Eastern Christian Spirituality's topics - tribe.net

Could you please participate in my survey on masculinity?

2007-10-12T18:28:13Z

I am a doctoral student seeking participants to complete a survey that explores the psychological experiences of being a man and how it influences your life. You must be a male who is 18 years of age or older

The survey will take approximately 30 minutes to complete and your participation is anonymous.

If you are interested in contributing to knowledge about how being a man impacts how you view yourself and others, please go to the following website: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=218103339703

Thank you for your help.
Michael Franco
831.480.5180
masculinitystudy@yahoo.com

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

Fasting... why?

2006-12-30T07:41:57Z

Before Christmas there is always a fasting...

Fasting can be integrated into one's life to the degree that it can become a trandion rather than a spiritual exercise... so, spiritual fathers try to educate people to reap the full benefits of that exerise...

I have been thinking on what might be the benefits we get out of fasting and I am hoping people on this tribe will share their experiences or knowledge on this matter...

I can think of the following:
- Fasting is a physical reminder of what we're fasting for. For example, if I fast until 3 PM everyday missing my breakfast and regular lunch hour, I know something is missing... This could serve as a great reminder for asking for guidance on something, or support fighting a certain weakness, etc...
- Fasting is a weakening for the body... a weak body is a reminder of our true state in this universe and that we're temporarily in that body - so we do not rely too much on it...
- Fasting is a reminder of those who have less than what we have...

Those are exercises to be used under the supervision of the spiritual father - or else they could have an adverse effect. They might be suitable for some people but not for others.

Fasting periods preceed Christmas and other occasions as a bootcamp to help us get ready to receive the occasion afterwards (that's why Christmas without spiritual preparation is meaningless)... This preparation could be in so many forms...

umm... this is what I remember from my Sunday school lessons and my church teachings (note that I have a lousy memory)...

What else should we keep an eye on and seek during fasting?

thanks,
george

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 6 replies

Oh! Holy One

2006-12-22T13:51:53Z

It is time... The One is here...

walk outside today and greet your fellow brother and sister...

Christ has returned and is in full effect...

Blessed be thy name, The Kingdom has came...

Today...

!

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

Eastern Christian Spirituality

2006-12-16T02:15:14Z

Quite right, there was never any desire to limit discussion to the point of view of the canonical Eastern Orthodox Churches, especially as I (your moderator) am not a member of any. I am what people used to call an Eastern Catholic. For years I used to say, Russian Orthodox in Communion with (Old) Rome. Given my history, I particularly like Lev Gillet's phrase Quaker of the Eastern Rite; I am still more likely to turn to Rufus Jones for inspiration than to Fulton Sheen or Seraphim Rose. These days I am increasingly comfortable with the "C" word. Part of it is that grand Bavarian in Rome. (Bavarian Orthodox, now that has a ring to it.) And I increasingly shake my head over the notions of people who insist on "Orthodoxy," the rabid silliness of the anti-Catholics, and the vague modernism of the more ecumenical folks. (The first group are half converted Southern Baptists for the most part, who do the best they can.)

The blurb for the group speaks of Byzantine, Chaldean, Coptic, Syriac, Orthodox traditions. My communion with Rome places me in communion with representatives of each of these ancient streams, and I hope we will attract some members who are active participants in them, or, perhaps some Russian Orthodox who, like St. Theophane the Recluse, find much of value in ancient Syriac fathers who might be considered Monophysite or Nestorian.

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 3 replies

Regenberg lecture by Pope

2006-12-15T23:44:58Z

So, after all the hoopla about what the Pope said about Muslims, I had to read the lecture and decide for myself. I think he could have and in hindsight, should have left the whole part about Muslims out. It didn't add to much to rest of the material, which, ironicaly, was about the dehellenization of Christianity in the West. If I didn't know any better, it almost sounded like the Pope is Orthodox...

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 35 replies

Christ is born!

2006-12-11T20:36:18Z

Hey, how's everyone doing this Christmas season?

Let's get some discussions going here. This is boring!

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 3 replies

clarification about the group's topic

2006-12-04T15:34:29Z

So, just to clarify for my own information (because I'm a little confused due to some recent posts and discussions), this tribe discusses all Eastern Christian Spirituality, right? not just Orthodox?

Thanks :)

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 1 reply

Christianity needed

2006-11-03T04:33:04Z

“The thought of Jesus being stripped, beaten and derided until his final agony on the cross should always prompt a Christian to protest against similar treatment of their fellow beings. Of their own accord, disciples of Christ will reject torture, which nothing can justify, which causes humiliation and suffering to the victim and degrades the tormentor.”
--Pope John Paul II

You are invited to join a new tribe dedicated to completely ending the United States of America's unconstitutional and immoral practice of and collusion in torture.

http://tribes.tribe.net/stopalltorture

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

Any body scene those 7 original Coptic monuments in Ancient Askum Ethiopia???

2006-09-08T12:18:11Z

They are truelly wonderful!!!
What do you guys think??? (i think if you search for "Askum Ethiopia" through your browser you'll find some pics,etc about them) peace,love an joy in life to all of you!!! :-)

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 24 replies

Job

2006-09-07T02:09:11Z

“Then Job answered the Lord, ‘I know that You can do all things, and that no plans of Yours can be foiled. Who is he who veils counsel without knowledge? I then have expressed what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me.’” (Job 42:1)

Judaism is based on the Torah, the Law of Moses. It is consistent, rational and complete. Keep up your part of the covenant with the living God, and He will bless you. Job is a challenge to that theology. It is to their credit and intellectual honesty that the Hebrews have included it in their canon, for it calls into question the consistency of obedience and fulfillment of the several covenants in the Old Testament as the meaning of the Law. Better stated, God is a mystery to humanity. He transcends any rules one sets up in order to comprehend His ways, for He is incomprehensible.

Job was a gentile. A very wealthy pious person somewhat like Noah, he found favor with the Lord. Indeed, the Lord used him as a paradigm of what He had in mind when He created the human being. But the Lord permitted Job’s faith to be tested. His entire estate, all that he owned, was destroyed, along with all of his children. He was left wracked with sores, brooding over his miserable plight, and even his wife told him to give up, curse God and die. But he refused to do so.

His friends visit to console him. They offer sensible advice. Think deeply, they say, and recall whatever it was that caused the Lord to send such afflictions to assail you. Surely you must remember something so traumatic. Repent, and the Lord will forgive you. Job says that he’s done nothing wrong. To confess a sin he is not guilty of would be a lie. They leave him, and a fourth friend visits. One thinks that normally in the order of most tales, he will offer a solution; but it’s just more of the same. All four friends might be considered good Jews. Sin, confession, repentance and forgiveness are the ongoing themes throughout the Bible. It’s the staple of the relationship between God and mankind.

Finally, Job decides to confront the Lord head on. All of us can identify with the scene, because none is without the experience of pleading with the Lord for some answer to whatever he has felt to be unfair or irrational. In a word, why? And the answer is not what Job hoped to hear. It’s indeed no answer at all, because the Lord confronts Job with questions of His own. Job has not a single reply to any of them, because they demonstrate the incomprehensibility of the Lord’s ways. Behind the wonders of nature lies the mystery of a Creator who has brought everything into being. If Job cannot work out how He did it, what chance has he of understanding the even more complex structure of man? Job at least realizes what he doesn’t understand, and that too requires wisdom. More, he comes to grasp the realization that he has no way of comprehending the greater mystery of the Lord, His creation, His ways, and His essence. True religion is not philosophy. We normally explain Judaism, Christianity and Islam as revelations of a transcendent deity Who is by definition indefinable. He remains a mystery beyond all understanding. Were He able to be described, He would not be God at all, for He is above all description. Yet just to say that is in a way the beginning of philosophy.

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

Coptic icons

2006-09-06T15:27:42Z

Is it just me, or is there something really cute and cuddly about coptic icons?

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 3 replies

Old/ new calendar

2006-09-01T12:17:26Z

I'd be curious to hear what you all think about the new calendar introduced by the Ecumenical Patriarchate back in 1924. It seems to have badly divided the Church and caused schisms. What is the likelihood of this problem being resolved, in what way, and how soon?

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 13 replies

St Moses the Ethiopian

2006-08-31T13:48:31Z

Another interesting side note since we have touched on the Coptic Church - Aug 28 was celebrated St Moses the Ethiopian. It looks like he died about 50 years before the Council of Chalcedon, but I'm guessing that the theology of the Copts was already formed before the council. I guess it goes to show that there is more to being a saint than dogma!!! I often need to be reminded of that...

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

Isaac of Syria- Nestorian?

2006-08-13T17:41:52Z

Isaac of Syria seems to be well recognized in the Eastern Orthodox Church as a saint and church father whose writings are widely quoted. However, I have read several short biographies of him which say he was a Nestorian (albeit not a very good Nestorian). These biographies seem to mainly come from Catholic sources; I have seen no Orthodox hagiographies mentioning his Nestorian connections. Anyone here know what the deal is?

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 5 replies

Church in 16 C. Istanbul??

2006-08-04T15:02:52Z

Can anyone direct towards sources for the history of the Eastern Church in 16th Century Istanbul?
Many thanks!

Juliana

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 3 replies

The people of "The Way"

2006-06-01T03:40:22Z

Check out this new tribe:
http://tribes.tribe.net/thevoice

Please join and we will discuss the teachings of Jesus. This tribe is not just for christians or jews, the message of "The Way" is universal and for all peoples.

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

P r a y e r

2006-04-26T03:34:08Z

P r a y e r
— the Breath of the Soul
Bishop Alexander (Mileant).
What is prayer?

