The Lancastrians have arrived. Not as fat as I thought they'd be. Not all of them. Gonna practice my West Syriac because it looks more beautiful than east syriac which when I write it looks like spider scrawl but then there is this tendency. I hope I shall be so absorbed for three weeks I shall post nothing till then. But probably will pop back from time to time.
I hope we get to see a Thoma Christian site if only to purchase religious hardware. Though I have a theory that Mar Thoma is actually Joseph and that he didn't die at all. It's not as silly as you think if you take into account that Thomas Didymus is a nickname, meaning Twin the Twin.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
TVU
So TVU finally reply to the OIAHE and offer me a refundment of my fees. Some 1300 squid plus up to 250 squid in legal costs in return for not saying bad things about them oh and they'll drop the disciplinary proceedings against me. I did think how much 1500 squid is in rupiyah but since I had asked for over 60,000 euro although I did make fun of the offer as a deal no deal one. It just doesn't seem like they are taking this seriously. Some you buy some you discredit some you kill. You have the know the man you are dealing with. I am the one you discredit.
Good news though I am now a Master of West Syriac as well as East. Got out a library book on Jacob of Sarug. Couldn't really get very far no matter which way I held it up. Now Fr Geo has shown me the West Syriac alphabet, Estrangela is simple enough I am indeed master of the three levels, though will I be able to handle all this power.
Sri Aurobindo is progressing. Oh I forgot to email the ashram about the DD. Oh yeah this is India so when I gave the first Demand Draft to Gilbert to mail obviously that probably was another one to chalk down to experience. I have now discovered the post office and am a Lord of the Mail. Yep gonna read his Divine Life after the Gita exegesis, then on to his yoga. They say if you dilettante with his teaching you can become possessed of a raksha and be destroyed left only as a hollow shell. Last night I dreamt I was Sri Aurobindo. Today I do not know if I am Sri Aurobindo pretending to be a pretentious git or.
So sent some mail off to a few. Will probably try again in a while. For now waiting for the Lancastrians. October not far off. Have to book a train to Pondicherry and flights to Sri Lanka. It will just happen mind. Now to email the Ashram. Then some reading till lunch then more reading till Tiffin best meal of the day. Though I got a close look at the birds on the way back from Syriac. They must be flying over the waters and they look more like eagles close up, have that eagle cry/call too.
Oh I did write to the woman but only a nice letter and some days it's easier to move onwards and upwards. I think Sri Aurobindo syriac and pondicherry etc may help.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sri Aurobindo
That Aurobindo guy is quite a find. He dismissed the Mahatma as a bit of a dilettante. Definitely worth a bit more of a read and a visit to Pondicherry. I am in a really good mood now. So off to do more reading and stuff. Don't really need the Lancastrians bit like buses aren't they.
The Blind ride piggy back on the Lame
So the blind chick at the end says it's a Kannada poem I'll try describe it for you in English too but it's difficult to capture the poetry. The woman was the poetry, there is something not knowing how amazing you are even if it's in a Tony Blair way that is so. Hell yeah I cried.
We have to persuade the Blind and the Lame to switch places.
Dah dah!
Now I am a happy Chauvinist and several things strike me. Ok so first can't go blaming the Indians or the Pakis. Globalisation has its part. Financing a lifestyle we cannot afford. Doesn't sound so oriental now does it. Combat greed and return to the Categorical Imperative. The lazy male academic put it, we need as men to rediscover our desire. He may not have meant the Song of Songs but God means stop lusting after things only, start desiring people. In the end a woman is more than her fishnet stockings. The image he went with is the Ambassador Car, the standard boxey safe expensive unit that every country has as a boring family car. It encases the undead on their way to the new temple the shopping mall for conspicious expenditure.
I am not buying a computer and I'll take the train to Pondicherry first because I know I am here to dream dreams of sanctity and anyway you don't get to see a film on a short journey, plus the food isn't so good bogawful snacks. Finally got a fast in last day mind. The first time I tried it was the Feast day of St Alphonsa. First Indian Saint, real problem with canon law that one, she doesn't have a valid baptism certificate. Loads of theories why she doesn't some jurisprudential process won out I think it's known as His Holiness is waiting and he'd really like to announce it before his India trip ends. We had rice with beans and raisins and lemon tea. You really have to understand what a feast is here. Because what you eat in the West is obscene. What you throw away is obscene. I may think these guys are a bunch of trogs from the middle twentieth century though fast improving give them ten years they'll all be in mini-skirts drinking Jack D with original coca cola but anyway you are all very bad people in the West and that includes the good ones. Once I have rejoined and rejuvenated my long lost eparchy I may start writing terrible apocalyptic pamphlets against you in East Syriac. Which reminds me can't get an ID card because I am a foreigner. Yeah and you make that sound like it's a bad thing. So plan is get the cousins to pay the DVK boys sterling 1400 pa. They let me take a three year licentiate in Oriental Canon Law. I did think a year in sprituality and counselling but those environments are unreal. They may appear to be comforting love bunnies and restore the body and soul in a non-judgemental cocoon of affirmation but I prefer to keep it real and do Oriental Canon Law. In the sense that it has no purpose and even in the sixteenth century when it might have meant something it would have been illegal because of Roman Rite dominance and the Ultramontanist Padroado movement. But just some of the terms of Oriental Catholicism enough to make you believe it really is a gnostic system that will one day reveal the beatific vision if only you remain sincere in your insane obsessions. Oh yeah so one trip to Sri Lanka probably fly for that one in October and then in January send off for OCI because there is no way the Indian Government is gonna give a student visa to study Oriental Canon Law because you can't fool them there ain't no such thing.
Oh and before you say why don't you just bribe someone to get your ID. It's not that easy it's like getting a knighthood back home. Plus although I'd look dashing with my new photos. They are letting me take out bookses anyway. So I just go with the flow. And if I get the OCI I get a whole new passport that isn't really a passport, Indian citizenship without any of the downside like getting arrested by cops or having to do military service I am sure they'd all prefer one if they could have them here.
The good news is any widow here is gonna think me a godsend. Now it will still irritate me if she insists on no dowry, no burning after marriage, no pestering for dowry after marriage, no burning after etc. In the same way as a NO SPITTING sign just pisses me off in any restaurant it just makes me want to spit. So that's good news although some of these widows are a little too feminist for me. Ok so there was this one feminist in red willowy tall lissome I dunno so most of them are but this one had eyes and the face and the hair. Thank God I didn't talk to her. I need to lessen the lust and increase the desire. I hope the Lancastrians will help with that. Trying to hassle the OIAHE for a judgement but the wheels grind slowly.
Ok in defence of why has India killed more female children than Adolf Hitler killed Jews Slavs Poles etc in his death camps. Because as far as she knows not having three inches of boneless meat is not a defect that needs correcting by abortion or infanticide. And it's not the oh the feminist way is one of peace and love offering a new paradigm where punishment is not because it can't be my intense counselling/psychology training. As Homer Simpson put is if we were meant to be vegetarians why are animals made of meat. And prescinding for a moment she may have been quite playful in the whole boneless meat metaphor, if she didn't want to be hurtful she would have said six inches at the very least.
And for the record you Britishers murdered 20 Million Indians and Pakistanis in the concentration camps run by Churchill during world war II to supress the authentic and just cause of Indian Independence and if anyone would like to challenge that figure do so in France you vile racist holocaust denier. You are a coward Sir and damn your eyes.
But my God these wimin are beautiful. I felt on balance it would be better not to destroy that image by engaging in unsolicited conversation with them. Although one did ask if I were Dr chakrachingra something and it's nice to know that the beard and hair still pull it off even in torn jeans and plain shirt. Who needs a blue sari when God and his mother have given me this beard. Though on the wedding next day. Velankani Barber here I goes. Oh and there is still time for Tiffin. Life is ok I give it a 8 out of ten today.
We have to persuade the Blind and the Lame to switch places.
Dah dah!
Now I am a happy Chauvinist and several things strike me. Ok so first can't go blaming the Indians or the Pakis. Globalisation has its part. Financing a lifestyle we cannot afford. Doesn't sound so oriental now does it. Combat greed and return to the Categorical Imperative. The lazy male academic put it, we need as men to rediscover our desire. He may not have meant the Song of Songs but God means stop lusting after things only, start desiring people. In the end a woman is more than her fishnet stockings. The image he went with is the Ambassador Car, the standard boxey safe expensive unit that every country has as a boring family car. It encases the undead on their way to the new temple the shopping mall for conspicious expenditure.
I am not buying a computer and I'll take the train to Pondicherry first because I know I am here to dream dreams of sanctity and anyway you don't get to see a film on a short journey, plus the food isn't so good bogawful snacks. Finally got a fast in last day mind. The first time I tried it was the Feast day of St Alphonsa. First Indian Saint, real problem with canon law that one, she doesn't have a valid baptism certificate. Loads of theories why she doesn't some jurisprudential process won out I think it's known as His Holiness is waiting and he'd really like to announce it before his India trip ends. We had rice with beans and raisins and lemon tea. You really have to understand what a feast is here. Because what you eat in the West is obscene. What you throw away is obscene. I may think these guys are a bunch of trogs from the middle twentieth century though fast improving give them ten years they'll all be in mini-skirts drinking Jack D with original coca cola but anyway you are all very bad people in the West and that includes the good ones. Once I have rejoined and rejuvenated my long lost eparchy I may start writing terrible apocalyptic pamphlets against you in East Syriac. Which reminds me can't get an ID card because I am a foreigner. Yeah and you make that sound like it's a bad thing. So plan is get the cousins to pay the DVK boys sterling 1400 pa. They let me take a three year licentiate in Oriental Canon Law. I did think a year in sprituality and counselling but those environments are unreal. They may appear to be comforting love bunnies and restore the body and soul in a non-judgemental cocoon of affirmation but I prefer to keep it real and do Oriental Canon Law. In the sense that it has no purpose and even in the sixteenth century when it might have meant something it would have been illegal because of Roman Rite dominance and the Ultramontanist Padroado movement. But just some of the terms of Oriental Catholicism enough to make you believe it really is a gnostic system that will one day reveal the beatific vision if only you remain sincere in your insane obsessions. Oh yeah so one trip to Sri Lanka probably fly for that one in October and then in January send off for OCI because there is no way the Indian Government is gonna give a student visa to study Oriental Canon Law because you can't fool them there ain't no such thing.
