Check back Sunday morning for my monthly homily.
St. Jerome, pray for us.
"In the remotest part of a wild and stony desert, burnt up with the heat of the scorching sun so that it frightens even the monks that inhabit it, I seemed to myself to be in the midst of the delights and crowds of Rome. In this exile and prison to which for the fear of hell I had voluntarily condemned myself, I many times imagined myself witnessing the dancing of the Roman maidens as if I had been in the midst of them: In my cold body and in my parched-up flesh, which seemed dead before its death, passion was able to live. Alone with this enemy, I threw myself in spirit at the feet of Jesus, watering them with my tears, and I tamed my flesh by fasting whole weeks. I am not ashamed to disclose my temptations, but I grieve that I am not now what I then was"
"but his love for God and his Son Jesus Christ was extraordinarily intense" Therein lies the difference between effective vitriolic pens or not-- some forget to hit themselves in the chest with a stone. We're so blessed there are still a few who struggle and labor to speak righteously without either vitriol or stone.
Posted by: H | September 30, 2006 at 12:02 PM