show everyone, if we choose, simply by the strict discipline of our life and without saying a word, the power of him who dwells in us.

        Saint John Chrysostom

Divine Baptism

7 March 2024

You were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was carried from the Cross to the Sepulchre which is before our eyes. And each of you was asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and you made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three days burial of Christ. For as our Saviour passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so you also in your first ascent out of the water, represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and by your descent, the night; for as he who is in the night, no longer sees, but he who is in the day, remains in the light, so in the descent, as in the night, you saw nothing, but in ascending again you were as in the day. And at the self-same moment you were both dying and being born; and that Water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother. And what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he said, in that case, There is a time to bear and a time to die; but to you, in the reverse order, there was a time to die and a time to be born; and one and the same time effected both of these, and your birth went hand in hand with your death.

        Cyril of Jerusalem

Gratefulness

6 March 2024

To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us – and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.

        Thomas Merton

Matters of the Heart

5 March 2024

Our real journey in life is interior; It is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts. Never was it more necessary to respond to that action.

        Thomas Merton

On Prayer

4 March 2024

Whether, therefore, we receive what we ask for, or do not receive it, let us still continue steadfast in prayer. For to fail in obtaining the desires of our heart, when God so wills it, is not worse than to receive it; for we know not as He does, what is profitable to us.

        Saint John Chrysostom

The Cost of Discipleship

3 March 2024

For God is a God who bears. The Son of God bore our flesh, he bore the cross, he bore our sins, thus making atonement for us. In the same way his followers are also called upon to bear, and that is precisely what it means to be a Christian. Just as Christ maintained his communion with the Father by his endurance, so his followers are to maintain their communion with Christ by their endurance. We can of course shake off the burden which is laid upon us, but only find that we have a still heavier burden to carry — a yoke of our own choosing, the yoke of our self. But Jesus invites all who travail and are heavy laden to throw off their own yoke and take his yoke upon them — and his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. The yoke and the burden of Christ are his cross. To go one’s way under the sign of the cross is not misery and desperation, but peace and refreshment for the soul, it is the highest joy. Then we do not walk under our self-made laws and burdens, but under the yoke of him who knows us and who walks under the yoke with us. Under his yoke we are certain of his nearness and communion. It is he whom the disciple finds as he lifts up his cross.

        Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Tolerance

2 March 2024

The liturgy is not a costume drama. The incense is not a prop. The singing isn't about nostalgia. These are means to reach a timeless place, where the state and its laws do not go.

        John Kass

The Church

1 March 2024

We cannot learn what the church is from theological books. Nor can we learn this only from sermons, even though it should continually be said to us in sermons and we should hear it there. Rather, faith in the church—that is, believing knowledge of what the church is according to her deepest essence—arises from our experiences at the celebration of the Supper. This was the place where the disciples understood the reality of the church for the first time. The nascent church awoke to self-awareness in the celebration of the “breaking of bread,” the “Eucharist.”

       Hermann Sasse