The Lorica

I arise today 
  
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,     
  
Through belief in the threeness,     
  
Through confession of the oneness     
  
Of the Creator of Creation.      
  
I arise today     
  
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism,     
  
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,     
  
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,     
  
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of Doom.      
  
 
  
I arise today     
  
Through the strength of the love of the Cherubim,     
  
In the obedience of angels,     
  
In the service of archangels,     
  
In the hope of the resurrection to meet with reward,     
  
In the prayers of patriarchs,     
  
In prediction of prophets,     
  
In preaching of apostles,     
  
In faith of confessors,     
  
In innocence of holy virgins,     
  
In deeds of righteous men.      
  
 
  
I arise today     
  
Through the strength of heaven;     
  
Light of sun,     
  
Radiance of moon,     
  
Splendor of fire,     
  
Speed of lightning,     
  
Swiftness of wind,     
  
Depth of sea,     
  
Stability of earth,     
  
Firmness of rock.      
  
 
  
I arise today     
  
Through God's strength to pilot me:     
  
God's might to uphold me,     
  
God's wisdom to guide me,     
  
God's eye to look before me,     
  
God's ear to hear me,     
  
God's word to speak to me,     
  
God's hand to guard me,     
  
God's way to lie before me,     
  
God's shield to protect me,     
  
God's host to save me,      
  
From snares of devils,     
  
From temptation of vices,     
  
From everyone who shall wish me ill,     
  
Afar and near,     
  
Alone and in a multitude.     
  
 
  
I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,      
  
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,     
  
Against incantations of false prophets,     
  
Against black laws of pagandom,     
  
Against false laws of heretics,     
  
Against craft of idolatry,     
  
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,     
  
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.      
  
 
  
Christ to shield me today     
  
Against poising, against burning,     
  
Against drowning, against wounding,     
  
So there come to me abundance of reward.      
  
 
  
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,     
  
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,     
  
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,     
  
Christ when I lie down,     
  
Christ when I sit down,     
  
Christ when I arise,     
  
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,     
  
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,     
  
Christ in the eye of everyone who sees me,     
  
Christ in every ear that hears me.      
  
 
  
I arise today     
  
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,     
  
Through belief in the threeness,     
  
Through confession of the oneness     
  Of the Creator of Creation.

As You Like It

Annie and I watched Branagh's 2006 version of Shakespeare's As You Like It last night and it was delightful! I recommend it to all who are fans of Branagh's work... a few choice sections from the master of English prose:

I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please.

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,
The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
Which when it bites and blows upon my body
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say
’This is no flattery. These are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
Sweet are the uses of adversity
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

All the world's a stage,/And all the men and women merely players./They have their exits and their entrances/And each man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. 

It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ‘tis true that a good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me. My way is to conjure you; and I’ll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you. And I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women—as I perceive by your simpering none of you hates them— that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not. And I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths will for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. 

For all those wishing to seriously study Insight...

PL 772 01                    Insight and Beyond I

Patrick Byrne             W 4:30-6:20

 

Description:

 

“Insofar as there is a struggle about agreeing with Insight or disagreeing with it, that struggle arises on a very fundamental existential level. It is akin to Heidegger’s classification of a person as authentic or inauthentic; in other words, there is a deep existential level of self-criticism.”

                                                              Bernard Lonergan

 

This course begins a two-semester project exploring Lonergan's unique invitation to "self-appropriation" as a response to the crises of our times. Bernard Lonergan wrote his major philosophical work, Insight, to address what he regarded as the great challenges posed by Modernity: modern natural science, modern historical thought, and the great revolutions in modern philosophy, especially in Descartes, Kant and Hegel.  In many ways Insight shares the concerns of post-modernism, but departs from its pervasive relativism.  Written after his scholarly investigations of Aquinas, Lonergan set himself the task of developing what he learned from those studies into a methodical way of treating philosophical metaphysical, ethical, historical, hermeneutical and theological issues. He called that method “self-appropriation” – that is, coming to better know oneself as an agent of one's own conscious activities, and as a contributor to the destiny of human history.

           

Students in this course will have the unique opportunity to be part of an online, international learning community. Class sessions will be edited, placed online, and shared with the international community of others also wishing to study Insight and Lonergan's later works.

 

Course Requirements:

(1) Class preparedness (15%); careful reading of the weeks assigned chapters, responses to study questions and exercises, and prepared notes of questions and comments for class discussion);

(2) A short paper (4-5 pages) describing an insight you have had. (15%);

(3) Term paper (of 20-25 pages) (40%);

(4) Final Exam  (30%).

 

Reading List:          

 

Lonergan, Insight

Lonergan, Topics in Education

Selected essays

Flanagan, Quest for Self-Knowledge