Archive for the ‘Apocalypse’ Category
Esolen on Piety
It is not simply that the prayers are banal, but that we are banal. Were we to encounter the full-hearted prayers composed by men of old, we would be as incomprehending as the first barbarian Gauls were when they stumbled into Rome, or as the native Americans were when they first saw the English ink-marks that spoke, or as we would be if we were to stand over the shoulder of Daniel Webster and read his classically modulated prose in defense of the Union. Our knees are creaky, and we don’t bend them as often as we should. But we would bend them more often, if only we could remember how and why.
Anthony Esolen, Piety? Who needs piety?
