RELIGION

Those of us who are Orthodox know what is true religion; the Faith once delivered to the Apostles. It is also true that true religion transcends the bounds of religion; as long as those who say that Orthodoxy is not religion mean only that, they do not speak falsely, though there is a fatal tendency to confuse them with those who mean something different. Therefore, to my mind, it appears that it is not productive to emphasize the non-religious aspect of Orthodoxy at this time; this is rhetoric adopted from the Protestant Neo-Orthodox movement of the mid-20th century, and so confuses rather than clarifies the issue. What many mean by saying that Christianity is not religion is that they consider such things as church services, churches, candles, incense, priests, and altars to be meaningless accretions that might as well be cleared away as obstructions; these we must chide for having a Manichean Faith. They offer us bodiless worship; but we know that for us carnal humans, the bodiless soon becomes the insubstantial, and the insubstantial the non-existent. All the paraphernalia of religious practice is but the body of faith, and this body does not differ substantially from one religion to another; this is what human creatures do when they worship; it is true that, even as the human body should serve the needs of the spirit, the body of religion should serve the spirit it contains, not vice-versa, but the inseparability of this body and this spirit should also be emphasized.

WHEN WE WALK WITH THE LORD

This came from Kelly Jolley, otherwise known as "Bosphorus".

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When we walk with the Lord

stumbling

along, words lightening my feet

pondering their path

rainy Chicago

airport tarmac baptized iridescent black

delayed from 1:43 to 2:08pm

stewardess gesticulates

her boredom

oxygen is flowing even if

the plastic bag does not fully inflate

Who knew my feet would take me here?

Who knew that following footsteps would lead

me here?

other men, smarter and more solidly educated

talk to me but I know my place

even if bootless ambition makes it pinch

I resolve to turn my back on old goals

even if my hankering after them makes me

crane 'round,

Lot's wife, to see my past destinations shrink

reversing their direction as I reorient myself

What a glory He sheds on our way

I have chosen the sheep's life by choosing the

Shepherd

but I have not chosen unreason

I choose to be a Logical sheep

a sheep of the Logos

plane stalled on the runway almost to take-off

yellow signs order drivers to yield to aircraft

wings matter now, having them, or not.

Kelly

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O.K., Kelly, now that I've put one of your poems that you previously published on your blog on mine, shouldn't you in fairness reciprocate and publish one of my poems that I put on this blog on yours? There are only two.......

FALSE MYSTICISM

It has been noted before now that the states above and below normal experience sometimes bear an uncanny resemblance. It is therefore necessary to distinguish between those Saints who have attained noetic vision of the things of God in Theosis, and those conditions which may in some way resemble this, but in reality have nothing to do with it.

First of all, there are those many who may have read of real mystical experience in the Fathers, and know that it transcends the merely rational, but attempt to emulate this in their lives by the suspension of their faculties of discernment, becoming one with the New-Agers in the suspicion of anything at all resembling reason, consequently accepting anything which enters their fancy as the fruit of mystical spirituality. Others actually do attempt to practice the disciplines, but without ascetical rigor or sobriety. The point is, demons lurk on the path of spiritual vision; the unwary cannot but fall into their clutches.

There are also religious traditions which rigorously practice a mystical technology similar to that of Orthodox ascetic practice, but do not take it in the same direction; this is, in fact, true mysticism, but it is not the mysticism of Truth. There are those who attain exalted spiritual vision, but their spirituality is of the World, and is therefore not truly spiritual, but delusional; the Fathers warn that the non-Orthodox should not even try to practice the advanced spiritual disciplines. Those that can't understand this simply don't realize what Orthodox baptism does.

These caveats I consider necessary, having written of Mysticism in the previous post; I wouldn't want anyone to just say "Cool!" and go to it with out caution or instruction. I should also mention that my own experience is negligible; mainly concerning my memory of Baptism. This memory has, however, helped to steer me away from what I consider to be deadly errors in my personal prayer life; at various times, as I was praying, I would fall into an "ecstatic" condition, in which a fire would be lit in my breast, and I would be filled with great, passionate excitements, very emotionally stimulating. What saved me was the memory of the spirit I received at baptism; a very clean, rigorous spirit. The "Passionate Prayer" did not follow upon any special seeking or preparedness for worship, and it wasn't followed by any great freedom from temptation; in fact, it tended to come when I was struggling with sin, and the "passionless flame" of true Orthodox spirituality was receding from me. It made me feel great, and righteous, and that my sin didn't really matter to God; it was, in fact, a variant of the "Good Buddy Jesus" spirituality of my Evangelical upbringing. Anyway, it was recalling the purity of my baptism (which I didn't retain very long) which helped me identify my error.

The knowledge that Truth is beyond knowledge should lead us to humility; if we are humble, we will recognize how weak we truly are, and therefore how vulnerable to the deceits of the Enemy. This realization should make us appropriately cautious, to the point that we barely dare to raise our eyes to Heaven, let alone consider ourselves worthy to attain any exalted degree of spiritual perfection, but rather cry out constantly, "Lord Jesus Christ, O Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner".

THE MYSTICAL SUN

I have just returned from spending a month-and-a-half at St. Anthony's Monastery in Florence, Arizona; I had intended to post something explaining what was up, but that was one of the many things that didn't get done before I left home. So now that I have lost the few readers that had persisted through these mad, muddy meanderings, I will continue the futile exercise of writing posts for a few weeks, until I leave home for good to wander the face of the Earth in search of my spiritual home.

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That in the heart of Man which gives light, that knowledge of meaning and purpose which is as the voice of God, continually prodding and nudging one toward Truth, giving no rest to any but those who have willfully blinded themselves out of hatred for light, this is the mystical Sun which lights the landscape of our lives, unspoken and unspeakable. Because it transcends all rational categories, it is expressed by way of paradox; the incongruity between two material explanations of the same truth provides the binocular vision by which it may dimly be seen. When, by Faith, the two halves of the inexpressible truth are accepted in entirety, this divine sun rises in the space between, shedding the spiritual illumination which is beyond the reach of reason; the rationalist who thinks he eliminates paradox by intellectually forcing a juncture between the truths that are accessible to him has really only succeeded in manufacturing a half-truth out of the two halves of the whole.