Category: Roman Catholicism

Starting a new Elevations on the Mysteries by Bossuet, 2,1:  Why should God not have had a Son? Why should this happy nature lack this perfect fecundity that she gives to her creatures? The name of Father, is it so dishonouring and so unworthy of the first being, that he cannot arrange according to his …

Continue reading "To the Holy Trinity: God is Fertile: God Has a Son"

This is the last in this series from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,10: 1. God is the Holy One of Israel God particularly delights in the name of holy.  Very often he calls himself the holy one of Israel: he wants that his holiness be his motif, and the principle of ours: be holy …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Holiness of God"

The next part of Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,9: Because you have not wanted to serve the Lord your God with pleasure and in the joy of your heart, in the abundance of all of his good things, you will be subjected to an implacable enemy which the Lord will send over you, in …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Love of God, Despised and Implacable"

Again we have Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,8: It is said by a common proverb (Jeremiah 3) : If a husband leaves his wife and she, going away from him, marries another husband, will the first take her back? This woman, will she not be soiled and abominable? And you, sinning soul, you are …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: Goodness and Love of God Around Penitent Sinners"

Another post from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, I, 7: It's a father, it's a mother, it's a nurturer.  A mother, can she forget the child which she carried in her womb? And when she does forget it, I will never forget you, (Isaiah 49,15), says the Lord.  The Lord your God has carried you …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Goodness of God and His Love Around His Own"

Moving on, this from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,6: (Isaiah 40, 41:14 and onward) Climb up to the top of a high mountain, you who evangelise, you who announce to Zion the good news of her salvation: raise up a powerful voice, you who announce to Jerusalem her happiness: raise your voice, do not …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The All-Powerful Protection of God"

A new instalment in our series from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1.5: Who hath wrought and done these things, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, I am the first and the last, (Isaiah 41:4 DRB) who in the centre of my eternity see all begin and all end. Babylon, assemble your …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Foreknowledge and Providence of God"

I'm briefly interrupting my posts from Bossuet's Elevations to deal with a subject that Matt Kennedy at Stand Firm takes up: the meaning of Mark 11:23-24.  I honestly think that Bossuet, "the Eagle", (who was very Augustinian) has a much more accurate and inspiring treatment of the passage. The following comes from Bossuet's Meditations on the …

Continue reading ""Man Clothed in the Omnipotence of God": Bossuet on Faith and Prayer"

Continuing in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,4: Hear, Israel: the Lord your God is one God, because he is who is, he who is indivisible.  All which is not perfect, degenerates from perfection.  Thus the Lord your God being the perfect one is alone and there is no other God but him.  All that …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Unity of God"