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dc
Member
| Joined: | Sun Dec 10th, 2006 |
| Location: | Melbourne, Australia |
| Posts: | 22 |
| First Name: | Darryl | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Baptist, Free Evangelical (Germany), International Evangelical Church (Finland), Pentecostal |
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Posted: Mon Oct 8th, 2007 05:03 am |
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Hi everyone,
You've come to mind lately as I've been reading a book by a Catholic author and I wanted to say hi.
I can't find words to describe how wonderful I'm finding it. If this is not the best book - other than the Bible - I've ever read it comes awfully close. It is Come, Creator Spirit: Meditations on the Veni Creator by Raniero Cantalamessa.
Any of you know it?
Greetings from Melbourne,
dc
____________________
"Oh, you gotta mulch. You've got to." - Cosmo Kramer
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David W. Emery
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Brownsville, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 1714 |
| First Name: | David | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic |
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Posted: Mon Oct 8th, 2007 09:23 am |
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Hi Darryl. Good to see you again.
I’m familiar with the author. He is preacher to the papal household, well known for his penetrating homilies. He is a top ranked scholar and theologian as well.
So tell us what you like about the book.
David
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Therese Z
Member
| Joined: | Sat Mar 10th, 2007 |
| Location: | Chicagoland, Illinois USA |
| Posts: | 46 |
| First Name: | Therese Z | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Cradle, Cultural, Lapsed, Passionately Catholic |
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Posted: Mon Oct 8th, 2007 03:11 pm |
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Isn't that a beautiful name? "Cantalamessa" means "sings the Mass."
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CajunRick
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houma, Louisiana USA |
| Posts: | 4971 |
| First Name: | Rick (& Kermie) | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Lifetime Catholic, Latin Rite |
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Posted: Mon Oct 8th, 2007 10:03 pm |
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Therese Z wrote: Isn't that a beautiful name? "Cantalamessa" means "sings the Mass."
Can you imagine being the man who's responsibility is to give spiritual guidance to popes like JPII and BXVI?
____________________
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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dc
Member
| Joined: | Sun Dec 10th, 2006 |
| Location: | Melbourne, Australia |
| Posts: | 22 |
| First Name: | Darryl | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Baptist, Free Evangelical (Germany), International Evangelical Church (Finland), Pentecostal |
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Posted: Mon Oct 8th, 2007 11:25 pm |
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Hi David, Therese and Rick,
Yes, David (great to see you too!), he is all of those things, that's right.
I had read another book by him, Sober Intoxication of the Spirit:Filled with the Fullness of God, which I found excellent, and found a series of three sermons he delivered in London on the net. When introducing him, the person doing the introducing and welcoming recommended to the congregation that they consider buying books by the guest preacher. He recommended Come, Creator Spirit particularly. This was what drew me to it.
During his welcome, this man recounted having discovered that Fr. Cantalamessa spoke German along with English and, of course, Italian and asked how many languages he spoke. Cantalamessa answered, "I make mistakes in many languages."
This self-effacing demeanour is something that attracts me to him. He gets out of the way so God can work through him. It's precisely this that I like about the book. I have been touched and changed by the Spirit of God as I have read this superb treatise on the Holy Spirit. There is no mistaking that Raniero Cantalamessa is a very godly man.
Yes, Rick, imagine the responsibility this man has. But he has found the key to doing it as he should. He clearly understands the importance of decreasing so that Jesus may increase. I have a couple of books waiting to be read after this one. This will be a very hard act to follow. The authors seem too much part of what they're saying.
Cantalamessa (yes, it is a lovely name, Therese, you little linguist you!) takes a ninth-century hymn to the Holy Spirit, using it as a framework for these meditations on the third Person of the Trinity. One thing I really like about the book, David, is how balanced the author is. This is so refreshing.
I have experienced God's presence and blessing - a light heaviness is the best way I can describe it - again and again as I've read this book. It is a cleansing thing - and a peace. The author writes of the peace the Holy Spirit brings as hesychasm and says, "This state of hesychia or of peace of heart is something that we can indeed experience but cannot ever describe" (p.313). That's exactly how it is. I can never get back to the book fast enough. It has often been as though the Holy Spirit has come out of the pages.
I'm approaching the end of the 400 pages or so and I will certainly be reading the book again. The vicar in London who introduced Cantalamessa to his church said he had never read a book three times but had just read this one for the third time and was about to start on the fourth. I can certainly understand why.
Blessings,
Darryl
____________________
"Oh, you gotta mulch. You've got to." - Cosmo Kramer
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