tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23605134378225268432024-03-13T22:04:48.296-07:00Synaxis Study GroupFr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.comBlogger448125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-69511726296725259892016-07-22T12:07:00.000-07:002016-07-22T12:07:20.409-07:00The Importance of Mary of Magdala according to Saint Nikolai Velimirovich of Ohrid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd_Od_kIn-MHQmMrVbe3MypMLh4lAA3dhyphenhyphenhsJdgSTa5_jk4-bMYqUiZFAjTHEso_OboUz5F62Z7qWNG0IZQBCDJb5iLE605B5-Hgd4rn7gBwBXWQIWRVdQQRauvKU02_JsZTq64iDONm7D/s1600/Decani+Christ+Risen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd_Od_kIn-MHQmMrVbe3MypMLh4lAA3dhyphenhyphenhsJdgSTa5_jk4-bMYqUiZFAjTHEso_OboUz5F62Z7qWNG0IZQBCDJb5iLE605B5-Hgd4rn7gBwBXWQIWRVdQQRauvKU02_JsZTq64iDONm7D/s640/Decani+Christ+Risen.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Now as long as the living Jesus was
with the first Church she was all right. His life was the source of her life;
His authority and power meant her existence and unity. But when the Shepherd
was smitten the sheep were scattered. When the followers of Christ saw Him
powerless and dead they denied Him and fell back to their natural instinct of self-defence,
and the first Church died with the death of Christ. It was like the green corn
in the field smitten by a flail to the very root. The owner of the corn walks
in the field and looks with despair on his perished corn. But it happens often
that after a few days the field begins under the sunshine to flourish anew, and
the corn grows beautifully and brings forth plenty of fruit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Mary of Magdala and the other Mary
brought this first sunshine over the smitten corn. "He is alive!"
This was the tidings of the women on the second morning after His death. This
tidings about the living Lord Jesus con-verted Peter and the other disciples
again to Christianity. "He is alive"—that was the greatest word ever
uttered by any human tongue since the Church was founded. Yea, through this
very word the drooping Church was brought again to life. Whatever utterances
Peter made during Christ's life were as dead as stone compared with Mary
Magdalene's tidings of the living Lord after the catastrophe of His death. The
beautiful and true words: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God," had no meaning whatever for the future of Christianity in comparison
with the certainty that the dead Christ had risen, i.e. that He was Lord even
over death. Therefore if I could be convinced that a grain of good as small as
the mustard seed should result from the strange quarrels about the primacy of
this or that Church—or this or that bishop—I would be very sorry that there did
not exist a Church founded upon the memory of Mary Magdalene. For Mary
Magdalene, and not St Peter, expressed the first the absolutely decisive
revelation, church making and world-changing. "He is alive" was this
decisive revelation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-28668845967848831822016-02-17T09:25:00.002-08:002016-02-17T09:25:27.633-08:00An Uneven Square: A New Blog that will focus on Modern Greek Art<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://unevensquare.blogspot.com/<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From
studying the monuments of our religious tradition, I have drawn conclusions
about the symmetrically unsymmetrical and about the fact that an uneven square
may be geometrically more correct than an even one, about rhythm as the basic
element explaining the world and human life… - <b>N.G. Pentzikis</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisNJGr-FE1pgtGzuxL8Q4W4ouzfTAqLs5fXIlKZShDimGPDneysl8gSJi5nNfBQMFRmFxayzK4jGAbG0WvAWBB90C_x-jUFn1ghcV3W5kfO7Gp0mFbs3Ze5HDfaWYQXJMoLcOSTgBJjRtD/s1600/pikionis1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisNJGr-FE1pgtGzuxL8Q4W4ouzfTAqLs5fXIlKZShDimGPDneysl8gSJi5nNfBQMFRmFxayzK4jGAbG0WvAWBB90C_x-jUFn1ghcV3W5kfO7Gp0mFbs3Ze5HDfaWYQXJMoLcOSTgBJjRtD/s400/pikionis1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-54998702290320455082016-02-01T09:37:00.002-08:002016-02-01T09:37:56.570-08:00Ακατάληπτον εστι<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HrPN3YQICAc/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HrPN3YQICAc?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<h1 class="yt watch-title-container" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #222222; display: table-cell; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; width: 610px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<br /></h1>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-22119072017961053842015-05-06T12:37:00.002-07:002015-05-06T12:37:27.834-07:00The Pantocrator of Gracanica by Fr. Stamatis Skliris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8U6UAvztn3gwjPqd_09dMwu6PBF5MG7xExsKXNpYQcZXTo7V2dZnEaph25ZWJtfzQybW6EuyHjq0zBK14EEr5RVYXzSgSiMCWgiM4PWFPHj5ACfVDXmPiMDtnj4hyphenhyphenAjXxF8Z6mgcnthXv/s1600/faceofChrist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8U6UAvztn3gwjPqd_09dMwu6PBF5MG7xExsKXNpYQcZXTo7V2dZnEaph25ZWJtfzQybW6EuyHjq0zBK14EEr5RVYXzSgSiMCWgiM4PWFPHj5ACfVDXmPiMDtnj4hyphenhyphenAjXxF8Z6mgcnthXv/s1600/faceofChrist.jpg" height="236" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">They painted a beautiful, robust
Pantocrator, combining humanity and divine glory. But the look in His eyes has
something special, which deserves special mention. The Pantocrator’s eyebrows
are emphatically raised, so that Christ’s eyes are particularly focused on the
believer, who converses in prayer with the God-Man. His raised eyebrows draw
the facial muscles upward and create horizontal wrinkles which furrow the
forehead. He “leans” over the viewer. He pays special attention to that person,
not passing him over indifferently, but looking at him with wide-open eyes that
raise the upper eyelids, wrinkling the forehead of the God-Man as if He loves
man so deeply that He suffers with him, considering his plight, desiring to
support him, to help him. Here we have the central idea and theological reality
that characterizes the Astrapas school—God’s humanity. Gracanica’s uniqueness
lies in the fact that the so-called Pantocrator, which inspires liturgical awe,
is depicted not just as the God-Man—i.e., God who assumed human nature—but as
Co-Man, identifying Himself with man in his suffering and helplessness,
identifying Himself with human pain through His suffering on the Cross and His
humiliating death. Through His philanthropic gaze, the majestic Pantocrator
lowers Himself and meets His creation. The eternal and infinite meets the
finite in a particular place and time, within history, where they reconcile
within the same fate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">This composition, with its wrinkles
in the forehead, was not repeated in other Byzantine churches, perhaps because
its boldness brought it to the threshold of the psychologization of the divine
drama. The drama of the Cross is not confined to the human emotions of pain and
torment, but within the Church’s liturgy is illuminated by the overcoming of
tragedy by the Resurrection of Christ, who thus becomes the Savior of both man
and all creation. Gracanica’s Pantocrator is, therefore, truly unique, since it
was not copied from anyone. It is original and loving, and for this reason it
constitutes a portrait of God, as Christ’s wonderfully loving eyes have
revealed it to human beings. The riddle of human destiny finds its solution in
the Pantocrator’s theandric gaze.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The article comes from Fr. Stamatis' wonderful website:</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"><i>http://www.holyicon.org/</i></span></span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-32097923738037484872015-04-13T10:12:00.001-07:002015-04-13T10:12:13.056-07:00A Paschal Homily by Professor Christos Yannaras<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwe5Nk22pvhcbbFQcP6dNIpKAwy9VYg9cmN-xfD2DwwY9V10Wwa1nyQZFQ0pGlspFzZnpJUYJJxIbRG9GTNIG9StM1zyxNUk9-y9mcPwACXMVoC8K9xf_GuFaVaS_mxAEpSLjfHRSt1UEs/s1600/23b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwe5Nk22pvhcbbFQcP6dNIpKAwy9VYg9cmN-xfD2DwwY9V10Wwa1nyQZFQ0pGlspFzZnpJUYJJxIbRG9GTNIG9StM1zyxNUk9-y9mcPwACXMVoC8K9xf_GuFaVaS_mxAEpSLjfHRSt1UEs/s1600/23b.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 15.75pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 15.75pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">"Let him damn me a
hundred, a thousand times, it is enough that he exists."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">This sentence, placed in the mouth of a character in a
theatrical work by Jean-Paul Sartre, is a mark and a measure (I dare to believe)
of a revelatory metaphysical hunger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Does he exist? The question lingers (and will always linger)
unanswered. "If I must say whether or not God exists, I am closer to His
truth when saying that He does not exist, since God is something entirely different
from that which I recognize as existence." (A confession of great boldness
from Maximus the Confessor)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">If God were a given in Newtonian physics, there would not have
been any rational human person. And this for the same reason that an infant
will never enter the world of language and symbols, the human world, if its
mother holds it day and night in her arms and gives it her breast. We are
ushered into language and understanding because within the context of the care
of the infant the mother is both the joy of presence and the pain of absence -
because the need for food is a desire for relation. A God who gives himself as
a matter of necessity would abolish the presuppositions for the transformation
of need into demand, of desire into language and symbols, into reason and
rationality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Humans are rational because their being is erotic [<i>by “erotic” Professor Yannaras means the
love that takes us outside ourselves</i>] and it is erotic because God is
absence. But absence means vital lack, painful thirst, and distressing
darkness. "I walk in your night," continues Sartre's character.
"Give me your hand, tell me, you are the darkness, right? The night -
harrowing, complete absence. You are the one present in the all-embracing
absence, the one we hear when everything falls silent, the one we see when
nothing is visible. Immemorial night, great night that precedes all that there
is…"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">This Absence humanizes us but we experience it as night and
cannot bear it. The reasons for this are difficult to discern. In any case it
is clear that instead of Absence we would rather have tangible fetishes,
irrefutable evidence of existence and presence. We want to be in possession of
certainties, private proofs, and from proofs to derive power. We are interested
in ourselves only, God is simply an 'accessory' of our ego. We need Him so that
He may lend us self-confidence, authority, social status; so that He may ease
our difficulties in life, and be the psychological antidote to our phobias and
panics; and finally so that He may 'save' us and guarantee our existence even
after death, so that our ego will exist eternally, without end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">But consider now how the 'atheist' Sartre overturns our
egocentric (supposedly 'religious') soteriology. "Let him damn me a
hundred, a thousand times, it is enough that he exists." The 'atheist', in
an unexpected leap, reaches the heights of erotic selflessness. If he exists,
that's enough for me, even if I am damned. My foremost desire is Him. If He
exists, everything has meaning: my existence and my damnation, the good and the
bad, justice and injustice, the world and history. If He exists, everything
begins from love and aims at love, everything is related to Him, everything is
judged in accordance with the degree to which His manic love for His creatures
is reciprocated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Existence has meaning when life becomes relation - relation is
not something that can be destroyed by death. If "even the hairs of your
head are all numbered" (Luke 12:7, Matthew 10:30), if there is a Love
which composes the miracle of the world, if the wisdom and beauty of creatures
call forth in the fullness of relation, then the thirst of the human person has
a vital purpose and his hope is realistic. We thirst for life - that is, to be
related to Him, not to survive forever as an individual unit, not the hell of
the endless loneliness of the ego.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">With the brain nothing is explained, countless 'why's' remain
unanswered. Why should death cut little children down, why the biological
insanity of cancer, why injustice, and why do the unscrupulous come out
victorious? Relentless, unbearable questions, without end, show up the human
journey as a wild absurdity. And the 'answers' formulated by ideologically
driven religions (the 'scientific' apologetics of their governing institutions)
crudely offend against the intelligence and dignity of humanity. The blame,
they say, lies with the 'freedom' of the human being, not that individual
'freedom' of ours which is ensnared by genetic and socio-historical factors,
but rather some dilemma of choice symbolically figured in the 'first' human
being (was he a cave man? an ancestor of homo sapiens?) and as a result of his
actions we are now faced with the absurdity and horror of human existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">If we want to get serious, answers might be forthcoming after the
leap recommended by Sartre - the leap involved in renouncing egocentric
soteriology. In the enthralling pictorial language of so-called 'Byzantine'
iconography, by which means was expressed that ecclesiastical experience that
is impervious to the uses of power, Christ crucified on the cross is the
reality of the Resurrection. This is because death is "trampled upon"
only "by means of death", only with the leap towards the height of
erotic selflessness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Garamond","serif";">The 'gospel' of the church is not announced with the language of
Apologetics, the language of ideology. It is proclaimed only with the language
of the Feast, the language of color and music, of poetry and drama - a language
that can be accessed only from within the battle of ascetic self-renunciation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-56469832125476646192015-04-09T15:54:00.001-07:002015-04-09T15:54:57.617-07:00Holy Friday with Xylouris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2yW39rHxW2c/0.jpg" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2yW39rHxW2c?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-46760707283519594652015-04-09T06:08:00.000-07:002015-04-09T06:08:59.654-07:00The Grand Inquisitor - John Gielgud<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/om6HcUUa8DI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/om6HcUUa8DI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-88544330120278517132015-03-26T09:16:00.001-07:002015-03-26T09:16:09.302-07:00BEYOND TORTURE -- The gulag of Pitesti ROMANIA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9QGUTBXgz3g/0.jpg" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9QGUTBXgz3g?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-37025417678328207412015-03-10T12:22:00.003-07:002015-03-10T12:22:30.441-07:00Metropolitan Kallistos Ware: The Desert Fathers and Mothers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/n0VX9lRQkDA/0.jpg" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/n0VX9lRQkDA?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-61406066315539476182015-01-28T08:02:00.000-08:002015-01-28T08:03:18.517-08:00The Gospel According to Abba Isaac<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUshO7s6al-1ee9MWpfbE5HJEoaQPo_okp5MLe_hsXPwr4R76rUJuczQQ5ZAUYRpCR-sHT1juhrHO3ZXF_qDGdcOsuzfqkGN5zgtj7AQZJ7HcMw5LZYgrnW5oXppg2Q7W4NB6dk7ZPwYl6/s1600/OsiosIsaakSyros05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUshO7s6al-1ee9MWpfbE5HJEoaQPo_okp5MLe_hsXPwr4R76rUJuczQQ5ZAUYRpCR-sHT1juhrHO3ZXF_qDGdcOsuzfqkGN5zgtj7AQZJ7HcMw5LZYgrnW5oXppg2Q7W4NB6dk7ZPwYl6/s1600/OsiosIsaakSyros05.jpg" height="400" width="291" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">God the Lord surrendered His own Son to death on the Cross for the
fervent love of creation... This was not, however, because He could not redeem
us in another way, but so that His surpassing love, manifested hereby, might be
a teacher unto us. And by the death of His Only-begotten Son He made us near to
Himself. If He had had anything more precious, He would have given it to us, so
that by it our race might be His own. Because of His great love for us it was
not His pleasure to do violence to our freedom, although He is able to do so,
but He chose that we should draw near to Him by the love of our understanding.
