It is both seemly and right to feel love and even erotic passion, but when such feelings are taken to an improper extreme or directed toward an improper object, they grow twisted and perverse and morph into the sin of lust. We will have done significant damage to ourselves. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, [...]
It was there, in the first circle of Hell, that I first understood what it meant to be a virtuous pagan. It meant to be led by the dim but true light of reason, to seek continually after the higher things, to pursue with courage and devotion a life of virtue. Author’s Introduction: Imagine [...]
I could never again go home to Florence. Still, out of that dark beginning, God brought great good. What he allowed me to learn on my feet was a simple but life-altering truth: that my primary citizenship is not in Florence, nor in Rome, nor in any other earthly city. My true citizenship is [...]
Hope is not only conveyed through the images; hope rests in them. The promised visions shape a future that God will eventually make real: or, better, that he will make concrete in human time and space, for they were already real when God revealed them to me. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, [...]
To curse God is not to resolve the suffering, but to give in to it, to make despair the beginning and ending of the universe. But God is bigger than the universe and all the suffering that occurs within it. In the end, all will be set to rights when the one who condemns [...]
God has put in our hearts a yearning for eternity, but, as long as we live in this world, we must modify our desires to its changes, its vanities, its impermanence. Fear the Lord and obey his commandments, and you will have fulfilled your duty. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and [...]
Love is as strong as death and unyielding as the grave. It is not something to be indulged in lightly or casually. The lover and beloved move out of themselves toward the other, making themselves as vulnerable as children. They give all that is in their heart, for they trust that the other will [...]
Lady Wisdom stands on the rooftop and cries out to all who will listen, to all who have ears to hear. She offers prudence to those who lack judgment and understanding to those who lack discernment. And be assured that if you choose Wisdom you choose Hope, Joy, and Life as well. Author’s Introduction: [...]
I have known passion and power, wealth and fame, but none of them satisfy. But what is it that I desire? Simply this: that God be near and pay heed to my prayers. I yearn to know that he has heard my cry. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and the other [...]
I have lived a life of violent extremes: outcast and king, shepherd and warrior, betrayer and betrayed, a man of song and a man of blood, the worst of sinners and the beloved friend of God. What have the mountains and valleys of my life taught me? One thing and one thing only: patience. [...]
Though myths lack literal truth, I am convinced that they contain true wisdom that must be attended to by those who desire to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. How, you may ask, can I both reject and embrace the message of the myths? Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and the other [...]
Oh, pay heed, citizens of the twenty-first century, to Philosophy’s warning. There are many in your day who think they can control Fortune’s Wheel. They cannot. Those who reach the top of her Wheel may rejoice for a day, but sooner than they think, the Wheel shall spin and they shall accompany it in [...]
My friends, excess of love can be just as cruel and volatile as excess of hate. It knows neither limits nor boundaries. It can find no resting place, no stopping point, but presses ever on until it exhausts itself in a fit of rage. Beware of such heightened passions; do not let love be [...]
There is always room in the temple of poetry for another voice, another perspective, another way of tackling the great themes of humanity. So listen to me, now, you who will grace this earth 2000 years after I’m dead and gone: Be the person you were created to be. Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, [...]