31 posts tagged “orthodox”
I'm adding fellow Orthodox Theologic's blog and to keep up with my French, "Blog de Regardlese" to my neighborhood.
Tonight at Vespers several Old Testament Scriptures were read about the Spirit's hovering over the surface of the waters in Genesis 1, the parting of the Red Sea, and the partings of the Jordan river for Joshua and for Elijah. In all these Scriptures the water was parted for the salvation of God's people. In an Orthodox baptism, which was performed tonight as well, the water is blessed, similarly to what will occur tomorrow all over the world on the feast of Theophany. We pray that the Father will grant that dragons, sinful passions, will be slain in the depths of our being as well as in the waters, by Christ's entrance into its midst. And that the blessed water will cleanse us from every infirmity by the hovering Holy Spirit.
LIFE OF
ST. HERMAN OF ALASKA
- (c.1756 - 1837)
- Feast Days: August 9th (canonization)
- & December 13th (repose)
In 1994 the 200th anniversary of Orthodoxy in America was celebrated — the bicentennial of the establishment of a Russian Orthodox mission on Kodiak Island, Alaska. On September 24, 1794, ten missionaries from the Valaam Monastery in the St. Petersburg (Russia) diocese, who had traveled for a year across 7,000 miles, finally reached their harsh new mission land in Alaska, or "Russian America," which had been a part of the Russian Empire until its sale to the United States in 1867. Only one of these original missionaries survived and remained in America—Holy Father St. Herman.
American Orthodoxy today owes a great
debt to these ten missionary monks, most especially to the simple and humble ascetic monk,
Father Herman. Truly the "North-Star of Christ’s Holy Church," and the last
survivor of the original 1794 mission, he worked among the Alutiiq people for 43
years, teaching them by word and by the example of
his holy life and great deeds. For most of those years he lived on Spruce Island—his
"New Valaam"—teaching and caring for the natives as his beloved children,
frequently defending them against the exploitation of the Russian fur traders. The people
quickly grew to love him and came to him with all their problems. He lived the most
ascetic life possible, eating and sleeping little, wearing the same ragged clothes
year-round, feeding the birds and wild animals (even bears), and in continual prayer with
his constant companions—God, the saints and the angels. When smallpox, brought by the
European ships, ravaged the native Alaskans, Father Herman personally ministered to them,
and brought all the orphans to his New Valaam, where he took care of them. He built an
orphanage, school and chapel. He grew food in his garden, caught fish and baked cookies
for the children. He taught them in his school, and showed them by his example how to live
a godly life. Indeed, the children and adults loved their dear Apa (grandfather),
and the native people have maintained their devotion to their beloved holy man until
today. (Most native Alaskans are Orthodox). St. Herman was a clairvoyant wonder-worker,
who saw into people’s hearts and into the future. Once, when a tidal wave (sunami)
threatened the island, the saint put an icon near the sea, and said that the water would
not come past the icon: it didn’t. Another time there was a similar experience with a
forest fire.
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Today is effectively the beginning of the Orthodox Christian Nativity fast. Officially it begins tomorrow, but we fast on Wednesdays and Fridays too so yesterday was our last day to eat meat.
Let every heart prepare Him room.
(for more information about the Nativity or the other 11 Great Feasts of the Church, see this page on oca.org.
"But true victory does not come without struggle and warfare, and soon the enemy of our salvation drew close to St. Benedict, tempting him more strongly than anything he had ever before experienced: “For the remembrance of a woman he had once seen was presented to his fancy by the Wicked Spirit, and so strongly was he inflamed with lustful desires that, nearly overcome, he was about to leave the wilderness. Suddenly, through God’s grace, he came to himself and, seeing nearby a thicket of nettles and briars, he threw off his garments and cast himself naked into the midst of those sharp thorns, where he roiled himself so long that, when he rose up, his body was pitifully torn. Thus, by means of wounds in his flesh be cured the wounds of his soul. From that time forth, as he himself told his followers, he was free of this temptation. Henceforth, many began to leave the world and place themselves under his direction. Being now free from vice, he worthily deserved to be made a master of: virtue.” from The blog of Seth
Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
I fear I have not been clear in my treatment of Shakespeare.
The characters seem blindly and passionately motivated by their hearts. They have a very narrow worldview and they operate in a simplistic narrow fashion towards those around them. I am not very precise in my memory of each character, but I'll try.
Hamlet's self-destructive (which also destroyed Ophelia et al) depression and anger over the killing of his father, Romeo and Juliet's suicides in a narrow-minded moment where their impression of the whole of life and reality was based on immediate circumstantial evidence, etc for example. His comic relief in these situations is usually very baudy humor that I find offensive.
About his odes to love. They seem too creaturely oriented. As if a person can draw their whole life and happiness from another person. No wonder they commit suicide if they don't get the one they want. This is also why I've quit reading Jane Austen - do we have to have that person?
The Orthodox view of marriage is that you have to be a martyr in a marriage, and learning to selflessly love that person is for your salvation - not that they are your dream come true - but that you learn to selflessly consider and eventually desire their needs above your own. Yes there are moments when you feel the ecstasy of being in love, but there shouldn't be such a demand and requirement of feeling that way all the time, or else.
I watched part of the Wedding Planner last night with Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughy and was dissapointed with how the heart's desire thing was portrayed there as well. They had a heart-soul-mind-body attraction when he was engaged to someone else. The way to guiltlessly get out of the engagement was to make his fiancee decide she didn't really love him after all. But what if she did? J-lo and Matt would have to drudge out their existence with the wrong people the rest of their lives in Cinderella type martyrdom? Or else be jerks and break the girl's heart? And what about J-lo's other guy's heart that all, she, he and her parents, finally mutually decided should get broken in order to preserve hers? And then when they finally got together, I wasn't convinced that it would be happiness ever after. After all he did have an annoying habbit of hiking up his pants leg when he ate too much.
My going theory is that after the schism between the eastern ("Orthdox") and western ("Catholic") churches in 1054, the west increasingly became split from it's mind and it's heart so that the heart became irrational and the mind became cold, giving rise to the dialectical split between intellectuals and artists. Western art became sensual and creaturely oriented as a result. It is only in Christ in His properly balanced Church where the heart, mind, soul, spirit, and body connection can be satisfactorily found, fed, nourished, and elevated. Then our relationships with other people spill out from the bounteous overflow of life and love that spring from Christ.
Shakespeare wrote a lot about familial angst with associated emotional reactionism. I read King Lear a few months ago and was disappointed with how people acted out their selfish passions. Cordelia was the only one who curbed hers, but still. An Eastern Orthodox criticism of the West has to do with emotionalism and evocative passions in art. The Eastern ideal, most notably demonstrated in Icons and the LIves of the Saints, is more about portraying the passionless fruits of the Spirit. I want to try to be more in the moment as it is intended, and not just how I'm reacting to it. That would be about prayer. When I pray it should be in silence before God and making myself available to His will. Or does He want poetry.
And who can top Liturgical poetry?
Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Before Thy Cross we bow down and worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection, we glorify.
These are songs than run through my head after I've been to Church, which has been pretty often this past week with the forefeast on Thursday and then the Commemoration of the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross on Friday, and then Divine Liturgy followed by a dedication service for the new Church we want to build where a new wooden cross was erected on our property for the Glory of God.
