In this episode of "Heart to Heart," Dr. Kristina Olsen interviews Fr. Paul Pearson on his Dante Trilogy (September 5, 2022)
Spiritual Direction from Dante: Avoiding the Inferno (Volume 1)
https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Direction-Dante-Avoiding-Inferno/dp/150511232X/
Hell and how to avoid it are perennial topics of interest for believing Christians and others. With good reason. Entire libraries have been written on the subject. Most people, even those familiar with his classic, do not realize that Dante Aligheri’s Divine Comedy, chock-full as it is of history and politics, is a masterpiece of spiritual writing. The most famous of his three volumes is the Inferno, an account of Dante's journey through the underworld, where he sees the horror of sin firsthand. Join Dante and—guided by Oratorian Father Paul Pearson—with him . . .
learn that the sufferings of the souls in hell are the natural consequences of the spiritual disorder of their sinful actions.
develop a profound hatred for sin, not merely because it offends God, but because it will destroy your soul and thwart your happiness, both on earth and for eternity.
observe the horrible punishments of the damned and be shocked into a state of enlightened self-interest.
armed with the knowledge of what sin does to us, resolve to fight against it with all your strength.
realize that this literary journey through hell is intended to lead you to heaven.
A reading experience like no other, Spiritual Direction from Dante, will educate and entertain you, but most importantly, will help you avoid the inferno!
Spiritual Direction From Dante: Ascending Mount Purgatory (Volume 2)
https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Direction-Dante-Ascending-Purgatory/dp/1505117534/
Join Father Paul Pearson of the Oratory as he guides you on a spiritual journey through one of the great classics of Christian literature, Dante’s Purgatorio. Purgatory is the least understood of the three possible “destinations” when we die (though unlike heaven or hell it is not an eternal one) and is mysterious to many Christians and even to many Catholics today. As he did in his first volume in the Spiritual Direction from Dante trilogy, Avoiding the Inferno, Father Pearson adroitly draws out the great spiritual insights hidden in The Divine Comedy. Learn how and why:
Dante's presentation of Purgatory is something beautifully hopeful.
Freedom is the dominant theme here and the rejoicing of captives delivered from their prisons the dominant tone.
Purgatory is filled with good people, people well on their way to becoming saints. They are increasingly concerned for one another and generous, the more so the higher on the mountain they climb. They are interested in one another's well-being and rejoice in one another's victories as though they were their own.
The sufferings on Mount Purgatory are not something that happens to the souls there; they happen for them. This has all been designed for their benefit, and they are grateful to God for making it possible.
Purgatory is God's merciful plan for allowing us to rediscover the joy and freedom of being human, the joy for which we were created but which sin has smothered and distorted.
This is what we can be. This is what we can begin to be, even now, if only we will separate ourselves from sin. What are we waiting for? Join Father Pearson in Ascending Mount Purgatory.
Spiritual Direction from Dante: Yearning for Paradise (Volume 3)
https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Direction-Dante-Yearning-Paradise/dp/150512381X/
In Spiritual Direction from Dante: Yearning for Paradise, the Oratorian Father Paul Pearson provides a detailed but accessible spiritual commentary on the last volume of Dante’s masterpiece, Divine Comedy. Fr. Pearson takes readers step-by-step through the text, explaining the spiritual lessons Dante intends his readers to learn. These lessons are particularly important, both in Dante’s day and in our own, due to the watered-down image of heavenly bliss the world offers us. Dante’s Paradiso corrects this misunderstanding, showing the faithful a paradise that is more real and more fulfilling than anything we have experienced here on earth or even dreamt of.
Father Pearson’s text is an indispensable companion to the poem for both the scholar and the neophyte. It brings Dante’s poem and its lessons into our modern context so that readers will discover:
our true individuality is not obliterated in heaven, but is allowed to continue, and is fostered and highlighted.
even as we struggle now, we are never alone – everyone in heaven is interested and involved in our salvation.
the human unity we strive for here (often unsuccessfully) is a shining fact there, with each person rejoicing in every other person’s joys and working together for the salvation of those still striving for heaven. There we are finally understood fully and appreciated.
all our human desires are fulfilled in heaven, not abandoned.
Fr. Pearson, having already guided readers through the realms of hell and purgatory in this 3-part series, now brings before our eyes the saints and angels, the Virgin Mary, and the Blessed Trinity! But Spiritual Direction from Dante: Yearning for Heaven is more than a guide to the last book of Dante’s Divine Comedy. It is an introduction and an invitation to eternal happiness, an invitation that is just as compelling as it was 700 years ago when Dante wrote it.
