{1} Once all villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella.
That's FAITH.
{2} When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them.
That's TRUST.
{3} Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but still we set the alarms to wake up.
That's HOPE.
{4} We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future.
That's CONFIDENCE.
{5} We see the world suffering, but still we get married and have children.
That's LOVE.
{6} On an old man's shirt was written a sentence I am not 80 years old; I am sweet 16 with 64 years of experience.'
That's ATTITUDE.
- John Mangun
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Faith illustrated
Faith cannot be negotiated
Pope: "Faith cannot be negotiated, it requires courageous testimony"
VATICAN INSIDER STAFF
http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/23861/
Courageously testifying faith in its entirety: this is the invitation Pope Francis sent out during the mass he presided in St. Martha's House this morning. The Pope stressed that although some live faith superficially, martyrs of the Church do exist in today's world. The mass was attended by an Argentinean family and some nuns from the Daughters of St. Camillus and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity.
In his homily -- Vatican Radio reports -- the Pope commented on the reading in which Peter and John courageously testify the faith before Jewish leaders despite the threats made against them, while in the Gospel, the Risen Jesus condemns the apostles' disbelief. So the Pope asked this question: "How is our faith going? Is it strong? Or is it sometimes a little bit superficial?" When the going gets tough "are we courageous like Peter or a bit lukewarm?" Peter -- he pointed out -- did not keep his faith on the low and did not make any compromises because "faith cannot be negotiated." "Throughout history, the people of God have always been tempted to chop a piece off faith," the Pope said. More or less everyone is tempted "not to be too rigid." "But when we start to cut down on faith, to negotiate faith, selling it to the highest bidder -- he emphasised -- we take the path of apostasy, we begin to lack faith, lack faith in the Lord."
Pope Francis emphasised that the Church has had many martyrs throughout its history, "because to find martyrs one doesn't have to go down to the catacombs or to the Colosseum: martyrs are alive now, in many countries. Christians -- Pope Francis stated "are persecuted for their faith. In some countries they cannot wear a cross: if they do so they are punished. Today, in the 21st century, our Church is a Church of martyrs."
http://zh.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/04/06/
教宗方濟各：信德不能妥協，因此教會至今仍是殉道者的教會
（梵蒂岡電台訊）教宗方濟各4月6日在聖瑪爾大之家的小堂主持了復活八日慶期第七天的彌撒。阿根廷一個家庭，以及聖卡米洛修女會和善牧修女會的一些修女參加了禮儀。教宗在彌撒中表示：基督徒應該勇敢見証信德的完整性。
教宗在簡短的彌撒講道中，講解了復活八日慶期第七天的彌撒讀經和福音。讀經記載了聖伯多祿和聖若望不畏恐嚇，在猶太首領面前勇敢見証信仰；而福音則講述了復活的耶穌責斥那些不相信見証他復活的人。
教宗方濟各問道：“我們的信德如何？堅固嗎？或者有時候有點薄弱呢？”當困難來臨時，“我們是否像聖伯多祿一樣勇敢，或者有些遲疑不定呢？”教宗說，伯多祿不掩蓋信仰，也沒有妥協讓步，“因為信德是不容討價還價的”。然而“在天主子民的歷史中，常常有削減信德的誘惑”、“隨大流”的誘惑，以及“不要過於剛直”的誘惑。教宗強調說“當我們開始削減信德時，為信德討價還價時，在某種程度上我們是在向出高價者出賣信仰，我們也開始走上了叛教的道路，背叛上主的道路”。
教宗進一步指出：“聖伯多祿和聖若望的榜樣給了我們力量，但是在教會歷史中有許多的殉道者，直至今日也是如此，“我們並不需要到羅馬的地下墓穴或羅馬斗獸場去尋找殉道者，因為殉道者此刻還活著，在許多國家都有。教宗方濟各說，基督徒因信仰的緣故遭受迫害。一些國家不允許信徒佩戴十字架，若有人這麼做會受到懲罰。在二十一世紀的今天，我們的教會仍然是一個殉道者的教會”，仍然屬於那些像聖伯多祿和聖若望一樣宣稱“我們不得不說我們所見所聞”的人們。教宗繼續說，是這些殉道者“給了我們力量”，讓我們用生命見証“我們所領受的信仰，這信仰是上主賜給祂所有子民的禮物”。
教宗明確指出：“我們不能憑自己做這事，因為這是一個恩寵，信德的恩寵。我們應該每日呼求上主說：‘主啊，求檷保護我的信德，讓它成長，願我的信德堅固、勇敢，並在我必須如同聖伯多祿和聖若望一樣公開信德時幫助我，賜我勇氣’”。
教宗最后說，在今天，美好的祈禱詞或許是這樣的：願上主幫助我們守護信德，使它成長，讓我們成為有信德的人。
Faith or works, or both?
