Catechism - Age of Triumph

Our Catechism for the Age of the Patriarchs (Antiquity) worked so well last year in helping us to remember the important stuff, that we are doing it again! If you want to learn more about using this teaching method, see samples, and understand how to write your own, I highly recommend this book by Joshua Gibbs. Certainly, much of the catechism below came straight from him! We simply read it every school day aloud together, the four of us: 16 yo, 12 yo, 7 yo, and me.

Catechism for the Age of Triumph (Middle Ages)

 Gentlemen, what are you?       

I am a king, for I rule myself.

Ladies, what are you?

            I am a queen, for I rule myself.

What does it mean to rule yourself?

I am free to do good. I am not the slave of my desires. St. Basil interprets the power to rule given to man in terms of taming the beasts, birds etc as well as in terms of the rule over passions and thoughts. He describes anger, greed, hypocrisy, lust, and other passions, as beasts and asks the question: “Have you truly become ruler of beasts if you rule those outside but leave those within ungoverned? You become like God through kindness, through endurance of evil, through communion, through love for another and love for the brethren, being a hater of evil, dominating the passions of sin - that to you may belong the rule.”

Who has made you kings and queens?

“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, the we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (From St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans, chapter 8)

What keeps you from being kings and queens?

The vices: pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, sloth, being a slave to the passions.

What does it mean to be human?

                The virtues include Faith, Hope, Love, Obedience, Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Temperance, which is Modesty, Self-control, Chastity, Humility

 Why should we seek virtue?

St. James asks, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend of God.

Dante teaches that righteousness is wanting what is good, not merely knowing what goodness is; if a knowledge of goodness is not married to a desire for righteousness, mere knowledge profits a man nothing.

St Cyril of Alexandria says, “The Lord of all therefore requires us to be thoroughly constant in our exertions after virtue, and to fix our desires upon the better and holy life, setting ourselves free from the distractions of the world… that we may serve Him continually, and with undivided affections.

How can I know if I am gaining virtues?

                Fr. Seraphim Rose writes in Christ the Eternal Tao,

The man of the highest virtue

Is like water which dwells in lowly places

In his dwelling he is like the earth, below everyone.

His heart is immeasurable.

What did Boethius teach about the good life?

No man is rich who shakes and groans, convinced that he need more (26). No man is so completely happy that something somewhere does not clash with his condition (30). Remember, too, that all the most happy men are over-sensitive. They have never experienced adversity and so unless everything obeys their slightest whim, they are prostrated by every minor upset. So nothing is miserable except when you think it so, and vice versa, all luck is good luck to the man who bears it with equanimity (31). The more varied your possession, the more help you need to protect them, and the old saying is proved correct, he who hath much wants much (35). Decide to lead a life of pleasure, and there will be no one who will not reject you with scorn as the slave of that most worthless and brittle master, the human body (60).

What does Dante’ teach about wasting our lives away in petty amusements?

Put off this sloth, for shame!

Sitting on feather-pillows, lying reclined

Beneath the blanket is no way to fame-

Fame = character

Fame, without which man’s life wastes out of mind,

Leaving on earth no more memorial

Than foam in water or smoke upon the wind.

How does Beowulf approach his rule?

“I feel no shame, with shield and sword

And armor, against this monster: when he comes to me

I mean to stand, not run from his shooting 

Flames, stand till fate decides

Which of us wins. My heart is firm,

My hands calm: I need no hot

Words. Wait for me close by, my friends.”

Then Beowulf rose, still brave, still strong,

And with his shield at his side, and a mail shirt on his breast, 

Strode calmly, confidently, toward the tower, under

The rocky cliffs: no coward could have walked there!

How can we fight so as to find victory?

                “For we do not wrestle against principalities, against flesh and blood, but against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (Ephesians 6 and 2 Corithians 10) Our weapons also include obedience, the Jesus Prayer, prostrations, and confession.

