So the reading of Tobit progresses. Yesterday, I read chapter 7. It looks like it is the darkest and saddest of the whole book.
The values at risk are clearly stated: the law of God has become a mere contract, there is no longer hope for its fulfilment.
Raguel, Edna and Sarah are full of fear and despair. The entire project of creation seems to be overturned, everything seems to be upside down.
And yet, another Christological symbol makes its apparition: a sheep is killed for the guests.
It has always been difficult to me to accept the fact that the sacrifice of Christ is for each of us.
Thinking that you are on a Cross gives a plain explanation of the challenges everybody of us undergoes in our everyday life.
But it does not work that way: nobody can carry the Cross that Jesus carries, the way He does.
We are not bearing our cross, we are in His Cross and that's what can save us.
Spending your life for someone else is difficult, but accepting someone else's life is even more difficult.
Lent is close. End of the homily.

| Permanent Link

Not much to say, dear readers. It was mainly a week-end of reading and tidying up. Yesterday, I went to an engagement party. It was pleasant. It is pleasant to talk to amicable people.
Today I spent some time listening to the radio. Radio is much more discreet than TV. There was a discussion about the impact of visual elements on the other elements of communication, text and music.
The visual elements, it has been outlined, is making narrative fragmentary. Documentaries are now edited like soap-operas (that is with increasingly faster pace) so that the basic rules for transmission of knowledge are simply overlooked.
I like radio.

| Permanent Link

Dear readers, given the books that I am reading and the activities to which I will participate in the next future, the number of posts in this blog could be reduced.
I will try to provide better quality, where quantity will be lacking.

| Permanent Link

But (sob!) have you read the price? Is there anyone around who would lend me this book?

| Permanent Link

I have decided to allocate a minimum of half an hour to a maximum of an hour a day to study the book of Tobit until Easter. You will only see a distilled part of my reflections and related links from time to time. Life is a free gift, being the background theme.
I have already started.

| Permanent Link

I would have something to say about the way this oven has been restored. Note that the upper part is just superimposed without maintaining the proper curvature.
The construction of wood ovens requires skills and craftmanship: they have to withstand the thermal expansion due to temperature higher than usual. For instance a good pizza should be baked inside a wood oven (and using olive tree wood, but that's just a detail) so that the temperature can reach 450 Celsius (note that the oven should be left open during the process). Bread requires lower temperatures (350 Celsius) and the closure of the oven itself.

| Permanent Link

Italian elections: foreigners and Catholic. Ready, aim, fire:

...to Catholic centrists who kow-tow to every nod and wink on social policy from the Vatican.

I am pretty sure that at least 80% of the Italian population would agree with that: tough times for Catholics, everywhere.

| Permanent Link

Politics. The Encyclic is radically politic. It is, I think, meant to establish the society on solid ground, the rock on which God builds His house .
Reading paragraph 27 and comparing it to the message for Lent, it really looks like unjust sufferings of people in the different regions of the world is a priority of the current papacy.
The history of my Country can be read as an attempt to create a relationship between Catholic values and everyday life.
Interestingly enough, I have been branded differently by different extremist people: right wing extremists tended to rank me among the communists, left wing extremists have always been disgusted in classifying me as Catholic starting immediately to assert exclusively their views on sexuality.
It seems a recurring classification in Britain as well.
Chapter V of the not-so-religiously-correct epistle to Diognetus gives an idea of how things were going for early Christians. Have they changed much?

| Permanent Link

Well, I thought people in Scotland were respectful of etiquette. Centuries ago, maybe...
By the way: for a different point of view click here.

| Permanent Link

For some reason that I don't understand, the Encyclic does not present any reference to Tobit. And certainly, I would say, Tobit is the most overloooked book in the Bible, especially by priests, who see it as a collection of sapiential sentences adapted to the theme of Marriage.
I would like to submit some reflections I have been doing, hoping that there is someone around who would consider them of some value.
To be honest, I suspect that early Christians had much more consideration of this book, and were much more aware than we are today of the references to the Gospels that it contains.
I have been thinking about Gen 3, 1-13 and I think the entire story is built as a refutation of these verses.
According to the Bible, God uses the water to separate His reality from ours (Gen 1,6-8). And after the flood to separate the action of His holiness from sinfulness: the flood kills everything 'with the breadth of life in its nostrils' (Gen 7, 17-24), and submerges the fallen sons of God (Gen 6,4) for whom there is no space in Heaven, actually creating an appropriate place to them: the abyss (Sirach 40,10-11, Job Ch. 40-41).
Now: the scene in Tobit 6,2-18 is crucial in making the change happen. The fish, able to descend to the abyss although not belonging to it (See Jonah, as well), has what it is needed to win a creature of the abyss (Asmodeus). It is with the heart and liver of the fish, which symbolise, If I remember well, will and sentiments-emotions, that it is possible to keep away the evil forces which destroyed the originary harmony existing between man and woman.
I don't mean to offend my readers, but I would just like to point out that in Greek ΙΧΘΥΣ is the acronym for Jesus Christ Son of God, and I suspect that early Christians read it this way.
Finally, in Chapter 11,13 Tobit can open his eyes and see the light where in Gen 3,7 Adam and Eve open their eyes and see their misery.
I know it's a fairy tale -and indeed I am quite aware of how distant from reality it is- but it's a meaningful one.

