onsdag, december 03, 2008
brusten avbild
"Prisons of finitude! Like every other being, man is born in many prisons. Soul, body, thought, intuition, endeavour: everything about him has a limit, is itself tangible limitation; everything is a This and a That, different from other things and shunned by them. From the grilled windows of the senses each person looks out to the alien things which he will never be... How far it is from one being to its closest neighbor! And even if they love each other and wave to one another from island to island, even if they attempt to exchange solitudes and pretend they have unity, how much more painfully does disappointment then fall upon them when they touch the invisible bars - the cold glass pane against which they hurl themselves like captive birds. No one can tear down his own dungeon; no one can know who inhabits the next cell... Beings are alien to one another, even if they do stand beautifully by one another and complement one another like colors, like water and stone, like sun and fog: even if they do communally perfect the resounding harmony of the universe... The limpid mirror has been shattered, infinite image has been shattered over the face of the world, the world has become a heap of fragments. But every single splinter remains precious, and from each fragment there flashes a ray of the mystery of its origin."- Hans Urs von Balthasar (Heart of the World, s. 19-20)
tisdag, november 18, 2008
torsdag, november 13, 2008
inget nytt under solen
ekonomiska problem och oro däröver är inget nytt för vår tid. lyssna på dessa frågor som ställdes till ett orakel i egypten på 200-talet, och hör en människa som oss:
"Shall I be sold up?
Am I to become a beggar?
Shall I take flight?
Shall I obtain benefit from my friend?
Shall I be reconciled with my wife?
Shall I get a divorce?
Have I been bewitched?"
(källa: Peter Brown, "Making of Late Antuquity", s. 6)
"Shall I be sold up?
Am I to become a beggar?
Shall I take flight?
Shall I obtain benefit from my friend?
Shall I be reconciled with my wife?
Shall I get a divorce?
Have I been bewitched?"
(källa: Peter Brown, "Making of Late Antuquity", s. 6)
fredag, november 07, 2008
tisdag, november 04, 2008
namn och hemland
från Eusebius (260-339) "Martyrs of Palestine":
When brought before the tyrant, being very bold in his presence, they were immediately thrown into prison. On the next day, which was the nineteenth of the month Peritius, according to the Roman reckoning the fourteenth before the Kalends of March, they were brought, according to command, before the judge, with Pamphilus and his associates whom we have mentioned. First, by all kinds of torture, through the invention of strange and various machines, he tested the invincible constancy of the Egyptians. Having practised these cruelties upon the leader of all, he asked him first who he was. He heard in reply the name of some prophet instead of his proper name. For it was their custom, in place of the names of idols given them by their fathers, if they had such, to take other names; so that you would hear them calling themselves Elijah or Jeremiah or Isaiah or Samuel or Daniel, thus showing themselves inwardly true Jews, and the genuine Israel of God, not only in deeds, but in the names which they bore. When Firmilianus had heard some such name from the martyr, and did not understand the force of the word, he asked next the name of his country. But he gave a second answer similar to the former, saying that Jerusalem was his country, meaning that of which Paul says, "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother," and, "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
When brought before the tyrant, being very bold in his presence, they were immediately thrown into prison. On the next day, which was the nineteenth of the month Peritius, according to the Roman reckoning the fourteenth before the Kalends of March, they were brought, according to command, before the judge, with Pamphilus and his associates whom we have mentioned. First, by all kinds of torture, through the invention of strange and various machines, he tested the invincible constancy of the Egyptians. Having practised these cruelties upon the leader of all, he asked him first who he was. He heard in reply the name of some prophet instead of his proper name. For it was their custom, in place of the names of idols given them by their fathers, if they had such, to take other names; so that you would hear them calling themselves Elijah or Jeremiah or Isaiah or Samuel or Daniel, thus showing themselves inwardly true Jews, and the genuine Israel of God, not only in deeds, but in the names which they bore. When Firmilianus had heard some such name from the martyr, and did not understand the force of the word, he asked next the name of his country. But he gave a second answer similar to the former, saying that Jerusalem was his country, meaning that of which Paul says, "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother," and, "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
lördag, november 01, 2008
måndag, oktober 13, 2008
st. benjamin diakonen
Idag (och den 31 mars) firas minnet av Benjamin diakonen, martyr.
St. Benjamin was a Persian. He was a deacon in the Church in Persia and he was zealous in preaching the Gospel, bringing many Persians and Greeks to the faith. For this he was thrown into prison. One of King Yezdegeherd's nobles pleaded for him to save his life. The king offered Benjamin a deal. He would let him go free, if he would keep quiet about Christ. The Holy Deacon replied, "I cannot possibly do that. Those who hide the talent they have received will be given over to greater suffering." The king ordered that thorns be driven under his nails along with other tortures, until he entered into the Lord's rest in about 412.
Troparion (Tone 4)
Thy martyr, Benjamin, O Lord, by his struggle hath received from thee, our God, the imperishable crown; because, acquiring thy strength, he demolished usurpers and crushed the powerless might of Satan. Therefore, through his intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.
onsdag, oktober 08, 2008
the medium is the message
tittade på existens till morgonkaffet (webtv är bra). den centrala frågan summerades av journalisten när hon frågade "hur ska Guds budskap paketeras för att det ska gå hem hos unga människor idag?" relationen mellan form och innehåll var ju det som mycket av programmet handlade om. hade mcluhan rätt när han påstod att "the medium is the message"?
men det som nästan var mest intressant var att titta på den form som programmet existens själv valde för detta program. svt gör snygga program. för mig så funkade klippningen och musiksättningen väldigt bra. att ha klippbilder från en gammal frankenstein-film när man pratar om de nya pingstförsamlingarnas tillväxt är ju riktigt humoristiskt. gör man en jämförelse mellan den galne vetenskapsmannen och den moderna frikyrkan? vetenskapsmannen som genom moderna metoder [läs "relevanta former"] söker att tämja och bemästra naturen [läs "kommunicera effektivt"].
sen tycker jag att valet av radioheads "paranoid android" som återkommande bakgrundsmusik verkligen skapar en (o)lustig spänning i programmet, som definitivt kan tolkas som undermedveten kommentar. det var i alla fall så den påverkade mig. denna sång - som kallats 90-talets bohemian rhapsody - är ju en musikaliskt genialisk och ångestladdad samtidshymn. men ser ni kopplingen? en sång om en paranoid android (wiki definerar androiden: "en robot som är gjord för att efterlikna en människa"). klipp från frankenstein. temat fortsätter alltså. modernitetens vetenskap försöker skapa liv. bli Gud. sången har inte ett klart budskap. den undergräver sig själv, är schizofren och paranoid. det pågår en dialog (eller snarare parallella monologer) där thom yorke ber att någon ska tysta rösterna i hans huvud, hotar om att någon blir den förste som skjuts när revolutionen kommer. med jämna mellanrum hör vi en datorröst som säger "I may be paranoid, but no android". en dator som försöker förneka sin identitet som själlös maskin. är det detta som är det obehagliga, det oroväckande, i att höra denna sång medan samtalet fortsätter om frikyrkans roll i samtiden? från en sekulär synvinkel sitter väl kyrkan och denna stackars datorröst i samma båt. vi intalar oss att vi har brutit oss loss ur denna världens maskin, att vi kan transcendera det materiella och mekaniskt lagbundna. här kommer vi också till kruxet. vår kultur har förvandlats världen till en maskin där den inomvärldsliga vetenskapen står för sanning och konsumismen skapar våra begär och beteendemönster. vad innebär det att i en sådan kultur "paketera om" den kristna tron för att vara "relevant"?
ett exempel: i år spenderade jag ungefär fem månader i syrien. när det hade gått ett par månader besökte jag damaskus enda riktiga köpcentrum. fram tills dess hade jag bott i en liten gränd i gamla stan, besökt kloster i öknen osv. man köpte sina råvaror i basaren, prutade och trängdes. och så kliver jag då in i en stor lyxig mataffär med allt jag kan tänka mig (nästan) och bland det första jag sa till min kompis var "det måste varit så här det kändes för en bysantinare att kliva in i hagia sophia" eller för en medeltidssvensk som kommer in i uppsala domkyrka. jag kände ett lugn komma över mig. min poäng är att när jag kommer in i denna mataffär så känner jag mig hemma. den kultur som styr våra medier, vår reklam och därför mycket av vårt beteende tar form i denna butik. den gotiska katedralen är alltid något av en kulturkrock för oss moderna människor. vi har till stor del tappat den världsbild som gjorde denna arkitektur möjlig. william cavanaugh säger om konsumismen: "Consumer culture is one of the most powerful systems of formation in the contemporary world, arguably more powerful than
Christianity. While a Christian may spend an hour per week in church, she may spend twenty-five hours per week watching television, to say nothing of the hours spent on the Internet, listening to the radio, shopping, looking at junk mail and other advertisements. Nearly everywhere we lay our eyes — gas-pump handles, T-shirts, public restroom walls, bank receipts, church bulletins, sports uniforms, and so on — we are confronted by advertising. Such a powerful formative system is not morally neutral: it
trains us to see the world in certain ways" (Being Consumed, s. 47).
är det att göra kyrkans budskap relevant genom att härma starbucks logotyp på en t-shirt? kan dessa "former" tömmas på sitt budskap och fyllas med evangeliet? eller reducerar vi frälsningen till en vara på marknaden?
jag har aldrig varit på märsta pingt. men skulle gärna hälsa på och prata mer om dessa saker (har en gammal klasskompis som är väldigt involverad där). när man såg programmet fick man inte en så klar bild över vad relevans konkret innebär där, förutom att man inte använder segertoner och att man har draman.
det som var roligast med programmet för mig var nog att få se min gode vän joel traska runt på duke. jag skrattade rakt ut. inte på grund av vad han sa (mkt intelligent så klart). här gjorde man ju återigen en snygg och roliga genre-användning. samtalet mellan journalisten och joel känndes ju som taget ur en spion film (tänk bourne-filmerna). klippen mellan det taskiga telefonljudet (då vi ser journalisten med rynkad panna som tar ivriga anteckningar) och experten som befinner sig i en exotisk miljö och bidrar med smarta kommentarer. att joel sen jämfördes med påven johannes paulus II är ju inte heller illa.
formerna vi använder oss är djupt förknippade med budskap och mening. vare sig det är frankenstein, radiohead och spionfilmer, å ena sidan, eller å andra sidan reklamfilmer, föreningsform eller ikoner i kyrkan.
rekommenderad läsning:
Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (William T. Cavanaugh)
Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for the Turn-of-the-Century Culture (Marva J. Dawn)
ladda ner sången här.
men det som nästan var mest intressant var att titta på den form som programmet existens själv valde för detta program. svt gör snygga program. för mig så funkade klippningen och musiksättningen väldigt bra. att ha klippbilder från en gammal frankenstein-film när man pratar om de nya pingstförsamlingarnas tillväxt är ju riktigt humoristiskt. gör man en jämförelse mellan den galne vetenskapsmannen och den moderna frikyrkan? vetenskapsmannen som genom moderna metoder [läs "relevanta former"] söker att tämja och bemästra naturen [läs "kommunicera effektivt"].
sen tycker jag att valet av radioheads "paranoid android" som återkommande bakgrundsmusik verkligen skapar en (o)lustig spänning i programmet, som definitivt kan tolkas som undermedveten kommentar. det var i alla fall så den påverkade mig. denna sång - som kallats 90-talets bohemian rhapsody - är ju en musikaliskt genialisk och ångestladdad samtidshymn. men ser ni kopplingen? en sång om en paranoid android (wiki definerar androiden: "en robot som är gjord för att efterlikna en människa"). klipp från frankenstein. temat fortsätter alltså. modernitetens vetenskap försöker skapa liv. bli Gud. sången har inte ett klart budskap. den undergräver sig själv, är schizofren och paranoid. det pågår en dialog (eller snarare parallella monologer) där thom yorke ber att någon ska tysta rösterna i hans huvud, hotar om att någon blir den förste som skjuts när revolutionen kommer. med jämna mellanrum hör vi en datorröst som säger "I may be paranoid, but no android". en dator som försöker förneka sin identitet som själlös maskin. är det detta som är det obehagliga, det oroväckande, i att höra denna sång medan samtalet fortsätter om frikyrkans roll i samtiden? från en sekulär synvinkel sitter väl kyrkan och denna stackars datorröst i samma båt. vi intalar oss att vi har brutit oss loss ur denna världens maskin, att vi kan transcendera det materiella och mekaniskt lagbundna. här kommer vi också till kruxet. vår kultur har förvandlats världen till en maskin där den inomvärldsliga vetenskapen står för sanning och konsumismen skapar våra begär och beteendemönster. vad innebär det att i en sådan kultur "paketera om" den kristna tron för att vara "relevant"?
ett exempel: i år spenderade jag ungefär fem månader i syrien. när det hade gått ett par månader besökte jag damaskus enda riktiga köpcentrum. fram tills dess hade jag bott i en liten gränd i gamla stan, besökt kloster i öknen osv. man köpte sina råvaror i basaren, prutade och trängdes. och så kliver jag då in i en stor lyxig mataffär med allt jag kan tänka mig (nästan) och bland det första jag sa till min kompis var "det måste varit så här det kändes för en bysantinare att kliva in i hagia sophia" eller för en medeltidssvensk som kommer in i uppsala domkyrka. jag kände ett lugn komma över mig. min poäng är att när jag kommer in i denna mataffär så känner jag mig hemma. den kultur som styr våra medier, vår reklam och därför mycket av vårt beteende tar form i denna butik. den gotiska katedralen är alltid något av en kulturkrock för oss moderna människor. vi har till stor del tappat den världsbild som gjorde denna arkitektur möjlig. william cavanaugh säger om konsumismen: "Consumer culture is one of the most powerful systems of formation in the contemporary world, arguably more powerful than
Christianity. While a Christian may spend an hour per week in church, she may spend twenty-five hours per week watching television, to say nothing of the hours spent on the Internet, listening to the radio, shopping, looking at junk mail and other advertisements. Nearly everywhere we lay our eyes — gas-pump handles, T-shirts, public restroom walls, bank receipts, church bulletins, sports uniforms, and so on — we are confronted by advertising. Such a powerful formative system is not morally neutral: it
trains us to see the world in certain ways" (Being Consumed, s. 47).
är det att göra kyrkans budskap relevant genom att härma starbucks logotyp på en t-shirt? kan dessa "former" tömmas på sitt budskap och fyllas med evangeliet? eller reducerar vi frälsningen till en vara på marknaden?
jag har aldrig varit på märsta pingt. men skulle gärna hälsa på och prata mer om dessa saker (har en gammal klasskompis som är väldigt involverad där). när man såg programmet fick man inte en så klar bild över vad relevans konkret innebär där, förutom att man inte använder segertoner och att man har draman.
det som var roligast med programmet för mig var nog att få se min gode vän joel traska runt på duke. jag skrattade rakt ut. inte på grund av vad han sa (mkt intelligent så klart). här gjorde man ju återigen en snygg och roliga genre-användning. samtalet mellan journalisten och joel känndes ju som taget ur en spion film (tänk bourne-filmerna). klippen mellan det taskiga telefonljudet (då vi ser journalisten med rynkad panna som tar ivriga anteckningar) och experten som befinner sig i en exotisk miljö och bidrar med smarta kommentarer. att joel sen jämfördes med påven johannes paulus II är ju inte heller illa.
formerna vi använder oss är djupt förknippade med budskap och mening. vare sig det är frankenstein, radiohead och spionfilmer, å ena sidan, eller å andra sidan reklamfilmer, föreningsform eller ikoner i kyrkan.
rekommenderad läsning:
Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (William T. Cavanaugh)
Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for the Turn-of-the-Century Culture (Marva J. Dawn)
ladda ner sången här.
måndag, oktober 06, 2008
where's my arc?
Man is in his actions and practice, as well in his fictions, essentially a story-telling animal. He is not essentially, but becomes through his history, a teller of stories that aspire to truth. But the key question for men is not about their own authorship; I can only answer the question 'What am I to do?' if I can answer the prior question 'Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?' We enter human society, that is, with one or more imputed characters -- roles into which we have been drafted -- and we have to learn what they are in order to be able to understand how others respond to us and how our responses to them are apt to be construed.
- Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue, 216)
- Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue, 216)
fredag, oktober 03, 2008
när man just har börjat vänja sig
favoritprogrammet "colbert report" som man kan se gratis här är av någon anledning blockat här i UK. ungefär som paypal i syrien. men ni som är i svea kan njuta. kanske en nyttig påminnelse om att allt inte finns överallt. men det fixar nog google snart.
fick internet i rummet idag, så uppdateringar om första veckan i wales kommer nog snart.
fredag, september 19, 2008
torsdag, september 18, 2008
städdag
städade och packade idag. förbereder flytten till wales om en vecka. lustigt att man ska få det fint och ordnat omkring sig precis när man ska åka iväg.
"I heard of one person that when he came to one of his friends and found the room in disarray and even dirty, he would say to himself: "Blessed is this person, because having deferred his concerns for earthly cares, he has concentrated his mind that much toward Heaven, that he doesn’t even have time to tidy up his room." But when he came to another friend’s place and found his room tidy and neat, he would say to himself; "The soul of this person is as clean as his room, and the condition of the room speaks of his soul." And he never judged another that he was negligent or proud, but through his kind disposition, saw good in everyone and received benefits from everyone. May the good Lord grant us the same kind disposition, so that we too may receive benefits from everyone and so that we never notice the failings of others."
Doroteos av Gaza, här.
"I heard of one person that when he came to one of his friends and found the room in disarray and even dirty, he would say to himself: "Blessed is this person, because having deferred his concerns for earthly cares, he has concentrated his mind that much toward Heaven, that he doesn’t even have time to tidy up his room." But when he came to another friend’s place and found his room tidy and neat, he would say to himself; "The soul of this person is as clean as his room, and the condition of the room speaks of his soul." And he never judged another that he was negligent or proud, but through his kind disposition, saw good in everyone and received benefits from everyone. May the good Lord grant us the same kind disposition, so that we too may receive benefits from everyone and so that we never notice the failings of others."
Doroteos av Gaza, här.
änglar
"Änglarna finns till för att fylla tomrummet mellan Gud och Hans skapelse och av min vän förstår jag att det kryllar av dem; varför de som ideligen är på väg upp och ner för Jakobs stege skulle behöva vingar, glömmer jag att fråga. Var och en av oss har en skyddsängel; inte en personlig lakej utan någon som vakar över oss för att varsamt men obönhörligt foga in oss i Försynens ordning. Som den moderna människa jag är tror jag mindre på Försynen och mer på naturlagar och slumpen, men min vän säger att ”slump”, ”tur” eller ”tillfälligheter” är nihilistiska omskrivningar av den gudomliga ordningen och det tygdjur eller den maskot vi klamrar oss till bara en profan inkarnation av den skyddsängel vi inte längre tror på. Till och med Antikrist har en skyddsängel (något Thomas av Aquino också menar): annars skulle denne ställa till ännu mer elände än han redan gör.
Och Djävulen? Han finns. Min vän hänvisar till ett samtal med en rumänsk eremit, Fader Cleopa: i staden visar han sig i skepnad av vänner, böcker, kvinnor och liknande. Men hos den ensamme i naturen infinner han sig personligen."
Richard Swartz i SVD.
Och Djävulen? Han finns. Min vän hänvisar till ett samtal med en rumänsk eremit, Fader Cleopa: i staden visar han sig i skepnad av vänner, böcker, kvinnor och liknande. Men hos den ensamme i naturen infinner han sig personligen."
Richard Swartz i SVD.
onsdag, september 17, 2008
The World According to Andrew Klavan
intressant intervju med thriller-författaren andrew klavan. uppvuxen i ett judiskt (sekulärt men högtidsfirande) hem, undervisade på berkley på 70-talet när institutionen var som mest revolutionär. nu kristen och höger. intressanta resonemang kring konst, kultur och politik. håller så klart inte med om allt, men det är intressant och lärorikt. en viktig fråga han ställer är: vem är samhällskritiker och vem har makt i vår kultur? är det tyckarna på DN/New York Times eller tanterna på diners i Kansas?
via tips från joel och millinerd
tisdag, september 16, 2008
stir-fried wikipedia?
"It's pretty easy to imagine the chain of events to led to this revealing error. The sign is describing a restaurant (the Chinese text, 餐厅, means "dining hall"). In the process of making the sign, the producers tried to translate Chinese text into English with a machine translation system. The translation software did not work and produced the error message, "Translation Server Error." Unfortunately, because the software's user didn't know English, they thought that the error message was the translation and the error text went onto the sign."
"It's not entirely clear how this error came about but it seems likely that someone did a search for the Chinese word for a type of edible fungus and its translation into English. The most relevant and accurate page very well might have been an article on the fungus on Wikipedia. Unfamiliar with Wikipedia, the user then confused the name of the article with the name of the website."
källa.
lördag, september 13, 2008
ramadan = Bab al Hara
när jag var i syrien under förra årets ramadan mötte jag för första gången såpan Bab al Hara. alla följer den maniskt. överallt ser man folksamlingar runt tv-apparater. man kunde sitta på restaurang och när klockan slog nio höjdes ljudet på den obligatoriska tv:n och alla tystnar och vänder på stolen. man fick blickar om man fortsatte som innnan och ignorerade tv:n. nån gång vill jag kunna se och förstå. inshallah.
veckans låt: white winter hymnal
köpte (!) fleet foxes album i veckan. fantastiskt bra. avskalat och lite 70-tal utan att vara krystat. vackra beachboysaktiga stämmor. skaffa!
ladda ner låten här.
ladda ner låten här.
torsdag, september 11, 2008
biskopen på kvantum
stötte på biskop biörn idag på gränby centrum. hade hört att han nyss döpt några bekantas pojke. så vi pratade dop en stund. barndop och vuxendop. jag ironiserade väl över dilemmat lite: det 8 åriga barn som man gärna döper i frikyrkan "barndöps" inte, även om det ju är ett barn. ngt magiskt sker där ngnstans, då man kan ta ett "eget beslut".
biskopen: hur gammal var du?
benjamin: jag minns inte exakt. jag var väl ungefär 7-8 år när jag döpte mig.
biskopen: det gjorde du inte alls det!
benjamin: *rodnar* nej det har du rätt i....
jag så mkt fick jag för min ironi över att vi är för individualistiska för att kunna begripa oss på barndop. där stod jag och påstod att jag döpt mig själv! men biskopen i sin pastorala omsorg menade att det ju förstås var ett språkligt slarv som kommit med att vi säger att "vi gifter oss" osv. men det var uppenbarligen inte förstå gången han gjort en liknande rättelse. folk säger ofta, sa han, att de "konfirmerat sig". ja, hur vi pratar och vilka invanda uttryck vi använder avslöjar nog mer än vi anar.
biskopen: hur gammal var du?
benjamin: jag minns inte exakt. jag var väl ungefär 7-8 år när jag döpte mig.
biskopen: det gjorde du inte alls det!
benjamin: *rodnar* nej det har du rätt i....
jag så mkt fick jag för min ironi över att vi är för individualistiska för att kunna begripa oss på barndop. där stod jag och påstod att jag döpt mig själv! men biskopen i sin pastorala omsorg menade att det ju förstås var ett språkligt slarv som kommit med att vi säger att "vi gifter oss" osv. men det var uppenbarligen inte förstå gången han gjort en liknande rättelse. folk säger ofta, sa han, att de "konfirmerat sig". ja, hur vi pratar och vilka invanda uttryck vi använder avslöjar nog mer än vi anar.
to infinity and beyond!
från msnbc:
"Lost at sea with nothing to hold onto amid a dreadful darkness, Florida resident Walter Marino continually called out some of the few words his 12-year-old autistic son Christopher responds to. The pair, swept out in a late-afternoon current near Daytona Beach, had been treading water in shark- and jellyfish-infested waters throughout the night, slowly floating apart.
“I’d be screaming, ‘To infinity ... and beyond!’ ” Marino said, referring to the Disney character Buzz Lightyear’s catchphrase in “Toy Story,” one of Christopher’s favorite movies. “Then I would hear him and it would be more and more and more distant, until finally I couldn’t hear anything.”
Happily — perhaps miraculously — both father and son survived the night, thanks to good Samaritans and the U.S. Coast Guard. Walter and Christopher Marino, along with Walter’s daughter Angela and the children’s mother, Robin Bishop, beamed their way through a joyous interview with Matt Lauer on TODAY Wednesday.
"Lost at sea with nothing to hold onto amid a dreadful darkness, Florida resident Walter Marino continually called out some of the few words his 12-year-old autistic son Christopher responds to. The pair, swept out in a late-afternoon current near Daytona Beach, had been treading water in shark- and jellyfish-infested waters throughout the night, slowly floating apart.
“I’d be screaming, ‘To infinity ... and beyond!’ ” Marino said, referring to the Disney character Buzz Lightyear’s catchphrase in “Toy Story,” one of Christopher’s favorite movies. “Then I would hear him and it would be more and more and more distant, until finally I couldn’t hear anything.”
Happily — perhaps miraculously — both father and son survived the night, thanks to good Samaritans and the U.S. Coast Guard. Walter and Christopher Marino, along with Walter’s daughter Angela and the children’s mother, Robin Bishop, beamed their way through a joyous interview with Matt Lauer on TODAY Wednesday.
onsdag, september 10, 2008
onsdag, september 03, 2008
Aramaic lullaby
"In Bethlehem " an Aramaic lullaby which was originally sung by Blessed Virgin Mary to the new-born Jesus.
tisdag, september 02, 2008
måndag, september 01, 2008
لا محمد لا مكة
dagen skriver att coca-cola nu har lanserat en ramadan-version av sin läskedryck.
när jag spenderade 5 månader i syrien årskiftet 07-08 fick jag från många höra att coca-colas logotyp bar på ett dolt anti-muslimskt budskap. tar man av etiketten och läser den spegelvänt kan man (med fantasi) läsa ut orden: لا محمد لا مكة [la muhammed la mekkah], vilket betyder "ingen muhammed, inget mekka". på sätt och vis kanske de har rätt i att uppfatta coca-cola och annan västerländsk kommersialisering som ngt hotfullt för deras etablerade kultur, men att denna gammla logo skulle bära baklängesbudskap är ju lite tveksamt.
en annan väletablerad konspiration var att pepsi står för "pay every penny save israel". och när man protesterade fick man svaret "jamen, vad betyder det då? pepsi är väl inget ord!?" case closed.
här är en bild som förklarar coca-cola-arabiskan:
när jag spenderade 5 månader i syrien årskiftet 07-08 fick jag från många höra att coca-colas logotyp bar på ett dolt anti-muslimskt budskap. tar man av etiketten och läser den spegelvänt kan man (med fantasi) läsa ut orden: لا محمد لا مكة [la muhammed la mekkah], vilket betyder "ingen muhammed, inget mekka". på sätt och vis kanske de har rätt i att uppfatta coca-cola och annan västerländsk kommersialisering som ngt hotfullt för deras etablerade kultur, men att denna gammla logo skulle bära baklängesbudskap är ju lite tveksamt.
en annan väletablerad konspiration var att pepsi står för "pay every penny save israel". och när man protesterade fick man svaret "jamen, vad betyder det då? pepsi är väl inget ord!?" case closed.
här är en bild som förklarar coca-cola-arabiskan:
onsdag, augusti 27, 2008
onsdag, augusti 13, 2008
skönheten och helgonen: kyrkans apologetik
här kommer ett utdrag ur en Q&A med påven, för några dagar sedan. benedikt säger att det är helgonen och skönheten som är den enda verkliga apologetiken vi kan peka på. det är bara det helt överrumplande i något vackert och [därför] heligt som kan skaka om oss till tro.
1. "All great works of art are an epiphany of God"
Q: Holy Father, my name is Willibald Hopfgartner, and I am a Franciscan. In your address in Regensburg, you emphasized the substantial connection between the divine Spirit and human reason. On the other hand, you have also always emphasized the importance of art and beauty. So then, together with conceptual dialogue about God in theology, should there not always be a new presentation of the aesthetic experience of the faith within the Church, through proclamation and the liturgy?
A: Yes, I think that the two things go together: reason, precision, honesty in the reflection on truth, and beauty. A form of reason that in any way wanted to strip itself of beauty would be depleted, it would be blind. Only when the two are united do they form the whole, and this union is important precisely for the faith. Faith must constantly confront the challenges of the mindset of this age, so that it may not seem a sort of irrational mythology that we keep alive, but may truly be an answer to the great questions; so that it may not be merely a habit, but the truth, as Tertullian once said.
In his first letter, St. Peter wrote the phrase that the medieval theologians took as the legitimization, almost as the mandate for their theological work: "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope" – an apologia for the "logos" of hope, meaning a transformation of the "logos," the reason for hope, into an apologia, an answer addressed to men. He was clearly convinced of the fact that faith is "logos," that it is a form of reason, a light issuing from the creating Light, and not a hodgepodge resulting from our own thought. This is why it is universal, and for this reason it can be communicated to all.
But this creating "Logos" is not a merely technical "logos." It is broader than this, it is a "logos" that is love, and therefore to be expressed in beauty and goodness. And in reality, for me art and the saints are the greatest apologia for our faith.
The arguments presented by reason are absolutely important and indispensable, but there always remains some disagreement somewhere. If, instead, we look at the saints, this great luminous arc that God has set across history, we see that here there is truly a power of goodness that lasts over the millennia, here there is truly light from light.
And in the same way, if we contemplate the created beauties of the faith, these simply are, I would say, the living proof of faith. Take this beautiful cathedral: it is a living proclamation! It speaks to us on its own, and beginning with the beauty of the cathedral we are able to proclaim in a visible way God, Christ and all of his mysteries: here these have taken shape, and are gazing back at us. All of the great works of art, the cathedrals – the Gothic cathedrals, and the splendid Baroque churches – all of them are a luminous sign of God, and therefore truly a manifestation, an epiphany of God.
