Tag Archive for ‘money’
The noxious weed: the love of money
Now nothing is more effective against the devil’s wiles, dearly beloved, than tender compassion and unselfish love; by these every sin can be either avoided or conquered. But such a degree of virtue cannot be attained until its contrary is overcome; and there is surely nothing so hostile to mercy and works of charity as [...]
Basilica for Sale?
In 1948 the Communist regime of Yugoslavia seized the property of the Italian Benedictines of Dajla near the city of Novigrad and banished the monks. Although the monks received 1.7M lire in 1975, the Holy See is demanding that compensation for the property, now being used as a retirement home, be given to the Italian [...]
God’s greatest rival
“If you have no money, be polite!” I heard someone say. It says a lot about money; it says that money is that which makes it possible for you to be rude to people. Money means a lot of different things; it is much more than it appears to be. It is God’s greatest rival: [...]
Perchance it is my Christ
While there was a crowd of refugees in the city, one of the strangers, noticing John’s remarkable sympathy, determined to test the blessed man. So he put on old clothes and approached him as he was on his way to visit the sick in the hospitals (for he did this two or three times a [...]
The Purpose of Wealth
Clearly, the purpose of wealth is not security. The purpose of wealth is reckless generosity, the kind that sings of the lavish love of God, the kind that rekindles hope on dark days, the kind that reminds us that God is with us always. It creates in the holy heart a freedom of spirit that [...]
The Problem of Individualism
We have to recognize that a spirit of individualism and confusion has reduced us to an ethic of ‘every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This ethic, unfortunately sometimes consecrated by Christian formulas, is nothing but the secular ethic of the affluent society, based on the false assumption that if everyone is [...]
The Value of a Book
Abbot Anastasius had a book written on very fine parchment which was worth eighteen pence, and had in it both the Old and New Testaments in full. Once a certain brother came to visit him, and seeing the book made off with it. So that day when Abbot Anastasius went to read his book, and [...]
Nothing is as precious as a human soul
Nothing is as precious as a human soul. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul? Yet the love of money has perverted and destroyed all our values; it has driven out the fear of God and holds our souls in its power, [...]
Torn by Demons
There was a brother who renounced the world, gave all his possessions to the poor except for a certain amount which he kept for himself, and then went to Abba Antony. The old man soon understood what the situation was. “If you will,” he said, “please go into the village and buy meat. Dispose it [...]
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