Intimations of Eternity: George MacDonald, Charles Williams and Dorothy Sayers on the Medieval Imagination

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?-T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

In T.S. Eliot’s landmark poem, The Love Letters of J. Alfred Prufrock,there is a haunting quality to the way he concludes it: in a disenchanted world of tea cups, marmelaid and toast, with the occasional interruption of women “talking of Michaelangelo,” the image of a bygone age of enchantment-the mermaids-makes her appearance. These mythical sea creatures sing to each other, and yet “I do not think they will sing to me.” This dreamlike world, in the end, is just that-a dream, where mermaids sing, and where “sea girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown” interrupt our prosaic existence. But in the end, “human voices wake us, and we drown.”
This, I think, captures a very key idea and intuition in modernism, one which Eliot certainly draws upon-the near-total alienation of modern man who, unable to be fulfilled by the promises of “science,” is left alienated, no longer able to draw on a world of enchantment. The Nietzcshean search for autonomy has ended in alienation, and no longer do the mermaids sing to us.
But into this lonely world step three individuals who saw things quite differently, for whom the medieval cosmos still held sway: George MacDonald, Charles Williams and Dorothy Sayers. The first two wrote about other worlds that erupted and entered into our own, and Dame Dorothy Sayers, famous especially for her Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels, ended her life, inspired by Charles Williams, to translate Dante’s Divine Comedy, that poetic bard of medieval cosmology.
George MacDonald perhaps captured a fundamental impulse latent in the Romantic movement: the Faustian strife and struggle, the importance of feeling and emotion as at least a balance against rationalism. In Lilith, perhaps one of his most famous works, (along with Phantastes) Mr. Vane, the main character, is a very unlikely hero. He, like Wagner, Faust’s assistant, is primarily a reader, and he does not venture much outside the library he has inherited. His sense of reality is shaken by a book he finds in his library that he cannot read, and, guided by a raven/librarian, he enters into a world quite outside of his ordinary experiences, where he will be challenged to rethink who he is and what his place is in the world. It is a fantasy encompassing a wide range of adventures where, like a knight-errant, he experiences triumphs and tragedies that bring him closer to his true self. His attempts to save Lilith, Adam’s mythical “first wife”, leads to the death of his true love, Lona. Throughout, Raven, his guide (who turns out to be redeemed Adam), gives him instructions, which Mr. Vane follows, but not completely, thus bringing a number of disasters upon himself. In the end though devastated by the loss of Lona, he learns a fundamental truth, both about himself, and about the world: “Now I knew that life and truth were one, that life mere and pure is in itself bliss”. He comes to “know himself”, but this self-knowledge comes in light of another world, perhaps even more real than himself, where his beloved lives. That world reveals itself more and more to Vane, until he erupts in praise: “See every little flower straighten its stalk, lift up its neck, and with outstretched hand stand expectant: something more than the sun, greater than the light, is coming-none the less surely coming that it is long upon the road! What matters to-day, or to-morrow, or ten thousand years to Life himself, to Love himself! He is coming, is coming, and the necks of all humanity are stretched out to see him come!... It was a glorious resurrection-morning. The night had been spent in preparing it!” (MacDonald, Phantastes and Lilith. Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 1964 p. 420) Here MacDonald turns, like many other Romantic poets and novelists, to the medieval world, drawing on the knightly tradition. But for MacDonald’s character Vane, these adventures lead to defeat, but only in defeat can he be raised to victory, much like the Spencer’s Redcrosse Knight. He rises again, not for the purpose of continual strife, like Faust, but for submission to a higher truth, where he finds his rest.
This same sense of the numinous characterizes the novels of Charles Williams, who, in answer to the modernist crisis, creates stories where, rather than the hero coming into a world of enchantment, like Lewis, that world increasingly intrudes into our world. This comes across most strongly in War in Heaven (1930), which begins as a regular detective story, but then ends up as a fantastic tale where the clue to the murder ends up being the discovery of the Holy Grail. Both the heavenly and the demonic continually enter into this world, the Arch-Bishop calling upon God through prayer, and the antagonist, Gregory Persimmons, calling upon the powers of hell. Williams begins in an almost prosaic way, calling to mind images of contemporary England (at least contemporary to the time he is writing), and then bringing the reader into an eternal reality that manifests itself incessantly to the point that it cannot be ignored, like the mermaids in T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock. Even Prester John, that legendary bishop-king in the east who provided the medieval mind with a great amount of fodder for tales of exploits the quest to find him and enlist his help against the Saracens, makes his appearance, providing valuable help in solving the murder. But one book in particular, his work of literary criticism titled The Image of Beatrice: A study in Dante, reveals his indebtedness to the medieval world view, one that sees the unseen world as a reality, and one that can be known through the only faculty that will give us access to it-faith. After Virgil comes Beatrice as a guide, and this, for Williams, is fundamental to Dante’s growth in knowledge and wisdom: the transition from rational knowledge to a knowledge that can only be attained through union with the beloved. Beatrice, then, represents a higher, mystical way of knowing.
The influence The Figure of Beatrice had on Dorothy Sayers was significant enough to encourage her to undertake perhaps the greatest crowning achievement of her literary career: the translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, with her own commentary and explanation of the images. She herself had studied Medieval Literature at Oxford, but wrote detective novels to keep body and soul together, centered around the hero Lord Peter Wimsey, that aristocrat/detective with an air of foppishness about him. These novels established her as a novelist, but it was in her translation of the Divine Comedy that her literary powers shine forth most brilliantly, in that she will use the full powers of the literary possibilities of the English language to match the Italian text. This project drew upon her three strengths-her knowledge of medieval literature, her interest in theology, and her literary powers. Most importantly, this project captured her attention precisely because underneath the these shocking and at times unnerving images that Dante employs is the most fundamental truth of the epic poem: the soul’s search for God. (See Introduction, Inferno, p. 49) This is a reality that the modernist 20th century had forgotten, and was in desperate need to see again.
What binds these authors together, then, is their keen sense of the eternal, and how the soul, in its sojourn on earth, really yearns for it, and will not be satisfied with anything less. The images they employed to capture this need were ancient and medieval images, making them interact with their contemporary world. Macdonald, writing for the Romantics, and Williams, writing in a Modernist age, nonetheless had their characters interact with a world outside themselves. Sayers translates a medieval classic in such a way as to bring us face-to-face with that eternal quest we are all set upon. With these three authors, Prufrock finally has what he had been eluding him-the song of the mermaids.

