www.sevenmansions.org

This is a site dedicated to the spiritual works of the novelist and mystical writer, Brian Cleeve. “The House on the Rock” and “The Seven Mansions” caused quite a stir when they were first published. They are still well worth reading and thinking about. His “Invitation to Spiritual Life” is an indispensible companion for anyone drawn this way in today’s world. His poetry, which is lucidly simple, includes some beautiful works of devotion.

http://www.seanodwyer.com/

A burning owl that gives you a penetrating stare. A lioness with the towering wings of an archangel. Nature scenes that work liturgically. These are some of the brilliant depictions of Inspiration in the cycle of paintings of that name by Irish artist, Sean O’Dwyer. Equally impressive is the sequence “Aspects of Her.” Highly recommended.

http://www.matthewfox.org/

In “Original Blessing” and other works, Matthew Fox tries to uncover the neglected tradition of ‘creation spirituality.’ Religion should be erotic, prophetic, compassionate and justice-making. A former Dominican, Father Fox was forced out of the Catholic Church in the 1990s. You may not agree with everything, but much is worthwhile.

http://www.epiphanyassociation.org/content/dr-susan-muto

Here you’ll find information on writings and recordings by Susan Muto, a Catholic teacher and counsellor, and her mentor, the late Father Adrian van Kaam. Her introduction to Saint John of the Cross is excellent.

 

–|–

Quello infinito e ineffabil bene
che là sù è, così corre ad amore
com’a lucido corpo raggio vene.

Tanto si dà quanto trova d’ardore;
sì che, quantunque carità si stende,
cresce sovr’essa l’etterno valore.

E quanta gente più là sù s’intende,
più v’è da bene amare, e più vi s’ama,
e come specchio l’uno a l’altro rende.

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy,
Purgatorio Canto XV. Lines 67-75

 

That great and greater goodness / Hastens from on high to love / As sure as light to a brightened surface.

It gives as much as it finds thereof / The more love spreads its lustre further / The more it is ennobled from above.

The more aspire to that high ardour / The more they love, the better they love / Each a mirror of the light and of the other.