A Prayer for my Enemies

Bless My Enemies O Lord

Bp. Nikolai Velimirovich

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Bp. Nikolai Velimirovich was a Serbian bishop in the last century who spoke out courageously against Nazism until he was arrested and taken to Dachau.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.

Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.

They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.

They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments.

They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself.

They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.

Bless my enemies, O Lord, Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.

Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.

Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:

so that my fleeing to You may have no return;

so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;

so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul;

so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins, arrogance and anger;

so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven;

ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.

One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.

It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies.

Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and enemies.

A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.

For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life.

Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them.

From Prayers by the Lake by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, published by the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of New Gracanica, 1999.

from the Abbot Jonah

“The Holy Spirit gives the Church her vision, which comes from our identity in Christ as His Body. This vision is identical with the vision of all those who have gone before us precisely because it is the same Body, with the same vocation, mission, and identity: to be the Body of Christ: the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Whenever we add elements to that vision, we distort it, no matter how noble our qualifications and agendas may be. Whenever we subtract from or diminish it, we do likewise. If we change the vision in any way, we exclude ourselves from it and from the Body which it constitutes.”

Who Are These Mad Ones?

Abba Anthony said that the time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will rise up against him, saying that you are mad, because you are not like them.

– Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Anthony

From the Stories of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov…

–The king answered, “But if we alone are the sane ones, and the rest of the world is mad, then we will be the ones who everyone will consider to be the mad ones… let us make a mark on our foreheads so that we should at least know that we are mad. I will look at your forehead, and you will look at mine, and seeing this sign, we will know that we are both mad.”

Here’s what they did

“Long ago, in a faraway land, there was a strange type of mold that affected the grain in the fields. The king knew that if his people ate this grain, they would lose their mind and go mad. He discussed the problem with his chief adviser, and they decided to use the grain in the storehouses while trying to find a remedy for the afflicted grain. Time passed and the storehouses were empty, but still no remedy was found. The king decided that it would be better to feed his people the grain that would make them lose their mind than to let them die of starvation.

“I too will eat of this grain,” he told his adviser,

“so that I will be like my people –lost in madness. From that shared place, I will be able to lead them.”

“But what of me?” said the adviser,

“I will advise you, but you will not understand me.”

“You too must eat of the grain,” said the king,

“but there is one more thing. Before we eat this grain, I will order all my people to put a mark on their forehead. Every morning, they must look at their reflection and see this mark and ask themselves who they really are.”

How tragic if they forgot to look at their reflections…

From Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment:

“…He dreamt that the whole world was condemned to a terrible new strange plague that had come to Europe from the depths of Asia. All were to be destroyed except a very few chosen. Some new sorts of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them became at once mad and furious. But never had men considered themselves so intellectual and so completely in possession of the truth as these sufferers, never had they considered their decisions, their scientific conclusions, their moral convictions so infallible. Whole villages, whole towns and peoples went mad from the infection. All were excited and did not understand one another. Each thought that he alone had the truth and was wretched looking at the others, beat himself on the breast, wept, and wrung his hands. They did not know how to judge and could not agree what to consider evil and what good; they did not know whom to blame, whom to justify. Men killed each other in a sort of senseless spite. They gathered together in armies against one another, but even on the march the armies would begin attacking each other, the ranks would be broken and the soldiers would fall on each other, stabbing and cutting, biting and devouring each other. The alarm bell was ringing all day long in the towns; men rushed together, but why they were summoned and who was summoning them no one knew. The most ordinary trades were abandoned, because everyone proposed his own ideas, his own improvements, and they could not agree. The land too was abandoned. Men met in groups, agreed on something, swore to keep together, but at once began on something quite different from what they had proposed. They accused one another, fought and killed each other. There were conflagrations and famine. All men and all things were involved in destruction. The plague spread and moved further and further. Only a few men could be saved in the whole world. They were a pure chosen people, destined to found a new race and a new life, to renew and purify the earth, but no one had seen these men, no one had heard their words and their voices.”

