Quotations for March, 2026
Sunday, March 1, 2026
Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601
There is no one in the world who cannot arrive without difficulty at the most eminent perfection by fulfilling with love the obscure and common duties.
... Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751), Abandonment to Divine Providence, II.iv.3 
(see the book; see also Rom. 6:13; Micah 6:8; Rom. 7:5; 8:13-14; Matt. 11:29-30; 1 John 5:3-4; more at Duty, Fulfillment, Love, Obedience, Perfection)
Monday, March 2, 2026
Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672
Two movements merge in the real act of communion. First, the creature’s profound sense of need, of incompleteness: its steadfast desire... Next, a humble and loving acceptance of God’s answer to that prayer of desire, however startling, disappointing, and unappetizing it may be.
... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Mystery of Sacrifice, New York: Longmans, Green, 1938, p. 64
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 10:16-17; John 6:53-58; Acts 2:46-47; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:3,27; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11; 1 John 1:3; more at Church, Communion, Humility, Need, Prayer)
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
The less you feel and the more firmly you believe, the more praiseworthy is your faith and the more it will be esteemed and appreciated; for real faith is much more than a mere opinion of man. In it we have true knowledge: in truth, we lack nothing save true faith.
... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Treatises and Sermons, Harper, 1958, p. 93
(see the book; see also Gal. 2:16; Ps. 130:3-4; 143:2; Luke 10:25-29; Gal. 2:19; 3:11; more at Belief, Faith, Knowledge, Truth)
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647
Faith is the source of energy in the struggle of life, but life still remains a battle which is continually renewed upon ever new fronts. For every threatening abyss that is closed, another yawning gulf appears. The truth is—and this is the conclusion of the whole matter—the Kingdom of God is within us. But we must let our light shine before men in confident and untiring labour that they may see our good works and praise our Father in Heaven. The final ends of all humanity are hidden within His hands.
... Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, New York: Harper, 1960, v. II, p. 1013
(see the book; see also Luke 17:20-21; Matt. 5:16; Rom. 14:17-18; Col. 1:27; 1 John 1:5-7; more at Faith, God, Kingdom, Labor, Life, Light, Praise, Sight, Struggle)
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Where every day is not the Lord’s, the Sunday is his least of all. There may be a sickening unreality even where there is no conscious hypocrisy.
... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Donal Grant, London: George Routledge and Sons, 1883, p. 73
(see the book; see also Rom. 14:5; Matt. 12:1-13; Luke 11:39-41; 1 Cor. 10:23,31; Tit. 1:15-16; more at Day, God, Hypocrisy, Legalism, Sunday)
Friday, March 6, 2026
Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and he is instantly free. No one can hinder him. If we understand our first and sole duty to consist of loving God supremely and loving everyone, even our enemies, for God’s dear sake, then we can enjoy spiritual tranquillity under every circumstance.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Root of the Righteous, Christian Publications, 1955, p. 129
(see the book; see also Rom. 6:22; Matt. 5:43-45; 22:36-40; Rom. 5:1; Gal. 5:1; more at Duty, Enemy, Freedom, God, Heart, Love, Tranquility, Will of God)
Saturday, March 7, 2026
Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203
The Kingdom of Heaven is not for the well-meaning: it is for the desperate.
... James Denney (1856-1917), quoted in The Gospel of Matthew, v. 2, William Barclay, Edinburgh: Saint Andrew, 1958, p. 9
(see the book; see also Ps. 142:6-7; 18:6; 22:2; 40:1; 44:24-26; 143:7; Matt. 8:24-26; 11:12-15; 1 John 4:19; more at Despair, Heaven, Kingdom, Sin)
Sunday, March 8, 2026
Commemoration of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, Poet, 1929
The tremendous power of mass-suggestion, which we call the world, can only be confronted, and its victims cured, if they are received into a body which is filled with a vivid, vigorous, and conscious community life of the Spirit. Individuals are powerless to cope with a power so subtle and all-pervasive as this mass-suggestion is. If we are to save and rescue sinners, there must grow up in our Church a Spirit of Love and Brotherhood, a Christian community-life, transcending class and national distinctions, as pungent, as powerful, as impossible to escape as the Spirit of the world. No Apostolic Succession, no Ecclesiastical correctness, no rigidity of orthodox doctrine, can be themselves and in themselves give us this; it comes, and can only come, from a clearer vision of the Christ, a more complete surrender to His call and to the bearing of His Cross.
