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In No Passage Of The Holy Canonical Books There Can Be Found Either Divine Precept Or Permission To Take Away Our Own Life, Whether For The Sake Of Entering On The Enjoyment Of Immortality, Or Of Shunning, Or Ridding Ourselves Of Anything Whatever. Nay, The Law, Rightly Interpreted, Even Prohibits Suicide, Where It Says, 'thou Shalt Not Kill.' This Is Proved Especially By The Omission Of The Words "thy Neighbor," Which Are Inserted When False Witness Is Forbidden.

-Saint Augustine

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In No Passage Of

Saint Augustine

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In No Passage Of The Holy Canonical Books There Can Be Found Either Divine Precept Or Permission To Take Away Our Own Life, Whether For The Sake Of Entering On The Enjoyment Of Immortality, Or Of Shunning, Or Ridding Ourselves Of Anything Whatever. Nay, The Law, Rightly Interpreted, Even Prohibits Suicide, Where It Says, 'thou Shalt Not Kill.' This Is Proved Especially By The Omission Of The Words "thy Neighbor," Which Are Inserted When False Witness Is Forbidden.

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Let Those Who Think I Have Said Too Little And Those Who Think I Have Said Too Much, Forgive Me; And Let Those Who Think I Have Said Just Enough Thank God With Me.

Men Are Always Ready To Nose Around And Find Out About Other's Lives, But They Feel Lazy To Know Themselves And Correct Their Own Life.

In The Usual Course Of Study I Had Come To A Book Of A Certain Cicero.

Since God Is The Highest Good, He Would Not Allow Any Evil To Exist In His Works Unless His Omnipotence And Goodness Were Such As To Bring Good Even Out Of Evil.

It Seems To Me That An Unjust Law Is No Law At All.

Moral Responsibility

You Don't Love In Your Enemies What They Are, But What You Would Have Them Become By Your Prayers.

Singing Is A Lover's Thing.

I Believe In Order To Understand

We Make Ourselves A Ladder Out Of Our Vices If We Trample The Vices Themselves Underfoot.

For If God Is Man's Chief Good, Which You Cannot Deny, It Clearly Follows, Since To Seek The Chief Good Is To Live Well, That To Live Well Is Nothing Else But To Love God With All The Heart, With All The Soul, With All The Mind.

Love All Men, Even Your Enemies; Love Them, Not Because They Are Your Brothers, But That They May Become Your Brothers. Thus You Will Ever Burn With Fraternal Love, Both For Him Who Is Already Your Brother And For Your Enemy, That He May By Loving Become Your Brother.

What Art Thou Then, My God? What, But The Lord God? For Who Is Lord But The Lord? Or Who Is God Save Our God? Most Highest, Most Good, Most Potent, Most Omnipotent; Most Merciful, Yet Most Just; Most Hidden, Yet Most Present; Most Beautiful, Yet Most Strong; Stable, Yet Incomprehensible; Unchangeable, Yet All-changing; Never New, Never Old; All-renewing, And Bringing Age Upon The Proud, And They Know It Not; Ever Working, Ever At Rest; Still Gathering, Yet Nothing Lacking; Supporting, Filling, And Overspreading; Creating, Nourishing, And Maturing; Seeking, Yet Having All Things.

God Provides The Wind, Man Must Raise The Sail.

There Are Wolves Within, And There Are Sheep Without.

Your Persistent Longing Is Your Persistent Voice. But When Love Grows Cold, The Heart Grows Silent. Burning Love Is The Outcry Of The Heart! If You Are Filled With Longing All The Time, You Will Keep Crying Out, And If Your Love Perseveres, Your Cry Will Be Heard Without Fail.

Truth Is Not Private Property.

Private Property

It Is Not The Being Seen Of Men That Is Wrong, But Doing These Things For The Purpose Of Being Seen Of Men. The Problem With The Hypocrite Is His Motivation.

Sin Is To A Nature What Blindness Is To An Eye. The Blindness Of An Evil Or Defect Which Is A Witness To The Fact That The Eye Was Created To See The Light And, Hence, The Very Lack Of Sight Is The Proof That The Eye Was Meant... To Be The One Particularly Capable Of Seeing The Light. Were It Not For This Capacity, There Would Be No Reason To Think Of Blindness As A Misforture.

