Quips, Quotes & Questions 10-26-14

I suggest you take the time to look over some of the lives of some of these people who are quoted. They are astounding saints and worthy role models.

Praying in faith comes from an abiding faith in the Person

prayed to -- the confidence is in Him. It is based on a knowledge of who He is, and on a trusted conviction that He is worthy tobe trusted. Praying in faith is the act of a simple-hearted child of God.

    Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983)

The only Christian way to treat a slave is to set him free.

John Woolman

Never again are we to look at the stars, as we did when we were children, 
and wonder how far it is to God. A being outside our world
would be a spectator, looking on but taking no part
in this life where we try to be brave 
despite all the bafflement. A God who created, 
and withdrew, could be mighty,
but he could not be love. 
Who could love a God remote, when
suffering is our lot? 
Our God is closer than our problems, for
they are out there, to be faced; 
He is here, beside us, Emmanuel.
Joseph E. McCabe


Often we hear the remark that we have to live in the world without being of the world.  But it may be more difficult to be in the Church without being of the Church.   Being of the Church means being so preoccupied by and involved in the many ecclesial affairs and clerical "ins and outs" that we are no longer focused on Jesus.  The Church then blinds us from what we came to see and deafens us to  what we came to hear.   Still, it is in the Church that Christ dwells, invites us to his table, and speaks to us words of eternal love. Being in the Church without being of it is a great spiritual challenge.
Henri Nouwen


If prayer is not a play of the religious fantasy, or a
routine task, it must be the application of faith to a concrete
actual and urgent situation. Only remember that prayer does not
work by magic, and that stormy desire is not fervent, effectual
prayer. You may be but exploiting a mighty power; whereas you
must be in real contact with the real God. It is the man that
most really has God that most really seeks God.
    ... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921)


Andre Trocmé, who pastored the remarkable Le Chambon community during World War II, said, “Nonviolence was not a theory superimposed upon reality; it was an itinerary that we explored day after day in communal prayer and in obedience to the commands of the Spirit.”


We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key
of the treasure chamber into our hand, and bids us take all
that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a
bank, and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent,
whose fault is it that he is poor? Whose fault is it that
Christian people generally have such scanty portions of the
free riches of God?
    Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910)


Let our whole body, then, be preserved in Christ Jesus; and let everyone be subject to his neighbor. Let the strong not despise the weak, and let the weak show respect to the strong. Let the rich man provide for the wants of the poor; and let the poor man bless God, because he has given him a community that can provide for his needs.
Clement of Rome



The Church often wounds us deeply.  People with religious authority often wound us by their words, attitudes, and demands.  Precisely because our religion brings us in touch with the questions of life and death, our religious sensibilities can get hurt most easily.   Ministers and priests seldom fully realize how a critical remark, a gesture of rejection, or an act of impatience can be remembered for life by those to whom it is directed.

There is such an enormous hunger for meaning in life, for comfort and consolation, for forgiveness and reconciliation, for restoration and healing, that anyone who has any authority in the Church should constantly be reminded that the best word to characterize religious authority is compassion. Let's keep looking at Jesus whose authority was expressed in compassion.
Henri Nouwen