When a subject corrects his prelate, he ought to do so in a becoming manner, not with impudence and harshness but with gentleness and respect. . . .
War between paralyzed telepaths.
The medieval idea that angels were required to move the heavenly bodies.
When God changed someone’s name in Scripture, He changed their destiny: Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter.
We pray, not simply as some solitary self-improvement program, but because we have been addressed by God. Prayer is a response to a prior divine invitation.
There is little passion for anything except pleasure and comfort and security. Indeed, passion is confused with fanaticism.
The universal sin Saint Paul pinpoints in Romans 1:18 is to suppress the truth.
The true philosopher lives his life as a dress rehearsal for death.
The transformation of Christ’s bodily scars into badges of glory shows us what happens, even in this life, to our souls when we lovingly and trustingly offer our sufferings to Christ and unite them to...
The root of pride is found to consist in man not being in some way subject to God and His rule.
The most serious religious objection to Purgatory, on the part of Protestants, is that the anticipation of the pains of Purgatory detracts from a happy death (blessed are the dead who from now on die...
The distinction between the natural and the supernatural is a distinction between two abstract aspects, not two concrete things.
The claims the Catholic Church makes are a little like the claims Christ makes: so superhuman that it becomes impossible to take a comfortable, middle-of-the-road attitude toward them, unless we are e...
The arrow of our souls flies to God as the target—unless the arrow is so badly bent that it flies backwards, in which case it pierces the eye of the archer and makes him blind as a Pharisee.
Suffering together builds togetherness, and if togetherness is more important for us and for our joy than freedom from suffering is, then God is good to allow this suffering.
St. Thomas would have agreed with Leon Bloy, who often wrote that in the end there is only one tragedy in life: not to have been a saint.
St. Thomas is as practical and plain and reasonable in ethics as Aristotle, or Confucius, or your uncle.
Spirit means essentially two things: 1. The power of thinking—conscious, deliberate, rational understanding. Not sense perception; that’s the work of a bodily organ, like the eye. 2. The power of will...
Sow a thought, reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.
Some say that to the gods we are like flies that boys idly swat on a summer day. Others say that not a feather from a sparrow falls to the ground without the will of the Heavenly Father. Those are the...