His Knowledge Is Not Like Ours, Which Has Three Tenses; Present, Past, And Future. God's Knowledge Has No Change Or Variation.

If We Did Not Have Rational Souls, We Would Not Be Able To Believe.

Virginity Is Not Honored Simply Because It Is Virginity, But Because It Is Consecrated Of God.

It Is Not That We Keep His Commandments First And That Then He Loves But That He Loves Us And Then We Keep His Commandments. This Is That Grace Which Is Revealed To The Humble But Hidden From The Proud.

It Is Not Earthly Riches Which Make Us Or Our Sons Happy; For They Must Either Be Lost By Us In Our Lifetime, Or Be Possessed When We Are Dead, By Whom We Know Not, Or Perhaps By Whom We Would Not.

Should You Ask Me What Is The First Thing In Religion, I Should Reply That The First, Second, And Third Thing Therein Is Humility.

Though Defensive Violence Will Always Be 'a Sad Necessity' In The Eyes Of Men Of Principle, It Would Be Still More Unfortunate If Wrongdoers Should Dominate Just Men.

By The Fall A Poison Was Handed To Mankind Through A Woman [eve], By The Redemption Man Was Given Salvation Also Through A Woman [mary].

The Will Is Truly Free, When It Is Not The Slave Of Vices And Sins.

Often The Contempt Of Vainglory Becomes A Source Of Even More Vainglory, For It Is Not Being Scorned When The Contempt Is Something One Is Proud Of.

He That Is Jealous Is Not In Love.

I Fell Away From You, My God, And I Went Astray, Too Far Astray From You, The Support Of My Youth, And I Became To Myself A Land Of Want.

The Bible Was Composed In Such A Way That As Beginners Mature, Its Meaning Grows With Them.

There Is No Greater Invitation To Love Than Loving First.

Temporal Punishments Are Suffered By Some In This Life Only, By Some After Death, By Some Both Here And Hereafter, But All Of Them Before That Last And Strictest Judgment. But Not All Who Suffer Temporal Punishments After Death Will Come To Eternal Punishments, Which Are To Follow After That Judgment.

When God Is Our Strength, It Is Strength Indeed; When Our Strength Is Our Own, It Is Only Weakness.

In The House Of God There Is Never Ending Festival; The Angel Choir Makes Eternal Holiday; The Presence Of God's Face Gives Joy That Never Fails.

The Weakness Of Little Children's Limbs Is Innocent, Not Their Souls.

Seek Not Abroad, For In The Inner Man Dwells The Truth.

I Will Plant My Feet On That Step Where My Parents Put Me As A Child, Until Self-evident Truth Comes To Light.

What You See Is The Bread And The Chalice; That Is What Your Own Eyes Report To You. But What Your Faith Obliges You To Accept Is That The Bread Is The Body Of Christ And The Chalice Is The Blood Of Christ. This Has Been Said Very Briefly, Which May Perhaps Be Sufficient For Faith; Yet Faith Does Not Desire Instruction

Woman Was Merely Man's Helpmate, A Function Which Pertains To Her Alone. She Is Not The Image Of God But As Far As Man Is Concerned, He Is By Himself The Image Of God.

If The Future And The Past Really Exist, Where Are They?

Thou Must Be Emptied Of That Wherewith Thou Art Full, That Thou Mayest Be Filled With That Whereof Thou Art Empty.

What Is Held By The Whole Church, And That Not As Instituted By Councils, But As A Matter Of Invariable Custom, Is Rightly Held To Have Been Handed Down By Authority.

Between Urine And Filth We Are Born.

Consequently, If The Republic Is The Weal Of The People, And There Is No People If It Be Not Associated By A Common Acknowledgment Of Right, And If There Is No Right Where There Is No Justice, Then Most Certainly It Follows That There Is No Republic Where There Is No Justice.

Samson Crushed Himself And His Enemies To Death Beneath The Ruins Of A Building. He Can Only Be Excused On The Grounds That The Spirit Of The Lord, Who Wrought Miracles Through Him, Had Bidden Him To Do So. But, Apart From Such Men Excepted By The Command Of A Just Law In General Or Of God, The Very Source Of Justice, In A Special Case, Any One Who Kills A Human Being, Himself Or Another, Is Guilty Of Murder.

