(Purgatory), and Paradiso (Heaven) was exhilarating to me as a young seminarian interested in the spiritual life. Most memorable to me was the way Dante uses Beatrice, a symbol of human love and divine revelation, as his initial guide in his journey toward Paradiso. Unlike others who view human love and love for God as conflicting realities, Dante’s world is fundamentally a sacramental one in which grace and blessing come to us in our most intimate relationships. For Dante, Paradiso becomes not an