Today's readings are about people being called to God.The Old Testament reading has God calling Samuel; it reads like Abbot and Costello. Samuel hears the voice of God but thinks it is the voice of Eli next door. So for a paragraph, back and forth, he wakes and is rebuked by Eli.
There is a lovely confidence in this kind of writing, an understanding of man's errors and mistakes that border on comedy. Except with more warmth.
There was a time when Christianity was an integral part of daily life and the art reflected that as well. The paintings do not usually have this broader, more human content but the writings do. (Remember Christ's saying people would not believe some messages even if delivered by a man raised from the dead.) Look at this wonderful poem by Herbert, a deeply religious man, about Love and the love of God, a complex amalgam of the spiritual and the sensual, where the sensual becomes the spiritual:
LOVE (III)
by George Herbert
Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.
"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"
"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.
There is a lovely confidence in this kind of writing, an understanding of man's errors and mistakes that border on comedy. Except with more warmth.
There was a time when Christianity was an integral part of daily life and the art reflected that as well. The paintings do not usually have this broader, more human content but the writings do. (Remember Christ's saying people would not believe some messages even if delivered by a man raised from the dead.) Look at this wonderful poem by Herbert, a deeply religious man, about Love and the love of God, a complex amalgam of the spiritual and the sensual, where the sensual becomes the spiritual:
LOVE (III)
by George Herbert
Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.
"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"
"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.
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