Status Updates From Glittering Vices: A New Loo...

“The glutton eats for himself, and his mission is to gratify his own appetites. His mission is "pleasure first," and he orders the rest of his life around that goal. His god is his belly, and he serves it faithfully” (153).

“All anger is in danger of rationalization, but resentment more than anything perhaps can distort the truthfulness of our memory” (125).

“Tithing, like fasting, is the habitual practice of limiting our use of a good thing to regularly and continually loosen our attachment to it… a ‘Sabbath’ from our natural tendencies to replace God with money or stuff. Like a Sabbath rest from working, and like feasting after fasting, the habit of tithing, and the generosity for which it frees us, is meant to be a part of the constant rhythm of life” (114).

Getting properly whacked.

“Sloth can thus show itself in the total inertia of the couch potato or the restless distractions of endless activity. Somewhere in between these two symptoms of vice is a holy Sabbath rest for the heart that has given itself utterly to God, a heart overjoyed, not oppressed, by the thought that ‘love so amazing, so divine, demands my self, my life, my all.’” (95).

(On Vainglory) “It’s ironic that the art of impressing others and gaining applause involves carefully hiding ourselves just as much as it involves showing ourselves off to advantage,” (73).

“Envy seeks to bring another down; zeal seeks to be lifted up and made better… The saints and those we admire as excellent are not rivals that threaten, but inspirations to become all that we can be—perhaps beyond anything we would have imagined for ourselves.”

Now that I am in the chapters about the individual vices, the book is a lot easier to get into.

“Naming our sins is the confessional counterpart to counting our blessings” (21).

Alright, back to reading about vices