Bulgarian Church in Budapest St. Cyril and MethodiusI can't tell you much about the service but I can publish some pictures of the boys picking flowers. They must sense already that above all God is masked in different forms of beauty.
Boris and Andrej picking flowers in the yard of the Bulgarian churchParadoxically, exactly these activities caused the onset of Boris' disease which is a proof that the cause and effect relations in life are not that simple. Fortunately, a good, God-abiding deed does not automatically lead to God's grace and vice versa. I say 'fortunately' because otherwise it would be too easy to fake it and we would soon get to a situation of a hyperinflation of benevolence.
If you want to see how Charles Baudelaire looked at that check out La Fausse Monnaie in 'Les Fleurs du Mal'.
For me the key is in the paragraph 'Je vis alors clairement qu'il avait voulu faire à la fois la charité et une bonne affaire; gagner quarante sols et le coeur de Dieu; emporter le paradis économiquement; enfin attraper gratis un brevet d'homme charitable.' For those who don't speak French it says 'I saw clearly that he'd wanted to be at the same time charitable and to make a good business deal; earn 40 cents and God's heart; go to paradise in an economic way; or get a certificate of a charitable man'.
Later today while I was biking I was thinking that this short paragraph written in 1864 describes the attitude of many people in modern society. It even describes the politics of many modern governments. The desire to 'reach paradise too easily' is so strong sometimes.
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9 comments:
Hello Jelica,
the boys picking the yellow flowers is lovely imagery.
Funny that you should raise this subject of God's grace as I have been thinking about it too, especially with the earthquake happening right on Easter.
People so easily attribute their good luck or survival to God's grace, but then does that mean that those who perished were deprived of God's benevolence - I don't think so.
We search for simplistic answers where there are none...we make random connections to feel secure and safe and give life a predictability which it doesn't have...
Another blogger was talking of which prayers worked for her, I replied none!
It's not the prayer that works, its the intention or the attitude or the desire to be calm kind and thoughtful that the prayer or meditiation or yoga or whatever engender...
It's a good subject you have raised jelica.
..."hyperinflation of benevolence"...that is an expression that makes you think A LOT, doesn't it.
Although politicians and governments seem to have "sold their souls" sometimes, at least we have the power to stay focused and as good as we can possibly be.
There is always more than just one side on every issue and sometimes we can't see all of them at the same time.
You are a beautiful family!
Lots of love from Japan!
oh, and thank you for the translation...my French, is...well...I can't speak French LOL!
Delwyn, thank you for your very thoughtful comment.
My husband was the one who wrote this post--the blog is our shared project--so I can take credit only for the images.
I also don't believe in simplistic answers although I sometimes wish I did. There is something to be said about predictability...
I am so sorry to read that Boris is ill. My very best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Regarding St. Marx:
The cemetery is located in the 3rd District, between Simmeringer Hauptstrasse and Landstrasser Gürtel, not too far from the Gasometer buildings.
For more info, click the link to a map, from this site:
http://www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/parks/anlagen/friedhof-st-marx.html
Tulsa, you are right--we do have the power to stay focused and avoid trying to get to paradise on the cheap :)
Thanks for the information, Merisi! I suspected it would be outside of my usual perimeter in Vienna but I would like to visit it next time I am there.
Delwyn,
Thanks for the very good comment on the simplistic answers. Not that life doesn't deserve predictability, it's just not predictable by definition. It's not bad though. Unpredictability is inherent to youth so...;-)
I also agree on the topic of prayers. Prayers formulate our own attitude and intentions as you say.
Tulsa,
Maybe 'hyperinflation of benevolence' is not very precise, I don't know.
I was thinking that maybe in general there is a shortage of benevolence in the world. I guess what I wanted to say is that when we do good, we shouldn't be too full of ourselves but try harder instead.
Ruslan, I understand completely...although it can be hard to do sometimes...!
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