What is the Medieval timeline:

The Apostolic Era: 33 AD through 90 AD

The Age of early Martyrs: 90 AD through 313 AD

313 AD: Constantine issues the Edict of Milan and legalizes Christianity

325 AD: The Council of Nicaea confirms the dogma of the Trinity and creates the first half of the Nicene Creed.

330 AD:  Constantine founds the new capital of the Roman Empire on the existing site of the ancient Greek city Byzantium: Byzantium was renamed Constantinople and it would become the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

395 AD: The Roman Empire divides in half, with the Eastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople and the Western Roman Empire based in Rome/Ravenna.

381 AD: The 2^nd Ecumenical Council in Constantinople condemns Arianism and defends the two natures of Christ: fully Divine and fully Human. It also completes the 2nd half of the Nicene Creed.

431 AD: The 3^rd Ecumenical Council in Ephesus rejects Nestorianism and confirms that we should call the Virgin Mary Theotokos - not Christotokos - because she was the bearer of God (not merely a man).

451 AD: The 4^th Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon confirms the visible organization of the Church into five sees: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem - all with Apostolic foundation.

400 - 500 AD: St. Patrick is a missionary in Ireland; while in Italy, Ss. Benedict and Columba found many monasteries and write about how to be rulers of a monastery and how to have a monastic rule. Augustine of Canterbury goes to Kent to convert England. King Clovis of the Franks converts to Christianity.  During the Late Antique period, the pagan, barbarian hordes on the outskirts of the Roman Empire slowly move into Roman space. Though the Western Roman Empire falls, the Eastern Roman Empire continues and is called The Byzantine Empire.

553 AD: The 5^th Ecumenical Council (2^nd in Constantinople) condemns monophysitism, which falsely claimed Jesus had only one nature.

590 – 1440 AD: The Medieval Era

637 AD: Jerusalem is conquered by Islamic forces.

680-681 AD: The 6^th Ecumenical Council (3^rd in Constantinople) defeats Monothelitism, which conceded that Christ had two natures, but erroneously taught that he had only one will. This council upheld the teaching of St. Maximus the Confessor, who taught that Christ is to be glorified in his two natures, wills, and energies.

693 AD: The Muslims attack Constantinople and over the next 300 years, the Muslims attack all over the Empire – Africa, Greece, Syria - gaining ground in many lands.

787 AD: The 7^th Ecumenical Council (2^nd in Nicaea) triumphs over iconoclasm, defends the Incarnation of Christ and restores the proper place of icons in worship.

800 AD: Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor without the blessing of the Christian Emperor in Byzantium, & for the first time in 300 years there is an Emperor in the East and in the West.

800s AD: In England, Alfred the Great defended England against the Viking invasions, made an agreement with them known as Danelaw, and oversaw the conversion to Christianity of the Viking leader Guthrum. He translated many Church Fathers & much literature - including Boethius - into English.

1054 AD: Schism caused by the Roman Pope against the Eastern Patriarchates of the Church.

1095 AD: The Byzantine Emperor appeals to Urban II at the Council of Piacenza for help against the Turks. The First Crusade is proclaimed at Council of Clermont. The Crusaders are successful, but eventually withdraw from cooperation with the Byzantines.

1204 AD:  The Fourth Crusade turns against the Eastern Church and plunders Constantinople.

1440 AD: Joannes Gutenburg invents the printing press; the Modern Era begins.

1453 AD: Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. End of the Byzantine Empire. The French defeat the English in the 100 Years War.

 

Middle Ages Book Club

reprinted from my article in our Church newsletter...

I have many, many times seen... that

someone is led from their experiences with

good (and it’s got to be good) imaginative

fiction to an encounter with Christ.

(Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)

Some people read old books because they

have grown to cherish them. Others read the

classics because they know they should love

them, but don’t, and want to try. St. John

Chrysostom reminds us that the

“primary goal in the education of children is to

teach, and to give examples, of a virtuous life.”

Many adults are returning to the classics

because they realize that their own childhood

education lacked this primary ingredient of

virtue, and they want to explore more

examples of a virtuous life.

