{"id":1323,"date":"2013-09-08T23:36:56","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T06:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2026-02-24T17:37:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T00:37:30","slug":"hans-von-balthasar-and-billy-joel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=1323","title":{"rendered":"Hans Von Balthasar and Billy Joel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Writings from a theologian I love with a profound understanding of the human heart\/condition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Man is the creature with a mystery in his heart that is bigger than himself. He is built like a tabernacle around a most sacred mystery&#8230;this sanctuary is neglected and forgotten, like an overgrown tomb or an attic choked with rubbish, and it needs an effort &#8211; the effort of contemplative prayer &#8211; to clean it up and make it habitable for the divine Guest. But the room itself does not need to be built; it is already there and always has been, at the very center of man.&#8221;<\/p>\n<cite>Hans Urs von Balthasar<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lest you think this is all just religious nonsensical musing &#8211; others recognize it too&#8230;<br>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wcUCYtyaLrY\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writings from a theologian I love with a profound understanding of the human heart\/condition: &#8220;Man is the creature with a mystery in his heart that is bigger than himself. He is built like a tabernacle around a most sacred mystery&#8230;this sanctuary is neglected and forgotten, like an overgrown tomb or an attic choked with rubbish, and it needs an effort &#8211; the effort of contemplative prayer &#8211; to clean it up and make it habitable for the divine Guest. But&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=1323\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4WECr-ll","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16058,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions\/16058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}