Best Loved Prayers and Words of Wisdom - Martin Manser

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knowing whither you go ... Still, be of good cheer, suffer with Christ! God marks your every step ... He that loves you with an infinite, unchanging love, is leading you by his Spirit and providence. He knows every stone, every thorn in your path.

       Robert Murray McCheyne (1813–1843)

      Be prepared for trials

       Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar. He founded a monastery in Japan during the 1930s and during the Second World War he sheltered Polish refugees, many of them Jewish. He was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Auschwitz. In July 1941, ten men from his barracks were selected to be starved to death and Maximilian volunteered to take the place of one of them. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, Kolbe and three others were still alive and he was finally murdered with an injection of carbolic acid. He is one of ten twentieth-century martyrs depicted above the Great Door of Westminster Abbey in London.

      You must be prepared for periods of darkness, anxiety,

       doubts, fears, of temptations that are sometimes very, very insistent, of sufferings of the body and, what is a hundred times more painful, of the soul. For if there were nothing to bear, for what would you go to heaven? If there were no trials, there would be no struggle. Without a struggle, victory would be impossible, and without victory, there is no crown, no reward ... So be prepared from now on for everything.

       Maximilian Kolbe (1894–1941)

      Beauty

       Clement, a Greek philosopher, united the traditions of Greek philosophy with Christian doctrine. Origen was his pupil in Alexandria and went on to become a renowned theologian.

      It is not your outward appearance that you should beautify,

       but your soul, adorning it with good works. Although the body, to be precise, should be made beautiful, though in a measured way.

       Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–c. 215)

      Being born again

      Jesus taught his followers that being ‘born again’ was necessary for those who wanted to be part of God’s kingdom. When asked about how this could happen, his reply makes it clear that this new birth is a radical change brought about by the Spirit of God in the inner being.

      Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the

       Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’

       John 3:1–8, NRSV

      Being fruitful again

       Christina Rossetti was a poet and sister of the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Her Christmas poem ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ became widely known after her death when it was set as a Christmas carol. In these lines from another poem she reflects on the fact that painful circumstances can be used to help us grow and develop.

      Although today he prunes my twigs with pain,

       Yet doth his blood nourish and warm my root; Tomorrow I shall put forth buds again And clothe myself with fruit.

       Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)

      Belief in the unseen

       In a scientific age we can be tempted to want proof of everything. We believe only what we can see. Far from losing their faith in the unseen, those who have suffered for their faith down through the ages have often found strength and comfort. In Germany during the Second World War, Jews in hiding left this inscription on a cellar wall.

      I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in

       love even when feeling it not. I believe in God even when he is silent.

       Anon. (20th century)

      The best things

      Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Scotland, where both his father and his grandfather had been lighthouse keepers. He is best known as the author of Treasure Island. He died in Samoa at the age of just 44.

      The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in

       your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you.

       Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

      Beware anxiety

       Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an English Baptist preacher who became a pastor at the age of just seventeen. He also founded the charity organization now known as Spurgeon’s, which works worldwide with families and children. His sermons were translated into many languages in his lifetime and are still read and quoted from today by Christians of all denominations.

      Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow – only today

       of its strength.

       Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892)

      Beyond our understanding

       Origen is generally considered the greatest theologian and biblical scholar of the early Eastern church. He was probably born in Egypt, and was taught by Clement of Alexandria. Origen’s literary productivity was enormous. His writings helped to create a Christian theology that blended biblical and philosophical study.

      Of all the marvellous and splendid things about the Son of

       God there is one that utterly transcends the limits of human wonder and is beyond the capacity of our weak mortal intelligence to think of or understand, namely, how this mighty power of the divine majesty, the very Word of the Father, and the very Wisdom of God, in which were created ‘all things visible and invisible’, can be believed to have existed within the compass of that man who appeared in Judaea; yes, and how the wisdom of God can have entered into a woman’s womb and been born as a child and uttered noises like those of crying children; and further, how it was that he was troubled, as we are told, in the hour of death, as he himself confesses when he says, ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death’; and how at the last he was led to that death which is considered by men to be the most shameful of all – even though on the third day he rose again.

       Origen (c. 185–254)

      The Bible is a vein of pure gold

       Charles Haddon Spurgeon is remembered primarily for his preaching, although he is also known as the founder of Spurgeon’s, the international charity working throughout the world with families and children. Here he expounds on what makes the Bible so special.

      The Bible is a vein of pure gold, unalloyed by quartz or any

       earthly substance. This is a star without a speck, a sun with a blot, a light without darkness, a moon without its paleness, and a glory without a dimness. O Bible! It cannot be said of any other book that it is perfect and pure, but of the Bible we can declare that all wisdom is gathered up in it without a particle of folly.

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