Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness - Why Reverence is Not Enough

Peter Kwasniewski's next chapter tackles the question of reverence. Many efforts have been made to push the Novus Ordo into a reverential direction. These efforts are certainly commendable and could do a service in ensuring the survivability of the Novus Ordo, but only if such reforms are not made optional. The core problem here with the Novus Ordo then is not whether it can be reverent but that the Novus Ordo possesses the option to not be reverent. Therein lies the fallacy with the Novus Ordo as it exists today. Bp. Athanasius Schneider himself has proposed different ways to reform the Novus Ordo, all of them are very important for Catholics to consider. These reforms he proposes are the reestablishment of ad orientem priests in the liturgy, the reception of the Eucharist kneeling and on the tongue, not the hand, the reintroduction of the offeratory prayers that indicate the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, the return of the calendar of the Old Rite, and the reintroduction of Latin into the liturgy. (Christus Vincit, 246-256) But wait, doesn't this eventually turn the Novus Ordo into a vernacularized version of the Traditional Latin Mass? Why yes, and that's exactly the point!

"I do not think it is realistic to abolish the Novus Ordo. You cannot accomplish this on such a large scale. We have to restore the constant traditional form of the Mass step by step, in a substantially organic manner. We cannot make another rupture but need to do it organically. Only those things that are absolutely necessary should be imposed in all Catholic churches of the Roman rite by pontifical authority: celebration ad Deum and Communion kneeling and on the tongue." (249)

I would further argue that the addition of the offeratories should be made mandatory as the Eucharist is not just a common meal but a sacrificial offering of the Lord's body. And any one insisting that the Novus Ordo's commitment to receiving the Eucharist standing is an example of its "Eastern" quality is sadly mistaken. In the East, standing is an act of reverence. In the West, kneeling is an act of reverence. In the East, we do not receive the Eucharist on the hand, we receive the Eucharist on the tongue just like the Traditional Latin Mass and not like in the Novus Ordo in which it can only be done by request assuming you currently still have a bishop in good standing with the Catholic faith.

Peter Kwasniewski talks about tradition as guiding us in our lives. Tradition is our culture and tradition is what we inherit. The Latin tradere means "to hand over". Tradition binds us into a culture that we fight to preserve. "Tradition comes to us from above, from God who providentially designed us as social animals who inherit our language, our culture, and our religion; it comes to us from our ancestors...the ones who have gone before." (Noble Beauty, 38) In contrast to tradition are the errors of modernity. Modernity seeks to topple tradition. Modernity is rooted in pride. It is a pride that says, "I know better than my ancestors who came before me!" It is a pride that turns one into a know-it-all and they become consumed with thinking that they have found the answers or that those who came before them fudged it all up. This pride is rooted deeply in the spirit of modern day democracies and it is rooted more deeply in the form of Protestantism. To speak of the adherents of the Old Liturgy as "Protestant" in mentality is not only a slanderous accusation to make but also an egregious fallacy of what Protestantism entails. Protestantism is a rejection of the authority of tradition. Protestantism didn't reject the authority of the Pope, it rejected the authority of tradition which the Pope's authority was rooted in. Protestantism didn't reject the authority of the bishops, it rejected the authority of the Church which the bishops carried their authority in. This golden calf of modern day liberalism, the Enlightenment philosophy, is deeply seeded in American culture and flourishes deeply in American Catholicism. Sometimes I wonder if we as Catholics have forgotten that we are the Church and have embraced the American culture over ecclesiastical culture. Kwasniewski further makes his argument against the Novus Ordo,

"the reformed liturgy, moreover, like modern liberalism itself, exalts choice, spontaneity, and diversity, whereas the historic liturgies of Christianity, both Eastern and Western, present the worshiper with a fully articulated act of worship to which we gratefully yield ourselves, taking on its features as an icon panel receives layer after layer of prescribed color until the beautiful image stands forth." (39)

