this modern life

(I wanted to post some really self-indulgent journal-type stuff, but decided instead to post and pass on some words of wisdom. Because this excerpt says all the things I want to say, but don't know how. It articulates those vague feelings of unease I have about people who have no respect for anything sacred, who blithely ignore the fact that man cannot live by bread alone.)

The increasing religious indifference leads to the loss of the sense of God and of His holiness, which, in turn, is translated into a loss of a sense of the sacred, of mystery and of the capacity for wonder. These are human dispositions which predispose a person to dialogue and to an encounter with God. Such indifference almost inevitably leads to a false moral autonomy and a secularistic lifestyle which excludes God. The loss of the sense of God is followed by a loss of the sense of sin, which has its roots in the moral conscience of the individual. This is a great obstacle to conversion. -- Pope John Paul II Lineamenta for the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for America, Semptember 18, 1996