Protecting Veil

On Godzilla

2009-12-29T12:11:00.003-05:00

Sorry guys, but my daughter really wanted me to do a blog post with this picture of Godzilla, and since it doesn't really fit on Logismoi, and Protecting Veil is not being updated, I though I'd put it here. We were discussing whether Godzilla had become good at some point. Unfortunately, I've only seen the one (recent, Hollywood) film, so I don't know. But she has a friend who is a big fan, and I wondered if he had told her that on the basis of Godzilla's fights with such as Mothra, presumably helping to protect people. Anyone have any idea?

Good Idea, Aaron!

2009-03-30T11:14:00.004-04:00

So...the failure of this blog lies largely on my narrow shoulders, I'm afraid. I think it would be great to keep this community blog going...the trick is for people to get re-engaged...I've been terribly disengaged (largely because of my latest undertaking, Max Patch Films)...but I'd be willing to commit to a few posts per month, if others are willing to make a similar commitment.

A Second Run?

2009-01-15T02:47:00.002-05:00

Earlier today Christopher Orr suggested to me that we start up a team blog, and I thought, 'Why not just post on the team blog we already have?' Protecting Veil just sits there on my Blogger Dashboard, sad and forlorn. Could it not have a new lease on life? If any of the old contributors see this, how about posting a comment?

Veni Creator

2006-04-10T01:26:00.000-04:00

Come, Holy Spirit,
bending or not bending the grasses,
appearing or not above our heads in a tongue of flame,
at hay harvest or when they plough in the orchards,
or when snow covers crippled firs in the Sierra Nevada.

I am only a human being: I need visible signs.
I tire easily, building the stairway of abstraction.
Many a time I asked, you know it well,
that the statue in church lift its hand, only once, just once, for me.
But I understand that signs must be human,
therefore, call one person, anywhere on earth,
not me-after all I have some decency-
and allow me, when I look at that person,
to marvel at you.

-Czeslaw Milosz

Accidental Missionaries: The Philanthropy of the God-Bearing Greeks

2006-02-01T12:05:00.000-05:00

By Christopher Orr

By way of introduction, I wrote this as an attempt to express what I have learned from attending and worshiping in a Greek Orthodox parish in America. I have tried to pull together the real stewardship of the Greek language that the Greek people see as a patrimony unique in comparison to other "Orthodox" languages, together with the sometimes contrary universalism and respect for cultural and linguistic diversity in religion that is a part of Orthodox Tradition of evangelization in the Balkans, Russia, Asia, and Alaska- and specifically contrary to the Roman Catholic practice of forced linguistic conformity and the heresy of trilingualism. This is an attempt at framing the issue in a way respectful of these two often competing poles within, specifically, Greek Orthodoxy outside of Greece when Greek emmigrants became "accidental missionaries" who never intended to give up anything for the Faith- or even to settle in foreign lands permanently. There are also obvious corollaries to the emmigration of the Orthodox of other linguistic backgrounds and their retention of their ancient liturgical languages.

Forgive me for any offense. I now plan on ducking for cover. -C.O.

The sons and daughters of Greece have made contributions to Christianity that the non-Greek world cannot ever thank them enough for. God has blessed them and their language to carry the Faith in a way (linguistically) similar to how our beloved Panagia carried Christ for us. Greek and the Greeks are therefore God-bearing (theophoros), and their love of mankind (philanthropos) is seen in how they have shared, preserved, and dogmatized Christianity via the original lingua franca, their Greek language.

For instance, the pre-Christian, Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Septuagint) prepared the way for the propagation of Christianity by making available to the world the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah. The Evangelists Mark, Luke, John and the Apostles Paul targeted Gentiles in their missions and therefore wrote in Greek. It has also been said that Jesus, born during the Hellenistic age of a Roman world, spoke Greek in the course of his ministry in the Decapolis of Galilee, a Hellenistic region. On the first Christian Pentecost, our Lord sent down the Holy Spirit to his simple, uneducated Apostles and who were then enabled to speak in Greek and all of the languages of those present to spread Christianity to all peoples. The Lord's commandment to “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” was not repeated in Aramaic because it was the ‘original’, but in a language understood by the one being baptized (i.e., most often Greek in the eastern Mediterranean). Pagan Greek philosophy had providentially sharpened the technical vocabulary of the Greek language over the previous centuries enabling it to fully express the Christian mystery of salvation revealed “in the fullness of time”. The Ecumenical Councils debated and decreed in Greek, and a proper understanding of this language is essential to the true understanding of the dogmas touching the Trinity and the Person of Christ. The Church of Old Rome and the West took into its own Latin Mass the Kyrie, eleison in Greek. The Orthodox Catholic faith was also experientially confirmed in Greek by the Athonite Fathers and St. Gregory Palamas, and it was preserved in Greek during the bitter, martyric centuries of the Turkokratia.

The importance of the Greek language and Christian Hellenism in the history of salvation cannot be minimized. In fact, we should recommit ourselves to inculcating them into our children and society at large. They should be the bedrock of a comprehensive Greek Orthodox educational system across the country.

At the same time, however, it is paramount to remember that our most important mission, as Church, is living and learning the Orthodox Christian faith itself. Let us not fool ourselves. Half of a Sunday morning Liturgy and a smattering of Holy Week services in Byzantine Greek will not teach our children Modern Greek. Neither will the casual teaching of demotic Greek in our parishes’ Greek Schools make the Greek of the Divine Services and the Septuagint intelligible to Greek-American children when the average, native born young person in Greece does not. The Divine Liturgy calls the laity “the rational sheep” of Christ, and it is irrational to worship and pray in a language unintelligible to us. We must either:

Ensure that every member of our parish is educated and fluent in the Greek of the Divine Services, or
Worship in the best form of the language of the people.

Summer trips to Greece teach a love of Greece and Greek, but what does a lifetime of incomprehensible Divine Liturgies teach? Our priests’ sermons are in English because it is important that we understand the Gospel. By leaving major portions of the Divine Services in Greek only, we are saying they are not important enough to need to be intelligible.

Has the Greek Orthodox Church become reduced to the Greek language alone? Does Greek Orthodoxy have nothing else of value to offer the world and other Orthodox churches? Of course not. St. Kosmas Aitolos struggled to preserve the Greek language so as to preserve the Orthodoxy of the persecuted Greek people, not simply out of love for the Greek language. The Greek Confessors who suffered and persevered under centuries of hostile Muslim rule teach us something no other Orthodox people can.