Food and rest are essential to sustain human life; knowledge, art, and culture in general enrich the mental capabilities of men, but only prayer reveals and expands our spiritual faculties.
God loves all His creations, and in particular He loves each of us since He is our Heavenly Father. As it is natural for children to want to see and converse with their parents, so it should also be natural and pleasant for us to converse with our Heavenly Father and to want to be in spiritual communion with Him. This conversation with God is called prayer. The soul, while uniting with God in prayer, simultaneously is united with the whole spiritual world — with the angels and saints. According to Saint John of Kronstadt, "Prayer is a golden bond of the Christian — a stranger and wanderer on earth — with the spiritual world of which he is a part, and even more so with God, the source of life."
Prayer is frequently accompanied by devout words and other outward signs of piety: the sign of the Cross, kneeling, prostration, etc. But prayer can also be offered without words, and without other external manifestations. This is the inner or hidden prayer of a pious soul, which is familiar through experience to many earnest Christians.

Types of prayer
During prayer a Christian pours out his soul before God: the glorifies Him for His great perfection, thanks Him for His mercy and goodness, and makes requests for his needs. Hence there are three main forms of prayer: praise, thanksgiving, and petition.
Praise (Doxology) — is the most perfect and selfless type of prayer. The more pure and blameless a person is, the more the perfection of God is reflected in him, and through this he involuntarily calls forth happy words of praise and glory. Thus the angels in the heavens unceasingly glorify God in hymns. "Praise," says Bishop Theophan the Recluse, "is not an indifferent contemplation of God's attributes, but a living experience of them, full of joy and exaltation."
Thanksgiving is sent up to God for all the good things received from Him. It arises naturally in a grateful and sensitive soul. God is merciful to all of us, but not many of us remember to thank Him. Out of the ten lepers healed by our Savior, only one, a Samaritan, returned to thank Him (Luke 17:12-17).
The most widespread form of prayer is petition, offered in acknowledgment of our weaknesses, infirmities, and lack of experience. Because of sins and passions, our souls become weak and sick. Therefore, it is essential in prayer to ask God to forgive us and help us to overcome our faults. Sometimes requests are made because of an impending danger hanging over us, a need, etc. Petition in prayer is inevitable in view of our weakness and is readily accepted by the all-merciful Lord (Matt. 7:7; John 16:23). But if our prayer has only a predominant character of request, if the voice of praise and thanksgiving is almost unheard, this indicates poor development of our spiritual life.
Often these various forms of prayer become combined in one. A person begs the Lord about his needs and simultaneously praises Him for His greatness and goodness and thanks Him for being able to fearlessly address Him as to his merciful Father. The most festive hymns of praise in the Church frequently turn into compounded petitions ("Glory to God in the highest," "We praise Thee, O God"), and sometimes the opposite: tearful prayers to God for help resolve into a sublime harmony of grateful thanks and praise. Many Psalms reflect this type, for example, Psalms 146, 148, and others.

How we should pray
When praying, it is important to turn away from our usual cares and preoccupations, collect our scattered thoughts, as if closing the door of the soul against all that is worldly, and direct all our attention towards God.
Placing oneself before the face of God and bringing to mind His greatness, one who prays must necessarily recognize his unworthiness and spiritual poverty. "While praying one should imagine all creation as nothing compared to God, and only God as everything" (St. John of Kronstadt). An edifying example of the proper attitude of prayer was given by our Savior in the parable regarding the publican who was justified by God for his humility (Luke 18:9-14).
Christian humility does not cause depression or hopelessness. On the contrary, it is linked with firm faith in the goodness and omnipotence of the Heavenly Father. Only prayer of faith is accepted by God, as we read in the Gospel: "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24). Warmed by faith, a Christian's prayer is very powerful. The Christian remembers the command of Jesus Christ that it is necessary to pray always and not lose heart (Luke 18:1), and His promise: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7).
The Gospel has many examples of the great power of prayer: the Canaanite woman who begged the Lord to heal her daughter (Matt. 15:21-28), the defenseless widow who persuaded the unjust judge to take her side (Luke 18:5-8 and others). One should not despair if his prayer is not answered immediately: this is a test, not a refusal. "This is why the Lord said `knock,' to show that if He does not open the doors of His mercy immediately, we should nevertheless remain waiting with the light of hope" (St. John Chrysostom). The true Christian will continue his prayer with uninterrupted effort until he convinces the Lord, and until he calls down upon himself His mercy, like the Old Testament patriarch Jacob who said to the stranger wrestling with him, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" (Gen. 32:26) and indeed he received God's blessing.
Because the Lord is our Heavenly Father, we are all brothers. He will answer our prayer only when we have a true, brotherly, benevolent relationship with each other, when we have vanquished all strife and enmity and have shrouded all offenses with forgiveness and made peace with everyone. "Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses" (Mark 11:25).

What to ask for?
Regarding how to pray, St. Isaac the Syrian writes: "Don't be thoughtless in your petitions, in order not to offend God by your foolishness. But rather be wise, to become worthy of the greatest gifts. Ask for a treasure from Him Who is a stranger to stinginess and you will receive a treasure from Him in accordance with the reasonableness of your request. Solomon asked for wisdom and together with it he received an earthly kingdom because he made a wise request before the Great King. Elisseus asked for a twofold portion of grace of the Holy Spirit and his request was not refused. To ask for trifles from the King insults his dignity."
The greatest teacher of prayer is our Savior. Prayer accompanies all the important events of His earthly life. The Lord prayed, receiving baptism from John (Luke 3:21). He spent the whole night praying before He chose the Apostles (Luke 6:12). He prayed during the Transfiguration (Luke 22:41). He prayed on the Cross. The very last word before His death was a prayer (Luke 23:46).
Being impressed by the inspiring image of the praying Savior, one of His disciples turned to Him with the request: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). And in answer to this Jesus Christ gave the prayer, short in form, but rich in content, that wonderful, incomparable prayer which to this day unifies the whole Christian world, the "Our Father," the Lord's Prayer.
This prayer teaches us about what and in what order to pray. Having turned to God, "Our Father," we acknowledge ourselves to be His children, and in relation to each other, brothers, and, therefore, we pray not only for ourselves but for all people. With the petition "Hallowed be Thy name," we ask that His name might be holy for all people, that everyone might glorify the name of God by their words and deeds. "Thy Kingdom come." The kingdom of God begins within the believer, when the grace of God, having filled him, cleanses and transfigures his inner world. Simultaneously, grace unites everyone, people and angels, into one great spiritual family called the Kingdom of God or the Church. For the good to be spread among people, one should ask: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven;" that is, that everything in the world should be done according to the all-good, all-wise will of God, and that people should as diligently fulfill the will of God on the earth as the angels do it in heaven.
"Give us this day our daily bread;" give us today all that is necessary for our daily sustenance. What will happen to us tomorrow we don't know; we need only our "daily bread," i.e., every day that which is necessary to sustain our existence. "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." These words are explained by St. Luke who states them thus: "And forgive us our sins" (Luke 11:4) — our sins become our debts because in sinning we fail in our duty and become debtors before God and man. This petition with special emphasis admonishes us to forgive our neighbor for all offenses. Having refused to forgive others, we dare not ask God to forgive us our sins and say the words of the Lord's Prayer. "And lead us not into temptation" — a test of our moral powers by means of an inclination towards some sinful act. Here we ask God to protect us from falling into sin if such a test is necessary. "But deliver us from the evil one" — from every evil and the cause of evil, the devil. The prayer finishes with the assurance of fulfillment of our request, for to God belongs an eternal kingdom, power, and glory.
Thus the Lord's Prayer, unifying within itself all for which it is necessary to pray, teaches us to place in proper order all our personal desires and necessities. First we must ask for the highest good — for God's glory, for the spreading of good among people and the salvation of our souls, and only then we make requests for our daily needs. In relation to our requests "Let us not teach Him how He should help us," says St. John Chrysostom. "If we discuss our business with those who defend us before the judges, and leave the way of defense up to them, all the more should we act likewise in relation to God. He knows well enough what is beneficial to you." Besides this, we should completely deliver ourselves to the Lord's will: Thy will be done! An example of such a prayer has been left to us by the Savior Himself. In the garden of Gethsemane He prayed: "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me," and immediately added: "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39).

When to pray?
The apostle Paul teaches us: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17). It is necessary to pray during those bright, exalted moments when the soul experiences a visitation from above and soars towards heaven and feels a need for prayer. It is necessary as well to pray at all other times assigned for prayer (in the mornings and evenings) even though we are not in the mood to pray. Otherwise, the ability to pray will be lost, just us an old iron key rusts when it is not used. For our soul to preserve a pious freshness, it is necessary to set as a goal to pray regularly, despite the fact that we might or might not be inclined to. Orthodox Christians pray daily in the morning, after awakening, and in the evening before going to bed. We should also pray at the beginning and the end of every important work. In this respect a prayer book is a necessary companion.
Besides private prayer at home, there is another form of communal prayer, performed in church. Concerning this prayer the Lord said: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). Since apostolic times the most essential public prayer has been the Liturgy, performed in churches on Sundays, in which the believers with one heart praise God. The public worship carries with it a great spiritual power.

