The modern era is characterized by very fast-paced change, the rate of which increases year after year. I’ve observed three main ways people respond to the change. Embrace the new, reject the old This reaction may be the most common. The assumption is that everything newer is better and supersedes what came before. The constant advancement of scientific knowledge lends credence to this idea, so we think that we know more today than did the people before us, even in areas that have nothing to do with science.

I am reading Life of Christ by the Venerable Abp. Fulton Sheen. Although at first his language struck me as dated, but after a little reading it was clear that his content is timeless, and maybe even more applicable today than in his day because the trends that concerned him in the 1970s have now come into their fullness. The book goes through the life of Jesus Christ chronologically, drawing material from all four Gospels.

I went to confession last Friday, and for a penance, the priest told me to pray through Psalm 4. It turned out to be very appropriate for my struggles about the corruption that is being revealed in the Catholic Church. I thought I would go through the psalm and talk about what it means to me. The psalm starts with: Answer me when I call, O God of my right!

This morning I saw a post by a Fr. David Abernathy about a blog post that writes about one of the many great passages in The Brothers Karamazov. In this passage, a woman confesses to a monk, Fr. Zosima, about how she finds it difficult to actively love others in the way that Christ teaches us to do. Fr. Zosima replies: “I heard exactly the same thing, a long time ago to be sure, from a doctor,” the elder remarked.

These two quotes from Peter Kreeft’s book Heaven, the Heart’s Deepest Longing came in my email from Daily Catholic Wisdom. I think they are important for thinking about how we live our lives. Are we only looking for things that will gratify us in this life, or are we seeking something that gives our lives ultimate meaning? Jesus said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?