HAUNTED BY THE HOLY GHOST

Beauty in this fallen world is like the sun hidden behind a cloud......St. Ephrem

 
 "Beauty in the Garden"
 of The Fragrance of God

 

From my current reading:

The Fragrance of God

by Vigen Guroian:

    And to Adam he [God] said: "Because you … have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground
because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
    Genesis 3:17, RSV

I once said that gardening began when God expelled Adam and Eve from Paradise.
I was wrong. What I should have said is that after the first couple greedily consumed beauty,
gardening got inextricably mixed up with labor and survival, and farming came into existence.
Adam's son Abel was "a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground" (Gen. 4:2, RSV).

Farming is a noble activity, but it also is a necessity,
whereas there is no need to garden.
Thus we may distinguish gardening from farming.
Yet in a fallen world, farming and gardening are ofttimes commensurate.
I cannot conceive that the activity of farming will ever completely be divorced from the vision of beauty, even in the most mechanized and industrialized farming, for flower and fruit are beautiful
in and of themselves.

In spring, I cultivate the perennial bed with the magenta petals
and sweet citrus fragrance of the rugosa rose in mind.
In excitement, I wait also for the green bouquet of the broccoli plant and
the calm, clean scent of the cucumber.

This was not always so.
In the beginning, in my first garden in Richmond, Virginia, I farmed for food
on the table.
But in Charlottesville, Virginia, in Eldersburg and Reisterstown, Maryland, and last, here in Culpeper, the garden has finally reformed my disposition toward it.
It has entirely transfigured my vision of life.

St. Ephrem speaks for me:

    Paradise raised me up as I perceived it,
    it enriched me as I meditated upon it;
    I forgot my poor estate,
    for it made me drunk with its fragrance.

    I became as no longer my old self,
    for it renewed me with all its
    varied nature. …

    In its fair beauty I beheld
    those who are far more beautiful than it,

    and I reflected:
    if Paradise be so glorious,
    how much more glorious should Adam be,
    who is in the image of its Planter,

    and how much fairer the Cross,
    upon which the Son of its Lord rode.

   

Hymns on Paradise, 6:4, 5

Here in Culpeper, I have divided my vegetable garden into raised beds of triangular, rectangular, and square shapes.
Shape, size, texture, and color matter to me as much in the vegetable garden
as in the perennial beds.
For the sake of beauty, I gladly leave the ruffled red cabbage to grow long
beyond its time for harvest.

I let the mustard reach high with bright yellow bouquets.
I cultivate carefully the asparagus row not just for the taste of its buttery spears but also for the verdant fern foliage that shoots up after the spring cutting.
I let volunteer sunflower, cosmos, and cleome seedlings grow where they choose.
And I sneak orange nasturtiums into the hills of sweet-potato vines.

If we modern people thought of our world as a garden, if we gardened more,
then I think all the other creatures
and things that grow in the ground would be so much better off.
Beauty can save the world!
But that depends on how much we love beauty and seek it in our lives.

Gardening is not only making the world around us beautiful once more but letting beauty transform us.
Gardening grows from our deep longing for salvation, so that beauty fills our lives.

"Beauty," writes Berdyaev, "is God's idea
of the creature, of man and of the world. …
The transfiguration of the world is the attainment
of beauty"
(The Destiny of Man, p. 247).

In my garden, I take hope from Jesus' promise
to the repentant thief on the cross that he will be with his Lord in Paradise.

I know that the sweat of my brow and tears of penance bring
Paradise near in my backyard.
For a garden is a profound sign and deep symbol of salvation, like none
other, precisely because a garden was our first habitation, and God has
deemed it to be our final home.

Beauty is the aim of life. God imagined it so.
God spoke the Word, and his invisible Image of Beauty became a visible garden.

"The fertility of the earth is its perfect finishing," writes St. Basil of Caesarea,
"growth of all kinds of plants, the up springing of tall trees,
both productive and sterile, flowers' sweet scents and fair colours,
and all that which … came forth from the earth to beautify her,
their universal Mother"
(Hexaemeron, homily 2).

Beauty will transfigure the chaos and deformity of our wounded world
 into the peace and harmony of a cosmos that God, from the beginning,
proclaims to be good and beautiful.

I know that the beauty I aim at in the garden lies hidden within the innate potentiality of the earth and the seeds that the sun and the rain bring to life.
I must divide the ground to fit the needs and the habits of the plants that grow.
I must prepare the soil and supply it with minerals and nutrients.
I must sow the seeds in an orderly way and thin the seedlings so that they have room to spread and capture the light of the sun.
And I must cultivate the earth to let in the air and the water.

Alas, the garden has taught me that beauty is both gift and accomplishment.
As gift, I accept it humbly and without pride, gratefully and not greedily.
As gift, beauty comes from above and beyond my poor power to bring it into existence or to experience it.

