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Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Saturday, 20 June 2009

  • Divine illumination and the Church, w/ pictures

    "Every Divine illumination... unifies the things illuminated."



    "Every procession of illuminating light proceeding from the Father, whilst visiting us as a gift of goodness, restores us again as a unifying power to a higher spiritual condition, and turns us to the oneness of our conducting Father, and to a deifying simplicity."



    "For all things are from Him,
    and to Him,
    as said the Sacred Word."



    "Invoking then Jesus,
    the Paternal Light,
    the Real, the True,
    'which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,'
    'we have access to the Father,'
    Source of Light..."





    "For it is not possible that the Divine Ray should otherwise illuminate us,
    except so far as it is enveloped,
    for the purpose of sacred instruction,
    in variegated veils,
    and arranged naturally
    and appropriately,
    for such as we are,
    by paternal
    forethought."
    Dionysius the Areopagite (Saint Denys, the Syrian Monk), Celestial Hierarchy





    We are united and held together by a Divine power.  The fact that the Church has held together at all shows that our loving God has and is helping us, providing Rays of Light.
    Part of unity is, passively, saying Amen and letting God help.



    Three planes, three Persons.
    Coincidence?
    Godcidence.

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Saturday, 13 June 2009

  • Currently
    Alina - Arvo Pärt
    By Vladimir Spivakov, Sergej Bezrodny, Dietmar Schwalke, Alexander Malter
    see related

    what makes the Church the Church

    In order for there to be Christian unity we need look at what the Church is.  We Christians have various notions on what the Church is, and we tend to disregard others' views of the Church when those views differ from ours.  How do we see the big picture, that is, see the whole Church in its entirety, and at the same time not add man-made things to it?

    Let's start with some quotes from our Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, who spent lots of time thinking about this; quotes are from the book Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith, the Church as Communion, written while he was Cardinal Ratzinger:

    "What makes the Church the Church, accordingly, are those elements that do not derive from merely human activity.  They alone distinguish the Church from all other communal groupings and accord her the quality of being unique, being irreplaceable.

    "Division within the Church thus consists of a split in the confession of faith, the creed, and in the administration of the sacraments themselves; all other differences do not ultimately count: there can be no objection to them; they do not divide us in the heart of the Church.  Division within the central sphere, on the other hand, threatens the real reason for the Church's existence, her very being."

    He goes on to say that we need to distinguish human divisions from theological ones.

    "Purely human divisions like to give themselves the importance of something essential; they hide themselves, so to speak, behind this: what is human... is declared obligatory, as being divine."

    This sounds like the hard part -- seeing what comes from us, and freeing ourselves from it.  Let's say we get thru this step.  Is Ratzinger's (Pope Benedict's) vision a Church where we all think alike... where there are no differences?  Let's see:

    "Then it follows that the variety by no means needs to disappear, because it does not detract from the nature of the Church: this can be special in some way and that can be different, but these things do not have to be compulsory  for everyone.  A tolerance for different things had to be aroused, not founded on indifference concerning the truth, but on the distinction between truth and mere human tradition."

    Something to think about...