Pachomius, Abbot, May 15.Prayer Rule of St Pachomius

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   The Jesus Prayer as practiced within the Prayer Rule of St Pachomius

   by jpage99999

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   This was given to St. Pachomius of Egypt by an Angel, and was the rule he used at each hour of the day and night. St. Seraphim of ...

        

Published on 1 Dec 2013

This was given to St. Pachomius of Egypt by an Angel, and was the rule he used at each hour of the day and night. St. Seraphim of Sarov faithfully followed this prayer rule. It is a prayer rule that especially lends itself to memorization, and as such is one that can be done in situations in which it is impractical for one to pray using a prayer book. The Jesus prayer is recited without interruptions or pauses so as not to allow any logismoi to enter the mind and heart. It is said 100 times using the Orthodox prayer rope (chotki). If you desire to practice this prayer rule make sure to get a blessing from your spiritual father or parish priest so that they may guide you along the Way.

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Thursday, 15 May 2014

St. Pachomius the Great. 'Around Him, the Monks Swarm'

   

Mass and Night Office
 Every May 11th a Monastic Office of Vigils on St. Pachomius we are indebted courtesy of Websites.

St. Pachomius - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online

www.catholic.org400 × 432Search by image

Saints Fun Facts for St. Pachomius

'Around Him, the Monks Swarm'—St Pachomius the Great

15 May 2012

"St Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with Sts Anthony the Great (January 17), Macarius the Great (January 19), and Euthymius the Great (January 20), a founder of the cenobitic monastic life in ...

http://nunraw.blogspot.com/

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http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/st-pachomius-great.html 

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2009

St. Pachomius the Great

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Agios Paxomios

Icon of St. Pachomius (Icon courtesy of www.eikonografos.comused with permission)

St. Pachomius the Great - Commemorated on May 15 (text taken from: http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=101384)

"St Pachomius the Great was both a model of desert dwelling, and with Sts Anthony the Great (January 17), Macarius the Great (January 19), and Euthymius the Great (January 20), a founder of the cenobitic monastic life in Egypt.

St Pachomius was born in the third century in the Thebaid (Upper Egypt). His parents were pagans who gave him an excellent secular education. From his youth he had a good character, and he was prudent and sensible.

When Pachomius reached the age of twenty, he was called up to serve in the army of the emperor Constantine (apparently, in the year 315). They put the new conscripts in a city prison guarded by soldiers. The local Christians fed the soldiers and took care of them.

When the young man learned that these people acted this way because of their love for God, fulfilling His commandment to love their neighbor, this made a deep impression upon his pure soul. Pachomius vowed to become a Christian. Pachomius returned from the army after the victory, received holy Baptism, moved to the lonely settlement of Shenesit, and began to lead a strict ascetic life. Realizing the need for spiritual guidance, he turned to the desert-dweller Palamon. He was accepted by the Elder, and he began to follow the example of his instructor in monastic struggles.

Once, after ten years of asceticism, St Pachomius made his way through the desert, and halted at the ruins of the former village of Tabennisi. Here he heard a Voice ordering him to start a monastery at this place. Pachomius told the Elder Palamon of this, and they both regarded the words as a command from God.

They went to Tabennisi and built a small monastic cell. The holy Elder Palamon blessed the foundations of the monastery and predicted its future glory. But soon Palamon departed to the Lord. An angel of God then appeared to St Pachomius in the form of a schemamonk and gave him a Rule of monastic life. Soon his older brother John came and settled there with him.

St Pachomius endured many temptations and assaults from the Enemy of the race of man, but he resisted all temptations by his prayer and endurance.

Gradually, followers began to gather around St Pachomius. Their teacher impressed everyone by his love for work, which enabled him to accomplish all kinds of monastic tasks. He cultivated a garden, he conversed with those seeking guidance, and he tended to the sick.

St Pachomius introduced a monastic Rule of cenobitic life, giving everyone the same food and attire. The monks of the monastery fulfilled the obediences assigned them for the common good of the monastery. Among the various obediences was copying books. The monks were not allowed to possess their own money nor to accept anything from their relatives. St Pachomius considered that an obedience fulfilled with zeal was greater than fasting or prayer. He also demanded from the monks an exact observance of the monastic Rule, and he chastized slackers.

