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That Your Enemies Have Been Created Is God's Doing; That They Hate You And Wish To Ruin You Is Their Own Doing. What Should You Say About Them In Your Mind? "lord Be Merciful To Them, Forgive Them Their Sins, Put The Fear Of God In Them, Change Them!" You Are Loving In Them Not What They Are, But What You Would Have Them To Become.

-Saint Augustine

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That Your Enemies Have

Saint Augustine

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That Your Enemies Have Been Created Is God's Doing; That They Hate You And Wish To Ruin You Is Their Own Doing. What Should You Say About Them In Your Mind? "lord Be Merciful To Them, Forgive Them Their Sins, Put The Fear Of God In Them, Change Them!" You Are Loving In Them Not What They Are, But What You Would Have Them To Become.

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Men Go Forth To Wonder At The Height Of Mountains, The Huge Waves Of The Sea, The Broad Flow Of The Ocean, The Course Of The Stars-and Forget To Wonder At Themselves. Beware Of Despairing About Yourself: You Are Commanded To Put Your Trust In God, And Not In Yourself.

I Asked The Whole Frame Of The World About My God; And He Answered, I Am Not He, But He Made Me.

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

Every Infinity... Is Made Finite To God.

They The Hazers Or Eversores Were Rightly Called Overturners, Since They Had Themselves Been First Overturned And Perverted, Tricked By Those Same Devils Who Were Secretly Mocking Them In The Very Acts By Which They Amused Themselves In Mocking And Making Fools Of Others.

What Do I Love When I Love My God?

The Customs Of God's People And The Institutions Of Our Ancestors Are To Be Considered As Laws. And Those Who Throw Contempt On The Customs Of The Church Ought To Be Punished As Those Who Disobey The Law Of God.

The Desire For Fame Tempts Even Noble Minds.

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

That Your Enemies Have Been Created Is God's Doing; That They Hate You And Wish To Ruin You Is Their Own Doing. What Should You Say About Them In Your Mind? "lord Be Merciful To Them, Forgive Them Their Sins, Put The Fear Of God In Them, Change Them!" You Are Loving In Them Not What They Are, But What You Would Have Them To Become.

The Law Is Not In Fault, But Our Evil And Wicked Nature; Even As A Heap Of Lime Is Still And Quiet Until Water Is Poured On It, But Then It Begins To Smoke And Burn, Not From The Fault Of The Water, But From The Nature Of The Lime, Which Will Not Endure It.

Did My Infancy Succeed Another Age Of Mine That Dies Before It? Was It That Which I Spent Within My Mother's Womb?... And What Before That Life Again, O God Of My Joy, Was I Anywhere Or In Any Body?

Then Assuredly The World Was Made, Not In Time, But Simultaneously With Time.

Love God, Then Do What You Will.

I Acknowledge Thee, Lord Of Heaven And Earth, And Praise Thee For My First Rudiments Of Being, And My Infancy, Whereof I Remember Nothing; For Thou Hast Appointed That Man Should From Others Guess Much As To Himself; And Believe Much On The Strength Of Weak Females.

This Awful Catastrophe Is Not The End But The Beginning. History Does Not End So. It Is The Way Its Chapters Open.

The Same Divine Authority That Forbids The Killing Of A Human Being Establishes Certain Exceptions, As When God Authorizes Killing By A General Law Or When He Gives An Explicit Commission To An Individual For A Limited Time.

The Arrogance Is Not Greatness But Swelling; And The Swelling Seems Big But It's Not Healthy.

Furthermore, What Profit Was It To Me That I, Rascally Slave Of Selfish Ambitions That I Was, Read And Understood By Myself As Many Books As I Could Get Concerning The So-called Liberal Arts?...i Had Turned My Back To The Light And My Face To The Things It Illuminated, And So No Light Played Upon My Own Face, Or On The Eyes That Perceived Them.

Longing Desire Prayeth Always, Though The Tongue Be Silent. If Thou Art Ever Longing, Thou Art Ever Praying.

I Count Myself One Of The Number Of Those Who Write As They Learn And Learn As They Write.

You Have Enemies. For Who Can Live On This Earth Without Them? Take Heed To Yourselves: Love Them. In No Way Can Your Enemy So Hurt You By His Violence, As You Hurt Yourself If You Love Him Not.

