Through the sloth that is sin, man barricades himself against the challenge handed to him by his own dignity. He resists being a spiritual entity endowed with the power to make decisions; he simply does not want to be that for which God lifted him above all natural potentiality…. He who is in conflict with himself in his inmost dwelling, who consequently does not will to be what he fundamentally is anyway, cannot dwell with himself and cannot be at home with himself.”

Josef Pieper

“The Obscurity of Hope and Despair” in Josef Pieper: An Anthology (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989), 23-24.

* * *

We must abandon any idea that we are the slaves of chance, or environment, or our subconscious; any vague notion that good and evil are merely relative terms, or that conduct and opinion do not really matter; any comfortabl persuasion that, however shiftlessly we muddy through life it will somehow or other all come right on the night. We must try to believe that man’s will is free, that he ca consciously exercise choice, and his choice can be decisive t all eternity. For The Divine Comedy is precisely the drama of the soul’s choice.

Dorothy Sayers, “Introduction,” Dante’s The Divine Comedy, trans. by Dorothy Sayers (Baltimore: Penguin Classics, 1959, Vol. I. Hell, 11.

The Da Vinci Code - Criticism and Commentary

A new project from the Ratzinger Fan Club

Scott Carson on 'The Examined Life'

In other passages in other dialogues Socrates (that is, Plato, using Socrates) draws a distinction between two kinds of ignorance. One kind is the straightforward ignorance of objective facts for which no one can be held morally blameworthy unless they claim to know something that they know full well they don't know. But the other kind, which Plato appears to have regarded as a moral failing, is ignorance of the fact that one is ignorant--a kind of ignorance of one's own limitations with regard to expertise. Although Socrates always professed to be ignorant in the first sense, he admitted that he did not believe himself to be ignorant in the second sense--the sense that, for Plato, was far more important. It was precisely because Plato regarded Socrates as wise in this latter sense that he regarded Socrates as the paradigm case of a wise person.

If it accomplishes nothing else, philosophy will teach you about your own limitations, even as it illumines the limitations of others. You come to understand very quickly that, not only is there no such thing as progess in philosophy, but there is not really any such thing as progress at all, other than the banal sort that allows us to build better bridges or manufacture better textiles, machinery, and medicines. We are more technologically advanced today than the ancient Greeks were, but morally, psychologically, philosophically--in any really important sense, we are no further than they. In some ways, I imagine, we have yet to catch up with them.

Scott Carson, The Examined Life.

First Anniversary of Pope John Paul II - 1920-2005

God our Father, you reward all who believe in you. May your servant, John Paul II, our Pope, vicar of Peter, and shepherd of your Church, who faithfully administered the mysteries of your forgiveness and love on earth, rejoice with you for ever in heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

- Roman Missal.

• First Anniversary of Pope John Paul the Great - Lane Core Jr., with a collection of blog-posts from the previous year.
• The World Remembers, Reflects and Pays Tribute to Pope John Paul II Against The Grain April 3, 2005.
• Pope John Paul II: 1920-2005 - CNN Special Report. (See also "The Last Days of John Paul II", a CNN Special Presentation airing today/tonight).