 

St. Ephrem writes:

Paradise has … clothed itself
in terms that are akin to you;

but it is not because it is impoverished
that it has put on your imagery;

rather, your nature is far too weak
to be able to attain its greatness,
and its beauties are much diminished

by being depicted in the pale colors
with which you are familiar.

Hymns on Paradise, 11:7

Yet Paradise, Ephrem insists, is not so far distant from us
that we cannot approach it.
Indeed, we draw nearer to it with each and every effort to make our own
selves and the world around us beautiful.

Beauty in this fallen world

is like the sun hidden behind a cloud. 

Our ruined "eyes" see just the shadow of its brightness.
When, however, we are transformed by our love for it,
beauty illumines our whole being, much as on Mount Tabor
the bright glory of God enveloped Peter, James, and John.

In the Kingdom of heaven, light, life, and beauty are one.
Light engenders life in the garden and beauty everywhere.
From the Father of Light issues the
Spirit, who gives Life and the Only-Begotten, who is Beauty itself.
The Three are One God.

 

photos #1 and #2 by malupina!
phote #3 by serni

And wait for me at the end of these my twisting paths, for it is Thee that I love and none other.

At the End of These My Twisting Paths

Lord, thou knowest this heart of mine.
Thou knowest the clashings that at sundry hours rage therein.
Thou knowest my contradictions,
pulled this way and that, I am torn within my breast.
Thou knowest the things that give me life
and the things that wound me unto death,
all that is my joy and all that that is my sorrow Thou knowest,
the strength that is mine,
and the weariness that on certain days is more than I can bear.

Lord, thou knowest my life.
Thou knowest its heights and its depths,
the welling up of loves and the loathings that follow,
fidelity and infidelity,
seasons of flourishing and seasons of crisis,
my brightnesses and my darker moments.

All this, O Lord,
and all that is this life of mine Thou knowest,
thou who searchest the heart and its secret places.

But above all this,
Thou art the Son of Man who one day didst take Thy rest beside the well,
weak Thou wast, and worn, and thirsty,
in the garden held fast in the grip of fear,
and on the tree forsaken.

Come thou, my peace.
Come thou, my sweetness.
Come thou, my consolation.
Come thou my pardon and my love.

Come, rebuild the brokenness within.
Come, redress my fragile shelter.
Come, restore my hope.
Be thou to me one little flame in so vast a night.
And wait for me at the end of these my twisting paths,
for it is Thee that I love and none other.

h/t
From Father Mark at  Vultus Christi

"Didyme wrote this prayer. I took the liberty of translating it from the French. It is every sinner's psalm. The last two lines are extraordinary."

*Didyme/ a Postulant Prémontré in Belgium/his blog (All In French): "La beauté du Seigneur"

,

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS

Commemorated on March 25

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS

FROM OCA

The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the earliest Christian feasts, and was already being celebrated in the fourth century. There is a painting of the Annunciation in the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome dating from the second century. The Council of Toledo in 656 mentions the Feast, and the Council in Trullo in 692 says that the Annunciation was celebrated during Great Lent.

The Greek and Slavonic names for the Feast may be translated as "good tidings." This, of course, refers to the Incarnation of the Son of God and the salvation He brings. The background of the Annunciation is found in the Gospel of St Luke (1:26-38). The troparion describes this as the "beginning of our salvation, and the revelation of the eternal mystery," for on this day the Son of God became the Son of Man.

There are two main components to the Annunciation: the message itself, and the response of the Virgin. The message fulfills God's promise to send a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15): "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel." The Fathers of the Church understand "her seed" to refer to Christ. The prophets hinted at His coming, which they saw dimly, but the Archangel Gabriel now proclaims that the promise is about to be fulfilled.

We see this echoed in the Liturgy of St Basil, as well: "When man disobeyed Thee, the only true God who had created him, and was deceived by the guile of the serpent, becoming subject to death by his own transgressions, Thou, O God, in Thy righteous judgment, didst send him forth from Paradise into this world, returning him to the earth from which he was taken, yet providing for him the salvation of regeneration in Thy Christ Himself."

The Archangel Gabriel was sent by God to Nazareth in Galilee. There he spoke to the undefiled Virgin who was betrothed to St Joseph: "Hail, thou who art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."

In contrast to Eve, who was readily deceived by the serpent, the Virgin did not immediately accept the Angel's message. In her humility, she did not think she was deserving of such words, but was actually troubled by them. The fact that she asked for an explanation reveals her sobriety and prudence. She did not disbelieve the words of the angel, but could not understand how they would be fulfilled, for they spoke of something which was beyond nature.

Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" (Luke 1:34).

