monasticism

Pinocchio
Literature and Myths

The Original Pinocchio, Deeply Repentant, Unlike the Disney and Jordan Peterson Pinocchio

03/03/2023 Bruce Strom 0

The original Pinocchio was very different from the happy-go-lucky Disney and Jordan Peterson Pinocchio. Although the Disney movie included the most memorable most memorable stories of the original, the short length of the movie fails to render the deeply penitential tone of the original, which emphasizes how daily struggle is needed to replace bad habit with good habits, how salvation and spiritual growth is never instantaneous but is rather a life long-term process, where for every two steps forward we take one step backwards. The original rebellious Pinocchio was much more of a rogue than the pleasant Disney, he is a juvenile delinquent from the moment he has been carved. […]

Ladder Of Divine Ascent Step 4 Obedience
Ladder of Divine Ascent

Ladder of Divine Ascent, St John Climacus, Rung 4 on Obedience

02/22/2023 Bruce Strom 2

Obedience precedes repentance in the Ladder of Divine Ascent. Without obedience, there is no repentance. With repentance comes obedience. When we sinned, we did not obey; now we repent, and obey. It is interesting that in the Decalogue the commandment of honor our father and our mother, and all those in authority, connects the commands to Love God with all our heart and with all of our soul and with all of our everything to the commands to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Step 4.3 As John Climacus teaches us, in obedience we renounce our desires, what we want, what we need: “Obedience is unquestioning movement, voluntary death, a life free of curiosity, carefree danger, unprepared defense before God, fearlessness of death, a safe voyage, a sleeper’s progress. Obedience is the tomb of the will and the resurrection of humility.” […]

Erasmus In Praise of Folly
Catholic Middle Ages and Beyond

Erasmus, Luther’s Predecessor, The Praise of Folly

02/17/2023 Bruce Strom 0

Folly reminds us of the tension between the vulgar and the devout. “The pious, since they aim primarily at what is almost alien to the crass senses, are numbed and stunned by the sensual. In contrast, the ordinary person gravitates towards them.” Thus, many negligent people value bodily sensations such as “sex, love of food, sleep, anger, pride, and envy. The pious wage a constant war against these urges, whereas the vulgar crowd considers that without them life has no real existence.” […]

St Nicodemus No Jokes or Laugh
Command 8 Do Not Bear False Witness

St Nicodemus: Can Christians Laugh and Joke?

02/03/2023 Bruce Strom 2

St Nicodemus teaches us that the speech of Christians who laugh at ribald jokes “is corrupted, since they fill their speech with obscene, indecent, shameless, and meretricious words.” Likewise, regarding Christians who laugh at ribald jokes, “their thought is corrupted.” “Just as their words are crude and lewd, so also the thoughts and ideas in their souls are crude and lewd.” “Speech is a mirror, image, and imprint of the thoughts and inner disposition of the heart.” “He who utters obscene words churns up filth, mud and manure, which is spread first to himself, and then to those who hear it.” […]

St Nicodemus, Do not Slander
Command 8 Do Not Bear False Witness

St Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Do Not Bear False Witness, Do Not Slander

02/01/2023 Bruce Strom 1

What are we taught by our teachers? Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Except that this is not true, St Nicodemus teaches us that King David, in his Psalms, feared slander more than sticks and stones, and for good reason, for words harm our reputation, which sticks and stones can never touch. Wounds heal, but suspicions linger. […]

St John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, On Detachment, Exile, and Pilgrimage, Steps 2 and 3
Ladder of Divine Ascent

St John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, On Detachment, Exile, and Pilgrimage, Steps 2 and 3

01/20/2023 Bruce Strom 1

St John Climacus wrote the Ladder of Divine Ascent as a handbook for monks living the monastic life, cut off from the world, in the isolation of the Egyptian desert monasteries, in a world before global communications where the monk could easily call his family on the monastery phone. In […]

AntiSemitism

Viktor Frankl’s Logo-therapy, Man’s Search For Meaning in Life, Love, and Suffering

09/16/2022 Bruce Strom 3

Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, is a life-changing book and one of my favorites, it touched me deeply when I first read it many years ago. The main theme of the book is no matter what challenges you face in your life, or how busy you are, you always have time to be kind to all those whom you encounter, to be a positive influence on the lives whom you touch. Although he does not directly mention stoicism, his account of how he survived Auschwitz is a living example how a stoic mindset can help you survive and thrive through any challenge life may throw at you. […]

Biblical Interpretation

Do Christians Need To Go To Church? Which Type of Church Should You Attend?

08/19/2022 Bruce Strom 1

St Augustine’s memorable reflection on our question appear in his Confessions, which is really one of the first testimonials. St Augustine tells us the story of Victorinus, a philosopher who studies the Gospels and the Church Fathers but declines to attend services, asking “Do the walls of the Church make you a Christian?” Victorinus was a learned man, an erudite pagan Platonic philosopher, the Word of the Lord spoke directly to him from the page, perhaps he felt intellectually superior to many simple Christians he knew.

In the words of St Augustine, in his studies Victorinus became “resolute, he was seized by the fear that Christ might deny him before the holy angels if he was too faint-hearted to acknowledge Christ before men, and he felt himself guilty of a great crime in being ashamed of the sacraments instituted by the Word of God in his lowly state.” […]

Catholic Middle Ages and Beyond

St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Seven Capital Sins and Best Type of Close Friend

07/02/2022 Bruce Strom 0

Before you can truly deepen your interior life of prayer and communion with God, you must first purify your soul by combating your spiritual capital vices, strengthening your inner virtues, which are revealed by how you think of your neighbor, what you say about your neighbor, how you act towards your neighbor, and how eagerly you seek to forgive and overlook the shortcomings of your neighbor. […]

Command 8 Do Not Bear False Witness

St John Climacus in Ladder of Divine Ascent on Slander, Talkativeness, and Lying, Steps 10, 11 and 12

05/13/2022 Bruce Strom 1

Many people think that one of the Ten Commandments prohibits us from lying, but that is a shallow understanding of the commandment.  Actually, the Ten Commandments urges us not to bear false witness against our neighbor.  Not only are we forbidden to slander our neighbor, but we are also urged to guard his reputation.  We slander our neighbor even when we tell the truth in a hurtful manner. […]