St. Augustine, What if I Don’t Feel Like Praying?
Question 007 What if I don’t feel drawn to prayer? Are you not drawn? Pray, then, that you might be drawn to him. It is urgent to overcome sentimentalism in our relationship with God. There is no sea so deep as the thoughts of God, who makes evil men to flourish and the good to suffer…it is upon that deep, in that profundity that every unbelieving soul is wrecked. Do you want to cross over [...]
At the East of the Garden of Eden God Placed the Cherubim, and a Flaming Sword To Guard the Way
Part III in a Series by Pseudo-Ermatinger The space shuttle Challenger lifts off from the Complex 39A launch pad, National Archives, 1983. The soul’s journey towards the divine may travel outward from herself, might propel herself outward and upward under her own power, her own ingenuity, her own vainglory. To be sure, the powers of man, of body, mind, and will are vast, multifaceted, and capable of circumscribing and bending the material order to his [...]
Spiritual Retreats Need Piety and Modesty
Originally Published at TAN Direction A charitable young man, a former parishioner of mine, heard that I was stuck in quarantine. He texted me, indicating that he had just finished a weekend retreat, was in the neighborhood, and could drop off some victuals for his reclusive ex-pastor. Not only was I moved by his kindness, I wanted to know more about his retreat. He was respectfully silent for a moment, and then thoughtfully said : [...]
St. Augustine, May I Pray With Just My Speech?
Question 005 So prayer is more than words? Let the “inner man” in whom Christ dwells by faith (Eph. 3:17) cry out to the Lord, not with the noise of lips alone, but with the affection of the heart…Unless you cry out to the Lord with your thought, the Lord does not hear you. from St. Augustine Answers 101 Questions on Prayer by Fr. Ermatinger. Man’s exterior actions must be in harmony with his [...]