Upon the Circumcision

Milton: Upon the Circumcision

YE flaming Powers, and winged Warriours bright,
That erst with Musick, and triumphant song
First heard by happy watchful Shepherds ear,
So sweetly sung your Joy the Clouds along
Through the soft silence of the list'ning night;
Now mourn, and if sad share with us to bear
Your fiery essence can distill no tear,
Burn in your sighs, and borrow
Seas wept from our deep sorrow,
He who with all Heav'ns heraldry whileare
Enter'd the world, now bleeds to give us ease;
Alas, how soon our sin
Sore doth begin
His Infancy to sease!

O more exceeding love or law more just?
Just law indeed, but more exceeding love!
For we by rightfull doom remediles
Were lost in death, till he that dwelt above
High thron'd in secret bliss, for us frail dust
Emptied his glory, ev'n to nakednes;
And that great Cov'nant which we still transgress
Intirely satisfi'd,
And the full wrath beside Of vengeful Justice bore for our excess,
And seals obedience first with wounding smart
This day, but O ere long
Huge pangs and strong
Will pierce more neer his heart.

Ultimately, distractions

One of the interesting things about the Epistle reading on the Sunday after the Nativity of the Lord is that, although the day is a festive commemoration of the Prophet David, Joseph the Betrothed and - pointedly - James the Brother of the Lord, the Apostle Paul insists on down-playing the role of Jerusalem and James in his own encounter with - and understanding of - the Gospel. He takes pains to insist that his own encounter with Christ and understanding of the Gospel is not mediated through the witness and teaching of the disciples-turned-apostles. He has not sat as a student at their feet, He has not made a pilgrimage to the Jerusalem to soak up its sanctity, to join in its fellowship, to receive its tradition. He does not mention his baptism or preaching in Damascus, but instead highlights the fact that he travelled to Arabia and Damascus for over three years after his conversion before returning to Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem he spent only a couple of weeks, and in those few days met only with James and not with any other apostles. In this text he mentions nothing at all about the teaching of the apostles, the fellowship of the Jerusalem believers and their worship, his own 'connection' with these eye-witnesses of Christ. Instead of gushing about this encounter, he writes about it as if it were a a mere formality, perhaps something that he has to mention simply to establish his bona fides without crediting any of it with too much importance for his proclamation of the Gospel.

So: here we are on a day which commemorates the Apostles James - and the Epistle actually tends to minimize the importance of James in the spiritual formation and message of Paul.

This reminds us that as wonderful as the Holy City and the Holy Land are, and as important as they may be, our faith is not ultimately tied to them. So too, authenticity of Orthodox faith - the Gospel itself - is not tied to this or that Apostle, this or that place, who we met, who was our teacher, the golden chain of the spiritual teaching we have received. These things are indeed wonderful and inspiring and powerful as well as comforting. But however proud we may be of our citizenship, our cultural tradition, our nations - and no matter how grateful and truly indebted we are to those who are our touchstones and authorities in the faith, even those who gave us spiritual birth and those who nurtured us - we have to distinguish between the message and the messengers, the one thing truly needful and those who have pointed us toward it. We need to be able to shed the enchantments - without repudiating anything save their totalitarian claims - to shed the enchantments which we substitute for the personal appropriation of the Gospel.

The Apostle Paul stands in a certain contrast to all those who appeal to the authority of holy places and holy teachers to justify their own claim and position in matters of faith. I think this an important reminder to us, as even now our own church life is coloured by urgent appeals of some to the past or elsewhere as sources of authentic church life, as well as appeals to the putative uniqueness of the American experience and its vocation as the destiny of our little flock.

In poetry, wonder is coupled with the joy of speech.

- Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie

Praying dangerously

Q: Father, what do you think about when you serve Liturgy or those other services?

I would like to answer - to be in the position to answer - something along the lines of Louis Armstrong's words as quoted by Dave Brubeck:

Whenever he sat down at the piano— an instrument as satisfying, to him, as a whole orchestra—his aim was to get somewhere he had never got before. It didn’t matter how tired he was, how beat-up he felt. He wanted to be so inspired in his explorations that he would get beyond himself. He liked to quote Louis Armstrong, who once told a woman who asked what he thought about as he played: “Lady, if I told you, your mind would explode.” In his own words, he played dangerously, prepared to make any number of mistakes in order to create something he had never created before.

- from the obituary for David Brubeck in The Economist, Dec 15th 2012

A Prayer for the Departed

Prayer for the Departed

O thou whose everlasting providence surpasses understanding, who dost prepare the world for everlasting blessedness, thou hast ordained for each the moment and manner of his death. O Lord, grant pardon to the dead from every generation.

O Lord, Love ineffable, remember thy departed servants.

To save fallen Adam and all mankind from condemnation, thou hast opened, through the Cross and Resurrection of thy Son, the way to life eternal. Trusting in thy mercy, we pray that our departed brethren may reign with thee in glory. Give joy, O Lord, to the souls exhausted by the tempests of this life, make them forget their earthly sorrows, and accept them among the angels and the saints.

O Lord, Love ineffable, remember thy departed servants.

From the skull of a dead pagan, St Macarius once heard these words: ‘When you pray for those in hell, the heathen receive consolation.’ How marvelous is the power of Christian prayer! Even unbelievers are consoled when we sing for all the universe, Alleluia!

'A merciful heart never ceases to pray for men, for the beasts, for the whole of creation.’ With these words St Isaac the Syrian bids us intercede for the departed from every generation. Remember, Lord, all who have asked us in our unworthiness to pray for them. Blot out the sins which they forgot to mention in confession, take pity on the souls of those buried without the Church’s prayers, cut down suddenly in the midst of joy or sorrow, who at their burial were deprived of the intercession of the Church.

O Lord, Love ineffable, remember thy departed servants.

It is we men who are to blame for the sufferings of the world, for the illness and pain which children undergo, since it was man’s original sin that destroyed the beauty of creation. O Christ, the greatest of innocent martyrs, thou alone hast power to grant unconditional forgiveness. Bestow again upon the world its former splendour, and then both dead and living will rejoice, as they sing Alleluia.

Infinite Love, Redeemer of the world, we hear the cry from the Cross, spoken in compassion for thine enemies: ‘Father, forgive them.’ With boldness, then, we also beseech the heavenly Father that rest eternal may be granted to thine enemies and to ours. They have shed innocent blood, they have filled our life with sorrow, they have built their prosperity upon the tears of their neighbor. Bestow thy mercy upon all the victims of our involuntary sins.

O Lord, Love ineffable, remember thy departed servants.

Save, O Lord, all who have suffered a tragic end: massacred, buried alive, drowned or burnt, destroyed by hunger or thirst, abandoned in the frost or storm, killed in some accident on earth or in the air. They will bless the time of their ordeal as a means of redemption, singing Alleluia.

Father of all consolation, thou makest glad with earthly blessings not only thy friends but thine enemies; and thy mercy extends beyond the grave, embracing even those who are utterly wicked. The prisoners of destructive unbelief, with blasphemy they spoke against all that is holy; here on earth they knew and understood thee not: may they learn to love thee in heaven! Grant pardon unto all who died without repentance, and forgive the momentary error of their suicides.

O Lord, Love ineffable, remember thy departed servants.

The darkness of a soul estranged from God is terrible, and our heart trembles at the thought of it. May all who are condemned gain refreshment and revival, as we sing Alleluia.

O Lord, Love ineffable, remember thy departed servants.

At every hour in all the world the Church prays for the departed, and sins are washed away through the Blood of the Lamb. By this intercession may the souls rise up from death to life, at the prayers of thy most holy Mother and of all the saints. Look upon the innocent children, O Lord, and for their sake take pity on the parents; and may the tears shed by mothers blot out the offences of their sons. Let the prayers of guiltless victims and the blood of martyrs avail in thy sight for the forgiveness of the sinful.

O Lord, Love ineffable, remember thy departed servants.

The whole earth is one great cemetery, enclosing the dust of our brethren and our fathers. In thy love, O Christ, grant pardon unto all that died since the beginning of time, and to eternity they will sing Alleluia.

Expectantly awaiting our own resurrection, we celebrate also the future transfiguration of the whole created order in harmony and beauty. Lord, thou hast made the world for joy, and thou leadest souls from the depth of sin to holiness. Grant top the dead a new life in the unchanging light of the Lamb of God, and may we celebrate with them the eternal Passover.

O Lord, Love ineffable, remember thy departed servants.

O Father, rich in mercy, thou hast sent thy Son to the outcast, and thou givest them thy life-creating Spirit. Have mercy on our departed parents and relatives, and on the dead from every generation. Bestow upon them pardon and salvation; and grant that, through their intercession, with them we may together raise to thee, our God and Saviour, this our triumphal hymn:

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

O God of the spirits and of all flesh, who hast trampled upon death, destroyed the power of the devil, and given life to thy world: Receive into thy rest the most holy patriarchs, the most reverend metropolitans, archbishops and bishops, all who served thee in major or minor orders of the priesthood, or in the monastic life; the founders of this holy church; our parents and ancestors who are buried here and elsewhere; all who died for faith and country, all believers killed in civil war, all victims of the elements or of wild beasts, all who perished before they could make their peace with the Church and with their enemies, all who in a moment of stumbling took their own life, all who have asked for our intercessions, all the forsaken, with no one to pray for them on earth, all the faithful who have not received Christian burial. Receive them into thy rest, where there is no more pain and sorrow. Forgive, O God who lovest man, every sin committed by them in word or deed or thought, for there is none among the living who does not sin: thou alone art without sin, and thy righteousness is eternal, and thy word is truth. For thou art the resurrection, the life and the repose of thy servants who have fallen asleep [names], and to thee we ascribe glory, with thy Father who is without beginning, and thy Holy Spirit, O supreme Beauty and Master of Life, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.


• This Akathist for the Departed was written in the period between the two world wars by a Russian bishop, a confessor for the faith. The full text contains twenty-four stanzas, with one additional stanza at the beginning and the concluding prayer. It is published in French translation in Cahiers Saint-Irénée, no. 25 (Eglise Orthodoxe de France, Paris, 1960), pp. 22-29 • Also in Contacts (Revue Française de l'Orthodoxie): 44 (1992), pp. 274-282 • This text from Eastern Christian Review 6 (1974), pp. 189-191

Love is never finished expressing itself...

- Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos

A beautiful poem makes us pardon a very ancient grief.

- Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos

http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/


Fr Touma (Bitar) on Who Should be Chosen as the Next Patriarch

Anew the Antioch of the Spirit

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall
stand forever." (Isaiah 40:8)


On Wednesday, December 5, Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim of Antioch and all the East fell asleep in the Lord following a stroke. He lied in state in the upper church at the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Beirut during the following days, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so that the faithful could receive his blessing. Today, Sunday, December 9, they will pray over him at noon. He will be transported to Damascus' Maryamiyya on the same day and will be laid to rest the following day, Monday in the burial-place of the patriarchs. May God's mercies be upon him. May his memory be eternal.
In effect, the See of Antioch is vacant. If the departure of His Beatitude has left sadness in the hearts of many, it is fitting not to delve into who will succeed him while his body, filled with years and toils, lies amidst the faithful. However, everyone-- within the Church and outside her-- is asking and wondering automatically, "Who is to come?" This is natural. The election of a patriarch happens once or twice in a lifetime. His Beatitude occupied the See of Antioch since 1979. One who was 37 then is now in his sixties. The custom is for a patriarch to remain in his see until his death. Naturally, this has advantages and disadvantages.
Whatever the case may be, a very important issue is before us for the foreseeable future. Its importance only grows when we realize the centrality of the image of the patriarch has for us in tradition and in the ordering of unity between the faithful and the Holy Synod.
In reality, questions and discussion about this matter have been going on for some time, especially since His Beatitude, today, is over 92 years old. He enjoyed pointing out, in his love for life, that both his parents lived over a hundred years. But no one chooses their time of death-- every hour could be the hour!
Because of this, discussions have been going on, here and there, about who and when and how? Today the issue is multiplied and arguments are being made about filling the position. In the coming days we must, with God's permission, quicken the pace. Possibilities are opening up. Interests are overlapping. Calls are being made. Maneuvers are being made. Statements are being issued. Names are being proposed. There are trial baloons. The pulse is being taken about some. Gifts and favors, at inappropriate times, play the role of implicit simony! Politicians and powerful men are suggesting this or that name! Likewise, perhaps, some government organs are wining and dining in secret as, perhaps, are some ambassadors and church leaders from outside Antioch. The point is that the affairs of the Church are being treated like one of the playthings of the gentiles!
Others have their proposals and opinions but we, as the people of God, have our say that we derive from what has come down to us from the tradition of the holy fathers.
Before delving into who is to come, we must define how the one who is to come should be.
There are opinions that are put forward.
One of them calls for a patriarch who knows how to deal tactfully with thorny sectarian and political matters. On the one hand, he should preserve the community's unity and works to ensure their rights that are wasted vis-a-vis other communities and the government. On the other hand, he should strive, to keep members of the community safe from the dangers of the political and sectarian conflict that is raging among us and attempting to embroil us, despite ourselves, in issues that do not concern us, neither on the level of our community or on the level of our belonging to the same nation, even as we are situated in the midst of it.
There is another opinion that calls for a patriarch who has good relations with Muslims and the Vatican and other sects, as well as with politicians and the current regime and the opposition. This comes within the context of looking for a patriarch who is open and who will do away with fundamentalism, closed-mindedness, and reactionary thinking!
There is an opinion that calls for an administrative patriarch, one who is eloquent, well-versed in sociology, capable of dealing with all the communities, groups, and interests in the nation, and who is extraordinarily ecumenical in his relations!
There are those who desire a patriarch who, naturally, performs Byzantine chant well, is knowledgeable, scientific, organized, in tune with modernity, liberal in outlook, of a pragmatic tendency, a good social pastor, a man of institutions...
These opinions overlap in some elements to produce an image that varies from one person or group to another.
But what do we say?