Nature, Grace and Glory

Another one by my friend and colleague, Fred Sanders http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/middlebrow/archives/nature-grace-and-glory/#more-361


Three fundamental categories for theologizing are nature, grace, and glory. These terms indicate things you’ve already thought about before, but they don’t quite map onto other terms you might already know.
Nature is what a thing is in itself. Human nature is a created good, a thing with its own integrity and a recognizable completeness in itself. You can’t quite call it independent, because every nature you’ve ever encountered is a created nature which owes its being to God. But nature, the realm of created goods, has to have a relative independence from God in that it genuinely has existence as something distinct from the creator. You didn’t have to exist, and it’s worth thanking God for the gratuity and bonus of your sheer existence.Grace, on the other hand, is more. It is something given to nature from beyond. When God gives grace to nature, he elevates nature beyond its own resources and makes it participate in something superior to itself. As Aquinas would say in his Aristotelian tone of voice, a creature does not have within its finite nature the potential to reach an infinite end, so if finite creatures (nature) are to enjoy fellowship with the infinite God, it will have to be by grace. Human nature may have its own finite telos (end), but salvation is the perfection of human nature in the true end of man, which is the glorification and enjoyment of God. Is there a natural desire for what is beyond nature? Is the structural integrity of human nature some sort of structural openness to God? “It takes God to be a man,” said Major W. Ian Thomas.

