People of God
Appearance
People of God is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to the Israelites and used in Christianity to refer to Christians.
Quotes about
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[edit]- (Referring to the Hebrews) initially the people of God, ... they then became the people of deicide, and ... at the end of time they will convert back to Jesus Christ.
- Florian Abrahamowicz, as quoted in Lefebvrite case, What Abrahamowicz actually said.
- Be servants to the people entrusted to you and ensure you practice what you preach to the people of God. As Priests to be ordained, do not seek the things of the world but make yourselves available always for the Word and preach the Word like Christ Himself. You have to work in the Lord's vineyard with zeal and shepherd the people of God with humility. You are to lead the flock to worship God in peace.
- There are regions beyond the most nebulous outskirts of matter; but no regions beyond the divine goodness. We may conceive of tracts where there are no worlds, but not of any where there us no God of mercy.
- James Waddel Alexander, Consolation: in Discourses on Select Topics, Addressed to the Suffering People of God (New York: Charles Scribner, 1853), pp. 27–28.
- The true recipe for a miserable existence is this: Quarrel with Providence.
- James Waddel Alexander, Consolation: in Discourses on Select Topics, Addressed to the Suffering People of God (New York: Charles Scribner, 1853), p. 166.
- Development Theology explores how God sees the poor, what the Bible has to say on the subject, and how we, as a people of God, respond to the development needs around us as an expression of the love of God for his people. I believe that the church has a vital and practical role to play in binding up the broken hearts of the poor and in rebuilding the nation. I am so passionate about this that I set my life aside for this work as an Anglican priest.
- Ingrid Andersen, [1] Her understanding of development theology.
- Wherefore neither are we to believe that their fruitfulness of the flesh, who at this time seek in marriage nothing else save children, to make over unto Christ, can be set against the loss of virginity. Forsooth, in former times, unto Christ about to come after the flesh, the race itself of the flesh was needful, in a certain large and prophetic nation: but now, when from out every race of men, and from out all nations, members of Christ may be gathered unto the People of God, and City of the kingdom of heaven, whoever can receive sacred virginity, let him receive it; and let her only, who contains not, be married. For what, if any rich woman were to expend much money on this good work, and to buy, from out different nations, slaves to make Christians, will she not provide for the giving birth to members of Christ in a manner more rich, and more numerous, than by any, how great soever, fruitfulness of the womb? And yet she will not therefore dare to compare her money to the offering of holy virginity. But if for the sake of making such as shall be born Christians, fruitfulness of the flesh shall with just reason be set against the loss of chastity, this matter will be more fruitful, if virginity be lost at a great price of money, whereby many more children may be purchased to be made Christians, than could be born from the womb, however fruitful, of a single person. But, if it be extreme folly to say this, let the faithful women that are married possess their own good, of which we have treated, so far as seemed fit, in another volume; and let them more highly honor, even as they are most rightly used to do, in the sacred virgins, their better good, of which we are treating in our present discourse.
- Augustine of Hippo, “On Holy Virginity”, n.9
B
[edit]- Closeness to God, first in prayer. Be faithful to that. Closeness to our priests, being close to them. Not being a brother, but being a father, and accompany them in their ministry. Being close to the people of God, whom we serve. It's something that since becoming a bishop, as a priest I was doing.
- The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law. The Church is not to be a national community like the old Israel, but a community of believers without political or national ties. The old Israel had been both — the chosen people of God and a national community, and it was therefore his will that they should meet force with force. But with the Church it is different: it has abandoned political and national status, and therefore it must patiently endure aggression.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nachfolge (1937), translated as The Cost of Discipleship (1959), p. 141
- [...] the path opened up by the Second Vatican Council is destined to radically change the face of traditional liturgical assemblies, in which, according to centuries-old custom, the liturgical service is performed almost exclusively by the clergy, and the people too often “attend” as silent spectators. Patient work of education will be needed to make people understand that the liturgy is the action of the whole people of God. The consequence will not only be liturgical, but will also have a beneficial influence on the development of the sense of the Church and the emergence of various ministries at the service of the community.
