Led away from what cannot last

Fr. Joseph Hudson on why we must grow old

Dear Friends,

A friend, Fr. Joseph Hudson of Clear Creek Abbey, has written a very thoughtful post on why we must grow old. In our culture, obsessed as it is with the body and its health, old age - especially when one succumbs to dementia - is difficult to face.

Fr. Hudson interprets our aging as a benevolent Providence leading us “away from what cannot last.”

“The gradual weakening of the body, the narrowing of possibilities, even the experience of fatigue and limitation—these are not random. They participate in a larger movement: the loosening of our hold on what is passing.

We begin, often unwillingly, to discover that we cannot remain here in the same way we once did.”

We cannot cling to what must pass, and perhaps this diminution of our faculties, this stripping away of all that seemed to constitute our very selves - our strength, our memory, our relationships, our dignity - is nothing but a tender pruning away of all that encumbers the soul, so that it is finally and truly ready for His Mercy.

To read his thoughts on this and other subjects, see Fr. Hudson’s Substack, Notes on the Interior Life.