The Three Angers
The Sayings contain several mentions of anger and the importance of controlling it. Abba Hyperichius said that “the monk who cannot control his tongue when he is angry, will not control his passions at other times,” and Amma Synclectica reminds us that while struggle with anger is difficult, we should not allow the sun to set on it: ‘Why hate the man who has grieved you? It is not he who has done wrong, but the devil. Hate sickness but not the sick person.” Abba Poemen finally gives us an important insight into the movement of passions through the individual. When asked by a brother what it means to not ‘render evil for evil,’ Poemen answers:
Passions work in four stages – first in the heart; secondly, in the face; thirdly, in words; and fourthly it is essential not to render evil for evil in deeds. If you can purify your heart, passion will not come into your expression; but if it comes into your face, take care not to speak; but if you do speak, cut the conversation short in case you render evil for evil.
Evagrius also said, “Prayer is the seed of gentleness and the absence of anger.” If a monk cannot be free of anger without becoming practiced in prayer, then, as Douglas Burton-Christie writes, the reverse is also true: the desire for retaliation can embed itself so deeply into the individual's heart that prayer becomes impossible. While the ultimate goal is to eliminate anger completely from the heart, we can first work to eliminate the effects of disordered anger. To this end, it is imperative to arrest its movement. The first step is understanding the different kinds of anger and how they manifest themselves.
Thanks to C.S. Lewis, it has become something of a commonplace that the Greeks understood and named love in four different ways – erōs, storgē, philia, and agapē. In Cassian’s fifth conference, Abba Serapion describes the three kinds of anger. The first of these is thumos, which blazes up suddenly within. Next is orgē, manifesting itself in deeds and effects of indignation. This sort of anger may be vocally silent but quite loud in the slamming of doors and stomping of feet. Finally, there is mēnis, which like thumos erupts internally but is “held over for days and seasons.” Mēnis is an enduring anger; Greek lexicons refer to it as the wrath of the gods and worshipped heroes. All of these, Serapion tells us, must be condemned with equal horror. I find myself susceptible to all three, mēnis in particular. Apparently, I'm not alone - Cassian alludes to a similar weakness in Institutes, 8.XI:
...what is to be said of those persons (and this I am unable to mention without shame) on whose implacability even sundown itself places no limits and who draw it out for days on end?
Having named the species of anger and understood their movements from the heart, through the intellect, and thus outward to others, I entered into seven days of spiritual exercises ordered towards two ends. The first goal was to identify the occasions of anger and recollect myself quickly by naming the species and understanding its movement within. This activity serves a larger goal: cultivating patience with myself and others as I seek to eliminate anger at its roots within me. Genuine Christian patience, writes Michael Casey, breaks the inevitable transmission of hurt by receiving what is evil from others and absorbing it. Injuries are not repeated, and the endless cycle of mutual hurt is broken. As someone preparing for diaconal ministry configured to Christ the Servant, I desire to cultivate similar patience with others with the help of God’s grace.
My first reflection is that the systematic identification of anger as a principal vice was fruitful in two ways. First, the detailed understanding of thumos, orgē, and mēnis helped me classify the types of anger within me in ways that have eluded me. The psychological insights of the desert fathers increased my awareness that while anger is rooted within me, it is ‘activated’ from without, and as it ‘enters’ me, it ‘exits’ towards the others around me. Poemen’s description of the movement of passions also provided a sort of roadmap for arresting the movement – heart, face, speech, and deed. With God’s grace, each of these manifestations can be met in sequence, starting from eliminating the external deeds of anger deeds, then progressing inward toward the heart. This approach – working in small steps – provides against feeling overwhelmed by the generic advice provided by other desert fathers.
I had success remaining mindful throughout the day and frequently called Poemen’s word on patience ("Whatever obstacle presents itself to you, it can be overcome by patience.") to mind. The examen was a little hit-or-miss, but I intend to continue trying to make it a regular practice in my nightly devotions. My second reflection is the observation that this was an ideal time for attempting an exercise of this sort, as my personal schedule has suddenly become much calmer relative to the prior few months. This mercy I will credit to God’s providence. I have not yet removed the bracelet and will continue wearing it.
