Grace: Assignment 10

Togetherness, to gather us

Forever Thou and I

Sensual-willed, though caritas

Still beckons to my sky

A millionaire?

A million stars

Burst upon my eye

And Father dare

Call Being ours

Where Thou dost meet the I.

Type of Prayer:

Reflective/Petitionary Psalm

Terms and/or Concepts:

“Togetherness” -O'Donnell, pp. 6-7, pits Balthasar against a view of God as Being in reference to self, in preference for a view that espouses God to object of love.

“Caritas” - Ibid, p. 7... here the author shows the insight Balthasar gleans from Christianity over its Eastern counterparts, namely, that eros may be redeemed by caritas, and thus we are not to extinguish our passions entirely but temper them with reason, clearly a platonic theme.

1. “Still beckons to my sky” - Ibid, p. 4:  Pryzwara's thought of (human) being-as-analogy presents the view that humanity is ever chasing God as it proceeded from God and hence resembles God, but that God always transcends our highest experiences of God, and seems to beckon to us to continually higher beautitudes.

“A million stars / Burst upon my eye” - Ibid, p. 7:  “God is “Triune Being”, which is “an infinite community of love”... this reminds me of a vision I once had of God, in which I was shown a great sheet of electrically-charged, magnetically-attractive energy, comprised of a million tiny stars, to which my own tiny star was drawn, irresistably.

1. “Call Being ours” - Again, the idea of analogy in the question of being.   Here, the poet is petitioning for participation in God's Being, which is his true calling.