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Angustia: no way out!

  Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae describes anxiety as a narrowing (from Latin angustia - narrowness): "Anxiety is that which so takes possession of the mind as to leave no opening for escape" It is sorrow so intense it "binds the soul" and "shuts out all hope" The soul becomes trapped, unable to find a way out. This image is precise: anxiety feels like being in a space that keeps getting smaller, the walls pressing in. Aquinas's proposed remedies all point towards "dilatatio" (expansion) : -Grace as "enlargement and strengthening" of the soul. A distraction that provokes a "dilatatio" (expansion) and therefore:  -Joy and love causing the heart to widen -Hope opening what anxiety has closed -Contemplation of truth delighting more than pain saddens This is grace - not as theological abstraction, but as lived experience of sudden release. My frustration:  Around my 20s when I was trying to deepen Catholicism, I bega...
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Fate: the path of life

 


I imagine fate like being dropped into a life which looks like a labyrinth, where your way, the predetermined way, is clearly in evidence; therefore it is the first possibility that catches your eyes, therefore, you may  end up in simply following it.

It is there, ready, waiting for you. And it also seems (unconsciously) the natural and logic result of what happened previously. Past, present and future are totally and intrinsically woven together.

And yet the way, the path in evidence, is not an obligatory direction. Many openings are always there, unlocked and we may always choose other routes. That will often twist completely the direction.

This, consciously or unconsciously, may be perceived as dangerous. We may get scared. But we may also take it as the first and only perceived possibility to escape your fate!

 

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