The general approach to this practice will be very useful in pastoral situations. I can imagine a course of readings on Evagrius and Cassian on the principal vices, situating them first within the desert movement and demonstrating that their psychological insights remain intact in the modern age. The later desert writings – Cassian in particular – also show a moderation that could temper the difficulty and opacity of some of the Sayings. Finally, the course would rely heavily on lectio divina based on the Psalms, which, as Athanasius points out, are the scriptures most suitable for recitation in the first person. Similar to this class, the final outcome of this process would be the individual’s identification of a concrete, accessible practice which remedies a particular weakness or inculcate a virtuous habit. This complete course may lend itself well to a retreat format, which would have the additional benefit of physical withdrawal to a place of relative solitude.
N.B. - this post was adapted from parts of a recent paper; for the sake of completeness, I've included the entire bibliography:
Athanasius. The Life of Antony and the Letter to Marcellinus. Translated by Robert C. Gregg. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1980.
Burton-Christie, Douglas E. The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993.
Casey, Michael. “The Virtue of Patience in Western Monastic Tradition.” Cistercian Studies 21, no. 1 (1986): 3–23.
Cassian, John. The Conferences. Translated by Boniface Ramsey. Ancient Christian Writers, no. 57. New York: The Newman Press, 1997.
———. The Institutes. Translated by Boniface Ramsey. Ancient Christian Writers, no. 58. New York: Newman Press, 2000.
Evagrius. The Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer. Translated by John Eudes Bamberger. Cistercian Studies Series, no. 4. Spencer, Mass: Cistercian Publications, 1970.
Ward, Benedicta, ed. The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks. Penguin Classics. London ; New York: Penguin Books, 2003.
———. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetic Collection. Revised. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1984.
The road trip was lovely. We set the GPS to 'avoid all highways' and took our time meandering down to Gulfport, MS, then to New Orleans for a few days before heading north to Oxford. We ate and drank well, stomped all over the Garden District and French Quarter, drove out to Grand Isle to see some of the delta, bought a pile of books, and came home to find the house still standing. It was hot and steamy, and we had a great time. We've never been to Oxford, and it was the perfect end to the trip, both to prime the pump for more Faulkner (pics below) and to visit with a dear friend of my wife who teaches there. After Oxford, we trekked across southeastern TN back toward home, which included a substantial stretch of the Buford Pusser Memorial Highway. Friends, I maintained the speed limit just to be safe.
I am enjoying the downtime before my studies ramp back up in August. I'm heading into my final online class, which means this is the last time I'll need to juggle multiple classes at once.
Currently reading: The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis 📚
Currently reading: New Orleans Sketches by William Faulkner 📚
Summer reading: A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Nicomachean Ethics. For Spanish practice, still working through El Aleph (Borges) and Introduccion al Cristianismo (Ratzinger). We’re about to do a bit of road-tripping through Louisiana and Mississippi, so a couple of audiobooks are also lined up. The plan is to head south to the Gulf coast, then westward to New Orleans, loiter a bit, head to Oxford, and then home. Outside of picking out a few potential restaurants and arranging the hotels, planning has been pretty minimal, which suits both of us just fine. Loosely-structured slowness is the point after the absolute insanity of the last few months.
I am still unpacking the treasures of the class on desert spirituality, which I just wrapped up. My copies of Cassian’s Institutes and Conferences are now heavily marked up. Great stuff and certain to be fruitful in the years to come.
Currently reading: St. Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns On Paradise by St. Ephrem 📚 #books #catholic #theology
Currently reading: El Aleph / The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges 📚 I absolutely loved Ficciones and am looking forward to savoring this one, too.
I think these are fruit sets on the pawpaw tree. I found a few others too. Here’s hoping they survive!
