Saint of the Week: Thursday, April 10; William Law, Priest and
Theologian, 1761.  William Law was born in Kings Cliffe in Northhamptonshire 
in 1686.  He was educated at Cambridge and, after ordination, served as a 
chaplain to his college.  His political opposition to the arrival of King 
George I cost him his fellowship, and he spent the rest of his life serving 
as a tutor and writer. He gained a reputation for his simple life of charity 
and prayer in his former hometown, as well
as for his authorship of one of the greatest books of devotion of his age, A 
Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life which had great influence on such 
people as Samuel Johnson and John Wesley.  In it he wrote:
"Devotion signifies a life given or devoted to God.  He therefore is the 
devout man who lives no longer to his own will, or the way of the spirit of 
the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who 
serves God in everything, who makes all the part of his common life parts of 
piety by doing everything in the name of God…We readily
acknowledge that God alone is to be the rule and measure of our prayers, that 
in them we are to look wholly unto him and act wholly for him that we are 
only to pray in such as manner for such things and such ends as are suitable 
to his glory."
Final thought
There will always be many who love Christ‚s heavenly kingdom, but few who 
will bear his cross.  Jesus has many who desire consolation, but few who care 
for adversity.  He finds many to share his table, but few
who will join him in fasting?  Many are eager to be happy with him; few wish 
to suffer anything for him.  Many will follow him as far as the breaking of 
bread, but few will remain to drink from his passion.  Many
are awed by his miracles, few accept the shame of his cross…The cross, 
therefore, is unavoidable.  It waits for you everywhere.  No matter where you 
may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go, you take
yourself along.  Turn where you will, above, below, without, or within, you 
will find the cross.
 
If you willingly care the cross, it will carry you.  It will take you to where
suffering comes to an end, a place other than here.  If you carry it 
unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though 
still you have to bear it.  If you try to do away with one cross, you
will find another and perhaps a heavier one.  How do you expect to escape 
what no one else can avoid?  Which saint was exempt?  Not even Jesus Christ 
was spared.  Why is that you look for another way than the
royal Way of the holy cross?  
--Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (15th century).
Prayer/ Poem of the Week 
Lachrimae Amantis  
What is there in my heart that you should sue
so fiercely for its love?  What kind of care
brings you as though a stranger to my door
through the long night and in the icy dew
seeking the heart that will not harbor you,
that keeps itself religiously secure?
At this dark solstice filled with frost and fire
your passion’s ancient wounds must bleed anew.
So many nights the angel of my house
has fed such urgent comfort through a dream,
whispered, "your lord is coming, he is close"
that I have drowsed half-faithful for a time
bathed in pure tones of promise and remorse:
"tomorrow I shall wake to welcome him."
--Geoffrey Hill
