Monastic wonderings

[christopher r. vianzon]

A Brief Word on Celibacy


> ...
>
> This epistolary examination of the call to lifelong celibacy, such
> as is embraced by monks and nuns, centres upon the character of
that
> calling as a spiritual gift. An understanding of the proper
> Christian view of celibacy is ever more important in a world that
> continues to accord it less and less value, and view it more
> frequently than not as aberrational.
>
>
> The notion of celibacy is one hard for the modern mind to
> understand, still less to appreciate.

I really wonder how true this kind of statement is. It's a
generalization about attitude--but on what scientific basis? It's
like the statement, "So many people don't believe in God!" and then
surveys show that less than 1% of the U.S. population professes
atheism.


>To what end might a man or
> woman rebuke (so it seems to many) the rich gift of the married
> life? For what reason might the human person embark upon a life
that
> seems to 'fail to appreciate' the marvel of this type of precious
> relationship?

The rest speaks for itself.

[christopher r. vianzon]

> On Repentance that Leads to Joy
> The Spirituality of St John Klimakos
>
> We cannot leave our above quotation without addressing another
> important point that it makes as to the whole of St John's
theology,
> and this in its opening line: `Those who aim at ascending with the
> body to Heaven…' (emphasis mine).

Interesting.


> Our small investigation of this
> great teacher's spirituality of repentance can go nowhere without
> first absorbing this basic notion, that the spiritual quest and all
> the labours of the ascetic are not concerned with a `soul-freeing
> liberation' from our bodily nature, in which the body is killed and
> repressed so that the soul may spring forth refreshed and new. To
> the mind of St John there is no question that the ascetic life,
> indeed the life of every Christian, is a journey upon which the
whole
> of the human person—both body and soul—is engaged; and which, at
the
> resurrection and in the fullness of the Kingdom, will again involve
> the wholeness of that person. Thus John does not attempt to equate
> spirituality with a theology of soul, but with a theology of the
> whole of human personhood—we find in the Ladder no sharp
distinction
> between instruction for bodily and spiritual needs, for that very
> distinction was foreign to John. The human person is a mysterious,
> ineffable unity of body and soul, indescribable in its character,
and
> unique among God's creations.
>

>
> Our acts of repentance and our life of asceticism are, to St John,
> our personal efforts at the transfiguration of our person. The
> fallen humanity which is our `flesh' (sa/rc), is trained and
> conditioned in the great athletic `race' of life, that it might
shed
> its fallen condition and return once again to be our healthy,
divine
> body (sw~ma).

Interesting.

It speaks for itself.

[christopher r. vianzon]

The Origins and Motivations of Monasticism

It speaks for itself.I read everything. There's a little bit too much to comment on, so I would offer just a few remarks. The description of Syrian monasticism is very interesting, some aspects of it are completely new to me. It's also worth asking the question whether monasticism is the same today in the Catholic church as it was in ancient times. I suspect not, not even in its essentials. There is an extremism in early monasticism, not only in practice but in theology as well, that I feel certain is absent from modern monasticism in the Church, even in the most ascetic orders. True, monasticism continues to be a distinctive way within the Church, but it has been influenced by centuries of evolution in spirituality arising in other parts of the Church. So, for example, St. Benedict's emphasis on obedience and on moderation, which belongs to a middle period of medieval monasticism, is, I believe, present to a greater extent in modern monasticism than it is in ancient.

Do you have a complete citation?

[christopher r. vianzon]

my spiritual director, a secular priest, said, in response to
my interest in becoming a monk, That's ancient spirituality. Meaning,
it's a distinctive way and it's a specific call. It might seem a
truism to say that it isn't for everyone, but it probably bears
repeating if monastic spirituality is approached with the perspective
that it has to be lived out in its entirety as the ancients lived it.

We also discussed obedience, since he knew I was no longer obliged to
live under the vow. He said, You have to learn how to live without
obedience to a superior. In some ways, he continued, that's easier.
In some ways, it's more difficult.

