/lit/ - Literature

>>20062586
I became Catholic because I read the Bible from cover to cover. Your point?

Goys, right now I read the book In No Strange Land: The Embodied Mysticism of Saint Philip Neri. While the premise of the book seemed promising, to analyze how the mystical person and practices of St. Philip Neri came to be, and in the beginning it seemed to be case, as outlined in the following quote:

>St. Paul had to be content to take away only two converts after his address
to the Athenians, while Savonarola had “great immediate success, [for he]
frightened and abashed the offenders, rallied round him the better disposed, and
elicited and developed whatever there was of piety, whether in the multitude or
in the upper class.” Finally, though, “his innocence, sincerity, and zeal were too
much for his humility. He presumed; he exalted himself against a power which
none can assail without misfortune. He put himself in opposition to the Holy
See, and, as some say, disobeyed its injunctions.”
Newman then goes on to lay down what has become the canonical account
of St. Philip’s work and its connection to Savonarola: Savonarola did much
good, but in a public, noisy, and political way, and so it did not last; while
Philip, like St. Paul, began quietly, was obedient to the Church, and succeeded.
Part 1, Chapter 3, Reform in Florence: St. Catherine and Savonarola

And at the end of the book it goes off into tangents of the moral character of miracles imposed on certain saints, by the Holy Ghost. Example:

>There is, then, an obvious sense that we can call transverberation an inner
experience without thereby intending to cast doubt on the reality of the
experience. Nonetheless, if we want to say that the experience is true, or that it is
not merely subjective, then we will have to give an account of what truth would
mean in such a case and how it would be described. We will, to put it simply but
(I think) accurately, have to produce a factor that plays the same role as the
fountain in the garden. The fountain in the garden provided not only an objective
referent around which the inner experiences of the two men can be understood,
but it also had some sort of causal connection, or at least stood in a necessary
relation, with the experiences themselves.
Part 3, Chapter 10, Towards an Account of St. Philip’s Embodied Mysticism

And chapter 10 goes on for tens of pages about everything but St. Philip Neri but about the validity and descriptivness of his transverberation. Why not take things at face-value and go from there and deepen the understanding instead of going into semantics and trying to validate or dismantle recorded biographical facts with the help of different philosophical schools of thought? This is more mental masturbation than enhancing the reader's understanding of this particular saint.

>>19946450
Gigabased. What book or homily is this?

>>19903984
If Satan is your god, yes. Without the Catholic Church you wouldn't have a Bible. What was first, the Church or the Bible?

>>19888888
Checked.

>>19839044
Because this is the best paganism can offer: pederasty, sloth and demonic possession.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92VxWRkhSFk

>>19830041
That is only a testament that pagan cultures are inherently inferior to everything Christianity brought them. There is a reason why savages willingly converted, contrary to Islam that spread by the sword or mob tactics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92VxWRkhSFk

>be me reading currently Dante's Inferno
>have a walk with student group the other day
>talk all about the circles of hell
>talk about the punishments according to sin
>explain all with zest
>girls in the group look terrified of the prospect
>one girl asks: "Do you believe all this?"
>"YES"
>I ask another girl what she believes in
>she says she's Buddhist
>tell her she will land in the sixth circle
>most of the time I talk about this book

>>19788333
BEGOME GADOLIG
REPENT AND COME BACK TO MOTHER CHURCH

OP with an update: I started reading again from the first page and now I understand The Divine Comedy way better. The problem was that I have read three books simultanously (Holy Bible, Corpus Hermeticum and D. C.), which made it hard to follow. In addition it is the first "collection" of poetry I'm reading, so I have to get used to read poetry over the span of several dozens and hundreds of pages. The notes in my edition are superb.

Thank you all for your advice. I'm a retard, and I should only read one book at a time. Special thanks to Catholicanon who recommended me Imitation of Christ. I hope to see you in Purgatory or Paradise.

All others who shitposted, I'll visit you in Hell.

>>19777777
Hail the holy digits!

>>19764154
Do it.

>>19743762
Are you the leafposter on /pol/. Even if not, God bless you for doing His work.

>>19656420
FPBP.