The chief cause of inner unhappiness is egotism or selfishness. He/She who gives himself/herself importance by boasting is actually showing the credentials of his/her own worthlessness. Pride is an attempt to create an impression that we are what we actually are not.

How much happier people would be if instead of exalting their ego to infinity, they reduced it to zero. They would then find the true infinite through the rarest of modern virtues: humility. Humility is truth about ourselves. A man/woman who is six feet tall, but who says: "I am only five feet tall," is not humble. He/She who is a good writer is not humble if he/she says: "I am a scribbler." Such statements are made in order that there might be a denial and thus win praise. Rather he/she would be humbler who says: "Well, whatever talent I have is a gift of God and I thank Him for it." The higher the building the deeper the foundation; the greater the moral heights to which we aspire the greater the humility. As John the Baptist said when he saw Our Lord Jesus Christ: "I must decrease; He must increase." Flowers humbly depart in the winter to see their mother roots. Dead to the world, they keep house under the earth in humble humility, unseen by the eyes of men/women. But because they humbled themselves, they are exalted and glorified in the new springtime.

Only when a box is empty can it be filled; only when the ego is deflated can God pour in His blessings. Some are already so stuffed with their own ego that it is impossible for love of neighbour or love of God to enter. By seeking their own constantly, everyone disowns them. But humility makes us receptive to the giving of others. You could not give unless I took. It is the taker that makes the giver. So God, before He can be Giver, must find a taker. But if one is not humble enough to receive from God, then he/she receives nothing.

A man possessed by the Devil was brought to a Father of the Desert. When the saint commanded the devil to leave, the Devil asked: "What is the difference between the sheep and the goats whom the Lord will put at His right and His left Hand on the day of Judgement?" The saint answered: "I am one of the goat." The Devil said: "I leave because of your humility."

Many say: "I have laboured for years for others and even for God, and what did I get out of it? I am still nothing," The answer is, they have gained something; they have gained the truth of the own littleness - and of course, great merit in the next life. One day two men were in the carriage. One said" "There is not enough room for you here in this seat." The other said: "We will love each other a little more, and then there will be room enough." Ask the man: "Are you a saint?" If he answers in the affirmative, you can be very sure that he is not.

The humble man concentrates on his own errors, and not upon those of others; he sees nothing in his neighbour but what is good and virtuous. He does not carry his own faults on his back, but in front of him. The neighbour's defects he carries in a sack on his back, so he will not see them. The proud man, on the contrary, complains against everybody and believes that he has been wronged or else not treated as he deserves. When the humble man is treated badly he does not complain for he knows that he is treated better than he deserves. From a spiritual point of view, he who is proud of his intelligence, talent or voice, and never thanks God for them is a robber; he has taken gifts from God and never recognised the Giver. The ears of barley which bear the richest grain always hang the lowest. The humble man is never discouraged, but the proud man falls into despair. The humble man still has God to call upon; the proud man has only his own ego that has collapsed.

One of the loveliest prayers for humility is that of Saint Francis: "Lord, make me a instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let there be love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may seek, not so much to be consoled as to consoled; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is dying that we are born to Eternal Life."  

BY  VENERABLE  FULTON  J.  SHEEN

-   WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY   - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -    

"Come to Me," pleads our Blessed Saviour, "all you that labour and are burdened; I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon yourselves, and learn from Me; I am gentle and humble of Heart; and you shall find rest for your souls."

TRUST the past to the Mercy of God, the present to His Love, and the future to His Providence. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )

WHEN an evil thought is presented to the mind, we must immediately endeavour to turn our thoughts to God, or to something which is indifferent. But the best rule is, instantly to invoke the names of Christ Jesus and Mary, Mother of God, and to continue to invoke them until the temptation ceases. - Saint Alphonsus Liguori - ( 1696 - 1787 )

God is not a deceiver, that He should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )

WHEN we have once placed ourselves entirely in the hands of God, we need fear no evil. If adversity comes, He knows how to turn it to our advantage, by means which will in time be made clear to us. - Saint Vincent of de Paul - ( 1580 - 1660 ) 

WAIT upon the Lord: wait upon HIM by avoiding all sin. He will come; doubt it not. To this firm hope, join the practice of virtue, and even in this life you will begin to taste the ineffable joys of Paradise. - Saint Bernard - ( 1090 - 1153 ) 

The greater and more persistent your confidence in God, the more abundantly you will receive all that you ask. - Saint Albert the Great - ( d. 1280 )

