Spiritual Direction From Dante

Paul Pearson

Description

Hell and how to avoid it are perennial topics of interest for believing Christians and others. With good reason. Entire libraries have been written on the subject. Most people, even those familiar with his classic, do not realize that Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy, chock-full as it is of history and politics, is a masterpiece of spiritual writing. The most famous of his three volumes is the Inferno, an account of Dante's journey through the underworld, where he sees the horror of sin firsthand. Join Dante and-guided by Oratorian Father Paul Pearson-with him . . . learn that the sufferings of the souls in hell are the natural consequences of the spiritual disorder of their sinful actions. develop a profound hatred for sin, not merely because it offends God, but because it will destroy your soul and thwart your happiness, both on earth and for eternity. observe the horrible punishments of the damned and be shocked into a state of enlightened self-interest. armed with the knowledge of what sin does to us, resolve to fight against it with all your strength. realize that this literary journey through hell is intended to lead you to heaven. A reading experience like no other, Spiritual Direction from Dante, will educate and entertain you, but most importantly, will help you avoid the inferno!

Sujets

• Catholic Church

Informations

• Publié par: TAN Books
• Date de parution: 05 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781505112337
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Spiritual Direction From Dante
SPIRITUAL DIRECTION
from
DANTE
AVOIDING THE INFERNO
Paul Pearson of the Oratory
TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina
Copyright © 2019 Paul Pearson, C.O.
All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in articles and critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever, printed or electronic, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible—Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.
Passages from papal documents, encyclicals, and addresses © Libreria Editrice Vaticana unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Cover design by Caroline K. Green
Cover image: Dante and Virgil beset by demons on their passage through the eighth circle. Illustration (1861) by Gustave Dore for Dante’s Inferno. Wood engraving / Universal History Archive/UIG / Bridgeman Images
Interior images by Gustave Dore for Dante’s Inferno. Wood engravings / Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy / De Agostini Picture Library / and Universal History Archive/UIG / Bridgeman Images
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962514
ISBN: 978-1-5051-1232-0
Published in the United States by TAN Books P.O. Box 410487 Charlotte, NC 28241 www.TANBooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
To the seminarians of Saint Philip’s Seminary
CONTENTS
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
I NTRODUCTION
T HE I NFERNO
C ANTO 1
Wandering From the Path
Self-Sabotage in the Spiritual Life
Rejecting Our False Self-Reliance
Learning to Hate Sin
C ANTO 2
Giving Up Hope That We Can Be Different
Isolation in Our Battle
C ANTO 3
This Life Is Our Opportunity to Change
Abdicating Our Responsibility
A Principle-Driven Life
The Fatal Attraction of Sin
C ANTO 4
God Is at Work in Our Lives
Spiritual Blindness About Our Own Faults
The Potential Goodness of Human Work
Yearning for More Than This World Can Give
C ANTO 5
Some Sins Are More Destructive Than Others
The Power of Passion
The Human Tendency to Self-Deception
Our Weakness in the Face of Temptation
C ANTO 6
The Beastliness of Undirected Passion
Pitying What We Ourselves Have Experienced
The Holiness of Our Bodies
C ANTO 7
Money, the Root of All Evils
The Spiritual Futility of Sin
Detachment, Not Deprivation
The Ferocious Grip of Anger
C ANTO 8
Anger, the Door to Unexpected Sins
Battle Against Our Most Besetting Sins
Hell as a Prison
Breaking Through Hardness of Heart
C ANTO 9
Trust in God as a Last Resort
Our Need for Support in the Spiritual Life
Our Frustrating Lack of Progress
A Humble Heart and a Believing Intellect
C ANTO 10
True Belief as the Guide to Good Action
Our Spiritual Selves
The Stubborn Unwillingness to Admit We Are Wrong
Living in the Present Moment
C ANTO 11
God’s Providence at Every Moment
Every Sin’s Victim
Truth as a Building Block of Society
C ANTO 12
The Angry Roots of Violence
The Dehumanizing Power of Intimidation
C ANTO 13
The Hiddenness of Human Suffering
Pain as a Cry for Help
The Self-Focus of Suffering
Treating Our Lives as Disposable
The Self-Destructiveness of Financial Irresponsibility
C ANTO 14
Destroying Our Peace of Mind
The Obsessive Call to Disbelief
The By-Products of Evil
C ANTO 15
The Holiness of Sexuality
Silence in the Face of Wrong
Sin and Cover-Up
C ANTO 16
A Culture of Secrecy
Public Honor and Private Shame
C ANTO 17
Fraud and Isolation
Work as an Element of Human Perfection
Trusting as We Step Into the Unknown
C ANTO 18
Self-Defensiveness in a Harsh World
Sex and Deception
Using Sex as a Means of Manipulation
Flattery, a Costly Exchange
C ANTO 19
Selling What Is Priceless
Respect and Love for a Defective Church
C ANTO 20
Marketing Hope
C ANTO 21
Society Serving the Selfish
Fighting Back Without Diminishing Ourselves
A Culture of “Fine Print”
C ANTO 22
The Ultimate Weakness of Evil
