Ray of Truth

A Prophet?

“Every reader will have the greatest difficulty detecting irony that mocks his own beliefs or characteristics. If an author in-vents a speaker whose stupidities strike me as gems of wisdom, how am I to know that he is not a prophet? If his mock style seems like good writing to me, what am I to […]

The BOOK of Hiding

“The book of Esther plays on the borderlines between the ostensible and the in ostensible: between overt power and covert power, between the public and the private, between identity and difference, between sameness and otherness, between the determined and the accidental, between disclosure and hiding.” Timothy K. Beal The BOOK of Hiding

The Ideal of the Sodomic In Soul

“Moreover I cannot bear it, that another, even more upright in heart a man and with a mind lofty, can begin with the ideal of the Madonna, and end up with the ideal of Sod-om. More fearful still, is that the one with the ideal of the Sodomic in soul does not deny also the […]

My God, Tears of Gratitude

This afternoon I was resting on my bunk and suddenly I just had to write these few words in my diary, and I now send them to you: ‘You have made me so rich, Oh God, please allow me to share out with full hands. My life has been transformed, in a con-tinuous dialogue with […]

Goodness and Its Appearance

“When goodness appears openly, it is no longer goodness, though it may still be useful as organized charity or an act of solidarity. Therefore: “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them.” Goodness can exist only when it is not perceived, not even by its author; whoever sees […]

Europe is Dead

“Europe, that two thousand year old construction which managed to lift up mankind to an altogether new degree of self-reflection and consciousness, and strength and power as well, this historical reality, which for a long time supposed that it encompassed all of mankind, that it is mankind and all else is worthy of neglect, is […]

Love Is Not Illusory

“A case of contra-dictories which are true. God exists. God does not. Where is the problem? I am quite sure there is a God in the sense that I am quite sure my love is not illusory. I am quite sure that there is not a God in the sense that I am quite sure […]

Ethics of Discourse

“Such an ethics of discourse obliges me to give my best argument to my enemy, in the hope that he will in turn articulate his re-sentment and aggression in the form of an equally plausible argument. It is through discussion of this sort that suspicion between opposing interests gives way to trust and a certain […]

Salesians elect Maltese priest Fabio Attard as Don Bosco’s 11th successor

Pope Francis does not accept Cardinal Koch’s resignation: could continue at least until anniversary of Council of Nicea