Father Robert Lauder reflects upon how celebrating the Eucharist devoutly and intelligently is a marvelous way to reach some of the most important truths about God and about ourselves.

In my role as a professor of philosophy at St. John’s University, Jamaica, I am often reminded of a line from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s great musical “The King and I.” The line, which is in the song “Getting to Know You,” is: “It’s an old and ancient saying but a true and honest thought that if you become a teacher by your students you’ll be taught.”

Catholicism is a religion of mysteries. I think immediately of mysteries such as the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection and the Eucharist. I believe that one of the great mysteries that the Catholic Church proclaims and celebrates is the mystery of Divine Providence.

One day I saw an ad in a Catholic magazine for a new book titled “What Is God? How To Think About the Divine” (New York: Paulist Press, 1986, pp. 143, $14.95) by John Haught. Then I did something a professor should never do: I ordered the book for the course before I had even read the book!

Autobiographies and published diaries can be a mixed blessing. What is wonderful about them is that readers can receive the view of a life from the perspective of the person who is living it. However, who is to say that the author really understands himself or herself and the important decisions that are reported in an autobiography or a published diary? Several events have set me thinking about firsthand reports of a life. One is that John Paul’s spiritual diary, which he specifically said that he did not want published, is going to be published.

A few months ago I experienced what developed into a grace-filled Friday evening. It was the first Friday of the spring semester at St. John’s University, Jamaica. During the day, I had spoken for almost three hours at the university. By evening, I was hoarse and tired and did not feel like attending a Renew Group meeting to which I had been invited.

In rereading and reflecting on Evelyn Underhill’s wonderful book, “The Spiritual Life” (Morehouse, 1937, pp. 128), I have been moved to try to think as deeply and as clearly as I can about the relationship between God and the person in grace. Writing this series of columns related to Underhill’s book has been a labor of joy for me.

I am having an interesting experience as I am re-reading Evelyn Underhill’s wonderful little book “The Spiritual Life” (Morehouse Press, 1937, pp. 128).