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4c54acf What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God. catholicism christian-living christianity gift god inspirational philosophy spirituality Hans Urs von Balthasar
467d706 The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere. catholicism humility lord-of-the-rings J.R.R. Tolkien
e32d551 "[ :] Atheism by itself is, of course, not a moral position or a political one of any kind; it simply is the refusal to believe in a supernatural dimension. For you to say of Nazism that it was the implementation of the work of is a filthy slander, undeserving of you and an insult to this audience. 's thought was not taught in Germany; was so derided in Germany along with every other form of unbelief that all the great modern atheists, , and were alike despised by the National Socialist regime. Now, just to take the most notorious of the 20th century totalitarianisms - the most finished example, the most perfected one, the most ruthless and refined one: that of National Socialism, the one that fortunately allowed the escape of all these great atheists, thinkers and many others, to the United States, a country of separation of church and state, that gave them welcome - if it's an atheistic regime, then how come that in the first chapter of , that says that he's doing God's work and executing God's will in destroying the Jewish people? How come the fuhrer oath that every officer of the Party and the Army had to take, making albert-einstein barbaric catholicism charles-darwin darwin darwinism einstein evolution fascism fascistic freud fuhrer germany hitler jewish mein-kampf nazi nazism pope science separation-of-church-and-state sigmund-freud superstitious united-states vatican Christopher Hitchens
821c8f7 Eomer said, 'How is a man to judge what to do in such times?' As he has ever judged,' said Aragorn. 'Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among Elves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house. catholic-spirituality catholicism lord-of-the-rings J.R.R. Tolkien
a9ba67a "Far better it is for you to say: "I am a sinner," than to say: "I have no need of religion." The empty can be filled, but the self-intoxicated have no room for God." catholicism christianity god religion sinners Fulton J. Sheen
7049494 The heart is like a woman, and the head is like a man, and although man is the head of woman, woman is the heart of man, and she turns man's head because she turns his heart. christianity heart inspirational jesus-shock love man marriage philosophy relationships spirituality theology woman woman-s-character woman-s-charm woman-s-strength catholicism Peter Kreeft
b0784bf "God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. catholicism christianity god religion John Henry Newman
7c2ee03 By the way, if you get mad at your Mac laptop and wonder who designed this demonic device, notice the manufacturer's icon on top: an apple with a bite out of it. apple apple-computer-inc bible catholicism christianity forbidden-fruit garden-of-eden genesis humor jesus-shock laptop mac macintosh old-testament original-sin philosophy sarcasm spirituality steve-jobs theology peter kreeft
825b6d7 Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't. It would be odd if she retained any of the narrowness of a specialist. Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment (even when freed from modern rules and hours, and exercised more spontaneously by a more protected person) is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that our race has thought it worth while to cast this burden on women in order to keep common-sense in the world. But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes. and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness. catholicism family family-life mother motherhood womanhood women women-s-strength G.K. Chesterton
4d5ccc8 This is the secret of life: the self lives only by dying, finds its identity (and its happiness) only by self-forgetfulness, self-giving, self-sacrifice, and agape love. catholicism christianity god jesus-shock love philosophy secret-of-life self-giving spirituality Peter Kreeft
deca7f0 Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths. catholicism christianity church discipline happiness imoral morality religion unhappiness Fulton J. Sheen
49c536d The most total opposite of pleasure is not pain but boredom, for we are willing to risk pain to make a boring life interesting. catholicism christianity jesus-shock philosophy pleasure spirituality theology Peter Kreeft
d95373a Two or three angels Came near to the earth. They saw a fat church. Little black streams of people Came and went in continually. And the angels were puzzled To know why the people went thus, And why they stayed so long within. angels catholicism chapel christianity church god religion sabbath sunday Stephen Crane
c912b40 Everything smaller than Heaven bores us because only Heaven is bigger than our hearts. catholicism christianity god hearts heaven inspirational jesus-shock philosophy spirituality theology Peter Kreeft
