Purgatory: place "in which the very power to sin is lost." [1]
[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Canto XXVI, p. 514. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
A Different Theory, A Different Shade
The Divine Comedy has been my life-long companion but even best friends can sometimes disagree. Alighiere Dante and I part ways in how we define the birth of the human soul and a shade. However, as I read his masterpiece, I accept fully his views and remain awed and riveted.
In Canto XXV of The Purgatorio, Dante asked how the Gluttons could appear starved although they are non-flesh entities requiring no food. This simple question gave way to a lecture by Statius, a friend of Virgil who had been assigned to accompany Dante through Hell and Purgatory. Statius' words would have been incomprehensible had John Ciardi, the translator in my version, not dedicated three pages of notes out of five following the Canto explaining them. Ciardi said,"[t]he discourse may be divided into three parts: I. The Nature of the Generative Principle; II. The Birth of the Human Soul; and III. The Nature of Aerial Bodies." [1]
Short of transcribing verbatim all three pages of Ciardi's explanation, let me summarily conclude that the "Generative Principle" ends with a successful conception. The concept of "The Birth of the Human Soul" is more involved. I will quote Ciardi at length to highlight Dante's beliefs and then contrast them with mine:
My tiff with Dante does not end here. It continues with the Nature of Aerial Bodies. John Ciardi explained in the notes that at "the end of mortal life, the soul goes free of the flesh but takes with it, by virtue of that essence God breathed into it, all of its faculties both human (vegetative and sensitive) and divine (rational)[,]" and that "[t]hese lower (vegetative and sensitive) faculties grow passive and mute after death, since they have left behind the organs whereby they functioned. The higher faculties, however, since they are God-inspired and now free of their mortal involvement in materiality, become more active and acute. At the instant of death the soul miraculously falls, by an act of its own will, either to the shore of Hell for damnation, or to the mouth of the Tiber to await transport to Purgatory....[W]hichever shore the soul [ends up], the inclosing air takes on the image of that soul by virtue of the soul's indwelling formative power. Then, ever after, and just as flame follows fire, the new form follows the soul, wherever it may move. This new form is called a shade because it is made of insubstantial air, and because out of air it forms all the organs of sense." (Emphasis original) [5] I thought the Dantean theory of The Birth of the Human Soul was convoluted; its theory of The Nature of Aerial Bodies is nearly impossible to digest by comparison.
The delinking of spirit and flesh at death, as I see it, is simple. Borrowing some terms from Dantean's theory of The Nature of Aerial Bodies, a spirit has sensitive and rational faculties from its heavenly beginning. It was never a "plant" [6] and had no vegetative faculty. Upon union of spirit and flesh, the heavenly spirit becomes the human soul and during the course of its existence in the flesh, the soul continuously grows and finds meaning (kind or cunning) because it has Free Will, the same Free Will God gave the heavenly spirit before its incarnation. At the death of flesh, the soul takes flight either as a heavenly spirit that will return to and join God in Heaven (possibly through Purgatory) or as a shade that will leave God and join Satan in Hell -- not "by an act of its own will" [7] but after the Final Judgment for there is not a single entity that would go willingly to Hell for an eternity. Moreover, in Hell and in Purgatory, Dante would have an infinite number of shades following around an infinite number of souls "just as flame follows fire" [8]. That would double the work of those in charge of them -- a hellish job for any entity anywhere.
Setting aside my confusion and lack of sophisticated understanding of Alighieri Dante's work, The Divine Comedy, as translated by John Ciardi, remains a friend and a work to be revered.
Below is the answer to Dante's question above, for those who are waiting to find out:
[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 506. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
[2] Op. cit. at p. 507.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Op. cit. at p. 508.
