Saturday, November 17, 2007

Panoramic descriptions of hell and heaven

"An Introduction to Devout Life".
Part 1, chapters 9-18
Sinval Marques Pereira, Ola Suban, Emmanuel Kipullu Samuel Mondol.


A. What has struck us from the contents of the meditations

  • St. Francis de Sales presents God as the Infinite Good, full of love and care, in contrast with the ugliness and evil brought about by sin.
  • God's omnipresence overwhelms the universe. Don Bosco takes the same idea while giving us the spirituality of Union with God.
  • St. Francis leads the readers to the Last Things step by step.


B. Images St. Francis uses to describe the Last things.

  • St. Francis gives a panoramic description of heaven and hell.
  • He uses the imagery of the New Jerusalem stated in Revelation in his description of Heaven.
  • He depicts horrifying images of Hell.
  • Images of the Last things bring to our mind the preaching of St. Alphonsus de Liguori.

C. Difficulties encountered in reading the text

  • Descriptions are full of emotions and sentiments. St. Francis is as if totally engrossed in them. This makes the presentation very subjective.
  • He had the preoccupation of presenting Catechism and Christian doctrine through his writing. Thus the writings are no way philosophical, but pedagogical and doctrinal.
Sam

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