... G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), The Wicket Gate, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1923, p. 193
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 1:17-18; Luke 14:27; Rom. 11:33; 1 Cor. 1:21-23; 2:4-5; 2 Cor. 2:15-16; 4:3; more at Bearing, Church, Cross, Holy Spirit, Life, Vision, World)
Monday, March 9, 2026
As against Thee, as without Thee, man is a thing of naught; ... as of Thee, man is a pearl of price, the reflection of Thy own personal infinity, the child and heir of immortality. He was formed in Thy creative counsels, O Thou Lover of man, to transcend death forever, and to persist, not in a part of his being only, but in its indissoluble ideal whole, unto the life of the world to come.
... Handley Moule (1841-1920)
(see also Ps. 8; Gen. 2:7; Matt. 13:45-46; John 3:16; Rom. 8:17; more at Immortality, Man, Prayers, Providence)
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
The discussion of prayer is so great a task that it requires the Father to reveal it, His Firstborn Word to teach it, and the Spirit to enable us to think and speak rightly of so great a subject.
... Origen (185?-254?), Origen, book 4, Rowan A. Greer, tr., Paulist Press, 1979, p. 86
(see the book; see also Rom. 8:26-27; Luke 11:1-4; John 14:12-13, 26; more at Father, Greatness, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Prayer, Revelation, Teach, Thought)
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Whatever task God is calling us to, if it is yours, it is mine, and if it is mine, it is yours. We must do it together—or be cast aside together, as God in his absolute freedom goes on by other means to use His Church in hastening His Kingdom.
... Howard Hewlett Clark (1903-1983), Foreword to Anglican Congress 1963: Report of Proceedings, Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, ed., Editorial Committee, Anglican Congress, 1963, p. xiii
(see the book; see also Gal. 6:2; Matt. 23:11; Mark 10:43-44; Rom. 12:4-5; 15:1; 1 Pet. 2:24; more at Call, Church, God, Kingdom, Task)
Thursday, March 12, 2026
The overwhelming recognition of human sin controls the Old Testament and the New Testament alike, and no understanding of our Lord’s words and actions is possible if we persist in denying it.
... Sir Edwyn C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), Cambridge Sermons, London: SPCK, 1938, p. 58
(see the book; see also 1 John 1:8; Ps. 143:2; Pr. 20:9; Eccl. 7:20; Isa. 53:6; 64:6; Matt. 1:21; Acts 2:38; Rom. 3:23; 1 John 1:10; 3:6; more at Action, Bible, Sin, Teach, Understanding)
Friday, March 13, 2026
The Old Testament does not occupy itself with how Israel thought of God. Its concern is with how Israel ought to think of God. To it, the existence of God is not an open question; nor his nature; nor the accessibility of knowledge of him. God himself has taken care of that. He has made himself known to his people, and their business is not to feel after him if haply they may fumblingly find him, but to hearken to him as he declares to them what and who he is. [Continued tomorrow]
... Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921), “God’s Revelation of Himself to Israel”, in Sunday School Times, August 4, 1907, p. 289
(see the book; see also Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:6; Ps. 50:7; 81:10; Hos. 13:4; Amos 1:1; Rom. 3:29; more at Bible, Existence, God, Israel, Knowledge, Nature, People, Thought)
Saturday, March 14, 2026
[Continued from yesterday]The fundamental note of the Old Testament, in other words, is Revelation. Its seers and prophets are not men of philosophic minds who have risen from the seen to the unseen, and, by dint of much reflection, have gradually attained to elevated conceptions of him who is the author of all that is. They are men of God whom God has chosen, that he might speak to them and through them to his people. Israel has not in and by them created for itself a God. God has through them created for himself a people.
... Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921), “God’s Revelation of Himself to Israel”, in Sunday School Times, August 4, 1907, p. 289
(see the book; see also Eph. 1:11-12; Luke 24:44-45; Acts 10:43; Rom. 1:2; Heb. 1:1-2; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; more at Bible, God, Israel, Mind, People, Philosophy, Revelation)
Sunday, March 15, 2026
The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility.
... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), New Seeds of Contemplation [1961], New Directions Publishing, 1972, p. 194
(see the book; see also 1 John 4:1; Jer. 29:8-9; Matt. 7:15-16; 2 Tim. 4:3; 2 Pet. 2:1; more at Church, Danger, Guidance, Listening, Obedience, Trust, Will of God)
Monday, March 16, 2026
The fortitude of a Christian consists in patience,... not in enterprises which the poets call heroic, and which are commonly the effects of interest, pride, and worldly honor.
... John Dryden (1631-1700), The Poetical Works of John Dryden, v. II, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909, p. 288
(see the book; see also 1 Thess. 5:14; John 15:19; Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 4:2; 5:1-2; Col. 3:12-13; 1 Tim. 6:10-11; 1 John 2:15-17; more at Fortitude, Honor, Patience, Pride, Worldly)
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460
We can reach the point where it becomes possible for us to recognize and understand Original Sin, that dark counter-center of evil in our nature—that is to say, though it is not our nature, it is of it—that something within us which rejoices when disaster befalls the very cause we are trying to serve, or misfortune overtakes even those we love.Life in God is not an escape from this, but the way to gain full insight concerning it. It is not our depravity which forces a fictitious religious explanation upon us, but the experience of religious reality which forces the “Night Side” out into the light.It is when we stand in the righteous all-seeing light of love that we can dare to look at, admit, and consciously suffer under this something in us which wills disaster, misfortune, defeat to everything outside the sphere of our narrowest self interest.
... Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961), Markings, tr. Leif Sjöberg & W. H. Auden, (q.v.), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964 (post.), p. 149
(see the book; see also Gen. 4:9; 37:32; Ps. 10:13-14; Pr. 28:13; John 8:44; Rom. 3:23; more at Darkness, Defeat, Evil, Light, Nature, Righteousness, Sin, Suffer)
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Is it not plain that all spiritual apathy comes not from over-trust but from unbelief, either doubting that sin is present death, or else that holiness is life and that Jesus has a gift to bestow, not in heaven, but promptly, which is better to gain than all the world? Therefore salvation is linked with faith, which earns nothing but elicits all, like the touch that evokes electricity, but which no man supposes to have made it.
... G. A. Chadwick (1840-1923), The Gospel According to St. Mark, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891, p. 48-49
(see the book; see also Mark 2:1-12; Matt. 8:6-13; 9:2-7,20-22; Luke 5:18-26; 7:44-50; 9:24-25; Rom. 3:22-24; more at Death, Doubt, Faith, Gifts, Holiness, Jesus, Salvation, Sin, Unbelief)
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Feast of Joseph of Nazareth
Is a mediator between the eternal spirit and the finite an unreality, an intrusion? The mystic soul may impatiently think so, but the moral soul finds such mediation the way to reality; and the mystic experience is not quite trustworthy about reality. The pagan gods had not mediators, because they were not real or good gods; but the living God has a living Revealer. To know the living God is to know Christ, to know Christ is to know the living God. We do not know God by Christ but in Him. We find God when we find Christ; and in Christ alone we know and share His final purpose. Our last knowledge is not the contact of our person with a thing or a thought; it is intercourse of person and person.
... P. T. Forsyth (1848-1921), This Life and the Next, New York: MacMillan, 1918, p. 62
(see the book; see also John 14:7-11; Matt. 11:27; 28:18; Luke 10:22; John 1:18; 17:6-8,26; 2 Cor. 4;6; Col. 1:15; more at Christ, God, Knowing God, Knowledge, Life, Morality, Mystic, Pagan, Soul, Spirit)
Friday, March 20, 2026
Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687
It is the “terror of the Lord” that causes us to “persuade” others, but it is the “love of Christ that constraineth us” to live to Him.
... John Owen (1616-1683), The Doctrine of the Saints’ Perseverance Explained and Confirmed [1654], in Works of John Owen, v. XI, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1853, ch. X, p. 395
(see the book; see also 2 Cor. 5:10-11,14; Matt. 25:31-46; Acts 10:24; 17:31; 1 Pet. 4:5; 1 John 4:10; more at Christ, Fear, God, Life, Love, Obedience, Terror)
Saturday, March 21, 2026
And thus we rust Life’s iron chainDegraded and alone:And some men curse, and some men weep,And some men make no moan:But God’s eternal Laws are kindAnd break the heart of stone.