Read the rest: http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/middlebrow/archives/nature-grace-and-glory/#more-361

The Dominican Rite: A summary

Biretta tip to Subdeacon Ben Andersen (http://occidentalis.blogspot.com/)

Origin and developmentThe question of a special unified rite for the order received no official attention in the time of St. Dominic, each province sharing in the general liturgical diversities prevalent throughout the Church at the order's confirmation in 1216. Hence, each province and often each convent had certain peculiarities in the text and in the ceremonies of the Holy Sacrifice and the recitation of the Office.The first indication of an effort to regulate liturgical conditions was manifested by Jordan of Saxony, the successor of St. Dominic. The first systematic attempt at reform was made under the direction of John the Teuton, the fourth master general of the order. At his suggestion the Chapter of Bologna (1244) asked the delegates to bring to the next chapter (Cologne, 1245) their special rubrics for the recitation of the Office, their Missals, Graduals and Antiphonaries, "pro concordando officio". To bring some kind of order out of chaos a commission was appointed consisting of four members, one each from the Provinces of France, England, Lombardy, and Germany, to carry out the revision at Angers. They brought the result of their labours to the Chapter of Paris (1246), which approved the compilation and ordered its exclusive use by the whole Order and approved the "Lectionary" which had been entrusted to Humbert of Romains for revision. Another force preservative of the special Dominican Rite was the Decree of Pius V (1570), imposing a common rite on the universal Church but excepting those rites which had been approved for two hundred years. This exception gave to the Order of Friars Preachers the privilege of maintaining its old rite, a privilege which the chapters of the order sanctioned and the members of the order gratefully accepted.Several times movements have been started with the idea of conforming with the Roman Rite; but these have always been defeated, and the order still preserves the rite conceded to it by Pope Clement in 1267. [NLM: until our own modern day of course with the adoption of the Pauline Missal by the Dominican Order]The Dominican Rite, formulated by Humbert, saw no radical development after its confirmation by Clement IV. When Pius V made his reform, the Dominican Rite had been fixed and stable for over three hundred years, while a constant liturgical change had been taking place in other communities. Furthermore the comparative simplicity of the Dominican Rite, as manifested in the different liturgical books, gives evidence of its antiquity.The collection of the liturgical books now contains: (1) Martyrology; (2) Collectarium; (3) Processional; (4) Antiphonary; (5) Gradual; (6) Missal for the conventual Mass; (7) Missal for the private Mass; (8) Breviary; (9) Vesperal; (10) Horæ Diurnæ; (11) Ceremonial. With the exception of the Breviary, these books are similar in arrangement to the correspondingly named books of the Roman Rite.

Read the rest of the article here: http://thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/2006/11/dominican-rite-summary.html

Prayer for Orthodox-Roman Catholic Unity

From His Emminence, Metropolitan Nicholas of Amissos, American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, on the occasion of the recent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Constantinople to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew:

O Holy Father, from Whom all blessings flow, we come before Thee in meekness and bow down: humbly we beseech Thee to look kindly upon the meeting of Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, and Pope Benedict, Pontiff of Rome. For too long, there hath been division and alienation in the Church, when there should have been the unity of the Body of Christ. We beg Thy mercy and wisdom, O Lord, to provide for the welfare of the holy churches of God and for their union. Let this occasion of fellowship be for the healing of old disputes. In Thy infinite power, protect these Shepherds of the Great and Holy Pasture of Christ. Shield them, and all who attend, from the peril of harm. And in Thy matchless grace, establish a bright new work in these latter days, so that the world might see the Face of Christ; so that men and women might repent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved in the Apostolic Church of God. For these supplications, we humbly beseech Thee, Holy Father, hear us and have mercy.

Biretta Tips to both Ben Andersen (http://occidentalis.blogspot.com/and ) and Ben Johnson (http://westernorthodox.blogspot.com/2006/11/met-nicholas-ut-unum-sint.html)

Since we are approaching the feast of St. Andrew, Patron of Constantinople (November 30), it is most proper, good Christian soul, that we pray that the recent meeting between His All-Holiness Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Holy Father Benedict, Pope of Rome, will be rich in charity and foster a renewed understanding between these two communions.

I realize that such a wish puts me outside the "rigorist" set, those who prefer to see the Pope of Rome as "little better than a graceless witch-doctor who needs to accept Baptism by the monks of Athos" (Ben Andersen), but so be it. I, with Subdeacon Ben Andersen, will throw in my lot with "Metrpopolitan Nicholas, Patriarch Bartholomew, and all pious Orthodox who pray and work for the healing of the accursed schism of East and West, through the intercessions of our Blessed Lady and of Ss. Peter and Andrew, Apostles and brothers."

Now let's see if the way could be clear for a meeting between the "First Rome" and the "Third Rome".