Oh and before you say why don't you just bribe someone to get your ID. It's not that easy it's like getting a knighthood back home. Plus although I'd look dashing with my new photos. They are letting me take out bookses anyway. So I just go with the flow. And if I get the OCI I get a whole new passport that isn't really a passport, Indian citizenship without any of the downside like getting arrested by cops or having to do military service I am sure they'd all prefer one if they could have them here.
The good news is any widow here is gonna think me a godsend. Now it will still irritate me if she insists on no dowry, no burning after marriage, no pestering for dowry after marriage, no burning after etc. In the same way as a NO SPITTING sign just pisses me off in any restaurant it just makes me want to spit. So that's good news although some of these widows are a little too feminist for me. Ok so there was this one feminist in red willowy tall lissome I dunno so most of them are but this one had eyes and the face and the hair. Thank God I didn't talk to her. I need to lessen the lust and increase the desire. I hope the Lancastrians will help with that. Trying to hassle the OIAHE for a judgement but the wheels grind slowly.
Ok in defence of why has India killed more female children than Adolf Hitler killed Jews Slavs Poles etc in his death camps. Because as far as she knows not having three inches of boneless meat is not a defect that needs correcting by abortion or infanticide. And it's not the oh the feminist way is one of peace and love offering a new paradigm where punishment is not because it can't be my intense counselling/psychology training. As Homer Simpson put is if we were meant to be vegetarians why are animals made of meat. And prescinding for a moment she may have been quite playful in the whole boneless meat metaphor, if she didn't want to be hurtful she would have said six inches at the very least.
And for the record you Britishers murdered 20 Million Indians and Pakistanis in the concentration camps run by Churchill during world war II to supress the authentic and just cause of Indian Independence and if anyone would like to challenge that figure do so in France you vile racist holocaust denier. You are a coward Sir and damn your eyes.
But my God these wimin are beautiful. I felt on balance it would be better not to destroy that image by engaging in unsolicited conversation with them. Although one did ask if I were Dr chakrachingra something and it's nice to know that the beard and hair still pull it off even in torn jeans and plain shirt. Who needs a blue sari when God and his mother have given me this beard. Though on the wedding next day. Velankani Barber here I goes. Oh and there is still time for Tiffin. Life is ok I give it a 8 out of ten today.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Accidental death of a bride
I am not one to defend the inalienable rights of feminists. Bah humbug if you ask me bunch of whiney wimin to deface beautiful paintings like the Rokeby Venus mainly because they are overweight carrot eating lesbians and are just jealous and only got the vote because they planned to kill all of his Majesty's gee-gees. And I always figured I could probably kill one homeless person/failed asylum seeker or one of that ilk and who would care, or as I would put it they'd give me a bloody medal. But there are limits.
What is the point in boasting about one nuclear submarine. Akula class which is Russian and therefore bound to get blown out of the water by the first american sub it comes across. Especially since it will take two years to train the sub-mariners to play with it properly when oh I should explain got pressganged into attending this morning's daughters of fire seminar, a people's court on dowry and other related violence against women.
Fuck me. No Fuck me. 100 unnatural deaths reported every month in Bangalore mainly of women and exploding fucking stoves. Fucking exploding fucking stoves. Now I believe the rational historico-critical method having moved from the modernist solution of making better stoves, to teaching households better health and safety protocols well apart from encouraging us not to say fucking.
The point being as I put it to Abraham and he is a really nice pentecostal preacher and he was agreeing with me how bad things are here, was that I could in front of the whole DVK assembly beat to death a dalit girl and nothing would happen to me. So back to the bartered brides accidental deaths, my God they are pretty but they have a terrible habit of burning themselves to death over faulty cooking appliances. So at first the husband's family covered her in tumeric and then arranged for a fast funeral.
I was thinking of a new Tollywood/French (with East Syriac subtitles) series of CSI India. We wouldn't have to pay any copyright to the yanks because it would not involve clever science johnnies with lab equipment examining crime scenes for threads either cotton or minute parts of fucking DNA. Because the first thing you have to do as an Indian CSI is negotiate a fucking bribe. They had brought in a law to force post mortems on all unnatural deaths filed with the police. So option one don't file the death report with the police. Option two wait for the post mortem johnnie to ask for a facilitation fee and what sort of report you would like. Then again you have the lone honest post-fucking-mortemist. Now his problem is that he is a fucking stupid ignorant fucking Indian so the limits of his skill are for death where it appears to have been by hanging. Cause of Death: Asphixiation.
And for when the bride was burnt to death, oh and this sounds a bit more technical than just Death by burning to death, it's Shock caused by burns. I'd be fucking shocked if someone tried to fucking murder me for me money.
Now the greed part I get. It's a way to get a fast buck. And whereas I admit to having some residual pissed-offness with my cousins and my brother but more with my cousins coz I figure my brother has two wives three daughters and a mistress to pay off and he is always going to be in debt, where was I. Yep I am going to insist on 700 squid per term to be paid by the cousins (out of my money) in addition to other expenses to the Temple of Wisdom in the Garden of Earthly delights. That will pay my keep plus provide for a few scholarships.
Where was I. God this place is just fucking. I mean why didn't hillary fucking clinton ask for basic human rights to be improved in India before signing her fucking deal with them. They used to hassle the Chinese and the Russians about it. Now I can understand why you might say but Dezie why are you getting all excited. It doesn't affect you. And I guess it does confirm how corrupt and how little human life is valued her. Why I am studying their spiritual systems again. But they don't mean us. They mean poor people. And although dowry crimes are an equal opportunities killer it's still nicer having money and being a Brahmin or a foreigner.
Now ok the experts giving evidence at the court went with the usual long words to show how clever and educated they are. They want us to dream a new imaginary. To replace the public patriarchal system of jurisprudence with a personal social vision where reparation and harmony. Allow the tears of the oppressed to proclaim and reclaim yadayada. Now the four women who spoke two broke down a bit towards the end. Three were mothers one was a sister obviously the dead cannot speak. Tamil, Kannada and whatever they speak in West Bengal and Orissa. A father was replaced by his wife as he was critically ill. And a mother replaced by a sibling as she had been killed in an RTA. I stayed till they finished speaking. Because I felt I should stay.
Hey a man's gotta eat. The seminar is for Christ's University a posh offshoot of DVK. Their lunch break is from 1.20 -2.20. DVK's from 12.30- 1.30. Moved though I was I still felt I should not return so I could partake of Tiffin. But Tiffin ain't all that. I am going to go back for the next sessions and just get a little depressed.
What a fucking awful way to live. Seriously it really doesn't make any fucking sense. And no-one here is really shocked. Change will not happen quickly. It's not just the wimin who are treasured/despised. It's also the Dalits and Tribals. Well the Will will go to the Carmelites and half of the money has to go SCs or Tribals with preference to graduates of the Prema Seva Ashram of Nellikuduru and the other half to others with preference to women. I'll set that in a separate letter as a canon 1300 obligation upon the prior general. If you put clauses into a Will just leaves greed too many opportunities.
Fuck me greed will blind you and destroy others and your own soul. How can a people so beautiful be so fucking evil.
What is the point in boasting about one nuclear submarine. Akula class which is Russian and therefore bound to get blown out of the water by the first american sub it comes across. Especially since it will take two years to train the sub-mariners to play with it properly when oh I should explain got pressganged into attending this morning's daughters of fire seminar, a people's court on dowry and other related violence against women.
Fuck me. No Fuck me. 100 unnatural deaths reported every month in Bangalore mainly of women and exploding fucking stoves. Fucking exploding fucking stoves. Now I believe the rational historico-critical method having moved from the modernist solution of making better stoves, to teaching households better health and safety protocols well apart from encouraging us not to say fucking.
The point being as I put it to Abraham and he is a really nice pentecostal preacher and he was agreeing with me how bad things are here, was that I could in front of the whole DVK assembly beat to death a dalit girl and nothing would happen to me. So back to the bartered brides accidental deaths, my God they are pretty but they have a terrible habit of burning themselves to death over faulty cooking appliances. So at first the husband's family covered her in tumeric and then arranged for a fast funeral.
I was thinking of a new Tollywood/French (with East Syriac subtitles) series of CSI India. We wouldn't have to pay any copyright to the yanks because it would not involve clever science johnnies with lab equipment examining crime scenes for threads either cotton or minute parts of fucking DNA. Because the first thing you have to do as an Indian CSI is negotiate a fucking bribe. They had brought in a law to force post mortems on all unnatural deaths filed with the police. So option one don't file the death report with the police. Option two wait for the post mortem johnnie to ask for a facilitation fee and what sort of report you would like. Then again you have the lone honest post-fucking-mortemist. Now his problem is that he is a fucking stupid ignorant fucking Indian so the limits of his skill are for death where it appears to have been by hanging. Cause of Death: Asphixiation.
And for when the bride was burnt to death, oh and this sounds a bit more technical than just Death by burning to death, it's Shock caused by burns. I'd be fucking shocked if someone tried to fucking murder me for me money.
Now the greed part I get. It's a way to get a fast buck. And whereas I admit to having some residual pissed-offness with my cousins and my brother but more with my cousins coz I figure my brother has two wives three daughters and a mistress to pay off and he is always going to be in debt, where was I. Yep I am going to insist on 700 squid per term to be paid by the cousins (out of my money) in addition to other expenses to the Temple of Wisdom in the Garden of Earthly delights. That will pay my keep plus provide for a few scholarships.
