saints’ day

wonderfulexchange5 Comments

Today was the feast day of Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Great.  A wonderful excuse for incense at the evening eucharist and a celebration of all that is splendid in orthodox theology.

The biography in Exciting Holiness — a book of collects and readings for Saints days — begins like this:

Gregory and Basil were two friends bound together by their desire to promote and defend the divinity of Christ as proclaimed in the Nicene Creed.  This was against the seemingly overwhelming pressure from both Church and State for the establishment of Arianism, which denied Christ’s divinity and thus the whole Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

It made me think about how often impressive people come in pairs.  Somehow, it is both the friction and support of friendship that stirs creativity and gives people the strength and energy to face opposition.

But maybe it is also friendship that teaches us we can survive the stress of opposition — that life goes on, that relationships can endure even when faced with anger and pain and misunderstanding.

Basil’s collect begins:

God, who in making us
wounded our hearts with the hidden spark of divine love…

Given the place of the divine spark in orthodox theology — given an anthropology that says that at our root we are made in the image of God, that there is an unquellable spark of the divine life within us —  this suggests that the very thing that nurtures love, that flames the spark, is the wound love sometimes causes.  I am not being clear.  But there is something in this that is compelling.

And as I’ve said before, understanding is overrated.

a fine plan

wonderfulexchange4 Comments

When I was a teenager, I was lucky enough to go to school that offered almost endless opportunities.  I spent more hours than I can imagine working backstage in the theatre, getting ready for choir concerts, riding my horse, and engaging in the sorts of conversations that may seem causal to the passer-by, but are the real business of growing up.  But all of that meant that homework often didn’t begin till 10 pm (and this was a school that expected you to do an hour per subject per day in the 6th form), and sometimes life felt a bit fraught.

One day, in the stress of exam season, I decided I needed a plan.  I made a list of all that I needed to do.  I made a chart of the days and hours left in which to do it, and somehow I fit the two together.  It was lovely.  Or so I thought.  I had just managed the last bit of logistic juggling, just convinced myself that it was possible when one of my English teachers walked by (it was Miss Bassett, for those in the know).  She said very firmly, ‘you know there is no greater waste of time than trying to schedule time…’  and then she flounced off and left me feeling more overwhelmed than ever.

I have never really learned that lesson, and I occasionally need to take stock on paper.  Today was such a day — trying to set out what we have accomplished this year, and drawing up a rough plan for the coming year under neat columns marked:  when?, development, and  outreach.  This is all meant to encourage the vestry tonight, though I fear it may equally terrify them.

Will the plan be worthwhile?  We shall see.

But today, it has made me feel better, Miss Bassett’s advice notwithstanding.

spotted

wonderfulexchange3 Comments

My return from choir tonight was met not only by Molly, but  by an exuberant frog dancing down the drive.  My first ever frog sighting in Scotland.

Welcome too to Alison’s elegant new cat.  Her timely arrival proves that Alison has the piskie blogging genre down pat.