The fruits of prayer
Prayer, like a farmer, plows the field of our heart and makes it capable of receiving heavenly blessings and bringing forth fruits of virtues and perfection. Prayer attracts into our hearts the grace of the Holy Spirit, thus strengthening our faith, hope, and love. It illuminates our minds, directs our will to do good, consoles the heart in sorrow and suffering, and, in general, gives us everything that serves our true welfare.
Prayer, according to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, is "the breath of the soul" and is a great blessing to us all. The ability to pray with due concentration and with the whole heart, or to have the gift of prayer, is one of the most precious spiritual gifts. The merciful God endows a person with this ability as a reward for his diligence in prayer.
*** *** ***

Communion
with
God in prayer
Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky
"Near art Thou, O Lord" (Psalm 119:151 [LXX 118:153]).
God is with us everywhere. If we were not so distracted, we would have a constant awareness of God's presence — whether we were at home, on the street, in the field, in the forest, on the sea, underground; whether we were in freedom or in captivity — everywhere.
Always to be with God in one's thoughts — this is to be in a state of constant prayer. But we are distracted by our daily concerns. Knowing that to pray we must remove ourselves at least somewhat from the day's tumult of activities, we set aside some time in the morning and evening. Usually we pray alone, by ourselves, as the Savior taught; "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is, in secret" (Matt. 6:6). But our Lord also said something else: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst" (Matt. 18:20). And in his High-priestly prayer to His Father, He uttered these holy words concerning those who believe in Him: "That they may be one, even as We are One" (John 17:22).
We Orthodox Christians comprise the one Body of Christ's Church, the one House of God, as it is written in the Scripture: "Christ as a Son over His own House, Whose House are we" (Heb. 3:6). Here is another world, different from the vain world that surrounds us. Here is a holy world, God's inheritance. Here is a world of prayer. And this expresses its very essence: life in this special world is a life of prayer — prayer as communion with God, as glorification of God. And more — through prayer we are able to have communion with the entire world of heaven: with the angels, prophets, apostles, martyrs, hierarchs, the righteous ones, and a particularly joyous communion with the Most Holy Virgin, the Theotokos. Here is the prayer which we Christians who are still citizens of earth offer for one another. Here we also have our prayer for those close to us, who have departed this life, and here is our appeal to the saints that they, too, raise their prayers on behalf of our beloved ones. This, then, is the fullness of prayer.
Communion with God is prayer. In its fullness prayer is most completely achieved in the Orthodox temple. The Church is a world of prayer, and the place of prayer — its fullness — is the temple. Therefore the Orthodox temple itself is called a church. Here is the catholicity, the comprehensivity, the universality of the Church, as it was expressed by the holy Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews: "Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are witnesses in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb. 12:22-23).
Man was created to glorify God and to rejoice in union with his Creator. With the fall of Adam, the law of sin took root in the human race, despoiling the close relationship man enjoyed with God in Paradise. But through God's infinite love, man was given the opportunity to regain harmony of soul and restore the bond with his Creator. This is most readily attained through the Church which guides man in the way of repentance and sets him on the path of true faith, teaching him to 'rightly glorify' God — which is the very meaning of the word "orthodox." And how do we glorify God?
The general principle of Orthodox worship is expressed in the words of the Psalm: "Let every breath and all creation praise The Lord." All of nature, in and of itself, glorifies the Lord. For this reason, in our churches various elements of nature — incense, blessed water, blessed oil, wax candles, palm branches — all serve to the glory of God, and to the fullness thereof.
If nature offers itself in praise of its Creator, how much more should man, the crown of creation, give glory to God. In like manner, therefore, we join our physical bodies in the act of worship — whether in standing, kneeling or making prostrations — in fulfillment of the Apostle's injunction: "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1).
How often we hear the familiar call of King David's Psalm: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name" … 'All that is within me' — of course, all the best and most noble energies, abilities, talents — God's gifts — are called to glorify the Lord. Through love for God expressed in words of prayer, homilies, chants, painting, architecture … using everything that contributes to the magnificence of the temple and its Divine services, we strive to thank the Lord for those gifts He has bestowed on us. Of course, not every art form lends itself to this purpose. Instrumental music, for example, tends sooner to divert our attention from feelings of reverence and awe than to inspire them. And statues, aside from their ancient association with pagan worship, are ill-suited — because of their earthly solidity or form — to represent the life of the spirit, to direct our gaze heavenward. Moreover, the soul and the spirit are expressed primarily through the eyes which, in sculpture, are left empty.
Above all, it is through prayer that we glorify our Creator. Prayer is an expression of love towards God and towards our neighbor. Prayer is that bond of love which unites the Church on earth with the Church in heaven. Let us strive, then, to enter more deeply into the world of prayer found in the holy Orthodox Church, to develop a constant awareness of God's presence, and to recover that blissful state experienced by Adam in Paradise, a state of communion with God, for which we were created.

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 2 replies

syriac spelling

2006-03-15T20:18:11Z

Greetings,
Can anyone offer me the syriac spelling of Ambassador and/or messenger?
many thanks
Blake

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

Origen on Prayer : Chapter One

2006-02-17T15:37:32Z

Origen on Prayer
Translated by William A. Curtis

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Things in themselves so supremely great, so far above man, so utterly above our perishable nature, as to be impossible for the race of rational mortals to grasp, as the will of God became possible in the immeasurable abundance of the Divine grace which streams forth from God upon men, through Jesus Christ the minister of His unsurpassable grace toward us, and through the cooperant Spirit. Thus, though it is a standing impossibility for human nature to acquire Wisdom, by which all things have been established—for all things, according to David, God made in wisdom—from being impossible it becomes possible through our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
For what or who is man that he shall know the counsel of God, or who shall conceive what that Lord willeth? Since the thoughts of mortals are weakling and our purposes are prone to fail; for the body that is corruptible weighs down soul, and mind with its store of thought is burdened by it's earthly tabernacle; and things on earth we forecast with difficulty, but things in heaven whoever yet traced out? Who would not say that it is impossible for man to trace out things in heaven? Yet this impossible thing, by the surpassing grace of God, becomes possible; for he who was caught up unto a third heaven traced out things in the three heavens through having heard unutterable utterances which it was not permitted for man to speak. Who can say that it is possible for the mind of the Lord to be known by man?
But this, too, God graciously gives through Christ who said to His disciples: "No longer do I call you servants, because the servant knows not what his lord's will is, but I have called you friends, because all the things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you; so that through Christ there is made known to them the will of one who, when He teaches them the will of the Lord, has no desire to be their lord any longer but instead becomes a friend to those whose lord he was before." Moreover, as no one knows the things of man save the Spirit of man that is in him, so also no one knows the things of God save the Spirit of God.
Now if no one knows the things of God save the Spirit of God, it is impossible that a man should know the things of God. But mark how this too becomes possible: but we, he says, have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is from God, that we may know the things graciously given to us by God, and these also we speak not in words taught of human wisdom but in those taught of the Spirit. But I think, right pious and industrious Ambrosius, and right discreet and manful Tatiana, from whom I avow that womanly weakness has disappeared as truly as it had from Sarah of old, you are wondering to what purpose all this has been said in preface about things impossible for man becoming possible by the grace of God, when the subject prescribed for our discourse is Prayer.
The fact is, I believe it to be itself one of those things which, judged by our weakness, are impossible, clearly to set forth with accuracy and reverence a complete account of prayer, and in particular of how prayer ought to be offered, what ought to be said to God in prayer, which seasons are more, which less, suitable for prayer . . . The very apostle who by reason of the abundance of the revelations is anxious that no one should account to him more than he sees or hears from him, confesses that he knows not how to pray as he ought, for what we ought to pray, he says, we know not how to as we ought. It is necessary not merely to pray but also to pray as we ought and to pray what we ought. For even though we are enabled to understand what we ought to pray, that is not adequate if we do not add to it the right manner also.
On the other hand what is the use of the right manner to us if we do not know to pray for what we ought? Of these two things the one, I mean the ‘what we ought' of prayer, is the language of the prayer, while the ‘as we ought' is the disposition of him who prays. Thus the former is illustrated by "Ask for the great things and the little shall be added unto you," and "Ask for the heavenly things and the earthly shall be added unto you," and "Pray for them that abuse you," and "Entreat therefore the Lord of the harvest that He send out workers unto his harvest," and "Pray that you enter not into temptation," and "Pray that your flight be not in winter or on a Sabbath," and "In praying babble not" and the like passages: the latter by "I desire therefore that men pray in ever place lifting up holy hands without anger and questioning, and in like manner that women array themselves decently in simplicity, with modesty and discretion, not in or gold or pearls or costly raiments, but, as becomes women of pious profession, through good works. Instructive too, for prayer ‘as we ought' is the passage:
"If then you art offering your gift at the altar and there think you that your brother hath aught against you, leave there your gift before the altar, and go back—first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift;" for what greater gift can be sent up to God from a rational creature than fragrant words of prayer that is offered from a conscience devoid of taint from Sin? Similarly instructive is "Deprive not one another, save by agreement for a season that you may give yourselves to prayer and may be together at another time again, in order that Satan may not have occasion to exalt over you by reason of your incontinence.
For prayer ‘as we ought' is restrained unless the marriage mysteries which claim our silence be consummated with more of solemnity and deliberation and less of passion, the ‘agreement' referred to in the passage obliterating the discord of passion, and destroying incontinence, and preventing Satan's malicious exultation. Yet again instructive for prayer ‘as we ought' is the passage: "If you are standing at prayer, forgive aught that you have against any man;" and also the passage in Paul "Any man who prays or preaches with covered head dishonours his head, and any woman who prays or preaches with unveiled head dishonors her head" is descriptive of the right manner of prayer.
Paul knows all these sayings, and could cite, with subtle statement in each case, manifold more from law and prophets and gospel fulfillment, but in the moderation, yes, and in the truthfulness of his nature, and because he sees how much, after all of them, is lacking to knowledge of the right way to pray what he ought, he says "but what we ought to pray we know not how to as we ought," and adds thereto the source from which a man's deficiency is made up if though ignorant he has rendered himself worthy to have the deficiency made up within him:
"The Spirit himself more than intercedes with God in sighs unspeakable and He that searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because His intercession on behalf of saints is according to God." Thus the Spirit who cries "Abba Father" in the hearts of the blessed, knowing with solicitude that their sighing in this tabernacle can but weigh down the already fallen or transgressors, "more than intercedes with God in sighs unspeakable," for the great love and sympathy He feels for men taking our sighs upon himself; and, by virtue of the wisdom that resides in Him, beholding our Soul humbled ‘unto dust' and shut within the body ‘of humiliation,' He employs no common sighs when He more than intercedes with God but unspeakable ones akin to the unutterable words which a man may not speak. Not content to intercede with God, this Spirit intensifies His intercession, "more than intercedes," for those who more than conquer, as I believe such as Paul was, who says "Nay in all these we more than conquer."
He simply "intercedes," I think, not for those who more than conquer, nor again for those who are conquered, but for those who conquer. Akin to the saying "what we ought to pray we know not how to as we ought, but the Spirit more than intercedes with God in sighs unspeakable," is the passage "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit; and I will sing with the understanding also."
For even our understanding is unable to pray unless the spirit leads it in prayer within hearing of it as it were, anymore than it can sing or hymn, with rhythmic cadence and in unison, with true measure and in harmony, the Father in Christ, unless the Spirit who searches all things even the depth of God first praise and hymn Him whose depth He has searched and, as He had the power, comprehended. I think it must have been the awakened consciousness of human weakness falling short of prayer in the right way, above all realized as he listened to great words of intimate knowledge falling from the Savior's lips in prayer to the Father, that moved one of the disciples of Jesus to say to the Lord when He ceased praying, "Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples." The whole train of language is as follows: "And it came to pass, as He was at prayer in a certain place, that one of His disciples said to Him when He ceased "Lord, teach us to pray even as John also taught his disciples."
For is it conceivable that a man who had been brought up under instruction in the law and hearing of the words of the prophets and was no stranger to the synagogue had no knowledge whatsoever of prayer until he saw the Lord praying in a certain place? It is absurd to pretend that he was one who did pray after the Jewish practice but saw that he needed fuller knowledge as to the place in reference to prayer. What was it, too, in reference to prayer that John used to teach the disciples who came to him for baptism from Jerusalem and all Judea and the country round about, but certain things of which, as one who was greater than a prophet, he had vision in reference to prayer, which I believe he would not deliver to all who were baptized but privately to those who were disciples with a view to baptism?
Such are the prayers, which are really spiritual because the spirit was praying in the heart of the saints, recorded in scripture, and they are full of unutterably wonderful declarations. In the first book of Kings there is the prayer of Hannah, partially, because the whole of it was not committed to writing since she was ‘speaking in her heart' when she perservered in prayer before the Lord; and in Psalms, the seventeenth psalm is entitled "A prayer of David," and the ninetieth "A prayer of Moses, man of God," and the hundred and second "A prayer of a poor man at a time he is weary and pours forth his supplication before the Lord."
These are prayers which, because truly prayers made and spoken with the spirit, are also full of the declarations of the wisdom of God, so that one may say of the truths they proclaim "Who is wise that he shall understand them? And understanding, then he shall fully know them." Since therefore it is so great an undertaking to write about prayer, in order to think and speak worthily of so great a subject, we need the special illumination of the Father, and the teaching of the first born Word himself, and the inward working of the Spirit, I pray as a man—for I by no means attribute to myself any capacity for prayer—that I may obtain the Spirit of prayer before I discourse upon it, and I entreat that a discourse full and spiritual may be granted to us and that the prayers recorded in the Gospels may be elucidated.
So let us now begin our discourse on Prayer.

