Frasi di Giovanni Calvino pagina 6

“Ci dobbiamo anche ricordare che Satana ha i suoi miracoli.”

Istituzione della religione cristiana

“[Parlando di Dio] L'infinità della sua essenza ci deve spaventare, sì che non tentiamo neanche di misurarla secondo il nostro metro.”

Istituzione della religione cristiana

“Sono solito definire il libro dei Salmi un'anatomia di tutte le parti dell'anima, perché non c'è sentimento nell'uomo che non sia qui rappresentato come in uno specchio.
Anzi, lo Spirito Santo ha messo qui, al vivo, tutti i dolori, le tristezze, i timori, i dubbi, le speranze, le preoccupazioni, le perplessità, fino alle più confuse emozioni che agitano l'animo degli uomini.”

Istituzione della religione cristiana

“Where there is so much division and separation as we now see, it is indeed no easy matter to still the troubled waters, and bring about composure. You will say he has a vehement disposition and ungovernable impetuosity; as if that very vehemence did not break forth with all the greater violence when all show themselves alike indulgent to him, and allow him to have his way unquestioned. If this specimen of overbearing tyranny has sprung forth already, as the early blossom in the springtide of a reviving Church, what must we expect in a short time, when affairs have fallen into a far worse condition?”

Origine: Da Commento ai Salmi (1557); citato in Gianfranco Ravasi, L'incontro: ritrovarsi nella preghiera, Oscar Mondadori, Milano, 2014, p. 67. ISBN 978-88-04-63591-8

Giovanni Calvino: Frasi in inglese

“There is no golden mean between these two extremes; either this early life must become low in our estimation, or it will have our inordinate love.”

On Martin Luther in a letter to Philipp Melanchthon, (28 June 1545), in Jules Bonnet, ed., Letters of John Calvin (1 vol. abridged), (Banner of Truth Trust, 1980), ISBN 0-8515-1323-9 , p. 74; also in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Chuch http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/8_ch11.htm#_ednref74 vol. 8, ch. 11, n. 568.

“Be it so that public error must have a place in human society, still, in the kingdom of God, we must look and listen only to his eternal truth, against which no series of years, no custom, no conspiracy, can plead prescription. Thus Isaiah formerly taught the people of God, “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all to whom this people shall say, A confederacy;” i. e. do not unite with the people in an impious consent.”

Page 70.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)

“Although the stars do not speak, even in being silent they cry out.”

John Calvin libro Institutes of the Christian Religion

Prefatory Address, p. 23
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

“He who comes into the presence of God to pray must divest himself of all vainglorious thoughts, lay aside all idea of worth; in short, discard all self- confidence, humbly giving God the whole glory, lest by arrogating any thing, however little, to himself, vain pride cause him to turn away his face.”

“Can we suppose anything more hateful or even more execrable to God than this fiction of asking the pardon of sins, while he who asks at the very time either thinks that he is not a sinner, or, at least, is not thinking that he is a sinner; in other words, a fiction by which God is plainly held in derision?”

John Calvin libro Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 8
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

“Let the first rule of right prayer then be, to have our heart and mind framed as becomes those who are entering into converse with God. This we shall accomplish in regard to the mind, if, laying aside carnal thoughts and cares which might interfere with the direct and pure contemplation of God, it not only be wholly intent on prayer, but also, as far as possible, be borne and raised above itself. … When I say it must be raised above itself, I mean that it must not bring into the presence of God any of those things which our blind and stupid reason is wont to devise, nor keep itself confined within the little measure of its own vanity, but rise to a purity worthy of God.”

John Calvin libro Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 6
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

“Some one will say, Does he not know without a monitor both what our difficulties are, and what is meet for our interest, so that it seems in some measure superfluous to solicit him by our prayers, as if he were winking, or even sleeping, until aroused by the sound of our voice? Those who argue thus attend not to the end for which the Lord taught us to pray. It was not so much for his sake as for ours. … It is very much for our interest to be constantly supplicating him; first, that our heart may always be inflamed with a serious and ardent desire of seeking, loving and serving him, while we accustom ourselves to have recourse to him as a sacred anchor in every necessity; secondly, that no desires, no longing whatever, of which we are ashamed to make him the witness, may enter our minds, while we learn to place all our wishes in his sight, and thus pour out our heart before him; and, lastly, that we may be prepared to receive all his benefits with true gratitude and thanksgiving, while our prayers remind us that they proceed from his hand.”

