Quotes about Service

All Believers are Priests

Oh, if a man were so to regard himself and his position, and attended to its duties alone, how rich in good works would he be in a short time, so quietly and secretly that no one would notice it except God alone!

Behold, from faith thus flow forth love and joy in the Lord, and from love a joyful, willing, and free mind that serves ones neighbor willingly and takes no account of gratitude or ingratitude, of praise or blame, of gain or loss.

Every minister should make much of his calling and impress upon others the fact that he has been delegated by God to preach the Gospel.

No matter how insignificant the little office may be, they take a foot though they do not have an inch,73 and always want to be God themselves when they ought to be God's maid.

If I were emperor, king, or prince in a campaign against the Turk, I would exhort my bishops and priests to stay at home and mind the duties of their office, praying, fasting, saying mass, preaching, and caring for the poor, as not only Holy Scripture, but their own canon law teaches and requires.

As long as a person is in the world he cannot by his own efforts rid himself of sin, because the world is bent upon evil. The people of the world are the slaves of the devil. If we are not in the Kingdom of Christ, it is certain we belong to the kingdom of Satan and we are pressed into his service with every talent we possess.

Here is the truly Christian life, here is faith really working by love, when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works of that freest servitude in which he serves others voluntarily and for nought, himself abundantly satisfied in the fulness and riches of his own faith.

The best commendation of any work is to know that one has done the work that God has given him well and that God is pleased with his effort.

For any work not directed toward the purpose of either disciplining the body or serving the neighbor (as long as the neighbor demands nothing against God) is neither good nor Christian.

I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me; I will do nothing in this life except what I see is necessary, profitable, and salutary to my neighbor, since through faith I have an abundance of all good things in Christ.

The Lord is our glory. Such gifts as we possess we acknowledge to be the gifts of God, given to us for the good of the Church of Christ. Therefore we are not proud because of them. We know that more is required of them to whom much is given, than of such to whom little is given. We also know that God is no respecter of persons. A plain factory hand who does his work faithfully pleases God just as much as a minister of the Word.