Where was I. God this place is just fucking. I mean why didn't hillary fucking clinton ask for basic human rights to be improved in India before signing her fucking deal with them. They used to hassle the Chinese and the Russians about it. Now I can understand why you might say but Dezie why are you getting all excited. It doesn't affect you. And I guess it does confirm how corrupt and how little human life is valued her. Why I am studying their spiritual systems again. But they don't mean us. They mean poor people. And although dowry crimes are an equal opportunities killer it's still nicer having money and being a Brahmin or a foreigner.
Now ok the experts giving evidence at the court went with the usual long words to show how clever and educated they are. They want us to dream a new imaginary. To replace the public patriarchal system of jurisprudence with a personal social vision where reparation and harmony. Allow the tears of the oppressed to proclaim and reclaim yadayada. Now the four women who spoke two broke down a bit towards the end. Three were mothers one was a sister obviously the dead cannot speak. Tamil, Kannada and whatever they speak in West Bengal and Orissa. A father was replaced by his wife as he was critically ill. And a mother replaced by a sibling as she had been killed in an RTA. I stayed till they finished speaking. Because I felt I should stay.
Hey a man's gotta eat. The seminar is for Christ's University a posh offshoot of DVK. Their lunch break is from 1.20 -2.20. DVK's from 12.30- 1.30. Moved though I was I still felt I should not return so I could partake of Tiffin. But Tiffin ain't all that. I am going to go back for the next sessions and just get a little depressed.
What a fucking awful way to live. Seriously it really doesn't make any fucking sense. And no-one here is really shocked. Change will not happen quickly. It's not just the wimin who are treasured/despised. It's also the Dalits and Tribals. Well the Will will go to the Carmelites and half of the money has to go SCs or Tribals with preference to graduates of the Prema Seva Ashram of Nellikuduru and the other half to others with preference to women. I'll set that in a separate letter as a canon 1300 obligation upon the prior general. If you put clauses into a Will just leaves greed too many opportunities.
Fuck me greed will blind you and destroy others and your own soul. How can a people so beautiful be so fucking evil.
Monday, July 27, 2009
low flying
Hopefully the course starts next week. I am looking forward to the arrival of the Lancastrians. I think I am getting a little bored. Finished off the Chaldeo-Indian Liturgy introductory course. Possibly last East Syriac class tomorrow, maybe if I can get a hold of Pschitta. But travelling around a little will be good for August. Stop me dwelling upon the past. I hope Gilbert sent off the letter to Pondicherry. I shall get some envelopes and write home to those with no email I know of.
I did notice the blue saried nuns, what I noticed, I write. They have blue bras. It's a tropical country and all, but if they really are Jesuit inspire Order of St Aloysius and that needs to be confirmed isn't it enough that they are intelligent, overstudious, willowy, lissome, do they have to wear blue bras visible under the blue choli. Is it really necessary sister. To think the original Jesuits were so dangerous they had to be supressed. Now they wear blue bras.
Which reminds me to business. Apparently the Syro-Malankara are not happy with just Archbishop as a head, a third level ESI. And whatever they say it's a minor archbishop not a major one anyway they want to have a Catholicos as their head. I think maybe I should rethink the whole idea of a dual patriarchy for India. The Goan one is a minor patriarchy which means it doesn't really count. What I think India deserves is a Major Patriarchy, Cragannore where the man came Gate of All India, to honour the Mar Toma Nazranis, and just leave it as a Sede Vacante. And to this end I shall seek to become a member of a non-extant Eparchy. Just need to find one or let it find me. The interweb is not so good for things like this you just end up finding something interesting about krill.
Oh and another thing, dem neo-Cats were right about there not being an offertory not really as part of a valid liturgy. Begins to make me wonder, maybe they aren't as crazy as they first sounded. No more news on Widows, pastries or French Indians. Last lesson in East Syriac tomorrow and still no sign of a library card. But I find myself comforted after all this typing.
I did notice the blue saried nuns, what I noticed, I write. They have blue bras. It's a tropical country and all, but if they really are Jesuit inspire Order of St Aloysius and that needs to be confirmed isn't it enough that they are intelligent, overstudious, willowy, lissome, do they have to wear blue bras visible under the blue choli. Is it really necessary sister. To think the original Jesuits were so dangerous they had to be supressed. Now they wear blue bras.
Which reminds me to business. Apparently the Syro-Malankara are not happy with just Archbishop as a head, a third level ESI. And whatever they say it's a minor archbishop not a major one anyway they want to have a Catholicos as their head. I think maybe I should rethink the whole idea of a dual patriarchy for India. The Goan one is a minor patriarchy which means it doesn't really count. What I think India deserves is a Major Patriarchy, Cragannore where the man came Gate of All India, to honour the Mar Toma Nazranis, and just leave it as a Sede Vacante. And to this end I shall seek to become a member of a non-extant Eparchy. Just need to find one or let it find me. The interweb is not so good for things like this you just end up finding something interesting about krill.
Oh and another thing, dem neo-Cats were right about there not being an offertory not really as part of a valid liturgy. Begins to make me wonder, maybe they aren't as crazy as they first sounded. No more news on Widows, pastries or French Indians. Last lesson in East Syriac tomorrow and still no sign of a library card. But I find myself comforted after all this typing.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
2 Solutions
There are several orders of nuns and religious sisters studying at the Temple of Wisdom in the Garden of Earthly Delights, Carmelites, Mother Teresa's lot, and you can see how the habit has morphed from western enclosed order with wimples to a more indian style of sari. There is one group in particular. On her own yeah she is ok looking but when you see four of them walk in they look like an order of supermodels. Skyblue saris, but with designer cuts and no veil. Not sure what they are the solution to but they will definitely do. And until then I am sure I can come up with a few things.
Second solution and this is to restore make anew the Patriachate of the Gate of India with a Syro-Malabar Catholicos working in synergetic parallel to the Patriarch of the East Indies in Goa. Fasting on Fridays. To start I'll just skip evening meal. Skipping Tiffin is just well open to pelagianistic confusion and come on. This morning's homily all about fasting. The boys really go to town with their homilies when they get a chance. I am not entirely convinced they are not just out on the tickle neither.
Problem with the hierarchical set up familiar to those who understand either the Church or Stamp Clubs or how groups work, the Roman Rite and Eastern Rite Churches are divided geographically. If you live in Goa you are in a Roman Rite area regardless of your baptism. In Kerala you are in a Syro-Malabar jurisdiction. The problem is the boys won't play together. For now the Roman Rite Archbishop of Bangalore allows the Syro-Malabar priests to come but the DVK is listed as a Roman Rite Institute and they remain at his disposal.
Now if they could accept the concept of breathing with two lungs, that Indians especially can recover their twin heritage by attending liturgies in both styles, and learning the history of both rites, the theology spirituality and styles of admin. For the latter the Syro-malabar have yogams where temporal authority reverts to the laics with an Archdeacon, and spritual authority is given to the Bishops and priests. Ah but people never share their toys. First request made to us by our parents and it never really seems fair.
There may be a way of combining the sky-blue willowy lissom sari nuns and fasting to establish this dual patriarchy. What I suggest is that whatever the rite the alternate is also offered, at every level, so in seminaries and institutes and parishes. We will still have to learn to play nicely and share toys. Essentially the Patriarch of Goa gets ultimate power over the Roman Rite priests and the 22 Eastern Rite Churches have ultimate power over theirs but all are free to wander about throughout all of India at the request of any local Bishop. Each diocese having two Bishops one Roman and one Oriental.
On that history thing. I read almost first day an intro to a book stating that you'd have to be expert in sanskrit syriac latin greek eastern and western theology and history to begin to analyse the source material to prove that Mar Toma the Apostle first converted the Indians. So the author suggested I take his word for it. In the past western theologians had disagreed now they are coming around. The truth is more interesting. It's not quite the dossier but it seems the evidence trail goes cold in the fourth century AD at Edessa. Before then it's circumstantial. But if you think about it so is the evidence for the historical Jesus, and the Battle of Hastings. I am gonna read up a fairly recent book summarizing all the arguments. It will make a nice break from liturgy before the three week course begins next Sunday.
Oh yeah there was a widow. Doubt she makes pastries and her eldest son was my age, so I took that as not the sign of the times. Fr Jose has offered to take me around various sites the CMI run here and after initially thinking he might be serious he probably meant it in an Indian way to make myself feel at home, which until they turn this place into a university, which is the what they said they want to do at the beginning of that Bible Study course, I shall. After that I am off. Temple of Wisdom in a garden of earthly delights with a blue sari'd model collection is more me.
Second solution and this is to restore make anew the Patriachate of the Gate of India with a Syro-Malabar Catholicos working in synergetic parallel to the Patriarch of the East Indies in Goa. Fasting on Fridays. To start I'll just skip evening meal. Skipping Tiffin is just well open to pelagianistic confusion and come on. This morning's homily all about fasting. The boys really go to town with their homilies when they get a chance. I am not entirely convinced they are not just out on the tickle neither.
Problem with the hierarchical set up familiar to those who understand either the Church or Stamp Clubs or how groups work, the Roman Rite and Eastern Rite Churches are divided geographically. If you live in Goa you are in a Roman Rite area regardless of your baptism. In Kerala you are in a Syro-Malabar jurisdiction. The problem is the boys won't play together. For now the Roman Rite Archbishop of Bangalore allows the Syro-Malabar priests to come but the DVK is listed as a Roman Rite Institute and they remain at his disposal.
Now if they could accept the concept of breathing with two lungs, that Indians especially can recover their twin heritage by attending liturgies in both styles, and learning the history of both rites, the theology spirituality and styles of admin. For the latter the Syro-malabar have yogams where temporal authority reverts to the laics with an Archdeacon, and spritual authority is given to the Bishops and priests. Ah but people never share their toys. First request made to us by our parents and it never really seems fair.
