..."Tell it slant'... ~Emily Dickinson
"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."~Anais Nin
Now you know. The next time you go into the basement wear a helmet. ~Eve
"In extremity, states of mind become objective, metaphors tend to actualize, the word becomes flesh.(1977,205) -Terence Des Pres, 'The Survivor'
“I decided to go in search of the shaking woman.” Siri Hustvedt
A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. ~Albert Einstein
As Christians and Jews, following the example of the faith of Abraham, we are called to be a blessing to the world. (cf. Gen. 12:2ff). This is the common task awaiting us. It is therefore necessary for us Christians and Jews, to be first a blessing to one another. (L'Osservatore Romano, Aug. 17, 1993) ~John Paul II
"...there is need for acknowledgment of the common roots linking Christianity and the Jewish people, who are called by God to a covenant which remains irrevocable (cf. Rom.11:29) and has attained definitive fullness in Jesus Christ." ~John Paul II
...a consistent contempt for Nazism(condemning it as early as 1930...as 'demonic' and 'wedded to Satan') and Communism as virulent atheism...he referred to them as "Gog and Magog"... ~on Claudel

Today, it seems, most were born ‘left-handed.’ Every one I see walking is ‘hinged at the hips’, in-sync’ and glued to metallic boxes. ~Chelé
"A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge[illusory] solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged." - Czeslaw Milosz
*A writer is dear and necessary for us only in the measure of which he reveals to us the inner workings of his very soul*. Tolstoy
I will not let thee go except thou be blessed. Now wouldn’t it be a magnificent world if we all lived that way with each other or even with ourselves?
"I, Sister Faustina, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence...But I noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell." -Saint Faustina
Do you hear what I hear? A child, a child crying in the night.

"Every time you dance, what you do must be sprayed with your blood. ~Rudolf Nureyev
Why would someone who looked God in the face ever suppose that there could be something better? ~Matthew Likona

We cannot know what we would do in order to survive unless we are tested. For those of us tested to the extremes the answer is succinct: anything

…”The Stoics throned Fate, the Epicureans Chance, while the Skeptics left a vacant space where the gods had been –[nihilism]—but all agreed in the confession of despair;...and...Oriental schemes of thought contributed a share to the deepening gloom..." ~Gwatkin

"...notes to the committee...why do you invite cows to analyze the milk?" -Peter de Vries

"I run because it gives Him pleasure." ~Eric, Chariots of Fire

“God’s truth is life,” as Patrick Kavanagh says, “even the grotesque shapes of its foulest fire.” What is the difference between a cry of pain that is also a cry of praise and a cry of pain that is merely an articulation of despair? Faith? The cry of a believer, even if it is a cry against God, moves toward God, has its meaning in God, as in the cries of Job. ~Christian Wiman

"Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage." - Ray Bradbury

As for what concerns our relations with our fellow men, the anguish in our neighbor's soul must break all precept. All that we do is an end in itself, because God is Love. ~Edith Stein, St. Benedicta of the Cross.

“Lastly, and most of all. Who turns his back upon the fallen and disfigured of his kind; abandons them as vile…; does wrong to Heaven and man, to time and to eternity. And you have done that wrong!” ~Dickens, The Chimes, 1844

Dieu me pardonnera. C'est son métier . ~Heinrich Heine.

Remember the 'toe-pick' and you won't get swallowed by the whale or eaten by the polar bear.

Someone else needs to become the bad example in our group
But you wear shame so well ~James Goldman, Eve [Or, tired of being the scapegoat yet? ~Sue]

There is a point where the unfortunate and the infamous unite and are confounded in a single word, miserable; whose fault is this? And then should not the charity be all the more profound, in proportion as the fall is great? -[Jesus Christ said so.] -- Br. Humbert Kilanowski, O.P.

The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. -Sir Edward Grey

We are still fighting to use the tools we have to grapple with the unknown.

“We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not.” ~Joan Didion"

When I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and I'm even pleased that I'm falling in just such a humiliating position, and for me I find it beautiful. And so in that very shame I suddenly begin a hymn.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky

" ...wie geht es zu, daß ich alles so anders sehe ...?"

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”― Maya Angelou

'Have you ever noticed that the meanest, most misogynist, and dangerous people tend to be activists who claim to be for freedom and love?'

"For others of us, the most loving thing we can do for our abusers is to keep them from having opportunity to abuse ever again." (Dawn Eden) My Peace I Give You, Ch. 1)

No child is ever responsible for abuse perpetrated on them by ANYONE. I understand that others may not "get it" and that's fine. Blaming the victim is never right or just under any circumstances.

