Fides et Ratio

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Admire her defining terms. A simple glossary is found at the back of the book.

Ex/ I had a recent conversation with a person about different forms of government. I immediately began in this manner. A loved one watching said, “I don’t this individual knew what they were getting into”

Synonyms and antonyms important for types of Poems, Catholic and Great (this is akin to discussing music, a personal decision albeit with good reasons)

Poems–

Synonyms

Images, metaphors, music of language lifts the senses beyond the mundane

Metaphors- couple two separate realities by something in common. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Summers day beauty, colors& flowers. The lady does not become the day. Two distinct ideas.

Poets look for Form & Connection, use of metaphor

Shock and discomfort. It has to be new.[1]

Antonyms

Prefers Controlled poetry with rhyme and meter. Not music.

Psalms rhythmic quality. More pleasing to ear, easier to remember.

Conducive to other human interactions, loved for its own sake.

Moden hymnody, lost love for poetry. Content for anything that rhymes. Meter & rhyme creates a mood.

Precision in own work, indicative.

Poetry is in subjunctive.

Both help the other, but each have their own spheres.

More than nursery rhymes

Ex/ Arius, use of popular ditties of the day, heresies swept Christendom

All art is cheap, due to laziness.

Enlightenment in a lot of ways gateway to inferiority, inferior quality.

Ex/ Impressionist art, all original artists, were classically trained, true artist. Little more permission to experiment with craft. Each generation gets dumber,

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Mary contemplating the eucharist

Gerard Hopley manning, he was highly trained, liberties

Love and then do what you will. Love first. Then tinker

Music writers form 70’s, 80’s didn’t love the form, loved the innovation

[1] Read xxviii

The post 100 Great Catholic Poems IV appeared first on Fides et Ratio.

Some ways,

Ex/ “No other literary genre is so concerned with truth”

– this is a portion of a quote and is encountered within the text at times. The quote ends

“scalpel-precise rendering of things that humans cannot otherwise articulate.”

It is an opinion which I do not share at this time.

I know the difficulty in good scientific studies and their craftmanship. Scalpel precise rendering of truth is foundational and the style of writing is certainly prose. Within Sacred Scripture and our Liturgy, there is poetry, but a much greater use of prose. Theology & Philosophy also struggle to use scalpel precision language.

Others, who write legal opinions, face this same Herculean task of scalpel precision rendering of things in pursuit of truth. I am not a lawyer, so I cannot speak to this personally, as I can with science, engineering, theology and philosophy.

The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric

Sr Miriam Joseph

I have read it and its excellent. Sara is correct in referencing it.

Scientific vs artist writing different perspectives for truth.

Scientific best in abstract forms, real concrete examples. Abstraction leads to concrete. Do not use many synonyms, muddy water, unclear.

Poet begins with concrete, multiple synonyms, then leads to explore abstraction of the language.

I leave it to the reader to decide for herself, if this is the case for them. It does not detract from her excellent selections & analysis.

However, as a nod to the use of poems within science, is the various mnemonics I have used over the years to memorize scientific facts. A reduction of the prose to its essence. The best strategy would be the use of music as well. Homeschooling my children showed me their strength.

Philosophy language, not the Germans, French and Greek, Latin seems to hold it well. Way the authors sees things different. Poet mind can enter into ideas from these backgrounds.

Right & left brain both brings truth into focus.

Poetry divine encounter through language.

Great philosophers there is not divine language, need a body, angels have no bodies, no sense perception, no language

The post 100 Great Catholic Poems III appeared first on Fides et Ratio.

III. Sally Read Bio

Sally Read is a British poet and writer, born in 1971 in Suffolk, England. Raised in a left-wing, Protestant family with roots in East Anglia and Ulster, she initially pursued a career far removed from the literary world. After moving to London at age 22, she trained and worked as a psychiatric nurse, an experience that later informed the emotional depth and visceral imagery of her poetry. She earned a BA from the Open University while working and later completed an MA at the University of South Dakota, USA.

Read’s poetic journey began in her early twenties, though she has said she didn’t write a “good poem” until age 27.

Sally Read’s conversion to Catholicism is a pivotal chapter in her life and work, marked by a profound and rapid shift from atheism to faith over a nine-month period in 2010. Raised in a left-wing, Protestant family in Suffolk, England, with no strong religious ties, Read identified as an atheist for most of her life, harboring what she later described as an instinctive anti-Catholic bias. This perspective began to unravel during a time of personal and intellectual searching, culminating in a dramatic spiritual awakening that she chronicled in her 2016 memoir, Night’s Bright Darkness.

