Tag: confusion
Keep your head clear of static
Clearly, the “powers” and “elements” which in Paul’s day dominated men’s minds through pagan religion or through religious legalism, today dominate us in the confusion and the ambiguity of the Babel of tongues that we call mass-society. Certainly I do not condemn everything in the mass media. But how does one stop to separate the… Read More ›
The reason for inner confusion
I believe the reason for the inner confusion of Western man is that our technological society has no longer any place in it for wisdom that seeks truth for its own sake, that seeks the fullness of being, that seeks to rest in an intuition of the very ground of all being. Without wisdom, the… Read More ›
The undertow
There is always a downside to any gift; a dark undertow that if not watched can turn any talent into a tyrant that can at times ruin a life. This underside of our gifts is also something that is needed, for when something is overdone, or compulsive, there is always a price to pay if… Read More ›
Work is healthy but Agitation destroys
Work occupies the body and the mind and is necessary for the health of the spirit. Work can help us to pray and be recollected if we work properly. Agitation, however, destroys the spiritual usefulness of work and even tends to frustrate its physical and social purpose. Agitation is the useless and ill‑directed action of… Read More ›
Spirit of Our Time is Division
There is a difference between “truth” and “information.” We are deluged with the latter. We are starved for the former. On social media, we have much access to information about people but not the truth of their essence. Meanwhile, it has become nearly impossible to access objective and clean media. Surely you have noticed how… Read More ›
Look for the Church which the world hates
There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church—which is, of course, quite a different thing. These millions can hardly be blamed for hating Catholics because Catholics “adore statues;” because they “put the… Read More ›
The futility of analyzing “the good”
The more one seeks “the good” outside oneself as something to be acquired, the more one is faced with the necessity of discussing, studying, understanding, analyzing the nature of the good. The more, therefore, one becomes involved in abstractions and in the confusion of divergent opinions. The more “the good” is objectively analyzed, the more… Read More ›
The Problem of Individualism
We have to recognize that a spirit of individualism and confusion has reduced us to an ethic of ‘every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This ethic, unfortunately sometimes consecrated by Christian formulas, is nothing but the secular ethic of the affluent society, based on the false assumption that if everyone is… Read More ›
Seek Peace within Yourself First
All men seek peace first of all with themselves. That is necessary, because we do not naturally find rest even in our own being. We have to learn to commune with ourselves before we can communicate with other men and with God. A man who is not at peace with himself necessarily projects his interior… Read More ›