Orthodixie

Today is the birthday of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121). Marcus was emperor of Rome from 161 – 180 A.D. Though certainly not a Christian, we can learn from his words. From MEDITATIONS, here’s a sampling …

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.

Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people — unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful. You’ll be too preoccupied with what so-and-so is doing, and why, and what they’re saying, and what they’re thinking, and what they’re up to, and all the other things that throw you off and keep you from focusing on your own mind.

You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.

Constant awareness that everything is born from change. The knowledge that there is nothing nature loves more than to alter what exists and make new things like it. All that exists is the seed of will emerge from it. You think the only seeds are the ones that make plants or children? Go deeper.

Nothing that goes on in anyone else’s mind can harm you. Nor can the shifts and changes in the world around you. Then where is the harm to be found?

Suppose that [God] announced that you were going to die tomorrow, or the day after. Unless you were a complete coward you wouldn’t kick up a fuss about which day it was: what difference could it make? Now recognize that the difference between years from now and tomorrow is just as small.

The best revenge is not to be like that.

Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it’s humanly possible, you can do it too.

Care for other human beings. Follow God.

It’s quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it. Remember that.

It’s silly to try to escape other people’s faults. The are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

Give yourself a gift: the present moment.

It doesn’t matter how good a life you’ve led. There’ll still be people standing around the bed who will welcome the sad event.

Image from the North Carolina Art Museum.

All this week, Ancient Faith Radio is airing reports from Fr. Kevin Scherer, Executive Director of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship, as he is on the campus of Virginia Tech University. OCF and IOCC are joined together to provide pastoral counsel and encouragement on the campus following the recent shootings.

Click on Ancient Faith Radio to find the story & link.

Thanks to FWD from Fr Miguel Grave de Peralta via Diogenes.

(A 2X sleeveless shell? O my. In that case, best — by far — to stick with the more traditional black.)

Place order here.

2007 is the 1600th anniversary of the repose of St. John Chrysostom, the “Golden-mouth.” For the Orthodox Church, St. John is one of the most brilliant lights among the fathers and saints who adorn her history. He is best known for his sermons and commentaries on the Scriptures, fearless leadership as a chief hierarch and shepherd of the Church, selfless care for the poor and sick, and for the Liturgy that bears his name. The service for the feast of the Three Hierarchs extols him as an equal to St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Basil the Great. Yet St. John is not noted as an exponent of the dogmas of the faith.

What then is St. John Chrysostom’s place among the fathers of the Church? This is the theme of the Symposium to be held in St. Louis, September 28-30, 2007.

For more information go H E R E.

Presenters: Mitred Archpriest George Larin – Rector, Holy Protection Church, Nyack, NY

Archpriest Valentin Asmus – Professor of Byzantine History at Moscow Theological Academy; Member of the Patriarchal Theological Commission

Rev. Dr. John Behr – Professor of Patristics and Dean-elect of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Crestwood, NY

Dr. David Bradshaw – Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Kentucky

Dr. Matthew Steenberg – Head of Theology, Greyfriars, Oxford University, England

Guest Choir: St. John of San Francisco Men’s Chorale, Nicholas Kotar, Conductor San Francisco, CA

Thanks to FWD from Jean-Michel.

The Internet. From seemingly out of nowhere it has swooped in to dominate — Dominate — much of our lives. Thank God for the ease of search engines like Google, and the ability (if desired) of keeping abreast of recent – up to the millisecond — news.

[There’s also the ease of gossip, endless pics of naughty bits, and all that ridiculous spam in our e-mailboxes. What is a Barrister anyway? How many rich people are there in Nigeria – and why do they all want to give me their money? It can, at its worst, resemble the graffiti on a men’s room wall in a run down gas station. It’s only legit if the “author” was illiterate – misspelled words carry great weight on PRW (public restroom walls).]

When something like the massacre at Virginia Tech occurs, the discussion around the GWC (Global Water Cooler) changes. The GWC, in many respects, is no different than the old-timey proverbial one: People chat about the news of the day; if you want to be heard, you have to stay on topic. When something extreme happens the chatter stops entirely. For a moment … Then the emotions; the analyzing, the pontificating and awfulizing. Somewhere along the way, as with all things HOP (human-outside-paradise), the topic becomes politicized. Some leave the discussion. Others become experts on the subject. Few learn anything new. But the chatter goes on. It’s possible to lose all sense of “otherness” beyond the tragedy.

During “normal time,” The Weather is always a safe bet for small talk. Now, thanks to the uncertainties of the GWD (Global Warming Debate), we can’t even civilly discuss that!

Back in my days in radio it was considered a bit of a stoop for a station to “sell the weather.” That is, some stations would have the DJ to say that the forecast was coming up … brought to you by … and the listeners would have to endure the sponsor’s ad just to find out the current temp and predictions. Now that sounds old-timey. Not selling the weather? Pshaw! These days, every broadcast station does it. There’s even a whole Cable Channel devoted to selling the weather.

But, bear with me here: What if we could politicize the weather? What if the new TTH (threat to humankind) is none other than the constant threat of … the weather!

We should just shut up.

Take a breath.

Unfortunately, now that we have entered “election cycle,” we can’t, they won’t, some body else will … it’s a mess.

Great. The Internet = The new Tower of Babel. Who’d a thunk?

Speaking of thunk? Since when did the common denominator of a mass murderer become: “He was a loner?” Good heavens. Loner and crazy tend to go together. I mean, one doesn’t require the other but; they’re seldom without each other. The same could be said for Loner and Genius — but we just don’t seem to have a lot of genius running ’round these days. Crazy, however? Prevalent.

Speaking of crazy – Some things don’t even strike me as queer anymore. For example, while scanning the news my eyes often deceive me. A while back, this is what I read:

Pat Robertson responsible for killing cats

Of course, that’s NOT what the blurb said.
I later discovered that Pat Robertson was really Rat Poison!

Weeks later, the same eyes:

Giuliani’s Head Shrinks

Which was, rather … Giuliani’s Lead Shrinks

But, you see, the problem is not so much my old eyes – but the fact that the world has gotten so nutty that it was only later, much later, that it registered that I’d been deceived. At first glance, I paid no mind to such wild headlines!

Crazy.

Anyway, all this is to say, I could almost swear that I’ve heard voices saying the killings at Virginia Tech might be attrubitable to rich kids, firearms, loner-hood, system failure, the dean, kookiness, the police — in fact, anything …

but evil.