Simone Weil
I have not read much of her work: a sentence here, a paragraph there, a glance over a table of contents. But what I have read I carry with me: sharp and prismatic, like miraculous unmelting crystals of ice.
Words so condensed, so supersaturated, that they break the threshhold of prose and effloresce with all the transparent brilliance of lyric.
Most recently:
Yet the Church has never declared that the Judeo-Christian tradition was alone in possessing revealed Scriptures, sacraments, and supernatural knowledge about God. It has never declared that there was no affinity at all between Christianity and the mystical traditions of countries other than Israel. Why? Might it not be because the Holy Spirit has in spite of everything saved it from telling a lie?
These problems today are of capital, urgent and practical importance. For since all the profane life of our countries is directly derived from 'pagan' civilizations, as long as the illusion subsists of a break between so-called paganism and Christianity, the latter will not be incarnate, will not impregnate the whole of profane life as it ought to do, will remain separated from it and consequently non-active.
How our life would be changed if we could see that Greek geometry and the Christian faith have sprung from the same source!
From a table of contents:
Forms of the Implicit Love of God:
The Love of Our Neighbor
Love of the Order of the World
The Love of Religious Practices
Friendship
Implicit and Explicit Love
Words so condensed, so supersaturated, that they break the threshhold of prose and effloresce with all the transparent brilliance of lyric.
Most recently:
Yet the Church has never declared that the Judeo-Christian tradition was alone in possessing revealed Scriptures, sacraments, and supernatural knowledge about God. It has never declared that there was no affinity at all between Christianity and the mystical traditions of countries other than Israel. Why? Might it not be because the Holy Spirit has in spite of everything saved it from telling a lie?
These problems today are of capital, urgent and practical importance. For since all the profane life of our countries is directly derived from 'pagan' civilizations, as long as the illusion subsists of a break between so-called paganism and Christianity, the latter will not be incarnate, will not impregnate the whole of profane life as it ought to do, will remain separated from it and consequently non-active.
How our life would be changed if we could see that Greek geometry and the Christian faith have sprung from the same source!
From a table of contents:
Forms of the Implicit Love of God:
The Love of Our Neighbor
Love of the Order of the World
The Love of Religious Practices
Friendship
Implicit and Explicit Love