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The Angel of God revealing the monastic dress to St. Pachomius(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0d0mMnnMWj4/TeAMFhZNsuI/AAAAAAAABso/RbVOxcd2EBw/s1600/Monaxos-Aggelos-strof-nef.png)

   

His sister Maria came to see St Pachomius, but the strict ascetic refused to see her. Through the gate keeper, he blessed her to enter upon the path of monastic life, promising his help with this. Maria wept, but did as her brother had ordered. The Tabennisi monks built her a hut on the opposite side of the River Nile. Nuns also began to gather around Maria. Soon a women's monastery was formed with a strict monastic Rule provided by St Pachomius. The number of monks at the monastery grew quickly, and it became necessary to build seven more monasteries in the vicinity.

The number of monks reached 7,000, all under the guidance of St Pachomius, who visited all the monasteries and administered them. At the same time St Pachomius remained a deeply humble monk, who was always ready to comply with and accept the words of each brother.

Severe and strict towards himself, St Pachomius had great kindness and condescension toward the deficiencies of spiritually immature monks. One of the monks was eager for martyrdom, but St Pachomius turned him from this desire and instructed him to fulfill his monastic obedience, taming his pride, and training him in humility.

Once, a monk did not heed his advice and left the monastery. He was set upon by brigands, who threatened him with death and forced him to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. Filled with despair, the monk returned to the monastery. St Pachomius ordered him to pray intensely night and day, keep a strict fast and live in complete solitude. The monk followed his advice, and this saved his soul from despair.

The saint taught his spiritual children to avoid judging others, and he himself feared to judge anyone even in thought.

St Pachomius cared for the sick monks with special love. He visited them, he cheered the disheartened, he urged them to be thankful to God, and put their hope in His holy will. He relaxed the fasting rule for the sick, if this would help them recover their health. Once, in the saint's absence, the cook did not prepare any cooked food for the monks, assuming that the brethren loved to fast. Instead of fulfilling his obedience, the cook plaited 500 mats, something which St Pachomius had not told him to do. In punishment for his disobedience, all the mats prepared by the cook were burned.

St Pachomius always taught the monks to rely only upon God's help and mercy. It happened that there was a shortage of grain at the monastery. The saint spent the whole night in prayer, and in the morning a large quantity of bread was sent to the monastery from the city, at no charge. The Lord granted St Pachomius the gift of wonderworking and healing the sick.

The Lord revealed to him the future of monasticism. The saint learned that future monks would not have such zeal in their struggles as the first generation had, and they would not have experienced guides. Prostrating himself upon the ground, St Pachomius wept bitterly, calling out to the Lord and imploring mercy for them. He heard a Voice answer, "Pachomius, be mindful of the mercy of God. The monks of the future shall receive a reward, since they too shall have occasion to suffer the life burdensome for the monk."

Toward the end of his life St Pachomius fell ill from a pestilence that afflicted the region. His closest disciple, St Theodore (May 17), tended to him with filial love. St Pachomius died around the year 348 at the age of fifty-three, and was buried on a hill near the monastery." (taken from:http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=101384)

See the following link for the prayer rule that St. Pachomius received from the Angel, and which forms the backbone of almost every service of the Orthodox church: http://www.saintjonah.org/services/stpachomius.htm. May St. Pachomius intercede for all of us and help us!

Icon of St. Pachomius the Great receiving the tradition of the monastic habit and coenobitic rule from an Angel (Icon courtesy of http://www.eikonografos.com/ used with permission)

   

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the First Tone
Thou didst prove a chief pastor of the Chief Shepherd, Christ, guiding the flocks of monastics unto the heavenly fold, whence thou learntest of the habit and the way of life that doth befit ascetic ranks; having taught this to thy monks, thou now dancest and rejoicest with them in heavenly dwellings, O great Pachomius, our Father and guide.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
Since thou hadst shown forth the life of the Angels while in a body, O God-bearing Pachomius, thou wast also counted worthy of their glory; and with them thou standest before the Lord's throne, interceding that divine forgiveness be granted unto all.

(taken from: http://goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=55&type=saints&date=5/15/2009&D=F)
   

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, bestowing life!
Truly the Lord is risen!

