Daily Devotional: December 19th

Daily Prayer XIV

Supreme, paternal deity, omnipotent and just,

Source of all goodness, in thy divine mind we trust.

Inheritors of virtue, bestowed by heavenly kin,

Mortal and prone to fault, yet capable of mend again.

Through the crucible of mortality, our errors find correction,

Guided by thy offspring, architects of redemption.

Grant liberation from the sorrows of our missteps,

Through thy progeny, be our journey gently swept.

Approaching the blameless, possessing virtuous intent,

May we, in thy likeness, with noble minds be sent.

Thou, gentle and benevolent, lead us on the path refined,

Father divine, in thy kindness, our souls aligned.

Daily Meditation

"All things lie within the realm of fate, he says, but all things are not fated. For fate, while having the status of law, does not say, for example, that this person will do this and that person will suffer that.”

—Albinus

Platonic Doctrines

Fate is not the same as determinism. Our fate is not fixed; rather, it is governed by the unbreakable law by which we are given what we are owed for our actions in this life and all previous lives. Put simply, Fate is more like cause and effect. Our actions determine specific reactions that will be played out in one way or another. It does not mean we can know exactly how our lives will end up, only that justice will be done for our wrongs and rights.

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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