As I was meditating today on Canto 1 of Dante's "Purgatorio', some prayer points rushed to my mind.
It has equipped me to continue my 41 days mission.
Cato tells Virgil that there is no need to flatter him in order to go through "the sevenfold realm" by mentioning Marcia who was his earthly love and who is now in an infernal cell. He, Cato, no longer yearns for earthly love, " she no longer moves me" because he is already in the holy premises of the purging hill. But he is ready to grant permission if the "Lady of Heaven do move and rule thee .... Let it suffice thee that for her thou ask me."
That is the power and authority of the Lady of Heaven, the Queen of the three kingdoms.
Well, I believe my Queen, my Mother is giving me too that permission to climb that purging conical hill.
Now Dante is in for the initiation rite of ablution or washing his face to "cleanse away all stain therefrom" and then to "gird him with a smooth rush."
What a baptismal moment of initiation!!
Then they went down the desert shore,
It has equipped me to continue my 41 days mission.
Cato tells Virgil that there is no need to flatter him in order to go through "the sevenfold realm" by mentioning Marcia who was his earthly love and who is now in an infernal cell. He, Cato, no longer yearns for earthly love, " she no longer moves me" because he is already in the holy premises of the purging hill. But he is ready to grant permission if the "Lady of Heaven do move and rule thee .... Let it suffice thee that for her thou ask me."
That is the power and authority of the Lady of Heaven, the Queen of the three kingdoms.
Well, I believe my Queen, my Mother is giving me too that permission to climb that purging conical hill.
Now Dante is in for the initiation rite of ablution or washing his face to "cleanse away all stain therefrom" and then to "gird him with a smooth rush."
Once Cato disappears Virgil leads Dante along the solitary plain and reaches " where the dew fights with the sun". There Virgil outspread his hands gently upon the grass and then washed Dante's tearful cheeks, thus removing" that hue which hell had covered upon him."
This little island round about its base
Below there, yonder, where the billow beats it,
Doth rushes bear upon its washy ooze;
No other plant that putteth forth the leaf,
Or that doth indurate, can there have life,
Because it yieldeth not unto the shocks.
What a baptismal moment of initiation!!
Then they went down the desert shore,
There he begirt me as the other pleased;
O marvellous! for even as he culled
The humble plant, such it sprang up again
Suddenly there where he uprooted it
Some sacred vibrations resonate in my soul too...
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From Holkham manuscript; Virgil washing Dante’s face and girding him with reeds. |
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