Author: Fr. Peter Kavanaugh

Greetings! I apologize that I have not posted on this blog for a long time now. Balancing parish life with all our new projects at the farm has kept my hands tied. In addition to that, I have to admit, I really don’t like the internet and have dithered back and forth between whether or not I want to spend time on it . . . I’m still not convinced. However, in the meantime, I plan on resuming these blogs. Maybe something good will come from it.

To begin again, I would like to share a letter I’ve written recently to my parish. “Is the ‘Western Captivity’ a Myth. I believe so, and not the good kind of myth.

Brethren,

Just now, I stumbled across this fascinating article called: Was There a “Latin Captivity” of Orthodox Thought? Fr. Seraphim Rose says “No”– It intrigued me, because it resonated closely with my personal journey and studies. I wish the article was written more elegantly, but it is well-cited and grounded in reason.

Within the Orthodox world, there exists a wide range of attitudes about the appropriateness of “Western” influences in our Apostolic Church. It is important to be authentic and genuine in our Orthodoxy. However, it is not always easy to discern what that means, in the West, in America, in modernity, and so forth. In the mid-20th century, a number of theologians (almost exclusively in the West) introduced a term called the “Western Captivity” or “Latin Captivity.” This teaching and attitude has become quite prevalent ever since, and is especially influential today in Orthodox circles in America and Greece (though not in Russia). The mentality is highly suspicious of anything Western, and criticizes the predominant movements in Russia over the last few centuries — suggesting that the Russian Orthodox world was infiltrated and harmed by Latin thought. What can we make of this?

While in seminary, I engaged in many in-depth studies on this topic with a number of professors and peers, who recognized serious problems in the so-called “Western Captivity” claim. The Russian Orthodox world did indeed embrace a good deal of Latin thought and practices over the last few centuries. St. Augustine was highly celebrated all throughout Russian seminaries, and priests were encouraged to be fluent in Latin. This may sound scandalizing to some converts today, but we have to remember something critical here: the Orthodox Church herself embraced this “Westernism.” It saw this Latin influence as positive and accepted it eagerly. Indeed, western thought, music, art, and practices were celebrated not only by the Russian Orthodox hierarchs, but also by countless saints over the centuries in Russia and across Mount Athos (including John of Kronstadt, Ignatius Brianchaninov, Theophan the Recluse, Seraphim of Sarov, the Optina elders, the new martyrs, and more recently, Fr. Seraphim Rose). No one forced western influences in the Church. She was eager to adopt them.

Through the ages, Orthodoxy has always been open to wisdom and beauty wherever it can find it — whether from pagan culture, the Islamic world, or non-Orthodox Christians (Catholics and Protestants). This approach — insisting on tradition, while remaining flexible and celebrating cultures — is our inheritance. As American converts, we need to be slow to criticize the Faith handed down to us. We are here to accept the Faith passed down to us open-heartedly. When Orthodox Christians in America and the West are hyperactive in rejecting anything “Western,” we are pulling the carpet out from under our feet. In the name of ‘being traditional’, we are rejecting tradition and elevating ourselves above our holy fathers.

This is a mistake. It is not Orthodoxy, and it is harmful. If we want to survive today, to keep our soul from atrophying in a nihilistic world that gnaws away at every part of our Christian and Western traditions, we need to hold on to what is good and beautiful.

These are just some thoughts I’ve had and felt I would share. Our Orthodox faith is so beautiful. We need to be open to it and celebrate it as the Fathers (ancient and contemporary) pass it down to us.

Fr. Peter

Spend your summer in a place of quiet, peace, and prayer.
We are looking for a temporary farm hand to help tend to our livestock, weed, clear brush, and aid in the construction of our chapel. No farm experience is needed — just willingness to work hard. This is an unpaid position. We can provide a free place to stay in our new tiny home and some basic food. A farm hand needs to be 18+ years old and have a blessing from a priest. Let us know if you are interested or have questions.

The following excerpts are taken from Watch the Great Fall, written by the Orthodox philosopher and author, Paul Kingsworth. Visit here to read the article in its entirely and to follow more of Kingsworth’s works: https://substack.com/@paulkingsnorth

“Nostalgia is a curious thing. The love of a dead past is, on the surface, pointless, and yet it seems to be a universal, pan-cultural longing for something better than an equally dead but often less enticing present. This is something which its critics never seem to understand. ‘That’s just nostalgia’, they say, dismissively…

The spiritual life is the cultivation of a healthy relationship with God, man, and creation. Our relationship with each is indispensable. One cannot love one without loving the other. In his first epistle, St. John insists: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (4:20). Similarly, St. Nikephoros taught: “If you don’t love trees, you don’t love God.” He also prophesied that a day was coming when “men will become poor because they will not have a love for trees” — perhaps referring to the world of industry and consumerism. By all means, we must get to work developing the right relationship with God and His creation.