"And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: therefore also that which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.' And Mary said, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.' And the angel departed from her" (Luke 1: 35-38)."

In his Sermon 23 on the day of the Annunciation, St Philaret of Moscow boldly stated that "the word of the creature brought the Creator down into the world." He explains that salvation is not merely an act of God's will, but also involves the Virgin's free will. She could have refused, but she accepted God's will and chose to cooperate without complaint or further questions.

The icon of the Feast shows the Archangel with a staff in his left hand, indicating his role as a messenger. Sometimes one wing is upraised, as if to show his swift descent from heaven. His right hand is stretched toward the holy Virgin as he delivers his message.

The Virgin is depicted either standing or sitting, usually holding yarn in her left hand. Sometimes she is shown holding a scroll. Her right hand may be raised to indicate her surprise at the message she is hearing. Her head is bowed, showing her consent and obedience. The descent of the Holy Spirit upon her is depicted by a ray of light issuing from a small sphere at the top of the icon, which symbolizes heaven. In a famous icon from Sinai, a white dove is shown in the ray of light.

There are several famous icons of the Annunciation. One is in the Moscow Kremlin in the church of the Annunciation. This icon appeared in connection with the rescue of a prisoner by the Mother of God during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Another is to be found in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow (July 8). It was originally located in Ustiug, and was the icon before which St Procopius the fool (July 8) prayed to save the city from destruction in 1290. One of the most highly revered icons in Greece is the Tinos icon of the Annunciation (January 30).

The Annunciation falls during Lent, but it is always celebrated with great joy. The Liturgy of St Basil or St John Chrysostom is served, even on the weekdays of Lent. It is one of the two days of Great Lent on which the fast is relaxed and fish is permitted (Palm Sunday is the other).

The inner quality of catholicity-A passage from Archpriest George Florovsky’s work entitled “The catholicity of the Church.”

The catholicity of the Church

A passage from Archpriest George Florovsky’s work entitled “The catholicity of the Church.”

The inner quality of catholicity

The catholicity of the Church is not a quantitative or a geographical conception. It does not at all depend on the world-wide dispersion of the faithful. The universality of the Church is the consequence or the manifestation, but not the cause or the foundation of its catholicity.

The world-wide extension or the universality of the Church is only an outward sign, one that is not absolutely necessary. The Church was catholic even when Christian communities were but solitary rare islands in a sea of unbelief and paganism. And the Church will remain catholic even unto the end of time when the mystery of the “falling away” will be revealed, when the Church once more will dwindle to a “small flock.” “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). The Metropolitan Philaret expressed himself very adequately on this point: “If a city or a country falls away from the universal Church, the latter will still remain an integral, imperishable body” (Opinions and Statements of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, Concerning the Orthodox Church in the East, St. Petersburg, 1886, p. 53.). Philaret uses here the word “universal” in the sense of catholicity.

The conception of catholicity cannot be measured by its wide-world expansion; universality does not express it exactly. Καθολικη from Καθ σλου means, first of all, the inner wholeness and integrity of the Church’s life. We are speaking here of wholeness, not only of communion, and in any case not of a simple empirical communion. Καθ σλου is not the same as Κατα παντóς; it belongs not to the phenomenal and empirical, but to the noumenal and ontological plane; it describes the very essence, not the external manifestations. We feel this already in the pre-Christian use of these words, beginning from Socrates.

If catholicity also means universality, it certainly is not an empirical universality, but an ideal one; the communion of ideas, not of facts, is what it has in view. The first Christians when using the words ‘Ekklisía Katholikí (Εκκλησια Καθολικη) never meant a world-wide Church. This word rather gave prominence to the orthodoxy of the Church, to the truth of the “Great Church,” as contrasted with the spirit of sectarian separatism and particularism; it was the idea of integrity and purity that was expressed. This has been very forcibly stated in the well known words of St. Ignatius of Antioch:

“Where there is a bishop, let there be the whole multitude; just as where Jesus Christ is, there too is the Catholic Church” (Ignat Smyrn. 8:2).

These words express the same idea as does the promise:

“Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:19-20).

It is this mystery of gathering together (μυστηριον της συναξεως, Mystírion tis sinákseos) that the word catholicity expresses. Later on St. Cyril of Jerusalem explained the word “catholicity” which is used in the Creed in the traditional manner of his Church. The word “Church” means the “gathering together of all in one union;” therefore it is called a “gathering” (εκκλεσια, Ekklisía).

The Church is called catholic, because it spreads over all the universe and subjects the whole of the human race to righteousness, because also in the Church the dogmas are taught “fully, without any omission, catholically, and completely” (καθολικως και ανελλειπως) because, again, in the Church every kind of sin is cured and healed” (Catech. 18:23 (Migne P.G. 33 c. 1044)).