Here, Kwasniewski has tied the spirit of the liturgical malform in with the spirit of modernist liberalism. It is the spirit of this change that the Neo-Catholic insists is genuinely Catholic, but the emphasis on choice presents him with error. Kwasniewski cites Martin Mosebach, "the very fact that it is possible [to celebrate it reverently] is the weightiest argument against the new liturgy" (45). Mosebach further draws a comparison between this attitude toward the liturgy with an attitude regarding treating a monarch as needing to be competent since it is the monarch's birth from which he draws his legitimacy. Tradition is handed down to us. Tradition is what is in contrast to modernity. Modernism embraces the emphasis of choice. It embraces spontaneity and diversity. Within Christianity, there is room for some diversity, but the limits are drawn with the terms of how and how can not a liturgy be conducted. Christianity is a broad, universal religion, uniting all ethnicities, but it is in the historic tradition of the liturgy that we are united. There are many ancient liturgies that, as Catholics, we celebrate, but they are rooted in the same essence. This rooting is in the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist. This is why we can look at the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and see how strikingly familiar the Liturgy of St. Basil is when we celebrate it. This is why when after looking at that, we can venture into the West and see the melodies of the Gregorian chant yet know that the liturgical pattern is the same. There might be different ways of expressing reverence through kneeling or through standing but the core essence is what unites us together. The Eastward direction of the priest, the liturgy of the catechumens and the liturgy of the faithful, the chanting, the Gospel readings, the offeratories, all of this is the same in both East and West. Only tradition frees us from the errors of Protestantism. Dead authoritarianism leads us to an even duller form of Protestantism than the one we anathematized at the Council of Trent.

Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness - The New Evangelization Needs the New Mass

Peter Kwasniewski is brilliant in this book at using the logic of the Vatican II reforms against those who have polluted the Church to demonstrate why the Traditional Latin Mass actually fulfills the reforms the Neo-Catholics have been trying to "discover" in the Novus Ordo far better than the Novus Ordo ever can or did. One of the things that has occurred since 1965 is that attendance of the Catholic faithful to Mass every Sunday has been in constant and drastic decline (Noble Beauty, 3). This was also around the time the changes to the Mass started to be implemented. Is this a sheer coincidence or is this an indicator that prayerful attendance to Mass is inherently connected to the type of worship that is occurring in Mass? One of the things the more "conservative" Neo-Catholic defenders of the Novus Ordo try to spit on is the concept of the lex credendi lex orandi. This, translated to English, means "law of belief, law of prayer". Fr. Casey has shown his consistent dismissal of this rule of law in the life of the Catholic as he relegates the changes of Mass and rites is not actually a matter of faith. Though there may be some argument when regarding fasting observances and what age to administer the sacrament of confirmation, when you are talking about fundamental changes to the Divine Liturgy, yes, the Divine Liturgy is a matter of faith. To dismiss this idea is to repudiate Catholicism. As we have shown from the introduction post in the comments made by the Byzantine Liturgist Nicholas Cabasilas.

Kwasniewski builds his defense of the Traditional Latin Mass's reimplementation being the root cause of what is drawing people back to the faith by citing numerous stories of people who have been attending the Novus Ordo, who now attend the Traditional Latin Mass, and can see the vast difference in reverence. Though these arguments are largely matters of personal experience, they touch on the fact that the Novus Ordo has created a dry religious environment for the Catholic faithful. There is a reason why people I know flock to the Traditional Latin Mass even after attending a Byzantine Liturgy in the morning. There is a reason why people would rather observe the beauty of the Traditional Latin Mass. Simply put, there comes a point in which the only real difference between Protestantism and Catholicism, if the Novus Ordo is the dominant Mass, is relegated to nothing more than paper. I remember walking around my old home in Arizona seeing a lot of these Novus Ordo parishes and they looked almost like megachurches. It felt weird thinking of them as Catholic parishes. One of my friends has commented about his own conversion, going into a Novus Ordo parish at first and wondering, "what's the difference" between this and Protestantism?

Religion is not a paper format but a relationship. Religion is a binding of oneself to God according to St. Augustine. Kwasniewski answers a common objection to the Traditional Mass, namely that it is irrelevant, we cannot see it, we cannot understand it. Kwasniewski's theology is based in simplicity but not in simplisticness. The Liturgy is like a window that shows us God. But like a window, if it is too transparent, it becomes invisible. The makers of the Novus Ordo demanded of us a transparent transparency where the window is so clean and clear that we run into it like a bird. There must be a level of opaqueness to come against (13-15), otherwise, we would not be able to come up face-to-face with God. In many ways, this shows the tensions of man with himself. The Novus Ordo becomes a form of self-worship when we look at the Mass in such a way that we try to grasp a reality tangible that we can understand. There is a lack of mystery in such a form of worship. It is formlessness.