For the sake of His love for us and obedience to His Father, Christ joyfully
took upon Himself insult and sorrow... In like manner, when the saints become
perfect, they all attain to this perfection, and by the superabundant
outpouring of their love and compassion upon all men they resemble God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When we find love, we partake of
heavenly bread and are made strong without labor and toil. The heavenly bread
is Christ, who came down from heaven and gave life to the world. This is the
nourishment of angels. The person who has found love eats and drinks Christ
every day and every hour and is thereby made immortal. …When we hear Jesus say,
“Ye shall eat and drink at the table of my kingdom,” what do we suppose we
shall eat, if not love? Love, rather than food and drink, is sufficient to
nourish a person. This is the wine “which maketh glad the heart.” Blessed is
the one who partakes of this wine! Licentious people have drunk this wine and
become chaste; sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of
stumbling; drunkards have drunk this wine and become fasters; the rich have
drunk it and desired poverty, the poor have drunk it and been enriched with hope;
the sick have drunk it and become strong; the unlearned have taken it and
become wise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">Far be it that we should
ever think such an iniquity that God could become unmerciful! For the property
of Divinity does not change as do mortals. God does not acquire something which
He does not have, nor lose what He has, nor supplement what He does have, as do
created beings. But what God has from the beginning, He will have and has until
the [unending] end, as the blessed Cyril wrote in his commentary on Genesis. Fear
God, he says, out of love for Him, and not for the austere name that He has
been given. Love Him as you ought to love Him; not for what He will give you in
the future, but for what we have received, and for this world alone which He
has created for us. Who is the man that can repay Him? Where is </span><span style="color: #222222;"><i>Gehenna</i>, that can afflict
us? Where is perdition that terrifies us in many ways and quenches the joy of
His love? And what is <i>Gehenna</i> as compared with the grace of His resurrection, when He will raise us from
Hades and cause our corruptible nature to be clad in incorruption, and raise up
in glory him that has fallen into Hades?</span><span style="color: #222222;"> <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As
for me I say that those who are tormented in hell are tormented by the invasion
of love. What is there more bitter and violent than the pains of love? Those
who feel they have sinned against love bear in themselves damnation much
heavier than the most dreaded punishments. The suffering with which sinning against
love afflicts the heart is more keenly felt than any other torment. It is
absurd to assume that the sinners in hell are deprived of God’s love. Love is
offered impartially. But by its very power it acts in two ways. It torments
sinners, as happens here on earth when we are tormented by the presence of a
friend to whom we have been unfaithful. And it gives joy to those who have been
faithful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That
is what the torment of hell is in my opinion: remorse. But love inebriates the
souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its delectability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
love did God bring the world into existence; in love is God going to bring it
to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up
in the great mystery of the One who has performed all these things…</span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-18824461319469442342014-11-07T10:53:00.002-08:002014-11-07T10:54:51.414-08:00The Angels in Iconography (18 Icons)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXx5wd7zFFu-WH_B23fodVMRbvKTp27oOw6L36R9nA-JV2bkixrD_TlMjTAoCQueNGBZgup0HP4v6g6CdNA8Edqe9vm77DtRg0KzqmemwtO3D6DjaV1XKMo8EPxbSsUeoWFi6XIs2qWYs/s1600/35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXx5wd7zFFu-WH_B23fodVMRbvKTp27oOw6L36R9nA-JV2bkixrD_TlMjTAoCQueNGBZgup0HP4v6g6CdNA8Edqe9vm77DtRg0KzqmemwtO3D6DjaV1XKMo8EPxbSsUeoWFi6XIs2qWYs/s1600/35.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUOpmwHj-qlD8A1OOaGtRaqSo5BTS2JCUMt7Dq026-gWKw636DOtQ-BSHBO4gsSegHdgQ2e92EonchzYiqF6T8W4NmoLlfkH6QDFxbBizxf0fJnI9ooMYdcLxaizcVfq_7It_A73qfPmR6/s1600/Taxiarch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUOpmwHj-qlD8A1OOaGtRaqSo5BTS2JCUMt7Dq026-gWKw636DOtQ-BSHBO4gsSegHdgQ2e92EonchzYiqF6T8W4NmoLlfkH6QDFxbBizxf0fJnI9ooMYdcLxaizcVfq_7It_A73qfPmR6/s1600/Taxiarch.jpg" height="400" width="293" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBWOgRgRVyfVIWywxPtnlVaZlSO_K4H_xN-MkUaDPvaPu2R6XAPU8wUC_2X0mVWkdW_icoLEuZ7pw8SuzAirYJfIxIouVReamSFH88F4T8WFJlkWmgh9GjKwdhp-ZckyI2-w8T163C8nA_/s1600/01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBWOgRgRVyfVIWywxPtnlVaZlSO_K4H_xN-MkUaDPvaPu2R6XAPU8wUC_2X0mVWkdW_icoLEuZ7pw8SuzAirYJfIxIouVReamSFH88F4T8WFJlkWmgh9GjKwdhp-ZckyI2-w8T163C8nA_/s1600/01.jpg" height="400" width="311" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8npVchObKQn3fppRjgocXZ2YwJOG10p9ZlBQj_mbVOy-BZQT8dQ1FFMX-YMzX7FtweHZO8BEahuQXCMyQgoaaWiMfe8nVK0hZHiG5gupqX2Y9FM5Ip9bKpNsoaWZJm1VxEWI-5AO-uba5/s1600/cebacebfcf88ceafceb4ceb7cf82-cf81ceaccebbcebbceb7cf82-cebf-ceaccf81cf87cf89cebd-ceb3ceb1ceb2cf81ceb9ceaecebb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8npVchObKQn3fppRjgocXZ2YwJOG10p9ZlBQj_mbVOy-BZQT8dQ1FFMX-YMzX7FtweHZO8BEahuQXCMyQgoaaWiMfe8nVK0hZHiG5gupqX2Y9FM5Ip9bKpNsoaWZJm1VxEWI-5AO-uba5/s1600/cebacebfcf88ceafceb4ceb7cf82-cf81ceaccebbcebbceb7cf82-cebf-ceaccf81cf87cf89cebd-ceb3ceb1ceb2cf81ceb9ceaecebb.jpg" height="640" width="352" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2f-RK4u038yXu5rK1409p2rTzGykPcW4iEecZdIax11v_2KBeoDNDk-qSLG_n3t-FHO0EJAwMKL9okXpv8eBIqjMLLtbwNXROU-rSTduvskFKi4jcD_Q6UCyJWjhMHu5AflH4mmkR4JH1/s1600/MonrealeSeraph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2f-RK4u038yXu5rK1409p2rTzGykPcW4iEecZdIax11v_2KBeoDNDk-qSLG_n3t-FHO0EJAwMKL9okXpv8eBIqjMLLtbwNXROU-rSTduvskFKi4jcD_Q6UCyJWjhMHu5AflH4mmkR4JH1/s1600/MonrealeSeraph.jpg" height="640" width="444" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizWfQDeMShpwYzTwBYxtdNxJ4I46YMCaCPcvLUOo_jSL6MZlASvwX376V_kGglcO_VrYoRBRoGPTJ4GSEicIuVy_GWAKXr0TkaN3NxqUlNTV8jIyLKvZqRdFfFPZQHNlM7HnDtT9Lk92-1/s1600/27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizWfQDeMShpwYzTwBYxtdNxJ4I46YMCaCPcvLUOo_jSL6MZlASvwX376V_kGglcO_VrYoRBRoGPTJ4GSEicIuVy_GWAKXr0TkaN3NxqUlNTV8jIyLKvZqRdFfFPZQHNlM7HnDtT9Lk92-1/s1600/27.jpg" height="400" width="341" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizGfm_NRQNBBRVGKUCtKxduuaFf2bfklBvLxnhHIGBt5MinK-xPEX0xliY4qEOl0VmNz-3ayjyFGdURtz59hjP3xyBvj3KnvPXHEnFm3YOhQ82sCLg8VDLJmP2DEMg8HC-vXJ4AtWyfok5/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizGfm_NRQNBBRVGKUCtKxduuaFf2bfklBvLxnhHIGBt5MinK-xPEX0xliY4qEOl0VmNz-3ayjyFGdURtz59hjP3xyBvj3KnvPXHEnFm3YOhQ82sCLg8VDLJmP2DEMg8HC-vXJ4AtWyfok5/s1600/10.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYVep-JklklDaanrYK1d-6EvcfjxCnFSV2cBTjPzFVx4N0XSoGJYyJns-1AuW2Fllsgf5Gv3M_bUX8f7B_du1rGRYAsCw5Al5gSTQ5mfqfYpR5CiR4TIk6P8S0EPQSsH3i3GNiMg9YlYtH/s1600/04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYVep-JklklDaanrYK1d-6EvcfjxCnFSV2cBTjPzFVx4N0XSoGJYyJns-1AuW2Fllsgf5Gv3M_bUX8f7B_du1rGRYAsCw5Al5gSTQ5mfqfYpR5CiR4TIk6P8S0EPQSsH3i3GNiMg9YlYtH/s1600/04.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqHfzb5humnXwo9maAfDGHNa2-bPIx49TfmbG28uBJf5z7Qtq1qqasMccLH5Zx0pouAwEI-2gzeA44tzckVXITRrovcSxff-E0fz0qdh6bB2h5i0mvwkgAfvsL4w-dKEC-6CsPClPvvQHd/s1600/Manuscript+Solom+&+David.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqHfzb5humnXwo9maAfDGHNa2-bPIx49TfmbG28uBJf5z7Qtq1qqasMccLH5Zx0pouAwEI-2gzeA44tzckVXITRrovcSxff-E0fz0qdh6bB2h5i0mvwkgAfvsL4w-dKEC-6CsPClPvvQHd/s1600/Manuscript+Solom+&+David.jpg" height="322" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxVY1LhTC8DUTMRY0CkDW-qTb4zaO3qEajVDUPH92kaU8819Okoz1xqwS9EqsCvY_r3nicycVRwvQNAVSO4_WAGlT9SzrmExcExKEeIUtkexqHiwLGY6VceHD7BDRRQrrMo5Y3sPJ2QK8f/s1600/16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxVY1LhTC8DUTMRY0CkDW-qTb4zaO3qEajVDUPH92kaU8819Okoz1xqwS9EqsCvY_r3nicycVRwvQNAVSO4_WAGlT9SzrmExcExKEeIUtkexqHiwLGY6VceHD7BDRRQrrMo5Y3sPJ2QK8f/s1600/16.jpg" height="400" width="296" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPYaLZo0lzmSqIUMryKFNw2dfFDYilChyrEysjDaBsC3YacqkOOuRzmGSoKU7dXdi6FKKQt4sa_gxweOagXjNVs4nPvXBtT6NhYInXjTggge1xZfgxIza7yW9iO7KAGNdQZKKEha_Cik6/s1600/17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPYaLZo0lzmSqIUMryKFNw2dfFDYilChyrEysjDaBsC3YacqkOOuRzmGSoKU7dXdi6FKKQt4sa_gxweOagXjNVs4nPvXBtT6NhYInXjTggge1xZfgxIza7yW9iO7KAGNdQZKKEha_Cik6/s1600/17.jpg" height="400" width="252" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZbk03QoYxVucIeBnClrLHg5wboIDvfWroeWnciduG3MrWabKwYmqLsI2i_1e5R_OD0OhzmQSe-ap3rHfba3ClwikhPBzgyhGleNTLz0FAT3P9LfJwWhB2UrKliqUy10qZgaY8PHWIgVz/s1600/22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZbk03QoYxVucIeBnClrLHg5wboIDvfWroeWnciduG3MrWabKwYmqLsI2i_1e5R_OD0OhzmQSe-ap3rHfba3ClwikhPBzgyhGleNTLz0FAT3P9LfJwWhB2UrKliqUy10qZgaY8PHWIgVz/s1600/22.jpg" height="640" width="488" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDCwdfiRvJsV7cUIb6ZkhiuwmA7ThiYI4lIwVLtZIQ-QtW16sUkdrSgpqNqQv4yp0RqCRRXah9eAU_qPVJKNaeAinewmKgtUnjkdKOmXHkV3WfD87rv_vGSP7AV1dxomrhRnyn-7vuqFTl/s1600/23.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDCwdfiRvJsV7cUIb6ZkhiuwmA7ThiYI4lIwVLtZIQ-QtW16sUkdrSgpqNqQv4yp0RqCRRXah9eAU_qPVJKNaeAinewmKgtUnjkdKOmXHkV3WfD87rv_vGSP7AV1dxomrhRnyn-7vuqFTl/s1600/23.JPG" height="221" width="400" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3PzD2hOPqapQLV1POjLX1GOnxsbilkYy1s1pc-yA_wEPFHKrc89gUge5QTbJNCPhEm2KSYor_JalipX6JsRN5Po-vlIxOLtxW9cP3tCabo4RXaP8Wo0atDp0uZBuyG1W-RSXXmC5iH6X/s1600/Dormition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3PzD2hOPqapQLV1POjLX1GOnxsbilkYy1s1pc-yA_wEPFHKrc89gUge5QTbJNCPhEm2KSYor_JalipX6JsRN5Po-vlIxOLtxW9cP3tCabo4RXaP8Wo0atDp0uZBuyG1W-RSXXmC5iH6X/s1600/Dormition.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsz4pDFPejVRjwrgqd7UWnNv2_m2dxLZIfJkLMqJJlQ_LeefI6HW7FJMfUoQ1GsL-yPHrbLdKHIRpOlokRtbtAmLzzjS1MfBqaFcCN9W12lZTjrvvgMoi9XXjtvc1aQqt_ey_GEGJOhhc5/s1600/15.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsz4pDFPejVRjwrgqd7UWnNv2_m2dxLZIfJkLMqJJlQ_LeefI6HW7FJMfUoQ1GsL-yPHrbLdKHIRpOlokRtbtAmLzzjS1MfBqaFcCN9W12lZTjrvvgMoi9XXjtvc1aQqt_ey_GEGJOhhc5/s1600/15.JPG" height="267" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjueWZmqd1-LP4hRKp3OQv-gUCVttqDKwMBYLY40RhkOwRgJmKr6z1HvgTYv3YNYfTnyRpUMGl35zXrcPFGSO3aXa4LP15npZNQYp2csTHfK7hzxGHS1zRKA6jhEbWAaxrfrrDR8z0D3lGB/s1600/28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjueWZmqd1-LP4hRKp3OQv-gUCVttqDKwMBYLY40RhkOwRgJmKr6z1HvgTYv3YNYfTnyRpUMGl35zXrcPFGSO3aXa4LP15npZNQYp2csTHfK7hzxGHS1zRKA6jhEbWAaxrfrrDR8z0D3lGB/s1600/28.jpg" height="345" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIhgH8OwfIkgegmlaDeizW2UjqZPXl1pEO5z7sZArIjsZhtrr_VzuqIyBngQX6AHCHz_ugMzF7Rko_Qd3LVwjit8uAShJAxSVDuCACybf-BdLAP0nQkxQAjCp4NjjCDHFNHEcdMedjACxj/s1600/34.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIhgH8OwfIkgegmlaDeizW2UjqZPXl1pEO5z7sZArIjsZhtrr_VzuqIyBngQX6AHCHz_ugMzF7Rko_Qd3LVwjit8uAShJAxSVDuCACybf-BdLAP0nQkxQAjCp4NjjCDHFNHEcdMedjACxj/s1600/34.JPG" height="640" width="430" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga89KJ7IcbBfPiERNuUtsfDnmCahgUwnFQ_SLYXYAmu-TfPn-3pUHr6m8ba1yUOCQh5zn21btjQRPmKotb1T5gxuLBXjfVFkWkPigxex8nvwWZor1ye6J7BOOEfwjeEL2gUw1YRG3HF8XE/s1600/26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga89KJ7IcbBfPiERNuUtsfDnmCahgUwnFQ_SLYXYAmu-TfPn-3pUHr6m8ba1yUOCQh5zn21btjQRPmKotb1T5gxuLBXjfVFkWkPigxex8nvwWZor1ye6J7BOOEfwjeEL2gUw1YRG3HF8XE/s1600/26.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-5066739331612071012014-10-01T08:13:00.000-07:002014-10-01T08:13:08.035-07:00Zissimos Lorenzatos: A Prophet and A Poet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSpKcciuwT63zAFiLJer6KgOnm3Ckg7SqPbN9fwH6b_AvNe6Q2fQUKj2ifMr72QVTm41VhfOi8tSId6JtD5Sdq6tBTrFU-9dqES-pYxwUBqeF7jNMPcvqbKPdNTWwtkn2hDsAUylgpZoLe/s1600/Lorenzatos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSpKcciuwT63zAFiLJer6KgOnm3Ckg7SqPbN9fwH6b_AvNe6Q2fQUKj2ifMr72QVTm41VhfOi8tSId6JtD5Sdq6tBTrFU-9dqES-pYxwUBqeF7jNMPcvqbKPdNTWwtkn2hDsAUylgpZoLe/s1600/Lorenzatos.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If we make a brief survey of the course followed
in Greece since 1821, it might be useful to consider:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whether we should continue to follow
in the footsteps of Europe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whether this crisis may help us
envisage the possibility that we once possessed a spiritual way of our own<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If so, what kind of way was it we have
apparently lost<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Did we really have to lose our way,
since there have always been voices among us to remind us where the true path
could be found?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Should we perhaps investigate the possibility
that our tradition essentially diverges and branches away from European
tradition?</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">6.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Whether it is possible (I am convinced