There may be a way of combining the sky-blue willowy lissom sari nuns and fasting to establish this dual patriarchy. What I suggest is that whatever the rite the alternate is also offered, at every level, so in seminaries and institutes and parishes. We will still have to learn to play nicely and share toys. Essentially the Patriarch of Goa gets ultimate power over the Roman Rite priests and the 22 Eastern Rite Churches have ultimate power over theirs but all are free to wander about throughout all of India at the request of any local Bishop. Each diocese having two Bishops one Roman and one Oriental.
On that history thing. I read almost first day an intro to a book stating that you'd have to be expert in sanskrit syriac latin greek eastern and western theology and history to begin to analyse the source material to prove that Mar Toma the Apostle first converted the Indians. So the author suggested I take his word for it. In the past western theologians had disagreed now they are coming around. The truth is more interesting. It's not quite the dossier but it seems the evidence trail goes cold in the fourth century AD at Edessa. Before then it's circumstantial. But if you think about it so is the evidence for the historical Jesus, and the Battle of Hastings. I am gonna read up a fairly recent book summarizing all the arguments. It will make a nice break from liturgy before the three week course begins next Sunday.
Oh yeah there was a widow. Doubt she makes pastries and her eldest son was my age, so I took that as not the sign of the times. Fr Jose has offered to take me around various sites the CMI run here and after initially thinking he might be serious he probably meant it in an Indian way to make myself feel at home, which until they turn this place into a university, which is the what they said they want to do at the beginning of that Bible Study course, I shall. After that I am off. Temple of Wisdom in a garden of earthly delights with a blue sari'd model collection is more me.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Risk Taking
In a couple of hours I have decided to give up afternoon Tiffin, which is as close as we ever get to pudding, it's tea time as far as the time goes and there is tea, though the keralans prefer coffee and when they add sugar hot wet and sweet as the seventies saying goes, and for what, there is a bible study from 3.30 to 5.30 pm weekends the banner says in the multi-media auditorium hall which the library says is the one in the admin section and admin say is in the library. The Director Fr Davis seemed puzzled that I'd want to attend a Bible study but no harm. Well it passes the time. There is only so much East Syriac a man can absorb even one classically trained and with and elephantine thirst for East Syriac. And the course runs till February. And I figure I can just read the Bible and not do the background reading. And cryptically if there were a widow who did pastries or culculs well if she was French Indian well signs of the times as they say.
Oh and I think I can relax about not fitting in. The Tamil Arputmam well his name means miracle in Tamil he was one of my supporters on the poor thing. Turns out not only is he a liberation theologian but most of the others aren't. They tend to dismiss him as well maybe in Tamil Nadu. There are enough minorities here not to mention the pentecostal preacher. The one who tickled the feminist lecturer (a minor kerfuffle over Jepthah's daughter pericope, that old chestnut). I think in all this crossfire I should be able to walk across the battlefields for the next two years unscathed.
I received a powerful sign not to take the spirituality and counselling MA. A second year told me the work he was doing, I mean faffing, apart from find your own counsellees and counsel on weekends, prepare annual seminar, after term three no more teaching the last six month term is just prepare thesis and hand in practical counselling workbook stuff. Sod that for a game of soldiers. The Diploma sounds fine. One year of bonding with the nuns and priests. Not too much scientific stuff. A week retreat. And first I can do that Diploma in Oriental Canon Law. I am confident I can start that this November. Ten units plus a seminar. And one of the units can be Syriac coz my Latin though probably not as subtle as the tutor's is better than any of his students are going to get in their three year course.
Oh last ting before I drift back to the Temple of Wisdom in the garden of earthly delights (that's it's full title though garden of earthly delights is stretching the translation of Dharmaram). The father whose Malayalam name means bridegroom Manavalan I think, gave a sermon on how people think they will get the jobs they deserve once they graduate, and maybe they should all concentrate on how they can best serve. It has that sense about the place. It makes it fun, always fun to be among the privileged. But I liked his style. Hurts coz it's true. Ah well my sacrifice is to give up Tiffin, I am still too Romanized, but it worked for us in the West for a thousand years. Oh found a current journal on Therese of Lisieux. Coz it's the hundreth anniversary of St Jehanne D'Arc they have that photo of her dressed up as Jehanne in the play like what she wrote. I must try and have that scanned or photocopied.
Oh and I think I can relax about not fitting in. The Tamil Arputmam well his name means miracle in Tamil he was one of my supporters on the poor thing. Turns out not only is he a liberation theologian but most of the others aren't. They tend to dismiss him as well maybe in Tamil Nadu. There are enough minorities here not to mention the pentecostal preacher. The one who tickled the feminist lecturer (a minor kerfuffle over Jepthah's daughter pericope, that old chestnut). I think in all this crossfire I should be able to walk across the battlefields for the next two years unscathed.
I received a powerful sign not to take the spirituality and counselling MA. A second year told me the work he was doing, I mean faffing, apart from find your own counsellees and counsel on weekends, prepare annual seminar, after term three no more teaching the last six month term is just prepare thesis and hand in practical counselling workbook stuff. Sod that for a game of soldiers. The Diploma sounds fine. One year of bonding with the nuns and priests. Not too much scientific stuff. A week retreat. And first I can do that Diploma in Oriental Canon Law. I am confident I can start that this November. Ten units plus a seminar. And one of the units can be Syriac coz my Latin though probably not as subtle as the tutor's is better than any of his students are going to get in their three year course.
Oh last ting before I drift back to the Temple of Wisdom in the garden of earthly delights (that's it's full title though garden of earthly delights is stretching the translation of Dharmaram). The father whose Malayalam name means bridegroom Manavalan I think, gave a sermon on how people think they will get the jobs they deserve once they graduate, and maybe they should all concentrate on how they can best serve. It has that sense about the place. It makes it fun, always fun to be among the privileged. But I liked his style. Hurts coz it's true. Ah well my sacrifice is to give up Tiffin, I am still too Romanized, but it worked for us in the West for a thousand years. Oh found a current journal on Therese of Lisieux. Coz it's the hundreth anniversary of St Jehanne D'Arc they have that photo of her dressed up as Jehanne in the play like what she wrote. I must try and have that scanned or photocopied.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Bharati Post
So Gilbert the caretaker general dogsbody, has taken my demand draft for 450 rupiyah (mustn't mock but the Sri Aurobindo boys want a demand draft for six pounds then again the fee for that was about 20p and I got it immediately last time I tried to get a DD from a Bank in Britain it took me a week at least and they charged me ten pounds minimum for it). Anyway side effect is he will also get me some cards or envelopes not sure what his understanding of my version of english is but I shall write to some back home. Seems a little too easy but why not.
I had thought about taking the train to Pondicherry. But a man of a certain age, well I think 3k rupiyah for the one hour flight to Chennai then the scenic sea-side train journey via Mahaballipuram to Pondicherry, well it's too attractive. The Lancastrians arrive next Friday and some form of class will begin Sunday, plus a sort of tour of the place on Saturday and then the days will fill up for the three weeks. I am incredibly impressed with my meteoric appreciation of East Syriac. Two lessons and now I am reading the Our Father in Syriac. I had several months of Hebrew and still can't sight pronounce any word in Hebrew. It has struck me about the liberating power of Love even when Love has no direct object. I still like Rumi's Now I have seen your face even if he is an overrated drunk who just mislead wimin about his spirituality purely for sexual purposes hmm. . . Anyway I think also it being a dead language and one I can practise alone instead of having to rely on converstational practice with unwilling partners. Then again when I first took a look at the A4 printed page of the East Syriac Our Father, I figured it must be in Estrangela. The first letter was probably an Alep in Estrangela which figures because they use Estrangela script for title pages and anything really holy, it's the Gothic Script of ancient DTP. It was only after checking with an Estrangela script and realizing it was probably not Estrangela that I accidentally turned the page upside down and eh voila it's East Syriac. It's really more of a blonde event than it sounds. East Syriac is like Devanagari in that it has a sort of bar on which everything rests. Looking back did you not notice that the bar was on the top of the line instead of the bottom. Didn't this give you pause for concern. You know how trees and forests and I had just looked at the first letter and was convinced it was an Estrangela Alep. And intellectual humbling is good to assuage my intellectual arrogance. And it makes a good dinner table joke.
It's not that we have a rooftop garden. The roof is flat for Tai Chi but the tree line ends with it, so it looks a bit like Tarzan's penthouse from the series that never really took off circa 2000 CE in the USA. Finishing off the liturgy series with Fr Varghese. I don't think the man is that well. Last class next week he is looking forward to enjoying the rest of his retirement. But he has exchanged pressies with me and I have offered him anything from my travels, always safe to offer pressies to a real carmelite.
If the OIAHE come through with the appeal against TVU I hope to have some money for the Lambadis and the Mill Hill Mission. I am quite keen to help out the Carmelites here. This place is full of poverty and injustice. The reading today in the Qurbana was the one about it is better to be cheated than to go to court against an Xtian. Even with my exciting travel plans in India I think I could spare them a couple of grand a year for scholarships.
Sri Lanka shall be my stop over to renew the visa in November. About 3k rupiyah for a one way flight to Colombo from Chennai. Then I get a visa and fly back either to Hyderabad and my kids or Bangalore and classes. Then home for Ascension 2010. I figure if I post off the paperwork for my OCI in January then it'll either be ready for when I arrive or it will get complicated and I'll just go for a student visa.
Had a bit of an early warning about not tickling people too much. I just have to maintain the pace. I spend loads of time in the library anyway. A bit like don't mention the war I may have made a slight slip earlier but I think I got away with it. Except with Indians who knows. Hey I am an Indian too you know.