Ascension of the Lord Solemnity

Universalis

Thursday 14 May 2015    (other days)

The Ascension of the Lord
Solemnity

Responsory

When Christ ascended to the heights he captured prisoners: he gave gifts to men, alleluia.

God goes up with shouts of joy, the Lord goes up with trumpet blast. He gave gifts to men, alleluia.

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Second Reading
From a sermon by Saint Augustine

No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven

Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.

  Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry and you gave me food.

  Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.

  He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

  These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body.

  Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.

Responsory

After his passion Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of forty days and taught them about the kingdom of God, and while they looked on he was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight, alleluia.

While he was in their company he told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised, and while they looked on he was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight, alleluia.

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Hymn	Te Deum

God, we praise you; Lord, we proclaim you!

You, the Father, the eternal –

all the earth venerates you.

All the angels, all the heavens, every power –

The cherubim, the seraphim –

unceasingly, they cry:

“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts:

heaven and earth are full of the majesty of your glory!”

The glorious choir of Apostles –

The noble ranks of prophets –

The shining army of martyrs –

all praise you.

Throughout the world your holy Church proclaims you.

– Father of immeasurable majesty,

– True Son, only-begotten, worthy of worship,

– Holy Spirit, our Advocate.

You, Christ:

– You are the king of glory.

– You are the Father’s eternal Son.

– You, to free mankind, did not disdain a Virgin’s womb.

– You defeated the sharp spear of Death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in you.

– You sit at God’s right hand, in the glory of the Father.

– You will come, so we believe, as our Judge.

And so we ask of you: give help to your servants, whom you set free at the price of your precious blood.

Number them among your chosen ones in eternal glory.

The final part of the hymn may be omitted:

Bring your people to safety, Lord, and bless those who are your inheritance.

Rule them and lift them high for ever.

Day by day we bless you, Lord: we praise you for ever and for ever.

Of your goodness, Lord, keep us without sin for today.

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us.

Let your pity, Lord, be upon us, as much as we trust in you.

In you, Lord, I trust: let me never be put to shame.

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Let us pray.

Almighty God,

  fill us with a holy joy;

  teach us how to thank you with reverence and love

  on account of the ascension of Christ your Son.

You have raised us up with him:

  where he, the head, has preceded us in glory,

  there we, the body, are called in hope.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

  who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

  one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

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Let us praise the Lord.

– Thanks be to God

Ascension-eve: The days between the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord

Vespers 13 April 2015.

COMMENT:  

Ascension Pentecost office

 
The Ascension of the Lord (in Scotland).

This Reading from St. Leo below aptly reflects on "The days between the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord".
                iBreviary.

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Youtube  

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      Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus--Beethoven Oratorio: Christ on the Mount of Olives--Hallelujah

      by danthonycal

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      Oratorio, "Christ on the Mount of Olives" Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven wrote but one oratorio, "Christus am ...

SECOND READING

From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
(Sermo 1 de Ascensione, 2-4: PL 54, 395-396)

The days between the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord

Beloved, the days which passed between the Lord’s resurrection and his ascension were by no means uneventful; during them great sacramental mysteries were confirmed, great truths revealed. In those days the fear of death with all its horrors was taken away, and the immortality of both body and soul affirmed. It was then that the Lord breathed on all his apostles and filled them with the Holy Spirit; and after giving the keys of the kingdom to blessed Peter, whom he had chosen and set above all the others, he entrusted him with the care of his flock. 

During these days the Lord joined two of his disciples as their companion on the road, and by chiding them for their timidity and hesitant fears he swept away all the clouds of our uncertainty. Their lukewarm hearts were fired by the light of faith and began to burn within them as the Lord opened up the Scriptures. And as they shared their meal with him, their eyes were opened in the breaking of bread, opened far more happily to the sight of their own glorified humanity than were the eyes of our first parents to the shame of their sin.

Throughout the whole period between the resurrection and ascension, God’s providence was at work to instill this one lesson into the hearts of the disciples, to set this one truth before their eyes, that our Lord Jesus Christ, who was truly born, truly suffered and truly died, should be recognized as truly risen from the dead. The blessed apostles together with all the others had been intimidated by the catastrophe of the cross, and their faith in the resurrection had been uncertain; but now they were so strengthened by the evident truth that when their Lord ascended into heaven, far from feeling any sadness, they were filled with great joy.

