Five-minute Sermons: Good Reading
by VP
Posted on Sunday June 04, 2023 at 01:00AM in Sermons
"Converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here."-I. St. Peter i. 17.
PRINTING as an art has been of such great value to the human race that it may seem to some like an attack upon the liberty of men to say anything against the use of it. So many books have been written, so much knowledge has been spread abroad by means of them, so many evils and abuses exposed, and so many thousands, indeed hundreds of thousands, of lives made happier because of the printingpress, that it deserves a place among the greatest of God's blessings to men.
This we admit, and gladly and heartfeltly thank the Lord for the benefits He has been pleased to bestow upon us through the press. We know it has had, and still has a noble office, and has done a noble work. It has uprooted evil and righted wrong; it has advanced knowledge and has given joy to many a heart. And it has done well when it has done these things. It has done well when it has aided justice and truth and the living of a good life.
For all these reasons its influence and power are deservedly great, so great that to lightly estimate them or overlook them would be to ignore great factors in human affairs. Nor do we wish, nor do we seek to lessen this influence as long as it is exerted in the cause of what is right; but the press, like many another thing good in itself, has been misused.
It has been made to pander to the grossest vices of men. It has been made to lie, to steal, to be impure. It has been made to teach false religion, false politics, and false morality. At times it has been the very worst enemy of mankind; filling men's minds with theories entirely impracticable, or such as, put into effect, would destroy their happiness.
Nor have men hesitated to prostitute its high calling for the sake of furthering personal gain and ambition, or even revenge. The trust and confidence of the public have not unfrequently been abused, and error commingled with truth so subtly, and right with wrong, that the public sentiment has been arrayed against truth and justice; for there is an almost unaccountable impression given many people that what they find printed is of necessity true unless it is absolutely proved to be false.
Our care must be, in the light of the facts before us, to distinguish between the good and the bad press. We must beware of the evil sent flying, as it were, upon the air, and hold ourselves aloof from the crowd, when it is being hurried along to its ruin by bad advice and by bad principles. Good books and good papers are doing God's work in the world-as apostles in their way; but those that are bad are working in the interest of the "prince of darkness."
A good press sheds a bright light over the earth -the light of truth; a bad press is like a heavy cloud obscuring the sun. We can have nothing to do
with evil; we should hate evil. Let us have nothing to do with bad books
and bad papers. Let us neither read them ourselves, nor permit others
to read them, when we have authority to prevent them. Let us banish them
from our houses; that at least we can do, for there we are supreme. Let
us strive also to have them banished from the shops where we deal and
from the land wherein we live." Five-minute Sermons by the Paulist Fathers 5th Sunday after Pentecost
Trinity Sunday
by VP
Posted on Sunday June 04, 2023 at 01:00AM in Sermons
Johann Sadeler 16th Century
"O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in You, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from You, O my unchanging God, but that each moment may take me further into the depths of Your mystery ! Pacify my soul! Make it Your heaven, Your beloved home and place of Your repose; let me never leave You there alone, but may I be ever attentive, ever alert in my faith, ever adoring and all given up to Your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, would that I might be for You a spouse of Your heart! I would anoint You with glory, I would love You – even unto death! Yet I sense my frailty and ask You to adorn me with Yourself; identify my soul with all the movements of Your soul, submerge me, overwhelm me, substitute Yourself in me that my life may become but a reflection of Your life. Come into me as Adorer, Redeemer and Saviour.
O Eternal Word, Word of my God, would that I might spend my life listening to You, would that I might be fully receptive to learn all from You; in all darkness, all loneliness, all weakness, may I ever keep my eyes fixed on You and abide under Your great light; O my Beloved Star, fascinate me so that I may never be able to leave Your radiance.
O Consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, descend into my soul and make all in me as an incarnation of the Word, that I may be to Him a super-added humanity wherein He renews His mystery; and You O Father, bestow Yourself and bend down to Your little creature, seeing in her only Your beloved Son in whom You are well pleased.
O my `Three’, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in whom I lose myself, I give myself to You as a prey to be consumed; enclose Yourself in me that I may be absorbed in You so as to contemplate in Your light the abyss of Your Splendour !" Saint Elizabeth de la Trinité
"There is a God : this is the first truth which we profess to believe when we recite the Creed, a truth which is the foundation of all the other truths of religion, and of salvation ; a truth which nature as well as religion alike inculcate; a truth better known than all others, and which is as clear to our eyes as the light of day. Hence, we always regard as monsters, rather than men, that small number of wretches who arrive at such a height of impiety that they dare deny or even doubt that there is a God. If they have the hardihood to say so, “it is only in their heart,” saith the prophet. Indeed, the corruption of their hearts makes them desire that there were no God, that they may with greater ease and freedom abandon themselves to the disorders of their passions ; but their intellect never admits such an absurdity, and always convicts them of their lying blasphemies.