Here again catholicity is understood as an inner quality. Only in the West, during the struggle against the Donatists was the word “catholica” used in the sense of “universality,” in opposition to the geographical provincialism of the Donatists (Cf. Pierre Batiffol, Le Catholicisme de St. Augustin, I. (Paris, 1920), p. 212

— “Rappelons que le nom ‘catholique’ a servi à qualifier la Grande Eglise par opposition aux hérétiques … Le nom est vraisemblablement de création populaire et apparait en Orient au second siècle. Les tractatores du 4. siècle, qui lui cherchent une signification étymologique et savante, veulent y voir l’expression soit de la perfection intégrale de la foi de l’Eglise, soit du fait que l’Eglise ne fait pas acception de personnes de rang, du culture, soit enfin et surtout de fait que l’Eglise est repandue dans le monde entire d’une extrémité à l’autre. Augustin ne veut connaître que ce dernier sens.” Cp. Also Bishop Lightfoot, in his edition of St. Ignatius, v. 2 (London, 1889), p. 319. Note ad Loc.

The history of the Christian and pre-Christian use of the terms ekklisía katholikí (Εκκλησια Καθολικη) and katholikos (καθολικóς) generally in various settings deserves careful study; apparently there have been no special investigations on the subject. In Russian, reference may be made to the very valuable, though not exhaustive or faultless, article of the late Professor M. D. Muretov in the supplement to his book Ancient Jewish Prayers Ascribed to St. Peter (Sergiev Posad, 1905). See also Bishop Lightfoot, St. Ignatius, v. 2 (London, 1889), p. 310, note).

Later on, in the East, the word “catholic” was understood as synonymous with “ecumenical.” But this only limited the conception, making it less vivid, because it drew attention to the outward form, not to the inner contents. Yet the Church is not catholic because of its outward extent, or, at any rate, not only because of that. The Church is catholic, not only because it is an all-embracing entity, not only because it unites all its members, all local Churches, but because it is catholic all through, in its very smallest part, in every act and event of its life.

The nature of the Church is catholic; the very web of the Church’s body is catholic. The Church is catholic, because it is the one Body of Christ; it is union in Christ, oneness in the Holy Ghost-and this unity is the highest wholeness and fulness. The gauge of catholic union is that “The multitude of them that believed be of one heart and of one soul” (Act 4:32).

Where this is not the case, the life of the Church is limited and restricted.

The ontological blending of persons is, and must be, accomplished in oneness with the Body of Christ; they cease to be exclusive and impenetrable. The cold separation into “mine” and “thine” disappears.

The growth of the Church is in the perfecting of its inner wholeness, its inner catholicity, in the “perfection of wholeness”;

“That they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:23).

Moses gives a hint-“Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” /Chrysostom on "What the Eucharist signifies"

....If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of what took place in Egypt where Christ’s blood is foreshadowed. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” Moses commanded, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors.”

Moses said, “Sacrifice a lamb without a blemish and smear the doors with its blood.” What does this mean? Can the blood of a sheep without reason save men endowed with reason? Yes, Moses replies, not because it is blood but because it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. So today if the devil sees, not the blood of the sign smeared on the doorposts, but the true blood smeared on the lips of the faithful, which are the doors of the temple of Christ, with all the more reason will he draw back.

If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ had died, but was still hanging on the cross, the soldier came and pierced his side with the spear and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. When that soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews slaughtered the victim as a sacrifice and I gathered the fruit of that sacrifice—salvation. I have been saved by it.

“There flowed from his side water and blood.” Dearly beloved, do not pass over this mystery without reflection; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: “by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit,” i.e., by baptism and by the holy Eucharist. Now the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ formed the Church, as he had formed Eve from the side of Adam.

Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.

Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself? Have you seen with what kind of food he feeds us? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and fed. As a woman forms and feeds her child with her own blood and milk, so too does Christ continuously feed those whom he has begotten with his own blood— so too does Christ continuously feed those to whom he himself has given life.

 St. John Chrysostom’s catechumenate instruction (3.13-19)

Marriage: The Great Sacrament

Marriage: The Great Sacrament

EXCERPTS FROM: A Sermon by Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra, Mount Athos delivered in the Church of St. Nicholas, Trikala, Greece, 17 January, 1971

Nobody would dispute that the most important day in a person's life, after his birth and baptism, is that of his marriage. It is no surprise, then, that the aim of contemporary worldly and institutional upheavals is precisely to crush the most honorable and sacred mystery of marriage.
For many people, marriage is an opportunity for pleasures and amusements. Life, however, is a serious affair. It is a spiritual struggle, a progression toward a goal: heaven. The most crucial juncture, and the most important means, of this progression is marriage. It is not permissible for anyone to avoid the bonds of marriage, whether he concludes a mystical marriage by devoting himself to God, or whether he concludes a sacramental one with a spouse.