Indeed that blessed company had a great and inexpressible cause for joy when it saw man’s nature rising above the dignity of the whole heavenly creation, above the ranks of angels, above the exalted status of archangels. Nor would there be any limit to its upward course until humanity was admitted to a seat at the right hand of the eternal Father, to be enthroned at last in the glory of him to whose nature it was wedded in the person of the Son.

RESPONSORY
John 14:2, 3, 16, 18

I go now to prepare a place for you,
– but I shall return to take you with me,
so that where I am you may also be, alleluia.

I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Paraclete
to remain with you for ever.
– But I shall return to take you with me,
so that where I am you may also be, alleluia.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

Lord,
as we celebrate your Son’s resurrection,
so may we rejoice with all the saints
when he returns in glory,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Jesus, "..our fused hearts beat together."

When the Divine Will Reigns in Souls

May the Kingdom of the Divine Will come and reign on Earth as it does in Heaven.

COMMENT: Hearts fused - Jesus, "..our fused hearts beat together."

April 1, 1916

Detachment and Fidelity in a Soul Make Her Pulsate As One with Jesus.

This morning my sweet Jesus manifested Himself within my heart, and there our fused hearts beat together. I saw Him, and He said to me: "My daughter, within whoever truly loves Me and in all things does my Will, his heartbeat and Mine become as one to such an extent that I call his heartbeats Mine. Being Mine, I want them all around and even within the beating of my own Heart. They are dedicated to console Me and sweeten Me. All his heartbeats in my own heartbeat will form a sweet harmony that will repeat all my Life and talk to Me of souls, compelling Me to save them.

"But to echo my heartbeat, what a tremendous detachment is needed! One needs to live more a heavenly life than an earthly one, more divine than human. It takes but a shadow, a small thing, to keep a soul from feeling the power, the harmonies and the holiness of my heartbeat, and thus keep it from echoing my own beat in harmony with Me. When that happens I am obli­gated to be alone with my sorrow or my joy, a sorrow caused by souls who make endless promises to Me, but which, when it comes down to making a decision, defraud Me of these promises."

                                                   Luisa Piccarreta   

FOOTNOTE: In our pre-Compline we listened in very different Lectio. Poetry of Thomas Merton and T. S. Eliot, 'Whereof we cannot speak we should be silent." Ludwig Wittgenstein. From THE MERTON JOURNAL.

Abbots of Cluny Monday 11 May 2015

Saints Odo,  Maiolus, Odillo, Hugh, and Blessed Peter the Venerable, Abbots of Cluny. May 11 2015

COMMENT:
At the Mass introduction, we heard of of the Enthusiasms of G. K. Chesterton and the movements of monastic lives from the Desert Hermits and Communities on to the generations of monastic orders as like the Benedictine Cluny saints, on to the mendicant friars and later to clerical, missionary, lay institutes.
The Cluniacs vied with the foundation of the Cistercians.
Today we too experience of the enthusiasm, and pray for  vocations in our own community. 
COLLECT:
O God, by whose grace thy servants the Holy Abbots of
Cluny, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became
burning and shining lights in thy Church: Grant that we
also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,
and may ever walk before thee as children of light;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Cluny Abbey: The Most Significant Monastery of the Medieval Worl 
   Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Deqd47DWb0  

France's magnificent Cluny Abbey was founded in 910 AD on a hunting preserve owned by the Duke of Aquitaine. At its height, Cluny Abbey was the greatest monastic order in the Western world; four of the order's abbots became popes, including Urban II.

Dom Donald's Blog: Benedictine Cluny anniversry: (On Tuesday May 11th. we celebrated the Community Mass in Memory of the Holy Abbots of Cluny . The Blog posting includes additions regar...

Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Benedictine Cluny anniversry

(On Tuesday May 11th. we celebrated the Community Mass in Memory of the Holy Abbots of Cluny. The Blog posting includes additions regarding Cluny)

Today is the Feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny.

On the day of our Memorial of the Holy Abbots of CLUNY, the Internet offers up-to-date information and history.

The following LINK is very impressive and we appreciate the article and illustrations.

Holy Abbots of Cluny Website Posted by John Whitehead : http://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.com/2010/05/holy-abbots-of-cluny.html

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

The Holy Abbots of Cluny

Today is the Feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny.

