disturbing presence

Mar 27, 2014

A few years ago I was inspired by a little book by Fr. Anthony Gittins, The Presence that Disturbs. The title refers to the great 1798 Wordsworth  poem on Tintern Abbey:

…And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things…

I was delighted to find Anthony Gitten’s keynote address at the 2012 LA Religious Ed conference is available on youtube. Well worth 50 minutes.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts

another way

another way

the mortality in our sin is not any action itself, but what we do next

death as birth

death as birth

There was a well-intentioned move a few years ago to replace crucifixes

Kinder & Dante

Kinder & Dante

John talking about Dante: it’s like hearing friends in conversation

to gather together

to gather together

Its late Sunday as I write and I’m on my way home from a quick three day trip

what a bunch

what a bunch

God is in all of it, the good and the bad, the ups and downs