Today we will concern ourselves primarily with sacramental marriage.
We will consider how marriage can contribute to our spiritual life...
 It is a "great mystery" (Eph 5.32). An unmarried person passes through life and leaves it; but a married person lives and experiences life to the full.

One wonders what people today think about the sacred institution of marriage, this "great mystery", blessed by our Church. They marry, and it's as if two checking accounts or two business interests were being merged...  But what is the result? We see it every day. The shipwrecks of marriage are familiar to all of us.

A worldly marriage, as it is understood today, can only have one characteristicthe murder of a person's spiritual life. Thus we must feel that, if we fail in our marriage, we have more or less failed in our spiritual life. If we succeed in our marriage, we have also succeeded in our spiritual life. Success or failure, progress or ruin, in our spiritual life, begins with our marriage...

 

What then is the purpose of marriage?

I will tell you three of its main aims.

• First of all, marriage is a path of pain.

 The companionship of man and wife is called a "yoking together" (syzygia), that is, the two of them labor under a shared burden.

Marriage is a journeying together, a shared portion of pain, and, of course, a joy.
But usually it's six chords of our life which sound a sorrowful note,
and only one which is joyous.
Man and wife will drink from the same cup of upheaval, sadness, and failure. During the marriage ceremony, the priest gives the newly-weds to drink from the same cup, called the "common cup" [4], because together they will bear the burdens of marriage. The cup is also called "union" [5], because they are joined together to share life's joys and sorrows.

When two people get married, it's as if they're saying: Together we will go forward, hand in hand, through good times and bad. We will have dark hours, hours of sorrow filled with burdens, monotonous hours.
But in the depths of the night, we continue to believe in the sun and the light.
Oh, my dear friends, who can say that his life has not been marked by difficult moments? But it is no small thing to know that, in your difficult moments, in your worries, in your temptations, you will be holding in your hand the hand of your beloved...

It is an adulteration of marriage for us to think that it is a road to happiness, as if it were a denial of the cross.
The joy of marriage is for husband and wife to put their shoulders to
the wheel and together go forward on the uphill road of life.

"You haven't suffered? Then you haven't loved", says a certain poet.
Only those who suffer can really love. And that's why sadness is a necessary feature of marriage.
 "Marriage", in the words of an ancient philosopher, "is a world made beautiful by hope, and strengthened by misfortune". Just as steel is fashioned in a furnace, just so is a person proved in marriage, in the fire of difficulties. When you see your marriage from a distance, everything seems wonderful. But when you get closer, you'll see just how many difficult moments it has.

Marriage, then, is a journey through sorrows and joys.
When the sorrows seem overwhelming, then you should remember
that God is with you. He will take up your cross.

It was he who placed the crown of marriage on your head. But when we ask God about something, he doesn't always supply the solution right away. He leads us forward very slowly. Sometime[s] he takes years. We have to experience pain, otherwise life would have no meaning. But be of good cheer, for Christ is suffering with you, and the Holy Spirit, "through your groanings is pleading on your behalf" (cf. Rom 8.26).

• Second, marriage is a journey of love.

It is the creation of a new human being, a new person, for, as the Gospel says, "the two will be as one flesh" (Mt 19.5; Mk 10.7).
God unites two people, and makes them one. From this union of two people, who agree to synchronize their footsteps and harmonize the beating of their hearts, a new human being emerges. Through such profound and spontaneous love, the one becomes a presence, a living reality, in the heart of the other.
 "I am married" means that I cannot live a single day, even a few moments, without the companion of my life. My husband, my wife, is a part of my being, of my flesh, of my soul. He or she complements me. He or she is the thought of my mind. He or she is the reason for which my heart beats.

The couple exchanges rings to show that, in life's changes, they will remain united. Each wears a ring with the name of the other written on it, which is placed on the finger from which a vein runs directly to the heart. That is, the name of the other is written on his own heart. The one, we could say, gives the blood of his heart to the other. He or she encloses the other within the core of his being.

"What do you do?" a novelist was once asked. He was taken aback. "What do I do? What a strange question! I love Olga, my wife". The husband lives to love his wife, and the wife lives to love her husband.

The most fundamental thing in marriage is love, and love is about uniting two into one. God abhors separation and divorce. He wants unbroken unity.
 The priest takes the rings off the left finger, puts them on the right,
and then again on the left, and finally he puts them back on the right hand. He begins and ends with the right hand, because this is the hand with which we chiefly act.
It also means that the other now has my hand. I don't do anything that
my spouse doesn't want. I am bound up with the other. I live for the
other, and for that reason I tolerate his faults. A person who can't put
up with another can't marry...

