Undusted Texts

"Bethlehem, make ready.   Ephrathah, prepare yourself!"   "Behold, a   virgin shall conceive and bear a son."   The Nativity of our Lord has not yet come: we still await this great feast.   Christ is not yet born. It is true that we do not deny His historical birth, and we still proclaim in the Creed and in the Hymn to the Only-Begotten that the Son of God was made man.   Yet we do not particularly celebrate this fact, this momentous event, for we are still awaiting.   "The people who wait in darkness": this describes the Church at this time.   All creation is waiting with Her, with us, though the great event has occurred.   Despite this, we wait for the dawning of that day: Christ is not yet born. This time of preparation, while it may vary in length, is present throughout the Church.   In the East it is the Nativity Fast, and in the West it is Advent.   It is a time of waiting and of penance before that great, great...

Requested by a reader. In an earlier post , I discussed the historical origins of Eastern Christian monasticism, from St. Anthony to St. Basil.  In this post and two later ones, I will discuss some of the major themes of Eastern Christian monastic spirituality.  This will be by no means comprehensive, and I apologize if I misrepresent any part of monastic spirituality.  I just hope that this is in some extent helpful.  *** Abba Arsenios "Flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the source of sinlessness."  Abba Arsenios heard God command him thus in prayer (AP, Arsenios #2).  This summarizes three of the key themes of monastic spirituality: solitude, silence, and unceasing prayer. Monasticism begins with solitude .  The saint marked as the founder of monasticism, St. Anthony, was a recluse in the desert.  He lived alone, battling demons and growing closer to Christ.  Though he attracted disciples and sometimes visited th...

 As many will have heard by now, St. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), or St. Hildegard of Bingen (for English speakers), was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI on October 7, 2012.  Though she had little education as a child, she became a polymath, composing hymns, penning a musical morality play, corresponding with people from monks and nuns to popes and emperors, explaining the Rule of St. Benedict and the Athanasian Creed, preaching commentaries on the Gospels, and writing two books on medicine, along with being a Benedictine abbess and recording (with the help of others) three books of the visions that she received starting from the age of 15.  Truly, St. Hildegard was (or is, since she lives now in Heaven) an extraordinary saint and woman.  I thought it would be a helpful service for those wishing to learn about this new Doctor of the Church to have a list of links to complete translations of her works into English.  Most of ...

Requested by a reader. It does not take one long in studying Eastern Christian spirituality to realize that the influence of monasticism is immense .  A common view is that, in the Eastern Church, monasticism is the basis of all spirituality and that the spirituality of a Christian in the world should only differ from a monastic's in degree, not in essence.  Having a knowledge of monastic spirituality is thus a necessity to understanding Eastern Christian spirituality in general. My approach to this introduction will be to first, in this post, outline the major saints and writings that are basic to monasticism and then, in a later post, to outline some of the major themes of monastic spirituality.  Since this will be so brief, there will be much left out, and I am sorry for any misinformation and glaring omissions, but I encourage you to read deeper if you are interested. *** The traditional founder of Eastern Christian monasticism is St. Anthony of the Des...

I have not posted on here in months, partly due to busyness, partly due to lack of motivation.  I do not like to write solely for the sake of writing or solely for myself.  I want anything I write to be useful to others.  Trying to guess what others would want me to write is a possibility, but I would rather know that someone will get something out of what I write.  That's why I want to start this new idea: Request-A-Post.  It's very simple: if you have an idea of a post you would like me to write,—on theology, on spirituality, on events, on media, etc.—send me an e-mail with a description, and I'll do my best to write it well and post it if I think I can.  If I don't think I can do a good job with it, or if I know a post by someone else that is far better than anything I could write, I'll tell you.  I do not know if anyone will even see this post, but if so, I hope that this idea will lead to my being able to actually help others with my writing....

  "There is no other virtue that is either higher or more necessary than sacred Prayer, because all the other virtues--I mean fasting, vigils, sleeping on the ground, ascesis, chastity, almsgiving, and all the rest--even though they are ways of imitating God, even though they cannot be taken away from us and constitute the immortal ornaments of the soul--do not united man with God, but only render man fit to be united.  Sacred Prayer, and it alone, unites.  It alone joins man with God and God with man, and makes the two one spirit." Nikodemos (Nicodemus) the Hagiorite (of the Holy Mountain) (1749-1809), a Greek Orthodox saint, wrote the above passage on the necessity of Prayer.  This view of the necessity of Prayer led to what is probably Nikodemos' most famous work: the Philokalia .  The Philokalia is a collection of texts by saints and other holy writers from the origins of Christianity until around the 15th century, compiled by Nikodemos an...

  Icon of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Mother of Carmel) by the Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Terre Haute, IN One of the biggest difficulties Western Christians have in appreciating icons is a lack of understanding.  I have previously discussed some of the theology behind iconography, but in this post I will discuss another big difficulty: the symbolism of iconography.  Even if one can understand the theology of the icon and why one should venerate it, it is still difficult to venerate something that seems to be such a strange mess of non-understood symbols.  This post will hopefully clear up some of that difficulty so that others can better understand icons and venerate them more worthily. Monograms The language used in iconography is often difficult by itself, since it is usually written in either Greek or Russian, often with a strange script that combines letters on top of each other or uses less common forms of letters.  Even after getting past...