φιλοκαλειν

A reply

2009-10-10T12:16:00.001+02:00

Today I read on another blog a comment about the meeting that has been taking place at Nashotah House, the Episcopal seminary in Wisconsin, in which the leaders of the Anglican Chhurch in North America, St. Vladimir Seminary and OCA Metropolitan Jonah "are attempting to restart the old Anglican/Orthodox dialogue."

The commenter says he is left to "wonder just how 'Orthodox' is the OCA and St. Vlads?"

In reply, I would let Metropolitan Jonah (may he live many years) speak for himself:

http://ancientchristiandefender.blogspot.com/2009/10/metropolitan-jonahs-speach-to-acna.html
Posted by Albion Land at 1:09 PM 0 comments Links to

Δοξα σοι, Κυριε, δοξα σοι

2009-10-01T11:29:00.003+02:00

After many months of catechism, I am to be baptised into the Orthodox faith this Sunday, October 4, at Agia Sofia church in Strovolos, Cyprus.

I have chosen the name Ηλιας (Ilias, Elias, Elijah).

Your prayers will be most welcome.

Αγιος Αλβιανος

2009-03-09T16:26:00.002+02:00

What a pleasant surprise I had today.

I was meeting with my catechist/priest, Fr Ioannis, and raised this question about names. He said, yes, even if I were only chrismated, I would have to have a name. It had to be one recognised by the church.

After a momentary flash of disappointment, but before I got round to talking about names I might be interested in choosing, I mentioned that perhaps Albion could be considered a variation of Alban, the first martyr of Britain.

Yes, it might, he said. He went to get a book that contained what seemed to be a million names, to look for Alban. He was scanning it as he walked back in from the other room and stop short with a shout.

"There is a Saint Albianus," he said. "Commemorated on May 25th."

The book seemed to be literally little more than a list of names, and he was unable to tell me anything about the patron I'd gone 58 years without ever knowing I had.

I did some detective work on the net when I got home and found a few snippets:

1. He was bishop of Aena in Asia Minor, but I couldn't find the place in a quick search.
2. He is called hieromartyr, but nothing says anything about where, why or how that came to be.
3. There was a reference to 304, which could be the date of his martyrdorm.
4. There was another reference to him and "his flock," or something like that
5. There was a reference to him having visited the Holy Land.
6. I found no reference to commemoration on May 25th, as in Pater Ioannis' book, but several to May 4.
7. Not suprisingly, I could not find an icon.

Anybody who has more experience in these sorts of searches than I do: could you direct me to additional sources of information.

Yours in Christ,
Albianus

Batter My Heart, Three-Person´d God

2008-11-18T14:45:00.006+02:00

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town to’another due,
Labor to’admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly’I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me,’untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you’enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

- John Donne, Holy Sonnet XIV

I do not remember when I first read this sonnet, but when I came across it again today I remembered how powerfully moving I had found it.

I also recognised that all these months later, perhaps even years, my heart was still like the walls of that "usurp'd town," unyielding to the Lord's incessant battering.

But like that town, cut off from outside sustenance, I also realised that I was suffering from hunger and thirst. Perhaps that is a clue to what the outcome will eventually be.

Axios!

2008-11-13T22:29:00.004+02:00

The Orthodox Church of America has elected a new metropolitan, Bishop Jonah, himself an American and a former Episcopalian.

Here is a link to an address he made following his election: http://ancientfaith.com/specials/podup/oca15aac/a_vision_for_the_future_-_metropolitan_jonah

Transformation

2008-11-11T18:29:00.006+02:00

Many years ago I was inspired to begin keeping a spiritual journal. Inspired but not moved. How much I wish that false humility or just sheer laziness had not prevailed and that I had done so.

But nearly two years ago, I finally took the first step and created this blog. A beginning had been made. Two days. Two posts. Then silence. Total silence.

