Dear friends in Christ
The Sunday class on the Song of Songs will discuss chapter 5 on August 31 at 10 o’clock on the 5th floor. In this chapter there are two poems. In the first, the woman, in bed, hears her lover knocking at the door, but by the time she opens it he is gone. She goes into the street and is berated by the watchmen. It is, again, a plot line that makes little sense. In the second half of the chapter, she describes her lover as a beautiful statue with sweet words. … You are welcome to join me tomorrow. If you can’t make that class, I will repeat it on Thursday, on Sept 11, at 12:40 p.m. Please note that there will be no Thursday class on September 4.
On Sunday, September 7, Dr Robert Duvall will “extend” our class with an exploration of the love songs and sonnets of John Donne. Like the Song of Songs, in these poems there are interesting connections between erotic human love and the love for God. That class will be at 10 o’clock on the 5th floor.
Looking ahead:
- Monday, September 15, 6:15 to 7:45 p.m.: seminar on Dante’s Purgatorio cantos 1-17. Anyone who reads this text is welcome.
- Tuesday, September 16, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.: first session on Aquinas on faith. No reading in advance is expected. We will just work through the text, and there will be handouts (Summa theologiae II-II.1-7).
- Wednesday, September 17, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.: first session on the Anglican-Roman Catholic USA dialogue’s paper, “Ecclesiology and Moral Discernment.” No reading in advance required, and again I will have the text as a handout.
BREAKING NEWS: Hell now has a 10th circle. I’m really glad I didn’t learn about this before we finished Dante’s Inferno!
Peace.