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An early Declaration of Faith from the Holy Father St. Gregory the Wonder-Worker

2006-02-17T15:32:45Z

St. Gregory of Pontus, the Wonder-Worker:
A DECLARATION OF FAITH.
translated by S. Salmond, 1871.

A DECLARATION OF FAITH.
There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son.
There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal.
And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men: Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification; in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all.
There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever.
++++++++++++++++++++++
The St. Pachomius Orthodox Library, St. Dmitri of Rostov 1997
Have mercy, O Lord, upon Thy servants Stewart the translator, Michael, and all the scribes!
++++++++++++++++++++++
THE END, AND TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
+

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Elder Joseph the Hesychast

2006-02-17T15:19:28Z

Elder Joseph the Hesychast and the teaching of mental prayer which flowed from his letters
homily by Abbot Ephraim of Vatopaidi Monastery .

The blessed elder Joseph the Hesychast is one of the most important figures of contemporary Athonite monasticism. This monk is sanctified. His life is truly that of a contempo rary saint and his disciples have today inhabited nearly half of the Holy Mountain and are responsible for so many other women's monastery both within and outside of the Greek land.
It is said today by a pious mouth, which speaks the language of the Holy Spirit, that today's blessed renewal of the Holy Mountain is primarily the common work of Elder Sophrony, elder of the Monastery of the Forerunner in Essex with his excellent book concerning St. Silouan the Athonite, Elder Paisios the ascetic with his blessed presence of the Holy Land, and the disciples of the blessed Elder Joseph the Hesychast. The tree is known by its fruits.
We firmly believe that the return of Athos to interiority and prayer and generally to Hesychast Theology is due largely to the presence of the sanctified Elder Joseph the Hesychast. As you will know from all that has circulated up to now about the blessed Elder Joseph, he was a man who did not possess the skill of worldly things, was not even a beginner among them. He studied to the second grade. And it is easy to see this if you look at a copy of one of his handwritten letters. But as a possessor of the fullness of divine grace, having achieved by full enlightenment of his grace- filled mind to ascend to the highest steps of Theology and become a perfected theologian. For we know that a theologian is not one who has studied in the modern Theological Schools but one in whom speaks God the Logos. Theology is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The blessed elder wrote concerning this, "When in obedience and stillness one purifies the senses and calms the mind and cleanses the heart, then he receives grace and enlightenment of knowl edge. He becomes all nous, all clarity, and filled with theology such that if three were writing they could not keep up with the flow. He spreads peace and complete inactivity of the passions throughout the body."
Theology according to the venerable Elder and generally in the Holy Fathers is a fruit of the divine Grace within us. Therefore the Holy Fathers view the monasteries of the desert as universities. The letters of the venerable Elder are true theological essays but are written without the canons of syntax and orthography. Searching the letters of the blessed Elder Joseph, anyone can well comprehend the great grace with which this perfected Athonite monk sent them. All the more so we who are his spiritual descendants and have the further fortune to have among us our Elder. He was among the spiritual children of the ever-memorable Elder and very often brings up something spiritual concerning his elder, Elder Joseph the Hesychast.
And we find ourselves in the place above all of the Orthodox Tradition, the Sacred Athos, where the love of the Mother of God pleads for us. We who live in the Theotokos-protected Monastery of Vatopaidi by the extreme tolerance of the great God, live the true meaning of the Orthodox Tradition.
Today much is said and emphasized concerning the Orthodox Tradition, and rightly so. But it is difficult in our days to find tradi tional people according to the fullness of the Orthodox sense. It is said that traditional people are those who study traditional - patristic books, and this is not wrong. But truly traditional people are those who have received the Orthodox life from people who possess it and can pass it on simply and unmistakingly.
Thus, for all our baseness, we experience this situation and we know personally the great blessing it is to receive directly the experience and skill of the Orthodox life. When our Elder narrates something to us of his spiritual father, our 'papou' as we call him, that is for us a great blessing, a spiritual harmony; it is a joy and happiness.
When one receives first hand the experience of the Holy Spirit, he senses in a intense manner that the Gospel is not something that happened 'at that time' but is a continuous life, in which is confirmed that 'Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and to the ages.'
As one studies the correspondence of the blessed Elder Joseph, the first thing noticed is his desire, his nostalgia, his pure wish to tell his fellowman to concern himself with the prayer of Jesus. Because when he came to Athos, he set as his aim to live like the old ascetics as he had read in the book of that day, Kalokairini, containing the lives of the saints.
The whole of the venerable Elder's life was his continual meditation in the Prayer of Jesus. He tried to apply the command of Paul, "pray without ceasing".
Every evening he had as his rule to occupy himself with the prayer of Jesus unwaveringly for six continuous hours. He left this precise method in one of his letters. "I knew a brother, who for six hours brought his mind down into his heart and did not permit it to go out from the ninth hour of the afternoon (about 3 pm) until the third hour of the night (about nine pm). He had a clock that struck the hours. And he became drenched in sweat. When he got up, he worked our the remainder of his debt." This manner of spiritual work, learned from the Fathers, shows great mental strength and a high spiritual condition. For it is truly rare, especially in our days, to find a mind that can pray unwaveringly for such a long time. The blessed Elder said that to accomplish such a great spiritual feat a person must compel himself in prayer and he emphasized: "Say the prayer all the time. don't rest your mouth at all. Thus it will become habitual in you and the mind will receive it.
The Hesychast Elder is one of the contemporary Athonite Elders who taught the details of the practice of noetic prayer, not only to monastics but also to the laity. According to the Elder, all people, without reference to their way of life, wherever they find themselves, and whatever they do, can undertake noetic prayer. The blessed elder wrote concerning this, "The practice of noetic prayer is to constrain yourself to say continually the prayer unceasingly with the mouth. Attend only to the words - 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me'. And you will experience sweetness as if you had honey in your mouth."
One who wants to practice noetic prayer systematically should not wait for particular moments which he sets aside for the prayer. The sanctified Elder, as a teacher of prayer, empha sizes: "Always say the prayer: sitting or in your bed or walking or standing. 'Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things,' says the Apostle. You should not only pray when you lie down. It wants struggle: standing, sitting. When you tire, sit down, and then stand again. If you eat or work, don't stop the prayer."
The prayer, according to the blessed Elder, is the breath of life for the soul. And he advised concerning it: "Let 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me' be as your breath." Presuppositions of the Prayer The Warfare of the Devil in this Work
Therefore, great are the gifts, great the consolation, outstanding the sweetness, inde scribable the happiness, inexpressible the joy, deep the peace, infinite the love which are received on account of the prayer of Jesus.
The chief message of the Holy Mountain to the pious people of God is: As much as you can, say the prayer. Whatever we say, whatever we explain, is incapable by words to express the depth and breadth of the good results of the prayer of Jesus. To whom is due all glory, honor and worship to the ages. Amen!

