Love of Christ

All Carmelite Saints

Lord,

may the patronage

of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother,

and the prayers of all the saints of Carmel

help us to walk steadfastly in their footsteps,

and by our prayers and good works

to further the cause of your Church.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

The loop [the formula of spiritual abuse in the true, i.e. with valid sacraments, Church]

Several years ago I wrote in my paper ‘The curse of the choice’:

“I am convinced that many disorders have in their very beginning a double bind of the choice between good and evil, life and death presented by the closest attachment figure, mother or her viceroy.

The formula of the “original choice”: a quadruple bind

                        abusive mother

to stay = death                  to leave = death
-----------------------  child  -----------------------
to stay = life                       to leave = life

The upper line: To stay with an abusive mother means to die (it feels like it to a child; it is always the spiritual reality and sometimes the physical reality as well) but to leave her also means death for a child according to her primary instinct. It is the first double bind which forms the basis of the future persistent darkness in the life of an individual, along the line “there is no exit” out of any life situation which involves a relationship with other(s).

The bottom line:  To stay with an abusive mother means to live (the security that a child needs) but to leave her means also to live (this is the voice which grows stronger as a person grows older; a mother will defend herself against it via inducing shame and guilt into her child, crushing her personality and thus keeping her on a “baby level” psychologically). This is the second double bind which is “a fake light of hope” in the life of an individual, the “secure passivity” of never growing aided by the dreams of something better which are never realized.”

Further in that paper and in several others I explored the effect of the parental abuse on the relationships of a grown abused individual with God. I established that in the beginning of her relationship with Jesus Christ such a person inevitably relates to Him as if He was her abusive parent, reincarnating a parent in Christ, so to speak. Paradoxically, the perceived love of God triggers an automatic response, a fear of inescapable doom that is always attached to “the love” she knew before.

If a person perseveres, with time she will gain enough experience of being with Christ to realize that He is Love that cannot contain even the slightest trace of evil or darkness – therefore the quadruple bind in which she has existed for all her life begins dissolving. There is still a choice but now it is a choice between evil and good, between Satan and Christ – not between “good evil” and “evil good”, between “evil God” and “Divine evil”. The accumulating new experiences of Love untainted by the evil will eventually cause the psyche of a believer to make a hundred and eighty degree turn, from the vector of fear i.e. inwards (the habitual mode of relating to others formed by the quadruple bind) to the vector of trust, outwards.

I will note here briefly that it follows from the definition of God as light in Whom there is no darkness that anyone who wishes to be with Him must get rid of the darkness in their own soul. The less darkness there is in the believer the fuller is his union with Christ, the most desirable state for a Christian soul and the sole purpose of her life. Only a desire to be with Christ can enable a soul to endure her “undoing” by Him, from the evil that the abuse had incorporated in her very structure. Words are inadequate to convey what is at stake even if a very legitimate parallel with an attachment to a human person is employed because Jesus Christ, while being a perfect human, is immeasurably more i.e. He is God; His divinity raises this attachment and everything that is involved to the level of the absolute, life or death, all or nothing. It is all about the taste of the meaning of existence of a soul at last – justification, redemption, deification – in one word, it is living through, not just reading, the Gospel story, with Christ, the story being applied to me, the concrete me. It is the experiential knowledge of the truth of Christian revelation, something a believer gets to know in the biblical sense of this word, soul, spirit, and body.  

The objective reality which a believer discovers experientially: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is Love and He cannot change. The believer then is always perfectly safe with Him; this safety is the foundation of her path to Him, something that initiated her restructuring. Christ is the Head of the Church and the Church is His Body, according to Christian teaching. A believer then, abused or not, has all rights to expect the Church of Christ to be the safest place for her or for him.

Unfortunately, it is not always so. I do not mean what is much talked about nowadays, the child sexual abuse within the Church, although its principles and effect in essence do not differ from what I am about to describe. I am interested here in a more subtle manifestation of the same phenomenon, namely a situation when a victim of narcissistic abuse in childhood later in life finds Christ, learns to trust Him, comes to His Church and then one day out of blue suddenly beholds her abusive mother being reincarnated in the Church, in the sight of a priest holding the Eucharistic Cup. I am very interested to understand what is there that makes an adult, a firm believer who knows the Love of Christ on her own experience, to feel as if she was thrown back into her abusive childhood and even further back, into hell devoid of any hope to escape – all those feelings I repeat reaching a pinnacle while she is watching a narcissist priest bring forward the Cup with Christ, her Beloved.

St John the Baptist

Vectors of the soul: a narcissistic church

"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation,  spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand)"

(Matthew 24:15)

"In my paper 'Vectors and Structures' I explored how the abuse of a child, by a narcissistic parent (or other significant attachment figure) effects the relationship of an abused (grown) individual with God. This three-parts theatre investigates the mechanics of narcissistic abuse in the Church and its consequences for a soul."

read more

Icons are for prayer

“I am not asking you to do anything more than to look at Him” 

St Teresa of Avila ‘The Way of Perfection’

The purpose and function of an icon

It is quite common to hear that icons are “windows into heavens”. Unfortunately, this poetic metaphor has a flavour of distantly gazing, through a window, into the immeasurably far away heavens – where God is surrounded by his angels and his saints. The icon, on this take, has something to do with “beautiful enigmatic art” along with notions like “artefact”, “museum”, even “esoteric” and so on. There could be no more contrary approach to the meaning of the icon than this one.