It Was Not The Visible Sun, But Its Invisible Creator Who Consecrated This Day For Us, When The Virgin Mother, Fertile Of Womb And Integral In Her Virginity, Brought Him Forth, Made Visible For Us, By Whom, When He Was Invisible, She Too Was Created. A Virgin Conceiving, A Virgin Bearing, A Virgin Pregnant, A Virgin Bringing Forth, A Virgin Perpetual. Why Do You Wonder At This, O Man?

What Do I Love When I Love My God?

Let No One Flatter Himself; Of Himself He Is Satan. Let Man Take Sin, Which Is His Own, And Leave Righteousness With God.

To My God A Heart Of Flame; To My Fellow Man A Heart Of Love; To Myself A Heart Of Steel.

Custom Is Second Nature.

By Means Of Corporal And Temporal Things We May Comprehend The Eternal And The Spiritual.

On The Altar You Are Looking At The Same Thing As You Saw There Last Night. You Have Not Heard, However, What This Is, What It Signifies, Or About The Greatness Of The Reality Of Which It Is A Sacrament. Your Eyes Are Looking At Bread And Cup. This Is The Evidence Before Your Physical Sight. But Your Faith Must Be Instructed Concerning It- This Bread Being Christ 's Body And The Cup Containing His Blood. Though Perhaps These Words May Be Enough To Initiate Faith, Faith Must Be Further Instructed In Accordance With The Prophet's Words: 'believe That You May Understand'

The Most Venerable, Clearly Understood, Enlightened, And Reliable Constant In The World Is Not Only That We Want To Be Happy, But That We Want Only To Be So. Our Very Nature Requires It Of Us.

To Touch God A Little With Our Mind Is A Great Blessing, To Grasp Him Is Impossible.

A Young Man Had Become Possessed By A Devil. The Thing Within Him Burst Into Loud Lamentation And Departed From The Man. At Once The Youth's Eye Fell Out On His Cheek, And The Whole Of The Pupil Which Had Been Black Became White.

It Is Love That Asks, That Seeks, That Knocks, That Finds, And That Is Faithful To What It Finds.

If You Don't Believe It You Won't Understand It.

He That Loveth Little Prayeth Little, He That Loveth Much Prayeth Much.

Don't You Believe That There Is In Man A Deep So Profound As To Be Hidden Even To Him In Whom It Is?

Let Him Who Desires To Be Harsh In Making Demands Upon His Debtors Consider That He Is God’s Debtor.

The Good Man, Though A Slave, Is Free; The Wicked, Though He Reigns, Is A Slave.

The Gods Occupy The Loftiest Regions, Men The Lowest, The Demons The Middle Region...they Have Immortality Of Body, But Passions Of The Mind In Common With Men.

Faith Is To Believe What You Do Not See; The Reward Of This Faith Is To See What You Believe.

We Enjoy Some Gratification When Our Good Friends Die; For Though Their Death Leaves Us In Sorrow, We Have The Consolatory Assurance That They Are Beyond The Ills By Which In This Life Even The Best Of People Are Broken Down Or Corrupted.

When People Truly Open Their Minds, And Contemplate The Way In Which The Universe Is Ordered And Governed, They Are Amazed-overwhelmed By A Sense Of The Miraculous. When People Contemplate With Open Minds The Germination Of A Single Seed, They Are Equally Overwhelmed-yet Numerous Babies Are Born Every Day, And No-one Marvels. If Only People Opened Their Minds, They Would See That The Birth Of A Baby, In Which A New Life Is Created, Is A Greater Miracle Than Restoring Life.

For It Is Better To Suffer A Little Want Than To Have Too Much.

Jesus Took His Flesh From The Flesh Of Mary

God Will Not Suffer Man To Have A Knowledge Of Things To Come For If He Had Prescience Of His Prosperity, He Would Be Careless And If Understanding Of His Adversity, He Would Be Despairing And Senseless

Not To Give To Those In Need What Is To You Superfluous Is Akin To Fraud.

The World's Verdict Is Conclusive.

Thou Movest Us To Delight In Praising Thee; For Thou Hast Formed Us For Thyself, And Our Hearts Are Restless Till They Find Rest In Thee.

The Honors Of This World, What Are They But Puff, And Emptiness, And Peril Of Falling?

