tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41020924096202919022024-02-19T13:34:17.610+00:00All Things Made NewUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger159125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-81312468652187169442014-05-30T17:29:00.002+01:002014-05-30T17:29:54.308+01:00NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES
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<a href="http://angelicopress.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/caldecott-not-as-the-world-gives-233px-350px.jpg?w=640" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://angelicopress.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/caldecott-not-as-the-world-gives-233px-350px.jpg?w=640" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>The Master of the universe,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Showing us how to walk the way of humility,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Took a towel<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>And, bending down below his disciples,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Washed their feet.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Learn not from an angel, He said,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Not from man, nor from a book,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>But from me—<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>From my indwelling,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>From my illumination and action within you<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>For I am meek and humble in heart<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>And in thought and in spirit,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>And your souls shall find rest from
conflicts<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>And relief from thoughts.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The cover of <a href="http://angelicopress.com/caldecott-not-as-the-world-gives/">my new book</a>, by Ducio, shows Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. The extract from Ch. 49 of <i>Christ the Eternal Tao</i> begins to explain the meaning of the image.<br /><br />The Trinity reveals the pattern of the cosmos, of reality itself—from the stars to the dust we kick around our feet. The same Trinity that meets in a kiss between two people is the Trinity that governs the swirl of leaves in autumn when they fall from the trees. There is nothing beyond the Trinity, nothing beyond the particles that all things are made of, nothing beyond these pieces of stardust.</div>
<br /><i></i>There is no peace without justice, and no justice without goodness. The Ten Commandments are a search for justice, but the Commandments of justice are balanced by the Beatitudes, and the vision of Moses is balanced by the vision of Christ. According to Pope Francis a religion of money dominates our global civilization. Money and sex, therefore, and one more determining factor, technology, needs to be taken into account. We are living under the rule of the machine, and we are called to evangelize these three with the help of the Holy Spirit.<br /><br /><i>Not As the World Gives</i> reaches from the Age of Money to the Age of the Machine. What emerges from this sequel to <i>The Radiance of Being</i> is not just a presentation of Catholic social doctrine, but a vision of integration and wholeness, of a society both divine and human, and of a humanism open to the absolute.<div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-41492077955614426892014-02-21T22:29:00.000+00:002014-05-17T21:29:56.932+01:00Sparklings of the Divine Light<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCmNVcuoLgrDmPDtGk9eubE-a0W5ttWJpiVGKOwf-O6zML2KKI6looLqfW8NY2eMHbX0PwT0aaoY199ExS1YZ6I5YhbAiVPV7Ak5CnnIVfhQEus9tfMAw0jW0ECnEneBRf_eRS4WePW4c/s1600/Pantheon+Rome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCmNVcuoLgrDmPDtGk9eubE-a0W5ttWJpiVGKOwf-O6zML2KKI6looLqfW8NY2eMHbX0PwT0aaoY199ExS1YZ6I5YhbAiVPV7Ak5CnnIVfhQEus9tfMAw0jW0ECnEneBRf_eRS4WePW4c/s1600/Pantheon+Rome.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Pantheon in Rome, now the Church of All Saints.</i></td></tr>
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"The door of the human being is the spiracle* of life through which we spirate and breathe the Divine Being, eternal light and life. Now what is an opening if not a hole, an interruption of closure. In other words, ‘in’ this hole of the human being, which is the spiracle of Genesis, the human being ceases; it is interrupted. <b>But there where man ceases God begins.</b> Man is enclosed in his own nature as in a carapace (and this also includes, in a certain way, all of creation). Beyond this carapace suddenly begins the ocean of Divine Light. God pierces a hole in this carapace that is immediately invaded by Divine Light. Insofar as this light comes from elsewhere, it is Divine; insofar as it wholly occupies the place of the orifice, it is part of human nature. </div>
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From this point of view there is profound analogy between microcosm and macrocosm, as is sometimes represented by medieval iconography: <b>the stars are not so much luminous bodies fixed to the celestial vault, as openings in the firmament through which the sparklings of the Divine Light is [sic] glimpsed.</b> Once we know what a close relationship there is, for Plato and Aristotle, between the stars and the essences of the intelligible world, this analogy is seen in all its profundity. Are Plato’s essences intelligible ‘things’? In a certain sense, yes. But, in another, they are holes in the sensory cosmos which, by their very notchings, delineate or cut out distinct luminous unities in that ocean of infinite light that is Divine Reality; how else could we withstand its brightness?<br />
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"To conclude let us add that, if the immutable essences are macrocosmic doorways to the divine, <b>if <i>neshamah</i> is the microcosmic doorway, the Most Holy Virgin is its spiritual doorway, the <i>Janua Coeli</i></b>, which makes of her ‘the Mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope’ (Eccles. 24:24). Yes, spiritual intelligence comes into us through the doorway of Heaven."<br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">"Spiracle" = "breathing hole.</span></i></div>
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The text is from Jean Borella, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Secret-Christian-Way-Contemplative/dp/0791448444" target="_blank">The Secret of the Christian Way</a></i>, ed. and trans. G. John Champoux (SUNY Press, 2001), p. 110. See also Borella's <a href="http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/Reviews/borella-review.htm" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Sense of the Supernatural</a>, which I was proud to publish at T&T Clark some years ago. <i>Secret of the Christian Way</i> is included in my list of DESERT ISLAND BOOKS (i.e. indispensable metaphysics and theology) which you can find below.<br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>Priest-Monk Silouan, <i>Wisdom Songs</i>; <i>Wisdom, Prophecy, and Prayer</i>; <i>Wisdom and Wonder</i>; <i>Wisdom, Glory, and the Name</i>. Staniloe, <i>Orthodox Spirituality</i>. Dionysius the Areopagite, <i>The Divine Names; Mystical Theology and the Celestial Hierarchies</i>. <i>Philokalia</i>, Vol. 2. Jean Borella, <i>The Secret of the Christian Way</i>. <i>The Early Kabbalah</i> (Classics of Western Spirituality). <i>Zohar</i> (Classics of Western Spirituality). Michael Lewis, <i>Hallowed Be Thy Name</i>. Paul Evdokimov, <i>Woman and Salvation</i>. Henri de Lubac, <i>The Discovery of God</i>. Valentin Tomberg, <i>The Covenant of the Heart</i>. Wolfgang Smith, <i>Christian Gnosis</i>. C.F. Kelley, <i>Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge</i>. James Mensch, <i>The Beginning of the Gospel According to John</i>. Pavel Florensky, <i>The Pillar and Ground of the Truth</i>. Anon., <i>Meditations on the Tarot</i>. Hieromonk Damascene, <i>Christ the Eternal Tao</i>. Giovani Reale, <i>Toward a New Interpretation of Plato</i>. Leo Schaya, <i>The Universal Meaning of the Kabbalah</i>. Clement, <i>The Roots of Christian Mysticism</i>. Bonaventure, Collected Works, Vol. 2, <i>Itinerarium Mentis in Deum</i>. Edith Stein, <i>Finite and Eternal Being. (</i>Aquinas- and Balthasar-related titles are not included.)</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>The books I have written include <a href="http://beauty-in-education.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/bibliography.html" target="_blank">the following</a>. I hope you like them.</b></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-8309288509280867162014-02-14T14:08:00.000+00:002014-02-21T22:33:10.288+00:00Praying to the TrinityThere are three special prayers in the Christian tradition: The <b>Lord’s Prayer</b>, the <b>Jesus Prayer</b>, and the <b>Hail Mary</b>. These prayers are directed especially to the members of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. <br />
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This is easy to see in the case of the first two, which are explicitly addressed to the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned in the third, although we know that he is the Spouse of the Mother of God, and St Maximilian Kolbe even refers to Our Lady as the “quasi-incarnation” of the Holy Spirit. These two – The Spirit and Our Lady – are closely entwined at the deepest level. <br />
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What we normally mean by “prayer” is talking to God (albeit silently) about things we need or things that worry us – or praising him and thanking him for this and that. Much of that kind of prayer involves thinking, imagining, conceptualizing. It is takes place in a mind full of echoes and mumblings of conversation, memories of things that have happened or fears of what may be about to, or simply random <br />
<a name='more'></a>words rattling around in our head – traces of thoughts that have not quite died away. Prayer in that context often feels a bit like writing a message in a bottle, and consigning it to the sea addressed to the God we hope will find it. God’s actual presence is at best assumed, but it is hardly tangible. <br />
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The aim of the <a href="http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/praying-name.html" target="_blank">Jesus Prayer</a> (<i>Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me</i>, constantly repeated) is to lead our constantly changing thoughts and feelings into a single conduit. The clearing of the mind is the result of a long struggle that the Fathers describe in the <i>Philokalia</i>. It doesn’t come easily to anyone: we have to keep trying. <br />