John Calvin libro Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 4
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

“Let the Nuns therefore tarry still in their convents and cloisters, and in their brothel houses of Satan: yea I put the case they were not whores as they are, yea and worse than that, vile and shameful Sodomites, committing such heinous and abominable acts, that it is horrible to think of, I put the case I say, there were none of all these villainies, yet all the chastity they pretend is nothing before God, in comparison of that that he hath appointed, that is to say, that albeit it seem but a vile thing, and a matter of none account, for a woman to take pains about housewifery, to make clean her children when they be arrayed, to kill fleas, and other such like, although this be a thing despised, yea and such, that many will not vouchsafe to look upon it, yet are they sacrifices which GOD accepteth & receiveth, as if they were things of great price and honourable.”

John Calvin libro Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 3
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

“The ceremony of lifting up our hands in prayer is designed to remind us that we are far removed from God, unless our thoughts rise upward.”

Que donc les nonnains demeurent en leurs convents et en leurs cloistres, et en leurs bourdeaux de Satan: ie di mesmes encores qu’elles ne fussent point putains comme elles sont, comme il y a encores pis de ces abominations de Sodome, faisans des choses si enormes et si abominables que c’est une horreur: encores, di-ie, que toutes ces vilenies-là n'y fussent point, si est-ce que toute la chasteté qu'elles pretendent, n'est rien envers Dieu, au prix de ce qu'il a ordonné, c'est asçavoir que combien que ce soyent choses contemptibles, et qui semblent estre de nulle valeur, qu'une femme ait peine d'adresser son mesnage, de nettoyer les ordures de ses enfans, de tuer les poux et autres choses semblables, que tout cela sera mesprisé, qu’on ne le daignera pas mesmes regarder, ce sont toutesfois sacrifices que Dieu reçoit et qu'il accepte, comme si c'estoyent choses precieuses et honorables. <br class="br"> A Sermon of Master John Caluine, vpon the first Epistle of Paul, to Timothie..., London: G. Bishop and T. Woodcoke, 1579 http://www.truecovenanter.com/calvin/calvin_19_on_Timothy.html (ch. 2:13-15). <br class="br">Sermons of M. John Calvin, on the Epistles of S. Paule to Timothie and Titus, Laurence Tomson, trans., Printed for G. Bishop and T. Woodcoke, 1579, p. 231. http://books.google.com/books?id=g2WDtwAACAAJ&dq=Sermons+of+M.+John+Calvin+on+the+Epistles+of+S.+Paule+to+Timothie+and+Titus&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XY8oUZXGJoq68wS494D4Dg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAQ (Facsimile reprint in Jean Calvin, Sermons on Timothy and Titus (16th-17th century facsimile editions), Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1983. ISBN 0851513743 ISBN 9780851513744, p. 231. "Let the Nunnes therefore..." http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22let+the+nunnes%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbm=bks&source=og&sa=N&tab=wp&ei=CYsoUcvQNoak8AS86oCoCQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.42768644,d.eWU&fp=2dddfa4c5c79d088&biw=1086&bih=740 <br class="br">Sermons Sur la Premiere Epitre a Timothee (Sermons on the First Epistle to Timothy), Sermon 19 ("Dixneuvieme Sermon") in the Corpus Reformatorum, 1895, vol. 81 (Opera 31) p. 228. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&hs=PBY&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=%22Que%20donc%20les%20nonnains%20demeurent%20en%20leurs%20convents%20et%20en%20leurs%20cloistres%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=bks:1&source=og&sa=N&tab=wp http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=bks:1&source=og&q=%22comme%20il%20y%20a%20encores%20pis%20de%20ces%20abominations%20de%20Sodome%22&sa=N&tab=wp http://books.google.com/books?ei=Ts4vTMDbF4WBlAeG3fieCQ&ct=result&id=EcU8AAAAYAAJ&dq=%22volumen+lxxxi%22+reformatorum&q=convents#search_anchor.

“Each church is free to establish whatever form of organisation is suitable and useful itself, for God has prescribed nothing specific about this.”

John Calvin libro Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 5
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)