Falling In Love

God Of Our Life, There Are Days When The Burdens We Carry Chafe Our Shoulders And Weigh Us Down; When The Road Seems Dreary And Endless, The Skies Gray And Threatening; When Our Lives Have No Music In Them, And Our Hearts Are Lonely, And Our Souls Have Lost Their Courage. Flood The Path With Light, Run Our Eyes To Where The Skies Are Full Of Promise; Tune Our Hearts To Brave Music; Give Us The Sense Of Comradeship With Heroes And Saints Of Every Age; And So Quicken Our Spirits That We May Be Able To Encourage The Souls Of All Who Journey With Us On The Road Of Life, To Your Honor And Glory.

Because A Thing Is Eloquently Expressed It Should Not Be Taken To Be As Necessarily True; Nor Because It Is Uttered With Stammering Lips Should It Be Supposed False.

It Is Easy To Want Things From The Lord And Yet Not Want The Lord Himself, As Though The Gift Could Ever Be Preferable To The Giver.

Poetry Is Devil's Wine.

As To Those Other Things Which We Hold On The Authority, Not Of Scripture, But Of Tradition, And Which Are Observed Throughout The Whole World, It May Be Understood That They Are Held As Approved And Instituted Either By The Apostles Themselves, Or By Plenary Councils, Whose Authority In The Church Is Most Useful, E.g. The Annual Commemoration, By Special Solemnities, Of The Lord's Passion, Resurrection, And Ascension, And Of The Descent Of The Holy Spirit From Heaven, And Whatever Else Is In Like Manner Observed By The Whole Church Wherever It Has Been Established.

My Mind Withdrew Its Thoughts From Experience, Extracting Itself From The Contradictory Throng Of Sensuous Images, That It Might Find Out What That Light Was Wherein It Was Bathed... And Thus, With The Flash Of One Hurried Glance, It Attained To The Vision Of That Which Is.

No One Reaches The Kingdom Of Heaven Except By Humility

I Held My Heart Back From Positively Accepting Anything, Since I Was Afraid Of Another Fall, And In This Condition Of Suspense I Was Being All The More Killed.

If You Would Attain To What You Are Not Yet, You Must Always Be Displeased By What You Are. For Where You Are Pleased With Yourself There You Have Remained. Keep Adding, Keep Walking, Keep Advancing.

There Is No Remedy So Powerful Against The Heat Of Concupiscence As The Remembrance Of Our Savior's Passion. In All My Difficulties I Never Found Anything So Efficacious As The Wounds Of Christ: In Them I Sleep Secure; From Them I Derive New Life.

Nothing So Casts Down The Manly Mind From It's Height As The Fondling Of Women And Those Bodily Contacts Which Belong To The Married State.

Two Criminals Were Crucified With Christ. One Was Saved; Do Not Despair. One Was Not; Do Not Presume.

It Is The Function Of Perfection To Make One Know One's Imperfection.

We Speak, But It Is God Who Teaches.

Passion Is The Evil In Adultery. If A Man Has No Opportunity Of Living With Another Man's Wife, But If It Is Obvious For Some Reason That He Would Like To Do So, And Would Do So If He Could, He Is No Less Guilty Than If He Was Caught In The Act.

All Diseases Of Christians Are To Be Ascribed To Demons; Chiefly Do They Torment Freshly-baptized Christians, Yea, Even The Guiltless New-born Infants.

Of This I Am Certain, That No One Has Ever Died Who Was Not Destined To Die Some Time. Now The End Of Life Puts The Longest Life On A Par With The Shortest... And Of What Consequence Is It What Kind Of Death Puts An End To Life, Since He Who Has Died Once Is Not Forced To Go Through The Same Ordeal A Second Time? They, Then, Who Are Destined To Die, Need Not Be Careful To Inquire What Death They Are To Die, But Into What Place Death Will Usher Them.

What Can Be More Excellent Than Prayer; What Is More Profitable To Our Life; What Sweeter To Our Souls; What More Sublime, In The Course Of Our Whole Life, Than The Practice Of Prayer!

There Is No Love Without Hope, No Hope Without Love, And Neither Hope Nor Love Without Faith.

There Can Only Be Two Basic Loves... The Love Of God Unto The Forgetfulness Of Self, Or The Love Of Self Unto The Forgetfulness And Denial Of God.

