Watching
12/14/2020
Let us then consider this most serious question, which concerns every one of us so nearly: what is it to watch for Christ?
He watches for Christ who has a sensitive, eager, apprehensive mind; who is awake, alive, quick-sighted, zealous in seeking and honoring him; who looks out for him in all that happens, and who would not be surprised, who would not be over-agitated or overwhelmed, if he found that he was coming at once.
--Newman
It's the last bit there that gives me pause. The quotation is from a sermon, but I don't know which one. Janet sent me a book, Waiting for Christ, which is a set of excerpts from Newman's sermons, one for each day of Advent.
The quote is from: Sermon 22 “Watchfulness”, Parochial and Plain Sermons, (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1997) 940-941.
Taken from volume 4 of Newman's Parochial Sermons. They are austere, challenging, and the writing! He read them out.
I enjoy your blog. Keep up the good work.
Jim McCullough
Posted by: James D McCullough | 12/15/2020 at 05:00 PM
Thank you, both for the compliment and the citation. I figured a lot of this book came from the P&P. I've seen that Ignatius volume, and I thought it looked like it would be very cumbersome to read. 1763 pages, I see. But the Kindle version is available right now at Amazon for 99 cents! That's got to be some kind of record low ratio of price-per-page to quality.
Posted by: Mac | 12/15/2020 at 05:38 PM