Bidden or Not Bidden...

Dean Ayres, our recent curate, took this photograph of the plaque at the entrance to the chapel at the Sacred Heart of Mary Convent in Little Ealing. I thought you'd enjoy seeing it.

For me, what it says is a huge comfort. Even when I forget to ask God into a place where I go, God is there. Mind you, since God is capable of doing the unexpected, this could be a challenge, sometimes, as well as an encouragement!

Comments

[Dean Ayres]

I've just discovered that this is a quotation from Desiderius Erasmus.

[Andrew]

Thanks, Dean. I've done a bit more research, and it seems that Carl Jung had this carved, in Latin, over the door of his home in Zürich: "Vocatus atque non vocatus Deus aderit".

[Andrew]

Apparently Jung also had this inscribed on his book plaques and on his tombstone.

In a letter of November 19, 1960, Jung explains the inscription: "By the way, you seek the enigmatic oracle Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit in vain in Delphi: it is cut in stone over the door of my house in Küsnacht near Zürich and otherwise found in Erasmus's collection of Adagia (XVIth cent.). [Jung had acquired a copy of the 1563 edition of Erasmus's Collectaneas adagiorum, a compilation of analects from classical authors, when he was 19 years old.] It is a Delphic oracle though. It says: yes, the god will be on the spot, but in what form and to what purpose? I have put the inscription there to remind my patients and myself: Timor dei initium sapiente ["The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."] Here another not less important road begins, not the approach to 'Christianity' but to God himself and this seems to be the ultimate question."

[Dean Ayres]

Good stuff! I started on this road when someone left a comment under the photo on Flickr to the effect that it was a quote from Jung himself. This surprised me enough to look it up myself, and it seems that this is a popular misattribution.

[Andrew]

I tried to find the original quotation in Erasmus, but no luck so far!