Bright Tuesday

Christ is risen!

Wow! Lent is finally over; and what a journey it was! I went through a lot of personal junk and am thankful to God that I made it through. It seems that the enemy doesn't sleep during Lent, but awakens with arrows ready.

On another note, I have been doing a little composing lately. I am working on some music for the tropar to St. John, our parish's patron. I am very excited about this, and pray that God will inspire the correct melody. I have also been doing a lot of listening: Rachmaninoff, Gretchaninoff, Beethoven and The Jayhawks. I was in a relationship once where, instead of watching movies or television, we would just sit and listen to music. What a wonderful thing. When was the last time you sat down and just listened? I took that with me and am trying to learn how to do that again. It is so easy to just hear 3-4 minute songs and not concentrate on what you are experiencing. I am trying to regain that focus. I think I'll get rid of the television.

Keep listening, you may be surprised what you hear.

Recent Thoughts...

So, I am reading the biography of Fr. Seraphim Rose by Hieromonk Damascene. There have been very few biographies that have made me feel such connection to a person, but this one is definitely doing just that. Now, I am not a scholar of ancient Chinese culture and philosophy, Guénon, or any of the other academic fountains that led to Rose's conversion and writings, but I can relate to his search for truth and not settling for anything less.

Another observation: American Christianity, as FSR implies, seems to be missing one key ingredient - asceticism. It seems to be very focused on making people feel good about shortcomings and not making anyone too uncomfortable. Worship also tends to have an air of hedonism about it. If your church service doesn't include one "Jesus is my girlfriend" song, you may just seem a little archaic and therefore out of touch with the modern world.

That's another interesting thought - being able to "connect" with the modern man. What's so interesting about this is that I remember being warned against the Spirit of the Age. When looking at traditional religious practices of ancient cultures, we see that in order for someone to be instructed, they had to have a teacher that would properly explain the texts they were reading. Truth was safeguarded by masters that passed down their instruction to be preserved for future generations. Why is it that modern Christians think they must constantly look to the future and redefine what Christianity is, instead of calling on the wisdom of the past.

I realize that I have, in a way, just thrown together some random thoughts without too much regard for coherence. So in order to tie it together, let me end with a quote:

"To the superficial and the guilty it is more comfortable to bathe in the shallow pool of human thought than in the dangerous depths of Christ." - St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Let us search Christ and His Church with not just our heads, but primarily our hearts; constantly returning to the water from the ancient cisterns, erected by our holy fathers, supplied by Christ Himself.

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.