Comments | methodius: The unrespectability of our religion

methodius

The unrespectability of our religion

Mar 13, 2007 08:55

I was transcribing some of my old journals this morning, and came across what I had written when I was 19 in response to reading about Leon Bloy. When I got home I finished reading Leon Bloy and marvelled at his faith and devotion. He had been prepared to live nearly all his life in poverty -- nay, in destitution -- for the sake of Jesus ( Read more... )

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Christian mizannie March 13 2007, 12:07:05 UTC

At 58, I am just barely beginning to ( ... )

Re: Christian methodius March 13 2007, 13:27:12 UTC

I think that's wonderful!

Remember the parable of those who laboured from the first hour, and those who laboured from the 11th hour. And pray for me, who have had so much longer to betray the vision so many more times.

Yes, those intentional communities can be very important. I was a member of a couple of such communities, and saw several more. Now they are sometimes called "urban monasticism". The pitfalls are many, but God can use them in spite of all human folly.

Human Folly mizannie March 13 2007, 14:16:07 UTC

Oh how I am laughing because I have been
right in the middle of some community
human folly! If there's a mechanism in
place for true charity, reconciliation,
these conflicts are grist for spiritual
growth, if not, well, you know the rest
of that story.

One of the things that gives me pause in
the Orthodox churches in these parts is that
women are still somewhat considered lesser,
unclean and all that. Perhaps you can enlighten
me as to the theology of women from the Orthodox
doctrine? It will be a stumbling block, for me,
I think.

I enjoy your writing and your LJ very much. I
take it, you too, have progressed in your journey
from another denomination to Orthodoxy? It seems
that Orthodoxy is the mother of us all, really.

Women in the Orthodox Church methodius March 13 2007, 17:13:32 UTC

Concerning women in the Orthodox Church, perhaps the best I can do for now is give an excerpt from my journal for 26 March 1998, when I was visiting Bulgaria, though it may be too long for an LJ commentPlamen took me to see the St Peter & St Paul monastery, a few kilometres outside Sofia. It has two nuns, Sr Veronica and Sr Desislava. Sr Veronica, said Plamen, had been a chemist, and St Desislava had studied film production. The monastery was a short way out of town with a double-storeyed house and a whitewashed chapel, surrounded by a high wall, out in the fields near the highway to Plovdiv. It was cold now, with a cold wind blowing off the snow-covered mountains all around, and sweeping across the open fields. Sr Veronica let us in the gate, made of scaffolding planks, and took us through the muddy yard with snow-covered piles of building materials. We went to the kitchen - the only warm room in the house, warmed by a wood-burning stove, and we sat down at the kitchen table. St Veronica wanted to know more about Orthodoxy in South ( ... )

Re: Women in the Orthodox Church mizannie March 13 2007, 17:25:47 UTC

How very moving. These are brave women.
I am thinking, in all denominations, that
the majority in attendance are always
women, grieving, weeping, praying, and
that the men and children come often
because of our fidelity. I know I'm
not chattel and realize the gift God
gave me when he made me female.

Re: Women in the Orthodox Church methodius March 13 2007, 19:51:06 UTC

Yes, they are brave women, but, what is more significant, they have an important ministry in the church. I didn't want to add too much because of the limits on the size of LJ comments, but the thing that struck me was that they were both educated women who had had fairly prestigious secular careers. Their repentance led them to a much simpler life, of prayer and worship and manual labour. Yet young people (male and female) would go out there from Sofia for spiritual advice.

I only met them for an afternoon, so my impressions could be misleading, but nevertheless it seemed to me that their powerful spiritual ministry arose from their repentance and simplicity, not from their secular education and expertise. And yet their secular education and experience enabled them to empathise with the young people who came to them, who had often to make their way trying to live a Christian life in a secular world, and it was their experience of both that enabled them to have such a powerful ministry.

Re: Women in the Orthodox Church mizannie March 13 2007, 20:51:07 UTC

There's a Skete here where one woman monastic ( ... )

Re: Women in the Orthodox Church methodius March 14 2007, 17:41:09 UTC

I've also long been interested in Dorothy Day, used to read The Catholic Worker avidly ( ... )

Re: Women in the Orthodox Church mizannie March 14 2007, 18:29:12 UTC

You hit the nail on the head about what ( ... )

Re: Women in the Orthodox Church methodius March 14 2007, 21:03:39 UTC

Do you have any sprcific examples in mind?

Re: Christian mizannie March 13 2007, 14:18:59 UTC

One other thing. I live inside the 'house of
cards' where appearances are everything and
substance is nothing. Kind of makes a mockery
out of the Eucharist and this moves me to
some serious suffering. I can't be a part of
it anymore but yet I am as big a sinner and
hypocrite as the next guy, but I wanna' stop
being that way.

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