[The Banquet (Il Convito) by Dante Alighieri]@TWC D-Link bookThe Banquet (Il Convito) CHAPTER XXVIII 2/4
O, miserable men and vile, who run into this port with sails unfurled; and there where you should find rest, are broken by the fury of the wind and wrecked in the harbour.
Truly the Knight Lancelot chose not to enter it with sails unfurled, nor our most noble Italian Guido da Montefeltro.
These noble Spirits indeed furled the sails after the voyage of this World, whose cares were rendered to Religion in their long old age, when they had laid down each earthly joy and labour.
And it is not possible to excuse any man because of the bond of matrimony, which may hold him in his old age, from turning to Religion, even as he who adopts the habit of St.Benedict and St. Augustine and St.Francis and St.Dominic and the like mode of life, but also it is possible to turn to a good and true Religion whilst remaining in the bonds of matrimony, for God asks of us no more than the religious heart.
And therefore St.Paul says to the Romans: "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|