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If we achieve it, this state of emptiness or purity reveals God to us, or makes the mind transparent to God, like a mirror that, once cleaned, reflects the light of the sun. We stand astonished in front of an abyss, the infinite but personal presence of the supreme Subject that transcends us utterly and on which we depend, before which we can only submit and offer adoration in humility. The Fathers refer to this as a state of “prayer beyond prayer.” <br />
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Then it is the Spirit who prays in us (Rom. 8:26-8). “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:15-16). Through our prayer in the Spirit – that is, through in a sense our <i>becoming</i> prayer, becoming a “word” carried by the Spirit – we enter into eternal life. Already in this life we enter into the “we” of God by becoming Church. <br />
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The Marian prayer that complements the Jesus Prayer is based around the name of Mary, though it contains both. <br />
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<b>Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. <br />Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. <br />Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.</b> <br />
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The prayer contains three sentences. In the first sentence, the reference to the Lord is an invocation of God the Father. In the second sentence the name of Jesus is invoked directly, so that the Mary Prayer enfolds the Jesus Prayer in something like the way the Christ Child is borne in the arms of his Mother in the most familiar icons of Madonna and Child. <i>Thus you could say the icon is a <b>visual translation of the Hail Mary</b></i>. In the third sentence, Mary's motherhood is invoked, and along with it the entire Church whose soul is the Holy Spirit.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-24077200530884629132014-01-17T14:52:00.000+00:002014-01-21T08:50:55.204+00:00Praying the Name<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In what is surely an important ecumenical gesture, Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, one of the leading exponents of Eastern Orthdoxy in the UK, has written <a href="http://www.ctsbooks.org/the-jesus-prayer-1" target="_blank">a booklet on the Jesus Prayer</a> for the Catholic Truth Society (CTS). The Jesus Prayer is the most popular devotional prayer in the Orthodox Church and increasingly popular in the West. A simple and direct method of invoking the mercy of Jesus Christ by repeating his Holy Name, it is a way of obeying St Paul’s instruction to “pray always”. In an increasingly noisy and frenetic world, the Jesus Prayer offers us an oasis of inner peace and a lifeline back to God.<br />
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At the same time, a new booklet from CTS on <i><a href="http://www.ctsbooks.org/the-name-of-god-1" target="_blank">The Name of God</a></i> by Canon Michael Lewis in the Deeper Christianity series explores the basis for the Jesus Prayer in the revelation of the Name both in the Old Testament and in the New.<br />
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The following beautiful passage is taken from pp. 40-41 of <i>The Jesus Prayer </i>by A Monk of the Eastern Church (Archimandrite Lev Gillet).<br />
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"The Jesus Prayer must be 'breathed' continually. When the intellect has been purified and unified by it, our thoughts swim in it as merry dolphins in a peaceful sea. Then a dialogue begins in which Christ, who has become the inner master, makes known his will to the heart. When the Jesus Prayer is understood in this way, clearly its final aim is not mystical silence but the hearing of the divine word. We do not remain exterior to the name invoked, but the invocation allows us to 'participate in the holy name of Jesus.' It gives us the virtues of temperance and continence. The name of Jesus comes into our life first of all as a lamp in the darkness; next it is like moonlight, and finally like the sunrise. Being the sun of our intellect, it creates within it luminous thoughts, to which it communicates its own splendour, thoughts resembling the sun. It is love which elevates us – we should notice the part played by divine love in this process of transformation – and makes us higher than angels. To pronounce the name of Jesus in a holy way is an all-sufficient and surpassing aim for any human life."</blockquote>
Several postings on this theme will be found elsewhere on this site, for example under dates 3 Jan 2014, 6 Nov 2013, 26 Aug 2013, and 15 Apr 2011.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-28158566044195438562014-01-11T08:00:00.000+00:002014-01-11T10:34:58.183+00:00Baptism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This picture of the Baptism of Christ by Fra Angelico has great depth to it. Beyond the sweep of the river and the horizon the clouds form a kind of tunnel, through which the Holy Spirit is entering into the world. It is as though everything comes from here. The Baptist is dark, as though in shadow ("I must decrease..."), and the Saviour is light – the brightest thing in the picture, glowing by his own radiance, and at the same time illuminated by the Holy Spirit. The Baptist is pouring water from a golden bowl, like the river that flows over Christ's feet and the light that flows over his head – the Upper and Lower Waters of Genesis, the Upper Waters coming directly from heaven and the Lower following a winding path through the hills.<br />
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Angels and human beings (with the Virgin Mary and St Dominic representing the saints) await the outcome of the Baptism, which is the renewal of all things. For the moment, the new creation is held between the hands of Christ. These hands are pressed together in a symbol of peace precisely at his heart. The Sacred Heart will be pierced on the Cross to allow the Church to be born in blood and water, and the hands will be spread wide. In the painting the figure of Christ is facing us, so the whole image is oriented towards the viewer. We are challenged to respond with prayer, to enter into the biblical scene ourselves, and so to become part of the mystery.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This painting is beautifully reproduced and discussed in the January issue of </i><a href="http://www.magnificat.com/english/index_uk.asp" target="_blank">Magnificat</a><i> (see "Art Essay of the Month").</i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-38344974794503163382014-01-04T11:15:00.001+00:002014-01-04T11:15:15.583+00:00Three wise men<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are the gifts of wisdom, signifying the kingship of Christ, his deity, and his death (or virtue, prayer, and suffering). But one might also see them as representing the three stages of the spiritual life: myrrh for purification through ascetic struggle, frankincense for illumination through prayer, and gold for the final "unitive" stage – union with God.<br />
<br />St Bonaventure describes the three stages, corresponding to the three gifts of the wise to mankind, in <i>The Triple Way</i>. “First, the steps of cleansing. The first level of spiritual life, purification, is divided in this manner: You must blush because of your crimes; tremble in the face of judgment; weep for the damage done; beg for remedy; fight the enticements of the enemy (the devil); desire <a name='more'></a>martyrdom on account of the reward, and come close to Christ seeking shelter in him.”<br /><br /> “The steps pertaining to illumination [the second stage] are divided in this manner: Consider who it is that is suffering [Christ Crucified] and surrender with faith. How good is the One who is suffering and be filled with deep compassion. How great is the One who is suffering and be carried away with admiration. Why he is suffering and be filled with trust and gratitude. How he is suffering and be led to conform to him. How much he is suffering and embrace him with ardour. What are the consequences of his suffering and contemplate him with deep insight.”<br /><br /> “The steps of the unitive way, the third level of spiritual life, are divided in this manner: Watchfulness must arouse you since the spouse is at hand. [The spouse of our soul is Jesus Christ.] Trust must strengthen you since he is faithful. Desire must inflame you since he is sweet. Rapture must uplift you since he is lofty. Delight in him must bring you peace since he is beautiful. Joy must inebriate you since his love is full. Close proximity must weld you to him since his love is strong. Thus, in the intimacy of our loving soul let us always say to the Lord, ‘It is You I seek, in You I hope, for You I long, to You I rise, You I receive, in You I exalt, and to You I finally cling.’” (<i>Translation borrowed from <a href="http://spiritualsubstance.org/" target="_blank">Spiritual Substance</a>.</i>)<div>
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Another way of looking at the three gifts is as representing the gifts man gives to God – the essence of <i>liturgy</i> through the ages. The heart of the liturgy is the sacrifice itself (myrrh). The whole is animated by prayer, represented by the frankincense that rises to heaven. Finally we offer the glories of art (gold), representing heaven, to which the liturgy admits us.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-70003571660934373702014-01-03T10:15:00.001+00:002014-01-04T13:20:59.265+00:00Most Holy Name of Jesus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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How can one love a name? The closer one gets to death, the more one clings to the Name of Jesus. It is a kind of sacrament, a kind of presence. Words have power, because they are not just labels, as the Nominalists thought. The right name for something touches its essence, and invokes it. It makes a connection with the thing or the person itself – in this case with the Word that was with God in the beginning; the Word that is God, the light of the world. In the Word is contained the love of God that created the world, and that saves us from sin and death. Our faith is a supernatural breath that enables us to pronounce the Name in such a way that the One named becomes present to us. Supernatural hope enables us to place our trust in that Name. Love draws the Name into our heart. The Name prepares us for Holy Communion, it opens the place in ourselves where we are to receive Jesus.<br />
