Paradise!

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We've finally reached Paradise!

Here is the latest change to the schedule (as of 8/11/16):

Lessons 1&2: Thursday, August 11 & Tuesday, August 16
Lessons 3&4: Thursday, August 18 & Monday, August 22
Lessons 5&6: Thursday, August 25 & Monday, August 29
Lessons 7&8: Tuesday, August 30 & Thursday, September 1 

If you're a Thursday person, it's simply the next 4 Thursdays; if you're not. it's Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday.

Time is still 7pm for all. Read Cantos 1-9 for the first session.

Contact us at EpiphanyStudies@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Purgatory

For anyone new to the blog, you can view posts below this one to see what we've already studied, namely Inferno. Our study on Purgatory will be on the following evenings in Guadalupe Hall at EWTN.

Thursdays, 7pm
June 30, July 7, 14, 21

Make-up days (or if you just want to see it a 2nd time)
Wednesday July 6, Mondays July 11, 18, 25

The recommended book is Anthony Esolen's translation which is available at the EWTN gift shop, online at EWTN Religious Catalogue, Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

Before coming to the first session, try to read Cantos 1-8.



Dr. Esolen is a wonderful instructor and we promise you won't doze off during this study. You can view an excerpt of the first session of Purgatory study here.

For a video explaining why the Pope wants us study The Divine Comedy during this Year of Mercy, watch this from Bishop Robert Barron. (Joseph Pearce would disagree with the Bishop's recommendation of the Mark Musa translation. He told us that notes from a Catholic point of view make all the difference.)

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at EphiphanyStudies@gmail.com.

Mark and Celine McCoy

Chart on the levels of hell

Colin Dononvan, head of theology at EWTN, posted this on Facebook today.

This coming Monday, June 13, will be the last make-up session of Inferno. We will start Purgatory on Thursday, June 30. Looking forward to a place where hope exists and all the souls know that they will eventually enter heaven!

Here's the book you'll want to get if you haven't already got one: Purgatory

It gets even better! Joseph Pearce wrote an article on my question

Read it here: Why did Dante's Inferno Have a Real-Life Saint in Hell?

I'm famous! At least anonymously. ;-)

Celine

A reply from Tony Esolen himself!

WOW. Joseph Pearce passed my question (see post below) along to Tony Esolen and I got the following reply:

​Dear Celine,

That's an interesting question, and I'll venture down a couple of avenues to reply.

In Canto 17 (if I remember right) of Paradise, Dante's great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, gives us the practical justification for Dante's naming and praising and blaming people who are prominent in public life.  It's that mankind will only pay attention when the name is famous; and C. S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce, picks up on that in an interesting way, by placing well-known warmongers and troublers of the peace, such as Napoleon and Henry V (so as to balance a Frenchman with an Englishman, I think) in the farthest reaches of the Gray City below.  Virgil had done something similar in the Aeneid.  These are, of course, figures from the past.

Now, what about people who are still alive, such as Boniface VIII?  I think that Dante leaves himself open for criticism there, since he doesn't imply that Boniface has even a chance of saving himself -- he WILL be in Hell, and so will Clement V.  That may be (well, it is) presumptuous, but of course Dante knows that you know that he is writing a poem and NOT pretending to speak for God.  Then the question becomes whether he is committing the sin of detraction.  That depends.  Suppose you are in possession of knowledge that person X has done something gravely evil.  You have a duty to reveal it to the authorities if the deed in question is a crime against the state and the common good (rather than, let us say, an act of adultery which violates the moral law but is not by itself an attack on the public).  You also have a duty to reveal it if the person is a public figure and the crime violates the trust he assumes by his position of authority.  So if you know that Hillary Clinton has traded state favors to foreign nations in exchange for campaign money, you are not committing detraction if you reveal it.  Supposing then that Dante is certain of his information regarding Boniface's collusion with Guido da Montefeltro, it is no sin to reveal it, and it may be sinful to conceal it.

We then should ask why Dante thinks he is so certain about that act of treachery.  Here I can't answer.  No one knows.  If he is not certain about it but is repeating hearsay, or is guessing, then he is guilty of presenting something as certain which is not so.

As for the reputation of Guido da Montefeltro, again our evaluation of the morality of Dante's exposure of the man depends upon a question of fact.  If in fact he did what Dante alleges, since he is dead and thus can suffer no consequences from the loss of his undeserved reputation for holiness, the act is not one of detraction; and it would protect the common people from a mistaken reverence toward someone who did not deserve it.

That's as I see it.  On the general charge of Dante's being judgmental, I think we can say that he reminds us that this life is not a game we play, and if we lose we go home and everything is all right. The stakes are infinite.

