tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85594972011-04-21T20:58:58.667-07:00Sebastian Mahfoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01351836443777444457noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8559497.post-1113064331514531912005-04-10T09:31:00.000-07:002005-04-09T19:15:01.193-07:00The way to become most able to do something, Aristotle writes, is to be an active participant in the thing at which one is trying to excel. He would would become brave must put himself in the position to cultivate bravery, and only by becoming brave will he develop the aptitude for it. This tautology is meaningfully applied to every act, of the teacher who becomes a teacher by teaching or of the servant of the poor who becomes a servant of the poor, like St. Magdalen of Canossa, by serving the poor. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.37thtexas.org/image/crusades.jpg"><br /><br />Cacciaguida, likewise, is the crusader who becomes a crusader through crusading, and the greatest expression of his Christian love was his desire to save the world for Christ, to fight the enemies of the faith and convert them to God (this is what he would have believed going into the crusades, and he died for that ideal, even if today we experience Islam in a different context and do not condemn, if <a href="http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/v4.html"><i>Gaudium et Spes</i></a>(para. 22) is correct, to hell that which we don't understand. It would be unkind to record that had he been a better fighter, he would not have been martyred on the field, and his present joy comes from that's having occurred, but not until after he had sired Dante's father's grandfather, whom we also learn is still circling the cornice of the proud -- presumedly for cherishing the new patronym too loud.<br /><br />S.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8559497-111306433151453191?l=canto082.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Sebastian Mahfoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01351836443777444457noreply@blogger.com9