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Apart from the Jesus Prayer, we need no other words rattling around our soul, wasting our energy and time. Nothing else can help us so well to live in the present moment. In Exodus, God reveals his Name as "I AM" (or "He Is" in the third person). This is the expression Jesus uses of himself, seven times on its own (e.g. John 18:5-6) and seven times coupled with a title or predicate, such as "I am the Light of the World" (John 8:12). The name Jesus or Yeshua means "YHWH saves". How better to indicate the meaning of his life and person on earth? He is not the only one to bear this name, but he is the One who fulfils it.<br />
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For more on the Holy Name and its implications, see:<br />
<a href="http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/name-of-god.html" target="_blank">The Name of God</a><br />
<a href="http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/11/heart-wisdom.html" target="_blank">The Heart of Wisdom</a><br />
<a href="http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-jesus-prayer.html" target="_blank">The Jesus Prayer</a><br />
and<br />
<a name='more'></a>'The Lord Jesus promised, “Whatever you ask for in my name, I will do” (Jn 14:13). For “the name ‘Jesus’ contains all.... His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies” (CCC 2666). “You have been washed clean, and sanctified, and justified through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Co 6:11). “For of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.” (Ac 4:12). This memorial provides us the chance to live with special attentiveness before the Holy Name. “If you think the name ‘Jesus’ continually, it purges your sin and kindles your heart; it clarifies your soul, it removes anger and does away with slowness. It wounds in love and fulfils charity. It chases the devil and puts out dread. It opens heaven, and makes you a contemplative. It puts all vices and phantoms out from the lover” (Richard Rolle).'<br />
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<i> This is from </i>Magnificat<i>, January 2014, p. 51. The quotation from Richard Rolle shows that the Jesus Prayer was alive and well in England in the 14th century.</i><br />
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The full text of para 2666 of the <i>Catechism of the Catholic Church</i> reads as follows: 'But the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity the Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus," "YHWH saves." The name "Jesus" contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray "Jesus" is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him.' (The <i>Catechism</i> then goes on to teach the Jesus Prayer.)<br />
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<b>Who Is God?</b><br />
In all that is created, there is a distinction (a “fracture”) between the fact THAT it is and the question of WHAT it is—between its existence (<i>is</i> it?) and its essence (<i>what</i> is it?). In God alone is there no such fracture, since God is the Principle, the Absolute, whose very <i>nature</i> is to be, so that his essence is his existence. In other words, if we ask “What is it?” we can only answer, “It is,” or “It is Being (<i>esse</i>).” <br /><br /> But while in God there is no distinction between THAT and WHAT, there does seem to be a distinction between THAT (“AM”) and WHO (“I”). For as soon as God’s name is revealed to Moses—“I AM”—the question arises: HE is—but WHO is he? The answer is eventually given by the Church in the doctrine of the Trinity. <br /><br /> The Trinity of Persons does not divide God, nor multiply him. Nevertheless, it reveals a set of distinctions within divinity, within the Godhead:<i> I, Thou, We</i> – each of them the same essence undivided. These distinctions do not represent difference or disunity. All the confusions of the world begin with a mistake on this point. Each Person exists ("AM") in relation to the other Persons, but in itself as the centre of awareness ("I"). <br /><br /> To separate I from AM is to regard the Trinity from outside, as though the three Persons could stand next to each other and be counted. If we are <i>within</i> the Trinity, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit, then we participate in the knowledge that each has of the other, in one act of love, of perfect knowing. To be divinized is to be within the Trinity—to be one with them as Jesus and his Father are one (John 17:22). <br /><br />The answer to all the confusions of the world is to unite the two parts of the I AM. <i>Our Father who (“I”) art (“AM”) in heaven, hallowed be thy name…</i> How do we hallow the Name? By worshipping it in the Holy of Holies. By seeing it as One. Awareness (“I”) and presence (“AM”) are One, identity and being are One—in the Holy of Holies, the “secret place” (Matthew 6:6) where there is only room for One. <br /> <br />One may hallow the Name, the I AM, by the Jesus Prayer, if each mention of the Name of Jesus (which means “I AM” SAVES) is accompanied by the thought of the Person Jesus. The Name of the Father is not just “Father” but refers to God the Father, Son, and Spirit. It is the common essence—thus Jesus can say, “Before Abraham was, I am.” We come to the Father in the Spirit, through the Son; or through the Spirit, in the Son. We address Jesus in the Jesus Prayer, and the Father in the Lord’s Prayer. In both cases, we pray in the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit prays in us. <br /> <br />In turning to the I AM we are turning to the centre of our being, beyond the “I am” of our own personality, the awareness of our own existence, our own presence in the world. We are turning to the secret place, the place we come from. We discover that there is nothing created there—that the centre is not the “me”, the “self,” but God. This is the illusion we must free ourselves from by prayer, before we are freed from it by death. <br /> <br />This is where the light comes from, the uncreated light that shines everywhere for those who can see (those whose eye is “single” or “clear”), which becomes created light insofar as it becomes part of our own nature, making us not uncreated but divine—we remain creatures of God, but we participate in God as much as our being permits and as much as we are willing to receive. The light is experienced as fire to those who need purification, and eternal fire to those whose purification is never complete. <br /><br /><i>These notes are inspired by <a href="http://www.orthodoxmonastery.co.uk/Orthodox_Monastery/Welcome.html" target="_blank">Priest-Monk Silouan</a>, though I write as a Catholic and I don’t know if he would agree with everything I say.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-84459768281341227602013-12-30T07:26:00.000+00:002013-12-30T07:26:53.340+00:00Mystery of two natures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The mystery of the Presentation, when Jesus is recognized by Simeon and the elderly prophetess Anna, "really brings together in the Temple all that was living and true in the Old Testament. This mystery shows us how the union of the Old and the New Testaments is found in Mary, how in and through her the Old Testament is assumed by the New without being abolished: the Old Testament is completely transformed" (M.-D. Philippe OP). The Mystery betokens the union of human and divine natures in Christ – the assumption of a human nature through a divine personality. The Old Testament is human nature brought by God to its highest point in Mary. It has been built up through the ages to reach the point represented by Mary sitting in her room with the Scriptures open on her lap, ready to receive the Word of God. She receives, and those Scriptures are raised to a higher level in Christ, a human nature assumed and therefore transformed by a divine Person. Anna and Simeon recognize what has happened. Among the last prophets of the Old Testament, they see the dawning of the New.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The quotation from Fr Philippe is taken from </i><a href="http://www.magnificat.com/english/index_uk.asp" target="_blank">Magnificat</a><i>, December 2013, p. 453. The Icon is by the hand of <a href="http://iconsbyfathervladimir.com/saints-of-the-new-testament/385-st-anna-the-prophetess/" target="_blank">Father Vladimir</a>.</i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-9430742619040357962013-12-29T16:44:00.002+00:002013-12-29T16:44:54.021+00:00Holy Family<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNNe2zKyQHbSzfr-UVszo7xuA2dbB4-taHqQv0ebWmwUsKmMk54TlPO_Z9DyTFx1h5QyG6BMfR5xSDQKEOwJaddY_ZnrSWCrNG1MxIAm5KXxtkiqmDWG2TwdHpB952GyvwqmzHaYTMR4/s1600/Holy+Family+Egypt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNNe2zKyQHbSzfr-UVszo7xuA2dbB4-taHqQv0ebWmwUsKmMk54TlPO_Z9DyTFx1h5QyG6BMfR5xSDQKEOwJaddY_ZnrSWCrNG1MxIAm5KXxtkiqmDWG2TwdHpB952GyvwqmzHaYTMR4/s320/Holy+Family+Egypt.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
A family like others – that is to say, unique. Of course, while many families have God at the centre, this one has God made flesh. On the road, confused, hungry, uncomfortable. What will happen next? So many children killed because of him! How much time do we have to do what God wants? The road marked out by angels leads to Egypt, the land of pagan mysteries and secret initiations. This is the land where the first Joseph was taken by slavers, where he became a master of dreams and a prince, able to offer bread in the midst of famine. Now Joseph is bringing the Bread of Angels into Egypt. How long must they stay, and what must they do there until the angels speak again, calling them home? What did they see, and what did they learn? The Bible only tells us what we need to know.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-44834004961497524982013-12-24T08:08:00.000+00:002013-12-24T08:08:08.687+00:00Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The birth of a child is not a completely new beginning but it changes everything. It is a revelation that transforms us. The baby existed before, but now we can see its face. In this case, the unique case of Jesus, it is the face that God turns towards us, and also the face that we turn towards God – the mystery of two natures.<br />
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When Jesus comes into the world, all things turn towards him. The star representing the heavens leads wise men towards the baby. The peoples of the earth flock towards the stable where he shows his face. Everyone wants to gaze into those eyes. Mary and Joseph are the privileged ones. They live in his presence, surrounded by his aura, full of his joy.<br />