I had thought about taking the train to Pondicherry. But a man of a certain age, well I think 3k rupiyah for the one hour flight to Chennai then the scenic sea-side train journey via Mahaballipuram to Pondicherry, well it's too attractive. The Lancastrians arrive next Friday and some form of class will begin Sunday, plus a sort of tour of the place on Saturday and then the days will fill up for the three weeks. I am incredibly impressed with my meteoric appreciation of East Syriac. Two lessons and now I am reading the Our Father in Syriac. I had several months of Hebrew and still can't sight pronounce any word in Hebrew. It has struck me about the liberating power of Love even when Love has no direct object. I still like Rumi's Now I have seen your face even if he is an overrated drunk who just mislead wimin about his spirituality purely for sexual purposes hmm. . . Anyway I think also it being a dead language and one I can practise alone instead of having to rely on converstational practice with unwilling partners. Then again when I first took a look at the A4 printed page of the East Syriac Our Father, I figured it must be in Estrangela. The first letter was probably an Alep in Estrangela which figures because they use Estrangela script for title pages and anything really holy, it's the Gothic Script of ancient DTP. It was only after checking with an Estrangela script and realizing it was probably not Estrangela that I accidentally turned the page upside down and eh voila it's East Syriac. It's really more of a blonde event than it sounds. East Syriac is like Devanagari in that it has a sort of bar on which everything rests. Looking back did you not notice that the bar was on the top of the line instead of the bottom. Didn't this give you pause for concern. You know how trees and forests and I had just looked at the first letter and was convinced it was an Estrangela Alep. And intellectual humbling is good to assuage my intellectual arrogance. And it makes a good dinner table joke.
It's not that we have a rooftop garden. The roof is flat for Tai Chi but the tree line ends with it, so it looks a bit like Tarzan's penthouse from the series that never really took off circa 2000 CE in the USA. Finishing off the liturgy series with Fr Varghese. I don't think the man is that well. Last class next week he is looking forward to enjoying the rest of his retirement. But he has exchanged pressies with me and I have offered him anything from my travels, always safe to offer pressies to a real carmelite.
If the OIAHE come through with the appeal against TVU I hope to have some money for the Lambadis and the Mill Hill Mission. I am quite keen to help out the Carmelites here. This place is full of poverty and injustice. The reading today in the Qurbana was the one about it is better to be cheated than to go to court against an Xtian. Even with my exciting travel plans in India I think I could spare them a couple of grand a year for scholarships.
Sri Lanka shall be my stop over to renew the visa in November. About 3k rupiyah for a one way flight to Colombo from Chennai. Then I get a visa and fly back either to Hyderabad and my kids or Bangalore and classes. Then home for Ascension 2010. I figure if I post off the paperwork for my OCI in January then it'll either be ready for when I arrive or it will get complicated and I'll just go for a student visa.
Had a bit of an early warning about not tickling people too much. I just have to maintain the pace. I spend loads of time in the library anyway. A bit like don't mention the war I may have made a slight slip earlier but I think I got away with it. Except with Indians who knows. Hey I am an Indian too you know.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Pondicherry here I come
Not so fast. I got an email response from the Park Guest House (seafacing recommended in the travel guides) saying it is not an hotel, no mischief making etc. Sounds a bit like the Kshetram except we occasionally get to watch TV. For some reason the singing talent show is very popular with the fathers. And I go to chill and pretend I am learning Malayalam. Anyway 450 rupiyah a day, at seven days. About 3k and still sounds cheap. October is when they have the end of year break so I'll head off then. Also have a three week tour of Indian Contemporary Religions Ting in August. That's me done with travelling.
I made a little stir with the prior general. I think he is more like a Jesuit general than some of them back home. He wanted to have a discussion. First question was a bit tame. He said are we really saying yes to all the good things on offer. Now I thought he meant there was some way that I could partake in extra-mural widow finding otherwise known as pastoral visits. So I asked him what opportunities in concrete terms did he mean. And he clarified. Going to the library, prayer, studies. Ah well.
Then he mentioned the mission of the CMI and part was to help the poor especially in education though he admitted at their local university it was mainly the upper and middle classes who attended. Peeps asked a few tings. The Franciscan was a bit daring and raised the spectre of scandalous sexual behaviour among priests and how our troubled brows may be soothed. So after that calmed down I said that I had read the wiki page on the CMIs before coming and their criticism was that although standards were now higher in the education the CMIs had sacrificed outreach to the poor in terms of education for better academic results and prestige. He seemed stung by this. I only meant to say that I would pay a surcharge of 10 or 20% because it wouldn't amount to much for the rich if he passed that on to further scholarships for Dalits and Tribals. That's when I decided I would leave my worldly tings to the CMIs for scholarships for Tribals and Lambadis. The Yolanda Coutinho Scholarships. About five of the sixty came up to me separately later to say they were very pleased with my input. And a couple also came to suggest that they were not so pleased. All in all a good evening.
Tomorrow am pressing ahead with the Syriac I'll try purchase some books. A basic textbook and something of Mar Ephrem or Mar Isaac would be keepsake and a solid pose. It's always a bit sad when you have learnt all you can about a subject. I could read more about Syriac Liturgy but all it's going to be is the dialectial polarity between infrarational and suprarational narratives. And you know when you are reading terms like that you've probably read too far. Now I can just attend and participate. I did wonder whether when I meet that eligible french-indian widow sous chef we could have the matrimonial sacrament in the syro-malabar rite even both of us are roman rite.
I could ask a canonist but they'd just give varying opinions. I think it's similar to being British Citizens wanting to partake of the benefits of a legal ceremony usually taken by Irish Citizens. We could ascript into the syro-malabar but that smacks of legalism to me. What and this train of thought isn't, of course not. This is part of my master plan to re-establish a joint patriarchy of the East Indies in Goa and the Gate of All India in Crangamore. So that I may breathe with both lungs. And since it is my Master Plan then the Crangamore Patriarch should be granted the title of Catholicos.
Although I am settling in well. Still distracted by thoughts of what woman back home but I feel once I get that August course underway and start making the home run towards an MA of some sort to start next June then best not to do anything and let it all just unfold. I think I shall return in March 25 2010 as planned just to tidy up things and maybe try to get OCI. I'll have to talk to a grown up about that. Loads of lawyers here mind. Not sure if that is a help though. If there was one lawyer.
I had something I really wanted to say. But I'll say it next time. Still no sign of the ID card. Maybe tomorrow. For now I help the local economy.
Oooh and her title shall be Martha Leoni la Pauvre de Caen
I made a little stir with the prior general. I think he is more like a Jesuit general than some of them back home. He wanted to have a discussion. First question was a bit tame. He said are we really saying yes to all the good things on offer. Now I thought he meant there was some way that I could partake in extra-mural widow finding otherwise known as pastoral visits. So I asked him what opportunities in concrete terms did he mean. And he clarified. Going to the library, prayer, studies. Ah well.
Then he mentioned the mission of the CMI and part was to help the poor especially in education though he admitted at their local university it was mainly the upper and middle classes who attended. Peeps asked a few tings. The Franciscan was a bit daring and raised the spectre of scandalous sexual behaviour among priests and how our troubled brows may be soothed. So after that calmed down I said that I had read the wiki page on the CMIs before coming and their criticism was that although standards were now higher in the education the CMIs had sacrificed outreach to the poor in terms of education for better academic results and prestige. He seemed stung by this. I only meant to say that I would pay a surcharge of 10 or 20% because it wouldn't amount to much for the rich if he passed that on to further scholarships for Dalits and Tribals. That's when I decided I would leave my worldly tings to the CMIs for scholarships for Tribals and Lambadis. The Yolanda Coutinho Scholarships. About five of the sixty came up to me separately later to say they were very pleased with my input. And a couple also came to suggest that they were not so pleased. All in all a good evening.
Tomorrow am pressing ahead with the Syriac I'll try purchase some books. A basic textbook and something of Mar Ephrem or Mar Isaac would be keepsake and a solid pose. It's always a bit sad when you have learnt all you can about a subject. I could read more about Syriac Liturgy but all it's going to be is the dialectial polarity between infrarational and suprarational narratives. And you know when you are reading terms like that you've probably read too far. Now I can just attend and participate. I did wonder whether when I meet that eligible french-indian widow sous chef we could have the matrimonial sacrament in the syro-malabar rite even both of us are roman rite.
I could ask a canonist but they'd just give varying opinions. I think it's similar to being British Citizens wanting to partake of the benefits of a legal ceremony usually taken by Irish Citizens. We could ascript into the syro-malabar but that smacks of legalism to me. What and this train of thought isn't, of course not. This is part of my master plan to re-establish a joint patriarchy of the East Indies in Goa and the Gate of All India in Crangamore. So that I may breathe with both lungs. And since it is my Master Plan then the Crangamore Patriarch should be granted the title of Catholicos.
Although I am settling in well. Still distracted by thoughts of what woman back home but I feel once I get that August course underway and start making the home run towards an MA of some sort to start next June then best not to do anything and let it all just unfold. I think I shall return in March 25 2010 as planned just to tidy up things and maybe try to get OCI. I'll have to talk to a grown up about that. Loads of lawyers here mind. Not sure if that is a help though. If there was one lawyer.
I had something I really wanted to say. But I'll say it next time. Still no sign of the ID card. Maybe tomorrow. For now I help the local economy.
Oooh and her title shall be Martha Leoni la Pauvre de Caen
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Dem fiendish neo-cats and the church within a church theory
Who knew? The Roman Catholic Church comprizes twenty-three autonomous particular churches. In the West we have the Roman Rite. In the East we have the Roman Rite and the Syro-Malabar and twenty-one others. They get on much better with each other than we do in the West. They haven't tried to suppress a rite here for a long while. Apparently it was alwasy ok to celebrate the Tridentine Rite, well at least since the middle-ages when the rite developed. All to do with Charles the great as he is called here, or Charlemagne, well I think it's exciting.
