Holy Hieromartyr Clement, Bishop of Ancyra, and Holy Martyr Agathangelus
Commemorated on January 23
1. Bible: St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 3:20-21; 4:1-3
Brethren, our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power which enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. And I ask you also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
2. Liturgy: “Holy Synaxis: The Entrance” by St. Maximus the Confessor
Thursday was the feast day of St. Maximus the Confessor (d. A.D. 662). Among many other books that you can
read about here, he wrote a commentary on the divine liturgy. Here’s a bit from the eighth chapter on the meaning of the entrance of the bishop into the Church:
The first entrance of the bishop into the holy Church for the sacred synaxis is a figure and image of the first appearance in the flesh of Jesus Christ the son of God and our Savior in this world. By it He freed human nature which has been enslaved by corruption, betrayed through its own fault to death because of sin, tyrannically dominated by the devil. He redeemed all its debt as if He were liable even though He was not liable but sinless, and brought us back again to the original grace of His kingdom by giving Himself as a ransom for us. And in exchange for our destructive passions He gives us His life-giving Passion as a salutary cure which saves the whole world. After this appearance, His ascension into heaven and return to the heavenly throne are symbolically figured in the bishop’s entrance into the sanctuary and ascent to the priestly throne.
The next chapter is on the meaning of the entrance of the people into the church.
You can read all of chapters 8 and 9 here.
3. Fathers: Homily 1 by St Macarius the Great of Egypt
This past Tuesday was the feast day of St. Macarius. I searched our archives and found the first of his Fifty Spiritual Homilies which offers an allegorical interpretation of the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of a chariot of Cherubim. Here’s a small snippet of that interpretation:
And all of this which the prophet saw in ecstasy or in a trance was indeed true and certain, but it was only signifying and foreshadowing something no less hidden, something divine and mysterious, "a mystery hidden for generations’"(Col. 1.26) but that "has been revealed only in our time, the end of the ages" (1 Pt. 1.20), when Christ appeared. For the prophet was viewing the mystery of the human soul that would receive its Lord and would become his throne of glory. For the soul that is deemed to be judged worthy to participate in the light of the Holy Spirit by becoming His throne and habitation, and is covered with the beauty of ineffable glory of the Spirit, becomes all light, all face, all eye. There is no part of the soul that is not full of the spiritual eyes of light.
Read the entire homily here. And get a copy of all those homilies at
Eighth Day Books.
4. Poetry: Hope: Canto XXV of Paradiso by Dante
Here is the description of this 140-line canto:
Dante, blessed by St. John himself as a reward for his labors and his hope, declares that if his poem may serve to soften his sentence of exile from Florence, he will return to his baptismal font at San Giovanni and there place on his own head the poet’s laurel wreath. Such is one of the great hopes of his poem, and on that note St. James, the Apostle of Hope, shows himself.
Beatrice begs James to conduct the examination of hope and she herself, in answer to the first question, testifies to Dante’s possession of hope. Dante then replies on the nature of hope, on the content of his hope, and on the sources of hope.
The examination triumphantly concluded, a cry in praise of the grace of hope rings through paradise, and thereupon St. John the apostle appears. Dante stares into John’s radiance hoping to see the lineaments of his mortal body. The voice of John, the Apostle of Love (caritas) calls to him that what he seeks is not there, and when Dante looks away he discovers he has been blinded by the radiance of love.
Read the whole canto on hope here.
5. Books & Culture: The Feast of Friendship by Fr. Paul O’Callaghan
The Feast of Friendship was the inaugural publication of the Eighth Day Press. Here’s the opening lines to the Eighth Day Books review:
Whether the author knows it or not, this is a profoundly humble book—in the sense of the Latin root of the word which indicates the soil from which something grows. The soil for this book is rich: the insights of Aristotle, biblical paradigms of friendship (David and Jonathan, Christ and the Beloved Disciple, Christ and Mary, Martha, and Lazarus), the reflections of the Church Fathers and exemplars of contemporary moral and theological reflection such as David Ford (whose concluding chapter in
Self and Salvation informs the title of Fr. Paul’s work), Pavel Florensky, John Zizioulas, John MacMurray, C. S. Lewis, Gilbert Meilaender, Paul Wadell, Andrew Sullivan, Carolinne White, and others.
