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Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which to look at Christ's compassion to the world, yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now." - St. Teresa of Avila
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The Union of Saint Symeon
There are many who harm those who hear them by saying that nobody can
be like {the fathers of the church}, or in his deeds attain to what our great
fathers achieved, or be found worthy of the spiritual gifts that were granted
them. Their unbelief compels me, unwilling as I am, to say the things I never
wanted to say, and so to proclaim publicly the reality of God's love for man in
order to reprove the slothfulness and carelessness of those who make those
claims. (Symeon the New
Theologian: The Discourses, p. 126) Despite the controversy which his teachings stirred, St. Symeon asserted again and again that what he was teaching was no different than what the Holy Scriptures and the fathers of the church had taught from the beginning. As he says: You, on your part, must see and test that which we say. If we have
views different from those of the apostles and of the holy God-inspired fathers,
if we speak contrary to what they said, if we fail to repeat what the Holy
Gospels say about God, then let me be anathema from the Lord God Jesus Christ.
Let it fall on me if we do not enkindle in everyone that life-giving energy and
gift which is in these [writings] (yet lamentably extinguished, as far as men
are able, by foolish reasonings) and fail to point to the light that already is
shining, as we establish and assert all things from the Holy Scriptures
themselves and clearly demonstrate. (Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses, p. 354)
For the benefit
of others he described his own enlightenment, referring to himself in the third
person: During the day he managed a patrician's household and
daily went to the palace, engaged in worldly affairs, so that no one was aware
of his pursuits. ...One day, as he stood and recited, "God, have mercy upon
me, a sinner" (Lk. 18:13), uttering it with his mind rather than his mouth,
suddenly a flood of divine radiance appeared from above and filled all the room.
As this happened the young man lost all awareness of his surroundings and forgot
that he was in a house or that he was under a roof. He saw nothing but light all
around him and did not know if he was standing on the ground. He was not afraid
of falling: he was not concerned with the world nor did anything pertaining to
men and corporeal beings enter his mind. Instead, he seemed to himself to have
turned into light. Oblivious of all the world he was filled with tears and with
ineffable joy and gladness. His mind then ascended to heaven and beheld yet
another light, which was clearer than that which was close at hand…
(The Catechetical Discourses XXII) This Rosary is based upon St. Symeon's poem "We Awaken in Christ's Body". Instructions:
Begin
by having an intention in mind for the rosary.
This intention may be stated as part of the following prayer. Prayer of Intention
We who gather to pray this rosary do have in our minds and
hearts the following intentions: (Here
a few moments of silence allow all to clarify their intentions).
We ask that these intentions may bring forth the results desired,
according to Your will. Amen. General Instructions
1. Holding the cross in the right hand (if right handed),
with the rest of the rosary in the left hand, bless yourself with the
Invocation: D In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, Amen. 2. Holding the cross in
the right hand (if right handed), and with the rest of the rosary draped across
the left hand, begin with this version of the Kyrie Eleison: Leader
Response Lord, Give Yourself to us Lord, give Yourself to us Christ, give Yourself to us
Christ, give Yourself to us Lord, give Yourself to us
Lord, give Yourself to us God, our Father
Give Yourself to us God, the Son
Give Yourself to us God, the Holy Spirit
Give Yourself to us Holy Trinity
Give Yourself to us Amen.
D 3. On the first bead after the cross say the “Our
Father”: Our
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread; and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen. Alternate
“Our Father” translated from the Aramaic (see introduction) O
Birther! Father-Mother of the
Cosmos, focus your light within
us—make it useful. Create your
reign of unity now; Your one desire acts with ours, as in all light, so in all
forms. Grant what we need each day
in bread and insight. Loose the
cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strand we hold of others’
guilt. Don’t let surface things
delude us, but free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to do, the song
that beautifies all; from age to
age it renews. Amen. 4. On the next three beads say the “AVE MARIA”: Hail
Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
Amen. 5. After the third AVE MARIA hold the chain and say the
GLORIA PATRI: Glory
be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is how and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen. 6. Name the mystery and read the thoughts and prayer that
follow each one. Begin with the OUR
FATHER on the bead just before the medal and the AVE MARIA on the next ten beads
following the medal. On the chain
following these ten beads, say the GLORIA PATRI. 7.
