85 Seven Revelations  -- October 2020.

Dearly Beloved,

One

It is now Autumn and with each new day the wind blows colder and harder, but through the grass by the River Cam cyclamens have emerged overnight.


Two

Dante describes his escape through a tunnel from the Stygian gloom, “the dead air” and ice cold of the bottom most circle of hell back into the light to describe the sky,“Dolce color d’oriental zaffiro” the colour of Oriental sapphire. He has escaped back to “the beautiful planet that induces us to love” Lo bel pianeto che d’amar conforta. He will walk onwards and upward to meet once again the soul of the love of his youth – Beatrice -- to travel with her in a chariot pulled by griffins. --see image attached below. Purgatorio 1. The Divine Comedy


Three

In his Dearly Beloved Letter of 9 September Mark Thomas wrote about his tough and exhausting pilgrimage on foot to Walsingham, despised and rejected, but he tells us that on the return journey he received a sacramental garibaldi biscuit from a lady on the bus who was travelling to the local market.


Four

When one realises one is in love for the first time it is as if the world is revealed for the first time more intense, more wonderful but more demanding than anything seen before:

I have wished not to love

That I might escape love's agony,

But now after much appraisement,

I willingly accept love's agony*

  • A Trifle by Hus shi 1919 Translated by N.L. Smith and R.H. Kotewall 1992


Five

I have a memory of the countryside where for two months, at the first hint of morning light, a black redstart on the ridge of the barn roof led off the dawn chorus with its weak, reedy and disjointed song. It was soon joined by a thousand others with more powerful voices to overwhelm his song and celebrate the dawning day.


Six

Do people today still have visions like Ezekial? He devotes almost an entire chapter to his vision of God and his throne, its wheels and faces. Here is verse 28 of the first chapter:

“I saw something that looked like fire,and there was a splendour all around like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the appearance of the splendour all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking.” (Ezekial 1:28)


Seven

Finally what greater revelation has there ever been than Revelation?

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 21:1-2.


Peace,

Paul.

Completed: 12 October 2020


William Blake 1824-7 Beatrice Addressing Dante from the Car, part of illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy. 
The Tate Gallery, London. Reference NO3369









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