that it is) to find our way again.</span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-63689385871116658772014-09-26T09:09:00.002-07:002014-09-26T09:09:26.108-07:00The Greatest Poem never Written<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<em><b><span style="background: white; color: #545454; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></em><em><b><span style="background: white; color: #545454; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Οι Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι</span></b></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="background: white; color: #545454; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></span><b><span style="background: white; color: #545454; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">είναι ένα από τα κορυφαία ποιητικά συνθέματα του εθνικού ποιητή Διονύσιου Σολωμού</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">1.</span><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /><span style="background: white;">Άκρα του τάφου σιωπή στον κάμπο βασιλεύει·</span><br /><span style="background: white;">Λαλεί πουλί, παίρνει σπυρί, κι’ η μάνα το ζηλεύει.</span><br /><span style="background: white;">Τα μάτια η πείνα εμαύρισε· στα μάτια η μάνα μνέει·</span><br /><span style="background: white;">Στέκει ο Σουλιώτης ο καλός παράμερα και κλαίει:</span><br /><span style="background: white;">«Έρμο τουφέκι σκοτεινό, τί σ’ έχω γω στο χέρι;</span><br /><span style="background: white;">Οπού συ μούγινες βαρύ κι’ ο Αγαρηνός το ξέρει.»</span><br /><br /><span style="background: white;">2.</span></span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Το Μεσολόγγι έπεσε την άνοιξη· ο ποιητής παρασταίνει την Φύση, εις τη στιγμή που είναι ωραιότερη, ως μία δύναμη, η οποία, με όλα τ’ άλλα και υλικά και ηθικά ενάντια, προσπαθεί να δειλιάση τους πολιορκημένους· ιδού οι Στοχασμοί του ποιητή:</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Η ζωή που ανασταίνεται με όλες της τες χαρές, αναβρύζοντας ολούθε, νέα, λαχταριστή, περιχυνόμενη εις όλα τα όντα· η ζωή ακέραιη, απ’ όλα της φύσης τα μέρη, θέλει να καταβάλη την ανθρώπινη ψυχή· θάλασσα, γη, ουρανός, συγχωνευμένα, επιφάνεια και βάθος συγχωνευμένα, τα οποία πάλι πολιορκούν την ανθρώπινη φύση στην επιφάνεια και εις το βάθος της.</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /><span class="mw-poem-indented"></span><span style="display: inline-block;">Η ωραιότης της φύσης, που τους περιτριγυρίζει, αυξαίνει εις τους εχθρούς την ανυπομονησία να πάρουν τη χαριτωμένη γη, και εις τους πολιορκημένους τον πόνο ότι θα τη χάσουν.</span></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Ο Απρίλης με τον Έρωτα χορεύουν και γελούνε,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ όσ’ άνθια βγαίνουν και καρποί τόσ’ άρματα σε κλειούνε.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Λευκό βουνάκι πρόβατα κινούμενο βελάζει,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και μες στη θάλασσα βαθιά ξαναπετιέται πάλι,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ ολόλευκο εσύσμιξε με τ’ ουρανού τα κάλλη.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και μες στης λίμνης τα νερά, όπ’ έφθασε μ’ ασπούδα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Έπαιξε με τον ίσκιο της γαλάζια πεταλούδα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Που ευώδιασε τον ύπνο της μέσα στον άγριο κρίνο·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Το σκουληκάκι βρίσκεται σ’ ώρα γλυκιά κι’ εκείνο.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Μάγεμα η φύσις κι’ όνειρο στην ομορφιά και χάρη,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Η μαύρη πέτρα ολόχρυση και το ξερό χορτάρι·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Με χίλιες βρύσες χύνεται, με χίλιες γλώσσες κραίνει·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Όποιος πεθάνη σήμερα χίλιες φορές πεθαίνει.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Τρέμ’ η ψυχή και ξαστοχά γλυκά τον εαυτό της.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">3.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Ενώ ακούεται το μαγευτικό τραγούδι της άνοιξης, οπού κινδυνεύει να ξυπνήση εις τους πολιορκημένους την αγάπη της ζωής τόσον, ώστε να ολιγοστέψη η αντρεία τους, ένας των Ελλήνων πολεμάρχων σαλπίζει κράζοντας τους άλλους εις συμβούλιο, και η σβημένη κλαγγή, οπού βγαίνει μέσ’ από το αδυνατισμένο στήθος του, φθάνοντας εις το εχθρικό στρατόπεδο παρακινεί έναν Αράπη να κάμη ό,τι περιγράφουν οι στίχοι 4-12.'</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">«Σάλπιγγα, κόψ’ του τραγουδιού τα μάγια με βία,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Γυναικός, γέροντος, παιδιού, μη κόψουν την αντρεία.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Χαμένη, αλίμονον! κι’ οκνή τη σάλπιγγα γρικάει·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Αλλά πώς φθάνει στον εχθρό και κάθ’ ηχώ ξυπνάει;</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Γέλιο στο σκόρπιο στράτευμα σφοδρό γεννοβολιέται,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ η περιπαίχτρα σάλπιγγα μεσουρανίς πετιέται·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και με χαρούμενη πνοή το στήθος το χορτάτο,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τ’ αράθυμο, το δυνατό, κι’ όλο ψυχές γιομάτο,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Βαρώντας γύρου ολόγυρα, ολόγυρα και πέρα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τον όμορφο τρικύμισε και ξάστερον αέρα·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τέλος μακριά σέρνει λαλιά, σαν το πεσούμεν’ άστρο,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τρανή λαλιά, τρόμου λαλιά, ρητή κατά το κάστρο.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">4.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Μόλις έπαυσε το σάλπισμα ο Αράπης, μία μυριόφωνη βοή ακούεται εις το εχθρικό στρατόπεδο, και η βίγλα του κάστρου, αχνή σαν το χάρο, λέει των Ελλήνων: «Μπαίνει ο εχθρικός στόλος.» Το πυκνό δάσος έμεινε ακίνητο εις τα νερά, όπου η ελπίδα απάντεχε να ιδή τα φιλικά καράβια. Τότε ο εχθρός εξανανέωσε την κραυγή, και εις αυτήν αντιβόησαν οι νεόφθαστοι μέσ’ από τα καράβια. Μετά ταύτα μία ακατάπαυτη βροντή έκανε τον αέρα να τρέμη πολλή ώρα, και εις αυτή την τρικυμία</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Η μαύρη γη σκιρτά ως χοχλό μες στο νερό που βράζει.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">―Έως εκείνη τη στιγμή οι πολιορκημένοι είχαν υπομείνει πολλούς αγώνες με κάποιαν ελπίδα να φθάση ο φιλικός στόλος και να συντρίψη ίσως τον σιδερένιο κύκλο οπού τους περιζώνει· τώρα οπού έχασαν κάθε ελπίδα, και ο εχθρός τούς τάζει να τους χαρίση τη ζωή αν αλλαξοπιστήσουν, η υστερινή τους αντίσταση τους αποδείχνει Μάρτυρες.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">5.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">. . . . . . . . . . . Στην πεισμωμένη μάχη</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Σφόδρα σκιρτούν μακριά πολύ τα πέλαγα κι’ οι βράχοι,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και τα γλυκοχαράματα, και μες στα μεσημέρια,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ όταν θολώσουν τα νερά, κι’ όταν εβγούν τ’ αστέρια.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Φοβούνται γύρου τα νησιά, παρακαλούν και κλαίνε,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ οι ξένοι ναύκληροι μακριά πικραίνονται και λένε:</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">«Αραπιάς άτι, Γάλλου νους, σπαθί Τουρκιάς μολύβι,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Πέλαγο μέγα βράζ’ ο εχθρός προς το φτωχό καλύβι.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">6.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Ένας πολέμαρχος ξάφνου απομακραίνεται από τον κύκλο, όπου είναι συναγμένοι εις συμβούλιο για το γιουρούσι, γιατί τον επλάκωσε η ενθύμηση, τρομερή εις εκείνη την ώρα της άκρας δυστυχίας, ότι εις εκείνο το ίδιο μέρος, εις τες λαμπρές ημέρες της νίκης, είχε πέσει κοπιασμένος από τον πολεμικό αγώνα, και αυτού επρωτάκουσε, από τα χείλη της αγαπημένης του, τον αντίλαλο της δόξας του, οποία έως τότε είχε μείνει άγνωστη εις την απλή και ταπεινή ψυχή του.</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Μακριά απ’ όπ’ ήτα’ αντίστροφος κι’ ακίνητος εστήθη·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Μόνε σφοδρά βροντοκοπούν τ’ αρματωμένα στήθη·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">«Εκεί ’ρθε το χρυσότερο από τα ονείρατά μου·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Με τ’ άρματ’ όλα βρόντησα τυφλός του κόπου χάμου.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Φωνή ’πε ―Ο δρόμος σου γλυκός και μοσχοβολισμένος·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Στην κεφαλή σου κρέμεται, ο ήλιος μαγεμένος·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Παλληκαρά και μορφονιέ, γεια σου, Καλέ, χαρά σου!</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Άκου! νησιά, στεριές της γης, εμάθαν τ’ όνομά σου.―</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τούτος, αχ! πού ’ν’ ο δοξαστός κι’ η θεϊκιά θωριά του;</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Η αγκάλη μ’ έτρεμ’ ανοιχτή κατά τα γόνατά του.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Έριξε χάμου τα χαρτιά με τς είδησες του κόσμου</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Η κορασιά τρεμάμενη . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Χαρά τής έσβηε τη φωνή πούν’ τώρα αποσβημένη·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Άμε, χρυσ’ όνειρο, και συ με τη σαβανωμένη.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Εδώ ’ναι χρεία να κατεβώ, να σφίξω το σπαθί μου,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Πριν όλοι χάσουν τη ζωή, κι’ εγ’ όλη την πνοή μου·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τα λίγα απομεινάρια της πείνας και τς αντρείας,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Γκόλφι να τάχω στο πλευρό και να τα βγάλω πέρα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Που μ’ έκραξαν μ’ απαντοχή, φίλο, αδελφό, πατέρα·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Δρόμ’ αστραφτά να σχίσω τους σ’ εχθρούς καλά θρεμμένους,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Σ’ εχθρούς πολλούς, πολλ’ άξιους, πολλά φαρμακωμένους·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Να μείνης, χώμα πατρικό, για μισητό ποδάρι·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Η μαύρη πέτρα σου χρυσή και το ξερό χορτάρι.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">«Θύρες ανοίξτ’ ολόχρυσες για την γλυκιάν ελπίδα.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">7.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κρυφή χαρά ’στραψε σ’ εσέ· κάτι καλό ’χει ο νους σου·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Πες, να το ξεμυστηρευτής θες τ’ αδελφοποιτού σου;</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ψυχή μεγάλη και γλυκιά, μετά χαράς σ’ το λέω:</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Θαυμάζω τες γυναίκες μας και στ’ όνομά τους μνέω.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Εφοβήθηκα κάποτε μη δειλιάσουν και τες επαρατήρησα αδιάκοπα,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Για η δύναμη δεν είν’ σ’ αυτές ίσια με τ’ άλλα δώρα.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Απόψε, ενώ είχαν τα παράθυρα ανοιχτά για τη δροσιά, μία απ’ αυτές, η νεώτερη, επήγε να τα κλείση, αλλά μία άλλη της είπε: «Όχι, παιδί μου· άφησε νάμπη η μυρωδιά από τα φαγητά· είναι χρεία να συνηθίσουμε·</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Μεγάλο πράμα η υπομονή! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Αχ! μας την έπεμψε ο Θεός· κλει θησαυρούς κι’ εκείνη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Εμείς πρέπει να έχουμε υπομονή, αν και έρχονταν οι μυρωδιές.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Απ’ όσα δίν’ η θάλασσα, απ’ όσ’ η γη, ο αέρας.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ έτσι λέγοντας εματάνοιξε το παράθυρο, και η πολλή μυρωδιά των αρωμάτων εχυνότουν μέσα κι’ εγιόμισε το δωμάτιο. Και η πρώτη είπε: «Και το αεράκι μάς πολεμάει.» ―Μία άλλη έστεκε σιμά εις το ετοιμοθάνατο παιδί της,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ άφ’σε το χέρι του παιδιού κι’ εσώπασε λιγάκι,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και ξάφνου της εφάνηκε στο στόμα το βαμπάκι.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Και άλλη είπε χαμογελώντας, να διηγηθή καθεμία τ’ όνειρό της,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ όλες εφώναξαν μαζί κι’ είπαν πως είδαν ένα.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ ό,τι αποφάσισαν μαζί να πουν τα ονείρατά τους,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Είπα να ιδώ τη γνώμη τους στην υπνοφαντασιά τους.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Και μία είπε: «Μου εφαίνοτουν ότι όλοι εμείς, άντρες και γυναίκες, παιδιά και γέροι, ήμαστε ποτάμια, ποια μικρά, ποια μεγάλα, κι’ ετρέχαμε ανάμεσα εις τόπους φωτεινούς, εις τόπους σκοτεινούς, σε λαγκάδια, σε γκρεμούς, απάνου κάτου, κι’ έπειτα εφθάναμε μαζί στη θάλασσα με πολλή ορμή,</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και μες στη θάλασσα γλυκά βαστούσαν τα νερά μας.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Και μία δεύτερη είπε:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">«Εγώ ’δα δάφνες.―Κι εγώ φως· . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">―Κι’ εγώ σ’ φωτιά μιαν όμορφη π’ αστράφταν τα μαλλιά της.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Και αφού όλες εδιηγήθηκαν τα ονείρατά τους, εκείνη πούχε το παιδί ετοιμοθάνατο είπε: «Ιδές, και εις τα ονείρατα ομογνωμούμε, καθώς εις τη θέληση και εις όλα τ’ άλλα έργα.» Και όλες οι άλλες εσυμφώνησαν κι’ ετριγύρισαν με αγάπη το παιδί της πούχε ξεψυχήσει.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Ιδού, αυτές οι γυναίκες φέρνονται θαυμαστά· αυτές είναι μεγαλόψυχες, και λένε ότι μαθαίνουν από μας· δε δειλιάζουν, μολονότι τους επάρθηκε η ελπίδα που είχαν να γεννήσουν τέκνα για τη δόξα και για την ευτυχία. Εμείς λοιπόν μπορούμε να μάθουμε απ’ αυτές και να τες λατρεύουμε έως την ύστερην ώρα. ―Πες μου και συ τώρα γιατί εχθές, ύστερ’ από το συμβούλιο, ενώ εστεκόμαστε σιωπηλοί, απομακρύνθηκες ταραγμένος·</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Να μου το πης να τόχω γω γκολφισταυρό στον άδη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Εχαμογέλασε πικρά κι’ ολούθενε κοιτάζει·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ ανεί πολύ τα βλέφαρα τα δάκρυα να βαστάξουν.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">8.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Παρασταίνεται ο Ιμπραΐμ Πασάς συλλογιζόμενος τη σημαντικότητα της γης, την οποία θέλει να κυριέψη, και τον πόνο και την εντροπή του αν δεν το κατορθώση.</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Καθώς εκεί στην Αραπιά . . . . . . . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Χύνεται ανάερα το σκυλί της δίψας λυσσιασμένο.