In today’s reading, Dante surreptitiously advances to the seventh realm of the blessed. Here dwell the spirits of the great spiritual contemplatives. Dante’s 11th century guide, Peter Damiano, instructs him through spiritual physics, all while spinning like a happy dredl.

In today’s reading, Dante is astonished to learn the identities of the saved. Of course, Kings David and Solomon are numbered among the just, but what are we to make of Ripheus, who appears in Virgil’s “Aeneid,” calling himself a Christian? Dante’s amazement at those whom God chooses to save is truly well-voiced.

In Canto 19, the Roman Eagle of Justice speaks. While Dante wishes to know what becomes of those just rulers who do not profess Christ, the Eagle chides him that this is the wrong question. Man cannot work out God’s justice through moral reasoning. Better is it to look to himself and his own deeds, rather than worry about others. Indeed, at the end of times, we will be surprised by how many just pagans are counted among the blessed, especially in light of how many unjust Christians there are.

In today's reading, having been treated to a parade of the great warriors of God, from Joshua to the heroes of the Crusades, Dante ascends to the next rung of Paradise: the sphere of Jupiter. The poet is treated to a fabulous light show of illuminating souls, which then transforms into the body of a great eagle: a symbol of the just and temperate rulers.

In today’s reading, Caccuiaguida tells Dante what he can expect in the future. Violence. Betrayal. Banishment. Nevertheless, Dante is told to keep the hope—although his future will be a bitter pill to swallow, his future will long outlast those of his enemies.

In today’s reading, Dante’s grandfather Cacciaguida walks him through the greatness that once was Florence, compared to its present degeneracy. After taking his grandson through a whirlwind tour of the great and not so great families of his own time, Cacciaguida references bitterly the murder that sparked the present civil war, and ultimately led to Dante’s banishment.

In today’s reading, having ascended to the fifth level of Paradise (Mars), Dante encounters his grandfather, Cacciaguida. Paternal and wistful, Cacciaguida recounts how things used to be in Florence, before the hideous faction rivalries that would ultimately lead to Dante’s banishment.

In today’s canto, Beatrice asks a pertinent question: what will glory be like in the resurrection? None other than Solomon the Wise answers her, using the beautiful image of a glowing coal. Then, hardly realizing what is happening, Dante ascends to the fifth sphere of Heaven, where he sees an image of the cross of Christ: a promise of the resurrection to come.

Trans. John Ciardi

In today’s canto, Thomas Aquinas performs yet more intellectual winnowing on Dante, explaining how it came to be that none arose wiser than Solomon. To do this, he resorts to much succinctly reasoned Scholastic syllogizing, in which he employs the theory of Platonic forms and decries the largely useless metaphysical hair-splitting of so many thinkers and philosophers.

Trans. John Ciardi

In today’s canto, we look at the second of Dante’s two great poverty-marrying patrons. We hear Bonaventure wax poetic on the life of Dominic, whose intellectually-minded approach to the question of poverty remains a lodestone for believers today. Just one question: what happened? Trans. John Ciardi