My own interest in Cluny arises in part from the fact that there was from 1090 until 1539 a Cluniac priory in my home town of Pontefract, and it was my interest in such local facts that began to expand my historical imagination. As the years have gone by I see that in not a few ways I am drawn to the Cluniac vision of worship and prayer alongside the world, and the pursuit of the beauty of holiness in all its forms. It is a topic upon which I have given a few lectures over the years, and one to which I hope to return.

This year is the 1100th anniversary of the foundation of the abbey in 910, and is being marked by a series of events in and around the remains of the abbey. The French mint has even produced a 10 Euro coin to commemorate the anniversary. The Pope has spoken in one of his weekly catecheses about the contribution of Cluny to the life of the whole Church - a point he has referred to in other addresses in recent years.

Cluny gave to the Church a model of a renewed Benedictine monastic life, that helped generate other, complementary, congregations, an ordered tradition of worship, the promotion of the arts in the service of religion, the encouragement of pilgrimage, the promotion of devotion to Our Lady, support for the emerging Papal monarchy and a centralised administrative structure. It attracted the patronage and support of contemporary rulers such as Alfonso VI of Castile and Henry I of England. In one sense it was arguably the first, and one of the most successful, of multi-nationals. Its legacy stretches far beyond the cloister.

A key factor in the development of Cluny was the independence from secular authority granted by its founder, Duke William of Aquitaine. By his foundation charter he placed it under the immediate authority of the Holy See. The text of that charter can be read here. The abbey grew in size and influence as a result, and so did the direct influence of the Papacy. This was a form of practical utramontanism, implemented with local outlets wherever Cluny acquired or founded dependencies.

To see an excellent account of the history of Cluny's first, and probably most important English foundation look at Lewes Priory, and Friends of Reading Abbey gives something about a foundation inspired by Cluny, although not regarded as part of the Cluniac Order as such.

I suspect that too many historians these days tend to concentrate, due to the nature of the surviving evidence, on Cluniac administration and economics at the expense of understanding what it was that drove forward the Cluniac system, and that was the religious impulse.

That also underlay the famous exchange of letters and pamphlets with St Bernard of Clairvaux about the expression of monastic life. Often seen as a clash between two entirely different models I think it should rather be seen as an internal debate within what was still, in many ways, a single, undifferentiated Benedictine tradition, and not untypical of clerical discussion or debate. What heightended it was the calibre of Bernard and Peter the Venerable, and the scale of their two monastic projects. Bernard may have had the more cutting comments, but it was Cluny that influenced the wider Church beyond the walls of monastic communities.

Pope Urban II wrote of Cluny that it
"shines as another sun over the earth, so that it is more fitting to apply to it the words of Our Lord 'You are the Light of the World' "

and St Hugh spoke of how
"Ever since we founded this monastery, prepared and helped by the divine clemency, we have very clearly experienced in this place the presence of the compassion of Almighty God and the gaze of His fatherly devotedness."

The dedication of the High Altar of Cluny III by Pope Urban II in 1095 in the presence of St Hugh and the community - from an early thirteenth century MS. 

The Holy Abbots of Cluny are a group comprised of four saints - the great founding and establishing abbots - Odo, Maiolus, Odilo and Hugh, who successively ruled it from 910 until 1109, the centuries of growth and its zenith - and Bl Peter the Venerable who restored its fortunes after the disastrous career of Abbot Pons in the early twelfth century and whose abbacy marked the end of the era of Cluniac dominance. After Peter's time - 1122-56 - the abbey and its enormous family passed, relatively, into not so much decline, as being left behind by the newer developments in the life of the Church.

I have taken from Vultus Christi's post for this day last year the specific antiphon for the four sainted abbots for Lauds, the Little Hours and Vespers:

Odo arose full of the Holy Spirit,
and renewed the beauty of the monastic Order
throughout the world, alleluia.

Maiolus, overflowing with charity and with grace,
and emulating the holiness of the angels,
was lifted high above men in virtue, alleluia.

Odilo showed wondrously what was the charity of his heart,
who, while pitying sufferings of the faithful departed,
yearly decreased them by a sweet refreshment, alleluia.

