Amiel: the one thing needful

Tuesday, April 8, 2025
    Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877
Meditation:
Taste and see that the LORD is good;
    blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
    —Psalm 34:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is but one thing needful—to possess God. All our senses, all our powers of mind and soul, all our external resources, are so many ways of approaching the Divinity, so many modes of tasting and of adoring God. We must learn to detach ourselves from all that is capable of being lost, to bind ourselves absolutely only to what is absolute and eternal, and to enjoy the rest as a loan, a usufruct... To adore, to understand, to receive, to feel, to give, to act: there is my law, my duty, my happiness, my heaven.
    ... Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881), The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, tr. Mrs. Humphry Ward, New York: Macmillan, 1885, p. 1 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 34:8; Eccl. 5:11-16; Isa. 40:6-8; 55:2; Hab. 2:13; Matt. 6:19-21; 16:26; Mark 8:36-37; John 4:13-14; 6:27; 2 Cor. 4:18; Col. 3:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me discern the eternal. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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