"If, because of the way things are being done, one can see that the Mass is a sacrificial action in which our Lord and God is present for our adoration, that is a good simplicity─something that even the tiniest child can perceive and the oldest person still relish as the awe-inspiring wonder it is. If, on the other hand, one thinks Mass is a Bible study with a communion service, one might have been exposed to a bad simplification of it. Similarly, if you become immersed and a bit dizzy in the richness of the Mass as it invades all your senses and thoughts, that is a good complexity; no analysis could ever do it justice. But if there is a lot of disjointed and distracting stuff going on at Mass and you can hardly pray and cannot wait to get out, that is a bad complexity." (24-25)

How does this all relate to evangelism? Kwasniewski summarizes his position perfectly.

"The humanism, rationalism, archaeologism, utilitarianism, modernism, and other -isms on the basis of which the reformers worked in the sixties and seventies have yielded a liturgy inadequate to its own theological essence, unequal to its ascetical-mystical vocation, and estranged from its cultural inheritance." (27)

It is interesting to point out that the Latin word cultus from which our word "culture" derives from means worship. The modernistic mentality that took up the malformers was one of destruction of worship, an attack on prayer, and an assault on culture. The Traditional format of the Mass was the Catholic culture for ages. I think this is why we see the Byzantine Catholics starting to flourish as they adhere fast to their culture and recover their Eastern mentality. We have a worship that attracts Latins who have been left with a half-dead liturgy, if one could call it that. We need not sacrifice the West, but in adhering to our own culture, Greek Catholics have an important role to play in the recovery of the Church. We show the West that it is gravely important to cling to our cultural traditions. The West has been blessed with numerous ancient rites from English to Spanish to French to Celtic. This has led to the formulation of the its expression in the Traditional Latin Mass. The West needs to call its attention to its ancient traditions and abandon modernism in every way Greek Catholics must. Too many Greek Catholics think that the West is supposed to move Eastward in all of its formatting and by this, we fail to realize that the West is actually abandoning tradition altogether. The Church is universal. We are made of both East and West. We cannot allow the suicide of the West and pretend nothing is going on since they now have a "vernacular" liturgy. The West has done overtly heretical things to its liturgy. Or did we also abandon our tradition?

Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness - Introduction

Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness is a timely work of Peter Kwasniewski's that deserves attention in recent times, especially with the vicious attack on tradition by our ecclesiastical hierarchy. Martin Mosebach begins the book with an introduction commenting on the issues at play in the current discussion of the liturgical "reform" (or rather malform) that has been brought about by the effects of Vatican II and how they have deteriorated the Western Catholic mode of thought and appreciation for beauty. I am a Byzantine Catholic. Why am I so interested in the deterioration of Western Rite Catholicism? I am interested in the deterioration of Western Rite Catholicism primarily because as a Catholic, if the West can suicide its own tradition as it has done in the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st century, what stops the Western hierarchy from doing this to the East? Indeed, even my own bishop has decided to take cues from the Western bishops when it comes to how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic specifically. We do not want to be governed according to Western precepts if the West has decided to suicide its own tradition!

This collapse in appreciation for the beauty of the Church's liturgy has become among the downsides of the reforms of Paul VI. Vatican II brought about numerous reforms (or malforms) to the Church which were already in the making but hadn't touched the core essence of the liturgy quite yet. It was in this context that the liberals would first strike at the principal concept uniting Christians together. The core of our prayer life in the liturgy was assaulted. No longer was there a sacrificial offering. Churches became bland and devoid of life. The liturgy became a mode of communion between individuals rather than a sacrificial communal meal tying Christians together. Thus, Martin Mosebach comments in the introduction, "The Church, unrestrainedly pushing ahead with her revolution, continued to lose both attractiveness and retentive capacity." (xiv) I would dispute that the Church was the one that went ahead with this revolution though. I would state it was the members of the Church that tried to cut the Church into pieces and instead became persecutors of the Church instead!

One of the common themes of the Novus Ordo is that the priest frequently faces the people. This reduces the liturgy to a virtual interaction between priest, whereas a liturgy is meant to bring the congregation's proper focus on Christ. "Klaus Gamber...had given the scholarly proof that in no period of the Church's history had the liturgical sacrifice been made facing the people instead of facing East, together with the people, to the returning Lord." (xviii) This Eastward direction was intended to emphasize that Christ is coming in the East. He will return from the East. The Holy Prophet Malachi refers to Christ as the Sun of Righteousness. The Sun rises in the East. There is an inherently Eastward emphasis in Messianic theology in the Jewish literature which as a consequence, extends into the Christian literature. To create a "liturgy" in which priest and people face each other is to turn the liturgy from a sacrificial offering to God to a communication among believers. Such an act deteriorates the liturgy.

One of the things that is cut out in the Novus Ordo typically tends to be the order of consecration. The Traditional Latin Mass, much like the Byzantine Liturgy, is divided into the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful. The Mass of the Catechumens is where the Gospel is read, shortly afterward, the catechumens are dismissed for the catechumens, remaining uncleansed by their lack of baptism, are unfit to observe the sacrifice of the Mass which occurs during the Mass of the faithful. Nicholas Cabasilas, commenting on the order of consecration during the Byzantine Liturgy, makes this argument in defense of the Byzantine order of consecration. In his day, there were Latins attempting to minimalize the consecration of the Eucharist, claiming that after the words, "take and eat", the Eucharist was fully consecrated already (A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, 29). There was a certain strain of Latins already abusing the faith of both East and West, minimalizing these prayers. "Who does not know that is the death of Christ alone which has brought remission of sins to the world? But we also know that even after his death faith, penitence, confession, and the prayer of the priest are necessary, and a man cannot receive remission of sins unless he has been through these processes. ... To follow the innovations of these men would inevitably mean the total destruction of Christianity." (29)

Cabasilas's harsh words to these Latins may offend some Latin Catholics, but it is important to note he only references a strain of thought developing in certain Latins. A strain of thought that Kwasniewski will take issues with. Martin Mosebach, in his foreward to Kwasniewski's book makes note of the consecrations in various different rites (Noble Beauty, xxi-xxii). Cabasilas, though commenting on the Byzantine Liturgy, has already shown the commonality between the Byzantine and Latin Liturgies (A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, 30), something that I have seen many apologists for the Novus Ordo try to claim for the Novus Ordo. Their argument is only in the position that the Novus Ordo is in the vernacular. The vernacular will be brought up later though Mosebach has a grim statement to make about the universal return to Latin. It may be that the vernacular is here to stay. I can see arguments for both the vernacular and a universal language so I won't comment further until I get to that section in this series, but the proponents of the Novus Ordo who try to compare the Byzantine Liturgy to the Novus Ordo never address the ad orientem position of the clergy nor do they address the lack of consecrations in the Novus Ordo. Indeed, that the consecrations are only deemed "optional" in the Novus Ordo ends up separating those Catholic defenders of it from the main body of the whole of Tradition already. They ignore the warnings given by Cabasilas and they have distorted the Divine Liturgy by insisting that consecrations are not necessary. Both are an attack on the essence of the Catholic faith. With these statements, Martin Mosebach calls us back to our Catholic tradition in the Divine Liturgy and in the Mass of our ancestors.

St. Clotilde, Queen of the Franks

Clotilda was born some time around the year of 476 A.D. to Chilperic, the son of Gundovic. Gundovic's Kingdom of Burgundy was divided into four parts and Chilperic governed from Lyons. Gondegisil and Chilperic were Catholics, but their brother Gondebad was an Arian. Clotilda was given religious instruction by her mother Caretena, who is held in high repute by historians. Sedeleuba, the sister of Clotilda, founded the church of Saint-Victor and embraced a monastic life while sometime after the death of Chilperic, Clovis asked for Clotilda's hand in marriage.

There is a pious tradition of the Arian king Gondebad slaying Chilperic, throwing Caretena into a well with a stone around her neck, and exiling the two daughters but this is largely unverifiable. Most of the source material we have of St. Clotilda's life comes from St. Gregory of Tours's History of the Franks. In fact, there is contrary evidence to this claim too as Gondebad lamented the death of Caretena and it is stated of Caretena that she died full of days having seen both her children love and embrace the Catholic faith.

