For Clean Monday, a Clean Heart. The Philokalia on seeing God.

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD

When  Purify our heart of love for this world,  we  are promised to see,  experience the Love of God, ultimately Christ Himself.

What follows are quotes from the Philokalia on a pure heart.







This truth  of seeing God is better experienced  than  expressed.  We live in a world  that craves to see if God is real.  Thinking materially,  they cannot accept His existence.
As Jesus  said, “the world cannot receive the Spirit because it sees Him  not nor knows Him.”  Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom  of God.  It cannot be seen with human  eyes, at least in our present state.
The source of our blindness to God  are the passions.  The passions cover the eye  like  dirt on a mirror, so it can no longer reflect the light of God.  When the heart is cleansed by  turning away from  material  love it is able to receive the divine light.
To go further,  the source of the passions is self  love. We want to please ourselves instead of God or our neighbor  and so  find out ways to gratify ourselves,  beginning with fairly inocuous things to  truly debased desires.

The spiritual warfare then  is a return to our original state of pure love for God without any motive but to please God.  It is not even motivated by a love for God’s presence.  This itself can be an addiction, and we end up serving Him  for His gifts.


The Philokalia on  seeing God.  The Orthodox  Church  has a spiritual  treasury called the Philokalia,  the love  of the beautiful.  It  is an  assorted collection  of monastic texts describing the inner life,  and how we can attain  to  divine dispassion and unity with  the Lord.  I chose to use this collection of texts for our study on the Lord’s beatitude, “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” because it has  some pithy ways of expressing this truth.  Afterward I will look at this text from the scriptural standpoint.

The references are to  volume number and page number in the faber  collection.

[VI] 162

St Hesychios the Priest
On Watchfulness and HoHness
Written for Theodoulos

1. Watchfulness is a spiritual method which, if sedulously practiced over a long period, completely frees us: with
God's help from impassioned thoughts, impassioned words and evil actions. It leads, in so far as this is possible, to a
sure knowledge of the inapprehensible God, and helps us to penetrate the divine and hidden mysteries. It enables us
to fulfill every divine commandment in the Old and New Testaments and bestows upon us every blessing of the age
to come. It is, in the true sense, purity of heart, a state blessed by Christ when He says: 'Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8); and one which, because of its spiritual nobility and beauty - or, rather, because of
our negligence - is now extremely rare among monks. Because this is its nature, watchfulness is to be bought only at
a great price. But once established in us, it guides us to a true and holy way of life. It teaches us how to activate the
three aspects of our soul correctly, and how to keep a firm guard over the senses.

[VI] 174
St Hesychios the Priest

67. Dispassion and humility lead to spiritual knowledge. Without them, no one can see God.

{VI}  175

75. Humility and ascetic hardship free a man from all sin, for the one cuts out the passions of the soul, the other
those of the body. It is for this reason that the Lord says: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt.
5:8). They shall see God and the riches that are in Him when they have purified themselves through love and self-
control; and the greater their purity, the more they will see.

[V2] 30

St Theodoros the Great Ascetic
A Century of Spiritual Texts

82. Love has fittingly been called the citadel of the virtues, the sum of the Law and the prophets (cf. Matt.22:40: Rom. 13:10). So let us make every effort until we attain it. Through love we shall shake off the tyranny of the passions and rise to heaven, lifted up on the wings of the virtues; and we shall see God, so far as this is possible for human nature.

[V2] 33
St Theodoros the Great Ascetic
A Century of Spiritual Texts
86. If a man"s heart does not condemn him (cf 1 John 3 :21) for having rejected a commandment of God, or for
negligence, or for accepting a hostile thought, then he is pure in heart and worthy to hear Christ say to him: 'Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8).


[V2] 109
St Maximos the Confessor
Four Hundred Texts on Love

72. It is for this reason that the Savior says, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8) for He
is hidden in the hearts of those who believe in Him. They shall see Him and the riches that are in Him when
they have purified themselves through love and self-control; and the greater their purity, the more they will see.

[V2] 157

St Maximos the Confessor
Two Hundred Texts on Theology
and the
Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God
Written for Thalassios


Second Century
72. It is for this reason that the Savior says, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8) for He
is hidden in the hearts of those who believe in Him. They shall see Him and the riches that are in Him when
they have purified themselves through love and self-control; and the greater their purity, the more they will see.