I hope that helps,

Tony Esolen

About Dante's use of real people...

I wrote to Professor Joseph Pearce (listed as Executive Producer, I think, on this study) to ask his opinion of Dante's placing people in hell who were known to him and others of his time. I asked if this wasn't a sin of detraction. It was really starting to bother us, especially in regard to Pope Boniface and the Italian-bad-guy-turned-supposedly-holy-Franciscan (forget the name).

Here is his reply (he's British; therefore the British spelling):

Dear Celine, 

Your discomfort with what might be termed Dante's judgmentalism is understandable. It's not for any of us to presume that anyone is in hell, any more than it is for any of us to presume that we're going to heaven. I think it fair, therefore, to question this aspect of Dante's approach. In his defence, I would suggest that he wanted to avoid writing a formal allegory about the deadly sins in the abstract or presenting them as personified abstractions. In putting real people in hell and purgatory, it enlivens his story, bringing it to life literarily. He is, therefore, employing poetic licence. Whether this is sufficient reason for the crime of judgmentalism is, however, questionable. 

On the other hand, Dante is doing nothing wrong in placing popes, priests and religious in hell and purgatory (leaving aside the problem with his naming specific popes, priests, etc.). There have been many bad popes and priests and it is good to embrace this fact. Most popes have not been canonized. We don't know where they are in terms of the afterlife. Good Catholics should not be afraid to admit that there are bad Catholics, including bad priests and popes. I don't think, therefore, that he is committing scandal by putting popes and priests in hell, though he is causing scandal, perhaps, in naming individual popes and priests. 

My final observation is to beseech you to not allow this issue to blind you to the beauty of Dante's engagement with sin (in hell and purgatory), with repentance (in purgatory) and with sanctity (in heaven). It is a majestic work, filled to the brim with Christian insight into man's relationship with God and his neighbor. In short, we shouldn't allow the mote in Dante's eye to become the plank in ours! 

I hope this helps. 

God bless,

Joseph   

I just love that he "beseeches me."  I've never been beseeched in my life. :-)

Celine

Donut Man and Helpful Video

Here's the word on the Donut Man rehearsals: This Thursday, June 2, and next Monday, June 6, rehearsals will be taking place until 7pm. So please don't get there early. Plan on arriving after 7 and we'll start at 7:15. Since it involves children, the moving of tables, and cleaning up of snacks, they probably won't be out promptly at 7pm.

Mark and I came across one of Bishop Barron's "Word on Fire" videos: Dante and the Spiritual Journey.

It starts out exactly like the link I had sent before, but goes much further and gets into Purgatory and Paradise. It's a good synopsis and gives those of us who are completely new to the subject an idea of where we're headed and why. I especially liked the point he made about Dante (the character) seeing the various sins in hell, but learns that identifying and admitting your particular fault/sin isn't enough: you have to make reparation for it. And that's why we continue on to Purgatory and from there to Heaven.

Celine

Donut Man Rehearsals

If you weren't there on Thursday, you might think I've lost my mind. Actually I thought we had entered an alternate reality when we walked into Guadalupe Hall and found it full of parents and children practicing dance routines. Turns out they're taping the children's show "The Donut Man."

Have tried to find out but have no idea how long this will be going on. Father Anthony thinks perhaps a couple weeks. So don't bother showing up early; plan on getting there just a hair before 7pm and they should be leaving by then.

Don't want to make any waves about them running into our study time since the kids are there on EWTN business whereas we are only there by the graciousness of EWTN (and we had originally hoped to get EWTN employees to come, but apparently they actually want to go home after a day's work there. ;-). It would be easy for the powers that be at EWTN to decide no outside groups should use Guadalupe Hall, and we don't want that to happen.

Hope we'll see those of you who couldn't make it Thursday on Wednesday, June 1. For any who want a headstart on the 3rd session (Thursday, June 2), the cantos assigned are 18-27.

Have a good Memorial Day everyone! Hope you can get to Mass to remember the fallen. There's a 9am Mass at the Cathedral.

God bless,

Celine

Decision about Monday holidays

The two Monday holidays--Memorial Day and 4th of July--will be made up on the following Wednesdays: June 1 and July 6.

So our schedule will be as follows:

Thursdays, 7pm
Inferno: May 19, 26, June 2, 9
Purgatory: June 30, July 7, 14, 21
Paradise: August 4, 11, 18, 25

Mondays, 7pm
Inferno: May 23, (Wed) June 1, 6, 13
Purgatory: (Wed) July 6, 11, 18, 25
Paradise: August 8, 15, 22, 29

As I mentioned before, Mondays can be heavy work days for Mark, so there's a possibility he'll be running late on those days. I'll try to email everyone if it looks like we'll be late.