Your Servant In Christ,
+Solomon

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Hi Orthodox tribe ~ anybody there?

2006-02-10T17:49:55Z

I am wondering if this tribe is alive?

The Holy Theotokos bless you and may Christ be in you always.

MotherBear

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 2 replies

our duty in nature

2006-02-05T17:08:53Z

"It is our duty, therefore, to be faithful to God,
pure in heart,
merciful and kind,
just and holy;
for these things imprint in us the outlines of the divine likeness, and perfect us as heirs of eternal life."

- St. Cyril of Alexandria

"With Christ, every brute beast is wise,
and every savage creature gentle."

- Sulpicius Severus

"God gave being to all that is,
at the same time united all things together in His providence.
Being Master, He became a servant,
and so revealed to the world
the depths of His providence."

- St. Thalassios the Libyan

Have a lovely day,
MotherBear

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blessings to all here

2006-01-26T03:01:43Z

Hail Mary, full of grace
blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Most holy Theotokos, pray for us

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THE MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF ST. DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

2006-01-24T23:58:24Z

THE MYSTICAL THEOLOGY
OF ST.DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE:

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK
WITH COMMENTARIES
BY THE EDITORS OF
THE SHRINE OF WISDOM

Published by THE SHRINE OF WISDOM
FINTRY, BROOK
NR. GODALMING, SURREY
ENGLAND
1923

MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE GARDEN CITY PRESS LIMITED. LETCHWORTH, HERTS.

CONTENTS
CHAPTERPAGE
Introduction7
I.What is the Divine Darkness?9
II.The necessity of being united with and of rendering praise to Him who is the Cause of all and above all12
III.What are the affirmations and negations concerning God?13
IV.That He who is the pre-eminent Cause of all things sensibly perceived is not Himself any of those things15
V.That He who is the pre-eminent Cause of all things intelligibly perceived is not Himself any of those things16

CHAPTER I
What is the Divine Darkness?
Supernal Triad, Deity above all essence, knowledge and goodness; Guide of Christians to Divine Wisdom; direct our path to the ultimate summit of Thy mystical Lore, most incomprehensible, most luminous and most exalted, where the pure, absolute and immutable mysteries of theology are veiled in the dazzling obscurity of the secret Silence, outshining all brilliance with the intensity of their Darkness, and surcharging our blinded intellects with the utterly impalpable and invisible fairness of glories surpassing all beauty.
Let this be my prayer; but do thou, dear Timothy, in the diligent exercise of mystical contemplation, leave behind the senses and the operations of the intellect, and all things sensible and intellectual, and all things in the world of being and non-being, that thou mayest arise by unknowing1 towards the union, as far as is attainable, "with Him who transcends all being and all knowledge. For by the unceasing and absolute renunqatiop of thyself and of all things thou mayest be borne on high, through pure and entire self-abnegation, into the superessential Radiance of the Divine Darkness.2 1. Unknowing, or agnosia, is not ignorance or nescience as ordinarily understood, but rather the realization that no finite knowledge can fully know the Infinite One, and that therefore He is only truly to be approached by agnosia, or by that which is beyond and above knowledge. There are two main kinds of darkness: the sub-darkness and the super-darkness, between which lies, as it were, an octave of light. But the nether-darkness and the Divine Darkness are not the same darkness, for the former is absence of light, while the latter is excess of light. The one symbolizes mere ignorance, and the other a transcendent unknowing — a super-knowledge not obtained by means of the discursive reason.

2. 'Of the First Principle,' says Damascius, 'the ancient Egyptians said nothing, but celebrated Him as a Darkness beyond all intellectual or spiritual perception — a Thrice-unknown Darkness.' This is for ever about the Pavilions of that great Light Unapproachable. It is caused by the superabundance of Light and not by the absence of lumination: it is 'a deep but dazzling Darkness' (Henry Vaughan). 'The light shineth in the darkness' (St. John, I, 5). 'In Thy light we shall see light' (Psalm 36, 9).
But these things are not to be disclosed to the uninitiated, by whom I mean those attached to the objects of human thought, and who believe there is no superessential Reality beyond, and who imagine that by their own understanding they know Him who has made Darkness His secret place. And if the principles of the divine Mysteries are beyond the understanding of these, what is to be said of others still more incapable thereof, who describe the transcendental First Cause of all by characteristics drawn from the lowest order of beings, while they deny that He is in any way above the images which they fashion after various designs; whereas they should affirm that, while He possesses all the positive attributes of the universe (being the Universal Cause) yet, in a more strict sense, He does not possess them, since He transcends them all; wherefore there is no contradiction between the affirmations and the negations, inasmuch as He infinitely precedes all conceptions of deprivation, being beyond all positive and negative distinctions.3 3. In one sense the Infinite is most truly described by what He is, whereas all finite existences are most properly described by what they are not in relation to Him who is; yet, inasmuch as all affirmations are necessarily drawn from that which is finite, it follows that God must transcend them all, and, therefore, without contradiction, it is true paradoxically to affirm that He possesses and does not possess both positive and negative attributes.
Thus the blessed Bartholomew asserts that the divine science is both vast and minute, and that the Gospel is great and broad, yet concise and short; signifying by this, that the beneficent Cause of all is most eloquent, yet utters few words, or rather is altogether silent, as having neither (human) speech nor (human) understanding, because He is super-essentially exalted above created things, and reveals Himself in His naked Truth to those alone who pass beyond all that is pure or impure, and ascend above the topmost altitudes of holy things, and who, leaving behind them all divine light and sound and heavenly utterances, plunge into the Darkness where truly dwells, as the Oracles declare, that ONE who is beyond all.4 4. The mystics speak of other kinds of darkness; for example, the darkness of the night of purgation, and the dark night of the soul, but the Divine Darkness is in a different category from these.
It was not without reason that the blessed Moses was commanded first to undergo purification himself and then to separate himself from those who had not undergone it; and after the entire purification heard many-voiced trumpets and saw many lights streaming forth with pure and manifold rays; and that he was thereafter separated from the multitude, with the elect priests, and pressed forward to the summit of the divine ascent.5 Nevertheless, he did not attain to the Presence of God Himself; he saw not Him (for He cannot be looked upon) but the Place where He dwells. And this I take to signify that the divinest and highest things seen by the eyes or contemplated by the mind are but the symbolical expressions of those that are immediately beneath Him who is above all. Through these, His incomprehensible Presence is manifested upon those heights of His Holy Places; that then It breaks forth, even from that which is seen and that which sees, and plunges the mystic into the Darkness of Unknowing, whence all perfection of understanding is excluded, and he is enwrapped in that which is altogether intangible and noumenal, being wholly absorbed in Him who is beyond all, and in none else (whether himself or another); and through the inactivity of all his reasoning powers is united by his highest faculty to Him who is wholly unknowable; thus by knowing nothing he knows That which is beyond his knowledge.6 5. The Triple Mystic Path is outlined here: - the Purgative, the Illuminative and the Unitive, which have a parallel in the Karma Marga, Jnana Marga, and Bhakti Marga of oriental mysticism.

6. Since it is absolutely impossible for the finite reason to receive a pure knowledge of God save through processes which divide and limit His Infinite Nature, the mystic at last with absolute faith must plunge into the Darkness of Unknowing, which he can only do when he has reached the loftiest point to which the highest human faculty will raise him.

The ascending stages of degrees of prayer and contemplation delineated by the mystics constitute a ladder by which the aspiring soul mounts from finitude into infinitude. Thus: -
The Prayer of Simplicity (vocal).
The Prayer of the Mind (voiceless).
The Prayer of Recollection (the Perfume or Answer of Prayer).
The Prayer of Quiet (beyond thoughts).
The Prayer of Union; of various degrees of Rapture, Ecstasy and 'Glorious Nothingness.'

CHAPTER II
The necessity of being united with and of rendering praise to Him who is the Cause of all and above all.
We pray that we may come unto this Darkness which is beyond light, and, without seeing and without knowing, to see and to know that which is above vision and knowledge through the realization that by not-seeing and by unknowing we attain to true vision and knowledge; and thus praise, superessentially, Him who is superessential, by the abstraction of the essence of all things; even as those who, carving a statue out of marble, abstract or remove all the surrounding material that hinders the vision which the marble conceals and, by that abstraction, bring to light the hidden beauty.7 7. Compare the well-known analogy of Plotinus:- 'Withdraw into yourself and look; and if you do not find yourself beautiful as yet, do as does the sculptor of a statue ... cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is shadowed ... do not cease until there shall shine out on you the Godlike Splendour of Beauty; until you see temperance surely established in the stainless shrine.' (Ennead, I, 6, 9).
It is necessary to distinguish this negative method of abstraction from the positive method of affirmation, in which we deal with the Divine Attributts. For with these latter we begin with the universal and primary , and pass through the intermediate and secondary to the particular and ultimate attributes; but now we ascend from the particular to the universal conceptions, abstracting all attributes in order that, without veil, we may know that Unknowing which is enshrouded under all that is known and all that can be known, and that we may begin to contemplate the superessential Darkness which is hidden by all the light that is in existing things.8

8. These are the two modes of Divine Contemplation — Via Affirmativa and Via Negativa — which mark the equilibrating pulse of true mystical life.

In the fonner case, beginning from on high, there is an out-flowing and a down-flowing of the consciousness, which passes from universals to particulars and sees God in all things, in the lowest as well as the highest.

