Originally posted a few years ago… . I’m currently reading – only a few cantos left of Paradiso – part of The Divine Comedy by Dante which I read a few years ago in Oman but it all went way over my head. I have read it again these past few weeks aided by a decent…
“Spirit who sweepest the wild harp of Time! It is most hard, with an untroubled ear Thy dark inwoven harmonies to hear! Yet, mine eye fixed on Heaven’s unchanging clime, Long had I listened, free from mortal fear, With inward stillness, and a bowed mind; When lo! its folds far waving on the wind, I…
“I saw gathered there in the depths of it, Bound up by love into a single volume, All the leaves scattered through the universe; Substance and accidents and their relations, But yet fused together in such a manner, That what I am talking of is a simple light.” Dante: Paradiso, Canto XXXIII: 85-90. …
O where is it, the wilderness, The wildness of the wilderness? Where is it, the wilderness? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ And wander in the wilderness; In the weedy wilderness, Wander in the wilderness. From Oxford World Classics poem written by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The following conversation and ensuing discussion took place on a train in 1930s Poland. Saint Maxilmilian Kolbe – his words are noted in bold type – talks with other passengers about the existence of God. I am sceptical but of scientism and many of the claims made on behalf of science which may actually depend…
The Dialogue was dictated by Saint Catherine of Siena who was one of twenty-five children and lived in the time and region of 14th century Italy. The context is spiritual welfare. A conversation takes place. Saint Catherine writes down what God says to her. She asks God four theological questions. What is extraordinary is that…
On receiving this much acclaimed Dickens classic, I had no initial expectations of finding anything that might capture my imagination. A few years previously I had taken a copy of Bleak House with me on my travels but was not impressed by what I thought was a tendency to unnecessary verbiage. I considered that…