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Μες στην ψυχή την αγρικά σα σπίθα στη φωτιά της.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Και συχνά τούπ’ η αράθυμη και τρίσβαθη ψυχή του:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">«Κάμποι, βουνά καρπόφορα, και λίμνη ωραία και πλούσια.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">«Σ’ τουφέκι αλλάξαν και σπαθί το δίχτυ και τ’ αγκίστρι.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">«Μάνα καλή παλληκαριών, και κάμε τη δική σου.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">«Αιώνια ήθελ’ ήτανε ο πόνος κι’ η ντροπή μου.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">9.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ετούτ’ είν’ ύστερη νυχτιά· όλα τ’ αστέρια βγάνει·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ολονυχτίς ανέβαινε η δέηση, το λιβάνι.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Ο Αράπης, τραβηγμένος από τη μυρωδιά που εσκορπούσε το θυμίαμα, περίεργος και ανυπόμονος, με βιαστικά πατήματα πλησιάζει εις το τείχος,</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και απάνου, ανάγκη φοβερή! σκυλί δεν του ’λυχτάει.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Και ακροάζεται· αλλά τη νυχτική γαλήνη δεν αντίσκοβε μήτε φωνή, μήτε κλάψα, μήτε αναστεναγμός· ήθελε πης ότι είχε παύσει η ζωή· οι ήρωες είναι ενωμένοι και, μέσα τους, λόγια λένε</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Για την αιωνιότητα, που μόλις τα χωράει·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Στα μάτια και στο πρόσωπο φαίνοντ’ οι στοχασμοί τους·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τους λέει μεγάλα και πολλά η τρίσβαθη ψυχή τους.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Αγάπη κι’ έρωτας καλού τα σπλάχνα τους τινάζουν·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τα σπλάχνα τους κι’ η θάλασσα ποτέ δεν ησυχάζουν·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Γλυκιά κι’ ελεύθερ’ η ψυχή σα νάτανε βγαλμένη,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ υψώναν με χαμόγελο την όψη τη φθαρμένη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">10.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Αφού έκαψαν τα κρεβάτια, οι γυναίκες παρακαλούν τους άντρες να τες αφήσουν να κάμουνε αντάμα, εις το σπήλαιο, την υστερινή δέηση. Μι’ απ’ αυτές, η γεροντότερη, μιλεί για τες άλλες: «Άκουσε, παιδί μου, και τούτο από το στόμα μου,</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Πούμ’ όλη κάτου από τη γη κι’ ένα μπουτσούνι απ’ έξω.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ορκίζουν σε στη στάχτ’ αυτή . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και στα κρεβάτια τ’ άτυχα με το σεμνό στεφάνι·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ν’ αφήστε σάς παρακαλούν να τρέξουμε σ’ εκείνο,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Να κάμουμ’ άμα το στερνό χαιρετισμό και θρήνο.»</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ επειδή εκείνος αργούσε ολίγο να δώση την απόκριση,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Όλες στη γη τα γόνατα εχτύπησαν ομπρός του,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ εβάστααν όλες κατ’ αυτόν τη χούφτα σηκωμένη,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και με πικρό χαμόγελο την όψη τη φθαρμένη,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Σα νάθελ’ έσπλαχνα ο Θεός βρέξη ψωμί σ’ εκείνες.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">11.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Οι γυναίκες, εις τες οποίες έως τότε είχε φανή όμοια μεγαλοψυχία με τους άντρες, όταν δέονται και αυτές, δειλιάζουν λιγάκι και κλαίνε· όθεν προχωρεί η Πράξη· διότι όλα τα φερσίματα των γυναικών αντιχτυπούν εις την καρδιά των πολεμιστάδων, και αυτή είναι η υστερινή εξωτερική δύναμη που τους καταπολεμάει, από την οποίαν, ως απ’ όλες τες άλλες, αυτοί βγαίνουν ελεύθεροι.</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">12.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Είναι προσωποποιημένη η Πατρίδα, η Μεγάλη Μητέρα, θεάνθρωπη, ώστε να αισθάνεται όλα τα παθήματα, και καθαρίζοντάς τα εις τη μεγάλη ψυχή της να αναπνέη την Παράδεισο·</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Πολλές πληγές κι’ εγλύκαναν γιατ’ έσταξ’ αγιομύρος.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Μένει άγρυπνη μέρα και νύχτα, καρτερώντας το τέλος του αγώνος· δεν τα φοβάται τα παιδιά της μη δειλιάσουν· εις τα μάτια της είναι φανερά τα πλέον απόκρυφα της ψυχής τους·</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Στου τέκνου σύρριζα το νου, Θεού της μάνας μάτι·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Λόγο, έργο, νόημα . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Από το πρώτο μίλημα στον αγγελοκρουμό του.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Για τούτο αυτή είναι</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Ήσυχη για τη γνώμη τους, αλλ’ όχι για τη Μοίρα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και μες στην τρίσβαθη ψυχή ο πόνος τής ’πλημμύρα,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Επειδή βλέπει τον εχθρόν άσπονδον, άπονον από το πολύ πείσμα, και καταλαβαίνει ότι αν το Έλεος έχυνε μες στα σπλάχνα του όλους τους θησαυρούς του, τούτοι</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Τριαντάφυλλά ’ναι θεϊκά στην κόλαση πεσμένα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">13.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Μένουν οι Μάρτυρες με τα μάτια προσηλωμένα εις την ανατολή, να φέξη για νάβγουνε στο γιουρούσι, και η φοβερή αυγή,</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><br />
<span style="background: white;">Μνήσθητι, Κύριε ― είναι κοντά· Μνήσθητι, Κύριε ― εφάνη!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Επάψαν τα φιλιά στη γη . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Στα στήθια και στο πρόσωπο, στα χέρια και στα πόδια.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Μία φούχτα χώμα να κρατώ και να σωθώ μ’ εκείνο.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Ιδού, σεισμός και βροντισμός, κι’ εβάστουναν ακόμα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Που ο κύκλος φθάνει ο φοβερός με τον αφρό στο στόμα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ εσχίσθη αμέσως, κι’ έβαλε στης Μάνας τα ποδάρια</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Της πείνας και του . . . . . τα λίγα απομεινάρια·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τ’ απομεινάρια ανέγγιαγα και κατατρομασμένα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τα γόνατα και τα σπαθιά τα ματοκυλισμένα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">14.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Το μάτι μου έτρεχε ρονιά κι’ ομπρός του δεν εθώρα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ έχασα αυτό το θεϊκό πρόσωπο για πολλή ώρα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Π’ άστραψε γέλιο αθάνατο, παιγνίδι της χαράς του,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Στο φως της καλοσύνης του, στο φως της ομορφιάς του.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">15.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Έχε όσες έχ’ η Ανατολή κι’ όσες ευχές η Δύση.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">16.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Μ’ όλον που τότ’ ασάλευτος στο νου μ’ ο νιος εστήθη,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ είχε τον ήλιο πρόσωπο και το φεγγάρι στήθη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">17.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ άνθιζε μέσα μου η ζωή μ’ όλα τα πλούτια πόχει.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">18.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Συχνά τα στήθια εκούρασα, ποτέ την καλοσύνη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">19.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ο υιός σου κρίνος με δροσιά φεγγαροστολισμένος.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">20.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Στον ύπνο της μουρμούριζε την κλάψα της τρυγόνας.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">21.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ανάξιε δούλε του Χριστού, κάτου τα γόνατά σου.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">22.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Για κοίτα κει χάσμα σεισμού βαθιά στον τοίχο πέρα, Και βγαίνουν άνθια πλουμιστά και τρέμουν στον αέρα· Λούλουδα μύρια, που καλούν χρυσό μελισσολόι, Άσπρα, γαλάζια, κόκκινα, και κρύβουνε τη χλόη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">23.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Χιλιάδες ήχοι αμέτρητοι, πολύ βαθιά στη χτίση·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Η Ανατολή τ’ αρχίναγε κι’ ετέλειωνέ το η Δύση.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κάποι από την Ανατολή κι’ από τη Δύση κάποι·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κάθ’ ήχος είχε και χαρά, κάθε χαρά κι’ αγάπη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">24.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κάνε σιμά κι’ είναι ψιλές, κάνε βαριές και πέρα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Σαν του Μαϊού τες ευωδιές γιομόζαν τον αέρα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">25.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Η όψη ομπρός μου φαίνεται, και μες στη θάλασσ’ όχι,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Όμορφη ως είναι τ’ όνειρο μ’ όλα τα μάγια πόχει.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">26.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Χρυσ’ όνειρο ηθέλησε το πέλαγο ν’ αφήση,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Το πέλαγο, που πάτουνε χωρίς να το συγχύση.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">27.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ έφυγε το χρυσ’ όνειρο ως φεύγουν όλα τ’ άλλα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">28.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ήταν με σένα τρεις χαρές στην πίκρα φυτρωμένες,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Όμως για μένα στη χαρά τρεις πίκρες ριζωμένες.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">29.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Όλοι σαν ένας, ναι, χτυπούν, όμως εσύ σαν όλους.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">30.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Του πόνου εστρέψαν οι πηγές από το σωθικό μου,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Έστρωσ’ ο νους, κι’ ανέβηκα πάλι στον εαυτό μου.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">31.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Το γλυκό σπίτι της ζωής πούχε χαρά και δόξα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">32.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Παράπονο χαμός καιρού σ’ ό,τι κανείς κι’ α χάση.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">33.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Χαρά στα μάτια μου να ιδώ τα πολυαγαπημένα,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Που μόδειξε σκληρ’ όνειρο στο σάβανο κλεισμένα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">34.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Και μετά βίας</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Τί μόστειλες, χρυσοπηγή της Παντοδυναμίας;</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">35.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Έστρωσ’, εδέχθ’ η θάλασσα άντρες ριψοκινδύνους,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ εδέχθηκε στα βάθη τους τον ουρανό κι’ εκείνους.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">36.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Πάντ’ ανοιχτά, πάντ’ άγρυπνα, τα μάτια της ψυχής μου.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">37.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Οπούν’ ερμιά και σκοτεινιά και του θανάτου σπίτι.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">38.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Το πολιορκούμενο Μεσολόγγι έχει τριγύρου χάντακα,</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><span style="background: white;">Πόφαγε κόκαλο πολύ του Τούρκου και τ’ Αράπη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">39.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Χθες πρωτοχάρηκε το φως και τον γλυκόν αέρα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">40.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Πάλι μου ξίπασε τ’ αυτί γλυκιάς φωνής αγέρας,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ έπλασε τ’ άστρο της νυχτός και τ’ άστρο της ημέρας.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">41.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ολίγο φως και μακρινό σε μέγα σκότος κι’ έρμο.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">42.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ όπου η βουλή τους συφορά, κι’ όπου το πόδι χάρος.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">43.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Σε βυθό πέφτει από βυθό ως που δεν ήταν άλλος·</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Εκείθ’ εβγήκε ανίκητος.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">44.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Φως που πατεί χαρούμενο τον Άδη και το χάρο.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">45.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Ο αριθμός του εχθρού,</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><span style="background: white;">Τόσ’ άστρα δεν εγνώρισεν ο τρίσβαθος αιθέρας.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">46.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Η Ελπίδα περνάει από φριχτήν ερημία με</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><span style="background: white;">Τα χρυσοπράσινα φτερά γιομάτα λουλουδάκια.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">47.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Χάνονται τ’ άνθη τα πολλά, πούχ’ άσπρα με τα φύλλα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">48.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Για να μου ξεμυστηρευθή τα αινίγματα τα θεία.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">49.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Σ’ ελέγχ’ η πέτρα που κρατείς και κλει φωνή κι’ αυτήνη.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">50.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Μες στ’ άγιο Βήμα της ψυχής.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">51.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Η δύναμή σου πέλαγο κι’ η θέλησή μου βράχος.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">52.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Στον κόσμο τούτον χύνεται και σ’ άλλους κόσμους φθάνει.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">53.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Με φουσκωμένα τα πανιά περήφανα κι’ ωραία.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">54.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Πολλοί ’ν’ οι δρόμοι πόχει ο νους.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">55.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Η βοή του εχθρικού στρατόπεδου παρομοιάζεται με τον άνεμο,</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><span style="background: white;">Οπού περνάει το πέλαγο και κόβεται στο βράχο.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">56.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και το τριφύλλι εχόρτασε και το περιπλοκάδι,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ εχόρευε κι’ εβέλαζε στο φουντωτό λιβάδι.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">57.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ω γη . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Ο Ουρανός σε προσκαλεί κι’ η Κόλαση βρυχίζει.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">58.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και με το ρούχο ολόμαυρο σαν του λαγού το αίμα.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">59.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Και τες ατάραχες πνοές τες πολυαγαπημένες.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">60.</span><br />
