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Saint Ephem the Syrian

a_ntv

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Saint Ephem the Syrian
(Doctor of the Church)

Ad instance: http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/ephraem.php

who know him?
who have read his books?

I love him.
He is nor in the tradition of the EC Greek Fathers nor he is a Latin Father: he is Syrian, near to the semitic ancient roots of our religion
He is over any legalistic or any rational explanations
His christianism is poetry of Love

And I find his spirituality so near to our devotion to the "Holy Heart" :o

Here some writing on line:
- The pearl (on the faith): http://www.voskrese.info/spl/pearl.html (in poetry)
- on passion: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ephrem/PassSer.htm (in poetry)
- Hymns on the nativity: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3703.htm
- Homily on the Lord: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3706.htm
( others writings on http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/ and http://www.voskrese.info/spl/XefremSyria.html)
Do you know about other sites with his works online?
 

Mary of Bethany

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If this is the same St. Ephraim the Syrian, we Orthodox say his prayer every weekday during the Great Fast:

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust for power and idle talk.

But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen.



Mary
 
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a_ntv

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Yes, he is.

I've checked in http://www.monachos.net/library/Lenten_Prayer_of_St_Ephraim_the_Syrian

The Great Lenten Prayer of St Ephraim:
O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust for power and idle talk.
(Prostration)
But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love.
(Prostration)
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen.
(Prostration)
O God, cleanse Thou me a sinner (12 times, with as many bows, and then again the whole prayer from the beginning throughout, and after that one great prostration)
Thank for the information.
 
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GratiaCorpusChristi

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I was actually reading some of St. Ephrem's hymns on the Nativity earlier today. I started out reading an article called 'Informal Controlled Oral Tradition and the Synoptic Gospels,' by Kenneth Baily, which is a little known work of anthropology devoted to explaining the variations on stories in the gospels. Basically he attempts to shown that in Middle Eastern cultures oral traditions circulate in such a way that the 'sayings' and 'parables' are strictly controlled, but that the 'stories' and 'narratives,' while having an unalterable core, have elements that can be embellished.

He goes on to use Syriac Christians memorizing the hymns of St. Ephrem as one of a few examples of this dynamic.

So having read that, I walked over to another part of the library to read them for myself. And how beautiful they are!! I wonder how many of these we could introduce in the liturgy of the hours...

Anyway I know that was a roundabout way of talking about things, but it got me excited.
 
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a_ntv

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Ephrem Hymns are wonderfull, but we need some knowledge of the theologocal language he uses, that sometime is very fidderent from our.

Let's read as intance the Hymn #10 on the faith (I've found in enlish only some verses here: http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0006b&L=ivcf-l&T=0&P=379)

8. In your Bread is hidden a Spirit not to be eaten,
in your Wine dwells a Fire not to be drunk.
Spirit in your Bread, Fire in your Wine,
a wonder set apart, [yet] received by our lips!


How strange it is this language: we are used to refer the spirit and the fire as signs of the Holy Spirit, while he uses these signs as the power of God, even for the Eucharist.

17. See, Fire and Spirit in the womb that bore you!
See, Fire and Spirit in the river where you were baptized!
Fire and Spirit in our Baptism;
in the Bread and the Cup, Fire and Holy Spirit!

Of couse his theology is perfectly orthodox for the Eucharist:

18. Your Bread kills the Devourer [death] who had made us his bread,
your Cup destroys death which was swallowing us up.
We have eaten you, Lord, we have drunk you,
not to exhaust you, but to live by you.

Here an other two verse of the same hymn: here he is not speaking of the Trinity, but wondering about the Son, how He can be with the Father, and also among the angels, and even on our earh. The idea of Incanation as the central point of the history of salvation is huge, and striclty tied on the process of becaming empty from the glory of the Heaven to the humiliation of the birth. (the very same topic of the apocriph Ascension of Isaiah, a semitic text of 120 ad)


3. Though your nature is one, its expressions are many;
they find three levels, high, middle, and lowly.
Make me worthy of the lowly part,
of picking up crumbs from the table of your wisdom.

4. Your highest expression is hidden with your Father,
your middle riches are the wonder of the Watchers [i.e. angels]
A tiny stream from your teaching, Lord,
for us below makes a flood of interpretations.



 
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a_ntv

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*bump*

St. Ephraim is in the Philokalia, is that correct?