[V2] 199
St Maximos the Confessor
Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice

Second Century
58. When through self-control you have straightened the crooked paths of the passions in which you deliberately
indulged - that is to say, the impulses of sensual pleasure - and when, by enduring patiently the harsh and
painful afflictions produced by trials and temptations suffered against your will, you have made the rough ways
smooth and even, then you may expect to see God's salvation, for you will have become pure in heart. In this
state of purity, through the virtues and through holy contemplation, you will at the end of your contest behold
God, in accordance with Christ's words: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8). And
because of the sufferings you have endured for the sake of virtue you will receive the gift of dispassion. To
those who possess this gift there is nothing which reveals God more fully.

[V2] 367

St Theognostos
On the Practice of the Virtues, Contemplation and the Priesthood
38. Let no one deceive you, brother: without holiness, as the apostle says, no one can see God (cf. Heb. 12: 14). For
the Lord, who is more than holy and beyond all purity, will not appear to an impure person. Just as he who loves father or mother, daughter or son (of. Matt. 10:37) more than the Lord is unworthy of Him, so is he wholoves anything transient and material. Even more unworthy is the person who chooses foul and fetid sin to preference to love for the Lord: for God rejects whoever does not repudiate all filthiness: 'Corruption does not inherit incorruption' (1 Cor. 15:50).

[V3] 60
Ilias the Presbyter
A Gnomic Anthology
103. God sees all men, but only those see God who perceive nothing during prayer. God listens to those who see
Him, while those to whom He does not listen do not see Him. Blessed is the man who believes that he is seen by
God; for his foot will not slip (cf. Ps. 73:2) unless this is God's will.

[V3] 285

St Symeon Metaphrastis
Paraphrase of the Homihes
of
St Makarios of Egypt
Spiritual Perfection

2. What is the will of God that St Paul urges and invites each of us to attain (cf. 1 Thess. 4:3)? It is total cleansing
from sin, freedom from the shameful passions and the acquisition of the highest virtue. In other words, it is the
purification and sanctification of the heart that comes about through fully experienced and conscious participation in
the perfect and divine Spirit. 'Blessed are the pure in heart," it is said, 'for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8); and again:
'Become perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). And the psalmist says: 'Let my heart be unerring
in Thy statutes, so that I am not ashamed" (Ps. 1 19:80); and again: 'When I pay attention to all Thy commandments,
then I will not be ashamed" (Ps. 1 19:6). And to the person that asked, "Who will ascend the Lord's hill, or who will
stand in His holy place?" The psalmist replied: "He that has clean hands and a pure heart" (Ps. 24:3-4), that is to say,
he who has completely destroyed sin in act and thought.

3. The Holy Spirit, knowing that the unseen and secret passions are hard to get rid of - for they are as it were
rooted in the soul - shows us through the psalmist how we can purify ourselves from
[V3] 286

them. 'Cleanse me from my secret faults', writes the psalmist (Ps. 19: 12), as though to say that through much prayer
and faith, and by turning completely to God, we are able, with the help of the Spirit, to conquer them. But this is on
condition that we too strive against them and keep strict watch over our heart (cf Prov. 4:23).

[V4] 39

St Symeon the New Theologian
One Hundred and Fifty-Three Practical and Theological Texts

73. 'Blessed are the pure in heart,' says God, 'for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8). But purity of heart cannot be
realized through one virtue alone, or through two, or ten; it can only be realized through all of them together, as if
they formed but a single virtue brought to perfection. Even so the virtues cannot by themselves purify the heart
without the presence and inner working of the Spirit. For just as the bronzesmith demonstrates his skill through his
tools, but cannot make anything without the activity of fire, so a man using the virtues as tools
[V4] 40
can do everything, given the presence of the fire of the Spirit; but without this presence these took remain useless
and ineffective, not removing the stain that befouls the soul.


[V4] 72

St Symeon the New Theologian
The Three Methods of Prayer
In short, if you do not guard your intellect you cannot attain purity of heart, so as to be counted worthy to see God
(cf. Matt. 5:18). Without such watchfulness you cannot become poor in spirit, or grieve, or hunger and thirst after
righteousness, or be truly merciful, or pure in heart, or a peacemaker, or be persecuted for the sake of justice (cf.
Matt. 5:3-10). To speak generally, it is impossible to acquire all the other virtues except through watchfulness. For
this reason you must pursue it more diligently than anything else, so as to learn from experience these things,
unknown to others, that I am speaking to you about.

