The Temple is greater than the gold; therefore care not though the gold be away: – it sanctifies it; therefore cherish the gold while it is present. Christ is with us, though there be no outward show… Stone walls do not make a Church. Though they were in the vastest, noblest, richest building on earth, still Christ would not be with those who preach another gospel than that which He delivered once for all… It is the Temple which sanctifieth the gold; it is nothing but the invisible and heavenly Presence which sanctifieth any place or any thing. Magnificent or mean, costly or common, it alone sanctifies either worshippers or building.
P.S. VI 290 – 291 (22.9.1840)
Prayer is the practice of turning to God and the unseen world, in every season, in every place, in every emergency…
P.S. IV 230 (10.12.1837)
This is the true and effectual regeneration, when the seed of life takes root in man and thrives. Such men have accustomed themselves to speak to God, and God has ever spoken to them…
P.S. IV 234 (10.12.1837)
While the Catholic Church allows no private judgment as regards the faith, she allows… great latitude in respect to devotions.
L.D. XXVIII 150 (25.12.1876)
… rites and ordinances, far from being unmeaning, are in their nature capable of impressing our memories and imaginations with the great revealed verities; far from being superstitious, are expressly sanctioned in Scripture as to their principle, and delivered to the Church in their form by tradition. Further, that they varied in different countries, according to the respective founder of the Church in each.
Tracts I 34, 7 (9.9.1833)
Such was our Saviour’s dutiful attention to the religious system under which He was born; and that, not only so far as it was directly divine, but further, where it was the ordinance of uninspired though pious men, where it was but founded on ecclesiastical authority. His Apostles followed His pattern … They taught, indeed, that the Jewish rites were no longer of any use in obtaining God’s favour; that Christ’s death was now set forth as the full and sufficient Atonement for sin… But they neither abandoned the Jewish rites themselves, nor obliged any others to do so who were used to them. Custom was quite a sufficient reason for retaining them…
P.S. II 70 – 71 (1.1.1831)
Yet, decisive as he (St. Paul) is against all attempts to force the Gentiles under the rites of Law, he never bids the Jews renounce them, rather he would have them retain them; leaving it for a fresh generation, who had not been born under them, to discontinue them, so that the use of them might gradually die away. Nay, he himself circumcised Timothy, when he chose him for his associate; in order that no offence might be given to the Jews. (Acts 16.1-3)
P.S. II 71 (1.1.1831)
The Bible then may be said to give us the spirit of religion; but the Church must provide the body in which that spirit is to be lodged. Religion must be realized in particular acts, in order to its continuing alive.
P.S. II 74 (1.1.1831)
There is no such thing as abstract religion. When persons attempt to worship in this (what they call) more spiritual manner, they end, in fact, in not worshipping at all. This frequently happens… Youths, for instance (and perhaps those who should know better than they), sometimes argue with themselves, “What is the need of praying statedly morning and evening? Why use a form of words? Why kneel? Why cannot I pray in bed, or walking, or dressing?” They end in not praying at all. Again, what will the devotion of the country people be, if we strip religion of its external symbols, and bid them seek out and gaze upon the Invisible?
P.S. II 74 (1.1.1831)
We must begin religion with what looks like a form. Our fault will be, not in beginning it as a form, but in continuing it as a form. For it is our duty to be ever striving and praying to enter into the real spirit of our services, and in proportion as we understand them and love them, they will cease to be a form and a task, and will be the real expressions of our minds. Thus shall we gradually be changed in heart from servants into sons of Almighty God.
P.S. Ill 93 – 94 (20.11.1831)
Rites which the Church has appointed, and with reason, – for the Church’s authority is from Christ, – being long used, cannot be disused without harm to our souls.
P.S. II 77 – 78 (1.1.1831)
We sometimes meet with men, who ask why we observe these or those ceremonies or practices ; why for example, we use Forms of prayer so cautiously and strictly ? Or why we persist in kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper? Or why in celebrating the public worship of God only in consecrated places? These, and many such questions may be asked, and all with this argument: “They are indifferent matters; we do not read of them in the Bible.”
Now the direct answer to this objection is, that the Bible was never intended to enjoin us these things, but matters of faith; and that though it happens to mention our practical duties, and some points of form and discipline, still, that it does not set about telling us what to do, but chiefly what to believe…
P.S. II 72 (1.1.1831)