The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
Saint AugustineRead
Try as they may to savor the taste of eternity, their thoughts still twist and turn upon the ebb and flow of things in past and future time. But if only their minds could be seized and held steady, they would be still for a while and, for that short moment, they would glimse the splendor of eternity, which is forever still.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote explores the struggle to capture the essence of eternity amid the distractions of time.
Saint Augustine reflects on the human tendency to be preoccupied with past regrets and future worries, which prevents us from experiencing the present moment. He suggests that if individuals could quiet their minds and focus on the now, they would have the profound realization of the eternal nature of existence, which exists beyond the constraints of time.
Themes
EternityPresentTimeMindfulnessStillness
In practice
Example use cases
In a meditation workshop, to emphasize the importance of being present.
More from Saint Augustine
All quotes →There is no health in those who are displeased by an element in Your creation, just as there was none in me when I was displeased by many things You had made. Because my soul didn't dare to say that my God displeased me, it refused to attribute to You whatever was displeasing.
Saint AugustineRead
Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.
Saint AugustineRead
Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling, the movements of his heart.
Saint AugustineRead
Whatever skills I have acquired, whatever gifts I have been given, I place them at Your service.
Saint AugustineRead
Everyone who observes himself doubting observes a truth, and about that which he observes he is certain; therefore he is certain about a truth. Everyone therefore who doubts whether truth exists has in himself a truth on which not to doubt.... Hence one who can doubt at all ought not to doubt the existence of truth.
Saint AugustineRead
Similar quotes
Swans live wherever there is water, and leave the place where water dries up; let not a man act so - and comes and goes as he pleases.
ChanakyaRead
I am Oz, the Great and Terrible," spoke the Beast, in a voice that was one great roar. Who are you, and why do you seek me?
L. Frank BaumRead
We can certainly go further than cats, but why should it be that our brains are somehow so suited to the universe that our brains will be able to understand the deepest workings?
Brian GreeneRead
Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is, I dunno. If The Eiffel Tower were now to represent the world's age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle knob at its summit would represent man's share of that age; and anybody would perceive that the skin was what the tower was built for. I reckon they would, I dunno.
Mark TwainRead
We need not throw away 200 years of American jurisprudence while we fight terrorism. We need not choose between our most deeply held values, and keeping this nation safe.
Barack ObamaRead
How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.
Antoine De Saint-ExuperyRead