These three readings together give a disciplined curriculum for sanctification: the Apostolic Tradition shows how the church forms bodies and habits — fasting, orderly hospitality, hourly prayer, catechesis, and charitable care — so that the community’s external rhythms cultivate inward stability and readiness for sacrament and service; Augustine’s reflection on angels and the “unchangeable light” reminds us that true knowledge of God is ultimately experienced by a transforming love that makes the soul thirsty for what is eternal rather than satisfied with temporal goods; and Aquinas (Q24) teaches how the passions — concupiscible and irascible — are morally neutral movements that become virtuous only when reason and right intention order them toward the true good. Put simply: liturgical formation trains the body, Augustine awakens the heart’s longing for the divine face, and Aquinas gives the moral grammar for disciplining the passions so that desire is rightly ordered. The practical pastoral takeaway is direct: keep the communal disciplines that shape habit, cultivate the steady hunger Augustine names, and attend to the ends you pursue so your emotions serve charity rather than disordered appetite. (Ps 36:5; 1 John 3:2; Gal 5:22–23)
Readings:
Hippolytus (trad.), Apostolic Tradition, Chapters 25–38
Augustine, The Confessions, Book 8, Chapters 16–17 (19–21)
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1–2, Question 24 (combined)
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