For a start the neo-Cats are ok with their idea of a church as a community of communities. A little embarrassingly (usually most of my embarrassments just slip past me unawares) I referred to autonomous particular churches as Esis from Canon Law I had said. The tutor looked puzzled but I told him I'd get the reference. It's an acronym for Ecclesia (ritualis) sui iuris which is latin for and still much simpler to say as Esi. But essentially the neo-cats are reclaiming a heritage. The irish are trying to do that not so much with liturgy but with theology spirituality and discipline in their Celtic Church model. Or as the Abbot of Ealing prefers to pronounce it Cheltic Church (being the heritage of the Women's Institutes of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea). Then of course the Oirish object to Roman Catholic Church because they feel it makes them less Irish and they can't call themselves the Irish Church because the Protestants got first bagsy on that one. In England Roman Catholics revel in the title because we certainly aren't Anglicans we are Angels as Pope Gregory had already declared infallibly.
So yeah my mission is fairly simple (notwithstanding the tollywood French-Telugu production of St Therese Demonslayer with Syriac subtitles and the whole final resting place ting). My mission is to breath with the two lungs of Roman and Oriental rites. From Rome I will proudly dust off and polish up the tarnished history of the Padroado of his most Catholic Majesty with it's port to europe and classical western theology and spirituality, capitalism and space travel and quirky post-modernist etc, and through the patrimony of the Mar Toma Nazreenes I can breathe in the legacy of Hinduism, the theology of the middle-east, the spirituality of India, and in this gold rush of mining claims I can stake a claim to the fuller patrimony of the Roman Catholic Church.
Put simply I shall like my hero of the magicko-religious age once and present Rick Miller in his pilgrimages to the new world, aim to establish the Indies as a Church of two Patriachies. The Roman Patriarch of Goa, and the Syro-Malabar Patriarch of Crangamore (the place where Mar Toma landed). It's a simple yet daring plan and will most certainly involve battling with demons, possibly the slaying of dragons, and will under the certainty of heaven lead me to my prize of a french-indian widow (apparently the ideal age for a man's bride is his own age divided by two plus twelve but age is an odd concept and quite internally inconsistent so anywhere from 36 to 50 works for me, Ono as they say in the ads.
Wish me luck and tally ho. Now I know why I need to find a Mar Toma Sliba but I doubt it will cost that much in rupiyah. Oh I should mention I managed to vow away all my inheritance to establish scholarships for Lambadi Tribals at Christ's University. All I had said was couldn't they do more for the poor and one thing led to another. My poor brother was right about me. He might as well curse me now, saves time for when he sees what happens in my Will.
I surrender as always in all things unless distracted to Mar Leoni la Pauvre de Caen
For a start the neo-Cats are ok with their idea of a church as a community of communities. A little embarrassingly (usually most of my embarrassments just slip past me unawares) I referred to autonomous particular churches as Esis from Canon Law I had said. The tutor looked puzzled but I told him I'd get the reference. It's an acronym for Ecclesia (ritualis) sui iuris which is latin for and still much simpler to say as Esi. But essentially the neo-cats are reclaiming a heritage. The irish are trying to do that not so much with liturgy but with theology spirituality and discipline in their Celtic Church model. Or as the Abbot of Ealing prefers to pronounce it Cheltic Church (being the heritage of the Women's Institutes of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea). Then of course the Oirish object to Roman Catholic Church because they feel it makes them less Irish and they can't call themselves the Irish Church because the Protestants got first bagsy on that one. In England Roman Catholics revel in the title because we certainly aren't Anglicans we are Angels as Pope Gregory had already declared infallibly.
So yeah my mission is fairly simple (notwithstanding the tollywood French-Telugu production of St Therese Demonslayer with Syriac subtitles and the whole final resting place ting). My mission is to breath with the two lungs of Roman and Oriental rites. From Rome I will proudly dust off and polish up the tarnished history of the Padroado of his most Catholic Majesty with it's port to europe and classical western theology and spirituality, capitalism and space travel and quirky post-modernist etc, and through the patrimony of the Mar Toma Nazreenes I can breathe in the legacy of Hinduism, the theology of the middle-east, the spirituality of India, and in this gold rush of mining claims I can stake a claim to the fuller patrimony of the Roman Catholic Church.
Put simply I shall like my hero of the magicko-religious age once and present Rick Miller in his pilgrimages to the new world, aim to establish the Indies as a Church of two Patriachies. The Roman Patriarch of Goa, and the Syro-Malabar Patriarch of Crangamore (the place where Mar Toma landed). It's a simple yet daring plan and will most certainly involve battling with demons, possibly the slaying of dragons, and will under the certainty of heaven lead me to my prize of a french-indian widow (apparently the ideal age for a man's bride is his own age divided by two plus twelve but age is an odd concept and quite internally inconsistent so anywhere from 36 to 50 works for me, Ono as they say in the ads.
Wish me luck and tally ho. Now I know why I need to find a Mar Toma Sliba but I doubt it will cost that much in rupiyah. Oh I should mention I managed to vow away all my inheritance to establish scholarships for Lambadi Tribals at Christ's University. All I had said was couldn't they do more for the poor and one thing led to another. My poor brother was right about me. He might as well curse me now, saves time for when he sees what happens in my Will.
I surrender as always in all things unless distracted to Mar Leoni la Pauvre de Caen
Monday, July 20, 2009
Money
I took out 5000 rupiya. It really was too easy. I hope I won't have to take out any more money otherwise I'll end up spending it on things I don't need or giving it away. I haven't been begged once. There is always some building going on in the compound. It's been around for over 50 years. I was told what the new block was going to be. The library is not complete. Anyway lots of workers around. I hope they are paid a little above the odds. But it doesn't work like that. They have regular jobs. Gilbert who took a job as a receptionist was a technician in an electronics firm. He wanted more time to study for a professional engineering/electronics diploma he used to get more money but the job here is more like a caretaker and he has time to study. Wimin are always beautiful so the wimin workers are beautiful. Really sweet I never know whether to acknowledge them or not. But since I namaste/namaskaram everyone they gets the salute as well, I tells you the wimin of south India are graceful even in their namaste.
In the Cafeteria we eat well. Simply you'd call it back home. Only dish I don't really take to is the bitter gourd curry. So after we finish. We wash our own plates and cutlery and then drop them into a large bucket of warm water. I am currently using a spoon and fingers half-way Indian, which is symbolically true. Anyway point being, mainly looks like teenage gels clean up after us, set the dishes, cutlery. I once came early to lunch and the little gel hadn't finished setting up. So she waves. Finishes last thing and opens the door before scurrying back to the parlour. I didn't mean to hassle her. If she were staff then she would have just told me to wait. But they are servants here so I guess she doesn't feel she has the choice.
It's very comfortable here, especially compared to the lifestyle of our workers/servants. I don't struggle with the simplicity and all the priests are aware of India's poverty. Every now and then someone suggests I should get a laptop or mobile. And I don't tink I need them. When I get my library card web access is free if limited to a few hours a day. There are computers available for general typing of essays/dissertation.
I have been unburdened by the grace of god, and thieving relatives and I mean the term in a caring way not a spooky way, of nothing worth having. Actually I am at home with everyone taking what they think is a fairish share of what belonged to my mother. I have worked through the desire to punish they all with acid attacks that would leave them horribly disfigured and mortally wounded but given that they'd die after one year and a day I'd only have got GBH not murder/manslaughter. So how's it going with that saint thing Dezie. Well obviously a few minor set-backs but I am on course again. I am now moving away to the saint who helps with the laying out of chairs before meetings to the saint who provides better biscuits for second breakfast/first tea. St Leonie of Caen is still probably going to have to be my master.
I tried to purchase some sandals earlier but the sandal seller wasn't around and his friend next door suggested trying in half an hour. They shouldn't cost more than a 300 rupiyah but I won't complain if I get no change from 500. The rest stays in my wallet. If someone mugs me then they are welcome to it. But this is south India so it's unlikely. Otherwise I hope not to spend any much more. Now of course if we get to Tamil Nadu and any Mar Toma site and I happen to see a Mar Toma Cross, with the dove the lotus and flowering empty cross very eastern rosicrucian well then I'll bung the lot and borrow if necessary to get something beautiful. But unless it's made of gold and belonged to Mar Toma I doubt it will go much beyond 20,000 rupiyah, and given the choice between a laptop and an icon/relic Mar Toma Cross. A no brainer as the amurkans would say. But then what on earth would I do with another icon.
Incidentally I am now an expert in East Syriac. Now in any conversation about the mystic poetry of Mar Ephrem I get to ask so which manuscript are you relying on (must master the slight quizzical expression) then when they fluster (eyebrow raises slowly) oh you are using translations (crestfallen disappointment kai su paide) and end with a comforting no no I am sure not everything is lost in translation. In fact now I know all the letters I wonder what Achan Geo can possibly teach me next Friday's class. That's another thing. I'd pay 100 rupiyah for anything in East Syriac but all they got is English and Malayalam/Telugu.
The new handbook is out. I can book my week at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry. It's best to book early they so hate it when they get hippies turning up for cheap accommodation while they experience the delights of the flesh pots of Pondicherry with no intention of studying Aurobindo's transincarnational yoga. Best not tell them about the french indian pastry sous-chef widow then hmmm. Perhaps tomorrow. If I get the sandals I should cease further commercialism for the day and get back to the library.
Got chaps 3-4 on the nature and history of Esis tomorrow and I should read a little more as I have nothing controversial, ridiculous to the point that it almost makes sense, to say. Though for now I have I hope managed the balance of eccentric foreigner and my enthusiasm and erudition, polite affable and humble manner make up for the counter-rational rambling. Plus although I am not technically in love except with God and he don't count, I again feel that I can be anything. I feel I can be a polyglot. Although I have never succeeded in mastering any language some argue including english, I now believe that I can take my mastery of East Syriac and become a polyglot. Well you don't mock my ambitions and vice versa.