We are not justified by our wisdom, intelligence, piety, or by any action of ours, however holy, but by faith, the one means by which God has justified men from the beginning. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
What must we do then, brothers? Give up good works? Stop practising Christian love? God forbid! We must be ready and eager for every opportunity to do good, and put our whole heart into it. Even the Creator and Lord of the universe rejoices in his works.
(Pope St Clement I to the Corinthians)
(Pope St Clement I is the 4th Pope, 3rd successor of St Peter. He was Pope from 92 to 99 AD)
我們成 為義人，不是由於我們自己， 也不是因為我們智慧、明達、 虔誠、或修德立功的緣故，而 是由於信德；自開始，全能的 天主就是藉這信德使眾人成 義。願光榮歸於天主，萬世無 疆。阿們。
那麼，弟兄們，我們該做什麼 呢？要停止行善工，放棄愛德 嗎？絕不！上主不會允許我們 這樣做。反之，我們要努力， 並且爽快地從事一切善工。因 為萬物的工程師和主宰，也為 自己的工程感到歡欣。
( 聖教宗克勉一世致 格林多人書)
"I am the Lord, unrivalled"
Isaiah 45:1-13 ©
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he has taken by his right hand to subdue nations before him and strip the loins of kings, to force gateways before him that their gates be closed no more:
I will go before you levelling the heights. I will shatter the bronze gateways, smash the iron bars. I will give you the hidden treasures, the secret hoards, that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
It is for the sake of my servant Jacob, of Israel my chosen one, that I have called you by your name, conferring a title though you do not know me. I am the Lord, unrivalled; there is no other God besides me. Though you do not know me, I arm you that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that, apart from me, all is nothing.
I am the Lord, unrivalled, I form the light and create the dark. I make good fortune and create calamity, it is I, the Lord, who do all this.
Send victory like a dew, you heavens, and let the clouds rain it down. Let the earth open for salvation to spring up. Let deliverance, too, bud forth which I, the Lord, shall create.
Can it argue with the man who fashioned it, one vessel among earthen vessels? Does the clay say to its fashioner, ‘What are you making?’, does the thing he shaped say, ‘You have no skill’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a woman, ‘To what have you given birth?’
Thus says the Lord, the Holy One, he who fashions Israel: Is it for you to question me about my children and to dictate to me what my hands should do? I it was who made the earth, and created man who is on it. I it was who spread out the heavens with my hands and now give orders to their whole array. I it was who roused him to victory, I levelled the way for him. He will rebuild my city, will bring my exiles back without ransom or indemnity, so says the Lord of Hosts.
恭讀依撒意亞先知 書 45,1-13
以色列藉居魯士得救
上主這樣對祂的受傅者居魯士 說：——我牽著他的右手，使他 降伏列國，解除列王的武裝；我 在他前開啟城門，使門戶不再關 閉：「我要走在你前面，把崎嶇 的路修平；我要把銅門打破，將 鐵閂擊碎，把隱藏的錢財和秘密 的寶物賜給你，為使你知道：是 我上主，以色列的天主，指著你 的名召叫了你。為了我的僕人雅 格和我所揀選的以色列的緣故， 我指著你的名召叫了你，給你起 了這個稱號，縱然你還不認識 我。我是上主，再沒有另一個； 除我以外，沒有別的神；雖然你 還不認識我，我却武裝了你，為 使從日出到日落之地的人都知 道：除我之外，再沒有另一個。 我是上主，再沒有另一個；是我 造了光明，造了黑暗；造了幸 福，降了災禍；是我上主造成了 這一切。」諸天哪！請滴下甘 露，願彩雲降下義人，願大地裂 開生出救恩，願正義一同出生！ 我上主創造了這事。
禍哉，那與自己的製造者爭辯 的！瓦器豈能與製造者爭辯？陶 器豈能對陶工說：「你做的是什 麼啊！」或說：「你手製的不精 美！」禍哉！那向父親說：「你 為什麼生子？」或向母親說： 「你為什麼生育？」的人！以色 列的聖者，安排將來的上主這樣 說：「關於我子女的事，你們要 質問我嗎？或者對我手中的工 作，你們有所吩咐嗎？是我造了 大地，又造了地上的人；是我親 手展開了諸天，佈置了天上的星 辰；是我由於仁義喚起了他；我 要修平他的道路，他要修建我的 城池，遣回我的俘虜，而不索取 贖金，也不要求報酬。」這是萬 軍上主說的。
Why is the Creed important?
