Sabine Baring-Gould Quotes

Most of the early monks were not ordained. It was the pastoral work they undertook with the faithful that, over the centuries, gradually led to the present situation in which most monks are ordained priests.

I no longer wield the power of the office for the government of the church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, within St. Peter's bounds. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as pope, shall be a great example in this for me. He showed us the way to a life which, active or passive, belongs wholly to the work of God.

When I became a novice monk, I lived in a temple where the atmosphere was quite like in a family. The abbot is like a father and other monks are like your big brothers, your small, younger brothers. It is a kind of family.

That the apostolic office is temporary, is a plain historical fact.

A heresy and a new error sprang up in England, through pride, vainglory, avarice, and lust, and through many strange sciences so that the men of England went into opposition to the Pope and to Rome …. New laws and statutes were enacted … They destroyed the orders, namely the monks, canons, nuns …. The broke down the monasteries and sold the roofs and bells…. burned the images, shrines, and relics of the Saints … and burned the staff of Jesus, which was in Dublin, performing miracles since the time of Saint Patrick.

On the whole, monks do not become famous - and that is a good thing - but monasteries do - and that is an excellent thing. In other words, it is the community that matters.

In the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep (Jn 21:15-19), down to the present episcopate.

My hobby is extreme Catholic behavior - before the Reformation.

Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room; And hermits are contented with their cells.

What! Have you no monks to teach, to dispute, to govern, to intrigue and to burn people who do not agree with them?

To keep a faith pure, man had better retire to a monastery.

This is the entire spiritual life, Ananda, that is, good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship. When a monk has a good friend, a good companion, a good comrade, it is to be expected that he will develop and cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path.

The first organization structure in the modern West was laid down in the canon law of the Catholic Church eight hundred years ago.

The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the word

A monk is not forbidden to marry, but if he takes a wife she becomes a monk with the same powers and privileges and occupies the same social position as her husband.

The Lord did nothing either of himself or through his apostles without his Father, with whom he is united; so too, you should undertake nothing without the bishop and the presbyters priests.

Personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist.

Let no one think that I do not love the old ministers. They were, probably, the best men in their generation, and they deserve that their biographies should fill the pages of the town histories. If I could but hear the "glad tidings" of which they tell, and which, perchance, they heard, I might write in a worthier strain than this.

My Dad used to say that the balance of the world relied on all of the monks who were living outside of society in creative isolation. I don't quite understand the ascetic life or the private life or the monastic private life. But I definitely understand privacy's value.

Forty-one rules aren't so many - St. Benedict had 73 to keep the brethren on the straight and narrow.

I would not be happy if I had not become a monk.

Our Lord holds the keys to the doors of Christian service. You don't have to chase 'key men' around if you know the Keeper of the keys!

Maybe, just maybe, I would like to become a real spiritual teacher, a working lama!

A priest is the God-bearer or Christ-bearer, a living Eucharist of the divine presence, bringing a sympathetic ear and a compassionate heart in which people find God's consolation, understanding and love.

The monastic folks have the spirit of being in the world but not of the world, sort of peculiar people who have gone to the desert to live on the margins of the empire.