Man's Maker Was Made Man That He, Ruler Of The Stars, Might Nurse At His Mother's Breast; That The Bread Might Hunger, The Fountain Thirst, The Light Sleep, The Way Be Tired On Its Journey; That Truth Might Be Accused Of False Witnesses, The Teacher Be Beaten With Whips, The Foundation Be Suspended On Wood; That Strength Might Grow Weak; That The Healer Might Be Wounded; That Life Might Die.

Love Has Reasons That Reason Knows Not.

You Called And Shouted And Burst My Deafness. You Flashed, Shone, And Scattered My Blindness. You Breathed Odors, And I Drew In Breath And Panted For You. I Tasted, And I Hunger And Thirst. You Touched Me, And I Burned For Your Peace.

Hunger And Thirst

Near Our Vineyard There Was A Pear Tree Laden With Fruit That Was Not Attractive In Either Flavor Or Form. One Night, When I [at The Age Of Sixteen] Had Played Until Dark On The Sandlot With Some Other Juvenile Delinquents, We Went To Shake That Tree And Carry Off Its Fruit. From It We Carried Off Huge Loads, Not To Feast On, But To Throw To The Pigs, Although We Did Eat A Few Ourselves. We Did It Just Because It Was Forbidden.

In The Catholic Church, There Are Many Other Things Which Most Justly Keep Me In Her Bosom. The Consent Of Peoples And Nations Keeps Me In The Church; So Does Her Authority, Inaugurated By Miracles, Nourished By Hope, Enlarged By Love, Established By Age. The Succession Of Priests Keeps Me, Beginning From The Very Seat Of The Apostle Peter, To Whom The Lord, After His Resurrection, Gave It In Charge To Feed His Sheep (jn 21:15-19), Down To The Present Episcopate.

In Our Own Times, You See, An Emperor Came To The City Of Rome, Where There's The Temple Of An Emperor, Where There's A Fisherman's Tomb. And So That Pious And Christian Emperor, Wishing To Beg For Health, For Salvation From The Lord, Did Not Proceed To The Temple Of A Proud Emperor, But To The Tomb Of A Fisherman, Where He Could Imitate That Fisherman In Humility, So That He, Being Thus Approached, Might Then Obtain Something From The Lord, Which A Haughty Emperor Would Be Quite Unable To Earn.

He Who Loves The Coming Of The Lord Is Not He Who Affirms That It Is Far Off, Nor Is It He Who Says It Is Near, But Rather He Who, Whether It Be Far Off Or Near, Awaits It With Sincere Faith, Steadfast Hope, And Fervent Love.

Beauty Is Indeed A Good Gift Of God; But That The Good May Not Think It A Great Good, God Dispenses It Even To The Wicked.

Oh, Beauty, Ever Ancient And Ever New.

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.

If You Should Ask Me What Are The Ways Of God, I Would Tell You That The First Is Humility, The Second Is Humility, And The Third Is Humility. Not That There Are No Other Precepts To Give, But If Humility Does Not Preceed All That We Do, Our Efforts Are Fruitless.

Take Care Of Your Body As If You Were Going To Live Forever; And Take Care Of Your Soul As If You Were Going To Die Tomorrow.

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

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Punishment, That Is The Justice For The Unjust.

Love God, And Do What You Like.

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What Can Be Hoped For Which Is Not Believed?

Believe That You May Understand.

People Travel To Marvel At The Mountains, Seas, Rivers And Stars And They Pass Right By Themselves Without Astonishment.

How Can The Past And Future Be, When The Past No Longer Is, And The Future Is Not Yet? As For The Present, If It Were Always Present And Never Moved On To Become The Past, It Would Not Be Time, But Eternity.

Our Whole Business In This Life Is To Restore To Health The Eye Of The Heart Whereby God May Be Seen.

When [men] Go To War, What They Want Is To Impose On Their Enemies The Victor's Will And Call It Peace.

Symbols Are Powerful Because They Are The Visible Signs Of Invisible Realities.

He Who Commends The Nature Of The Soul As The Supreme Good, And Condemns The Nature Of The Flesh As Evil, At Once Both Carnally Desires The Soul, And Carnally Flies The Flesh, Because He Feels Thus From Human Vanity, Not From Divine Truth.

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

Lord, Thou Madest Us For Thyself, And We Can Find No Rest Till We Find Rest In Thee.

You Are What You Love.

Charity Is The Root Of All Good Works.

