CCB wrote:
Everybody on this board needs to read...
"The Fire Within" by Thomas Dubay
http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Within-Teres ... 253&sr=1-4Father Dubay's synthesis of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa's teachings is absolutely fantastic. Anybody who has read or attempted to read St. Teresa knows how nice it is to hear here teachings put down in a way we beginners and novices can understand.
I enjoyed "Authenticity" by Fr. Dubay. A couple of quotes:
Discernment The most important elements in discerning the Holy Spirit are scarcely mentioned in the literature of the past decade. These important elements are the subject of this book. We will not repeat what has been amply said about processes and techniques. This we shall suppose. Our concern shall center on what is far more important.
Among things that are more important is a conversion readiness, for not all those who think they are listening to the Holy Spirit are listening to the Holy Spirit. This readiness implies so basic an inner change that we ought not easily to suppose we have achieved it. Scripture says a great deal about the conditions necessary before one is uncluttered enough to detect the gentle voice of God speaking in the depths of the person.
In one way discernment is most simple, that is, when one has become a saint. In another way it is complex, even impossible, that is, when one is a sinner. Because most of us would be inclined to select the latter category as self descriptive, the message of this volume is necessary. It is not written for illuminists, those who have so assured themselves that they have a privileged access to the Holy Spirit that no amount of external evidence will change their mind. It is written for us publicans who know ourselves to be sinners and ignorant of many things. It is written for the little ones and the repentant, because it is to these that the Father has chosen to reveal his mysteries (Lk 10:21 -22).
Discernment is no fad. It works. But only discernment according to the divine mind works. Anything less turns out to be another gimmick, a fad here today and gone tomorrow. The genuine article shares in the stability of its Author: Yesterday, today, yes and forever.
AuthenticityWhat is authenticity? Our English word derives from the Greek authentikos, primary or original. It refers to a correspondence to the factual situation, a not-being-false or merely an appearance. Authenticity is reality without sham. An ancient manuscript is said to be authentic when its origin is verified by adequate evidences, internal and external.
The human person is authentic to the extent that he lives the truth. He conforms his mind, words, actions to what is. His mind reflects reality and his speech reflects his mind. Synonyms therefore are honesty, fidelity, reliability, trustworthiness, genuineness.
But more in required. The human person must be whole to be completely authentic. In the present economy of salvation wholeness demands divinization. There is only one enough for man and that is the divine Enough. Anything less is incomplete, truncated. We are dynamically orientated to the absolute Holy One, to him who is fullness of beauty, truth, love, joy, ecstasy. There is consequently no fully authentic ‘natural man’. The Father made us in the image of his Son so that anything less than conformity to this image is a falling away from the authentikos, the original.
The genuine man or woman measures up to the real, to the factual situation. He is humble because he knows and professes himself to be neither more nor less than he actually is. He is singleminded in his pursuits, for he operates with the pure motivation of eating and drinking and doing all else for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31), a thing easy to say but impossible to do without its being a divine gift. He accepts the whole Gospel, not simply the popular, pleasant parts of it. He welcomes correction because he knows himself to be ignorant of many things and a sinner besides (Prov 9:7-9). He is patient under rejection for he knows that those who do live fully in conformity to Christ Jesus are sure to be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12). He is unafraid to speak out the truth, the unpopular truth (2 Cor 4:2). Especially is he authentic because he is a total lover of God, and love brings all the other ingredients of authenticity (1 Cor 13:4-7).
I'm currently reading Modern Physics Ancient Faiths by Steven M. Barr. I had encountered it after reading a longish essay based on it. I've summarized it in a series of posts on Science and Religion (link below has a category page named that)
DJ
