There is one Psalm, the 88th, which has not a single positive note, except implicitly the opening line,

"Lord God of my rescue, ..."

and it ends,

"You (Lord) distanced lover and neighbor from me.
My friends -- utter darkness." Alter comments:
"The speaker, perhaps because he has been suffering from a repulsive illness or simply because his fortunes have met with disaster (like Job), has become an object if disgust to his friends."

Okay actually one more thing on the Song, mostly just some pointers that you can look into more if you wish.

There are a number of little phrases that get repeated and developed throughout the Song. One of them goes like this...

https://twitter.com/Herenotthere5/status/1667669069003202563

2:16:
My beloved is mine and I am his;
he pastures his flock among the lilies.

6:3:
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
he pastures his flock among the lilies.

And finally 7:10:
I am my beloved’s;
his desire is for me.

Probably last thing on the Song of Songs for now.

3 passages to compare:

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (the Shema)
Song of Songs 6:4-10
1 Corinthians 8:1-6

https://twitter.com/Herenotthere5/status/1667641660069560321

The Shema is recited twice daily by devout Jews. It begins, Deut 6:4-5:

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD [is] one!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength."

Now for some really general stuff about the Song's relationship to the OT, but w/o long lists.

I want to avoid getting into the scholarly weeds and simply point out that I regard the Song of Songs as intended--by the poet(s) + community which canonized it--as allegorical of the

https://twitter.com/Herenotthere5/status/1667766031970861056

relationship between the Lord and His people

The trend of modern secular scholars has been to think that these were originally secular love poems which only later were read as having religious meaning. "Allegory" is a pejorative among such scholars, a kind of ahistorical naivety

St. John of the Cross you beautiful beautiful man!!
Praise God

"Where have you fled and vanished,
Beloved, since you left me here to moan?
Deer-like you leaped; then, banished
and wounded by my own,
I followed you with cries, but you had flown. Shepherds, if you discover,
going about this knoll to tend your sheep,
the dwelling of that lover
whose memory I keep,
tell him I sicken unto death and weep.

Too rare to see people actually point these things out - which imo is probably the vast majority of boys + young men who want to transition.

It's very politically useful to brand men who transition as ENTITLED FETISHISTIC MEN WHO THINK THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO WOMEN'S SPACES

🧵1/13

https://twitter.com/unamadremas21/status/1665132860532047872

(even tho many, not all, women welcome them).

And look, having men in women's spaces is completely unacceptable in my view - probably the most obvious ways that some form of sex-segregation is unavoidable - and the breakdown this most basic of barriers is a very bad sign.

2/13

Some relevant words from Mother Cécile Bruyère and St. Teresa of Ávila, some foundational points of Christian mysticism.

Mother Cecile, The Spiritual Life and Prayer

https://twitter.com/Herenotthere5/status/1665395607912022019

More from Mother Cecile

(Idk if a couple statements here will appear to contradict my comment in the QT - but I suppose I could try to explain if it seems that way.)

For by grace you have been saved through faith
and this is not from you;
it is the gift of God.
It is not from works
so no one may boast.

For we are his handiwork
created in Christ Jesus
For the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
Eph 2:8-10 Don't think of salvation apart from creation, the work of the Creator at every moment.
And creatures of the Good Creator work good works.

Praise to Most Holy Trinity this Sunday
Ephesians 3:14-21:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory,
he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being
with power through his Spirit,

And that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,
as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

From "That All Shall Be Saved" by David Bentley Hart, pp.35-37.

More can be said, but to me, these 2 1/2 pages are more than enough to prove his point, that hell cannot possibly be eternal.

By "this argument" he means the argument "from the rational freedom of the creature, ... "and from the refusal of God to trespass on that freedom, for fear of preventing the creature from achieving a true union of love with the divine"

I don't really feel called-out as a Thomist. I realize that Thomism is somewhat the default for my reception of the Catholic faith,

The Lord didn't tell Jonah He would relent ("repent") if Nineveh repented, but only to announce their overthrow bc of their wickedness.

But when Jonah preached to Nineveh, the king decreed that all should repent and mourn, saying, 'Who knows, maybe God will relent!' And God did. And Jonah was angry w God and wanted to die, bc God spared the decadent, oppressive Gentile nation.

God said nothing of the possibility repentance might change the outcome; He showed it thru His (reluctant) prophet,

Jonah, who knows something of the Name and inner life of God:

Happy feast of the Immaculate Conception❤️

As various pious ideas recede into the background - grand but airy ideas of our Lady you sometimes see - her true greatness becomes only clearer.

She is a humble woman, not a cosmic superhero, yet God has hidden her in the foundations of creation.

Marian dogmas came late, but devotion to her came early. Lex orandi, lex credendi.
Worship "goes ahead" of theology; and devotion to Mary "goes ahead" of mariology.