I don’t know I ever had that many grey cells – I can reread most Agatha Christie with no problems cause I still get fooled.

Listening to a lot of allusive songs from Trisha Watts reminded me of the cataphatic vs apophatic tension in the Catholic church. The thought that we can somehow codify God in a human document like a catechism, when anything that can be expressed in human language will be inadequate to describe God. That doesn’t mean that the catechism has no merit, it’s just a temptation to idolatry and closed mindedness if inappropriately applied.

Since the apophatic way accepts our inadequacy to understand God, and that the unmediated Beatific vision is beyond us, we approach such things through song, ritual and liturgy – looking sideways grateful for a glimpse when the whole is beyond us.

Trish rarely mentions God directly, yet her songs are a way into the vicinity of God – in the Cloud of Unknowing and all that.

The church is getting better though, the mystics aren’t routinely burned at the stake these days.

cheers

Geoff