..."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

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Saturday, August 27, 2011

The Aeneid, Books 1-6 « Shelf Love

The Aeneid, Books 1-6 « Shelf Love
Excerpt:
Everything is from a different perspective, told from Trojan eyes, not Greek. Virgil’s writing is vivid and visual. There are some wonderfully creepy moments, such as when they sail off from the island of the Cyclops, and all the monsters come down to the shore, silently:

Down from the woods and the high hills they lumber in alarm,

the tribe of Cyclops, down to the harbor, crowding the shore,

the brotherhood of Etna! We see them standing there, powerless,

each with his one glaring eye, their heads towering up,

an horrendous muster looming into the vaulting sky

like mountain oaks or cypress heavy with cones

in Jupiter’s soaring woods or Diana’s sacred grove.

I can just see them, huge and terrifying, just out of reach. Poor Dido, too, caught in the torments of love, and dying for it. Her spells and her suicide are among the most vivid scenes...One of the things that caught me off guard — and my only excuse is that, honestly, I had no expectations of this piece going into it — was Aeneas’s voyage to the House of the Dead in Book 6. Several of my heroes this summer have gone down to the dead at one point or another (Orpheus and Odysseus are notable examples, as well as the Norse gods) and so this didn’t at first seem to be anything too out of the way. But then Aeneas begins looking around him. Here are the ghosts of infants. Here are those condemned to die on a false charge. The suicides. Those tormented by love (Dido is there, her wound still fresh.) Parricides, adulterers, regicides… wait. Of course...Dante chose Virgil to lead him through Hell in the Inferno because Virgil had already been there. This was an epiphany of epic (ha!) proportions for me,...



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