Spiritualityof the Apostolic Period

When the concluding prayer of St. Augustine's Confessions declares that God intimated his Word in heaven and earth through the figure of Jesus, it is the Church that is said to have been predestined "before all times, without morning and evening." Augustine continues:

Then you began to work out in time what you had predestined, so that you might reveal what was hidden and bring order into our disorder; for our sins were over us and we had gone away from you, into the dark deep, and your good Spirit was borne above us to help us in due season. And you . . . established the authority of your Book between those above who were to be docile to you, and those under, who were to be subject to them. And you gathered together the society of the unbelievers into one membership, so that the zeal of the faithful might appear, and they might bring forth for you works of mercy, distributing even to the poor their earthly riches so that they might obtain heavenly riches . . . All these things we see and they are very good, because you see them in us--you who have given us the Spirit by which to see them and in them to love you (Augusti

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llaboration becomes integral to ecclesial life and its effectiveness relates to how well individuals work as part of a whole." Maintaining focus on a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts is a strategy for setting aside other, competing lines of thought, whether secular or religious. Campbell cites I Cor. 11 to explain the far-reaching effects of this focus. He quotes Paul's command to the faithful to imitate him, "'as I am of Christ.' Which is to say: let no one conceive or follow his own image of Christ . . . but only that of Paul and his community" (Campbell, 1978, p. 380). But Paul's insistence on orthodox thought in the Christian community is not a personal indulgence or prerogative, still less an attempt to achieve personal political power in a Church hierarchy; that is an ordeal yet to come for Roman Catholicism. It is a misreading of Paul's firmness in dialogue with the communities of Christians spread across the Empire to conclude that he is only interested in throwing his weight around. Paul asks little of others in the Church that he does not demand of himself: "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 10726
Approximate Pages = 43 (250 words per page)