But in the latter case, there is an up-drawing and in-drawing of the consciousness, passing from particulars to universals, which sees that God is not any of the things contemplated, and therefore, by abstraction, it arrives at the superessential Darkness which out-shines and obliterates the light of all sensible things. Or, in other words, an approach is made to the unapproachable Light.
CHAPTER III
What are the affirmations and the negations concerning God?
In the Theological Outlines9 we have set forth the principal affirmative expressions concerning God, and have shown in what sense God's Holy Nature is One, and in what sense Three; what is within It which is called Paternity, what Filiation, and what is signified by the name Spirit; how from the uncreated and indivisible Good, the blessed and perfect Rays of its Goodness proceed, and yet abide immutably one both within their Origin and within themselves and each other, co-eternal with the act by which they spring from it;10 how the superessential Jesus enters an essential state in which the truths of human nature meet; and other matters made known by the Oracles are expounded in the same place. 9. Dionysius refers to several of his treatises, but besides the Mystical Theology, the only other extant works of his are Divine Names, The Celestial Hierarchies, and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchies and various epistles.

10. These correspond to the Abiding, Proceeding and Returning Principles of Proclus.

By Divine Paternity all things abide in God, and God abides in all things; by Divine Filiation all things proceed, and God proceeds into all things; by Divine Spiration God returns, and all things return into God. The Three Divine Principles or Persons abide each in its origin, in Itself, and in each other.
Again, in the treatise on Divine Names, we have considered the meaning, as concerning God, of the titles of Good, of Being, of Life, of Wisdom, of Power, and of such other names as are applied to Him; further, in Symbolical Theology, we have considered what are the metaphorical titles drawn from the world of sense and applied to the nature of God; what is meant by the material and intellectual images we form of Him, or the functions and instruments of activity attributed to Him; what are the places where He dwells and the raiment in which He is adorned; what is meant by God's anger, grief, and indignation, or the divine inebriation; what is meant by God's oaths and threats, by His slumber and waking; and all sacred ahd symbolical representations.11 And it will be observed how far more copious and diffused are the last terms than the first, for the theological doctrine and the exposition of the Divine Names are necessarily more brief than the Symbolical Theology. 11. Although anthropomorphic and other figurative expressions applied to God are not true in the absolute sense. nevertheless they have a proper and almost indispensible place in the worship and reverence which man endeavours to pay to the Supreme through the media of finite faculties and symbols.
For the higher we soar in contemplation the more limited become our expressions of that which is purely intelligible; even as now, when plunging into the Darkness which is above the intellect, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence, of thoughts as well as of words. Thus, in the former discourse, our contemplations descended from the highest to the lowest, embracing an ever-widening number of conceptions, which increased at each stage of the descent; but in the present discourse we mount upwards from below to that which is the highest, and, according to the degree of transcendence, so our speech is restrained until, the entire ascent being accomplished, we become wholly voiceless, inasmuch as we are absorbed in Him who is totally ineffable.12 'But why', you will ask, 'does the affirmative method begin from the highest attributions, and the negative method with the lowest abstractions?' The reason is because, when affirming the subsistence of That which transcends all affirmation, we necessarily start from the attributes most closely related to It and upon which the remaining affirmations depend; but when pursuing the negative method to reach That which is beyond all abstraction, we must begin by applying our negations to things which are most remote from It.13 12. God is in a more real and positive sense than any finite reason can ever understand; hence the most prolonged and elaborate process of positing His supernal Attributes inevitably fails to describe Him, because of the utter inadequacy of finite terms truly to speak of the Infinite Ineffability.

13. That the Negative Path is not really negative in essence is demonstrated by the fact that the negation of negation is equivalent to an affirmation; and so the negation of non-being is consequendy the positing of being.
For is it not more true to affirm that God is Life and Goodness than that He is air or stone; and must we not deny to Him more emphatically the attributes of inebriation and wrath than the applications of human speech and thought?

CHAPTER IV
That He who is the pre-eminent Cause of all things sensibly perceived is not Himself any of those things.
We therefore maintain that the universal and transcendent Cause of all things is neither without being nor without life, nor without reason or intelligence; nor is He a body, nor has He form or shape, quality, quantity or weight; nor has He any localized, visible or tangible existence; He is not sensible or perceptible; nor is He subject to any disorder or inordination nor influenced by any earthly passion; neither is He rendered impotent through the effects of material causes and events; He needs no light; He suffers no change, corruption, division, privation or flux; none of these things can either be identified with or attributed unto Him.14

14. Although by negation we deny all sensible attributes to God and thus, so to speak, place Him outside of time and space, yet, paradoxically, He must be in time and space, for it is certain that sempitemally He is more present at any particular moment in time than is temporality itself, and likewise He is more present in any particular place than any finite spatial principle can ever be.

He is not sensible, yet He comprehends all the sensations which the senses of His creatures can ever experience throughout all duration.
CHAPTER V
That He who is the pre-eminent Cause of all things intelligibly perceived is not Himself any of those things.
Again, ascending yet higher, we maintain that He is neither soul nor intellect; nor has He imagination, opinion, reason or understanding; nor can He be expressed or conceived, since He is neither number nor order; nor greatness nor smallness; nor equality nor inequality; nor similarity nor dissimilarity; neither is He standing, nor moving, nor at rest; neither has He power nor is power, nor is light; neither does He live nor is He life; neither is He essence, nor eternity nor time; nor is He subject to intelligible contact; nor is He science nor truth, nor kingship, nor wisdom; neither one nor oneness, nor godhead nor goodness; nor is He spirit according to our understanding, nor filiation, nor paternity; nor anything else known to us or to any other beings of the things that are or the things that are not; neither does anything that is know Him as He is; nor does He know existing things according to existing knowledge; neither can the reason attain to Him, nor name Him, nor know Him; neither is He darkness nor light, nor the false nor the true; nor can any affirmation or negation be applied to Him, for although we may affirm or deny the things below Him, we can neither affirm nor deny Him, inasmuch as the all-perfect and unique Cause of all things transcends all affirmation, and the simple pre-eminence of His absolute nature is outside of every negation — free from every limitation and beyond them all.

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

"Cataphotic / Apophatic"

2006-01-15T05:08:26Z

Dear Friends,
please visit the SAI site where I am represented as a "Featured Artist of the Month"!
http://www.artofimagination.org/Pages/KorolevFeature.html
There are submitted a couple of new paintings and an essay
"Cataphotic / Apophatic"
http://www.artofimagination.org/Pages/KorolevEssay2.html
which describes the experiment.

Please welcome!

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 1 reply

St.Maximus the Confessor by Panayiotis Christou

2005-10-02T21:12:30Z

Dear Friends,
here in the very nice and informative recource http://www.myriobiblos.gr/ submitted an article of a famous
theologian Panayiotis Christou on the most blessed Christian teacher of Hesychasm St.Maximos the Confessor : "Maximos Confessor on the Infinity Of Man".

sincerely,
Oleg Korolev
http://www.koro-art.com/

Panayiotis Christou

Maximos Confessor on the Infinity Of Man

From: Felix Heinzer - Christoph Scönborn (ed.), Actes du Symposium sur Maxime le Confeseur (Fribourg, 2-5 september 1980), Éditions Universitaires, Fribourg Suisse, 1982.

Ι have chosen my subject for this conference, stimulated by my studies οn the writings of Gregory Ρalamas, which I have edited with the help of a group of my students in Thessaloniki.

Palamas in his attempt to emphasize difference between knowledge of a thing and participation in it, pretended in one of his treatises that those who praise Gοd through knowledge of his uncreated energies are merely pious, while those who participated in them become without beginning and without end by grace άναρχοι and ατελεύτητοι. He bases his optimistic perspective mainly on Maximos the Confessor, whose thought rules οn a high level over his argumentation during the middle period of his literary activity. Gregory Akindynos, against whom that treatise was addressed(1), of course rejects this aspect(2) and ironically questions how Palamas succeeded in becoming a man without beginning, since all men have a physical beginning(3). Ιn the sequel he refers to that haeresiarch, who was expelled from the Church οn the grounds that he merely had said that the human body of Jesus Christ was without beginning and heavenly. He obviously meant Apollinarius.

Palamas needed to return again to this subject and dedicated a few pages of his Antirretics(4). Though he was more extensive this time, he could not state all the complex thoughts, which led Maximos to the formation of his doctrine on this point.

Μan may certainly be considered as άναρχος and ατελεύτητος in the neoplatonic system, where all beings are of the same essence with the One. They come forth from tlιe Οne and return to it. Ιn this case however, tlιere is nο question of a personal existence, but οnly the idea of man or the cοmmοn existence of humanity. Τhe position of Maximos is personalictic and at first it certainly seems strange and inconceivable that man can enter the course of the uncreated. Τhe uncreated is that which really exists, and is not subjected to number and movement, the unique. Οn the other hand the created is that which came from nothing, which is subjected to number and movement, the multiform (5). Maximos sententiously states this fundamental doctrine of Christian theology: "the distance and difference between the uncreated and the created is infinite"(6). The words he ιιses in this reference κτιστόν and άκτιστον, differing from each other only by tlιe privative alpha-prefix, express two realities not merely different, but strange to eαch otlιer, two realities standing on two levels which do not meet each other anywhere. By limiting his reference only to man he characterises this distance as immense, as a "chasma", as a gulf: "there is a real "chasma", tremendous and great, between God and man"(7).

