What Catholics believe: 10 truths about purgatory (Catholic Caucus)

Catholic S F ^ | October 30, 2013 | Valerie Schmalz

[johngrace]

Thank you.

[johngrace]

God is awesome.

[defconw]

You’re Welcome.

[johngrace]

Something very wrong with you. Read the rules.

[defconw]

I’m guessing this post was not directed at me? I am the one that defended you. You shared a great prayer and that person called you a name. I think his/her quarrel is with a Saint not you.

[defconw]

Yes He is.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think it's Lewis' best book of adult fiction, better than Til We Have Faces, which (like some of Kipling's later work) is (in my opinion) unnecessarily obscure. I even think The Great Divorce is better than That Hideous Strength, but that's a near-run thing.

Of course the Narnia series remains my favorite . . .

[defconw]

I love Narnia! I also enjoyed the Screwtape Letters. I used the Screwtape Letters with my 7th grade Confirmation kids. They really understood it.

[AnAmericanMother]

Good job - perfect for the 7th graders - Screwtape is a sophisticated book but written (as Lewis so often did) in plain language. Scary book though. Lewis said that writing it gave him "a sort of spiritual cramp".

Newer editions are bound with "Screwtape proposes a toast" which is Lewis' take on public education. Everything he said has come true . . . .

[AnAmericanMother]

If you enjoyed Screwtape, I think you'll really enjoy The Great Divorce.

I SEEMED to be standing in a bus queue by the side of a long, mean street. Evening was just closing in and it was raining. I had been wandering for hours in similar mean streets, always in the rain and always in evening twilight. Time seemed to have paused on that dismal moment when only a few shops have lit up and it is not yet dark enough for their windows to look cheering. And just as the evening never advanced to night, so my walking had never brought me to the better parts of the town. However far I went I found only dingy lodging houses, small tobacconists, hoardings from which posters hung in rags, windowless warehouses, goods stations without trains, and bookshops of the sort that sell The Works of Aristotle. I never met anyone. But for the little crowd at the bus stop, the whole town seemed to be empty. I think that was why I attached myself to the queue.

Online here: The Great Divorce

[defconw]

I am going to have to get this book. I like to read Lewis for the same reason I enjoy St. Augustine. I don't need a dictionary and it does not have to be quiet for me to get it the first time around. It's very enjoyable reading.

I read very well, but you know some stuff is just so hard to read. St. John of the Cross comes to mind with "Dark Night of the Soul" Arg!

[AnAmericanMother]

St Athanasius on the Incarnation comes to mind . . . I'm with you, some stuff is very dense. I hope it's the fault of the translator!

Lewis often said that obscure language or jargon was a sure sign that you didn't thoroughly understand what you were talking about and were taking refuge in "shop talk". He recommended that anybody writing something technical (whether textual analysis or theology) put it in "plain English" before publication.

What's interesting is that his personal, plain-spoken tone is evidence even in his "day job" writings - he wrote the volume of the Oxford History of English Literature on the 16th Century (excluding drama, which had a volume of its own), and it's quite engaging, very friendly and chatty, even though the subject is obscure. I mean, who has read David Lyndsay's The Monarche lately? although if you do (or if you read Lewis' tome) you'll find out where the title of That Hideous Strength came from!

[verga]

I love Narnia! I also enjoyed the Screwtape Letters. I used the Screwtape Letters with my 7th grade Confirmation kids. They really understood it.

If you liked Screwtape check out Peter Kreeft's "Snakebite letters." He did an updated version of "Screwtape" dealing with some contemporary issues and it is almost as good as Lewis.

[AnAmericanMother]

Wow. That’s pretty high praise - I’ll have to look into it.

[Salvation]

Sounds so interesting. Thanks for the hint.

[defconw]

I think it takes more intelligence to bring the writing to an understandable level. So I agree with Lewis. Pretentious language is just for showing off.

I like John Paul II in that he took deep subjects and presented them to us with enough for all. What I mean is everyone could read it. How far you wanted to dive into it was left for the individual.

In other words I am not a contemplative person. I would love to be, really and I do have the ability to do it, I just don't have the time. So I want it where I can "get it" and use it.

When I first read "Confessions", I was blown away. It seemed so contemporary. I mean contemporary in the sense that I could relate to what he was saying.

There was a thread on here some time back that was about Christopher Columbus and it was fascinating. I came away with a lot. But the thing that struck me most was that in this coming time of trouble, "we" have been there before. The Muslims occupied Spain for 700 years, but they were eventually expelled. Now to modern man they will say so what? But I don't know I find a comfort in that. The gates of Hell did not prevail then and they will not prevail now.

[Salvation]

I found that even Mother Teresa of Calcutta's book: Come Be My Light was like that.

I would read a couple of pages and then ponder them before I picked up the book again.

[defconw]

Thank You I am writing that down. I no longer teach religious ed because I moved. But! Never know when it will come in handy. I may even get involved again once I settle in. I do so love getting the kids ready for Confirmation. It's just a really neat time in their spiritual development. The seventh graders were really thirsting for it. I know other Dioceses have it at different ages. Call me crazy, but I like Jr high kids.

[verga]

I like High schoolers best. the Jr. Highs have to much energy and don’t understand sarcasm.

[AnAmericanMother]

St. Augustine was pretty much where we are now - on the downhill slope of a once great civilization.

That's why it all seems so familiar.