In learning and professing the faith, you must accept and retain only the Church’s present tradition, confirmed as it is by the Scriptures. Although not everyone is able to read the Scriptures, some because they have never learned to read, others because their daily activities keep them from such study, still so that their souls will not be lost through ignorance, we have gathered together the whole of the faith in a few concise articles.
Now I order you to retain this creed for your nourishment throughout life and never to accept any alternative, not even if I myself were to change and say something contrary to what I am now teaching, not even if some angel of contradiction, changed into an angel of light, tried to lead you astray. For even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which you have now received, let him be accursed in your sight.
So for the present be content to listen to the simple words of the creed and to memorise them; at some suitable time you can find the proof of each article in the Scriptures. This summary of the faith was not composed at man’s whim, the most important sections were chosen from the whole Scripture to constitute and complete a comprehensive statement of the faith. Just as the mustard seed contains in a small grain many branches, so this brief statement of the faith keeps in its heart, as it were, all the religious truth to be found in Old and New Testament alike. That is why, my brothers, you must consider and preserve the traditions you are now receiving. Inscribe them across your heart.
Observe them scrupulously, so that no enemy may rob any of you in an idle and heedless moment; let no heretic deprive you of what has been given to you. Faith is rather like depositing in a bank the money entrusted to you, and God will surely demand an account of what you have deposited. In the words of the Apostle: I charge you before the God who gives life to all things, and before Christ who bore witness under Pontius Pilate in a splendid declaration, to keep unblemished this faith you have received, until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
St Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386 AD) to Catechumens
在學習與表白信仰時，你只應接受並 持守教會現在所傳授給你的信德，這 信德是以聖經為後盾。然而不是人人 都能唸聖經：因為有些人不識字，另 一些人由於日常的職務阻止他們，因 此我們用一些簡短的詞句、扼要地敘 述信理的大綱，以免靈魂因無知而喪 亡。
我吩咐你們要常常保存這個信仰，當 作你們一生的餱糧；而且除此信仰之 外，不要再接受其他的信仰；即使我 自己改變了，或講論那與我現在所教 導的相反的道理，或者即使是惡天使 借光明天使的形像領你們陷於錯誤， 你們也不要信從。因為「無論是我 們，或是從天上降來的天使，若傳給 你們的，和我們以前傳給你們的福音 不同，就該受咒詛。」
你剛剛聽見用平常的話唸出的信經， 首先該相信並且牢記。到了適當的時 機，你會發現信經中的每條信理，在 聖經中都有證明。這篇信理大綱，不 是純粹凡人的作品，而是從聖經中選 取最重要的詞句，集合而成，涵蓋信 理的撮要。這正像一粒纖細的芥菜子 內、包含許多枝葉；同樣，這簡短的 信經也包羅舊約和新約所載的宗教的 一切真理。
所以，弟兄們，你們要留神，要牢記 現在所傳授給你們的信理，並且銘刻 在你們心裏。你們要虔誠保持這些信理，以免因你 們的疏忽懈怠而為仇人所搶走，或遭 異端人所破壞。因為信仰就如同把託 給你們的金錢存在銀行中。天主要查 看你們存款的帳目。如同聖保祿所 說：「我在那使萬有生活的天主面 前，和那對般雀比拉多美妙作證的基 督耶穌前命令你，務要保持你所接受 的信仰毫無玷污，直到我們的主耶穌 基督顯現。」
--選讀耶城主教聖齊禮要理 (論信經)
How Christ dwells in us
Footnotes for 2 Corinthians 13:5
Christ dwells in the intellect by faith, in the heart and affections by charity, in the soul by grace.
HOW TO TELL IF YOU HAVE FAITH
That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, "Thou are my refuge."
--George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE
Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.
Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.
The understanding, knowledge and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries, but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning and the same import.
The religion of souls should follow the law of development of bodies. Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were. There is a great difference between the flower of childhood and the maturity of age, but those who become old are the very same people who were once young. Though the condition and appearance of one and the same individual may change, it is one and the same nature, one and the same person.
The tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.
There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator fashioned beforehand in their earlier years.
If, however, the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.
In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.
On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.
--St Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium
The sacrifice of Abraham
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, loaded it on Isaac, and carried in his own hands the fire and the knife. Then the two of them set out together. Isaac himself carries the wood for his own holocaust: this is a figure of Christ. For Christ carried the burden of the cross himself, and yet to carry the wood for the holocaust is really the duty of the priest. So Christ is then both victim and priest. This is the meaning of the expression: they set out together. For when Abraham, who was to perform the sacrifice, carried the fire and the knife, Isaac did not walk behind him, but with him. In this way he showed that he exercised the priesthood equally with Abraham.
What happened next? Isaac spoke to his father Abraham, ‘Father’ he said. This plea from the son was at that instant the voice of temptation. For do you not think the voice of the son who was about to be sacrificed struck a responsive chord in the heart of the father? Although Abraham did not waver because of his faith, he responded with a voice full of affection: ‘Yes, my son’ he replied. ‘Look,’ said Isaac, ‘here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham answered, ‘My son, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering’.
The careful yet loving response of Abraham moves me greatly. I do not know what he saw in spirit, because he did not speak of the present but of the future: God himself will provide the lamb. His son asks what is to happen now, but Abraham’s reply concerns the future. Indeed the Lord himself provided a lamb, in Christ.
Abraham stretched out his hand and seized the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven. ‘Abraham, Abraham’ he said. ‘I am here’ Abraham replied. ‘Do not raise your hand against the boy’ the angel said. ‘Do not harm him, for now I know you fear God’. Compare this to what St Paul says when he speaks of God: He did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. God emulates man with magnificent generosity. Abraham offered to God his mortal son who did not die; God gave up his immortal Son who died for all of us.
Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. We said before that Isaac is a type of Christ. Yet this also seems true of the ram. It is worth understanding how both are figures of Christ – Isaac who was not killed and the ram which was. Christ is the Word of God, but the Word became flesh.
Christ therefore suffered, but in the flesh. Christ, the bodily Christ, endured death; and the ram signifies that body and that death. As John said: Behold the lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. The Word, on the other hand, remained incorruptible. This is Christ according to the spirit, and Isaac signifies that spirit. Therefore, Christ himself is both victim and priest according to the spirit. For he offers the victim to the Father according to the flesh, and he is himself offered on the altar of the cross.
--Origen's homilies on Genesis
(Origen (Greek: Ὠριγένης Ōrigénēs, or Origen Adamantius, c. 185–254) was an early Christian scholar and theologian)
FAITH. REASON. TASTE AND EXPERIENCE.
Very briefly, I would like to call your attention further to two other affirmations in the First Letter of St Peter which concern us in a special way in our time. There is first of all the sentence, today discovered anew, on the basis of which medieval theologians understood their task, the task of the theologian: "in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you". (3: 15). Christian faith is hope. It paves the way to the future. And it is a hope that possesses reasonableness, a hope whose reason we can and must explain. Faith comes from the eternal Reason that entered our world and showed us the true God. Faith surpasses the capacity of our reason, just as love sees more than mere intelligence. But faith speaks to reason and in the dialectic confrontation can be a match for reason. It does not contradict it but keeps up with it and goes beyond it to introduce us into the greater Reason of God. As Pastors of our time it is our task to be the first to understand the reason of faith. It is our task not to let it remain merely a tradition but to recognize it as a response to our questions. Faith demands our rational participation, which is deepened and purified in a sharing of love. It is one of our duties as Pastors to penetrate faith with thought, to be able to show the reason for our hope within the debates of our time. Yet although it is so necessary thought alone does not suffice. Just as speaking alone does not suffice. In his baptismal and Eucharistic catechesis in chapter 2 of his Letter, Peter alludes to the Psalm used by the ancient Church in the context of communion, that is, to the verse which says: "O taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Ps 34[33]: 8; 1 Pt 2: 3). Tasting alone leads to seeing. Let us think of the disciples of Emmaus: it was only in convivial communion with Jesus, only in the breaking of the bread that their eyes were opened. Only in truly experienced communion with the Lord were they able to see. This applies to us all; over and above thinking and speaking, we need the experience of faith, the vital relationship with Jesus Christ. Faith must not remain theory: it must be life. If we encounter the Lord in the Sacrament, if we speak to him in prayer, if in the decisions of daily life we adhere to Christ then "we see" more and more how good he is; then we experience how good it is to be with him. Moreover the capacity to communicate faith to others in a credible way stems from this certainty lived. The Curé d'Ars was not a great thinker; but he "tasted" the Lord. He lived with him even in the details of daily life, as well as in the great demands of his pastoral ministry. In this way he became "one who sees". He had tasted so he knew that the Lord is good. Let us pray the Lord that he may grant us this ability to taste, and that we may thus become credible witnesses of the hope that is in us.