It is not very difficult, though, to understand that the οpinion of Maximos οn the dignity of man is suitably set in the whole system of his doctrine, and eνen constitutes its height. Indeed a title like "the cause of creation towards God" might be the mοst convenient inscription at the top of his entire literary production. True to the eastern orthodox tradition, he presents relations between tlιe two categories of existence, the divine and the worldly, in a two-fold manner, i.e. at the same time strange to each other and in close contact. Ιn this way he could escape the danger of dualism, either philosophical or gnostic. He especially thinks of man as one who combines and mediates between the two extremes and who by beginning with the removal of his οwn division into male and female might unite all the other divisions in the universe and reach God as the cause of all(8). Τhe relation between the uncreated and created nature, is expressed in terms of transcendence as well as goodness. Ιn the first case, we might point οut that the uncreated nature remains inaccessible as infinitely surpassing the created nature; in the second, we might point out that the uncreated natιιre essentiated and produced the knowledge preexisting eternally in itself(9).

Goodness transferred to the level of created beings receives the name of έρως from Maximos. This name expresses all the impulse of creation toward its perfection and acts in both directions being έρως οf God and έρως of man. "The divine as being eros and agape, is moved, while as an object of eros and agape, it moves towards itself those who are capable of receiving eros and agape. Τo state it clearer, it is moved with the aim of causing an inward relation of eros and agape in those who are capable of receiving this activity and moves as naturally attracting the desire of those who are moved for this reason"(10). Goodness is the cause of creation; eros is its perfecting power.

All beings, although they have come forth from nothing according to the will of God and in appropriate time, have their λόγοι, reasons, preexistent eternally within the one Logos, i.e. within God(11). Each one was made according to a corresponding reason, its logos, which defines its genesis and its essence. From this origin, creation dynamically rushes to its completion.

The term Logos, with its long tradition both pre-Christian and Christian, takes a particular meaning in Maximos connected with his teaching in image, likeness and participation(12) "All beings have a preliminary participation in God, according to the analogy of their creation especially rational beings, which according to the reason of creation, are seated in God himself and therefore are called μοίρα Θεού, particle of God"(13) "Every man is a μοιρα Θεού, but not under any condition: he was created as a μοίρα Θεού and remains as such as long as he moves according to his logos, otherwise he collapses and may return again to non-being"(14). At any rate, the logoi constitute the first found-action of man's ability to be raised above his natural state. By raised above his natural state" we mean an elevation which transforms nature to person, the φύσις to πρόσωπον. This is another fundamental distinction in the theology of Maximos, followed, by a number of other conjunctions, like κίνησις and ενέργεια, φυσικόν θέλημα and γνωμικόν θέλημα, εικών and ομοίωσις.

Nature or essence, is the common content of all species; person or hypostasis is the nature, together with its distinctive marks in each individual(15). Here anthropology corresponds to theology, in which the divine nature hypostasised in the three persons.

Movement is a distinctive property of creation, beginning with the foundation of the world as its consequence and involving a state οf change. Everything which moves is subject to change and naturally God being immovable is ιιnchangeable(16).

Α basic category of movement is time, which is unfolded alongside movement, and measures the life of the world. Time and perpetuity χρόνος and αιωνιότης are categories of creation while eternity is a category of God. Being above any relation, God is above time and age. He is eternal "as are all His energies"(17).

Νοw this movement belongs to the nature of created things, the rational as well as the perceptible ones, though different in each case(18). Ιn rational beings, it is combined with the distinction between the categories of nature and person. As we proceed from nature to person it is transformed into energy.

Though Maximos also accepted energy as a capacity of nature, he does so only in a special case and under terms which facilitated his aim in facing the doctrine of his adversaries about a unique energy in Christ. Ιn Christ each nature has its οwn energy, not as a nature, but as a correspondence to a person. Αnd indeed, the divine nature is a person, while the human nature, not even a particular person, was developed to such a degree, that it had its movement raised into an energy.

Thus, in general, Maximos does not consider movement and energy as identical; in his mind, the second is a personal elaboration of the first and every created nature is defined by its energy(19). The same terminology was used by John of Damascus one century later(20). For Maximos, nature without energy would be something absurd, as later it would be for Gregory Palamas. And movement as expressed in each particular being by its own energy, is a power which leads to a purpose, either positively or negatively.

The division of will into two categories corresponds completely to the previous distinction between movement and energy. Natural will is a capacity of the natural being, both appetitive and cohesive, of all properties which belong to the category of nature(21). Οn the other hand the gnomic will is a self determining impulse, executing the turns towards either direction and also a capacity of person(22). The natural will is, therefore, connected with nature and movement, while the gnomic will is connected with person and energy(23).

Maximos places the distinction between image and likeness in the same frame. The first belongs to the category of nature and exists in the space between being and well-being, είναι and ευ είναι, while likeness belongs to the category of person and points to the perfection of man. It is worth citing a very characteristic chapter of his on this subject:

God, in bringing into existence the rational and intellectual beings, communicated four of tlιe divine attributes, in order to suppοrt, to guard and to preserve beings: being, ever-being, goodness and wisdom.

Two of these, being and ever-being, were offered to essence. The otlιer two, goodness and wisdom, were offered to the gnomic capacity, so tlιat creation became by participation that which God is by essence. That is the reason why it is said that man has been made in the image and likeness of God: In the image as being of the being and as ever-being of the ever-being, if not without beginning certainly without end, and in the likeness, as good of the good and as wise of the wise, one by grace of the one by nature. Every rational nature is in the image of God, while only the good and the wise are in the likeness(24).

According to this type of theology, being and ever being have been offered to the nature (or essence) and therefore they became properties of the rational beings by nature. The meaning of the image is exactly this, that created essence received the properties of being and ever- being, the second, though, not without end. Αll rational beings have been created in the image of God, which belongs to their nature. Τhe other two properties, goodness and wisdom, have been given to the gnomic capacity, i.e., to energy. Rational beings are not automatically by tlιeir creation endowed with these properties, but obtain them througlι their free operation; these are ingredients of likeness to God, being attained only by grace. Likeness is connected to personal freedom and consequently belongs to the category of person. The person is not something completed in advance. Rather, it is formed through hard struggle, aiming at elevation of nature, or rather at its surpassing. For man to form his personality means to transform his movement to energy, his natural will to gnomic will and his image to the likeness to God; it means to be elevated to the level of God and converse with him, person to person.

The purpose put in front of man illuminates clearer Maximos' aspect of a close connection between man and God. The fact that man was made as a particle of Gοd is not a sufficient property and, if this is not accompanied by a participation in the divine glory, it remains meaningless. The Confessor clearly defines man's purpose in analysing the mystery οf Christ. He says that the great and hidden mystery is the προεπινοούμενον τέλος for the sake of which God produced the essence of beings. It is, namely, the hypostatic union of God and man in Christ(25). Certainly, the exact meaning of this passage is given a reverse interpretation, when one concludes that the pιιrpose of man's creation is his union with God of which the hypostatic union in Christ was to be the archetype.

The destiny of man is the communion of the divine nature and the participation in tlιe eternity of God, attainable through God's implanting the respective logos into man in his creation and through his energy within the world as a whole. The distinction acccording to the λόγος φύσεως is sharply contrasted with the uncreated, while the distinction according to the τρόπος υπάρξεως is not separating but unifying. God is that which is participated in; his energies are goods which may be participated in by rational beings(26). The achievement of man's high destiny is realized in the terms of that dialectical relation between μετεχόμενον and μεθεκτόν and μετέχον.

The fιve great divisions οf nature(27) were put before man as a labor for unification "by the proper use of the natιιral faculties"(28). Beginning with his own division into male and female, he should by an apathetic relation to the divine virtue shake off his natιιre and become simply "bare man"; then, proceeding through the other divisions he could, at the end, unite the created nature to the uncreated, revealing these two as one and the same by virtue of grace(29). However, the first man not only was unable to secure a unification of the remaining elements, but even failed to approximate to his prototype, because he was not ready to use properly his natural powers. Therefore, instead of subjecting his senses to himself, he was subjected to the perceptible world, led to further division and came very nearly to non-being(30). And ever since, all of humanity has followed the same way. Ιn this situation another extraordinary process was initiated: to be not according to nature, nor against nature, but above nature. God himself became man in order to unite the divided and to show the reasons by which it would be possible for union to be realized. Τhe Logos of God became "a perfect man out of us through us to us, possessing all our properties, except sin"(31). Of particular importance in this reference is a second paradox; namely, that Christ, through his incarnation, makes human nature another mystery. He elevates it with himself and transforms it(32). However, elevation has not been realized οnce for ever. According to the personalistic view of Μaximos, God and man are παραδείγματα αλλήλων, examples of each other. Gοd makes himself man out of love for men as much as man deifies himself οut of loνe for God; and God lifts up man to the unknowable as much as man manifests God, invisible by nature, through his virtues(33). There is one person that imparts grace and another that receives grace; on the other hand, man in general and also each person separately is the one that has given to Christ humanity and Christ is the person that has accepted it.

The one by receiving the human nature enters the creation and the other by achieving a union of his nature with the divine enters the realms of the uncreated. The one descends; the other ascends. Here we find the correct explanation of Μaximos' aspect about the position of the incarnation in God's design. On the basis of what has been said in the last few lines one can conclude that the cause of the incarnation should be found in man's fall and its purpose in man's restoration. However, this would be contrary to Maximos' statement that the incarnation of the Logos was the προεπινοούμενον τέλος, being found eternally in the divine design. Indeed, since man's purpose was theosis, which he was not able to achieve by his οwn means, the descent of God to man would be necessary under any circumstance, in order to facilitate man's ascent. Incarnation is the perfection of man(34). Μan's sin and fall were a fact which did not cause a new decision by God, but added a detail to the eternal design. This is a further elaboration of Athanasius' teaching οn the subject as in the De Incarnatione Verbi.

