Altar Quotes

“Wherever an altar is found, there civilization exists.”
― Joseph de Maistre, St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence

“Can we believe that the real God, if there is one, ever ordered a man to be killed simply for making hair oil, or ointment? We are told in the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, that the Lord commanded Moses to take myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus, cassia, and olive oil, and make a holy ointment for the purpose of anointing the tabernacle, tables, candlesticks and other utensils, as well as Aaron and his sons; saying, at the same time, that whosoever compounded any like it, or whoever put any of it on a stranger, should be put to death. In the same chapter, the Lord furnishes Moses with a recipe for making a perfume, saying, that whoever should make any which smelled like it, should be cut off from his people. This, to me, sounds so unreasonable that I cannot believe it. Why should an infinite God care whether mankind made ointments and perfumes like his or not? Why should the Creator of all things threaten to kill a priest who approached his altar without having washed his hands and feet? These commandments and these penalties would disgrace the vainest tyrant that ever sat, by chance, upon a throne.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses

“May our effort, confidence and concern for others be the altar from which we pray for personal abundance.”
― Laura Teresa Marquez

“They like to use those fancy words. They don't like to say “raped,'” he said. “They say “misdeed,' “inappropriate touching,' “mistake.' That's insulting. I'm not a mistake.”
― Charles L. Bailey Jr., In the Shadow of the Cross: The True Account of My Childhood Sexual and Ritual Abuse at the Hands of a Roman Catholic Priest

“Your heart is your temple.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“...those others - they're looking for trends - subjects to catch a spark - but I have you - a coal from God's altar - a star cupped in my hands...”
― John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

“I was amazed, shocked, and sickened by what I heard throughout the day, over and over, by many victims' stories. I can think of no one with whom I didn't recognize a common thread. These monsters, these evil priests, used the same words and methods on all of us. With each session, I would find something that sent a cold chill down my spine. It amazed and frightened me that the actual words used on me, to rape me, to rape me, were the same as the words used on so many others from all over the United States. You would think that all these priests either were educated in how to concur and rape us, or they met privately with each other to compare notes and develop their plan of attack on us. The pattern was so much the same, with the same words, that you would swear it was scripted and disbursed to these priests. Do they secretly have closed-door meetings on how to abuse us? A chilling thought.
Neary's routine of saying the “Our Father” during the rape and making me say it with him, repeating the “thy will be done” over and over, the absolution given me after he “finished,” the threats of having God take my parents away, the lectures about offering my suffering up to God, etc., etc., etc. My experience was identical, word-for-word, to that of many others. The exact words during the abuse were not just close, but exactly the same, as if it were some kind of abuse ritual. Ritual abuse is not limited to the religious definition and can include compulsive, abusive behavior performed in an exact series of steps with little variation. How could these similarities occur without the priests taking the same “abuse seminar” together some place, somehow? Was it taught in the seminary? In some dark corner? It goes beyond coincidence—the similarities in deeds and verbiage that these predators use on us. It truly chilled me to the very marrow of my bones.”
― Charles L. Bailey Jr., In the Shadow of the Cross: The True Account of My Childhood Sexual and Ritual Abuse at the Hands of a Roman Catholic Priest

“When I think of how much this world has suffered; when I think of how long our fathers were slaves, of how they cringed and crawled at the foot of the throne, and in the dust of the altar, of how they abased themselves, of how abjectly they stood in the presence of superstition robed and crowned, I am amazed.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, The Liberty Of Man, Woman And Child

“If your altar is not active, your voice will not be strong”
― Steven Chuks Nwaokeke

“Bind me to your will, bind me with these threads of sorrow, and gather me out of the afternoon where I have torn my soul on twenty monstrous altars, offering all things but myself.”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Mercy

