I often wish I could hold fast to beauty. I want to rest in it, keep it, make it mine. But even when I manage to commit anything to memory, it is not always with me – other things will eventually intrude and make me forget, if only for a while. To desire the memory of beauty is to desire permanence, in other words, truth which does not pass (Caelum et terra transibunt, verba autem mea non praeteribunt). Thank you for reminding us that to enter eternity, we must not clench our hands, but open them. All you have to do is pray, to find the rest that our restless hearts seek, as Augustine famously put it.
P.S. The Confessions quote is found in book XI, not book IX.
Beautifully written. One great solace we should all long for when we pass from time to eternity ought to be the permanent death of unceasing "progressivism," that great vanity of man, which painfully afflicts our generation. Your St Augustine quote that God "beholds all things with absolute immutability" is a wonderful reminder.
You've accurately diagnosed one of my ongoing struggles (the use of time). I have noticed that more than once in recent posts you referenced St. Maximos the Confessor. In my experience he is oft-cited in Eastern theology but not very much in Western. I haven't read much by him but if memory serves he does show up in the Philokalia.
Saint Maximus the Confessor is one of the greatest Christian theologians to have ever existed (indeed, some of his writings has been included in the Philokalia). I strongly recommend any of his works—they are amazing. His spiritual biblical interpretations, in particular, are absolutely mesmerizing. Together with Saints Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Athanasius the Great, he is a "must-read" theologian.
"Aion rules unbounded, sacred, or eternal time. Aion is time as “a moving image of eternity,”12 as an Eternal circle that, when we contemplate it, grants us Eternal Life. Aion is time as experienced by the archetypes themselves (in contrast to Kairotic time, which is how our human consciousness experiences the archetypes). Aionic time is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. The time of Aion grants us participation in eternity. It is always present with us, even when we imagine ourselves stuck somewhere on Chronos’ timeline or are enraptured with Kairos’ timeliness. If Chronos is the time of the ego, and Kairos is the time of the soul, Aion is the time of the Self. Archetypal cosmologists may recognize Aion as an expression of the planet Neptune."
I often wish I could hold fast to beauty. I want to rest in it, keep it, make it mine. But even when I manage to commit anything to memory, it is not always with me – other things will eventually intrude and make me forget, if only for a while. To desire the memory of beauty is to desire permanence, in other words, truth which does not pass (Caelum et terra transibunt, verba autem mea non praeteribunt). Thank you for reminding us that to enter eternity, we must not clench our hands, but open them. All you have to do is pray, to find the rest that our restless hearts seek, as Augustine famously put it.
P.S. The Confessions quote is found in book XI, not book IX.
Beautifully written. One great solace we should all long for when we pass from time to eternity ought to be the permanent death of unceasing "progressivism," that great vanity of man, which painfully afflicts our generation. Your St Augustine quote that God "beholds all things with absolute immutability" is a wonderful reminder.
⏳ Chronos and 💫 Kairos,
Grace🔥 and peace⛲ to you Amigo.
Good Strength, 🌴onward to Jerusalem....
Excellent article!
You've accurately diagnosed one of my ongoing struggles (the use of time). I have noticed that more than once in recent posts you referenced St. Maximos the Confessor. In my experience he is oft-cited in Eastern theology but not very much in Western. I haven't read much by him but if memory serves he does show up in the Philokalia.
Saint Maximus the Confessor is one of the greatest Christian theologians to have ever existed (indeed, some of his writings has been included in the Philokalia). I strongly recommend any of his works—they are amazing. His spiritual biblical interpretations, in particular, are absolutely mesmerizing. Together with Saints Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Athanasius the Great, he is a "must-read" theologian.
"Aion rules unbounded, sacred, or eternal time. Aion is time as “a moving image of eternity,”12 as an Eternal circle that, when we contemplate it, grants us Eternal Life. Aion is time as experienced by the archetypes themselves (in contrast to Kairotic time, which is how our human consciousness experiences the archetypes). Aionic time is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. The time of Aion grants us participation in eternity. It is always present with us, even when we imagine ourselves stuck somewhere on Chronos’ timeline or are enraptured with Kairos’ timeliness. If Chronos is the time of the ego, and Kairos is the time of the soul, Aion is the time of the Self. Archetypal cosmologists may recognize Aion as an expression of the planet Neptune."
- Matthew T. Segal
https://footnotes2plato.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mindingtimeinanarchetypalcosmos.pdf