The Good Christian Should Beware The Mathematician And All Those Who Make Empty Prophecies. The Danger Already Exists That The Mathematicians Have Made A Covenant With The Devil To Darken The Spirit And To Confine Man In The Bonds Of Hell.

No One Reaches The Kingdom Of Heaven Except By Humility

I Found Thee Not, O Lord, Without, Because I Erred In Seeking Thee Without That Wert Within.

He Pleaseth God Whom God Pleaseth.

Cantare Amantis Est ... Singing Belongs To One Who Loves." (s. 336, 1 – Pl 38, 1472).

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

You Are My Lord, Because You Have No Need Of My Goodness.

One Loving Heart Sets Another On Fire.

No Man Has A Right To Lead Such A Life Of Contemplation As To Forget In His Own Ease The Service Due To His Neighbor.

Custom Is Second Nature.

Try To Acquire The Virtues You Believe Lacking In Your Brothers. Then You Will No Longer See Their Defects, For You Will No Longer Have Them Yourself.

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?

Two Loves Have Made Two Different Cities: Self-love Hath Made A Terrestrial City, Which Rises In Contempt Of God; And Divine Love Hath Made A Celestial One, Which Rises In Contempt Of Self. The Former Glories In Itself - The Latter In God.

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.

Every City Is A Living Body.

It’s Not In The Book Or In The Writer That Readers Discern The Truth Of What They Read; They See It In Themselves, If The Light Of Truth Has Penetrated Their Minds.

Conscience And Reputation Are Two Things. Conscience Is Due To Yourself, Reputation To Your Neighbour.

A Wanton Eye Is A Messenger Of An Unchaste Heart.

Love, And He Will Draw Near; Love, And He Will Dwell Within You.

For You [god] Are Infinite And Never Change. In You "today" Never Comes To An End: And Yet Our "today" Does Come To An End In You, Because Time, As Well As Everything Else, Exists In You. If It Did Not, It Would Have No Means Of Passing. And Since Your Years Never Come To An End, For You They Are Simply "today."

So Give To The Poor; I'm Begging You, I'm Warning You, I'm Commanding You, I'm Ordering You.

Choose To Love Whomsoever Thou Wilt: All Else Will Follow.

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.

Find Out How Much God Has Given You And From It Take What You Need; The Remainder Is Needed By Others.

The Mind Commands The Body, And It Obeys Forthwith; The Mind Commands Itself, And Is Resisted. The Mind Commands The Hand To Be Moved, And Such Readiness Is There That The Command Is Scarce To Be Distinguished From The Obedience. Yet The Mind Is Mind, And The Hand Is Body. The Mind Commands The Mind To Will, And Yet, Though It Be Itself, It Obeyeth Not. Whence This Monstrous Thing? And Why Is It?

Some People, In Order To Discover God, Read Books. But There Is A Great Book: The Very Appearance Of Created Things. Look Above You! Look Below You! Read It. God, Whom You Want To Discover, Never Wrote That Book With Ink. Instead, He Set Before Your Eyes The Things That He Had Made. Can You Ask For A Louder Voice Than That?

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.

O Eternal Truth And True Love And Beloved Eternity! You Are My God; To You I Sigh By Day And By Night. And When I First Knew You, You Raised Me Up So That I Could See That There Was Something To See And That I Still Lacked The Ability To See It. And You Beat Back The Weakness Of My Sight, Blazing Upon Me With Your Rays, And I Trembled In Love And In Dread.

Let Us, On Both Sides, Lay Aside All Arrogance. Let Us Not, On Either Side, Claim That We Have Already Discovered The Truth. Let Us Seek It Together As Something Which Is Known To Neither Of Us. For Then Only May We Seek It, Lovingly And Tranquilly, If There Be No Bold Presumption That It Is Already Discovered And Possessed.

Truth Is Not Private Property.

Private Property

So You See How Endlessly Futile And Fruitless It Would Be If We Wanted To Refute Their Objections Every Time They Obstinately Resolved Not To Think Through What They Say But Merely To Speak, Just So Long As They Contradict Our Arguments In Any Way They Can.

Blessed Is He Who Devotes His Life To Great And Noble Ends, And Who Forms His Well-considered Plans With Deliberate Wisdom.

When We Read A Book, Our Most Essential Trait - Imagination - Is Given The Opportunity To Soar.

Hell Was Made For The Inquisitive.

Lust Indulged Became Habit, And Habit Unresisted Became Necessity.