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The child begins to cry. He needs us, as we need him. He gives a voice to the cry of the ages, the cry of the world itself – the people, the animals, the rivers, the mountains. He gives a voice to the cry of God, who calls us to return to him, across such a great distance, over which there is now a bridge. The cry of God has never been heard before. The long ages have been silent. The bridge begins with a cry of need, and it will end with a cry of rejoicing, as the peoples of the world enter their Holy City.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-21826064210491376642013-12-21T19:25:00.000+00:002013-12-22T08:29:52.854+00:00Moses and Joseph<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Saint Joseph, image of the Father, may also be seen in this image of Moses approaching the Burning Bush by Nicholas Froment. The Bush is Mary, Joseph's spouse. On her lap is the Logos, the I AM that she gives to the world. She is surrounded with flames that will descend again at Pentecost. Moses takes off his shoes, he hears the angels in the flames speaking for God. He takes his people to the threshold of Promised Land. As for Joseph, he cherishes his spouse, he listens to the angels, he leads his people into Egypt like the first Joseph, and back again. Mary is an Ark of the Covenant that contains the new Law—Mary containing Jesus, or holding him in her arms. In Jesus who is the Law, the divine Presence is saving the People of God. The whole painting is like an Annunciation because of the presence of the Angel (perhaps Gabriel) on the left. It is like the Annunciation to Joseph, when he is told about the divine conception of Jesus. It is then he sees Mary for the first time as the Ark and the Temple and the Seat of Wisdom. Or perhaps he knew this already – but now his own place in the story is revealed. The fulfillment of the divine promises is entrusted to him of all people. It is he, the unworthy, a mere creature, who must step into the place of the Invisible.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-78510624674573776392013-12-01T11:19:00.000+00:002013-12-01T11:19:08.752+00:00Advent devotion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mother of God, thou heart of light,<br />
Mother of God, heart of the world,<br />
Mother of God, thou heart most pure,<br />
Mother of God, heart of the Word,<br />
We come to thee full of shame and weak of soul,<br />
With body bowed down and bending the knee,<br />
For, because of our ignorance,<br />
Our hearts have greatly grown dark.<br />
The Lord has let us wander in the paths of our spirit,<br />
But now it is to thee that we come,<br />
O Mother of Jesus;<br />
Receive us as souls thirsting<br />
For the joys of the unwaning morning,<br />
And deign to renew in us a pure heart,<br />
So that we may chant unto thee:<br />
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Rejoice, Ark of the Covenant with my soul!<br />
Rejoice, Sealed Chest containing the Name of God!<br />
Rejoice, Living Ship afloat on creation's mysteries!<br />
Rejoice, Bridal Gift staining none with earthly vanities!<br />
Rejoice, Throne whereon Life itself reposes!<br />
Rejoice, living Resonance wherein chants a ray of uncreated Light!<br />
Rejoice, interior Treasury of the riches of Grace!<br />
Rejoice, mystic Tabernacle on the holy altar!<br />
Rejoice, heavenly Temple whose liturgist is the Spirit!<br />
Rejoice, Church ardently longing for espousal to Christ!<br />
Rejoice, O Bride, Mother of continual prayer!<br />
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<i>Part of an Akathist by the Romanian poet, Santu Tudor.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-54172904209087878852013-11-30T10:55:00.000+00:002014-01-13T15:29:25.170+00:00Untier of Knots<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is a 17th-century devotion that Jorge Mario Bergoglio discovered in Augsburg in 1986, a devotion to <b>Our Lady the Untier of Knots</b> – especially the "knots" of sin and twisted relationships that afflict families and destroy marriages. He brought it back to Argentina with him and promoted it there. The devotion is connected with the image of our Lady the Virgin of the Snows, which helps to explain his visit to Santa Maria Maggiore in his first day of office in Rome. <a href="http://www.ctsbooks.org/our-lady-untier-of-knots" target="_blank">CTS have published a book by Miguel Cuartero Samperi</a> on this topic, and it is touched upon in <a href="http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350632?eng=y" target="_blank">this article</a> from which the illustration was borrowed.<br />
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Cuarto writes: "The devotion to Mary Untier of Knots has been, since its origin, closely connected to marriage and the family, as it was to save the indissoluble bond between two spouses that the Virgin Mary desired to manifest her closeness and the efficacy of her intercession. Mary Untier of Knots is therefore invoked above all for family problems: marital crises, incomprehension, infidelity, separations and divisions between spouses, problems of every kind with the children, disputes between siblings, risky pregnancies, violence in the family, illnesses, work problems and other kinds of difficult situations that, like small and large knots to be untied, make family life a cluster of tangles."<br />
<!--EndFragment--><!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-29336460957115076302013-11-24T23:17:00.000+00:002013-11-24T23:17:29.209+00:00Answering Descartes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Descartes sought for an indisputable first principle on which to base his philosophy, and concluded that “the proposition, <i>I am, I exist</i>, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.” <i>I think therefore I am</i>. But where does the “I” come from, and to what does it refer? Thinking is certainly taking place, but all that is proven here is that thinking exists.<br />
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The foundation of thought is not “I am”—that is too specific, too hasty—but “something is” or “being is”. Being is that in which there can as yet be no distinction between <i>what</i> it is and the fact <i>that</i> it is—essence and existence. It is that whose nature is to exist. Everything else exists against the background of that necessity, a Presence or Principle which contains every possibility. And all human knowledge is rooted in the intuitive apprehension of being through a <a name='more'></a>participation in the uncreated light of God’s own intellect. It is in this light that we contemplate the melody of nature, the thoughts of God expressed in creation, and the Logos holding it all together. <br /><br /> What of the “I”? My “I” comes from that same infinite being and is a reflection of it. Being must therefore be an “I”. We know this, because every effect is an expression of its cause. Being is the “I” that lies deep within my own “I”. It is the presence of the all-holy, the spark of divine light at the core of our being. When God names himself “I AM” (Exodus 3:13-15), he is in a sense only confirming the identity of transcendental Being with transcendental Selfhood. This is the deepest answer to Descartes, for the gap between the “I” and the action that manifests its existence (thinking) is overcome. The first act of being is also the beginning of “I”. <br /><br /> The word “I” also implies community. An “I” only exists as such in relation to the not-I. My own sense of identity is awoken when I feel called by another, another deep within myself. I am called to holiness, to perfection. But when an “I” is born, so is a “Thou” and a “We”—a communion of persons. And so “the divine name ‘I am’ is equivalent to an ‘I give myself wholly to a Thou,’ and ‘I am one with a Thou,’ and therefore also with a ‘We are’ ” (Edith Stein, <i>Finite and Eternal Being</i>, p. 350). The “I AM” of God, speaking to Moses, implies such a community, which is later revealed as a Trinity by the incarnation of the Word. <br /><br /> If we start with being, instead of the “I” proposed by Descartes, we will be able to resume the conversation he interrupted. It is the apprehension of being (as John Paul II indicated in <i>Fides et Ratio</i>) that is the foundation of philosophy and of all human thought. A less technical name for it is “wonder”. All philosophy begins in the awakening of the question as to why anything at all exists. To wonder in awe before the world that reveals itself to us is to open the door both to philosophy and to religion.<div>
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<i>See also on this topic <a href="http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/i-am-therefore-what.html" target="_blank">here</a>. For more on the illustration go <a href="http://orthodoxwiki.org/Theotokos_the_Unburnt_Bush_icon" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-20078646497665636962013-11-20T14:39:00.002+00:002014-01-28T07:37:14.230+00:00A new way of reading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The Radiance of Being</i> draws upon an eclectic range of sources, not just authorities respected by Catholics and Orthodox. I tried to demonstrate in the book a <i>new way of reading</i>. Most orthodox writers try to defend Catholic truth by exposing the limitations and contradictions in heretical or marginal writers. I feel we should look for whatever may be <i>true</i> in those marginal writers and locate a place for it within the bigger system. Quite often the obstacle to understanding and appreciating them is our assumption that they are writing rationally, when they are writing imaginatively.<br />
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The Inklings did a great job vindicating mythopoesis. They believed that truth can be expressed imaginatively, poetically, mythologically. Can we apply this insight to these marginal theological writers and mystics? To do so we must be able to appreciate the voice of the imagination.<br />
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This does not mean accepting it as authoritative. Quite often the imagination addresses us with a magisterial tone, as if to say, "I have seen this for myself: therefore it is true." The Gnostics provide a handy example of what I mean, and <br />
<a name='more'></a>of the pitfalls into which we can very easily fall.<br />
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I am not saying that we should read <a href="http://www.passtheword.org/Jacob-Boehme/" target="_blank">Boehme</a> or Steiner, Blake or Tomberg as <i>authorities</i>. They may well have seen things, but the truth they have seen is clothed in images derived from a particular culture or tradition. In pursuing truth, we must not be distracted by every form it takes on. The imagination uses images drawn from the memory, and therefore from the surrounding cultural and natural world.<br />
