4Real Forums: Which saint said this?

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

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Topic: Which saint said this?

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Marybeth
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Posted: July 31 2006 at 1:26pm \| IP Logged

I'm hoping someone can help me out (again) with which saint said the following...I may not have the entire quote correct either...

"The longest journey for a man if from his head to his heart."

I am thinking it was St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Augustine?!?!

TIA!!

Marybeth

Dawnie
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Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 8:42am \| IP Logged

Marybeth,

I don't know, but I've heard my dh say the same thing! I'm going to ask a few priests that might know and get back to you...

Dawn

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alicegunther
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Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 10:00am \| IP Logged

I googled it, but could not find the answer. It's a good quote though!

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lapazfarm
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Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 10:02am \| IP Logged

LOL! I googled it, too, and saw it attributed to many anonymous folks from Tibetan monks to Islam! But none said exactly who said it.

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stefoodie
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Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 12:39pm \| IP Logged

The closest I found was

"The longest journey a man has to take is the eighteen inches from his head to his heart." but yes, another unknown writer.

However, I did find this excerpt from Michael Marshall's The Restless Heart: The Life and Influence of St. Augustine:

Quote:

Augustine journeyed inwardly a good deal further than ever he could outwardly ... struggling on the longest journey in the world - the journey from head to heart and from heart to will bringing Augustine to that point of breakdown, to that most blessed of moments for anyone, when breakdown becomes breakthrough and when the crisis is resolved not so much by surrender as by transcendence.

And this, from World Community for Christian Meditation: Summary of Margaret Lane's "The Confessions of St. Augustine of Hippo" talk:

Quote:

The details of Augustine�s journey as we have them in the Confessions
Interestingly in middle age Augustine�s image of the search for truth changed from that of an ascent to a vision of God to that of a never-ending (in this life) traveling a long highway where we may be given glimpses of the divine to console us in our traveling. By the time we get to his treatise on mystical theology The Trinity the ascent is the beginning of the search. The longest journey of all for Augustine, and I suspect for many of us, was the journey from head to heart and from heart to will.

However,

Jan Engels-Smith does "quote" St. Augustine in her book Becoming Yourself: The Journey from Head to Heart:

Quote:

St. Augustine said, "The longest journey ever taken is from your head to your heart."

And Theodore E. Tack, in his book As One Struggling Christian to Another: Augustine's Christian Ideal for Today, writes:

Quote:

One priest-author whom I read recently stated that the longest journey he had ever made was from his head to his heart. It took him fifty years, he said, and he was referring to his attitude toward prayer, or better, his manner of praying. (snip) Prayer for all too many is still very much of a "head trip." It does not possess that simplicity, that interior element, which Augustine found so important if prayer is to lead us closer to God.

I'm particularly interested in this because lately when talking to my spiritual director I mentioned that I tend to intellectualize and rationalize God too much. It helps to know that even the saints struggled with this -- I guess everyone does at some point.

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Marybeth
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Posted: Aug 01 2006 at 1:29pm \| IP Logged

Thank you so very much! I have lent so many saint books to friends and family that I didn't know how to find it. My computer time has been soooooooooo limited I didn't get a chance to google, etc. Thank you again everyone! I am trying to get some lessons wrapped up for our parish religious education porgram this year.

God bless,

Marybeth

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