There happen to be a handful of members of

our St. Nicholas family who love literature and

plan to gather together to help each other

learn from great works. We will meet about

every six weeks for a discussion, with optional

weekly meetings to listen to expert lectures or

read aloud from difficult passages. Classical

works of literature, also known as “Great

Books,” are said to be a part of a “Great

Conversation.” The authors talk to each other

over the centuries, they struggle with the big

questions of their time and place, the big

questions of humanity, and they invite us to

understand them and contribute to the

conversation by talking back to them and to

each other.

Do these books replace reading the Lives of

the Saints, the Scriptures, or the Fathers? Of

course not, but God often uses them to

cultivate something in the soil of our soul that

helps us to better understand the more

spiritual writers. Fr. Seraphim Rose often had

his novice monks listen to a symphony or read

Dickens, because he knew those things would

enrich the young men and help them better

receive more direct spiritual teaching. He had

sense enough – as well as personal

experience as a student at UCBerkley - to

realize what a different way of seeing the world

our modern secular culture has engrained in

us through our music, our art, our TV, our

stories. When I taught at Ruston High, I had

many students tell me, “The only thing that I

know I can believe in is what I can see, taste,

touch, smell, or hear. Otherwise, it doesn’t

exist!” They were actually just repeating a

mantra common to our age – material things

are what matter.

The folks in the Middle Ages thought much

differently. They believed that there existed a

spiritual realm, every bit as real and effectual

in their daily lives as the material realm. When

we read their works we are refreshed with a

basic, normal way of seeing the world – a way

that we could easily forget, or at least have

smudged, by our own age that has

purposefully tried to remove all talk of

religious, spiritual truths from the public

square. Even claiming that one Truth exists

could earn disdain. How can we learn virtue

when we swim in a fishbowl of a society that

often calls vice a virtue and looks down on true

virtue? We walk around in it, read it, breath it,

hear it every day.

So we read the old books to remind us of old

truths. St. Basil explains this connection with

reading “profane” writings and understanding

Scripture:

"Into the life eternal the Holy Scriptures lead us,

which teach us through divine words. But so

long as our immaturity forbids our

understanding their deep thought, we exercise

our spiritual perceptions upon profane writings,

which are not altogether different, and in which

we perceive the truth as it were in shadows

and in mirrors. Thus we imitate those who

perform the exercises of military practice, for

they acquire skill in gymnastics and in dancing,

and then in battle reap the reward of their

training. We must needs believe that the

greatest of all battles lies before us, in

preparation for which we must do and suffer all

things to gain power. Consequently we must

be conversant with poets, with historians,

with orators, indeed with all men who may

further our soul’s salvation. Just as dyers

prepare the cloth before they apply the dye, be

it purple or any other color, so indeed must we

also, if we would preserve indelible the idea of

the true virtue, become first initiated in the

pagan lore, then at length give special heed to

the sacred and divine teachings, even as we

first accustom ourselves to the sun’s reflection

in the water, and then become able to turn our

eyes upon the very sun itself. (St. Basil the

Great, Address to Young Men on the Right

Use of Greek Literature, IV, emphasis added)

That is what our little book club is about –

becoming conversant, joining the Great

Conversation, with poets, historians, and all

men who may further our soul’s salvation."

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick confirms the

value of this endeavor, “All truth is God’s truth,

wherever it is found...Why do we need to limit

our search for God only to ‘official’ Church

sources? He is everywhere. That does not

mean that we accept everything we read

uncritically, but like the bee (as per St. Basil)

we take whatever is good from each flower.”

What flowers will we be exploring this year?

The Consolation of Philosophy

Beowulf

Sir Gawain & the Green Knight

The Inferno

Hamlet

The Tempest

It just so happens that many of these books

explore the question of how to be a good ruler,

and particularly, how to rule oneself. Of

course, that is just one of many themes and

questions we will discuss. Anyone interested in

reading these works (high school & above) is

welcome to join us, either for the whole year,

or just for one book. Be on the lookout for the

final schedule.