DeSales is a Catholic, Salesian university that inspires transformative learning through the liberal arts and professional studies by energizing students to be who they are and be that well.
No one ever died saying, “I’m so glad for the self-centered, self-serving, and self-protective life I lived,” author Parker Palmer said in a commencement address, urging graduates to “offer [themselves] to the world . . . with openhearted generosity.” But, Parker continued, living this way would also mean learning “how little you know and how easy it is to fail.” Offering themselves in service to the world would require cultivating a “beginner’s mind” to “walk straight into your not-knowing, and take the risk of failing and failing, again and again-then getting up to learn again and again.” It’s only when our lives are built on a foundation of grace that we can find the courage to choose such a life of fearless “openhearted generosity.” As Paul explained to his protégé Timothy, we can confidently “fan into flame” (2 Timothy 1:6) and live out of God’s gifting when we remember that it’s God’s grace that saves and calls us to a life of purpose (v. 9). It’s His power that gives us the courage to resist the temptation to live timidly in exchange for the Spirit’s “power, love and self-discipline” (v. 7). And it’s His grace that picks us up when we fall, so that we can continue a lifelong journey of grounding our lives in His love (vv. 13-14).Paul’s encouragement to live a Spirit-empowered life of “power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7) echoes words from his letter to the Romans. There, the apostle wrote that believers need not “live in fear” because they are “heirs of God” (Romans 8:15, 17). In Romans 1:16, Paul testified of not being “ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation.” In 2 Timothy, the apostle encouraged Timothy to “join with” him in not being “ashamed of the testimony about our Lord” (1:8). Instead, Timothy could live in God’s power (vv. 8-9)-the power that “destroyed death” (v. 10).
Interesting. "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" what a strange quote from someone who clearly is not one with an educated mind.