Then,
name the next mystery and proceed exactly as above until all the mysteries have
been said—that is say the OUR FATHER on the single bead, then the ten AVE
MARIAs, then on the chain the GLORIA PATRI, then the next mystery. First Mystery
of the Union of Saint Symeon
St. Symeon says: We awaken in
Christ's body as Christ
awakens our bodies, and my poor
hand is Christ, he enters my foot, and is infinitely me. Prayer: Holy
Mary, awake within the Lord, lead us to awaken to our true nature in the
infinite Body of Christ. Amen.
Second Mystery
of the Union of Saint Symeon
St. Symeon says: I move my hand,
and wonderfully my hand becomes
Christ, becomes all of him (for God is
indivisibly whole,
seamless in his Godhood). Prayer: Holy Mother,
guide us to wholeness and completeness, and in that completeness may we see
others as ourselves—all together wrapped in the seamless garment of the Love
of God. Amen. Third Mystery of the Union of Saint Symeon
St. Symeon says: I move my foot,
and at once He appears like
a flash of lightning. Do my words
seem blasphemous?—Then open your heart to him. Prayer: Mother of our
hearts, fill us with the light of love that we may open our hearts fully and
unconditionally to God everywhere—in all people and all things.
Amen. Fourth Mystery of the Union of Saint Symeon
St. Symeon says: And let
yourself receive the one who is opening
to you so deeply. For if we
genuinely love Him, we wake up inside Christ's body Prayer: Mother of Grace,
we are opening up in sweet surrender to the luminous love-light of the Lord, who
in turns opens to us and with open arms welcomes us home.
Aid us in awakening to our true nature in the Body of Christ. Amen.
Fifth Mystery
of the Union of Saint Symeon
St. Symeon says: we wake up
inside Christ's body where all our
body, all over, every most
bidden part of it, is realized in
joy as him, and he makes us, utterly, real, Prayer: Mother of Joy,
help us share in the Joy of creation and to realize our place in it as bearers
of Joy so that we live all mystery as our mystery—our life in God and God in
our life. Amen. Sixth Mystery of the Union of Saint Symeon
St. Symeon says: and everything
that is hurt, everything
seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly,
irreparably damaged, is in him transformed Prayer: Mother of Ascension, lead us to this transformation, wherein we see all that is imperfect with eyes made whole by Grace; and with new vision we may know the beauty and truth of all things. Amen
Seventh Mystery of the Union of Saint Symeonand all is recognized as whole, as lovely, and radiant in
his light we awaken as
the Beloved in every last part of our body Prayer: Mother of the
Body of Christ, help us to unite our lives in God, that we may see all of
creation as our Beloved, and awake in His Joy and Light, fulfill His desire for
our lives. As Saint Symeon found
such wholeness and beauty, may we also find ourselves radiant and awake in God
and God radiant and awake in ourselves, and we pray that all of mankind may
fulfill this Divine destiny—through Christ our Lord. Amen. Note:
the following prayer is optional. Holding
the cross, this last prayer is said by all: I
give myself this day to the strong power of Love To
the obedience of Angels, the faith of confessors, the preaching of Apostles, to
the purity of simple souls. I
give myself this day to the virtues of the starlit heavens, the brightness of
the sun, the whiteness of the moon, the flashing of lightening, the restlessness
of wind, the stability of earth, and the deepness of the sea. I
give unto myself this day the power of God to lead me, His eye to watch over me,
His hand to guide me, His Word to give me speech. Christ
with me, Christ beside me, Christ
behind me, Christ within me, Christ
beneath me, Christ above me, Christ
to the right of me, Christ to the left of me, Christ
in lying down, Christ in sitting, Christ in rising up, Christ
in the heart of every person who may think of me, Christ
in the mouth of everyone who may speak of me, Christ
in the eye of everyone who may look on me, Christ
in the ear of everyone who may hear me. I give myself this day to the strong power of Love. Amen. |
St.
Symeon the New Theologian is an Eastern Orthodox saint. He lived from 949 to
1022 in the Byzantine Empire (now part of Turkey). While presiding as abbot over
St. Mamas Monastery in Constantinople, he delivered a number of sermons which
stressed that Christianity only becomes meaningful when the living Christ is
encountered personally. Since many individuals of his day felt that this was
either impossible or was only possible during the apostolic era, St. Symeon felt
compelled to share his personal experiences of Christ. As he puts it: