In honor of Larry Benfield’s 17 years of service as bishop of Arkansas, and his six years as rector of Christ Church, the Christ Church Compline Choir performed an anthem composed especially for him. David William Blackmon, a long-time member of the choir, is the composer. It was sung at Bishop Benfield’s retirement service this evening. Thank you, David, for the beautiful creation. Thank you, Compline Choir, for brining it to life....
This is a map of Evagrius’ eight thoughts and the corresponding virtues. The research conducted on the eight thoughts detailed in the excerpt from my thesis below led to my development of this diagram. It serves as a quick reference to the meaning of each thought and virtue and places them within their corresponding Platonic categories. One of the most critical concepts to understand while studying and applying Evagrius’ work, is the nature of the deep connection between the eight thoughts and their corresponding virtues....
One of Evagrius’s lesser known writings is his Letter to Melania. A “Desert Mother,” Melania managed a monastery in Jerusalem and is credited with inspiring Evagrius to embrace a monastic life in the Egyptian desert. In this eloquent and tender letter, Evagrius expounds on some of his mystical, “gnostic” insights–he had come to understand creation itself as a love letter, chronicling God’s desire for us. “Just as those who teach the alphabet to children trace the letters on tablets, so too, Christ, in order to teach his wisdom to the rational beings, has inscribed it into corporeal nature” (Harmless, William....
Reviewing your day and prayer experience to identify interruptions by the various “troubling thoughts” is not easy work. We can understand, on an intellectual level, the desert wisdom that thoughts are illusory and transient–that they don’t define us. However, sometimes it can be difficult to “feel” that truth after a long day at work or a destabilizing life event. Of course, prayer can and will help. If not silence, then direct petition to God for comfort and strength can often move us into a more objective mental space....
“It is an old saying that extremes meet,” writes John Cassian in The Conferences. Cassian was a disciple of Evagrius, and is credited with introducing the West to the wisdom of the desert. This maxim refers to the Aristotelian idea that virtue is found in the middle; existing at either end of a spectrum can ultimately become harmful. As followers of the “via media,” Episcopalians ought to be familiar with this notion....