Five Minute Sermons, Volume I.: For Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year by Priests of the Congregation of St. PaulPaulist Fathers
Religion
Five Minute Sermons, Volume I.: For Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year by Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul
Paulist Fathers
Catholic Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 19th century
Yes; what comes from him--and everything does--is too valuable
to be thrown away. To despise his gifts is very much like
despising him.
And besides, there is not, in fact, an unlimited supply of them,
though there might be. He might have fed his followers in that
miraculous way every day; but he only did so twice in his life.
Our Lord, then, did mean, I think, to set us an example of
economy. Practise it as he did, my brethren. Prize God's gifts,
whatever they may be; do not waste them. But especially his
spiritual gifts; for they are infinitely more precious than the
material ones. Don't count on having a future extraordinary
supply of them.
{184}
You have got enough to save your souls now, and to sanctify them,
if you will only make use of it. You have got the faith, the
sacraments, and the word of God. You don't need to have any one
rise from the dead to convert you. Our Lord tells us that a
certain rich man who was in hell wanted to go back to earth and
appear to his brothers, that they might take warning by his
example. He was told that it was not necessary; that they had
Moses and the prophets. Well, you have got a great deal more. You
know just as well what you must do to save your souls, and even
to become saints, as if you had been beyond the grave yourselves.
Don't expect more yet.
Save up your spiritual gifts, my brethren; you have got plenty
now, but you do not know how much more you will get. When God
gives you any grace make the most of it; perhaps it will be the
last you will have. Bring back to your minds what you have heard,
and the good thoughts and purposes which the Holy Ghost has given
you; serve up the spiritual feasts you have had, not only a
second time, but over and over again. Make what you have got go
as far as possible, and your souls will grow stout and strong.
Wait for unusual graces like a mission or a jubilee, and they
will be thin and weak all the time. Be economical, especially in
spiritual things; that is a very important lesson of the Gospel
of to-day.
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{185}
_Passion Sunday_.
Epistle.
_Hebrews ix_. 11-15.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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