God gives us not only the truth but also the ability to believe it; not only the new thing to see but also the new eye to see it with.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that along with truth, we are also granted the perspective to perceive and understand it.
Peter Kreeft suggests that the gifts from God encompass both the truths of life and the insight required to recognize and appreciate those truths. It implies that understanding comes not only from the information we receive but also from the capacity to interpret it correctly, fostering a deeper appreciation for both knowledge and perception.
In practice
In a sermon about the importance of faith and understanding.
Trusting God's grace means trusting God's love for us rather than our love for God. [...] Therefore our prayers should consist mainly of rousing our awareness of God's love for us rather than trying to rouse God's awareness of our love for him, like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:26-29).
Remembering the facts of death and Heaven gives us an even more pressing reason to learn to pray: We do not have an infinite amount of time. We are one day nearer Home today than we ever were before. I guarantee you that after you die you will not say 'I spent too much time praying; I wish I had watched more TV instead.'
Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons.
The modern mind always tends to reduce the greater to the lesser rather than seeing the lesser as reflecting the greater.
Our soul, like Mary's body, is to receive God Himself if only we, like her, believe, consent and receive; if only we speak her truly magic word fiat, "let it be." It is the creative word, the word God used to create the universe.
Protestants believe that the sacraments are like ladders that God gave to us by which we can climb up to Him. Catholics believe that they are like ladders that God gave to Himself by which He climbs down to us.
Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better.
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
Meditation is the means through which the Soul dictates and guides the mind for all good.
Needing approval is like saying 'your view of me is more important than my own opinion of myself'.
When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?
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