Undusted Texts

I recently ran across a video on a topic that I've been somewhat interested in for a while: the influence of the Desert Fathers on Celtic Christianity.  Below is a talk from Orthodox scholar Fr. Gregory Telepneff on this topic:     Fr. Telepneff also wrote a book on the same theme:  The Egyptian Desert in the Irish Bogs: The Byzantine Character of Early Celtic Monasticism . Other resources on this topic include Connie Marshner's  Monastery and High Cross: The Forgotten Eastern Roots of Irish Christianity  and Robert K. Ritner, Jr.'s "Egyptians in Ireland: A Question of Coptic Peregrinations."

Aaron and the Tabernacle , from the Synagogue at Dura-Europos, Syria (c. 245-256) "And fire through all will be kindled upon the altar, it will not be quenched."--Lev 6:6 (LXX) Among the many regulations the Lord gave to His servants the Israelites, and particularly to the priestly Levites, we can see two key meanings, among others: a meaning for them in their literal worship in the Temple, and a meaning for us in our interior worship in the temple of our hearts.  When Leviticus thus speaks of the fire upon the altar, to draw forth spiritual meaning from the text, we should interpret the altar as the one within our hearts.  Just as the Levites were called to offer burnt offerings upon the physical altar, so are we called to immolate our wills for the Lord.  We are to destroy our souls to save them, to sacrifice all we have for He Who saves us. With what do we immolate ourselves upon our heart's altar?  With the fire of love, love that blazes with prayer....

In the very start of those strange, exotic, "eXtreme" days known as the '90s, a quirky little band called They Might Be Giants released a nigh-nonsenical song entitled "Birdhouse in Your Soul" (paired with an incomprehensible video).   The song is sung from the point of view of a nightlight in the shape of a blue canary belonging to what seems to be a very lonely child.  The aforementioned nightlight asks the child, in the chorus, to "make a little birdhouse in your soul," so that the child will carry the memory of the luminous bird wherever he goes. While having a birdhouse in our souls would not be conducive to the spiritual life (unless you think of it as a birdhouse for housing the Holy Spirit in the form a dove), what would be conducive is a tabernacle.  The concept of keeping a perpetual space for the Lord within our hearts is one I wrote about before, in my post on the teachings of Ven. Clara Fey .  She wrote, "Our Lor...