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Understandably viewing the imagination with suspicion, most Christian mystics, including the hesychasts of Mount Athos and Carmelite mystics such as John of the Cross (though they employ images in their own writings), teach that we should go beyond anything we can conceive or imagine if we want to approach God. This is true, because God lies beyond both imagination and intellect.<br />
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It is therefore a delicate and dangerous path – a knife-edge – that we walk when we make use of these imaginative mystical writers. It can only be recommended to those who have a strong anchor already established in the teaching of the Church. We must have a primary commitment not to the enjoyment of images but the search for absolute and transcendent truth. This commitment will enable us to pick our way through the visionary landscapes of the mythopoetic writers.<br />
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Imagination is important. The Bible appeals to the imagination more than it does to the intellect. The historical, poetic, and prophetic books of the Bible reveal truth to those who have the eyes for it. We must learn to read these accounts, this poetry, in the right way, if we are not to fall into a kind of literalism or fundamentalism that is becoming all too common. But once we have developed this ability, we can apply it also to the mystics, provided we do so with care.<br />
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There are three worlds: spiritual, imaginal, and corporeal, perceived by the intellect, the imagination, and the senses respectively. We take too little account of the imaginal, which is the world of the soul and of visions. We may also make too much of it, as Henry Corbin did, falling into a docetic Christology. Our best protection against these extremes is the serene acceptance of the Church's authority and guidance.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Illustration: Jan Provost, <i>Christian Allegory</i> (1510-15).</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-20362493007214684542013-11-17T07:51:00.000+00:002013-11-17T07:51:29.141+00:00The second death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Watching the news, reading the papers, even the most sheltered of us may come to believe in the existence of real evil – of people who consciously and consistently reject God. The comic-book super-villain (such as Thanos, the arch-enemy of the Avengers, shown in this picture) is a symbol of such types. In real life, when the unrepentant sinner comes to die, what justice will he find? Eternal torment? And if so, will the punishment be made to fit the crime, as in the myths of old and Dante's <i>Inferno</i>? No one can deny that such an outcome seems appropriate. But why must this torment go on <i>for ever</i>, as it does in Christian doctrine, following a literal interpretation of Scripture (Matthew 25:46; Rev. 14:11). Why will a merciful God not not simply annihilate those who reject him?<br />
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The answer seems to be that he cannot. Even the Omnipotent cannot do what is <i>by definition </i>impossible. What makes this difficult to see is the meaning of time and its relation to eternity. To live even for a day is to exist eternally. That is to <br />
<a name='more'></a>say, that day exists forever. It will never not have been. For it to cease to exist altogether would be for it never to have existed at all.<br />
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We speak of "ending the existence" of someone, but to annihilate his existence at time t + 3 is to annihilate it at time t, t + 1, t +2, and so on. A person's existence is the root from which their successive moments of life flow into reality. To destroy this "root" is to destroy everything they ever were, or did, or thought, or experienced, along with all the effects they ever had, both good and evil. It is to unpick the tapestry of which they are a part.<br />
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So why not, rather than annihilate their existence, simply bring their consciousness to an end? Oblivion would be a punishment, right enough, but one that does no harm to the world as a whole, since the dead have ceased to play a role in its history. Here we are back in the domain of divine justice and mercy. If I were God, we tend to think, I would be merciful enough to end their torture. <br />
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Perhaps, but there is still the problem that this would seem to contradict the stern words of Scripture. Even the mysterious prophecy about the death of Death (Rev. 20:12-15), would seem only to confirm the doctrine of an eternal burning in the "lake of fire".<br />
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:5-8).</blockquote>
There are other ways in which God's mercy could be manifested. Some believe that the "time" in which the sinner experiences his punishment contracts to an infinitesimal moment. Just as the moment of death expands infinitely for those who live with God, it contracts infinitely for those who reject him. These and other views are discussed in more detail in <i><a href="http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/announcing-new-book.html" target="_blank">The Radiance of Being</a></i>.<br />
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But perhaps we do not need to worry too much about the details. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Rev. 21:4). Our God is more merciful than us, and any possibility of kindness will have occurred to him long before it did to any of his creatures.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-65954258437137750642013-11-14T08:07:00.000+00:002013-11-21T09:54:04.258+00:00Christian TaoismThe <i>Catholic Encyclopedia</i> describes the heresy of Quietism as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Quietism (Latin <i>quies, quietus,</i> passivity) in the broadest sense is the doctrine which declares that man's highest perfection consists in a sort of psychical self-annihilation and a consequent absorption of the soul into the Divine Essence even during the present life. In the state of "quietude" the mind is wholly inactive; it no longer thinks or wills on its own account, but remains passive while God acts within it.... In its essential features Quietism is a characteristic of the religions of India. Both Pantheistic Brahmanism and Buddhism aim at a sort of self-annihilation, a state of indifference in which the soul enjoys an imperturbable tranquillity. And the means of bringing this about is the recognition of one's identity with Brahma, the all-god, or, for the Buddhist, the quenching of desire and the consequent attainment of Nirvana, incompletely in the present life, but completely after death. Among the Greeks the Quietistic tendency is represented by the Stoics."</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrUeRY8gOO_XzNAEVz2WFvBWhL6ULNuBovGkgUomTxx1LCcwtGCKXUi__Lc8gI7qdpYeGmSGhjb7X2zQKHCO6PmmhKbYvnJWk1_u8wKeDLrJRkWx3JEWzrSJpeitVxubGZFH8s9WoDy4/s1600/annunciation-1434.jpg!Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrUeRY8gOO_XzNAEVz2WFvBWhL6ULNuBovGkgUomTxx1LCcwtGCKXUi__Lc8gI7qdpYeGmSGhjb7X2zQKHCO6PmmhKbYvnJWk1_u8wKeDLrJRkWx3JEWzrSJpeitVxubGZFH8s9WoDy4/s320/annunciation-1434.jpg!Blog.jpg" width="320" /></a><i>The Sacrament of the Present Moment</i> or <i><a href="http://christianmystics.com/Ebooks/Self_Abandonment_Divine_Providence/abandonment.pdf" target="_blank">Abandonment to Divine Providence</a></i>, a spiritual classic ascribed to Jean-Pierre de Caussade SJ, teaches a doctrine very close to Quietism. How does it differ? I suspect the difference may be found in that between "passivity" and "receptivity" – <i>Abandonment </i>teaches receptivity before God, not the pure passivity which would imply dissolution of the individual personality. (The difference between these concepts is not always clear, and in theology has only been explored properly in modern times by writers such as David L. Schindler and others in the <i>Communio</i> school, where it forms an important theme. I have tried to summarize it in my chapter on the Trinity in <i>The Radiance of Being</i>.)<br />
<br />
Caussade seeks "a free and active co-operation which is, at the same time, infused and mystical". It is an <i>active</i> co-operation because a merely passive one would leave the human person unchanged and imperfect, unrepentant and unhappy. For Caussade, God loves the human person and brings us to perfection through grace, with which we must cooperate perfectly by the time we reach <br />
<a name='more'></a>heaven. God's providence rules all things, even integrating the evil it <i>permits to happen</i> within a design we cannot perceive (the "<i>felix culpa</i>" principle). We know this from Scripture, where we read that "in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). This is the key to the entire doctrine of <i>Abandonment</i>.<br />
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<i>Abandonment is</i> a Christian <i>Tao Te Ching</i>. In Chinese tradition Taoism was the mystical complement to Confucianism supposedly founded by the sage Lao Tse (or Laozi), a contemporary of Pythagoras, roughly in the sixth century BC. The <i>Tao Te Ching</i> (<i>Daodejing</i>) dates back at least to the fourth century. It consists of a series of aphoristic chapters that summarise the wisdom of non-action (<i>wu wei</i>), and the virtues of simplicity, patience, and compassion. Detachment from ego lets the world as a whole act through you and the natural order assert itself. In <i>Abandonment</i> there is a similar sense of the return to Eden, to primordial innocence – though, of course, with a recognition that this is made possible by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.<br />
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The <i><a href="http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm" target="_blank">Tao Te Ching</a></i> famously begins:<br />
<br />
The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.<br />
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.<br />
The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth.<br />
The named is the mother of myriad things.<br />
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Thus, constantly without desire, one observes its essence;<br />
Constantly with desire, one observes its manifestations.<br />
These two emerge together but differ in name.<br />
The unity is said to be the mystery;<br />
Mystery of mysteries, the door to all wonders.<br />
<br />