We are a church. We have no right to forget this or to ignore it, not even temporarily! We are not a municipality. We are not a charitable society. We are not a political party. We are not a social club. If we did not say church, we would say a group with a theanthropic nature, not a purely human group. Our concern is that we have a patriarch who is first of all and last of all a man of God. This does not come from peoples' choices and arrangements. This comes from God's choice that the faithful grasp through purification, fasting, and prayer and then make their own and announce it! Otherwise, there is no meaning to when God says, "God must be obeyed, not men" or to when the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to His vineyard." The people, no matter what heights they reach, cannot guide what belongs to God. It is God and God alone who guides what is His, and only in those who are trained in saying to Him, "Amen!" Thus, any deliberations or maneuvers outside of this context are corrupt and to be rejected, completely worthless before your Lord and in His Church!
The one whom your Lord desires comes from His Spirit and His Book. The important thing about the one who is to come is that you ask, what if his faith is like the faith of Abraham? What if his gentleness is like the gentleness of Moses? What if his childhood, humility and repentance are like the childhood, humility, and repentance of David? The most important thing is that you find an echo in him of the theology of John the Beloved, of the love of Paul. Even more important is that you examine him to see if he bears the cross of his Lord every day. If you do not find that he is poor in worldly things but does not care, because for him wealth is from above, then he is of no use! Closely examine his patience: If you sent him into the desert, would he flee? Would he melt in fire? Or would he consider the desert a divine oasis and fire like the dew upon the three youths? It is not a problem-- indeed, it is better and more appropriate-- if he has a plain appearance and is without form or beauty like the Suffering Servant. The important thing is that the power of the Spirit of God is thick within him, so that he can destroy the Devil's strongholds along with the people of God and so he can drive every thought toward obedience to God. What concerns us also is that the man of God be of the same stuff as his Master, that he not snap a damaged reed, that he not snuff out a smoking wick, that no one hears his voice in the streets. That he is gentle and long-suffering! That he rejoices with the joyful and weeps with those who weep. That he is small with children, youthful with those growing up, middle-aged, elderly... that he be all things to all people so that he might spread hope in God to all. That he not snuff out the Spirit but that he breathes it into those languishing in darkness and the shadow of death-- and how dark it is today! A man of prayer and fasting. A man who has the aroma of Joseph's chastity in the land of Egypt. Who knows how to make supplication. Who is well-versed in giving thanks. Who is pleased with everything that comes to him and accepts every flock without complaint. Persisting, with the people of the house of God, in hope until dawn shatters the shadows of temptation. One who is firm in faith until the end. One who is Orthodox in doctrine and worship. One who neither shows favor nor compromises. One who loves to teach and to mobilize talents in the service of preaching the Gospel, bringing salvation, and spreading the Word and the joy of the Lord. One who is careful, not to unify the people and the Synod, but to draw all to the One in every situation so that our unity may be preserved in Spirit and in truth. After this, everything follows. What he lacks will be given to him by the Spirit of the Lord in its time. If he is young, grace will increase his wisdom. If he has little experience in a given matter, the Spirit of the Lord will illuminate for him the paths of salvation. We are in need of one who will raise us up, through his sweat and tears, from our falls. We need one who asks about our suffering. We need one who helps us to leave behind our scandals. He alone is a man of God, a man for all seasons! For the springtime of ascent. For the summer of temptations. For the autumn of maturity. For the winter of hardships. One who distributes his Master's food without pay. One who pastors us with the behavior of the Good Shepherd and who disciplines us with God's mercies.
Where can we find a patriarch like this?! The Lord God has not left His people, for whom He sacrificed His blood, without a witness, even for a day! Far be it for Him to relinquish them to Azazael! There is always a way out! The grass withers and the flower fades, for a time, but the Word of our God shall stand forever!
Thus, brothers, fathers, bishops and metropolitans, unleash the candles of your consciences, and search out for us a man of God! Today or tomorrow you will die, just as His Beatitude our Patriarch Ignatius died, God's mercies be upon him. Do not look for a patriarch for us who will be the stepson of your moods, your honors, your alliances, and your worldliness! Give us a man who will shepherd us according to God's heart or do not give us anyone at all! The spirit has grown old in Antioch and the heritage has been scattered. But the time has come for the spirit to be renewed and for scattered things to be gathered! “O Lord, O Lord, look down from heaven and behold, and visit this vineyard, and perfect that which Your right hand has planted.”
By no means let us be like Moses who doubted God's power to shepherd His people and so did not enter into the Promised Land and whose bones lie on a hill overlooking it. The man whom the Lord desires for you stands among you! Open the eyes of your heart and you will find him!
Indeed, behold the man! I did not know him. I discerned the Spirit of the Lord in him once and I wrote about it, but did not mention his name!
Who do you think he is?
With all the force of my conscience in Christ, I will say his name! I will not only say his name. I will call for him to be named the new patriarch of Antioch and All the East: Metropolitan Siluan Muci, bishop of Argentina! Place your hand upon him and make him your servant brother and patriarch! He is the chosen one of Christ and His consolation for you!
Siluan for patriarch!

