The following comes from:
Sermons of St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, S. J., 3
vols. (trans. Kenneth Baker; Keep the Faith, Inc., 2016), volume 1
Sermon Five: On the Same Second Sunday of Advent
. . . the words “he will do works
greater than these” do not mean he will perform greater miracles, but rather he
will convert more men to faith in me than I have converted; or, I will convert
more through his preaching, than I will convert by my own preaching. (p. 53)
Sermon Twenty-Three: On the Same First Sunday of Lent
Just as today Christ our Savior
because of his forty day fast is tempted by the devil, so also all of us, my
dear listeners, are tempted by Christ during this time of fasting for the same
number of days. But there is a great difference between the temptation by which
the devil tempted Christ and that by which Christ tempts. For the devil tempts
in order to lead us into sin, and by sin he acquires companions for himself in
punishment and torment; but Christ tempts us in order to test us. However, he
tempts us so that he may deservedly crown those who have been tempted and
tested. But it will not be less glorious for us not to succumb to the
temptation by which we are tempted by Christ, than it was today for our Lord to
elude all the attempts and deceits of his diabolical temptations. And as when
the temptations of the devil were overcome by the Lord, angels came down and
ministered to him, so also we, if after the Lord tempts us we are found to
be such as we should be, without any doubt will be carried to the heavenly
kingdom by the hands of angels in triumph and glory. (pp. 252-53)
Sermon Twenty-Four: On the Second Sunday of Lent
[Martin Luther is] like a spider
that extracts poison from sweet flowers, from which bees make honey, and like
sick men, who transform healthy foods into dangerous humors, from the same
place in Scripture which strongly urges us to do good works, from the same
place, I say, he reprehends good works. The way, he said, is narrow, therefore
be careful lest you burden yourself with good works. Therefore the opinion of
Luther will be bad for Tabitha who, as the Acts of the Apostle says, died full
of good works and acts of charity that she had done. (p. 266)
Sermon
Twenty-Seven: On the Feast of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary
Then, contrary to all the demons that red and white
flower appeared, which speaks in the Canticle of love and says: I am a rose
of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. At last that shoot of Jesse blossomed,
about which Isaiah previously had sung: There shall come forth a shoot from
the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. He bloomed in
Nazareth, which means Florid, and in the mouth of March, which is the month of
flowers. (p. 295)
But no one should think, on account of this,
that the Holy Spirit is the father of Christ, because he fashioned the body of
Christ; for the Holy Spirit did not generate Christ out his substance in the
way in which human children are generated; but he produced a body for him out
of the virginal blood, like the way in which a potter makes a vase from clay,
and an architect makes a house out of wood and stones. Do you say perhaps that
potters are the parents of their vases? And architects the parents of their
buildings? I think not; thus therefore also the Holy Spirit was not the father,
not the begetter; rather he was the builder, the author, the architects, the maker
of the Lord’s body. (p. 297)