Although it seems like nothing is going on I continue with daily tai chi under a falcon sky, (bigger than kestrels smaller than eagles prolly explains why we have so few pigeons). My tai chi is good but they really know how to kick back and coast on the air currents. Did spot a small scorpion in the bathroom and if Indiana Jones is right they're the ones to watch out for, so also provides justification for the new sandals. That and two pairs last longer than one. A former carmelite nun in the process of training to be a full-body masseuse with oils told me that one. Jai Ho!
In the Cafeteria we eat well. Simply you'd call it back home. Only dish I don't really take to is the bitter gourd curry. So after we finish. We wash our own plates and cutlery and then drop them into a large bucket of warm water. I am currently using a spoon and fingers half-way Indian, which is symbolically true. Anyway point being, mainly looks like teenage gels clean up after us, set the dishes, cutlery. I once came early to lunch and the little gel hadn't finished setting up. So she waves. Finishes last thing and opens the door before scurrying back to the parlour. I didn't mean to hassle her. If she were staff then she would have just told me to wait. But they are servants here so I guess she doesn't feel she has the choice.
It's very comfortable here, especially compared to the lifestyle of our workers/servants. I don't struggle with the simplicity and all the priests are aware of India's poverty. Every now and then someone suggests I should get a laptop or mobile. And I don't tink I need them. When I get my library card web access is free if limited to a few hours a day. There are computers available for general typing of essays/dissertation.
I have been unburdened by the grace of god, and thieving relatives and I mean the term in a caring way not a spooky way, of nothing worth having. Actually I am at home with everyone taking what they think is a fairish share of what belonged to my mother. I have worked through the desire to punish they all with acid attacks that would leave them horribly disfigured and mortally wounded but given that they'd die after one year and a day I'd only have got GBH not murder/manslaughter. So how's it going with that saint thing Dezie. Well obviously a few minor set-backs but I am on course again. I am now moving away to the saint who helps with the laying out of chairs before meetings to the saint who provides better biscuits for second breakfast/first tea. St Leonie of Caen is still probably going to have to be my master.
I tried to purchase some sandals earlier but the sandal seller wasn't around and his friend next door suggested trying in half an hour. They shouldn't cost more than a 300 rupiyah but I won't complain if I get no change from 500. The rest stays in my wallet. If someone mugs me then they are welcome to it. But this is south India so it's unlikely. Otherwise I hope not to spend any much more. Now of course if we get to Tamil Nadu and any Mar Toma site and I happen to see a Mar Toma Cross, with the dove the lotus and flowering empty cross very eastern rosicrucian well then I'll bung the lot and borrow if necessary to get something beautiful. But unless it's made of gold and belonged to Mar Toma I doubt it will go much beyond 20,000 rupiyah, and given the choice between a laptop and an icon/relic Mar Toma Cross. A no brainer as the amurkans would say. But then what on earth would I do with another icon.
Incidentally I am now an expert in East Syriac. Now in any conversation about the mystic poetry of Mar Ephrem I get to ask so which manuscript are you relying on (must master the slight quizzical expression) then when they fluster (eyebrow raises slowly) oh you are using translations (crestfallen disappointment kai su paide) and end with a comforting no no I am sure not everything is lost in translation. In fact now I know all the letters I wonder what Achan Geo can possibly teach me next Friday's class. That's another thing. I'd pay 100 rupiyah for anything in East Syriac but all they got is English and Malayalam/Telugu.
The new handbook is out. I can book my week at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry. It's best to book early they so hate it when they get hippies turning up for cheap accommodation while they experience the delights of the flesh pots of Pondicherry with no intention of studying Aurobindo's transincarnational yoga. Best not tell them about the french indian pastry sous-chef widow then hmmm. Perhaps tomorrow. If I get the sandals I should cease further commercialism for the day and get back to the library.
Got chaps 3-4 on the nature and history of Esis tomorrow and I should read a little more as I have nothing controversial, ridiculous to the point that it almost makes sense, to say. Though for now I have I hope managed the balance of eccentric foreigner and my enthusiasm and erudition, polite affable and humble manner make up for the counter-rational rambling. Plus although I am not technically in love except with God and he don't count, I again feel that I can be anything. I feel I can be a polyglot. Although I have never succeeded in mastering any language some argue including english, I now believe that I can take my mastery of East Syriac and become a polyglot. Well you don't mock my ambitions and vice versa.
Although it seems like nothing is going on I continue with daily tai chi under a falcon sky, (bigger than kestrels smaller than eagles prolly explains why we have so few pigeons). My tai chi is good but they really know how to kick back and coast on the air currents. Did spot a small scorpion in the bathroom and if Indiana Jones is right they're the ones to watch out for, so also provides justification for the new sandals. That and two pairs last longer than one. A former carmelite nun in the process of training to be a full-body masseuse with oils told me that one. Jai Ho!
Syriac
First tutorial went well. Also started Syriac. I am getting soft. After the first ten letters I told Fr Geo my head was spinning so I get to see the last twelve tomorrow 9.00am. Maybe that three year canon law course is not for me. Maybe a certificate in oriental and occidental canon law and then the diploma in spirituality and counselling only one year each. Haven't got my library card so free internet access is off and on. But plenty to read in the library.
You can't really transfer from an Esi. There used to be a clause in order to recover the heritage of one's ancestors. But then my beard, complexion and natural Indian good looks say much more than any canon law certificate might. I get called Uncle now on the street outside if anyone does address me and father inside the compound. But none doubt my Indianness until I speak. Am pressing ahead with Malayalam in my own way like swimming through treacle. And there is a fine heritage here up for grabs. Since the Indians are reclaiming it themselves it's a bit like San Francisco in the Gold Rush. I just stake my claim and see where it goes.
The Syrian Language is to gather up the Eastern foundation of the Church. The Syro-Malabar liturgy is to pick up on the Indianness. At a retreat in Blangy-sur-Mer I was talking as I do not really knowing that much about it about the Gita and doing my Namaste hither and thither and this young Goan Barrister woman gives me what for saying. I am a Catholic and I am proud of it. I didn't press the matter for I felt it was getting far too sexual for me and she was really far too young for me. But I assume it's the prejudice I grew up with. That Goans being osmotically Portuguese were a rung higher up than the average Indian. Not as high up as an Anglo-Indian who used to let us know by always calling us Goanese. And the average non-Goan Indian would tend to agree that Goans weren't really Indians. Barely a territory then.
Now the world has changed. They like Indians in the West. And Indians like Indians. Well apart from that Goan Barrister but I don't think she was my kind of gel. She felt she wasn't earning enough money. And my type of gel is a widow french-indian from Puducherry in a metaphorical sense at least. Oh well I'll post now no one seems to have kicked me off the computers.
Indians are like canon legalists. If I asked if I could use a computer they'd say no I need a library card ID. But if I just use one no one stops me and if they do all I have to do is ask for forgiveness and then try again another time. Good luck to the dynamic duo on the Synaxis tomorrow. I mentioned the neo-cats to Fr Varghese my liturgy tutor. These two are very Donnish by the way. Syriac the more so. He didn't seem shocked at all. Hmmph. Obviously his war is with the Padroado and dem conniving Latinist imperialists. Wouldn't even take the bait that now the portuguese have gone the Spanish are trying to reconquer the East Indies. He just said oh very early church to prepare during the catechuminate the synaxis was popular. The Word prepares us for the eventual Eucharist. Hmmph. Still a bit too Spanish for Bangalore if you ask me. But then if she is French...
You can't really transfer from an Esi. There used to be a clause in order to recover the heritage of one's ancestors. But then my beard, complexion and natural Indian good looks say much more than any canon law certificate might. I get called Uncle now on the street outside if anyone does address me and father inside the compound. But none doubt my Indianness until I speak. Am pressing ahead with Malayalam in my own way like swimming through treacle. And there is a fine heritage here up for grabs. Since the Indians are reclaiming it themselves it's a bit like San Francisco in the Gold Rush. I just stake my claim and see where it goes.
The Syrian Language is to gather up the Eastern foundation of the Church. The Syro-Malabar liturgy is to pick up on the Indianness. At a retreat in Blangy-sur-Mer I was talking as I do not really knowing that much about it about the Gita and doing my Namaste hither and thither and this young Goan Barrister woman gives me what for saying. I am a Catholic and I am proud of it. I didn't press the matter for I felt it was getting far too sexual for me and she was really far too young for me. But I assume it's the prejudice I grew up with. That Goans being osmotically Portuguese were a rung higher up than the average Indian. Not as high up as an Anglo-Indian who used to let us know by always calling us Goanese. And the average non-Goan Indian would tend to agree that Goans weren't really Indians. Barely a territory then.
Now the world has changed. They like Indians in the West. And Indians like Indians. Well apart from that Goan Barrister but I don't think she was my kind of gel. She felt she wasn't earning enough money. And my type of gel is a widow french-indian from Puducherry in a metaphorical sense at least. Oh well I'll post now no one seems to have kicked me off the computers.
Indians are like canon legalists. If I asked if I could use a computer they'd say no I need a library card ID. But if I just use one no one stops me and if they do all I have to do is ask for forgiveness and then try again another time. Good luck to the dynamic duo on the Synaxis tomorrow. I mentioned the neo-cats to Fr Varghese my liturgy tutor. These two are very Donnish by the way. Syriac the more so. He didn't seem shocked at all. Hmmph. Obviously his war is with the Padroado and dem conniving Latinist imperialists. Wouldn't even take the bait that now the portuguese have gone the Spanish are trying to reconquer the East Indies. He just said oh very early church to prepare during the catechuminate the synaxis was popular. The Word prepares us for the eventual Eucharist. Hmmph. Still a bit too Spanish for Bangalore if you ask me. But then if she is French...
