touchstone archives
Commonplaces
Piquant excerpts lifted from Touchstone editors' own reading & listening.
Topic: Religion
This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.
—1 Timothy 3:1
— Religion — Commonplaces #185 — Sept/Oct 2023 —
Nolo episcopari. (I do not wish to be made a bishop.)
—Traditional profession
made upon election to the office
— Religion — Commonplaces #186 — Sept/Oct 2023 —
The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamps that light the path.
—St. John Chrysostom
— Religion — Commonplaces #187 — Sept/Oct 2023 —
It needs more than intelligence to understand holiness, more than sensibility to recognize it, more than a nicely balanced judgement to criticize it: a whole lifetime can be spent in the study of the Church’s wonders, of spiritual books, and of the manifestations of sanctity without coming anywhere near its hidden reality. Indeed, to look at it in that way, from the point of view of a research-worker or of a dilettante, is a sign of complete blindness in its regard.
—Henri Ghéon
Secrets of the Saints (1944)
— Religion — Commonplaces #202 — May/June 2024 —
A “God of surprises” is one thing. A God of reversals is something else altogether.
—Aidan Nichols
Apologia, A Memoir (2023)
— Religion — Commonplaces #204 — May/June 2024 —
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