Andrew of Crete: I Have Darkened the Beauty of My Soul Wednesday, Feb 22 2012

Where shall I begin to lament the deeds of my wretched life?  What first-fruit shall I offer, O Christ, for my present lamentation? But in Thy compassion grant me release from my falls.

Come, wretched soul, with your flesh, confess to the Creator of all. In future refrain from your former brutishness, and offer to God tears in repentance.

Having rivaled the first-created Adam by my transgression, I realize that I am stripped naked of God and of the everlasting kingdom and bliss through my sins.(Genesis 3)

Alas, wretched soul!  Why are you like the first Eve?  For you have wickedly looked and been bitterly wounded, and you have touched the tree and rashly tasted the forbidden food.

The place of bodily Eve has been taken for me by the Eve of my mind in the shape of a passionate thought in the flesh, showing me sweet things, yet ever making me taste and swallow bitter things.

Adam was rightly exiled from Eden for not keeping Thy one commandment, O Savior.  But what shall I suffer who am always rejecting Thy living words? (Hebrews 12:25; Genesis 3:23)

[...] Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; O earth, give ear to a voice repenting to God and singing praises to Him.

Attend to me, O God my Saviour, with Thy merciful eye, and accept my fervent confession. (Proverbs 15:3; Psalm 33:15)

I have sinned above all men, I alone have sinned against Thee.  But as God have compassion, O Saviour, on Thy creature. (1 Tim. 1:15)

Having formed by my pleasure-loving desires the deformity of my passions, I have marred the beauty of my mind. A storm of passions besets me, O compassionate Lord.  But stretch out Thy hand to me too, as to Peter. (Matthew 14:31)

I have stained the coat of my flesh, and soiled what is in Thy image and likeness, O Saviour. I have darkened the beauty of my soul with passionate pleasures, and my whole mind I have reduced wholly to mud.

I have torn my first garment which the Creator wove for me in the beginning, and therefore I am lying naked. (Genesis 3:21)

I have put on a torn coat, which the serpent wove for me by argument, and I am ashamed. (Genesis 3:4-5)

The tears of the harlot, O merciful Lord, I too offer to Thee.  Be merciful to me, O Saviour, in Thy compassion. (Luke 7:38; 18:13)

I looked at the beauty of the tree, and my mind was seduced; and now I lie naked, and I am ashamed. (Genesis 3:7)

All the demon-chiefs of the passions have plowed on my back, and long has their tyranny over me lasted. (Psalm 128:3)

Andrew of Crete (c.650-740[?]): Great Canon of Repentance @ Monachos.net.

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Andrew of Crete: The Cross is Called Christ’s Glory; It is Saluted as His Triumph. Wednesday, Sep 14 2011

We are celebrating the feast of the Cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light.

As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above.

[...] Had there been no Cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no Cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree.

And if life had not been nailed to it. There would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing.

The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open.

Had there been no Cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.

Therefore, the Cross is something wonderfully great and honorable.

It is great because through the Cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation – very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory.

The Cross is honourable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory.

It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death.

But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered.

The barred gates of hell were smashed, and the Cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.

The Cross is called Christ’s glory; it is saluted as his triumph.

We recognize it as the cup he longed to drink and the climax of the sufferings he endured for our sake.

As to the Cross being Christ’s glory, listen to his words: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified, and God will glorify him at once.

And again: Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world came to be. And once more: “Father, glorify your name”.

Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it and will glorify it again”.

Here he speaks of the glory that would accrue to him through the Cross.

And if you would understand that the Cross is Christ’s triumph, hear what he himself also said:

When I am lifted up, then I will draw all men to myself. Now you can see that the Cross is Christ’s glory and triumph.

Andrew of Crete (c.650-740[?]): Oratio 10 in Exaltatione sanctae crucis (PG 97, 1018-1019, 1022-23), from the Office of Readings for September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Andrew of Crete: We Shall Receive the Word at His Coming, and God, Whom No Limits Can Contain, Will Be Within Us Monday, Apr 18 2011

Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives.

Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation.

He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of his own free will to make his journey to Jerusalem.

He comes without pomp or ostentation. As the psalmist says: He will not dispute or raise his voice to make it heard in the streets.

He will be meek and humble, and he will make his entry in simplicity.

Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish.

Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.

In his humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world and he is glad that he became so humble for our sake, glad that he came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself.

And even though we are told that he has now ascended above the highest heavens – the proof, surely, of his power and godhead – his love for man will never rest until he has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with his own in heaven.

So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him.

We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him.

Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory.

Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel. 

Andrew of Crete (c.650-740[?]): Oratio 9 for Palm Sunday (PG 97, 990-994) from the Office of Readings for Palm Sunday @ Crossroads Initiative.

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