(...)
There is but one God. You must not however imagine, my Brethren, that the unity of God is opposed to the adorable mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. It is true, faith teaches us to acknowledge and adore three Persons in the Most Blessed Trinity, three Persons in one God ; yet, there is in this no contradiction. Indeed, we do not say, there are three Gods in one God ; but there are three Persons, who constitute but one God. In the Most Blessed Trinity there are not three divine natures, but only one and the same divine nature for the three divine Persons. Yes, my Brethren, always bear in mind, that the three divine Persons of the Most Blessed Trinity have but one and the same divine nature, and are but one and the same God. I know that this is one of those truths which reason of itself cannot comprehend, experience teach, nor the senses assist us to discover; it is a mystery the depth of which, it belongs to God alone to fathom. “No one knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither doth any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. (St. Matthew, Xi:27) But what ought to set our minds at rest, and free us from all uneasiness, is, that God himself has revealed this august mystery, and His divine word is our guaranty for this profound truth. He has said: “There are three in heaven who give testimony, — -the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, — and these three are one. (St. John, V:7)
But what is God? The day will come when, in heaven, we shall know God and see His infinite perfections in the clearest light. In this life we behold Him only through a glass and in shadows. Yet, however imperfect our knowledge may be, faith and reason throw sufficient light around us, to demonstrate to us that God is a Spirit infinite in all His attributes ; that He is self-existent, and that He is from eternity. God is infinite, therefore He wants nothing ; and there is in Him not even the smallest defect, nor the slightest imperfection. He is perfect ; there is in Him neither sleep, nor hunger, nor thirst, nor anger, nor sadness, nor suffering, nor death; none of these imperfections are to be found in the infinitely perfect nature of God.
God is from all eternity ; He was not created by himself; neither could He have been created by another. If God created himself, He must have existed before He created himself, which is a palpable absurdity. If God was created by another, tell me by whom this other was himself created? How, then, does God exist? The Almighty himself informs us, when He says to Moses : “ I Am who Am” — that is to say, I am the necessary, infinite, eternal Being, the Source, the beginning of all other beings ; Life, and even Existence itself.
God is a being perfectly simple; He is a perfect Spirit; He has neither body, nor figure, nor form. He does not come under our senses ; He can neither be seen, nor touched. If the picture of God the Father represents Him under the form of an old man, it is to give us an idea of His adorable antiquity, and because He showed himself in this form to the prophet Daniel. If the Sacred Scriptures speaks to us of the eyes, the feet, and the hands of God, it uses such language only to accommodate itself to our weakness. These are no more than figures which serve to make us understand the perfections and attributes of God. By His eyes is signified that He sees all things ; by His hands that He made all things ; by His arms is understood His supreme power; and we express as far as possible His dignity, by placing all creatures at His feet.
But at the same time, the word of God warns us not to conceive a false idea of God, by supposing Him to have a human form, giving Him a human body and senses, or by believing that He is, as it were, confined within the vast and magnificent palace of this world. God is a Spirit; and therefore He desires to be adored in spirit and in truth. He wishes that our minds should be constantly raised toward Him, and that our hearts should he penetrated with His love, when we contemplate and meditate upon His infinite perfections.He wishes that, like generous children, we should have
for Him the deepest respect and the most perfect submission to His ever adorable will. He wishes that, by a faithful discharge of all the duties of our state, we may merit His favor and His love.
There is a God : He is perfect. He is infinite. O my soul, bless the Lord, and may all that is within me praise His holy name ! Yes, 0 Lord, I am the work of Thy hands, and my soul and my body shall never cease to publish Thy greatness and Thy goodness. Alas! can it be possible that there are men who refuse to recognize Him, by whose omnipotence they were called into existence! Can it be, that there are others who, though acknowledging that there is a God, yet live as if they knew Him not ; do not love Him, nor serve Him, nor wish to do any thing to please Him.
Let us not, O my God ! be amongst the number of those ungrateful wretches; on the contrary, let us bless Thee all the days of our lives; let us praise and glorify Thee on earth, which is Thy footstool; that, we may merit the happiness of being one day admitted to praise, and bless, and love Thee forever in Heaven, where Thou hast established the “ Throne of Thy Glory.” — Amen. "
Source: One hundred short sermons, Canon H.J. Thomas Cathedral of Liege Belgium 1859
