Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2017

“He who simply read lofty words, his heart will also remain simple and devoid of the holy power, that imparts to the heart a sweet taste by the meanings that stupefy the soul. All things are accustomed to move towards that which is akin [to them]. And the soul that possesses something of the spirit, on hearing anything wherein a spiritual force is hidden, fervently embraces that which it hears; and yet a tale that is told spiritually and wherein a great force is hidden, is not able to arouse every one unto admiration.” (Homily 1, 6-7).

"They will look on me, the one they have pierced (Zec 12:10 NIV)"

Reflections for Lent 2017 selected from the Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Nineveh

Translated by A.J. Wensinck

Beginning this coming March 1, Ash Wednesday, I will be posting daily reflections taken from the Mystic Treatises written by St. Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh century Bishop and Theologian of the Assyrian Church. He was native of Bet Qatraye near present-day Bahrain or Qatar on western shore of the Persian Gulf. A teacher and monk, he was consecrated bishop (ca. 660-680), but preferred to live out his life as an anchorite (hermit). A Scriptural scholar, it is said that he studied Scripture so much that he became blind and had to dictate his writings. He died at an advanced age in ca. 700 and was buried in Rabban Shabur, where he spent most of his monastic life. St. Isaac's monastic anthropology has a major influence on all of Byzantine spiritual literature. (from www.spiritualite-orthodoxe.net).

This is a beautiful testimony of a young Greek Orthodox monk quoted by Archimandrite Vasileios of the Stavronikita Monastery on Athos:

"I am reading St. Isaac the Syrian. I find something, heroic, spiritual in him; something which transcends space and time. I feel that here, for the first time, is a voice which resonates which resonates in the deepest parts of my being, hitherto closed and unknown to me. Although he is so far removed from me in time and space, he has come right into the house of my soul. In a moment of quiet he has spoken to me, sat down beside me. Although I have read so many other things, although I have met so many other people, and though today there are others living around me, no one else has been so discerning. To no one else have I opened the door of my soul in this way. Or to put it better, no one else has shown me in such brotherly, friendly way that, within myself, within human nature, there is such a door, a door which opens onto a space which is open and unlimited. And no one else has told me this unexpected and ineffable truth, that the whole of this inner world belongs to man" (quoted in The Wisdom of Saint Isaac the Syrian, translated by Sebastian Brock, SLG Press: 1997).