On Prayer to God

"The purpose of the prayers and the meditations [of Anselm] is to stir up the mind of the reader to the love or fear of God, or to self-examination. The are not to be read in a turmoil, but quietly, not skimmed or hurried through, but taken a little at a time, with a deep and thoughtful meditation" (pg. 89)

Almighty God, merciful Father, and my good Lord,

have mercy on me, a sinner.

Grant me forgiveness of my sins.

Make me guard against and overcome

all snares, temptations, and harmful pleasures. (5)

May I shun utterly in word and indeed,

whatever you forbid,

and do and keep whatever you command.

Let me believe and hope, love and live,

according to your purpose and your will. (10)

Give me heart-piercing goodness and humility;

discerning abstinence and mortification of the flesh.

Help me to love and pray to you,

praise you and meditate upon you.

May I act and think in all things according to your will (15)

purely, soberly, devoutly,

and with a true and effective mind.

Let me know your commandments, and love them,

carry them out readily, and bring them into effect.

Always, Lord, let me go on with humility to better things (20)

and never grow slack.

Lord, do not give me over

either to my human ignorance and weakness

or to my own deserts,

or to anything, other than your loving dealing with me.

Do you yourself in kindness dispose of me, (25)

my thoughts and actions, according to your good pleasure,

so that your will may always be done

by me and in me and concerning me.

Deliver me from evil (30)

and lead me to eternal life

through the Lord.

St. Anselm, "Prayer to God," trans. Sister Benedicta Ward, S.L.G. (1973).

On Father God, Father Abraham, Stones And Faith

Always, we should be cautious in appealing to Religion (Judaism), Ethnicity (Being Jew) or Morality (having the Law). It is by faith alone. Consider the following. In Luke 3:8, John the Baptist states:

8 Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

Compare that with Paul in Romans 9:6-8.

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

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)