[6] Op. cit. at p. 507
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Op. cit. at p. 508
Note: I had in previous posts referred to humans as shades when they are doing Satan's work on earth. These "human shades" do not give light and they are unable to shine and lift up the spirits of others in a positive and genuine way; instead, they live on "borrowed light" which is light that is reflected upon them by others. They are able to have the light of others by deceit just as Satan is able to own a person's soul by false promises that lead ultimately to eternal emptiness, despair and regret
In Canto XXV of The Purgatorio, Dante asked how the Gluttons could appear starved although they are non-flesh entities requiring no food. This simple question gave way to a lecture by Statius, a friend of Virgil who had been assigned to accompany Dante through Hell and Purgatory. Statius' words would have been incomprehensible had John Ciardi, the translator in my version, not dedicated three pages of notes out of five following the Canto explaining them. Ciardi said,"[t]he discourse may be divided into three parts: I. The Nature of the Generative Principle; II. The Birth of the Human Soul; and III. The Nature of Aerial Bodies." [1]
Short of transcribing verbatim all three pages of Ciardi's explanation, let me summarily conclude that the "Generative Principle" ends with a successful conception. The concept of "The Birth of the Human Soul" is more involved. I will quote Ciardi at length to highlight Dante's beliefs and then contrast them with mine:
"With conception, the soul is born, not as a coinheritance from the mother and father, but from the active force (the formative power) of the father-blood alone, the maternal blood providing only the matter for the formative power to work on. (Dante's views here are pure Aquinian doctrine.)
"This newly formed soul is like that of a plant (vegetative only), but with the difference that the plant soul is fully formed at this stage, whereas the human soul is only beginning.
"From this plantlike state (possessing only 'vegetative faculties') the soul grows capable of elementary motion and sensation (the 'sensitive faculties')....
"One must still ask how this animal foetus acquires the power of human reason ...
"the instant the brain is fully formed in the human foetus, God turns to it in his joy at the art of nature in forming so perfect a thing, and breathes into it a powerful spirit peculiar to man. This God-infused spirit draws all the life forces (vegetative, sensitive, and rational) into a single soul." [2]In my view, the human soul is born not at the moment of conception. The human soul is a heavenly spirit that is already in existence, and becomes the human soul when it is assigned to an infant (one that is capable of existence outside of the mother's womb) and simultaneously merged with new flesh. At that moment it has all the faculties (in varying and unequal degrees) necessary to grow in the human realm and take flight when the flesh dies. This view is in contrast with Dante's and therefore the Aquinian doctrine that "The Birth of the Human Soul" begins at conception even though the brain of the fetus is not yet fully formed and God has not yet "turn[ed] to it in his joy at the art of nature...and breath[ed] into it a powerful spirit peculiar to man." [3] To accept the doctrine is to accept that there is a difference between the soul that is without any intellect or life force to exist and a soul with God's gift of the spirit that can draw "all the life forces (vegetative, sensitive, and rational) into a single soul" [4] so that the previous soul be "born again" to begin its life in the flesh. Heaven is never to me so unnecessarily complicated or inefficient. Moreover, it is questionable that only when "the brain is fully formed in the human foetus [that] God turns to it in his joy at the art of nature in forming so perfect a thing..." [5] as if the early formative stages of the fetus are not part of the art of nature and God is not joyful seeing a fetus develop into an infant so that a heavenly spirit would be able to experience flesh. I think God is not joyful when free will aborts what is developing in a mother's womb before a heavenly spirit can unite with it.
My tiff with Dante does not end here. It continues with the Nature of Aerial Bodies. John Ciardi explained in the notes that at "the end of mortal life, the soul goes free of the flesh but takes with it, by virtue of that essence God breathed into it, all of its faculties both human (vegetative and sensitive) and divine (rational)[,]" and that "[t]hese lower (vegetative and sensitive) faculties grow passive and mute after death, since they have left behind the organs whereby they functioned. The higher faculties, however, since they are God-inspired and now free of their mortal involvement in materiality, become more active and acute. At the instant of death the soul miraculously falls, by an act of its own will, either to the shore of Hell for damnation, or to the mouth of the Tiber to await transport to Purgatory....[W]hichever shore the soul [ends up], the inclosing air takes on the image of that soul by virtue of the soul's indwelling formative power. Then, ever after, and just as flame follows fire, the new form follows the soul, wherever it may move. This new form is called a shade because it is made of insubstantial air, and because out of air it forms all the organs of sense." (Emphasis original) [5] I thought the Dantean theory of The Birth of the Human Soul was convoluted; its theory of The Nature of Aerial Bodies is nearly impossible to digest by comparison.
