https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-IX.mp4 https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-IX.m4a Caryll Houselander “The Reed” (pg 359) The Virgin Mary as a hollow reed, ready for the Breath of God to make music in her. As she wrote to wartime Londoners, “Because he [Christ] has made us ‘other Christs,’ because his life continues in each of us, there is nothing that any one of us can suffer which is not the passion he suffered.” In this way, her intuitive religious vision anticipated Pope Pius XII’s encyclical on the “ Mystical Body of Christ .” [1] Mary is presented the great agent of change. Mary answers for the whole world, Be it done unto me”. Houselander’s desire was to have her lines out into the world, even if bombs were falling. She counseled many of those traumatized by the war. She was hyper attuned to other’s suffering and vulnerable herself. Though single and childless, these are her lullabies to us, her prayers. Being precede thought, action Hollowness, Augustine, late have I loved thee. Man is a shell without Grace Word of God, think Scripture, part but not the whole WOG Christ, infinitely more than the words on paper Residual empiricism through modernism. Strong hold can’t love that which is not measured. If its not in the Bible, not to be loved. God can’t be contained within the written word Sola Fides, answer to the poem, seems concrete form for sake of abstraction. Go from paper to the Person, a hard transition. VII. Hesitancy & Gratitude for this topic Cover flap, many devout believers recoil from poetry, even though it is deeply Catholic. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote poetry, was ambivalent about poem’s ability to speak truth. [2] These selections would make a fitting Lenten &/or Easter season devotion. Nice for a person hold a key to open a door we can’t. We need a mentor then we can understand. He wants man to live in communion with others. Someone needs to assist especially in these profound endeavors. [1] https://www.ncronline.org/culture/book-reviews/new-biography-caryll-houselander-illuminates-20th-century-catholic-writer accessed March 3, 2025 [2] Read xx The post 100 Great Catholic Poems IX appeared first on Fides et Ratio .…

https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-VIII.mp4 https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-VIII.m4a TOL “To Scatter Flowers” (pg 289) Language of flowers an ancient metaphor for transcendent ideas. TOL famously promises, “a shower of roses”. Written a year before her painfully suffering death from TB, her DNS, she uses the metaphor of flowers as her language of love speaking to God and things she “offers up” to God. Stumbling block for some the language of flowers, can sound syrupy Decipher TOL language of flowers, offering up suffering, DNS ICS Institute of Carmelite Studies very helpful to orient understanding Flower girl at every wedding, counted the radicalness the separation of the petal from the stem. Her self-recognizing through her suffering to pluck the flower from the stem. Intense pain separation from the flower from the root. Charming metaphor as well, Doctor of the Church. The post 100 Great Catholic Poems VIII appeared first on Fides et Ratio .…

https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-VII.mp4 https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-VII.m4a Thomas Aquinas “Adoro Te Devote” (pg 90) Latin translated by Victorian Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ The faculty of hearing serves us, we have heard the Truth from Christ himself. In terms of sight and being blind 2 ways Christ did not show Himself to be God on the Cross Christ does not show Himself God in the Host (though there are miracles including a recent one) [1] Incarnation, the God man real, objective, individual did touch and hear God. Greater awareness through abstraction than through senses. TA pondering of Eucharistic species profound grace filled understanding, read Aristotle, immediate awareness of nature, offer to us a way we can engage with accident and essence. Open eyes to that Hume, couldn’t measure it, not real. If tree falls does it make a sound? Trust vaguely what they could see touch smell Pascal “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.” Faith seeking understanding. Engage the poem with belief that something is there. Drawing out of meaning goes beyond concrete meaning is a personal process. Human heart hears in its own pitch. [1] https://aleteia.org/2025/03/01/indianapolis-archdiocese-investigates-claims-of-eucharistic-miracle accessed March 3, 2025 The post 100 Great Catholic Poems VII appeared first on Fides et Ratio .…

https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-VI.mp4 https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-VI.m4a Great 1/3 of the selections written by converts Shakespeare’s poetry has a beating heart of Faith. He like all of the poets elected was authentically formed with the Traditional Latin Mass. A liturgy, according to Popes (Pope Pius V one example) [1] , has no parallel in beautiful worship of God Resides in unflinching witness of historical events ToL master of poetic ideas. Looked for mostly English language, in spite of inclusion by ToL French, or Dante, Italian. These great texts merited inclusion. Endured the test of time, no living poets included. Excerpts- Criteria for Selecting Karen those poets who foundationally formed my Faith, personal walk, YMMV Augustine “Late have I Loved Thee’ (pg 22), translated from Latin by Frank Sheed Beautiful synopsis of the pear tree sin. Stole for the vivifying thrill. Stark honesty. Could be read on beauty, loss of years lack of relationship with his Creator. Read does not relate Augustine’s Conversion. He had studied and been taught by the great Ambrose, but he could not leave behind (so he thought) his concubine’s embrace. One day in a garden, Augustine heard, Take up and Read . In that moment of a sing song child, he knew God and completely followed Him from that moment on. Hearing this as a Divine Command to read Scripture his eyes fell on these verses read an injunction against “indecencies,” a command to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts.” [2] God permits the encounters is a mystery. [1] https://www.saintjeromechurch.org/mass/historical-roots-how-old-is-the-traditional-latin-mass/ accessed march 3, 20205 [2] https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/confessionsaug/section8/ accessed March 3, 2025 The post 100 Great Catholic Poems VI appeared first on Fides et Ratio .…

https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-V.mp4 https://fidesetratio.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/100-Great-Catholic-Poems-V.m4a Catholic -The Real Presence is more than a metaphor, but it does have similarities to it Bread & wine become (instead of being like and yet are linked to the accidents remain) the Flesh and Blood. Mary, litanies to Our Lady a replete with metaphors of her. Not just in a similar sense but in a real and concrete manner. She is the Mirror of Justice, Seat of Wisdom, mystical rose, [1] etc… The metaphors are more like her If a poet is honest in their quest for scalpel precision truth, then sooner or later, they will encounter the Truth. A consequence of this encounter integrity in creation will become self-evident. To paraphrase Frank Sheed, the more one sees the world as God (Theology) sees it, the greater the sanity (truth) that the person will understand, encounter. Transcendent Truth- Essential Catholic Idea. Metaphysical would be theologians or philosopher would enter into conversation. Catholic Poetry aims to express truth that is beyond (metaphysical) ourselves in way that we can comprehend it somehow. Defining God, a huge project within metaphysics and theology, is something all of us do. The Incarnation is pivotal in our understanding of God. Pare down sense perception to the marrow, see it in its essence Science, don’t know the essence, its abstraction. Essence of the person remains even after a passage of time. Poetry Start with what it says, then consider the metaphor Poetry & logic need one another [1] https://www.catholicgallery.org/prayers/litany-of-mary/ accessed March 3, 2025 The post 100 Great Catholic Poems V appeared first on Fides et Ratio .…