Our first addition this week is “Praying the Passion”, a Catholic meditation on the spiritual exercises related to the Passion of Christ, by Fr Donal O’Sullivan:

“It is not abundance of knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul, but the inward sense and taste of things”… the man who has thoroughly soaked his understanding and imagination in the sufferings of the Son of God will ultimately —with God’s grace— “smell and taste, with the senses of smell and taste, the infinite fragrance and sweetness of the Godhead, of the soul and its virtues, and of all else…”

• Next, a foundational article for the study of medieval metaphysics, tracing the origin and development of the curious term anitas, the Divine “thatness”, through the shared efforts of Greek, Jewish, Christian and Muslim philosophers over the centuries. Text in French, with lengthy quotations from Avicenna and Aquinas.

L’être, depuis son extrémité supérieure jusqu’à son extrémité inférieure occupe quatre degrés différents qui sont : le que, le quoi, le comment et le pourquoi. Le degré supérieur est le que, qui n’a ni quoi, ni comment, ni pourquoi, et c’est l’Un véritable, le Très Haut.

• We note finally the addition of a new item to our Sacred Audio collection: the “mantra of Compassion”, Om Mani Padme Hum, which is said to summarise all the teachings of the Buddha, including two select recordings and an explanatory video clip by HH the Dalai Lama.

• Upcoming events: —26 April, Vancouver, Sacred Web 2014 Conference on the theme of “Rediscovering the Sacred in our Lives and in our Times.” —From 9th to 11th May, Sacred Gardens, practical & philosophical workshop with Emma Clark.