<span class="mw-poem-indented"><i><span style="background: white;"><span style="display: inline-block;">Οι Έλληνες, με την ελπίδα να φθάση ο φιλικός στόλος, κοιτάζουν τον μακρινό ξάστερον ορίζοντα κι’ εύχονται</span></span></i></span><i><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></i><span style="background: white;">Να θόλωνε στα μάτια τους με κάτι που προβαίνει.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">61.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Κι’ επότισέ μου την ψυχή που χόρτασεν αμέσως.</span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-81613947534242078772014-07-15T07:50:00.001-07:002014-07-15T07:50:45.858-07:00A Sentimental Topography<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtSy4mDUKQSvebqCCnqs51anADfpheszoMD3m4hmUqlfDX-_K-aC69ZvVysysB0Z5wVyip4qzC2T3nB1U8cc_wDyihDCoofb8_4IHA6YXVNXlV9q7TkEba19aH6G4b7p1OzdGpbaAXsSTl/s1600/pikionis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtSy4mDUKQSvebqCCnqs51anADfpheszoMD3m4hmUqlfDX-_K-aC69ZvVysysB0Z5wVyip4qzC2T3nB1U8cc_wDyihDCoofb8_4IHA6YXVNXlV9q7TkEba19aH6G4b7p1OzdGpbaAXsSTl/s1600/pikionis.jpg" height="200" width="400" /></a></div>
<!--****************************--> <!--<img src="../../images/sites_inback.gif"><br>
--><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="10" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td><br />
<br />
<i>[From Dimitris Pikionis, Architect 1887-1968 'A Sentimental Topography', Architectural Association, London.]</i><br />
<br />
<br />
As we walk upon this earth, our hearts experience anew that rapturous joy we felt as children when we first discovered our ability to move in space - the alternating disruption and restoration of balance which is walking.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="1_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#1_bottom">(1)</a><br />
<br />
We rejoice in the progress of our body across the uneven surface of the earth and our spirit is gladdened by the endless interplay of the three dimensions that we encounter at every step, the shifting and changing that occurs with the mere passage of a cloud high up in the sky. We walk past a rock, or a tree trunk, or a shrub's tufted foliage; we move up and down, following the rise and fall of the ground, tracing its convexities, which are the hills and mountains, and its concavities, which are the valleys.<br />
<br />
Then we rejoice in the wide, flat expanse of the plains; we measure the earth by the toil of our bodies.<br />
<br />
This deserted country lane is far superior to the thoroughfares of the large modern city, for all its twists and curves and infinite changes of perspective show us the divine hypostasis of singularity when submitted to the harmony of the whole.<br />
<br />
We meditate upon the spirit which emanates from each particular land or place.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="2_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#2_bottom">(2)</a><br />
<br />
Here the ground is hard, stony, precipitous, and the soil is brittle and dry. There the ground is level; water surges out of mossy patches. Further on, the breeze, the altitude and the configuration of the ground announce the proximity of the sea. Further on still, the vegetation runs riot, in an extreme culmination of the earth's thrust towards form, towards a perfect attunement of its clothing to the rhythm of the seasons.<br />
<br />
Natural forces, geometry of the earth and quality of light and air single out this land as a cradle of civilization. Mysterious exhalations seem to rise from the ground. Here are ancient, venerable places of worship - a precipice that fills one's soul with awe, a cave where mysterious spirits, supernatural powers dwell. In face of these primeval images of the earth, the soul is shot through with a mystical tremor, like the waterfinder when his divining rod comes upon the invisible presence of a subterranean stream.<br />
<br />
Light created the world. Light preserves it and makes it fruitful. Light reveals the world to our corporeal eyes so that the light of our spirits might in turn illuminate the world.<br />
<br />
Above the fixed, motionless<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="3_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#3_bottom">(3)</a> geometry of the earth stretches the perpetually moving domain of air and light.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="4_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#4_bottom">(4)</a><br />
<br />
The Star of Life rotates, comes and goes, and so produces day and night, giving us heat and cold, showers and drought, clear and dark skies, cloud, rain and wind. The human soul rejoices in this mobile geometry of air and light, which constitutes the seasons.<br />
<br />
Light - the infinite world of form and colour - delights the soul. The soul meditates upon the hours, upon the angle of the sun's rays, the length of shadows, the disposition of rain and drought, hot and cold,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="5_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#5_bottom">(5)</a> the configuration of the clouds. But on this particular day what pleases me most is to concentrate on the spectacle of the ground bathed in calm, wintry light.<br />
<br />
Here are stone formations shaped by divine forces - rocks, broken boulders, the dust born of the fruitful soil, its particles as uncountable as the stars.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihrD-1SHUoKhGtHFo4RSTBaOTT3KKkS2zQDsKy3ZFrhW6mKB1WFoM89rBKkg7lRNpFUWFoAKa22zdvaAeFxR0DLwwFqYweEAxJyJDoaQJn5JvwFjtoZPAoIWzUVqZdfkf_DYJCbw5VYSiw/s1600/pikionis1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihrD-1SHUoKhGtHFo4RSTBaOTT3KKkS2zQDsKy3ZFrhW6mKB1WFoM89rBKkg7lRNpFUWFoAKa22zdvaAeFxR0DLwwFqYweEAxJyJDoaQJn5JvwFjtoZPAoIWzUVqZdfkf_DYJCbw5VYSiw/s1600/pikionis1.jpg" height="273" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
I stoop and pick up a stone. I caress it with my eyes, with my fingers. It is a piece of grey limestone. Fire moulded its divine shape; water sculpted it and endowed it with this fine covering of clay that has alternating patches of white and rust, with a yellow tinge. I turn it around in my hands. I study the harmony of its contours. I delight in the way hollows and protrusions, light and shadows; balance each other on its surface. I rejoice in the way the universal laws are embodied and fulfilled in this stone - the laws, which, according to Goethe, would have remained unknown to us, had not an innate sense of beauty revealed them to the poet and the artist.<br />
<br />
In truth, it occurs to me, O stone, that as the incandescent mass of this planet was torn away from the sun and set spinning around like a ring of fire, eventually condensing into our earth, you came to occupy a place within its vast expanse that was in no way accidental. The harmony of the whole, which determined the inclination of our planet's axis, also assigned this particular place to you as your home, as the generator of your supremely spiritual form, within an atmosphere and light that are spiritually attuned to you.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="6_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#6_bottom">(6)</a><br />
<br />
The dance of your atoms, governed by number, shapes your constituent parts according to the law of your singularity. You thus enact this twofold law of universal and individual harmony.<br />
<br />
I feel you growing, expanding in my imagination.<br />
<br />
Your lateral surfaces turn into slopes, ridges, and noble precipices. Your hollows become caverns, where water silently trickles from the cracks in the rose-coloured rock.<br />
<br />
Stone, you compose the lineaments of this landscape. You are the landscape. You are the Temple that is to crown the precipitous rocks of your own Acropolis. For what else does the Temple do but enact the same twofold law, which you serve?<br />
<br />
More than anything else, is not the Temple also 'an explanation of the way in which the entirety of things is arranged'?' Is its equilibrium not similar to that of the mountains of vegetation, of all living creatures?<br />
<br />
All the forces of nature converge and work together to produce this particular configuration: the refined air, the bright light, the colour of the sky, the floating clouds, the slope of the mountains, the boulders scattered around the Temple's stylobate and the grass growing up between the cracks.<br />
<br />
O earth, you reduce everything to yourself as the measure, the modulus which penetrates all things.<br />
<br />
You gave shape to the city, and to the city's various forms of government. You gave shape to the sounds that make up language. You foreshadowed the arts that involve words and forms.<br />
<br />
Is it not this concordance, this rule of the same laws in both nature and art, that allows us to see forms of nature transformed before our very eyes into forms of art, or vice versa - or one art form transformed into a different art form? Is it not this concordance, this uniformity governing the apparently most diverse creations, which has the power to reveal and explain them by reflection, by comparison?<br />
As I paced upon this soil, as I journeyed across this kingdom of limestone and clay, I saw the limestone change into a lintel, and the red clay colour the walls of an imaginary shrine. The large round pebbles of the Cladeus River appeared to me as the heads of heroes, and the statues on the pediments as mountains. Zeus' long hair became a sheer precipice, and this mountain of a thousand shapes - which I gradually pieced together as I walked across it, recomposing in my mind the harmony of its contours - took on the form of a Greek statue.<br />
<br />
The pleats and folds in the costume of this peasant woman undulate around her ankles, tracing mountain shapes upon the ground. The woven ornamentation around the hem of her skirt stands out as vividly as a frieze. The dance unfolds like a moving colonnade. The sound of the pipe, interwoven with the dancers' song, makes the mountaintops sway and the rivers flow. The rhythm of these draperies as they ripple around the body, the shape of this brow or forearm, the waves and curls of that hair - all of these explain the landscape.<br />
<br />
O limestone, you fashioned the stern brow of Aeschylus. Musical notes emanate from the stylobate and the moulded echinus evokes an ancient manuscript. The austere structure that can be seen in the statues can also be found in language.<br />
Yet what are the secret relations, O almighty number, that you have established today between the geometry of creation and the crystalline air, which allows the unadulterated essence of divine light to filter through to us?<br />
<br />
No other light, no other day can ever equal the clarity of the calm, limpid autumn hours.<br />
<br />
An ineffable mystery irradiates creation this day.<br />
<br />
Why do the tuft-like clouds draw apart high up in the blue sky or float as gentle, transparent veils across the mountaintops? What have the innumerable blades of grass to tell as they break through the dark, moist soil - are they voices from the past, or spirits rising from the kingdom of Hades? And what about these rough boulders -white, grey-blue, pink - or the shards of pottery scattered over the grass?<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="8_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#8_bottom">(8)</a> The voices of children at play and the crowing of a rooster echo mysteriously through the fine, rarefied air. Dried-up wells gape like the dark, open mouths of tragic masks, adding depth to the landscape. The skin expands under the warmth of the sun, and then contracts under the cold touch of shade. The autumn breeze plays sweetly with the blades of grass and the asphodels, both of them nourished by the earth's bitter green sap.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="9_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#9_bottom">(9)</a><br />
<br />