While icon painting unites both fine art and the wealth of theology (namely Christological and Trinitarian dogmas) the first true icons (that is, not symbolic representations like lamb or fish) were born out of the simple need of a human heart, to look at the portraits of those they love. The portrait-like depictions of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary appeared first; the dogma of the Seventh Ecumenical Council about the veneration of the holy images was second. Likewise, the prayer of a believer before an icon of Christ, true God and true man, was first – it is only centuries later that icon painting was proclaimed to be the activity that reinforces the reality of Incarnation. The active engagement with the icon was first, the dogma which defends such engagement was second.

Сердце Нового Завета

Любовь, данная опосредованно

“Вся вечность не так ценна, как тот день, в который “Песня Песней” была дана Израилю; все книги Писания святы, но Песня Песней – это Святая Святых” (Рабби Акива, 1-2 вв. н.э.)

Как это часто подчеркивается иудейскими и христианскими авторами, “Песня Песней” не похожа ни на одну книгу Ветхого Завета. Она не описывает извилистую историю человечества как “Бытие”. Она не провозглашает заповеди Бога, согласно которым Израиль должен жить, если он хочет оставаться избранным народом Божиим, как “Исход”. Она не выражает огромные боль и гнев Бога, Который вновь и вновь предается Своим народом, как книги пророков. Это правда, что некоторые пророки описывали взаимотношения Бога с Израилем в терминах брачной любви. В то время как эти термины были не просто метафорами, но указывали на метафизическую реальность, на природу любви Бога к человечеству (которая наиболее адекватно может быть описана в терминах супружеской любви), внимание пророков было сосредоточено на развертывании событий в конкретное время истории Израиля и в грядущие времена (приход Мессии). Аллюзии к божественному Супругу и неверной жене, даже блуднице, служили подобающим описанием поведения Израиля по отношению к Богу. Говоря о временах, совершенно очевидно, что книги пророков актуальны и в наше время и будут актуальны до конца времен, потому что они показывают человеческое отношение к Богу, которое, подобно идущей вниз спирали, повторяется в разные времена и так и будет повторяться – до тех пор, пока времени больше не будет. “Песня Песней”, как мне кажется, принадлежит к этой “нет-больше-времени” категории. Это есть сейчас и будет всегда, вне времени = без времени, как и любая встреча души с Богом, в любви; или двух людей в любви; или же, обобщенно говоря, двух личностей в любви.

“Песня Песней” – это олицетворение предельной кристалльной простоты. В ней нет абсолютно ничего, кроме любви двоих, непреодолимо влекомых друг к другу. Природа любви Бога к Израилю (иудаистическая интерпретация)/любовь Бога к человеческой душе и этой души – к Богу (христианская интерпретация) описана здесь на языке двух влюбленных, опьяненных взаимыми откликами. Бог открывает Себя самым простым из всех возможных методом;  его откровение о Самом Себе – это откровение о Своей сущности, Любви (Бог есть Любовь), любовно действующей на человеческую душу, которая в свою очередь, будучи созданной по образу и подобию Бога (Который есть Любовь), способна ответить Ему любовью, данной Им ей изначально. Я пытаюсь выразить, что самая сущность Бога, т.е. нечто, мысль о чем заставляет верущего содрогаться от осознания собственной малости, может быть описана посредством вполне человеческой любви-эроса, известной аблолютно всем. И не только описана, но и узнана на опыте.

The heart of the New Testament

Love referred

“For all of eternity in its entirety is not as worthy as the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.” (Rabbi Akiva, 1-2 c. AD)

As it is often stated by both Jewish and Christian authors ‘Song of Songs’ is unlike any other book in the Old Testament. It does not relate the convoluted history of humanity like Genesis. It does not proclaim the rules which God wishes His people to follow if they want to remain His chosen possession like Exodus. It does not vent the enormous hurt and anger of God Who is betrayed by His people again and again like books of Prophets. It is true that several prophets described the relationship of God with Israel in spousal terms. While those terms were not a mere metaphor but hinted the metaphysical reality, the nature of love of God for humanity (which can be the most adequately described in terms of the spousal love), the focus of the prophets were the unfolding events in a particular time of history of Israel and in the future time (the coming of the Messiah). The references to the jealous divine Spouse and the unfaithful bride, even whore, where serving as an apt description of the Israel’s conduct towards God. Speaking about times, the prophet’s books are obviously relevant to our time and till the end of times because they convey the human attitude to God that, like a downfall spiral, repeats in times and will repeat itself until the time will be no more. ‘Song of Songs’, it seems to me, belongs to that “no more time” category. It is now and it will always be, out of time = timeless, as any encounter of a soul with God, in love. Or two humans in love. Or, to include both, it is two persons in love.

‘Song of Songs’ is the epitome of simplicity. There is absolutely nothing there but love between the two irresistibly drawn towards each other. The nature of love of God for Israel (Judaic interpretation)/love of God for a human soul and of this soul– for God (Christian interpretation) is described in the language of two lovers intoxicated by each other’s response. Meaning, God reveals himself in the simplest possible way here i.e. his self-revelation is about his own essence (God is Love) acting in love towards a human soul which is, being an image of God (Who is Love) is capable of answering Him with that love which He gave her in advance. What I am trying to say here is that the very essence of God i.e. something truly unthinkable, something the thought of which makes a believer tremble and shrink in realisation of own smallness, can be conveyed by the very human erotic love known to anyone. And not just conveyed but experienced as well.

Our Lady 'Pimenovskaya'

Clarity at last

Sacred Heart

Apostles Peter and Paul