30 September 2009

Church Community, cont'd

Either Peters has been reading the comments of this-a-here web-log or there's something in the air. In the midst of a discourse on writers and place, he drops this gem:
It can hardly be a matter of bewilderment to anyone who has read O’Connor’s work, especially the letters and the lectures, that this woman of formidable intellectual abilities was fiercely loyal to the Church Universal and stubbornly committed to attending daily mass at the local parish, where gossip was sure to be high and intelligence low. O’Connor knew that although we participate in universals we don’t inhabit them.
We must make do with a particular place, with all its annoyances. Yes. But I wonder whether this is a defense of one's local church (Flannery was born into Catholicism), or a defense of the Church Universal?

3 comments:

  1. Dear Ross,
    This is the first time I've read your blog in a while. Quite illuminating, as usual.
    I hope you are well. I am; today is my birthday!
    Regards,
    Aikaterine
    (my name in...Greek?)

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  2. KG! Let me be the last to wish you a happy birthday until next year. (Or, possibly, the first to wish you a happy birthday for next year.) Have you been keeping up with Peters's articles over at FPR? They tend to be pretty good...

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  3. No, actually I didn't know Peters had online articles until I saw it mentioned in your blog post.

    I suppose that now that I know about them, I'll have to read them. I am gathering quite a collection of "blogs" or sets of "my opinions on life" to read. More and more people seem to have or are getting them. Too many more I'll fall behind! Now wouldn't that be tragic!

    By the way, I just heard the finale of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony on the radio. It is excellent! I especially love orchestral pieces such as that one - they are so invigorating!

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