And every human heart that breaks,In prison-cell or yard,Is as that broken box that gaveIts treasure to the Lord,And filled the unclean leper’s houseWith the scent of costliest nard.
Ah! happy they whose hearts can breakAnd peace of pardon win!How else may man make straight his planAnd cleanse his soul from sin?How else but through a broken heartMay Lord Christ enter in?
... Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), from The Ballad of Reading Gaol [1898], in The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, v. IV, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 215
(see the book; see also Isa. 57:15; Ps. 34:18; 51:17; 147:3; Matt. 5:3,8; Rev. 3:20; more at Christ, Everlasting, Forgiveness, God, Heart, Kindness, Law, Man, Sin, Weep)
Sunday, March 22, 2026
To take the fact of evil seriously is to take the fact of morality seriously... I am unable to see how the fact of the moral consciousness, and, in particular, the fact of the opposition between “is” and “ought,” between desire and duty, can be explained in terms of purely natural causation... [They] can be explained only on the assumption that, in addition to the natural, there is also a non-natural order of the universe which is immanent in and on occasion intrudes actively into the natural.
... C. E. M. Joad (1891-1953), The Recovery of Belief, London: Faber and Faber, 1952, p. 76-78
(see the book; see also Gen. 3:2-6; Josh. 7:20-21; Jer. 14:13-14; Acts 26:27; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; more at Duty, Evil, Morality, Nature, Sin)
Monday, March 23, 2026
The characteristic of our modern Christianity, which correlates it with all apostolic times, is the substitution of loyalty to a person in place of belief in doctrines as the essence and test of Christian life. This is the simplicity and unity by which the Gospel can become effective.
... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), Life and letters of Phillips Brooks, v. II, Alexander V. G. Allen, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1901, p. 333
(see the book; see also Acts 4:24-28; Matt. 4:19; Rom. 8:1-2; Gal. 3:26; more at Belief, Christ, Dogma, Gospel, Loyalty, Simplicity, Unity)
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Feast of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, 1980
Commemoration of Paul Couturier, Priest, Ecumenist, 1953
Devotion is neither more nor less than a prompt, fervent, loving service to God. And the difference between an ordinarily good man and one that is devout lies herein, that the first observes God’s commands without any special fervour or promptitude; whereas the latter not only keeps them, but does it willingly, earnestly, and resolutely.
... François de Sales (1567-1622), A Selection from the Spiritual Letters of St. Francis de Sales [1622], New York: E. P. Dutton, 1876, p. 16
(see the book; see also 2 Cor. 11:2-3; Deut. 6:5; 11:13-14; Mark 12:22; 1 John 5:3-4; more at Commandment, Devotion, God, Love, Obedience, Service)
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary
Since such uncultivated and rude simplicity [with which the Gospel was communicated] inspires greater reverence for itself than any eloquence, what ought one to conclude except that the force of Sacred Scripture is manifestly too powerful to need the art of words?
... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.viii.1
(see the book; see also Amos 7:14-15; Matt. 11:25; John 7:14-16; Acts 4:13; 1 Cor. 1:26-29; 1 John 5:9; more at Art, Bible, Power, Reverence, Scripture, Simplicity)
Thursday, March 26, 2026
Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883
The light shines in the darkness
Candles are always popular for giving a warm romantic glow and this time of year they are to be seen on many different occasions. Of course a candle is easy to blow out! So much so that its flickering light was chosen by Shakespeare as a picture of the transitory nature of life. Out out brief candle!Darkness is a reminder of evil, for it is in the darkness that people get lost, stumble and fall. It is in the darkness that power is misused, corruption reigns and evil is done. It is easy to imagine that in the end evil will triumph and the light will disappear. Situations change. Familiar landmarks—like this magazine!—disappear. There is the unrelenting pressure of a vanity fair society. The candle burns down and gives a thin wisp of smoke before going out.But there are also the special party candles that keep bursting back into life. They are a much better picture of the light of the gospel! For though they have been numerous attempts down the centuries to extinguish the light, it has kept on bursting back into flame.The light of Christ keeps on shining. New ways of sharing the good news come along. New believers are attracted to his light. Sleepy Christians are re-awakened. Fresh discoveries give even more confidence in the truth of the Bible.The light keeps on shining in the darkness. It is a statement and a promise at the same time. It is isn’t that once the light shone, but rather, that in the present it shines, and it will do so in the future as well. For the light comes from the one who is, as well as who was, and is also the one who is to come.