God is full of compassion, and never fails those who are afflicted and despised, if they trust in Him alone. - Saint Teresa of Avila - ( 1515 - 1582 )

HOPE not in thyself, but in thy God. For if thou hopest in thyself, thy soul is troubled within thee, since it hath not yet found that whereby it may be confident concerning thee. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )

THE virtue of Patience is so great a gift of God, that we even preach the patience of Him who bestows it upon us. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - ( 354 - 430 )

THE EXAMINED LIFE  - The Confessions changes focus at this point and becomes more philosophical and theological. Here we begin to hear the self-examination of the Bishop of Hippo - Saint Augustine - and his interpretation of the nature of knowledge and of creation itself. -

-  Page 10  - Yet these are not all that the immeasurable capacity of my memory retains. Here also is all that I have learned of the liberal sciences and have not yet forgotten - removed as it were to some inner place, which is yet no place. In this case, it is not the images which are retained, but rather, the things themselves. For whatever literature, whatever art of debating, however many kinds of questions I know, they exist in my memory as they are - I have not taken in their image and left out the thing itself. It is not as though it had sounded and passed away like a voice retained in the ear, which can be recalled as if it still sounded when it no longer sounded. Nor is it like an odour that evaporates into the air as it passed, affecting the sense of smell, and from it carries an image of itself into the memory which we renew when we recall it. Nor is it like food, which verily has no taste in the belly, but yet still tasted in some way in the memory; nor as anything which the body feels by touch and which the memory still conceives when removed from us. For those things themselves are not transmitted into the memory, but their images are caught up and stored, with an admirable swiftness, as it were, in wonderful cabinets, and from there wonderfully brought forth by the act of remembering.

But now when I hear that there are three kinds of questions - whether a thing is, what it is, of what kind it is - I do indeed hold the images of the sounds which make up these words, and I know that those sounds passed through the air with a noise and then ceased to be. But the questions themselves which are conveyed by these sounds, I never reached with any sense of my body, nor do I ever see them at all except by my mind. Yet I have not laid up their images in my memory, but these very questions themselves. How they entered into me, let them say if they can; for I have gone over all the avenues of my flesh, and cannot find how they entered. For the eyes say, "If those images were coloured, we reported about them." The ears say, "If they made a sound, we gave you knowledge of them." The nostrils say, "If they have any smell, they passed by us." The taste says, "Unless they have a flavour, do not ask for me." The touch says, "If it has no size, I did not handle it, and if did not handle it, I have no account of it."

Whence and how did these things enter my memory? I do not know. For when I learned them, I gave no credit to another man's mind, but recognised them in mine; and approving them as true, I commended them to my mind, laying them up as it were, where I could get at them again whenever I wished. There they were then [in my mind] before I stored them in my memory. Where then, or why, when they were spoken, did I acknowledge them and say, "So it is! It is true," unless they were already in the memory, But so thrown back and buried as it were in deeper recesses, that if the suggestion of another had not drawn them forth, I may have been unable to conceive of them? [Augustine here is very near the Platonic teaching, that learning is remembering. In his Retractions (1, 8:2) he gave up this opinion, saying rather that the mind has a natural affinity for the things of the intelligible world.] 

Thus we find that to learn those things whose images do not come to us by the way of the senses, but which we know by themselves as they are, without images, is nothing more than taking the things the memory already has - scattered and unarranged. By marking and careful attention we gather them, as it were in that same memory where they lay unknown before scattered and ignored, so that they can readily occur to the mind now familiarized with them. And how many things of this kind does my memory hold which have already been discovered and as I said, placed as it were handily, which we are said to have learned and come to know? And if I for some short space should cease to call them back to mind, they would again be so buried, and glide back, as it were, into the deeper recesses, that they would have to be drawn out again as if new from the same place. For there is nowhere else for them to go, but they must be drawn together again that they may be known. That is to say, they must be collected together from their scattering. From this the word to cogitate comes. For cogo [I collect] and cogito [I recollect] have the same relation to each other as ago [I do] and agito [I do frequently], facio [I make] and facito [I make frequently]. But the mind is appropriated to itself this word, cogito, so that, not what is collected anywhere, but only what is recollected, that is, brought together in the mind, is properly said to be cogitated or thought upon.