Clovis was not a Catholic when he wed Clotilda and Clotilda is credited with convincing him of the truth of the Catholic faith. Clotilda bore to Clovis five children overall. The first, Ingomir, reposed shortly after his baptism which distressed Clovis and made him frighten of Christianity. But she was able to obtain permission again from the king to baptize her second son, Clodomir, which the king granted. Clovis would ultimately embrace the Catholic faith and he would be baptized by St. Remigius at Reims. Thus, Clotilda sealed the effective future of France as one of the most renowned Catholic nations in all history. It was through her marriage to Clovis that the spark of the fire of the Catholic faith would ignite and spread throughout the Frankish kingdom and her persistence in raising her children according to the Catholic faith in spite of having a pagan husband. As the serpent led the First Eve to sin and through Eve, the man sinned, it would be through the Second Eve who did not sin who would lead the man to eternal life. Thus Clotilda her marriage according to a perfect Marian imitation.

Clotilda's other children were Childebert, Clotaire, and Clotilda. Clovis reposed in the year 511 and Clotilda had him interred in the church of the Apostles which was built as a mausoleum. For this reason, Clotilda is frequently depicted in iconography holding a church. The church she holds represents this church of the Apostles which she built with her husband and would inter her husband in when he reposed. In her widowhood, she would see numerous trials beginning with her son Clodomir's conflict with his cousin Sigismund, son of Gondebad, who had succeeded Gondebad. Godomar triumphantly surrounded Clodomir's stronghold at Orléans. Clodomir had the two sons of Sigimund, Gisald and Gondebaud assassinated on May 1, 524 but was vanquished by Sigismund in the Battle of Vézeronce in that same year. Clotilda took care of his three children, Theodebald, Gunthar, and Clodoald until Clodomir's widow married Clotaire. Unfortunately, more tragedy occurred as her sons Clotaire and Childebert deceived her into thinking they would provide protection for her grandsons. Sending the children to them, she would realize their plots as they attempted to slay all three of Clotilda's grandchildren. Clodoald would escape and he would found the monastery of Saint-Cloud, giving up his hair, the symbol of Frankish royalty, rather than his life.

Clotilda moved from Paris to Tours, closer to the tomb of St. Martin where she witnessed yet another tragedy. Her daughter, the wife of Amalric, suffered from tremendous abuse, and her son Childebert came to her aid. Amalric was slain but Clotilda would repose from the journey home of the wounds she received from her abusive husband Amalric. Then she saw her two sons Clotaire and Childebert engage in conflict with each other. Clotaire hid from his brother in the forest of Brotonne in Normandy and it was at this point that Clotilda threw herself on her knees before the tomb of St. Martin of Tours asking to be spared of yet another fratricide in her family. Just then, a tempest arose and dispersed the two troops. St. Clotilda was rich in virtue and in good works, and after her 34-year-long widowhood, would return to eternal glory in the year 546, being buried in the same church of the Apostles alongside her husband and children.

St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite - On the Tongue

Though it is called taste in The Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, this next section really ought to be called "the tongue" because the topic that St. Nicodemos covers is all things related to the tongue. The mouth,according to St. Gregory of Nyssa, "is always filled yet always remains empty" (Hanbook of Spiritual Counsel, ch. 6). What is the need of all these wanton and surreptitious meals? The only need of them is to fuel the desires of the stomach and by doing so, one fuels their lusts for other sins, fornication, homosexuality, and all carnal and irrational passions are fueled by the sin of gluttony. This is nothing new to the teachings of St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite. St. John Climacus also maintains that the sin of gluttony leads to the sins of the carnal appetite. It is also established science that fat content triggers the libido in man driving his sexual desire leading him into sexual and carnal lusts.

St. Gregory Nyssa teaches us that "it is the preoccupation with the pleasures of eating that bring forth each of the many evils" (ibid). How can one contend against this? Is it not an elaborate banquet that drives man to pursue expensive and lush housings leaving within him nothing more than a love for money? Does this not only come with a pride of self in how many riches the man has? Behold, look how he hangs out with the finest and most intelligent group of individuals and serves them the best food! From this extends coveting, pride, wantonness, lust, and eventually fornication. From material attachment comes despair because man soon realizes that the material world fades to dust. Thus, gluttony ultimately drives the passions to the source of all evils.

