A church is in a bad way when it banishes laughter from the sanctuary and leaves it to the cabaret, the nightclub and the toastmasters. — Helmut Thielicke
Too many church services start at eleven sharp and end at twelve dull. — Vance Havner
Religion and political expediency go beautifully hand in hand — Friedrich Durrenmatt
If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied. — Charles Hodge
It is better to think of church in the ale-house than to think of the ale-house in church. — Martin Luther
Old-fashioned, Spirit-filled, Christ-honoring, sin-hating, soul-winning, Bible-preaching. It is the hope of the church. It is the hope of the nation. It is the hope of the world. — Jack Hyles
I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. — Pope Francis
A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals who work to live. — Voltaire
Vatican II declares the Church... as necessary for salvation. — Francis Arinze
The holy universal Church teaches that it is not possible to worship God truly except in Her and asserts that all who are outside of Her will not be saved. — Pope Gregory I
When the church finds its members falling into gross and scandalous sins, then it is time for the church to awake and cry to God for a Revival of Religion. — Charles Grandison Finney
The Church is a perpetual construction site. — Henri de Lubac
The early Church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity. — Leonard Ravenhill
The utter folly of our time is lamentable, that men should think to assist God with human help and to protect the Church of Christ by worldly ambition. — Hilary of Poitiers
Short Ecclesiastical Quotes
No Ideas original - there is nothing new under the sun. — Nas
Wisdom is better than weapons of war. 9:18b, Ecclesiastes — Bible
There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance. — Solomon
But how can one be warm alone? — Joseph Heller
Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. — Solomon
What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again... Ecclesiastes 1:9 — Bible
Sorrow is better than laughter; for, by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. — Solomon
In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. — Solomon
Archbishop -- A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ. — H. L. Mencken
And of all plagues with which mankind are cursed, ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst. — Daniel Defoe
Ecclesiastical Image Quotes
Steps To Christ Quotes
Each game is an opportunity to be on a great stage and be a witness for Christ. When I step on the floor, people should know who I represent, who I believe in. — Stephen Curry
The first step of humility is unhesitating obedience which comes naturally to those who cherish Christ above all. — Benedict of Nursia
We must give up the vain idea of trying to please everybody. That is impossible, and the attempt is a mere waste of time. We must be content to walk in Christ's steps, and let the world say what it likes. — J. C. Ryle
Revelation is the first step to holiness, and consecration is the second. A day must come in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ. — Watchman Nee
Some men are willing to die for their faith but will not fully live for it. Christ both lived and died for us. By walking in his steps and through his atonement we can gain the greatest gift of all--eternal life--which is that kind of life of the great Eternal One, our Father in heaven. — Ezra Taft Benson
The more you come to know the Bible - both in reading it extensively and also meditating on it deeply - the more integrated your understanding of all of life will be. And this means that there will be fewer steps between what you are doing at work and sharing your faith in Christ. — Mark Dever
Faith that trusts on Jesus alone for salvation, and not on your respectable life, and the obedience that follows Him, are the indispensable steps to salvation. You admit that you have not taken these decisive steps. Then, however near you are, you are not in Christ. — Theodore L. Cuyler
There's some task which the God of all the universe, the great Creator, your redeemer in Jesus Christ has for you to do, and which will remain undone and incomplete until by faith and obedience you step into the will of God. — Alan Redpath
Like the Puritans, live in terms of the settled judgement that the joy of heaven will make amends of any losses and crosses, strains and pains that we must endure on earth if we are going to follow Christ faithfully. Regard preparedness to die as the first step in learning to live. — Joel Beeke
You only need to walk in mindfulness, making peaceful, happy steps on our planet. Breathe deeply, and enjoy your breathing. Be aware that the sky is blue and the birds' songs are beautiful. Enjoy being alive and you will help the living Christ and the living Buddha continue for a long, long time. — Nhat Hanh
Ecclesiastic Quotes
Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history. — James Madison
The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but ... to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government. — Joseph Story
Godly fear, faith, and humility is the true threefold cord that can’t easily be broken (see Ecclesiastes 4:12). — John Bevere