- Annibale Bugnini, from La riforma liturgica, p. 53. As quoted in Pietro Damiano Scardilli, I nuclei ecclesiologici nella costituzione liturgica del Vaticano II, Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Roma, 2007, p. 200. ISBN 978-88-7839-103-1.
- The Church is not just any people, but the people gathered from the four winds, those who recognise God as Father, confess the Son Jesus Christ, and have been baptised in the Holy Spirit. That is why it is called the ‘people of God’. The Church must be concerned above all with souls, inviting them to conversion in view of eternal salvation. This is the work of Redemption.
- Niucola Bux, Cosa sta accadendo alla Chiesa?, orienteoccidente.org
C
[edit]- Be it so that public error must have a place in human society, still, in the kingdom of God, we must look and listen only to his eternal truth, against which no series of years, no custom, no conspiracy, can plead prescription. Thus Isaiah formerly taught the people of God, “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all to whom this people shall say, A confederacy;” i.e. do not unite with the people in an impious consent.
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Preface, as translated by Henry Beveridge, p. 23
- The law of nature is that which God at the time of creation of the nature of man infused into his heart, for his preservation and direction; and this is lex ceterna, the moral law, called also the law of nature. And by this law, written with the finger of God in the heart of man, were the people of God a long time governed, before the law was written by Moses, who was the first reporter or writer of law in the world.
- Lord Coke, Calvin's Case (1608), 4 Co. 21.
- The black theologian must reject any conception of God which stifles black self-determination by picturing God as a God of all peoples. Either God is identified with the oppressed to the point that their experience becomes God's experience, or God is a God of racism. ... The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering...Liberation is not an afterthought, but the very essence of divine activity.
- James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), pp. 63-64
- ... be ever reading, exhorting, and teaching in God's word, that the people of God run not unto other doctrines ...
- Myles Coverdale, Coverdale Bible (1535), Prologue
- I desire not to keep my place in this government an hour longer than I may preserve England in its just rights, and may protect the people of God in such a just liberty of their consciences...
- Oliver Cromwell, speech dissolving the First Protectorate Parliament (22 January 1655)
- The Princess Elizabeth, of England, was found dead with her head resting on her Bible, open at these words, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." So may we all fall asleep at last when the day's work for Jesus is over, and wake up in heaven to find ourselves in the delicious rest that remaineth for the people of God.
- Theodore L. Cuyler, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) p. 516.
D
[edit]- This Church was born a year after Vatican II which placed the accent on the universality of the People of God. She is inscribed in the Universial Mission of the Church; she is an integral part of the whole which she serves and benefits of its support. To her alone, she is the whole Church and, however, she can only survive through the other members which make fraternal love interdependent. Because of this, she counts especially upon the solidarity of the unique college of all the Bishops.
- But existing society has chosen to persecute this race which should furnish its choice allies, and what have been the consequences?
They may be traced in the last outbreak of the destructive principle in Europe. An insurrection takes place against tradition and aristocracy, against religion and property. Destruction of the Semitic principle, extirpation of the Jewish religion, whether in the Mosaic or in the Christian form, the natural equality of man and the abrogation of property, are proclaimed by the secret societies who form provisional governments, and men of Jewish race are found at the head of every one of them. The people of God co-operate with atheists; the most skilful accumulators of property ally themselves with communists; the peculiar and chosen race touch the hand of all the scum and low castes of Europe! And all this because they wish to destroy that ungrateful Christendom which owes to them even its name, and whose tyranny they can no longer endure.- Benjamin Disraeli, Lord George Bentinck: A Political Biography (1852), pp. 497-498. Variations of the bolded portion of this quote have been incorrectly challenged as misattributions based on the seemingly anachronistic reference to communism (which was not yet an important political force at the time), the negative language toward Jews, and the use of such variations by antisemitic agitators who failed to provide an accurate citation to the work in which it appears. See Paul F. Boller, John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions (1990)
- The universe, as we have seen, is patterned after the structure of a perfect human being. By the same token, the ideal world to be built by fully mature people is also to resemble the structure and functions of a perfect individual.10(cf. Creation 1.1; 1.2; 3.2) By analogy with the human body, whose organs function in accordance with the subtle commands of the brain, all the institutions of the ideal global society are to abide by the desires of God. Just as the commands of the brain are transmitted to every part of the body through the peripheral nervous system branching out from the spinal cord, in the ideal world God's guidance is conveyed to the entire society through Christ, who corresponds to the spinal cord, and God-loving leaders, who correspond to the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system branching out from the spinal cord corresponds to a nation's political parties. Thus, in the ideal world, people of God led by Christ will form organizations analogous to today's political parties... Therefore, Christ at the Second Advent will remedy the illness of the present political system that it may reflect God's design by restoring people's vertical relationship with God. This will unleash society's true potential.
