Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Antithesis. St. Irenaeus, St. Theresa of Avila

COMMENT:
The two most recent Web Logs seem to couple with the very different windows into poetry and homiletic rhetoric. 
Basic English Grammar renews terminology pointing to the great writers.
In the columns below, it is interesting to identify the antitheses, contrast, direct opposite, exact opposite, converse, reverse, in the lines of St. Irenaeus and St. Teresa.
'Well I know that you will discover
Yourself portrayed in my heart.' (Teresa)


Antithesis  

www.englishlanguageterminology.org/antithesis.htm
English Grammar & Terminology Definition of Antithesis - a poetic device.Definition: Rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, ..




Commentary of the day : 
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.208), Bishop, theologian and martyr  Against the heresies, 4, 14 
Saint Teresa of Avila (+ 1582), Doctor of the Church, reformed the Carmelite Order.
From The Collected Works of St. Teresa. VoL 3, Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D and Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D., Trs. 1985, ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, Washington, DC. Used with permission.

It was not because he needed our help that the Father has commanded us to follow the Word: it was to ensure our salvation. For to follow the Savior is to have part in his salvation just as to follow the light is to have part in the light.
When people stand in the light it is not they who cause the light to shine but they are the ones who are illuminated and made radiant by the light.
Far from contributing anything in the least to the light, it is they who gain from it and are illuminated by it.

The same applies to service offered to God: it does not give God anything since God has no need of people's service. But to those who serve and follow him, God promises life, an imperishable existence and eternal glory...
If God, who is good and merciful, asks for our service, it is to be able to grant his blessings to those who persevere in his service. For if God has no need of anything, yet man needs communion with God. The glory of man is perseverance in the service of God.

That is why our Lord said to his apostles: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you” (Jn 15,16)...
And again he said: “I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory” (Jn 17,24)...
Of these, God said in Isaiah: “From the East I will bring back your descendants, from the West I will gather you... Bring back my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth: everyone who is named as mine, whom I created for my glory” (Is 43,5-7). (St Irenaeus).


Saint Teresa of Avila
The Poem "Seeking God"

Soul, you must seek yourself in Me
And in yourself seek Me.

With such skill, soul,
Love could portray you in Me
That a painter well gifted
Could never show
So finely that image.

For love you were fashioned
Deep within me
Painted so beautiful, so fair;
If, my beloved, I should lose you,
Soul, in yourself seek Me.

Well I know that you will discover
Yourself portrayed in my heart
So lifelike drawn
It will be a delight to behold
Yourself so well painted.

And should by chance you do not know
Where to find Me,
Do not go here and there;
But if you wish to find Me,
In yourself seek Me.

Soul, since you are My room,
My house and dwelling,
If at any time,
Through your distracted ways
I find the door tightly closed,

Outside yourself seek Me not,
To find Me it will be
Enough only to call Me,
Then quickly will I come,
And in yourself seek Me.




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