Under conditions prevailing after Christ's incarnation, three factors move and influence the human will. God, nature, and tlιe world(35). Μan remains stagnant if his will is subjected to nature; he becomes mere flesh, if it is conquered by the world; he becomes God by adoption, if it is attracted by God. Therefore, his pursuit is to surpass first the world and then his οwn nature, in order to reach God. For, these factors do not act by force, but rather propound their motives before man's will. What is of the greatest importance in the process of regulating his life is the αυτεξούσιον, i.e. the self-determining power, the faculty to transpose appetite from the allowed to the forbidden, from the good to the bad, and conversly; the right to choose between "being attached to the Lord and become one spirit and of being attached to the prostitute and become one body"(36). Free choice means a contesting process in the midst of a variety of conditions which are defined by the attitude towards the threefold general law. Τhe third law, i.e. that of grace, prevailing pre-eminently on the field of virtue, teaches the immediate imitation of God and leads to divinization through transformation of nature. Virtue is not a good within the nature or according to nature, but above nature; it is a surpassing of nature and fights against nature, in order to remain unsubdued, as the true theory fights against time and age. The divine likeness comes forth from these two powers, i.e. θεωρία and αρετή, theory (or gnosis) and virtue(37).

The path way is a continuous elevation towards God, from power to power and from glory to glory, beginning with movement given by God and advancing to eros and ecstasy until the traveller is incorporated within the loved one. Eros is the highest stage of man's love for God and of God's love fοr man. Αll virtues contribute to the divine eros, and most of all pure prayer, through which the mind obtains wings to pass outside all things and to be elevated from the human things to the divine. So man becomes able to follow Jesus Christ in his ascent to heavens(38). The οne who has been purified by practical philosophy, was taught by natural theory and lastly was led to mystical theology, meets God ineffably in ignorance as within γνόφος, obscurity. Such a one has already become Moses: a spiritual Moses(39).

As has already been said, movement is a means for pursuing a high purpose, in man's case, perfection. The end is found in the ascent of Creation to God, where rest is prevailing as a consequence and completion of movement. Μan's path-way testifies that beginning and end are one and the same(40). Movement begins with time and rest begins with termination of time; therefore, beginning and end meet each other at one point. And since the beginning defines the movement as caused by the creation of things, it rightly was called also end, where the motion comes to rest as in the movement of things. In this way man searching for his end, his final goal, naturally reaches the beginning which is identified with the end. This proceeding from movement to rest means a transition from time to eternity, a surpassing of the separation between the created and the uncreated, a passage to God, who lies behind time, movement and alteration. This is the κατάπαυσις or σαββατισμός i.e. cessation.

Not all things cease to move, howeνer, but only those governed by time while the things of virtue, being outside time, proceed for ever and, even if they be terminated, move again towards a new increase, for the ends become beginnings of other advances. The state of rest, which is absolιιte in the ideal world of Plato and Origen, here in the world of spiritual perfection of Μaximos is relative. It is an αεικίνητος στάσις and στάσιμος κίνησις, an ever-moving rest and an ever-remaining movement(41). Spiritual perfection is without term, as Gregory of Nyssa had tauglιt long ago(42).

Maximos, in his attempt to elucidate the state of transcendental life, offers the examples of St. Ρaul and Melchisedek, stressing the second even much more emphatically. Melchisedek, king of Salem, being presented in the book of Genesis as without genealogy, received in time a messianic character. Ιn the Epistle to the Hebrews he is said to be fatherless, motherless, without generation, having neither beginning of days nor an end of life and likened to the Son of God(43).

Transition to eternity is not just an eschatological question for it belongs to the sphere of spiritual operation, which is independent of temporal or non-temporal conditions. Time and space may be abolished at any point of human life, even οn earth, if they are surpassed by reason and virtue. The gulf between God and man is bridged, even when man is still within this world of change and corruption, within the flesh, οn the sole condition that he has been removed through his own will from flesh and world(44).

The adjectives fatherless, motherless and without generation were not attributed to Melchisedek "for the sake of natural and chronical properties", which characterize father and mother and generation, beginning and ends of days, i.e. things which have been abolished by Melchisedek himself. They were given to him "for the sake of divine and blessed properties", for the sake οf virtue, through which he transformed his species. Ιn other words he was named so, not οn behalf of his nature created out of nothing, according to which he began and ended his life, but οn behalf of the divine and uncreated grace, which comes forth from the eternal God and exists forever, above any nature and any time. Μan is recognized as having been begotten "gnomicly" in his integrity only through his uncreated grace, having attained that state, because he preferred virtue to his nature. So, he was begotten by the Logos in the Spirit to the divine and endless and immortal substances of God and this brings in itself truly the likeness of God who has begotten him(45). The one who has mortified his earthly members dies and rises with Christ(46). And since he has declined worldly goods and mortified the earthly members, he has ceased to reproduce in himself the life measured by time which has a beginning and an end, and is shaken by a multitude of passions. He abandoned these, for the sake of the better, the divine and eternal life of the Logos who dwelled in him(47). Being released from the bonds of time, he is freed in both extremes and so he becomes not only without end -an aspect easily understandable- but also without beginning, since beginning falls into the frame of time which was abolished. The end of times and ages is the complete unity of the genuine beginning with the genuine end within man who is saved. And since genuine beginning and end are just God, unity between these two elements within men who are saved constitutes a unity with God. Therefore, we observe first the choosing of things, then the complete unity between beginning and end, and finally theosis(48).

The one who receives the gifts of the incarnated Logos once, through the sacraments, is forever united with him and keeps his hypostasis forever inside his sοιιl. For Christ is all the time begotten in him secretly and he makes of the soul who begets him a virgin mother(49). Having the God-man permanently within himself, he is in a continuous and perfect contact with the divine. The one who is able to be elevated into the heavens through the divine Logos, who descended on earth for this purpose; he becomes God just as God became a man(50). When he supersedes nature, he becomes by grace what the giver of grace himself is by nature; after he stops his natural operations, according to flesh, according to sense and according to mind, he becomes God through participation in the divine grace. So in the proportion of his participation in the theosis he is also deified in soul and body; this is the uncreated θέωσις, divinization, which is offered to the worthy. And just as divinization is a divine energy without beginning and end, so also is the person who is deified.

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NOTES

1. Written at the end of 1341 οr the beginning of 1342.

2. Cod. Μοnac.Gr.223.

3. Apud Palamas, Antirreticos 3, 4, 7 (ed. Ρ. Christou 3, 165-166).

4. Ibid., 3, 2, l2ss.

5. Cf. Carit. 4, 9; PG 90, 1049B.

6. Amb. Io. 7; PG 91, 1077A .

7. Ibid. 10; ΡG:91, 1172Α.

8. Ibid. 41; ΡG 91, 1305.

9. Carit. 4, 4 and 5; PG 90, 1048D.

10. Amb. Ιo. 23: PG 91, 1260C.

11. Amb. Ιo. 42; ΡG 91, 1329Α. Cf. L.Τhunberg, Microcosm and Mediator. The theological anthropology of Maximus the Confessor, Lund 1965, 78-81. I.-Η. Dalmais, La théorie des logoi des crιatures chez S. Maxime le Confesseur, in: RSPhTh 36 (1952) 244-249.

12. Commentary to On the Divine Names 2, 3; ΡG 4, 352.

13. Amb. Io. 7; PG 91, l080Α.

14. lbid.; PG 91, 1081C.

15. Opusc. 23; PG 91, 264-265.

16. Cap. Theol. 1, 68; PG 90, 1108C.

17. Ibid. 48-19; 1100C-1101 Α.

18. Amb. Io.7; PG 91, 1072B.

19. Amb. Th. 5; PG 91; 1057Β. Cf. Thunberg, 94.

20. De Fide orth. 3, 15; PG 94, l048.

21. Opusc. 3; ΡG 91, 45D.

22. Ibid, l6; PG 91, 192.

23. Cf. J.-M.Garrigues, Maxime le Confesseur. La charitι, avenir divin de l'homme, Paris 1976, 91f.

24. Carit. 3, 25; PG 90, 1024Β.

25. Qu.Thal. 60, PG90, 620-62l.

26. Cap. Theol. 1, 48; PG 90, 1100-1101.

27. Uncreated and created, reasonable and perceptible, heaven and earth, paradise and oecumene, male and female.

28. Amb. Io.10; PG 91, 1148A.

29. Ibid. 41; PG 91, 1305-1308.

30. Ibid., PG 91 1308C.

31. Ibid., PG 91, 1308D.

32. Amb. Th. 5: PG 91 1048D-1049A.

33. Amb. Io. 10; PG 91, 1113 BC.

34. A.Riou, Le monde et l' ιglise selon Maxime le Confeseur, Paris 1973, 96f.

35. Ep. 9, PG 91, 445.

36. Amb. Io. 7; PG 91, 1092D.

37. Ibid. 10, PG 91, 1140A.

38. Cap. Theol. 2,18; PG 90, 1133B.

39. Amb. Io. 10; PG 91, 1149BC.

40. Qu. Thal. 59; PG 90, 613C.

41. Ibid. 65, scholion 44; PG 90, 781C.

42. Vita Mos.; PG 44, 300D.

43. Hebr 7, 1-22.

44. Amb.Io.10; PG 91, 1172Α.

45. Ibid.; PG 91, 1140CD.

46. Ibid. 47; PG 91, 1360CD.

47. Amb. Ιo.10; PG 91, 1144C.

48. Qu. Thal. 59; PG 90, 609Α.

49. Or. dom.; PG 90, 889C.

50. Amb. Ιο. 60; PG 91, 1385.

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 0 replies

Excellent web resources now available

2005-09-17T00:43:45Z

There is an Eastern Christianity portal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Eastern_Christianity> that has been developed by Wikipedia. It is a great resource and joins Ron Robertson's _The Eastern Christian Churches_ <http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-introduction.htm> in being the most useful introductory web resources on Eastern Christianity.

posted in Eastern Christian Spirituality - 1 reply