How, then, should it not appear absurd, that under those senses which are inferior, substances should have been placed on which to exert their powers, but that under this power, which is far better than any other, i.e., the sense of mind, nothing at all of the nature of a substance should be placed, but that a power of an intellectual nature should be an accident, or consequent upon bodies? Those who assert this, doubtless do so to the disparagement of that better substance which is within them; nay, by so doing, they even do wrong to God Himself, when they imagine He may be understood by means of a bodily nature, so that according to their view He is a body, and that which may be understood or perceived by means of a body; and they are unwilling to have it understood that the mind bears a certain relationship to God, of whom the mind itself is an intellectual image, and that by means of this it may come to some knowledge of the nature of divinity, especially if it be purified and separated from bodily matter. (Book I, Part )

Origen perceives of mind and body in conflict, with the body too often victorious.

I perceive mind, body, and spirit as an interdependent system. The sensual, intellectual and spiritual can be complementary.

Balancing the three requires care and cultivation. Left to itself sensuality can be vulgar. The intellect will lose itself in abstraction. Spirituality can be arrogant.

Woven together and reinforcing there is a path to the beautiful, the true, and the good.

This day and every day may we engage the world around us, think deeply, and bring prayer to all we do.