This week Sean & Heidi discuss the priest’s last days, his four final encounters, the purpose of the diary, and the mingling of grace and suffering that pervades the novel. JOIN US FOR “CLOSE READS ON THE ROAD” IN AUGUST, IN ATLANTA!
I loved the insight that Heidi had about how the Priests encounter with Olivier shows us a taste of him as a young man, as what he would have been had he not been called to the priesthood, and how non-religious people might look at that and think what a waste. As Heidi pointed out, no matter the vocation you are called to, it requires a sacrifice, a loss, because you must say no to one way of life in order to say yes to another. As a Catholic who struggled with vocational discernment, precisely because I became so anxious about saying “no” to something (the religious life) and lost sight of what God was asking me to say yes to, I feel like I can read this section with a renewed appreciation. It’s so easy to judge lives (including our own) and think-oh they/we could have been so different if only...-that we forget to live fully in the garden has entrusted to us. And that’s what the Priest does so well. He gets down and deep and buried in the muck of the garden God has given to him with total abandon
After finishing the book I felt the desire the next day to start it all over again. Even the first page is illuminating. If it wasn’t so unpopular, I’d request a re-read for the subscribers! I mean David apparently hates it so much he’s still “sick” 😁 (Hope you’re better soon David!) Or at least a finis episode part 2?!
I also pulled up the full text of the book online to be able to word search, which was super helpful. There are so many links back to earlier entries.
Sean and Heidi mention the three encounters the priest has in this section and that they parallel other encounters he had in his parish earlier in the novel. I sense those parallels too, but I can't quite piece it all together.
There would seem to be parallels and divergences between Delbende and Laville related to pain and suicide.
Our priest notes similarities between Mlle Louise and the ex-priest Louis, specifically their "closing-up of the spirit."
Perhaps there's also a parallel/divergence to be drawn between Seraphita and the priest's lover? - something about innocence?
Maybe they aren't one-to-one correlations, but only recapitulations of certain kind?
I loved the insight that Heidi had about how the Priests encounter with Olivier shows us a taste of him as a young man, as what he would have been had he not been called to the priesthood, and how non-religious people might look at that and think what a waste. As Heidi pointed out, no matter the vocation you are called to, it requires a sacrifice, a loss, because you must say no to one way of life in order to say yes to another. As a Catholic who struggled with vocational discernment, precisely because I became so anxious about saying “no” to something (the religious life) and lost sight of what God was asking me to say yes to, I feel like I can read this section with a renewed appreciation. It’s so easy to judge lives (including our own) and think-oh they/we could have been so different if only...-that we forget to live fully in the garden has entrusted to us. And that’s what the Priest does so well. He gets down and deep and buried in the muck of the garden God has given to him with total abandon
A line that had stuck with me, particularly after reading Achilles in Vietnam and starting The Ethics of Beauty: “There is no
greater loneliness than a certain type of ugliness, the devastation of ugliness.”
After finishing the book I felt the desire the next day to start it all over again. Even the first page is illuminating. If it wasn’t so unpopular, I’d request a re-read for the subscribers! I mean David apparently hates it so much he’s still “sick” 😁 (Hope you’re better soon David!) Or at least a finis episode part 2?!
I also pulled up the full text of the book online to be able to word search, which was super helpful. There are so many links back to earlier entries.
Sean and Heidi mention the three encounters the priest has in this section and that they parallel other encounters he had in his parish earlier in the novel. I sense those parallels too, but I can't quite piece it all together.
There would seem to be parallels and divergences between Delbende and Laville related to pain and suicide.
Our priest notes similarities between Mlle Louise and the ex-priest Louis, specifically their "closing-up of the spirit."
Perhaps there's also a parallel/divergence to be drawn between Seraphita and the priest's lover? - something about innocence?
Maybe they aren't one-to-one correlations, but only recapitulations of certain kind?