Christianity involves precisely this epiphany: that God has become a veiled Epiphany, he appears and shines. We have just listened to the sound of the organ in all its splendor, and I think that the great music born within the Church is an audible and perceptible rendering of the truth of our faith: from Gregorian chant to the music of the cathedrals to Palestrina and his era, to Bach and then to Mozart and Bruckner, and so on... Listening to all of these great works – the Passions by Bach, his Mass in B minor, and the great spiritual compositions of 16th century polyphony, of the Viennese school, of all of this music, even by minor composers – suddenly we feel: it is true! Wherever things like these are created, there is Truth.
Without an intuition capable of discovering the true creative center of the world, this beauty cannot be created. For this reason, I think that we must always act in such a way that these two things go together, we must present them together. When, in our own time, we discuss the reasonableness of the faith, we are discussing precisely the fact that reason does not end where experimental discoveries end, it does not end in positivism; the theory of evolution sees the truth, but sees only half of it: it does not see that behind this is the Spirit of creation. We are fighting for the expansion of reason, and therefore for a form of reason that, exactly to the point, is open to beauty as well, and does not have to leave it aside as something completely different and irrational.
Christian art is a rational form of art – we think of Gothic art, great music, or the Baroque art right here – but this is the artistic expression of a much broader form of reason, in which the heart and reason come together. This is the point. This, I think, is in some way the proof of the truth of Christianity: the heart and reason come together, beauty and truth touch. And to the extent that we are able to live in the beauty of truth, so much more will faith again be able to be creative, in our own time as well, and to express itself in a convincing artistic form.
om du vill läsa resten av artikeln hittar du den här.
1. "All great works of art are an epiphany of God"
Q: Holy Father, my name is Willibald Hopfgartner, and I am a Franciscan. In your address in Regensburg, you emphasized the substantial connection between the divine Spirit and human reason. On the other hand, you have also always emphasized the importance of art and beauty. So then, together with conceptual dialogue about God in theology, should there not always be a new presentation of the aesthetic experience of the faith within the Church, through proclamation and the liturgy?
A: Yes, I think that the two things go together: reason, precision, honesty in the reflection on truth, and beauty. A form of reason that in any way wanted to strip itself of beauty would be depleted, it would be blind. Only when the two are united do they form the whole, and this union is important precisely for the faith. Faith must constantly confront the challenges of the mindset of this age, so that it may not seem a sort of irrational mythology that we keep alive, but may truly be an answer to the great questions; so that it may not be merely a habit, but the truth, as Tertullian once said.
In his first letter, St. Peter wrote the phrase that the medieval theologians took as the legitimization, almost as the mandate for their theological work: "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope" – an apologia for the "logos" of hope, meaning a transformation of the "logos," the reason for hope, into an apologia, an answer addressed to men. He was clearly convinced of the fact that faith is "logos," that it is a form of reason, a light issuing from the creating Light, and not a hodgepodge resulting from our own thought. This is why it is universal, and for this reason it can be communicated to all.
But this creating "Logos" is not a merely technical "logos." It is broader than this, it is a "logos" that is love, and therefore to be expressed in beauty and goodness. And in reality, for me art and the saints are the greatest apologia for our faith.
The arguments presented by reason are absolutely important and indispensable, but there always remains some disagreement somewhere. If, instead, we look at the saints, this great luminous arc that God has set across history, we see that here there is truly a power of goodness that lasts over the millennia, here there is truly light from light.
And in the same way, if we contemplate the created beauties of the faith, these simply are, I would say, the living proof of faith. Take this beautiful cathedral: it is a living proclamation! It speaks to us on its own, and beginning with the beauty of the cathedral we are able to proclaim in a visible way God, Christ and all of his mysteries: here these have taken shape, and are gazing back at us. All of the great works of art, the cathedrals – the Gothic cathedrals, and the splendid Baroque churches – all of them are a luminous sign of God, and therefore truly a manifestation, an epiphany of God.
Christianity involves precisely this epiphany: that God has become a veiled Epiphany, he appears and shines. We have just listened to the sound of the organ in all its splendor, and I think that the great music born within the Church is an audible and perceptible rendering of the truth of our faith: from Gregorian chant to the music of the cathedrals to Palestrina and his era, to Bach and then to Mozart and Bruckner, and so on... Listening to all of these great works – the Passions by Bach, his Mass in B minor, and the great spiritual compositions of 16th century polyphony, of the Viennese school, of all of this music, even by minor composers – suddenly we feel: it is true! Wherever things like these are created, there is Truth.
Without an intuition capable of discovering the true creative center of the world, this beauty cannot be created. For this reason, I think that we must always act in such a way that these two things go together, we must present them together. When, in our own time, we discuss the reasonableness of the faith, we are discussing precisely the fact that reason does not end where experimental discoveries end, it does not end in positivism; the theory of evolution sees the truth, but sees only half of it: it does not see that behind this is the Spirit of creation. We are fighting for the expansion of reason, and therefore for a form of reason that, exactly to the point, is open to beauty as well, and does not have to leave it aside as something completely different and irrational.
Christian art is a rational form of art – we think of Gothic art, great music, or the Baroque art right here – but this is the artistic expression of a much broader form of reason, in which the heart and reason come together. This is the point. This, I think, is in some way the proof of the truth of Christianity: the heart and reason come together, beauty and truth touch. And to the extent that we are able to live in the beauty of truth, so much more will faith again be able to be creative, in our own time as well, and to express itself in a convincing artistic form.
om du vill läsa resten av artikeln hittar du den här.
torsdag, augusti 07, 2008
hjärtat
från den nyss avlidne Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
"It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” [via glory to God]
när han betonar hjärtat som den plats där kampen mellan det onda och det goda utspelars sig visar han sig vara i direkt kontinuitet med den östliga kristna traditionen som han så djupt formats av. jämför till exempel med makarius, som skrev dessa rader på 400-talet:
"The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. But there too is God, the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasuries of grace—all things are there." (H.43.7)
"It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” [via glory to God]
när han betonar hjärtat som den plats där kampen mellan det onda och det goda utspelars sig visar han sig vara i direkt kontinuitet med den östliga kristna traditionen som han så djupt formats av. jämför till exempel med makarius, som skrev dessa rader på 400-talet:
"The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. But there too is God, the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasuries of grace—all things are there." (H.43.7)
onsdag, augusti 06, 2008
kristen utbildning
på jamie smiths blogg meddelar han att han kommer ut med en ny bok till våren. kanske vore ngt för våra vänner i SSU att läsa. de debatterar ju om friskolornas existensbeträttigande, via en PR-kupp där man säger sig vilja starta en friskola byggd på socialistisk ideologisk grund. som joel halldorf påpekar i sin lysande artikel i GP är det en illusion att jämför poltisk ideologi med religion. "religion är inte ideologi - det är ett sätt att leva". läs den här.
här förklarar jamie lite vad hans bok kommer ta upp:
"The animating impetus of the book is rethinking the shape and practices of Christian education, particularly in Christian colleges and universities in North America (I recognize that these are strange beasts to those in Europe and elsewhere). In particular, I'm pressing the limits, even distortions, that attend "worldview"-talk which tends to now dominate Christian higher education. Such worldviewism, I suggest, continues to reduce Christianity to an intellectual system that can be grapsed apart from the church and is then "taught" as information to be merely transferred from one head to another. In contrast, I argue that Christian discipleship is a matter of formation, not mere information--and that "Christian" education should be fundamentally a matter of shaping our love, our desire, to be oriented to the shape of the kingdom of God. And such formation happens not primarily via the heady, cognitive "lectures" (whether in our Protestant sermon factories or our Christian college classrooms) but through embodied practices that seep into our imagination and get hold of our gut, our heart, our kardia.
In short, I'm suggesting that before we can ever articulate a Christian "worldview," we are engaged in the practices of Christian worship. Drawing on Charles Taylor, I argue that the practices of Christian worship "carry" within them an "understanding" of the world that is better described as a "Christian social imaginary." Thus Christian education needs to be more integrally and intimately connected to the church and her worship then has generally been the case in North American Christian higher education.
There's also a correlate to this analysis: that cultural practices and institutions are not just venues for conveying "messages" or "abstract values;" rather, they constitute liturgies which function as pedagogies of desire bent on getting us to love rival kingdoms, visions of human flourishing that are antithetical to the biblical vision of shalom."
här förklarar jamie lite vad hans bok kommer ta upp:
"The animating impetus of the book is rethinking the shape and practices of Christian education, particularly in Christian colleges and universities in North America (I recognize that these are strange beasts to those in Europe and elsewhere). In particular, I'm pressing the limits, even distortions, that attend "worldview"-talk which tends to now dominate Christian higher education. Such worldviewism, I suggest, continues to reduce Christianity to an intellectual system that can be grapsed apart from the church and is then "taught" as information to be merely transferred from one head to another. In contrast, I argue that Christian discipleship is a matter of formation, not mere information--and that "Christian" education should be fundamentally a matter of shaping our love, our desire, to be oriented to the shape of the kingdom of God. And such formation happens not primarily via the heady, cognitive "lectures" (whether in our Protestant sermon factories or our Christian college classrooms) but through embodied practices that seep into our imagination and get hold of our gut, our heart, our kardia.
In short, I'm suggesting that before we can ever articulate a Christian "worldview," we are engaged in the practices of Christian worship. Drawing on Charles Taylor, I argue that the practices of Christian worship "carry" within them an "understanding" of the world that is better described as a "Christian social imaginary." Thus Christian education needs to be more integrally and intimately connected to the church and her worship then has generally been the case in North American Christian higher education.