The delinking of spirit and flesh at death, as I see it, is simple. Borrowing some terms from Dantean's theory of The Nature of Aerial Bodies, a spirit has sensitive and rational faculties from its heavenly beginning. It was never a "plant" [6] and had no vegetative faculty. Upon union of spirit and flesh, the heavenly spirit becomes the human soul and during the course of its existence in the flesh, the soul continuously grows and finds meaning (kind or cunning) because it has Free Will, the same Free Will God gave the heavenly spirit before its incarnation. At the death of flesh, the soul takes flight either as a heavenly spirit that will return to and join God in Heaven (possibly through Purgatory) or as a shade that will leave God and join Satan in Hell -- not "by an act of its own will" [7] but after the Final Judgment for there is not a single entity that would go willingly to Hell for an eternity. Moreover, in Hell and in Purgatory, Dante would have an infinite number of shades following around an infinite number of souls "just as flame follows fire" [8]. That would double the work of those in charge of them -- a hellish job for any entity anywhere.
Setting aside my confusion and lack of sophisticated understanding of Alighieri Dante's work, The Divine Comedy, as translated by John Ciardi, remains a friend and a work to be revered.
Below is the answer to Dante's question above, for those who are waiting to find out:
"Not only is the shade able to receive sensory impressions, but to produce sounds and appearances that can be registered by mortal senses. (As well as by other shades, as the narrative has made clear at many points.)
"The appearance of the shade, moreover, conforms in detail to the inner feelings of the soul. Thus, if God fills the souls of the gluttonous with a craving for food which is then denied them, their shades appear to wither and starve, their outward appearance conforming to their inner state." [9]When shades are defined and seen from the Dantean point of view, they create the dramatic imageries that are indispensable to The Divine Comedy.
[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 506. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
[2] Op. cit. at p. 507.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Op. cit. at p. 508.
[6] Op. cit. at p. 507
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Op. cit. at p. 508
Note: I had in previous posts referred to humans as shades when they are doing Satan's work on earth. These "human shades" do not give light and they are unable to shine and lift up the spirits of others in a positive and genuine way; instead, they live on "borrowed light" which is light that is reflected upon them by others. They are able to have the light of others by deceit just as Satan is able to own a person's soul by false promises that lead ultimately to eternal emptiness, despair and regret
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Star Parker
This morning was the first time I saw and heard Star Parker, founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. She was speaking against abortion on EWTN and during her presentation she threw in some zingers that were directed at secularism and socialism in America. They were veiled but pointed criticisms of the current administration. As a dreamer, I played in my mind the hypothetical but foregone possibility that if Star Parker were the candidate for president instead of Mitt Romney, if she would have won. Of course not. That was not part of God's plan. She is God's pick to speak the truth and what politician does that? However, as a romanticist, I imagined that election night would have been a nail-biter.
For some reason, God's picks seem to have angelic features, that is not to say that Satan's minions are unattractive for they are not. They have to look sufficiently tantalizing to beguile. Appearance aside, both God's picks and Satan's minions are equally intelligent and capable for they both come from God except the latter ones are too internally weak to resist the fruit of temptation. When I saw Star Parker standing behind the podium, it might as well have a presidential seal in front of it because of her beauty, charisma, articulateness and presence, but reality hit when the camera showed the audience and the room she was in: it was not a formal gathering at the White House and the podium was a humble one. Nevertheless, the content of her speech was important and encompassing. She weaved into the topic of abortion social and economic aspects of life that are supported by public policies but not by God's laws. When she was finished, I was inspired to record my thoughts here.
Leaders like Star Parker keep my hope up that the war against Satan on this planet is not yet lost even though I engage in it individually every day. My efforts are like a grain of sand on the beach that is being devoured continually by tsunamis.
