Pondering Tidbits of Truth - January 14, 2016

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Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.

 




Thomas a Kempis

He who finds Jesus finds a good treasure...And he who loses Jesus loses a great deal, more than if he lost the whole world.  He who lives without Jesus is poor indeed, and he who is with Jesus is rich indeed.

(From The Imitation of Christ)

Father Benedict Baur

This sickness of soul [tepidity] is characterized by the fact that one more or less deliberately treats venial sins lightly. It is a state in which one has neither zeal nor fervor. Being in a state of aridity, or of desolation, or even of feeling repugnance for the things of the spirit or of God, is not tepidity; for in spite of such feelings the ardor of the  will and the determination to do right can remain strong and steadfast. Even if someone still frequently commits venial sins, it does not mean that he is tepid, provided he is sorry for them and fights against them. Tepidity is a state of conscious and deliberate lack of fervor, a state of enduring carelessness and half-heartedness, which pretends to justify itself with maxims like: 'one should not be petty'; 'God is too big and magnanimous to bother about such little things'; 'everybody else does the same', and so on."

(From Frequent Confessions)

St. Augustine

Observe how the sea comes in through any leaky places in the hull, and little by little fills the hold of the boat.. Unless it is expelled, the ship goes down...Imitate the sailors: their hands never rest until they have baled her out thoroughly; let yours never rest from doing good. In spite of everything, however, the bottom of the ship will fill with water again, because the weak points of our human nature are always there; and you will have to man the pumps again."

(From Sermon 16)