There's also a correlate to this analysis: that cultural practices and institutions are not just venues for conveying "messages" or "abstract values;" rather, they constitute liturgies which function as pedagogies of desire bent on getting us to love rival kingdoms, visions of human flourishing that are antithetical to the biblical vision of shalom."
torsdag, juli 31, 2008
onsdag, juli 09, 2008
om ni inte omvänder er och blir som barn, kommer ni inte in i himmelriket
Not too many years ago, a young monastic aspirant went to Mount Athos. In talking with the venerable Abbot of the monastery where he wished to stay, he told him, 'Holy Father! My heart burns for the spiritual life, for ascetism, for unceasing communion with God, for obedience to an Elder. Instruct me, please, holy Father, that I may attain to spiritual advancement.' Going to the bookshelf, the Abbot pulled down a copy of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. 'Read this, son,' he said. 'But Father!' objected the disturbed aspirant. 'This is heterodox Victorian sentimentality, a product of the Western captivity! This isn't spiritual; it's not even Orthodox! I need writings which will teach me spirituality!' The Abbot smiled, saying, 'Unless you first develop normal, human, Christian feelings and learn to view life as little Davey did—with simplicity, kindness, warmth, and forgiveness—then all the Orthodox 'spirituality' and Patristic writings will not only be of no help to you—they will turn you into a spiritual monster and destroy your soul'.
från Kyriacos Markides "The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality", s. 194-195.
från Kyriacos Markides "The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality", s. 194-195.
måndag, juni 30, 2008
Maria
"920. Marias liv sammanfattas i tre ord: Ecce, Fiat och Magnificat. Inpränta dessa ord i ditt hjärta med brinnande iver, begrunda dem och agera utifrån dem: "Se, jag är Herrens tjänarinna", Ecce, "Må det ske med mig som du har sagt", Fiat (Luk. 1:38), "min själ prisar Herrens storhet", Magnificat (Luk. 1:46)."
från den vietnamesiske kardinalen Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuans bok "Hoppets väg". Han spenderade 13 år i fängelse, 9 år i total isolering. Där skrev han boken.
tisdag, juni 10, 2008
15 megabyte sommarläsning
har "scannat" in några voveller av den fantastiska sydstatsförfattaren falnnery o'connor, till en läsegrupp jag ska vara med i. men det är väl lika bra att dela med sig till resten av världen också, eftersom hon inte läses här i sverige.
VARNING: hon är katolik.
ladda ner här
måndag, juni 09, 2008
lördag, juni 07, 2008
sång
en text av min gode vän och lärare david wright. om att sjunga.
This I believe.
This I believe.
Contributor: David
Location: Champaign, IL
Country: United States of America
Series: Contemporary
The A Cappella Voice
Every week when I lead singing at my church, I signal the pianist to drop out during a verse of one of the hymns. This is a selfish act. Our congregation sings well, and I need to hear them sing unaccompanied, to be held up by and be part of their voices, offered up together in our plain Mennonite Church.
As each of us sings our part, however imperfectly, I am reminded again how much I believe that the a cappella human voice is sacred.
All my life I’ve been shaped by voices singing. Growing up in school and church, I sang in choirs and quartets. The pleasures of blending my often changing voice with the girls and boys around me, responding to a leader’s direction taught me all my really important lessons about community and hard work. To learn a simple tune or to sing a polyphonic madrigal required that I give up a bit of myself to the composer and to others in the choir or congregation We became intimate, sharing breath, voice, text in a way different from any other experience I’ve ever had.
Yet I also came to know that my individual voice mattered. I had to stay on pitch, to sing in rhythm, and, most importantly, to listen. Singing in parts helped me to learned what poet Jean Janzen calls “the world's secret . . . to enter and be close, yet separate.”
I hear this secret not only in traditional choral or church music. The high harmonies of Appalachian folk songs, the guttural loveliness of Tuban throat singers, the call and response of the Jewish cantor or Muslim imam, these also show what it is like to sing in relation to others, to have bare human voices responding to each other in time.
And as much as I love singing with others, I also love the separate, lonesome a cappella voice. In an age of recorded and reproduced and amplified sound, nothing marks an individual like her own voice lifted in a simple, familiar melody.
When I remember my father, I think most often of his voice, of him singing, not especially well, old hymns—“Tell Me Why” or “The Old Rugged Cross.” I have a video of him, one I cannot bring myself to watch, rocking my newborn daughter as he sings in his baritone, “Count your blessings, name them one by one.”
As a writer, I have had to learn to admit that nothing I’ve written approaches the beauty I experience in the unaccompanied human voice in song. Still, all my writing aspires to this aesthetic. I always find myself, then, in communities both familiar and far away, hoping and listening for those moments when the accompaniment drops away and I hear (and perhaps join in) to this most basic and sacred of acts—the human voice riding on nothing but breath, offering up the mystery of song.
Location: Champaign, IL
Country: United States of America
Series: Contemporary
The A Cappella Voice
Every week when I lead singing at my church, I signal the pianist to drop out during a verse of one of the hymns. This is a selfish act. Our congregation sings well, and I need to hear them sing unaccompanied, to be held up by and be part of their voices, offered up together in our plain Mennonite Church.
As each of us sings our part, however imperfectly, I am reminded again how much I believe that the a cappella human voice is sacred.
All my life I’ve been shaped by voices singing. Growing up in school and church, I sang in choirs and quartets. The pleasures of blending my often changing voice with the girls and boys around me, responding to a leader’s direction taught me all my really important lessons about community and hard work. To learn a simple tune or to sing a polyphonic madrigal required that I give up a bit of myself to the composer and to others in the choir or congregation We became intimate, sharing breath, voice, text in a way different from any other experience I’ve ever had.
Yet I also came to know that my individual voice mattered. I had to stay on pitch, to sing in rhythm, and, most importantly, to listen. Singing in parts helped me to learned what poet Jean Janzen calls “the world's secret . . . to enter and be close, yet separate.”
I hear this secret not only in traditional choral or church music. The high harmonies of Appalachian folk songs, the guttural loveliness of Tuban throat singers, the call and response of the Jewish cantor or Muslim imam, these also show what it is like to sing in relation to others, to have bare human voices responding to each other in time.
And as much as I love singing with others, I also love the separate, lonesome a cappella voice. In an age of recorded and reproduced and amplified sound, nothing marks an individual like her own voice lifted in a simple, familiar melody.
When I remember my father, I think most often of his voice, of him singing, not especially well, old hymns—“Tell Me Why” or “The Old Rugged Cross.” I have a video of him, one I cannot bring myself to watch, rocking my newborn daughter as he sings in his baritone, “Count your blessings, name them one by one.”
As a writer, I have had to learn to admit that nothing I’ve written approaches the beauty I experience in the unaccompanied human voice in song. Still, all my writing aspires to this aesthetic. I always find myself, then, in communities both familiar and far away, hoping and listening for those moments when the accompaniment drops away and I hear (and perhaps join in) to this most basic and sacred of acts—the human voice riding on nothing but breath, offering up the mystery of song.
måndag, maj 26, 2008
söndag, maj 25, 2008
Guds uppochnervända pyramid
"Fr. Sophrony [Sakharov], in his book on St. Silouan, presents this theory of the “inverted pyramid.” He says that the empirical cosmic being is like a pyramid: at the top sit the powerful of the earth, who exercise dominion over the nations (cf. Matt. 20:25), and at the bottom stand the masses. But the spirit of man, by nature [unfallen nature as given by God], demands equality, justice and freedom of spirit, and therefore is not satisfied with this “pyramid of being.” So, what did the Lord do? He took this pyramid and inverted it, and put Himself at the bottom, becoming its Head. He took upon Himself the weight of sin, the weight of the infirmity of the whole world, and so from that moment on, who can enter into judgment with Him? His justice is above the human mind. So, He revealed His Way to us, and in so doing showed us that no one can be justified but by this way, and so all those who are His must go downwards to be united with Him, the Head of the inverted pyramid, because it is there that the “fragrance” of the Holy Spirit is found; there is the power of divine life. Christ alone holds the pyramid, but His fellows, His Apostles and His saints, come and share this weight with Him. However, even if there were no one else, He could hold the pyramid by Himself, because He is infinitely strong; but He likes to share everything with His fellows. Mindful of this, then, it is essential for man to find the way of going down, the way of humility, which is the Way of the Lord, and to become a fellow of Christ, who is the Author of this path."
Archimandrite Zacharias in The Enlargement of the Heart
Archimandrite Zacharias in The Enlargement of the Heart
torsdag, maj 15, 2008
mer fairouz
fairouz (som även sjunger sången "li beirut" i klippet nedan) är en av arabvärldens största artister. hon är från libanon och är maronitisk kristen. jag hörde många säga i syrien att det alltid börjar sin dag med fairouz, för att kunna arbeta med frid i sinnet.
jag kommer alldrig glömma när jag sjöng och dansade till hennes sånger med nunnorna på klostret mar yakoub, nu i påskas. flera av dem är libanesiskor och dessa sånger sitter i deras blod, och uttrycker ofta sorgen över deras lands historia.
pray for the peace of beirut
sångtexten på engelska:
To Beirut - peace to Beirut with all my heart
And kisses - to the sea and clouds
To the rock of a city that looks like an old sailor's face.
From the soul of her people she makes wine,
From their sweat, she makes bread and jasmine.
So how does her taste become a taste of fire and smoke?
fredag, maj 09, 2008
ordtrött och inte ett dugg imponerande
från ochlophobist: "the finding of words is a strain today. It is just as well. Poverty and silence are the natural abode of truth, or so Rouault wrote. Kenosis and the unsounding melody of humility. To spend a life trying to grasp and hold such things when the discipline, all there is to do, is to be held, to accept the heldness. This all feels nice upon first thought of it, but time teaches that silence is experienced as the sharpest of violence. Still, that violence heals, as our elders teach us, if a heart given to the cadence of sin would bear the quiet."
De är säkert trevliga personer bägge två men det är ju inte diskussionen. En värld väntar på evangelium som sätter människor i frihet från just religion och slaveri. Här finns vårt kall!"
från joel: "Mon dieu, vad är denna värld för ett djur och vad bor däruti för narrar, att man inte kan få leva i ro och bli hos dem man älskar. När jag det rätt betraktar så kommer det mig för som det största narrspel i världen."
från stefan g (grevle?), här: "Jag tycker det är tragiskt att läsa hur Janne Blom skriver att Benjamin är “teologiskt bevandrad” och framhäver det som att han är på rätt väg.
