miniZibaldone

With the mainsail of reason adjusted to the breeze of my desire, I launch on the deep with hope of pleasant voyage. When we look into the cause of what annoys us, we find that in every case it comes from not knowing how best to use time. —Dante Alighieri

Salvation is not for sale “When one loses—not the capacity to love because that is something that can be recuperated—but the capacity to feel loved there is no hope and all is lost” he said. It reminds us, Pope Francis concluded, of the writing on the gate to Dante’s inferno ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’—we must think of this and of the Lord who wants His home to be filled: “Let us ask the Lord to save us from losing the ability to feel loved.”   [link]

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni Inferno by Dante Alighieri  Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri  Paradiso by Dante Alighieri  Vita Nuova by Dante

Oh Virgin Mother, daughter of your son,    most humble, most exalted of all creatures    chosen of God in His eternal plan, you are the one who ennobled human nature    to the extent that He did not disdain,    Who was its Maker, to make Himself man. Within your womb rekindled was the love    that gave the warmth that did allow this flower    to come to bloom within this timeless peace. For all up here you are the noonday torch    of charity, and down on earth, for men,    the living spring of their eternal hope.

Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres by Henry Adams Inferno by Dante Alighieri  Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri  Paradiso by Dante Alighieri  Lady Susan/The Watsons Sanditon by Jane Austen  A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt  The Good Earth by Pearl Buck  The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan  The Voice that is Great Within Us by Hayden Carruth  The Awakening by Kate Chopin