Let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, who knew everything, even before the beginning of time.
Saint PatrickRead
He that offereth sacrifice of the goods of the poor is as one that sacrificeth the son in the presence of his father.
Interpretation
Using the resources of the needy for one's own gain is a grave moral offense.
This quote by Saint Patrick emphasizes the injustice of exploiting the vulnerable, highlighting that taking advantage of the poor is as significant a transgression as inflicting harm upon one's own family. It draws attention to the moral weight of our actions and the importance of compassion towards those less fortunate.
In practice
In a discussion about ethics in philanthropy.
Let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, who knew everything, even before the beginning of time.
I see that already in this present world I am exalted above measure by the Lord. And I was not worthy nor such a one as that he should grant this to me, since I know most surely that poverty and affliction become me better than delights and riches.
The Lord is greater than all: I have said enough.
I partly know why I have not led a perfect life like other believers. But I avow to my Lord, and I do not lie, that from the time when I first knew him, the love of God and the fear of him has grown in me from my youth so that I have, by the power of God, always till now kept the faith.
I only seek in my old age to perfect that which I had not before thoroughly learned in my youth, because my sins were a hindrance to me.
The Lord discovered to me a sense of my unbelief that, though late, I should remember my transgressions and that I should be converted with my whole heart to the Lord my God.
From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. ... I fell morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.
Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. “Someone is dying,” thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.
A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — what gospel is that?
The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube, you know. It's very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. You can't fight the world alone.
Life and the world, or whatever we call that which we are and feel, is an astonishing thing. The mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being. We are struck with admiration at some of its transient modifications, but it is itself the great miracle.
I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society.
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