Showing posts with label repentance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label repentance. Show all posts

Thursday, November 8, 2012

There Is Joy Before The Angels Of God Over One Sinner Who Repents


    [1] Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.
    [2] And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."
    [3] So he told them this parable:
    [4] "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?
    [5] And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
    [6] And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'
    [7] Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
    [8] "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?
    [9] And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.'
    [10] Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." 
Luke 15:1-10

Friday, September 14, 2012

It Is Through The Flesh That Man Turns Away From God; It Is In Becoming Flesh That God Delivers Man

Sin which destroyed the divine life within us demands a satisfaction, an expiation without which it would be impossible for divine life to be restored to us. Being a mere creature, man cannot give this satisfaction for an offense of infinite malice, and, on the other hand, divinity can neither suffer nor expiate. How is this problem to be solved? The Incarnation gives us the answer. Consider the babe of Bethlehem. He is the Word-made-Flesh. The Word asks of us a human nature to find in it wherewith to suffer, to expiate, to merit, to heap graces upon us. It is through the flesh that man turns away from God; it is in becoming flesh that God delivers man. The flesh that the Word of God takes upon himself, is to become the instrument of salvation for all men. - Blessed Columba Marmion



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Friday, June 8, 2012

A God Who Weeps With So Many Tears At The Loss Of One Soul...

Ah, who would not be touched? ... A God who weeps with so many tears at the loss of one soul and Who cries unceasingly: My friend, my friend, why proceedest thou thus to lose thy soul and thy God? Stop! Stop! Ah! Look at my tears, my Blood which flows yet. Must I die a second time to save thee? Look at me. Ah! Angels from Heaven descend upon earth, come and weep with me for the loss of this soul! Oh, that a Christian should be so unfortunate as to persevere still in running towards the abyss despite the voice which his God causes him to hear continually! But, you may say to me, no one says these things to us. Oh my friends, unless you want to stop up your ears, you will hear the voice of God, which follows you unceasingly. Tell me, my friends, then, what is this remorse of conscience which overwhelms you in the midst of sin? Why do these anxieties and storms agitate you? Why this fear, this dread that you are in, when you seem to be forever expecting to be crushed by the thunders of Heaven? How many times, even when you were sinning, have you not experienced the touch of an invisible hand which seemed to push you away, as if someone were saying: Unhappy man, what are you doing? Unhappy man, where are you going? Ah my son, why do you wish to damn yourself?

Would you not agree with me that a Christian who despises so many graces deserves to be abandoned and rejected because he has not listened to the voice of God or profited by His graces? On the contrary, my dear brethren, it is God Himself Who is scorned by this ungrateful soul who would seem to wish to put Him to death again. All creation demands vengeance, and it is, in fact, God alone Who wishes to save this soul and Who is opposed to all that could be prejudicial to it.

He watches over its salvation as if it were the only soul in the world. - Saint Jean Marie Vianney

Unless You Want To Stop Up Your Ears, You Will Hear The Voice Of God

Oh my friends, unless you want to stop up your ears, you will hear the voice of God, which follows you unceasingly. - Saint Jean Marie Vianney

Saturday, January 14, 2012

After Confession: He May Be Grey And Gouty; But He Is Only Five Minutes Old


...when a Catholic comes from Confession, he does truly, by definition, step out again into that dawn of his own beginning and look with new eyes across the world to a Crystal Palace that is really of crystal. He believes that in that dim corner, and in that brief ritual, God has really remade him in His own image. He is now a new experiment of the Creator. He is as much a new experiment as he was when he was really only five years old. He stands, as I said, in the white light at the worthy beginning of the life of a man. The accumulations of time can no longer terrify. He may be grey and gouty; but he is only five minutes old. – G. K. Chesterton

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Paths of Repentance

A third path of repentance consists of prayer that is fervent, careful and comes from the heart. A fourth path of repentance is almsgiving, whose power is great and far-reaching. A fifth way, moreover, if a man lives a modest humble life, takes away sin. - Saint John Chrysostom