Read the Notes!

While reading Inferno Cantos 1-8, be sure to check out Professor Esolen's notes in the back of the book. It's a lot of reading, but those notes will help with your understanding of what's going on.

Divine Comedy: 3 notes

For those looking for detailed information on The Divine Comedy Study, scroll down 2 posts.

1. If you won't be able to make the first session on Thursday, May 19, we will offer a make-up session on Monday, May 23. Don't count on us doing this all the time, but if there's ever a time when most of you can't make it, we should be able to use Guadalupe Hall on Mondays. (We chose not to have the classes on Mondays this time around because Mark usually has to work late on Mondays. Thursdays are normally less busy.)

2. If you don't have Anthony Esolen's translation of Inferno* yet, we suggest you read one of the public domain versions that are available online. I was just now able to contact Professor Esolen to ask which he would recommend. Understandably, he doesn't think much of any of them, but says the Longfellow version is probably the best of the not-so-good. Check out this link which gives you various ways to view it. However, this link gives you a much easier-to-read online version. Click "Edition" at the top left and choose "Longfellow" which is the 4th choice down.

3. A note to students of our past studies: we want to give you a head's up that this is going to be quite a bit different than our other studies. Honestly, I rarely did the reading we were supposed to do before class (of course Mark did), but I got along all right following Jeff Cavins or Tim Gray. But this is more like a college course where you'll want to put the work in and be prepared ahead of time. Professor Esolen is great and very down-to-earth, and you can tell he knows Italian like a guy-on-the-street Italian (which are exactly the kind of people for whom Dante wrote The Divine Comedy)--but he's only going to cover the highlights of the cantos, not go over them word-for-word like some of our Bible studies.

I know we as a society have become quite unused to reading poetry, but just try your best to get through the assigned reading (cantos 1-8 for the first two combined lessons), and then you'll understand much more when you watch the DVDs. If you don't do the reading, you'll get an idea of what's going on, but you'll only get about 20% of the full content.

Once again, we would REALLY like to hear from you if you plan to attend. Don't need to hear from you if you are not coming.

--Celine

*Mark brought to my attention that all 3 books are not only available on Amazon but also at EWTN Religious Catalogue.

Flier and bulletin announcement for the study

(If you've come to this spot looking for full information on the Divine Comedy study, see the post below this one.)

Bulletin announcement for the study--if any of you can help get it published.

In this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has recommended all Catholics read Dante's Divine Comedy. We are happy to offer a DVD study on the trilogy this summer at Guadalupe Hall on the grounds of EWTN.  It is a Catholic Courses study taught by Professor Anthony Esolen of Providence College. 

We will begin a 4-part study of the first book, "Inferno," on Thursday, May 19 at 7pm. For full details please see EpiphanyStudies.blogspot.com or contact Mark McCoy at (205) 661-3693 or EpiphanyStudies@gmail.com.

I've also designed a not-very-good-looking flier. Email us at EpiphanyStudies.com if you'd like a copy to distribute or post around your parish.

PLEASE let us know if you're going to attend. It makes us feel better to know more than just 3 people are going to be there. (And you 3 know who you are who have told us you're coming. :-)

God bless,

Celine and Mark (who is lying down with ice on his ribs: in case you didn't know, he fractured a rib last week and is now home for a 2nd week since he's still not feeling well.)

Dante's Divine Comedy Starts May 19!

Hello Everyone,

We told our Bible study students at the end of last year that we had decided to study Dante's Divine Comedy this year since Pope Francis has requested everyone read the trilogy during this Year of Mercy.

Here's an article by Bishop Robert Barron on the importance of reading The Divine Comedy: The Spiritual Master Pope Francis Wants You to Read.

We have finally picked a date to start out with Dante's Inferno. That would be Thursday, May 19 at 7pm in Guadalupe Hall on the grounds of EWTN.

We will be using Catholic Courses' 3-part study with Professor Anthony Esolen as instructor.  Each book study is made up of eight 30-minute DVD lessons with a few questions for discussion after each segment. We will be doubling up the classes, so that will mean you'll have more reading to do at home beforehand.

We recommend you purchase Anthony Esolen's translations of the books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso (covers may vary). Of course if you've already got your own set at home, you can use it, but Joseph Pearce tells us a Catholic commentary makes all the difference.

                                    

As soon as you get Inferno, read Cantos 1-8 for the first two lessons taking place on May 19.

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Here is the schedule:

Inferno: May 19, 26, June 2, 9
Purgatory: June 30, July 7, 14, 21
Paradise: August 4, 11, 18, 25

Let us know if you plan to join us! Invite your friends too.

Mark and Celine McCoy
EpiphanyStudies@gmail.com