Hortus Carmeli. Notes on the way: 2012

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Kerchiefs, kerchiefs, kerchiefs ...

in all quantities, sizes, shapes, colors. The very first thing one encounters when exiting the arrival hall of the Istanbul airport is the poster of the Armine fashion company showing a very pretty young woman with a kerchief. And from then on the whole city is full of little, small, huge and giant posters, and on the posters wonderful women with kerchiefs. And not only on the posters. By the time I arrived to the inner city, I was completely enthusiastic. Kerchiefs became a fashion in Istanbul.

Der makām-ı Şūri Semâ’i (Mss. D. Cantemir 256). Savall: Istanbul, 3'33"

Four years ago we set out from here to Persia where I was completely fascinated by what an incredibly sophisticated fashion can be pursued with the strictly regulated black chador. The kerchief costume of Istanbul, on the contrary, had not made any particular impression on me, and it did not seem to be very different from what is usual at us.

Now, however, it is immediately striking how many women wear a kerchief. Not only the elder and the poor, but also the young, the obviously affluent and highly educated women wear it in mass, from the veil covering even the eye to the highly artistic and extravagant compositions. And they seem to find a great joy in it

Among the young people it is undoubtedly the Armine company to determine the trend: discreet, subtle pastel tones and floral patterns, natural, soft materials. They do not sell only kerchiefs, but whole collections, dresses, accessories, everything harmonized with everything.

In addition, there are many, not only young people but also elder women who, taking full advantage of the wide range of possibilities, wear similarly sophisticated, but individually configured kerchief and dress compositions.

I guess I have never ever seen a fashion which would have showed in such a fabulous wealth and diversity in how many ways one can be pretty and feminine.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Why do I continue to have negative emotions, despite the fact that I pray for their disappearance?

Many times we pray for the disappearance of our negative emotions, anxiety, fear and anger. God sometimes really helps in this. But not always. 1

Our emotions, just like our external senses (sight, hearing or sense of smell) have the task of showing us the external world, our feelings to and relationship with other people, so that we can act accordingly. Thus the negative emotions – similarly to the unpleasant sights, sounds and smells – are just as important as the positive ones, because negative emotions, similarly to negative impressions, always point to some danger. If during a journey we always looked at the beautiful sunset and did not see the abysses, we would never arrive at our goal.

Often this is the case with our emotions. In dangerous situations, our anxiety, fear and anger draws our attention to the danger.

A family wants to take out a very high loan which would burden them over their forces. Throughout the process of taking up the loan, the husband feels a very intense anxiety. He keeps praying for his anxiety to pass away, but it does not decrease. A middle-aged woman feels very strong anger toward her mother, who constantly wants to control and limit her. She asks God to free her from her anger, but it is not relieved.

The anxiety of the husband warns him the very serious danger that the loan is well above their forces. The anger of the middle-aged woman shows that in spite of her adult age she has not yet broken away from her mother, and has not yet formed her own life.

In such situations their request to let their negative emotions pass away is like when running toward the abyss we would ask God let us see only the beautiful sunset. In such cases we ask in fact that in a dangerous situation which we ought to solve, we should not do anything, and while we are heading for the disaster, we would even feel very well.

Therefore, if heading for the disaster is not what we want to do, then if God does not relieve our negative emotions, then we always should ask ourselves what is wrong in our lives, to which these negative feelings refer.

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1. I have already written that we often do not experience God healing us because while we ask Him for healing, we in fact want our injured desire of love to be fulfilled, and if God gave this to us, then He would not heal us but rather fix us in our injuries.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange - on his life and his works on the web

Reginald (Gontran-Marie) Garrigou-Lagrange was born in France in 1877 and died in Rome in 1964.

He started to study medicine at the university of Bordeaux, but in 1897, under the impact of his deep conversion, he left the university and entered the Dominican order.

From 1909 to 1959 he taught fundamental theology and dogmatic in the Angelicum in Rome, and in 1917 he founded the first department of spiritual theology.

He has been considered the most important Thomist theologian of the 20th century. His achievement was particularly significant on the field of spiritual theology.