- I have to say I had some very good scenes with him in "Loving you", but I found myself going to every shot, every scene in which he sang because I was completely taken by listening to him sing. I could not believe the charisma. Incidentally, my uncle was the opera star Mario Lanza (married to my dad´s sister Betty) and I knew what it was like to encounter not just an actor or a singer, but somebody that you knew was going to be a legend. Mario was going to be the next Caruso and Elvis, I thought, ´he is in that class´. This man is going to live forever because that voice is not just for us, but for the people of God.
- Rev. Mother Dolores about Elvis Presley, formerly actress Dolores Hart, speaking about Presley´s voice, in an interview to Sirius Radio, in Memphis, TN, on the 36th anniversary of Presley´s death (August 16, 2013).
- I consider that the fundamental desire of the peoples of America is to be able to live in peace. The Catholic Church, by its very nature, mission and commitment with the people of God who wander the face of this continent, cannot remain indifferent to this need felt by so many men and women among us suffering the scourge of violence. A Church which does not strive for peace, would not be the Church Christ founded.
E
[edit]- The term Dalit as a social category was introduced by the Hindu reform movement Arya Samaj in the late 19th century in its campaign for dalitoddhara, “upliftment of the oppressed”. Its English counterpart “depressed classes” was used by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar as a more precise alternative to Mahatma Gandhi’s religious term Harijan, “people of God”, a term which has recently given way to Dalit or to the legal term scheduled Caste in ordinary usage.
- Elst, Koenraad (1999). Update on the Aryan invasion debate New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
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[edit]- Given the necessity of explaining Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of Redemption, it is always inappropriate to use the title “Co-redemptrix” to define Mary’s cooperation. This title risks obscuring Christ’s unique salvific mediation and can therefore create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Christian faith, for “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). When an expression requires many, repeated explanations to prevent it from straying from a correct meaning, it does not serve the faith of the People of God and becomes unhelpful. In this case, the expression “Co-redemptrix” does not help extol Mary as the first and foremost collaborator in the work of Redemption and grace, for it carries the risk of eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ — the Son of God made man for our salvation, who was the only one capable of offering the Father a sacrifice of infinite value — which would not be a true honor to his Mother. Indeed, as the “handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38), Mary directs us to Christ and asks us to “do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).
- Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, Pope Leo XIV, Mater Populi Fidelis 22.
G
[edit]- The People of God believes that it is led by the Lord's Spirit, Who fills the earth. Motivated by this faith, it labors to decipher authentic signs of God's presence and purpose in the happenings, needs and desires in which this People has a part along with other men of our age. For faith throws a new light on everything, manifests God's design for man's total vocation, and thus directs the mind to solutions which are fully human.
- Gaudium et Spes, § 11
- By virtue of her mission to shed on the whole world the radiance of the Gospel message, and to unify under one Spirit all men of whatever nation, race or culture, the Church stands forth as a sign of that brotherhood which allows honest dialogue and gives it vigor.