 The woman is the heart. The man is the head. The woman is the heart that loves. In her husband's moments of difficulty, she stands at his side, as the empress Theodora stood by the emperor Justinian. In his moments of joy, she tries to raise him up to even higher heights and ideals. In times of sorrow, she stands by him like a sublime and peaceful world offering him tranquility.

The husband should remember that his wife has been entrusted to him by God. His wife is a soul which God has given to him, and one day he must return it.
He loves his wife as Christ loves the Church (Eph 5.25). He protects her, takes care of her, gives her security, particularly when she is distressed, or when she is ill. We know how sensitive a woman's soul can be, which is why the Apostle Peter urges husbands to honor their wives (cf. 1 Pet 3.7). A woman's soul gets wounded...
Marriage, my dear friends, is a little boat which sails through waves
and among rocks.
If you lose your attention even for a moment, it will be wrecked.

    •    As we have seen, marriage is first of all a journey of pain;
    •    second a journey of love; and,
    •    third, a journey to heaven, a call from God.

It is, as Holy Scripture says, a "great mystery" (Eph 5.32). We often speak of seven "mysteries", or sacraments. In this regard, a "mystery" is the sign of the mystical presence of some true person or event.
An icon, for instance, is a mystery. When we venerate it, we are not venerating wood or paint, but Christ, or the Theotokos, or the saint who is mystically depicted. The Holy Cross is a symbol of Christ, containing his mystical presence.

• Marriage, too, is a mystery, a mystical presence, not unlike these.

Christ says, "wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them" (Mt 18.20). And whenever two people are married in the name of Christ, they become the sign which contains and expresses Christ himself.
When you see a couple who are conscious of this, it is as if you are seeing Christ. Together they are a theophany.

And not just this, but everything in marriage is symbolic.

The lit candles symbolize the wise virgins. When the priest places these candles into the hands of the newly-weds, it is as if he is saying to them: Wait for Christ like the wise virgins (Mt 25.1-11). Or they symbolize the tongues of fire which descended at Pentecost, and which were in essence the presence of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.1-4). The wedding rings are kept on the altar, until they are taken from there by the priest, which shows that marriage has its beginning in Christ, and will end in Christ. The priest also joins their hands, in order to show that it is Christ himself who unites them. It is Christ who is at the heart of the mystery and at the center of their lives [6].

All the elements of the marriage ceremony are shadows and symbols which indicate the presence of Christ.

When you're sitting somewhere and suddenly you see a shadow, you know that someone's coming. You don't see him, but you know he's there. You get up early in the morning, and you see the red horizon in the east. You know that, in a little while, the sun will come up. And indeed, there behind the mountain, the sun starts to appear.

When you see your marriage, your husband, your wife, your partner's body, when you see your troubles, everything in your home, know that they are all signs of Christ's presence.

 It is as if you're hearing Christ's footsteps, as if he was coming, as if you are now about to hear his voice. All these things are the shadows of Christ, revealing that he is together with us. It is true, though, that, because of our cares and worries, we feel that he is absent.

But we can see him in the shadows, and we are sure that he is with us. This is why there was no separate marriage service in the early Church. The man and woman simply went to church and received Communion together. What does this mean?
That henceforth their life is one life in Christ.

The wreaths, or wedding crowns, are also symbols of Christ's presence. More specifically, they are symbols of martyrdom. Husband and wife wear crowns to show that they are ready to become martyrs for Christ. To say that "I am married" means that I live and die for Christ. "I am married" means that I desire and thirst for Christ. Crowns are also signs of royalty, and thus husband and wife are king and queen, and their home is a kingdom, a kingdom of the Church, an extension of the Church.

When did marriage begin? When man sinned. Before that, there was no marriage, not in the present-day sense. It was only after the Fall, after Adam and Eve had been expelled from paradise, that Adam "knew" Eve (Gen 4.1) and thus marriage began. Why then? So that they might remember their fall and expulsion from paradise, and seek to return there. Marriage is thus a return to the spiritual paradise, the Church of Christ. "I am married" means, then, that I am a king, a true and faithful member of the Church.

The wreaths also symbolize the final victory which will be attained in the kingdom of heaven. When the priest takes the wreaths, he says to Christ: "take their crowns to your kingdom", take them to your kingdom, and keep them there, until the final victory.

And so marriage is a road: its starts out from the earth and ends in heaven.
It is a joining together, a bond with Christ, who assures us that he will lead us to heaven, to be with him always.

Marriage is a bridge leading us from earth to heaven.

It is as if the sacrament is saying: Above and beyond love, above and beyond your husband, your wife, above the everyday events, remember that you are destined for heaven, that you have set out on a road which will take you there without fail.
The bride and the bridegroom give their hands to one another, and the priest takes hold of them both, and leads them round the table dancing and singing. Marriage is a movement, a progression, a journey which will end in heaven, in eternity.

