In Modern Philosophy, we completed our study of those thinkers who made the transition from the Medieval period into the Modern period in Philosophy. Prior to Descartes, we had studied the Italian Renaissance philosophers Giordano Bruno and Pico della Mirandola, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Francisco Suárez, and others. The major idea in the Modern period was coming to some understanding of how we do or do not come to know things, especially the "physical" universe and our senses, and also approaching the "God question." The Contemporary period, which I am studying concurrently, focuses on political and legal philosophies, questioning the basis for morality and how that should be incorporated into governments to support stable and diverse societies. Descartes doubts everything, which eventually leads him to concede that his being deceived is a proof for his existence, though this doubt and deception are only mental, thus: "cogito ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"). A bit strange... and his example of his experience of wax melting and all his dreams makes me wonder whether his Meditations on First Philosophy inspired the movie Inception, which contains dreams within dreams and ends in a suspenseful state in which we are unsure whether the whole thing was a dream or whether it, in fact, started in reality.
On Friday, October 7, we celebrated the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. The morning homily reflected on the Rosary's structure and usefulness in our lives - it is a prayer composed of short prayers that are very familiar and thus frees us to meditate on the mysteries in the life of Christ, seen through Mary's eyes, and can calm and even heal us. In the evening, we carpooled to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for the solemn profession of vows as a diocesan hermit of Mary Thérèse Inoue, the sacristan at our St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center. Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley, OFM Cap. began his homily with a story of living through the Cold War era, seeing the fear in peoples' faces and all of the precautions taken to have shelter in the case of an attack. He then brought the warfare idea into the spiritual realm, calling to mind the many attacks against our faith and against human dignity in our time, and identified the Rosary as a primary means of engaging in this spiritual warfare. He then shifted to the heroic statement of Mary's response to the Lord's call for her to live a life dedicated to prayer and penance as a hermit here. We all noticed the strong spousal imagery throughout the ceremony, indicating that the hermit now takes Christ as her bridegroom and draws ever nearer to Him in order to be united to Him at the end of her life.
Tomorrow, we will take our day off for Columbus Day and go for a hike at Mt. Wachusett, and make a couple other stops before returning home to study for the week of classes to come. We should be able to take some good pictures of the Fall colors here in New England!
With the feast of the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima approaching, let us renew our zeal for asking the intercession of Mary, our Mother, for a renewal of Gospel values and respect for human dignity everywhere in our times, especially by praying the Rosary well and often.
Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca
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