Such a mission requires in the first place that we foster within the Church herself mutual esteem, reverence and harmony, through the full recognition of lawful diversity. Thus all those who compose the one People of God, both pastors and the general faithful, can engage in dialogue with ever abounding fruitfulness. For the bonds which unite the faithful are mightier than anything dividing them. Hence, let there be unity in what is necessary; freedom in what is unsettled, and charity in any case.
- Gaudium et Spes, § 92
- I think one of the main reasons the Holy Father is inviting the Church to be more synodal is in view of evangelisation. Synodality and evangelisation are two sides of the same coin. I’m pretty sure that the Holy Father is passionate about helping the human person encounter Jesus, because Jesus is the reason for our lives. His message, His person is light to the world. After all, this is what the Church is called to be, a missionary Church. It’s good to remind ourselves that the theme of this Synod is ‘For a Synodal Church: communion, participation, and mission.’ The fact that mission is the last word does not mean it is the least important. I would say mission is the most important element. I think the Holy Father would like to set the world on fire by proclaiming the Gospel. Obviously, he cannot do this by himself, but he wants all the people of God to get engaged in this mission. When I say all the people of God, I’m talking about a synodal Church, because a synodal Church is a Church where all the baptised feel engaged. They share the same faith, they also share the same responsibility to help this encounter with Jesus.
- Francis arrives with a wealth of experience in this regard. Latin America has an edge when it comes to synodality; the ‘Theology of the People of God’ is central to Latin American ecclesiology, where the hierarchy is at the service of the people of God. [...] The Holy Father is convinced that the path for the Church of the future is synodal: all the people of God must find a way to walk together because they bring with them the richness of the Holy Spirit, and only together will we be able to discern his voice.
- From an interview of Dario Campione to Mario Grech, Chiesa cattolica, quale futuro? «Non è più il tempo delle élite», Corriere del Ticino (in Italian; March 21, 2024)
- It is with a trembling heart that I take up this new commitment as the Bishop of Moroto Diocese, returning to a place where I consider my Diocese and my people, where I spend my best years as a Missionary priest. I greatly rely on your prayers, support and cooperation as I take up the service of shepherding the people of God.
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[edit]- Rushdoony calls for a Christian society that is harsh, unforgiving and violent. His work draws heavily on the calls for a repressive theocratic society [he believed was] laid out by Calvin in Institutes of the Christian Religion, first published in 1536 and one of the most important works of the Protestant Reformation. Christians are, Rushdoony argues, the new chosen people of God and are called to do what Adam and Eve failed to do: create a godly, Christian state. The Jews, who neglected to fulfill God's commands in the Hebrew scriptures, have, in this belief system, forfeited their place as God's chosen people and have been replaced by Christians. The death penalty is to be imposed not only for offenses such as rape, kidnapping and murder, but also for adultery, blasphemy, homosexuality, astrology, incest, striking a parent, incorrigible juvenile delinquency, and, in the case of omen, "unchastity before marriage." The world was to be subdued and ruled by a Christian United States. Rushdoony dismissed the widely accepted estimate of 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust as an inflated figure, and his theories on race often echo those found in Nazi eugenics, in which there are higher and lower forms of human beings. Those considered by the Christian state to be immoral and incapable of reform are to be exterminated.
- Chris Hedges (2008), American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Simon and Schuster, pp. 12-13
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[edit]- Rome had no Bible. God cared nothing for the Roman Empire. He let the men come up by chance. His time was taken up with the Jewish people. And yet Rome conquered the world, including the chosen people of God. The people who had the Bible were defeated by the people who had not.
- Robert G. Ingersoll, Orthodoxy (1884)
J
[edit]- By yielding its imagination to the forms around it, has the church, like ancient Israel, lost the ability to be an alternative people of God?
- Skye Jethani, The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)
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[edit]- He spoke very clearly, warning us as a people of God of the dictatorship of relativism, not to be co-opted by the world around him. May we be strengthened to grow in our love of God by Benedict's example.
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[edit]- You ought to dress yourself in modest apparel, such as becomes the people of God, and teach your family to do likewise. You ought to be industrious and prudent, and not live a sumptuous and gluttonous life, but labor for a meek and quiet spirit, and see that your family is kept decent and regular in all their goings forth, that others may see your example of faith and good works, and acknowledge the work of God in your family.
