The Knitting Theologian

Just read this, and understand why I love St. Augustine. Dude lived 1600 years ago, but still rocks.

So, then, my brothers, let us sing now, not in order to enjoy a life of leisure, but in order to lighten our labors. You should sing as wayfarers do — sing, but continue your journey. Do not be lazy, but sing to make your journey more enjoyable. Sing, but keep going. What do I mean by keep going? Keep on making progress. This progress, however, must be in virtue; for there are some, the Apostle warns, whose only progress is in vice. If you make progress, you will be continuing your journey, but be sure that your progress is in virtue, true faith, and right living. Sing then, but keep going. (From the Liturgy of the Hours, volume 4, second reading from the Office of Readings for the Saturday of the Thirty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time.)

Yes, this morning marks the beginning of using volume 4 of the Liturgy of the Hours, and I was “moving back in,” looking at where I had left my ribbons back last November at the end of Ordinary Time, and I saw this wonderful passage.

I am full of gratitude and praise for God this morning, and my heart is singing within me.

Here is a wonderful meditation from St. Augustine pertinent to another verse in today’s Gospel:

To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Mark 4:25)

I found this meditation in Magnificat magazine, which I heartily recommend.

You are told to love God. If you say to me: Show me whom I am to love, what shall I say if not what Saint John says: “No one has ever seen God!” But in case you should think that you are completely cut off from the sight of God, he says: “God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God.” Love your neighbor, then, and see within yourself the power by which you love your neighbor; there you will see God as far as you are able.

Begin, then, to love your neighbor. Share your bread with the hungry and bring into your home the homeless poor; clothe anyone you see to be naked, and do not despise your own flesh and blood.

What will you gain by doing this? “Your light will burst forth like the dawn.” Your light is your God; he is your “dawn,” for he will come to you when the night of time is over. He does not rise or set but remains for ever.

By loving other people and caring for them you make progress on your journey. Where are you traveling if not to the Lord God, to him whom we should love with our whole heart, our whole soul, or our whole mind? We have not yet reached his presence, but we have our neighbor at our side. Support, then, this companion of your pilgrimage if you want to come into the presence of the one with whom you desire to remain for ever. (quoted in Magnificat Magazine, vol. 10, no. 12, January 2009, pp. 399-400)

In keeping with my post on secrets, I can see how I tend to isolate myself from others because of the shame I feel. But when I isolate myself from others I feel even more distant from God. The way around it, as I see from St. Augustine, is to reach out to others, to push aside my reticence and reluctance and acknowledge my need for others, for companions on this journey through life.