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INFERNO
"Midway in our life's journey, I went astray
from the straight road and woke to find myself
alone in a dark wood. How shall I say
what wood that was! I never saw so drear,
so rank, so arduous a wilderness!
Its very memory gives a shape to fear.
Death could scarce be more bitter than that place!
But since it came to good, I will recount
all that I found revealed there by God's grace."
Inferno, Canto I, lines 1-9
So begins the Inferno. Dante realizes he has wandered from the "True Way" in mid-life, and finds himself
in the Valley of Evil. He is rescued by the spirit of Virgil (author of the Aeneid), who tells him he has
been sent to guide him out of Hell because of prayers by Beatrice, the woman whom Dante admired all
his life. To leave Hell, they must go through all nine circles of Hell, the deeper the circle, the more grave
the sin and its appropriate punishment. Perhaps the worst punishment is that no one helps or cares for
another in Hell. By going through Hell, Dante - and the reader - learn to recognize and detest man's sinful
nature and the power of evil, and the need to guard against it. Dante learns those in Hell choose to go
there by their unrepentance. Dante enters Hell on Good Friday and reads the following posted above the
gates of Hell as he is about to enter (Canto III, line 9):
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here."
PURGATORIO
Dante and Virgil emerge from Hell just before the dawn of Easter Sunday, and in Purgatorio Dante
begins the difficult climb up Mount Purgatory. Souls that are repentant of their sins against God and man
go to Purgatory and become free of temptation, and know that they will eventually be with God. The
renunciation of sin occurs in Purgatory, as one begins his ascent to Purity. Purgatory is a Mountain with
seven ledges or cornices, one for each of the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony,
and lust). For each cornice, Dante first offers biblical and classical examples of the particular virtue to
encourage the penitents, and after they are reformed, examples of the sin to remind them of its destructive
nature. On the first cornice (just above Hell) one is purified of pride, inordinate self-love or conceit, by
learning the corresponding virtue, Humility. When one is cured of pride, he moves up to the second
cornice, envy, resentful awareness of another's good fortune and the desire to obtain the same advantage.
Envy is purified by the virtue of Caritas, love of others. Anger is offset by Meekness and Patience, which
leads one to become a peacemaker. Sloth, spiritual apathy and inactivity, is cured by Zeal and Diligence.
Generosity is the virtue that overcomes greed. Gluttony, an excessive appetite for food and drink, is
controlled by Temperance through Fasting and Abstinence. On the seventh and last cornice, lust is
overcome by the virtue of Temperance through Chastity. Virgil, the voice of Reason, takes Dante step-bystep up the mountain of Purgatory to the Garden of Eden, where man resided before his fall, and releases
him in Canto XXVII (27) to himself, as he is now purged from sin. He meets Beatrice, the unrequited
love of his earthly life, in Canto XXX (30), and she leads him to Heaven. Repentant souls, even those
with great sin, and even if they repent just prior to death, still go to Purgatory, as we learn from Canto V:
"We are souls who died by violence,
all sinners to our final hour, in which
the lamp of Heaven shed its radiance
into our hearts. Thus from the brink of death,
repenting all our sins, forgiving those
who sinned against us, with our final breath
we offered up our souls at peace with Him
who saddens us with longing to behold
His glory on the throne of Seraphim."
Purgatorio, Canto V (5), lines 52-60:
PARADISO
Paradiso is Dante's imaginative conception of Heaven. The more one loves on earth, the closer in Heaven
one is to God, who is All-Love. Beatrice takes Dante through the 9 Spheres of Heaven to Canto XXXI
(31), where Beatrice turns Dante over to St. Bernard, who leads him to the Beatific Vision of God. We
recommend and present the poetic and readable translation by the late John Ciardi (copyright John Ciardi
1970, Publisher, WW Norton Company, New York and London). The following is Canto XXXIII (33) of
Paradiso, the final Canto of the Divine Comedy. The canto begins with a unique expression referring to
the Blessed Virgin Mary, "O Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son."
Canto XXXIII of Paradiso, The Divine Comedy
St. Bernard offers a Prayer to the Virgin so that Dante is permitted the Beatific Vision of God.
The vision passes and Dante is once more mortal and fallible.
Yet the truth is stamped upon his soul, which he now knows will return to be one with God's love.
"O virgin mother, daughter of thy Son,
humble beyond all creatures and more exalted;
predestined turning point of God's intention;
Thy merit so ennobled human nature
that its divine Creator did not scorn
to make Himself the creature of His creature.
The Love that was rekindled in Thy womb
sends for the warmth of the eternal peace
within whose ray this flower has come to bloom.
Here to us, thou art the noon and scope
of Love revealed; and among mortal men,
the living fountain of eternal hope.
Lady, thou art so near God's reckonings
that who seeks grace and does not first seek thee
would have his wish fly upward without wings.
Not only does thy sweet benignity
flow out to all who beg, but oftentimes
thy charity arrives before the plea.
In thee is pity, in thee munificence,
in thee the tenderest heart, in thee unites
all that creation knows of excellence!
Now comes this man who from the final pit
of the universe up to this height has seen,
one by one, the three lives of the spirit.
He prays to thee in fervent supplication
for grace and strength, that he may raise his eyes
to the all-healing final revelation.
And I, who never more desired to see
the vision myself that I do that he may see It,
add my own prayer, and pray that it may be
enough to move you to dispel the trace
of every mortal shadow by thy prayers
and let him see revealed the Sum of Grace.
I pray the further, all-persuading Queen,
keep whole the natural bent of his affections