The turning point came while she was living in Italy, married with a young daughter, and working on poetry that increasingly grappled with existential questions. Despite her atheism, Read found herself drawn to explore Catholicism, initially through an intellectual lens. A key moment occurred during a conversation with a priest, whom she approached to discuss her stalled poetry project about the Stations of the Cross. She posed a provocative question—something like, “What’s the deal with you Catholics?”—expecting a debate. Instead, the priest’s response disarmed her, sparking a curiosity she couldn’t shake. She began reading Catholic texts, including the writings of saints and poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose work bridged her love of poetry with spiritual depth.

The process accelerated as Read experienced what she describes as a direct encounter with God. In Night’s Bright Darkness, she recounts a moment of overwhelming presence (Augustinian experience) while sitting in a church, gazing at a painting of Jesus: “I knew, without doubt, that he was real, alive, and there.” This wasn’t a gradual warming but a seismic shift—akin, she later wrote to falling in love or recognizing a truth she’d always known but suppressed. She wrestled with skepticism, testing her experience against reason, but found it unshakable. Within months, she sought instruction in the Catholic faith and was received into the Church in 2010, a process she likens to “coming home.”

Her faith also inspired nonfiction like Annunciation: A Call to Faith in a Broken World (2018), where she explores Mary’s “yes” as a model for her own surrender.

Read attributes her conversion to a mix of grace and her own openness to truth, however unexpected. She has said it dismantled her preconceptions—about Catholicism, herself, and her vocation as a writer—replacing them with a mission to express divine encounter through language. Living in Italy, near Rome, she remains immersed in this faith, her poetry and prose now a testament to a journey from disbelief to devotion.

Poets in general by their nature engagement with the real the way others don’t.

Poetry- first level, take everything at face value first. Enter into the image profoundly

Then read into what are the meanings.

Red Sky, morning, good weather, evening bad weather. Sea of green, water as green, then see meanings

Grappling with existential questions lend themselves to abstraction but need sense entrances.

divine encounter through language.

Come to an awareness of God if honest.

Honest atheists. Searching for truth, and for whatever reason, truth is a gift. Augustine was in this category.

Read, honest, grappling, reading great depth, she knew, makes a decisive choice as Augustine knows.

she recounts a moment of overwhelming presence

Senses fail to fathom. Poets in tune what senses can fathom. God beyond that image. Beyond the objective, personal and subjective. Not impactful on the senses but rather on the heart.

Great gift she experiences this and her ability to see objectively but more underneath.

The post 100 Great Catholic Poems II appeared first on Fides et Ratio.

Micah Reading Isaiah Chapter 1

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The Wickedness of Judah

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;

4 Ah, sinful nation,

5 Why will you still be struck down?

7 Your country lies desolate;

9 If the Lord of hosts

10 Hear the word of the Lord,

12 “When you come to appear before me,

18 “Come now, let us reason[c] together, says the Lord:

The Unfaithful City

21 How the faithful city

24 Therefore the Lord declares,

[1] Ignatius Study Bible 1170

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_orandi,_lex_credendi  accessed Jan 21, 2025

The post Micah Reading Isaiah Chapter 1 appeared first on Fides et Ratio.

As Catholics, our measure is Christ, who is Present in many ways. Principally, the Eucharist. However, one way that we know of His True Presence is that of Sacred Scripture. Holy Writ teaches us, and we can rely on it because it is inerrant, an article of Faith.

The way the Lord communicates to us and to His people matters. Sometimes it by way of prose. Various manners of prose are exhortation (remove the plank in your own eye), sometimes it is expository (The 10 Commandments), and other times tender and personal times it is by means of poetry.

Loss of nuance and rhythm in translation, in Scripture even in translation, sense of truth rings through so clearly because Divine Revelation

Ps 22, Lord is My Shepherd. Elegance emotive to human heart.

Most of us are not sheep tenders, metaphors so strong resonates in modern setting.

Discernment needed engaging with a medium reaches to emotion. Don’t want impacted only in appetite, but rather intellect, then appropriate response to appetitive part of our nature.

Need for authentic education. Poetry writers speak in objective meanings. Want toe reader do abstraction. Paltry education over past years, not given stories & customs of ancestor, secular or ecclesial, doesn’t understand allusion. Need ones of sturdy nature.

i.e. Star Wars.