In fact, nurturing this specifically Greek kind of faith will help to keep 2nd and 3rd generation Greek-Americans faithful members of the Greek Orthodox Church in a secular world less overtly, though perhaps more vigorously, hostile to Orthodoxy than was the Ottoman Empire. As more Greek-Americans have English as their mother tongue, it will be through their Orthodox faith that they will learn to love Greece, the Greek language, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate – and find salvation.

Orthodox Christians are called to follow their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, sacrificing everything thing for the “one thing needful”. Muslims converting to the Orthodox Faith face murder at the hands of their own families. Some American Protestants are faced with being “shunned” by their families never to see them again after their conversion to the Orthodoxy. A shared pain of all converts is that public prayers for non-Orthodox parents and grandparents are not allowed- a blessing which is taken for granted by most Orthodox as they serve Memorials for their loved ones. However, as Jesus rose from the dead, so, too, the convert to the Orthodox faith gains Life beyond their previous imagining. Sts. Cyril and Methodios’ work to translate the Bible and the Orthodox services into Slavonic gained for the Greek Church the Slavic churches which dwarf the number of Greek Orthodox Christians. This gift of salvation in the Slav’s own language has only strengthened the love of these non-Greek peoples for Greece and the Greek language. These same Slavs, in return, have paid their debt to the Greek Church over the centuries by supporting the persecuted Greek people, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, as well as the Greek monasteries of Agion Oros and the Holy Land. This love for Greece and Greek can be had here in America, too, born from the salvation brought to them by the accidental, Greek missionaries that came to America as immigrants and refugees. The English-language worship of the Greek Orthodox faithful in America will spur the faithful (Greek and non-Greek) to love, learn and preserve the Christian Hellenism of those who preserved and taught them the Orthodox Faith.

But, how can America (and 3rd generation Greek-Americans) love the Greek Orthodox Church unless they understand it? When these Americans understand, they will respond to the saving philanthropy of the God-bearing Greeks by loving both Greece and Greek. Who cannot but love a people who would give so much?

New "Eastern" Great Books College

2005-12-17T18:48:00.000-05:00

Transfiguration College is a new Byzantine Catholic Great Books College being organized in Illinois. Somewhere on this site, you will find the phrase "Pope John Paul II, of happy memory".

God is not Wrathful?

2005-11-28T14:15:00.000-05:00

"We are not saved from God's wrath, we are saved from sin and death..."

*

How do Orthodox define God's wrath and his anger? How do we deal with the many passages in the Old and New Testaments, as well as the Fathers, which describe God as being angry with us for our sins and wrathful?

The common Orthodox response is that described above with the contrast against the wrathful God of the West, as described in Kalomiros' "River of Fire", but where in the Fathers is this "wrath" and "anger" described as simply a manner of speech, an anthropomorphism, or as our experience of God as wrathful due to our sin?

I have had a difficult time finding patristic references to this effect, but have found many which speak quite literally about God's wrath and its appeasement. Could anyone help? A Lutheran is questioning whether this is simply a modernist Orthodox revision of the Scriptures and the Fathers since the wrath of God at our sin, his Justice, and his work to meet that Justice for us are central- in his mind- to Christianity.

How does Orthodoxy and the Fathers view God's wrath and anger in light of our need for salvation?

Sex

2005-11-23T23:04:00.000-05:00

On the ROCOR Yahoo! group I belong to, Rdr Constantine Wright (of whom I know some of you have heard) is currently claiming that not only did the first-created man and woman engage in sexual intercourse in Paradise, but that married persons will continue to do so, albeit without passion, in the life of the age to come. This flies in the face of everything I've ever read about the subject in Scripture and the Fathers (on neither of which, I admit, am I an expert). Does anyone know where he might have got such an idea?

A Great Recipe for Vegan Pancakes

2005-11-21T15:15:00.000-05:00

Hope this helps during the fast...

1)
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
Sift these four ingredients together.

2)
Beat together: 1 very ripe banana
3/4 cups soymilk
3 tbsp. canola oil

3)
gently mix (1) and (2) together. Fry in margarine or oil.
Walnuts may be added for added flavor and crunch.

Update

2005-11-19T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well, just so everyone knows, Nicholas has been home all this week, and everyone is doing very well, thanks to God!
In other news, I just finished reading the latest Tom Wolfe novel, I am Charlotte Simmons, last night. If you can stomach a lot of very foul language and some explicit, but certainly not titillating, sex, then I highly recommend this book. It is a carefully researched, fictional attempt to document life at America's top universities in the '00's, to document it in all of its sordidness, barbarity and idiocy. This makes The Closing of the American Mind look like a mild academic rebuke indeed. And the fascinating thing is Wolfe's own consciousness of his lack of moral ground from which to criticise. Most telling passage: '...collegiate was collegiate, but this was...indecent--immoral was the term that crossed his mind, but the very word had become obsolete. It had vanished from sophisticated conversation.' Bingo. The nail on the head.

Announcement

2005-11-07T01:47:00.000-05:00

Just letting everybody know that, glory to God, our baby was delivered Friday afternoon by c-section. He's 6 lbs, 8 ounces. Unfortunately, he's had some problems transitioning to normal breathing due to fluid in his lungs, so he's currently in the NICU. But this is apparently pretty normal with c-section babies and there is every reason to believe he will soon be able to breathe normally, i.e., at a moderate pace and without an extra oxygen supply. So we're not worried, but please do pray for him. Mostly we're just really anxious to get him home when Brighid checks out Tuesday. We're naming him Nicholas Caedmon. Sorry this is all a jumbled mess...I'm pretty tired!

European Union Lowercases 'Christ'

2005-11-02T15:47:00.000-05:00

EU lowercases 'Christ':
Brussels' grammar rule says title to be spelled with small 'c' in future

Posted: November 1, 20052:12 p.m. Eastern
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com-->© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47166

A new grammar rule devised by the European Union in Brussels stipulates the word "Christ" shall be spelled with a lowercase "c."

The rule was part of an orthography reform published in October, reported Canada Free Press.
The paper cites a German newssite, Kath.net, in reporting that the new guidelines also indicate the Dutch word for "Jews" (Joden) is to be spelled with a capital "J" when referring to nationality and with a lower-case "j" when referring to the religion.

The EU changes become mandatory next August. There are no penalties set out for those who insist on continuing to spell Christ with a capital "C."

Canada Free Press noted the title of Javier Solana, secretary general of the EU, was still to be spelled with capital letters.

Many Europeans have long discarded belief in God and in fact believe more deeply in ghosts than in a deity.

A new poll finds two-thirds of Britons said they believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits, but only 55 percent said they believe in the existence of God.