Currently reading: Cien años de soledad / One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez 📚
Currently reading: Introducción al cristianismo: Lecciones sobre el credo apostólico by Benedicto XVI 📚
Ad cenam agni providi
Well, it’s been a hot minute or two since I last posted anything. Since the last time, we completed the two-month sequence in ecclesiology. I started out lukewarm on the topic but got quite into it by the end. Our next class - the Sacraments - is in a few weeks, and I’ve nearly completed the required reading (Lawrence Feingold’s Touched by Christ: The Sacramental Economy). I also have one of the ‘recommended’ texts on tap (Colman O’Neill’s Meeting Christ in the Sacraments) and will probably dive into that next. All of the books for my summer course are sitting here as well, but the professor hasn’t posted the syllabus yet so they’re sort of on hold.
For fiction reading, I finished Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, which I thought was terrific. This started something of a Russian streak, so I read Crime and Punishment next and am determined to actually finish Doctor Zhivago on this go-round. I’m about halfway through it. Not sure what I’ll look at next. A few of us were discussing Graham Greene in class last month, so probably one of his novels. I read The End of the Affair years ago and remember liking it. The Power and the Glory came highly recommended, as was The Heart of the Matter.
Still enjoying Greek, and have added daily practice of reading the day’s Gospel aloud in Spanish as well. A Spanish translation of Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity arrived today, which looks challenging stuff.
Holy Week was busy for us - Palm Sunday, the Chrism Mass on Tuesday, a senior banquet for one of the kids, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Just a few moments to catch our breath and bask in the glow of it all. The sun’s out and things are finally drying off a bit. Everything outside is growing like mad. Famliy is mostly health, save for the odd cold bug here and there. The cat has a clean bill of health from a stubborn ear infection. Dog snoozing the sun.
Every day the rooster gets out and parades past my office window. Then I chase him right back into the coop. It’s become something of a routine. He starts to make a run for it as soon as he hears me unlocking the front door.
All is well, all is well. All manner of things are well. I hope the same for you and yours.
οὐκ οἶδα
Submitted my last paper for Johannine Literature, which brings this year’s long sequence on scripture to a close. On deck is Ecclesiology, followed by Sacraments. Each of those will last two months and will bring this semester to a close. I registered today for a summer intensive on Desert Fathers and Mothers and am very much looking forward to it. The prep work for that one starts in May, then I’ll be up at St. Meinrad for a week in June. Hopefully, the weather won’t be as hot as last year. On the other hand, it would be sort of appropriate, given the subject material.
In other news, I’ve been learning a bit of Koine Greek. A couple of my recent instructors both taught directly from Greek NTs and, overcome with a bit of language-envy, I picked up a grammar, workbook, and NA28 English/Greek New Testament. It’s been great fun so far; basically like learning to read all over again. I’ve also peeked at a few of the classics and if you’re also inclined, I’ll just point out that the Logeion app is free. It comes with several lexicons built-in and integrates well with Attikos, which is also free. It blows my mind that it’s all free, or maybe I’m just easily impressed these days. οὐκ οἶδα, man, I just work here.
More nerdiness: after a long stretch with Cinnamon, I’ve opted to return to i3wm, this time with polybar which I find to be a lot easier to deal with than i3blocks. It looks nicer, too. If none of this means anything to you, don’t worry.
My Carmelite deep-dive continues with The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila Vol 2 by Saint Teresa (of Avila) 📚
“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
— Henry Beston, The Outermost House
Currently reading: The Carmelite Way: An Ancient Path for Today’s Pilgrim by John Welch OCarm 📚
Here’s a nifty fact for you: the Catholic diocese of Orlando includes the moon.
Why? The diocese of Orlando includes Cape Canaveral, and the 1917 code of canon law gives him pastoral responsibility over any lands ‘discovered’ from that point. OTOH, a claim can be made that the military ordinariate has responsibility instead, but I’ll let the canon jurists sort that one out.