Not only this, but those who indulge in the sense of taste are spiritually deprived as well. Which god does the Apostle Paul say these men serve? The god they serve is their belly. Thus, there is spiritual depravity that comes from overeating. The belly ends up governing the entire body. Sinfulness is what the person is led into.

"Sumptuous eating is harmful to all without exception, but especially to the young. The natural reason for this is obvious. The natural warmth of the young person is enhanced when it receives the fatty matter of various foods. The heavy foods consumed draw out the heavy excretions of digestion in the stomach. These in turn are converted into substances and blood and eventually into fatty tissue. The abundance of food creates a fat body that is susceptible to the forceful temptations of one's sexuality." (ibid)

There are three degrees in eating according to St. Gregory the Sinaite. Temperance is when we withhold from eating and even still hungry after eating. This is the best way to control the passion of gluttony. Sufficiency is when we eat no more than is necessary until we are sufficiently nourished. This teeters into gluttony. Satiety is when we eat until we are satisfied. This is not necessarily gluttonous but certainly borders into it the most. St. Basil did not forgive the young people who ate unto satiety but also the young who ate unto sufficiency. St. Basil wanted to train all people to eat temperately.

We are to keep the fasts every Wednesday and Friday. In the East, we fast every single Wednesday and Friday abstaining from all meats except shellfish, olive oil (though some jurisdictions forbid all oil), wine, and alcohol. St. Nicodemos emphasizes the importance of keeping these fasts because they keep a well-regulated routine for the Christian of constant depravity of the enjoyment of certain foods. Today, many Christians don't even fast at all, and if they do, it's only during Lent, every Friday. The ancient custom was to fast every Wednesday and Friday except for the week before Lent, Bright Week, and the week following Nativity. A Ruthenian deacon I know estimated about 200 days worth of fasting for the Byzantine Christian. God will put gluttons to the test and having a well-regulated fasting routine is important to combat this sin of gluttony.

Finally, St. Nicodemos reflects on other sins of the tongue. Christians must not conduct sins of the mouth which include "condemnation, slander, mocking, insults, unreasonable excommunications, curses, reprimands, obscene talk, and all the other idle and vain words" (ibid). We will have to give an account for this. St. Nicodemos also reproves Christians for laughter. Christians must guard against laughter as it "causes the gums and the teeth to show in those who laugh loudly just as they do with horses when they neigh". "[W]hen we take into account that our responsible and sinful life is carried on in a valley of sorrows, then even our laughter must be turned to mourning and our smile and joy to grief, as St. James the Brother of the Lord has said" (ibid). Jesus cried four times but is not recorded to have laughed once. I go into this more in another post so it is not necessary to go further here.

The sins of the tongue and taste are not limited to gluttony. Gluttony opens the floodgates to a mess of other sins including fornication and greed. The tongue must be guarded against all forms of ribaldry.

St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite - On Hearing and Smell

Hearing and smell are the two senses St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite discusses the least and spends little time on in his Handbook on Spiritual Counsel. On hearing, he discusses three primary evils arising from sound and how our ears must guard against these so as not to arouse the mind. Because the mind is easily led astray by the body and the body easily leads astray the mind. The three evils that come with listening to certain sounds are that the soul becomes effeminate and lethargic, the mind is filled up with so many sensual passions that it eventually holds slave to them, and finally, even if the singer is not seen, and especially if the singer is a woman, these sounds are capable of impressing the imagination (Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, ch. 4).

St. Basil tells us not to "submit your souls to corrupt melodies that come to us through the ears" and St. Gregory the Theologian tells us to "not have the flute played to our hearing" and "in his Iambic poetry he wrote: 'Block your ears with wax, and foolish words hear not, nor pleasant songs or thrilling melodies'" (ibid). St. Nicodemos further makes his case by referencing the story of Odysseus. In the The Odyssey, there is a part where Odysseus and his men are sailing through an area of sirens who attempt to lure sailors to their watery graves with their songs. Their songs are so beautiful that the sailors are enchanted by them. Odysseus wants to hear the sirens so he has his men tie him up to the mast but he has his crew members fill their ears with wax. Odysseus is drawn to the sound of the sirens and even begins to beg his men to untie him but his men don't hear a sound. His men remain steadfast and obedient to the command they heard. Their ears are filled with wax and they remain unlured by the sirens.

