|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 2, 2020 3:36:27 GMT
FEBRUARY 1 Call Upon the Lord
Thou have made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee. Grant me, O Lord to know and understand which comes first: to call upon Thee or to praise Thee; and whether first to know Thee or call upon Thee. How are they to call upon Him in Whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him Whom they have not heard? And they who seek the Lord shall praise Him. - Confessions 1, 1
Prayer. May I seek Thee, Lord, by praying to Thee, and let me pray to Thee by believing in Thee. - Confessions 1, 1
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 2, 2020 22:34:17 GMT
FEBRUARY 2 The Christ of the Temple
Christ is born in a humble inn, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. Then the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator of angels, the Author and Maker of all things visible and invisible, suckles, cries, is nourished, grows, endures His age, and hides His majesty. Afterward He is bound, despised, scourged, jeered, spat at, struck, crowned with thorns, hung on a cross, and pierced with a spear. What poverty is there! - Sermon 14, 9
Prayer. Lord, I am poor and needy. I am better only when with heartfelt sorrow I renounce myself and seek Thy mercy so that my deficiencies are overcome and transformed. - Confessions 10, 38
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 4, 2020 2:29:54 GMT
FEBRUARY 3 Be within the Law
It is one thing to be within the law and another thing to be under the law. Those who are within the law act according to the law. Those who are under the law are acted upon according to the law. Therefore, those who are within the law are free; those who are under the law are slaves. - Commentary on Psalm 1, 2
Prayer. O God, Thou are the Truth and the light of my heart. Let me listen to Thee and not to the darkness within me.
- Confessions 12, 10
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 4, 2020 20:26:25 GMT
FEBRUARY 4 Don't Turn Your Back on God
Let no one say: " I am leaving the monastery because monks are not the only ones who can reach the kingdom of God; those outside the monastery also belong to God." Those outside the monastery certainly belong to God; but they have not taken vows (common life and continence). You, however, have taken them, and now you are going back on them. - Commentary on Psalm 75, 16
Prayer. Keep your eyes fixed on the Lord, Who guides you, and do not look back. - Commentary on Psalm 75, 16
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 5, 2020 20:28:29 GMT
FEBRUARY 5 Living Together and Marriage
This problem often arises: If a man and a woman live together without being legitimately joined, not to have children but because they could not observe continence; and if they have agreed between themselves to have relations with no one else, can this be called a marriage? Perhaps, but only if they have resolved to maintain until death the good faith that they had promised to themselves, even though this union did not rest on a desire to have children. - The Good of Marriage 5, 5
Prayer. Lord, Thou change Thy works, but Thy design is always the same. - Confessions 1, 4
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 7, 2020 3:29:23 GMT
FEBRUARY 6 The Delight of Friendship
All kinds of things rejoiced my soul in their company - to talk and laugh, and to do other kindnesses; to read pleasant books together; to pass from lightest jesting to talk of the deepest things and back again; to differ without rancor, as persons might differ with themselves, and when most rarely dissension arose, to find our normal agreement all the sweeter for it; to teach each other and to learn from each other. These and such things kindled a flame that fused our very souls together and made us one out of many. - Confessions 4, 8
Prayer. Blessed are those who love Thee, O Lord, and love their friends in Thee and their enemies because of Thee.
- Confessions 4, 9
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 8, 2020 3:13:31 GMT
FEBRUARY 7 Praising God
You are praising God when you do your day's work. You are praising Him when you eat and drink. You are praising Him when you rest on your bed. You are praising Him when you are sleeping. So when are you not praising Him? - Commentary on Psalm 146, 2
Prayer. Human beings are Thy creatures, Lord, and their instinct is to praise Thee. - Confessions 1, 1
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 9, 2020 3:04:02 GMT
FEBRUARY 8 Good Pupils
Christians must seek to advance toward God every day and always to rejoice in God or in His gifts. Our exile here on earth is very short, and our native land is timeless. Here we seek devotion to God, but there we rest. We must calculate our gains daily. We must be not only eager listeners but careful workers. This school of life, in which God is the only teacher, looks for good pupils who will not desert but remain loyal. - Sermon 16A, 1
Prayer. May God in His mercy grant that every day we may be troubled, tried, disciplined, or make some progress.
