An Irish Welcome

Céad Míle Fáilte friend and rover ...
Wherever you come from and whosoever you may be.
That's an Irish greeting and it means

you are welcome
a thousand times over.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The beauty of it all

By what boundless mercy, my Savior,
have you allowed me to become a member of your body?
Me, the unclean, the defiled, the prodigal.

How is it that you have clothed me
in the brilliant garment,
radiant with the splendor of immortality,
that turns all my members into light?

Your body, immaculate and divine,
is all radiant with the fire of your divinity,
with which it is ineffably joined and combined.
This is the gift you have given me, my God:
that this mortal and shabby frame
has become one with your immaculate body
and that my blood has mingled
with your blood.

I know, too,
that I have been made one with your divinity
and have become your own most pure body,
a brilliant member, transparently lucid,
luminous and holy.

I see the beauty of it all, I can gaze on the radiance.
I have become a reflection of the light of your grace.

- St Symeon the New Theologian from The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul's Ascent from the Desert Fathers and Other Early Christian Contemplatives, Translated by John Anthony McGuckin.

8 comments:

  1. Dear Vasiliki,

    I love the poetry of St Symeon that you find. They create an atmosphere of 'katanyxi' (I don't know what that is in English). The Orthodox Bookstore in Sydney doesn't have his writings...must bug them till they do!!

    Pandeli

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  2. Pandeli, you may have noticed but what I select to post is not frequent and discerned ... that is to create, as you say, katanyxi not so much to those who visit but as a reflection for myself to follow.

    We are at a point that the internet is satiated with these works ... are we at a point where we are satiating God with our prayers?

    Kali Sarakosti, God willing I am coming up to Sydney after Easter, we will organise to meet for a Cappucino, my favourite drink.

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  3. Kali Sarakosti.

    It would be nice to meet you eventually.

    Pandeli

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  4. I will be in Sydney Easter Monday and visiting the fellowship group in Kogra (sp?) ... are you able to come to that group?

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  5. You mean Kogarah:)

    Perhaps I will be able to make it. I've visited there once before (I have my own one). I'm surprised that they will be meeting that week. I have the week off from uni, so I'll try and come. Fr Sophronios is good there...

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  6. I dont know if they will be meeting, I am presuming ... well, what other groups are on a Monday night?

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  7. None as far as I know. I could be wrong though.

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