ST AUGUSTINE
(354 – 430)


left Quote

[On the paralytic who was lowered through the roof, in Mk 2:3-12]     When his bearers could not bring him in to the Lord, they opened the roof and lowered him down to the feet of Christ.  Perhaps you wish to do this in spirit: to open the roof and to lower your paralytic soul down to the Lord.  All its limbs are lifeless, it is empty of every good work, burdened with its sins, and weak from the illness brought on by its evil desires.   Since all its limbs are helpless, and the paralysis is interior, you cannot come to the physician.  But perhaps the physician himself is concealed within; for the true understanding of Scripture is hidden.  Reveal therefore what is hidden, and thus you will open the roof and lower the paralytic to the feet of Christ.

right quotation

 

In their many different idioms the classical spiritual writers have attempted to throw light on the eternal question of union with God. 
Every month we give you a brief passage from a spiritual classic.