The intelligentsia ...was kept busy embroidering white stitches on the philosophical and ecclesiastical vestments of the bourgeoisie - that old and filthy fabric besmeared with the blood of toiling masses. — Maxim Gorky
If naturalists go to heaven (about which there is considerable ecclesiastical doubt), I hope that I will be furnished with a troop of kakapo to amuse me in the evening instead of television. — Gerald Durrell
If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it. — George Washington
In schoolbooks and in literature we can separate ecclesiastical and political history; in the life of mankind they are intertwined. — Leopold Von Ranke
I will not be influenced, governed, or controlled, in my temporal interests by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary to my own judgment. — Oliver Cowdery
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. — Solomon
It was under a solemn consciousness of the dangers from ecclesiastical ambition, the bigotry of spiritual pride, and the intolerance of sects... that is was deemed advisable to exclude from the national government all power to act upon the subject. — Joseph Story
Ecclesiastes Quotes
The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism. — Angelina Grimke
Any church program, no matter how impressive, if it is not supported by an adequate prayer program, is little more than an ecclesiastical treadmill. It is doing little or no damage to Satan's kingdom. — Paul Billheimer
My legal wife is to me dead; the only ecclesiastical authority I recognise pronounces me free; the attacks and threats of men do not disturb me. I am acting according to a clear conscience, and am doing hurt to no man. For my conduct, I will answer to my maker. — William the Silent
God has appointed two kinds of government in the world, which are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be confounded together; one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government. — Isaac Backus
Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance. — James Madison
I believe in an America ... where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source. — John F. Kennedy
The ideal of progress, freedom of thought, and the decline of ecclesiastical power go together. — J. B. Bury
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun — Solomon
It’s interesting that in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, the only practical advice given about living a meaningful life is to find a job you like, enjoy your marriage, and obey God. It’s as though God is saying, Write a good story, take somebody with you, and let me help. — Donald Miller
A good name is better than precious ointment. Ecclesiastes 7:1 — Bible
Liturgical Quotes
But how is one to make a scientist understand that there is something unalterably deranged about differential calculus, quantum theory, or the obscene and so inanely liturgical ordeals of the precession of the equinoxes. — Antonin Artaud
Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us. — Pope Benedict XVI
All of us kids ended up 'doing Mom.' There are four of us who've tried show business. Five if you insist on counting my sister the nun, who does liturgical dance. — Bill Murray
Adoration outside Holy Mass prolongs and intensifies what has taken place in the liturgical celebration and makes a true and profound reception of Christ possible. I . . . warmly recommend, to Pastors and to all the faithful, the practice of Eucharistic adoration — Pope Benedict XVI
I've practiced centering prayer. I've contemplatively prayed. I've prayed liturgically... I've benefited from each, and I still do. In ways you'll see, elements of each style are still with me. — Larry Crabb
The first forms of writing emerged not for art, literature, or love, not for spiritual or liturgical purposes, but for business--all literature could be said to originate from sales receipts (sorry). — Daniel Levitin
Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking. — W. H. Auden
Catholic liturgical music, it would seem, is everywhere but in the Catholic Church itself. — Richard Morris
My interest in gospel music and liturgical art and Biblically-inspired literature has nothing to do with organised religion and everything to do with human beings trying to figure out their place on this planet. — Moby
For me the best kind of film music is liturgical music. Liturgical music is essentially a million scores for the same film. — Nico Muhly
Roman Catholic Church Quotes
Vatican II was a force that seized the mind of the Roman Catholic Church and carried it across centuries from the 13th to the 20th. — Lance Morrow
By heart we believe and by mouth confess the one Church, not of heretics but the Holy Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church outside which we believe that no one is saved. — Pope Innocent III
The more we study the early Church, the more we realize that it was a society of ministers. About the only similarity between the Church at Corinth and a contemporary congregation, either Roman Catholic or Protestant, is that both are marked, to a great degree, by the presence of sinners. — D. Elton Trueblood
