The poet Blake wrote in times of great ferment and I share his disinterest with people with big plans to change the world.
The Pope has some ideas on how to change the world, which very much interest me. In his 2006 Lenten address Benedict XVI said, inter alia,
Remember in school when you were given a list and asked what does not belong in the list: Shovel, spade, trowel, cookie. What is out of place in the Pope's list? Did you say "small business?"
It seems out of place, but in a profound way, not. Each deals with minute particulars. At each a person presents himself with a specific problem and seeking a particular solution. At the small business level we do good to others in minute particulars, as is true in hospitals and schools. (And where not, the hospitals and schools are dreadful.)
As Benedict says:
Yes, and recently this blog has been addressing those mutilations and abuses. Like Marxists, the Church has its facts straight. Now, just to get the prescriptions straight.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
“He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars. And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power.”
Blake, 1821
The Pope has some ideas on how to change the world, which very much interest me. In his 2006 Lenten address Benedict XVI said, inter alia,
many forms of charitable work intended to promote
development have arisen in the Church: hospitals,
universities, professional formation schools, and small
businesses.
Remember in school when you were given a list and asked what does not belong in the list: Shovel, spade, trowel, cookie. What is out of place in the Pope's list? Did you say "small business?"
It seems out of place, but in a profound way, not. Each deals with minute particulars. At each a person presents himself with a specific problem and seeking a particular solution. At the small business level we do good to others in minute particulars, as is true in hospitals and schools. (And where not, the hospitals and schools are dreadful.)
As Benedict says:
My venerable Predecessor, Pope Paul VI, accurately described
the scandal of underdevelopment as an outrage against
humanity. In this sense, in the Encyclical "Populorum
Progressio," he denounced "the lack of material necessities
for those who are without the minimum essential for life, the
moral deficiencies of those who are mutilated by selfishness"
and "oppressive social structures, whether due to the abuses
of ownership or to the abuses of power, to the exploitation of
workers or to unjust transactions"
Yes, and recently this blog has been addressing those mutilations and abuses. Like Marxists, the Church has its facts straight. Now, just to get the prescriptions straight.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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