You might say that I have always been partial to weddings. As the proud father of two exceptionally brilliant, beautiful, and talented daughters—and naturally I am totally and completely without bias when I speak of them—I have had the wonderful privilege and the distinct honor to give their hands, their hearts, their bodies, and their souls over to become one in heart, mind, body, and soul with another in the blessed and holy Sacrament of Matrimony.
Some years ago I was introduced to a small book with a rather odd title: The Great Divorce. Written by the marvelous English author C. S. Lewis, it is an extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment; a beautifully woven allegorical tale of a bus ride from hell to heaven.
In the preface, Lewis begins with mention of William Blake’s book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and thus explains his own rather odd title.
What ought we to think of poverty? The common vision of it fails to lead to understanding for as with so much of what we perceive these days to be true what rolls off the tongue is too often unrelated to reality.
Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 24, appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Conakry in December 1979 at the age of 34, the youngest ever elevated to the Episcopacy. Pope Saint John Paul II at the end of his three day visit to Guinea in 2001 appointed him Secretary for the Evangelization of Peoples. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Cardinal in 2010.
Areader recently took me to task for not delivering on a promise to complete recently took me to task for not delivering on a promise to complete the discussion concerning the conquest of Nature and C. S. Lewis’ prophetic warning of the dangers such conquests will inevitably bring. To that reader I must offer my sincere gratitude for reminding me of that promise for I confess it had slipped my mind.
Seldom I believe have I written quite so prophetically as I did last week, most assuredly without any such intention on my part. A young man of relatively close acquaintance took exception to comments I made elsewhere supporting the opinions expressed by the Reverend Franklin Graham concerning the current administration’s order for all schools across the country to allow students to choose the restrooms and locker rooms according to “their internal sense of gender.”
Socrates taught of a restless mind, a mind so restless that it would question and examine the self, thus laying the foundation for scientific and spiritual advancement. Saint Augustine went further saying, “If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.”
Clotho, the youngest of the Three Fates in ancient Greek mythology, was responsible for spinning the thread of human life which included deciding when and who was born and when and who would die, thus controlling people’s lives.
What motivates us is often hidden deep within, so deep at times we find it difficult to know even for ourselves why we harbor certain desires, enjoy various activities, believe what we believe, or choose all manner of things that are oftentimes completely at odds with what others might choose. As much as we share in common the more we wish to differ.
Before Augustine became a priest, bishop, Church Doctor, and saint he was a pagan, heretic, thief, and according to his own confessions, a profligate scoundrel. At seventeen he fathered a son Adeodatus out of wedlock by a woman with whom he had a long-standing relationship.