For some reason, God's picks seem to have angelic features, that is not to say that Satan's minions are unattractive for they are not. They have to look sufficiently tantalizing to beguile. Appearance aside, both God's picks and Satan's minions are equally intelligent and capable for they both come from God except the latter ones are too internally weak to resist the fruit of temptation. When I saw Star Parker standing behind the podium, it might as well have a presidential seal in front of it because of her beauty, charisma, articulateness and presence, but reality hit when the camera showed the audience and the room she was in: it was not a formal gathering at the White House and the podium was a humble one. Nevertheless, the content of her speech was important and encompassing. She weaved into the topic of abortion social and economic aspects of life that are supported by public policies but not by God's laws. When she was finished, I was inspired to record my thoughts here.
Leaders like Star Parker keep my hope up that the war against Satan on this planet is not yet lost even though I engage in it individually every day. My efforts are like a grain of sand on the beach that is being devoured continually by tsunamis.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The Meaning Of Life - Part 3
The purpose of life is to give an opportunity for an incarnated spirit to grow in its human form before it takes flight. When life has meaning, the spirit grows in fullness dimensionally and in brightness extra-dimensionally. The more the being chooses God and goodness over Satan and sin, the more complete the spirit, the more likely the spirit will return to heaven from where it came and the more likely it will be united with God [1].
In human form, we are subject to Satan's temptations just as Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan. Since Christ was sinless, He overcame them, but the flesh that God created in Adam and Eve and are part of ours is not sinless. The forbidden apple is part of every person's DNA and the Devil had since showered us with more apples than we can bite into in our lifetimes. All Satan wants us to do is to feed on his apples of temptation and the more a human feeds on them, the less dimensional and the darker the spirit becomes until it is a shade and when it becomes a shade, it cannot return to heaven but is destined to be part of Satan in Hell, "where sin lasts beyond the end of time" [2].
No one other than Satan is recommending a trip to Hell. To avoid Hell, one must find meaning in life, meaning that is intangible and priceless and that can be had through all kinds of human interactions, whether insignificant or life-changing, momentary or lasting, but they all must spring from genuineness and simple humility and be abundant in love, the kind of love that is stable and steadfast, that energizes and overflows, a love that cannot be depleted and does not deprive.
In giving meaning to life, rounding out and brightening the spirit, one must first be content and not go through life as a victim and envious of others, as if the whole world owes him/her, for what has been given, flesh, is a gift that can lead the spirit back to heaven to be with God. Given that to be true, no one on earth should complain about inequality in luck, opportunity, health, wealth, intellect, talent or anything else for that matter and those who remain ungrateful for God's gift of flesh and bitter because of innate inequality have already been mostly owned by Satan and could be destined for Hell.
In other words, even a short, sick and painful life is a gift from God and it can have meaning that will fill and give the incarnated spirit a trip back to heaven to be with God. Conversely, a long and comfortable life replete with fortune, fame and power may not have any meaning at all if they have their origins in Satan's apples, but the best of life's luxuries do not necessarily have to come from Hell, for God can also lavish gifts on those with humility, love and faith in Him. [3] So seeing people who are rich, attractive, intelligent, talented and so on is like seeing a little of what God is like and that is to be celebrated. I truly wish I were surrounded by people like that, people whom God have chosen to pamper, not ingrates who hate God's gift of incarnation, ingrates that have turned into shades that can no longer emnate light but exist powerfully under Satan.
[1] The only way a spirit can return to God, its Creator, and be forever a part God is through the human realm. Therefore a spirit that had once existed in the flesh is different from a spirit that never experienced flesh. Angels never had flesh and they can never become a part of God. That is not to say that angels are necessarily subordinated to a fully dimensioned spirit, they just exist in a separate realm and equally content unless they join the fallen ones.
[2] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 497. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
[3] The pronoun used here is for convenience only. I do not know God's gender of if God even has a gender at any moment in time.
