Catholic Schools of Spirituality -- Which Style Speaks to You?

[Gregory_I]

Augustinian for me.

Why? Because the church has said that the books st, Augustine wrote on grace and predestination are to be understood as her own teaching. POpe Hormisdas said that I believe.

Also, it makes good sense out of predestination and God’s sovereignty and takes seriously the consequences and effects of original sin, something most modern Catholics seem to have almost no grasp of unfortunately.

It is necessary to fully understand the darkness of the human condition without grace in order to rejoice properly over our salvation.

Maybe so many people are so mediocre because they do not understand the distance between good and evil, and they simply haven’t read church dogma.

TO me, it is necessary for me to first acknowledge, that before my baptism, I was a slave to sin. I was a slave of the devil. I had acquired the guilt of Adam’s sin as MY OWN simply by being conceived, I was under the wrath of God, and he was not happy with me. I was an enemy of GOd and NOT his friend, all my desires were inclined toward selfishness and I could never will enough to desire him as he deserves or love him as he deserves. I was powerless to make my way to him, because I was powerless to will it. I had no desire for him. This is the disposition of every human infant from the moment of their conception. I was justly condemned, I was conceived as condemned, born in a prison.

But then he called me, and me moved my will, yet I moved with it and called the movement “mine” though it was the will of God working in me to will and to work, And I felt the delight of his grace, and I desired it so much, that although I retained the capacity to resist his will, I never would. HE called me to the water, where for the first time, at my baptism, I was justified. Hopefully I will be glorified, and hopefully I will persevere; as he wills, and as I cooperate.

 

[TrueLight]

Augustinian for me.

Why? Because the church has said that the books st, Augustine wrote on grace and predestination are to be understood as her own teaching. POpe Hormisdas said that I believe.

Also, it makes good sense out of predestination and God’s sovereignty and takes seriously the consequences and effects of original sin, something most modern Catholics seem to have almost no grasp of unfortunately.

It is necessary to fully understand the darkness of the human condition without grace in order to rejoice properly over our salvation.

Does the Augustinian approach focus on how unworthy we are? Does it focus on penance and sin as opposed to an intimate relationship with God? In other words, does it see God as more distant?

But then he called me, and me moved my will, yet I moved with it and called the movement “mine” though it was the will of God working in me to will and to work, And I felt the delight of his grace, and I desired it so much, that although I retained the capacity to resist his will, I never would. HE called me to the water, where for the first time, at my baptism, I was justified. Hopefully I will be glorified, and hopefully I will persevere; as he wills, and as I cooperate.

Beautifully said.

 

[TrueLight]

…Devotion to the love of Jesus for us should be pre-eminently a devotion of love for Jesus. It is characterized by a reciprocation of love;** its aim is to love Jesus who has so loved us, to return love for love**.

Since, moreover, the love of Jesus manifests itself to the devout soul as a love despised and outraged, especially in the Eucharist, the love expressed in the devotion naturally assumes a character of reparation, and hence the importance of acts of atonement, the Communion of reparation, and compassion for Jesus suffering.

But no special act, no practice whatever, can exhaust the riches of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. The love which is its soul embraces all and, the better one understands it, the more firmly is he convinced that nothing can vie with it for making Jesus live in us and for bringing him who lives by it to love God, in union with Jesus, with all his heart, all his soul, all his strength.

Taken From: newadvent.org/cathen/07163a.htm

Yes, and nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Do you primarily see Jesus as someone who is suffering?

I’ve always wondered if those devoted to the Sacred Heart also see Jesus in his role of Judge of the Living and the Dead.

 

[Gregory_I]

Does the Augustinian approach focus on how unworthy we are? Does it focus on penance and sin as opposed to an intimate relationship with God? In other words, does it see God as more distant?

Beautifully said.

NO, it does not emphasize an impersonal relationship. What it emphasizes is the utter dependance of the soul upon God for EVERYTHING. Our will is not free enough to WIll God unless he first CHOOSESE to give us the grace to ACTUALIZE the true freedom for our will.

St. Augustine makes an awesome point: Suppose you have a man struggling with lust. Suppose he feels he does not want to lust, but he keeps lusting and peeping indecently at women. suppose he, fights, and fights, yet his will cannot rise above his flesh, or if it does, it is only sporadically and for a moment. WOuld you call such a will “free?”

No, as our Lord says, “He who serves sin is a slave to sin.” Our wills are free enough to be culpable, but, without grace, they are not free enough to WILL the supernaturally good. Only when a man is empowered by God’s grace to choose the supernaturally good is he truly and fully free, because it is only THEN that he CAN CHOOSE to will what he OUGHT to will: The highest good.

AUgustinianism DOES say; “Lord I am not worthy.” But it also says “nevertheless, you have willed to share your life with me, and for this I thank you, and I love, and will to desire you.”

I would not say sin is the primary motivator, I would say Augustinianism takes the differences between good and evil seriously and strives to portray each accurately.

 

[TrueLight]

NO, it does not emphasize an impersonal relationship. What it emphasizes is the utter dependance of the soul upon God for EVERYTHING. Our will is not free enough to WIll God unless he first CHOOSESE to give us the grace to ACTUALIZE the true freedom for our will.

St. Augustine makes an awesome point: Suppose you have a man struggling with lust. Suppose he feels he does not want to lust, but he keeps lusting and peeping indecently at women. suppose he, fights, and fights, yet his will cannot rise above his flesh, or if it does, it is only sporadically and for a moment. WOuld you call such a will “free?”

No, as our Lord says, “He who serves sin is a slave to sin.” Our wills are free enough to be culpable, but, without grace, they are not free enough to WILL the supernaturally good. Only when a man is empowered by God’s grace to choose the supernaturally good is he truly and fully free, because it is only THEN that he CAN CHOOSE to will what he OUGHT to will: The highest good.

AUgustinianism DOES say; “Lord I am not worthy.” But it also says “nevertheless, you have willed to share your life with me, and for this I thank you, and I love, and will to desire you.”

I would not say sin is the primary motivator, I would say Augustinianism takes the differences between good and evil seriously and strives to portray each accurately.

Great summary. Thanks!