The Tao is the Way, the metaphysical "Principle"of all things – the equivalent of the Greek Logos, enabling us to translate it as "Word". A book by Hieromonk Damascene called <i><a href="http://symeonsjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2006/05/christ-eternal-tao.html" target="_blank">Christ the Eternal Tao</a></i> does just this, paraphrasing the entire <i>Tao Te Ching</i> on the assumption that Christ is the incarnate Tao, whose nature was known only obscurely by Lao Tse and is now manifest to all. (For a series of substantial extracts from this amazing book see the blog <i>Pax Vobiscum</i>, beginning <a href="http://paxexsistovos.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/excerpt-from-christ-eternal-tao.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
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The <i>Tao Te Ching</i> tells us to be like water, seeking the lowest place; to act without seeking reward. The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20110106071858/http://home.pages.at/onkellotus/TTK/English_Wisdom_TTK.html" target="_blank">Shrine of Wisdom</a><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20110106071858/http://home.pages.at/onkellotus/TTK/English_Wisdom_TTK.html" target="_blank"> translation</a> of chapter 28 reads in part: "He who his inner Glory knows, but still his lowness keeps, becomes a universal chalice. As a universal chalice, the Eternal Grace will fill him; he thus regains his simple essence." Another key term, T<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">êh</span>, means the manifestation or unfolding of the Tao – its "Virtue" or "Grace", its shining-forth, perhaps equivalent to Wisdom or Sophia in the biblical tradition, or (in the Orthodox tradition) the Uncreated Energies.<br />
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The mood of <i>Abandonment </i>is similar to that of the Chinese classic. Like Lao Tzu, the author asks us to "gaze at the principle, the source and the origin of all things." Then the true nature of the world will reveal itself to the pure heart, as a manifestation of God's will, and everything that happens becomes a word addressed to us. "You speak to us individually through what happens to us moment by moment." We lack nothing – no guidance or consolation, since God is always as close as a kiss, and everything is designed to lead us to him, no matter how strange or unpleasant. "For what God creates at each moment is a divine thought which is expressed by a thing, and so all these things are so many names and words through which he makes known his wishes."<br />
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<b><i>Glossary</i></b><br />
Tao – Logos, the One, God<br />
T<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">êh – Virtue, Mother, Wisdom</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">T</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">î – Perfect or Universal Man, Adam</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Yang and Yin – Form and Matter, comprised in Tao</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Heaven and Earth – Yang and Yin</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Wu and Wei – Action and Non-action, comprised in </span>T<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">êh</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Primal Triad – Yang, Yin, and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">T</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">î</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Compare more than a hundred translations of the <i>Tao Te Ching</i> <a href="http://terebess.hu/english/tao/_index.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">For a list of my books go </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://beauty-in-education.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/bibliography.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-34506610984213597212013-11-10T12:24:00.002+00:002013-11-14T09:25:07.653+00:00Lectio with the Psalms<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am more and more drawn to the <a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/psalms/" target="_blank">Psalms</a>, and to reading them slowly, using the method of <i>Lectio Divina</i>. At the heart of the Bible, they reflect the whole of Scripture in the form of prayer to God. Part of the Wisdom Books that divide the Historical Books from the Prophets, they form a vital stage in the movement from the first Covenant to the last, that of Jesus.<br />
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The Pentateuch or five Books of Moses open the Bible with the first Covenant – the creation itself, then Noah, Abraham, Moses. Then the Historical Books trace the Covenant through David and his descendants, through the emergence of Israel. Then the Wisdom Books reveal the meaning, the inner meaning, of this unfolding Covenant, to the individual soul as well as the People of God. The Book of Job flattens the soul on its face before <br />
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What needs to be understood, and what makes the Psalms so interesting, is that they are not assembled at random. One leads to another, each prepares for the next, balancing or fulfilling it. These are the prayers of Israel, and the prayers of Jesus – the prayers Jesus learned and lived. No wonder they begin with a Beatitude (Blessed is the man...), since they prepare the way for the teaching of Jesus himself in the Sermon on the Mount, and as a whole they form a portrait of the spiritual man, the man seeking his own end in the glory of God. They encompass the teaching of the First Temple, renewed by Jesus.</div>
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We also need to understand the "code". The enemies of Israel against which so many of the Psalms are directed are the sins, the forces of evil, that assail the soul. Or at least, that is how we must read them if we are treating them as prayers. And remember that we are reading in translation, which means we lose the nuances and associations that would have been apparent to early readers.</div>
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Th poetry of the Psalms relies on a simple technique (parallelism or <i>anaphora</i>) that is nonetheless very profound in its implications – the juxtaposition of two, or sometimes three, distinct metaphors or ideas to converge on the same idea from different angles (<i>Praise the Lord, all you nations./ Extol him, all you peoples</i>). This gives us a deeper and richer appreciation of what is being said – it is like the way we use bifocal vision to see in depth. The Book of Genesis gives us two distinct descriptions of the creation event for a similar reason, and the Gospels give us four rather than two accounts of the life of Jesus.<br />
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One way to read the Psalms meditatively is by going one at a time through the entire Book. This can be done online <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/Psalm+1/" target="_blank">HERE</a> – the advantage of this being that cross-references can be followed up immediately through hyperlinks from inside the text. The commentaries are from the Reformed tradition. For more detailed study (not in the order of the original Psalter but according to the Divine Office) you can also read the commentaries of John Paul II and Benedict XVI on the Psalms of Morning and Evening prayer, collected <a href="http://members.wolfram.com/billw/psalter/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. The Aquinas Translation Project gives us St Thomas' commentary on many of the Psalms <a href="http://www4.desales.edu/~philtheo/loughlin/ATP/" target="_blank">HERE</a>, and St Augustine's complete commentary is available in English <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1801150.htm" target="_blank">HERE</a>. Readers may wish to suggest other favourite resources for the study of the Psalms in the comment boxes below.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Illustration: David singing the Psalms, from the Westminster Psalter.</i></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-61768542123411674212013-11-06T22:19:00.000+00:002013-11-24T23:19:45.402+00:00I Am Therefore What?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For Descartes, the very fact that I am thinking – or that I can doubt that I am thinking – is proof of my existence, and for Augustine, too, <i>fallor, sum</i> ("If I am mistaken, I am") (XI, 26). But the relationship between consciousness (thought) and being (existence) goes much deeper, as we read in the Book of Exodus, when Moses is told that God’s proper name is “I AM”. “This is what you must say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14). This sacred name of God then echoes throughout the Old Testament (YHVH) and the New (<i>ego eimi</i>). In John 8:58, Jesus tells the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am.” <br />
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The Name is sacred and unpronounceable because it is a name that only God himself can utter, since he is the Self in question. Anyone who is not the “I” to which the Name refers is usurping the Name. And so the Name is not merely a label attached to one person by another, but an expression of <i>who God is</i>. It is the self-expression of God, the beginning of the revelation that becomes <br />
<a name='more'></a>complete in Jesus Christ, when the self of God is united with the soul and body of a human being, expressing itself not just in human language, but as a human being. <br />
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“The Name is purgatorial fire for those who are being purified. It is uncreated light to those who are being illumined. It is uncreated glory for those who are being glorified.” This is from p. 89 of <i>Wisdom Songs</i> by Priest-Monk Silouan, who writes about the secrets of the Name better than anyone else I know. “‘I AM’ is that centre in which all centres coincide” (p. 258). The Name is our eternal home, waiting for us; it is the city of light, the womb we seek, the peace we lost long ago. <br />
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“When God speaks, he is his Word. His Word names the Name, ‘I AM.’ The eternal, uncreated ‘I AM,’ when unconfused with me, is God. Wisdom knows ‘I AM’ through ‘I AM,’ not me” (p. 243). “God is ‘I AM,’ not me” (p. 253). As <a href="http://onecosmos.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/human-beings-are-out-of-this-world.html" target="_blank">another writer</a> puts it, "the Subject of subjectivity is God, the I AM of existence as such."<br />
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This Wisdom is the key to an enlightenment that transcends the “neo-pagan humanist renaissance,” the “new age,” and any reduction of Logos to Ratio (p. 240). It is the key to understanding insights that remain perennially valid within the Asian traditions, where Atman is identified with Brahman. It is not that the human self is the divine Self, but rather that the divine Self (I AM) is the only perfect being, and is reflected in all else that is. We are not God, but God is the centre of all, so when we turn to our own centre we find, not ourselves, but God. The centre of not-God is God. I exist because a centre exists in everything. Nothing exists without a centre.<br />
