Skip to main content

Glycera's Flowers, and Reading for Lent

A list, by no means comprehensive, of some Catholic authors who have had a large influence on my life in the 35 years since my conversion ( besides of course the Evangelists and Biblical authors):

  • Augustine
  • Benedict
  • Thomas Aquinas
  • Ignatius of Loyola
  • St Francis de Sales

In more modern times:

  • Therese of Lisieux
  • John Henry Newman
  • GK Chesterton
  • Josef Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI


Ever since  Advent, I've been revisiting the works particularly of the pre-modern saints on this list, and even more particularly, the ones that specifically have designed methods or rules of life.  That would be:   St Benedict with his Rule for Monks; St Ignatius with his Spiritual Exercises; and St Francis de Sales with his "Introduction to the Devout Life".     

During Lent I'm going to continue revisiting these works particularly.   I'm not commiting to reading through them (though as an oblate I read through the Rule 3 times a year, in daily installments -- it is not long!).   

Rather, it's more like a pilgrimage or return to a place you lived a long time ago.   

St Francis de Sales' preface struck me this time through, especially this part:

The flower-girl Glycera was so skilled in varying the arrangement and combination of her flowers, that out of the same kinds she produced a great variety of bouquets; so that the painter Pausias,  who sought to rival the diversity of her art, was brought to a standstill, for he could not vary his painting so endlessly as Glycera varied her bouquets. Even so the Holy Spirit of God disposes and arranges the devout teaching which He imparts through the lips and pen of His servants with such endless variety, that, although the doctrine is ever one and the same, their treatment of it is different, according to the varying minds whence that treatment flows. Assuredly I neither desire, nor ought to write in this book anything but what has been already said by others before me. I offer you the same flowers, dear reader, but the bouquet will be somewhat different from theirs, because it is differently made up.

This seems to relate to one of the topics that was on my mind when I started this blog a couple of years ago.   There are so many good books, blogs, apostolates.   Why add to the profusion?

One answer is the one implied by St Francis, that all are needed.      In Psalms 148 to 150, said in the monastic breviary, all the saints join in praise, and various musical instruments are listed, from the clashing cymbal and horn, to the strings and flute.  

You see the same proliferation in the natural world.   

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."

Here's a Library of Catholic Classics online that includes works by most if not all of those I've mentioned, plus a lot more.

Here's a Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan by Servant of God Fr John Hardon, SJ. 

NewAdvent has a compilation of writings by the early Church Fathers.  

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The ideas of all things are in God

Substack is an interesting platform, and currently it is rather interesting to browse through the substacks of people who have ended up there -- sometimes, people whose writing I haven't seen for a long time.  Fr Fessio might be a good example of that.   But I am kind of stuck in the early 2000s, as far as social media goes, and I think I will have to stay here on Blogger with this site, and much as I admire focused blogs I don't think I can write one.   I think if I'm going to post with any kind of regularity, it will have to be a patchwork or a mosaic.   One of my earlier blogs I described as a commonplace book and some form of that is the most viable model, I think.     That actually brings to mind what I was reading this morning -- St Thomas Aquinas on Ideas -- this is from Msr Glenn's Tour of the Summa, which is available online.    He says: An idea or concept is the mind's grasp of an essence. It is the understanding o...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Wind and Where it Blows

There was a recent commentary by Massimo Faggioli at Commonweal called Vatican II at Napa .   In the context of a somewhat critical look at the Napa conference, the article referenced the talk given by Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim , who is as Faggioli says  one of the most interesting figures in a European Catholicism that is emancipating itself from the dominance of the French, Belgian, and German conciliar theology. Here is the written version of Bishop Varden's talk .   Here is what he calls a brief antiphonal response of his to Faggioli's article.     Here is his conference on the Creed , which is as he notes the main feature of his attendance at the conference.... I think the comments on Vatican II were part of a panel he participated in ?   There are a few things that came to my mind when I was reading through this interchange. One is the civil tone between two Catholic thinkers who come from very different contexts.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Exogorth's Interior

"This is no cave!" -- Princess Leia  One facet of Cardinal Newman's perception in regard to Ideas and development of doctrine is that we who are downstream from the theologians and philosophers are given a language and a kind of mythology associated with that language, and these things comprise the tools we are able to use or sometimes transcend.     This seems to tie in a bit with what Bishop Varden said about generations in regard to the reception of Vatican II .   The first generation is in the middle of the event, the second generation is trying to consolidate or dispute that legacy, and the third generation is sometimes baffled by the preoccupations of their elders.   But they are still holders of the legacy the thing has left.   They have to decide what it is going to mean to them -- what is ephemeral, situational, and what is durable.     For example -- an example that comes to mind after reading various takes on Ne...
Post a Comment
Read more