Jag har läst hans blogg och är inte ett dugg imponerad.
Jag är heller inte Imponerad av Halldorf som jag anser förleder svensk kristenhet. Står och svänger rökelsekar och skvätter vatten i hörnen. De sitter och beundrar Ikoner som Gud själv varnat för. Ärligt talat. Kallar ni det kristendom? Det är allvar och inte lek.De är säkert trevliga personer bägge två men det är ju inte diskussionen. En värld väntar på evangelium som sätter människor i frihet från just religion och slaveri. Här finns vårt kall!"
mer om det när jag inte är så ordtrött.
jag är inte här för att imponera på någon.
söndag, april 27, 2008
psalm 50/51 på arabiska, damaskus, syrien
här kommer nästa klipp i serien. detta är min vän ossama (som nämndes i texten om sjusovarna), som är ikonmålare och oud-musikant. här sjunger han sin tonsättning av psalm 50/51, den stora omvändelsepsalmen. ännu ett exempel på hur psalmerna lever vidare som bönebok. "erhamna ya Allah", förbarma dig O Gud. detta är ju kontroversiellt för vissa, att kalla Gud för Allah, men det är vad kristna har gjort på arabiskan sen urminnes tider, och jag vande mig snabbt i syrien.
lördag, april 26, 2008
Yosef Karduner - Shir La'maalot - Brooklyn, Nov '05
vi fortsätter med temat gamla liturgier. här har vi en modern version av Psalm 121, sjungen av en ortodox jude. vallfartpsalmer kallas de ju på svenska. Då gillar jag engelskans "songs of ascents" bättre. (det är ju förresten titeln på stanley jones självbiografi) dessa sånger har tröstat pilgrimer i årtusenden. psalmerna blev ju sen den tidigaste tiden kyrkans bönebok. vallfartspsalmerna sjungs bland annat i Ortodoxa kyrkans veckoliturgier under den stora fastan (de förutinvigda gåvornas liturgi). det judiska arvet lever vidare i dessa gudstjänster.
Psalm 121:
Jag ser upp emot bergen: varifrån skall jag få hjälp? Hjälpen kommer från Herren, som har gjort himmel och jord. Han låter inte din fot slinta, han vakar ständigt över dina steg. Han sover aldrig, han vakar ständigt, han som beskyddar Israel. Herren bevarar dig, i hans skugga får du vandra, han går vid din sida. Solen skall inte skada dig om dagen, inte månen om natten. Herren bevarar dig från allt ont, från allt som hotar ditt liv. Herren skall bevara dig i livets alla skiften, nu och för evigt.
torsdag, april 24, 2008
bön under fastan på klostret mar afrem i syrien
jag bodde på dettta fina kloster under ett par tre veckor nu under våren. på höger sida av altaret kan ni se ett blondare huvud bland seminaristerna, det är min gode vän Johan Anderson som studerar där just nu. han är ett exempel för hur invandrarkyrkorna skapar nya möjligheter, och en trofasthetens utmaning till kyrkorna i sverige.
det var fantastiskt att se dessa unga fromma män kasta sig på knä inför Gud. det är ju i denna miljö som islam växte fram, och detta är ett exempel på hur kristen praxis inkorporerades i muslimsk. det språk de sjunger på är den klassiska syriskan, en dialekt av Vår Herres modersmål arameiskan.
onsdag, april 23, 2008
lördag, april 12, 2008
tisdag, mars 18, 2008
sjusovare
igår var jag hemma hos mina vänner ossama och therese. han är ikonmålare och oud-lärare. jag var där för att plocka upp ett gäng ikoner som några svenskar och norrmänn beställt i oktober. agerade mellanhand, nu fraktas de till skandinavien av en annan grupp.
ossama bjöd på fantastisk oud-musik. han spelade först ett par arabiska ballader, och sedan sin egen tonsättning av psalm 51/50: Herre förbarma dig över mig. fantastiskt.
men han visade oss även sina ikoner. ett motiv som jag har funderat över är det av "de sju sovande ynglingarna". han berättade att historien finns både i kristen tradition och i koranen. summan av kardemumman är att sju män blir inmurade under förföljelsen under decius (200-tal), för att sedan hittas 200 år senare, fortfarande sovande. fyndet blir till stor uppmuntran då frågan om kroppens uppståndelse är omtvistad. tydligen spred sig historien snabbt och finns som sagt i sura 18 i koranen.
men det som jag just fick reda på, när jag läste wiki-artikeln, är att det är från denna historia som vi fått uttrycket sjusovare i svenskan (och de andra skandinaviska språken). sånna här historier och etymologier gör mig så lycklig. att se hur berättelser sprider sig, formar våra uttryck osv osv. och här har man gått och sagt detta så länge man kan minnas, och så visar det sig ha syrisk ursprung.
söndag, mars 09, 2008
fredag, mars 07, 2008
fredag, februari 22, 2008
kom precis hem från klostret mar jakoub, där jag spenderade advent 07. är solbränd på kinder och näsa, från arbete i trädgården. skönt att komma iväg från stan och såga grenar.
nedan lite bilder från libanon.
i jupitertemplet, baalbek.
dito.
på march i beirut.
norsken alexander, benjamin, halvlibanesiskan miriam, vännen och medwheatien christian.
nedan lite bilder från libanon.
i jupitertemplet, baalbek.
dito.på march i beirut. norsken alexander, benjamin, halvlibanesiskan miriam, vännen och medwheatien christian.fredag, februari 15, 2008
resor i orienten, nu och då.
är just nu i beirut, libanon. det finns mycket att säga. jag börjar ofta mina blogginlägg med en fundering om någon kommer läsa detta, det är ju ganska sällan jag skriver, epost eller blogg. men men.
beirut är fantastiskt. det kallades mellanösterns paris innan krigen. skillnaden från damaskus är markant. i damaskus diskuterar man inte politik. här ÄR livet politik. kontrasten mellan det oerhört livsnjutande, fria och västerländska och det oerhört spända politiska läget är svår att förstå.
häromkvällen såg jag filmen "atonement" för andra gången. den var textad till både franska och arabiska (här talar alla minst tre språk). när jag kom ut ur salongen var gatorna tomma på folk, bara några taxichaufförer som väntade på att sista förställningen skulle ta slut. men utmed gatorna och i varje hörn stod jeepar fulla med soldater. tanks rullade fram på sina tunga metallband. premiärminstern hade uttalat sig på TV och hans supporters firat på klassiskt vis: kalashnikovsprutan mot skyn. taxi chauffören skrattade och sa "this is lebanon".
när jag var hemma i sverige i januari hamnade jag bredvid litteraturvetarteologen david jasper, på o'connors efter ett seminarium. han rekommenderade gertrude bells böcker, apropå mina resor i mellanöstern och öknen som tema. hon reste runt i mellanöstern under 1900-talets första årtionde. letade efter ngt av henne idag i beiruts fantastiska bokhandlar (ännu en skillnad från damaskus, här läser man!). hittade bara en biografi, inget i original. så nu när jag satte mig ner i ett internetkafé googlade jag henne istället. visar sig att hon besökte en plats som jag åkte till häromdagen. på gertrude bell project kan man se hennes bilder, läsa brev och dagböcker, vilket jag kommer göra när jag får tid. platsen som vi båda besökt är baalbek, ungefär två timmar norr om beirut, för mig, två dagars mulfärd för henne. det var ett gammal baalstempel back in the day. senare konverterat till jupitertempel under romarna. det är fantastiskt välbevarat. man kommer in i en stor förgård, med ett högaltare på ungefär 7 meter. när man klättrar uppför det får man en fantastisk utsikt över libanons snödklädda berg och denna lämning från rom. själva tempelhuset kommer man till genom att klättra upp för en hög trappa. jag känner mig alltid lite bortskämd vid sådana här platser. här klampar jag in i en plats som "folket" endast fick förställa sig nere från courtyarden. bredvid jupitertemplet står ett bacchustempel som är ännu mer välbevarat. här känner man sig hemma om man är uppvuxen med GTs tempelgudstjänst. samma tredelade struktur, med det allra heligaste och allt. inne i det allra heligaste hade en grekiskortodox patriark lämnat en graffiti 1882.
här är några av gertrudes bilder.
Jupitertemplet i Baalbek
Bacchustemplet i Baalbek
från gertrudes brev:
[March 5 1905] Baalbek March 5. Dearest Mother. My last day in Damascus [Dimashq (Esh Sham, Damas)] was as amusing as the others. It was a Friday and consequently a Muslim holiday, and deliciously fine and warm besides. Now Damascus on a Friday is worth seeing. Everyone is out in his best buying and selling and parading the streets, no women, you understand, but Christians in frock coats with rosaries in their hands, Pashas and great Arab sheikhs in gold embroidered cloaks, mighty fine, swaggering along as if Damascus were their own town. And so it is - the great capital of the desert.
