Look at how for our consolation the whole of nature rehearses the future resurrection. The sun sets and then is born again; the stars disappear and then return; the flowers die and come to life again. So it will be with our bodies of the dead in their graves. As trees hide their greenery in winter and display their withered branches, so all things that die are preserved and raised to life again. Much more then is this true of human beings, who were given mastery over everything that dies, so that they might have mastery also over everything that rises to new life. This is why the Son of God clothed himself in human nature and raised it from the dead.
Therefore, since the resurrection of the body is certain, and since punishment awaits the faithless while the faithful have the promise and hope of a heavenly kingdom, it remains for us to devote ourselves to good works and persevere in all holiness, faith, and uprightness, so that we may rise not to punishment but to glory.
(Treatise on Holy Scripture: PLS 1, 458-459.)
Gregory fought against Arianism and defended the Nicene Creed in action and in writing. He was an exegete who wrote principally on the Old Testament.
ST. AUGUSTINE: Sing with Human Reason
Dear friends, sing the Psalm with human reason, not like birds. Thrushes, parrots, ravens, magpies, and the like are often taught to say what they do not understand. However, to know what we are saying was granted by God's will to human nature. Hence, we who have learned in the Church to sing God's words should be eager to do so. We should know and see with a clear mind what we have all sung together with one voice.
-- Commentary on Psalm 18, 2
Prayer. Give me strength to seek you, Lord, for you have already enabled me to find you and have given me hope of finding you ever more fully.
-- The Trinity 15, 51
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES:
Do you want to know if you profit by the receptions of the sacraments? You will know how you are advancing in the virtue that is proper to a sacrament, for example, if from your confession you obtain the love of your abjection and humility; you will then be able to gauge your progress. Again, if by means of Holy Communion you become more gentle and understanding––since this sacrament is all honey––then you will obtain the fruit of it. But if, on the contrary, you do not become more humble and more gentle, you deserve to be deprived of bread because you do not want to work.
(Spiritual Treatises XVIII; O. VI, pp. 343-344)
G. K. CHESTERTON:
THERE was until lately a law forbidding a man to marry his deceased wife's sister; yet the thing happened constantly. There was no law forbidding a man to marry his deceased wife's scullery-maid; yet it did not happen nearly so often. It did not happen because the marriage market is managed in the spirit and by the authority of women.
('What's Wrong with the World.')
1 comment:
If a comment devoid of any rational thought is left in the woods, and nobody's around to read it...
I can't think of a clever way to end that sentence. Someone else do it.
Anyway, thanks for the wisdom.
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