- Quotes of Ann Lee in The Communistic Societies of the United States (1875) by Charles Nordhoff · HTML at Sacred-texts.com
- At stake are two different visions of faith, the Church of Caesar, powerful and rich; and the Church of Christ - loving, poor and spiritually rich.
- Penny Lernoux, People of God (1989).
- Opus Dei is an efficient machine run to achieve world power.
- Penny Lernoux, People of God (1989).
- And the Third World will continue to beckon to the First, reminding it of the Galilean vision of Christian solidarity.
- Penny Lernoux, People of God (1989).
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[edit]- The Church with which you are committed, and which you want to serve, is like an inn of Christ; a place of hospitality, healing and communion. Be careful not to turn it into an inn for bandits or thieves to rob, extort, exploit, mistreat and harm the people of God, your brothers and sisters, to whom, on the contrary, you should be close.
- We claim a space among the people of God and not one of us can be left out. We must first acknowledge that we belong here, that this is our rightful place. God desires us to be here. God desires you and me to recognize our sacred calling as His children, and to give witness.
N
[edit]- Follow the path of the saints, they left their comfort zones to serve the people of God, sharing with them the Word of God which heals and gives life.
- The Church should put at the heart of its ministry is that of refugees. Africa, as a continent, has the highest number of refugees and displaced people. Each person is entitled to a place where she/he can settle without fear. In fact, the very foundations of "a people of God" in the Bible is founded on a community which is settled in a place that it can call its own: where it enjoys security.
- The authority of Emperors, Kings, and Princes, is human. The authority of Councils, Synods, Bishops, and Presbyters, is human. The authority of the Prophets is divine, and comprehends the sum of religion, reckoning Moses and the Apostles among the Prophets; and if an Angel from Heaven preach any other gospel, than what they have delivered, let him be accursed. Their writings contain covenant between God and his people, with instructions for keeping this covenant; instances of God's judgments upon them that break it: and predictions of things to come. While the people of God keep the covenant they continue to be his people: when they break it they cease to be his people or church, and become the Synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not. And no power on earth is authorized to alter this covenant.The predictions of things to come relate to the state of the Church in all ages: and amongst the old Prophets, Daniel is most distinct in order of time, and easiest to be understood: and therefore in those things which relate to the last times, he must be made the key to the rest.
- Isaac Newton, Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733), published posthumously by Newton's nephew Benjamin Smith in 1733, Part 1, Ch. 1: Introduction concerning the Compilers of the books of the Old Testament
- In the heavens, the Sun and Moon are, by interpreters of dreams, put for the persons of Kings and Queens; but in sacred Prophecy, which regards not single persons, the Sun is put for the whole species and race of Kings, in the kingdom or kingdoms of the world politic, shining with regal power and glory; the Moon for the body of the common people, considered as the King's wife; the Stars for subordinate Princes and great men, or for Bishops and Rulers of the people of God, when the Sun is Christ; light for the glory, truth, and knowledge, wherewith great and good men shine and illuminate others; darkness for obscurity of condition, and for error, blindness and ignorance; darkening, smiting, or setting of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, for the ceasing of a kingdom, or for the desolation thereof, proportional to the darkness; darkening the Sun, turning the Moon into blood, and falling of the Stars, for the same; new Moons, for the return of a dispersed people into a body politic or ecclesiastic.
- Isaac Newton, Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733), published posthumously by Newton's nephew Benjamin Smith in 1733, Part 1, Ch. 2.
- Our faith is counter-cultural to the American ideal of individualism. We are a part of the universality founded in Christ and thus a part of a larger, single family-the people of God. The care of our common home does not fall in step with individualism. God asks us to think about ourselves in relationship to God and thus in relationship to our immediate family and our extended family throughout the world.
