About a week after I had the experience of the Spirit that led to Thanks Jack, I had some time to kill so I went to my favorite used bookstore. My first stop is always the section on spirituality. On this day I was greeted by Life and Holiness
I had been thinking during the week about the post, especially about how distant I found myself from holiness and the lack of direction I felt about starting to work on the challenge in front of me.
I knew as soon as I read the Intro that this book had the potential to help. Not only did the Intro talk about holiness, but it couched the subject with references to grace, the active life, and how they relate to work. If you check past posts, you’ll find that work vexes me, so the linking of these subjects immediately captivated me. I have been looking for helpful resources on work for some time and this book promises to be just what I’ve searched for.
In all honesty, I haven’t made it past the Intro yet. Every time I read it, I find the need to slow down to make sure I understand just what it contains.
So I am now writing posts to help me sort it out.
I’ll start with a condensed outtake on holiness from the end of the Intro:
“The Christian striving for holiness (and the striving for holiness remains an essential of the Christian life) must then be placed today within the context of the Church’s action on the threshold of a new age. It is not permissible to delude ourselves with a retreat into a vanished past. Holiness is not and never has been a mere escape from responsibility and from participation in the fundamental task of man to live justly and productively in community with his fellow man……….
Christian holiness in our age means more than ever the awareness of our common responsibility to cooperate with the mysterious designs of God for the human race. This awareness will be illusory unless it is enlightened by divine grace, strengthened by generous effort, and sought in collaboration not only with the authorities of the Church but with all men of good will who are sincerely working for the temporal and spiritual good of the human race.”
