.
"My soul cannot find rest, till it rests in You, O God."
The Eternal Wisdom
When I was just twenty it gave me great satisfaction that I managed to read, and understand, the Ten Categories of Aristotle without a teacher. I would mention the book at every opportunity, slipping the title in with a touch of awe, smiling to myself when lecturers would comment how difficult it had been for them to answer it.
And much good it did me! Indeed, it was harmful, because it encouraged me to think of You, O Lord, as if you were part of what you had made, instead of being its essence and origin. Sadly, I had my back toward the light and my eyes fixed on the darkness. I could understand without difficulty logic, rhetoric, geometry, music, and arithmetic, but I did not see that my intelligence itself was a gift of God and that all the true things I learned came from him, their source. What advantage was it to me that I had a nimble wit when all the while I turned from good and clung to evil? Little did I realize then how much better off were all those (as I saw them) "simple" souls who lacked my native intelligence but put their trust in God ...Saint Augustine
HUMILITY
Humility is a supernatural virtue whereby one is enabled to make a true and just estimate of himself and is inclined to hold himself and his accomplishments in contempt in recognition that all good arises from God alone. It is said "dependence on God gives wings to prayer" St. Ignatius terms it a relinquishment of "self-will, self-love, and self-interests." It is positive in not seeking honors and esteem of others, and self-condemning because man knows evil is his own doing. Humility is exercised toward God and neighbors: toward God who as the Creator gives man whatever he possesses, and toward one's neighbors by recognizing their worth in the eye's of God. This virtue is the opposite of pride and self pursuit, which is the root of all evil; hence humility is basic to the practice of all the virtues. It is fundamental of prayer, notably the prayer of simplicity, for Christ rewarded the Syro-phoenician women for her humility (Mk 7:26-30); it is likewise to be found in Christ's example (Phil 2:1-11)
"We should pray to the divine Spirit for the grace to be genuinely self denying. In this is a release like know other, a treasure found in heaven.
And once more…There will true Glory be, where no one will be praised by mistake or flattery; true honor will not be refused to the worthy, nor granted to the unworthy; likewise, no one unworthy will pretend to be worthy, where only those who are worthy will be admitted. Their true peace will reign, where no one will experience opposition either from self or others. God himself will be virtue's reward; he gives virtue and has promised to give "Himself" as the best and greatest reward that could exist…"I shall be their God and they will be my people…" This is also the meaning of the Apostle's words: "So that God may be all in all." God himself will be the goal of our desires; we shall contemplate him without end, love him without end, and praise him without weariness. This gift, this state, this act, like eternal life itself, will assuredly be common in all...Catholic ecyclopedia
"Better to know the planner than the plan"
Lord, you are not pleased with someone simply because that person is knowledgeable. In fact, it would be possible for one to know everything there is to know in the whole wide world, except for knowing you, and consequently know nothing. Just as another person could live in blissful ignorance of the great sum of human knowledge, but know you, and be both happy and content. After all, who is better placed - the person who owns a tree and gives You thanks for all the good things it provides; or the one who owns a similar tree and knows its weight and dimensions down to the least leaf, but does not realize that You are its Creator and that it is through You that he or she has use of it? In essence, the latter person is ignorant, though full of facts, and the former person wise, though bit short on details.
So in general we can say that the most important knowledge is knowledge of You, O Lord."...St. Augustine
All in All
Whenever there is true fellowship and love between people, God's spirit is always present. In all human relationships, God's spirit is what brings them together. When a life is changed through the channel of another person, it is God who makes that change using the person as a means. The moving power behind all spiritual things, all personal Relationships between people is God, who is always there. No personal relationships can be right without God's presence.
………….From the Word among Us
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
God grant me
the serenity
to accept
the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and
wisdom to know the difference. "Lord, let me know and do your
will."O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be
consoled as to
console; to be
understood
as to understand;
to be loved
as to love.
For it is in giving
that
we receive,
it is in
pardoning that
we
are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life.
by the RCIA team 2004 Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Hyde Park - Utah
Updated by Richard Horrell / Lay Missionary Catholic RCIA 2019 -COPYRIGHT All rights reserved
Phone: 530-903-0121 Email: rchorrel@aol.com
Treasured Writing
Evangelization
- Isaiah 6:8b
