Earlier I wrote of Paulo Coelho’s book The Alchemist. This Brazilian writer has gained worldwide readership with a style that combines adventure with inspiration. He breaks moulds. He dares to risk. He alludes to Biblical concepts with a strange mixture of New Age spirituality. This is dangerous.
I discovered another book that promised to examine more deeply Coelho’s “Christian” leanings. By the River Pietra, I Sat Down and Wept. The protagonist is a young woman of Spain named Pilar. She has discovered that a teenage sweetheart who left the home village is some sort of spiritual leader, and that he is giving a lecture in Madrid. She has never really gotten over the young man. She plans a quick escape from her studies and brief re-connection.
She ends up spending a week in December in his company and going to France to the phenomenon at Lourdes (the visions of Bernadette are explored at pages 62-66). He has a special house for her to visit. When he had discovered this house he experienced an epiphany that confirmed that he had always loved Pilar, and that love was the environment of faith, compassion and miracles. With this epiphany his path at the seminary had been placed into jeopardy. His chance reunion with Pilar is developed through the rest of the book to a point of crisis.
The young candidate for the priesthood has had a special revelation of the person and purposes of the Virgin Mary. He has developed a theology of the “feminine face of God” (pages 57-61 and pages 129-130. The book gives some people what they want to hear about Mary. It is not real. It is rebellion.) He knows that there is danger here with the authorities of the Church. The freedom that is focused on this revelation has begotten in him a gift of miraculous healing power. Occasionally in the book he is called away to minister to someone in dire need. Will this gift and the prospect of spiritual reform through his teachings be lost if he follows his heart with Pilar?
The book lands smack dab in the middle of Mariolatry, proposing the addition of a fourth person officially into the Trinity. This is something that certainly little Mary of Nazareth never envisioned or wanted. It distracts from Jesus.
I will cite however an observation that is purely “Coelho” about the following of dreams and the losing of cautious inhibitions:
“What is the Other?” they ask.
The Other is the one who taught me whatI should be like, but not what I am. The Other believes that it is our obligation to spend our entire life thinking about how to get our hands on as much money a possible so that we will not die of hunger when we are old. So we think so much about money and our plans for acquiring it that we discover we are alive only when our days on earth are practically done. And then it’s too late.”
And you? Who are you?”
I am just like everyone else who listens to their heart: a person who is enchanted by the mystery of life. Who is open to miracles, who experiences joy and enthusiasm for what they do. It’s just that the Other, afraid of disappointment,kept me from taking action.”
But there is suffering in life,” one of the listeners said.
And there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever even knowing what you’re fighting for.”
That’s it?” another listener asked.
Yes, that’s it. When I learned this, I resolved to become the person I had always wanted to be. The Other stood there in the corner of my room, watching me, but I will never let the Other into myself again—-even though it has already tried to frighten me, warning me that it’s risky not to think about the future.
From the moment that I ousted the Other from my life, the Divine Energy began to perform its miracles.”
Note on Mary:
Scripture tells us about the Annunciation, the visit to Elizabeth’s happy home, the betrothal and marriage to Joseph, the birth in the manger, the visit to the temple for the child’s circumcision, the visit from the magi, the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth, the later visit to Jerusalem and her son’s absence while in dialogue with the scholars, the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana, her attempt to remove her son from the stresses of overmuch ministry, her painful presence at the scene of crucifixion, her growing relationship with John the beloved, her inclusion with the 120 at Pentecost.
And that’s it!
Historic tradition tells us something about her later life in Ephesus with John. Nothing about her death. Certainly nothing about her assumption into heaven.
Where have these things come from about her super-human features in the likeness of her Son? An immaculate conception…of Mary. A deathless assumption into heaven…of Mary. Perpetual virginity. A mediatorial role with respect to our prayers alongside Jesus.
These are the pronouncements of Popes. Popes who say that they were strangely warmed in their spirits after the release of the revelation. They all tie in with a need to represent her as worthy of the miraculous event of Jesus’ immaculate conception. But she was human. Her Son would have to represent Adam’s race in redeeming it (Romans 5:11-19). It was with her as it is with all believers. Grace is given to the undeserving for reasons known only to God. This is not to say that Mary of Nazareth was not a conscionable, refreshing flower in the Jewish community well versed in the faith of her fathers. The Magnificat bears this out (Luke 1:46-55).
