August 16
Friendship
n human life
nothing holier can be desired, nothing more useful sought after, nothing
is harder to find, nothing sweeter to experience, nothing more fruitful
to possess than friendship. For it bears fruit both in this life and the
next, showing forth all virtues in its sweetness and in its strength destroying
vice. It softens the blows of adversity and moderates elation in prosperity.
Without friendship there can be hardly any happiness among humans; they
may well be compared to animals if they have no one to rejoice with them
in good fortune or sympathize with them in sorrow, no one to whom they
can unburden themselves in time of trouble, or with whom they can share
some especially uplifting or inspiring insight.
Alas for anyone who is alone and has no one to lift him up when he falls.
Without a friend one is indeed alone. But what joy it is, what security,
what a delight to have someone to whom you dare to speak as to another
self; to whom you are not afraid to admit that you have done something
wrong, or shy of revealing some spiritual progress you have made; someone
to whom you can entrust all the secrets of your heart and with whom you
can share your plans.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
The "Daily Reflection" page on the Villanova University web site is sponsored by
the Office for Mission Effectiveness. For more information about the office, contact Dr.
Christopher M. Janosik,
christopher.janosik@villanova.edu
This page was updated on
Monday July 28, 2003.
