CQOD: 09/16/06 -- Fénelon: on prayer

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 16, 2006

Feast of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, Martyr, 258
Commemoration of Ninian, Bishop of Galloway, Apostle to the Picts, c. 430
Commemoration of Edward Bouverie Pusey, Priest, tractarian, 1882

Meditation:
    If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
    -- James 1:5-8 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    As St. Cyprian well said, we may judge how ready He is to give us those good things which He Himself solicits us to ask of Him. Let us pray then with faith, and not lose the fruits of our prayers by a wavering uncertainty which, as St. James testifies, hinders the success of them. The same apostle advises us to pray when we are in trouble because thereby we should find consolation; yet we are so wretched that this heavenly employment is often a burden instead of a comfort to us. The lukewarmness of our prayers is the source of all our other infidelities.
    ... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Meditations

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Quiet time reflection:
    Grant, Lord, that Your Spirit shall inhabit my prayers.

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CQOD: 09/15/06 -- Calvin: condemning the impulses to rebellion

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 15, 2006Meditation:
    Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
    -- 1 John 2:15-17 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    It may seem absurd to some that all desires by which man is by nature affected are so completely condemned—although they have been bestowed by God himself, the author of nature. To this I reply that we do not condemn those inclinations which God so engraved upon the character of man at his first creation, that they were eradicable only with humanity itself; but only those bold and unbridled impulses which contend against God’s control.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, teach me self-control.

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CQOD: 09/14/06 -- Tauler: the price of true peace

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 14, 2006

Feast of the Holy Cross

Meditation:
    No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
    -- Matthew 6:24 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    If we ever are to attain to true Divine Peace, and be completely united to God, all that is not absolutely necessary, either bodily or spiritually, must be cast off; everything that could interpose itself to an unlawful extent between us and Him, and lead us astray: for He alone will be Lord in our hearts, and none other; for Divine Love can admit of no rival.
    ... Johannes Tauler (ca. 1300-1361), The Inner Way

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Quiet time reflection:
    I confess, Lord, that I am double-minded. Raise in me that complete allegiance that serves the Kingdom alone.

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CQOD: 09/13/06 -- St. John Chrysostom: the nature of resurrection

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 13, 2006

Feast of John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, Teacher, 407

Meditation:
    It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
    -- 1 Corinthians 15:44 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up in life. These are words by which the slanderers of the nature, of the body, the impeachers of our flesh, are completely overthrown... We do not wish to cast aside the body, but corruption: not the flesh, but death. The body is one thing, corruption another; the body is one thing, death another... What is foreign to us is not the body but corruptibility.
    ... St. John Chrysostom (345?-407)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I rejoice in the life You have given me.

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CQOD: 09/12/06 -- Allshorn: shallow comfort

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 12, 2006Meditation:
    On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
    -- John 7:37-38 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    We religious leaders need to look very much more deeply. We can so easily have talks with people, and they can say we have helped, write us grateful letters, even stand steady for a time till the juice we have put into them runs out; but, we may have brought them no hunger for God—because that hunger is no ache in our own heart—nor brought them anywhere near to the end of self.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), Notebooks [1957]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to point others to the Livnig Bread and the Living Water.

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CQOD: 09/11/06 -- Davidman: the political use of religion

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 11, 2006Meditation:
    So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him."
    -- Acts 10:34-35 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    There have always been two kinds of Christianity—man’s and Christ’s. Does anyone today remember how the emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion? It is said that he had a vision—saw a cross in the sky with the inscription, “In this sign shalt thou conquer.” He accepted the new faith promptly, because he thought it would defeat his enemies for him. That is man’s Christianity, a means to earthly triumph. And in our present crisis we are appealing to it to defeat the Russians for us. We hear of the life-and-death struggle between Christianity and Communism, the necessity of “keeping God alive as a social force”—as if our Lord could not survive a Soviet victory! It is a poor sort of faith that imagines Christ defeated by anything men can do.
    ... Joy Davidman (1915-1960), Smoke on the Mountain [1955]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You call people from every tribe and nation to praise Your Name.

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CQOD: 09/10/06 -- Augustine: procrastination

Christian Quotation of the Day

September 10, 2006Meditation:
    And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing."
    -- Luke 12:22-23 (ESV)

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Quotation:
    God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.
    ... St. Augustine (354-430)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Show me, Lord, Your time for my repentance.

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2006, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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