The Human Search

I think we can state the message like this: The search of all people in every age has been a search for some ultimate meaning perceptible among all the complexities and paradoxes of life. It is also a search for some ultimate authority in whom and on whom we can place complete reliance and certainty without losing our human self-respect or integrity. Idolatry and mere religiosity have only ever provided temporary satisfaction for this search. Our particular message which we have received by the manifold disclosure of God’s self-revelation that culminates in the person of Jesus is that these ultimate goals of meaning and authority are to be found within the depths of the human soul – within the mystery of our own personhood. It is the treasure buried in the field of our own hearts.
John Main, O.S.B.

Three Elements of Reason

Firstly, there is the reception of the facts to reason about. These facts are received either from our own senses, or from the report of other minds; that is, either experience or authority supplies us with our material…
Secondly, there is the direct, simple act of the mind perceiving self-evident truth, as when we see that if A and B both equal C, then they are equal to each other. This act I call Intuition.
Thirdly, there is an art or skill of arranging the facts so as to yield a series of such intuitions which linked together produce a proof of the truth or falsehood of the propositions we are considering.

C.S. Lewis