2006
Ordinary Time Quote
PSALM 98

KING JAMES BIBLE

1: O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

2: The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

3: He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4: Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

5: Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

6: With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

7: Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

8: Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

9: Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.



Lenten Quotes

From Gerald O'Collins, S.J.:

To speak of our present matter and spirit need not suppose that they are utterly, totally disparate realities which, like oil and water, will not mix. All matter has something spiritual about it. A pure materiality that would be utterly 'unspiritual' seems impossible. One is dealing here partly with a question of definition. Matter could be flatly defined in opposition to spirit and, if so defined, would not have something spiritual about it. Nevertheless, all human matter has something spiritual about it. Moreover, all the atomic material in our universe is at least potentially human matter.

***

The resurrection of the dead will mean the full and final personalizing and spiritualizing of matter, not its abolition. Through the Holy Spirit the human spirit will dominate matter, in the sense that the body will clearly express and serve the glorified spirit of human beings.

Gerald O'Collins, S.J., Jesus Our Redeemer: A Christian Approach to Salvation, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 255

***

Psalm 121

I raise my eyes toward the mountains. From where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth. God will not allow your foot to slip; your guardian does not sleep. Truly, the guardian of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps. The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade at your righthand. By day the sun cannot harm you, nor the moon by night. The LORD will guard you from all evil, will always guard your life. The LORD will guard your coming and going both now and forever.

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I call to you, LORD; Lord, hear my cry! May your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, LORD, mark our sins, Lord, who can stand? But with you is forgiveness and so you are revered. I wait with longing for the LORD, my soul waits for his word. My soul looks for the Lord more than sentinels for daybreak. More than sentinels for daybreak, let Israel look for the LORD, For with the LORD is kindness, with him is full redemption, And God will redeem Israel from all their sins.

NAB translation




Archive of Quotes Previously Featured on AnneRice.Com

Quote for Ordinary Time

"Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth. But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O LORD and lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things!"

Wisdom 11:22- 12:1
NAB translation


Merry Christmas 2007

Beloved Readers,

I can think of no better poem for the Christmas Season than the lyrics of the beautiful hymn "O Holy Night."

Oh holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth. 
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angels' voices!
Oh night divine, Oh night when Christ was born;
Oh night divine, Oh night, Oh night Divine.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming, 
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here come the wise men from Orient land.
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger; 
In all our trials born to be our friend.

He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend! 
Behold your King, Behold your King.

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease. 
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever, 
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim.

poem by Placide Cappeau
tr. by John Sullivan Dwight
music by Adolphe Adam

May this be a blessed and beautiful Christmas Season for you all,

love, 
Anne Rice.

See Anne's Review of Sweeney Todd on IMDB

Anne's Christmas Gift Book Recommendation: A View of the Ocean by Jan De Hartog

Quotations for Ordinary Time 2007

From Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler
“…in Jesus Christ God has absolutely accepted the finite and communicated himself to it in an absolute manner…”
Dictionary of Theology, p. 1

From Walter Cardinal Kasper 
“Jesus is different from John the Baptist. He does not lead a life of withdrawn asceticism apart form the world. He does not cut himself off and retreat into a monastery like the Qumran sect. He approaches people and lives among them. In one sense he could be said to be an enlightened secular man. To him the world is God’s good creation; and its things are good gifts to mankind. He is not too proud to eat with the rich or to be supported by pious women (Lk 8.2-3). Nor, on the other hand, is he a ‘liberal’ like the Sadducees. He does not think he can satisfy his religious obligations by the correctness of the orthodox, and specific cultic and ritual observances. The will of God takes over totally. Many of his sayings reveal a total claim and fundamental seriousness. He is concerned about everything. This ‘abandoning all’ leads him to a break with his family (Mk 3.20-21; 31-35), makes him homeless in this world (Mt 8.20). But he is no zealot or fanatic. His zeal is never brutish. And he is different from the Pharisees. He is not pious in the average meaning of the word. He teaches neither religious technique nor moral casuistry. He calls God his Father, whose love breaks down all categories and frees people from anxiety (Mt 6.25-34).” 
Jesus the Christ, p. 68

From Ellis Rivkin
“In a word, the essence of the Jewish experience has been God-seeking, and God-seeking has meant coming to a more profound knowledge of the way God works in the world, in human nature and in the process of human interaction with nature. Through such a growing understanding and historical process, not only the Jewish people but mankind itself may be able to achieve the glorious end of days envisaged by Isaiah. The belief that God teaches can be juxtaposed against the myth of Sisyphus that portrays the gods as mocking, and not found wanting.” 
The Unity Principal, p. 326


 "But we, O Lord, behold we are Thy little flock; possess us as Thine, stretch Thy wings over us, and let us fly under them. Be Thou our glory."

-- Saint Augustine


POEMS FOR EASTER 2007

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 89)

AS kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myselfit speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.

Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.

HOLY SONNETS 
XIV

John Donne (1572 – 1631)

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.


CHRISTMAS 2006

"Any agnostic or atheist whose childhood has known a real Christmas has ever afterwards, whether he likes it or not, an association in his mind between two ideas that most of mankind must regard as remote from each other; the idea of a baby and the idea of unknown strength that sustains the stars. His instincts and imagination can still connect them, when his reason can no longer see the need of the connection; for him there will always be some savor of religion about the mere picture of a mother and a baby; some hint of mercy and softening about the mere mention of the dreadful name of God."

-- G. K. Chesterton, From The God in the Cave, Part II, Chapter 1 of The Everlasting Man

Sent to Anne via e-mail by Brian Zahnd.