Martin Thornton: Our sensitivity must be allowed to grow with the continuous spiritual struggle. #catholicanglicanism Like all Christian virtues, love, humility, faith and so on, penitence is volitional rather than emotional; it is a question of facing facts rather than of stirring up feelings. This does not deny the value of affective penitence, when we are moved to contrition by seeing the heinousness of sin against the divine love manifested in the Passion and Cross of our Blessed Lord. But such devotion is usually the fruit of more mundane fact-facing, of a whole life of disciplined prayer aided by sane, cool, self-examination. Real contrition presents us with the same difficulty as pure praise: one cannot just “do it.” Because of our frailty and concupiscence we are unable to see just what sin means to God, our sensitivity must be allowed to grow with the continuous spiritual struggle. But as the Office helps especially to develop our ability to praise, so self-examination helps to deepen our sense of contrition. It must therefore be taken seriously, as indeed it seems to be to judge by the multitude of little manuals which continue to pour from the presses. Such guides obviously vary in quality and usefulness but I think most of them suffer from no less than give general weaknesses. (The Purple Headed Mountain, Chap. 4)
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:20:25 +0000
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