The Disintegrating Power of Evil
C ANTO 23
Evil Is Never Unpunished
The Christian Life Frees Us From Burdens
Joyless “Saints”
Walking With a Clear Conscience
C ANTO 24
Depending Upon the Opinions of Others
Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stones
Perseverance on the Long Road
Financial Freedom and Freedom of Conscience
C ANTO 25
Work as an Extension of Ourselves
Identity Theft
C ANTO 26
The Solitary Path
Special Gifts and Special Responsibilities
Gifted Failures
Gifts as God’s Investments in Us
Demagogues and True Leaders
C ANTO 27
Words That Punish Us
Holding Our Tongue
Blame and Avoidance of Blame
C ANTO 28
Refusing to Give In
Humility and Believing
Us and Them
Sacrificing for Unity
C ANTO 29
Hardness of Heart Is Easy
Family Bonds and Family Feuds
The Trust That Binds Together Society
Lack of Empathy and Lack of Manners
C ANTO 30
Individuality as God’s Gift, Not Our Decision
Sin as the Ultimate Reality Show
C ANTO 31
The Power of Silence
Perspective and Experience in the Spiritual Life
Natural Gifts and Supernatural Glory
C ANTO 32
The Gradual Freezing of Love
The Enduring Power of Hate
The Pain of Betrayal
As Good as Our Word
C ANTO 33
Desensitizing Power of Sin
Climbing Into Our Own Little Pit
C ANTO 34
The Overwhelming Emptiness of Evil
The Futility of Rebellion
Self-Inflicted Punishment
The Disappointing Spectacle of Evil
The Inescapable Providence of God
The Imprisoning Burden of Sin
FOREWORD
“T hat’s a horrible place,” said one of my students upon leaving class, in a comment hardly above a whisper, after I had introduced them to Dante’s Inferno.
“You’re right,” said her friend. “I sure don’t want to go there.”
I have sometimes heard modern Catholics try to dismiss Dante as merely “medieval,” and as indulging himself too much in the gross delight of seeing sinners punished in peculiar ways. My response to that, as I’d tell my students, is that of course Dante could only use his earthly imagination to try to picture for us what it means for a human soul to be separated from God, his source and end, for all eternity. But the imagination is not up to the task. The reality must be far worse.
Be that as it may, in this candid and uncompromising and yet tender-hearted work, Father Paul Pearson shows that he understands what Dante was all about. He meant to provide us with cautionary and admonitory tales, so that he and we would not fall for the evil that the enemy holds forth for us. The Inferno is not a presumptuous outline of what lies in store for adulterers, loan sharks, con artists, assassins, and traitors. It is a profound analysis of what sin actually does to the human soul. We need not wait for entrance into hell for the punishment to begin. It begins with the sin; in fact, it is the sin, setting its roots down into the soul, deforming it, and draining it of health. Dante never merely shows us that a thing is evil. He shows us in scenes of great dramatic power what the evil is and what it does, both to the doer and to the human community.
Father Pearson has written for the benefit of all Christians who want the best and most honest advice on how to advance in the spiritual life, or how simply to stay on the right road of pilgrimage, and not be robbed and beaten bloody by the temptations that would waylay us. At every step his comments are wise and clear. Do not fail in your courage, he says at the outset, suggesting to us what it might feel like, at the end of our lives, to know that we could have accomplished something good or great for the Lord, but did not do so, because we were timid, or lukewarm in our love. Do not be mastered by your passions, he says, again and again, no matter whether they are for physical pleasure (what is sometimes called “love”) or for gain (what is sometimes called “ambition”) or for the indulgence of wrath (and it is fascinating to see, in our time, that a society exhausted with lust must turn to political hatreds to persuade itself that it is still alive).
But Father Pearson’s advice is not mainly negative. Again and again he reminds us that Jesus died for our sins, and that God loves us with a relentless love—if only we would be humble enough to accept that love, to acknowledge that we cannot save ourselves. We are on a journey, all of us, as he astutely says. The details may differ from pilgrim to pilgrim, but the journey is the same, and the Way is the same: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” says the Lord. So it would be foolish in us not to profit from the wisdom of those who have gone before us. Father Pearson sees in Dante the same spiritual advice that you will find in others who have written about the spiritual life, particularly in the founder of his oratory, Saint Philip Neri.
Dante needed the assistance of a guide, Virgil, embodiment of human reason though deprived of the gospel, to make his way down the spiraling circles of hell. Father Pearson is himself a worthy and trusty guide for the reader, whether he is already a lover of Dante, or whether he is green and perhaps even a bit daunted by the prospect of reading an epic poem, as the seminarians at the oratory were. I have been reading and teaching Dante’s Divine Comedy for thirty years, and so you might think it unlikely that I would come upon a wise interpretation I had not encountered or thought of before, but Father Pearson has provided just that and done so with a grace and ease that is imm