Remarks on our selected painting above

Hello avid readers!

In case you are wondering, hmm, I wonder why the blogger of this blog chose to use that picture of the artist Botticelli? And what is it a picture of?

I will relate to you the purpose of the painting perhaps in part, though I will try not to use a thousand words here.

The story I admit I borrow from Fr. John Zuhlsdorf's blog (WDTPRS, What does the prayer really say):

"The story goes like this, according to this version from the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine (+1298) as translated by William Caxton (+1492).

'Saint Augustine made a book of the Trinity, in which he studied and mused sore in his mind, so far forth that on a time as he went by the sea-side in Africa, studying on the Trinity, he found by the sea-side a little child which had made a little pit in the sand, and in his hand a little spoon. And with the spoon he took out water of the large sea and poured it into the pit.

And when Saint Augustine beheld him he marvelled, and demanded him what he did. And he answered and said: I will lade out and bring all this water of the sea into this pit. What? said he, it is impossible, how may it be done, sith the sea is so great and large, and thy pit and spoon so little? Yes, forsooth, said he, I shall lightlier and sooner draw all the water of the sea and bring it into this pit than thou shalt bring the mystery of the Trinity and his divinity into thy little understanding as to the regard thereof; for the mystery of the Trinity is greater and larger to the comparison of thy wit and brain than is this great sea unto this little pit. And therewith the child vanished away. Then here may every man take ensample that no man, and especially simple lettered men, ne unlearned, presume to intermit ne to muse on high things of the godhead, farther than we be informed by our faith, for our only faith shall suffice us.'

 '"

Such perhaps marks the mind of an Augustinian, the eyes that desire to see, the tongue that desires to taste, the soul yearning for completion, the heart ready for total love, and yet lying in contemplation and awe of the eternal mystery that stands before us.

So dear reader, remember that as we embark to learn, let us do so with a resolute will to let our hearts rest in the Lord lest our hearts become lost and restless.

To the meditatively inclined I give a link:

Trinitarian hymn, Deum Verum

A hymn sung for Matins on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, or so it is dedicated in that text.