Charles Williams : The New Christian Year

1st Friday after Christmas Week (December 31st, 2010)

The affirmative man, that does acknowledge all blessings, spiritual and temporal, to come from God, that prepares himself by holiness to be fit to receive them from God, that comes for them by humble prayer to God, that returns for them humble thanks to God, this man hath the first mark of this person upon him, He trusts in God.

John Donne: Sermons.

The 'now' wherein God made the first man and the 'now' wherein the las man disappears and the 'now' I speak in, all are the same in God where this is but 'the now.'

Eckhart: Sermons and Collations.

1st Thursday after Christmas Week (December 30th, 2010)

We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reasons for thinking so, but there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or no.  Be sure that in proportion as you advance in fraternal charity, you are increasing in your love for God, for His Majesty bears so tender an affection for us, that I cannot doubt He will repay our love for others in augmenting, in a thousand different ways, that which we bear for Him.

St. Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle.

God loves all existing things.

Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica.

1st Wednesday after Christmas Week (December 29TH, 2010)

Grace is the incomprehensible fact that God is well pleased with a man, and that a man can rejoice in God.  Only when grace is recognized to be incomprehensible is it grace.  Grace exists, therefore, only where the Resurrection is reflected.  Grace is the gift of Christ, who exposes the gulf which separates God and man, and, by exposing it, bridges it.

Karl Barth: The Epistle to the Romans.

1st Tuesday after Christmas Week (December 28th, 2010)

"It shines everywhere, though not to all.  In a word, it shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not.  The light sees the darkness, for with it seeing and shining are the same thing; but it is not in turn seen by the darkness, because the darkness comprehends it not.

St. Bernard: On Consideration.

The Stoics say, "Retire within yourselves; it is there you will find your rest."  And that is not true.

Others say, "Go out of yourselves; seek happiness in amusement."  And this is not true.  Illness comes.

Happiness is neither without us nor within us.  It is in God, both without us and within us.

Pascal: Pensées.

1st Monday after Christmas Week (December 27th, 2010)

Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the city of Destruction.

John Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress.

"I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."  Not because they are so unlike your mortal experiences, but because they are so like.

Coventry Patmore: The Rod, the Root, and the Flower.

The Feast of St. Stephen (December 26th, 2010)

Death is ugsome (loathsome) and very terrible unto the flesh; but joyful and welcome is it unto all such as are instructed in the secret science of God.

Miles Coverdale: Fruitful Lessons upon the Passion.