Meanwhile, 26 percent believe in UFOs, 19 percent in reincarnation and 4 percent in the Loch Ness Monster, Ananova reported.

Anne Rice, "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt"

2005-11-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

A friend went to a book signing at Grand Central Terminal in NYC by Anne Rice of her new book, "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt". Expecting yet another in a long line of Gnostic Jesus tales, this time from the Queen of Vampires and Witches, I was surprised to hear that she rejoined the Catholic Church of her youth and was attempting a serious, orthodox telling of the life of Jesus. Here are some notes from her official website to give you some flavor.

NOTES FROM ANNE ON CHRIST THE LORD: Out of Egypt
October 28, 2005

"Dear Ones,
Tomorrow, October 29th, I leave on my book tour for the promotion of Christ the Lord. So far, the reception of the book has been quietly astonishing. Reviews have been far more kind than I ever expected, and the the talk on the internet is far greater than I ever imagined it would be, if I imagined it at all.

Let me make a few statements before I leave you for an extended period of meeting my readers face to face. First off, there is much misunderstanding about this book floating around, and misinformation about me.

This book, as I've already explained, is a sincere attempt to bring to life in fiction the world of Jesus of Nazareth, whom I believe, is the Son of God. The Four Gospels are definitely the main framework for the story, the main source for it, and the firm structure into which any fictional liberties are carefully placed. Use of the Apocrypha is extremely limited in this novel, and the reasons for the use of early legends about Jesus' childhood is fully explained in The Author's Note in the book.

I do not have any particular interest in the gnostic gospels. They do not figure in this book at all, as far as I know. Also I have not written anything at all resembling the Da Vinci Code. I thought the Da Vinci Code was a scream.

Regarding my return to the Catholic Church in 1998, this had nothing to do with my husband's illness, as he did not become ill till four years later. And it had nothing to do with my own illness in 1998 which happened afterwards.

My return to faith is described in The Author's Note as well. It was not something that happened over night. It came about over a period of years.

I make these statements because as I check out the blogs at night, I'm amazed at the momentum of false statements about me and the book and the opinions generated by these false statements. There is something frightening about seeing the same mistaken assumption repeated over and over again from blog to blog. Of course this chatter will undoubtedly die down at some point, and it may or may not affect the fate of the book in the Public Square. Whatever the case, if you've followed me this far, let me ask you to be open minded about Christ the Lord. I am not exaggerating when I say that the book surprises people.

I'm very much looking forward to this tour for all the obvious reasons: I'll see my readers, hear their voices, experience their presence in positive and fortifying ways. And this publication is especially thrilling to me because my conversion was so intense and so total, and this book represents for me the pinnacle of what I have attempted in a lifetime of writing. Understand, I've never written anything without zeal. But I do feel that all my previous research and all my earlier writing was preparation for this. ...

Take care and be well, and love, Anne."

http://www.annerice.com/bs_b_ChristTheLord.htm#anne

Commemorative T-shirt

2005-10-29T18:23:00.000-04:00

Any Antiochians out there ought to have a look at this: http://www.cafepress.com/doxos.27549787
I think you'll proudly wear it!

The Abortion Debate No One Wants to Have

2005-10-24T19:04:00.000-04:00

"Prenatal testing is making your right to abort a disabled child more like 'your duty' to abort a disabled child."

A remarkable editorial in the Washington Post, written by a mother of a child with Down syndrome.

Whenever I am out with Margaret, I'm conscious that she represents a group whose ranks are shrinking because of the wide availability of prenatal testing and abortion. I don't know how many pregnancies are terminated because of prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome, but some studies estimate 80 to 90 percent.

Imagine. As Margaret bounces through life, especially out here in the land of the perfect body [California], I see the way people look at her: curious, surprised, sometimes wary, occasionally disapproving or alarmed. I know that most women of childbearing age that we may encounter have judged her and her cohort, and have found their lives to be not worth living.

To them, Margaret falls into the category of avoidable human suffering. At best, a tragic mistake. At worst, a living embodiment of the pro-life movement. Less than human. A drain on society. That someone I love is regarded this way is unspeakably painful to me.

"People want what they want: a perfect baby, a perfect life. To which I say: Good luck. Or maybe, dream on." To put it bluntly, many pro-choicers "while paying obeisance to the rights of people with disabilities, want at the same time to preserve their right to ensure that no one with disabilities will be born into their own families."

David Lynch and Trancendental Meditation

2005-10-24T18:31:00.000-04:00

Interesting portrait in the London Times of a devoted practitioner of Trancendental Meditation (TM), who just happens to be filmmaker David Lynch. Apparently he hopes to raise $7B to put it in the schools, but I think this article is most interesting for its portrait of a faithful TMer (30+ years) and its surprisingly sympathetic treatment of TM. Twenty minutes twice a day: it's "easy, easy, easy;" and, we learn, it helps everyone, including kids; and now science is backing it up as being theraputic. (via Robot Wisdom)

Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical Studies

2005-10-24T18:27:00.000-04:00

Found recently:

The Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical studies began as an informal gathering of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary alumni in 1999 to pursue advanced biblical studies through annual meetings. The members recognized that additional resources were necessary to augment their seminary education and enhance their various ministries in the Orthodox Church. With this in mind, a pan-Orthodox non-profit organization was established to develop, promote and publish research in the areas of biblical studies, homiletics and religious education in the Orthodox Christian Faith.

Fact or Fiction?

2005-10-23T22:24:00.000-04:00

A question I have as I read _The Name of the Rose_
While I'm impressed by the breadth and depth of Eco's knowledge, there seems to be a problem in discerning what is fact and what is fiction... Take the following passage:

"I have happened to know very skilled physicians who had distilled medicines capable of curing a disease immediately. But when they gave their unguent or their infusion to the simple, they accompanied it with holy words and chanted phrases that sounded like prayers: not because these prayers had the power to heal, but because, believing that the cure came from the prayers, the simple would swallow the infusion or cover themselves with the unguent, and so they would be cured, while paying little attention to the effective power of the medicine." (p. 88)

Is Eco trying to downplay the possibility of miracle? or is he recounting a historical point? In any case, the idea that this happened seems possibly more fiction than fact: if physicians had this kind of healing power (while, presumably priests did not), wouldn't the physicians have taken on a kind of "witch doctor" status (even if they regarded them as "Christian" witch doctors)?

