Undusted Texts

Introduction Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964), though baptized and communed as a child, started her life as a strident atheist and student of philosophy; when her fiancé suddenly joined the Dominicans and her father went blind, she rethought the problem of God and embraced Catholicism.  She dedicated her life to social work, through Scouting and through creating a community of young women (called "the Charity") in Ivry, a small factory town in France, at the time Communist-run.  Through her conjunction of social work and deep Catholicism, she is often compared to Dorothy Day.  Her spirituality can be summarized by her saying, near the end of her life: "I have been and I remain dazzled by God."  Her cause for canonization was opened in 1993, and Pope Francis declared her Venerable on January 26, 2018. Delbrêl wrote a number of works, including The Holiness of Ordinary People; Humor in Love: Meditations and Fantasies; Missionaries Without Boats; Marxist Town, Mission Fie

  Introduction Peter (also known as Peter Cellensis) was born of noble parentage in Champagne, France, in the first half of the 12th century.  He was educated at the Monastery of St. Martin-des-Champs in Paris before he became a Benedictine.  In 1150, he was named abbot of the Abbey of La Celle, near Troyes.  He was later made abbot of the Abbey of St. Rémy at Rheims, in 1162, and in 1181, he became Bishop of Chartres, succeeding John of Salisbury.  He died a few years later, on February 20, 1183.  Peter wrote many epistles and sermons, as well as a few treatises, including  On Conscience ,  On the Discipline of the Cloister , and an explanation of the Mosaic tabernacle. This is the second of two sermons on the Transfiguration; I translated the first sermon here .  The source is PL 202:843A-848C.  I also recently translated Peter's  first sermon on St. Mary Magdalene . Sermon 66: On the Transfiguration of the Lord #II Peter of Celle (d. 1183)      We cannot worthily write or say so

  Introduction and Commentary                       José Enrique Rodó (1871-1917) was an Uruguayan philosopher and politician; unlike the authors I typically translate here, he was not Catholic.   Instead, he proudly declared himself a “freethinker,” though that in no way made him abhor religion: “Believe that nothing inspires more respect in me than religious sincerity, wherever it manifests itself, whatever be the dogmas to which it lives united…Free-thinking, as I conceive and profess it, is, in its most ultimate essence, tolerance; and fruitful tolerance has to be, not merely passive, but active as well; it has to be, not merely an apathetic attitude, disdainful consent, frigid leniency, but rather an exchange of stimuli and teachings, a relation of love, a power of sympathy that penetrates into the abysses of another’s conscience, of which an indifferent heart will never be capable.   And, more than any others, religious questions are those which require this high kind of tol

  Introduction Peter (also known as Peter Cellensis) was born of noble parentage in Champagne, France, in the first half of the 12th century.  He was educated at the Monastery of St. Martin-des-Champs in Paris before he became a Benedictine.  In 1150, he was named abbot of the Abbey of La Celle, near Troyes.  He was later made abbot of the Abbey of St. Rémy at Rheims, in 1162, and in 1181, he became Bishop of Chartres, succeeding John of Salisbury.  He died a few years later, on February 20, 1183.  Peter wrote many epistles and sermons, as well as a few treatises, including  On Conscience ,  On the Discipline of the Cloister , and an explanation of the Mosaic tabernacle. This is the first of two sermons on the Transfiguration.  The source is PL 202:840A-843A.  I also recently translated Peter's  first sermon on St. Mary Magdalene . Sermon 65: On the Transfiguration of the Lord #I Peter of Celle (d. 1183)      Like the eagle provoking its chicks to fly, etc. (Dt 32:11).