May the Holy Spirit make you creative in charity, persevering in your commitments, and brave in your initiatives, so that you will be able to offer your contribution to the building up of the “civilization of love”. The horizon of love is truly boundless: it is the whole world!--Pope Benedict XVI

Monday, September 13, 2010

"One great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament"--J.R.R. Tolkien

“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament . . . . [ellipses in original] There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends, life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained , or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.” J.R.R. Tolkien to his son, Michael, dated 6-8 March 1941


From Brad Birzer's marvelous book, J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth.

1 comment:

  1. Tolkien, I think, provides so many answers for those of us longing to make this world Christian and more real and humane. Amazing he did it so well with elves, dwarves, and Hobbits.

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