In My Deepest Wound I Saw Your Glory, And It Dazzled Me.

For I Wondered That Others, Subject To Death, Did Live, Since He Whom I Loved, As If He Should Never Die, Was Dead; And I Wondered Yet More That Myself, Who Was To Him A Second Self, Could Live, He Being Dead. Well Said One Of His Friend, "thou Half Of My Soul"; For I Felt That My Soul And His Soul Were "one Soul In Two Bodies": And Therefore Was My Life A Horror To Me, Because I Would Not Live Halved. And Therefore Perchance I Feared To Die, Lest He Whom I Had Much Loved Should Die Wholly.

Lord Jesus, Don't Let Me Lie When I Say That I Love You.....and Protect Me, For Today I Could Betray You.

Nobody Should Ever Doubt That In The Washing Of Rebirth (titus 3:5) Absolutely All Sins, From The Least To The Greatest, Are Altogether Forgiven.

Our Rewards In Heaven Are A Result Of God's Crowning His Own Gifts.

To Fall In Love With God Is The Greatest Romance; To Seek Him The Greatest Adventure; To Find Him, The Greatest Human Achievement.

Falling In Love

There Is Nothing More Serious Than The Sacrilege Of Schism Because There Is No Just Cause For Severing The Unity Of The Church.

Who Would Not Shudder If He Were Given The Choice Of Eternal Death Or Life Again As A Child ? Who Would Not Choose To Die ?

A Man May Lose The Good Things Of This Life Against His Will; But If He Loses The Eternal Blessings, He Does So With His Own Consent.

The Spiritual Virtue Of A Sacrament Is Like Light; Although It Passes Among The Impure, It Is Not Polluted.

How High A Price We Pay For The Burden Of Habit! I Am Fitted For Life Here Where I Do Not Want To Be, I Want To Live There But Am Unfit For It, And On Both Counts I Am Miserable.

When I Am Completely United To You, There Will Be No More Sorrow Or Trials; Entirely Full Of You, My Life Will Be Complete.

You Can Live, Provided You Live; That Is, You Can Live For Ever, Provided You Live A Good Life.

In Failing To Confess, Lord, I Would Only Hide You From Myself, Not Myself From You.

The One Who Sings, Prays Twice.

We Are Certainly In A Common Class With The Beasts; Every Action Of Animal Life Is Concerned With Seeking Bodily Pleasure And Avoiding Pain.

The Human Race Is Inquisitive About Other People's Lives, But Negligent To Correct Their Own.

To Withhold Forgiveness Is To Take Poison And Expect The Unforgiven To Die.

God Bids You Not To Commit Lechery, That Is, Not To Have Sex With Any Woman Except Your Wife. You Ask Of Her That She Should Not Have Sex With Anyone Except You -- Yet You Are Not Willing To Observe The Same Restraint In Return.

It Is He Who Gave To This Intellectual Nature Free-will Of Such A Kind, That If He Wishes To Forsake God His Blessedness, Misery Should Forthwith Result.

The Flesh Does Not By Its Own Virtue Purify, But Is Purified By Virtue Of The Word By Which It Was Assumed, When 'the Word Became Flesh And Dwelt Among Us' (jn. 1:14).

I Entered (into My Inward Self) And Beheld With The Eye Of My Soul...the Light Unchangeable.

God Had One Son On Earth Without Sin, But Never One Without Suffering.

God Does Not Give Heed To The Ambitiousness Of Our Prayers, Because He Is Always Ready To Give To Us His Light, Not A Visible Light But An Intellectual And Spiritual One; But We Are Not Always Ready To Receive It When We Turn Aside And Down To Other Things Out Of A Desire For Temporal Things.

The True Religion Has Always Been One From The Beginning, And Will Always Be The Same.

Do Not Say That You Have Chaste Minds If You Have Unchaste Eyes, Because An Unchaste Eye Is The Messenger Of An Unchaste Heart.

What Thou Meanest By Seizing The Whole Earth; But Because I Do It With A Petty Ship, I Am Called A Robber, Whilst Thou Who Dost It With A Great Fleet Art Styled Emperor.

For In Our Hope We Are Saved.

He Who Denies The Existence Of God, Has Some Reason For Wishing That God Did Not Exist.