"In this life you have many sorrows"

2005-10-23T00:31:00.000-04:00

"The spiritual way for the Christian broadly speaking presents itself like this: At the outset man is drawn to God by the gift of grace; and once attracted, a prolonged period of testing sets in. His freedom as a man and his trust in God are put to the test...At the initial stage of his conversion his prayers, urgent or not so urgent, are miraculously granted almost before they are uttered. But when the time of trial starts, everything alters. It seems as if heaven had closed up and become deaf to all our prayers. For the fervent Christian everything in life gets to be difficult. There is a change in people's attitude towards him - he is no longer respected. What is willingly forgiven others is held against him. His resistance to physical ills is lowered. Nature, circumstances, people-all turn against him. He finds no outlet for his natural talents, though they are no less valuable than other people's."

_Saint Silouan the Athonite_, by Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), p. 200-201.

Thoughts on the Creative Process

2005-10-22T17:15:00.000-04:00

I was recently sent this link and found a great deal of it helpfully thought-provoking...the guy has a colorful tongue, though, so I apologize for that up front...

Thoughts on the Creative Process

Controversies on Campuses

2005-10-22T15:21:00.000-04:00

I was just reading a discussion of Naomi Schaefer Riley's God on the Quad in Books and Culture. Apparently, there is a chapter devoted to various controversial issues and how they are dealt with at the various religious colleges and universities she visited. But when she asked one student at Thomas Aquinas College what the big controversy was on their campus, the student responded, 'The big controversy here is the Plato versus Aristotle controversy.' Now that's where I wish I'd gone to college.

Imagination: the "door of the demons"?

2005-10-21T21:59:00.000-04:00

I'm not actually taking a poll as to who agrees with this idea...I'm trying to find out where it's located (!) I'm guessing it's somewhere in the Philokalia...but where?

A book in English about Thessaloniki

2005-10-19T21:13:00.000-04:00

I just finished a fascinating book called Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950, by Mark Mazower, author of a short introduction to Balkan history and a history of Greece under the Nazi occupation. His primary agenda is to underline Thessaloniki's multicultural, multi-ethnic past, and to show how that has been rather forgotten since the liberation of the city from the Turks, the population exchange and the deportation of the vast majority of the city's Jews to Auschwitz. Although, as an American, I personally felt Mazower was surprisingly fair to the Greeks, one Greek acquaintance told me that he had read a review saying that the book did not do enough to show the Greeks' attempts to help the Jews. Mazower does indicate that some attempts occurred, and he makes it clear that Greek indifference was not the only reason the Jewish population in Athens survived largely intact whereas that of Thessaloniki was decimated, but he also points out that efforts to help the Jews were neither as whole-hearted nor as common in Thessaloniki as they were in Athens. Nevertheless, given the character of Greek nationalism, it seems unlikely that Greeks (or, for that matter, Deacon Iosif, formerly Dunstan) will be terribly excited about this book even if we lay aside the thorny Holocaust issues. For us unabashed Americans though, there is a lot of fascinating information here.

ISOS: Internet School of Orthodox Studies

2005-10-17T16:45:00.000-04:00

A friend (J. Oh) recently sent me this link:

ISOS

One more addition to a growing body of Orthodox education/theology links...I had no idea that there were so many Orthodox information sites out there! Please keep posting with any new sites that are worthy of note!

Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement

2005-10-17T16:02:00.000-04:00

This is interesting - we could have sent you, Herman or Aaron, as representatives of Aristotle University. Well, it's not a seminary, I suppose.

Interesting Goings-On at Jordanville

2005-10-15T22:30:00.000-04:00

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but there have been some interesting things happening at Jordanville in the last few years. Most recently, I noted the report on the 'Third Holy Trinity Seminary Colloquium' (http://www.hts.edu/pages/news/collo04report.html). One session was devoted to Andrei Rublev, and one of the lecturers was Fr Andrew Louth of the University of Durham. Also, at the bottom of this page, I noticed that at the 'Second Holy Trinity Seminary Colloquium', on Khomiakov, one of the lecturers was Paul Valliere. Most of you may not know the name off the top of your heads, but if you recall, Dr Stamoulis had Philip do a paper on a book of Valliere's two years ago, about which I was privileged to hear a great deal of criticism as Philip was reading the book. In short, Valliere, a champion of what he euphemistically calls 'the liberal tradition' in Russian Orthodox theology, is not your typical Jordanville fare.
Check out the seminary news page, http://www.hts.edu/pages/news.html, for more of the same.

Moscow, the 'Third Rome'

2005-10-15T19:51:00.000-04:00

I just came across the following article about the 'Third Rome' idea: http://kiev-orthodox.org/site/english/915/. Is it just me, or does it seem like the patriarch, like other Greeks I've heard comment on this issue, has completely misunderstood it? I don't vouch that the Russian government officials have it right either, but the patriarch categorically condemns anyone who even speaks of a 'Third Rome', claiming that it makes the Church into the tool of the authoritarian agenda of a particular government. As far as I had always thought I'd understood it, the 'Third Rome' idea has nothing to do with 'caesaropapism' or the domination of all Orthodox by one organisation at all. What do y'all (as we say in Oklahoma) think?

Historicity of the Bible

2005-10-12T09:48:00.000-04:00

The controversy over the historicity of the Bible, the Old and New Testaments, is a major issue in the Christian world. Fr. John Breck's "Scripture in Tradition" is wonderful at getting at an Orthodox view of Scripture and its place. However, there seems to a major weakness in many Orthodox commentaries which seem to accept the historicity of the New Testament- against the likes of Spong- but deny the same to the Old Testament. What is the basis in Orthodoxy for this allowed change? Is it a new "dispensation"? Do the Fathers, the liturgical or iconographic Tradition teach a difference between the Old and New Testaments' factuality? The three patristic levels of reading Scripture- literal, typological, and allegorical- obviously allow for more than a simple literal reading of the OT, and more than typology which the NT itself explicitly teaches, but they do not seem to allow for less than a reading which embraces all three levels. The Fathers, the iconographic and festal tradition of the Church, as well as the New Testament itself, seem to argue for a literal plus typological and allegorical reading of the events and peoples of the Old Testament, and not simply either a solely literal or an exclusively "spiritual", non-literal reading of the same.

Is the Orthodox Church simply punting on the question? Is the Tradition clear in treating the events as historical as well as typological (prophetic)? Where do the Fathers and the Church speak otherwise regarding historicity, and where do they allow for the real meaning to be only the "spiritual" and not the literal? Specific references to primary texts would be appreciated.

