Daily Devotional: December 6th

Daily Prayer VIII

O gods, restrain my taste for excess delight,

Impose limits on pleasures, in wisdom's light.

Lest harm befall my body or soul,

Guide me towards temperance, make me whole.

May I not crave boundless material gain,

In measured abundance, let my needs attain.

Moderation in all, the body's requisite,

Grant me independence, a balanced fit.

Shield me from the chains of empty words,

Grant discernment, where true wisdom girds.

May I deem useful only words divine,

That lead to genuine excellence, a path benign.

Daily Meditation

"The Monad is not only God, but Intellect (nous) and androgyne.”

—Iamblichus

Theology of Arithmetic, on the monad

We can too often forget that God is both transcendent and imminent. There is an aspect of God we cannot know, His true essence, but He is also being itself and permeates all things.

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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