Purity And Love

The Holy Scriptures Are Our Letters From Home.

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 Matters It To Me If Someone Does Not Understand This? Let Him Too Rejoice And Say, “what Is This?” Let Him Rejoice Even At This, And Let Him Love To Find You While Not Finding It Out, Rather Than, While Finding It Out, Not To Find You.

He Who Is Filled With Love Is Filled With God Himself.

Fortitude Is The Disposition Of Soul Which Enables Us To Despise All Inconveniences And The Loss Of Things Not In Our Power.

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

Within The Church, Sins Are Forgiven In Three Ways: By Baptism, By Prayer, And By The Greater Humility Of Penance; Yet God Does Not Forgive Sins Except To The Baptized.

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

Your Best Servant Is The Person Who Does Not Attend So Much To Hearing What He Himself Wants As To Willing What He Has Heard From You.

When Large Numbers Of People Share Their Joy In Common, The Happiness Of Each Is Greater Because Each Adds Fuel To The Other's Flame.

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.

The Wicked Have Told Me Of Things That Delight Them, But Not Such Things As Your Law Has To Tell.

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?

War Should We Waged Without Love Of Violence, Cruelty, Or Enmity.

You Wish To Be Great, Begin From The Least. You Are Thinking To Construct Some Mighty Fabric In Height; First Think Of The Foundation Of Humility. And How Great Soever A Mass Of Building One May Wish And Design To Place Above It, The Greater The Building Is To Be, The Deeper Does He Dig His Foundation.

For Where I Found Truth, There Found I My God, The Truth Itself; Which Since I Learnt, I Have Not Forgotten.

I Make Bold To Say That It Is Profitable For The Proud To Fall, In Order That They May Be Humbled In That For Which They Have Exalted Themselves.

There Is No Possible Source Of Evil Except Good.

When Regard For Truth Has Been Broken Down Or Even Slightly Weakened, All Things Will Remain Doubtful.

The Diversity Of Language Alienates Man From Man

Great Are Those Two Gifts, Wisdom And Continence: Wisdom, Forsooth, Whereby We Are Formed In The Knowledge Of God; Continence Whereby We Are Not Conformed To This World.

Knowledge Of God

Whole Prayer Is Nothing But Love.

When The King Asked Him What He Meant By Infesting The Sea, The Pirate Defiantly Replied: The Same As You Do When You Infest The Whole World; But Because I Do It With A Little Ship I Am Called A Robber, And Because You Do It With A Great Fleet, You Are An Emperor.

For In Our Hope We Are Saved.

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

Cyprian Was Not Issuing A New Decree But Was Keeping To The Most Solid Belief Of The Church In Order To Correct Some Who Thought That Infants Ought Not Be Baptized Before The Eighth Day After Their Birth. . . . He Agreed With Certain Of His Fellow Bishops That A Child Is Able To Be Duly Baptized As Soon As He Is Born.

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 ?

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.

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

Better To Have Fewer Wants Than Greater Riches To Supply Increasing Wants.

Let Your Old Age Be Childlike, And Your Childhood Like Old Age; That Is, So That Neither May Your Wisdom Be With Pride, Nor Your Humility Without Wisdom.

Who Can Control This When Its Appetite Is Aroused? No One! In The Very Movement Of This Appetite, Then, It Has No "mode" That Responds To The Decisions Of The Will ... Yet What He Wishes He Cannot Accomplish ... In The Very Movement Of The Appetite, It Has No Mode Corresponding To The Decision Of The Will.

Do You Wish To Be Great? Then Begin By Being Little. 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. Modest Humility Is Beauty's Crown.

Indeed, Man Wishes To Be Happy Even When He So Lives As To Make Happiness Impossible.

There Is Another Form Of Temptation, Even More Fraught With Danger. This Is The Disease Of Curiosity. It Is This Which Drives Us To Try And Discover The Secrets Of Nature, Those Secrets Which Are Beyond Our Understanding, Which Can Avail Us Nothing And Which Man Should Not Wish To Learn.

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

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.

Tolle, Lege: Take Up And Read.

And He Departed From Our Sight That We Might Return To Our Hearts And Find Him There. For He Left Us, And Behold, He Is Here.

Love Is The Beauty Of The Soul.

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

If Faith Fails, Prayer Perishes.

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.

O Master, Make Me Chaste, But Not Yet!