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I discovered another book that promised to examine more deeply Coelho’s “Christian” leanings. By the River Pietra, I Sat Down and Wept. The protagonist is a young woman of Spain named Pilar. She has discovered that a teenage sweetheart who left the home village is some sort of spiritual leader, and that he is giving a lecture in Madrid. She has never really gotten over the young man. She plans a quick escape from her studies and brief re-connection.
She ends up spending a week in December in his company and going to France to the phenomenon at Lourdes (the visions of Bernadette are explored at pages 62-66). He has a special house for her to visit. When he had discovered this house he experienced an epiphany that confirmed that he had always loved Pilar, and that love was the environment of faith, compassion and miracles. With this epiphany his path at the seminary had been placed into jeopardy. His chance reunion with Pilar is developed through the rest of the book to a point of crisis.
The young candidate for the priesthood has had a special revelation of the person and purposes of the Virgin Mary. He has developed a theology of the “feminine face of God” (pages 57-61 and pages 129-130. The book gives some people what they want to hear about Mary. It is not real. It is rebellion.) He knows that there is danger here with the authorities of the Church. The freedom that is focused on this revelation has begotten in him a gift of miraculous healing power. Occasionally in the book he is called away to minister to someone in dire need. Will this gift and the prospect of spiritual reform through his teachings be lost if he follows his heart with Pilar?
The book lands smack dab in the middle of Mariolatry, proposing the addition of a fourth person officially into the Trinity. This is something that certainly little Mary of Nazareth never envisioned or wanted. It distracts from Jesus.
I will cite however an observation that is purely “Coelho” about the following of dreams and the losing of cautious inhibitions:
“What is the Other?” they ask.
The Other is the one who taught me whatI should be like, but not what I am. The Other believes that it is our obligation to spend our entire life thinking about how to get our hands on as much money a possible so that we will not die of hunger when we are old. So we think so much about money and our plans for acquiring it that we discover we are alive only when our days on earth are practically done. And then it’s too late.”
And you? Who are you?”
I am just like everyone else who listens to their heart: a person who is enchanted by the mystery of life. Who is open to miracles, who experiences joy and enthusiasm for what they do. It’s just that the Other, afraid of disappointment,kept me from taking action.”
But there is suffering in life,” one of the listeners said.
And there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever even knowing what you’re fighting for.”
That’s it?” another listener asked.
Yes, that’s it. When I learned this, I resolved to become the person I had always wanted to be. The Other stood there in the corner of my room, watching me, but I will never let the Other into myself again—-even though it has already tried to frighten me, warning me that it’s risky not to think about the future.
From the moment that I ousted the Other from my life, the Divine Energy began to perform its miracles.”
Note on Mary:
Scripture tells us about the Annunciation, the visit to Elizabeth’s happy home, the betrothal and marriage to Joseph, the birth in the manger, the visit to the temple for the child’s circumcision, the visit from the magi, the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth, the later visit to Jerusalem and her son’s absence while in dialogue with the scholars, the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana, her attempt to remove her son from the stresses of overmuch ministry, her painful presence at the scene of crucifixion, her growing relationship with John the beloved, her inclusion with the 120 at Pentecost.
And that’s it!
Historic tradition tells us something about her later life in Ephesus with John. Nothing about her death. Certainly nothing about her assumption into heaven.
Where have these things come from about her super-human features in the likeness of her Son? An immaculate conception…of Mary. A deathless assumption into heaven…of Mary. Perpetual virginity. A mediatorial role with respect to our prayers alongside Jesus.
These are the pronouncements of Popes. Popes who say that they were strangely warmed in their spirits after the release of the revelation. They all tie in with a need to represent her as worthy of the miraculous event of Jesus’ immaculate conception. But she was human. Her Son would have to represent Adam’s race in redeeming it (Romans 5:11-19). It was with her as it is with all believers. Grace is given to the undeserving for reasons known only to God. This is not to say that Mary of Nazareth was not a conscionable, refreshing flower in the Jewish community well versed in the faith of her fathers. The Magnificat bears this out (Luke 1:46-55).
To view more click on
justhappeneduponthis
