Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The religious sense is being toward destiny

I read something really beautiful this morning. It appears at the end of chapter two of Luigi Giussani's Is It Possible to Live This Way?: An Unusual Approach to Christian Exisistence, Vol. 1 Faith. It is the first part of an answer Don Giussani gives to the request made by one of the participants to better explain his assertion that "There's only one alternative to Christ, nothing".

"Why did Christ come? The School of Community says that Christ came to educate humanity to its religious sense, that is, to educate humanity to understand, to affirm, to acknowledge that there's an ultimate purpose to all the movement of things. This ultimate purpose is God. Thus, Christ came to educate man in the religious sense; Christ came to educate man to do everything as a function of his destiny" (pg. 107).


God is the ultimate purpose because God is the origin. The return to origins is etched into physical reality.

May all we do today be a function of our destiny. Being educated to our religious sense entails a risk. Over on Come to See, Suzanne summarizes the risk by giving an outline of the first 38 pages of Giussani's The Risk of Education: Discovering Our Ultimate Destiny, a post that is well worth your time. While I am inadvertantly doing a daily round-up in light of being educated to destiny, I also draw your attention to an article in Homiletic and Pastoral Review by Angela Bonilla, entitled Humanae Vitae: Grave Motives to Use a Good Translation. A brief abstract of the article says, "Knowing when it is permissible to space births is crucial for Catholic couples
and they ought to have accurate moral direction"
. This article picks up on a key issue from my three lengthy HV posts. A diaconal bow to Fred ovet at Deep Furrows for pointing me to this great article.

Writing about those who live toward destiny, I would like to add to Suzanne's commendation of Paul's Communio blog, Always and Everywhere, which is a blog by Sara, a member of our School of Community who is preparing for life as a Poor Clare at Bethlehem Monastery in Barhamsville, Virginia.

5 comments:

  1. Hey! Thanks for sending me readers! Thanks especially for drawing my attention to Always and Everywhere. It is a beautiful blog. I told my friend Paul about your blog, too -- I think that you two have similar interests. I hope you get to meet him someday.

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  2. Thanks, Suzanne. I always look forward to checking in on Come to See. It is always an encounter because what you express always surprises me and challenges me. Similarly, I love for you meet Sara. I am hoping she will be at the Diaconia this year, which occurs prior to her novitiate.

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  3. I am really moved by the things that you write on your blog and often think how blessed the people of your parish are to have you as their deacon.

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  4. It really is my privilege to serve them, but thank you. Besides, your timing is great. I really needed to hear that this morning.

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