Hello there. Back from Camp St Raphael … pics soon to follow.
While away, I read Anne Rice’s book, Christ the Lord – Out of Egypt. I’ve mentioned it before. My pal, Stolzi, recommended it; John Stamps reviewed it … I decided to finally read it.
It was good.
I recommend it.
I look forward to (some day) reading it again.
Your thoughts appreciated.
The buzz for One Flew Over the Onion Dome: American Orthodox Converts, Retreads & Reverts has been, for me personally, too cool. There’s nothing quite like signing parties where you sell out of books.
(I assume that’s much better than signing parties where you’re packing books back in your trunk with ink-a-plenty to spare!)
I’ve added the PayPal feature to the margin of this blog. This is particularly handy for those who wish to have a personalized copy and/or support my wife & children. 🙂
My interview with John Maddex of the excellent Ancient Faith Radio will most likely air, Central Time, thusly:
Sat June 24 at 10:30am CT
Sun June 25 at 3:00pm CT
Tue Jun 27 at 7:30pm CT
Thu Jun 29 at 9:30am CT
My appearance on the wonderful program Come Receive the Light will most likely air in late July.
Both programs, Ancient Faith & Come Receive the Light, may be accessed using the buttons in this blog’s margin — where you can also order multiple copies of One Flew through Regina Orthodox Press.
THANKS … to tmatt (aka Terry Mattingly) who has been a great help …
Buy his book (too)!
AND to my boss, Fr John Salem, who not only tolerates my foolishness, but is a most gifted priest (PR Agent & Cheerleader)!
NOTE: I shall be away at Camp St Raphael in Oklahoma until July 1st. Most likely, no blogging; certainly, no comment approval. All the same, prayers coveted.
Ya Boy!
From the LA Times.
In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a … different vision. As mayor of Tehran in 2004, he spent millions on improvements to make the city more welcoming for the return of a Muslim messiah known as the Mahdi, according to a recent report by the American Foreign Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
Conversely, some Jewish groups in Jerusalem hope to clear the path for their own messiah by rebuilding a temple on a site now occupied by one of Islam’s holiest shrines.
Artisans have re-created priestly robes of white linen, gem-studded breastplates, silver trumpets and solid-gold menorahs to be used in the Holy Temple — along with two 6½-ton marble cornerstones for the building’s foundation.
Then there is Clyde Lott, a Mississippi revivalist preacher and cattle rancher. He is trying to raise a unique herd of red heifers to satisfy an obscure injunction in the Book of Numbers: the sacrifice of a blemish-free red heifer for purification rituals needed to pave the way for the messiah.
Like it or not: a must read.
HT: Drudge
Ya gotta love it!
Metropolitan PHILIP visits St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in New York, meets with Representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in the United States
Today is the birthday of Anna Akhmatova.
From The Voice of Another
Don’t torment your heart with earthly joys,
Don’t cling to your wife or your home,
Take the bread from your child
To give to a stranger.
And be the humblest servant of the one
Who was your bitterest foe,
And call the beast of the forest your brother,
And don’t ask God for anything, ever.
December 1921, Petersburg, p.262.
From Lamentation
You are worshipping the Lord
In his holy courtyard.
God’s fool sleeps on the church porch,
And a star looks down at him.
And touched by an angel’s wing,
A bell begins to speak,
Not with alarm, with a voice of terror,
But saying farewell forever.
And the saints and miracle workers,
Leaving their ancient icon frames,
Come out of the cloister
Leaning on crutches.
Seraphim — to the woods of Sarov,
To shepherd the rural flocks,
Anna — no longer a princess,
To Kashin, to pull the prickly flax.
With them goes the Mother of God,
Wrapping her son in a shawl
Dropped by an old beggar woman
On the front steps of the Lord.
May 24, 1922, Petersburg, pp.275-276.
REQUIEM
No, not under the vault of alien skies,
And not under the shelter of alien wings —
I was with my people then,
There, where my people, unfortunately, were.
1961, p.384.
The Muse
How can I live with this burden?
And yet they call it the Muse.
They say: “You and she are in a meadow …”
They say: “The divine babble …”
More savagely than fever she attacks you,
Then for a whole year, not a syllable.
Summer, 1959, p.414.
From the First Notebook [Fragment]
In my room lives a beautiful
Slow black snake;
It is like me, just as lazy,
Just as cold.
In the evening I compose marvelous tales
On the rug by the fire’s red glow,
And with emerald eyes
It gazes at me indifferently.
At night the dead, mute icons hear
Resisting moans …
It’s true, I would desire another
Were it not for the serpent eyes.
But in the morning, submissive once more, I
Melt, like a slender candle …
And then from my bare shoulder
A black ribbon slides.
(1910), pp.621-622.
I’m not embarrassed by offensive remarks,
I don’t blame anyone for anything.
Just don’t give me a shameful ending
To my shameful life.
Decade of the 1910’s, p.635.
to A.A.Blok
From you came uneasiness
And the ability to write verse.
Spring, 1914, p.639.
Fragment
……………………………………..
O God, for myself I could forgive everything,
But I would rather be a hawk clawing a lamb,
Or a serpent biting someone sleeping in the field,
Than to be a human and be forced to see
What people do, and from putrid shame,
Not dare to raise my eyes to the heavens on high.
(1916), p.647.
In this church I heard the Canon
Of Andrey Krutsky one bleak day,
And from then on the Great Lent tolling,
All seven weeks, right up to Easter midnight,
Merged with chaotic shooting,
Everyone parted provisionally,
Never to meet again …
1917, Petersburg, p.650.
From the Cycle “Secrets of the Craft”
Don’t repeat — your soul is rich —
That which has been said before,
But perhaps poetry itself —
Is a single splendid quotation.
September 4, 1956, p.703.
These verses come from The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova (Expanded Edition), Translated by Judith Hemschemeyer, edited by Roberta Feeder; Zephyr Press, 1997.
Finally, her last recorded verse …
Necessity herself has finally submitted,
And has stepped pensively aside.
February, 1966, p.769.
May her memory, and that of all artists who suffered under the Godless Authorities, be eternal!
Originally posted April 2005.