St. Edmund, King and Martyr

From St. Dunstan's account of his martyrdom:


In King Aethelred's day1 a certain very learned monk named Abbo came over the sea from the south, from St. Benedict's resting-place2 to Archbishop Dunstan, three years before Dunstan died.3 During their conversation Dunstan related the story of St. Edmund, just as Edmund's sword-bearer related it to King Aethelstan4 when Dunstan was a young man and the sword-bearer was an aged man. Abbo recorded the entire story in a single book, and when the book came to us [i.e., Aelfric], we translated it into English, just as it stands now. The monk Abbo returned home to his monastery within two years, and was soon elevated to abbot of that same monastery.
[The Life]
Edmund the Blessed, King of East Anglia, was wise and worthy, and exalted among the noble servants of the almighty God. He was humble and virtuous and remained so resolute that he would not turn to shameful vices, nor would he bend his morality in any way, but was ever-mindful of the true teaching: "If you are installed as a ruler, don't puff yourself up, but be among men just like one of them." He was charitable to poor folks and widows, just like a father, and with benevolence he guided his people always towards righteousness, and restrained the cruel, and lived happily in the true faith.
Eventually it happened that the Danes came with a ship-army, harrying and slaying widely throughout the land, as is their custom. In the fleet were the foremost chieftans Ivar and Ubbi,5 united through the devil. They landed warships in Northumbria, and wasted that country and slew the people. Then Ivar went [south-]east with his ships and Halfdan6 remained in Northumbria gaining victory with slaughter. Ivar came rowing to East Anglia in the year in which prince Alfred--he who afterwards became the famous West Saxon king--was 21.7 The aforementioned Ivar suddenly invaded the country, just like a wolf, and slew the people, men and women and innocent children, and ignominiously harrassed innocent Christians. Soon afterward he sent to king Edmund a threatening message, that Edmund should submit to his alliegence, if he cared for his life. The messenger came to king Edmund and boldly announced Ivar's message: "Ivar, our king, bold and victorious on sea and on land, has dominion over many peoples, and has now come to this country with his army to take up winter-quarters with his men. He commands that you share your hidden gold-hordes and your ancestral possessions with him straightaway, and that you become his vassal-king, if you want to stay alive, since you now don't have the forces that you can resist him."
Then king Edmund summoned a certain bishop with whom he was most intimate, and deliberated with him how he should answer the fierce Ivar. The bishop was afraid because of this emergency, and he feared for the king's life, and counselled him that he thought that Edmund should submit to what Ivar asked of him. Then the king became silent, and looked at the ground, and then said to him at last : "Alas bishop, the poor people of this country are already shamefully afflicted. I would rather die fighting so that my people might continue to possess their native land." The bishop said: "Alas beloved king, thy people lie slain. You do not have the troops that you may fight, and the pirates come and kidnap the living. Save your life by flight, or save yourself by submitting to him." Then said king Edmund, since he was completely brave: "This I heartily wish and desire, that I not be the only surviror after my beloved thegns are slain in their beds with their children and wives by these pirates. It was never my way to flee. I would rather die for my country if I need to. Almighty God knows that I will not ever turn from worship of Him, nor from love of His truth. If I die, I live."
After these words he turned to the messenger who Ivar had sent him, and, undaunted, said to him: "In truth you deserve to be slain now, but I will not defile my clean hands with your vile blood, because I follow Christ who so instructed us by his example; and I happily will be slain by you if God so ordain it. Go now quickly and tell your fierce lord: 'Never in this life will Edmund submit to Ivar the heathen war-leader, unless he submit first to the belief in the Saviour Christ which exists in this country.'" Then the messenger went quickly on his way, and met along the road the cruel Ivar with all his army hastening toward Edmund, and told the impious one how he had been answered. Ivar then arrogantly ordered that the pirates should all look at once for the king who scorned his command, and sieze him immediately.
King Edmund, against whom Ivar advanced, stood inside his hall, and mindful of the Saviour, threw out his weapons. He wanted to match the example of Christ, who forbade Peter to win the cruel Jews with weapons. Lo! the impious one then bound Edmund and insulted him ignominiously, and beat him with rods, and afterwards led the devout king to a firm living tree, and tied him there with strong bonds, and beat him with whips. In between the whip lashes, Edmund called out with true belief in the Saviour Christ. Because of his belief, because he called to Christ to aid him, the heathens became furiously angry. They then shot spears at him, as if it was a game, until he was entirely covered with their missles, like the bristles of a hedgehog (just like St. Sebastian was). When Ivar the impious pirate saw that the noble king would not forsake Christ, but with resolute faith called after Him, he ordered Edmund beheaded, and the heathens did so. While Edmund still called out to Christ, the heathen dragged the holy man to his death, and with one stroke struck off his head, and his soul journeyed happily to Christ. There was a man near at hand, kept hidden by God, who heard all this, and told of it afterward, just as we have told it here.
Then the pirates returned to their ships and hid the head of the holy Edmund in the thick brambles so that it could not be buried with the rest of his body. After a time, after the pirates had departed, the local people, those who were left, came there where the remains of their lord's body without a head was. They were very sad in heart because of his killing, and especially because they didn't have the head for his body. Then the witness who saw the earlier events said that the pirates had the head with them, and that it seemed to him, as it was in truth, that they hid the head in the woods somewhere.
They all went together then to the woods, looking everywhere through the bushes and brambles to see if they could find that head anywhere. It was also a great miracle that a wolf was sent, through the guidance of God, to protect that head both day and night from the other animals. The people went searching and also calling out, just as the custom is among those who often go into the wood: "Where are you now, friend?" And the head answered them: "Here, here, here," and called out the answer to them as often as any of them called out, until they came to it as a result of the calling. There lay the grey wolf who watched over that head, and had the head clasped between his two paws. The wolf was greedy and hungry, but because of God he dared not eat the head, but protected it against animals. The people were astonished at the wolf's guardianship and carried home with them the holy head, thanking almighty God for all His miracles. The wolf followed along with the head as if he was tame, until they came to the settlement, and then the wolf turned back to the woods.

