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Our meditations on Song of Songs ended at the 7 th verse of the first chapter, where the “lovely” Bride poses a question to her lover. She asks, “Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?” Song of Songs 1:1-3 Song of Songs 1:4-7 Song of Songs: Christ and His Church In this post, let’s look at the next four verses. 8 If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds. 9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh. 10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. 11 We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver. The speaker in these four verses is the Bridegroom, who is responding to the question posed to him earlier regarding the whereabouts of his “flock” (1:7).   Earlier, we stated that the Bride’s love for her Bridegroom seems to be secretive and ...

XXI - XIX Saints Gregory the Great, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp XVIII - XVI Saints Jerome, John Chrysostom, Elijah XV - XIII Saints Therese of Lisieux, Teresia Benedicta, Teresa of Avila XII - X Saints John of the Cross, Benedict of Nursia, Thomas Aquinas IX - VII Saints Sultana Mahdokht, Dominic, Monica VI - IV Saints Augustine, John the Apostle, John the Baptist St. Paul   3-St. Paul (5 AD – 67 AD) [Martyr] The “Apostle to the Gentiles” has seen his share of “trouble,” “hardship,” “persecution,” “famine,” “nakedness,” “danger” and “sword” (Galatians 2:8, Romans 8:35). While others boast in their lineage and all matters that pertain to the “flesh,” St. Paul finds all these “rubbish” for the sake of “knowing” Christ (Philippians 3:8).   His sole desire is to “know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering” (Philippians 3:10). Pain is not something that an average person would seek. Rather, only those who have taste...

XXI - XIX Saints Gregory the Great, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp XVIII - XIV Saints Jerome, John Chrysostom, Elijah XV - XIII Saints Therese of Lisieux, Teresia Benedicta, Teresa of Avila   XII - X Saints John of the Cross, Benedict of Nursia, Thomas Aquinas IX - VII Saints Sultana Mahdokht, St. Dominic, St. Monica St. Augustine of Hippo 6-St. Augustine (354 AD – 430 AD) [Doctor of the Church] The few lines I will write here will do a great injustice to a man like St. Augustine because I can never describe the magnitude of the influence he has had on the entire development of human thought. He is a Doctor of the Church, and his contributions to the doctrine of the Catholic faith are too numerous to be counted. St. Augustine is born to a Christian mother, St. Monica, and a non-believing father who is later baptized on his deathbed. Throughout his life, he embraces and repudiates various philosophies. In his late teens, he is drawn to the Manichean heresy, a sect that...

XXI - XIX Saints Gregory the Great, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp XVIII - XVI Saints Jerome, John Chrysostom, Elijah XV - XIII Saints Therese of Lisieux, Teresia Benedicta, Teresa of Avila St. John of the Cross 12-St. John of the Cross (1542 AD - 1591 AD) [Doctor of the Church] Along with St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross is responsible for reforming the old Carmelite order and founding the Order of the Discalced Carmelites. The term discalced refers to a person who is barefooted, which in turn signifies the poverty in which the members of this Order live. The charism of this Order is mainly contemplative prayer. St. John of the Cross writes his spiritual masterpiece, the Dark Night of the Soul, to elaborate on the spiritual experience that we encounter in our path to a complete union with God. After achieving some success in our spiritual undertaking and having attained some mastery over the Seven Deadly Sins, God retracts His Spirit and leaves us in a complete ...

The Church, or the community of believers, is surrounded by a “cloud of witnesses,” righteous souls of brothers and sisters who have passed on to the glory and whose presence sustains their brothers and sisters on this earth (Hebrews 12:1). These souls are the various Martyrs and Saints whose witness for Christ strengthens their contemporary brothers and sister, while also planting the seed of the Church among the heathens. Today, the Saints still shower us with their prayers and intercession, helping us in our journey to our heavenly home. Their protection and intercession is a gift of God who promises that “watchmen” will always be “posted” around the “walls of Jerusalem,” which refers to the Church of the New Testament (Isaiah 62:6). These “watchmen” will never be “silent day or night” (Isaiah 62:6). They will not “give themselves rest,” nor will they give the Lord any “rest till He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth” (Isaiah 62:7). Having been promised ...

In a previous post , I began writing an exposition on the Song of Songs, one of the poetic books in the Bible. I stopped at the third verse. This entry is a continuation of that post, and it consists of verses four, five, six and seven of the first chapter of that Book. Christ and His Church: let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth As I previously noted, the Song of Songs is a poem written in a form of a romantic conversation between two lovers, the Bride and her Bridegroom. Figuratively, the poem explains the relationship between an individual soul (or the Church in its entirety) and Christ, “the fairest of all men.” Take me away with you – let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you! After tasting the profound love of her Bridegroom, the Bride now wishes to immerse herself further in that love. She implores her lover to “take” her “away with...

In my previous post , I discussed the correlations between Sartre’s Atheistic Existentialism and Shakespeare’s Macbeth . In this post, I would like to explore some Sartrean conceits in Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel, Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus . Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley  The novel consists of a frame narrative, whereby one story enfolds another, which enfolds yet another story. The first narrator is Robert Walton who is sailing towards the “northern pole” (Shelley 20).   On his way, he encounters Victor Frankenstein whose sledge is carried to Walton’s ship via an ice fragment.   Frankenstein is carried onto the ship, and after becoming acquainted with the captain of the ship, he begins telling his story in hopes of deterring Walton from his ambitious pursuit of “knowledge” and “dominion,” which he desires to bestow upon humanity (Shelley 24).   Frankenstein comes from a well-to-do family in Geneva. His goal in life is to gain “glory...

Jean-Paul Sartre is an atheist philosopher who has recently been labeled as the “ Apostle of Absurdity ” in a series of articles called  “Pillars of Unbelief” by Peter Kreeft , a professor of Philosophy at Boston College.  In his articles, Kreeft outlines the dangerous impact of six modern thinkers on contemporary culture.  Sartre’s name qualifies to be in this list, and rightly so.    Sartre’s version of atheism is called Existentialism because it sees life as the outcome of choices made by each individual in accordance with his will.  Sartre goes a little further than most 19 th century atheists.  For atheists such as Marx, Nietzsche and Strauss, the concept of God has a looming presence somewhere in the background despite all efforts done to suppress it.  This is clearly manifested in the manner in which they conceptualize humanity.  Throughout their writings, human beings are endowed with a preset nature that leaves the reader p...