Since I believe the church which has lasted over 2000 years is being guided by YOU even with evil people at the top. I should not have a problem that you are still governing them. 

You were the one who made the apostles write the infallible word of the Bible. Of course you can make the holy church decisions if traditions just as infallible no matter who you use to write them for out for us. 

Since I believe you and your ability to not steer the church wrong, I believe I must humble myself and obey your teachings.  I do not have to understand. For You make good out of evil. I would’ve never thought the cross was the way to show salvation-how much more some of the thoughts of yours compared to mine. 

Therefore to help my psyche I must be in full communion with the holy church. You chose the liturgy, the Bible translation, the devotions, the leadership, everything that pertains to your holy church. All for your own purpose and I don’t need to believe the  humans governing, but I do need to believe your holy power to make your Will well known and done through the church. 

And in humility and in trust in you Almighty God, I surrender my fears and my will. I pray for you to keep guiding your church and little me, to do and believe your will. Help us not to apostatize  in these great unsure times. You are the way to eternal life and your church is the bulwark of Your Truth. 

Save me. 

Amen

Since I believe the church which has lasted over 2000 years is being guided by YOU even with evil people at the top. I should not have a problem that you are still governing them. 

You were the one who made the apostles write the infallible word of the Bible. Of course you can make the holy church decisions if traditions just as infallible no matter who you use to write them for out for us. 

Since I believe you and your ability to not steer the church wrong, I believe I must humble myself and obey your teachings.  I do not have to understand. For You make good out of evil. I would’ve never thought the cross was the way to show salvation-how much more some of the thoughts of yours compared to mine. 

Therefore to help my psyche I must be in full communion with the holy church. You chose the liturgy, the Bible translation, the devotions, the leadership, everything that pertains to your holy church. All for your own purpose and I don’t need to believe the  humans governing, but I do need to believe your holy power to make your Will well known and done through the church. 

And in humility and in trust in you Almighty God, I surrender my fears and my will. I pray for you to keep guiding your church and little me, to do and believe your will. Help us not to apostatize  in these great unsure times. You are the way to eternal life and your church is the bulwark of Your Truth. 

Save me. 

Amen

Miracle You Believe 

Everything God does is a surprise. First, creation. There is no need for this. It is an utter superfluity. 

Creation of all being out of nothing. 

Not merely imposing new form on old matter but imposing existence on nonexistence. For in creation, the God who is everything and needs nothing acts as if He needs everything. He comes out of Himself and creates a universe that is infinitely less than Himself and yet real, beings that are not Being Itself, real things that are really other than Reality Himself. 

God is not reasonable, in any human, expected sense. It is closer to the truth to say that God is crazy than that God is reasonable. 

Creating other spirits was crazy enough, but then He went on to create us: spirits that are also animals: angels that breathe and breed, organisms that think, mortal spirits, immortal animals. Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, “I am.”

There’s much more to God’s craziness. He then went on to give these “rational animals,” free will and let them choose between Himself and Satan, Heaven and Hell, light and darkness, life and death. It is no charade: if we choose the Enemy, He lets us do it, and respects our freedom—forever. How can He act so dangerously? We wish He didn’t. We wish He had put up snake fences around Eden. So He let us make the most moronic choice in history, buying the Devil’s apple advertisement.

     

So what did God do next? The craziest thing of all, the deed no sage, no saint, no philosopher, no mystic, no man, no angel, and no devil ever even dreamed of: He became a human zygote, fetus, baby, boy, teenager, man, and then corpse. To do this, He first sent His angel to meekly wait for a girl’s consent to be His mother. 

God is such a gentlemen that He asked permission from His mother to be born! And God Almighty, infinite Spirit, the Second Person of the eternal Trinity, acquired a set of animal organs—forever. (For the Ascension was not the undoing of the Incarnation.)

         

And then He gave Himself to our mouths and our stomachs as well as to our souls. That thing that looks like a little piece of bread—that’s Him. I certainly sympathize with most Protestants, who do not believe that. It is nearly unbelievable. The priest puts God into your left hand, and you pick up God Almighty with your right thumb and forefinger and you swallow God Almighty, and He falls into your stomach. That is crazy—as crazy as the Incarnation. 

This is 99.9999999999 percent unbelievable. Like the Incarnation. This baby who can’t even speak until his parents teach him, this man who has nerve endings all over his body and gets hungry and tired and bloody and gets nailed to a cross and dies—that is the “holy God, holy strong one, holy immortal one,” the eternal Word of the eternal Creator Who spoke all time and space and matter into being.