To be sure, a youth center that merely offers games and something to drink would be absolutely superfluous. The point of an oratory really has to be cultural formation, the formation of a human and Christian personality, which must become a mature personality. In this regard we’re absolutely in agreement. It seems to me that today there’s a cultural poverty in which we know so many things, but without a heart, without any interior connection, because a common vision of the world is lacking. For that reason, a cultural solution inspired by the faith of the church, by the awareness of God which it has given us, is absolutely necessary. I would say that this is precisely the function of a youth center: To offer not only something to do in one’s spare time, but above all to offer an integral human formation that makes the personality complete.
Therefore, the priest as educator must be himself well-formed and located within the culture of today, rich in culture, in order to help young people enter into a culture inspired by the faith. I would add, naturally, that in the end the point of orientation for every culture is God, the God present in Christ. We see today that there are persons with great knowledge, but without interior orientation. In this way, for example, science can even be dangerous, because without deep ethical orientations, it leaves the person exposed to the arbitrary, and hence, without the orientations necessary in order to become really human. In this sense, the heart of all cultural formation, which is certainly necessary, must without doubt be the faith: To know the face of God who is revealed in Christ, and thus to have the point of orientation for all the other cultures too, which may be equally confused and confusing. A culture without personal knowledge of God, and without knowledge of the face of God in Christ, is a culture that can become destructive because it doesn’t have the necessary ethic orientations. In this sense, it seems to me, we really have a deep mission of cultural and human formation, one which opens up to all the riches of the culture of our time – but one which also offers a criterion for discerning what is true culture, and what could become anti-culture.
(Benedict XVI, Q&A With Priests of Rome, 26 Feb 2009)
A decisive advance in understanding the origin of the cosmos was the consideration of being qua being and the concern of metaphysics with the most basic question of the first or transcendent origin of participated being. In order to develop and evolve, the world must first be, and thus have come from nothing into being. It must be created, in other words, by the first Being who is such by essence.
To state that the foundation of the cosmos and its developments is the provident wisdom of the Creator is not to say that creation has only to do with the beginning of the history of the world and of life. It implies, rather, that the Creator founds these developments and supports them, underpins them and sustains them continuously. Thomas Aquinas taught that the notion of creation must transcend the horizontal origin of the unfolding of events, which is history, and consequently all our purely naturalistic ways of thinking and speaking about the evolution of the world. Thomas observed that creation is neither a movement nor a mutation. It is instead the foundational and continuing relationship that links the creature to the Creator, for he is the cause of every being and all becoming (cf. Summa Theologiae, I, q.45, a. 3).
To “evolve” literally means “to unroll a scroll”, that is, to read a book. The imagery of nature as a book has its roots in Christianity and has been held dear by many scientists. Galileo saw nature as a book whose author is God in the same way that Scripture has God as its author. It is a book whose history, whose evolution, whose “writing” and meaning, we “read” according to the different approaches of the sciences, while all the time presupposing the foundational presence of the author who has wished to reveal himself therein. This image also helps us to understand that the world, far from originating out of chaos, resembles an ordered book; it is a cosmos. Notwithstanding elements of the irrational, chaotic and the destructive in the long processes of change in the cosmos, matter as such is “legible”. It has an inbuilt “mathematics”. The human mind therefore can engage not only in a “cosmography” studying measurable phenomena but also in a “cosmology” discerning the visible inner logic of the cosmos. We may not at first be able to see the harmony both of the whole and of the relations of the individual parts, or their relationship to the whole. Yet, there always remains a broad range of intelligible events, and the process is rational in that it reveals an order of evident correspondences and undeniable finalities: in the inorganic world, between microstructure and macrostructure; in the organic and animal world, between structure and function; and in the spiritual world, between knowledge of the truth and the aspiration to freedom. Experimental and philosophical inquiry gradually discovers these orders; it perceives them working to maintain themselves in being, defending themselves against imbalances, and overcoming obstacles. And thanks to the natural sciences we have greatly increased our understanding of the uniqueness of humanity’s place in the cosmos.
