At present, it is sufficient to mention that Plato determined the final good to be to live according to virtue, and affirmed that he only can attain to virtue who knows and imitates God—which knowledge and imitation are the only cause of blessedness. Therefore he did not doubt that to philosophize is to love God, whose nature is incorporeal. Whence it certainly follows that the student of wisdom, that is, the philosopher, will then become blessed when he shall have begun to enjoy God.
…But the true and highest good, according to Plato, is God, and therefore he would call him a philosopher who loves God; for philosophy is directed to the obtaining of the blessed life, and he who loves God is blessed in the enjoyment of God.
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—City of God, VIII, 8, St. Augustine
“It is gratifying to realize that, in our day too, the Christian vision, presented in its breadth and integrity, proves immensely appealing to the imagination, idealism and aspirations of the young, who have a right to encounter the faith in all its beauty, its intellectual richness and its radical demands.”
—Pope Benedict XVI to Bishops of the United States
“And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing.”
—Job 26
“Get used to lifting your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day.”
—St Josemaria Escrive (via melicinthenaked)
“What is beauty but something that is responded to with emotion?…So, if he wanted the heights of joy, he must have, if he could find it, a great love. But in books again, great joy through love seemed always to go hand in hand with frightful pain. Still, he thought, looking out across the meadow, still, the joy would be worth the pain - if, indeed, they went together. If there were a choice - and he suspected there was - a choice between, on the one hand, the heights and the depths and, on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he, for one, here and now chose the heights and the depths.”
—A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken
“If we were caught up in love, we were no less caught up in beauty, the mystery of beauty. Essentially we were pagan, but it was a high paganism. We worshiped the spirits of earth and sky; we adored the mysteries of beauty and love. Early spring became full spring. The orchard was a sea of white blossoms where we drifted enraptured in starlight and sunlight. Sometimes we walked in the rain, and we pressed our faces into masses of damp cool lilacs. I picked little posies of lily-of-the-valley to pin on to her blouse. However often it has happened to other loves, it was the greatest glory we had ever known.”
—Sheldon Vanauken (via thepneuma)
“Forgiveness is not a denial of wrong-doing, but a participation in the healing and transforming love of God which reconciles and restores.”
—Pope Benedict XVI
