Thought For the Day

From Kyriakos Markides, The Mountain of Silence:

“Marriage, for example, is considered by the Ecclesia [basically Eastern Orthodox teachings] as a form of askesis [method of spiritual exercise], an arena for transcending one’s ego absorption of the sake of the other. It is a mistake, Father Maximos argues, to consider marriage, as many traditional Christians do, as first and formemost a means for procreation. The primary aim of marriage is askesis engaged in by two people who are asked to overcome their separateness in their common ascent towards God.”

NB: ἀσκέσις means "practice, training, or exercise," as by an athlete. Marriage, thus, is just as much a spiritual journey as monasticism!

Kosovo

I've liked maps since I was a little kid, and the map-conscious part of me likes it when the political map changes. However, not all these changes are good. In particular, the creation of an "independent" Kosovo is not good news.

Not only is Kosovo the historic heartland of Serbia, but the country has no visible means of support, it is run by gangsters, and its Albanians have a nasty habit of burning historic churches and monasteries that even the Albanian Nazi legions left alone. Kosovo's independence is also another needless provocation of Russia.

Why are we messing in the affairs of people so inconsequential for our interests, so far from our shores, and whom we understand so little?

Some of it is post-Wilsonian nonsense about self-determination. Some of it is wanting to show we care about "genocide" directed at Muslims, as well as at Jews--even if there was no genocide in Kosovo. And some of it is a strange antipathy to Orthodox Christianity.

It's an adventure of which we should be ashamed, and one that will do us no good.

UPDATE: This is not to say that the Serbs are blameless in this affair or the other recent Balkan affrays. It is to say that granting independence to every ethic enclave whose denizens have been abused by the majority is a recipe for endless conflict. And who, pray tell, are we to decide these questions? And what good does it do us to mess with them?

Ecumenism By Bankruptcy

SAN DIEGO- A federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday ordered an external audit of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, chastising church lawyers for a lack of transparency in court filings.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler grilled attorneys representing both the diocese and a parish organization, as well as two pastors who had sent letters the judge said misrepresented comments made from the bench during an earlier hearing.

Adler criticized church attorneys for failing to include 770 parish accounts in bankruptcy documents.

"This is the most Byzantine accounting system I've ever seen," Adler said. "I am mystified."

--San José Mercury-News

I thought it was Roman. Will the Ecumenical Patriarch be pleased?

Listen to Divna

Very pure Serbian religious music. You can edit out the applause.

Also available on iTunes.

Merry Christmas

This icon is from St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, and is currently on display at the Getty Museum.

Linkmania

Pictures of the dawn of the universe, plus a few million years.

The fifty most outrageous quotes of the year.

The origins of the pre-Christmas (Advent) fast, still the rule among the Orthodox, and a convert's reaction thereto (and to other stuff as well).

Georgian (not Atlanta, Tbilisi, in the Caucasus) folk music by the Rustavi Choir, now available on CD. Polyphony like you never heard.