We started thinking yesterday about what I've called soul shapes.

What makes human beings different and special is not that they have souls per se, the same

language is used of animals in the Bible. Rather,

it's that our souls, we ourselves, have been given a unique shape. We're made as God's

image meant to be like him to reflect his glory. And as the catechism says, not only to glorify

him, but to enjoy him forever.

But we've sinned.

We've lost that likeness.

We are bent out of shape.

We are twisted.

It's a bit like what happens if you, instead of going into drive in your automatic car,

you make the mistake of going into reverse gear.

That's our basic problem.

That's what sin does.

It distorts the shape of what the Old Testament calls my nefesh, my soul.

Now yesterday I said I wanted to think with you this week about some of these soul shapes. And there are as many of them

as there are people. So we're not planning to write an entire spiritual anatomy and physiology

textbook here. We're drawing only a few of the most common soul shapes. And the first one may ring a bell

with some of us. In fact, it's been known about

for centuries and it even has a Latin name. Martin Luther diagnosed it in the early 16th century

and perhaps you're familiar with the condition. This soul shape or perhaps better better soul, myth shape, is what he called

being in Curvatus in Say, being turned in on ourselves. It's what St. Augustine meant when

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