On Catechesis And Caritas

Our salvation begins with God's initiation and grace. Similarly, our sanctification too will be a product of God's grace by the work of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, we are not perfected in knowing, but we are perfected in love. We will not overcome sin by hating sin but by loving Jesus.

All the divine precepts are, therefore, referred back to love, of which the apostle says, "Now the end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and a faith unfeigned." Thus every commandment harks back to love. For whatever one does either in fear of punishment or from some carnal impulse, so that it does not measure up to the standard of love which the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts--whatever it is, it is not yet done as it should be, although it may seem to be. Love, in this context, of course includes both the love of God and the love of our neighbor and, indeed, "on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" --and, we may add, the gospel and the apostles, for from nowhere else comes the voice, "The end of the commandment is love," and, "God is love."

- St. Augustine, Enchirdion on Faith, Hope and Love, trans Albert C. Outler (1955), XXXII.

On Science And Nominalism

Maritain, an Aristotelian-Thomist roasts the failure of modern science and nominalism

‎The error of pseudo-scientific mechanism clearly supposes the error of nominalism. If the universal doesn't directly or indirectly designate an essence but only a collection of individual cases, its not at all possible to understand how scientific law can be necessarily the succession of singular events contingent.

- Jacques Maritain, Degrees of Knowledge (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999).

On Sin And Daily Mortification

If sin be subtle, watchful, strong, and always at work in the business of killing our souls, and we be slothful, negligent, foolish, in proceeding to the ruin thereof, can we expect a comfortable event? There is not a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so while we live in this world.

- John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, in Overcoming Sin and Temptation, ed. Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2006).

On Time And Distance

Arlington, TX - 0 mi (12:52 pm)

Fort Worth, TX - 23 mi (1:14 pm)

Waco, TX - 99 mi (2:18 pm)

Austin, TX - 191 mi (3:35 pm)

San Antonio, TX - 265 (4:57 pm)

Laredo, TX - 430 mi (7:10 pm)

Total time 6 hr 19 min

On Existentialism And Modern Skepticism

An escalator ride is a good time to reconsider, to reconsider everything: where are you from? Where are you going? Who are you? What is your real name? What are you after?

- Oskar Matzerath in Guntar Grass, The Tin Drum, (1964)

On Hegel, Marx And Materialism

There is, however, as much materialism in Hegel as in Marx. Since matter is for [Hegel] certainly a stage in the begriff. (Just as there is also a strong strain of teleological idealism in the supposedly scientific materialism of Marx.)

- J.N. Findlay, Hegel: A Re-Examination (New York: Macmillan, 1958).

On Old Perspectives For New Perspectives

‎The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel through the fact that w respect to salvation no one is excluded whether he should come as a Jew, Greek, or barbarian. For the Savior says equally to all, 'Come to me all you that labor and are burdened.

- Origen's Commentary on Romans 1:17 trans Schek (CUAP)