Read the rest of the review here and then purchase a copy from
Eighth Day Books.
6. Essays et al: New Moot Archive: “The Christian Hope” by Kathleen Bliss
Kathleen Bliss served as the assistant editor for J. H. Oldham’s Christian News-Letter before taking over as senior editor and serving from 1942-1949. The opening paragraph of a selection from her editorial in the December issue of 1948 articulates why we are exploring the theme of hope for the 2021 Symposium:
A subject much under discussion, not only in a theological but in a practical way, is that of Christian hope. It is not difficult to see why this should be so. The general gloom of the times is enough to account for a return to a much neglected aspect of Christianity. A further urgency is given to the discussion by the fact that Christianity is not alone in offering men a hope, but has a powerful rival in the Communist faith which derives much of its influence from the fact that it also has a messianic element in it, the promise of a time of deliverance for the poor and despised of the earth, the promise that all who rally to it are espousing a cause which is bound to triumph on this earth within human history and, according as men labor earnestly for it, within a measurable space of time. What the Christian has to offer as an alternative in the way of hope is scoffed at as so much “pie in the sky when you die.”
Sign up as a Patron or Pillar to access the full piece in The Moot Archives.
7. Essays et al: “The Obscurity of Hope and Despair” by Josef Pieper
Someday I’m going to present Josef Pieper at the Hall of Men. And when I do I’ll offer a toast to him as “Philosopher & Theologian of Hope.” At the end of this piece, Pieper brilliantly ties hope to martyrdom. Here’s a tiny sample:
For the martyr, to speak in worldly terms, there is no hope left; he is abandoned helplessly to the superior power of evil. Every vital optimism then becomes meaningless, and the natural ability to battle is literally handcuffed. For all that, the phenomenon of the martyr is unthinkable without a sheer triumphal strength of hope. This is the very hope of which I said it is so obscure as to be almost unrecognizable—not simply for the world and the non-Christian, but for the average Christian himself.
And a bit more:
The Christian martyr is something truly incomparable. It is not enough to look at him as a man who dies for his conviction—as if the truth of this conviction did not matter. The distinction and the uniqueness of the Christian witness lies in the fact that in spite of the terror befalling him, from his mouth “no word against God’s creation is heard” (E. Peterson).
Read the entire reflection here.
8. Essays et al: New Florovsky Archive - “On Starets Silouan” by Fr. Georges Florovsky
The quote on the
new 2021 Hall of Men bookmark schedule, which is also tied to the Symposium theme on hope, comes from the following paragraph in Florovsky’s Foreword to Achimandrite Sophrony’s book The Undistorted Image: Staretz Silouan – 1866-1938:
Father Silouan stands in a long and venerable tradition. Nor was he alone even in his own time. There was in every generation a cloud of witnesses to the Mysteries of the Kingdom. Our predicament is in that we do not know them, nor do we care for them and for their witness. We are overtaken by worldly cares. The story of Father Silouan is a timely reminder for our generation of that only “good thing,” which is never taken away. It is also an invitation to the pilgrimage of faith and hope.
And also tied to "Hope in the Age of Anxiety," here’s a bit on Silouan the man:
In his spiritual ascent Father Silouan went through the saddening experience of the “dark night,” of utter loneliness and abandonment. And yet there was nothing grim or morbid in him. He was always calm and quiet, always radiant with joy. As we learn from the story of his life, this joy has been acquired by a long and exacting contest, by an unceasing “invisible warfare.” Left alone, man is left to despair and desolation. Salvation is only in the Lord. The soul must cling to Him. Man is never left alone, except he chooses himself to leave God. Father Silouan knew by experience the dread and dangers of the outer darkness. But he also learned by experience the immensity of the Divine Love. It shines even over the abyss of trials, torments, and tribulation. Precisely because God is Love.
Sign up as a Patron or Pillar to access the full piece in The Florovsky Archives.