Read the rest: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/870abbo-edmund.html

Liberation Theology: A New Turn with a New Generation?

Almost from the beginning, liberation theologians such as the Dominican Gustavo Guttierrez, Leonardo Boff, Hugo Asmann, et al, have insisted that, in its "preferential option for the poor", the Gospel encourages these same poor to seize the reins of power and the modes of production, in an effort to build Paradise on earth-the socialist state. But a new generation of liberationists are rethinking this strategy, FINALLY realizing that, as Alexa Smith notes, "political and economic power is too easily corrupted and that it too readily ignores the needs of the poor".

Is Liberation Theology taking a new turn? The main mission of the Church, for many Liberationists of the old school, was to form labor and guerrilla organizations that would further this preferential option for the poor. But it seems that, whatever distance the new generation is now establishing between itself and socialism, maintaining that a socialist state is not necessary, it nonetheless maintains a fundamentally secular understanding of the Church's essential mission. This time it focusses on local, as opposed to national and international, organization.

Nonetheless, these are very fascinating trends. It seems that there is now a recognition of the fact that the Gospel is not inseparably tied to any economic or governmental system. Perhaps that is a lesson we Gringo Christians can learn as well.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.villagelife.org/church/archives/pres_latinamerican.html

Milton Friedman, RIP

From http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/business/17friedmancnd.html?hp&ex=1163739600&en=b22d188423a336e8&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Milton Friedman, the grandmaster of free-market economic theory in the postwar era and a prime force in the movement of nations toward less government and greater reliance on individual responsibility, died today in San Francisco, where he lived. He was 94.
Doug Mills/Associated Press

President Bush honored Milton Friedman at a ceremony in 2002.
His death was confirmed by Robert Fanger, a spokesman for the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in Indianapolis.
Conservative and liberal colleagues alike viewed Mr. Friedman, a Nobel prize laureate, as one of the 20th century’s leading economic scholars, on a par with giants like John Maynard Keynes and Paul Samuelson.
Flying the flag of economic conservatism, Mr. Friedman led the postwar challenge to the hallowed theories of Lord Keynes, the British economist who maintained that governments had a duty to help capitalistic economies through periods of recession and to prevent boom times from exploding into high inflation.
In Professor Friedman’s view, government had the opposite obligation: to keep its hands off the economy, to let the free market do its work. He was a spiritual heir to Adam Smith, the 18th-century founder of the science of economics and proponent of laissez-faire: that government governs best which governs least.

