kasper salonen wrote:
> "Bertand Russell -for getting me out of religion"
>
> James Joyce is almost getting me back to religion.. the
> Hell-description in the third chapter of 'Portrait of a young man' is
> utterly terrifying
>
This both true and mostly funny. Man I knew in grad school, morning on
Malta, spent seven years as a Jesuit, i.e., he didn't stick around to
become a priest. In his novice year a bunch of he new boys were taken
by boat to a small island and put through a three-day retreat. On
Friday evening the Prefect delivered a sermon on Hell which duplicated
the *Portrait* sermon. Probably it was a standard fear-of-God piece of
rhetoric but it worked. Joe (my friend) tried shaking it off but back
in his room the horror hit him, and by 1 AM he was rushing down the hall
to the Prefect's room for the sacrament of Confession. He found all his
brother novices there for the same thing: scared out of their wits, come
to confess. The Prefect told them he'd hear their confessions in the
morning. Someone said "It IS morning, Father, and you got us into this,
now help us get out!"
Ken
--------------------
Ken Wolman rainermaria.typepad.com
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
Bernstein/Wilbur, "Candide"
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