St Herman, Conception, and Hope in the Age of Anxiety
by Erin Doom
Feast of St Herman of Alaska
Anno Domini 2020, December 13
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1. Bible
St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians 3:4-11: Brethren, when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
2. Liturgy: “Prayer to St Herman of Alaska”
Yesterday was one of three feast days for St Herman of Alaska, the Enlightener of North America. November 15 is the commemoration of his death (d. A.D. 1836) and August 9 of his glorification (A.D. 1970); the commemoration of his burial is December 13. Here is part of a beautiful (and timely) prayer that was composed for his canonization:
O Blessed Hermit of Spruce Island, good teacher of the faith in the Holy Trinity, and our Spiritual Father, intercede before the throne of the Almighty God, for peace within the Church, the dispelling of all disunity, faithlessness and discord.
Come to the aid of our spiritual leaders that they may always be true and effective instruments of the Holy Spirit, with the power to proclaim the evangelical truths, with the wisdom to enlighten the unenlightened, with the spirit to inspire all to love the knowledge of God, with the perseverance to defend the Church, even unto death, from all enemies both within and without and at all times.
May the hearts of your spiritual children be filled with that faith and love of the Holy Church which you manifested in your holy life; praying to Him to: deliver us from the temptations which cause us to fall; renew our child-like faith in our Heavenly Father; replace our trust in God, and in Him alone; satisfy our thirst for the true knowledge of God; teach us to serve God faithfully; transfigure our life that it may truly reflect the image and likeness of God.
O Holy Father and Patron of the Church in America: Be a physician to the weak in faith; be a support to the fallen; be a defender to the defenseless; be a bulwark of strength to the weary in spirit; be a guide to the travelers by sea, by land and by air; be our heavenly intercessor.
You can read (and pray) the whole prayer here.
Another timely prayer to St Herman was composed for this same December feast day in 2007 by Matushka Juliana Schmemann (wife of Fr Alexander Schmemann):
St Herman, please protect our Church: restore the peace, the purity, the love for the Lord, and for each other, that is shadowed now, and is tempting our people. You, great Saint, who planted firmly in America the Cross of Christ: come back to us, and see to it that we have not shaken that Cross, which you firmly planted. Make it firm again; give us the truth, the light, and the trust, which is shaken. Please, great Saint, intercede for us. We are weak, and guilty. We need the Lord to help us up, and forgive us; and we must become truly humble, but DARING, and courageous, fully admit our wrongs, and repent.
3. Fathers: “The Conception of Mary” by Fr. Thomas Hopko
Every advent season I read Fr. Thomas Hopko’s book of daily reflections titled The Winter Pascha. Last week the Church celebrated the Feast of the Conception of the Theotokos. Here’s a small sample from one of Fr Hopko's reflections:
On the ninth of December the Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of the conception of the Virgin Mary by her parents Joachim and Anna. [Note: Mary’s nativity is celebrated on September 8. A popular tradition among the Orthodox says that the nine-month period is purposely off by one day to illustrate the “mere humanity” of Mary, unlike the “divine humanity” of her Son, whose conception on the feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on March 25, exactly nine months before His Nativity.] On this major festival which finds its place in the Church’s preparation for Christmas, the faithful rejoice in the event by which Mary is conceived in fulfillment of her parents’ prayers in order to be formed in the womb, born on the earth, dedicated to the Lord, and nurtured in holiness to become by God’s grace the mother of His Son the Messiah.
In addition to the songs of the services, there are icons and frescoes of the feast which the faithful venerate and kiss, depicting the holy couple in a loving embrace within their conjugal chamber.
Matins of the Feast of the Conception of the Theotokos
O Adam and Eve, lay aside your sorrow,
Behold, a barren womb today wondrously bears fruit:
The Mother of our Joy!
O Father Abraham and all the patriarchs,
Rejoice greatly, seeing your seed blossom:
The Mother of our God!
Rejoice, O Anna! O Joachim, rejoice!
Today in wondrous manner you bear to the world
The fruit of grace and salvation!
O choir of prophets, rejoice exceedingly!
For behold, today Anna bears the holy fruit
You foretold us.
Rejoice, all nations!
The barren Anna conceives the fruit of her womb;
By persevering in hope, she bears our life!
Rejoice, O ends of the earth!
Behold the barren mother conceives her
Who without human seed will bear the Creator of all!
Today a royal robe of purple and fine linen
Is woven from the loins of David.
The mystical flower of Jesse is blossoming
From which comes Christ our God, the Savior of our souls.
You can read the entire reflection here. And be sure to get a copy from Eighth Day Books (for the rest of this Advent and to have it on hand for next year).