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Everything that exists does so by virtue of the Name (I AM) in which it participates, the act of Being in which it shares. “Everything above and below is saying I AM, glory loved and known. Everything is a divine name saying ‘I AM,’ and divine names are modes of love unfolding from God to give God glory, enfolding all in all. The beauty is the harmony, unfolding and enfolded” (p. 281).</div>
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<i>God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him</i> (1 John 4:16). To love is to give, to share, to participate, to coinhere. The Name of God, “He who is,” is the same as “I AM,” because to BE is to be MYSELF, and the act of being is the act of affirming my own existence, which only God can do. I cannot affirm <i>my own </i>existence, because I am dependent on others. God can. </div>
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Being is Light, because “Light” is a physical symbol of the giving of self so as to share it with others, to reveal it, to manifest its essence. There is no separation in God between “I” and “AM,” for both are one single shaft of light in the midst, in the centre of all. <i>To be is to be “I.”</i> It is to be who-one-is – and who is God but to-be, the perfect act of being, which is the act of giving, light from light, true God from true God. </div>
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“We are graced with freedom in these flames. Radiant communion, unconsumed, consumes dark confusion. The flame of the Name reveals God in a burning bush” (p. 293). </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">See also "<a href="http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/name-of-god.html" target="_blank">The Name of God</a>", "<a href="http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/finding-wisdom.html" target="_blank">Finding Wisdom</a>" and "<a href="http://thechristianmysteries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/answering-descartes.html" target="_blank">Answering Descartes</a>".</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-75421870189878725722013-11-02T08:53:00.000+00:002013-11-05T11:02:41.280+00:00Purgatory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak</i>. (Mt 26:41)<br />
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It is easy to speculate about the purpose of suffering when one is feeling well, but in the midst of pain most of us find speculation impossible. And yet as Elisabeth Leseur says (in the February 2014 issue of <i>Magnificat</i>), "Suffering is the great law of the spiritual world. God’s chosen ones escape it less than others; they pay the ransom for others, sometimes at a very high price. We will know only later the work accomplished by our suffering and our sacrifices. It all goes to the heart of God, and there, joined to the redemptive treasure, it expands in souls in the form of grace. We can convert, sanctify, console without going out of our home or out of ourselves." <br />
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Suffering is often the "price" we pay in advance for a grace that will come later. If that seems crude, remember that the law of exchange, justice, and balance is rooted in the very depths of divine justice. Not everything can be mercy. The pattern is established on the Cross, where our suffering is not merely imaged, but incorporated and integrated. The Cross is both Mercy and Justice. It is Justice because sin has destroyed order, and the restoration of order requires nothing less than the sacrifice of a perfect man, a sacrifice that makes up for everything that had been lost. It is Mercy, because the perfect man is also God, and therefore the payment does not merely make up what was lost, but infinitely more. Mercy is the gift of God's own self, his love. "It is love which not only creates the good but also grants participation in the very life of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For he who loves desires to give himself" (<i>Dives in Misericordia</i>, n. 7). Thus the balance between Mercy and Justice is established on the basis of the Hypostatic Union, the union of divine and human natures.</div>
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If we must learn to die to our false self to live in Christ, then suffering is the best way. The old self wants anything but suffering and pain. The new self, the true self, wants only the will of God.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Illustration: St Francis receives the Stigmata of Christ, by Giotto.</i></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-26316222602998651672013-10-21T10:12:00.002+01:002013-10-24T18:00:20.458+01:00Throne vision<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"Throne vision is a mode of vision as wonder that attunes every faculty to revelation of glory through the creative imagination.<br />
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"This should on no account be confused with fantasy, since creative imagination is a mode of uncreated creativity. Uncreated imaginal creativity is the inspiration behind all the liturgical arts, including sacred chant and iconography....<br />
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"Throne vision is wisdom's answer to the impoverishment of the imagination in our time. It is the desert's answer to the Inklings. It purifies the heart for wisdom."<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Quotation from Priest-Monk Silouan, <i>Wisdom and Wonder</i>, p. 157. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Illustration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KorenGlory.jpg).</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-52669737352969593002013-10-11T11:37:00.000+01:002013-10-11T11:44:03.277+01:004. First light<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A thought worth pursuing from the discussion of <i>kenosis</i>. What is it to be a person? For the theologians, the term is theological not psychological, and indeed derives from the theological controversies surrounding the definition of the Trinity and the meaning of the Incarnation in the early councils culminating in Chalcedon. A person, theologically, is simply a relation of origin – so that the Father is unoriginate, the Son is begotten by the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son (if you accept the <i>filioque</i>).<br />
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The relationships are reciprocal and circular, so that the Son and the Spirit "return to" the Father also. A relationship has two poles. But this is all. In every other respect the Persons are simply the divine Essence, from which they do not differ and from which they cannot be separated. They do not divide it nor do they multiply it. They differ only with respect to each other.<br />
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This is the clue to the answer about human persons too. We are individuals, each with our own share in human nature, but we are called to become persons in a theological sense. We are called to be "hypostatized"; that is, to become persons – relations of origin. There is no particle in us that is not called to be "from" and "to" others. To become a person is to be poured out, to be given, and so to <i>become relation</i> by being poured out and given. Everything that is in us must be given, nothing held back, if we are to become <i>entirely person</i>. (This is the opposite of becoming a personality in the sense of a "celebrity", a focus of attention that requires to be constantly fed by the attention and admiration of others.)<br />
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Causality, too, can be understood in terms of <i>kenosis</i> or self-gift. It is simply a form of self-sharing, self-diffusion of the Good. It is the same act we call love, and Trinity, and Being, from another point of view. Completely fulfilled within itself as Trinity, it also "overflows" into creation by a perfectly free choice that creates not only the thing, but the <i>possibility </i>of the thing, which is therefore entirely from nothing, <i>ex nihilo</i>, in the deepest sense. (See <i>Radiance of Being</i>.)<br />
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In the beginning (<i>Arche</i> = Principle) when God created light, it was first of all the spiritual light, an imitation of Uncreated Light, that he made. This diffuses itself instantly and is everywhere present without casting any shadows. It is the form of things or the source of their form. The second light only arrives when God separates the light from the darkness. The first light is the light of angelic consciousness, the light the angels transmit between them, that is their life. It is this light that is the dawn of God's glory, the beginning of the eternal Day of creation.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-47041121776607513782013-10-07T07:14:00.000+01:002013-10-08T07:39:43.368+01:003. Balthasar on Kenosis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The following passage from the Bible contains the key to the doctrine of <i>kenosis</i> or self-giving. “Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he subsisted in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). The self-giving of Christ is traced back to the Trinity, <i>via</i> analogy, to the relationship of Father and Son. This act of self-revelation is the very Essence of God (it even means that creation becomes an act of love within the Unknowable God Himself). We may recall it during the most profound moment of the Mass, the consecration of the wine and offering of the blood of Christ.<br />
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Hans Urs von Balthasar's theology was very largely a reflection on this dynamic, and he was always coming at it from different angles, the truth being <br />
<a name='more'></a>inexhaustible. "In the Son's deed of self-outpouring it is no longer only the love of the Father which is expressed (a love at whose disposal the Son obediently puts himself); nor is it only the love of the Son which is expressed (of the Son who alone became man and who alone can die). What is expressed is the indivisible essential love of God himself. The surrender of this love's essence assumes the expressive form of a 'going to the extreme,' into darkness. Like the water of an eternal fountain that is poured out until it becomes itself an eternal thirst" (<i>Glory of the Lord</i>, I, p. 616, refs omitted).<br />