'Orthodox Tradition' online in pdf

2005-10-11T17:47:00.000-04:00

I was just checking out what's new on the English version of the Cyprianite website, maintained by the hieromonk who served the parish in Thessaloniki we attended, and I discovered that he's put at least the last 3 years of Orthodox Tradition online there in pdf format. Here's the URL, for anyone interested: http://www.synodinresistance.gr/EkdoshsParag_en/OrthodoxTraditionen.html
I saw some really great articles after a cursory glance at a few issues.

A FREE Copy of _The Master and Margarita_?!

2005-10-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Well...sort of:

Free Book!

Has anyone read this? Do you care to comment? I have wanted to read it for years now...hopefully I'll manage to get to it soon!

Which Literature Classic Are You?

2005-10-08T21:01:00.000-04:00

I just came across this funny little quizella: http://quizilla.com/users/firelite/quizzes/Which%20literature%20classic%20are%20you%3F/. I'm curious to see what results the other folks on the blog might get. Just so you know, it seems I'm The Name of the Rose.

Straight Edge

2005-10-06T21:37:00.000-04:00

I know Philip and I have shared a laugh and a head scratch or two over the somewhat ascetic, hardcore punk movement known as 'straight edge', but I wasn't sure if anybody else had heard of it. Anyway, here's a really interesting article...but be warned, as the author points out, they may be pure of body, but they're not pure of mouth. http://www.affdoublethink.com/archives/018883.php

Women Theological Graduates to Meet

2005-10-06T10:44:00.000-04:00

Any thoughts on the article below? I have heard controversial things about Dr. Kyriaki Fitzgerald and her husband regarding not just a "feminine viewpoint" on Orthodoxy, but in changing the Tradition along the lines of the modernists in the West. However, I have have not really seen much about them, or read much of any of their works.

Christopher

------------------------

Published by St. Catherine’s Vision, October 3, 2005
Women Theological Graduates to Meet

Antiochian Village in Ligonier, PA will be the site of an historic gathering of women graduates of Orthodox theological schools, November 10-13 of this year. For the first time, women graduates of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary will meet to discuss the important contributions theologically educated women can make to the Orthodox Church on this continent.

The initiative, called St. Catherine’s Vision, has developed over the past two years through the efforts of a group of dedicated Orthodox women, educated in our theological schools. Many theologically trained women now serve professionally outside the arena of the Church, both in the public and private sectors. Harnessing this largely untapped talent pool, as well as meeting their particular spiritual needs, will be addressed at the Conference/Retreat.

Some women graduates have reported to St .Catherine’s Vision that they are currently involved in a variety of ministries, including teaching, spiritual direction, research, administration, chaplaincy ministries, religious education, outreach, writing, music, pastoral counseling, mission, monasticism, as well as theological and ecumenical dialogues. Sharing these experiences, as well as supporting the desire of women who seek to be actively involved in the life of the Church, is one of the primary goals of the Conference/Retreat. St. Catherine’s Vision is intended as a vehicle to harness the energy, skills and knowledge of not only women graduates but Orthodox women who desire to serve the Church.

Through the generous assistance of a Lilly Foundation Endowment Seed Money grant, the Planning Committee has been strategizing for over three years and since July 2003, has met formally in a series of four-day Planning Retreats. The preliminary focus was on establishing priorities for the upcoming November 2005 Conference/Retreat. Dr. Kyriaki Fitzgerald, a graduate of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, serves as the Planning Committee Chair. Other Planning Committee members, all graduates of Orthodox theological seminaries, represent various Orthodox jurisdictions.

For more information about the November, 2005 Conference/Retreat, including detailed Registration information and the Retreat/Conference schedule, go to the St. Catherine’s Vision website at www.orthodoxwomen.org.

Introduction, and Textbook Website

2005-10-05T17:31:00.000-04:00

Hello, Herman invited me to post to the Protecting Veil blog as one of his first non-Greece friends. Glad to be invited into the cool crowd.

As introduction, I live in New York City during the week working as an executive recruiter, and spend my weekends in Stroudsburg, PA which is where I met Herman during his brief tenure there. I was a professional actor until about 2 months ago, though I haven't worked solely as an actor since 2000. Coincidentally, I got married that year and became Orthodox at the very start of the next- on the Eve of the Synaxis of the 70. I was baptized in the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (OCA) by Priest Christopher Swanson, chrismated by Hieromonk Constantine (Chirila), and my spiritual father is the Dean of the Cathedral, Igumen Christopher (Calin). I was tonsured Reader there and promptly fell to what we lovingly refer to as "The Curse of the Reader" which causes one to leave the Cathedral for various and sundry reasons- my non-Orthodox, dancer wife and I bought a house in the Poconos and aren't in town for weekend services, in my case.

Glad to meet all of you. I will try to be interesting.

I ran across, again, a wonderful website which had been managed by the late Archbishop Alexander (Mileant)- Memory Eternal!- and seems to have been intended to be a ROCOR, online, distance learning, seminary course in the vein of the Antiochians' St. Philip's course. They have a huge number of textbooks available for download which will come in handy for we Ortho-nerds. The Holy Trinity Orthodox School can be found at http://www.holytrinitymission.org/index.php.

Christopher Orr

Orthodox thoughts on suffering and death

2005-10-05T10:25:00.000-04:00

I just came across a recent letter written by Lynnette Hoppe regarding her thoughts as an Orthodox Christian dealing with cancer...really quite inspiring! The full letter can be found here

I have excerpted a few paragraphs...

"I have found that it is much more difficult to watch someone I love suffer than it is to suffer myself. Someone else's suffering brings home the hard truths of our mortality and the inevitability of death. It forces us to face the uncertainties and fears that hang like a black shadow over that dark and lonely valley through which we must all pass. When I think about my own suffering, I am consoled deeply by the thought that I will not really be alone on that final journey. My Lord will be with me, but that consolation doesn't turn the valley into a bright, happy meadow.

Someone asked me recently if I ever felt excited about the thought of going to heaven. I had to say, No. I have felt a tremendous sense of joy at the thought of being united with my Lord, who is the Âtrue desire and the ineffable joy of those who love [Him]Â in a place where Âthe voice of those who feast is unceasing, and the gladness of those who behold the goodness of [His] countenance is unendingÂ (from the Prayers After Communion). I have been greatly comforted by the fact that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for me so that where he is, there I can be also (John 14:6). I feel that Jesus awaits me with gladness, that my death will be ÂpreciousÂ to him. My thoughts about heaven linger on the joy of being with Jesus, not on what the place will be like. It is enough for me to know that He will be there. I also thrill to the idea of being present in the company of some amazing people who have gone before meÂapostles, prophets, martyrs, saints, my grandfather and C.S. Lewis. I hope not to be ashamed to be in their glorious company because of my pitiful efforts here on earth, but I am consoled by the fact that heaven will be a place full of mercy and grace.