[V4] 84

Nikitas Stithatos

On the Practice of the Virtues:
One Hundred Texts

19. So long as we have the raw material of the passions within ourselves and, instead of repudiating it,
deliberately nurture it, the passions will prevail over us, deriving their strength from us. But when we cast this raw
material out, cleansing our hearts with the tears of repentance and abhorring the deceitfulness of visible things, then
we share in the presence of the Paraclete: we see God in eternal light and are seen by Him.

Forgiveness

 

 

Top four reasons to forgive (Bible) survey says....

1. “Be merciful even as your Father which is in heaven is merciful- forgiving(Lk.6:36). (Mt.18:35) God forgives, therefore we are to forgive.

2. God has forgiven us of a huge debt more than our brother ever owed to us. The offence my brother made against me, does that compare to my insults against God??? (Read Mt.18:20-34)

3. Jesus did! Jesus forgave those that crucified Him, as He said:
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” We may have had our ego’s crucified but not our body lately.

4. We are wrapped in a prison by our unforgiving spirit. We are tormented by it. Indeed part of hell for people is the suffering that comes from not forgiving. Why add injury to the insult.

Objections to forgiving....yes they exist.

Is forgiveness forgetting?
Yes...and no.
The word for forgive is afhimi . I leave something. When we forgive we leave it alone. It is behind us. In English we talk of remission of sins. This is accurate- just like a bill you are remitted of a debt so when we forgive we have remitted- cleared the balance someone owes us of love and respect.

God said concerning our sins,” I will forgive their iniquity and their sins will I REMEMBER no more.”

This does not mean we have to put confidence or trust in them again, we just can’t hold the sin against them- that is the sin of grudging.

"Why should I forgive him? (notice him...) He did this twice yesterday. He will never change."

How often should we forgive then ? Wellll,.... How often do we sin??? Every day. Not just 70 times but 70 times 70 we need forgiveness.

"I just can't forgive him, it hurts too much..."
How do we deal with the bitterness from the injury some one did to me?

All we can say is Christ is the Physician of our souls who can take the bitterness of life and turn it into blessedness if we allow Him.
The bitter cup of cursing in life is turned to a cup of blessing by His cross.

The Sunday of the prodigal son, I mean the passionate parent. The parenting parable not just for prodigals.


The Reading is from Luke 15:11-24
The Lord said this parable: "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.


This parable is meant for parents, not just prodigals.  God gives us a glimpse into His heart in this parable. How does He parent? Parenting is scary business. So He  draws  back  the veil of mystery and we see for a minute how  God  interacts with us.  He is not merely an aloof  distant clock maker of deists.  He is a personal parent  who  cares.  This ancient parable answers modern  problems.

Lesson one: problem children  are not always the result of parenting. Yes  we should not pass off  our failures as parents,  but  let us look at the record in the scripture.
First,  we know our Father is perfect.  The Father, God in this parable, had a child,us in the context, who  rebelled.  A perfect dad  still had bad kids. Look again at Adam.  The first born of God turned aside, and rejected God’s command. Now, we are not perfect obviously,  but we see kids in the Bible of even good people- ones with flaws - who still went astray.
Noah.  His son  Ham  disrespected him, and probably did some shameful things to his dad based on the text.
Isaac, a meek man  who loved God, his sons were Jacob and Esau. Jacob was a  Prince with God,  yet he was a crook, a swindler. His other son Esau casts away God’s blessing for a bowl of soup.
Then we see parents who were pious blessed with faithful kids (e.g. Joachim and Anna and  the parents of Samuel).
Then we see a mixed couple that get a saint.  Zacharias was not a great priest- he did not believe God,  his wife did.  They had John the Baptist.
Then  we see  a bad dad with a good kid.  Amon begat Josiah.  He saw the mistakes of his dad and turned Israel  around, starting a revival.

Lesson two:   Respect free will.  He did not say  NO  to his sons request. He did not force him. The boy wanted to go down  a path- I am sure he said no but he allowed it.  Why? Because virtue which is not free is not virtue.  Love has to be a free choice.

Lesson three:  Forgive and forget.  The Father did not cuss his son out.  He waited for  him to come back, even when the son  disobeyed every Jewish  law.  He was feeding swine, eating their food,  sleeping with prostitutes and spending all his dad's inheritance. He dishonored his father.
Yet the Father waited and ran  to embrace him.

