Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: truth

Falling is a test

After this [God] allows us to fall harder and more grievously than ever we did before — as it seems to us. And then we think (because we are not all wise) that what we had begun has come to nothing. But it is not so. It is necessary for us to fall and it… Read More ›

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Have full and sure confidence in God

He bids us then have a full and undoubting confidence of the answer only in those things which are not for our own advantage or for temporal comforts, but are in conformity to the Lord’s will. And we are also taught to put this into our prayers by the Lord’s Prayer, where we say “Thy… Read More ›

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The devil is no fool

The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity… Read More ›

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Encouragement

At times the inner voices can be just a little annoying, sort of like being bitten my mosquitoes on a summer evening walk, buzzing around the ears but really not too loud and not much of a problem to deal with.  At other times these inner shouting’s can seem like a swarm of hornets, angry… Read More ›

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How do we judge success?

Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the… Read More ›

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Advent and grief (a talk)

When I think of the concept of longing and then mixed it in with the experience of grief, I always get the feeling, or perhaps the picture, of a deep, dark and cold ocean, a place of feeling alone and isolated…. for what was once a bright inner relationship with another, is now empty and… Read More ›

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The heart

It is all about the heart in the end; the longing, seeking, our fears and hopes, are in truth centered in the heart, which in spite of its narcissism is called to grow into infinity. Hidden in darkness grace does it’s silent work not allowing rest such is the hearts gnawing, an unending arid region… Read More ›

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The big results are not in your hands or mine

You are fed up with words, and I don’t blame you. I am nauseated by them sometimes. I am also, to tell the truth, nauseated by ideals and with causes. This sounds like heresy, but I think you will understand what I mean. It is so easy to get engrossed with ideas and slogans and… Read More ›

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Christ’s Love for Us

One of the qualities we find emphasized in the ancient accounts of the martyrs was their joy. There is no question of finding pleasure in pain. Rather it is the joy that comes when everything is lost but love perdures. We always suspect that love attaches itself to our good qualities and we fear that… Read More ›

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Evil is due to man’s alienation from the deepest truth

The moral evil in the world is due to man’s alienation from the deepest truth, from the springs of spiritual life within himself, to his alienation from God. Those who realize this try desperately to persuade and enlighten their brothers. But we are in a radically different position from the first Christians, who revolutionized an… Read More ›

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