I dont think.
Here the list of the the book included in the Philokalia (that is anyway a XIX century compilation) http://orthodoxwiki.org/Philokalia

The Philokalia includes only greek texts, while the ECFs were also Latin and Syrian (as St Ephrem), who wrote in Syrian and not in Greek
 
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katherine2001

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I love him also. I have read quite a few of his prayers in the Orthodox Prayer books and pray them a lot. In one of my prayer books they have quite a few of his prayers in the section of prayers to pray prior to confession. They are good for me to read then and while I am preparing for it. I must admit that I also love the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete which is done in church over the first 4 days of Lent and then all in one day the fourth week of Lent (it will be done on Wednesday night), and I am looking forward to it. St. Ephraim's prayers and poems always speak to my soul. Is it St. Ephraim or St. Isaac the Syrian who said: "To see ourselves as we really are is a bigger miracle than raising the dead". That is another saying that I try to remember a lot.
 
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IgnatiusOfAntioch

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St Eph was the first to theorize the rapture view held by the reformed.

Hi SOZ. I'd be interested in seeing how you twisted St. Ephrams writings to fit your eisegesis! Would you mind explaining and posting some links to primary sources of his writings (including references to the source) that you thing support such a conclusion?
 
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simonthezealot

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Hi SOZ. I'd be interested in seeing how you twisted St. Ephrams writings to fit your eisegesis? Would you mind explaining and posting some links to primary sources of his writings (including references to the source) that you thing support such a conclusion?
Sure ignatius, you'll have to give me a little while, but i've no problem finding it.
 
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IgnatiusOfAntioch

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Actually, this is about the Parousia and that has been the Authentic Catholic teaching from the very beginning. Christ will come again at the end of time (the Parousia is Christs second coming at the end of time), He will judge the living and the dead from then He will establish His Kingdom and His Kingdom will have no end.
There is nothing in that article having to do with a pre-mellenial rapture.
 
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simonthezealot

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Actually, this is about the Parousia and that has been the Authentic Catholic teaching from the very beginning. Christ will come again at the end of time (the Parousia is Christs second coming at the end of time), He will judge the living and the dead from then He will establish His Kingdom and His Kingdom will have no end.
There is nothing in that article having to do with a pre-mellenial rapture.
Check out these three paragraphs...

...his time, they shall see the Son of man coming, no longer on the cross, but 'in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.' This time the sign of the cross is associated with manifest power and glory, as it was then associated with hidden power over the enemy when it was then regarded with shame and cursing. The sign of the Son of man appears here that their sins may be self condemned, their mourning here is an indication of self condemnation....

"Although the Lord comes openly, He still calls his elect by His angels in order to HONOR them in this way. The sound of the trumpet is for arousing, for gladness to manifest the amazing nature of the things then enacting.....

"Here is a contrast between the 'mourning tribes' upon seeing the sign of the Son of man and the honor of the elect, when they are gathered together, and the sound of the trumpet together with He Himself in the cloud which shall catch them."
 
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T

Thekla

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Check out these three paragraphs...

...his time, they shall see the Son of man coming, no longer on the cross, but 'in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.' This time the sign of the cross is associated with manifest power and glory, as it was then associated with hidden power over the enemy when it was then regarded with shame and cursing. The sign of the Son of man appears here that their sins may be self condemned, their mourning here is an indication of self condemnation....

"Although the Lord comes openly, He still calls his elect by His angels in order to HONOR them in this way. The sound of the trumpet is for arousing, for gladness to manifest the amazing nature of the things then enacting.....

"Here is a contrast between the 'mourning tribes' upon seeing the sign of the Son of man and the honor of the elect, when they are gathered together, and the sound of the trumpet together with He Himself in the cloud which shall catch them."

I must admit, I don't know the "rapture view of the reformed" , but these quotes seem to reiterate NT passages ...

... the writings of St. Ephraim are remarkable, and each year I look forward to the Lenten Prayer...
 
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Anglian

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Dear Simon,

Good to see you getting into one of our blessed Saints.

Do read Brock's The Luminous Eye for someone from the Syriac tradition who really understands what the saint is saying:
the prerequisite for any theological enquiry is orthodox faith combined with an attitude of wonder and love. (p. 29)QUOTE]

If you look at the stanza quoted in my signature you can see this. As the blessed Saint puts it in Paradise 6:1:
The keys of doctrine which unlock all Scripture
have opened up before my eyes the book of creation,
the treasure house of the Ark, the crown of the Law
It was through the doctrine of the Church - Truth - that Scripture was to be interpreted.

Still, now you've started reading him and agree with part of what he wrote, maybe you'll get the 'keys of doctrine' too:wave:

Peace,

Anglian
 
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Ramon96

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O.k, I think this is really helpful!

http://www.geocities.com/lasttrumpet_2000/timeline/ephraem.html

The fact is that no one before the 1800s [or a little before] taught any "Pre-Trib Rapture". I really do not see the above quotes as referring to a Pre-Trib Rapture or whatever, but they simply reinterate what the Holy Scriptures teach about the Parousia [the Second Coming of Christ].

Blessings,
Ramon
 
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