Excitement, it seems to me, is something one feels when one is looking forward to an event and sees an untroubled path in front of him. Joy, on the other hand, is something one can hold onto in the face of suffering, knowing that the suffering will pass in time, but that the joy will remain because it is rooted in something deeper, not in the circumstances that surround it.

Although I do have a great sense of joy, I also feel a deep sadness at the immense tragedy of the human condition--the terrible burden of our separation from God, the presence of evil in this world, poverty, illness, selfishness, greed, unending hostilities between nations and peoples, the inability of many families to get along, and so many other horrors. Jesus wept over these things, and expressed his desire to console Âas a mother hen gathers her young under her wings,Â but his people refused his offer. I never felt his grief until I began to experience suffering myself. Then I began to identify with his sorrow as well as with the misery of so many who had come to my door in Albania seeking relief from pain or illness or hunger or cold. Although I had tried to meet their physical needs, I don't think I commiserated with them very deeply. For this reason and for many other reasons, I am so grateful for my own pain. Now I can have a much deeper sense of compassion for the sufferings of others.

I understand so much better, too, how much our Lord identifies with the sick and the suffering, the poor and the imprisoned. He is close to those who are in misery and wants us to be his face, his hands, his eyes, his feetÂgiving, loving, visiting, prayingÂfor those in need. I have been reading some of the writings of Mother Theresa, and she is a wonderful example of Âbeing JesusÂ to the suffering."

Non-Chacedonians / Oriental Orthodox / Monophysites / Miaphysites

2005-10-03T17:42:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting resource for studying the issue of non-Chalcedonian Christians: orthodoxunity.org. The "statements" section certainly has some Orthodox-sounding documents. I found it through the interesting wikipedia article, which includes links to the maintainers of the orthodoxunity.org - the tiny British Orthodox Church (Oriental, that is)!

The Holy Cross

2005-10-03T10:49:00.000-04:00

A friend asked me at church over the weekend if I knew when the Cross began to be widely used as a Christian symbol. A Protestant friend of his wanted to equate its usage with St. Constantine's vision of the Cross (as is well known, the Protestants don't generally like St. Constantine!), so as to reject its usage as late and inappropriate. So, I headed over to wikipedia, where I found the following...thought y'all might find it of interest:

"Descriptions of the Cross are to be found in Christian writings from the early 2nd century onwards. The Cross first became prominent in Christian imagery during the 3rd century. An early third century reference (there are few others) is in Clement of Alexandria's unfinished Stromateis or 'Miscellanies' (book VI): he speaks of the Cross as tou Kuriakou semeiou tupon, i.e. "the symbol of the Lord." His contemporary Tertullian could designate the body of Christian believers as crucis religiosi, i.e. "devotees of the Cross" (Apol., chapter xvi)."

Mac Vocabulary Builder

2005-10-01T05:29:00.000-04:00

Here's something for you mac-using language learners: ProVoc. I've tried a few flash-card type programs before, but this one is the best in that it can import and export text files of vocab words, and print nicely, as well as conveniently share vocab lists with others. I'll share my Greek with you, if you'll share with me... :-)

Florovsky's 'Collected Works'

2005-09-27T17:15:00.000-04:00

I remembered that there had been some discussion about the status of the 'Collected Works' of Fr Georges Florovsky, and not being sure how much was known by the others on the blog, I thought I'd share some references to it that I recently came across in SVS's biography of Fr Florovsky--Georges Florovsky: Russian Intellectual, Orthodox Churchman, edited by Andrew Blane.

'Nordland Press, in an ambitious undertaking, set out in the 1970s to publish Florovsky's collected works in English. He was pleased by the plan, and welcomed the first two volumes to reach print in 1972 and 1974. But disenchantment followed. He voiced strong displeasure with changes in the next two volumes, particularly volume three, saying they were not to his liking and he had not been consulted. In 1979, when the next volume was in prospect, he took the unusual step of insisting through a lawyer that he be sent a proposed contract as well as all aspects of the planned text not already posted for his personal checking and correcting. Until these conditions were met, publication could not go forward.'
There is also a note with further interesting information:
'The lawyer was Christopher S. Tarr of the firm Smith, Stratton, Wise and Heher, Princeton, New Jersey. Florovsky's side of the story ended with his death in August. Those who might now legally represent him were absorbed in settling his estate. Nordland Press continued to publish his works. The story is sad and dismal, that of a botched opportunity. Within a few years Nordland filed for bankruptcy to obtain relief from its creditors. Organized in Liechtenstein under another name, Buchervertriebsanstalt [sorry, didn't want to take the time over the umlaut], but controlled still by Richard S. Haugh [author of Photius and the Carolingians], production of Florovsky's works renewed. This press also would fold. The quality of its works continued to deteriorate. Volumes XIII and XIV, for example, are shoddy and misleading. But even parts of the earlier, better volumes, are erroneous. To illustrate with one of the unauthorized changes that I know, having multiplied, led Father Georges to turn to a lawyer: his Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard University on "The Resurrection of Life" was published in Volume III under the significantly different title "The 'Immortality' of the Soul".'

The Lukan Jump?!

2005-09-26T20:51:00.000-04:00

Does anyone know what a "Lukan Jump" is?

I just came across this somewhat ridiculous bit of information (well, actually, the concept is understandable, the name...well...leaves much to be desired!)

Lukan Jump

Something You Always Wanted to Know About Praying but Were Afraid to Ask

2005-09-26T18:31:00.000-04:00

I just came across this in Part II of 'Elder Arsenios the Cave-Dweller' in the new Divine Ascent. I don't know about anyone else, and maybe I'm just a little weird, but this is something that I genuinely wondered about:

Another young man asked, 'Elder what should I do? When I go to the "place" because of my needs, the demon of uncleanness fights with me.'

'Oh!' the Elder replied. 'You should fight him by continually saying the prayer very fast.'

'But Elder, can we say the prayer in the toilet?'

'What? Oh, in the place of need!' (Thus he called the toilet in proper Pontian). Who told you that you couldn't? Didn't the apostle say to pray unceasingly? If you fight, I'll fight. Are you putting thoughts in him? I'll pull them out with the prayer.' [He seems to say this latter to the devil.]

'Don't you know the example of the young man who prayed so much that he distressed Satan? One time, the tempter became furious from the prayers and found an opportunity, as the youth was going to the bathroom. He appears in front of him and says: "Aren't you ashamed to say the prayer on the toilet?" And immediately the youth said "Yes, and I'll say the prayer on the crapper until I get all the crap out of my soul!"'

