Love Alone

Святый Боже ('Holy God') Зарю бьют ('Dawn Strikes') The dawn beats. From my hand my shabby copy of Dante falls to the ground. On my lips, the half-pronounced verse ceases to shape meaning. - My soul flies far off. - Familiar, everyday living sound, although you often radiate far out, I shrink away - into my silent sense of age. 'Pastoral'

Звёздная дружба  The ecstasy of St Francis of Assisi На мотив из Платона Душа себя найти желает. Томится по себе самой. Тоскливо по себе вздыхает и плачет в горести немой. Дрожащий в тусклых очертаньях пред ней витает мир идей, и Эрос, – мощный чародей, – Душой во сне или в мечтаньях в какой-то миг овладевает. Душа томится и рыдает. И вот почудилось, что снова Душа-близнец ей найдена. Полёт в Эфир свершать готова на белых крыльях не одна. Но сон проходит, и тоскливо она взирает вкруг, стеня. И шепчет страстно-сиротливо: «найди меня, найди меня...» (1905) *   *   * On a motif from Plato The ecstasy of St Bernard of Clairvaux Desiring to find itself, the Soul languishes by itself, sighs wistfully by itself  and cries in sorrow, silent. Tremulous in dim outlines, hovering below her world of ideas, Eros, - a mighty magician, -  and the Soul in dream.  The Soul seizes, as in some instant,...

"If anyone says that good is difficult to attain – for the Lord of creation is alone immutable while human nature is mutable and inclined to change – how can a mutable nature realize what is fixed and stable in the good? My response is that a person who does not lawfully strive in a contest cannot be crowned (1Tim 2:5); he would not be a legitimate athlete if an opponent were lacking.  Without an opponent there is no crown, for victory against oneself is lacking if there is no weakness. Hence, let us struggle against our nature’s mutability as though against an adversary; wrestling with our reason makes us victors not by ca6ting it down but by not consenting to the fall. Man can change not only for evil; if he had a natural inclination only to evil it would be impossible to turn to the good … Perfection consists in never stopping our growth towards the good nor in circumscribing perfection."  St Gregory of Nyssa, On Perfection ,  J213-4.

God is real since he produces real effects. The real effects in question, so far as I have as yet admitted them, are exerted on the personal centres of energy of the various subjects, but the spontaneous faith of most of the subjects is that they embrace a wider sphere than this. Most religious men believe (or ‘know’, if they be mystical ) that not only they themselves but also the whole universe of beings to whom the God is present, are secure in his paternal hands. There is a sense, a dimension, they are sure, in which we are all saved, in spite of the gates of hell and all adverse terrestrial appearances. God’s existence is the guarantee of an ideal order that shall be permanently preserved. This world may indeed, as science secures us, some day burn up or freeze; but if it is part of his order, the old ideals are sure to be brought elsewhere to fruition, so that where God is, tragedy is only provisional and partial, and shipwreck and dissolution are not the absolutely f...

O Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, thou didst promise to abide with us always. Thou dost call all Christians to draw near and partake of Thy Body and Blood. But our sin has divided us and we have no power to partake of Thy Holy Eucharist together. We confess this our sin and we pray Thee, forgive us and help us to serve the ways of reconciliation, according to Thy Will. Kindle our hearts with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Give us the spirit of Wisdom and faith, of daring and of patience, of humility and firmness, of love and of repentance, through the prayers of the most blessed Mother of God and of all the saints. Amen. [Sergej Bulgakov]