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Paul rates his afflictions as "slight" compared to the joy of God's kingdom (4;17). Nevertheless, he does not give the impression of being a person who finds afflictions easy to bear (4:8-9). A man who sometimes feels "crushed" and driven almost to despair (1:8) has not found a formula for rising above his problems. Paul does not float peacefully over troubled waters. Sometimes, perhaps, the evidence of God's power at work in him is simply that he doesn't throw in the towel. A philosopher in Paul's day named Epictetus wrote that hardships show what a person truly is -- they expose the person's inner character. In Paul's view, difficulties reveal not so much our inner character as that of God. Our hardships are an opportunity for God to show his power (4:7, 10). This is not to deny the importance of human strength of character. From the hardships that Paul endured, it is obvious that he was a man of determination, endurance, and courage. But Paul recognizes that such human qualities are not enough. On a recent occasion, he admitted, he would have despaired if God had not intervened (1:8-9). He talks about God's encouragement frequently (1:4-7; 7:6-7; 13) because he needs it. - from book "2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness (Six Weeks With the Bible)" via Julie of "Happy Catholic"
I think that if not my own lifetime then during my children's, there will again be North American martyrs. - paraphrase of what Scott Hahn said at Coming Home Conference
I can tell you what it is not about. Not about Israel, not about Iraq, not about Afghanistan. They are mere excuses. Algerian Muslim fundamentalists murdered 150,000 other Algerian Muslims, sometimes slitting the throats of children in front of their parents. Are you seriously telling me that this was because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians or American foreign policy?...Stop asking what you have done wrong. Stop it! They're slaughtering you like sheep and you still look within. - ex-jihadist Dr. Tawfik Hamid, former member of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, a banned terrorist organization, as quoted in Canada's National Post
When I hear things like “You just want to take us back to pre-Vatican II days of pay, pray and obey!” I think, what is wrong with paying, praying, and obeying? We should all be generous with our resources in God's service; we should all come to Him daily in prayer; and we should all desire to be formed in obedience to His Word and His Church. The only negative about the phrase is that we should not imagine that our service to God is limited to those things, although they are fundamental to our lives in the Church. - Henry of "A Plumbline in the Wind"
Paul Thigpen has a great new book out called Last Words: Final Thought of Catholic Saints and Sinners. On his deathbed, [King Henry VIII] cried, "All is lost. Monks, monks, monks. So, now, all is gone--empire, body, soul." Was this the final cry of a man who was lost, or was it expressed as a final regret for his violent and pitiless life? God only knows...If we are commanded to pray for our enemies we had best pray for him too. - Dwight Longnecker
Ken Burns, in his award-winning Civil War series, failed even to mention the existence of Catholic nuns among the nursing corps -- they comprised at least one-half and possibly as much as two-thirds of the nurses who took part in the Civil War -- certainly a fact worth noting. When confronted with this glaring omission, he responded lamely, "I couldn't do everything." -- John Vidmar, OP, The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History
Precisely because he is an intelligent person, [Rod Dreher] knew that Catholicism is right, and he needed an intellectual justification for doing what he was doing, and the only possible way to get that justification would be to call into question the teachings of the Church...To begin questioning how an ecumenical council arrives at its dogmatic teachings is the doorstep to heterodoxy, not orthodoxy. Granted, the Orthodox Churches don't recognize the validity of all of the Ecumenical Councils, but you can bet your bottom dollar they wouldn't tolerate judging the dogmatic pronouncements of the ones they do accept on the basis of personal, private judgments about the manner in which the dogmata were arrived at! Is Dreher going to become a student of ancient history now...Will he discover that the doctrine of the Trinity was forced through by a suspicious vote? Will he discover that physical force was brought into play in the debates over monothelitism? Perhaps he will found his own church someday that all of the other purists can come to. - Scott Carson of "Examined Life"
Fr. Ryland concluded his remarks with a very moving reflection: that as a protestant his personal relationship with Christ was always on his terms, because he was the one defining what his own beliefs were; but as a Catholic, his personal relationship with Christ is on Christ's terms, because Christ has defined those terms via His Church. Having experienced the same phenomenon in my own life as a convert, I had a lump in my throat. - Jay Anderson of "Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate"
saint gemma, the loveliest and gentlest bearer of the stigmata * saint teresa of avila, who reminds us that there are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers - some of Smock's (summa mamas) favorite saints
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