So today I was perusing Amazon.com in hopes of finding another book or three to add to the pile of books that I am reading (currently there are six in the pile). One for fun; three for “spiritual” reading; one for work; and two that never leave the pile because once I finish reading them, I begin them again (One of which, of course, is Dante’s
Inferno. The other,
I Believe in Love by Jean Du Coeur De Jesus D’Elbee. )
Anyhow, I hit the jackpot when my search of Amazon.com yielded a “new” book (or at least one that I was unaware of) written by my favorite professor from college – Dr. Regis Martin.
Dr. Martin taught Theology of the Church and it was during this class I fell in love with the Church. There was one very specific day that I will never forget… from that day forward, I knew that I would always be Catholic. I knew that I would either be a good Catholic, a mediocre Catholic, or a very bad Catholic, but I
knew I would always be Catholic.
As I read the introduction of Dr. Martin’s book
What is the Church?, tears filled my eyes… mostly because it appears that his book will be as inspiring to me as his class, but also because of his account of his very first trip to Rome – specifically that of his encounter with Bernini’s
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa – and the “embrace of Saint Peter’s Square” that I, too, experienced.
I am so very excited to get this book.
Here's an excerpt:
“The truth of anything, the poet Goethe tells us, whether it be art or friendship, God or the Church, is very like an encounter with stained glass: To see it properly, whole and entire, you have got to enter into the thing itself, seeing it from the angle of the one who gave it form, weight, extension. What he means, I think, is that you have got to leave the safety of the pavement outside, where it can only appear dull and dark and unwelcoming, and entering bravely into that space within, risk being struck dumb by the sudden dazzling disclosure of so much grace, clarity, beauty and proportion, qualities which irradiate the thing in all its richness and profundity.”
Let us enter in and leave the safety of the pavement...