Lesson four:  Don’t worry about embarrassment.  We know how communities can be. Everyone knows everyone.  So this man was shamed by his son already.  Yet  he does not let that stop him from  embracing him.  A further token  of  his not worrying about being embarrassed is  he ran.  In the Middle East  a man  does not run  like this- it is considered disgraceful.

These are practical  things  parents can lay to heart.  Children  are unique in their response to God,  they  must freely love Him and us,  we need to forget and forgive their errors, and wait for their return  not worrying about what other people say.

Did not our hearts burn within us???? Swing the censer!

Below  is Richard Trench's outstanding article  of Thumos  kai  Orgh.  This article  discusses the distinction  between  wrath and anger in the Septuagint and NT.  Please note the highlighted quotes of Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, very good. This is critical for understanding the anthropology  of the Fathers.  It is even more so  when we come to the Philokalia.  I mean  what exactly is St. Maximus talking about when  the logistikon  must rule as hegemenikon the epithumitikon and thumitikon?  It is actually pretty simple when  we get the general  concept.  Man's heart IS  a place of sacrifice.  Our thoughts are desires for something- epithumia-  or desires against something orgh, thumos (anger). This desire for the presence or absence of something ascends like incense to God.  The etymology of  heart confirms this.  Thumos is the feeling of the chest.  It is place where we feel perceive God's  presence-  hence it is where the warmth of God's love is perceived. Thumos is cognate to  Thuw-  I offer sacrifice,  and to Thuon,  thyme,  which is burned as incense.  So  the rational faculty- logistikon-  is to  control  the epithumitikon and  thumitikon-  the appetitive and incensive powers of the soul.  A person  stands as a priest before  God  directing to God  like the smoke of a sacrifice by his logos (rationality)  his desires and aversions  like incense.  May we ever stand then  before God's altar.

xxxvii. θυμός, ὀργή, παροργισμός.

Θυμός and ὀργή are found several times together in the N. T. (as at Rom. 2:8; Ephes. 4:31; Col. 3:8; Rev. 19:15); often also in the Septuagint (Ps. 77:49; Dan. 3:13; Mic. 5:15), and often also in other Greek (Plato, Philebus, 47 e; Polybius, vi. 56. 11; Josephus, Antt. xx. 5. 3; Plutarch, De Coh. Irâ, 2; Lucian, De Cal. 23); nor are they found only in the connexion of juxtaposition, but one made dependent on the other; thus θυμὸς τῆς ὀργῆς (Rev. 16:19; cf. Job 3:17; Josh. 7:26); while ὀργὴ θυμοῦ, not occurring in the N. T., is frequent in the Old (2 Chron. 29:10; Lam. 1:12; Isai. 30:27; Hos. 11:9). On one occasion in the Septuagint all the words of this group occur together (Jer. 21:5).
