Ever on the Move
The incomparable Mr. Luse has found yet a new haven. Following him around should earn the intrepid blogger pilgrimage points.
Around St. Blog's: July 2003 Archives
Catholic Analysis
I found this commentary on biblical commentaries very helpful and enlightening. I have found commentaries largely lacking what I really want in a commentary and that is practical action and strong ethical and moral teaching. Obviously, that isn't what a commentary is for; however, why not? Why should I have to search through a mountain of abstruse comment on the use of aorist greek verb tenses to derive some small kernel of useful information about how to conduct my life?
This is why I find projects like the Catena Aurea and the modern version issued by IVP (the name of which slips my mind at the moment) very useful. Also useful, to me, is the study bible issued by the Opus Dei group--I believe it is called the Navarre. The commentary there isn't so much about how to interpret this or that obscure verse or phrase, but about how to live a life built upon biblical prinicples and the magisterium of the Church. These are the things that make a commentary or guide or gloss useful. Tell me in very practical terms exactly how to implement a given teaching. Give me step-by-step instructions because sometimes I am a complete idiot and I need them Admittedly, one must use caution when choosing a guide like this, but I get far more out of my study if I can figure out exactly what I'm supposed to be doing than when I sit and ponder the overall effect of fine distinctions of words. These things are necessary and useful to the scholar, and from them much of what I desire in a commentary flows; however, for the most part they do not lead me any closer to God, they lead me closer to philology and related fields. And for a person who looks for any excuse to diverge from the prayerful path, these commentaries are certainly tempting.
And Now for Something Completely Different. . .
No, not the man with three buttocks, but rather Optical Illusions and fascinating illusions of motion via Matthias at Credo ut Intelligam.
Also at Credo ut Intelligam, Matthias has been contributing to Mr. Serafin's list of converts and adds one that I had not known of--Gustav Mahler. He also includes the novelist Gertrud von le Fort, author of Song at the Scaffold which may have influenced Bernanos in his construction of the libretto for Poulenc's Dialogue of the Carmelites.
At Minute Particulars
"Praying for Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee" (I couldn't have said it better if I had tried.) An interesting new take on the question of what part prayer needs to play in our lives and our resistance to it in some cases. Beautifully articulated.
Two Places to Visit
If you haven't been reading the many fascinating thoughts and arguments at Disputations you have missed out on some really good material. John Da Fiesole has presented a great many thoughts and wrestled with some big, big, big questions and arrived at some interesting places. Thank God for it.
For those who read Spanish better than I do, Mr. Gonzalez at fotos de apocalipsis has a most interesting commentary on some of the materials at Disputations.
I know I have learned a tremendous amount and been enormously edified by all of the comments at Disputations. Sometimes words are simply inadequate to express the things we feel. But I hope Tom knows how grateful and how edified I am. What a marvelous way of following his mentor and guide and honoring and glorifying Our Lord and God!
Courteous Conversation and Conversion
Wonderful insights from Kathy the Carmelite. I would have done well to read this earlier in the day--oh well, live and learn.
At Disputations Again
The usual coherent, reasonable, and charitable response to maunderings herein under scripted. I wish I could think in this way before I leap to some lamentable conclusions. I make a feeble effort at an apologia--but I fear it lacks any real fire or power. My thanks for the rejoinder and the reminder.
Sanctificarnos
Please be sure to visit Sanctificarnos, a website dedicated to giving a Catholic Perspective on Marriage and Divorce. What you learn there may well help someone you know who is struggling with these issues. Moreover, it may also help us all understand better essential Catholic teachings and the real necessity of preparing for marriage.
Thanks to Mary
A Wonderful and touching story that goes to show that you never know who is listening nor what it is that will touch them. Thanks, Mary.
