Daily Devotional: December 11th

Daily Prayer III

O noble progeny of All-father, Jove, and Being,

Benevolent rulers under his command, foreseeing.

Guide us with justice, in your esteemed reign,

As we follow laws, right and dear, not in vain.

May our obedience align with your noble decree,

Laws divinely crafted for humanity to see.

O gods, illuminate our path with celestial light,

Straighten our minds, fashioned in nature's delight.

Grant us the harmony of well-ordered living,

As we celebrate great Jove, eternally giving.

In reverence, we seek your guiding grace,

O divine offspring, in this mortal space.

Daily Meditation

"Perse, put all this deep in your mind,
Obey the voice of justice and always refrain from violence,
This is the law Jove laid down for men
But fish and wild beasts and winged birds
know not of justice and so eat one another.”

—Hesiod

Work and Days, 275

Never believe anyone who paints our ancestors as bloodthirsty barbarians. Our earliest works show an abhorrence for violence and a deep love of justice and God. It is this godly nature that has carried through to today in the hearts of our people. We struggle and falter when we forget it and lose sight of God. We should always remember the law of Jove.

Monthly Ascesis: Repentance

"Repentance is the beginning of philosophy"

—Hierocles

“Repentance is often seen as a particularly Christian idea, but philosophers were quite fond of reminding people to repent. Pythagoras, in particular, suggests two ways that we can begin to repent and take a better inventory of who we are. The word ‘repent’ is related to the Latin word for regret. The idea is that we should look over our actions and judge them if they are unworthy. However, the Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which means the transformation of the mind. Platonic repentance is about creating an inner change that leads us back to a life of holiness in harmony with the divine.

Pythagoras says we should “do nothing shameful, neither in the presence of others nor privately; Thus, above all things, sit as a judge over [ourself].” This suggests we should watch our actions, and when we do something wrong or shameful, we should repent, that is, regret that action. If we never do this or shun it as a practice, we effectively say we have no reason to regret our actions. However, regretting an action is recognizing an area where we fell short of our ideals. If we never regret or repent, we make any spiritual or ethical growth impossible. This is why Hierocles, commenting on Pythagoras, says, “repentance is the beginning of philosophy.””

Excerpt from Ascesis: The Handbook of Platonic Practice

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