In human form, we are subject to Satan's temptations just as Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan. Since Christ was sinless, He overcame them, but the flesh that God created in Adam and Eve and are part of ours is not sinless. The forbidden apple is part of every person's DNA and the Devil had since showered us with more apples than we can bite into in our lifetimes. All Satan wants us to do is to feed on his apples of temptation and the more a human feeds on them, the less dimensional and the darker the spirit becomes until it is a shade and when it becomes a shade, it cannot return to heaven but is destined to be part of Satan in Hell, "where sin lasts beyond the end of time" [2].
No one other than Satan is recommending a trip to Hell. To avoid Hell, one must find meaning in life, meaning that is intangible and priceless and that can be had through all kinds of human interactions, whether insignificant or life-changing, momentary or lasting, but they all must spring from genuineness and simple humility and be abundant in love, the kind of love that is stable and steadfast, that energizes and overflows, a love that cannot be depleted and does not deprive.
In giving meaning to life, rounding out and brightening the spirit, one must first be content and not go through life as a victim and envious of others, as if the whole world owes him/her, for what has been given, flesh, is a gift that can lead the spirit back to heaven to be with God. Given that to be true, no one on earth should complain about inequality in luck, opportunity, health, wealth, intellect, talent or anything else for that matter and those who remain ungrateful for God's gift of flesh and bitter because of innate inequality have already been mostly owned by Satan and could be destined for Hell.
In other words, even a short, sick and painful life is a gift from God and it can have meaning that will fill and give the incarnated spirit a trip back to heaven to be with God. Conversely, a long and comfortable life replete with fortune, fame and power may not have any meaning at all if they have their origins in Satan's apples, but the best of life's luxuries do not necessarily have to come from Hell, for God can also lavish gifts on those with humility, love and faith in Him. [3] So seeing people who are rich, attractive, intelligent, talented and so on is like seeing a little of what God is like and that is to be celebrated. I truly wish I were surrounded by people like that, people whom God have chosen to pamper, not ingrates who hate God's gift of incarnation, ingrates that have turned into shades that can no longer emnate light but exist powerfully under Satan.
[1] The only way a spirit can return to God, its Creator, and be forever a part God is through the human realm. Therefore a spirit that had once existed in the flesh is different from a spirit that never experienced flesh. Angels never had flesh and they can never become a part of God. That is not to say that angels are necessarily subordinated to a fully dimensioned spirit, they just exist in a separate realm and equally content unless they join the fallen ones.
[2] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 497. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.
[3] The pronoun used here is for convenience only. I do not know God's gender of if God even has a gender at any moment in time.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
The Meaning Of Life - Part 2
Like kids who cannot wait to go out and play, the spirits longing to be incarnated are equally if not more eager to leave their realm but as soon as they are assigned to a newborn, most do not like their respective assignment since most babies cry when they are born.
If these spirits are so eager to experience flesh, they ought to be grateful the moment they are filled with it and feel its magnificence. They ought to be screaming and laughing and celebrating when they enter the world but cry they do and they keep crying and crying day after day, sometimes night after night. Why are they so unhappy? Did the spirits expect so much more while they were so desirous of flesh before they had it? I supposed I cried too but I do not know why I cried but it would be logical to assume that I had realized that a life with flesh was so much more painful in reality than imagined and crying was a way to express regret and disappointment.
On the other hand, why could my spirit not accept the realities and be content since flesh was what my spirit wanted and flesh was what it was given? This is where Satan comes in and acts out the drama called Temptation over and over with every soul. These spirits, while I do not know their classification, are from heaven and when they inhabit flesh on earth, they are accessible to Satan and fair game. Satan wants to win them over by tempting them again and again. In this tug-of-war between an incarnated spirit and Satan is where a life gets its meaning.
If these spirits are so eager to experience flesh, they ought to be grateful the moment they are filled with it and feel its magnificence. They ought to be screaming and laughing and celebrating when they enter the world but cry they do and they keep crying and crying day after day, sometimes night after night. Why are they so unhappy? Did the spirits expect so much more while they were so desirous of flesh before they had it? I supposed I cried too but I do not know why I cried but it would be logical to assume that I had realized that a life with flesh was so much more painful in reality than imagined and crying was a way to express regret and disappointment.