“I reflected on other victims I had met and how they were raped right on the altars of their own churches. Some of them were altar boys, and they were abused before or after mass. An altar boy walked right in front of us as we sat there. I began to shake, sweat, and become very uneasy. I felt frozen in my seat.”
― Charles L. Bailey Jr., In the Shadow of the Cross: The True Account of My Childhood Sexual and Ritual Abuse at the Hands of a Roman Catholic Priest

“The day arrived,when myriad teary rivers flow and the muted wind faintly died in his tears—an altar for the beloved one's departure,for sister-hood is no more,for her to adore!while pangs the beating world in a lamenting voice;their remembering loss of the 'one' they embrace most and when the crepuscule came like a phantom,the mournful,gathered birds swiftly flew in gloom.”
― Nithin Purple, Venus and Crepuscule

“At Gabriel College there was a very holy object on the high altar of the Oratory, covered with a black velvet cloth... At the height of the invocation the Intercessor lifted the cloth to reveal in the dimness a glass dome inside which there was something too distant to see, until he pulled a string attached to a shutter above, letting a ray of sunlight through to strike the dome exactly. Then it became clear: a little thing like a weathervane, with four sails black on one side and white on the other, began to whirl around as the light struck it. It illustrated a moral lesson, the Intercessor explained, for the black of ignorance fled from the light, whereas the wisdom of white rushed to embrace it.

{Alluding to William Crookes's radiometer.}”
― Philip Pullman, Northern Lights: Oxford Pt.1

“An altar is like an airport where spirits take off and land”
― Steven Chuks Nwaokeke

“Refusal to engage in spiritual warfare does not exempt you from being among the next casualties of war”
― Steven Chuks Nwaokeke

“Tell me, son... have you ever been intimidated by anyone?'
'Oh yes,' said Thomas.
'I don't believe it. By whom?'
'By Our Lord... on the altar.”
― Louis de Wohl

“To you nature seems something hostile; you have made devils out of the smiling gods of Greece, and out of me a demon. You can only exorcise and curse me, or slay yourselves in bacchantic madness before my altar.”
― Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus In Furs

“To be altarless is to be voiceless”
― Steven Chuks Nwaokeke

“You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents--burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose--the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don't eliminate it, God does.”
― Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

“The ‘gods’ that do us the greatest harm are the gods we deny having.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“When greed is enthroned, be it in a community or nation, ungodliness is celebrated at the altar of human pleasure.”
― Sunday Adelaja, The Mountain of Ignorance

“If you need some change and some clarity, go to your altar.”
― Robin S. Baker

“Treat your body like the altar that it is. Provide it with nourishment, offerings, love, attentive care, worship, etc.”
― Robin S. Baker

“The altar reminds us of the remoteness in which He lives “beyond the altar,” as we might say, meaning divine distance; or “above the altar,” meaning divine loftiness both to be understood of course not spatially, but spiritually. They mean that God is the Intangible One, far removed from all approaching, from all grasping; that He is the all-powerful, Majestic One immeasurably exalted above earthly things and earthly striving. Such breadth and height are founded not on measure, but on God’s essence: His holiness, to which man of himself has no access.”
― Romano Guardini

“Any church that operates in prayerless and powerless Christianity spend their days and years conducting dust to dust rites in the burial grounds.”
― Steven Chuks Nwaokeke

“When evil altars are invoked, great destinies are altered”
― Steven Chuks Nwaokeke

“To sacrifice our principles on the altar of greed is to be fooled into believing that that’s the only thing that we sacrificed.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“You cannot take the child out of those arms or from that breast [of Mary]. It is the first altar purer than any altar ever to be in all time. And those arms own that child.”
― Abram J. Ryan, A Crown for Our Queen

“She returned to the crime scene. Got married for the second time.”
― Ljupka Cvetanova, Yet Another New Land

“You’re a living altar, made of earth, air, fire, and water, with the blood of your ancestors flowing inside and the breath of Spirit inspiring you. Wherever you are, the Holy is present, and transformation is possible.”
― Ahriana Platten, Ph.D