Doxos

Random Thought…

YER HOST Is a great fan of Old Time Radio, especially on XM/Sirius while taking long drives. One such show is Lights Out which begins every episode with a clock chiming and the announcer saying (one word at each chime)

It…
Is…
Later…
Than…
You…
Think…

This comes up in a surprising place, later.

blessed-seraphim-rose-icon.jpg

The time period is right (late 40s) and so I wonder if Fr Seraphim got this phrase from his childhood, listening to a very scary radio show. And I wonder if later followers of Fr Seraphim would have had any context.

9 Responses to “Random Thought…”

The Other James
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm

I’d like to know more about your thoughts on Fr. Seraphim (and absolutely not because of his sexuality). I read “The Soul After Death,” “God’s Revelation to the Human Heart” and “Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future.” I found them very interesting. I loaned them to a friend who loaned them to his father (who is Orthodox), so I’ll probably never see them again.

Anyway, I thought they were interesting, but some folks actually objected to me reading them. Oh well; I read them anyway. LOL. Anyway, have you posted anything about Fr. Seraphim Rose before?

Huw
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:51 pm

I happen to love the man dearly: I’ve read nearly everything he wrote. He’s a bit extreme sometimes, a bit intellectual sometimes and a bit of a nutcase at times: but holiness radiates from every corner of his universe. Although I doubt any synod will Sanctify him soon, I would name a parish after him in a heartbeat and then, as with most of the Saints, I’d spend the rest of my time saying “100% of the Fathers are 85% Orthodox”.

I having read his works, I’m impressed that he (unlike some of his monks) never seemed to develop the standard convert’s disease of “must find a more pure Orthodoxy!” For this, alone, I think he’s a saint. Yes, he did think he had found the most-pure form – but I wonder sometimes if his supposed nuttiness is not, in fact, the nuttiness of his followers read backwards into his writings.

In some ways he is totally a child of the hippie culture in which he found himself there, in San Francisco and the Bay at that time. In some ways he was the PERFECT voice of Orthodoxy for that period. Sometimes he veered off course, but quotes from him (including “It… is… later… than… you… think…”) show up in the side bar of this blog in the “Root Quotes” box of patristic roulette. Like any of us, I think he struggled with the meaning of our faith and, in someways, I think he journey deeply into the heart of it. I would have loved to have been around to have been in contact with him.

The Other James
February 22nd, 2009 at 6:10 pm

“He’s a bit extreme sometimes, a bit intellectual sometimes and a bit of a nutcase at times: but holiness radiates from every corner of his universe.”

I’d agree with that 100 percent. I found that he seemed like an extremely intelligent man who was often writing for people not quite as intelligent as he (and who did a good job of it). Well, I say that having read only three of his books.

The young fogey
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:05 pm

Regarding ‘it’s later than you think’, I never thought of that; then again I didn’t know the reference. Thanks!

A good, kind assessment.

I wonder sometimes if his supposed nuttiness is not, in fact, the nuttiness of his followers read backwards into his writings.

That could well be.

My appreciative but non-fawning tuppen’orth on the man is here and here.

Peter Gardner
February 22nd, 2009 at 10:21 pm

If my parish is any guide (and I have no idea if it is), I’d be astonished if ROCOR or the MP as a whole doesn’t canonize him in the next couple decades or so. I hear his books are extremely popular in Russia, too.

The young fogey
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am

I’d be astonished if ROCOR or the MP as a whole doesn’t canonize him in the next couple decades or so.

I agree.

It’s worth remembering that in this life the saints were not perfect so if you disagree with his opinions or don’t even like the man personally and have no devotion to him that’s OK.