{"id":123,"date":"2007-04-05T16:04:41","date_gmt":"2007-04-05T20:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/123"},"modified":"2007-04-05T16:04:41","modified_gmt":"2007-04-05T20:04:41","slug":"symeon-the-new-theologian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/123","title":{"rendered":"Symeon the New Theologian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Besides having one of the coolest names of the church fathers, <a href=\"http:\/\/home.it.net.au\/~jgrapsas\/pages\/symeon.htm\">Symeon the New Theologian<\/a>  was also a poet who recorded his mystical experiences in a collection of poems titled &#8220;Hymns of Divine Love.&#8221; (His given name was George, which itself is not as cool-sounding as his adopted name). He was a politician (an imperial senator) turned monk, and eventually became the abbot of the St. Mamas monastery. Eventually outcast for his mystical teachings and spiritual practices, he later gathered a group of followers and started his own monastery. His poem &#8220;We Awaken in Christ&#8217;s Body&#8221; makes for a great Maundy Thursday reflection.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/sheetlightning72.jpg' alt='sheetlightning72.jpg' \/><br \/>\n<em>We Awaken In Christ&#8217;s Body<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We awaken in Christ&#8217;s body<br \/>\nas Christ awakens our bodies,<br \/>\nand my poor hand is Christ, He enters<br \/>\nmy foot, and is infinitely me.<\/p>\n<p>I move my hand, and wonderfully<br \/>\nmy hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him<br \/>\n(for God is indivisibly<br \/>\nwhole, seamless in His Godhood).<\/p>\n<p>I move my foot, and at once<br \/>\nHe appears like a flash of lightning.<br \/>\nDo my words seem blasphemous? &#8212; Then<br \/>\nopen your heart to Him<\/p>\n<p>and let yourself receive the one<br \/>\nwho is opening to you so deeply.<br \/>\nFor if we genuinely love Him,<br \/>\nwe wake up inside Christ&#8217;s body<\/p>\n<p>where all our body, all over,<br \/>\nevery most hidden part of it,<br \/>\nis realized in joy as Him,<br \/>\nand He makes us, utterly, real,<\/p>\n<p>and everything that is hurt, everything<br \/>\nthat seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,<br \/>\nmaimed, ugly, irreparably<br \/>\ndamaged, is in Him transformed<\/p>\n<p>and recognized as whole, as lovely,<br \/>\nand radiant in His light<br \/>\nhe awakens as the Beloved<br \/>\nin every last part of our body.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;Symeon the New Theologian (949 &#8211; 1032)<br \/>\n(Trans. Stephen Mitchell)<\/p>\n<p>(graphic by Israel Galindo)<\/p>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/oraetlabora4.png' alt='oraetlabora4.png' \/><br \/>\nMake a good Lent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Besides having one of the coolest names of the church fathers, Symeon the New Theologian was also a poet who recorded his mystical experiences in a collection of poems titled &#8220;Hymns of Divine Love.&#8221; (His given name was George, which &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/123\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}