God Fuel

I LOVE the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. About every other sentence is quotable. One thing he says in the book is, "God made us. Invented us as God invents and engine. A car is made to run on gasoline and it would not run properly on anything else. God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He, Himself,  is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That's why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering with religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there."

It's a beautiful analogy of why we can never find true happiness in another person, success, wealth, power, or pleasure. That God-shaped-hole can only be filled with God. 

I also like that he wrote the book before the word 'religion' was so maligned. It seems there's a lot of people who say, "I'm spiritual, not religious" as if religion was a bad thing. There's a great (short) book called Faith & Reason(s) by Joe Cady who does an excellent job explaining why this statement is, at best, not true and, at worst, dangerous. 

Fire in the Fireplace

As Peter Kreeft says, “A fireplace without a fire is cold and gloomy, but a fire without a fireplace is catastrophic.” The Catholic faith is our hearth and home. Like Peter Kreeft says in the quote above, without that Holy Spirit fire that comes from prayer, learning, grace, and Gifts of the Spirit, we Catholics can sometimes appear to the world as cold and gloomy. We have so much to celebrate in our Catholic faith! Let's have a dialogue about the fullness of the faith! 

I wish I could meet St. Teresa of Avila. Anyone who says, "God save us from silly devotions and sour-faced saints!" is girlfriend material. Where do you find your passion for your Catholic faith? Do other parishioners inspire you? Do your parents? Does your priest? 

Who do you inspire with your witness of the faith?