In the Lord's love,
Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)
Abbot of the Monastery of St Silouan the Athonite-- Douma
December 9, 2012

III

Rachel

On the Left are grinning dogs, peering down into a solitude too
deep to fill with roses.
On the Right are sensible sheep, gazing up at a pride where no
dream can grow.
Somewhere in these unending wastes of delirium is a lost child,
speaking of Long Ago in the language of wounds.
Tomorrow, perhaps, he will come to himself in Heaven.
But here Grief turns her silence, neither in this direction, nor in
that, nor for any reason.
And her coldness now is on the earth forever.

- from 'The Massacre of the Innocents' in Auden's For The Time Being

What is a question mark? An exclamation point in middle age.

- in Francis Spufford, Red Plenty

from the known to the unknown

I had spent the previous twelve years interviewing religious leaders, and I recognized Father Amphilochois as a promising interviewee: he was firmly rooted in a primitive Christian faith which shaped his every waking hour... Since he had experience as a missionary, spreading the Christian message among the tribal people of West Africa, it seemed fair to ask him about his techniques for enlightening unbelievers. I was one of them, and I was tackling him on behalf of liberal humanism.

I explained to him that I was a member of an enormous modern tribe that rejected the Christian message. This was not because we knew too little but because we knew too much. We understood the human psyche; we had analysed the workings of the human mind, conscious and unconscious... we knew that religious faith was simply a compensatory mechanism that gave emotional reassurance to the insecure... We sought the truth and, unlike Christians, saw no virtue in putting our trust in so-called realities for which there was insufficient evidence. For the past three hundred years leading intellectuals of our tribe had examined the philosophical proofs for the existence of God and found them wanting. Our scholars had looked at the linguistic and archeological evidence for biblical truths and pronounced them flawed. Our biologists accepted a version of the story of life on earth that needed no external directing hand. So, we had abandoned Christianity after long and careful consideration of its claims and with much regret. That rejection was a consequence of our fearless pursuit of truth. "If you came," I said, "as a missionary to my tribe today, what would you say to us?" I sat back, conscious that I had put him on the spot. He looked at me with a smile and said simply: "I would not say anything to you. I would simply live with you. And I would love you."

This was not the answer I expected from a theologian... When I heard these words from that man at that time, I experienced a shift in understanding. It was like the impact of great music. We all hear important truths many times in our lives, but it is only when we are ready for them that they penetrate... That morning a door opened. I realized that to approach Christianity, as I had tried, from what seemed to be the logical first step - that is, by examining the arguments for the existence of God - was to tackle it from the wrong end. The most basic principle of learning is to start with the known and move to the unknown. I had been trying to start from the unkowable. Father Amphilochios was proposing that the journey to Christian truth should start with the human experience of life: it should move, that is, from the known to the unknown.

- Peter France, A Place of Healing for the Soul: Patmos

Ῥάβδος ἐχ τῆς ῥίζης Ἰεσσαὶ

Ῥάβδος ἐχ τῆς ῥίζης Ἰεσσαὶ
St Cosmas, Bishop of Maiuma, the Melodist

Rod of the Root of Jesse,
Thou, Flower of Mary born,
From that thick shady mountain
Cam’st glorious forth this morn:
Of her, the ever virgin,
Incarnate wast Thou made,
The immaterial Essence,
The God by all obeyed!
Glory, Lord, Thy servants pay
To Thy wondrous might today!

The Gentiles’ expectation,
Whom Jacob’s words foretell,
Who Syria’s pride shall vanquish,
Samaria’s power shalt quell;
Thou from the Root of Judah
Like some fair plant dost spring,
To turn old Gentile error
To Thee, its God and King!
Glory, Lord, Thy servants pay
To Thy wondrous might today!

In Balaam’s ancient vision
The eastern seers were skilled;
They marked the constellations,
And joy their spirits filled;
For Thou, bright Star of Jacob,
Arising in Thy might,
Didst call these Gentile first-fruits
To worship in Thy light.
They, in holy reverence bend,
Gifts acceptable present.

As on a fleece descending
The gentle dews distill,
As drops the earth that water,
The virgin didst Thou fill.
Tarshish and Ethiopia,
The Isles and Araby,
And Media, leagues with Sheba,
Fall down and worship Thee.
Glory, Lord, Thy servants pay
To Thy wondrous might today!