...
beirut är fantastiskt. det kallades mellanösterns paris innan krigen. skillnaden från damaskus är markant. i damaskus diskuterar man inte politik. här ÄR livet politik. kontrasten mellan det oerhört livsnjutande, fria och västerländska och det oerhört spända politiska läget är svår att förstå.
häromkvällen såg jag filmen "atonement" för andra gången. den var textad till både franska och arabiska (här talar alla minst tre språk). när jag kom ut ur salongen var gatorna tomma på folk, bara några taxichaufförer som väntade på att sista förställningen skulle ta slut. men utmed gatorna och i varje hörn stod jeepar fulla med soldater. tanks rullade fram på sina tunga metallband. premiärminstern hade uttalat sig på TV och hans supporters firat på klassiskt vis: kalashnikovsprutan mot skyn. taxi chauffören skrattade och sa "this is lebanon".
när jag var hemma i sverige i januari hamnade jag bredvid litteraturvetarteologen david jasper, på o'connors efter ett seminarium. han rekommenderade gertrude bells böcker, apropå mina resor i mellanöstern och öknen som tema. hon reste runt i mellanöstern under 1900-talets första årtionde. letade efter ngt av henne idag i beiruts fantastiska bokhandlar (ännu en skillnad från damaskus, här läser man!). hittade bara en biografi, inget i original. så nu när jag satte mig ner i ett internetkafé googlade jag henne istället. visar sig att hon besökte en plats som jag åkte till häromdagen. på gertrude bell project kan man se hennes bilder, läsa brev och dagböcker, vilket jag kommer göra när jag får tid. platsen som vi båda besökt är baalbek, ungefär två timmar norr om beirut, för mig, två dagars mulfärd för henne. det var ett gammal baalstempel back in the day. senare konverterat till jupitertempel under romarna. det är fantastiskt välbevarat. man kommer in i en stor förgård, med ett högaltare på ungefär 7 meter. när man klättrar uppför det får man en fantastisk utsikt över libanons snödklädda berg och denna lämning från rom. själva tempelhuset kommer man till genom att klättra upp för en hög trappa. jag känner mig alltid lite bortskämd vid sådana här platser. här klampar jag in i en plats som "folket" endast fick förställa sig nere från courtyarden. bredvid jupitertemplet står ett bacchustempel som är ännu mer välbevarat. här känner man sig hemma om man är uppvuxen med GTs tempelgudstjänst. samma tredelade struktur, med det allra heligaste och allt. inne i det allra heligaste hade en grekiskortodox patriark lämnat en graffiti 1882.
här är några av gertrudes bilder.
Jupitertemplet i Baalbek
Bacchustemplet i Baalbekfrån gertrudes brev:
[March 5 1905] Baalbek March 5. Dearest Mother. My last day in Damascus [Dimashq (Esh Sham, Damas)] was as amusing as the others. It was a Friday and consequently a Muslim holiday, and deliciously fine and warm besides. Now Damascus on a Friday is worth seeing. Everyone is out in his best buying and selling and parading the streets, no women, you understand, but Christians in frock coats with rosaries in their hands, Pashas and great Arab sheikhs in gold embroidered cloaks, mighty fine, swaggering along as if Damascus were their own town. And so it is - the great capital of the desert.
...
There is an Arab proverb which says: Let him who talks by day take heed. And it applies to those who talk by post. The Vali, when he heard I was going to ride to Baalbek, was all for sending a large escort with me, so I hastily declared I should go by train - only pretence. Such are the penalties of greatness. I do trust I shall now be allowed to relapse into the position of a modest traveller of no importance to anyone. I have found out that while I was in Damascus, every time I went out alone I was followed by a policeman who was commissioned to watch over my safety - it was merely solicitude on the part of the government and as there were no secrets about my comings and goings it was harmless. So I returned to the house of Naksh Pendi and was introduced to his favourite wife - he has 4, the old rogue. She is quite young, a pretty woman, but shockingly untidy, with her hair all over her eyes and a dirty dressing gown clothing a figure which has already, alas! fallen into ruin. The view from Naksh Pendi's balcony is, however, immortal. The great splendid city of Damascus with its gardens and its domes and its minarets, lies spread out before you, and beyond it the desert - the desert almost up to its gates, and the breath of it blowing in with every wind, and the spirit of it passing in through the city gates with every Arab camel driver. That is the heart of the whole matter.
Next morning, yesterday, I rode off early and an hour or two out of the city, altered my intended route and took my caravan straight over Anti Libanus [Sharqi, Jebel esh (Anti-Lebanon)] in 2 long day's march to Baalbek, the fact being that the thought of all the officials who had been warned to look after me oppressed me so dreadfully that I could not bear it! Last night I had a charming solitary camp under poplar trees by the brink of a spring. {Last night} Today I crossed the mountain ridge, in a howling gale - there was deep snow part of the way - and when we reached Baalbek it was sleeting and raining hard. The admirable Mikhail had a friend, a Christian woman, in whose house he said I could lodge - my spirit revolted at the thought of an hotel. It is perfectly delightful, a tiny house of 3 rooms. She lives in one with her son and daughter (her husband is in America) she has given me another, quite empty, but I have put my camp furniture into it, and in the third Mikhail has cooked my dinner. She is a very nice woman and I have had an interesting talk with her. Moreover I am absolutely peaceful - and the storm rages outside."
imorgon åker jag tillbaka till damaskus. har inget visum, så jag hoppas det inte tar alltför lång tid. det finns mkt mer att berätta, speciellt om situationen här i libanon. men det får vänta.
söndag, november 25, 2007
tisdag, november 13, 2007
ikoner i kappadokien (mobbefilmsnutt)
från mitt besök i kappadokiens fantastiska grottkyrkor, i september.
ikoner m.m.
via fejsbook fick jag igår veta att hemma i sverige (jag är i syrien) så debatteras ikoner (i dagen, var annars?).
är man i damaskus känns sådana debatter vansinningt främmande: här lever jag omgiven av ikoner, i en kristen kultur som avslutade debatten med hjälp av St. Johannes av Damaskus på 600-talet. Han säger:
In former times God, who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter; I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter; who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honouring the matter which wrought my salvation!
—St John of Damascus
idag hittade jag även denna myket fina text, skriven av Solzhenitsyn, på den grekisk katolska bloggen Word Incarnate. Är det som beskrivs i denna text ett föräderi mot evangelium, en judaskyss enligt insändaren i Dagen?
är man i damaskus känns sådana debatter vansinningt främmande: här lever jag omgiven av ikoner, i en kristen kultur som avslutade debatten med hjälp av St. Johannes av Damaskus på 600-talet. Han säger:
In former times God, who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter; I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter; who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honouring the matter which wrought my salvation!
—St John of Damascus
idag hittade jag även denna myket fina text, skriven av Solzhenitsyn, på den grekisk katolska bloggen Word Incarnate. Är det som beskrivs i denna text ett föräderi mot evangelium, en judaskyss enligt insändaren i Dagen?
"A young woman was in the throes of grief and misery over her grievous sins, which included affairs and betrayals and a general turning away from God. Leaving the solitude of the place she was living—for fear she would commit suicide—she walked until she found herself outside a church. She went in and was struck by the huge icon of the Pantocrator (“Ruler of All”) in the dome of the church. Solzhenitsyn describes her experience:"
“There Zinaida stood, and went on standing, with her head thrown back, staring into that immensity, deaf to what was happening in the church… What floated above her could not be conveyed in words, was indeed out of reach of thought. It was a wave of life-giving will, surging also into the human breast… she stood shivering like a sacrificial victim awaiting the stroke… A passive receptacle of the Divine Will, she began to feel easier and stronger. Gone was the burning desire she had felt at home to break out, run away… She stood staring upward, her neck growing numb, but the iron bands that had immobilized her for so many days relaxed, gradually fell away, released her…”
This was but the beginning of her liberation from sin, however. She needed also to meet Christ on the level of his com-passion, his suffering-with her, in addition to his awesome and all-encompassing majesty and power. So she approached a different icon of Christ. “It was a completely human face, though its complexion was not of this world… The eyes held an enigmatic omniscience… knowing all, from the beginning to the end of time, things of which we never dream. A mind at ease might not have responded to these depths. But Zinaida, with her heightened perception, saw that Christ was suffering acutely, suffering yet not complaining. His compassion was for all those who approached him—and so at that moment for her. His eyes could absorb whatever pain there yet might be—all her pain, as they had absorbed many times as much before, and would absorb whatever pain was still to come. He had learned to live with pain as something inevitable. And he could grant release from all pain. A weight was lifted from her.”
She began to examine her life, her sins, as the church choir sang penitential psalms. “She shuddered. Her whole story had been known here before her coming. They were proclaiming it aloud.”
She had not come for confession, but there was a priest there hearing confessions, and when the others finished, their eyes met and he invited her to come. There was a lectern there upon which rested the Gospel book and a crucifix. “Gospel and crucifix watched over her confession. The lectern—she saw it now—was a steep slope, a rough steep slope—and up that slope she had to drag her whole life, struggling under the burden, and against the friction… She plunged in without preliminary explanation, throat dry, voice cracked. ‘I have seduced a married man’…”
One by one she dredged up, with great difficulty, the sins that were crushing her soul, or rather burning her from within. Solzhenitsyn describes her struggle with repentance and confession thus: “It was like using the grapnel at a wellhead, with three hooks facing different ways—and what you have to do is find down there, in the dark depths of your soul, a hot stone, fish for it, grip it, only the hooks won’t take hold, it breaks loose, seventy times over it breaks loose until at last, with delicate movements, as cautiously as if it was your dearest treasure, you latch on to it, draw it upward, raise it carefully, carefully, then seize it. You burn your fingers but you have rid your soul of it… It was as if every stone thrown out had ceased to be a part of her…so that she could look at it objectively instead of dragging it around inside her… But once you have learned how to drag these stones out with your grappling hook—your throat is less dry, speech becomes less hesitant, confession flows faster, until your words tumble over themselves as you hurry to snatch at and identify all your betrayals…
“She had blurted out all she had to say, however horrible it was; she had done all she had to do, and now she crouched with her head pressed to the crucifix, breathless. But another Breath, the Spirit, hovered over her and stole tremulously into her. ‘May the Lord our God Jesus Christ [said the priest] through his grace and the munificence of His love for mankind, forgive you, my child, all your transgressions. And I, an unworthy priest, with the authority vested by Him in me…’ He stressed not his authority, but his unworthiness. Grief-stricken witness of her struggle against grief, he testified to her forgiveness. ‘I pardon you and absolve you of all your sins…’
“He withdrew his stole, and she quietly raised her uncovered head… Yes, he had understood her question, and let it be seen that he had… ‘In each of us [he said] there is a mystery greater than we realize. And it is in communion with God that we are able to catch a glimpse of it. Learn to pray. Truly, you are capable of it.’”
tisdag, november 06, 2007
What Would Jesus Buy Trailer
Benedikt XVI: Om vi betraktar missbruket av ekonomisk makt, grymheterna av en kapitalism som degraderar människan till en vara, går också rikedomens faror upp för oss. Vi förstår då på nytt det som Jesus menade med sin varning för rikedomen, för den människoförstörande Mammon, som håller stora delar av världen i sitt grymma strupgrepp. Ja, saligprisningarna går tvärsemot vår spontana livskänsla, vår hunger och törst efter liv. De kräver ’omvändelse’ – en inre omvändelse från den naturliga riktning i vilken vi skulle vilja gå. Men i denna omvändelse framträder det som är renare och högre. Tillvaron ordnar sig där för oss på ett rätt sätt” (Jesus från Nasaret, 96-97, Artos)
lördag, november 03, 2007
måndag, juli 30, 2007
Aftonbladet: Ingmar Bergman död
Aftonbladet: Ingmar Bergman död: "Ingmar Bergman död
Ingmar Bergman blev 89 år gammal.
