Renato Antonio: Into the Cloud of Knowing (ePub)

Any attempt to chart the human soul, much less the designs of God on the human heart often ends in confusion, or abstraction. Not with Renato Antonio s new book Into the Cloud of Knowing'.

He finds the answers meant for him in the moments of his life, in his cultural upbringing, in the moments of joy and tragedy that punctuate his past. With a welcoming and compelling narration, he draws us into his search for the face of God, glimpsed through the glances of dying children and laughing infants, troubled family and prayerful parents.

In the Eastern tradition of iconography, it is understood that painters write the icons from dark shades to lighter, a theological discipline echoing God s creative act of bringing things to light.

In the same vein, Renato shares how he has been forced to grapple with the darkest of questions, the presence of evil alongside an almighty, good God, the pain and suffering of children, the persecution and sorrow of the innocent, war, loss, martyrdom and grace. He finds answers and the truth, but like Christ, the Truth incarnated as man, each answer is found in a person, in a situation wrapped in the humanity and experiences of individual lives and breathing people.

Set against the ruddy backdrop of Western Australia, and deeply birthed in the banks of the Swan River, the colleges and cliffs of Fremantle and Yangebup, join Renato in a sketch of life as a Catholic searching for truth. Himself the child of Sicilian immigrants, he turns to his heritage and delves into the blustery, faith-soaked culture of Sicily to rediscover the greatest influences of his childhood. It s one of my favourite chapters, written in an engaging and sense-driven style that keeps alive the excitement of discovering traditional foods and ancient shrines.

But as a child must mature into a man, so must the book turn its focus onto the harder questions, and Renato doesn t shy away from them, partly because he can t. The beauty and tragedy of being connected to the human family means that we share in each other s joys, and also each other s pain. As Renato realises, often in hindsight, these moments of black, bleak suffering and anger are the brightest chances we have to be divine conduits of grace for each other.

Into the Cloud of Knowing is not only a sketch of his life, but also a series of character sketches. From a young boy dying of complications, a young girl martyred for her faith, and a deeply devoted panel of mothers and fathers, Renato leads you into the uniquely Sicilian gallery of his Australian mind, formed by the Christian yearning for the face of God looking at us from each other.