|
|
Books > Religion & Spirituality
offers a series of earlier Christian theology when the aesthetic
view was still held and appreciated. Drawing insights from some of
the leading figures of the early Church such as Anselm, Augustine,
Bonaventura, Denys and Irenaeus, von Balthasar presents his views
with a freshness and vigour rarely excelled in contemporary
theological writing about the Grand Tradition.
In ’n tyd wat gekenmerk word deur misdaad en geweld, is dit nie altyd
maklik om moedig voort te beur nie. Maar met God aan ons sy is enigiets
moontlik. Dit is die boodskap in Milanie Vosloo se dagboek Moed vir
elke môre.
Die 366 verkwikkende oordenkings sal vroue inspireer om elke dag met
nuwe moed aan te pak. Met temas soos moed om weer te begin, moed om
vróú te wees, moed om te glo, moed om te huil, moed om vas te byt, moed
om te kniel en nog vele meer, lei Milanie Vosloo vroue om hulle ware
vrouwees daagliks moedig uit te leef.
Moed vir elke môre met sy eenkleur-bladontwerp is bedoel vir elke vrou
wat vasgevang en oorweldig voel. Dit sal haar inspireer om die lewe
weer reguit in die oë te kyk.
Winner of the 2020 Paraclete Poetry Prize, Litany of Flights is a
luminous examination of the journey of the soul, from moments of
loss to moments of incandescent transformation. These poems remind
us to behold the extraordinary in the ordinary, and that the secret
workings of the divine occur even through the difficult: "the
painful paring of your hollow bones has made you light." Drawing on
the beauty of the natural world, the devastating effects of drought
and wildfires, tender moments of daily experience, and lessons of
the saints, the poet creates a landscape of light and darkness,
with unexpected turns into divine presence and absence. Through a
spiral of red-tailed hawks, the nest of a mourning dove, the
parting of waters, and the ripeness of a persimmon, this shimmering
collection invites the reader to singular and transfiguring flight.
Litany of Flights (from the forthcoming collection) First, the
winged movement, steady, forward. Scrub jays in flitting progress,
hawks in predator glide, a ringing up, a knife-sharp slope down.
Second, the effortless type, wind-splayed, motionless pinions in
thermal recline, as the Psalmist says, blessings breeze his love
even in sleep. Third, the hungry, against the gale, the destination
singular and the sun dipping crimson. Fourth, the metallic,
business or pleasure. Fifth, the whirring kind, all hummingbird. A
picnic, apples and chocolate in the garden with roses, both flower
and child. You miss it when it's gone. Sixth, a baffling flight of
stairs, winding upward, passage and yet vehicle, spiraling to
unseen landings-hope courses in the kaleidoscopic lights. Seventh,
soar to the sun. Eighth, melt in bitter hubris. You know the story.
Ninth, escape. A flight out of Egypt, a path through the sea
cleared by divine hand. The times you ran, the times you were left
behind in lament. Tenth, only rotting in the belly of a whale tames
your stubborn turn from Nineveh. Eleventh, flights of despair and
of yearning, two sides of one letting go, hard-earned release back
into the wild, unbound by expectation, featherlike. Twelfth, in a
moment, caught up high by the Beloved, the one making all things
work together, wings, body, arch, air-caught up, like the Shulamite
bride, to regions beyond aeronautical wisdom, transported in joy.
See, he says, the painful paring of your hollow bones has made you
light.
This book contains a detailed account of the various types of
Icelandic folk-story, their likely origins and sources, the
folk-beliefs they represent, and their meanings. In Iceland, people
do not compose verse just to comfort themselves; they worship
poetry and believe in it. In poetry is a power which rules men's
lives and health, governs wind and sea. Icelanders have faith in
hymns and sacred poems too, because of their content. They also
have faith in secular poetry composed by themselves, believing it
to be no less able to move mountains than religious faith is. By
this belief in their own culture, they transfer it into the realm
of mythology, and the glow of the super-human is shed over it.
Whatever may have been their origin, the folk-stories of Iceland
come to mirror the people's life and character, and in the period
when the idea gained ground that all power comes from the people,
their poetry and lore became sacred things that were revered and
looked to as a potential source of strength. Icelandic folk-stories
were similarly an important element in the Icelanders' struggle for
national and cultural integrity in the nineteenth century. They
were more truly Icelandic than anything else worthy of the name.
|
|