| Permanent Link

This is an angel fish. What's the book in the Bible in which there is an angel and a fish (and they are somewhat related)?
Well, as you may have realised, dear readers, I feel the need to focus on activities that require some logics, so don't expect many posts here.

| Permanent Link

Yesterday, I went to a concert at the Usher Hall. You don't realise how much you need good music until you listen to it. And you have to listen live. Your brain needs it.
A good conductor does make the difference and Dmitri Makhtin, violinist, was simply great.
Bravo!

| Permanent Link

A prayer for the Philipines victims. What a tragedy.

| Permanent Link

I have been thinking about my motto, lately. Some of you, I am certain, have realised the link to the Fioretti di San Francesco, a late medieval collection of popular stories on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi.
However, reading again the chapter linked to it, I have been realising that the story contains a subtle and pedagogical irony towards Brother Leo.
Now in the Italian version (still readable) his name is Lione (Lion). This poor fellow in a winter day hurries to their monastery (I don't remember if there is a monastery close to the Church, nowadays), having to bear the placid contemplative pace of Saint Francis.
Furthermore, Francis insists in calling him 'little lamb', he who bears the name of a the strongest (and proudest) animal known in nature.
I don't really think it is a childish story, it's sharp and put those who want to follow Jesus in front of the bitter truth that Love manifests.
What does it say to me today? Well, Love is the most painful experience you can undergo, but it is worth every single drop of your life.

| Permanent Link

It's just another day. Just another day.

| Permanent Link

...to see the end of the Winter, but already the first signs of Spring have appeared. It takes time to get accustomed to a different language and culture, different challenges. The weather is not stable enough to go visiting Scotland so, given that I needed to do something different, I took this picture in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

| Permanent Link

As I was saying, I don't know for how long the Lord will ask me to be in Scotland (and it's mainly a matter of respect for my personal life, not money).
For that time I decided to add another item to the menu of my blog, asking the Blessed Scotus to enlighten my mind every day more in the paths to God.
It is not supposed to be complete: I will add links that I will consider relevant, still asking your help, my readers, and the intercession of the Doctor Subtilis, to understand them.
I quote from Catholic encyclopedia:

Scotus is a genuine Scholastic philosopher who works out ideas taken from Aristotle, St. Augustine, and the preceding Scholastics. He is universally recognized as a deep thinker, an original mind, and a sharp critic; a thoroughly scientific man, who without personal bias proceeds objectively, stating his own doctrines with modesty and with a certain reserve.

| Permanent Link

According to Corriere della Sera, Joaquin Navarro Valls declared that Pope Benedict has accepted the invitation of president Ahmet Nected Sezer to visit Turkey. The visit should be on the 28th-30th of November 2006.

| Permanent Link

Il sacrificio della vita (of Don Adrea) contribuisca alla causa del dialogo fra le religioni e della pace tra i popoli

The sacrifice of the life (of Don Andrea) may contribute to the dialogue among religions and the peace among peoples.
These are the words that Pope Benedict used today speaking of the priest killed in Turkey last Sunday while he was in prayer (Repubblica and Corriere della Sera).
And, indeed, last 31st of January, Don Andrea sent a moving letter to the Pope, which will be published by the Osservatore Romano, and in which "his testimony of love and affection to Christ and the Church" is apparent.
Translating Italian to English is, in some cases difficult to me, given the level of knowledge I have of the second, and the minimum amount of time I spend interacting with people. However, translating the Pope is always problematic.
An example: in the sentence he used the subjunctive to express an exhortation. To my ears it sounds literary and in some way strong: "possa contribuire", still subjunctive, is much more commonly used nowadays.
I had a quick look to the Encyclic in its Italian translation: there, verbs are mainly expressed in the "indicativo" mode, which is used for descriptions of facts and actions.
It looks like the Encyclic was written in the style of a Bishop, while in his public statements the character of Pope Benedict is much more apparent.