Finally, St. Nicodemos addresses that we must not hear or regard slanderous thoughts or slanderous talking. While there is a point to make in regard to the more sensual sounds driving the mind to sensual thoughts and practices, there is a further point to make in regard to slanderous statements driving the mind to think evilly of one's neighbor. Especially unjustly, when we think of our neighbor in such ill-repute, we lead ourselves into entering into murderous libel against our neighbor for to hate our neighbor already makes us guilty of the sin of murder. He comments, without further statement or example, that the life of St. John the Merciful is filled with such examples of how we must not regard or listen to slanderous thoughts.

Smell has a similar line of thought to hearing. Once again, the fragrances of sweet-smelling perfumes lead a soul to becoming effeminate, desiring soft things, refusing to recognize its earthly origins. Sweet-smelling fragrances and perfumes "not only weaken the manly character of the soul and give it effeminate air, they also may incite the soul toward fornications and other moral licentiousness" (ch. 5). Veros of Sicily is read about in history books as a character resembling that of a wild boar. He never wanted to be without the smell of roses. He wore roses around him at all times. St. Nicodemos also comments on Marcus Aurelius "who was so immersed in the habit of pleasing his senses that he would literally fill up a pool of rose water and would swim in it with joy and pleasure" (ibid).

Seeing that these fragrances can lead even sound minds to such effeminate insanities, St. Arsenios would train himself "to endure humbly even the foul smells" and "would never change the water in which he soaked the palms of date trees and the young shoots which he braided into baskets" (ibid). This produced such a foul smell that he was eventually inquired as to why he persisted in doing this. St. Arsenios responded that it was a repayment of all the sweet smells of myrrh and perfume he had previously enjoyed from earthly kingdoms. If one refuses to remain idle, they must work. When one works, the body produces heat and the body emits sweat to regulate the cooling of the body. This leads to the body becoming stinky with the salts emitted from sweat. By sweating and remaining active we cut off the effeminate attachment to sweet fragrances and we also burn fats which fuel the libido and sexual drive. We become more able to combat passions.

St. Nicodemos also includes at the end of his chapter on smell that the clergy must not smoke. Several reasons he lists are that when people smoke through pipes, the smell of the smoke becomes caught in their lungs and they are forced to sneeze. They bring out their handkerchiefs in the sight of people and sneeze into it. The sneezing causes such a violent shaking of the head that people are driven to wish good health on the poor soul who was unfortunate enough to sneeze so violently. It also instills in the Christians that the clergy lead a good habit not to smoke themselves. Further, St. Nicodemos warns of the ill-effects of smoking. Writing around the turn of the 18th-19th century, he comments how smoking can actually lead to negative health effects. Some of the people who had smoked throughout their lives would be found after death with their lungs blackened and burnt. This also happened to their brains. Already, in the 19th century, St. Nicodemos knew that smoking was detrimental to physical and mental health. How is it no one else was able to see that but merely they skirted around the obvious?

Both smelling and hearing can lead to stirring up effeminate thoughts, inciting effeminate behavior, and corrupting the soul through attachments to effeminate things of nature. These two senses must be guarded. There must be holy sounds that fill their presence. The sound of hymns, the sound of praise, the sound of love. The smells of hard work are the best way to combat the effeminate fragrances we come across throughout the day. The smell of hard work will also greatly assist us in combatting the libido that drives the sensual passions.

St. Rita of Cascia's desert spirituality

One of my Latin friends was posting about this saint recently. St. Rita's life is a story well worth reading if one has not read it yet but there are also elements of desert spirituality that forge a significant part of St. Rita's spirituality. Born to wealthy, but aging parents, she always had the desire to pursue a monastic life but her parents, fearing their own death and worried they would repose without leaving her a caretaker, married her off to a man when she was but the age of 12.

