Notre Dame Des Victoires

Blaise Pascal said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” The great seventeenth-century philosopher thought that most of us, most of the time, distract ourselves from what truly matters through a series of divertissements (diversions). He was speaking from experience. Though one of the brightest men of his age and one of the pioneers of the modern physical sciences and of computer technology, Pascal frittered away a good deal of his time through gambling and other trivial pursuits. In a way, he knew, such diversions are understandable, since the great questions—Does God exist? Why am I here? Is there life after death?—are indeed overwhelming. But if we are to live in a serious and integrated way, they must be confronted—and this is why, if we want our most fundamental problems to be resolved, we must be willing to spend time in a…

Blaise Pascal dijo: “Todos los problemas de la humanidad provienen de la incapacidad del hombre para sentarse solo y en silencio en una habitación”. El gran filósofo del siglo XVII pensaba que la mayoría de nosotros, la mayor parte del tiempo, nos distraemos de lo que realmente importa a través de una serie de diversiones (desvíos). Hablaba por experiencia. Aunque era uno de los hombres más brillantes de su época y uno de los pioneros de las ciencias físicas modernas y de la tecnología de las computadoras, Pascal malgastó una buena parte de su tiempo en el juego y otras actividades triviales. En cierto modo, él sabía que tales diversiones eran comprensibles, ya que las grandes preguntas — ¿Existe Dios? ¿Por qué estoy aquí? ¿Existe la vida después de la muerte? — son realmente abrumadoras. Pero si queremos vivir de forma seria e integrada, hay que enfrentarse a ellas, y…

The three classical spiritual practices that the Church urges us to embrace during Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I would strongly encourage every one of my readers to follow this recommendation, perhaps intensifying each one of the three during the holy season. But there is another Lenten discipline that I would like to put forward, inspired very much by the Gospel readings this week: forgiving an enemy. There is enough anger in the Catholic community to light up the eastern seaboard for a year. I say this not to pick on Catholics in particular; I would say it of any group of human beings. We are—all of us—sitting on a lot of unresolved rage. Thomas Aquinas defines the deadly sin of anger in his typically pithy manner as an irrational or excessive desire for revenge. Every one of us has been hurt by someone else, aggressed, unjustly harmed, insulted,…