Undusted Texts

  I have had little time to work on translation or writing projects recently, though I do have a few in progress, including a new Bérulle volume and a translation that I aim to have published in an academic journal.  However, I wanted to share some information I recently discovered. Over a decade ago, on the former home of my blog, θησαυρος της εκκλησιας , I posted a discussion of the Prayer Rule of the Theotokos, popularized by St. Seraphim Zevzdinsky.  Drawing from various sources, I put together a couple variants of the Prayer Rule in a PDF booklet ( available from my website ).   It has always been one of the more popular pages on my blogs, and it still lists high in searches for "prayer rule of the Theotokos."  (Even higher, at least on Google, are the Internet Archive and Scribd mirrors of the PDF.)  So I was pleased, though not too surprised, to see it cited as a source in a recent book on the Prayer Rule, published by Eastern Christian P...

 Introduction In keeping with today's Roman Catholic reading regarding the various gifts given by the Spirit for varied tasks (1 Cor 12), I decided to post this little essay I wrote back in 2015, about the variety of vocations.  I may have gone a bit overboard in my quotations, and perhaps the style and precise formulations are not how I would word them now, but, overall, I think it's still a decent piece of writing. The Many-Lighted Stars of Vocation “One [is the] glory of [the] sun, and another [the] glory of [the] moon, and another [the] glory of [the] stars: therefore star differs from star in glory” (1 Cor 15:41).  Each of these has its own role, and usurping another’s role leads to chaos.  So if the sun were the moon, the earth would be consumed like a dry leaf in a bonfire; if the moon were the sun, the earth would be frozen.  Even having any other star replace the sun could have disastrous results: the star could be too large and engulf the solar system,...

  "I call upon You, God, Pantokrator, Lord Jesus Christ, Heavenly King: I call upon You, the maker of heaven and earth. I exorcise you, spirit unclean, according to the word of God, the maker of heaven and earth. Be put to flight by the one who wraps himself in light as a cloak: the one who alone has immortality and light unapprochable: to Whom be glory and power unto the ages. Amen." --St. Epiphanius of Salamis What St. Epiphanius' short prayer was written to do is something which the world has needed since the Garden: the exorcism of demons.  While sin is, of course, the choice of man, the demons play their part in trying to bend us toward sin, to constantly bombard us with temptation (think of C.S. Lewis' fictionalized account of this in The Screwtape Letters ).  But God does not leave us to their whims: we are not abandoned into the hands of the "worldrulers," as St. Paul calls them.  Indeed, He gives us the power of His Spirit to d...

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree (1684) by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib "O faithful let us fear the punishment of the fig tree which was dried up for not having borne any fruit; let us offer worthy fruits of repentance to Christ, who grant us His great mercy." --From the Aposticha of Bridegroom Matins on Great and Holy Monday When Christ hungered and approached the fig tree, He expected it to be bearing fruit; when it was not, He cursed it.  Just so, the foolish virgins not possessing oil were barred from the feast.  It is as if Christ said to them as He said to the high priests and the presbyters of the people, "For this I say to you that will be taken from you the kingdom of God, and it will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it."  This too will occur to us if we are not watchful, if we are not prepared in a wedding garment when the Lord comes to invite us into His bridal chamber engulfed in light.  Let us beg Him, "Fill the garment of my...

Ven. Solanus Casey (1870-1957)  "I chose to be cast down in the house of my God rather than to live myself in the tents of sinners."--Ps 83:11b The great temptation against us is this: will we choose to enjoy the delights of the wicked or the reproach of the righteous?  "You cannot serve both God and mammon," as Christ declared.  We must serve the Lord despite all obstacles, despite all pains, rather than delight in the riches of the wicked.  For the riches of the wicked are not true riches: they are rather fool's gold that will not outlast death; they are the treasures which moth will eat, rust will corrupt, thief will steal.  In the end, all such riches will be stripped from us, and we will stand before God with only His riches.  What are His riches?  The riches of righteousness, the riches of holiness, the riches of the Truth. "Lord, God of powers, blessed the man who hopes in You!"  Blessed the man whose riches are in You!  F...

Quotes from St. Seraphim of Sarov on the fire of God: "God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. And so, if we feel in our hearts coldness, which is from the devil—for the devil is cold—then let us call upon the Lord, and He will come and warm our hearts with perfect love not only for Him, but for our neighbor as well. And from the presence of warmth the coldness of the hater of good will be driven away."  "For our God is a fire which consumes everything unclean, and no one who is defiled in flesh or spirit can enter into communion with Him." "Everything to do with the church is like an inner fire enkindling us, and looking after it is the best work of all. The humblest job, be it only to clean the floor of the house of God, is a nobler work than all the others."  "The heart boils, being kindled by Divine fire, only when there is living water in it; but when this is poured out, it grows cold and a man freezes....

The Rosary is a well-known prayer in the Western Christian tradition, and I have often heard the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos, composed by St. Romanos the Melodist, described as the Byzantine equivalent.  However, there is actually a prayer much closer in style to the Rosary in the Byzantine tradition: the Prayer Rule of the Theotokos.  This rule was, according to tradition, revealed by the Theotokos in the 8th century, and it used to be prayed by all Christians; over time, however, it fell out of use.  St. Seraphim of Sarov and his spiritual descendant St. Seraphim Zevzdinsky began to revive this practice, and Philip Rolfes, blogger at The Master Beadsman and maker of prayer ropes for various traditions (Rosaries, Komboskini/Chotki, Mequtaria, etc.), compiled information on various forms of this rule (see this post and the following four for his work).  He also created a system for praying only 5 mysteries a day rather than the full 15 that the original version...