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Student Writings from Sacred Heart School of Theology's
English as a Second Language Program
The ESL Times / December, 2001
"God and Humans"
The Living God
Romano Guardini
Logos Publishers 1966
By Lam Ngoc Nguyen
What is Providence? This is a big question, which humans throughout their lives yearn to know the same as a son seeks for his father. People want to know where they have come from. What have they come here for? And when they die, where will they go? Reading The Living God, you can be so happy when you recognize that He is not far away from you but so close to you and that He is always living in you because He is the real living God. The Living God is a spiritual book, written by Romano Guardini, a well known German philosopher, who published more than twenty spiritual books. The Living God came out in 1957 as an invitation to Catholics to step into a faithful life, an intimate life, with God. Everyone will enjoy The Living God; however, the Christian clergy will particularly enjoy the spiritual thinking in The Living God as it will bring them closer to God and make them feel a more profound affection for God's love. In The Living God, Guardini expresses to you concepts about Providence, cites the immense compassion of God, and promotes faith with his profound thoughts on the relationship between God and humans.
Guardini reminds us how we can perceive Providence in our lives when we notice the countless types of creatures that are living around us: all the kinds of birds in the sky; fishes in the sea; humans, animals, insects, reptiles, and plants on the land. Guardini reminds us that we need to accept that: "Providence means, there is a seeing Mind behind everything that happens and that you are the object of its seeing... It means that there is significance in everything that happens in the world."
Guardini explains how in the Old Testament, God revealed His will to His people mostly through the prophets. This was until Jesus Christ came to fulfill all of God's intentions and became the last prophet. Before Jesus went back to His Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to stay and help His people on earth. From that moment on, God has related to His people through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, people need to be reborn in the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, humans come to understand their limitations, to realize that they must abandon their inexperienced conceptions of God, to recognize the necessity of living with a new idea of God. God wishes for them to leave the life of flesh, to come into a new intellectual life, and to be nourished by the Holy Spirit.
Reading The Living God is an excellent way to understand about your Heavenly Father, who is full of compassion for humans. I am sure you will be affected after reading The Living God with gratefulness for the infinite compassion of God. Guardini is really a worthy leader in the spiritual life.
Guardini was born in Verona, Italy in 1885. When he was just one year old, he immigrated to Germany with his family. Guardini decided to enter the priesthood and was ordained in May 1910. He began teaching at Bonn in 1920, then in Berlin, in the 1930s. Guardini's thoughts and works anticipated the teachings of the Vatican Council II in1965. Guardini wrote The Spirit of the Liturgy and The Church and the Catholic. Both books have similar ideas to The Living God.
The Living God showed me personally a new spiritual light. It taught me some ideas about Providence. The Living God reminded me that I am only a very small creature with finite knowledge, but I have a Heavenly Father, who always cares for me with His immeasurable love. And finally, The Living God excited me with its invitation to set out on a continuous journey with Jesus, to be a witness to His love, His gospels, and to proclaim His Kingdom on this earth.
Priests of the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart School of Theology
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