The memory also contains innumerable principles and laws of numbers and dimensions, none of which have been impressed upon it by any bodily sense, since they have neither colour, sound, taste, smell nor touch. I have heard the sound of the words by which they are signified, but the sounds are other than the things themselves. Fir the sounds are different in Greek than in Latin, but the things are neither Greek nor Latin, nor other language. I have seen the lines of architects, the very finest, like a spider's thread; but the truths they express are not the images of those lines, which my physical eye saw. The architect knows them without any use whatsoever of a body, by recognizing them within himself. I have perceived, also, with all the senses of my body the numbers of the things which we count, but those numbers themselves by which we count are different. They are not the images of the things we count, and therefore they simply are. Let him who does not see these truths laugh at me for saying them. While he derides me, I will pity him.

 The same memory contains the feelings of my mind - not in the same way that my mind contains them when it feels them, but in quite a different way, according to a power peculiar to memory. For without rejoicing, I remember that I have rejoiced. Without sorrow, I recollect my past sorrow. And what I once feared, I review without fear; without desire, I call to mind past desire. Sometimes, on the other hand, I remember my past sorrow with joy, and my past joy with sorrow.

This is not to be wondered at as regards the body, for the mind is one thing, the body another. If I therefore remember some past pain of the body with joy, it is not so strange. But this very memory itself is mind - for when we want something remembered, we say "See that you keep this in mind." And when we forget, we say, "it did not come to my mind," or "It slipped my mind," calling the memory itself the mind.

 Since this is so, how is it, that when I remember my past sorrow with joy, the mind has joy while the memory has sorrow? The mind rejoices over the joyfulness which is in it, while the memory is not sad while retaining the sadness in it. Does the memory perchance not belong to the mind? Who will say so? The memory then is, as it were, the belly of the mind, and joy and sadness are like sweet and bitter food. When these are committed to the memory, they are, as it were, passed into the belly, where they may be stowed but not tasted. It is ridiculous to consider this comparison, but yet they are not totally unalike.

But, consider this. It is out of my memory that I say there are four basic emotions of the mind - desire, joy, fear and sorrow. Whatever I may discuss about them, by dividing each into its own particular kind, and by defining what it is, it is from my memory that I find what to say and bring it out from there. Yet I am not disturbed by these emotions when I call them to mind and remember them. Yes, and before I recalled and brought them back, they were there, and so could be brought forth by recollection. Perhaps as meat is brought up out of the stomach by chewing the cud, these things are brought out of the memory by recollection. Why, then, does the man who is thinking of them not taste in his mouth the sweetness of joy or the bitterness of sorrow? Does the comparison fail in this because it is not alike in all respects? For who would ever willingly speak of it, if every time we named grief or fear we should be compelled to feel sad or fearful? And yet we could not speak of them if we did not find in our memory, not only the sounds of their names according to images impressed on it by our bodily senses, but also the notions of the things themselves, which we never received by any avenue of the flesh. But the mind itself recognized them through the experience of its own passions, committed them to the memory; or else the memory itself retained them without having them actually assigned to it [by the conscious mind].

But whether this is done by images or not, who can readily say? Thus, I name a stone, I name the sun, and the things themselves are not present to my senses, but their images are present to my memory. I name a bodily pain, yet it is not present with me when nothing aches. Yet, unless its image was present in my memory, I would not know what to say of it, nor how to tell pain from pleasure. I name bodily health. When I am sound in body, the thing itself is present with me; yet unless its image were also present in my memory, I could not recall what the sound of this name signified. Nor would the sick, when health was named, recognize what was being spoken of, unless the same image were retained by the power of memory, although the thing itself was absent from the body. I name numbers by which we count; and it is not their images but the numbers themselves that are present in my memory. I name the image of the sun, and that are present in my memory. For I do not recall the image of its image, but the image itself is present to me when I call it to mind. I name memory, and I recognize what I name. But where do I recognize it but in the memory itself? It is also present to itself by its image, and not by itself?