4. Poetry: “September 1, 1939” by W. H. Auden
Now for a transition into our 2021 Symposium theme: “Hope in the Age of Anxiety.” Chosen before Covid-tide, the theme title is in part a reference to W. H. Auden’s poem “The Age of Anxiety.” Both that long poem that was published in 1947 and the shorter (much less complex) poem “September 1, 1939” (published eight years earlier in Oct. of 1939) open in a New York bar in a similar mood of fear and doubt. September 1, 1939 is a reference to the day Germany launched WWII with their invasion of Poland. Read the whole poem “September 1, 1939” here and learn a bit more about its history here. And stay tuned for a short review of Alan Jacobs’ edited edition of Auden’s longer poem “The Age of Anxiety.”
5. Books & Culture: Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety by E. R. Dodds: “Foreword” by Henry Chadwick and “Heresies” by W. H. Auden
The Symposium theme alludes not only to Auden’s poem “The Age of Anxiety,” but also to the classical scholar E. R. Dodds’ book Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine. First published in 1965, the book is based on a course of four lectures Dodds presented in May 1963 in the Queen’s University, Belfast. They were funded by the Wiles Foundation whose mission is “to promote the study of the history of civilization and to encourage the extension of historical thinking into the realm of general ideas.” Dodds’ chosen period of history is not completely dissimilar to ours:
the crucial period between the accession of Marcus Aurelius and the conversion of Constantine, the period when the material decline was steepest and the ferment of new religious feelings most intense.
Dodds continues:
In calling it ‘an Age of Anxiety’ I have in mind both its material and its moral insecurity; the phrase was coined by my friend W. H. Auden, who applied it to our own time, I suppose with a similar dual reference.
Click here to read the short foreword penned in 1990 by the British theologian Henry Chadwick. Click here to read a long critical review of the book by Auden titled “Heresies” that was published in 1966 in The New York Review of Books (you’ll have to sign-in to the New York Review to access the full review—it’s free).
6. Essays et al: “Summarizing The Age of Paradise” by Fr. John Strickland
I met the Orthodox speaker for the upcoming Symposium at the Touchstone conference in 2019 and was deeply impressed by Fr. John Strickland, archpriest of St Elizabeth Orthodox Church in Poulsbo, WA. He’s been working on a four-volume history of Christendom titled Paradise and Utopia: The Rise and Fall of What the West Once Was. The first volume was released in 2019 and is titled The Age of Paradise: Christendom from Pentecost to the First Millennium. The second volume was just released under the title The Age of Division: Christendom from the Great Schism to the Protestant Reformation. Fr. John offers his own short summary of volume one here. According to Fr. John, “The Age of Paradise is being released with the conviction that in order to address and perhaps even solve today’s ‘crisis of culture’ it is necessary to rethink where it came from and where in the future it might go.” Amen! Read the whole short summary here on his webpage and explore more of his blog posts while you’re there.
7. Essays et al: “Bradley Birzer’s Beyond Tenebrae: Christian Humanism in the Twilight of the West” by Roger Thomas
I’ve read many essays and several books by our Symposium Catholic speaker and am just as impressed by Bradley Birzer, the Russell Amos Kirk Professor of History at Hillsdale College. I’m especially fond of his work on three of my great heroes: Christopher Dawson, Russell Kirk, and J. R. R. Tolkien. You can learn more about Dr. Birzer at his webpage here. And you can find many of his articles at The Imaginative Conservative, including this review of his most recent book Beyond Tenebrae. According to Thomas,
Much of the book reads like a sophomore survey course, with Dr. Birzer taking the reader on a tour of people who express what he is trying to convey. He covers a lot of terrain in this survey, including characters expectable and unusual. There are scholars (Christopher Dawson, Eric Voegelin) and artists (Willa Cather, Flannery O’Connor, Ray Bradbury); social critics (Russell Kirk, Alexander Solzhenitsyn), and politicians (Ronald Regan, Edmund Burke); the prominent (J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis), and the obscure (Dr. Birzer’s own grandparents, as well as one of his Notre Dame instructors). All are chosen because each exemplifies some aspect or principle of the true humanism that Dr. Birzer is trying to convey.
8. Essays et al: “The Myth Made Fact: Book Teaser” by Louis Markos
Our Symposium Protestant speaker helped us launch our annual Inklings Festival. Dr. Louis Markos, Professor of English at Houston Baptist University, was a smashing success at our inaugural Inklings Festival back in 2015. Since then, I’ve seen him present lectures on numerous occasions at various classical school conferences. If you’ve ever seen him present a lecture, you know I’m not exaggerating to say he is one of the most dynamic and energetic speakers you'll ever experience. Dr. Markos has written on a wide range of topics, including many books on apologetics, the pagan classics, Harry Potter, and the Inklings. You can see him here peddling his most recent book, The Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes. It’s short—less than one minute—and worth your time to get a taste of Dr. Markos!
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