“When the vast majority of men no longer live the way they think, then they begin to think the way they live. The average man does the average thing: the Christian is bidden to transcend the mediocre. Society settles down to the level of the ordinary but society is saved by those who push on to the second mile when compelled to walk the first. No character is developed in the first mile: the difference between the good and the barely good is not a difference in talent, but a difference in service.”

~ Fulton J. Sheen, ‘Love Walks the Extra Mile‘ 1958.

Abraham Lincoln on the "Know-Nothings" of his day (who are certainly in the ascendancy today, even if under different names)

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring "all men are created equal." We now practically read it, "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty--to Russia, for example, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

I think that the Church is the only thing that is going to make the terrible world we are coming to endurable; the only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the body of Christ and that on this we are fed. It seems to be a fact that you suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ, you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.

-Flannery O'Connor

[A meditation by John Henry Cardinal Newman]

God was all-complete, all-blessed in Himself; but it was His will to create a world for His glory. He is Almighty, and might have done all things Himself, but it has been His will to bring about His purposes by the beings He has created. We are all created to His glory—we are created to do His will. I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I have a place in God's counsels, in God's world, which no one else has; whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by my name.

2. God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

3. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about.

O Adonai, O Ruler of Israel, Thou that guidest Joseph like a flock, O Emmanuel, O Sapientia, I give myself to Thee. I trust Thee wholly. Thou art wiser than I—more loving to me than I myself. Deign to fulfil Thy high purposes in me whatever they be—work in and through me. I am born to serve Thee, to be Thine, to be Thy instrument. Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see—I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used.
 

PHILIP II OF MACEDON TO THE LEADERS OF SPARTA: "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city."

LEADERS OF SPARTA: "If."

"...some truths are so obvious that only experts can deny them

-Peter Kreeft

(From an essay printed in Celebrating Middle-Earth: The Lord of the Rings as a Defense of Western Civilization)

Some folks read dystopian sci-fi to escape. Others apparently read it to get policy ideas.

-Rebecca Fuentes

H/T Mike Flynn

"All fiction is about human nature. What kind of human nature you write about depends on the amount and kind of your talent, not on what you may consider correct behavior to be. The best forms of behavior are not more desirable than the worst for fiction if the writer sees the situation he is creating under the aspect of Truth and follows the necessities of his art"

-Flannery O'Connor

(H/T Jason Sims)

Martyrs

My friend Vicky wrote a beautiful poem, and she gave me permission to post it, so I have included it below. :-)

Martyrs

The Land drank

And drunk became

Pure wine poured 

Into her heart

It sang in joy

It sang in grief

Mysterious water

Into her bosom

It gave her life

It gave her pain

Where did you come from

Wine of victory 

Wine of defeat.

 Rulers of the world

Envied their bodies

Feared their souls

Took their breath

Intact their core

And Earth received 

This precious gift

This blood made white

By the Lamb of God

First born that died 

The Living One...

His death was life...

Their death in Him

The same.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Psalm 116:15

Our own age is also "a period," and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions. They are likeliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions which are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack or feels it necessary to defend them.

-C.S. Lewis

...the Resurrection was the greatest 'eucatastrophe' possible in the greatest Fairy Story- and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy...Of course I do not mean that the Gospels tell what is *only* a fairy-story; but I do mean very strongly that they do tell a fairy-story: the greatest. Man the story-teller would have to be redeemed in a manner consonant with his nature: by a moving story. *But* since the author of it is the supreme Artist and the Author of Reality, this one was also made to Be, to be true on the Primary Plane. So that in the Primary Miracle (the Resurrection) and the lesser Christian miracles too though less, you have not only that sudden glimpse of the truth behind the apparent Ananke of our world, but a glimpse that is actually a ray of light through the very chinks of the universe about us.

 -J.R.R. Tolkien, "Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien", Letter 89, To Christopher Tolkien, 7-8 November 1944

"Progressives hate the idea that Peter and the Apostles can bind. Traditionalists cannot fathom that Peter and the Apostles can loosen."

-reader of Mark Shea's blog

[Needless to say, those terms need qualification. For instance, for "Traditionalists" such as sedevacantists, such a saying would be applicable to, but a member of the FSSP would be different]