- translated John M. Neale, Hymns of the East­

the numina of localities and differentiated traditions

We have seen that, stated very baldly, he is concerned to show that in some sense or other all that is valuable derives from an Hellenistic norm. Supposing, for the moment, that we concede that; what then? Does it mean that the metamorphoses of Hellenistic forms demanded by the numina of this or that locality are to be regarded as aesthetically suspect? If so, then, we would indeed protest. I shall use an analogy to illustrate one ground for objection. The news of our Redemption was told to us in a Latin voice in Judeo-Hellenistic terms, we received it as Mediterranean news couched in Mediterranean forms; but when a poet of our Western seaboard expressed what that Mediterranean event meant to him, he wrote a poem, three lines at least of which are familiar to us in modernized forms:

Then the young hero stripped himself, that was God Almighty
strong and steadfast; he mounted the high gallows
proud in the sight of many, then he would loose mankind.

The MS. is in late West Saxon, but it is perhaps not without significance that a fragment of this great poem was inscribed in the old Northumbrian dialect of the seventh century on the Anglo-Celtic Ruthwell Cross in Scotland. This suggests a valid and wide appeal on this island. Neither a Jew nor a Greek nor a Roman could have had that particular dream of the rood; not a converted pharisee, nor a converted philosopher, nor a converted centurion, could have been granted that particular vision (for art, as they of Grace, follows nature), only a converted barbarian from the Celto-Teutonic north-west seaboard could offer munera of that shape. This, I have said, serves only as an analogy: the northern poem could not have been written except Mediterranean men had brought the story, but no Mediterranean man could have told the dream that the rood dreamed. He would not have known how to make that particular shape.... It takes all sort to make a world, and if it was a great labour to make the Roman people, it takes an infinite variety of endlessly and mysteriously interrelated art-forms, labour and stress past reckoning to make up the sum of beauty of the forms which human beings have made 'ad hoc and de novo' as offerings to the Maker who makes all things 'ex nihilo' as a passage in The Letters of Eric Gill reminds us. Now it is only the numina of localities and differentiated traditions that could have dictated the metamorphoses in any and every art. This remains true even if we allow the Greek miracle to be at the navel of it all.

- David Jones, 'A Note on Mr Berenson's Views' in Epoch and Artist

seventy times seven kinds of loving

Veterans

There are seventy times seven kinds of loving
None quite right:
One is of making, one of arguing,
One of wheedling in the night
And all the others one can think of, none quite right.

They are all good,
Paying attention, giving the low-down kiss;
Answering back in the heart is always good
And coming out of a sulk is almost bliss.

There is a kind of loving in grass and weeds,
One in brass beds, another in corridors;
An uncanny kind that turns away and bleeds
And a gorgeous kind, practised by saints and bores.

They are all hard,
All seventy times seven, hard as can be:
Veterans of loving are wary-eyed and scarred
And they see into everything they see.


- George Johnston, Home Free (1966)

the optimal educational tool

The Place of Reading in the Christian Life

Metropolitan Longin of Saratov and Volsk Nov 13th, 2012

Lessons of the classics: a sentimental education

Vladyka, have there been cases in your own life, or in the lives of people close to you, in which a book has radically changed your life? This happens, after all. Why is it that books can change someone’s life and worldview?

Indeed, I know of many cases when reading a book has, if not changed someone’s life, then at the very least had a very strong influence on it. Moreover, this can happen with any kind of book, not just with the Gospels or spiritual literature. For instance, when I was young I knew several people who, having read The Master and Margarita – a book of excellent literary quality, if otherwise quite questionable – became so interested in the subject of the Gospels, which was practically unheard of then (this was in the late 1970s and early 1980s), that it caused them to seek out and read the Gospels. Many of them became believers; I can remember this happening to more than just one or two people. Here the proverb says it all: “An egg is dearest on Pascha.” [1] When a subject is in demand, even a controversial book can provide the small shocks necessary to set off an avalanche.

I myself have read, and continue to read, a great deal. In my case, it so happened that my mother accustomed me to reading, at first even forcing me. My mother’s friends had a very good library, a typical library for Soviet intellectuals in the humanities, with the collected works of classics by Dickens, Balzac, Dumas, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy… Later I began to wonder how I managed to endure it all: Mother forced me to read not just individual pieces, but their collected works, volume by volume. Fortunately, I was relieved of the duty of reading their letters – back then I could not understand why they were published. It is only now that I understand that letters are the most interesting things in collected works.

I read so many books, and at some point became so engrossed in reading, that Mother had to limit me. I read during class and under the blankets with a flashlight. Probably the funniest moment happened in seventh grade, when I was caught reading the next volume of Balzac’s collected works in class. The book was under my school desk. The teacher picked it up, looked at it and at me, then respectfully handed it back.

I learned to read quickly and became nearly omnivorous. Then came the philological faculty, where I read what the program assigned: Russian, foreign, and contemporary literature. I signed up in five or six city libraries, from which I always checked out quite a few books.