         

How can we believe this? Only because He Himself gives us the grace to believe it.

Not only is the fact a miracle, our faith in it is also a miracle. It is a miracle that an honest and intelligent Christian believes a truth that is nearly unbelievable. 

There is no miracle in dishonest faith, fake faith; nor in unintelligent faith, stupid faith, misunderstood faith, which confuses Christianity with something easily believable, like “God exists and Jesus is nice and we ought to love one another.” 

But honest and intelligent faith in Christianity is literally a miracle. “Faith is a gift of God.” God gives us not only the truth but also the ability to believe it; not only the new thing to see but also the new eye to see it with.  

For how could we ever believe such a thing all by ourselves unless we were deranged?

How was it possible that anyone would think that God would love man; that the God who needed nothing would act as if He needed man; that the blessed God Himself, the perfect One, would care so much for man that He would become man and let Himself be murdered by man in order to save man? If God gave no sign, how could we ever suspect that? It is inconceivable, incredible, impossible, unimaginable, and crazy. 

Miracle You Believe 

Everything God does is a surprise. First, creation. There is no need for this. It is an utter superfluity. 

Creation of all being out of nothing. 

Not merely imposing new form on old matter but imposing existence on nonexistence. For in creation, the God who is everything and needs nothing acts as if He needs everything. He comes out of Himself and creates a universe that is infinitely less than Himself and yet real, beings that are not Being Itself, real things that are really other than Reality Himself. 

God is not reasonable, in any human, expected sense. It is closer to the truth to say that God is crazy than that God is reasonable. 

Creating other spirits was crazy enough, but then He went on to create us: spirits that are also animals: angels that breathe and breed, organisms that think, mortal spirits, immortal animals. Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, “I am.”

There’s much more to God’s craziness. He then went on to give these “rational animals,” free will and let them choose between Himself and Satan, Heaven and Hell, light and darkness, life and death. It is no charade: if we choose the Enemy, He lets us do it, and respects our freedom—forever. How can He act so dangerously? We wish He didn’t. We wish He had put up snake fences around Eden. So He let us make the most moronic choice in history, buying the Devil’s apple advertisement.

     

So what did God do next? The craziest thing of all, the deed no sage, no saint, no philosopher, no mystic, no man, no angel, and no devil ever even dreamed of: He became a human zygote, fetus, baby, boy, teenager, man, and then corpse. To do this, He first sent His angel to meekly wait for a girl’s consent to be His mother. 

God is such a gentlemen that He asked permission from His mother to be born! And God Almighty, infinite Spirit, the Second Person of the eternal Trinity, acquired a set of animal organs—forever. (For the Ascension was not the undoing of the Incarnation.)

         

And then He gave Himself to our mouths and our stomachs as well as to our souls. That thing that looks like a little piece of bread—that’s Him. I certainly sympathize with most Protestants, who do not believe that. It is nearly unbelievable. The priest puts God into your left hand, and you pick up God Almighty with your right thumb and forefinger and you swallow God Almighty, and He falls into your stomach. That is crazy—as crazy as the Incarnation. 

This is 99.9999999999 percent unbelievable. Like the Incarnation. This baby who can’t even speak until his parents teach him, this man who has nerve endings all over his body and gets hungry and tired and bloody and gets nailed to a cross and dies—that is the “holy God, holy strong one, holy immortal one,” the eternal Word of the eternal Creator Who spoke all time and space and matter into being.

         

How can we believe this? Only because He Himself gives us the grace to believe it.

Not only is the fact a miracle, our faith in it is also a miracle. It is a miracle that an honest and intelligent Christian believes a truth that is nearly unbelievable. 

There is no miracle in dishonest faith, fake faith; nor in unintelligent faith, stupid faith, misunderstood faith, which confuses Christianity with something easily believable, like “God exists and Jesus is nice and we ought to love one another.” 

But honest and intelligent faith in Christianity is literally a miracle. “Faith is a gift of God.” God gives us not only the truth but also the ability to believe it; not only the new thing to see but also the new eye to see it with.  

For how could we ever believe such a thing all by ourselves unless we were deranged?

How was it possible that anyone would think that God would love man; that the God who needed nothing would act as if He needed man; that the blessed God Himself, the perfect One, would care so much for man that He would become man and let Himself be murdered by man in order to save man? If God gave no sign, how could we ever suspect that? It is inconceivable, incredible, impossible, unimaginable, and crazy. 

