There is nothing the Church can do except try to educate people to become good consumers.
Apart from the resurrection of Jesus, the eschatological orientation of the church appears as the spoke of a wheel without a hub.
The churches have no confidence in each other. Why? Because they are acquainted with each other.
He strode over to the ruined church. This, Blue had discovered, was how Gansey got places - striding. Walking was for ordinary people.
Forgiveness is just such a big deal.
The churches rose to power on the income from tax-free property. What earthly -or heavenly- right have they got to enjoy a privilege denied to everyone else, even including nonprofit organizations? None! My contention is that with the churches exempted from property taxation, you and I have to pay that much more in taxes to make up for what they're not contributing.
What would a church look like that created space for quietness, that bucked the celebrity trend and unplugged from noisy media, that actively resisted our consumer culture? What would worship look like if we directed it more toward God than toward our own amusement?
This Christianity is not a cultural thing. It is not something that should be just a small part of your life; it is not something that you do on Sunday. . . Christianity is not about you being just like the world all the time and then coming to church on Sunday. If that is your Christianity. . . you are not Christian.
The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.
The public library building, in my view, is just a little lower than the church, the cathedral, the temple, the synagogue and the mosque. Within those walls and along those stacks, I have found security and assurance.
I hate how hard spiritual transformation is and how long it takes. I hate thinking about how many people have gone to church for decades and remain joyless or judgmental or bitter or superior.
A lot of the time when I go to church, people want to take pictures. They want you to sign autographs. So I don't go all the time. I go once in a blue moon. Every once in a blue moon.
We may be forced to consume considerable time before the spirit cooperates. For example, God would like to enlarge the scope of our prayer to include the nations in order to defeat all the behind-the-scene works of Satan. Or He may want us to intercede for all sinners worldwide for the entire church.
Churches may decay and perish; riches may make themselves wings and fly away-but he who builds their happiness on Christ crucified and union with Him by faith, that person is standing on a foundation which shall never be moved, and will know something of true peace.
I collect church collapses, recreationally. Did you see the recent one in Sicily? Marvelous! The facade fell on sixty-five grandmothers at a special mass. Was that evil? If so, who did it? If he's up there, he just loves it, Officer Starling. Typhoid and swans - it all comes from the same place.
When I don't have to do out on tour I go to church. Church is a good place to be.
Multi-tasking is keeping me from whole-hearted worship.
I gotta say, the Catholic Church has churned out a lot of great artists and directors and actors, so if that's all they do, that's fine by me. If they're good at churning out tortured artists, that's great!
Eastern churches simply often try to please Muslims. Why doesn't the New York Times report this?
Don't jump down - folks, contraception in the Catholic Church is a thing.