A profound mystery connects this hour and the light that pervades it with the golden hide of the wild beast, to the convoluted horns and thick fleece of these grazing, ambling sheep, yellow like the colour of time-worn marble, or black like the shadow of that dark rock.<br />
<br />
Through the agency of this particular hour the mystery of time becomes one with the mystery of space. What irreconcilable elements have merged together here? Wherever one turns, one may see the double-headed hermae of antithesis.<br />
<br />
Faced with a mystery of this magnitude, the soul no longer needs an explanation, for in the deepening of nature's mystery, the soul undergoes a process, an experience, a 'passion' in the depths of which lies understanding.<br />
<br />
It is in moments like this, O Doric column, that your mystery is revealed to me. Now I understand: the 'tension' that governs your lines is not meant only to serve the laws of statics, extending natural beauty into a form of art;<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="10_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#10_bottom">(10)</a> the grooves of your fluted body are not meant only to distribute light equally across your surface, inserting shade into light and light into shade, so that the tones of your stone shaft blend with the tones of the sky above and the rock below. You are, it seems to me, an animate being thirsting for union as you revolve upon your own axis, your grooves like eyes that strive to retain, within their revolving motion, what has come to pass and to contemplate, full of trepidation, what is about to happen - but this is not all. More than any of these things, this hour reveals that this longed-for union would project and condense the culmination of nature's dramatic mystery within an art form corresponding to nature itself.<br />
<br />
There is an undecipherable connection between these stories, this bitter grass, these green shadows, these voices that streak the air, the southern breezes, the torn plumes of the clouds, all this dramatic mystery which appears to be composed of irreconcilable opposites; all these are made one in the equation of your grooves.<br />
<br />
Is not your own form made of irreconcilable opposites held together in perfect balance? And the coldness of the marble, the austerity of your vertical shaft, your parallel lines - have they not merged with the warmth of the sun, with the unsurpassable sensitivity of the spirit, to make you what you are?<br />
<br />
It was surely in an hour such as this that the artist's mind conceived you. And each time that number establishes the ineffable harmony between that hour and your form, your mystery is reborn.<br />
<br />
This is what I thought; on an early April day, when I perceived you behind the golden dust rising from the chariot wheels in the slanting rays of the afternoon sun. Or was it on some summer evening, as darkness was spreading across the mountains in the west, enveloping the land, while in the east the sky was streaked with pink?<br />
<br />
But in this wintry hour I think of you again, O Doric cyma, of the stern music of your form poised high up on the Acropolis, high above the sheer rocks and the clay soil of the olive grove. I reflect upon the winter light falling on your harmonious incurvatures, upon the cool shadows that nestle among them and constitute your darkness.<br />
There is something awesome about the austerity, the sharpness, the sensitivity of your shape, rising out of a perfect mathematical formulation.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="11_top"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#11_bottom">(11)</a><br />
<br />
I can visualize the men who wrought you. I can see the robes draped around their beautiful limbs. They have stern brows, furrowed by deep thought. There is sternness too about their eyes, their temples, and their beards.<br />
<br />
But how is one to bring to mind all the hours of the year, or even of a single day? The spirits that inhabit morning and afternoon, noon and evening? The days of summer and spring, the halcyon days of winter and autumn? The days when the wind blows from the north or the south, the days of Apeliotes, the east wind, and of the summer winds that blow for forty days after the rising of the dog-star? For these are the spirits that will enable us to witness the 'suffering' and the transformation of form and space within the element of time.<br />
<br />
This journal is by no means complete but does it really matter? Is it not enough if the perusal of what there is helps to make manifest the principle which I believe nature wishes to teach us: nothing exists on its own; everything is part of a total harmony. All things are interconnected; for they are all affected and changed by each other. We can apprehend one thing only through the intermediary of everything else.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0PCRE-EbBHRXX5x6f13-gyXR1UfdZ5S3ahlUL2TAntZ5T3lj0ZBLQ_O3tX39exENmYXNCtxPiwnV_pFan-RtmL8T-x3csAh3cYl7B5HEajkhgKvob8QQQB-V_FlJUEVp5e9CfbpVIH0d/s1600/Pilkionis2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0PCRE-EbBHRXX5x6f13-gyXR1UfdZ5S3ahlUL2TAntZ5T3lj0ZBLQ_O3tX39exENmYXNCtxPiwnV_pFan-RtmL8T-x3csAh3cYl7B5HEajkhgKvob8QQQB-V_FlJUEVp5e9CfbpVIH0d/s1600/Pilkionis2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<b>NOTES</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="1_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#1_top">1.</a> - In an attempt to analyse the human act of walking, Rodin remarked admiringly: 'Man is a walking cathedral' (Les cathedrales de France).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="2_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#2_top">2.</a> - The geometry of a place or land is a product of its composition. By composition I mean the nature of the materials that go into its making, and also the nature of the diverse forces that have worked or are still working upon it. The nature of matter has to do with chemistry, which is ruled, like all things, by number. But the operation of external forces (such as fire, water or earthquakes), though it may appear wanton and uncontrolled to human eyes, is really as strictly calculated by nature as the proliferation of the minutest living creatures in the universe.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="3_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#3_top">3.</a> - 'Motionless' in a relative sense only, since this geometry is also affected and influenced, through a reflex process, by the motion of the light and air encompassing it.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="4_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#4_top">4.</a> - Climate, in other words the mobile geometry of a country's atmosphere, derives from its relative position on this planet. A country's position determines its distance from the sun, which changes with the seasons. Climate is thus affected and influenced by this other geometry. The intensity and quality of light is determined by a country's position in relation to the sun, by the angle of the sun's rays and by the quality of the atmosphere. A sentient, empathic nature often ascribes the quality of atmosphere to light itself.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="5_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#5_top">5.</a> Our sentient nature cannot conceive of 'matter' independently of temperature, or the constitution of the atmosphere independently of the intensity and quality of light. A space is perceived to be smaller when it is hot and larger when it is cold. The weight of matter appears to increase with heat. Shape becomes sharper with cold.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="6_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#6_top">6.</a> The profound sense of wonder aroused by the sight of the perfect accord between the air and light of a land and the geometry of its soil compels us to accept the existence of a harmonious unity linking all three elements. How else could one explain the incomparable harmony between the pure, spiritual, perfectly modelled shape of the mountains of Attica, and the fine, mellow air and brilliant light in which they stand? Indeed, I do not think it would be presumptuous to say that this harmony is no accident but the rigorous consequence of the inherent harmony, which informs the whole principle of creation: on the contrary, it would be fully in accord with our innate sense of cosmic harmony. We may therefore accept as an axiomatic truth that the geometry of the ground and the air and light of a country are entirely consonant elements.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="7_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#7_top">7.</a> To recall the words of Heraclitus: 'Yet although the logos is common to all, most men live as if each of them had a private intelligence of his own', prompting Sextus Empiricus' comment: 'And this is nothing else than an explanation of the way in which the entirety of things is arranged. Therefore, insofar as we share in the memory of this we say what is true, but when we depend on private experience we say what is false: (English translation by Philip Wheelwright, Heraclitus, New York, 1964.)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="8_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#8_top">8.</a> - An inexplicable pattern of kinship and contrast links the green vegetation and the red soil with the two colours that adorn ancient Greek vases; black and red.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="9_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#9_top">9.</a> - At moments like this, form and motion take on a strange stillness, becoming static. The vertical line, the horizontal, the oblique, and the point - all seem to become invested with a deepening harmony.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="10_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#10_top">10.</a> - The sensitivity of nature penetrates into the work of art through the sensitivity of the spirit. What appears to be the rectilinear geometry of architecture is in reality the geometry of curves. The theoretical definition of the tensions and equations in these curves, and their translation into matter, can only be achieved by the finest artistic sensibility.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="11_bottom"></a><a href="http://www.eikastikon.gr/arxitektoniki/pikionis/en_txt_self_topography.html#11_top">11.</a> - The austerity of the Greek column is of a different nature to the theocratic austerity of the Egyptian column. In the latter, it amounts to a subjection to divine attributes, whereas in the Greek column, it emerges as the product of a spirit that is austere, but also human and free.<br />
<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-87325539246382726192014-07-09T07:43:00.000-07:002014-07-09T07:43:15.734-07:00Greece's Gift to the World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLFVtLOApr2XezyCzCPFUvHeqjXFcmx_OvxipveA1pznYJDxI0hIDz_Jsrbe-WIEXlceVvJdPU_jykAs6_B5Or_hUlKDMrZHKHQhPj2806EydFNfpjjUgDgHAM1HHP_Qc2c_gw7plJxZfA/s1600/1-vi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLFVtLOApr2XezyCzCPFUvHeqjXFcmx_OvxipveA1pznYJDxI0hIDz_Jsrbe-WIEXlceVvJdPU_jykAs6_B5Or_hUlKDMrZHKHQhPj2806EydFNfpjjUgDgHAM1HHP_Qc2c_gw7plJxZfA/s1600/1-vi.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The glory of modern Greece was crowned neither with the olive of the ancients<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">nor with the diadem of Byzantium. </span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> -</span></i><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Aegean Notebooks<i> </i></span></b><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">by </span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Z. Lorenzatos<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">Καὶ 'ς τὴν κόμη στεφάνι φορεῖ</span></i><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;"><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Γινομένο ἀπὸ λίγα χορτάρια</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Ποῦ εἰχαν μείνῃ 'ς τὴν ἔρημη γῆ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;"> -Δ. Σολωμός<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">“And her head is adorned with a crown<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">Fashioned out of the last few grasses<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.559999465942383px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif;">That were left upon the desolate earth.”</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Read the full article at:</b></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
http://phenomenalogos.blogspot.com/2014/06/greeces-gift-to-world.html</div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-27983899939215610082014-06-03T12:18:00.002-07:002014-06-03T12:20:04.642-07:00The Church is One<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngz7qRfPTc1cLmpwAd8_IRD_LF746TM6kTd6wSS3Prmmxedlnk1g-srE6iop3hz48nR0quMr0NsZzOzhD2mbQR7m4OwzfRW7SDf_vgKmS7DZiZ999F0JtYNuov_fOowdwjkIfNddT4uM7/s1600/decani1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngz7qRfPTc1cLmpwAd8_IRD_LF746TM6kTd6wSS3Prmmxedlnk1g-srE6iop3hz48nR0quMr0NsZzOzhD2mbQR7m4OwzfRW7SDf_vgKmS7DZiZ999F0JtYNuov_fOowdwjkIfNddT4uM7/s1600/decani1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Metropolitan John Zizioulas:</b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; line-height: 115%;">First
of all</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; line-height: 115%;">, let
us take a look at the Church as a whole. The Church is one. The
Lord did not found many Churches; only one. And this One Church
identifies with the Body of the One Christ. But, because this One Church
is realized, is expressed and portrayed in the Divine Eucharist, that is why it
necessarily appears as a Eucharist community; that is why She necessarily
appears as many Churches. Because it is unthinkable for one only
Eucharist community to exist for all of the world, for all of Creation.