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The community and liturgy
It's a very naive place. Most mornings there is a celebration either feast day or birthday. We stand sing a song and one of the nuns gives you a flower. No cake. Food is simple and hearty you can have as much as you like. Mainly rice. Some breakfasts we get pouris and sometimes chapatis, real chapatis not the Lambadi roti. And lots of little curries, veg, always at least one meat or fish curry but more for taste. It's basically rice basmati long grain and south indian short grain which I think is tastier. Had a few short chats. Most of the lads are still asking the usual questions. Some are more playful than I am. I am learning snitchets of Malayalam and Tamil most are from Kerala though a few are from Tamil Nadu, a few from Ethiopia and a few from the North.
I need to be clearer for tomorrow's tutorial. The first two chapters introduce liturgy from the pagan term public service, which comprised two elements a burden done out of fear or ambition, and a duty willed from love, friendship and loyalty. These two elements are taken up in the Hebrew Sheret inner service and Abhodah external service. In the Old Testament prophets fulminate against the priestly caste's usurpation of this covenantal duty to God. Eventually people get bored of praying and leave it to priests and then complain that the priests keep them out of the prayers. Plus ca change.
Although Jesus transforms the liturgy he transforms everything by the incarnation. Liturgy becomes the self-communication of God's Word to his People. The dual nature of Jesus deifies the self-serving lip service of liturgy in his human nature through amor, and the overspiritualized internal rapture of his divine agape is humanized and made immanent.
This compares with the sociological interpretation of liturgy, initiation rite, social acceptance rituals for Abhodah and the psychological interpretation of personal hierophanies for Sheret.
Historically in the West the priestly caste takes over from the Carolingians till the liturgical reforms of the C19th and the Benedictine Mysterium school of Odo Cassel and the monks of Solesme. Theoretically liturgy was lost in the West till the reforms of the VAT II and is only now being recovered. In practice this never stopped God's self-communication to his people especially in his Saints. Theoretically also the liturgy was preserved in the East although horribly mutilated in India when the Portugese brought latin rite conformity to the Esis of the East. An Esi is a canon law term for a particular church I started reading a book on the spirituality of canon law because I figure if they let me take Canon Law from November I have three years visa to mess around here. And plenty of time to find a french indian widow for the sacrament.
The Biblical chapter restates the Biblical foundation of Liturgy. The bible has often been viewed with suspicion by devout Catholic Christians who hold the Roman Rite. They may deny it but it's true. So it is affirmed that the Liturgy is in the Bible, the Bible in the Liturgy and that it is based on Biblical Revelation. They muthoi of the Birth of Moses and Jesus illustrate.
The parallel is that the Syro-Malabar rite is the chosen vessel of God to redeem India. It has been like Moses brought up among Pharaoh the Latin Rite. But now the burning bush has sent it back to redeem its people. A criticism over dinner once of the rite is that although it is strong on catechesis and praise worship. It is a rite of martyrs concentrating on paradise and the next world. But where is the mission. There is no element of social justice or empowerment in it. In the West the laics continually fight with the priests for power and access to church time and resources largely because of liturgical reforms. In the East it remains a levitical priestly caste. Though this was the liturgy that Vladimir I Prince of Kiev had said it took him to heaven and made him realise the majesty of God. Whereas of the Latin rite he said, it just made him want to fart.
There appear to be hundreds of ways of being Indian. I was told once by a white missionary that I wasn't really a Goan. I did let rip on him outraged Goinka that I am that Indians no longer rely on white orientalists to tell us who we are. I think I was less polite. But in another conversation over lunch a priest said that previously what westerners consider Indian, Indian spirituality and theology, was only Brahmin north indian. Courses on Indian theology and spirituality now involve looking at the Dalit experience and regions. His belief was Tamil has it all. The language alone is spiritual, children are those given from God, and God is the word for Transcendent-Immanence. Not to mention the art architecture of Tamil Nadu. When I asked the Pentecostal preacher what Kerala had to offer he said that had loads of nice coconuts. I wike this gang.
I have enough to bullshit for Monday morning. I'll see about other courses and what I can go for in November. The spirituality and counselling MA seems way to heavy for me 6 hours experiental classes per day. Woah.
I need to be clearer for tomorrow's tutorial. The first two chapters introduce liturgy from the pagan term public service, which comprised two elements a burden done out of fear or ambition, and a duty willed from love, friendship and loyalty. These two elements are taken up in the Hebrew Sheret inner service and Abhodah external service. In the Old Testament prophets fulminate against the priestly caste's usurpation of this covenantal duty to God. Eventually people get bored of praying and leave it to priests and then complain that the priests keep them out of the prayers. Plus ca change.
Although Jesus transforms the liturgy he transforms everything by the incarnation. Liturgy becomes the self-communication of God's Word to his People. The dual nature of Jesus deifies the self-serving lip service of liturgy in his human nature through amor, and the overspiritualized internal rapture of his divine agape is humanized and made immanent.
This compares with the sociological interpretation of liturgy, initiation rite, social acceptance rituals for Abhodah and the psychological interpretation of personal hierophanies for Sheret.
Historically in the West the priestly caste takes over from the Carolingians till the liturgical reforms of the C19th and the Benedictine Mysterium school of Odo Cassel and the monks of Solesme. Theoretically liturgy was lost in the West till the reforms of the VAT II and is only now being recovered. In practice this never stopped God's self-communication to his people especially in his Saints. Theoretically also the liturgy was preserved in the East although horribly mutilated in India when the Portugese brought latin rite conformity to the Esis of the East. An Esi is a canon law term for a particular church I started reading a book on the spirituality of canon law because I figure if they let me take Canon Law from November I have three years visa to mess around here. And plenty of time to find a french indian widow for the sacrament.
The Biblical chapter restates the Biblical foundation of Liturgy. The bible has often been viewed with suspicion by devout Catholic Christians who hold the Roman Rite. They may deny it but it's true. So it is affirmed that the Liturgy is in the Bible, the Bible in the Liturgy and that it is based on Biblical Revelation. They muthoi of the Birth of Moses and Jesus illustrate.
The parallel is that the Syro-Malabar rite is the chosen vessel of God to redeem India. It has been like Moses brought up among Pharaoh the Latin Rite. But now the burning bush has sent it back to redeem its people. A criticism over dinner once of the rite is that although it is strong on catechesis and praise worship. It is a rite of martyrs concentrating on paradise and the next world. But where is the mission. There is no element of social justice or empowerment in it. In the West the laics continually fight with the priests for power and access to church time and resources largely because of liturgical reforms. In the East it remains a levitical priestly caste. Though this was the liturgy that Vladimir I Prince of Kiev had said it took him to heaven and made him realise the majesty of God. Whereas of the Latin rite he said, it just made him want to fart.
There appear to be hundreds of ways of being Indian. I was told once by a white missionary that I wasn't really a Goan. I did let rip on him outraged Goinka that I am that Indians no longer rely on white orientalists to tell us who we are. I think I was less polite. But in another conversation over lunch a priest said that previously what westerners consider Indian, Indian spirituality and theology, was only Brahmin north indian. Courses on Indian theology and spirituality now involve looking at the Dalit experience and regions. His belief was Tamil has it all. The language alone is spiritual, children are those given from God, and God is the word for Transcendent-Immanence. Not to mention the art architecture of Tamil Nadu. When I asked the Pentecostal preacher what Kerala had to offer he said that had loads of nice coconuts. I wike this gang.
I have enough to bullshit for Monday morning. I'll see about other courses and what I can go for in November. The spirituality and counselling MA seems way to heavy for me 6 hours experiental classes per day. Woah.
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Chaldeo-Indian Liturgy
So second attempt at posting first one lost in the fleshpots of the interweb. So I have to prepare for a tutorial on the first two chapters of Fr Vargese's book Intro to the above for Monday. Only class I have so far. The Spirituality and Counselling MA looks pretty intensive. Hope I can't join till next June that will save making a decision.
First two chaps are about definition of liturgy as public work. The secular pagan definition applied to politicians and can be seen as the sub-text of the Roman Rite's (via the Portugese) oppresion of the indigenous older and more authentically Indian liturgy. Liturgy itself is a Biblical construct. God saves the world as spoken in the Bible. He does this accompanied by liturgy in the text, and the Bible accompanies worship. It is more than just a sociological initiation into culture and society though it fulfills that part in helping Indian Christians become more truly Indian rather than wogs for Rome. It is more than personal transformation Eliade's hierophanies sacred space time and meaning. Being God's transformative act via communication of his Word it has built into it boredom, incompetence, power struggles, and all the failure of frail humanity. Communication is a two way process. I had wondered why the Rosary wasn't liturgy. Or why something far more effective isn't adopted. This is the economy of salvation. This is how God chooses to communicate through us with God. Built into the liturgy also is a gentleness, a giving up of power and control. All part of the dance. I'll ask whether Malayalam has replaced Syriac as the main liturgical language in India. If so there is a danger that the provincial language of Kerala will try to take over from the language of Jesus in the same way as Latin had done in the past.
First two chaps are about definition of liturgy as public work. The secular pagan definition applied to politicians and can be seen as the sub-text of the Roman Rite's (via the Portugese) oppresion of the indigenous older and more authentically Indian liturgy. Liturgy itself is a Biblical construct. God saves the world as spoken in the Bible. He does this accompanied by liturgy in the text, and the Bible accompanies worship. It is more than just a sociological initiation into culture and society though it fulfills that part in helping Indian Christians become more truly Indian rather than wogs for Rome. It is more than personal transformation Eliade's hierophanies sacred space time and meaning. Being God's transformative act via communication of his Word it has built into it boredom, incompetence, power struggles, and all the failure of frail humanity. Communication is a two way process. I had wondered why the Rosary wasn't liturgy. Or why something far more effective isn't adopted. This is the economy of salvation. This is how God chooses to communicate through us with God. Built into the liturgy also is a gentleness, a giving up of power and control. All part of the dance. I'll ask whether Malayalam has replaced Syriac as the main liturgical language in India. If so there is a danger that the provincial language of Kerala will try to take over from the language of Jesus in the same way as Latin had done in the past.
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