When I name forgetfulness and recognize what I name, how could I recognize it if I did not remember it? I do not speak of the sound of the name, but the thing which it signifies. If I had forgotten, I could not recognize what that sound meant. When I remember memory, memory itself is, by means of itself, present with itself; but when I remember forgetfulness, there are present both memory and forgetfulness: memory by which I remember, and forgetfulness which I remember....... -  Page 10  -

BY  SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO  

-   WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY   - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -   

THIS is the business of our life. By labour and prayer, to advance in the grace of God, till we come to that height of perfection in which, with clean hearts, we may behold God. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - (354 - 430)

OUR actions have a tongue of their own; they have an eloquence of their own, even when the tongue is silent. For deeds prove the lover more than words. - Saint Cyril of Jerusalem - (315 - 386)

REMEMBER that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love. - Saint Therese of Lisieux - (1567 - 1622)

It is not the actual physical exertion that counts towards a man's/woman's progress, nor the nature of the task, but the spirit of faith with which it is undertaken. - Saint Francis Xavier - (1506 - 1552)

Our business is to love what God would have done. He wills our vocation as it is. Let us love that and not trifle away our time hankering after other people's vocations. - Saint Francis de Sales - (1567 - 1622)

We should remember that a cheerful disposition goes a long way towards making the burdens of life bearable.

CHEERFULNESS strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life. Therefore  the servant of God ought always to be in good spirits. - Saint Philip Neri - (1515 - 1595)   

We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him present within us. - Saint Teresa of Avila - (1515 - 1582)

AT this very moment I may, if I desire, become the friend of God. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - (354 - 430)

THE EXAMINED LIFE  - The Confessions changes focus at this point and becomes more philosophical and theological. Here we begin to hear the self-examination of the Bishop of Hippo - Saint Augustine - and his interpretation of the nature of knowledge and of creation itself. -

-  Page 9  - You, Lord, are my judge, because, although  no man/woman knows the things of a man/woman but the spirit of a man/woman which is in Him, yet there is something of man/woman which the spirit of man/woman that is in Him, itself, does not know. But you, Lord, know him/her completely, for You made him/her. And although I despise myself in your sight and account myself dust and ashes, I know something of You which I do not know of myself. Truly, now we see through a glass darkly, not face to face as yet. As long, then, as I am absent from you, I am more present with myself than with you. And I know that you cannot be violated, but I do not know which temptations I can resist and which I cannot. There is hope, because you are faithful, who will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, so that we may be able to bear it. I will confess then what I know of myself, I will confess also what I do not know of myself. What I know of myself I know by your light shinning upon me; and what I do not know of myself, I continue not to know until my darkness becomes as the noonday in the light of your countenance.

I love you, Lord, without any doubt, but with assured certainty. You have stricken my heart with your Word, and I love you. Yes, also, heaven and earth and all that is in them on every side bid me to love you. They will not cease to say to everyone, so that they are without excuse. But more profoundly, you will have mercy on whom you will have mercy, and compassion on whom you will have compassion. Otherwise, the heaven and the earth speak your praises to deaf ears.

But what do I love when I love you? Not the beauty of bodies, nor the fair harmony of time, nor the brightness of the lights, so gladsome to our eyes; not the sweet melodies of various songs, nor the fragrant smell of flowers and ointments and spices; not manna and honey; not the limbs that physical love likes to embrace. It is none of these that I love when I love my God. Yet I love a kind of light, a kind of melody, a kind of fragrance, a kind of food, and a kind of embrace when I love my God: the light, the melody, the fragrance, the food and the embrace of the inner man/woman, where their shines into my soul what space cannot contain, and there sounds what time cannot carry away. I breathe a fragrance which no breeze scatters, and I taste there what is not consumed by eating; and there I lie in the embrace that no satiety can ever separate. This is what I love when I love my God.

And what is it? I asked the earth, and it answered me, "I am not He." And whatever is in the earth confessed the same. I asked the sea and its deeps, and the living, creeping things, and they answered, "We are not your God; seek Him above us." "I asked the moving air; and the whole air with its inhabitants answered, "Anaximenes was deceived; I am not God," ( From Cicero: "After Anaximander came Anaximenes, who taught that the air is God." On the Nature of the Gods. ) I asked the heavens, sun, moon, stars. "No," say they, "we are not the God whom you seek." And I replied to all the things that throng about the senses of my flesh, "you have told me of my God, that you are not He. Tell me something of Him." And they cried, "He made us." My questioning of them was my thoughts about them, and their form of beauty gave the answer. And I turned myself to myself, and said to myself, "What are you?" And I answer, "A man." And behold, in me there appear both soul and body, one outside and the other within. By which of these should I seek my God? I had sought Him in the body from earth to heaven, as far as I could send my eyesight as messengers. But the better part is the inner, for to it, as the ruler and judge, all the bodily messengers reported the answers of heaven and earth and all things in them, who said, "We are not God, but He made us." These things my inner man knew by means of the outer. I, the inner man, knew them. I, the whole frame of the world about my God; and it answered me, "I am not He, but He made me."