To the curious explorer steaming up the backwaters of the blogosphere, or to anyone directed here by a signpost at The Continuum, I think there's a good chance that 2008 will prove to be a more prolific year at φιλοκαλειν than was 2007, though that's not saying much.

I do hope to finally make a go of journaling, and have a a very good reason to start now.

Earlier this week, I said farewell to The Continuum, the continuing Anglican blog I created three years ago.

In announcing that, I explained that my "soul is much in need of healing, and my vocation as a Christian much in need of rediscovery. In my splendid isolation here on Cyprus, I have found it impossible to live the life of continuing Anglicanism effectively and sacramentally. I cannot continue to live this way.

"As a consequence, I have resolved to seek instruction in the Orthodox faith with a view to eventually being received into the Church of Cyprus."

For now, I have very little to report, except to say that I have announced my intention to two very important people.

One is a very dear friend of mine, who is a cantor at an Orthodox church in Nicosia and who has been gently encouraging me towards Orthodoxy for a couple of years. I hope that he will be my sponsor. The other is a young English-speaking priest, Fr Andreas, who, I hope, might serve as point man on helping me get the instruction I need and to find a parish that is suitable for me.

One such place might be Ayios Nicolaos in Engomi, where the pastor, Fr Ioannis, is celebrating, or serving as they say in Orthodoxy, a monthly liturgy in English. I hope to go on Saturday morning. Perhaps, in the end, it will be Fr Ioannis who takes me under his wing.

Anthropomorphosis?

2007-02-03T09:24:00.000+02:00

Bishop Kallistos Ware said “God became man so that man could become God,” but also that “God became man so that man could become man.”

Courtesy of Fr Stephen, at Glory to God in All Things, who attended the recent Colloquium on Orthodox Faith and has promised to put up audio links to the presentations.

Φιλοκαλειν

2007-02-02T16:11:00.000+02:00

Φιλοκαλειν is Greek and it means "to love the beautiful."

From this word is derived φιλοκαλια (Philokalia), the name given to a collection of texts written between the fourth and fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Orthodox Christian tradition.

The Philokalia was compiled in the eighteenth century by two Greek monks, St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain of Athos and St Makarios of Corinth, and first published at Venice in 1782.

The texts were all written in Greek, except for two in Latin that were translated during the Byzantine period. In the nineteenth century, they were translated into Russian and had a great impact on Russian spirituality and culture. The Philokalia featured prominently in The Way of the Pilgrim, a 19th century work by an anonymous Russian author that has found a wide readership, in translation, in the English-speaking world.

A partial translation of the Philokalia into English, via the Russian, was made in the 1950s. It was not until the 1980s, working from the original Greek, that the full version was made available in English. That version was edited by G.E.H. Palmer, Phillip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware.

In the introduction to that translation, the editors say the following:

The texts were collected with a view to "purification (καθαρσις), illumination (φοτισις) and perfection (θεοσις). They show the way to awaken and develop attention and consciousness, to attain that state of watchfulness which is the hallmark of sanctity. They describe the conditions most effect for learning what their authors call the art of arts and the science of sciences, a learning which is not a matter of information or agility of mind but of a radical change of will and heart leading man towards the highest possibilities open to him, shaping and nourishing the unseen part of his being, and helping him to spiritual fulfilment and union with God.

"The Philokalia is an itinerary through the labyrinth of time, a silent way of love and gnosis through the deserts and emptinesses of life, especially of modern life, a vivifying and fadeless presence. It is an active force revealing a spiritual path and inducing man to follow it. It is a summons to him to overcome his ignorance, to uncover the knowledge tha lies within, to rid himself of illusion and to be receptive to the grace of the Holy Spirit, who teaches all things and brings all things to remembrance."

I have created this blog to serve as a sort of spiritual journal, to which I will occasionally contribute, as I struggle to follow the teachings and guidance of the ancient fathers through the labyrinth and through the desert.

AMDG