- Sermon 16A, 12
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 9, 2020 18:55:22 GMT
FEBRUARY 9 Abstain and Sustain
Two are the commands given us for this life of ours: to abstain and to sustain. To abstain from those things that are considered good by the world, and to sustain the many things that are bad in the world. This requires continence and endurance. Continence means not to rely on worldly happiness. Endurance signifies not to give way to worldly unhappiness. - Sermon 38, 1
Prayer. Lord, Thou are with us. Thou deliver us from our wretched errors, establish us on Thy path, and encourage us.
- Confessions 6, 16
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 11, 2020 3:02:04 GMT
FEBRUARY 10 The Marks of Good Superiors
Good superiors rebuke those who stir up strife, comfort those of little courage, take the part of the weak, refute opponents, and guard against traps. They teach the ignorant, awake the indolent, put the presumptuous in their place, mollify the quarrelsome, help the poor, liberate the oppressed, encourage the good, suffer the wicked, and love everyone. - Sermon 140, 1
Prayer. Lord, Thou love us with a love that is true. - Confessions 1, 4
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 12, 2020 3:01:14 GMT
FEBRUARY 11 Take Account of Failures
As long as we are human beings, we cannot avoid failures, even if they are flimsy. What is important in any case is not to ignore them, not to disregard them. For swollen rivers are made out of small drops of water. A tiny leak in a boat, unless noticed and controlled in time, is cause enough for the boat to sink to the bottom of the sea. Drop by drop the hull will be flooded, and the boat will get heavier until finally it cannot float anymore. - Sermon 58, 9-10
Prayer. Lord, Thou grieve over wrongdoing, but Thou feel no pain. - Confessions 1, 4
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 13, 2020 3:25:35 GMT
FEBRUARY 12 The Force of Habit
Lord, sometimes Thou fill me with a feeling quite unlike my normal state. This gives me an inward sense of delight, which if it were to reach fulfillment in me would be something entirely different from my present life. But my heavy burden of distress drags me back. I am sucked back to my habits and find myself held fast; I weep greatly, but I am firmly held. The load of habit is a force to be reckoned with! - Confessions 10, 40
Prayer. Thou have accompanied me on my path, O Truth, teaching me what to avoid and what to desire.
- Confessions 10, 40
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 14, 2020 3:01:17 GMT
FEBRUARY 13 A Cheap Old Song
You are thinking that I am saying what I always say; and you go on doing what you always do. What shall I do - now that I seem just a cheap old song to you? The end of life is always unpredictable. Each of us walks with a chance of falling. I beseech you, brothers and sisters, even if you have forgotten about yourselves, at least take some pity on me. - Sermon 232, 8
Prayer. Lord, Thou support, fill, and over-shadow all things. - Confessions 1, 4
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 15, 2020 2:29:18 GMT
FEBRUARY 14 The Inner Teacher
There is a Master within Who teaches us. Christ is our Master, and His inspiration teaches us. Where His inspiration and His unction are lacking, it is in vain that words resound in our ears. As Paul the Apostle said: "I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow." Therefore, whether we plant or whether we water by our words, we are nothing. It is God Who gives the increase; His unction teaches you all things. - Sermon on 1 John 3, 13
Prayer. Thou, Lord, are the unfailing light, and from Thee I sought to know the existence, nature, and worth of all things, as I listened to Thy teaching and commandments. - Confessions 10, 40
|
|
|
Post by Elizabeth on Feb 15, 2020 20:46:13 GMT
FEBRUARY 15 The Lesson of Ashes
Will these ashes one day take on the form of beauty, be restored to life, restored to light? The bodies of all of us will in a few years be ashes! Yet a few years ago we were not even ashes! If God was able to create what did not exist, will He not be able to remake what once existed? - Sermon 361,12
Prayer. Lord, Thou are never new and never old. Yet Thou give new life to all things. - Confessions 1, 4
|
|