When these words, after a considerable anterior history, came to settle down on the passion of anger, as the strongest of all passions, impulses, and desires (see Donaldson, New Cratylus, 3rd ed. pp. 675–679; and Thompson, Phoedrus of Plato, p. 165), the distinguishing of them occupied not a little the grammarians and philologers. These felt, and rightly, that the existence of a multitude of passages in which the two were indifferently used (as Plato, Legg. ix. 867), made nothing against the fact of such a distinction; for, in seeking to discriminate between them, they assumed nothing more than that these could not be indifferently used on every occasion. The general result at which they arrived is this, that in θυμός connected with the intransitive θύω, and derived, according to Plato (Crat. 419 e), ἀπὸ τῆς θύσεως καὶ ζέσεως τῆς ψυχῆς, ‘quasi exhalatio vehementior’ (Tittmann), compare the Latin ‘fumus,’ is more of the turbulent commotion, the boiling agitation of the feelings,¹ μέθη τῆς ψμχῆς, St. Basil calls it, either presently to subside and disappear,—like the Latin ‘excandescentia,’ which Cicero defines (Tusc. iv. 9), ‘ira nascens et modo desistens’—or else to settle down into ὀργή, wherein is more of an abiding and settled habit of mind (‘ira inveterata’) with the purpose of revenge; ‘cupiditas doloris reponendi’ (Seneca, De Irâ, i. 5); ὁρμὴ ψυχῆς ἐν μελέτῃ κακώσεως κατὰ τοῦ παροξύναντος (Basil, Reg. Brev. Tract. 68);² the German ‘Zorn,’ ‘der activ sich gegen Jemand oder etwas richtende Unwille, die Opposition des unwillig erregten Gemtühes’ (Cremer). Thus Plato (Euthyph. 7) joins ἐχθρά, and Plutarch δυσμένεια (Pericles, 39), with ὀργή. Compare Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1851, p. 99, sqq.
This, the more passionate, and at the same time more temporary, character of θυμός (θυμοί, according to Jeremy Taylor, are ‘great but transient angers;’³ cf. Luke 4:28; Dan. 3:19) may explain a distinction of Xenophon, namely that θυμός in a horse is what ὀργή is in a man (De Re Eques. ix. 2; cf. Wisd. 7:20, θυμοὶ θηρίων: Plutarch, Gryll. 4, in fine; and Pyrrh. 16, πνεύματος μεστὸς καὶ θυμοῦ, full of animosity and rage). Thus the Stoics, who dealt much in definitions and distinctions, defined θυμός as ὀργὴ ἀρχομένη (Diogenes Laërtius, vii. 1. 63. 114); and Ammonius: θυμὸς μέν ἐστι πρόσκαιρος· ὀργὴ δὲ πολυχρόνιος μνησικακία. Aristotle, too, in his wonderful comparison of old age and youth, thus characterizes the angers of old men (Rhet . ii. 11): καὶ οἱ θυμοὶ, ὀξεῖς μέν εἰσιν, ἀσθενεῖς δέ—like fire in straw, quickly blazing up, and as quickly extinguished (cf. Euripides, Androm. 728, 729). Origen (in Ps. ii. 5, Opp. vol. ii. p. 541) has a discussion on the words, and arrives at the same results: διαφέρει δὲ θυμὸς ὀργῆς, τῷ θυμὸν μὲν εἶναι ὀργὴν ἀναθυμιωμένην καὶ ἔτι ἐκκαιομένην· ὀργὴν δὲ ὄρεξιν ἀντιτιμωρήσεως: cf. in Ep. ad Rom. ii. 8, which only exists in the Latin: ‘ut si, verbi gratiâ, vulnus aliquod pessimum iram ponamus, hujus autem tumor et distentio indignatio vulneris appelletur:’ so too Jerome (in Ephes. iv. 31): ‘Furor [θυμός] incipiens ira est, et fervescens in animo indignatio. Ira [ὀργή] autem est, quae furore extincto desiderat ultionem, et eum quem nocuisse putat vult laedere.’ This agrees with the Stoic definition of ὀργή, that it is τιμωρίας ἐπιθυμία τοῦ δοκοῦντος ἠδικηκέναι οὐ προσηκόντως (Diogenes Laërtius, vii. 113). So Gregory Nazianzene (Carm. ii. 34. 43, 44):

