Hola,

Saint Francis of Assisi is considered by many Catholics the greatest saint. And the Franciscans, throughout most of their history, have put a great emphasis on their vow of poverty. He said:

"We should have no more use or regard for money in any of its forms than we have for dust. Those who think it is worth more, or who are greedy for it, expose themselves to the danger of being deceived by the Devil."

The Gospel said (Mt 6:24) that we can't serve God and money. When we look at the importance of money in our civilization today, we can see how far Western society has strayed from its roots.

If we say that religion is a scam, shouldn't we also say the life is a scam?

You always find interesting tidbits when you dig into Augustine (or Aquinas and Aristotle). Here's something I read recently in Augustine's answer to how the Pharaoh's magicians perform theirs miracles:
"Every visible thing whatsoever in this
world has an angelic power placed over it."
Augustine, 83 questions (q. 79.1)

I never thought of that.

Saint Augustine starts his famous book Confessions with :

“You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”

I believe that the Church has produced one great theologian per millennium. Augustine, in the 1st and Aquinas in the 2nd. Just as one can say that Aquinas "baptized" Aristotle, Augustine took Plato great insight that "Ideas (or forms) are real" and put these Ideas in God's Mind.

Nevertheless, as one gets older, it is getting harder to deny what Augustine says at the beginning of his Confessions.

I'm not really surprised by the lack of interest in this post. But I did some more readings and I found a comment that seems to describe pretty well the situation:

"It was interesting to see how individuals reacted to the Declaratio. Most of them, including myself, paid almost no attention to the newspaper articles. Many people thought that this was a thoroughly outdated issue—but not their unconscious. A whole series of dream reactions to the Declaratio were brought to me in my analytic practice."
Marie-Louise von Franz, The Archetypal Dimension of the Psyche
(von Franz was a close collaborator of Jung.)

Jung wrote in his book Answer to Job:
... given me the courage to enter into the discussion of the religious question and especially into the pros and cons of the dogma of the Assumption—which, by the way, I consider to be the most important religious event since the Reformation.
Jung, Answer to Job, 752

I know little about Jung, but I recall that he couldn't get straight answer to his questions about God from a bunch of relatives (starting with his father) who were pastors. So it is not surprising that he didn't have a good opinion of organized religion. But nevertheless, when I read the above text last week, I was puzzled to say the least.

I have a great devotion to Our Lady, so maybe I should be looking at this Jung more seriously.

Hi,

Since no one replied to your post and you placed it in the Christian forum, let me try to say something not completely useless.

A few years ago, I met a woman who had been badly hurt and remember telling her that the Devil is never happier than when you are miserable. He has done his job.

Love, beyond feelings, emotions, attraction, is essentially to will the good. And perfect love exists in the Trinity. The Father's love for the Son, and the Son's love for the Father give rise to the Holy Ghost. What we live in this world is a finite reflexion of this perfect love. And because it is finite, it is not perfect.

Even if tomorrow, you meet the "charming prince" and you think you have found your soul mate, the One, eventually you'll find that he's not perfect as you are not perfect. But your love is supposed to bear fruits. Traditionally, this was the role of the family, but today, the family, as an institution, is in bad shape. I will stop here.

Hi,

I woke up early this morning and one of the first thoughts that came to my mind was the image, used by saint Teresa of Avila in her classic (or maybe other place) "The Interior Castle", of the caterpillar and the butterfly as the soul ascend to union with God.

She compares this ascension to the transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly. What struck me this morning was how fitting was the comparison and the result. The caterpillar left its life on
the ground, or on a tree, and starts to fly displaying all its beauty.

It is Sunday, a day of thanksgivings, so let thank God for all the beauty around us and in us.

Have a nice day.

I believe Socrates repeated, from the Temple in Delphi: Know Thyself.