People came into the Church in the Roman Empire because the Church was so good-Catholics were so good to one another, and they were so good to pagans, too. High-pressure evangelization strikes me as an attempt to deprive people of their freedom of choice. — Andrew Greeley
Even Martin Luther and John Calvin believed that the Roman Catholic church, up to the Council of Trent, was basically orthodox - a true church with sound fundamental doctrines as well as significant error. — Norman Geisler
I was an altar boy in the Roman Catholic Church and no priest ever laid a hand on me. That's me, always the bridesmaid. — Dana Gould
Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews — John Hagee
The Roman Catholic Church early on simply adapted the hierarchical structure of the Roman Empire and confused the whole thing. Vertical attention and hierarchy were so entangled, that when the French killed the king during the Revolution, they lost much of their vertical attention too. — Robert Bly
Everywhere in the world there are ignorance and prejudice, but the greatest complex of these, with the most extensive prestige and the most intimate entanglement with traditional institutions, is the Roman Catholic Church. — H. G. Wells
We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty. — Pope Leo XIII
Catholic Church Quotes
There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be. — Fulton J. Sheen
I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself. — Elizabeth Ann Seton
The greatest obstacle in the apostolate of the Church is the timidity or rather the cowardice of the faithful. — Pope Pius X
Liberal Catholics are the worst enemies of the Church. — Pope Pius IX
Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world. — Pope Pius IX
Before everything else, fidelity to the Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Jesus did not found several churches, but one single Church. — Pope John XXIII
Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. — Ignatius of Antioch
Catholicism is more than a religion, it is a political power. Therefore I'm led to believe there will be no peace in Ireland until the Catholic Church is crushed — Oliver Cromwell
Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith. — Peter Canisius
The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine - but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight. — Hilaire Belloc
A revival almost always begins among the laity. The ecclesiastical leaders seldom welcome reformation. History repeats itself. The present leaders are too comfortably situated as a rule to desire innovation that might require sacrifice on their part. And God's fire only falls on sacrifice. An empty altar receives no fire! — Frank Bartleman
An alliance or coalition between Government and religion cannot be too carefully guarded against......Every new and successful example therefore of a PERFECT SEPARATION between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance........religion and government will exist in greater purity, without (rather) than with the aid of government. — James Madison
Papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy are the two ecclesiastical versions of this human idolatry. Both papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy require widespread and unchallenged ignorance to sustain their claims to power. Both are doomed as viable alternatives for the long- range future of anyone. — John Shelby Spong
The ecclesiastical description of Hell is that of a horrible place of fire and torment; in Dante's Inferno, and in northern climes, it was thought to be an icy cold region, a giant refrigerator. — Anton Szandor LaVey
The philosopher, who with calm suspicion examines the dreams and omens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even of ecclesiastical history, will probably conclude that, if the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been deceived by fraud, the understanding of the readers has much more frequently been insulted by fiction. — Edward Gibbon
Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption — James Madison
There is nothing new under the sun, not even Manet. — Jules Breton
Scripture would not only solve the individual and family divisions, but it would also solve the ecclesiastical confusion. — Tony Evans
The ecclesiastical system of Rome, and particularly its leaders, for a thousand years and more thought that the earth is fixed and that everything else revolves about it. — Joseph Franklin Rutherford
Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence, and ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption; all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects. — James Madison
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes 7:9 — Bible
There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. Ecclesiastes 2:24 — Bible
Without fear of contradiction, I can safely say that every step in progress that woman has made she has been assailed by ecclesiastics, that her most vigilant unwearied opponents have always been the clergy. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber, for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. — Doris Lessing
The Athanasian Creed is the most splendid ecclesiastical lyric ever poured forth by the genius of man. — Benjamin Disraeli
In Conclusion
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