So, wherever the faithful assemble for the same reason, to comprise the
Eucharist assembly, that is where the overall Body of Christ is realized; that
is where the mystery of Providence is recapitulated, and where the Kingdom of
God is fully portrayed. We have, therefore, One Church, which however consists
of many local Churches. And precisely because each local Church (where the
Divine Eucharist is performed) constitutes an image of the eschatological
community, and also comprises the complete Body of Christ, that is why every
such Church is (and must be) regarded as the whole Church. And that is why She was
called from a very early stage “the catholic-overall Church” – Saint Ignatius
being the first one to name Her thus. The “catholic” Church is,
therefore, <b>each local church</b> that has that fullness which the
Eucharist assembly provides to the Eucharist Body of Christ; the fullness of
the recapitulation of everything, and the portrayal of the Kingdom to come in a
specific place..<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; line-height: 115%;">The
Church</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; line-height: 115%;">,
therefore, (the One and Catholic-overall one), is composed of many
catholic-overall churches. This is also why the term “catholic” was used in the
plural, even up to the time of Augustine, following which, its meaning was
changed: the “catholic” Church was no longer that which I just described, but
it took on the meaning of “Ecumenical Church”, in other words, the One Church
that is scattered throughout the world. Augustine, in his attempts to
strike at the “localism” of the Donatists whom he was opposed to, highlighted
the universality of the Church, and identified Her with the notion of
catholicity (universality). Consequently, for Augustine, “Catholic
Church” is for the first time in Patristic literature, exclusively the
worldwide Church. This element, like many others, also infiltrated the
theology of the Orthodox East, thus drawing us also into this mistaken viewpoint.
When we say: “…..I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church….” , we usually mean the worldwide-universal Church.
This is of great importance for the organization of the Church, and it
becomes obvious, when we realize how it appeared and how it was applied in the
West, where Augustine’s theology prevailed.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="background-color: white;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; line-height: 115%;">The
Church</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> in
the West was organized as one, uniform whole, with such a structure that would
ensure what we call a universal Church, with one, universal head – the bishop
of Rome. On the contrary, in the East such an Ecclesiology on organization
could not be formulated; the Church could not be regarded as a universal
organization, which has a head and a center. In the East, we have a
different kind of structure in the Church. What we must stress is that
the thing that differentiates us so much from the West is that perception that
we have of the Church as an image of End Times, which is realized with the
Divine Eucharist. This is what allows us to regard every assembly that performs
the divine Eucharist (we shall mention under what conditions, later on) as a
complete Church, because what takes precedence for us is the presence of the
whole Body of Christ. Just as the divine Eucharist realizes the Whole
Christ and not a portion of Christ, so it is with every local Church. In
view of the fact that –for us- the term “Church” is based on the experience and
the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist, it is acknowledged as the complete Body
of Christ, and not just a part of it. An Ecclesiology such as this,
therefore, speaks of one Body of Christ in the entire world, and of the
individual Churches as ‘members’ or ‘parts’ of that one Body. Perceptions
such as these exist among the Orthodox also, but it is clearly a Western
perception. Our view is that every Church is a complete Church; a
catholic one; the whole Body of Chris, because the notion of “Church” is based
on the divine Eucharist. That is the only reason. If you take away that
reason, you will not be able to explain why he local church should be
“catholic”. It was because this Ignatian Ecclesiology of the Eucharist
had waned in the West and other kinds of ecclesiological premises were
imported, that each local Church was no longer </span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">regarded</span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> “catholic”. Instead, the
notion of “catholic Church” was identified with the notion of a worldwide
organization.</span></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><b>Fr. John Romanides:</b></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>Since for Ignatius the Eucharist is the formative and
manifest center of corporate love unto immortality, and at the same time the
weapon which insures the continues defeat of the devil, it is quite clear that
the corporate liturgy is the very pivotal point of faith in action, the
participation of which is the only sure sign of continuous communion with God
and neighbor unto salvation. This unity of selfless love in Christ with each
other and the saints is an end in itself - not a means to another end. The
existence of any other utilitarian and eudaimonistic motive other than
unconditional selfless love for God and neighbor in Christ simply means slavery
to the powers of Satan. "... love nothing except God." (Ign. Eph. 9,
11; Mag. 1.)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>In the
Eucharistic life of selfless love is thus understood as an end in itself and
the only condition for continual membership in the Church, it follows that the
relationship of one community to another cannot be one of inferiority or
superiority. Nor can one community be considered a part to another community
because the fullness of Christ is to be found in the Eucharist which itself is
the highest and only possible center and consummation of the life of unity and
love. " ...whether Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
(Ign. Smyr. 8.)</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-9576730411740968862014-06-02T11:22:00.001-07:002014-06-02T11:22:12.942-07:00Αιμιλιανού Σιμωνοπετρίτου- ομιλία για την Θεία Λειτουργία<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/TXMS4BoVQ98?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-54561525129988089762014-03-18T12:26:00.001-07:002014-03-19T10:56:29.519-07:00A Lenten Message from St. Isaac of Nineveh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKfm57r4tkoeWV2TghyJoI8xEx4iGpTTG4GD7xJulEicmwMhPvhp0iD5Z8Tfs74cfZslXhd5BcS-FG-L1C9h1cf2za7yX9zvkLbrgo5cR3z23V0hDybb0DZ9GWndTiwET2BSrBeNJ8TK8i/s1600/Isaak+o+Syros.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKfm57r4tkoeWV2TghyJoI8xEx4iGpTTG4GD7xJulEicmwMhPvhp0iD5Z8Tfs74cfZslXhd5BcS-FG-L1C9h1cf2za7yX9zvkLbrgo5cR3z23V0hDybb0DZ9GWndTiwET2BSrBeNJ8TK8i/s1600/Isaak+o+Syros.jpg" height="640" width="380" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If you
do not have stillness in your heart, at least be still in your tongue. And if you cannot keep your thoughts
disciplined, then at least discipline your senses. And if you are not alone in your mind, then
at least be alone in your body. And if
you can do nothing with your body, at least be grieved in your mind. And if you cannot fast for two days on end,
at least fast till evening. And if you
cannot wait till evening, at least take care not to eat your fill. If you
cannot show mercy, at least speak as a sinner.
Your are not a peacemaker; do not be a troublemaker. You are not zealous; be at least resolute in
your mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-10870866694663645502014-03-18T12:14:00.000-07:002014-03-18T12:14:03.180-07:00"Why should I go to Church?"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs3dueqz81fQKby-QMobZ_Kqw7QJguEdDWCnRlJxbV-bV7407BvXxieGtjLiroGyOqA6_5TgoZ0G-6ikn7AiOzC-bGCHYCI0JAZPKRKcQa9UvI4s_vzFcxsFRWLul91SJ14y9HGpy14L56/s1600/CX4K1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs3dueqz81fQKby-QMobZ_Kqw7QJguEdDWCnRlJxbV-bV7407BvXxieGtjLiroGyOqA6_5TgoZ0G-6ikn7AiOzC-bGCHYCI0JAZPKRKcQa9UvI4s_vzFcxsFRWLul91SJ14y9HGpy14L56/s1600/CX4K1970.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-width: 105%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>The following is written by one of the greatest and least known theologians of the 20th century, Panagiotis Nellas-</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">First <i>is </i>the Triune God. It is around His throne that the faithful
assemble. The night, which through the darkness and the silence
stills the senses
of the body,
the Alleluia, the hymns to the Holy Trinity, the
iconography of the church, all help the human person to turn towards the Triune
Deity, to place himself in His presence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The aim is that the
faithful gathered together in the church should find themselves again in their
Father's House, that the world should change through repentance and prayer, and
that the ancient Home should be reconstituted in the Church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Above all, the second
person of the Holy Trinity is actively present with an effectiveness which we
should call natural, since the created portion of our world which He assumed
and rendered infinite by making it His body <i>is
</i>the Church, within which our space and time find their new dimensions, those
dimensions which allow us to celebrate acts of worship. The assembly of the
faithful takes place literally in the body of Christ, Christ being our House.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The incarnate Logos, the
Lord Jesus, is present with an immediate, existential effectiveness. He </span></span><i style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">is </i><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">the loving </span></span><span style="color: #161615;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Redeemer</span></span><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">, the crucified
Bridegroom, who wounds the hearts of the faithful with His love and calls them
to a mystical erotic union. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Next it is the Mother of
God who is present in a similarly effective way. Her own body is the body of
the God-man, the body which is the Church. Mary is the </span></span><i style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Theogennitria, </i><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">she who gave birth to God. Within her the great
marvel was realized that one of the Trinity should become that which we are.
She is the Gate and the Ladder which unites earth with heaven, which causes a
saving breach to be made in the boundary </span></span><span style="color: #161615;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">enclosing</span></span><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> our time and space, and
even now already brings into the world things which transcend it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Mother of God is moreover
the loving consoler of the faithful in the arid time of fasting, their champion
in the night-long struggle of prayer, the guide leading to Christ, the
intercessor for sins, the conductor of the bride in the mystic union. The
faithful converse also with her as they do with Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">We find it difficult today
to understand the deeply rational nature of ecclesiastical acts and practices-</span></span><i style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Mysteries</i><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">, services, festal cycles, prayer,
</span></span><i style="color: #161615; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ascesis</i><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">, and repentance-because we
are hindered by a mono-dimensional, pedestrian concept of space and time. But
within the Church another cosmology holds sway. This different conception of
space-time is expressed by Byzantine architecture and iconography and is also </span></span><span style="color: #161615;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">presupposed</span></span></span><span style="color: #161615; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> by Byzantine hymnography.