I mention all this to make it clear that I have a fairly large experience of reading; I am, I hope, knowledgeable about literature and have a taste for reading. Therefore, I remember very well the impression that the first patristic books I read made on me. These were Abba Dorotheos, The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus, and Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov’s Paterikon. [2] After I read these three books – this was during my first months of seminary – I told myself: fine, from now on I won’t read anything else. In fact, for a long time I read nothing but spiritual literature. Several years later I gradually began to read again, first of all rereading the classics.

Therefore, I can testify from personal experience that a book can have a substantial effect on someone. Why? Because the book is the optimal educational tool developed by human culture. One can learn a great deal from good books. One can, first of all, obtain an essential education of sentiment, something that non-readers have no way of getting elsewhere – certainly not on the Internet, with its constant abusiveness and its meager and often coarse lexicon.

By reading the classics, one gains the ability to understand such lofty ideals as friendship, love, honor, loyalty, courage, and heroism. Although today this probably seems ridiculous to some… Moreover, it is an entry into the world of human history, which places one concretely within the historical process, since the classics are always historical.

Books are, among other things, important tools for understanding the world. It is one thing to have a child learn something in school – say, geography or history. He is required to memorize various names, highest elevations, natural resources, dates of battles, names of tsars and generals with their dates, and so on. It is, of course, very difficult for children or adolescents to get interested in any of this. But books – whether fictional, historical, or educational literature – broaden one’s mind, creating a context in which all this is remembered in a natural manner. It is one thing, for instance, to learn biology from textbooks and quite another to learn it from books by Gerald Durrell.

Therefore, literature, in my opinion, is not just a part of human culture – it is its foundation. Perhaps someone will argue with this, but I, as someone biased towards the humanities, think that this is the case.

Unfortunately, when talking with young people today one sees that the vast majority of them have never had the opportunity to learn how to read books. When someone does not love to read, when he has not grown accustomed to reading, this is not simply sad, it is tragic. I know a large number of wonderful young people with excellent instincts whose development nonetheless ended in the seventh grade of middle school. They cannot rise above this level because they have not grown accustomed to reading. There are, unfortunately, more and more such people today.

Is it possible to teach someone to read if he has not acquired the skill or habit of reading in childhood or youth? What is your experience as the rector of a seminary and former superior of a monastery?

This was possible in the monastery, because people who enter monasteries are more inclined to obedience. I gave a blessing – “Here is a book for you, read it!” – and then he read it. Unfortunately, this works much less well in seminary. I will therefore say that it is possible, but difficult. After all, it is very important that parents “seize the moment” when a child might become interested in reading.

Holy Scripture cannot be read once and for all

Does the reading of Holy Scripture differ from other reading?

Yes, certainly it differs.

When reading Holy Scripture, especially for the first time, it is essential to understand what it is, what kind of book it is – so as not to put it in the same category as The Iliad or The Odyssey, or some other ancient tale of bygone days. One needs to understand this book’s place in the history of human civilization. Before opening the Bible, therefore, one should be sure to read something about the Bible itself, about the history of its formation, as well as about the basic content of the books included in its canon.

Moreover, one needs to understand that the New Testament – the Gospel – cannot be read like an ordinary narrative. It happens that one can read a book, even a very good one, once through and then put it aside. “Have you read War and Peace?” “Yes, in ninth grade.” But one should read the Gospel continuously throughout one’s entire life – then new facets of this Book will be revealed with every new reading.

Holy Scripture requires much greater attention than do ordinary books. When we read an ordinary book, especially if we are good at reading quickly, we might try to rush through the story as quickly as possible, perhaps even skipping over certain “extras” such as descriptions of nature or battles. However, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Every word, every phrase, has a definite and profound meaning ­– not just in the literal or narrative sense, but spiritually.

For this reason there is a vast reservoir of interpretation (exegesis) of Holy Scripture. The Lord Himself spoke in the Gospel of the need to “search the Scriptures” (cf. John 5:39). Christian exegesis takes place simultaneously with apostolic preaching: no prophecy in Scripture can be interpreted independently. No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21). Scripture, therefore, can be seen in all its fullness only within the context of patristic interpretation.

Someone who is just becoming acquainted with the Church’s life and teaching should, of course, first read the New Testament and only then read the Old Testament, even though they are in the opposite order in the Bible. It is very good to read the commentaries of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospels according to Matthew and John and, if one has the patience and energy, his commentaries on the Epistles as well.

Does one need any “special conditions” in order to read Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers? Many people today read while taking public transport, since this is their only “free time.” Once one gets home after work and has taken care of all one’s household chores, it seems impossible to absorb anything serious…

There is the practice, recommended by quite a few people with spiritual experience, of beginning one’s day with the reading of Holy Scripture – if only a few chapters of the Gospels. One should literally feed one’s soul with them, so that the Gospels might guide one in all the situations of life.