If You Are Pleased With What You Are, You Have Stopped Already. If You Say, "it Is Enough," You Are Lost. Keep On Walking, Moving Forward, Trying For The Goal.

Two Works Of Mercy Set A Person Free: Forgive And You Will Be Forgiven, And Give And You Will Receive.

Quid Est Ergo Tempus? Si Nemo Ex Me Quaerat, Scio; Si Quaerenti Explicare Velim, Nescio. What, Then, Is Time? I Know Well Enough What It Is, Provided That Nobodyasksme; But If Iamasked What It Is And Try To Explain, I Am Baffled.

The One Who Sings, Prays Twice.

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

Let Us Understand That God Is A Physician, And That Suffering Is A Medicine For Salvation, Not A Punishment For Damnation.

I Thought That Continence Was A Matter Of Our Own Strength, And I Knew That I Had Not The Strength: For In My Utter Foolishness I Did Not Know The Word Of Your Scripture That None Can Be Continent Unless You Give It.

A Brotherly Person Rejoices On My Account When He Approves Me, But When He Disapproves, He Is Loving Me. To Such People I Will Reveal Myself. They Will Take Heart From My Good Traits, And Sigh With Sadness At My Bad Ones. My Good Points Are Instilled By You And Are Your Gifts. My Bad Points Are My Faults And Your Judgements On Them. Let Them Take Heart From The One And Regret The Other. Let Both Praise And Tears Ascend In Your Sight From Brotherly Hearts, Your Censers. ...but You Lord...make Perfect My Imperfections.

I Once Laboured Hard For The Free Will Of Man, Until The Grace Of God At Length Overcame Me.

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

Whoever, Therefore, Thinks That He Understands The Divine Scriptures Or Any Part Of Them So That It Does Not Build On The Double Love Of God And Of Our Neighbor Does Not Understand It At All. Thus A Man Supported By Faith, Hope, And Charity, With An Unshaken Hold Upon Them Does Not Need The Scriptures. . . And Many Live By These Three Things In Solitude Without Books.

Don't Go Outside; Get Back To Yourself, In The Inner Man Lies The Truth.

Grace Alone Brings About Every Good Work In Us.

Let Us Leave A Little Room For Reflection In Our Lives, Room Too For Silence. Let Us Look Within Ourselves And See Whether There Is Some Delightful Hidden Place Inside Where We Can Be Free Of Noise And Argument. Let Us Hear The Word Of God In Stillness And Perhaps We Will Then Come To Understand It.

It Is This One Spirit Who Makes It Possible For An Infant To Be Regenerated . . . When That Infant Is Brought To Baptism; And It Is Through This One Spirit That The Infant So Presented Is Reborn. For It Is Not Written, 'unless A Man Be Born Again By The Will Of His Parents' Or 'by The Faith Of Those Presenting Him Or Ministering To Him,' But, 'unless A Man Be Born Again Of Water And The Holy Spirit.' The Water, Therefore, Manifesting Exteriorly The Sacrament Of Grace, And The Spirit Effecting Interiorly The Benefit Of Grace, Both Regenerate In One Christ That Man Who Was Generated In Adam.

Wicked Sons Do Not Have The Holy Ghost In The Same Way As Do Beloved Sons, And Yet They Do Have Baptism. So, Too, Heretics Do Not Have The Church As Catholics Have, Even Though They Have Baptism.

By And By Never Comes.

I Do Not Comprehend All That I Am. Is The Mind, Therefore, Too Limited To Possess Itself?

Our Lord Reserved To Himself Certain Things Which He Would Do In Due Time In A Manner Outside The Course And Order Of Nature, So That They Would Wonder And Be Astonished At Seeing Not Great But Unusual Things, Who Are Unmoved By Things Daily Seen. For The Government Of The World Is A Greater Miracle Than Feeding Five Thousand Men From Five Loaves; Yet At The Former No One Wonders, The Latter Astonishes All Men: Not As A Greater Wonder, But As A Rarer.

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

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

Why Is It That Man Desires To Be Made Sad, Beholding Doleful And Tragical Things, Which Yet Himself Would By No Means Suffer?

O Lord, Help Me To Be Pure, But Not Yet.

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

Since Love Grows Within You, So Beauty Grows. For Love Is The Beauty Of The Soul.

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.

Except He Be Willing, Man Cannot Believe.

Humility Must Accompany All Our Actions, Must Be With Us Everywhere; For As Soon As We Glory In Our Good Works They Are Of No Further Value To Our Advancement In Virtue.

