Father Speak a Word

In the Byzantine rite Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches, November 21 is the Great Feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. Roman Catholics and other western Christians borrow this feast as the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The story of the life of Mary the mother of Jesus, including her conception by a pious but unjustly stigmatized elderly couple and her dedication and consecration in the Temple before being betrothed to Joseph, is not strictly "biblical" (in the sense of being told in the canonical Jewish-Christian Bible). However, early Christians, eager for more from the lives of Jesus and Mary than God cared to reveal (in scripture anyway) prompted a wealth of holy ghost-writing or "pseudoepigrapha" (anonymous works attributed to someone more famous) including the Proto-Evangelium (= "first gospel") of James, attributed to James (the Just of Jerusalem) the (step-)brother of Jesus. In celebration of the feast, listen to the older English translation from the 1926 collection "The Lost Books of the Bible." I'm hoping to do a Greek reading soon!

Today's tale from the desert comes from Apophthegmata Patrum (specifically Patrologia Graeca volume 65, columns 77-80). The Greek and Latin are pronounced (badly) according to current ecclesiastical pronunciation. Today, Antony and the hunter are also joined by two Texan friends: Katherine and Joel. Katherine is a Roman Catholic undergrad discerning a vocation to monastic life, while Joel describes himself as "a 25 year old research and development engineer, a follower of Jesus, and theologically a moderate Protestant who leans Catholic and Orthodox with some of his ideas." Both were asked to reflect on the apophthegm for some time and contribute their voice to a reflection on its value. If you would like to contribute your voice to a reflection or reading in a liturgical language, contact [email protected].

Take a mini retreat to hear what Abba Serapion, one of the travelling Desert Fathers, once had to say about a young monk’s shelf full of books. The Coptic text of this apophthegm is from Marius Chaîne’s 1960 edition of La manuscrit de la version copte en dialecte sahidique des Apophthegmata Patrum (The Manuscript of the Coptic version in the Sahidic dialect of the Sayings of the Fathers, p. 5), and is pronounced (badly) according to historical reconstruction of the Sahidic (Thebaic) dialect of the Coptic language (rather than the Boharic (Memphitic) or Greco-Boharic pronunciation official in the Coptic Orthodox Church, cf. Layton 2007:3-7). The Greek and Latin are from Patrologia Graeca 65:415-416. The English translation is my own from Greek and Latin, pronounced (badly) according to current ecclesiastical pronunciation. If you have questions about the sources or would like to contribute your voice to a reflection or reading in a liturgical language, contact [email protected].

Take a mini retreat with two Greek philosophers to see Abba Antony at his mountain. The Greek text of this anecdote is from Athanasius of Alexandria's (c. 298-373) Vita Antonii (= "Life of Antony" written between AD 356 and 362). The Latin is from Evagrius of Antioch's famous Latin translation of the same (c. AD 374, in Patrologia Latina 73:158). The English is from Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers vol 4. Thanks to Matthew James Gray of Librivox for the English reading.

Take a mini retreat to your spiritual wilderness and hear the Eastern Orthodox Trisagion (= "thrice holy") Prayers in modern(ish) Greek pronunciation.