Is not this outward appearance visible to all who have use of their senses? Why then does it not say the same thing to all? Animals small and great see it, but they cannot ask it anything, because their senses are not endowed with reason, so they cannot judge what they see. But men can ask, so that the invisible things of God may be clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. But in loving them, they are brought into subjection to them, and subjects cannot judge. ( Plotinus said that to admire, to take as an object of pursuit anything different from one's own nature, is to acknowledge one's inferiority to it. ) Nor do these things answer unless the questioners can judge. The creatures do not change their voice, they do not appear one way to this man, another to that; but appearing the same what to both, they are dumb to one and speak to the other. Rather, they speak to all, but only those understand who compare the voice received externally with the internal truth. For truth says to me, "Neither heaven nor earth nor any other body is your God." This, their very nature says to him who sees them, "They are a mass; a mass is less in part than in the whole." Now I speak to you, O my soul, your are my better part, for you quicken the whole mass of my body, giving it life. Nobody can give life to a body. But your God is the Life of your life.

What do I do, then, when I love my God? Who is He who is so high above my soul? But my very soul I will ascend to Him. I will soar beyond that power by which I am united to my body, filling its whole frame with life. But I do not find God by that power, for then, so could horse and mule that have no understanding find Him, for it is the same power by which their bodies live. ( The Latin word is anima - physical life. Augustine sees animals as possessing the interior sensus which correlates the data of sense perception, but lacks ratio - the reason, which forms judgements. ) But there is another power, not only that by which I am made alive, but that, too, by which I imbue my flesh with sense, which the Lord has made for me, commanding the eye not to hear and the ear not to see; but commanding the eye that I should see through it, and the ear that I should hear through it, and the several other senses, what is to each their own proper places and functions. Through these different senses, I, as a single mind, act. I will go beyond this power of mine, too, for the horse and mule also have this power, for they also perceive through their bodily senses.

I will move on, then, beyond this power of my nature, rising by degrees to him who made me. And I come to the fields and spacious palaces of my memory, where the treasures of innumerable images are stored, brought there from all sorts of things perceived by the senses. Further, there is stored up in memory whatever thoughts we think, either by enlarging or diminishing, or changing in any other way those things which the senses have brought in; and whatever else has been committed and stored up, which forgetfulness has not yet swallowed up and buried. When I enter there, I ask what I want brought forth, and some things appear instantly; others must be sought after longer, and are brought, as it were, out of some inner storage place. Still others rush out in crowds, and while only one thing is desired and asked for, they leap into view as if to say, "Do you perhaps want me?" I drive these away from the face of my remembrance with the hand of my heart until what I wanted is unveiled and appears in sight out of its secret place. Other things come up readily, in unbroken order, as they are called for - those in front giving way to those that follow; and as they make way, they are hidden from sight, ready to come back at my will. All of this takes place when I repeat something by heart.

And all these things are preserved distinctly and under general heads, each having entered my memory by its own particular avenue: light and colours and forms of bodies, by the eyes; all sorts of sounds by the ears; all smells by the avenue of the nostrils; all tastes by the mouth; and by the sensation of the whole body, what is hard or soft, hot or cold, smooth or rugged, heavy or light - either external or internal to the body. All these things the great recesses, the hidden and unknown caverns of memory receive and store, to be retrieved and brought forth when needed, each entering by its own gate. Yet the things themselves do not enter, but only the images of the things perceived are there, ready to be recalled in thought. But how these images are formed, who can tell? It is plain, however, which sense brought each one in and stored up. For even while I dwell in darkness and silence, I can produce colours in my memory if I choose, and I can discern between black and white. Sounds do not break in and alter the image brought in by my eyes which I am reviewing, though they also are there, lying dormant and stored, as it were, separately. I can call for these, too, and they immediately appear. And though my voice is still and my throat silent, I can sing as much as I will. Those images of colours do not intrude, even though they are there, when another memory is called for which came in by way of the ears. So it is with other things brought in and stored up by the other senses - I can recall them at my pleasures. Yes, I can tell the fragrance of lilies from violets, though I smell nothing; I prefer honey to sweet wine, smooth surface to rough ones - at the time neither tasting nor handling, but only remembering.

