7 Quick Takes Friday: And Now, a Few Words

To round out the week and prepare us for Sunday, a few thoughts to ponder.  

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Blessed John Paul II

We thus come to the very heart of the Gospel truth about freedom. The person realizes himself by the exercise of freedom in truth. Freedom cannot be understood as a license to do absolutely anything: it means a gift of self. Even more: it means an interior discipline of the gift. The idea of gift contains not only the free initiative of the subject, but also the aspect of duty. All this is made real in the ‘communion of persons.’ We find ourselves again at the very heart of each family.  Letter to Families, no. 14, emphasis original

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Pope Benedict XVI

Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic. Truth and Tolerence (writing as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger)

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Another Quote from the Holy Father:

The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. The Church is one of those living forces. Deus Caritas Est (God is Love)

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G. K. Chesterton

The man of the true religious tradition understands two things: liberty and obedience. The first means knowing what you really want. The second means knowing what you really trust. – G.K.’s Weekly, August 18, 1928

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St, Josemaria Escriva

If you wish, you will spread God's word, which is a thousand times blessed and can never fail. If you are generous..., if you respond, with your personal sanctification you will help to bring about the sanctification of others; the kingdom of Christ: omnes cum Petro ad Jesum per Mariam — 'all with Peter to Jesus through Mary.' The Way, 833

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Sir.Thomas More

Heretics be they that obstinately hold any self-minded opinion contrary to the doctrine that the common known Catholic Church teacheth and holdeth for necessary to salvation.   Debellation of Salem and Bizance (1533)

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And Finally, if you haven't seen this, watch this video from Fr. Andrew Kemberling, a priest at Saint Thomas More Catholic Church, Centennial, Colorado.  He is delivering the invocation to the 2012 Colorado State Republican Assembly and Convention.

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