Sanctity

“ You might become a prophet or a saint, you know. The first step towards sanctity is to despise the pomps and vanities of this wicked world. You seem to have taken the first step at a jump, with both feet. ”

“ A sanctity hangs about the sources of our being, whether physical, social, or imaginative. ”

“ For sanctity, as I conceive it, is perfect pureness of mind, and deeds, and thoughts, and words too, and in its last degree sinlessness in dreams.
And sufficient purification to a man, I reckon, is thorough and sure repentance. If, condemning ourselves for our former actions, we go forward, after these things taking thought, [654] and divesting our mind both of the things which please us through the senses, and of our former transgressions. ”

“ Since the Heart of our Lord has no more loving law than meekness, humility, and charity we must firmly maintain these dear virtues in us.
9. True sanctity lies in love of God, and not in foolish imaginings, raptures, &c. Let us devote ourselves 11to the practice of true meekness and submission, to renouncement of self, to docility of heart, to love of abjection, to consideration for the wishes of others: this is true sanctity and the most amiable ecstasy of the children of God. ”

“ Free from any overstrained odour of sanctity, it yet teaches with earnestness and sincerity the value of religious as well as moral principle, and that no virtue can be exercised—no good principle can be carried out—without strength from above.”—Norwich Mercury. ”

“ For it is the difficulties and the hindrances that men find in their age which give the form to their character and habits, and when mastered become the means of divine grace and their titles to glory. Indicate these, and you portray that type of sanctity in which the life of the Church will find its actual and living expression. ”

“ Considered as immortal beings, destined for the extremes of happiness or of misery, and united to one another by a special community of redemption, the first and most manifest duty of a Christian man was to look upon his fellow-men as sacred beings, and from this notion grew up the eminently Christian idea of the sanctity of all human life. ”

“ If, then, sanctity brings man back to his true relations to the Deity, and restores him to his primitive relations with nature, let us work our way back to Eden by our purity, fasts, vigils, and prayers. ”

“ How completely the sanctity of the church exercises a constant influence upon the minds of men, thus substituting a new form of belief when older forms were [Pg 200] thrust on one side by the advance of the new religion, is perhaps best illustrated by a practice in early Christian times for giving sanctity to the oath. ”

“ No, let those who are unaware, be informed that sanctity is not measured by fasting but by holy charity: let them know that we should not decide upon things with which we are not acquainted, and also hear the words of incarnate wisdom on this subject. ”

“ Jesus, grant us grace to avoid bad company and to shun the society of the worldly; but when duty or accident brings us into contact with them, we beseech Thee, by the sanctity of Thy conversation among sinners, to defend us and preserve us from being overcome by any temptations to mortal sin. ”

“ The majesty of God and the sanctity of religion require the first, in order to excite in the minds of men proper sentiments of reverence and devotion; and experience itself shows how much the sacred ceremonies of religion conduce to this end. ”

“ The Master and exemplar of all sanctity is Christ, to whose rule all must conform who wish to attain to the thrones of the blessed. Now, then, Christ does not at all change with the progress of the ages, but is yesterday and to-day, and the same forever. ”

“ Many elements combined to produce these consoling results, and since we are treating of an eminent churchman, it is necessary to attach due importance to his own personal sanctity, which was at once a rebuke to disregard of ecclesiastical discipline, a living illustration of what the true Christian should be, and an evidence of the purity of his motives and the sincerity of his conduct. ”

“ Go thither with a view to honour, and glorify this divine heart to obtain the graces necessary to keep you from sin, to practise virtue, and to attain to that degree of sanctity to which Almighty God means to raise you. ”

“ For indeed no one does more injury in the church than he who acts perversely and yet has the name and order of sanctity. ”

“ In order to enter Paradise we must be well justified and well purified.
3. Let the young man look after the flesh, and the old man after avarice, and we shall all be saints together.
4. Where there is no great mortification there is no great sanctity.
5. The sanctity of a man lies in the breadth of three fingers, (the forehead,) that is to say, in mortifying the understanding, which would fain reason upon things. ”

“ The means of grace which she offers to us, and of which she even requires us to make use, the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord himself which she gives us, the penances she imposes upon us by way of fasting and abstinence, the warnings which she is ever giving us of the condemnation which will fall upon impenitent sinners, these and ten thousand other things make the sanctity of the church so well known that it is not so much an article of faith as a thing which we see with our own eyes and which falls under our own experience. ”

“ To teach thee that God attributes to place No sanctity, if none be thither brought By men who there frequent, or therein dwell. ”

“ To stand in such close relation to the Word made flesh; to be set over the souls for whom He shed His Precious Blood; to be charged with their salvation, so that if we be unfaithful their blood will be required at our hands: all this surely demands in the priest a personal sanctity commensurate with the work of guiding souls from sin to penance, and from penance to perfection. How shall they guide who have never trodden the path themselves? ”

“ Now, what is the whole duty of man? To love mercy, to do justly, and walk humbly with God; and, when the Holy Spirit has brought about that result in your soul, God will look on you with a beneficent eye, with a smile of approbation, and its genial influence will sun your whole being, and you will walk in the light of it, even as the angels do in Heaven. "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God;" that is the whole duty of man—everything is included in that. ”

“ When we come to ask mercy of God, and to pray for grace to love and serve him, we may plead and expostulate for the bestowment. Is it not thy will, that we should be renewed and sanctified—that we should repent of sin—believe the gospel, and follow after holiness? Is it not thy will that we should become new creatures—love thee—love our duty, and resign ourselves to thy disposal? Is it not thy will, that we should act with propriety under every trial, and discharge with faithfulness every duty—that we should honor thee in adversity, as well as in prosperity? ”

