Oh Beata Solitudo!


"The friend is me and I am the friend"
(Matteo Ricci)


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Truth is an Antinomy

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Creation is born and dies, but truth is immortal, it is above arguments and contradiction. It must be fulfilled only under the condition that “we follow universality, antiquity, and consensus”. But how is it possible to construct the unconditional formula of Divine Truth from the conditional material of the human mind?  If knowledge is given in the form of certain judgments, i.e. as the synthesis of S and P, or of another S and another P, or even of S with not-P, then it follows that every judgment is contradictory, it can encounter an objection to itself. Life is infinitely fuller than rational definitions and therefore no formula can encompass all the fullness of life. No one formula can replace life itself in its creativity. A rational formula can be above the attacks of life if and only if it gathers all of life into itself, with all of life's diversity with all of its present and future contradictions. Hence, it follows that truth is a self-contradictory jud...
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Major new Carmelite resource published

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A major new resource has been published for Carmelites, both lay and religious, and for anyone interesting in exploring "Carmel". The book, entitled Climbing the Mountain: The Carmelite Journey , has been published jointly by Saint Albert's Press (the publishing house of the British Province of Carmelites) and Edizioni Carmelitane (the Order's central publishing house in Rome). It was printed by the Carmelite friars in the Czech Republic, and published on 1st October 2010, the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Climbing the Mountain is a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to all the major themes of Carmelite spirituality. It collates in book form the initial formation programme of the Carmelite Third Order in Britain, published in Assumpta magazine between 2005 and 2007. In book form the material has been expanded in both its artwork and content to appeal to the broader Carmelite Family worldwide, and is going to be used as an initial and ongoing formation r...
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The Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple

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The solemn dedication of the Church of the Mother of God near the Temple in Jerusalem took place on November 21, 543; this felicitous association of the Mother of God with the Temple supports the ancient tradition of the Blessed Virgin Mary's presentation in the Temple as a child. Saint John Damascene -- interpreting the Holy Name of Mary as "Lady" -- tells us that the "Lady of every creature and the Mother of the Creator . . . first saw the light in Joachim's house, hard by the Pool of Bethesda, at Jerusalem, and was carried to the Temple." Secundum Verbum Tuum In the hidden recesses of the old Temple, the Holy Spirit prepares the new Temple, the all-holy Virgin, to become the Mother of God . She who is destined to be the living Temple of the Word dwells in the Temple of the Old Dispensation. She hears the chanting of the psalms, the prophets, and the Law. Was it there that she learned Psalm 118, the long litany of loving surrender to the Word? And was i...
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