Have you ever heard of Hans Ur Von Balthasar? He was a Swiss rich kid educated k-12 by Benedictine monks and then did his higher-learning in Austria and Germany. Eventually Hans got involved in a Jesuit community in Deutschland (Jesuits were outlawed in Hans’ homeland until 1973 …I’m not precisely sure why the Swiss didn’t fancy Jesuits, but regardless – every time I hear about Jesuits I think of the almost deaf, and brutally direct, Jesuit priest who visits Asbury as he suffers from undulant fever in the short-story “The Enduring Chill” …that priest is HILARIOUS!). Anyways, if you want more biographical info. on the guy then you can read Wikipedia for yourself. The reason I’m introducing you to Hans is because I want you to hear a thought-provoking, heart-bewitching, quotation from his book Heart of the World:

I say to you, Blessed is he who exposes himself to an existence never brought under mastery; who does not transcend, but rather abandons himself to My ever transcending, grace. Blessed are not the enlightened whose every question has been answered and who are delighted in their own sublime insight …Blessed rather are the harassed who must daily stand before My enigmas and cannot solve them. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who lack a spirit of cleverness. Woe to the rich, and woe to the doubly rich in spirit! Although nothing is impossible with God, it is difficult for the Spirit to move in their fat hearts. The poor are willing and easy to direct. Like little puppies they do not take their eyes from their master’s hand to see if perhaps he may throw them a little morsel from his plate. So carefully do the poor follow My promptings that they listen to the wind (which blows where it pleases), even when it changes. From the sky they can read the weather and interpret the signs of the times. My grace is unpretentious, but the poor are satisfied with a little gifts. – Hans Ur Von Balthasar