Eastern Muse and western doctor

Often times I encounter many people who are fascinated with Eastern spirituality. What this means most of the time is these people have decided to part from christianity and venture forth into the subterranean reality known as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and all the rest of the so called "Eastern religions."

This "eastern" reality seems to mesmerize and captivate and most often convince people of truth. People seem, for whatever reason, ready to surrender to the mystic offered in these "pseudo" spiritual pathways and world views.


What is most ironic is that what they fail to recognize is that Christianity at its heart is eastern. The roots of Christianity reaches deep into the eastern part of the world. In fact for the first 3 hundred years christianity was nourished on the eastern mentality. Not to mention its jewish roots that run much deeper into eastern thought and spiritual encounter with God.


In fact today in the church we honor one of the doctor's of the church, whose origin and beginnings was in modern day Turkey, a very eastern reality, St. Ephrem.

The church reminds us that what we often look for in others we can find at home.

The mystical prose of St. Ephrem steeps us deep into the eastern mentality and eastern encounter with the living God. We do not have to go outside the church to understand the eastern spirituality. In fact, the eastern spirituality is perfected in the church through the likes of St. Ephrem himself.

One of St. Ephrem's mantras as your might call it was to learn to "enjoy the favor of the Lord." He often prayed that God would teach him to find joy in the favor of the Lord."

This "favor" he spoke of was a deep realization of the the encounter of God brought forth in the gift of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, "In your bread hides the spirit who cannot be consumed; in your wine is the fire that cannot be swallowed. The Spirit in your bread, fire in your wine: behold a wonder heard from our lips...instead of the fire that destroyed man, we have consumed the fire in the bread and have been invigorated."

Teach us O lord to find joy in your favor. What eastern spirituality could ever compete with such reality as the eastern understanding of God's presence in the Eucharist.

Buddha himself would be at a loss for words and his silence would only affirm the beauty and grace and truth of what is heard from the lips of the angelic doctor, the eastern muse who sings God's praises.