Man the Cosmic Gardener

“The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.… The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it”(Genesis 2:8, 15).

Our role on earth is to a be cosmic gardener. We are here to cherish, listen to, and nurture the garden that is creation.

We Must Learn to Listen to Creation

“The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 18:2,4).

From the stars to the tiniest molecules, God has embedded his logos and rationality. Discovering our place within creation, we have the task of acquiring eyes to see and ears to hear. The Scriptures and Holy Fathers explain that God has filled the universe with His wisdom. Open hearts will discover in creation the Way of God.

Ora et Labora: Finding God in the Soil

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer” (Wendell Berry).

The day began with Mass in the biting cold, the moon above us, and the cattle lowing outside the chapel. It was peaceful … and wild. After a warming cup of coffee, we gathered by the barn to feed the pigs, tend to the sheep, and gather eggs. The day carried on as adults and children together worked the dirt, pausing only to pray the Angelus, heads bowed, and hearts focused on Our Blessed Lady. After work was done, it was time for Compline, and at last a refreshing meal by the flickering camp fire. Time changes when you spend consecutive days under the open sky. Eternity penetrates mundanity. The earth is charged with wonder.

Greetings in Christ! I regret that I have not kept up with the blog. It has been a busy past few weeks. We had a profound retreat last week at the Ave Maria Farm and I will write up reflections about it soon. Lord willing, I hope to get back to a normal routine now and to continue the discussion about living in modernity. In the meantime, I want to recommend the following article: “Screen Time is Stolen Time.” The endeavor to unplug is far more consequential than we suspect. In the meantime, what a wonderful surprise to find, as we rip our hearts away from the screens, that all around us is a beautiful world.

“The positive effect of screens, even when employed for educational purposes, is either negligible or non-detectable; the damage is huge” (Andrey Mir).

“The time spent with screens in early age is simply “stolen time” from kids’ development. Adults usually tolerate the waste of their time on gadgets, as they think they can compensate for this loss through later efforts. It does not work this way for children. Early cognitive development heavily relies on the plasticity of the young brain. ‘The great periods of brain plasticity . . . do not last forever,’ writes Desmurget. ‘Once closed, they can no longer be resuscitated. What has been spoiled is forever lost'” (Andrey Mir).

A friend of mine just introduced me to this wonderful music group. It says pretty much everything on its own. This is what true Christian culture looks like, neither antiquated nor unrealistic nor overly romantic. Perhaps it is romantic, in the true since, as the word “romance” stems from a deep longing to return to Holy Rome as it once was, that is, to Christendom. Contrary to the gospel of the Spirit of our Times, this is the life the Church creates on earth and what God offers to those who chose to pursue wholesome living.

How do we get back to it? Can we step away from the machine? Life will never be perfect, but it doesn’t have to be so barren. We can, for instance, start by turning off our screens and being families again, eating less and focusing on food we can grow with our hands, and recreating Christian neighborhoods — the original meaning of the word “parish”. Whether or not Western Civilization can experience such life again, jettisoned by so many eager progressives, it is, after all, the process that counts.

I think John Senior offers sound enough advice:

“It is time to go back to those conditions in which human beings can grow again… Simplify, as Thoreau said, not by changing governments — a change of collars on a dirty neck; not by denouncing IBM, Communism, the Catholic hierarchy, the Rosicrucians and Jews; but in a single, honest, unremembered act, as Wordsworth said, of kindness and of love. As the first significant act in the change of heart, really — not symbolically — smash the television set, then sit down by the fire with the family and perhaps some friends and just converse; talk alone, even one night a week, will cut your use of energy, and love will grow. Don’t force its growth. The hearth, like good soil, does its work invisibly, in secret, and slowly. After a long time beneath the hearth of a quiet family life, green shoots of vigorous poverty appear; you have become, in a small way, poor. If several families, sharing this humble secret, buy old houses on the same slum block and fix them up, they will have restored a kind of Auburn right in the midst of their ruined city and begun the restoration of that ordinary, healthy, human thing, the neighborhood” (Restoration of Christian Culture).