In marriage, it seems that two people come together. However it's not two but three. The man marries the woman, and the woman marries the man, but the two together also marry Christ. So three take part in the mystery, and three remain together in life.

In the dance around the table, the couple are led by the priest, who is a type of Christ. This means that Christ has seized us, rescued us, redeemed us, and made us his. And this is the "great mystery" of marriage (cf. Gal 3.13).

In Latin, the word "mystery" was rendered by the word sacramentum, which means an oath. And marriage is an oath, a pact, a joining together, a bond, as we have said. It is a permanent bond with Christ.

"I am married", then, means that I enslave my heart to Christ.
If you wish, you can get married. If you wish, don't get married. But if you marry, this is the meaning that marriage has in the Orthodox Church, which brought you into being. "I am married" means I am the slave of Christ.

Endnotes

1. I.e., "Spiritual Life", which appears below, on pp. 147-163.
2. See, for example, John Chrysostom, Homily on Colossians 12.6 "What shame is there in that which is honorable? Why do you blush over what is undefiled? In so doing, you slander the root of our birth, which is a gift from God" (PG 62.388). Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to Polycarp (PG 5.724B).
3. Symeon of Thessaloniki, Dialogos 277 (PG 155.508B).
4. C. Kallinikos, The Christian Temple and its Ceremonies (Athens, 1968), 514.
5. St. Gregory the Theologian, Letter 193: "I place the hand of the one the other, and place both in the hand of God" (PG 37.316C).

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

Of Walls, Crosses, Regrets, Icons, Flesh and Blood, but mostly Flesh and Blood

"....Everyone is carrying the pain around, along with the hope and grace that does, indeed, glimmer, even faintly. 
It is maybe not so sensitive and might actually be an act of self-orption to simply dump all of our own pain on anyone who happens to walk by  - we can't do that, for in indiscriminately pouring out our souls we are revealing an indifference to what others are prepared to hear.

Crosses, we call them.             


Everyone is carrying a cross.


Heavy crosses.

Perhaps part of the Christian life involves recognizing that reality at the core of every person's life and a delicate balance of being careful not to add to the burden, but to be open, at the same time, to allowing Christ to work through us, if he chooses, to help them bear it...for just a little while. "

Amy Welborn
Teusday, March 3, 2009 Post  BRAVEHEART?

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photos by:Gabriela Camerotti

Maybe love is waiting at the end of every room

When I was little I'd stare at her picture

And talk to the mother of God

I swear sometimes I'd see her lips move

Like she was trying to say something to me

Something as simple as boys and girls

Gets tossed all around and then lost in the world

Something as hard as a prayer on your back

Can wait a long time for an answer...

I live too many miles from the ocean

And I'm getting older and odd

I get up every morning with a black cup of coffee

And I talk to the mother of God

Something as simple as boys and girls

Gets tossed all around and then lost in the world

Something as hard as a prayer on your back

Can wait a long time for an answer...

Maybe ... it's alright.

Maybe we won't fight anymore.

Maybe love is waiting at the end of every room.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Lyrics: The Mother of God by Patti Griffin.

Image:Original Artwork/mixed media by Jill Johnson

Love that is "Stronger than Death"....from: Marriage...Orthodox Perspectives-Fr. John Chryssavgis

Every sacrament is a transcendence of division and alienation.

In the case of marriage, each person must become conscious of the divine presence in the other.

Both husband and wife must pierce the curtain of distance and falsehood.

When this occurs, the marital union is stronger than death, not able to be "put asunder by anyone."

Excerpt from: Small Gems from What I am Reading Right Now:

Love, Marriage and Sexuality: Orthodox Perspectives-Fr. John Chryssavgis

(Right Sidebar)

photo:nevertorun

Here is born in Spirit-soaked fertility a brood destined for another City

From "THE TRUE BELIEVER" by Aidan Kavanagh, O.S.B. (full article can be found in Type list in right sidebar under 

"Excerpts/Current Books and Articles I am Reading"

"Yet even this is not enough, nor is it where the scandal lies. For to know him baptismally is to know him as we were first known when creation was new.

Baptismal iconography has always imaged Baptism as cosmic rebirth, Eden restored. Early baptisteries, decorated to resemble paradise, were filled with fertility, wines, sunlight, water, and a humid atmosphere.

They were gloriously womb-like, for from them issued a new People whose purpose in life was to beget others by the Church, Christ’s bride, in his power.

Thus the ancient inscription in the baptistery of the Pope’s cathedral in Rome read:

Here is born in Spirit-soaked fertility

a brood destined for another City,

begotten by God’s blowing

and borne upon this torrent by the Church their virgin mother.

