LIFE OF CHRIST BEATITUDES Why turn the other cheek? Because hate multiplies like a seed. If one preaches hate and violence to ten men in a row, and tells the first man to strike the second, and the second to strike the third, the hatred will envelop all ten. The only way to stop this hate is for one man (say the fifth in line), to turn his other cheek. Then the hatred ends. It is never passed on. Absorb violence for the sake of the Saviour, Who will absorb sin and die for it. The Christian law is that the innocent shall suffer for the guilty. Thus He would have us do away with adversaries, because when no resistance is offered, the adversary is conquered by a superior moral power; such love prevents the infection of the wound of hate. To endure for a year the bore who afflicts you for a week; to write a letter of kindness to the man who calls you dirty names; to offer gifts to the man who would steal from you; never to answer back with hatred the man who lies and says you are disloyal to your country or tell a worse lie, that you are against freedom--these are the hard things which Christ came to teach, and they no more suited His time than they do ours. They suit only the heroes, the great men, the saints, the holy men and women who will be the salt of the earth, the leaven in the mass, the elite among the mob, the kind who will transform the world. If certain people are not lovable, one puts love into them and they will become lovable. Why is anyone lovable--if it be not that God put His love into each of us. The Life of Christ, Bishop Sheen, P13 (e-reader) Prayer to Saint John Vianney for Parish Priests Dear Saint John Vianney, your childhood dream was to be a priest, to win souls for God. You endured years of toil and humiliation to attain the priesthood. You became a priest truly after Gods own heart, outstanding in humility and poverty, prayer and mortification. Totally devoted to the service of Gods people. The Church has exalted you as model and patron saint of all Parish Priests, trusting that your example and prayers will help them to live up to the high dignity of their vocation to be faithful servants of Gods people, to be perfect imitators of Christ the Savior Who came not to be served but to serve, to give His Life in ransom for many. paxetbonum.net/pfp3.html#56
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 13:27:24 +0000
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