'Satan couldn't stand it; he was furious and vanished into thin air.'

Bible Textbook for Public Schools Planned

2005-09-25T18:54:00.000-04:00

Quite interesting developments on the place of the Bible in US education (and, tangentially, on its relationship to the Church/State issue). I'm wondering, though, if this is a symptom, essentially, of increased religious tolerance, or if it is, indirectly, a fruit of religious indifference? I've always been impressed by "Enlightened Europe's" willingness to include "religious education" in their curriculum, but I'm wondering now if it is more a product of their lack of interest in religion as something that affects them on a personal level. Does the average European consider the study of religion to be much different than the study of anthropology, psychology, history, and so on?

Check out an article here

And the following quotes are located here

"Public schools have no business using Bible instruction to advance a religious agenda. But when they decline to impart knowledge about such an important subject, they are not doing anything to preserve the separation of church and state. They are merely failing their students."
Chicago Tribune (May 12, 2005)

“How are we to expect our young people to live up to America’s ideals if they are cut off from the stories, beliefs and metaphors that for hundreds of years gave those principles life?”
The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 12, 1999)

“It would be hard for anyone ignorant of the Bible to understand much of the story of civilization. Public schools are obligated to avoid promoting religion, but if they ignore it completely they do a disservice to both their pupils and the Constitution."
The Chicago Tribune (Nov. 28, 1999)

“The Bible & Public Schools: A First Amendment Guide (located in our Curriculum Adoption Kit) recognizes that the Bible has helped shape history, culture, art and literature, and it suggests ways to make teaching about the Bible in public schools acceptable without risking lawsuits.”
The New York Times (Nov. 12, 1999)

New Advent Fathers

2005-09-24T17:30:00.000-04:00

Now here is a valuable resource that I just learned about - the Church Fathers page at New Advent. I had used the Catholic Encyclopedia there, but I didn't know about their extensive patristics work in English. I've never seen many of these texts in English before. Very nice. Now if only they'd create pdf downloads...

Changes in Theological Education in Greece

2005-09-22T17:12:00.000-04:00

It has finally been decided that, in addition to the two universities in Greece that offer degrees in Theology, four of the ecclesiological schools will be given university status (though they won't accept women, and their graduates will not qualify for jobs in the public sector). Read it in the Kathimerini. What effect might this have on the quality of Orthodox education in Greece?

Christian Classics Ethereal Library

2005-09-22T14:29:00.000-04:00

Greetings, Herman et al., from Thessaloniki!

I wanted to alert you and your readers to the excellent work being done at the CCEL (http://www.ccel.org/), and especially to their invitation to suggest and/or vote for books to be digitized in the future (http://www.ccel.org/info/bibliography.html). I personally use and value highly their pdf patristics library - pdf is very readable, and conveniently searchable.

Take care,
-Mark

The evenings are getting chillier...

2005-09-16T19:32:00.000-04:00

Yep, it's that time of year...I just saw the first flock of birds heading south! It seems quite early, though...but it's the first flock I've seen down here in North Carolina since moving back down here in the Spring...and they were certainly heading south. What a remarkable world!

Translation Standards

2005-09-14T10:55:00.000-04:00

So...I just re-read an email from a friend from Greece regarding translation standards and thought I'd bring up the topic, hoping to inspire a dialogue.
For those unfamiliar with the issue, it deals with the development of standard ways of translating from a foreign language into English (in this case, from Greek).
One of the main questions is whether or not to use the latinization of Greek words (Anthony or Antony or Antonios? Nectarios or Nektarios?) Another issue is whether or not one should adopt Western ecclesiastical terminology (should το μυστήριο be translated "the sacrament" or "the mysterion" or "the mystery"?)
What other issues are there that are related to translation standards? Where do you stand on this issue and why? For non-Greek specific issues, what English style manual do you use?

Exercises in New Testament Greek?

2005-09-01T09:10:00.000-04:00

From the homepage of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library:

"A New CD-Rom is available: The Audio Greek New Testament. This CD has the entire Greek new Testament, narrated, in MP3 format. Listen to the Greek New Testament while you exercise!"

Both sublime and ridiculous...but not a bad idea for those trying to work on their New Testament Greek!

http://www.ccel.org/cdrom/gnt.html

(Friar?!) Seraphim Rose

2005-08-31T23:09:00.000-04:00

What, if anything, is there to say to such a thing?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books-uk&field-author=Rose%2C%20Friar%20Seraphim/026-0238949-3178822

Andrei Rublev, Part 2

2005-08-31T22:59:00.000-04:00

An interesting, somehow anti-climactic ending. Did Rublev really kill a soldier? It seems as though it *must* be true, as it seems to have been the chief impetus for his vow of silence and severe repentance. I was befuddled by the bell-making sequence...but I suppose it was significant because the young bell-maker followed him to help him paint the church of the Holy Trinity? I wonder if his story is sufficiently well-known in Russia that Tarkovsky didn't feel like he needed to fill in the details? Can anyone offer insight into this? Hello? Is anybody listening? If a blog entry is written in the virtual wilderness and nobody reads it, does it really exist? It's late and I'm beginning to ramble aimlessly...

Andrei Rublev

2005-08-30T22:40:00.000-04:00

I just came from watching the first half of Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev. It's over three hours long, so we're going to take it in two parts. It's quite a remarkable film, though somewhat confusing at times. It's more like a series of biographical vignettes than a cohesive whole. It seems that Tarkovsky was attempting to paint a broad spiritual picture of Rublev, rather than providing a precise historical account. The vignettes often don't seem to hold together and a great deal of the story must be picked up after the fact through dialogue.
Tarkovsky, it seems, has a great grasp on the spiritual struggle. His characters are genuine: they allow themselves to drift into areas of grey, then repent and struggle to remain in areas of white. At the same time, they are very aware of and strongly drawn to virtue...and struggle to embrace it, to preserve it, and yet remain humble in it.
Rublev refuses to paint the Last Judgment...he doesn't want to scare people...he doesn't pretend that it's not part of the tradition, he just can't bring himself to paint it. He struggles for two months over it, while his painting crew waits for him to decide what to do. Is this historically accurate? It is a remarkable story, but is it true? This is one of the great problems with impressionistic hagiography. Fictitious accounts of the lives of normal historical figures are considered dishonest, but at the same time they don't (ultimately) matter. Strangely, fictitious accounts of the lives of holy people seem to be more widely accepted (to draw out the "spiritual" meaning of their lives) and yet they are (ultimately) very problematic, especially as we as Orthodox give such weight to hagiography (for both educational and dogmatic purposes).

