Bits and Pieces Database

Significant words

Keyword: Christianity
Expression:

"Christianity is more than a moral code, more than a philosophy, more than a system of rites. Although it is sufficient, in the abstract, to divide the Catholic religion into three aspects and call them creed, code and cult, yet in practice, the integral Christian life is something far more than all this.  It is more than a belief; it is a life. That is to say, it is a belief that is lived and experienced and expressed in action.  The action in which it is expressed, experienced and lived is called a mystery.  This mystery is the sacred drama which keeps ever present in history the Sacrifice that was once consummated by Christ in Calvary.  In plain words - if you can accept them as plain - Christianity is the life and death and resurrection of Christ going on day after day in the souls of individual men and in the heart of society."
Voice: Thomas Merton
Circumstance: Introduction to St. Augustine's The City of God
Citation: Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, The City of God, trans., Marcus Dods, Modern Library Paperback ed. (New York: Random House, Inc., 2000), xvi.
Read More:

The City of God (Modern Library Classics)