Read the rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/business/17friedmancnd.html?hp&ex=1163739600&en=b22d188423a336e8&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Courtesy of the Young Fogey: http://sergesblog.blogspot.com/

St. Gregory Palamas on St. Benedict

Biretta tip to Subdeacon Ben Andersen (http://occidentalis.blogspot.com/)

From the Triads I:3:22:

22. THIS is why the great Macarius says that this light is infinite and supercelestial.
ANOTHER saint, one of the most perfect (i.e. St. Benedict), saw the whole universe contained in a single ray of this intelligible sun: even though he himself did not see this light as it is in itself, in its full extent, but only to that extent that he was capable of receiving it. By this contemplation and by his supra-intelligible union with this light,
he did not learn what it is by nature, but he learnt that it really exists, is supernatural and superessential, different from all things; that its being is absolute and unique, and that it mysteriously comprehends all in itself. This vision of the Infinite cannot permanently belong to any individual or to all men.

St. Gregory, in spite of the bitter feuds beteen Latins and Greeks at the time, could nonetheless find a kindred spirit in St. Benedict. His Life, included in Pope St. Gregory the Great's famous hagiographical works titled The Dialogues, was very well received and avidly read by by many monks in Constantinople .

From Death to Life: Building a Culture of Life, One Soul at a Time

By now, the Late Pope John Paul The Great's term for a society addicted to abortion and euthanasia-the famed "culture of death"-has become common currency in the socio-political vocabulary of Christians involved in the "culture wars". This, of course, is usually followed up by appeals to vote for the right people-usually Republican-that would put in place legislation that would protect the unborn, appoint judges to the major federal circuit courts and the Supreme Court who would eventually overturn Roe v. Wade, etc.

As laudable as all of these endeavors are (and I have been on the front lines of such advocacy), I've come to realize that legislation is only half the battle, if that. As a matter of fact, I'm coming to the inevitable conclusion that legislation would perhaps only take care of a very small part of the problem.

Let's suppose, for example, that in two years, we bring back a Pro-Life Congress, filling up those House and Senate seats with good Pro-Life folk. We elect a Pro-Life President, who will eventually appoint strict-constructionist justices to the high court. Eventually, Roe-v. Wade gets overturned by a 5-2 vote. Victory, right?

Well, maybe not. Remember, all overturning Roe v. Wade would do will be to put the decision back to the states, where it belongs. Before Roe v. Wade, abortion was legal in my home state of California.

Imagine the scenario: abortion would continue to be legal in the so-called "blue states", and perhaps in a few "red states" as well. Residents of states where abortionis outlawed would have the recourse of travelling to the blue states, having their abortion, and be back in time for the Late Show. For those too poor to afford the price of a train/plane/bus ticket, no worries. Imagine a non-profit "charity," paying the price of travel-fare so that poorer women have their children sucked into a sink, compliments of the National Organization of Gals.

It is VERY unlikely that overturning a bad Supreme court decision, or even putting in place Pro-Life legislation, would do any good if the culture is still substantially a Pro-Death culture. How do we change this culture? Well, if Baylor Sociology professor Rodney Stark's The Rise of Christianity gives us any clue, the answer is quite simple: step by step, inch by inch, one soul at a time.

You see, opposition to abortion was definitely part of the Church's moral teaching. The Didache, an early 2nd-century "canon" of church teaching which compiles the instructions of the Twelve Apostles, puts before us two ways: the way of life and the way of death. It goes on to say "between the two ways there is a great difference". Elaborating as it does on the meaning of the fifth Commandment's prohibition of murder to include "murdering a child by abortion or killing a newborn infant," it is clear that the early church certainly thought about, and affirmed life by rejecting the "culture of death" in its day, where abortion and infanticide were legally sanctioned activities (http://www.christiancadre.org/member_contrib/cp_infanticide.html).