θυμὸς μέν ἐστιν ἀθρόος ζέσις φρένος,
ὀργὴ δὲ θυμὸς ἐμμένων.

And so too Theodoret, in Ps. 68:25 (69:24, E. V.), where the words occur together. διὰ τοῦ θυμοῦ τὸ ταχὺ δεδήλωκε, διὰ δὲ τῆς ὀργῆς τὸ ἐπίμονον. Josephus in like manner (B. J. ii. 8. 6) describes the Essenes as ὀργῆς ταμίαι δίκαιοι, θυμοῦ καθεκτικοί. Dion Cassius in like manner notes as one of the characteristic traits of Tiberius, ὠργίζετο ἐν οἷς ἥκιστα ἐθυμοῦτο (Vita Tib.).
Μῆνις (Isai. 16:6; Ecclus. 28:4; ‘ira perdurans,’ Damm’s Lex. Hom.) and κότος, being successively ‘ira inveterata’ and ‘ira inveteratissima’ (John of Damascus, De Fid. Orthod. 11. 16), nowhere occur in the N. T.
Παροργισμός, a word not found in classical Greek, but several times in the Septuagint (as at 1 Kin. 15:30; 2 Kin. 19:3), is not == ὀργή, though we have translated it ‘wrath.’ This it cannot be; for the παροργισμός (Ephes. 4:26, where only in the N. T. the word occurs; but παροργίζειν, Rom. 10:19; Ephes. 6:4), is absolutely forbidden; the sun shall not go down upon it; whereas under certain conditions ὀργή is a righteous passion to entertain. The Scripture has nothing in common with the Stoics’ absolute condemnation of anger. It inculcates no ἀπάθεια, but only a μετριοπάθεια, a moderation, not an absolute suppression, of the passions, which were given to man as winds to fill the sails of his soul, as Plutarch excellently puts it (De Virt. Mor. 12). It takes no such loveless view of other men’s sins as his who said, σεαυτὸν μὴ τάρασσε· ἁμαρτάνει τισ; ἑαυτῷ ἁμαρτάνει (Marcus Antoninus, iv. 46). But even as Aristotle, in agreement with all deeper ethical writers of antiquity (thus see Plato, Legg. v. 731 b: θυμοειδὴ μὲν χρὴ πάντα ἄνδρα εἶναι, κ. τ. λ.; Thompson’s Phoedrus of Plato, p. 166; and Cicero, Tusc. Quoest. iv. 19), had affirmed that, when guided by reason, anger is a right affection, so the Scripture permits, and not only permits, but on fit occasions demands, it. This all the profounder teachers of the Church have allowed; thus Gregory of Nyssa: ἀγαθὸν κτῆνός ἐστιν ὁ θυμὸς, ὅταν τοῦ λογισμοῦ ὑποζύγιον γένηται: and Augustine (De Civ. Dei, ix. 5): ‘In disciplinâ nostrâ non tam quaeritur utrum pius animus irascatur, sed quare irascatur.’ There is a “wrath of God” (Matt. 3:7; Rom. 12:19, and often), who would not love good, unless He hated evil, the two being so inseparable, that either He must do both or neither;⁴ a wrath also of the merciful Son of Man (Mark 3:5); and a wrath which righteous men not merely may, but, as they are righteous, must feel; nor can there be a surer and sadder token of an utterly prostrate moral condition than the not being able to be angry with sin—and sinners. ‘Anger,’ says Fuller (Holy State, iii. 8), ‘is one of the sinews of the soul; he that wants it hath a maimed mind, and with Jacob sinew- shrunk in the hollow of his thigh, must needs halt. Nor is it good to converse with such as cannot be angry.’ ‘The affections,’ as another English divine has said, ‘are not, like poisonous plants, to be eradicated; but as wild, to be cultivated.’ St. Paul is not therefore, as so many understand him, condescending here to human infirmity, and saying, ‘Your anger shall not be imputed to you as a sin, if you put it away before nightfall’ (see Suicer, Thes. s. v. ὀργή); but rather, ‘Be ye angry, yet in this anger of yours suffer no sinful element to mingle; there is that which may cleave even to a righteous anger, the παροργισμός, the irritation, the exasperation, the embitterment (‘exacerbatio’), which must be dismissed at once; that so, being defecated of this impurer element which mingled with it, that only may remain which has a right to remain.’

---

¹ It is commonly translated ‘furor’ in the Vulgate. Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. lxxxvii. 8) is dissatisfied with the application of this word to God, ‘furor’ being commonly attributed to those out of a sound mind, and proposes ‘indignatio’ in its room. For another distinction, ascribing ‘ira’ and ‘furor’ alike to God, see Bernard, Serm. in Cant. 69, § 3; a noticeable passage.
² In ἀγανάκτησις St. Basil finds the furthur thought that this eagerness to punish has the amendment of the offender for its scope. Certainly the one passage in the N. T. where ἀγανάκτησις occurs (2 Cor. 7:11) does not refuse this meaning.
³ Hampole in his great poem, The Pricke of Conscience, does not agree. In his vigorous, but most unlovely picture of an old man, this is one trait:—

‘He es lyghtly wrath, and waxes fraward,
Bot to turne hym fra wrethe, it es hard.’

⁴ See on this anger of God, as the necessary complement of his love, the excellent words of Lactantius (De Irâ Dei, c. 4): ‘Nam si Deus non irascitur impiis et injustis, nec pios utique justosque diligit. In rebus enim diversis aut in utramque partem moveri necesse est, aut in nullam.’
[The following Strong's numbers apply to this section: G2372, G3709, G3950.]

A translation of St Gregory Palamas, with notes

Below is the working translation of my thesis concerning St Gregory Palamas.  The original is first,  mine in the middle, and Meyendorff's. Now,  I will admit I am literalistic as far as translation theory.  My rendering is not as readable.  But I believe there are nuances in the text that a little extra verbiage elicits.  Namely, St Gregory was fighting the notion that we can only have a knowledge of created things.  However,  we believe and experience  the uncreated grace of God. Barlaam denied this proposition.  So  when translating  the  distinction  needs to be brought out.  Of course, someone could accuse me of eisegesis,  but everyone works out of presuppositions. God willing the rest of the passage will be posted next week.