On the other hand, why could my spirit not accept the realities and be content since flesh was what my spirit wanted and flesh was what it was given? This is where Satan comes in and acts out the drama called Temptation over and over with every soul. These spirits, while I do not know their classification, are from heaven and when they inhabit flesh on earth, they are accessible to Satan and fair game. Satan wants to win them over by tempting them again and again. In this tug-of-war between an incarnated spirit and Satan is where a life gets its meaning.
Monday, January 14, 2013
The Meaning Of Life - Part 1
This is the ultimate topic and I do not presume I know what it is although I have a few preliminary thoughts. To know life's meaning, one must start from the very beginning and the very beginning is God, notwithstanding a comic's illustration of God with the words: Let there be light ... and there was Darwin, and around Darwin were a number of creatures. I remember the image from years and years ago but do not remember who illustrated it but my guess is Piraro Bizzaro. I loved it and still think it is funny.
Forward to my imagination (or not), I somehow know that prior to birth I was a spirit among hordes of others wanting to be born to have have a chance at experiencing flesh. How that seemingly grown spirit had transformed into an utterly undeveloped spirit at my birth I do not know, nor do I know how my pre-birth's spirit came into existence nor what these spirits were, if they were lowly angels or an undefined group of spiritual entities. When I imagine (or recollect) the events (or facts) immediately my birth, I can say that I was in communication with the entity in charge of my and every other birth. I remember the exchange but it is not relevant here -- all I will say is that the entity was extremely busy and did not have much time or patience for discussions with me.
What is relevant is the simultaneous union of a spirit and the product of human wills that allows an infant to be born for life cannot come into being without either [1]. It is then for this "new" spirit that inhabits the newly-made flesh to acquire meaning gradually as it matures.
[1] This assertion is not a political or scientific one. Suffice it to say that I do not believe in abortion because of the countless number of spirits hoping and waiting to experience flesh, not because a spirit can inhabit a fetus that is unable to exist outside of a mother's womb. The strongest argument for abortion that I can think of is the fact that pro-life advocates presume that all fetuses want to be born when they have no right to make that decision for those who never wanted to be born, but that argument fails because the decision to be born was made by the spirit desiring flesh and there are a whole lot more spirits with this desire than the number of babies made.
Forward to my imagination (or not), I somehow know that prior to birth I was a spirit among hordes of others wanting to be born to have have a chance at experiencing flesh. How that seemingly grown spirit had transformed into an utterly undeveloped spirit at my birth I do not know, nor do I know how my pre-birth's spirit came into existence nor what these spirits were, if they were lowly angels or an undefined group of spiritual entities. When I imagine (or recollect) the events (or facts) immediately my birth, I can say that I was in communication with the entity in charge of my and every other birth. I remember the exchange but it is not relevant here -- all I will say is that the entity was extremely busy and did not have much time or patience for discussions with me.
What is relevant is the simultaneous union of a spirit and the product of human wills that allows an infant to be born for life cannot come into being without either [1]. It is then for this "new" spirit that inhabits the newly-made flesh to acquire meaning gradually as it matures.
