July 2016 – Blog by Emmanuel L. Di Rossetti

Bismarck wrote to the Comte d'Arnim on November 11, 1871:

We must desire the maintenance of the republic in France for one last reason which is major. Monarchical France was and will always be Catholic. His policy gave him great influence in Europe, in the East and even in the Far East. One way to thwart its influence for the benefit of ours is to lower Catholicism and the papacy which is its head. If we can achieve this goal, France is forever annihilated. The monarchy would hinder us in this attempt. The radical republic will help us. I am undertaking a war against the Catholic Church which will be long and perhaps terrible. I will be accused of persecution. But it is necessary to lower France and establish our religious and diplomatic supremacy as well as our military supremacy.

Max Jacob to a student:

Meditation is not about having ideas, on the contrary! it consists in having one, in transforming it into feeling, into conviction. A meditation is good when it leads to a YES, pronounced by the whole body, to a cry from the heart: joy or pain! by a tear or a burst of laughter. Just try to meditate on this: God became man. Repeat this within yourself until you come to conviction. It does not matter which images appear, image of Christ or child or young man or crucified. No matter. Repeat on your knees: God became man! For how long ? It depends on your faculties. There are good ten-minute meditations and bad ones that last an hour. In short, collect yourself twice a day at least.

I'm not talking to you about prayer, about contemplation, first because I don't understand much about it, then because I don't want to make you a mystic, but only a man.

Month: July 2016

Bismarck against France and Catholicism

Turn idea into feeling