SS allusions, Good Shepherd lasting meaning, in spite none are sheep herders.

I have taken both wise observers of human nature to heart and try to avoid commenting on specifics thus I do not offer specific music lyrics as examples. I leave it to you dear friend to think of relevant examples.

The post 100 Great Catholic Poems I appeared first on Fides et Ratio.

VIII. Other Notable Figures, i.e. popes or saints Pope Paul V had Bridget’s Revelations published in 1601 with a commentary by the Bishop of Montefeltre defending their orthodoxy. John Paul II declared Bridget, along with Catherine of Siena and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), patroness of Europe.

St. Alphonsus de Liguori’s Meditations on the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary[1]

Devout souls, what say you? Is not this event and is not this unhappy Mother worthy of compassion. You already understand of whom I speak. This Son, so cruelly executed, was our loving Redeemer Jesus; and this Mother was the Blessed Virgin Mary; who, for the love she bore us, was willing to see Him sacrificed to Divine Justice by the barbarity of men.

This great torment, then, which Mary endured for us—a torment which was more than a thousand deaths deserves both our compassion and our gratitude. If we can make no other return for so much love, at least let us give a few moments this day to consider the greatness of the sufferings by which Mary became the Queen of Martyrs; for the sufferings of her great martyrdom exceeded those of all the martyrs; being, in the first place, the longest in point of duration; and, in the second place, the greatest in point of intensity.

The devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary is wonderful to meditate upon daily. Our Lady grants so many graces from it!

The Catholic Church dedicates the entire month of September to Our Lady of Sorrows and celebrates her feast on September 15, immediately following the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.[2]

This devotion Confraternity of Christian Mothers strong devotion, Sep 15 on of their feast days. Mothers & women enter into these mysteries in a profound way. Meditaiton for Motherhood. Helps us to love Mary better, love our children better.

Laid bare the thoughts of many, Simeon, Fr. Tuscan Mary knows children so well, come to her concerns for them, she will help you to understand them better. Heart pierced to share this information in a prayerful manner. Godd for Mothers for this particular meditation.

Seven Sorrows, 7 swords pierced heart. Seven weeks of Lent, spend one mystery week each and meditate on one at a time.

Youthful relationship of our Blessed Mother the first 3 mysteries, then she becomes the Queen of Martyrs, she enters into hers when He does His.

Help our Lady to better understand these episodes within her life, move you to a desire. Then there is no sense of competition between the 2 rosaries. Very helpful as mothers.

[1] https://www.sing-prayer.org/st-alphonsus-de-liguoris-meditations-on-the-seven-sorrows-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary  accessed February 3, 2025

[2] https://www.churchpop.com/seven-sorrows-of-mary-the-promises-to-those-who-meditate-upon-them-daily/  accessed February 3, 2025

[3] https://www.catholictothemax.com/catholic-home-decor/the-seven-sorrows-of-mary-indoor-outdoor-aluminum-prints-set-of-7/  accessed February 3, 2025

The post Seven Sorrows Rosary V appeared first on Fides et Ratio.

Evoking the purification of the wilderness when Yahweh was Israel’s love and sole source of dependency). Before the nation turned away from God and asking for kings like the other nations.

27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice,

Footnotes

Tough words to hear

Covenant Lawsuit Jesus is the Judge, all in this broken lawsuit born into sin

Exodus, Golden Calf Law broken, false gods

Inauthentic worship, Jesus heals us, makes our satisfaction for us, humanity because we can’t

Salvation is free but not cheap. Not really free, costs us ourselves. God’s way vs our ways.

Hell “shall burn together,

Jesus gives us a way out

Vs 5 Why will you still be struck down?

Woe is me. Seared lips, the cost of following God.

Exhortation

As we listen to almost 2500 yrs ago history, keep in mind our covenant with the Lord and our own faithfulness.

Oaths in civil society

How often do we fail to notice much less ask for forgiveness and find ways of restitution. The Lord is ever ready to forgive, but we must ask. He will never force His will onto us, even for our own good. Take this reading to your prayer and ask, “have I broken covenant with Him?”

Hope, make sin white as snow. Reminder of God’s justice. Through Jesus sin made white as snow. Hard purification is not sadist, come out on other side holier, with Lord as our first love.

The post Isaiah Chapter 1 Covenant Broken & Cursed IV appeared first on Fides et Ratio.