Even In Waging War, Cherish The Spirit Of Peace-maker; That, By Conquering Those Whom You Attack, You May Lead Them Back To The Advantages Of Peace.

God Without Us Will Not As We Without God Cannot.

If By Fate Anyone Means The Will Or Power Of God, Let Him Keep His Meaning But Mend His Language; For Fate Commonly Means A Necessary Process Which Will Have Its Way Apart From The Will Of God And Men.

We Are And We Know We Are And We Love To Be It And Know It.

Love And Do As You Will.

Nothing, Therefore, Happens Unless The Omnipotent Wills It To Happen. He Either Permits It To Happen, Or He Brings It About Himself.

Mary Heard God's Word And Kept It, And So She Is Blessed. She Kept God's Truth In Her Mind, A Nobler Thing Than Carrying His Body In Her Womb.

Where Your Pleasure Is, There Is Your Treasure: Where Your Treasure, There Your Heart; Where Your Heart, There Your Happiness

If You Excuse Yourself In Confession, You Shut Up Sin Within Your Soul, And Shut Out Pardon.

You Aspire To Great Things? Begin With The Little Ones.

Believe That You May Understand.

The Verdict Of The World Is Conclusive.

This Is The Very Perfection Of A Man, To Find Out His Own Imperfections.

Pray As Though Everything Depended On God. Work As Though Everything Depended On You.

The Ministry Is A Weight From Which Even An Angel Might Shrink

Whatever Skills I Have Acquired, Whatever Gifts I Have Been Given, I Place Them At Your Service.

No One Indeed Believes Anything Unless He Has First Thought That It It To Be Believed.

Grace Alone Brings About Every Good Work In Us.

The Best Minds Are Not In Government. If Any Were, Business Would Steal Them Away. -ronald Reagan In The Absence Of Justice, What Is Sovereignty But Organized Robbery?

What Are Kingdoms Without Justice? They're Just Gangs Of Bandits.

Bad Company Is Like A Nail Driven Into A Post, Which, After The First And Second Blow, May Be Drawn Out With Little Difficulty; But Being Once Driven Up To The Head, The Pincers Cannot Take Hold To Draw It Out, But Which Can Only Be Done By The Destruction Of The Wood.

In The Mass The Blood Of Christ Flows Anew For Sinners.

Beware Of Despairing About Yourself: You Are Commanded To Put Your Trust In God, And Not In Yourself.

There Is A Joy Which Is Not Given To The Ungodly, But To Those Who Love Thee For Thine Own Sake, Whose Joy Thou Thyself Art. And This Is The Happy Life, To Rejoice To Thee, Of Thee, For Thee; This It Is, And There Is No Other.

And I Entered And Beheld With The Eye Of My Soul... The Light Unchangeable... He That Knows The Truth, Knows What That Light Is; And He That Knows It, Knows Eternity.

Love God, Then Do What You Will.

Put No Faith In Salvation Through The Political Order.

Salvation Is God's Way Of Making Us Real People.

For What Am I To Myself Without You, But A Guide To My Own Downfall?

What Then Is Time? If No One Asks Me, I Know What It Is. If I Wish To Explain It To Him Who Asks, I Do Not Know.

Such Then In Number And Importance Are The Precious Ties Belonging To The Christian Name Which Keep A Believer In The Catholic Church, As It Is Right They Should ... With You, Where There Is None Of These Things To Attract Or Keep Me... No One Shall Move Me From The Faith Which Binds My Mind With Ties So Many And So Strong To The Christian Religion... For My Part, I Should Not Believe The Gospel Except As Moved By The Authority Of The Catholic Church.

He Who Made Thee Is Made In Thee. He Is Made In Thee Through Whom You Were Made.... Give Milk, O Mother, To Him Who Is Our Food; Give Milk To The Bread That Comes Down From Heaven.

Give What You Command And Command What You Will.

If You Understood Him, It Would Not Be God.

Christian Inspirational

Man Has Been Naturally So Created That It Is Advantageous For Him To Be Submissive, But Disastrous For Him To Follow His Own Will, And Not The Will Of His Creator.

You Have Been Professing Yourself Reluctant To Throw Off Your Load Of Illusion Because Truth Was Uncertain. Well, It Is Certain Now, Yet The Burden Still Weighs You Down, While Other People Are Given Wings On Freer Shoulders, People Who Have Not Worn Themselves Out With Research, Nor Spent A Decade And More Reflecting On These Questions.