Icons Piercing Space and Time

“Like the Incarnation, the icon pierces space and time, because a physical object—a piece of wood with gesso and paint and gold leaf—is shot through with God’s eternal presence.”

This from the highly recommended post here, by Susan Cushman.

Just to Clarify

Bill Bryson, in A Short History of Everything, includes a section on most major fields of scientific inquiry, and makes them accessible to us amateurs. In a section on the laws of thermodynamics, here’s how Bryson clarifies each law for us (except the zeroth, which states, “If two thermodynamic systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.”

First law:
“for a thermodynamic cycle the sum of net heat supplied to the system and the net work done by the system is equal to zero”

Bryson translation:
“you can’t create energy”

Second law:
“The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium”
Bryson translation:
“a little energy is always wasted“

Third law:
“As temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a system approaches a constant”
Bryson translation:
“you can’t reduce temperatures to absolute zero – there will always be some residual warmth“

To be certain we understand how these laws came about, Bryson quotes the following from P. W. Atkins:

“There are four Laws. The third of them, the Second Law, was recognized first; the first, the Zeroth Law, was formulated last; the First Law was second; the Third Law might not even be a law in the same sense as the others.”

If only they’d have made it this clear when I was in school.

Reverse Perspective, New Perspective

The other day on a long straight run of highway I paid attention to the effect of geometric perspective and the vanishing point. Because of the geometry from our vantage point, lines (or highways) that are in fact parallel, appear to converge – coming together at a vanishing point on the horizon.

One useful effect of geometric perspective is the sense of distance it conveys. This effect is strengthened by the related effect of distant objects appearing smaller than they really are.

The effect perspective conveyed to me that day was one of “I’m here, this is the place I am, this is where my consciousness is, and whatever might be at that vanishing point is not here, is not affecting me, is less real than where I am.” My immediate environs, what all I was taking in through peripheral vision, was “what’s happening”, so to speak.

Icons depict backgrounds in Reverse Perspective. One of the resultant effects is that whatever is portrayed on the icon is the “here and now”, the “what’s happening”, and I as the observer am the one at the vanishing point, I’m the “not here”, and I’m not “what’s happening”. Here’s a crude illustration:

Reverse perspective also has, to me at least, a magnetic effect. An icon done in this way seems to be inviting participation – pulling us in. In fact, the effect seems to be one of drawing everything in – my surroundings as well as myself – functioning to reconcile here and there, then and now. Their now becomes my now, and their there becomes my there.

New Testament Presupposes Liturgical Service

From Dom Gregory Dix, widely respected Liturgical Scholar, in his work The Theology Of Confirmation In Relation To Baptism

We know now, too, that the Apostolic paradosis of practice, like the Apostolic paradosis of doctrine, is something which actually ante-dates the writing of the New Testament documents themselves by some two or three decades. It is presupposed by those documents and referred to more than once as authoritative in them. This paradosis of practice continued to develop in complete freedom from any control by those documents for a century after they were written, before they were collected into a New Testament ‘Canon’ and recognized for the first time as authoritative ‘Scripture’ beside and above the Jewish ‘Scriptures’ of the Old Testament, which alone formed the ‘Bible’ of the Apostolic Church. Now that the history of the Canonization of the New Testament is better understood, we can begin to shake ourselves free from the sixteenth century — or rather the medieval — delusion that primitive Christian Worship and Church Order must have been framed in conscious deference to the precedents of a New Testament which as such did not yet exist. The purely occasional documents now found in it do not contain, and were never intended by their authors to contain, anything like the Old Testament codes of prescriptions for the rites of worship. That was governed by the authoritative ‘Apostolic Tradition’ of practice, to which it is plain that the scattered Gentile Churches adhered pretty rigidly throughout the second century. I am not for a moment seeking to question the authoritative weight of the New Testament Scriptures for us as a written doctrinal standard. I am only trying to point out that there is available another source of information on the original and authentic Apostolic interpretation of Christianity, which the Scriptures presuppose and which must be used in the interpretation of the Scriptures. I do not deny that in time the recognition of this fact will be bound to lead to some considerable readjustment of ideas for more than one set of people. But tonight all I would say is that the liturgical tradition can be shewn to be older in some of its main elements than the New Testament Scriptures, and that down to the end of the second century, at least, it was regarded as having an ‘Apostolic’ authority of its own independently of them. We cannot look, therefore, for any attempt in this period to conform the practice of worship to them artificially. Nevertheless, the two do illustrate one another in a remarkable way.

