Saint Gregory and a Small Story
++
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Gregor_Palamas.jpg
Another icon, tropar, kondak, short life:
http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=103303
Nice life: http://www.antiochian.org/gregory-palamas
Paper on the controversy of Palamite hesychasm:
http://faculty.washington.edu/ewebb/R327/Hesychastic_Controversy.pdf
Meyendorff on hesychasm of Palamas:
http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/byzantine_theology_j_meyendorf.htm#_Toc26430233
Besides which, see his A Study of
Meyendorff was going presanctified for us at our Yale OCF (Orthodox
Christian Fellowship) back in the late 60s when an interesting
discussion ensued between him and Professor Dino Geanokopoulos who was
at the University on Palamas. Prof. Meyendorff had translated and
published some Palamas and Prof. Dino Geanokopoulos (whose Byzantine
East and Latin West is a classic and wrote a book on the history of the
EP in English) had also studied him. It was the latter that mentioned
an interesting little study by Arnakis in whatever it was journal from
the early 50s 9 and as I worked in the library at that time in the
Reserve Book Rooms and was quite used to searching the stacks (and
rather loved and went through Prof. Geanokopoulos's reading lists for
his students), I went and found the thing as they had it in the
library]. That OCF presanctified was pretty much my first real
introduction to a discussion of Palamas, outside of him on a day not
much different than today but forty years ago. The altar was the dining
room table in an apartment. We all stumbled through our parts and took
communion and afterwards sat around on a rug on the floor, the young
ones of us, and the more august of us on sofa or chair or dining room
chair or so and had community. On that same day I first tried Syrian
eggplant stuffed with rice and almonds from a tin and learned how to
properly dissect a grapefruit into pith free segments with bare hands.
At that time, New Haven, CT was a somewhat rough city and I felt that I
had saved myself and a housemate from us being carried off by four thugs
by reciting it so I would not be afraid. Miraculously I felt no fear,
was able to grab my friend from the guy literally carrying her off and
shoving her into a car, somehow fight off the other assailants, and run
away. They only got my purse and very little, for I had very little,
and we made it home where we were able to rejoice with her parents,
arrange to change the locks and get on with our lives. So when someone,
I can't remember who, asked the question how could someone like St.
Gregory with all his philosophical knowledge get hung up on something as
repetitive and simplistic as reciting the Jesus Prayer, my only
contribution of the night as the youngest person in the room besides
toddlers was to suggest that I had found that when one is afraid,
reciting it takes away the world, and with it fear, and puts one in
another world entirely, and that this has a practical value.
Lord have mercy upon me a sinner /
jmd
http://ocafs.oca.org/Icons/november/1114bgregorypalamas.JPG
http://ocafs.oca.org/Icons/november/1114agregorypalamas.JPG
as usual, I'll put them on servimg.com not to overload their webserver
jmd
>
> Nice big icon of Saint Gregory:
I translated both of your messages of the day here :
Souhaiter un bon Dimanche de saint Grégoire Palamas & anecdote avec p. Meyendorf
Traduction du texte d'une e-carte Orthodoxe pour la fête de saint Grégoire Palamas, et expérimentation par une jeune femme de la puissance de la
Prière de Jésus dans le contexte d'une agression en rue
http://stmaterne.blogspot.com/2008/03/souhaiter-un-bon-dimanche-de-saint.html
=
http://tinyurl.com/339mvb
++
jmd wrote:
Back then as a young person, it was actually easy to do something like
the Jesus Prayer, just because someone, I cannot quite remember who, had
said it is useful in times of fear or distress, that it is something
ancient from Jesus. Then later you read a little more and you hear how
the Philokalia was put together from whose writings, and how the Jesus
Prayer got deseminated and then how it can be dangerous to use if you
are not under some kind of careful guidance, and all of that becomes
helpful. But the very first time I read about the Jesus Prayer existing
was not in the Orthodox Church at all but from someone who I assume
became Orthodox, as he certainly did become a recluse, and popularized
saying the Prayer among Americans. I speak, of course, of J.D. Salinger
and his Franny and Zooey, which were first published in the New Yorker
Magazine, thought at that time to be one of the most sophisticated
magazines at its time and therefore something that your typical junior
high school student of that era might read just to pretend to some kind
of sophistication. In many schools, in fact, there was only elementary
and then high school, with the upper grades of elementary schools
feeling themselves sophisticated. This was not my case as they had
stuck me and a very few others into the high school early to get rid of
our seditiousness, or whatever other reason, but I heard this time or
that throughout life that many other people of the age 11-15 or 16 had
had their first taste of Orthodoxy through reading something that
indirectly led them to the religion. Franny, as we all know from the
story, is reading the Way of a Pilgrim, that great book by Anonymous,
while traveling coincidental to a football weekend told with absolute
accuracy (as I myself went on such weekends). Imagine my chagrin on my
own journey to find that the (naval ) base library carried the New
Yorker, so I could get to read all the Salinger I could find, but did
not have the Way of the Pilgrim or the Pilgrim Continues His Way. I did
not use the prayer after reading it. I only enquired about it in a
vague way. Still, it was somewhere in my mind.