1e0cd17 For me it is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws. I am always astonished at the emphasis the Church puts on the body. It is not the soul she says that will rise but the body, glorified. catholicism death incarnation resurrection Flannery O'Connor
f3e78e6 Violence is spiritual junk food, and boredom is spiritual anorexia. catholicism christianity jesus-shock philosophy sloth spirituality theology violence Peter Kreeft
3dfe93a Could there be any doubt that the Jews would seek to harm the Son of God again, knowing that his body was now readily accessible in the form of defenseless crackers? catholicism christian christianity god jesus-christ jews mass son-of-god Sam Harris
d714416 "One of the good things about a Catholic church is that it isn't respectable," she had told Richard. "You can find anyone in it, from duchesses to whores, from tramps to kings." catholicism Rumer Godden
db935bb The connection between art and Christ is like the connection between sunlight and the sun. It is, in fact, the connection between Sonlight and the Son. catholicism christ christianity god jesus jesus-christ jesus-shock philosophy son-of-god sonlight spirituality sun sunlight theology Peter Kreeft
e2df4db It is reasonable to love the Absolute absolutely for the same reason it is reasonable to love the relative relatively. absolutism catholicism christianity god jesus-shock love philosophy reasonable relativism spirituality theology Peter Kreeft
6a2b7e3 Only God may be adored, because only God is unlimited goodness, truth, and beauty, and thus only God deserves unlimited love. beauty catholicism christianity god goodness inspirational jesus-shock love philosophy spirituality theology truth unlimited-beauty unlimited-goodness unlimited-love unlimited-truth Peter Kreeft
8c218bd Most theists are deists most of the time, in practice if not in theory. They practice the absence of God instead of the presence of God. catholicism christianity deism deist god jesus-shock philosophy presence-of-god theism theist theology Peter Kreeft
344d837 The rich fop Francis of Assisi was bored all his life--until he fell in love with Christ and gave all his stuff away and became the troubadour of Lady Poverty. catholicism christ christianity francis-of-assisi jesus-shock lady-poverty philosophy saint-francis st-francis-of-assisi theology troubadour Peter Kreeft
d56a178 But simple as the Sign of the Cross is, it carries a brave weight: it names the Trinity, celebrates the Creator, and brings home all the power of faith to the brush of fingers on skin and bone and belly. So do we, sometimes well and sometimes ill, labor to bring home our belief in God's love to the stuff of our daily lives, the skin and bone of this world -- and the Sign of the Cross helps us to remember that we have a Companion on the road. catholic catholicism christ christian christianity creator cross faith god god-s-love holy-trinity jesus jesus-christ love prayer religion sacramental sign-of-the-cross trinity Brian Doyle
cdc913d I think that it [the Church] stands for everything most hostile to the mental emancipation and stimulation of mankind. It is the completest, most highly organized system of prejudices and antagonisms in existence. Everywhere in the world there are ignorance and prejudice, but the greatest complex of these, with the most extensive prestige and the most intimate entanglement with traditional institutions, is the Roman Catholic Church. It presents many faces towards the world, but everywhere it is systematic in its fight against freedom. catholic catholic-church catholicism church emancipation freedom hostile ignorance intimate mankind prejudice prestige H.G. Wells
dedc406 The neo-cons, or some of them, decided that they would back Clinton when he belatedly decided for Bosnia and Kosovo against Milosevic, and this even though they loathed Clinton, because the battle against religious and ethnic dictatorship in the Balkans took precedence. This, by the way, was partly a battle to save Muslims from Catholic and Christian Orthodox killers. That impressed me. The neo-cons also took the view, quite early on, that coexistence with Saddam Hussein was impossible as well as undesirable. They were dead right about that. They had furthermore been thinking about the menace of ism when most people were half-asleep. And then I have to say that I was rather struck by the way that the and its associated voices took the decision to get rid of Trent Lott earlier this year, thus removing an embarrassment as well as a disgrace from the political scene. And their arguments were on points of principle, not 'perception.' I liked their ruthlessness here, and their seriousness, at a time when much of the liberal Left is not even seriously wrong, but frivolously wrong, and babbles without any sense of responsibility. (I mean, have you their sub-Brechtian stuff on Halliburton....?) And revolution from above, in some states and cases, is--as I wrote in my book --often preferable to the status quo, or to no revolution at all. balkans bertolt-brecht bill-clinton bosnia bosnian-war catholicism christianity dictatorship ethnicity halliburton islam jihad kosovo kosovo-war leftism liberalism neoconservatism persecution persecution-of-muslims politics religion revolution saddam-hussein slobodan-milosevic the-weekly-standard trent-lott war Christopher Hitchens