For So It Is, O Lord My God, I Measure It! But What It Is I Measure, I Do Not Know.

God Without Us Will Not As We Without God Cannot.

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

The Heavenly City Outshines Rome Beyond Comparison. There, Instead Of Victory, Is Truth; Instead Of High Rank, Holiness; Instead Of Peace, Felicity; Instead Of Life, Eternity.

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

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.

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.

There Is No Salvation Outside The Church.

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

I Will Not Live An Instant That I Do Not Live In Love. Whoever Loves Does All Things Without Suffering, Or, Suffering, Loves His Suffering.

Any Woman Who Does Not Give Birth To As Many Children As She Is Capable Is Guilty Of Murder.

Peace In Society Depends Upon Peace In The Family.

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.

For Why, My Brothers And Sisters, Would You Rejoice In Silver? Either Your Silver Will Perish, Or You Will, And No One Knows Which Will Perish First. For Neither Can You Remain Here Always, Nor Can Silver Remain Here Always; So Also With Gold, Wardrobes, Houses, Money, Real Estate-and In The End, Even The Light By Which We Enjoy All These Things. So Do Not Be Willing Then To Rejoice In Such Things As These. Rejoice Instead In The Light That Has No Setting; Rejoice In The Dawn Which No Yesterday Precedes, And No Tomorrow Follows.

The Kingdom Of Heaven, O Man, Requires No Other Price Than Yourself. The Value Of It Is Yourself. Give Yourself For It And You Shall Have It.

Every Day My Conscience Makes Confession Relying On The Hope Of Your Mercy As More To Be Trusted Than Its Own Innocence.

Understanding Is The Wages Of Faith.

You Never Go Away From Us, Yet We Have Difficulty In Returning To You. Come, Lord, Stir Us Up And Call Us Back. Kindle And Seize Us. Be Our Fire And Our Sweetness. Let Us Love. Let Us Run.

He Who Labours, Prays.

Put No Faith In Salvation Through The Political Order.

Augustinethe Wounds Of A Friend Are Better Than The Kisses Of An Enemy. To Love With Sternness Is Better Than To Deceive With Gentleness.... In Luke [14:23] It Is Written: "compel People To Come In!" By Threats Of The Wrath Of God, The Father Draws Souls To His Son.

God In His Omnipotence Could Not Give More, In His Wisdom He Knew Not How To Give More, In His Riches He Had Not More To Give, Than The Eucharist.

What Does Love Look Like? It Has The Hands To Help Others. It Has The Feet To Hasten To The Poor And Needy. It Has Eyes To See Misery And Want. It Has The Ears To Hear The Sighs And Sorrows Of Men. That Is What Love Looks Like.

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.

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

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.

Without God, We Cannot. Without Us, God Will Not.

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

The World's Verdict Is Conclusive.

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.

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.

Baptism Does Not Profit A Man Outside Unity With The Church ... For Many Heretics Also Possess This Sacrament But Not The Fruits Of Salvation ... The Benefits Which Flow From Baptism Are Necessarily Fruits Which Belong To The True Church Alone. Children Baptized In Other Communions Cease To Be Members Of The Church When, After Reaching The Age Of Reason, They Make Formal Profession Of Heresy, As, For Example, By Receiving Communion In A Non-catholic Church.

Unhappy Is The Soul Enslaved By The Love Of Anything That Is Mortal.

The Entire Most Beautiful Order Of Things That Are Very Good, When Their Measures Have Been Accomplished, Is To Pass Away.

The Measure Of Charity May Be Taken From The Want Of Desires. As Desires Diminish In The Soul, Charity Increases In It; And When It No Longer Feels Any Desire, Then It Possesses Perfect Charity.

In The Absence Of Justice, What Is Sovereignty But Organized Robbery?

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.

Do What You Can And Pray For What You Cannot Yet Do.

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.

Late Have I Loved You, O Beauty Ever Ancient, Ever New. Late Have I Loved You. You Have Called To Me, And Have Called Out, And Have Shattered My Deafness. You Have Blazed Forth With Light And Have Put My Blindness To Flight! You Have Sent Forth Fragrance, And I Have Drawn In My Breath, And I Pant After You. I Have Tasted You, And I Hunger And Thirst After You. You Have Touched Me, And I Have Burned For Your Peace.

Hunger And Thirst

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