my thoughts are not your thoughts sermon catholic

It is safe to trust in the Lord with all our heart. He that leans to his own understanding entirely, is unwise, Proverbs 28:26, and is liable to run into wild fancies and erroneous opinions. We must dig for wisdom by meditation and prayer, expecting divine aid and heavenly assistance. We must both meditate and look to the Lord. The other extreme is to expect that the Lord will give us wisdom and help while we neglect to meditate. One extreme is to meditate much without looking to the Lord for wisdom and help. Those who do this will better understand the truth and their duty, and be more useful in the cause of their Master.īut two extremes should here be avoided.

Here is a plain injunction to meditate on the things of God. Said Paul to Timothy, “Meditate on these things give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all (or in all things, margin.)” 1 Timothy 4:15. One day the philosopher Newton was asked how he made so many discoveries in the arts and sciences, and he answered, “By thinking always attentively.” Now if it was necessary for Newton to think always attentively in order to advance in the arts and sciences, is it not necessary for us to meditate on the truth in order to advance in the true science, and make proficiency in sanctification? Many fail to see the glorious attractions of truth because they do not think upon it long enough. By it we convey the ideas of others to ourselves so as to make them properly our own, and discover new beauties and attractions in the truth. By it we digest the truth and turn it, as it were, into a part of our beings. Meditation is to the mind what digestion is to the body. By it we appropriate to ourselves the ideas and truths that the mind has looked at, and penetrate deeper into the knowledge of the truth. Meditation is “close or continued thought the turning or revolving of a subject in the mind serious contemplation.” - Webster. Oh how many trials we might save ourselves from by being more reflective! We should reflect upon it through the week. It is not sufficient to listen to and look at the truth from Sabbath to Sabbath. But those who do not take pains to come back on what they have heard and seen, are liable to let the truth slip out of their minds, and generally fail to come up to their duty. They will also be more apt to take heed to the things which they have heard. Those who reflect on the truths they have heard or read, will be more apt to retain them. It is of the utmost importance that this faculty be sanctified.

Reflection is the faculty of the mind by which it comes back on ideas which had attracted the attention, to acquire an exact knowledge of the same. But to attention we must add,Īttention sees the object but reflection comes back upon it to examine it with care, so as to preserve distinct ideas about it. But as we try to do this, we must ask the Father of lights to open and anoint our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of His law. No one will fail to see the necessity of setting apart this faculty to see the truth. But how often it happens that the attention is diverted from important truths by trifling objects, or by thoughts thrown in by the enemy or by professed friends. And first let us noticeĪttention is that faculty of the mind by which we look at ideas. And if the mind is sanctified, if the thoughts are holy, the works and the actions, the whole life will be holy.īut the mind has faculties and operations which should be sanctified, and some of which we will here examine. If the fountain is pure the stream that flows from it will also be pure. The mind is the spring of action, the fountain from whence all the words and actions flow. It transfers the mind from carnal to spiritual things, from sin to holiness. Sanctification cleanses the mind from sinful thoughts. He says, “My son, give Me thine heart.” “How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee?” “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. But God looks on the heart or mind, and understands the thoughts of man afar off. It dwells and feasts upon carnal thoughts, and is not subject to the law of God. The carnal mind is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

My thoughts are not your thoughts sermon catholic