We Leave with Nothing but Love

People may get angry or confused in class discussion session:

• I want to understand where the conversation is going, and understand the questions clearly so that I can give clear answers. I get frustrated when someone doesn’t clarify what they are thinking or how they came up with their conclusions. I get frustrated when I don’t know how to clarify those things for my own conclusions, in a believable way.
• I want to say what I am thinking. But sometimes my words get mixed up, and as my thoughts get translated into audible noises, I forget what I was thinking. I often grow aware of my lacking conversational skills in session, and I am not sure how confidently to make claims about what the author writes.
• Sometimes I misinterpret stories that I read.
• I forget what I had believed earlier, and I wish that I could hold my ground- if only I could remember what ground I was standing on before I had walked into session!

John Chrysostom is an interesting group to be in. In our Torrey discussion on Dante’s Davine Comedy, the Inferno:

At the beginning of class, the professor might ask, “Where is Dante at the beginning of Inferno?” And we would respond, “He is in the wilderness, in a state of confusion. He is traveling through a dark and dangerous wood, going through a pass of death. His mind is a fugitive, meaning that he is hiding in this dearkness, cowering because he has left the path of the straight and true. He is traveling toward the center of the universe, away from God.” The professor says that what we shared was barely the conclusion that we were supposed to come to, but it is time to move on.

Gee whiz.

I am now trying to decide the importance of descent in order to ascend. Why does Dante need to go to hell before he can have a more divine vision of heaven? Why do we need to go through firy trials and despair before we can truly share in the divine glory of God?