Foto: MAGNUS WENNMAN
En av Sveriges mest kända regissörer, Ingmar Bergman, har avlidit.
– Jag är på väg till Fårö nu, säger hans dotter Eva Bergman till aftonbladet.se.
Eva Bergman bekräftar dödsfallet för TT och aftonbladet.se på måndagen.
Ingmar Bergman dog i sitt hem på Fårö, 89 år gammal.
– Jag har ingen mer kommentar att ge just nu. Jag är på väg att resa till Fårö, säger Eva Bergman.
Döden kom lugnt och stilla.
Begravningen kommer att ske på en ännu ej fastställd tidpunkt i en nära krets av familj och vänner.
Prästsonen Ingmar Bergman föddes i Uppsala 1918. Han regisserade ett 40-tal långfilmer, långt över 100 teateruppsättningar och mängder av tv-filmer och tv-teater.
Det stora internationella genombrottet kom med Oscarsbelönade Jungfrukällan (1960). Samma framgång och belöning rönte Såsom i en spegel året därpå."
orrologion: In Memoriam: Patriarch Teoctist of Romania
orrologion: In Memoriam: Patriarch Teoctist of Romania: "In Memoriam: Patriarch Teoctist of Romania
Article posted [on OCA.org]: 7/30/2007 12:18 PM
SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] -- On Monday, July 30, 2007, the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America was informed that His Beatitude, Patriarch Teoctist, Primate of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Romania, had died at the age of 92.
Patriarch Teoctist was born on February 7, 1915, in the village Tocileni, Botosani county, in northeastern Romania. In 1929, he joined the Vorona Monastery. Later, he embraced monasticism, taking the name Teoctist, at the Bistrita Monastery.
He studied at the Orthodox Seminary in Cernica from 1932 until 1940 and graduated from the Orthodox Theological Faculty of Bucharest University in 1944.
On March 25, 1945, he was ordained to the priesthood in Iasi, where after his consecration to the episcpacy he served as vicar bishop from 1949 to 1962. From 1962 to 1973, he served as Bishop of Arad. From 1973 until 1977, he served as Archbishop of Craiova and Metropolitan of Oltenia. He served as Archbishop of Iasi and Metropolitan of Moldova and Suceava from 1977 until his election as Archbishop of Bucharest and Patriarch of Romania on November 9, 1986.
Further details will be posted on the OCA web site as they become available.
Orrologion: What always struck me a"
söndag, juli 29, 2007
Glenn Gould: The Russian Journey (1 of 6)
från First Things: "n 1957, a 24-year-old Canadian virtuoso pianist named Glenn Gould visited the Soviet Union on an official mission of cultural exchange. Gould’s presence made such an impact among the Russians who heard him play that, fifty years later, Feyginberg is able to interview people for whom the encounter with Gould is still one of the most significant events of their life. A theatre director named Roman Viktyuk describes a packed house in Leningrad, waiting for Gould to arrive: “The place was full of people. Everyone here was expecting a miracle.” That expectation was already subversive—miracles weren’t supposed to be necessary after the Revolution. Vladimir Tropp, a pianist, adds: “Gould was the first to reveal this world to us. The Berlin Wall existed in music as well, and perhaps Gould was one of those who were breaking that wall.” Another fan confesses that “we started to live by each recording of Gould.” The Russians who heard him play began to love Gould more than the Revolution."
måndag, juli 23, 2007
att stamma fram en förklaring av sin tro
"It is very hard for a man to defend anything of which he is entirely convinced. It is comparatively easy when he is only partially convinced. He is partially convinced because he has found this or that proof of the thing, and he can expound it. But a man is not really convinced of a philosophic theory when he finds that something proves it. He is only really convinced when he finds that everything proves it. And the more converging reasons he finds pointing to this conviction, the more bewildered he is if asked suddenly to sum them up. Thus, if one asked an ordinary intelligent man, on the spur of the moment, 'Why do you prefer civilization to savagery?' he would look wildly round at object after object, and would only be able to answer vaguely, 'Why, there is that bookcase . . . and the coals in the coal-scuttle . . . and pianos . . . and policemen.' The whole case for civilization is that the case for it is complex."
- G.K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy)
- G.K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy)
tisdag, juli 10, 2007
Benedict om Eukaristin
Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis:
Eukaristin som början av världens förvandling:
11. ... "'The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving.' (21) Jesus 'draws us into himself.' (22) The substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of 'nuclear fission,' to use an image familiar to us today, which penetrates to the heart of all being, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the point where God will be all in all (cf. 1 Cor 15:28)."
Eukaristin som början av världens förvandling:
11. ... "'The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving.' (21) Jesus 'draws us into himself.' (22) The substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of 'nuclear fission,' to use an image familiar to us today, which penetrates to the heart of all being, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the point where God will be all in all (cf. 1 Cor 15:28)."
Skönhet och liturgi:
35. This relationship between creed and worship is evidenced in a particular way by the rich theological and liturgical category of beauty. Like the rest of Christian Revelation, the liturgy is inherently linked to beauty: it is veritatis splendor. The liturgy is a radiant expression of the paschal mystery, in which Christ draws us to himself and calls us to communion. As Saint Bonaventure would say, in Jesus we contemplate beauty and splendour at their source. (106) This is no mere aestheticism, but the concrete way in which the truth of God's love in Christ encounters us, attracts us and delights us, enabling us to emerge from ourselves and drawing us towards our true vocation, which is love. (107) God allows himself to be glimpsed first in creation, in the beauty and harmony of the cosmos (cf. Wis 13:5; Rom 1:19- 20). In the Old Testament we see many signs of the grandeur of God's power as he manifests his glory in his wondrous deeds among the Chosen People (cf. Ex 14; 16:10; 24:12-18; Num 14:20- 23). In the New Testament this epiphany of beauty reaches definitive fulfilment in God's revelation in Jesus Christ: (108) Christ is the full manifestation of the glory of God. In the glorification of the Son, the Father's glory shines forth and is communicated (cf. Jn 1:14; 8:54; 12:28; 17:1). Yet this beauty is not simply a harmony of proportion and form; "the fairest of the sons of men" (Ps 45[44]:3) is also, mysteriously, the one "who had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him" (Is 53:2). Jesus Christ shows us how the truth of love can transform even the dark mystery of death into the radiant light of the resurrection. Here the splendour of God's glory surpasses all worldly beauty. The truest beauty is the love of God, who definitively revealed himself to us in the paschal mystery.
The beauty of the liturgy is part of this mystery; it is a sublime expression of God's glory and, in a certain sense, a glimpse of heaven on earth. The memorial of Jesus' redemptive sacrifice contains something of that beauty which Peter, James and John beheld when the Master, making his way to Jerusalem, was transfigured before their eyes (cf. Mk 9:2). Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation. These considerations should make us realize the care which is needed, if the liturgical action is to reflect its innate splendour.
Why the New Mass and New Rite of Ordination are Invalid
Det är dessa människor Benedict hoppas kunna närma sig när han gör detta lättare att fira den gammla mässan.
En smak av medeltiden
En gammal inspelning av en Tridentinsk mässa i Chicago. Biskop Fulton Sheen kommenterar och översätter. Han var en av amerikas första stora tv-predikanter.
Härom dagen slppte påven ett dokument som gör det enklare för präster att fira denna gammla latinska mässa. se t.ex. Sacramentum Vitae's kommentar.
onsdag, juni 27, 2007
måndag, juni 25, 2007
onsdag, juni 06, 2007
vertigo
den här bilden har nån gjort genom att ta en ruta varje minut från hitchcocks film vertigo (via alan jacobs).
tisdag, juni 05, 2007
THE ICON OF THE THEOTOKOS OF VALAAM RETURNED TO HOME MONASTERY FROM SPACE + Православие.Ru
THE ICON OF THE THEOTOKOS OF VALAAM RETURNED TO HOME MONASTERY FROM SPACE + Православие.Ru: "The copy of the miracle working icon of Theotokos of Valaam returned to its home monastery at the Ladozhskoye lake. According to the press secretary of the Valaam monastery Mikhail Shishkov, the revered icon was met at the main cathedral on the island, where it would be kept from now on.
Oil-painted copy of the miracle working Valaam icon was delivered to the space station with the blessing of the great Northern monastery in September 2005. It was carried by a freight spaceship Progress M54, and, according to the astronauts, has purified the space station. Accompanying Sergey Krikalev and John Phillips it flew around the Earth more than a thousand times.
The original version of the Theotokos of Valaam was created at the end of the nineteenth century by the monk of the Valaam monastery Alipy (Konstantinov). The Mother of God is pictured full height, walking on clouds with Her Son in Her arms. The space station’s copy was painted by the brothers of the Valaam monastery. Visitors from the orbital space center arrived at the monastery last summer, and Bishop Pankraty (Zherdev) of Troitsk offered them the shrine to forward to the space station."
fredag, juni 01, 2007
Czeslaw Milosz - Poetry: Encounter
Czeslaw Milosz - Poetry: Encounter:
We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.
And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.
That was long ago. Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.
O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.
Wilno, 1936"
We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.
And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.
That was long ago. Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.
O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.
Wilno, 1936"
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