“Rise up, faithful soul, and love that highest Good, in whom every good thing exists, without which there is nothing that is truly good. No creature is able to satisfy our will because no creature maintains perfect goodness, but rather has only shared in such. A sort of stream of good is transmitted to them from the Divine, but the source always remains in God. Why then do we want to eagerly pursue a stream that has been abandoned by the source? Any good in the creature is a kind of image of that perfect good that is in God, yes indeed, that is God himself. Why then do we who have been laid hold of by the image want to desert the very thing itself? The dove sent out of Noah’s ark was not able find a place where its foot could rest in the turning of the waters (Genesis 8:8). So also, our soul is not able to find in any of the numerous things under the moon anything that completely satisfies our desires because all of these things are unreliable and fragile.”
~Johann Gerhard
In honor of Johann Gerhard, German Lutheran theologian, who was born on this day in 1582.
Resources:
October 17 – Today in Christian History
Sacred Meditations
A DEVOTED LIFE 