From Rules to Virtue
Reimagining the moral life through the prism of the Beatitudes takes us from rules to virtues: from a rule-centered idea of morality to a virtue-centered idea of morality. The basic question changes from “How far…
Category: Catholicism
Today’s One-Liner (#209)
Is not virtue the health of the soul? –A.G. Sertillanges, O.P. The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods, trans. Mary Ryan
Celerity of the Saints
St Francis Solano, when under the impetus of love, would move like the wind so that no one could keep pace with him. On Christmas, a friar caught sight of him rushing along carrying some…
Today’s One-Liner (#208)
Be gentled with others, but stern towards yourself. –Saint Teresa of Avila, cited in Stephen Clissold, The Wisdom of the Spanish Mystics
Living Examples
The most notable new female community was the Missionaries of Charity, originally founded by an Albanian nun, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta (d. 1997), to work especially with the poorest of the poor in India—the abandoned…
Today’s One-Liner (#207)
We have the power to let the current pass through us and use us to produce the light of the world or we can refuse to be used and allow the darkness to spread. –Mother…
(Back to) Augustine
But there comes a time when we know that something is missing. And when this time comes, we need to know where to turn. Often, I will suggest, we should turn to Augustine himself. Without…
Today’s One-Liner (#205)
Moreover, when converts are well known, their example guides many others to salvation. –Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin, 163
Stories Matter
Stories move us in ways arguments and theories cannot. In ways we may not even notice, the stories of others rework the way we see the world. The stories of true heroes remind us of…
Today’s One-Liner (#204)
I felt charity enter into my soul, and the need to forget myself and to please others; since then I’ve been happy! –Saint Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul: Autobiography