“ The fruits of righteousness are the evidences and effects of our sanctification, the duties of holiness springing from a renewed heart, the root of the matter in us. Being filled with them. Observe, Those who do much good should still endeavour to do more. The fruits of righteousness, brought forth for the glory of God and edification of his church, should really fill us, and wholly take us up. Fear not being emptied by bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, for you will be filled with them. These fruits are by Jesus Christ, by his strength and grace, for without him we can do nothing. ”

“ Mayest thou be sanctified, loved, and glorified by me, and by all men, in all thy perfections of power, wisdom, goodness, mercy, and justice: in all thy judgments and statutes, as they relate to me, to all men, and to all things, in all the works of nature, grace, and glory; in all that thou permittest, in all thy blessings in every possible way, for thy own sake, without any return, infinitely above all things, now, always, and for ever and ever. ”

“ I mean to say, that your soul hath been as if defended from its birth by the succours of the sacrament, by the lights of the doctrine, by the force of examples, by continual inspirations of grace, and perhaps by the special aids likewise of a holy and a Christian education provided for you b,y the Lord, and which so many others have wanted. Ingrate! wherein could you be able to justify your weakness before the Lord, and to interest his justice itself to use indulgence toward you? ”

“ Our Lord speaks of Himself ‘as the Son, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world.’ And when He says, ‘I sanctify myself,’ He adds at once the purpose: it is in the service of the Father and His redeemed ones,—‘that they themselves may be sanctified in truth.’ And can it be thought possible, now that God, in Christ the Holy One, and in the Holy Spirit, is accomplishing His purpose, and gathering a people of saints, ‘holy ones,’ ‘made holy in Christ,’ that now holiness and service would be put asunder? ”

“ Come short of justification, or acceptance with God, which is glory begun—come short of the holiness or sanctification which is the glorious image of God upon man, and have overthrown all hopes and expectations of being glorified with God in heaven by any righteousness of their own. ”

“ Return to the obedience of Holy Church: know the ill that you have wrought: humble you under the mighty hand of God; and God, who has regard to the humility of His handmaid, shall show mercy upon us: He will placate His wrath over your faults; through the mediation of the Blood of Christ, you shall be grafted and bound in Him with the chain of that charity in which you shall know and love the truth. The truth shall set you free from lie: it shall scatter all shadows, giving you light and knowledge in the mercy of God. ”

“ O thou model and guardian of pure souls, who hast given us so illustrious an example of purity, unselfish devotedness to duty, fidelity, humility, patience, obedience, and trust in divine Providence, be moved with the confidence I place in thy intercession, and obtain for me the grace to practise every virtue which will make me pleasing to God. ”

“ Adoration, in the strict sense, an act of religion offered to God in acknowledgment of His supreme perfection and dominion, and of the creature's dependence upon Him; in a looser sense, the reverence shown to any person or object possessing, inherently or by association, a sacred character or a high degree of moral excellence. The rational creature, looking up to God, whom reason and revelation show to be infinitely perfect, cannot in right and justice maintain an attitude of indifference. ”

“ We publicly, from the bottom of Our heart, avow the grateful feelings of Our soul, cherishing the fullest confidence that, in the present critical state of things and in the difficulties of the times, this your devotion and love and the devotion and love of the faithful will never fail Us. Nor have We any doubt that these conspicuous examples of filial piety and Christian virtue will be of such avail as to make Our most merciful God, moved by these dutiful deeds, look with favor on His flock and grant the Church peace and victory. ”

“ Thirdly, When we sanctify God we glorify him, for his holiness is his glory; and, when we sanctify him in our solemn assemblies, we glorify him before all the people, confessing our own belief of his glory and desiring that others also may be affected with it. Fourthly, If God be not sanctified and glorified by us, he will be sanctified and glorified upon us. He will take vengeance on those that profane his sacred name by trifling with him. ”

“ It is therefore absolutely necessary for all Christians, whether men or women, to consider themselves as persons that are devoted to holiness, and to order their common ways of life by such rules of reason and piety as may turn it into a continual service to Almighty God.
5. As the glory of God is one and the same thing; so whatever we do, suitable to it, must be done with one and the same Spirit. That same temper of mind which makes our alms and devotions acceptable, must also make our labour, or employment, a proper offering to God. ”

“ Upon God’s part, his great mercy and grace; upon Christ’s part, the satisfaction of God’s justice, by the offering his body, and shedding his blood; and upon our part, true and lively faith in the merits of Jesus Christ. So that in our justification there is not only God’s mercy and grace, but his justice also. And so the grace of God doth not shut out the righteousness of God in our justification; but only shutteth out the righteousness of man; that is to say, the righteousness of our works. ”

“ In which a great accession of grace and piety may be gained by the oblation of one's self and all one's actions to God, in union with the actions and merits of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is wonderful how much the maintenance and practice of a right intention, by which we refer all that belongs to us to the glory of God alone, conduces to advancement in grace and true piety. ”

“ And when you have, as far as your authority and example go, deprived Almighty God of the essential worship arising from social virtue, peace, charity, and good conscience towards God and man, will you be still adding further indignities to the deity, be representing him chiefly pleased with unmanly grimaces, words without meaning, the nonsense of metaphysicks, the jargon of logick, and the cant of mystery? ”

“ For besides those interior dispositions of soul necessary for rightly offering prayer to God, it is also needful that they should be accompanied by actions and by words befitting the Christian profession—first of all, and chiefly, the exemplary observance of uprightness and justice, of pitifulness for the poor, of penance, of peace and concord in your own houses, of respect for the law—these are what will give force and efficacy to your prayers. ”

“ What- ever, therefore, in things human is of a sacred character, whatever belongs either of its own nature or by reason of the end to which it is referred, to the salvation of souls, or to the worship of God, is subject to the power and judgment of the Church. ”