[1] This assertion is not a political or scientific one. Suffice it to say that I do not believe in abortion because of the countless number of spirits hoping and waiting to experience flesh, not because a spirit can inhabit a fetus that is unable to exist outside of a mother's womb. The strongest argument for abortion that I can think of is the fact that pro-life advocates presume that all fetuses want to be born when they have no right to make that decision for those who never wanted to be born, but that argument fails because the decision to be born was made by the spirit desiring flesh and there are a whole lot more spirits with this desire than the number of babies made.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
The Purpose of Life
I suppose I have become audacious with age, picking a grand topic such as the purpose of life to write about when I used to draw complete blanks thinking about it in my late twenties. If I had been asked yesterday what the purpose of life was, I probably would draw yet another blank. For some reason I am compelled to write about it after looking into the mirror and seeing that my youth has waned and thinking that the inevitable progression of age and the deterioration of the flesh have begun. Knowing that my physical cells are gradually dying their natural deaths, I have come to the awareness that my spiritual part of me is at its infancy and is beginning to grow just as I grew physically from boyhood to manhood. With the revelation, I conclude that the purpose of (my) life is to give birth to a spiritual being and as it grows, the need for an earthly physical shell becomes less and less important. When it takes flight is when (my) flesh dies. Hopefully my spirit will be received by and be forever joined with the Holy Trinity.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Searching For And Seeing Christ
Searhing for Christ is a spiritual journey that appeal to those who are intrepid and strong enough to engage in constant face to face epic battles with Evil because Evil persists and never dies. Camouflaged in goodness, Evil has to be recognized for what it is, and it is many, many things and this writing addresses only self-deceit, defined as intellectual dishonesty, a wilful unwillingness to see and accept the Truth by rationalizing and lying to oneself. To be able to find Christ is to be able to distinguish without equivocation what is true and feigned goodness within oneself, just as a mirror shows what one looks like on the outside, a person's ultimate conscience shows what is truly inside. This process is far more difficult than in practice than in theory because the presence of Christ is interwoven intricately with the presence of Satan and sorting out Evil in order to cast it aside is a battle. Before one is over another has already begun and there are those that are on-going. Remember, Satan exists and does not rest.
Does that mean one would never find Christ since there are simultaneous battlefronts to attend to always? A yes answer would mean total discouragement but I think the answer does not have to be a yes although it can be. I believe that the ability to find Christ is not in how many battles we fight, how much time we spend fighting them, how many we had won or lost (even though all of that is important too) but in the approach we take in fighting Evil. To fight Evil sucessfully, one must be armed with a resolute determination, a clean conscience, deep and abiding faith in God, constant and sincere prayers and a platform on which to stand up to Satan that was not built on greed for power, fame, control and/or wealth that had been achieved by virtually any means neessary in an attempt to satisfy one's insatiable selfish and worthless worldly wishes but on one's unmitigated love for and unreserved desire to be with God.
After accomplishing all that, I believe one would be able to recognize Christ in the simple beauty of Goodness in contrast to an unmasked Satan standing naked in all of its ugliness.
Having searhed for and recognized Christ, and having the ability to distinguish Him clearly from Satan, it does not follow that Christ can be seen. Seeing Christ is a very different matter. Christ can only be seen in a vision and all such visions are gifts from God. I do not know the formula for Christ to appear in a vision but I can confidently say that a part of that formulation requires one to have true humility, absolute poverty of spirit, unyielding faith in and enduring love for God.
Does that mean one would never find Christ since there are simultaneous battlefronts to attend to always? A yes answer would mean total discouragement but I think the answer does not have to be a yes although it can be. I believe that the ability to find Christ is not in how many battles we fight, how much time we spend fighting them, how many we had won or lost (even though all of that is important too) but in the approach we take in fighting Evil. To fight Evil sucessfully, one must be armed with a resolute determination, a clean conscience, deep and abiding faith in God, constant and sincere prayers and a platform on which to stand up to Satan that was not built on greed for power, fame, control and/or wealth that had been achieved by virtually any means neessary in an attempt to satisfy one's insatiable selfish and worthless worldly wishes but on one's unmitigated love for and unreserved desire to be with God.
After accomplishing all that, I believe one would be able to recognize Christ in the simple beauty of Goodness in contrast to an unmasked Satan standing naked in all of its ugliness.
Having searhed for and recognized Christ, and having the ability to distinguish Him clearly from Satan, it does not follow that Christ can be seen. Seeing Christ is a very different matter. Christ can only be seen in a vision and all such visions are gifts from God. I do not know the formula for Christ to appear in a vision but I can confidently say that a part of that formulation requires one to have true humility, absolute poverty of spirit, unyielding faith in and enduring love for God.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The Transcendency of Music
Imagine for a moment the number of notes, of variations in pitch and tempo of every combination possible and then on a blank music sheet appears a composition, originally handwritten with no mistakes, for orchestral instruments, choir and solo glorifying God with words from Psalm 117 and a prayer, quoted in Latin and in English below:
"Laudate Dominum omnes gentes;
Laudate eum, omnes populi.