Stay In Touch -Have I not proven to you that I Am in the saving sinners business? -Jesus


HOPE: Hold on to the great truths of the Faith...Own your challenging affliction...Persevere...Expect God's providence and intervention... ~Johnette Benkovich, Woman of Grace
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, help those especially in need of thy mercy. - OL of Fatima
Prescription #1: Give God the greatest possible glory and honor Him with your whole soul. If you have a sin on your conscience, remove it as soon as possible by means of a good Confession. ~St. John Bosco
Prescription #2: In thankful tenderness offer Reparation for the horrible mockery and blasphemies constantly uttered against the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; against the Blessed Virgin Mary; the saints and angels; His Church; His priests and religious; His children; and His loving Heart by reciting the Golden Arrow which delightfully wounds Him:
'May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable and ineffable Name of God be forever praised, blessed, loved, and honored by all the creatures of God in heaven, on earth and in the hells through the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament of the altar. Amen.
Prescription #3: So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. ~Heb.13:13
Prescription #4: "Do whatever He tells you." ~John 2:5
Prescription #5: Sometimes when I am in such a state of spiritual dryness that not a single good thought occurs to me, I say very slowly the "Our Father" or the "Hail Mary"and these prayers suffice to take me out of myself. ~St. Therese of Lisieux
Prescription #6: Have confidence in God's Love, Justice, and Mercy: ...as for me, O my God, in my very confidence lies all my HOPE. For Thou, O Lord, singularly has settled me in hope." -St. Claude de la Colombiere SJ

Pages

Friday, October 28, 2011

The Sacramental Imagination and Catholic Literature

The Sacramental Imagination and Catholic Literature
Nina Butorac
Excerpt:
Analogical Imagination
I first came across the expression "Sacramental Imagination" in Andrew Greeley's book, The Catholic Myth, which is a sociological study of American Catholic culture, behavior and beliefs. 1 In the third chapter of his book, Greeley poses this question to his readers: "Do Catholics Imagine Differently?" He then proceeds to explain that, yes, indeed they do.
"Religion... is imagination before it's anything else. The Catholic imagination is different from the Protestant imagination. You know that: Flannery O'Connor is not John Updike." 2
This piqued my interest. "How is the Catholic Imagination different?" I wondered, and "Why might this be so?" Greeley writes:
"The central symbol (of religion) is God. One's "picture" of God is in fact a metaphorical narrative of God's relationship with the world and the self as part of the world... The Catholic "classics" assume a God who is present in the world, disclosing Himself in and through creation. The world and all its events, objects, and people tend to be somewhat like God. The Protestant classics, on the other hand, assume a God who is radically absent from the world, and who discloses (Himself) only on rare occasions (especially in Jesus Christ and Him crucified). The world and all its events, objects, and people tend to be radically different from God." 3
Greeley defines this difference this way:
"(T)he Catholic imagination is 'analogical' and the Protestant imagination is 'dialectical.'" 4
.......
My Note:
I became interested in the 'imagination' after delving into the poetry and life of Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins and the concept of hacceity. [don Scotus] I continue to collide with 'imagination'. Personally, after a lot of reading, thinking (yes, Martha, I do try!), and pondering I offer a 'tender' description. The imagination is that aspect of our being that is the vehicle for hope. Don't crush me, please, in your mad dash to discredit that. I only posted the above article because it is well-written. I am not a fan of Andrew Greeley. It makes me nervous to hear the word 'myth' bandied about when discussing the sacramental nature of being. Bultmann has done enough damage to the 'mystery' of God and His Creation, not counting what it has done to the Church. The Romantics haven't helped in this fraying of perception either.

There are quite a few people, many who are not Christian, who have taken up this banner of 'imagination.' Some nominal Christians are working very hard to re-define it in more, I'll be nice!, 'secular' terms which should be very disturbing to Christians and Catholics. I find it to be pivotal in the 'culture war.' [Hopkins 'began' here with the German 'kulturkampf', BTW. This onslaught has only ramped up with each passing day.]
Its mystery is haunting, isn't it?!!!!! I will share my present list of 'imagination' descriptors I have found and am reading about to allow your perusal of this great part of our being. I hope you will guard it well: with heart, mind, soul and body.
On Landscapes
Imagination List
Sacramental Imagination [O’Connor, Hopkins(Scotist)]
Analogical Imagination [Greeley(liberal)]
Moral Imagination [Realism: Yvor Winters]
Penetrative Imagination [Coleridge, Ruskin]
Questing Imagination [Stafford]
Emotive Imagination [Robert Bly, James Wright, Louis Simpson, and William Stafford]
Symbolic Imagination [Walker Percy, Allan Tate]
Angelic Imagination [Walker Percy, Allan Tate]
Liberal Imagination [ Lionel Trilling] [Perceptive Factor {Javier Marias]
Utopian Imagination  (Marxist) [Judith Brown]
Imaginative Empathy [Joseph W. Meeker]
Surreal Imagination [Dali, Bunuel, Lorca]
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Recently,
Imagination in the Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Keats
Hinges: Meditations on the Portals of the Imaginations [Grace Mazur]
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American Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor also illustrates the sacramental understanding of the world in her work Novelist and Believer:
"St. Augustine wrote that the things of the world pour forth from God in a double way: intellectually into the minds of the angels and physically into the world of things. To the person who believes this - as the western world did up until a few centuries ago - this physical sensible world is good because it proceeds from a divine source... The aim of the artist is to render the highest possible justice to the visible universe... The artist penetrates the concrete world in order to find at its depths the image of its source, the image of ultimate reality."
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There are others to add to the above list but I am not ready to add them until I read about each of them. You know what Simone Weil said: You must pay close 'attention.'

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