And So, Lastly, Does The Very Name Of "catholic", Which, Not Without Reason, Amid So Many Heresies, The Church Has Thus Retained; So That, Though All Heretics Wish To Be Called Catholics, Yet When A Stranger Asks Where The Catholic Church Meets, No Heretic Will Venture To Point To His Own Chapel Or House.

The Heart Of Man Is Restless Until He Finds Rest In Thee.

... At The Beginning Of The Human Race The Woman Was Made Of A Rib Taken From The Side Of The Man While He Slept; For It Seemed Fit That Even Then Christ And His Church Should Be Foreshadowed In This Event. For That Sleep Of The Man Was The Death Of Christ, Whose Side, As He Hung Lifeless Upon The Cross, Was Pierced With A Spear, And There Flowed From It Blood And Water, And These We Know To Be The Sacraments By Which The Church Is Built Up.

Ninety Percent Of The Time Things Turn Out Worse Than You Thought They Would. The Other Ten Percent Of The Time You Had No Right To Expect That Much.

...if Humility Does Not Precede All That We Do, Our Efforts Are Fruitless.

Do You Wish To Be Great? Then Begin By Being. Do You Desire To Construct A Vast And Lofty Fabric? Think First About The Foundations Of Humility. The Higher Your Structure Is To Be, The Deeper Must Be Its Foundation.

Dilige Et Quod Vis Fac. (love And Then What You Will, Do.)

Who Else Is It Who Calls Us Back From The Death Of Error, Except The Life That Does Not Know Death, And The Wisdom Which, Needing No Light, Enlightens Minds Which Are In Darkness, That Wisdom By Which The Whole World, Even To The Leaves Of Trees Drifting In The Wind, Is Governed?

Father, I Am Seeking: I Am Hesitant And Uncertain, But Will You, O God, Watch Over Each Step Of Mine And Guide Me.

If You Comprehend, It Is Not God.

Just As It Is Agreed That We All Wish To Be Happy, So It Is That We All Wish To Be Wise, Since No One Without Wisdom Is Happy.

We Judge All Things According To The Divine Truth.

I Was Not Yet In Love, Yet I Loved To Love...i Sought What I Might Love, In Love With Loving.

If A Shameless Woman Expects To Be Defiled And Then Dies Of Her Fierce Love Because You Do Not Consent, Will Chastity Also Be Homicide?

If We Are Perplexed By An Apparent Contradiction In Scripture, It Is Not Allowable To Say, 'the Author Of This Book Is Mistaken'; But Either The Manuscript Is Faulty, Or The Translation Is Wrong, Or You Have Not Understood.

Oh, God, To Know You Is Life. To Serve You Is Freedom. To Praise You Is The Soul's Joy And Delight. Guard Me With The Power Of Your Grace Here And In All Places. Now And At All Times, Forever. Amen.

And Yet I Do Love A Kind Of Light, Melody, Fragrance, Food, Embracement When I Love My God; For He Is The Light, The Melody, The Fragrance, The Food, The Embracement Of My Inner Self - There Where Is A Brillance That Space Cannot Contain, A Sound That Time Cannot Carry Away, A Perfume That No Breeze Disperses, A Taste Undimisnished By Eating, A Clinging Together That No Saiety Will Sunder. This Is What I Love When I Love My God.

It Is Salutary For Us To Learn To Hold Cheap Such Things, Be They Good Or Evil, As Attach Indifferently To Good Men And Bad, And To Covet Those Good Things Which Belong Only To Good Men, And Flee Those Evils Which Belong Only To Evil Men.

Sin Is Looking For The Right Thing In The Wrong Place.

Really Great Things, When Discussed By Little Men, Can Usually Make Such Men Grow Big.

Let Necessity, And Not Your Will, Slay The Enemy Who Fights Against You.

Thy Word Remaineth For Ever, Which Word Now Appeareth Unto Us In The Riddle Of The Clouds, And Through The Mirror Of The Heavens, Not As It Is: Because That Even We, Though The Well Beloved Of Thy Son, Yet It Hath Not Yet Appeared What We Shall Be. He Looked Through The Lattice Of Our Flesh And He Spake Us Fair, Yea, He Set Us On Fire, And We Hasten On His Scent. But When He Shall Appear, Then Shall We Be Like Him, For We Shall See Him As He Is: As He Is, Lord, Will Our Sight Be, Though The Time Be Not Yet.