87914a8 But the truth is that there is no more conscious inconsistency between the humility of a Christian and the rapacity of a Christian than there is between the humility of a lover and the rapacity of a lover. The truth is that there are no things for which men will make such herculean efforts as the things of which they know they are unworthy. There never was a man in love who did not declare that, if he strained every nerve to breaking, he was going to have his desire. And there never was a man in love who did not declare also that he ought not to have it. catholicism chesterton christian christianity desire humility love lovers unworthy G.K. Chesterton
643a27a For Tolkien, Catholicism was not an opinion to which one subscribed but a reality to which one submitted. Quite simply, pseudo-psychology aside, Tolkien remained a Catholic for the simple if disarming reason that he believed Catholicism was true. catholicism j-r-r-tolkien tolkien Joseph Pearce
41084f0 Roman Catholicism is a broken and utterly desperate thing, capable only of malignant mischief in our awakening world. catholicism church malignant mischief H.G. Wells
c1eaa56 "{ } believers catholic catholic-church catholicism christendom church contempt coop credulity cruelty divines dreadful hell integrity lie luminous martyrs realization ritual sages shame submission ugly H.G. Wells
abab100 Catholicism is an obsessive-compulsive faith. catholicism obsessive-compulsive-disorder run Ann Patchett
5a93fc2 The bigger things get the smaller and duller or flatter the globe gets. It is getting to be all one blasted little provincial suburb. When they have introduced American sanitation, morale-pep, feminism, and mass production throughout the Near East, Middle East, Far East, U.S.S.R., the Pampas, el Gran Chaco, the Danubian Basin, Equatorial Africa, Hirther Further and Inner Mumbo-land, Gondhwannaland, Lhasas, and the villages of darkest Berkshire, how happy we shall be . At any rate it out to cut down travel. There will be nowhere to go. So people will (I opine) go all the faster. (leter 53) catholicism globalisation globalization J.R.R. Tolkien
4445dbe I'd be willing to bet that the notion of the end of time is more common today in the secular world than in the Christian. The Christian world makes it the object of meditation, but acts as if it may be projected into a dimension not measured by calendars. The secular world pretends to ignore the end of time, but is fundamentally obsessed by it. This is not a paradox, but a repetition of what transpired in the first thousand years of history. ... I will remind readers that the idea of the end of time comes out of one of the most ambiguous passages of John's text, chapter 20... This approach, which isn't only Augustine's but also the Church Fathers' as a whole, casts History as a journey forward--a notion alien to the pagan world. Even Hegel and Marx are indebted to this fundamental idea, which Pierre Teilhard de Chardin pursued. Christianity invented History, and it is in fact a modern incarnation of the Antichrist that denounces History as a disease. It's possible that secular historicism has understood history as infinitely perfectible--so that tomorrow we improve upon today, always and without reservation... But the entire secular world is not of the ideological view that through history we understand how to look at the regression and folly of history itself. There is, nonetheless, an originally Christian view of history whenever the signpost of Hope on this road is followed. The simple knowledge of how to judge history and its horrors is fundamentally Christian, whether the speaker is Emmanuel Mounier on tragic optimism or Gramsci on pessimism of reason and optimism of will. augustine bible catholic catholicism christian christianity church-fathers end-of-the-time end-of-the-world hegel historicism history hope marx religion revelation scripture secular secularism time Umberto Eco
1978005 In almost nine cases out of ten, those who have once had the Faith but now reject it, or claim that it does not make sense, are driven not by reasoning but by the way they are living catholic-church catholicism Fulton J. Sheen
857e3f9 Only by having a sense of history's trajectory (even if one does not believe in Parousia) can one love earthly reality and believe--with charity--that there is still room for Hope. catholicism charity christian christianity history hope parousia reality religion Umberto Eco
d544187 Kamo god da ides, s tobom ide i tvoj andeo cuvar. Prije nego sto se spremas nekamo ici, razmisli je li to mjesto prikladno za jednoga andela. angels-and-demons catholicism christianity Peter Kreeft