Basil Hume Quotes

Each of us needs an opportunity to be alone and silent, or even, indeed, to find space in the day or in the week, just to reflect and to listen to the voice of God that speaks deep within us. . . . In fact, our search for God is only our response to his search for us. He knocks at our door, but for many people, their lives are too preoccupied for them to be able to hear. — Cardinal Basil Hume

Why God should want and need us is a mystery. But it is true: otherwise he would not have created us and life would ultimately have no meaning for us. It is good to remember that in God the is a constancy, a consistency of attitude which never changes, irrespective of what we are or how we act: he never changes in is wanting us or needing us.

It is better to walk through darkness, the Lord guiding you, than to sit enthroned in light that radiates from yourself.

David Hume, the great eighteenth century Scottish philosopher, had put the cat among the pigeons with his notion of scepticism: that nothing can be proved, except in mathematics, and that much of what we take to be fact is merely conjecture.

Our reaction to other persons, especially those with whom we do not agree, ought always to be characterized by a willingness to show respect; to be careful not to damage another person's good name; to affirm what is good in another; never to be rude and insulting. The spirit of the Pharisees lurks in each one of us, tempting us to sit in judgment on others and even to seek to exclude them from the church.

Kardinal Basil Hume ona kendisinin ölüyor olduğunu söylediğinde başrahip onun için çok sevinmişti: "Tebrikler! Bu göz alıcı güzellikte bir haber. Seninle gelebilmeyi dilerdim." Göründüğü kadarıyla başrahip gerçekten samimi bir inanandı. Fakat tam olarak bu öykünün nadir ve beklenmedik olmasıdır ilgimizi çeken ve neredeyse bizi eğlendiren: Üzerinde "Savaşma seviş" yazan pankart taşıyan çırılçıplak bir genç kızın yanında "İşte samimiyet dediğin buna denir!" diye haykıran bir izleyicinin karikatürünü hatırlatır. Bir arkadaşlarının ölmek üzere olduğunu duyan Hristiyanların ve Müslümanların hepsi neden başrahibinkine benzer şeyler söylemezler? Dini bütün bir kadına doktor tarafından sadece bir kaç aylık ömrünün kaldığı söylendiğinde, neden tıpkı Seyşeller'de tatil kazanmış gibi heyecanla beklenen bu olay için kadının gözleri parlamaz? "Sabırsızlanıyorum!" Neden yatağının etrafındaki inançlı ziyaretçiler, çok daha önce gitmiş olanlara iletilmek üzere ona mesajlar yağdırmaz? "Gördüğünde Robert amcaya sevgilerimi mutlaka ilet...

The revolutionary thinking that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical rethinking and profound emotional readjustment. Small wonder that the late spiritual giant Basil Hume of London, England, claimed that Christians find it easier to believe that God exists than that God loves them.

The Princess was anxious that her sons should also see something of the real world beyond boarding schools and palaces. As she said in a speech on Aids: ‘I am only too aware of the temptation of avoiding harsh reality; not just for myself but for my own children too. Am I doing them a favour if I hide suffering and unpleasantness from them until the last possible minute? The last minutes which I choose for them may be too late. I can only face them with a choice based on what I know. The rest is up to them.’ She felt this was especially important for William, the future King. As she once said: ‘Through learning what I do, and his father to a certain extent, he has got an insight into what’s coming his way. He’s not hidden upstairs with the governess.’ Over the years she has taken both boys on visits to hostels for the homeless and to see seriously ill people in hospital. When she took William on a secret visit to the Passage day centre for the homeless in Central London, accompanied by Cardinal Basil Hume, her pride was evident as she introduced him to what many would consider the flotsam and jetsam of society. ‘He loves it and that really rattles people,’ she proudly told friends. The Catholic Primate of All England was equally effusive. ‘What an extraordinary child,’ he told her. ‘He has such dignity at such a young age.’ This upbringing helped William cope when a group of mentally handicapped children joined fellow school pupils for a Christmas party. Diana watched with delight as the future King gallantly helped these deprived youngsters join in the fun. ‘I was so thrilled and proud. A lot of adults couldn’t handle it,’ she told friends. Again during one Ascot week, a time of Champagne, smoked salmon and fashionable frivolity for High society, the Princess took her boys to the Refuge night shelter for down-and-outs. William played chess while Harry joined in a card school. Two hours later the boys were on their way back to Kensington Palace, a little older and a little wiser. ‘They have a knowledge,’ she once said. ‘They may never use it, but the seed is there, and I hope it will grow because knowledge is power. I want them to have an understanding of people’s emotions, people’s insecurities, people’s distress and people’s hopes and dreams.’ Her quiet endeavors gradually won back many of the doubters who had come to see her as a threat to the monarchy, or as a talentless and embittered woman seeking to make trouble, especially by upstaging or embarrassing her husband and his family. The sight of the woman who was still then technically the future Queen, unadorned and virtually unaccompanied, mixing with society’s poorest and most distressed or most threatened, confounded many of her critics.

Calls for social cohesion will fall on deaf ears if we see ourselves as a collection of individuals, rather than as a society of people with a share interest in each other's welfare.