Recently a parishioner gave me the following quote from Marcus Aurelius, one time Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher...Press on steadily. Keep to the straight road in your thinking & doing and your days will ever flow on smoothly. The soul of man, like the souls of all rational creatures, has two things in common with the soul of God: It can never be thwarted from without, and it's good consists in righteousness of character and action and in confining every wish thereto.
Wonder what Russell Crowe thinks of that, then!
Hi Father,
ReplyDeleteThis may be a bit off tangent ... you mentioning the soul in your quote. I've been brought up believing we have a soul, created in the image of God. Lately on my Blog some readers suggested we have a soul and a spirit. I always thought the two are one and the same. Like saying Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit. What says you?
I'll understand if you have no time to reply.
God bless.
Victor, first, thanks for the comment. It's a complex answer that's required and, often, I think the two terms are used interchangeably.
ReplyDeleteThe Soul, however, has a very specific understanding as a technical term in Catholicism, most notably as we are created body and soul. Spirit, I think, is a more generic meaning and often means some 'force for good' and we talk about 'growing spiritually'.
My experience is that people do tend to use either expression to mean the same thing, but those who are raised Catholic seem to use the term Soul and those with a more catholic (with a small 'c') bent seem to use spirit. Not a helpful answer, one suspects, but it's all I have at the moment!
Great to see you commenting and, please God, all goes well for you.
Thanx Father. That's a very helpful answer.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're keeping well.
God bless.