Our society values niceties over virtues. We embrace being crass while doing everything in our power not to offend. We tolerate everything but believe in nothing. And when these paradoxical forces converge, they cancel each other out and create a potent strain of mediocrity that dilutes the meaning of all human interaction.
This is an excerpt from a CRISIS article by Steve Skojek entitled
This is an excerpt from a CRISIS article by Steve Skojek entitled “The Efficacy of Happiness.”
The dynamic he describes has been a potent force in my experience, which at many times can comically lead one to emotional impotence which belies any façade of maturity or pretense one tries to portray. As we approach Colloquium, I hope we can truly appreciate all that Colloquium lays before us all a sign of worthiness before our Creator, the God of Loveliness. Imagine the strength the last fiat of Mary during her pieta. And imagine how much happiness and joy Mary has brought to innumerable souls since her Assumption, both while they lived in this dimension and hoped for grace in the next.
O God of loveliness,
O Lord of Heaven above
How worthy to possess
My hearts devoted love
So sweet Thy Countenance,
So gracious to behold
That one, one only glance
To me were bliss untold.
Thou art blest Three in One
Yet undivided still
Thou art that One alone
Whose love my heart can fill
The heavens and earth below,
Were fashioned by Thy word
How amiable art Thou
My ever dearest Lord!
A. Liquori/trans. E. Vaughan