When blessed Hugh was about to expire
on the day of the sacred rites of the great Sabbath [Holy Saturday],
he greeted the new light of the Paschal Candle,
earnestly praying with sighs that he might happily reach the promised land, alleluia.

 

Christ in Majesty from St Hugh's chapel at his retreat at Berze - an example of Cluniac painting, and of a central theme in Cluniac spirituality and art. 

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Lubac's Paradoxes of Faith

 

Easter: May 10th

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Jesus Christ Adonai

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. "I have told you this so that my joy may be in... More

Includes prayers, readings, family activities and recipes for the day.

 http://www.catholicculture.org/

Lubac's Paradoxes of Faith

Beyond Our Ken: Henri de Lubac's Paradoxes of Faith

By Thomas Van (bio - articles - email) | May 04, 2015

From the truest truth to the falsest falsehood, there is often only one step. It has often been noted, quite rightly. But from the noting of that fact to the condemning of certain truths, as being dangerously near falsehood, there is also one step, and that step as well is often taken, this time very wrongly.

The fear of falling a prey to error must never prevent us from getting to the full truth. To overstep the limit, to go beyond, would be to err through excessive daring; but there are also errors of timidity which consist precisely in stopping short, never daring to go any farther than half-truths.

Love of truth never goes without daring. And that is one of the reasons why truth is not loved.

In three brief paragraphs, Henri de Lubac, SJ diagnoses a universal problem of intellectual life, relevant not least to people of faith. De Lubac (1896-1991) had a gift for seeing the fundamental dynamic of such problems and expressing it clearly without getting bogged down in particulars.

The above comes from Paradoxes of Faith, a collection of de Lubac’s aphorisms on spiritual life, apostolate and thought. Published in English translation by Ignatius in 1987, it combines two earlier books by de Lubac, Paradoxes (1945) and Further Paradoxes (1955). (Another volume, More Paradoxes, was published separately after his death.) Paradoxes of Faith is packed with brilliant passages like the one above, which is why I had to read it slowly over several months so as not to wear myself out dancing after each aphorism (a few of which I shared back in December). 

In the introduction to the book, de Lubac notes the fragmentary and partial nature of aphorisms, and in the same way, a discussion of a collections of aphorisms must itself be fragmentary and partial. But I will try to give an idea of the spirit of de Lubac’s thought and of some of the central concerns ofParadoxes of Faith, quoting liberally along the way.

What is Paradox?

The book is divided into subheadings such as “Witness,” “Adaptation,” “Spirit,” “Man,” “Suffering,” “Socialization,” and “Interiority.” The first chapter, though, is a meditation on paradox itself:

Paradox is the search or wait for synthesis. It is the provisional expression of a view which remains incomplete, but whose orientation is ever towards fulness…. The universe itself, our universe in growth, is paradoxical. The synthesis of the world has not been made. As each truth becomes better known, it opens up a fresh area for paradox.

While paradoxes involve apparent contradictions, they are not the kind of apparent contradictions which arise from an error in reasoning. In such cases, the “paradox” would disappear when the error was corrected.

Rather, a true paradox is the result of a finite human mind attempting to comprehend the infinite God and the infinite transcendence of reality. We are incapable of encompassing the whole, so that any true propositions we come up with necessarily only deal with aspects of things. (They are, like the aphorism itself, “partial and fragmentary,” which is why de Lubac thought it appropriate to express paradoxes in that form, so as to avoid the pretense to full understanding.)

Because of our incomplete mode of understanding, it is inevitable that propositions will arise which are apparently contradictory, yet which we know to be true. For example, God is both infinitely just and infinitely merciful. Not only that, but Catholics say that God’s justice and mercy are one and the same. So we know that there is no true contradiction between divine justice and divine mercy, and yet because we are incapable of understanding how they are the same, the apparent contradiction is inescapable.

Seeing this apparent contradiction where there is none is not an error; it is simply the only way human beings can see things. We may know the contradiction is only apparent, but because we can never understand the whole, any attempt to resolve the tension will necessarily end by eliminating a truth. Paradox appears when we refuse to sacrifice one truth to another:

[Paradoxes] suppose an antinomy: one truth upsets us, another truth balances it. The second truth does not restrict the first, but only places it in the proper perspective. It will not lead us to say "So it was only that." For paradoxical truth is not limited to one place. That is why, most of the time, neither Christ nor Saint Paul explained a paradox. They feared a foolish interpretation less than one which would debase the truth and deprive it of its "heroism".

