Daily Devotional: December 12th
Ides Eve
Prayer for Ides Eve
O Jove, exalted lord of skies,
Thy power no mortal can despise.
With thunderbolt and eagle's flight,
Thou reignest in celestial light.
On this eve of Ides we call,
To thee, the mightiest of all.
Grant us wisdom, strength, and grace,
To face each challenge we embrace.
In thee, the fates their course align,
With justice pure and will divine.
Protect our homes, our sacred ties,
And bless the paths where virtue lies.
O Jove, supreme in heaven’s dome,
Guide our hearts, our spirits’ home.
To thee we lift our prayers, our voice,
In thy great power, we rejoice.
Daily Meditation
"Let me tell you then why the creator made this world of generation. He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And being free from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God desired that all things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable.”
—Plato
Timaeus
The idea of a jealous God is a contradiction in terms. If God were jealous, that would mean he was separated from the objects of his desires and, even worse, envious. It would mean He longs for something he does not have. God has all He needs and is perfect. He also wishes for others to join in His fullness of bliss and joy. He wants all to be more fully good like Himself. A jealous God is, at best, a crafty daemon and not worthy of worship of any kind.
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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