When I described to him the absolutist approach to living obedience
when I was under the vow, he chuckled, saying, Conservatives
emphasize obedience, but the commandment of God is to love. Meaning,
they've mistaken the practice for the substance.

So I've dealt with issues like obedience for a long period of time.
More importantly, I feel I have lived out for a considerable period
of time my own resolution of these apparently problematic issues in
spirituality. I don't believe they are necessarily problematic, I
believe some people make them so, such as, for example, when they
make a dogma out of spiritual practices, when, really, the dogmas in
spirituality are only those that are intrinsically related to Church
dogma itself. As I've said before, the obedience of the layperson is
not the obedience of the religious--but I would argue that the
obedience of the layperson is the holy virtue of obedience, of
obedience to God, nonetheless.

Perhaps the same may be said of monastic spirituality. Are we to make
a dogma of what is not dogmatic? Or to live it out in a way proper to
the layperson? Are we to deny the layperson what monastics themselves
seek to extend?

[Timothy Reegal]

Dear Christopher: you keep saying that texts "speak for themselves," but it isn't clear what you mean by bringing them up.

--Tim

[christopher r. vianzon]

On Repentance that Leads to Joy

I was reflecting a little bit more on this piece.

The dualistic heritage of the Greeks and its influence on Christian theology and spirituality--indeed, on Western civilization--is undeniable.

The key figure in Christian spirituality who moves spiritual theology in the direction away from dualism toward holism is Pseudo-Macarius (probably two individuals), who lived between the end of the fourth to the beginning of the fifth century C.E. Since John Climacus lived in the sixth century C.E., one hundred years later, it should not be surprising that Climacus' conception of the human person is holistic.

[christopher r. vianzon]

Ex Oriente Lux: Cassian's use of the East in Western monasticism


Cassian was--and continues to be--a key
figure in the development of Western monasticism. He has been
faulted, however, by Catholic historians of Christian spirituality,
for the negative influence of Evagrianism in his works, and also for
Semipelagianism. I'm not in a position to evaluate that claim.
Notwithstanding, his value is enduring and he has contributed some
key ideas to monastic spirituality. I've already cited in another
list some of his passages on the vitally important issue of
discernment.

The Greek Orthodox church celebrates the feast of St. John Cassian. I
don't think the Roman Catholic church has canonized him.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

At:http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03404a.htm (this is from the Catholic Encyclopedia) I was surprised to see that Christopher's statement, "He has been faulted, however, by Catholic historians of Christian spirituality, for the negative influence of Evagrianism in his works, and also for Semipelagianism", is correct.

In the Catholic Encyclopedia from the link above we read, "Although never formally canonized, St. Gregory the Great regarded him as a saint, and it is related that Urban V (1362-1370), who had been an abbot of St. Victor, had the words Saint Cassian engraved on the silver casket that contained his head. At Marseilles his feast is celebrated, with an octave, 23 July, and his name is found among the saints of the Greek Calendar."

John Cassian certainly was & is recognised as a saint not only by the Greek Orthodox but by the whole Orthodox Church. He is seen as someone who having lived among and assimilated the life of the Egyptian Desert Fathers, brought this spirituality to the West, adapting it to the conditions he found in the West. As the Encyclopedia itself acknowledges, St. John was highly respected by St Benedict of Nursia & Sts Gregory & Leo Popes of Rome.

As to the charge of semipelagianism this seems based on a misunderstanding by the later Medieval scholastics of the role of the will in salvation. Certainly the Orthodox Church has never accepted the following from St Augustine, "St. Augustine regarded man in his natural state as dead." (from the Catholic Encyclopedia article on St John Cassian).

We often say that we as Orthodox are slow to know our own Orthodox saints of the West. Here is an interesting example of the West rejecting one of her own while meanwhile he is venerated as a saint in the East. And then in modern times his memory is revived in the West by the Orthodox. It is amazing how God works!

In Christ- Fr Raphael