| Permanent Link

So, visit to the Mosque today, thank to the Dominicans. We were welcomed in a friendly and hospitable atmosphere close to the one that you can find in a Sicilian village (really, I mean it).
Certainly, watching people praying is comforting: it makes you think that despite the violence saw in these days, there are people who want to live their faith peacefully, and it is with them that any form of collaboration should start. I mean all Turkish newspapers have firmly condemned the killing of Don Andrea Santoro, even the Islamic ones.
There is a sort of small exhibition in the same building, meant to present the basic elements of Islam. Nothing that could contrast with the belief of any monotheistic creed. Certainly entering in the details would manifest the many existing differences, however my point is that they avoided any polemic.
I learnt that they believe that angels bring the prayers of the faithful to God in specific days (Tuesday(?) and Thursday) at a specific time (the afternoon prayer). A similar tradition exists (or at least existed in the first century) in the Jewish world (I am not sure about the days of the week though), part of which is recorded in Revelation 8,2-5.

| Permanent Link

As a prayer for a priest, Andrea Santoro, killed in Turkey. He was working to a project of inter-religious dialogue ("Una finestra per il medio Oriente")

| Permanent Link

Doing the usual week-end tidy up I have found a receipt of a book bought one year ago (I should resolve to drop them immediately after I receive the goods, I know...). This recalled to my memory what my personal state was exactly one year ago. I would like to share with you, my (few) readers, the reflections that followed.
It has been 3 and a half years that I have been working in the UK. Since the beginning I had tried to find a group of Catholic adult people who were meeting and praying together using the Bible, which is something I was used to do in Italy.
That proved very difficult: the answer I was usually receiving was something like

1. "we don't have such groups"
2. "please speak to (name of another priest)!"

Then speaking with the other priest 1. would have followed.
It happened, and more than once. I blame the fact that my natural language is not English (it is also true that my English has improved during these years).
Anyway, the fact is that I had become so frustrated and disappointed by such behaviour that I had started to have a bad idea of the Catholic Church of Edinburgh.
I even thought to leave the Catholic Church. Fortunately, I continued to participate to the sacraments and during the Mass, at the Creed, I could not but think that I was still believing in those assertions (some doubt about the "One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic.." started to appear, though).
Given that I think that my faith in Jesus is one of the key points of my life, and given that I usually have a good sense of smell for books (mistakes in this area are quite expensive, though...), I started to look over the Internet in order to find something that could give me some answers.
And here the book: The gnostic gospels by Elaine Pagels (1979). The introduction alone is more fascinating than a film of the Indiana Jones saga.
The underlying thesis is that Christianity at the beginning was presenting much more variety, which she briefly and appropriately outlines. Such variety disappeared when the Church started to face the social and political problems related to the development of every institution.
She is not Catholic and looks quite attracted by some of the gnostic themes (e.g. "know yourself"), however she is extremely fair and reports in a very reliable way documents and resulting debates on the effects of the gnostic creed (she is more critical towards gnosticism in her subsequent books).
It's a risky reading, if you want; however, it confirmed me in the belief of the apostolic succession.

| Permanent Link

As a prayer.

| Permanent Link

Sono stanco. E affranto. Mi domando che cosa sia che mi spinge a restare ed andare avanti in questo Paese, che in realta' e' mille frammenti. Amo il mio lavoro, ma ho paura di essere prossimo ai miei limiti. Che fare?

Signore indicami la via, perche' i miei occhi sono troppo stanchi per vederla.
Signore dammi il coraggio di prendere decisioni difficili se e' il caso.
Padre illuminami cosi' che riesca ad avere il cuore in pace, nella Tua pace.
Dammi la forza di essere la Tua forza.

Gloria al Padre,
al Figlio
ed all Spirito Santo,
come era nel principio,
ora e sempre nei secoli dei secoli.
Amen.

| Permanent Link

The dance of death.
In order:

A king
A farmer
A husband and a wife
A child
A sportsman
A gardener and his spade
A carpenter
A ploughman

On the other side:

An abbot
An abess
(Indistinguishable)
A lady looking in the mirror
(Indistinguishable)
A bishop
A cardinal.
A courtier.

| Permanent Link

Moloch. I link a paper by Brien Garnard on infant sacrifices in the Phoenician world (controversial topic). I have read one of the books in bibliography (by Gras, Rouillard, Teixidor).
Not yet finished reading the paper, which looks quite interesting for its links to Italian cinematography.

| Permanent Link