Blindness and Seeing (Science of Relations: Part 2)

Why should I care about "Science of Relations?"

 

As an Orthodox Mother, one of my life struggles is to rightly see the contours of reality and to help bring my children to be able to see too. I got that idea about needing to develop the “contours of reality” from Bishop Irenei in The Beginnings of a Life of Prayer. 

 

 

It’s one of those books, like The Philokalia, that I can read only a couple of paragraphs at a time. And then I have to read those same paragraphs over and over, over the course of several days. Of course, those are just MY current readings. 

If you are wondering what YOU should read, ask your priest! 😀

But let’s get back to BLINDNESS and SEEING. Think of all the times Jesus encountered blind men in the Gospels. It was not only because those particular men needed physical sight. It is because we are all blind - spiritually blind - and need new sight. 

 

Obviously, the most important way to get this true sight is living the life of the Church: Prayer, Sacraments, Scripture, Lives of the Saints, Alms-giving, Fasting, etc.

 

But in addition to the Life of the Church, it seems that God in his mercy gives us art as a means of seeing reality. In times prior to our Modern Life, this is what art meant to do - portray reality through patterns. 

 

Musical patterns, nature patterns, image patterns, story patterns. 

 

When oral traditions of storytelling - from all over the world - end up repeating the same patterns and images, it is not because people just happen to find comfort somehow in these images. It is because they are glimpses of true TRUTH embedded within the creation, truth that can’t help but come out.

 

In this fallen world, we see only in shadow. In our own society, people no longer look to religion to tell what is true. Mankind can do it! 

I taught public high school for ten years and my students often voiced this desire. I once had a young man, bright of mind, slight of stature, a 9th grader with his dark bangs hanging over his eyes, explain it to me perfectly: “The Scientific Method is my measure of reality. If I can’t see it, taste it, smell it, touch it, or hear it - it doesn’t exist.”

It’s pretty hard to see the unseen if that is one’s idea of reality!

You might be thinking, that’s too bad for that kid, but I’m an Orthodox Christian. I know unseen reality exists.

True, but I think it would be fair to assume that as members of our age, our way of seeing is effected by the ways of thinking around us. We swim in the pool of our times. And there is pee in the pool. It's hard to avoid. 

But we can try to draw our minds back to reality. We can experience the unseen as incarnated patterns in paintings, music, and stories: like in thorns, a touch, lips, and life. Embedded in a fairytale, we find images of sin and death, the Body and Blood of Christ, and Life.

As a human person, much less a particular kind of person called an Orthodox Mother, it’s worth paying attention to life and looking at God’s creation, along with the creations of His creations. 

Our children are going to read something. Listen to something. Look at something.  It’s worth putting true stories and music and art in front of them.

And then paying attention to them.

And being open to what we see. 

And what connections we see between them.

Snow White

Jairus' Daughter

Next time I will share with you a whole basketful of cool resources to learn more about fairytales and the science of relations. For now, I hope you enjoy your own delightful connections that pop up in this whole big world of God’s. Open your eyes to notice them!

 

 

Science of Relations: Delightful Connections

The other day I was reading a paragraph of the Little Russian Philokalia and I gasped! Right there in front of my eyeballs I was seeing the same images I had just seen in the Grimm brothers’ version of Sleeping Beauty (originally called Little Briar Rose). 

I enjoyed a little rush of excitement and shook my head once again at the connection. What did I see?

Both writings share these words: 

 

thorns, touch, lips, life

 

In the original Sleeping Beauty she herself is cursed, but the curse also affects the world around her. The servants fall asleep, the horses fall asleep, and even the land is cursed with thorns surrounding the castle. 

 Only the son of the King can reverse the curse.

When the True Prince traverses the thorns, they transform into flowers. When the prince touches her lips with a kiss, the curse is broken and she awakens to new life. 

 

 

In The Little Russian Philokalia, Volume 2, Elder Nazarius is writing advice to his monks and says that the Body of Christ will “consume all your sinful thorns which grow in you… as soon as you see the priest’s hand stretched out with the Holy Sacrament and touching your lips… picture and believe with your whole soul that you receive it from the hand of Christ Himself, Who stands invisibly and places it within your mouth… (giving you) life” (pg 66).         

 

Image from St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKinney, TX

What exactly is the Science of Relations? 

It’s just a name for something we all do anyway, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. We notice connections between things. And this is normal! We should notice the connections because everything is connected! All of creation is organized by God as one big WHOLE and all the sub-creators within it are a part of that creation. 

The term “Science of Relations” is the name British educator Charlotte Mason gave to this connection-making.

Ambleside Online explains: “Charlotte Mason defined education as a series of relationships formed by the learner as he developed intimacy with a wide range of subjects - something she called "The Science of Relations." 

A series of relationships formed by the learner. That’s me - I’m the learner. 

 

I read a fairy tale one day.

I listen to a podcast or take an online class to dig deeper and take special notice of some images. 

The next day I read from the Philokalia and see the same images. 

I relate the fairytale to the Eucharist.

I write a blog post and in writing remember Jane Meyer’s book The Man and the Vine and how when the little girl took communion, the “love filled her mouth”

 

All these connections add meaning to what I read and think and my understanding of the world and reality grows.

 

The love of the Son of the King touches my lips and I am saved from the sinful thorns of death and given life!

 

Of course, I’ve been talking about me, not just my children. As I heard at the end of The New Mason Jar podcast, “children are born persons, and so are their moms."

We all get a lifetime of education!

What about you? What delightful connections have you made recently? I would love to hear them!