A Change in Circumstances

More than sixteen centuries ago, St. Augustine wrote: “You are what you eat.” And you don’t need me to tell you that today, that ancient maxim is taken more seriously, perhaps, than at any other time in human history. People are paying attention to the medical community’s consensus that the way to better health is through diet and exercise. Many people are shaping up. Many people are improving their physical condition, which is not to say, necessarily, that people are improving their overall condition — their quality of life.

We may be enhancing our physical life, but are we improving our spiritual life? We may be living longer, but are we living better? Physically, we may be “enhancing our body image,” but are we enhancing our spiritual image?

The great medical missionary, Albert Schweitzer, once said, “The interior joy we feel when we have done a good deed and feel we have been needed somewhere, is the nourishment the soul requires. Without those times when…