We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don’t know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can’t accept it for what it is.
Saints are our mirrors. But we’re afraid to look at them.
Based on Stanislav Lem (Solaris)
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In fact is based on a well-known metaphor (see at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_and_mirrors ) transposed on the spiritual plane: the smoke of our pride / ego / selfishness does not allow us to see the God’s reality reflected like in a mirror in the saints’ lives.
As an aside, in my mother tongue (romanian) a word which means pride is „înfumurat” which literally means „inside of smoke”.
Of course, the real environment doesn’t have to do too much with pride. Rather the contrary: It was taken at a Divine Liturgy in a chapel (St. Demetrios) where is a window right above the head of the priest (not seen in the left). The rays of the sun combined with the incense’s smoke gave this stunning effect over the deacon’s head.
Ioan Toma
The last one. 🙂
In fact is based on a well-known metaphor (see at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_and_mirrors ) transposed on the spiritual plane: the smoke of our pride / ego / selfishness does not allow us to see the God’s reality reflected like in a mirror in the saints’ lives.
As an aside, in my mother tongue (romanian) a word which means pride is „înfumurat” which literally means „inside of smoke”.
Of course, the real environment doesn’t have to do too much with pride. Rather the contrary: It was taken at a Divine Liturgy in a chapel (St. Demetrios) where is a window right above the head of the priest (not seen in the left). The rays of the sun combined with the incense’s smoke gave this stunning effect over the deacon’s head.
Christian
Thank you very much for the explanations.
Claude lopez-ginisty
I put it in French on my blog today (http://orthodoxologie.blogspot.ch/2015/06/nous-navons-pas-besoin-dautres-mondes.html. )
Thank you!
Nous n’avons pas besoin d’autres mondes. Nous avons besoin de miroirs. Nous ne savons quoi faire avec d’autres mondes.
Un seul monde, le nôtre, nous suffit; mais nous ne sommes pas capables de l’accepter pour ce qu’il est.
Les saints sont nos miroirs. Mais nous avons peur de les regarder.
Version française Claude Lopez-Ginisty
d’après
Stanislas Lem (Solaris)
cité par
THE ASCETIC EXPERIENCE
Ioan Toma
Thanks! Upvoted!
The correct link is at http://orthodoxologie.blogspot.ch/2015/06/fumees-et-miroirs-dapres-stanislas-lem.html
God bless!
Claude lopez-ginisty
Dear in Christ Ioan,
Whenever possible, and if you agree, I will try and translate most of these posts of the day for my blog and send them to you day after day.
In Christ,
Hypodeacon Claude (Lopez-Ginisty)
Ioan Toma
Yes, sure. Our mission is to spread the word of God in order to help and make the people happy and not to be closed in our narrow selfishness.
God bless!