On the Imbalance of Being, the Modern Illusion, and Spiritual Disease
“The sick mind is fertile ground for spiritual disease. It is a profound disorder of the will and the affections: Incurvatus in se.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, June 22, 2026
“The obstinate refusal of healing and the absolute obstruction of Grace: Peccatum in Spiritum Sanctum.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, June 22, 2026
“The greatest agony is to contemplate the death of a soul in life. The sensation is that of partially feeling the sorrow of God Himself—there exists no human expression capable or sufficient for even a remotely approximate description.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, June 22, 2026
“As long as interactions remain restricted to trivialities, any futility is pleasing, simulating a supposed lightness. Conversely, when reality comes to light, society recoils, as if the truth were a monster made of thorns. Exceedingly rare are those who understand that to contemplate reality is not an inadequacy, but love; the thorns are graces in disguise, and the proper reaction should not be flight, but surrender.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, June 15, 2026
“Social convention acts as a confining rule; maturity, however, is the unwavering disposition to confront the True. In a sick society, addicted to sentimentality and self-idolatry, the capacity to understand that to love is to suffer has been lost—and that this sacrifice is the very essence of happiness.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, June 15, 2026
“It is astounding to realize that, for many people, tragedy is more comfortable than healing.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, April 2, 2026
“When modern man severed the umbilical cord with Transcendence and Tradition, he did not become free; he became an exile.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, April 9, 2026
“When there is no lineage—of thought, of values, of history—to sustain us, we are doomed to the exhaustion of having to ‘invent the wheel’ daily.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, April 9, 2026
“We must cease to be cultural beggars and reclaim our royal lineage in Western civilization.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, April 9, 2026
“How difficult is the disordered life! The Being who bows to worldly illusions—necessarily—detaches himself from reality; and, consequently, finds himself incapable of discerning the true meaning of life. What exposes such a rupture, disconnection, and disorder are the individual’s own reactions to the supposed misfortunes of life. Every worldly pleasure becomes euphoria, and any apparent adversity becomes worthy of enormous and profound grief.”
— E. S. von Hertwig, March 31, 2026
“So strong is tradition that later generations will dream of what they have never seen.”
— G. K. Chesterton
“It is not possible to make hell attractive, so the devil makes the path that leads there attractive.”
— St. Basil the Great
“Conscience, Christ, and the gift of faith make evil men uneasy in their sin. They feel that if they could drive Christ from the earth, they would be free from ‘moral inhibitions.’ They forget that it is their own nature and conscience which makes them feel that way. Being unable to drive God from the heavens, they would drive his ambassadors from the earth.”
— Venerable Fulton J. Sheen