One of the largest free collections of sermon illustrations, organized by topic, scripture, and theological tradition.

Stay updated

New illustrations, features & occasional discounts

Browse

By Topic
By Scripture
By Tradition
By Emotion
By Source Type
Sermon Slides

Resources

Sample Illustrations
About
Premium
Contact Us
SermonWise AI
PewSearch
ChurchWiseAI

Support

Contact Us
+1 (888) 603-0316
support@churchwiseai.com
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Refund Policy

Home›Traditions›Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Illustrations

Reading scripture in unity with Sacred Tradition and the teaching authority of the Church.

Key question: “How does this passage illuminate and cohere with the deposit of faith handed down through Sacred Tradition?”

24,095 sermon illustrations through the Roman Catholic lens

Poetry

The Reaper and the Flowers

There is a Reaper, whose name is Death, And, with his sickle keen, He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, And the flowers that grow between. "Shall I have naught that is fair?" saith he; "Have naught but the bearded grain?

Universal

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

159 words

PreviousPage 920 of 1004Next

Poetry

The Jewish Cemetery at Newport

How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves, Close by the street of this fair seaport town, Silent beside the never-silent waves, At rest in all this moving up and down!

Universal

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

393 words

Poetry

Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

Braggart

With careful step to keep his balance up He reels on warily along the street, Slabbering at mouth and with a staggering stoop Mutters an angry look at all he meets.

Farewell! If Ever Fondest Prayer

if ever fondest prayer For other's weal availed on high, Mine will not all be lost in air, But waft thy name beyond the sky. 'Twere vain to speak--to weep--to sigh: Oh! more than tears of blood can tell, When...

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

104 words

Poetry

Sonnet 65: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o'ersways their power, How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower?

Of That High World

If that high world, which lies beyond Our own, surviving Love endears; If there the cherished heart be fond, The eye the same, except in tears-- How welcome those untrodden spheres! How sweet this very hour to die! To soar...

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

106 words

Poetry

Sonnet 151: Love is too young to know what conscience is

Love is too young to know what conscience is, Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?

To the Author of a Sonnet

Thy verse is "sad" enough, no doubt: A devilish deal more sad than witty! Why we should weep I can't find out, Unless for _thee_ we weep in pity. Yet there is one I pity more; And much, alas!

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

109 words

Poetry

Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever longing still

My love is as a fever longing still, For that which longer nurseth the disease; Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, The uncertain sickly appetite to please.

Fill the Goblet Again. a Song

for I never before Felt the glow which now gladdens my heart to its core; Let us drink!--who would not?--since, through life's varied round, In the goblet alone no deception is found.

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

261 words

Poetry

Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples

The sun is warm, the sky is clear, The waves are dancing fast and bright, Blue isles and snowy mountains wear The purple noon's transparent might, The breath of the moist earth is light, Around its unexpanded buds; Like many...

To What Serves Mortal Beauty?

To what serves mortal beauty '—dangerous; does set danc- ing blood—the O-seal-that-so ' feature, flung prouder form Than Purcell tune lets tread to?

Universal

Gerard Manley Hopkins

144 words

Poetry

To Constantia: Stanzas 1 and 2

As restored by Mr.

Behold, As Goblins Dark Of Mien

BEHOLD, as goblins dark of mien And portly tyrants dyed with crime Change, in the transformation scene, At Christmas, in the pantomime, Instanter, at the...

Universal

Robert Louis Stevenson

116 words

Poetry

Sorrow

To me this world's a dreary blank, All hopes in life are gone and fled, My high strung energies are sank, And all my blissful hopes lie dead.-- The world once smiling to my view, Showed scenes of endless bliss...

Holy Sonnet XVIII: Show me, dear Christ, thy Spouse, so bright and clear

is it She, which on the other shore Goes richly painted? or which, robbed and tore, Laments and mourns in Germany and here? Sleeps she a thousand, then peeps up one year? Is she self-truth and errs? now new, now outwore?

Birds in Alarm

The firetail tells the boys when nests are nigh And tweets and flies from every passer-bye. The yellowhammer never makes a noise But flies in silence from the noisy boys; The boys will come and take them every day, And...

Bill and Joe

COME, dear old comrade, you and I Will steal an hour from days gone by, The shining days when life was new, And all was bright with morning dew, The lusty days of long ago, When you were Bill and I was Joe.

Universal

Oliver Wendell Holmes

359 words

Poetry

The Old Man Dreams

OH for one hour of youthful joy! Give back my twentieth spring! I'd rather laugh, a bright-haired boy, Than reign, a gray-beard king. Off with the spoils of wrinkled age! Away with Learning's crown! Tear out life's Wisdom-written page, And dash its trophies down!

Universal

Oliver Wendell Holmes

213 words

Poetry

Sonnet 21: So is it not with me as with that Muse

So is it not with me as with that Muse, Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse, Who heaven itself for ornament doth use And every fair with his fair doth rehearse, Making a couplement of proud compare' With...

Porphyria's Lover

The rain set early in to-night, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite, And did its worst to vex the lake: I listened with heart fit to break.

To Eliza

what fools are the Mussulman sect, Who, to woman, deny the soul's future existence; Could they see thee, Eliza! they'd own their defect, And this doctrine would meet with a general resistance.

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

339 words

Poetry

Song. Translated From the German

grasp the dire dagger and couch the fell spear, If vengeance and death to thy bosom be dear, The dastard shall perish, death's torment shall prove, For fate and revenge are decreed from above.

Universal

Percy Bysshe Shelley

123 words