Some thoughts on this passage:

1. “there is available another source of information on the original and authentic Apostolic interpretation of Christianity, which the Scriptures presuppose and which must be used in the interpretation of the Scriptures”… to discard this other source is to lose the ability to interpret Scripture in a consistent way, hence the extreme splintering amongst post-reform confessions.

2. “The purely occasional documents now found in (the NT) do not contain, and were never intended by their authors to contain, anything like the Old Testament codes of prescriptions for the rites of worship.”… hence the wide variety of worship rites practiced amongst the churches spawned from the reformation – a sola scriptura approach leaves one without a coherent instruction in worship

3. “in time the recognition of this fact will be bound to lead to some considerable readjustment of ideas for more than one set of people”… Dix put this out in about 1948. It’s not unusual to see a lag on the order of a couple decades between the time scholars begin publishing on a topic and the time the effects are measurable among the general populace. So I think Dix was correct judging from the growing number of converts from protestant circles to Roman Catholic and Orthodox liturgical communions.

Thanks to a guy named Andrew over at Energetic Procession for the Dix quotation.

It’s an Issue of Blood

The Gospel reading during today’s Divine Liturgy included Luke’s accounts of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter and of the woman with an issue of blood who was healed when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. I was more engaged during the whole service today than usual, including during the readings. For twelve years this woman struggled with her health crisis, which became also a financial crisis. And Jairus’ daughter was 12 years young when she… died. One family had a joyous event 12 years prior, and one woman began her personal nightmare that same year. Now both the woman and the girl’s father ended up in the same place this day, both showing up with faith in Christ, and both drew near at about the same time. And the woman’s faith ended up bolstering the faith of the father when, after he heard the news of his daughter’s death, Jesus turned to him and used very similar words as He just used with the now-healed woman – she’ll be “made whole”. Our priest emphasized the woman’s faith that brought her there, and said she received more than she came for – she was made whole.

Sometimes when I feel that maybe it’s been too long since I’ve last been to confession, I figure that I shouldn’t go forward to receive communion. I was in that situation today – should I go forward or wait until after confession. In these situations, the words of the Church always strike me, “in the fear of God, and with faith and love draw near”. The woman with the health crisis did just that, and my mind was drawn back to her when I decided to go forward. I need Christ, and I want to push through the crowd and at least touch His hem and be made whole.

In the back of the line, I couldn’t see what was happening up front, only the back of people’s heads. But I could see people way at the front bending down (kids receiving communion), doing things… commotion. The activity up there showed that He was here, and everyone wanted to get forward (“…as he went the people thronged him”). We were more orderly than the crowd that day. As I got closer, I thought about the woman getting closer to her turn. And as always, I got more nervous the closer I got. Judging from the woman’s reaction after her healing (“…she came trembling, and falling down before him”), I’m thinking she was also pretty nervous when she first approached, before anyone knew she was there. She wasn’t so brazen as to approach from the front (she “came behind Him”), and she used anonymity to cloak herself. I had no such anonymity. It was my turn, and I was “outed” just before I got there, (as she was after her encounter)… “the servant of God, George…” Announced by name no less, and with every reason to tremble and fall down before Him as the woman had when she “saw that she was not hid”. Being immediately before the King of Glory who is surrounded by throngs of angels, and your name gets announced. I didn’t fall down before Him, but I did tremble, if only inwardly, and received the Body and Blood of Christ.