Ἐπειδή τινων ἤκουσα λεγόντων δεῖν μεταδιώκειν τήν ἔξω σοφίαν καί τούς μονάζοντας, ὡς ἄνευ ταύτης οὐκ ἐνόν ἀγνοίας καί ψευδῶν ἀπαλλαγῆναι δοξασμάτων, κἄν εἰς ἀπάθειαν ἀφίκηταί τις ἄκραν, οὐδέ τελειότητός τε καί ἁγιότητος ἐπιλαβέσθαι, εἰ μή πανταχόθεν τό εἰδέναι συλλέξει, μάλιστα δέ τῆς καθ’ Ἕλληνας παιδείας, θεοῦ γάρ καί αὕτη δῶρον τῶν προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις δι’ ἀποκαλύψεως δεδομένων ὁμοίως, καί γνῶσις δι’ αὐτῆς τῶν ὄντων τῇ ψυχῇ προσγίνεται καί τό γνωστικόν κρεῖττον ὄν ἁπασῶν τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεων κοσμεῖ, πᾶσάν τε ἄλλην κακίαν ἐξορίζει τῆς ψυχῆς, καί γάρ πᾶν πάθος ἐξ ἀγνοίας φύεταί τε καί κρατύνεται, ἀλλά καί εἰς τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ γνῶσιν ποδηγεῖ τόν ἄνθρωπον· ἄλλως γάρ οὐκ ἔνι γνῶναι τόν Θεόν, εἰ μή διά τῶv
κτισμάτων


 Since I heard from certain people who  were saying, “ it’s necessary to  pursue the wisdom from without and the wisdom  of those who  live monastically, since without this no one is delivered from ignorance  and lying conjectures, and that if someone were to attain  perfect spiritual dispassion, he would  not lay hold of perfection  and holiness, unless he  gathers knowledge from every place, but especially the knowledge from a Hellenic  education, for this is also the gift of God, as likewise is the knowledge which is given by the prophets and apostles  through  revelation.  Through this education  knowledge is afforded to the soul  of created things.  The faculty of knowledge being better than all of the powers of the soul adorns a man, and banishes all other evil from the soul,  for every passion is both engendered and prevails out of ignorance, and  guides man toward the knowledge of God, for there is no other way for someone to know God, except through his creations." 


I  1 have heard it stated by certain people that monks also should pursue secular wisdom,
and that if they do not possess this wisdom, it is impossible for them to avoid ignorance and false opinions, even if they have achieved the highest level of impassibility; 2 and that one cannot acquire perfection and sanctity without seeking knowledge from all quarters, above all from Greek culture, 3 which also is a gift of God—just as were those insights granted to the prophets and apostles through revelation. This education confers on the soul the knowledge of [created] beings,  4 and enriches the faculty of knowledge,
which is the greatest of all the powers of the soul. For education not only dispels all other evils from the soul—since every passion has its root and foundation in ignorance—but it also leads men to the knowledge of God, for God is knowable only through the mediation of His creatures. 5



THE  ARGUMENT  AT HAND
has  implications.  Hellenic education is a blessing-  but it is not necessary for understanding the Scriptures or to have the experience of the grace of God. The Fathers can be understood by themselves without having to resort to Hellenic categories- since they transformed them.  Now,  if someone perchance is inclined to  learn all the details of say  Plotinus  his Monad etc: na na euloghmena. It won't draw you closer to God, only katharsis does that.

What goes up MUST come down

The Reading is from Luke 18:10-14
The Lord said this parable, "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

No matter how hard we try  on this world we cannot  escape Newton’s law of physics:  for every action there is an equal  and opposite reaction. If we  hit something we will have an impact equal  and opposite to how hard we hit.
Spiritually the same is true for us.  God allows us to reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7). If someone  exalts himself, lifts himself  up, then  God will put him  down. Contrariwise, if we humble ourselves, God will lift us up, “humble yourselves before the Lord that He may exalt you in due time”
The Pharisee, a symbol for us religious  people,  here lifted himself up,  God however put him in his place.  As we  start Lent  very shortly,  let’s realize we can’t escape this spiritual  law:  what goes up must come down.  Like Newton’s  law,”for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,”  the same is true.  If we want to be lifted up then  we must humble  ourselves-  submit to God’s will, “God gives more grace (He lifts up)  therefore He says God resists the proud,  but gives grace unto the humble.”