Quoniam confirmata est
Super nos misericordia ejus.
Et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper.
Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
"Praise the Lord, all nations;
Praise Him, all people.
For He has bestowed
His mercy upon us,
And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever,
and for generations of generations. Amen." [1]
The score can be seen here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/5291/laudate-Dominum-Mozart-vepres-solennelles-KV339. There a number or renditions. The one I listen to is a recording conducted by Sir Colin Davis featuring Kiri te Kanawa as the soloist. None of the uploads on Youtube to date is any good but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8BCGJ3mSrc is by far the relative best and the comment by a gym-buffed drewqq is noteworthy. He is right, Addidobelpassato's upload does sound a bit off at the beginning.
For those of you who are in a rush - and God knows your reasons and excuses - you can listen to Kathleen Battle hurry through it nicely to get it over with quickly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_zGwyH54s even as Mozart's score called for "Andante [6/8] ma un poco sostenuto" [2] which to me means slow but not so slow that the listener would fall asleep in the middle of it nor so fast like Chopin's ["Minute"] Waltz, Opus 64, No.1 rendered perfectly by the unparalleled Evgeny Kissin at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJIdh0acWyw
Back on topic, I find the Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vesperae solenne de confessore, KV 339 recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, conductor, to be among my top favorite classical pieces of all time and on par with the violin solo in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D major, Opus 123 recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw, conductor. Both are in my humble opinion divinely inspired, for I cannot imagine any human is capable of rising unassisted so far above the mundanity of earthly existence to the upper reaches of spiritual clarity and going so far down to the absolute depth of honesty to seek reconciliation with the Truth.
[1] http://operalady.blogspot.com/2009/09/lucia-popp-laudate-dominum-mozart.html
[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/5291/laudate-Dominum-Mozart-vepres-solennelles-KV339
"Laudate Dominum omnes gentes;
Laudate eum, omnes populi.
Quoniam confirmata est
Super nos misericordia ejus.
Et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper.
Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
"Praise the Lord, all nations;
Praise Him, all people.
For He has bestowed
His mercy upon us,
And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever,
and for generations of generations. Amen." [1]
The score can be seen here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/5291/laudate-Dominum-Mozart-vepres-solennelles-KV339. There a number or renditions. The one I listen to is a recording conducted by Sir Colin Davis featuring Kiri te Kanawa as the soloist. None of the uploads on Youtube to date is any good but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8BCGJ3mSrc is by far the relative best and the comment by a gym-buffed drewqq is noteworthy. He is right, Addidobelpassato's upload does sound a bit off at the beginning.
For those of you who are in a rush - and God knows your reasons and excuses - you can listen to Kathleen Battle hurry through it nicely to get it over with quickly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY_zGwyH54s even as Mozart's score called for "Andante [6/8] ma un poco sostenuto" [2] which to me means slow but not so slow that the listener would fall asleep in the middle of it nor so fast like Chopin's ["Minute"] Waltz, Opus 64, No.1 rendered perfectly by the unparalleled Evgeny Kissin at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJIdh0acWyw
Back on topic, I find the Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vesperae solenne de confessore, KV 339 recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, conductor, to be among my top favorite classical pieces of all time and on par with the violin solo in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in D major, Opus 123 recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw, conductor. Both are in my humble opinion divinely inspired, for I cannot imagine any human is capable of rising unassisted so far above the mundanity of earthly existence to the upper reaches of spiritual clarity and going so far down to the absolute depth of honesty to seek reconciliation with the Truth.
[1] http://operalady.blogspot.com/2009/09/lucia-popp-laudate-dominum-mozart.html
[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/5291/laudate-Dominum-Mozart-vepres-solennelles-KV339
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