SAINT JAMES’ ANGLICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
LENT, 2016
This past year, 2015, marked the 750th anniversary of the birth of the great Catholic poet Dante Alighieri. Known throughout the centuries for his epic poem, The Divine Comedy, Dante has been revered by many notable persons. It was T.S. Eliot who commented, “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third.”
With the arrival of Lent on Ash Wednesday, February 10th, you are invited to join a group dedicated to reading and discussing this work on Sunday mornings following the 10:30 Mass, making this a part of your Lenten discipline. There is so much to admire in The Divine Comedy. We will focus on its extraordinary spiritual power; for it is arguably the most significant poem in the Western tradition about sin and redemption, having a distinctively Catholic sensibility.
Broken into three sections Dante’s itinerary takes the reader through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Such a journey is not a bit of medieval fantasy for the pilgrim, but instead, it is a vivid description of the process by which we find salvation. Such a work is as relevant now as it it was in the 13th century.
Due to its length we will undertake the reading of Dante’s first section, Inferno, leaving the remaining Purgatorio and Paradisio for another season.
In preparation for the class, you are encouraged to obtain your own copy of The Divine Comedy. The particular edition that we will be reading is from Everyman’s Library with Allen Mandelbaum as the translator.
FEBRUARY 14th: LENT I
Canto I – Canto VII
FEBRUARY 21st: LENT II
Canto VIII – Canto XIV
FEBRUARY 28th: LENT III
Canto XV – Canto XXI
MARCH 6th: LENT IV
Canto XXII – Canto XXVIII
MARCH 13th: LENT V
Canto XXIX – Canto XXIV