Because I’m on vacation this week, I’ve decided to publish posts from the two-week test pilot of Beyond Blue back in October of 2006, two months before its initial launch in December 2006. We’ve come a long way!
Throughout my struggle with depression, I’ve looked to the saints many times for wisdom and guidance since so many of them suffered through dark nights of the soul. I thought I’d share a passage from “All Saints” by Robert Ellsberg, a friend and colleague of mine: ??
Despite the supernatural effects that may adorn the saints’ legends, what comes through again and again is their humanity. They experienced doubt, weakness, loneliness, and fear–just like the rest of us. But ultimately their lives were organized around higher principles–the human capacity for love, for sacrifice, and generosity.
“Purity of heart,” said Kierkegaard, “is to will one thing.”
They did not apply themselves to being “saints.” If anything they applied themselves seriously to the task of being human, understanding this vocation in the profound sense reflected in the old formulas of the catechism: “Who made you? God made me. Why did God make you? God made me to know, love, and serve him in this world and to be happy with him in the next.” ??
The saints are not perfect human beings. But in their own individual fashion they became authentic human beings, endowed with the capacity to awaken that vocation in others. To call someone a saint means that his or her life should be taken with the utmost seriousness. It is proof that the gospel can be lived.
To read more Beyond Blue, go to www.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.
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