Comments on: The Language of Silence

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 26 May 2012 03:19:54 +0000

Thank you PJ. If I may, icons are better at communicating the one story reality, than even scripture. Colour, somehow is more suited to the apophatic than words. I have seen an iconostasis (or a picture of one) that is hard to distinguish from the real thing.

By: The symbol of the Holy Trinity « power of language blog: partnering with reality by JR Fibonacci

Sat, 26 May 2012 00:00:51 +0000

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By: AR

AR — Fri, 04 May 2012 04:55:58 +0000

The only thing I can do with this, about silence, is to continue to reject the facile interpretations, images, and ideas of it that appear in my mind.

Fr. Stephen – have you read any of the Albert Payson Terhune books – beginning with ‘Lad, A Dog’? Some of my favorites. Meanwhile – he’s just being literary, I think, but he got me thinking about the parallels between God->Man and man->dog. Later I found that some suggest that human relationships with animals can elevate them to something more than utterly perishable, to refer to your more recent post on dogs and heaven.

My mother often prayed your prayer on that subject.

By: fatherstephen

fatherstephen — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:15:24 +0000

Philip Jude,
There is no single answer to the question what does it mean that we are God’s image and likeness. The fathers speculate all over the place.
One weakness of the “they’re not in God’s image” argument is that it creates a “secular dog.” All creation sings. All creation rejoices. All creation prays. There are no secular dogs.

By: Philip Jude

Philip Jude — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:12:04 +0000

I suppose this gets to the ancient question: In what sense are we made in the “image and likeness” of God? Raised in Jesuitical Catholicism, I was taught that we bear three points of resemblance: the freedom of the will; the propensity to love; and the rational faculties. There is, of course, an additional “something” that we can only grasp by intuition, but freedom, love, and rationality were clearly identified as the tangible ways in which we are like God.

What is the Orthodox take on such an analysis?

By: Loriane

Loriane — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:11:07 +0000

I am the Protestant parent of some Orthodox children and I have thoroughly enjoyed this blog. Thank you all.
I was attracted to this conversation because of the topic of silence. In the Breaking of Bread service of the PB there are many times of silence. Those times have been the most precious of times to me in all of my Christian experience. Scripture has been read, prayers offered, songs sung and in between all, silence. At those times, the words are allowed to break down in the heart and feed the soul.

By: Michael Patrick

Michael Patrick — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:40:01 +0000

Juliana, thanks for sharing your beautiful and moving personal reflection.

By: Juliana

Juliana — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:17:14 +0000

I converted to Orthodoxy in 2009 from a large Protestant denomination. Emotion and thoughts were critical to the Sunday service. Guilt, gratitude, sadness, happiness. All ranges of emotions were employed in the music and the sermon, and we were encouraged to study the Bible as much as possible. That’s a very different perspective from Orthodoxy which emphasizes our senses: hymns, icons, incense, communion, etc. I treasure my Protestant heritage and am grateful to my parents for giving it to me. But, I’m also grateful to be free of its emotional and mental constraints, grateful to be free to “become as a little child” and to learn to know Him through the faculties that all of us are already given.

One of my favorite saints is St Therese of Lisieux (yes, a Roman Catholic saint!). She prayed that she would always have the heart of a child and as such would always be devoted to the Child Jesus. I hope and pray that I will learn to be less crass, less self-interested, more like the innocent child I once was and still long to be. I hope and pray that I will live the Beatitudes happily and as St Seraphim of Sarov said will be able to acquire peace so that thousands around me will be saved.

By: markbasil

markbasil — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:47:06 +0000

PJ wrote:
———
“Allow me to remind you that you were going to “point to chapter and verse” in a prior comment you made about Fr. John Behr’s book, “The Mystery of Christ”. This is under in Fr. Stephen’s recent “Intuition of Narnia” post. MarkBasil and I still hope that you will respond as you said you would.”

Thanks for reminding me. I will try to get around to this today or tomorrow, though I suspect it will be ground we have already traversed, particularly re: the role and dignity of Scripture.

———-

PJ, I do not believe this is the source of the disagreement.
I look forward to your citations, so we can explore the real disagreement.
Thanks;
-Mark Basil

By: Drewster2000

Drewster2000 — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:18:11 +0000

Andrew C,

I understand where you’re coming from. As Fr. Stephen noted, there are many ways the term ‘heart’ is used and that can make such a discussion very confusing, so let’s approach this from a different angle: that of silence.

If you allow yourself times of silence, you will find in the heart all the things you wrestle with in the world (as one saint said, dragons & angels, virtues & vices), but you will also find God there.

And the practice of silence with Him as your guide will allow you to process these things, see them for what they really are and begin to deal with them. Over time you come to know the heart’s contents and what to do with them, and you learn to know God’s presence.

No, the heart isn’t an innocent place because the whole person is fallen, but it is through this practice of silence and sitting with God that we begin to win back ourselves (for lack of a better phrase) – and this happens in the heart, not the mind or the body. In the end the entire ‘you’ is won back, but it begins in the heart.