Let what we are describing be compared to a great chorus. As then the chorus is composed of different people, children, women again, and old men, and those who are still young, and, when one, namely the conductor, gives the sign, each utters sound according to his nature and power, the man as a man, the child as a child, the old man as an old man, and the young man as a young man, while all make up a single harmony;
He plainly indicates the novelty involved in his command here—and the extent to which the love he enjoins here surpasses the old idea of mutual love—by adding the words “Even as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” . . .
I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father but through me. If you know me, you know my Father also; and from henceforth you shall know him, and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and you have not known me, Philip?
Good society, in all Christian countries, is the meeting on a footing of equality, and for the purpose of mutual entertainment, of men, or women, or men and women together, of good character, good education, and good breeding. But what is the real spirit of the observances which this society requires of its frequenters for the preservation of harmony, and the easy intercourse of all of them?
We were enclosed,
O eternal Father,
within the garden of your breast.
You drew us out of your holy mind
like a flower
petaled with our soul’s three powers,
The basic text for Christian practice is “the Father and I are one.” Christ came to save us from our sins, but only as the essential preliminary to our ultimate destiny. The source of all sin is the sense of a separate self.
I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
As a youngster I somehow convinced myself that the twenty-fifth was called “St. Mark’s Day” because it “marked” the last possible date for Easter—and because those in the ancient church were always fond of having fun with things like that. Years of living have not appreciably changed my suspicions, at least not about the church fathers,
He whose goodness is his own nature and not some nonessential gift, says, “I am the good Shepherd.” He adds the character of this goodness, which we are to imitate, saying, “The good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” He did what he taught; he gave an example of what he commanded.
O Lord, we cry to you,
with deep pain in our hearts and souls.
Our hearts ache, because of genocide
caused by the lust for power,
cruel hatred for others,
because of their race, religion or physical differences.