The CatholiCity Message

Volume XI, Number 6 – July 31, 2007

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

For most of us, it has been over a decade since we first began using the Internet. Compuserve. Chat. Netscape. Ebay. Googling. Napster. CraigsList. Blogs. Match and Monster. Zillowing. Wikipedia. And now, YouTube. Don't these words sound like Frisbee, Click-Clack, Yo-Yo, Poprocks and Hula Hoop? The Next Big Thing Online is probably out of style by the time we ordinary folks hear about it on the soccer sidelines, water coolers, or Little League stands.

Truth. Silence. Simplicity. These are the themes of this CatholiCity Message. We will primarily present you with the words of saints, artists, and wise men. May you be inspired! We caution you, however, that despite serene surface connotations, all three ideas--truth, silence, simplicity--are explosively powerful for your soul. And, respectfully, we advise you to not be in a hurry. Let us begin with a prayer, tens of thousands of us together, that we may not read what follows so much as be led by the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of Holy Spirit...

Dear Jesus, You are the way, the truth, and the life. Be with us today, every moment in our hearts, be every light in our eye, be in every thought that is not a prayer, and in every prayer that is true, Your firm hand on our shoulder, Your wine in our cup, your Holy Spirit in every breath we take. Amen.

TRUTH, SIMPLICITY, SILENCE

"...there are therefore three states or steps of truth. We ascend to the first by the toil of humility, to the second by the emotion of compassion, and the third by the ecstasy of contemplation."
Saint Bernard

"All truth wherever it is found belongs to us as Christians."
Saint Justin Martyr

"I heard an old story long ago, and I have forgotten everything else in it, except for a part wherein a farmer and his teenaged daughter are walking down a dirt path in the summertime next to a wind-flowing field of golden wheat. She was talking to him about her decision to become a nun. He stopped walking, turned to her, then took her hands into his own. He told her something along these lines: You will learn in a short time what always takes a long time here in the world. You cannot have God and not have truth, and that you cannot have either without silence and simplicity."
Joe Wood

"We are all very simple; it is when we forget that, that we go wrong."
Monsignor Robert Benson

"Let us allow ourselves to be 'infected' by the silence of Saint Joseph! We have much need of it in a world which is often too noisy, which does not encourage reflection and listening to the voice of God."
Pope Benedict XVI, December 18, 2005

"We arrive at truth, not by the reason only, by also by the heart."
Blase Pascal

"That is was You who taught me, I believe: for it is the truth, and there is no other teacher of truth save You, no matter where or when it may happen to shine."
Saint Augustine, Confessions

"Elected silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorled ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear."
Gerard Manly Hopkins

"We spent our fine, first months in the flowing silence of the womb, before, as it were, we entered this fallen world of noise."
Keith Banks

"Remember that the most profound truths are simple, but this does not mean that truth is easy to comprehend."
Professor Edward O'Connor

"Who is more silent or simple or true than He in the Tabernacle?"
William Keto

"Naturalness. Let your Christian spirit...be manifested spontaneously, without anything odd or foolish. Always carry with you your spirit of simplicity."
Saint Josemaria Escriva

"Mere silence is not wisdom, for wisdom consists in knowing when and how to
speak and when and where to keep silent."
J.P. Camus

"It is the silence that matters, not the applause. Anyone can have applause. But the silence, before and during the playing--that is everything."
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz

"In everything I love simplicity."
Saint Francis de Sales

"Error my flourish for a time, but truth will prevail in the end. The only effect of error ultimately is to promote truth."
Cardinal Newman

"Jesus, Jesus!"
The Last Words of Saint Joan of Arc

We'll be back soon. God bless you always.

With Christ,

Your Friends at CatholiCity