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Now the true archetypes of creaturely life reveal themselves. "Just as the ability to die now becomes the expression of a distinctly divine love, so too the creature's prayer to God now becomes the expression of the intra-divine relationship of the Son to the Father.... Jesus is manifested as substantial intra-divine prayer, so much so that any accidental, individual prayer of intercession becomes [ultimately] superfluous. In this form of prayer the content of prayer itself and of revelation receives its ultimate explanation: the unity of essence and love is uttered in a way that surpasses all exterior attestation. The witness of Jesus is no longer a a mere assertion <i>that things are so </i>(as was necessary with the unbelieving Jews): it is an open interior space which shows forth the existent reality itself" (i<i>bid.</i>, pp. 616-17).<br />
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I will add a passage from Balthasar's book <i>Our Task</i>, in which he writes about passages in Adrienne von Speyr's commentary on St John's Gospel that "circle around this mystery of triune glory revealing itself in the destiny of Christ," through <i>kenosis</i>. In a footnote on p. 108 he gives these examples: "Jesus as the 'glory of the Father himself,' who for his part 'seeks the glory of the Son'; the objective seeing of God's glory by Martha; the Son's possession of the whole glory of the Father and his returning of it to the Father; the glory of the Son is one with his holiness, which abandons itself to the darkness of sin, and so 'he places his own on the dividing line between the glory of the Father and the sin of mankind'; Jesus' self-abandonment is his transparency to the whole glory of God's love – he is 'pure openness'. 'Certainly, God remains mysterious and beyond our reckoning, but he is not like an opaque mystery that one cannot get behind. No, he is mysterious in the boundlessness and openness of his mystery."'Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-12542041612032411782013-10-04T06:47:00.000+01:002013-10-04T06:48:07.108+01:002. Wisdom and the Senses<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4lZRfEHtTIEtIaZSLLeJ2X_5j4M-9G79tQjJ4i_5cntit-FzUNuQDNQiyN3OoQi0v5IORtvoZjwadfuE3wK_TAqV8BIvma6ERDfaXDBLUlj1b0eietAWFzw905iqCpJofG3Scz-DaCSs/s1600/icon-of-creation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4lZRfEHtTIEtIaZSLLeJ2X_5j4M-9G79tQjJ4i_5cntit-FzUNuQDNQiyN3OoQi0v5IORtvoZjwadfuE3wK_TAqV8BIvma6ERDfaXDBLUlj1b0eietAWFzw905iqCpJofG3Scz-DaCSs/s320/icon-of-creation.jpg" width="256" /></a><br />
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The Bible contains a section of "Wisdom" literature, in which the figure of Wisdom (a feminine word rendered into Greek as <i>Sophia</i> and Latin as <i>Sapientia</i>) emerges as a kind of image and confirmation of God's infinite Beauty. More than an allegorical figure, I think, since she has appeared "in person" to visionaries such as Vladimir Solovyev, Sophia is one of the topics of <i>The Radiance of Being</i>, and here I want to add some notes and further thoughts to accompany the book.</div>
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Wisdom is not to be identified with – though she is closely associated with – the Logos, the Son of God, or the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us she was created, but created before all else, and a participant in the creation of the world as a whole. "The Lord himself created Wisdom in the Holy Spirit; he saw her and apportioned her, he poured her out upon all his works. She dwells with all flesh according to his gift, and he supplied her to those who love him" (Sirach 1:9-10). "I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures. I ordained that an unfailing light should arise in the heavens, and I covered the earth like a mist. I dwelt in high places, and my throne was a pillar of cloud" (Sirach 24:3-4). <br />
<a name='more'></a>Whether the "unfailing light" she refers to is the sun, or else more likely (because day gives way to night) the primordial angelic"light" that was created in Genesis 1:3, she associates herself with the "mist that watered the ground" in Genesis 2:6, from which all life began to arise, and protected Adam even after his fall (Wisdom 10:1).</div>
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Her nature and role is described most fully in the Wisdom of Solomon, 7:22-8:1. She is the "fashioner of all things", a "breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty", a "reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness", who both sits beside his throne and descends to earth.</div>
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As such, Wisdom is both before and after "creation" – or she is the intermediary between them and the God in whom all being resides. She is what he has in mind, and what he brings about, in his unitary eternity, the eternal Now. In her is revealed God's beauty, which is his Glory, mysterious until the coming of the Son into the world. That Glory is the integration of creation into the eternal self-giving love of the Trinity. It is God's own from eternity, a Glory to which nothing can be added, but at the same time it is (from the creature's point of view, which God shares through his outgoing love) the addition of a gift freely given by all the world of creatures, offered through man in the person of the Church.<br />
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Balthasar's treatment of the spiritual senses begins with St Augustine and moves quickly through the medievals to his modern allies: Barth, Guardini, Siewert, Claudel. For Romano Guardini, the Holy Spirit intends to "create that eye which is to behold God 'face to face'," for as Balthasar summarizes, "the roots of the eye lie in the heart – in the innermost stance adopted towards other persons and existence as a whole. Finally, the eye sees from the heart. This is what Augustine meant when he said that love alone is capable of seeing" (<i>Glory of the Lord</i>, I, p. 392).</div>
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It is not, of course, Balthasar adds, God's unmediated essence that is seen, but his power and glory, expressed in his works. This ties us back to what was said about Wisdom in the previous post. The spiritual senses, which are the senses of the inner man, and are most highly developed in our Lady and in Jesus himself, are there to reveal God's Glory, his Wisdom, the embodied plan from all ages that is coming into being day by day and yet is ever already anticipated in the eternal consciousness of God, the supreme "I AM." And in heaven, in Beatific Vision, these senses are transcended in the <i>lumen gloriae. </i>"Like knows like," and the soul sees God by means of the eye by which God sees himself – namely his own intellectual act, proportionately received in the creature<i>.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4102092409620291902.post-63705188814484115472013-10-02T13:42:00.000+01:002013-10-02T13:42:03.270+01:001. The beauty of God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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How can an invisible entity be beautiful? There is much we would call beautiful in the world (along with the ugly), but at least we can see it. And yet people speak of "seeing God," one day. Will he then <i>become</i> visible? Can we in this life only "take it on trust" that he must be beautiful, and hope to have it confirmed in the distant, unimaginable future? And yet from time to time we hear of contemplatives who gaze in wonder at the beauty of God that has been revealed to them in this life, or on the Cross, or in the Eucharist.<br />
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If God (being infinite), were visible, someone once said, we would see nothing else. His "withdrawal" is what makes the world possible. Nevertheless, there are ways we can say we do see him and his beauty. We see him spiritually and intellectually, for example – we know that he is the only possible <i>source</i> of all beauty, which is in some way modelled on him or expresses him, and so we can contemplate "him" in the <br />
<a name='more'></a>beautiful things we see around us, including unfolding patterns of events, answers to prayer, and so on. The horrible things that happen in the world since it was marred by the first sin do not point to him in the same way, because he does not directly will evil, but he does bring good out of it (eventually, and often unexpectedly).<br />
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But there is more. In the darkness, in the silence, another kind of "sight" becomes possible. This silence and darkness is something hard to find in the modern world, as artificial light and electronic devices make it possible to fill every moment and every background with music and media. That is perhaps a sad and a dangerous thing, and requires us to take steps to carve out some space for contemplation each day. Hans Urs von Balthasar in the first volume of his series <i>The Glory of the Lord</i> revives the tradition of the "spiritual senses", the senses of the "pure heart" (pp. 367ff) that finds a natural home within the monastic tradition.<br />
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Everything we see is the self-revelation of Being, and so we can see God's beauty "through" or "in" it. This seeing and hearing in depth requires receptivity in darkness and silence. But the appearance of Christ deepens everything yet further, because he is also God, the making manifest of the Ground itself, who "wants to be itself only in so far as it becomes manifest" (p. 611). Thus the One God, "who is invisible by nature, appears, but not in the manner to which we are accustomed with worldly reality, namely, that the same being, identical to itself (which may be a person), appears while not appearing and enters visibility while at the same time remaining a ground that rests in itself. Rather, the one invisible God appears in such a way that this polarity reveals itself to us as a personal relationship within God's very nature" (p. 609).<br />
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The Incarnation is what God has to do to become visible. The beauty of God, then, is revealed with the Incarnation, and the form of God's beauty is the Trinity, which is the perfection of love, since the Trinity is founded entirely in the self-giving, self-receiving love of perfection – in which self-love becomes love of other. In this revelation the categories of aesthetics are "raised above themselves" (p. 610) to contain something greater. And we are not merely observers but participants, recipients and givers of God's outpouring love. <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">[More to come.]</span></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0