Category: Bossuet Project

The next part of Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,9: Because you have not wanted to serve the Lord your God with pleasure and in the joy of your heart, in the abundance of all of his good things, you will be subjected to an implacable enemy which the Lord will send over you, in …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Love of God, Despised and Implacable"

Again we have Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,8: It is said by a common proverb (Jeremiah 3) : If a husband leaves his wife and she, going away from him, marries another husband, will the first take her back? This woman, will she not be soiled and abominable? And you, sinning soul, you are …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: Goodness and Love of God Around Penitent Sinners"

Another post from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, I, 7: It's a father, it's a mother, it's a nurturer.  A mother, can she forget the child which she carried in her womb? And when she does forget it, I will never forget you, (Isaiah 49,15), says the Lord.  The Lord your God has carried you …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Goodness of God and His Love Around His Own"

Moving on, this from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,6: (Isaiah 40, 41:14 and onward) Climb up to the top of a high mountain, you who evangelise, you who announce to Zion the good news of her salvation: raise up a powerful voice, you who announce to Jerusalem her happiness: raise your voice, do not …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The All-Powerful Protection of God"

A new instalment in our series from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1.5: Who hath wrought and done these things, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, I am the first and the last, (Isaiah 41:4 DRB) who in the centre of my eternity see all begin and all end. Babylon, assemble your …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Foreknowledge and Providence of God"

I'm briefly interrupting my posts from Bossuet's Elevations to deal with a subject that Matt Kennedy at Stand Firm takes up: the meaning of Mark 11:23-24.  I honestly think that Bossuet, "the Eagle", (who was very Augustinian) has a much more accurate and inspiring treatment of the passage. The following comes from Bossuet's Meditations on the …

Continue reading ""Man Clothed in the Omnipotence of God": Bossuet on Faith and Prayer"

Continuing in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,4: Hear, Israel: the Lord your God is one God, because he is who is, he who is indivisible.  All which is not perfect, degenerates from perfection.  Thus the Lord your God being the perfect one is alone and there is no other God but him.  All that …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Unity of God"

Continuing on in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, in this case 1,3 (the previous one is here): I AM WHO AM. HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you. It is so that God defined himself.  It is to say that God is he in which non-being has no place, who thus is always, and …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: More on the Being of God and His Eternal Beatitude"

This is from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, 1,2.  The previous elevation is here. It is said: the perfect is not, it is only an idea of our spirit which goes rising from the imperfect which one sees with one's eyes to a perfection which only has reality in thought.  This is the reasoning which …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Perfection and Eternity of God"

I am starting another series from Jaques-Bénigne Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, starting with the first one. This would be 1,1. From all eternity, God is: God is perfect: God is happy: God is one. The impious asks: why is God? I answer him: why shouldn't he be? Is it because he is perfect and …

Continue reading "God, His Unity and Perfection: The Being of God"