PS:

2005-08-28T17:31:00.000-04:00

PS: Thanks, again, for all those that have signed up to be contributors! I know that it's summer and that many of you are scattered across the globe, which may have a bearing on the lack of posts. Just in case, though, there is any issue with posting (getting familiar with the Blogger Dashboard, or whatever), I wanted to mention that I would be happy to post anything on your behalf...just send it to me as an e-mail. Please let me know, though, if you want me to say who it is that is posting (otherwise I'll put it in as an "Anonymous Post").

Gotta Keep the Boat from Sinkin'...

2005-08-28T17:19:00.000-04:00

Yep...I notice that there is actually traffic, albeit slow, so people are comin' out to see if there are new posts...which means I've got to write something. But what?
I had a nice chat with a couple at church this morning...a very nice couple, trying to live vibrant Orthodoxy in their little neck of the woods. She has a real green thumb and enjoys watching things grow, noticing the effect of weather on plants, the interaction between critters and the plant world, and so on. We spoke about Wendell Berry, trying to live in a responsible way as regards the material world, the relationship between generations and what we have lost. She mentioned one thing that I found particularly interesting. I suppose it's logical and goes without saying (though I haven't heard it said before!) She mentioned how knowledge is lost when it is forgotten for three consecutive generations. That is, although her parents aren't gardeners, her grandfather was a farmer and taught her about the natural world, about planting, caring for the land, so the knowledge was passed on. Of course, if she hadn't learned it from her grandfather it's almost impossible that her children would have learned it from him (as there is too great a difference in age). Alas, nothing too profound...and yet...profound in its own way. That said, it is never too late, of course, to get reconnected to the stream of folk knowledge passed down for generations since the dawn of man...if one wants to.

I guess I'll just do my thing...

2005-08-25T19:37:00.000-04:00

and hope that other folks post...I *was* glad to see that so many of my good friends have signed on as contributors...we look forward...to your contributions! Please remember, random comments are fine...thoughts...profound or not. For those of you still in Greece, I can probably speak for all of those who have returned: we'd love to hear your thoughts, experiences, frustrations (it would make it less painful, perhaps, to not be there!), and so on. This is a place for the profound AND the mundane (at least at present...if it gets *too* mundane we might have to look at a new approach!) Has the cost of tomatoes risen exponentially? Have the taxis gone on strike again? Is there a new theology conference to look forward to? (and an anti-conference, of course!)? Have the anarchists organized another coup of the Theology School? What's the latest Ph. D. dissertation that the professors are shouting at each other about? I don't want this to deteriorate into a gossip blog...but a little bit of news from our favorite European city would be a wonderful thing...and perhaps it would inspire some dialogue. As regards deeper things...what are you reading at present? What classes are you taking and what are you learning (besides patience, of course...;-) What have you learned/are you learning from your experiences in the Church's services? Have you been blessed with a particularly kataniktiko all-night vigil at some little kelli or skete on the Holy Mountain or in a parish in the city? When did it begin? What was the weather like? What kerasmata were there? Who did you see there? Have you spoken with an elder/eldress recently? What did you learn from him/her that might be soul-profiting to those of us scattered in the desert? For those of us back on this side of the Atlantic...what have you learned/are you learning now that you've returned from Greece? What was the transition back to the States like? What do you miss most? least? What was the most important lesson you took away with you? I look forward to a fruitful, encouraging, and God-pleasing dialogue!

The much anticipated provocative post...

2005-08-24T15:27:00.000-04:00

Well...perhaps not...but at least I could begin with what I consider to be the most fundamental question of life: What is man for? As an Orthodox Christian, I have a venerable tradition to draw from, which provides context and content to life...but many of the answers that one can find (in patristic writings, liturgical texts, hagiography, and so on) offer answers that require a certain amount of interpretation. Of course, one could answer that man is made to be united to God...and this is, of course, ultimately true.
But how does this work? Most specifically, what does this mean for me as a Christian living in the world? Am I to attend solely to myself (as if this were even possible) and not worry about others? Of course, one might answer, yes, in fact, this is exactly what we are called to...look at how most of the Saints separated themselves for years, so as to acquire the grace of God and thereby be able to provide other people with a vision of a life transfigured...a life truly "in Christ." And in one respect, this is true.
At the same time, for better or for worse, I spend most of my life doing other things...mostly neutral perhaps, sometimes more virtuous, sometimes less so. Although the virtuous and the sinful things I do have the greatest effect on me spiritually (or so one would think), they tend to take up the least amount of time...sadly, I have not yet been granted unceasing prayer. Most of my time is spent with the neutral aspects of my life: sleeping, eating, working, recreation, and so on. Certainly all of these neutral things may be done to the glory of God, but are they? And how to make sure that they continue to be glorifying?
Finally (for now, this post has rambled on long enough), what is the hierarchy of values that inform one's life (and thereby provide some kind of criteria for evaluating the answer to the original question regarding the purpose of man's life on earth)? Certainly, belief in and a life dedicated to Christ and His Church inform all other things. What is second, though? My guess is that for one called to monastic life, it is his/her monastic vocation...and for one called to marriage, it is his/her vocation as a husband/wife/father/mother. Third? This is probably where most of the dialogue belongs...is my own salvation third in the hierarchy of values? Is the salvation of my brother/sister completely tied to my own salvation? Would this place his/her salvation on the same level as my own as regards my personal responsibility and the hierarchy of values? Christ's words and the patristic tradition would seem to support this..."My brother is my life" as Saint Silouan says. If this is the case, what does this mean for me? for how I order my life? for the decisions I make? for the way I spend my time?

2nd Post...

2005-08-24T15:23:00.000-04:00

Hmmm...so I'm back...I thought that I should provide some more content in case one of the few people that knows this blog exists comes back to see what I've posted (what a responsibility!) But honestly, I *don't* want this to be a monologue...I've got to figure out a way to get some of my friends, scattered around the globe, involved...What I need is a provocative post that everyone will want to sink their teeth into. Hmmm...

First Post!

2005-08-23T22:30:00.000-04:00

Greetings, and welcome to the Protecting Veil blogspot!
This is mostly an experiment, just to see how blogger software works. Thus far it is a real success! I'm going to try to rope in a few friends to share their comments and we'll see where it goes from there...

PS: If, by some miracle of the Internet, you have found yourself on this page, please post a brief comment to let me know that you found me!