God Will Cleanse Your Sins If You Yourself Are Dissatisfied With Yourself And Will Keep On Changing Until You Are Perfect.

The World Being Unworthy To Receive The Son Of God Directly From The Hands Of The Father, He Gave His Son To Mary For The World To Receive Him From Her.

The Custom Of Mother Church In Baptizing Infants Is Certainly Not To Be Scorned, Nor Is It To Be Regarded In Any Way As Superfluous, Nor Is It To Be Believed That Its Tradition Is Anything Except Apostolic.

Miracles Are Not Contrary To Nature, But Only Contrary To What We Know About Nature.

God Suffers Not The Pain Of Repentance, Nor Is He Deceived In Any Matter, So That He Would Wish To Correct That Wherein He Has Erred. But As When A Man Repents Of Anything, He Wishes To Change What He Has Done; Thus Where You Hear That God Repents, Look For An Actual Change. God Does It Differently From You, Although He Calls It By The Name Of Repentance; For Thou Dost It, Because You Had Erred; While He Does It, Because He Avenges, Or Frees.

Woman Does Not Possess The Image Of God In Herself But Only When Taken Together With The Male Who Is Her Head, So That The Whole Substance Is One Image. But When She Is Assigned The Role As Helpmate, A Function That Pertains To Her Alone, Then She Is Not The Image Of God. But As Far As The Man Is Concerned, He Is By Himself Alone The Image Of God Just As Fully And Completely As When He And The Woman Are Joined Together Into One.

There Is Something In Humility Which, Strangely Enough, Exalts The Heart, And Something In Pride Which Debases It.

If You Are Silent, Be Silent Out Of Love. If You Speak, Speak Out Of Love.

Believe In Order To Understand And Understand In Order To Believe

In All Your Movements, Let Nothing Be Evident That Would Offend The Eyes Of Another.

There Never Can Have Been, And Never Can Be, And There Never Shall Be Any Sin Without Pride.

Love, And Do What You Will. If You Keep Silence, Do It Out Of Love. If You Cry Out, Do It Out Of Love. If You Refrain From Punishing, Do It Out Of Love.

O Master, Make Me Chaste, But Not Yet!

The One Who Is Our Very Life Descended Into Our World, And Bore Our Death, And Slew It With The Abundance Of His Own Life. Thundering, He Called Out To Us To Return To Him In Heaven.

In Matters That Are So Obscure And Far Beyond Our Vision, We Find In Holy Scripture Passages Which Can Be Interpreted In Very Different Ways Without Prejudice To The Faith We Have Received. In Such Cases, We Should Not Rush In Headlong And So Firmly Take Our Stand On One Side That, If Further Progress In The Search For Truth Justly Undermines This Position, We Too Fall With It.

What Then, Is Correctness Of Speech But The Maintenance Of The Practice Of Others, As Established By The Authority Of Ancient Speakers? But The Weaker Men Are, The More They Are Troubled By Such Matters. Their Weakness Stems From A Desire To Appear Learned, Not With A Knowledge Of Things, By Which We Are Edified, But With A Knowledge Of Signs, By Which It Is Difficult Not To Be Puffed Up In Some Way; Even A Knowledge Of Things Often Makes People Boastful, Unless Their Necks Are Held Down By The Lord's Yoke.

Purity Of Soul Cannot Be Lost Without Consent.

And How Shall I Call Upon My God, My God And Lord, Since, When I Call For Him, I Shall Be Calling Him To Myself? And What Room Is There Within Me, Whither My God Can Come Into Me? Whither Can God Come Into Me, God Who Made Heaven And Earth? Is There, Indeed, O Lord My God, Aught In Me That Can Contain Thee?

Does God Proclaim Himself In The Wonders Of Creation? No. All Things Proclaim Him, All Things Speak. Their Beauty Is The Voice By Which They Announce God, By Which They Sing, "it Is You Who Made Me Beautiful, Not Me Myself But You.

It Is Not In Virtue Of Its Liberty That The Human Will Attains To Grace, It Is Much Rather By Grace That It Attains To Liberty.

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