At any rate, as a young woman when I used it in times of danger because
some priest had recommended it whose name I no longer remember, I was
surprized that it was actually helpful beyond focussing the mind away
from fear as I had come to recite the prayer in such circumstances
almost by rote in the same way you might sing a hymn while driving and
still keep your mind on the road.. The actual feeling was of lightness,
that when there was real danger I oculd be above and beyond what was
occuring and when I grabbed my housemate from the arms of the creep that
had her in his arms and was trying to shove her into the car, she felt
light and the process of recovering her felt easy, so easy in fact that
the thought was that I might accidentally drop her so that they could
recapture her or that she might bounce out of my arms before I could get
her upright. Someone secular she had told about what happened to us
remarked that he would have liked to have measured my adrenalin levels
during the event. Maybe it was high? So I did not take it as a miracle
then or now, but realize how normal life as an Orthodox Christian can be
helpful.
>
>
>
jmd
>
> jmd wrote:
>
> >++ wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Nice big icon of Saint Gregory:
> >
> Back then as a young person, it was actually easy to do something like
> the Jesus Prayer, just because someone, I cannot quite remember who, had
> said it is useful in times of fear or distress, that it is something
> ancient from Jesus. Then later you read a little more and you hear how
> the Philokalia was put together from whose writings, and how the Jesus
> Prayer got deseminated and then how it can be dangerous to use if you
> are not under some kind of careful guidance, and all of that becomes
> helpful. But the very first time I read about the Jesus Prayer existing
> was not in the Orthodox Church at all but from someone who I assume
> became Orthodox, as he certainly did become a recluse, and popularized
> saying the Prayer among Americans. I speak, of course, of J.D. Salinger
> and his Franny and Zooey, which were first published in the New Yorker
> Magazine, thought at that time to be one of the most sophisticated
I don't know even the same of mr; Salinger but it's nice to hear of
the first time I heard about Athos was back when I was in the "Seminary" rcc conservative school in Namur. In philosophy, for the courses over
India, we had a jesuit who was so found of India he knew perfectly sanskrit. He had a group in Bruxelles very interested in "all that is Eastern"
so his group published a visit on Athos of one of them (I assume it's one of them) - this is the last version in archive.org :
http://web.archive.org/web/20040227191841/http://www.euronet.be/voiesorient/Bulletin/HESYCHASTE.htm
I had never heard of Athos before, and the Orthodox I knew never spoke of it. I had never heard of hesychasm alike. Despite I was already a
regular visitor of the Greek Orthodox parish where I am now.. Christ has said that one should not hide a burning candle....
> Yorker, so I could get to read all the Salinger I could find, but did
> not have the Way of the Pilgrim or the Pilgrim Continues His Way. I did
> not use the prayer after reading it. I only enquired about it in a
> vague way. Still, it was somewhere in my mind.
back in my years in the Orthodox theological school
the director didn't wanted to admit that "comics" could be Orthodox and a very decent way of diffusion of Faith in a world where no-one reads
anymore books, and where most of the population has reverted to the state of culture (or lack of it) it had one century ago.. or even worse.
http://www.coccinellebd.be/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=6
this is a roman-catholic work. I have both books of the Pilgrim, and I checked carefully, and the text is exact, and the moves are exact, and the
"atmosphere" is exact. My wonder is that unlike fr. Denis Guillaume - who after having worked so much years for the vatican spy agency
"Chevetogne," the big "uniat making factory," and having translated so much of Orthodox books, he got the "tilt" and became Orthodox, and now
is archimandrite Denis Guillaume, the one thanks to whom French-talking Orthodoxy is liturgically possible - thus unlike fr. Denis, the author of that
comics, who has so well entered the mystery of the Church in Russia of the time, did not dropped his worldly bags and rags and ran to the Mother
Church to be saved. He did this work as a master of arts, then continued with the usual vatican pruritus of fake saints trying to take the souls of
people away from Christ. That's a mystery for me.
now, the book, I don't know if it exists in English, I know it here in French (original) and Dutch. Even if the language are not understood, the
drawings - I should say "paintings" - are simply wonderfull.
More than ever in this age of "communications," the Church has missed the step of Gospel spreading for the sake of nations...
> then or now, but realize how normal life as an Orthodox Christian can be
> helpful.
yes, that is it - world collapses all around us, but Christ saves us continuously, as long as we "stick" to Him
jm