... David Bronnert, in a personal communication from the author
(see also Mal. 4:2; Luke 11:35-36; John 1:4-5,9-10; more at Church, Darkness, Evil, Flame, Gospel, Jesus, Light, Vanity)
Friday, March 27, 2026
The New Testament is an intensely personal document. It is not the effort of a group of men who are out to prove something to us by the force of their rational arguments. But it is the testimony, or testament, of a group of witnesses... who are bent on simply reporting to us the experience of a love that overtook them and overwhelmed them, a peace that passed all their understanding, and a peace that they in turn would pass on to us.
... Robert L. Short (1932-2009), The Parables of Peanuts [1968], New York: HarperCollins, 2002, p. 249
(see the book; see also Rom. 15:13; John 21:24; Acts 14:15-17; Phil. 4:7; 1 Cor. 2:1-2; 1 John 5:11; more at Bible, Experience, Love, Peace, Proof, Reason, Witness)
Saturday, March 28, 2026
Here [in Matthew 23] is an interpretation of Israel’s history according to which God’s people have always been disobedient and rebellious: their alienation from God, it is clearly implied, is to reach its climax in the murder of the Messiah himself.
... Anthony T. Hanson (1916-1991), The Church of the Servant, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 36
(see the book; see also Matt. 23:37-39; 12:39; 16:4; 17:17; Mark 8:12,38; 9:19; Luke 9:41; 11:29-30; more at Bible, Historical, Israel, Messiah, Murder)
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Palm Sunday
Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974
Praise is the most heavenly of Christian duties. The angels pray not, but they cease not to praise both day and night; and the redeemed, clothed in white robes, with palm-branches in their hands, are never weary of singing the new song, “Worthy is the Lamb.”
... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), for Oct. 30, Morning by Morning, New York: Sheldon & Co., 1867, p. 304
(see the book; see also Rev. 5:11-12; Ps. 9:1; 96:1; 149:1; Isa. 6:2-3; Rev. 4:8-9; 5:9; 7:9; more at Duty, Lamb, Praise, Redemption, Song)
Monday, March 30, 2026
For Christian consciousness, paradise is the Kingdom of Christ and is unthinkable apart from Christ. But this changes everything. The cross and the crucifixion enter into the bliss of paradise. The Son of God and the Son of Man descends into hell to free those who suffer there... To conquer evil, the good must crucify itself.
... Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1948), The Destiny of Man, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1937, Hyperion Press, 1979, p. 292
(see the book; see also 1 Pet. 3:18-19; Luke 23:43; Matt. 16:21; John 14:2-3; 19:11; Heb. 9:23-26; Rev. 2:7; more at Christ, Cross, Crucifixion, Easter, Evil, Goodness, Hell, Kingdom, Paradise, Suffer)
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631
Though natural men, who have induced secondary and figurative consideration, have found out this... emblematical use of sleep, that it should be a representation of death, God, who wrought and perfected his work, before Nature began, (for Nature was but his Apprentice, to learn in the first seven days, and now is his foreman, and works next under him) God, I say, intended sleep only for the refreshing of man by bodily rest, and not for a figure of death, for he intended not death itself then. But man having induced death upon himself, God hath taken man’s creature, death, into his hand, and mended it; and whereas it hath in itself a fearfull form and aspect, so that Man is afraid of his own creature, God presents it to him, in a familiar, in an assiduous, in an agreeable, and acceptable form, in sleep, that so when he awakes from sleep and says to himself, shall I be no otherwise when I am dead, than I was even now, when I was asleep, he may be ashamed of his waking dreams, and of his melancholy fancying out a horrid and an affrightful figure of that death which is so like sleep. As then we need sleep to live out our threescore and ten years, so we need death, to live that life which we cannot outlive.
... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. III, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Devotions XV, p. 566
(see the book; see also 1 Thess. 4:13-15; John 11:11-13; 1 Cor. 15:17-22,51-57; more at Death, God, Intention, Life, Man, Nature, Providence, Rest, Sleep)
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