Obedience is emphasized strongly in the Evergetinos (Bk I, Hypothesis XXXIII-XXXIX). In the Life of St. Barsanouphios, an elder states that "he who wishes to be a monk is not entitled to have his will in anything" (Hypothesis XXXV). Hypothesis XXXIII of the Evergetinos show us different examples of monks entering into the monastery being forced to show their devotion to the monastic life by willing even to sacrifice their own children. In Rita's case, it is not a monk she is becoming but a nun. Her first act of this obedience is to her parents. Though she certainly has no obligation to follow their instruction as the religious life is a higher calling than marriage, she submits to their desires any way. She is wed to a man named Paolo Mancini who is abusive to Rita. But she nevertheless, being the faithful wife, submits to his commands. Likewise, the desert fathers tell us that when we are submissive to even the worst of teachers, those teachers may also be saved through us (Hypothesis XXXVII-XXXVIII). This is a different type of devotion for Rita as it is not a monk-elder relationship but a husband-wife relationship yet even St. Peter confirms that her obedience to her abusive husband can lead to his salvation (1 Pet. 3:1).

Paolo Mancini began to show signs of repentance in their marriage.

"His unbridled savagery was finally overcome by her constant gentleness, and there came a day when, after one of his usual outbursts he was so overcome by shame and remorse that he knelt at her feet and begged her pardon, promising a better life. That promise, aided always by his perfect wife, he faithfully kept as long as he lived." (Jacobus Doran)

Having accumulated multiple political enemies throughout his life though, Rita's husband was savagely murdered leaving her a widow with two sons. St. Rita trusted her husband's soul to divine providence though confident that he had met his end because he was ready to be received into Heavenly glory and forgave his murderers. But her sons seemed to begin hatching plots to avenge their father. St. Rita then entrusted them to divine providence that they be protected from this sin. A cry of a mother of one of the victims of the Holy Fathers slain by barbarians at Sinai Rhaithou seems to have an echo in Rita's plea for her sons.

"To thee, Master, I entrusted my son, and I rejoice that now and in the future age he has been saved. To thee I surrender my son, and Thou art He Whom I considered his protector; I thus rejoice, indeed, that he has been preserved safe from the hands of the Devil." (Account of the Murder of the Holy Fathers at Sinai and Rhaithou, Evergetinos, Hypothesis XII)

She besought that their hearts either be changed or that they be taken without this action having been completed. They both died within a year, and though filled with a natural sorrow of a mother for her children, was also filled with joy knowing that the state they were in was one of grace. Though many sin gravely, as long as one is alive, there is still time to repent. St. Rita spends much of her prayers for her husband and sons concerned about their final state, not their current state. The emphasis of the final state is shown in the the Gerontikon cited in Hypothesis II as a elder is asked the question of a monk and a layman's intentions left unfulfilled, the Elder responds, "The monk died as a monk and the layman a layman; for whatever their state at the moment of death, so they departed this world."

All monastics are expected to go through robust testing prior to their entrance to the monastery (Hypothesis XXVI). St. Rita persistently attempted to enter into the convent of the Augustinian nuns but each time she was refused. The Augustinian nuns would not permit widows entrance. But St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine, and St. Nicholas of Tolentino appeared to Rita leading her to the convent of Cascia with its bolted doors. With a simple touch, the doors opened and the nuns were astonished to find Rita within their midst. They accepted her into the convent.

"In her religious life, Rita excelled in the perfect observance of her Rule and the holy vows, in charity for God and her sisters, in profound humility and sacrificial labour. Love of our suffering Saviour urged Rita to perform heroic penances. She possessed the spirit of prayer and contemplation in a high degree. In her cell she devised a little mountain with a cross to remind her of our Saviour's torments in his Passion. With tearful compassion she followed our Lord, in spirit, to Calvary and to death." (St. Rita of Cascia)

Although there is more to say about this pious woman, I will end on this note as the primary point is to show the echoes of the spirituality of the desert fathers within the life of St. Rita of Cascia. Her greatest virtue was obedience, even in things she did not desire. She was given over wholly to the Will of God. This is what led to her husband's repentance and then to her sons' salvation from vengeance. This is what greatly improved her life in the convent of Augustinian nuns. He wishes to be a monk is not entitled to have his will in anything so she who wishes to be a nun is not entitled to have her will in anything. St. Rita wholly surrendered her will to the Divine Will of God.