However, after reading Garry Wills' much acclaimed brief life, Saint Augustine , I have softened a bit and begin to see why Augustine has had such a profound impact on so many influential thinkers. Like many, I first read Beowulf in an English literature survey course. If truth be told, I was never quite certain whether Grendel was male or female, or indeed, was the mother or son. All of that is now cleared up for me after reading Beowulf in Seamus Heaney's translation, from Old English. It is a good read and since the Old English text faces the English translation you can enjoy the poem while marveling at how Heaney derived one from the other.
Catholics are sacramental people.
Sacraments are the signs that open up human life to God's presence. In Signatures of Grace , edited by Thomas Grady and Paula Huston, writers such as Mary Gordon, Ron Hansen and Paul Mariani, of Boston College's English Department, offer personal testimonies to the effect of a particular sacrament in their lives. Andre Dubus concludes the collection with an essay on the sacramentality of everyday life. Good writing on an important topic.