Thanks for the quotation from Fosdick:  in this, he and Augustine are very
definitely broadcasting on my wave-length.  And, by the way, I appreciate
your subtle "disassociation" from Fosdick; but please know that it was his
thought, as expressed in this passage, that has meaning for me.  Logic
101--please pardon my mid-day didactic urge-- calls its "poisoning the well"
to denigrate an idea because of its source. All of us, I suspect--I know I
do--often fall into the fallacy of addressing primarily the origin rather
than the expression of thought itself.  Certainly, it can help mightily to
know the source to better understand the full meaning of the issue.   For
me, though,  the essence of free inquiry is to be able to pick and choose
wonderful nuggets of thought wherever I may find them.  Inspiration that
comes to me from such nuggets, of course, may bear little relationship to
the original intent of the author. Regards.  KnoxDuncan@...

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <chasrscott@...>
To: <faithandlife@...>
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 10:11 AM
Subject: [FaithandLife] PRAYER AND RELEASE and St. Augustine


>
> PRAYER AND RELEASE
>
> Brothers+
>
> Thinking of Lectio Divina and prayer, one’s thoughts tend to run in
another direction than toward Harry Emerson Fosdick.
>
> Fosdick was invited by an interdenominational committee of scholars to
write an introduction to “The Book of Prayers”, a collection of prayers
published in 1954.
>
> At the outset of his attempt to “point out some of the characteristic
qualities of genuine communion with God” Fosdick wrote the following three
paragraphs.
> ----------------------------------------
>
> Fosdick wrote:
>
> For one thing, a shift of attitude from the aggressiveness of daily life
to spiritual quietness, openness, hospitality is almost always present.
There are two aspects to every strong life – rootage and fruitage,
receptivity and activity, relaxation and tension, resting back and working
hard.  A man who cannot do the former can never do the latter well, never!
He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he
who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.  The offices of psychiatrists
are littered with folk who have mastered the techniques of activity and
aggressiveness and now are going all to pieces because they have failed to
master that other technique:  they have nothing to rest back on.
>
> Listen to this prayer from the great tradition of the Church:  “Let my
soul take refuge from the crowding turmoil of worldly thoughts beneath the
shadow of thy wings;  let my heart, this sea of restless waves, find peace
in thee, O God.”
>
> Whose prayer was that?  Saint Augustine’s.  A weak man?  One of history’s
momentous characters, from his early struggles with himself until at last,
after an immeasurably important contribution to the world, as Bishop of
Hippo in North Africa, he fell on sleep while the invading barbarians were
at the city’s gates and the Roman empire was tumbling down about his ears.
There is no understanding such a life without such prayer.  He had something
to rest back upon.
> Harry Emerson Fosdick
>
> May you find rest from your endeavors and peace as you celebrate Christ
Mass.
>
> Charles+
>
>
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