I am finally reading Pope
Benedict’s Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi.
This passage jumped out at me yesterday:
This is
precisely the point made, for example, by Saint Ambrose, one of the Church
Fathers, in the funeral discourse for his deceased brother Satyrus: “Death was
not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the
beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy. Human life, because of sin ... began
to experience the burden of wretchedness in unremitting labour and unbearable
sorrow. There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life
had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing”. A little earlier, Ambrose
had said: “Death is, then, no cause for mourning, for it is the
cause of mankind's salvation”.
I have never thought of death like this before. I am glad I am reading
it now (in the 2nd half of my life) instead of reading it and
forgetting about it (in my youth.)
Also, I didn’t know St. Augustine wrote an extended letter on prayer. I
have to get this.
Finally, just received a late Christmas present (shipped to the wrong
address): Robert Hugh Benson’s The
Friendship of Christ. Will start on it soon.
Oremus pro invicem!
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