- John Gerard Noonan, The Eucharistic Christ (March 2016
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[edit]- A certain priest named Peter, from the kingdom of the Franks and the bishopric of Amiens, a hermit both in deed and name, led by the same ardor, arrived at Jerusalem. He was small in stature and his external appearance contemptible, but greater valor ruled in his slight frame. For he was sharp witted, his glance was bright and captivating, and he spoke with ease and eloquence. Having paid the tax which was exacted from all Christians who wished to enter, he went into the city and was entertained by a trusty man who was also a confessor of Christ. He diligently questioned his host, as he was a zealous man, and learned more fully from him not only the existing perils, but also the persecutions which their ancestors had suffered long before. And if in what he heard any details were lacking, he completed the account from the witness of his own eyes. For remaining in the city and visiting the churches he learned more fully the truth of what had been told to him by others.Hearing also that the Patriarch of the city was a devout and God-fearing man, he wished to confer with him and to learn more fully from him the truth concerning some matters. Accordingly he went to him, and having been presented by a trustworthy man, both he and the Patriarch mutually enjoyed their conferences.The name of the Patriarch was Simeon. As he learned from Peter's conversation that the latter was prudent, able and eloquent, and a man of great experience, he began to disclose to him more confidentially all the evils which the people of God had suffered while dwelling in Jerusalem.To whom Peter replied: "You may be assured, holy father, that if the Roman church and the princes of the West should learn from a zealous and a reliable witness the calamities which you suffer, there is not the slightest doubt that they would hasten to remedy the evil, both by words and deeds. Write them zealously both to the lord Pope and the Roman church and to the kings and princes of the West, and confirm your letter by the authority of your seal. I, truly, for the sake of the salvation of my soul, do not hesitate to undertake this task. And I am prepared under God's guidance to visit them all, to exhort them all, zealously to inform them of the greatness of your sufferings and to urge them to hasten to your relief."
- Peter the Hermit, In Historia belli sacri, bk. 1, ch. 2, ff. (tr. Dana C. Munro, 1897)
- Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and Patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious power of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.
- Pope Leo XIII, Prayer to Saint Michael (1888)
- If evils increase, the devotion of the People of God should also increase.
- Pope Paul VI, Christi Matri ("Mother of Christ"), 15 September 1966
- Faith both in the Immaculate Conception and in the bodily Assumption of the Virgin was already present in the People of God, while theology had not yet found the key to interpreting it in the totality of the doctrine of the faith. The People of God therefore precede theologians and this is all thanks to that supernatural sensus fidei, namely, that capacity infused by the Holy Spirit that qualifies us to embrace the reality of the faith with humility of heart and mind. In this sense, the People of God is the 'teacher that goes first' and must then be more deeply examined and intellectually accepted by theology.
- Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience 7 July 2010 at the Vatican web site
- We must begin with ourselves: bishops and priests, who should not feel themselves superior to our brothers and sisters in the people of God. Pastoral workers, who should not understand service as power.
- Q: Can the process for the appointment of new bishops be improved? Praedicate Evangelium states that "members of the people of God" must be involved. Is this happening?
A: We had an interesting reflection among the members of the Dicastery on this issue. For some time now, not only some bishops or some priests, but also other members of the people of God are being heard. This is very important, because the bishop is called to serve a particular Church. Therefore, listening to the people of God is also important.
If a candidate is not known by anyone among his people, it is difficult—not impossible, but difficult—for him to truly become pastor of a community, of a local Church. So, it is important that the process is a little more open to listening to different members of the community.
This does not mean that it is the local Church that has to choose its pastor, as if being called to be a bishop was the result of a democratic vote, of an almost ‘political’ process. A much broader view is needed, and the apostolic nunciatures help a lot in this. I believe that, little by little, we need to open up more, to listen a little more to the religious, the laity.- From an interview of Andrea Tornielli to roman Catholic Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, Archbishop Prevost: ‘The bishop is a pastor, not a manager’, Vatican News (May 4, 2023)
- For the people of God there is no such thing as distance, even if they be thousands of miles apart. However far away our fellow human beings may be, we must stand by them.
- Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia, Wounded by Love, p. 89
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[edit]- There is a romance with the people of God. To know that you're building up the Kingdom of God, you who have been called and been given that grace, Jesus Christ is working through you in a very special way. I can’t save anybody personally, but I can through the Church through that I serve.
- People think that I have more power than I do. As the archbishop, I have to live not by "fiat" or by decree, but I have to live by gathering the people of God. Some people say that all I have to do is say it to be done, but it doesn't work that way. It is a position for great responsibility within the Church, but it is a ministry of the Church. I think that any power that I exercise has to be exercised with humility and in the light of the Gospel.
- The case to which I wish to call attention is... that of the author of the Pilgrim's Progress. The principal document concerned is John Bunyan's remarkable confession, entitled Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, an autobiographical statement which Bunyan wrote... "for the support of the weak and tempted people of God." This little book... ranking... second only to the great Pilgrim's Progress itself. As a record of human experience, the Grace Abounding will never lose its charm, both for lovers of religious biography, and for admirers of honesty, of sincerity, and of simple pathos. Nothing that can be said as to the psychological significance... will ever detract from the worth of the book, even when viewed... as a "support" for the "weak and tempted."
- Josiah Royce, "The Case of John Bunyan" in Studies of Good and Evil (1898) p. 30.
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[edit]- Latin America, with the exception of course of some small groups, has always manifested itself with a strong ecclesial communion with the Holy Father and adherence to his teaching. I believe that the episcopates move in that perspective and also all the organizations of the People of God. I believe the main challenge is to maintain this unity, to make it patent in difficult moments, to express it.
- The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, infused through the Wind and the Fire of the Upper Room, such that the Church must "be converted" every day, every instant, into what she herself is, the Body of Christ and the People of God living through history.
- God chose me and every baptized Christian to be a missionary, to be always ready to serve His people with humility, doing our best, listening and praying. My mission is to meet, to visit the people of God , sharing the word of God and announcing the Gospel.
- Yahweh is Lord of all, even of economics. There is no hint here of a sacred law of supply and demand that operates independently of biblical ethics and the Lordship of Yahweh. The people of God should submit to God, and God demands economic justice among his people.
- Ron Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity (2015), p. 75
- The true faith of the people of God is surely and principally rooted in the faith and piety of the mother of the family who can also be a key person in fostering vocations. Tribal women are very good catechists. If they are trained well in their faith, they have a great advantage over men catechists. If tribal women are trained as evangelizers, they will be great carriers of the Gospel of Jesus.
T
[edit]- ...fasting was a duty often practised by the people of God, and by holy men under the law of Moses. And the gospel recommends it, from the beginning to the end, by the examples of Christ and John the Baptist, of Peter, Paul, and the rest of the apostles, as well as by their counsels and exhortations; nothing is more frequently inculcated than this duty of fasting, throughout the writings of the New Testament: And without all doubt, it is now as requisite as ever it was, since we are liable to the same infirmities, exposed to the same temptations, and beset with the same dangers as former Christians were; against all which evils fasting is proper remedy. Fasting mortifies the body, and tames concupiscence; it quenches lust, and kindles devotion; it is the handmaiden of prayer, and the nurse of meditation; it refines the understanding. subdues the passions, regulates the will, and sublimates the whole man to a more spiritual state of life: 'this the life of the angels, the enamel of the soul, the greatest advantage of religion, the best opportunity for retirements of devotion. While the smoke of carnal appetites is suppressed and distinguished, the heart breaks forth with holy fire, til it be burning like cherubim, and the most ecstasied order of pure and undiluted spirits. These are the proper and genuine effects of religious and frequent fasting, as they can witness who make it their practice.
