LIFE OF THE TRUE MONK

Denis of Fourna:

HOW TO REPRESTENT THE LIFE OF THE TRUE MONK

Draw a monk crucified on a cross, clothed in a tunic and a monk’s hat, barefoot and with his feet nailed to the footrest of the cross; his eyes are closed and his mouth shut. Just above his head is this inscription: Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. In his hands he holdeth lighted candles, and next to the candles is this inscription: Let thy light so shine before men, that they may see thy good works, and glorify thy Father. On his chest he hath a table like a hassock, which saith: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. On his stomach is another scroll, like a title, with these words: Be not led astray, O monk, by a full belly. Lower on his body is another scroll which saith: Mortify thy members which are upon the earth. Lower again, below his knees, is another scroll which saith: Prepare thy feet in the way of the Gospel of peace. Above, in the top arm of the cross, make a nailed title with this inscription: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of my Lord. On the three arms of the cross make seals, and in the right one write this: He who endureth to the end shall be saved. In the left one: He who renounceth not everything is unable to be a disciple of Christ. On the seal above the footrest of the cross: Straight and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. To the right side of the cross paint a dark cavern with a big dragon in it coiled, and write: The all-devouring Hell. Over the mouth of the dragon is a naked young man with his eyes bound by a cloth. He holdeth a bow and shooteth at the monk. On his bow is a scroll which says: The maker of lust. Write this inscription above him: The love of harlotry. Above the cabe put many snakes and write: The cares. Near to Hell put a devil dragging at the cross with a rope and saying: The flesh is weak and cannot resist. At the right end of the footrest put a spear witha cross and a flag and write on it: I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. To the left of the cross make a tower with a door, out of which cometh a man sitting on a white horse, wearing a fur hat and robes woven with gold and trimmed with fur. In his right hand he holdeth a cup full of wine and in his left a lance on the end of which is a sponge; a scroll is wrapped around the lance which saith: Take delight in the pleasures of the world. He showeth them to the monk. Write this inscription above him: The vainglorious world. Below him put a grave out of which Death cometh holding a large scythe on his shoulder and an hour-glass in his hand, and looking at the monk. Above him is the inscription: Death and the grave. Below the hands of the Monk on Either side put two angels holding scrolls; write on the scroll of that on the right: The Lord hath sent me to help thee. And of that on the left: Do good and fear not. Above the cross represent heaven with Christ in it, holding the Gospels on his breast open at the words: Whosoever will follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. In his right hand he holdeth a king’s crown, and in his left a crown of flowers. Below him to either side are two angels, looking at the monk and showing him to Christ, and holding between them a long scroll with these words: Fight that thou mayest receive the crown of righteousness, and the Lord will give thee a crown of precious stones. Then write this title: The life of the true monk.

EAGLE LECTERN from LOUVAIN



Brass Gospel Lectern from the collegiate church of St. Peter in Louvain. Cast by Aert van Tricht the Elder circa 1500. Confiscated and sold by the Revolutionary government in 1798, it was kept in England until the 20th century, and now is in the collection at the Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

On ROCK MUSIC

Joseph Ratzinger:

We can recall the Dionysiac type of religion and its music, which Plato discussed on the basis of his religious and philosophical views. In many forms of religion, music is associated with frenzy and ecstasy. The free expansion of human existence, toward which man’s own hunger for the Infinite is directed, is supposed to be achieved through sacred delirium induced by frenzied instrumental rhythms. Such music lowers the barriers of individuality and personality, and in it man liberates himself from the burden of consciousness. Music becomes ecstasy, liberation from the ego, amalgamation with the universe. Today we experience the secularized variation of this type in rock and pop music, whose festivals are an anti-cult with the same tendency: desire for destruction, repealing the limitations of the everyday, and the illusion of salvation in liberation from the ego, in the wild ecstasy of a tumultuous crowd... It is the complete antithesis of Christian faith in the Redemption.

Accordingly, it is only logical that in this area diabolical cults and demonic musics are on the increase today, and their dangerous power of deliberately destroying personality is not yet taken seriously enough. The dispute between Dionysiac and Apolline music which Plato tried to arbitrate is not our concern, since Apollo is not Christ. But the question which Plato posed concerns us in a most significant way. In a way which we could not imagine thirty years ago, music has become the decisive vehicle of a counter-religion and thus calls for a parting of the ways. Since rock music seeks release through liberation from the personality and its responsibility, it can be on the one hand precisely classified among the anarchic ideas of freedom which today predominate more openly in the West than in the East. But that is precisely why rock music is so completely antithetical to the Christian concept of redemption and freedom, indeed its exact opposite.

[Liturgy and Church Music, 1985]

ABRAMTSEVO ART COLONY and its CHAPEL





More information here.

TALASHKINO ART COLONY and its CHAPEL

JOSEP MARIA JUJOL


Sanctuary of Montserrat in Montferri

Dennis L. Dollins:

With a prevailing liberal government and a semiofficial architecture of modernism, Jujol was in a poor position to compete for or receive municipal work. And with the Church under heavy criticism, at times literally under attack, few works were chanelled to an architect whose monogram incorporated a cross and who has asserted his religious dedication. Once he told a student: You're lucky to have a t in your name. That way, every time you write your signature, you can make a cross without anybody asking why.

[Josep Maria Jujol: Five Major Buildings by Dennis L. Dollens. SITES, 1994]

ROCK CRYSTAL of ST. DENIS



This large rock crystal was engraved with a Crucifixion scene by Carolingian artists, and later incorporated into the shrine of St. Denis by Abbot Suger. It remained at the Abbey of St. Denis until the Revolution.

BLOODSTONE



International Colored Gemstone Association:

Medieval Christians often used bloodstone to carve scenes of the crucifixion and martyrs, for which reason it was also dubbed the martyr's stone. According to the legend about the origin of bloodstone, it was first formed when drops of Christ's blood fell and stained some jasper at the foot of the cross.

POSTCARDS from the MONASTERY of the HOLY TRINITY in SERGIEV POSAD

AMBAZAC RELIQUARY