Category: Quotation

Desert Fathers: Robbery Accomplice

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macarius

When Macarius was living in Egypt, one day he came across a man who had brought a donkey to his cell and was stealing his possessions. As though he was a passer-by who did not live there, he went up to the thief and helped him to load the beast, and sent him peaceably on his way, saying to himself, “We brought nothing into this world but the Lord gave, as he willed, so it is done: blessed be the Lord in all things”

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V

Desert Fathers: Time To Quarrel

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argument

Two hermits lived together for many years without a quarrel.

One said to the other, “Let’s have a quarrel with each other, as is the way of men.” The other answered, “I don’t know how a quarrel happens.” The first said, “Look here, I put a brick between us, and I say, ‘That’s mine’. Then you say, ‘No, it’s mine’. That is how you begin a quarrel.”

So they put a brick between them, and one of them said, “That’s mine.” The other said, “No; it’s mine” He answered, “Yes, it’s yours. Take it away.” They were unable to argue with each other.  

– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V, 17:22

The Human Heart

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Today is Valentine’s Day, a day on which we celebrate the life of a 3rd Century Roman Saint, as well as trying to stave off the tremendous societal pressure to be romantic and lovey dovey 😉

heart

“The human heart is not shaped like a valentine heart, perfect and regular in contour; it is slightly irregular in shape as if a small piece of it were missing out of its side. That missing part may very well symbolize a piece that a spear tore out of the Universal Heart of Humanity on the Cross, but it probably symbolizes something more.

It may very well mean that when God created each human heart, He kept a small sample of it in heaven, and sent the rest of it into the world of time, where it would each day learn the lesson that it could never be really happy, that it could never be really wholly in love, that it could never be really whole-hearted until it rested with the Risen Christ in an eternal Easter…” – Archbishop Fulton Sheen

(Thanks to Alexandra for this one)

Wise Words on Wednesday: We’ll all be in trouble…

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Jesus Crucified eucharist

Metaphor?                                                              Metaphor?

[N]o ambiguity or room for metaphor remains when He declares that “the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” If that is a metaphor, then we are in trouble, since our salvation depends upon the death of Jesus’ actual body of flesh and blood on the Cross! – Jeff Cavins, “I’m not being fed!”

Wise Words on Wednesday: The Laity’s Mission

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Vatican 2

Today, many Catholics (including some bishops) seem to think that Vatican II was about the role of the laity in the Church – Eucharistic ministers, lectors, and so forth. But it was really about the role of the laity in the world. The true Catholic life is one of personal conversion and evangelization; it does not involve hanging around the sacristy.

Recently, Francis Cardinal George of Chicago said that the biggest failure of the post-Vatican II Church was her failure to get out the council’s message about the laity – who, after all, comprise 99% of the Church.

– George Sim Johnston

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