Love's a sweet passion

It's love that burns, so much that it is how we can tell that the soul is a real thing. The pain of love is real, and nothing abstract. I understand why Hell is the last horror, and also why it is, as the great theologians said, a manifestation of the love of God. It is God's love rejected, and unrecoverable.

It is separation, which is the one thing that love cannot abide. Separation makes love a torment. Hell is a fire, a separation which cannot be escaped. But even so, it cannot stop being love, even in separation, even when it is only torment.

If Love's a Sweet Passion, Why Does it Torment?

It is such an ancient question, one wonders that anyone still asks it. But it won't leave us alone. Poor humans...

Keeping Up Appearances

I once knew a young man who had just been ordained to the priesthood. After a year, he was asked what his impressions were now that he had been on the job for 12 months. He replied, "Before I was a priest, I had no idea there was so much suffering in the world".

People hide it. You just can't go around being outwardly miserable all the time. It can be lonely, hiding, but it is worse when everyone knows. Much worse. But maybe I'm just being English about it.

I think one of the worst long-term effects of the hippie-generation, has been the idea that one must share everything.

No, really. That's OK. I don't want to know.

I don't want to be known either. So the blogging impulse is a funny one isn't it? Maybe I do want people to know after all. I just don't want them to know about me.