- [The Third Part of the Pilgrim's Progress]]
- [W]ith his ascension to the papacy in 1978, Jon Paul II promoted a gendered theology with the dual aim of preserving the male celibate priesthood and the Church’s embattled marital morality. Increasingly, the symbolic representation of the Church as the Bride of Christ eclipsed other representations of the Church (e.g., the Church as the people of God and the sheepfold) in papal pronouncements. As discussed in Chapter 1 and 2, it also served to justify a male celibate priesthood and to support the papal call for a new Catholic feminism-one that emphasized sexual difference, glorified women’s essential role as mothers, and championed papal loyalty. Although this new feminism found few adherents among the disenchanted, it rallied members of the conservative core, such as the German theologian Simone Twents. In her 2002 book, Frau sein ist mehr: Die Wurde der Frau nach Johannes Paul II (To be woman is more: The dignity of woman according to John Paul II), she called on women to employ their “own particular genius and orientation to love” in order to help heal humankind and “not adopt male characteristics.” Archbishop Joachim Meisner of Cologne wrote the foreword to the book, offering effusive praise for Twents’s appreciation of the “fundamental anthropological dimensions of femininity” and for her delineation of a “feminine theology” that rested on the “Catholic image of woman.” The feminized Catholic Church of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, documented by numerous historians, had given way to a Church in which a gendered ideology provided the conservative core with a rallying cry against attacks from within and without. The ideology itself was not new, but in the late twentieth century it acquired a new emphasis and function, as the battle over the future direction of the Church reached feverish heights and neoconservatives worked out new political strategies for promoting official Church teachings in the secular sphere.
- Kimba Allie Tichenor (2016). “Religious Crisis and Civic Transformation”. Brandeis University Press. ISBN 9781611689709, pp.10-11
- We of many cultures, languages and races are become one nation. We are the Rainbow People of God.
- Desmond Tutu, in speech before the National Assembly of South Africa (1994), as quoted in Beliefs, Values & Traditions (2002) by Ann Lovelace and Joy White, p. 61
V
[edit]- The value of the "Grace Abounding,"... as a work of experimental religion may be easily overestimated. It is not many who can study Bunyan's minute history of the various stages of his spiritual life with real profit. To some temperaments, especially among the young, the book is more likely to prove injurious than beneficial; it is calculated rather to nourish morbid imaginations, and a dangerous habit of introspection, than to foster the quiet growth of the inner life. ...Only those... who have known by experience the force of Bunyan's spiritual combat, can fully appreciate and profit by Bunyan's narrative. He tells us... that it was written "for the support of the weak and tempted people of God." For such the "Grace Abounding to the chief of sinners" will ever prove most valuable. Those for whom it was intended will find in it a message of comfort and strength.
- Edmund Venables, Life of John Bunyan (1888) p. 130. Great Writers series.
- The Congregation has the task of deepening, developing and promoting the fundamental principles of Catholic education, as proposed by the Magisterium of the Church, both regarding the People of God, as well as society at large. In this sense, it is committed to ensuring that the faithful can fulfill their obligations in this area, and that society at large might also recognize and protect their rights.
W
[edit]- A year in which the process of transforming the liturgy has followed a planned course. Protests avail nothing... More than the aesthetic changes which rob the Church of poetry, mystery and dignity, there are suggested changes in Faith and morals which alarm me. A kind of anti-clericalism is abroad which seeks to reduce the priest's unique sacramental position. The Mass is written of as a "social meal" in which the "people of God" perform the consecration. Pray God I will never apostatize but I can only now go to church as an act of duty and obedience.
- [Evelyn Waugh]], diary entry (Easter 1965), quoted in The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Michael Davie (1976), p. 793
Z
[edit]- My last act of protest will be to do just that, to now disappear with everyone knowing why. I put this in my last will and testament — that my bones shall not be placed in the cathedral, I do not want to be buried with such men. I will be buried in a simple cemetery with what remains of the faithful people of God.
- Joseph Zen, Cardinal Zen on China: ‘There is Nothing More to Do Other Than Prayer’ (October 2, 2020)
- Priests and religious are servants of the Church. We must constantly learn and grow. The diocese will help everyone to better respond to the pastoral needs of the baptized and to promote the path to a rich life of faith and spirituality. The people of God need priests and sisters who are always ready to serve the Church with enthusiasm and competence.
