11 January 2010

Crisp in the morning. Air tight. The ice in the cove is gathering thickness, extending itself to the cove mouth. Refueled the bird feeders and suet baskets. Right after getting out of bed, walked and coffeed with Joe, my tea-bagger (I spoze) friend. Later got off emails to Luckey, Renauc, and Debbie Berquist at VOH. Forest's Praying with Icons arrived. Am (at times) deepening the Prayer. For lunch ate outside: sardines with Hot Louisianna Sauce and a tumble of wine.

No need to go into any "to whom," but here's an excerpt from a note I sent to someone whom I consider more (never less) my spiritual director:

When we get together next, I would like for you to give me the straight stuff, Lutheran or not, about theosis. Currently thinking there’s more to it than in our Confessions allow. Mostly because I’ve been whacking my way through some Orthodox stuff, having gotten a good introduction by Christopher Pramuk in Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton who recommends large doses of Bulgakov and Evdokimov, neither of whom have I yet read. All of
which is getting me to this question: what does the Athanasian Creed when it affirms about Our Lord that “Although he is God and man, he is not divided, but is one Christ. He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity (italics mine)? I’ve wondered about this understanding of the Incarnation for years and have lately found the assertion, if I understand it even a little rightly, to be the radicalest thing
theologically imaginable. So I need an early morning balcony talk at Marie’s in Port au Prince. I may bring the Sophia book with its underlinings to Haiti so that I don’t misparaphrase what I think I see Pramuk via Merton and several Russian Orthodox saying. Of course, if his/their/my musings are off base, you can simply declare the whole package heretical, and I’ll try to forget such explorations as uselessly speculative at best. Even if you go that far, I spose I’ll continue to be a heretic of some sort anyway. Always did like Origen.

This by Merton:

Sophia is God's sharing of himself with creatures. His outpouring, and the Love by which he is given, held and loved. She is in all things like the air receiving the sunlight. In her they prosper. In her they glorify God. In her they rejoice to reflect him. In her they are united with him. She is the union between them. She is the Love that unites them. She is life as communion, life as thanksgiving, life as praise, life as festival, life as glory . . . . She is the Bride and the Feast and the Wedding.