Wise Words on Wednesday: To fall in love with God
To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to see Him the greatest adventure; to find Him the greatest human achievement
– St. Augustine of Hippo
Tag: St. Augustine
Blessed are the Gifts
A couple of days ago on Facebook, my friend Rachel referred to the “seven gifts of the Spirit”. These are the gifts mentioned in the Prophet Isaiah:
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel [right judgement] and might [fortitude],
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord [piety]…
– Isaiah 11:2-3
I commented briefly on Rachel’s Facebook posting, saying that St. Augustine associated these seven gifts with Christ’s beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-10). In today’s post I wanted to explain in a little more detail what St. Augustine taught about the relationship between these gifts and the beatitudes…
Man’s Maker
“Man’s maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.”
― St. Augustine of Hippo
When will then be now?!
As I was finishing off St. Augustine’s Confessions, I read the section in Book Eleven where he devotes a substantial amount of ink to the subject of time:
Who is there who can say to me that there are not three times… the past, present, and future, but only present, because these two are not? Or are they also; but when from future it becomes present, comes it forth from some secret place, and when from the present it becomes past, does it retire into anything secret?
For where have they, who have foretold future things, seen these things, if as yet they are not? For that which is not cannot be seen. And they who relate things past could not relate them as true, did they not perceive them in their mind. Which things, if they were not, they could in no way be discerned. There are therefore things both future and past. – The Confessions, Book XI, Chapter 17, St. Augustine
As I was reading this, I couldn’t help but think of this scene from the Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs:
I really hope I’m not the first person to have read The Confessions and thought of this…
The article When will then be now?! first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
Rest In Peace
A few years ago I went on a pilgrimage to Rome with some friends from Washington DC. We spent a wonderful few days touring the sights and praying in some of the most beautiful churches on earth.
Sadly, this weekend I received a message on Facebook that one of the priests who accompanied us, Fr. Bill Dunn, recently died. A doctor for thirty years before entering the seminary, he was a kind and gentle soul. I hadn’t met him prior to our trip, but he and I had the opportunity to become better acquainted on one of our itinerary-free days in “The Eternal City”. We ended up wandering around the city in a search for the best cappuccino money could buy:
Fr. William Dunn: Rest In Peace
The natural human response at the death of a friend is one of mourning, sadness at being physically parted from a loved one. For the Christian, however, death is not the end. As Christians, we also respond with thanksgiving, praising God for allowing us to share in the life of one who loved the Lord so deeply. Finally, the Catholic also responds with petition, that God will have mercy on our friend’s soul and grant entrance into Heaven. I say it is a Catholic’s natural response but, in truth, I think it is the natural response of every Christian, Catholic or otherwise. We want the best for our loved ones, in this life and the next, so we naturally want to intercede for them in this life and the next.
Listening to the Liturgy
A couple of days ago I wrote a post entitled Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi but I realized today that I never explained what that phrase actually means. Bad Pilgrim!
Long before there was the Nicene Creed or the official Biblical canon, there was the worship of the Church. Ever since Pentecost, Christians have gathered together to pray and to celebrate the Sacraments. Therefore, when issues arose in the Church, such as when the canon was being solidified or the creeds were being written, the Bishops would look to the worship of the Church to provide their theological framework in which to address these issues.
It is to this principle that “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi” refers. It is a Latin phrase which means:
“The law (‘lex’) of prayer (‘orandi’) is the law of belief (‘credendi’)”
This phrase is first found in the works of a Fifth Century Christian writer called Prosper, who was a disciple of St. Augustine:
“Let us consider the sacraments of priestly prayers which, having been handed down by the apostles, are celebrated uniformly throughout the whole world and in every catholic Church so that the law of praying might establish the law of believing“ – Prosper of Aquitaine
It’s a bit like the phrase “You are what you eat”, maybe something like “You believe what you pray”. This is why liturgy was so important to the ancient Church and it’s why it’s important today.
I’ll admit, it took me a long to really wrap my head around why Catholics put such an emphasis on what happens on Sunday mornings. It was only when I started studying the worship of the Early Church that I began to realize its importance and begin to understand the teaching and creedal role of the liturgy. Our liturgy demonstrates what is important to us. It expresses (among other things) what we believe about God, how we understand ourselves and the Church.
So why am I bringing this up? Well, yesterday afternoon I went to Vespers at my Byzantine parish and noticed a couple of things in the liturgy that got me excited which I wanted to share…
Reading List Update
Last year I didn’t complete my Reading List and so to encourage me to finish it this year I’m going to post an update on the 1st of every month with my progress.