These things I do inside myself, in that vast hall of my memory. For present there with me are heaven, earth, sea and whatever I could think on them, in addition to what I have forgotten. There also I meet with myself, and recall myself - what, when and where I did a thing, and what my feelings were when I did it. All that I remember is there, either personal experiences or what I was told by others. Out of the same store I continually combine with the past, fresh images of things experienced, or what I have believed from what I have experienced. From these I can project future actions, events and hopes, and I can reflect on all these again in the present. I say to myself, in that great storehouse of my mind, filled with the images of so many and such great things, "I will do this or that, and this or that will follow." "Oh, would that this or that might be!" "May God prevent this or that!" This is the way I talk to myself, and when I speak, the images of all I speak about are present, out of the same treasury of memory. I could not say anything at all about them if their images were not there.

Great is the power of memory, exceedingly great, O my God: a large and boundless chamber! Who has ever sounded the depths of it? Yet this is a power of mine, and belongs to my nature. But I do not myself comprehend all that I am. Therefore the mind is too narrow to contain itself. But where can that part be which it does not itself contain? Is it outside it and not inside? How then does it not comprehend itself? A great wonder arises in me; I am stunned with amazement at this. And men go outside themselves to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the width of the ocean and the circuits of the stars, passing by themselves. They do not wonder at the fact that when I spoke of all these things, I did not see them with my eyes, yet I could not have spoken of them unless I then inwardly saw with my memory the mountains, waves, rivers and stars which I have seen, and that ocean which I believe to exist, and with the same vast spaces between them as if I saw them outside myself. Yet I did not actually draw them into myself by seeing them, when I beheld them with my eyes, but only their images. And I know which sense of the body impressed each of them on me.

Yet these are not all that the immeasurable capacity of my memory retains. Here also is all that I have learned of the liberal sciences and have not yet forgotten - removed as it were to some inner place, which is yet no place............... -  Page 9  -  

BY  SAINT  AUGUSTINE  OF  HIPPO  

-   WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY   - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -   

                                                       - Prayer as Obedience to Mission -

A THEOLOGIAN OF OUR TIME tells us that our dialogue with God is of a precarious nature; it is basically just compensating for our lack of deeper communication and concord with God. If we had never sinned, then loving God and responding to his words would be something natural for us. It is precisely after that first sin is committed that God asks the question, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). Here begins the history of this dialogue we call prayer. In prayer, God makes it possible for us to draw close to him once again, for it is he who asks for us, it is he who calls out to us. We have seen in earlier reflections that this drawing close can happen only by way of the flesh: the good Samaritan "came near" the beaten man (Luke 10:29-37), and the very Word of God drew close to us by "becoming flesh" (John 1:14).

When the Word of God draws close to us, we see the essence of obedience: "Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). The letter to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 to show how this same obedience applies also to the incarnation: "Then I said, 'See, I have come to do your will, O God' (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)" (Hebrews 10:7). This is the obedience of Abraham's "Here I am!" (Genesis 22:1-3), which reaches its culmination in the cry of Jesus in Gethsemane: "yet not what I want, but what you want" (Mark 14:36). In each case, flesh is required, for only flesh can be divested and passed through the crucible of contempt, dislodgement, derision, and humiliation. "Adam, where are you?" asks God, and it is Adam's flesh that must obey the command uttered in that first dialogue with God: "By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread" (Genesis 3:19). This bread that Adam eats will be earned by the sweat of submitting his flesh to humiliation and deprivation. Flesh is required too in Abraham's "Here I am!" to which God replies, "Take your son - your only son, whom you love, Isaac" (Genesis 22:1-2). Even Jesus prays "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want" (Mark 14:36).

If we observe carefully, we see that this prayer of Jesus is intimately linking with obedience to a mission. We might say that it is through prayer that Jesus first discovers and then reinterprets his own mission (cf. Mark 1:38; Luke 4:42-43; Mark 6:46; John 6:15; and the prayer in Gethsemane, as we just saw). Similarly, it is through prayer that Saint Paul's apostolic mission becomes effective (cf. 2 Cor. 1:11; Rom. 10:1; 2 Thess. 3:1), and that is why he prays unceasingly (cf. Rom. 1:9-10; Col. 1:9-20; 2 Thess. 1:3; 2:13). The first disciples also turn to prayer to discover the mission God is giving them, especially in difficult times (cf. Acts 4:24-30). The community does not ask God to punish the persecutors or even to stop the persecution but begs only for the courage to be obedient to their mission, which is to proclaim Christ to the world no matter what the opposition. 

