On this Thursday in a very busy and historical week, here is a word of wisdom from Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 430 A.D., who also lived in busy and turbulent times:
Let me tell you plainly that you are suffering from an illusion if you have hastened to hear the Word without the intention of putting into practice what you hear. Try to realize that if it is a good thing to hear the Word, it is much better to put it into practice. If you do not listen to it, you neglect hearing it and you will not build anything. If you listen to it and fail to act accordingly, you will be constructing a ruin.
In this regard, the Lord makes a suggestion by means of a very exact comparison. He tells us: "Anyone who hears my words and puts them into practice is like the wise person who built a house on a rock. When the rainy season set in, the torrents came and the winds blew and buffeted the house. It did not collapse." Why did it not collapse? Because "it had been solidly set on rock." Hence, to listen and to put into pactice is to build on rock. And by the mere fact of listening we are already in the process of building.
Something to stop and think about on this first Thursday in November.
In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church-Episcopal
Billings, MT
406-208-7314
http://www.holycrosschurchbillings.org/
photo: outcropping of rock on
Mike and Maureen Mansfield Highway
(Interstate 15) between Helena and
Great Falls, September 2008
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