The Epistle reading today (from Ephesians) serves as a most appropriate commentary to the Gospel – “by Grace you are saved through faith, not of works…” and, we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works”. The woman was clearly saved by Grace through her faith, and apparently continued in good works. We know from the Church historian Bishop Eusebius that she later erected a statue honoring Christ in Ceasaria Phillipi. Eusebius actually saw this statue sometime around 300 A.D., and mentioned a plant that grew up onto the hem of the sculpted cloak and had healing properties.

The Bigger Picture

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Here’s the complete picture from which I got the banner at the top of this site. It’s from the tonsuring of Daniel, a monk at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. He sent this and some other photos of the event to me – those can be seen here.

Do the Orthodox Consider Themselves Mystics?

A gentleman named Lee, who lately has been asking some interesting questions over at Energetic Procession, asked me “Do the Orthodox consider themselves mystics?”

Perry, the patriarch of Energetic Procession, offered the following answer to Lee: “We are not mystics in the sense of negating reason or thinking that salvation comes through the abolition of personhood or its absorption into one divine singularity. Mystical refers to mysteries or the sacraments so in that sense the Orthodox are “mystical.””

The term “mystic” is loaded, so we’ll start with some definitions, then I’ll list some Orthodox practices and beliefs, then the reader can decide if the question has been answered.

Inspiring a sense of mystery and wonder (American Heritage Dictionary)
Difficult to explain or understand (Houghton Mifflin Thesaurus)
A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience (American Heritage Dictionary)
An experience of direct communion with God, or union with the Absolute (Oxford University Press)
Belief in union with the divine nature by means of ecstatic contemplation (Oxford University Press)

I doubt that any Orthodox Christian would ever call themself a Mystic. However, consider what we practice and believe in light of the definitions above.

We believe in the real presence of the Son of God, one of the Holy Trinity, in the Eucharist served at each Divine Liturgy. When we participate, we are partaking of God.

In addition to the Eucharist, we believe and participate in a number of other Mysteries (sacraments), through which Grace is administered to us by God. These include for example baptism and chrismation, marriage, unction (healing), confession, ordination. The photo banner on top of this blog shows a mystery in progress – the tonsuring of a monk (Fr. Daniel at Holy Trinity Monastery). These are not merely symbols – something happens.

We believe the Incarnation changed everything, physical matter included. So we bless everything – water, icons, homes, food, each other.

We believe that there are spiritual giants among us, who we call Saints (with a capital S, recognizing that we are all called to be saints). We try to study the Lives of the Saints every day, we try to emulate them, we wonder at the manifestation of Christ in their lives, like the glowing of a sword in a fire, we love them dearly, we keep icons of them in our homes, we venerate their relics. God is glorified in them. We pray for their intercession, since the prayers of the righteous are powerful. Here’s an example from today’s commemoration – St. Varus was martyred sometime around 300 A.D. A godly woman retrieved his body from where his persecutors dumped him, and she buried him in her home. She censed and prayed there daily, and eventually moved to Palestine and took his relics with her, where she continued the practice. Many people began to come and do likewise, and miracles of healing took place. This sort of thing continues to this day, even with recent Saints, and it’s not uncommon for the relics of a Saint to be incorrupt and exuding a perfumed aroma, sometimes myrrh.

We are radical in our belief in what scriptures say, taking literally that we can “participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world”. Like Perry said, that doesn’t mean that we cease to become persons, or become absorbed into a mystical singularity. We have many great examples of Orthodox Saints who have gone far in this process, often manifesting the Grace about them with superb wisdom, a bright light like the Transfiguration (St. Seraphim of Sarov, for example), healing illnesses, reading people’s souls, prophesying, affecting time, etc. The accounts are without number at a place like Mt. Athos, the geographic soul of Orthodoxy. I met a man who had suffered brain damage in a car accident, which caused the loss of his livelihood and inability to speak properly. When he visited Mt. Athos, some unknown monk greeted him by name, put his hand on the man’s head and said “the Theotokos loves you” (Theotokos = mother of God). He was completely healed and today helps sponsor an Orthodox monastery.

No Orthodox works on becoming a mystic. We only work on repentance, and we pray constantly, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.