Reborn in these depths they reach for heaven’s realm,

the born-but-once known by felicity.

This spring is life that floods the world,

the wounds of Christ its awesome source.

Sinner sinks beneath this sacred surf

that swallows age and spits up youth.

Sinner here scour sin away down to innocence,

for they know no enmity who are by

one font, one Spirit, one faith made one.

Sinner shudder not at sin’s kind and number,

for those born here are holy."

(Lateran baptistry inscription (fifth century))

...the only thing you can’t get is red ink.’

Recalling a recent quote I heard after while reading yet another lament for our "lost freedom", as if we really knew the first thing about freedom:

And this one was written in 1996

   " In an old joke from the defunct German Democratic Republic, a German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by the censors, he tells his friends: ‘Let’s establish a code: if a letter you get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it’s true; if it’s written in red ink, it’s false.’ After a month, his friends get the first letter, written in blue ink: ‘Everything is wonderful here: the shops are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, cinemas show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair — the only thing you can’t get is red ink.’

    Of the joke, Zizek writes:

    One starts by agreeing that one has all the freedoms one wants — then one merely adds that the only thing missing is the ‘red ink’: we ‘feel free’ because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom. What this lack of red ink means is that, today, all the main terms we use to designate the present conflict — ‘war on terror’, ‘democracy and freedom’, ‘human rights’, and so on — are false terms, mystifying our perception of the situation instead of allowing us to think it. In this precise sense, our ‘freedoms’ themselves serve to mask and sustain our deeper unfreedom."

From the film, Zizek!

 

no more political posts.  I used up my quota for the next 5 years.

Faith, "Knowing", and understanding.....Clipping the Wings of The Holy Spirit, taming The Word with words, and trading Faith for understanding

"It is as if theologians had difficulties in ‘holding together’ the various aspects of this act, as if human words and categories were not fully adequate to the totality of the baptismal mystery. There appeared a certain discrepancy between Baptism itself-its liturgy, its texts, rites and symbols-on the one hand, and the various theological explanations and definitions of Baptism on the other, between the act and its explanation, the sacrament and its comprehension…The most striking aspect of this discrepancy is the inability of modern or post-patristic theology to explain the relationship between Baptism and the Death and Resurrection of Christ…This clear affirmation [between Baptism and Pascha] did not remain central, however, when theology began to be understood and developed as a rational explanation and interpretation of the Christian faith. One continued to pay lip service to the baptismal ’sybolism’ of death and resurrection but the real meaning of the sacrament shiftwed elsewhere…

Alexander Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit, p. 54-56

The simplest way to state the early approach to the sacraments is to say that the Church ignored the dichotomy in them of ‘form’ and ‘essence.’ and thus ignored the problem which at a later date became the problem of sacramental theology.  In the early Church the terms ‘likeness’ and ‘pattern’ most obviously refer to the ‘form’ of Bpatism, i.e. to the immersion of the catechumen in water and his rising up from it. Yet it is this very form which manifests, communicates and fulfills the ‘essence,’ is its very ‘epiphany,’ so that the term ‘likeness,’ being the description of the form, is at the same time the revelation of the ‘essence..’ Baptism being performed ‘in the likeness’ and ‘after the pattern’ of death and resurrection therefore is death and resurrection.One can say without any exageration that a new chapter began in the history of the Church when theology broke the ‘wholeness’ of this initial sacramental vision and experience, and broke it precisely by positing as the preliminary condition for the proper ‘understanding’ of sacraments the distinction in them between the ‘form’ and the ‘essence’ ; when, in other words, it decided that the ‘essence’ of a sacrament can and even must be known, determined, and defined apart from its ‘form.’

In this short essay we canot deal with the historical and spiritual factors which brought about this decisive change, this, in our eyes at least-‘original sin’ of all modern, post-patristic, westernized theology. What is important for us here is that this change progressively led to an entirely different understandingof the sacraments in general and Baptism in particular.

This new approach preserved, to be sure, the crucial different of the scaramental ‘form,’ yet for reasons quite different from those of the early Church.In the early Tradition the form is important because its very nature and function is ‘epiphianic,’ because it reveals the essence, truely is and fulfills it. And being the epiphany of the essence, the form is the means of its knowledge and explanation.

In the new approach, the form is no longer an ‘epiphany’ but only the external sign and thus the guarenteer that a particular ‘essence’ has been duly bestowed and communicated.  As to this ‘essence; itself, it can and must be known and defined apart from the ‘form’ and even prior to it, for otherwise one would not know what is being ’signified’ and ‘guaranteed’ by means of the form. To use one of the key terms of this new sacramental theology, the form is that which makes the sacrament valid but not the revelation of that which is made valid in the sacrament."

Alexander Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit, p. 54-56