Our ability to seek out, discover, define, and orient our mission - and be obedient to it - comes to us and grows in us only through prayer. Nonetheless, a prayerful attitude is not something detached from reality; rather, it is deeply rooted in our prior experience of concrete reality. It is a constant, persistent ritornello even in the midst of difficulties; it requires confidence in God, for "who else will put up security for me?" (Job 17:3; cf. Job 16:19-20; 19:25). Despite vigorous protests and heated discussions with God, every believing soul possesses deep within itself a fidelity that keeps it true to its mission and a love for God's word that no opposition succeeds in destroying (cf. Jer. 20:9). Even when persons of prayer experience pain and express lament, they feel at a deeper level the renewal of confidence that comes from joy, faith, and hope (cf. Jer. 15:16; 17:14). This indestructible zone of fidelity within us gives us a serenity beyond all explanation; it is a basic experience that is key for all types of prayer and for discernment of spirits.

At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him; and when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose." (Luke 4:42-43)

As you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayer of many. (2 Cor. 1:11)

After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: 'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.' "For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grants to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." (Acts 4:24-30)

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. (Jer, 15:16)

"Hope does not disappoint," Paul tell us (Rom. 5:3-5). It is to this conviction that we must recourse. If we lose sight of this reference point, then we lose our stability. Our prayer becomes ever more "illusionary"; our flesh becomes "spiritualized" or psychological"; our obedience becomes caprice, :But to what will I compare this generation?" asks Jesus. "It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom in vindicated by her deeds." (Matt. 11:16-19). Jesus calls this generation adulterous" (Matt. 12:39; 16:4) because it has lost its orientation toward fidelity; it has no solid foundation in hope to which it can refer doubt or suffering or persecution. The people of this generation are guided simply by their fancies, by their "likes" and "dislikes." Because they know nothing of prayer or obedience or oblation of the flesh, this generation is unable to recognize the "Word made flesh." They fabricate their own mission in life because their hearts are so unruly that they're incapable of receiving from the Lord a mission; they are unable to adore him in the immolation of obedience. These are the people whose "fulfillment" consists in becoming certified bachelors and spinsters, not in being consecrated to a God-given mission that impels them to empty themselves completely, starting with the dispossession that comes with prayer.

The obedience required for prayer affects our lives and wounds own flesh. Let me explain. The ordinary conception of prayer is "asking God for things" or "asking God to change situations that are difficult for us." No doubt, this is true prayer; even the Lord urges us to pray this way. But there is another basis for our prayer, arising from the certainty of our hope, as I mentioned above. Prayer touches the very depths of our flesh; it touches our heart. It is not God who changes; rather, it is we who change, through obedience and surrender in prayer.

The prophet Elijah went out in search of God. He was terrified and wished to die. But when he encountered God, his heart was changed (1 Kings 19:1-18). Such also was the case of Moses when he interceded for his people. It was not God who changed his mind but Moses. He had known the God of wrath, but now he knew the God of forgiveness. He discovered God's true face at this moment in his people's history: the face of fidelity and forgiveness. He learned how to take a just measure of his people's sin. Prayer is therefore the privileged place where God reveals himself; it is the space where we move from "what people think" about God to God as he truly is. Prayer is the place where silent faith grows before the revelation of mystery: "See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth" (Job 40:4). "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes sees you" (Job 42:5). When God sent an angel to Elijah to encourage him to keep going (cf. 1 Kings 19:5-8), or when the stubborn Jonah saw everything as hopeless, the Lord's response was always the same: "Go back the way you came" (1 Kings 19:15). But this is not the turning back that results just from stagnant nostalgia or romantic restoration; rather, it is letting God's response shatter the discouragement and the uselessness we feel in carrying out our mission so that new possibilities are opened up toward the future. Restored by prayer, the prophet Elijah retracted his steps and found a more fruitful path: he called Elisha to assist him in his work (1 Kings 19:19-21). Prayer, by dispossessing us in obedience, makes us realize that we are suspended in constant tension between what is finished and what is beginning. For persons of prayer something is always ending and something else is always commencing - nothing ever stands still.

                                                       For Prayer and Reflection

"Then he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, knelt down, and prayed, 'Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.' Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground" (Luke 22:41-44).

BY  HIS  HOLINESS  POPE  FRANCIS / JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO

Open Mind,  Faithful Heart - Reflections on Following Jesus - Translated by Joseph V. Owens, 

 -     WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY     - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -