Do Not Hold Me: Ascending the Ladder of Love

Our next monthly meeting will be held on Friday, December 13th from 3:00pm to 4:30pm. We will be discussing “Do Not Hold Me: Ascending the Ladder of Love” by Paolo Prosperi from the Summer 2018 (Volume 45.2) issue of Communio entitled “Priesthood, Consecration, Marriage: Is Love Possible? A Symposium Discerning the Signs of the Times”. It can be downloaded from here:
Here is an excerpt from the Introduction to the issue:
One of the most serious questions raised in current discussions concerns the meaning of consecrated virginity. Paolo Prosperi reflects on the call of the consecrated person to give himself or herself entirely to God in an article entitled, “Do Not Hold Me: Ascending the Ladder of Love.” In contrast to the contemporary tendency to view virginity in negative terms as a deprivation, the elimination of a due human good, Prosperi illustrates how it represents “the hyperbolic intensification of that possession in detachment we are all given to experience in the contemplation of the beautiful.” Conjugal love and consecrated virginity are not simply opposed, but are reciprocally related such that, considered from the perspective of this reciprocity, each brings to light a profound truth in the other. What virginity thus shows itself to be is not a rejection of the goodness of the body and the material world created by God, but a letting go that coincides paradoxically with a deeper union with the world in Christ. Consecrated love is thus essentially fruitful, giving life to the world as it “overflows into a greater passion for the salvation of all souls.”

Location: We will meet in the Kateri Room located at St. Michael’s Church, 240 Hemlock Street, Waterloo, Ontario. Use the east side parking lot and enter by the rear doors. Walk up the stairs. And the Kateri Room is on your right before enter the church proper.

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