The architectural whole, the icons,
the hymns-"Today He
hangs upon the
cross," "Come, let us be crucified with Him"- are not parables or verbal patterns, the creation of a
well-endowed imagination, but express a reality in precisely the same way that
the new birth which is granted by baptism, and the communion of the body and
blood of Christ which takes place in the divine Eucharist, are not metaphors
but realities. Unless we take seriously the different cosmological and anthropological settings within
which the Church lives and moves, it is impossible for us to understand Byzantine art or biblical, patristic and
liturgical texts, and it is equally impossible for us to understand the rationality and reality underlying the
specific manner in which the Church's life is constructed as an active,
decisive, salvific reorganization and refashioning of the limited dimensions
and functions of the created world and the created being of man.</span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-8144405881939826602014-03-17T14:34:00.000-07:002014-03-17T14:34:04.673-07:00Tradition According to Zissimos Lorenzatos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZE97kGvCm44M6nP4Xg6VBdF39E1WvkmCsw-nYazs5swCkbNi8ADl5lWzS1RCIV91QiCLv4wX9lE4jOH3giILTNYEVGnPlb5cFqHopnBQGDvxI3TcGvcjvoChIZ8P8Qwi6Z7XAKn_hHg-L/s1600/Lorenzatos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZE97kGvCm44M6nP4Xg6VBdF39E1WvkmCsw-nYazs5swCkbNi8ADl5lWzS1RCIV91QiCLv4wX9lE4jOH3giILTNYEVGnPlb5cFqHopnBQGDvxI3TcGvcjvoChIZ8P8Qwi6Z7XAKn_hHg-L/s1600/Lorenzatos.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is Tradition.
There are dead people who direct the course of our lives, today and in
the case of every young generation, and there are living people who the louder
they shout, the more clear it becomes that they are dead before their
time. This is Tradition: only those live
who are living, no matter though some of these have died years ago. Again, every young generation will direct the
life of that tradition; this too is traditional, and from this point of view,
what we call originality does not exist, except as an immature fantasy. Tradition alone exists fully; for tradition
is life- indeed, it is the higher stage of life which makes no distinction
between living and dead. Whenever we
possess true life, we possess tradition; we possess a tradition which is added
to, developed, enriched. The last become
first and the first last. Of those who
constitute tradition it could be said that they all belong to the present. Tradition is neither the past nor the future-
although it is more future than past, since it lives in the eternal present; and
this is tradition, a power that goes hand in hand with life. Life and tradition are one. In tradition, this moment is not merely this
moment, but all the past present within this moment, and perhaps part of the
future as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-29871290808038340302014-03-17T08:17:00.000-07:002014-03-17T08:17:38.816-07:00Η ΓΛΥΚΟΦΙΛΟΥΣΑ<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXo7nIHq-u86Ew-t5xH1rzxKPKcqeEDEY1mLL1QCYAsoqKMm1oZYOAtqftwdQB2YWQ0NT53C7vL5nYzJdgY6eQ6pUTPi90zVfUK5tBt7ppsFwINXfezdvmyPn-VVrTtgATyXvQf2FX8sjk/s1600/David+Sopocani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXo7nIHq-u86Ew-t5xH1rzxKPKcqeEDEY1mLL1QCYAsoqKMm1oZYOAtqftwdQB2YWQ0NT53C7vL5nYzJdgY6eQ6pUTPi90zVfUK5tBt7ppsFwINXfezdvmyPn-VVrTtgATyXvQf2FX8sjk/s1600/David+Sopocani.jpg" height="640" width="436" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Καὶ πάλι κίνησα νὰ ᾽ρθῶ, Χριστέ μου,
στὴν αὐλή σου,<br />
νὰ σκύψω στὰ κατώφλια σου τὰ τρισαγαπημένα,<br />
ὁποὺ μὲ πόθο ἀχόρταγο τὰ λαχταρεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ἡ σάρκα μου ἀναγάλλιασε σιμά σου κ᾽ ἡ
καρδιά μου.<br />
Τὸ χελιδόνι ηὗρε φωλιὰ καὶ τὸ τρυγόνι σκέπη,<br />
νὰ βάλουν τὰ πουλάκια τους, τὰ δόλια, νὰ πλαγιάσουν,<br />
τὸν ἱερό σου τὸ βωμό, ἀθάνατε Χριστέ μου.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Κάλλιο μιὰ μέρα στὴ δική σ᾽ αὐλή, παρὰ
χιλιάδες·<br />
στὸν ἴσκιο ἂς εἶμαι τοῦ ναοῦ σὰν παραπεταμένος<br />
καλύτερα, παρὰ νὰ ζῶ σ᾽ ἁμαρτωλῶν λημέρια</span></i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΠΑΠΑΔΙΑΜΑΝΤΗΣ<br />
ΑΠΑΝΤΑ<br />
ΤΟΜΟΣ ΤΡΙΤΟΣ<br />
ΚΡΙΤΙΚΗ ΕΚΔΟΣΗ<br />
Ν. Δ. ΤΡΙΑΝΤΑΦΥΛΛΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ<br />
ΕΚΔΟΣΕΙΣ ΔΟΜΟΣ<br />
ΑΘΗΝΑ 1984<br />
Σελ. 71-88<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-33805662283643490122014-03-04T12:45:00.001-08:002014-03-04T12:45:10.556-08:00He neither Exists nor doesn’t Exist. He is! | PEMPTOUSIA<a href="http://pemptousia.com/2014/02/he-neither-exists-nor-doesnt-exist-he-is/#.UxY6kXHMzcE.blogger">He neither Exists nor doesn’t Exist. He is! | PEMPTOUSIA</a><br /><br />
<div><br /></div><div><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">In the end, it often seems that our search for God resembles a vain attempt to get through to Him via the wall rather than the door. And when we don’t make it, we deny Him. That’s what these young people have been trying to do...</i></div>Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-91988110006136146292014-03-03T07:41:00.001-08:002014-03-03T07:41:54.869-08:00Cover the Sinner<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4P4KTXVCOr_Cn_0NCwLZgR00kRU0QTNMdpkrCp178bIQp3y8sml0h5RWgtteKEchkbl8V-iNDnkILnF2OqF3S3I0NKsXfc0WSnqm2JvMjTyQyCXBa-et8n-_LOfvysw_c9WDZiXlEuPm/s1600/CX4K2241.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4P4KTXVCOr_Cn_0NCwLZgR00kRU0QTNMdpkrCp178bIQp3y8sml0h5RWgtteKEchkbl8V-iNDnkILnF2OqF3S3I0NKsXfc0WSnqm2JvMjTyQyCXBa-et8n-_LOfvysw_c9WDZiXlEuPm/s1600/CX4K2241.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt;">They said of Abba Macarius the
Great that he became, as it is written, a god upon earth, because, just as God protects the world, so Abba Macarius would cover the faults which
he saw, as though he did not see them;
and those which he heard, as though he did not hear them. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt;">-<b>Gerontikon<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Cover the sinner even though you are not harmed by
him. Indeed, encourage him for life and the mercy of the Lord will sustain you. Do not reprove anyone for any transgression,
but in all things consider yourself to be the cause of the sin. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">–St. Isaac the Syrian<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-43884591834032087942014-02-24T09:22:00.001-08:002014-02-24T09:22:30.140-08:00A Thousand Years as One Day - Mt. Athos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y5Dhj70awpU?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br /></div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2360513437822526843.post-73394117296340716202014-02-24T07:15:00.001-08:002014-02-24T07:15:47.364-08:00The Apophatic Way<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnH6VEFVXlDcAsBN_dtZKWyT5kkNC06GuihRadYyFLptPBf3_pCflbIDN54GBDAmm7x-6yWIyEPHSaTuMzyLguc4ybsn7UWB__1hp-YbymBpOc1i7DIcOK0Av4nzAfpdfK9-ni6_x0ciLj/s1600/15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnH6VEFVXlDcAsBN_dtZKWyT5kkNC06GuihRadYyFLptPBf3_pCflbIDN54GBDAmm7x-6yWIyEPHSaTuMzyLguc4ybsn7UWB__1hp-YbymBpOc1i7DIcOK0Av4nzAfpdfK9-ni6_x0ciLj/s1600/15.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The great
mystery of the Incarnation remains a mystery eternally. Not only is what
is not seen of it greater than that which has been revealed- for it is revealed
merely to the extent that those saved by it can grasp it- but also even what is
revealed still remains entirely hidden and by no means in known as it really
is… Let us contemplate with faith the mystery of the incarnation and in all
simplicity let us simply praise Him who in His great generosity became man for
us. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>-</b></span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">St. Maximus
the Confessor<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Truth is not to be identified with its linguistic formulations; language only marks, or signifies, the intellectual boundaries of Truth. The guardian and keeper of Truth can only be the social body with experience of the Truth.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> -</span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Christos Yannaras</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b>
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my firm support, and my refuge, and my deliverer; my God is my helper, I will hope in him; [he is] my defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my helper. 3 I will call upon the Lord with praises, and I shall be saved from mine enemies. 4 The pangs of death compassed me, and the torrents of ungodliness troubled me exceedingly. 5 The pangs of hell came round about me: the snares of death prevented me. 6 And when I was afflicted I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: he heard my voice out of this holy temple, and my cry shall enter before him, [even] into his ears. 7 Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains were disturbed, and were shaken, because God was angry with them. 8 There went up a smoke in his wrath, and fire burst into a flame at his presence: coals were kindled at it. 9 And he bowed the heaven, and came down: and thick darkness was under his feet. 10 And he mounted on cherubs and flew: he flew on the wings of winds. 11 And he made darkness his secret place: round about him was his tabernacle, [even] dark water in the clouds of the air. 12 At the brightness before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire. 13 The Lord also thundered from heaven, and the Highest uttered his voice. 14 And he sent forth [his] weapons, and scattered them; and multiplied lightnings, and routed them. 15 And the springs of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blasting of the breath of thy wrath. 16 He sent from on high and took me, he drew me to himself out of many waters. 17 He will deliver me from my mighty enemies, and from them that hate me; for they are stronger than I. 18 They prevented me in the day of mine affliction: but the Lord was my stay against [them]. 19 And he brought me out into a wide place: he will deliver me, because he has pleasure in me. 20 And the Lord will recompense me according to my righteousness; even according to the purity of my hands will he recompense me. 21 For I have kept the way of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all his judgments were before me, and his ordinances departed not from me. 23 And I shall be blameless with hem, and shall keep myself from mine iniquity. 24 And the Lord shall recompense me according to my righteousness, and according to the purity of my hands before his eyes. 25 With the holy thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent. 26 And with the excellent [man] thou wilt be excellent; and with the perverse thou wilt shew frowardness. 27 For thou wilt save the lowly people, and wilt humble the eyes of the proud. 28 For thou, O Lord, wilt light my lamp: my God, thou wilt lighten my darkness. 29 For by thee shall I be delivered from a troop; and by my God I will pass over a wall. 30 [As for] my God, his way is perfect: the oracles of the Lord are tried in the fire; he is a protector of all them that hope in him. 31 For who is God but the Lord? and who is a God except our God? 32 [It is] God that girds me with strength, and has made my way blameless: 33 who strengthens my feet as hart's feet, and sets me upon high places. 34 He instructs my hands for war: and thou hast made my arms [as] a brazen bow. 35 And thou hast made me secure in my salvation: and thy right hand has helped me, and thy correction as upheld me to the end; yea, thy correction itself shall instruct me. 36 Thou has made room for my goings under me, and by footsteps did not fail. 37 I will pursue mine enemies, and overtake them; and I will not turn back until they are consumed. 38 I will dash them to pieces and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet. 39 For thou hast girded me with strength for war: thou hast beaten down under me all that rose up against me. 40 And thou has made mine enemies turn their backs before me; and thou hast destroyed them that hated me. 41 They cried, but there was no deliverer: [even] to the Lord, but he hearkened not to them. 42 I will grind them as the mud of the streets: and I will beat them small as dust before the wind. 43 Deliver me from the gain sayings of the people: thou shalt make me head of the Gentiles: a people whom I knew not served me, 44 at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me: the strange children lied to me. 45 The strange children waxed old, and fell away from their paths through lameness. 46 The Lord lives; and blessed [be] my God; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. 47 [It is] God that avenges me, and has subdued the nations under me; 48 my deliverer from angry enemies: thou shalt set me on high above them that rise up against me: thou shalt deliver me from the unrighteous man. 49 Therefore will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name. 50 [God] magnifies the deliverance of his king; and deals mercifully with David his anointed, and his seed, for ever.</div>
</div>
</div>
Fr. Micahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07580411488986243197noreply@blogger.com1