What is fascinating is that we find no attempts made to organize opposition to abortion and infanticide. there were no "Pro-Life" organizations lobbying the Roman Senate or appealing to the Emperor to get anti-abortion and anti-infanticide legislation in place. Instead, you have the Church being just that-the Church. She bore witness to the Gospel of Life through martyrdom, compassionate care for the poor, and even saving children who had been abandoned and "exposed". By the time Constantine stepped into the picture in the early 4th century, there were just too many Christians in the empire to justify continual persecutions. The Edict of Milan followed in 312, lifting the proscription against Christianity, and a whole empire and culture was soon transformed. The gory spectacle of death known as the gladiatorial games continued for a time, but, according to legend, a small monk by the name of Telemachus put an end to that when he intervened in an amphitheater to stop a gladiatorial fight, and the crowds stoned him. The Emperor Honorius, so the story goes, was so impressed by this brave act of this little ascetic from Asia Minor that he issued an edict in 404 which put an end once and for all to the gladiatorial games. The games did end in 404 A.D., but whether or not it was because of the Monk Telemachus, one thing is certain-Jesus Christ had a great deal to do with it.

The moral of this is that a whole society and culture was transformed to the point that infanticide and abortion were outlawed. All of this happened because the Church dared to be herself, affirming the sanctity and dignity of human life, to the glory of the author of life-the Blessed Trinity.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking political and legislative efforts at protecting the unborn. I myself support such efforts, and will continue to do so. The problem is that this is not enough. Legislative and judicial efforts, if successful, will only address a small part of the problem. We need to work at building a culture where, once again, the sanctity of human life, and the inherent diginity of EVERY human being, born and unborn, able or disabled, is, as my students are want to say, a "no-brainer". This is hard work, but it can be done, one soul at a time.

St. Gregory Palamas and All Souls of the Benedictine Order

Blessed Convergence: Today is the feast of our Father among the Saints, St. Gregory Palamas and, in the Western Orthodox calendar, the feast of All Souls of the Benedictine Order.

Here is a beautiful and moving sermon on unceasing prayer by St. Gregory http://www.abbamoses.com/unceasing.html:

On the Necessity of Constant Prayer for all Christians in GeneralFrom The Life of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, the Wonderworker by St. Nikodemos of the Holy MountainTranslation by St Gregory Palamas Monastery, Hayesville,Ohio: www.bright.net/~palamas/
Let no one think, my Christian Brethren, that only persons in holy orders, or monks, are obliged to pray unceasingly and at all times, but not laymen. No, no! It is the duty of all us Christians to remain always in prayer. For see what His Beatitude the patriarch of Constantinople, Philotheus, writes in the life of St. Gregory of Salonica. That saint had a beloved friend, Job by name, a most simple man, but extremely virtuous. Once, talking with him, the prelate said of prayer that every Christian in general ought always to labor in prayer, and to pray unceasingly, as is commanded by the Apostle Paul to all Christians in general: Pray without ceasing (I Thes. 5:17); and as the Prophet David says of himself, regardless of his being a king and having the care of all his kingdom: I behold the Lord always before me (Ps. 15:8), meaning I always mentally see the Lord before me in my prayer. And Gregory the Theologian teaches all Christians and tells them that we should more often remember the name of God in prayer than inhale air.
Saying this and much else to his friend Job, the holy prelate added that in obedience to the commands of the saints, we not only should always pray ourselves, but we should teach all others to do the same, all people in general: monks and laymen, the wise and the simple, men, women, and children, and induce them to pray unceasingly.
Hearing this, it seemed to the elder Job a new stunt and he began to argue, saying to the saint that to pray unceasingly was only fit for ascetics and monks living outside the world and its vanities, but not for lay people who have so many cares and so much work. The saint brought in new testimonies in confirmation of that truth and new irrefutable proofs of it, but the elder Job was not convinced by them. Then St. Gregory, avoiding useless words and love of argument, was silent, and after that each went to his cell.
Later on, as Job was praying in his cell, there appeared to him an Angel sent from God, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (Tim. 2:4), and rebuking him for having contradicted St. Gregory and opposed an obvious fact on which the salvation of Christians depends, he admonished him in the name of God to attend to himself in future and beware of saying to anyone anything in disparagement of that soul-saving work, thus opposing himself to the will of God, and that even in his mind he ought not to harbor a thought contrary to this and should not allow himself to think otherwise than St. Gregory had told him. Then the most simple elder Job at once hastened to St. Gregory and, falling at his feet, asked his forgiveness for contradicting him and for his love of dispute, and disclosed to him everything that had been said to him by the Angel of God.
Do you see, my brethren, that it is the duty of all Christians, small and great, always to practice the mental prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! so that their mind and heart may acquire the habit of always uttering those holy words. Let this convince you how pleasing this is to God and what great good derives from it, since He, out of His infinite love for men, sent a heavenly Angel to tell us this, so that no one should have any doubt about it.

