Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: happiness

We are miserable as we think that happiness is something it is not

The blind perversity of our misery is lamentable indeed. Although we desire happiness ardently, not only do we not do those things by which we may obtain our desire but rather, with contrary disaffection, take steps to add to our misery. In my opinion, we would never do this, if a false image of happiness… Read More ›

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Under the hue of happiness we grasp at real unhappiness

The blind perversity of our misery is lamentable indeed. Although we desire happiness ardently, not only do we not do those things by which we may obtain our desire but rather, with contrary disaffection, take steps to add to our misery. In my opinion, we would never do this, if a false image of happiness… Read More ›

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God cannot be regarded with indifference

So loving and generous a God cannot simply be regarded with indifference, or be a matter for dispassionate, rational speculation. The Cistercians, therefore, are far readier to speak to God than about God: Now, therefore, Lord, in complete faith I worship you. You who are God, the one Cause of all that is, the Wisdom… Read More ›

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Earthly desires are shadows

The earthly desires men cherish are shadows. There is no true happiness in fulfilling them. Why, then, do we continue to pursue joys without substance? Because the pursuit itself has become our only substitute for joy. Unable to rest in anything we achieve, we determine to forget our discontent in a ceaseless quest for new… Read More ›

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I have found him whom my soul loves

‘I found him,’ the soul says, ‘I found him’, though previously he sought and found me like a stray sheep, like a lost coin, and in his mercy anticipated me. He forestalled me, I say, in finding me when I was lost. He anticipated me, though I deserved nothing. He found me astray, he anticipated… Read More ›

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Happiness with no pricetag

There are various ways of being happy, and every man has the capacity to make his life what it needs to be for him to have a reasonable amount of peace in it. Why then do we persecute our­selves with illusory demands, never content until we feel we have conformed to some standard of happiness… Read More ›

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