We’re slowly digesting Paradiso whilst opening the first page of Purgatory again. The first time we read Paradiso a few years ago it felt exhausting with the lack of concreteness, but in the last few months that has changed. In part because one can read the third book also as a collection or library of essays, with references to the theology and an introductory course to the Medieval Theology and the Mystics of the 11 and 12 hundreds.
At the same time, it feels good to have more firm ground under our feet again, at the shores of the Island of Mount Purgatory. The opening is filled with beauty, nature, new optimism, and refreshing poetry of the skies and horizons. This reading might become very slow, with only small meditations on some days. But it feels great to “be” somewhere in the Comedy again, after finishing the last canto just a few days ago!