Monday, December 19, 2011

BELIEF

From this Story of the Day:
Can you prove any of the stuff you
believe in? my son asked me & when I
said that's not how belief works, he
nodded & said that's what he thought
but he was just checking to make sure he
hadn't missed a key point.
To an exchange in the comments:

The Annunciation - Botticelli
Grandmère Mimi said...

What if I say I believe the story happened, but I can't prove it? What if I say I believe because it's a lovely story?

My evidence is in my heart, in my change from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. My evidence is how I live my life because I believe the story. Not that I'm good or holy, because I'm not, but that I'm a far better person because I believe the story. The story changed my life. That is my evidence.

----

Murdoch Matthew said...

Everything in our minds is story -- we understand and remember through language. The lives we live, the things we do, these are reality. You've got that right.

I think that good people reflect credit on their traditions more than that they are products of the tradition. The best priest I ever knew, one who drew me and many others to the Episcopal Church by his example, was (I came to realize) a product of his German Lutheran youth. There are good people in all traditions -- and none. Whatever happened in the past happened -- NOW is the time we live in.
Adoration of the Shepherds - Caravaggio

Thanks to Ann for the 'Adoration of the Shepherds'. I had already decided to use the painting in the post, but she confirmed my decision. Great minds....

6 comments:

  1. I used the Boticelli Annunciation in my sermon yesterday. The expression on Gabriel's face is amazing, though one needs to look at the original to "get" it.

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  2. Yes, Paul, you have to see the real thing, which I have, TBTG.

    I love Botticelli's paintings of the Virgin Mary. She is so beautiful, and I love that he paints her wearing a wispy veil.

    Is the lily a type of Christ or a symbol of purity? Or both?

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  3. What if I say I believe because it's a lovely story?

    AMEN!

    I think we need to reclaim ineffables like "loveliness" for our epistemology. I refuse to be a slave to empirical "facticity" for EVERYTHING.

    Life is not a double-blind study (to "count, measure, and weigh" *). It's life. In all its loveliness (yes, and horrors). Joy and sorrows. Hope and fear. Ala Johnny Mercer, I CHOOSE to "ac-cen-tu-ate the positive"! :-)

    * I put the Oxford Comma in there, just for you, Mimi. ;-p

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  4. JCF, I have no words to express my appreciation for your use of the Oxford comma. I know its use was sacrificial on your part.

    Your comment is lovely.

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  5. Mimi, thanks for posting this lovely thought, which fell like a needed raindrop on the ground of my soul today - a thing often thought but ne'er so well expressed.

    I treasure the Oxford comma, too. As all right-thinking people do.

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  6. Russ, thank you. I always feel quite vulnerable when I post words that come from deep in my heart.

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