… the usages and ordinances of the Church do not exist for their own sake ; they do not stand of themselves ; they are not sufficient for themselves ; … but they are dependent on an inward substance ; they protect a mystery ; they defend a dogma ; they represent an idea ; they preach good tidings ; they are the channels of grace. They are the outward shape of an inward reality or fact, which no Catholic doubts, which is assumed as a first principle, which is not an inference of reason, but the object of a spiritual sense.
Diff. I 216 (1850)
… no wonder that where the thought of self obscures the thought of God, prayer and praise languish, and only preaching flourishes. Divine worship is simply contemplating our Maker, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Judge; but discoursing, conversing, making speeches, arguing, reading, and writing about religion, tend to make us forget Him in ourselves.
Jfc. 337 (1838)
Here you see the difference of the office of a prophet and a mere gift, such as that of miracles. Miracles are the simple and direct work of God ; the worker of them is but an instrument or organ. And in consequence he need not be holy, because he has not, strictly speaking, a share in the work. So again the power of administering the Sacraments, which also is supernatural and miraculous, does not imply personal holiness.
Mix. 366 – 367 (19.8.1849)
It is otherwise with the office of preaching and prophesying … for the truth first goes into the minds of the speakers, and is apprehended and fashioned there, and then comes out from them as, in one sense, its source and its parent. The Divine word is begotten in them, and the offspring has their features and tells of them. They are not like “the dumb animal, speaking with man’s voice,” on which Balaam rode, a mere instrument of God’s word, but they have “received an unction from the Holy One, and they know all things,” and “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”; and while they deliver what they have received, they enforce what they feel and know. “We have known and believed,” says St. John, “the charity which God hath to us.”
Mix. 367 (19.8.1849)
So has it been all through the history of the Church ; Moses does not write as David ; nor Isaias as Jeremias ; nor St. John as St. Paul … Each has his own manner, each speaks his own words, though he speaks the while the words of God. They speak from themselves, … with their own arguments, with their own deductions, with their own modes of expression.
Mix. 367.368 (19.8.1849)
Now can you fancy, my brethren, such hearts, such feelings to be unholy? how could it be so, without defiling, and thereby nullifying, the word of God ? If one drop of corruption makes the purest water worthless …, how can it be that the word of truth and holiness can proceed profitably from impure lips and an earthly heart ? No ; as is the tree, so is the fruit ; “beware of false prophets,” says our Lord ; and then He adds, “from their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?” Is it not so, my brethren ? which of you would go to ask counsel of another, however learned, however gifted, however aged, if you thought him unholy ? nay, though you feel and are sure, as far as absolution goes, that a bad priest could give it as really as a holy priest, yet for advice, for comfort, for instruction, you would not go to one whom you did not respect. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh ;” “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil.”
Mix. 368 (19.8.1849)
… the outward world is found not to be enough for man, and he looks for some refuge near him, more intimate, more secret, more pure, more calm and stable.
P.S. IV 188 – 189 (22.10.1837)
To believe in God, is to believe the being and presence of One who is All-holy, and All-powerful, and All-gracious; how can a man really believe thus of Him, and yet make free with Him ?
P.S. VIII 5 (30.10.1836)
To believe, and not to revere, to worship familiarly, and at one’s ease, is an anomaly and a prodigy unknown even to false religions, to say nothing of the true one. … Worship, forms of worship – such as bowing the knee, taking off the shoes, keeping silence, a prescribed dress, and the like – are considered as necessary for a due approach to God.
P.S. VIII 5 (30.10.1836)
… the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is one of the simplest rites of the Church … It is our Lord’s solemn benediction of His people, as when He lifted up His hands over the children, or when He blessed His chosen ones when He ascended up from Mount Olivet. As sons might come before a parent before going to bed at night, so, … the great Catholic family comes before the Eternal Father, after the bustle or toil of the day, and He smiles upon them, and sheds upon them the light of His Countenance. It is a full accomplishment of what the Priest invoked upon the Israelites, “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee ; the Lord show His face to thee and have mercy on thee ; the Lord turn His countenance to thee and give thee peace.”
Prepos. 255 (1851)
Every attentive reader of Scripture must be aware what stress is there laid upon the duty of costliness and magnificence in the public service of God.
P.S. VI 295 (23.9.1839)
… did our Saviour say that magnificence in worshipping God, magnificence in His house, in its furniture, and in its decorations, is wrong, wrong since He has come into the world ? Does He discourage us from building handsome Churches, or beautifying the ceremonial of religion ? Did He exhort us to niggardness ? did He put a slight on architectural skill ? did He imply we should please Him the more, the less study and trouble we gave to the externals of worship ? In rejecting the offering of Herod, did He forbid the devotion of Christians?
This is what many persons think. I do not exaggerate when I say, that they think the more homely and familiar their worship is, the more spiritual it becomes. And they argue, that to aim at external beauty in the service of the Sanctuary, is to be like the Pharisees, to be fair without and hollow within ; that whereas the Pharisees pretended a sanctity and religiousness outside which they had not inside, therefore, every one who aims at outward religion sacrifices to it inward.
P.S. VI 298 – 299 (23.9.1839)
This is what He condemned, the show of great attention to outward things, while inward things, which were more important, were neglected. This, He says Himself, in His denunciation of the Pharisees, “These ought ye to have done,” He says, “and not to leave the other,” the inward, “undone.”
P.S. VI 301 – 302 (23.9.1839)
Persons who put aside gravity and comeliness in the worship of God, that they may pray more spiritually, for get that God is a Maker of all things, visible as well as invisible; that He is the Lord of our bodies as well as of our souls; that He is to be worshipped in public as well as in secret … there are not two Gods, one of matter, one of spirit; one of the Law, and one of the Gospel. There is one God, and He is Lord of all we are, and all we have; and therefore, all we do must be stamped with His seal and signature. We must begin, indeed, with the heart; for out of the heart proceed all good and evil ; but while we begin with the heart, we must not end with the heart.
P.S. VI 304 (23.9.1839)
Let us … be at least as exact and as decent in the service of God, as we are in our own persons and our own homes.
P.S. VI 311 (23.9.1839)
… let us never forget that all we can give, though of His creation, is worthless in comparison of the more precious gifts which He bestows on us in the Gospel. Though our Font and Altar were of costly marbles, though our communion vessels were of gold and jewels, though our walls were covered with rich tapestries, what is all this compared to Christ, the Son of God and Son of man, present here, but unseen ! Let us use visible things not to hide, but to remind us of things invisible
P.S. VI 312 (23.9.1839)
Not gold and silver, jewels and fine linen, and skill of man to use them, make the House of God, but worshippers, the souls and bodies of men, whom He has redeemed. Not souls alone, He takes possession of the whole man, body as well as soul ….
P.S. VI 287 (22.9.1840)
Our tongues must preach Him, and our voices sing of Him, and our knees adore Him, and our hands supplicate Him, and our heads bow before Him, and our countenances beam of Him, and our gait herald Him. And hence arise joint worship, forms of prayer, ceremonies of devotion, the course of services, orders of ministers, holy vestments, solemn music, and other things of a like nature ; all which are, as it were, the incoming into this world of the Invisible Kingdom of Christ …
P.S. VI 287 – 288 (22.9.1840)