Besides which, people do indeed feel tired in the evening – literally overloaded. The classical European tradition included reading the Bible as a family in the evening – which, incidentally, found expression in both literature and painting. Alas, this tradition belonged to other times, when life was more balanced. Their daily labor may have been physically difficult then, but their heads still remained in relative peace – unlike in today’s “information society,” when we hardly know who or where we are by the time we get home.

In my opinion, therefore, it is best to read Holy Scripture at home in the morning. Sometimes people taking public transport read serious books. This depends more on whether someone is good at attentive reading. If one is, then one can read on the go – this is certainly better than just looking around.

Spiritual literature: the word about God

Which books, in your opinion, should every Christian read?

One should certainly read Abba Dorotheos, the Russian ascetic strugglers Sts. Theophan the Recluse and Ignatius (Brianchaninov), and then The Philokalia. Properly speaking, The Philokalia is an anthology of patristic texts. I think it is impossible to tear oneself away from the first four volumes of The Philokalia. In St. Theophan the Recluse’s Russian translation, The Philokalia is suitable reading for all Christians, since St. Theophan attempted to adapt even the most difficult monastic and hesychastic texts for use by average people. [3] Therefore, notwithstanding the misconception that The Philokalia is only for monks, it can and should be read by everyone. When becoming acquainted with spiritual literature one should start, as with regular literature, with the classics: first read the fundamental, essential works of the Holy Fathers, and only later read books by modern authors. There are, for instance, some very good books by Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain that have entered our life fairly recently.

According to St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), spiritual instructors have grown scarce. In our times, therefore, we should “live under the guidance of patristic writings.” Does this mean that we need to learn the spiritual life primarily from books?

That goes without saying. It is indeed impossible to assimilate any of the basics of the spiritual life without reading the Holy Fathers, even with spiritual instructors – even good ones. Not even the most extraordinary Elder can know everything. But the works of the Holy Fathers are an encyclopedia of spiritual experience. It is no secret, after all, that everyone is different and that there are many paths in the spiritual life: one thing is within the grasp of some people, while another is within the grasp of others. Therefore, reading the Holy Fathers is a virtue that is mandatory for monks and very desirable for laypeople.

This is especially true in the case of Holy Fathers and ascetic strugglers who are close to us in time. They wrote for people like us, who have the same problems and ways of life. It is one thing to read about the Desert Fathers of Egypt, and quite another thing to read, say, the letters of Abbot Nikon (Vorobyov) to his spiritual children, written in the 1960s, or those of the Elder Paisios mentioned earlier. [4]

The difference between spiritual literature and other literature is that with the former one should not only read it, but also put it into practice. How does one learn to do this? What should one pay attention to?

Still, the most important difference between them is that even the most profound classical literature is still fiction, of varying degrees of success, even when it is about very important things (“typical characters under typical circumstances”). [5] It is, if you will, a genre of parables, just very well developed. But spiritual literature is the word about God; it is an illustration of the Gospel. These are people who were able to follow the Gospel commandments in their lives; they did not simply read Holy Scripture and wonder out loud: “My goodness, how well-written, how well-said!” They accomplished it in practice. Take the life of St. Anthony the Great. Look at how he heard the words of the Gospel in church: Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor… and come and follow Me (Matthew 19:21). And then he gave up everything and retreated to the desert. This is completely inconceivable to our mindset today! Indeed, one does not find such many cases at any point in Christian history – but they are nonetheless real.

When entering the realm of patristic and spiritual literature, therefore, the main thing to bear in mind is that here we have the word about God, here we have “theology.” The Gospel is God’s own word. We must strive to treat it just like St. Anthony the Great, to the extent to which we can bear it.

Interview conducted by Natalia Gorenok.

Translator’s notes:

[1] I.e., something becomes valuable when needed. [2] Two translations of the works of Abba Dorotheos exist in English: Dorotheos of Gaza: Discourses and Sayings (Cistercian Publications, 1979); and Practical Teachings on the Christian Life (University of Athens, 2002). Two English translations of St. John Climacus’ work likewise exist: The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Holy Transfiguration Monastery, rev. ed. 2012) and John Climacus: The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Paulist Press, 1988). The Paterikon (Otechnik) of St. Ignatius does not yet exist in English, but The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Cistercian Publications, rev. ed. 2006) is very similar in content. [3] The four volumes of The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Faber & Faber, 1979 ff.) are translated directly from the Greek text. Two volumes translated into English from St. Theophan’s Russian version also exist: Writings from the Philokalia: On Prayer of the Heart (Faber & Faber, 1951) and Early Fathers from the Philokalia (Faber & Faber, 1954). [4] For Abbot Nikon, see Letters to Spiritual Children (Nikodemos Orthodox Publication Society, 1997); for Elder Paisios, see his Epistles (Holy Monastery “Evangelist John the Theologian,” 2002). [5] A reference to Friedrich Engels’ characterization of literary realism; see his letter of April 1888 to Margaret Harkness.

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