Read the rest here: http://www.abbamoses.com/unceasing.html



Let us remember the souls of those great Benedictine saints and ascetics who, dedicating themselves to the art of unceasing prayer, built up western civilization to the glory of God.

Requiem aeternum dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetuam luceat eis.

Latest C of E Outrage

Props to Ben Johnson (http://westernorthodox.blogspot.com/) for news of this latest outrage from the Church of England.

It seems that the Rt. Rev. Tom Butler, Bishop of Soutwark, supports Nazi-style euthanasia of children born with severe disabilities. From The Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=416003&in_page_id=1770):

"The Church of England has broken with traditional dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die.
Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs - but a bishop representing the national church has now sparked controversy by arguing that there are occasions when it is compassionate to leave a severely disabled child to die.
And the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, who is the vice chair of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council, has also argued that the high financial cost of keeping desperately ill babies alive should be a factor in life or death decisions.
The shocking new policy from the church has caused outrage among the disabled. "

To say the least! Brings to mind a rather Chesterton-like quote from the late President Reagan: "Abortion is advocated by those who have already been born." In this case, eutahansia is advocated by a rather healthy, well-fed upper middle-class sop with an English "public school" education who somehow thinks some people, made in God's image, are not deserving of life. So now the "high financial costs" of keeping people alive should factor into decisions about life or death? Read "worthless eaters."

Thank you, Rt. Rev. Dr. Josef Mengele!

From the Rule

Listen Carefully, my son, to your master's precepts,and incline the ear of your heart (Prov. 4:20).Receive willingly and carry out effectivelyyour loving father's advice,that by the labor of obedienceyou may return to Himfrom whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.
To you, therefore, my words are now addressed,whoever you may be,who are renouncing your own willto do battle under the Lord Christ, the true King,and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.
And first of all,whatever good work you begin to do,beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it,that He who has now deigned to count us among His childrenmay not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds.For we must always so serve Himwith the good things He has given us,that He will never as an angry Father disinherit His children,nor ever as a dread Lord, provoked by our evil actions,deliver us to everlasting punishmentas wicked servants who would not follow Him to glory.

Prologue, Rule of St. Benedict

From http://www.osb.org/rb/show.asp?month=1&day=1&toMonth=1&toDay=1

Convergences

In addition to tis being the 41st anniversary of my birth, it is also the FEAST OF ALL SAINTS OF THE BENEDICTINE ORDER.

I also found out that I share a birthday with our Father among the Saints, St. Augustine.

Ora pro nobis!

Orthodox Readings of St. Augustine

Finally, a group of Orthodox theologians (and including some notable Catholic theologians as well) will come together to discuss the place of our Holy Father among the Saints, St. (or Blessed, if you prefer) Augustine of Hippo. Father Seraphim Rose called him a a great teacher of Orthodox piety, and yet there are some, thinking they know better than Holy Mother Church, who wish to pretend, without ANY historical justification, that he is not among the number of the saints. It is my hope this conference will do much to restore him to his rightful place in Orthodox faith and piety, a place he really never lost, except in the minds of those Fr. Seraphim Rose called "schoolboys playing at Orthodoxy."

The panel will include Prof. Andrew Louth, Dr. David B. Hart, and Fr. John McGuckin.

Here is the link for more information: http://www.fordham.edu/mvst/conference07/augustine/index.html

Santa Croce, Florence

To the the right of the high altar, beyond the rood screen, (hidden by the columns), is the Bardi Chapel, which houses a most sublime icon of St. Francis, done in a traditional iconograpic style.




What is intruiging about his chapel is that the wall paintings by Giotto surround it, and you can clearly see the subtle shifts in the history of art. Whereas the unnamed master of the Francis icon depicts Francis in a very traditional hieratic style, the Giotto frescoes depict emotion and feeling. This is something you don't pick up immediately when you look at a Giotto painting, but when you go to the Bardi Chapel in Santa Croce, and you see both the Master and Giotto together, you see the shift much more clearly. Compare the above icon from the Bardi Chapel and the Giotto detail (depicting the death of St. Francis) below.