Not only are such antinomies irresolvable, but each “opposing” truth strengthens the other by its very opposition:

[Paradoxes] are the for fed by the against, the against going so far as to identify itself with the for; each of them moving into the other, without letting itself be abolished by it and continuing to oppose the other, but so as to give it vigor.

De Lubac uses Purgatory as an example of this dynamic of paradox, in that “Not only is the soul suffering in Purgatory joyful, but its suffering makes its joy.”

Will the Real Prince of Paradox Please Stand Up?

Perhaps it is worth comparing de Lubac’s approach to paradox with that of the “prince of paradox,” G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton’s paradoxes, at their best, are of the kind described above—he points out truths seemingly in opposition. Yet he also uses paradox as a rhetorical device, stating something in the form of a paradox in order to challenge an assumption and get us to see things in a new way. Often it functions at both levels so that the rhetorical paradox is used to point out the deeper kind.  Sometimes, though, Chesterton’s paradoxes are merely rhetorical.

For de Lubac, however, “the word specifies, above all…things themselves, not the way of saying them.” A merely rhetorical paradox can be used to subvert or bypass logic, and so runs the risk of being a mere trick which crumbles into incoherence when examined closely. But in de Lubac we have not so much a “paradoxical” mode of thought or expression as a sober meditation on paradoxes really existing in reality. Simply put, “Paradox, in the best sense, is objectivity.”

Respect the Mystery!

If paradox can be seen as a kind of objectivity, for de Lubac, “Mystical life is its triumph.” To respect paradox is to respect mystery, and if there is a central concern in these aphorisms on a wide range of subjects, it seems to be the defense of mystery.

De Lubac warns against all forms of reductionism where faith is concerned, against intellectualism (“Professors of religion are always liable to transform Christianity into a religion of professors”) on one hand and, on the other, popularization, propaganda and premature adaptation (“They are wondering how to be adapted. They should first know how to be”; “The first question is not ‘how to present’ but ‘how to see’ and ‘how to think’”).

He puts us on guard against the reductions of psychology, sociology, physiology, as well as that of superficial historical criticism:

Christianity, it is said, owes this, that and the other to Judaism. It has borrowed this, that and the other from Hellenism. Or from Essenism. Everything in it is mortgaged from birth…

Are people naive enough to believe, before making a detailed study, that the supernatural excludes the possession of any earthly roots and any human origin? So they open their eyes and thereby shut them to what is essential, or, to put it better, to everything: whence has Christianity borrowed Jesus Christ? Now, in Jesus Christ, “all things are made new”.

Still more subtle and dangerous is the reduction of dogma to theology:

Dogma is a vast domain which theology will never wholly exploit. There is always infinitely more in Dogma, considered in its concrete totality, that is to say, in the very Object of divine revelation, than in this "human science of revelation", in this product of analysis and rational elaboration which theology always is. The latter, in its very truth, will always—and all the more in that it will always be rationally formulated—be inadequate for Dogma; for it is indeed the explanation of it, but not the fulness. This weakness is congenital. True theology knows that. It does not confuse the orders.

We are challenged to accept nothing less than the faith in all its transcendence.

De Lubac often illuminates matters of the spirit negatively, by contrast with a shallow, worldly approach, as in the following:

Taking sides is one thing, committing ourselves is another. The first may involve violence, and remain superficial. The second, on the contrary, is a decision made in the depths of our being, and the positive is so dominant an element, that often we are not even involved in any opposition.

(Needless to say, de Lubac’s thought is antipathetic to the contemporary reduction of faith to politics.)

Lest I give the impression that de Lubac is primarily concerned with putting out fires, I should say that Paradoxes of Faith is chock-full of positive wisdom about human nature and the life of the spirit. I will close by quoting a few of my favorites:

• “Respect for man is composed mostly of respect for his suffering.”
• “The conformist looks at things—even things of the spirit—from the outside. The obedient soul sees things—even things of the letter—from the inside.”
• “Even if man's happiness can be looked for in the future, his dignity can be respected only in the present. In conflicting circumstances one must choose dignity before happiness, both for oneself and for others. Only in this way can both be safeguarded at once.”