{"id":1852,"date":"2011-03-08T08:47:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T15:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tgdarkly.com\/blog\/?p=1852"},"modified":"2011-03-08T08:47:41","modified_gmt":"2011-03-08T15:47:41","slug":"reading-journals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/2011\/03\/08\/reading-journals\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Journals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I picked up a copy of The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann<\/a>.\u00a0 There is something beautiful about reading a thoughtful and spiritual person’s journals.\u00a0 In Schmemann<\/a> — in his formal theology of worship and liturgy and in his personal journals — I feel that I’m finding a kindred spirit.\u00a0 Here is a person of great learning and insight, a theologian and pastor,\u00a0who struggled with the daily grind of life and the difficulties of dealing with people in the Church, who often becomes quite discouraged, but who always returns to the practices that proclaim light and resurrection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps it’s particularly helpful that his ecclesiastical context — Eastern Orthodoxy in the 1970’s and 80’s — is so far removed from mine.\u00a0 The joys and the problems are the same.\u00a0 No one is immune — but also no one is alone.\u00a0 Here, for example, is part of his entry for March 26, 1973:<\/p>\n

Today, I thought about it all:\u00a0 about the low level of church life, about fanaticism, lack of tolerance, the enslavement of so many people.\u00a0 A ‘New Middle Ages’ is engulfing us in the sense of a new barbarian era.\u00a0 Many churchmen are choosing and, what is worse, love Ferapont [a Dostoevsky character who is illiterate and rigid].\u00a0 Especially ‘clear’ is the fact that all that is higher,\u00a0 more complex, more difficult to comprehend — all this is a temptation and has to be destroyed….\u00a0 If one remains in the system, one accepts it, albeit unwillingly, along with its\u00a0methods.\u00a0 If one leaves — in the role of a prophet or an accuser — one slides into arrogance and pride.\u00a0 I feel\u00a0constantly tortured and torn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or this on\u00a0March 30, 1973:<\/p>\n

Only when we write it down do we understand how much of our time is spent empty, how much fuss there is, not worthy of our attention, unimportant yet devouring our hearts.\u00a0 All these days, in a state of total exhaustion as well as revulsion at the duties I need to be performing.\u00a0 I find myself passively watching television.\u00a0 But at the same time, when lecturing in the morning, I feel inspired again and again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or this, on October 22, 1974:<\/p>\n

Yesterday we had a faculty meeting at our house.\u00a0 Rather peaceful, but, Lord, how difficult it is for people not only to agree with each other, but simply to hear the other.\u00a0 If it is the case with a small group of people who are essentially of one mind, what about the world at large?\u00a0 Division and alienation are the essence of the original sin.\u00a0 Unity can\u00a0be restored only\u00a0‘in Christ.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Yes Father Schmemann — we need to hear this today again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I picked up a copy of The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann.\u00a0 There is something beautiful about reading a thoughtful and spiritual person’s journals.\u00a0 In Schmemann — in his formal theology of worship and liturgy and in his personal journals — I feel that I’m finding a kindred spirit.\u00a0 Here is a person […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spirituality"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p824rZ-tS","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}