(Benedict XVI, Discourse, Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on the Scientific Insight into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life, 31 October 2008)
It is very good to mistrust ourselves, but what good will that do unless we place all our confidence in God and await his mercy? And even if we do not feel such confidence, we must not cease to make acts of confidence and say, "Even though I have no feeling of confidence in you, I know that you are my God, that I am totally yours and have no hope except in your goodness; therefore I abandon myself entirely into your hands."
It is always in our power to make these acts, and even if we have difficulty in doing so, still, it is not an impossibility, and it is on these occasions and in these very difficulties that we give witness of our fidelity to God.
A thousand times a day cast your whole heart, your soul, your anxiety on God with great confidence, and say with the psalmist: "I am yours, Lord; save me."
(St Francis de Sales)
A university or school's Catholic identity is not simply a question of the number of Catholic students. It is a question of conviction -- do we really believe that only in the mystery of the Word made flesh does the mystery of man truly become clear (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22)? Are we ready to commit our entire self -- intellect and will, mind and heart -- to God? Do we accept the truth Christ reveals? Is the faith tangible in our universities and schools? Is it given fervent expression liturgically, sacramentally, through prayer, acts of charity, a concern for justice, and respect for God's creation? Only in this way do we really bear witness to the meaning of who we are and what we uphold.
(Benedict XVI, Address to Catholic Educators, Catholic University of America, 17 April 2008)
The fidelity and courage with which the Church in this country will respond to the challenges raised by an increasingly secular and materialistic culture will depend in large part upon your own fidelity in handing on the treasure of our Catholic faith. Young people need to be helped to discern the path that leads to true freedom: the path of a sincere and generous imitation of Christ, the path of commitment to justice and peace. Much progress has been made in developing solid programs of catechesis, yet so much more remains to be done in forming the hearts and minds of the young in knowledge and love of the Lord. The challenges confronting us require a comprehensive and sound instruction in the truths of the faith. But they also call for cultivating a mindset, an intellectual "culture", which is genuinely Catholic, confident in the profound harmony of faith and reason, and prepared to bring the richness of faith’s vision to bear on the urgent issues which affect the future of American society.
(Benedict XVI, Homily, Washington Nationals Stadium, 17 April 2008)
We are true worshippers and true priests. We pray in spirit, and so offer in spirit the sacrifice of prayer. Prayer is an offering that belongs to God and is acceptable to him: it is the offering he has asked for, the offering he planned as his own.
We must dedicate this offering with our whole heart, we must fatten it on faith, tend it by truth, keep it unblemished through innocence and clean through chastity, and crown it with love. We must escort it to the altar of God in a procession of good works to the sound of psalms and hymns. Then it will gain for us all that we ask of God.
Since God asks for prayer offered in spirit and in truth, how can he deny anything to this kind of prayer? How great is the evidence of its power, as we read and hear and believe.
Of old, prayer was able to rescue from fire and beasts and hunger, even before it received its perfection from Christ. How much greater then is the power of Christian prayer. No longer does prayer bring an angel of comfort to the heart of a fiery furnace, or close up the mouths of lions, or transport to the hungry food from the fields. No longer does it remove all sense of pain by the grace it wins for others. But it gives the armour of patience to those who suffer, who feel pain, who are distressed. It strengthens the power of grace, so that faith may know what is gaining from the Lord, and understand what it is suffering for the name of God.
In the past prayer was able to bring down punishment, rout armies, withhold the blessing of rain. Now, however, the prayer of the just turns aside the whole anger of God, keeps vigil for its enemies, pleads for persecutors. Is it any wonder that it can call down water from heaven when it could obtain fire from heaven as well? Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God. But Christ has willed that it should work no evil, and has given it all power over good.
Its only art is to call back the souls of the dead from the very journey into death, to give strength to the weak, to heal the sick, to exorcise the possessed, to open prison cells, to free the innocent from their chains. Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travellers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.
All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come from their barns and caves they look out to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirit in their own fashion. The birds too rise and lift themselves up to heaven: they open out their wings, instead of hands, in the form of a cross, and give voice to what seems to be a prayer.
What more need be said on the duty of prayer? Even the Lord himself prayed. To him be honour and power for ever and ever. Amen.
(Tertullian, On Prayer)
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