Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Unto Them That Dream

By coincidence, when word came of Pope Benedict’s initiative towards the Anglicans, I was re-reading Father Bernard Basset’s history of the English Jesuits.

The day before, I had viewed "A Man for All Seasons" and recalled the paintings in the London Oratory.
One of my prized possessions is a beautifully printed account of the English martyrs of the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem Hospitaler, a gift of Professor William Tighe of Muhlenberg University.
When I took my wife to Ireland for the first time in 1994, we spent more time wandering through ruined abbeys than we did in the pubs.


For someone with that kind of personal background, it was impossible not to think of Psalm 126: “When the Lord turned against the captivity of Sion, then were we like unto them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter.” The music of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd played in my head.

Link (here) to the full op/ed piece by James G. Wiles in the Bulletin

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