Undusted Texts

This past week of Gems From the Treasury on my Twitter featured quotes from St. Ephraim (Ephrem) the Syrian, a Doctor of the Church. 12/24/12: "Divinity flew down to rescue and lift up humanity."-- Hymns on Virginity 48.17 12/25/12: "Blessed is the birth on which a generation thundered with hallelujahs of praise."-- Hymns on the Nativity 21.3 12/26/12: "Blessed is He Who made our body a Tabernacle for His hiddenness.  Blessed is He Who with our tongue interpreted His secrets."-- Hymns on the Nativity 3.7 12/27/12: "Blessed be the Babe Who made His mother the lyre of His melodies."-- Hymns on the Nativity 15.4 12/28/12: "Blessed is the Unlimited Who was limited."-- Hymns on the Nativity 23.2 Next week's series of Gems From the Treasury, to continue the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, will contain quotes from various Byzantine liturgical hymns from throughout this season of the Nativity. St. Ephra...

I am a compulsive collector of quotes, most notably those of saints and other Christian spiritual writers.  My collection is large and growing, and I do not want to keep them to myself.  Therefore I have decided to start a new project using my little-used Twitter account.  Each weekday I will tweet a quote from my collection, and I will place the quotes along with their bibliographical information in posts here.  Each week will have some sort of theme, beginning with a week of St. Ephraim the Syrian, Doctor of the Church, with quotes from his Hymns on the Nativity (except for the Eve of the Nativity).  I hope this project inspires readers with its quotes from throughout the Catholic (and probably also Orthodox) tradition.  May St. Josemaría Escrivá, who understood the power of short quotes, as seen in his writings, pray for me throughout this endeavor.  If you wish to be inspired by this project, you can follow my Twitter account with the link to the...

 "Induebar cilicio, humiliabam in ieiunio animam meam, et oratio mea ad sinum meum revertetur." "I wore sackcloth, I afflicted myself with fasting.  I prayed with head bowed on my bosom."--Ps 35:13. No Christian life is without suffering, for Christ suffered.  Even the most joyful Christian recognizes the necessity of suffering, whether voluntary or no.  The Seraphic Father, St. Francis of Assisi, was no different in this regard.  Yet so many portray him as solely a lover of God's creation (which he most assuredly was).  How many know of his tears, his tears so plentiful that they ran furrows in his cheeks, that they took away his sight?  Who knows of his public self-deprecation when he took a spoonful of meat broth while fasting?  Who knows of his flight into a thorn bush to conquer the passions of the flesh? St. Francis was not just a man of joy who loved God's creation, but he was a man who suffered for the Lord, who mortified hi...

Happy feast of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra!  Though usually known only for his work of charity in giving dowry money to a peasant so his daughters could be married (and from that gift-giving the figure of Santa Claus eventually appeared), St. Nicholas was also a holy bishop and a slapper of heretics (famously slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicea), and he is also the patron of the Ruthenian Catholic Church.  To celebrate his feast day, above is the 8th movement from the cantata Saint Nicolas by Benjamin Britten , a 20th-century Anglican composer.  If the music interests you, the entire cantata can be found at the website of the St. Nicholas Center , with full text available here. I pray that your Nativity Fast or Advent is proceeding prayerfully, and once again, happy feast of St. Nicholas! St. Nicholas of Myra, pray for us!

Requested by a reader. [I apologize for the long span of time between my last post in this series and the present post.  Life has intervened, as it does among those of us who are not monastics.  I once again apologize for my excessive tardiness.] This is my second in a series of three posts on the major themes of Eastern Christian monastic spirituality.  In my earlier posts you can learn about the sources of Eastern Christian monasticism and the first major theme: solitude .  I apologize if I misrepresent any part of monastic spirituality.  I just hope that this is in some extent helpful. *** St. Diado chos of Photiki "Flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the sources of sinlessness," said the Lord to Abba Arsenios (AP, Arsenios #2).  Having covered the theme of solitude in my first post, now it is time to move on to silence . As with solitude, there is definitely a literal aspect to how to live out silence.  "To live with...