How I know I’m saved

Romans 5:1–2 (NKJV): 

Therefore, having been justified by faith, 

we have peace with God 

through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

through whom also we have access 

by faith into this grace 

in which we stand, 

and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV): 

For by grace you have been saved 

through faith, 

and that not of yourselves; 

it is the gift of God, 

not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Romans 3:21–22, 24 (NKJV): 

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

I am righteous not by obedience but by faith. 

Faith and Grace is a gift from God. 

God justifies me through Jesus Christ. 

How I know I’m saved

Romans 5:1–2 (NKJV): 

Therefore, having been justified by faith, 

we have peace with God 

through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

through whom also we have access 

by faith into this grace 

in which we stand, 

and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

Ephesians 2:8–9 (NKJV): 

For by grace you have been saved 

through faith, 

and that not of yourselves; 

it is the gift of God, 

not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Romans 3:21–22, 24 (NKJV): 

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

I am righteous not by obedience but by faith. 

Faith and Grace is a gift from God. 

God justifies me through Jesus Christ. 

Saint Anselm, bishop
Desire for the vision of God

Insignificant man, escape from your everyday business for a short while, hide for a moment from your restless thoughts. Break off from your cares and troubles and be less concerned about your tasks and labors. Make a little time for God and rest a while in him.

Enter into your mind’s inner chamber. Shut out everything but God and whatever helps you to seek him; and when you have shut the door, look for him. Speak now to God and say with your whole heart: I seek your face; your face, Lord, I desire.

Lord, my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you. Lord, if you are not here where shall I look for you in your absence? Yet if you are everywhere, why do I not see you when you are present? But surely you dwell in “light inaccessible.” And where is light inaccessible? How shall I approach light inaccessible? Or who will lead me and bring me into it that I may see you there? And then, by what signs and under what forms shall I seek you? I have never seen you, Lord my God; I do not know your face.

Lord most high, what shall this exile do, so far from you? What shall your servant do, tormented by love of you and cast so far from your face? He yearns to see you, and your face is too far from him. He desires to approach you, and your dwelling is unapproachable. he longs to find you, and does not know your dwelling place. He strives to look for you, and does not know your face.

Lord, you are my God and you are my Lord, and I have never seen you. You have made me and remade me, and you have given me all the good things I possess and still I do not know you. I was made in order to see you, and I have not yet done that for which I was made.

Lord, how long will it be? How long, Lord, will you forget us? How long will you turn your face away from us? When will you look upon us and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes and show us your face? When will you give yourself back to us?

Look upon us, Lord, hear us and enlighten us, show us your very self. Restore yourself to us that it may go well with us whose life is so evil without you. Take pity on our efforts and our striving toward you, for we have no strength apart form you.

Teach me to seek you, and when I seek you show yourself to me, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor can I find you unless you show yourself to me. Let me seek you in desiring you and desire you in seeking you, find you in loving you and love you in finding you.

Saint Anselm, bishop
Desire for the vision of God

Insignificant man, escape from your everyday business for a short while, hide for a moment from your restless thoughts. Break off from your cares and troubles and be less concerned about your tasks and labors. Make a little time for God and rest a while in him.

Enter into your mind’s inner chamber. Shut out everything but God and whatever helps you to seek him; and when you have shut the door, look for him. Speak now to God and say with your whole heart: I seek your face; your face, Lord, I desire.

Lord, my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you. Lord, if you are not here where shall I look for you in your absence? Yet if you are everywhere, why do I not see you when you are present? But surely you dwell in “light inaccessible.” And where is light inaccessible? How shall I approach light inaccessible? Or who will lead me and bring me into it that I may see you there? And then, by what signs and under what forms shall I seek you? I have never seen you, Lord my God; I do not know your face.

Lord most high, what shall this exile do, so far from you? What shall your servant do, tormented by love of you and cast so far from your face? He yearns to see you, and your face is too far from him. He desires to approach you, and your dwelling is unapproachable. he longs to find you, and does not know your dwelling place. He strives to look for you, and does not know your face.

Lord, you are my God and you are my Lord, and I have never seen you. You have made me and remade me, and you have given me all the good things I possess and still I do not know you. I was made in order to see you, and I have not yet done that for which I was made.

Lord, how long will it be? How long, Lord, will you forget us? How long will you turn your face away from us? When will you look upon us and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes and show us your face? When will you give yourself back to us?

Look upon us, Lord, hear us and enlighten us, show us your very self. Restore yourself to us that it may go well with us whose life is so evil without you. Take pity on our efforts and our striving toward you, for we have no strength apart form you.

Teach me to seek you, and when I seek you show yourself to me, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor can I find you unless you show yourself to me. Let me seek you in desiring you and desire you in seeking you, find you in loving you and love you in finding you.