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The Lump of Sin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2024

Conrad Pepler O.P.
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Extract

If we compare ‘The Cloud’ with Walter Hilton's Scale of Perfection or any other of the spiritual writings contemporary with that classic we shall be struck by the impersonal character of The Cloud. The Scale refers constantly to Jesus, the person, to whom everything returns in contemplation, and even a writer like St John of the Cross is really none the less personal in his approach to the source of faith and love. The Cloud does not often use the holy Name in spite of the great popularity of the devotion in those days; it is far more abstract and philosophical in tone. Struck by this difference we might be tempted to say that this latter was a natural, a metaphysician's, approach. A great deal of emphasis is laid on a quasi-metaphysical apprehension of Being as such, which might seem to depend on the personal exercise of the worshipper.

Type
Research Article
Information
Life of the Spirit , Volume 3 , Issue 28 , October 1948 , pp. 169 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © 1948 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 But cf. c. 4. 'Eight well hast thou said, "for the love of Jesu". For in the love of Jesu there shall be thine help. . . . Therefore love Jesu, and all thing that he hath it is thine'.

2 For an outline of St Thomas's conception of ‘sin as distinct from sins’ cf. ‘Tasks for Thomists’ sect. 4. by Victor White, O.P (BLACKFRIAES, 1944, pp. 105 sq).

3 This doctrine should be compared with St Thomas's teaching as to when special contrition is required, and when a general sorrow suffices. Gf. I-ll , 113, 5 ad e; III , 87, 1; Sup. 2, 6.

4 The whole of this 44th chapter should be read with great care.