Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Lining up another one of the Elevations on the Mysteries by Bossuet, III, 7: God made the basis of his work. Â God decorated it, God put the finishing touch, God rested. When he made the basis of his work, that is to say in confusion the heavens and the earth, the air and the waters, …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: The Order of the Works of God"
Acting again to post Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 6: You are all powerful, of God of glory!  I adore your immense and voluntary generosity.  I pass all the centuries, and all the evolutions and revolutions of nature; I see you as you would be before all beginning and all eternity; that is to say …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: Acts of Faith and Love on All Things"
One of the things Americans politicians endlessly yammer about is the way they're "fighting" something or someone. It never ends--they fight special interests, they fight the President, and when they want to be more positive they're "fighting for you". The result of this mentality is obvious these days. But what if there's really something--or someone--worth …
Continue reading "Book Review: Daniel-Rops' A Fight for God"
Another day, another post from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 5: The design of God in the creation and in the description which his Holy Spirit dictated to Moses, is first to make himself known as the all-powerful and very free creator of all things, who without being limited to another law except for …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: The Six Days"
Marching on in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 4: God says: Let there be light, and there was light. Â The King says: March, and the army marches; that one makes such an evolution, and it is made; all the army moves at one command of a Prince, that is to say at a single …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: Efficacy and Liberty of the Divine Command"
Getting back to Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 3: Weak and imbecile that I am, who only sees mortal artisans whose works are subject to time, and who choose certain moments to be the start and end of their work, and who also need to be in a certain place to act and to find …
In the Nazi-Occupied France of 1943, the Gestapo visited the French publishing house Fayard to break the plates of a new book they were publishing. So what was the Gestapo stopping the presses on? How to Help the Allies When They Finally Get Around to Invading France? Hardly. The book they were so concerned about …
Continuing in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 2: Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes (Genesis 18:27)  And of what do I speak to you, O Lord? By where can I better begin to speak with you than the place where you began to …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: Before the Creation, There Was Nothing But God"
We're back to Bossuet, starting another series of Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 1: Collecting my thoughts in myself, only seeing in me sin, imperfection and nothingness, I see in the same time, above me, a happy and perfect nature: and I say to him in myself with the Psalmist: You are my God, you …
From his Sacred History:  Moses is, in the Hebrew religious history, the man who revealed the name of God. In the encounter of the burning bush, he had exclaimed, "Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they …
Positive Infinity 