«Not human but universal powers are fighting in the world…»
Federico García Lorca
On the 12th of April 2012 in the House of the Russian Abroad, the friends came together for a creative evening named «Stairway to Heaven».
The soirée was dedicated to the memory of Saint Ioann Lestvichnik: Father Superior of Mount Sinai, the author of the book «Lestvitsa» - tables of spiritual way of a person who had dared to start ascending the stairway to self-perfection.
It was the evening when we were speaking also of Jacob's ladder, and of Blessed Virgin’s stairway, and the steps leading to the True Cross.
This theme seemed worth of recollecting on the Great Thursday of Holy Week, on the Day of Last Supper.
Father Alexander came. His Eminence blessed the further development of the exhibition theme – the theme of «The Visions of Revelation».
"Who is Like unto the Beast?"
We also thought of another stairway, which seems to be forgotten a bit but still well known to everyone:
«…a long ribbon of moonlight stretched from the staircase to the bed. As the Procurator drifted away from reality he set off along that path of light, straight up towards the moon. In his sleep he even laughed from happiness at the unique beauty of that transparent blue pathway. He was walking with Banga and the vagrant philosopher beside him. They were arguing about a weighty and complex problem over which neither could gain the upper hand. They disagreed entirely, which made their argument the more absorbing and interminable.
…Indeed the very thought of executing such a man was absurd. There had been no execution. It had never taken place! This thought comforted him as he strode along the moonlight pathway...
…They had as much time to spare as they wanted, the storm would not break until evening. Cowardice was undoubtedly one of the most terrible sins. Thus spake Yeshua Ha-Notsri.
'–No, philosopher, I disagree – it is the most terrible sin of all!’
'…Do you, a man of your intelligence, imagine that the Procurator of Judaea would ruin his career for the sake of a man who had committed a crime against Caesar?’
…'You and I will always be together,' said the ragged tramp-philosopher …
'…Where one of us goes, the other shall go too. Whenever people think of me they will think of you!… '
…'Remember to pray for me, the astrologer's son,' begged Pilate in his dream.»
Vagrant philosophers do always have inclinations for strangeness: they are ready to bear intolerable pride of self-assured snobs, they are capable of accepting those who scribble reports and denunciations against them and then sell these for laughable money; and the reason for that being that they see only the best and the cleanest in every person. The only thing these strange people are not able to stand – is desecration. And then they… though, a bit later about it.
There were eleven of us on the 12th of April at the soirée «Stairway to Heaven».
And one more who had come a little earlier and then run thinking of his own business.
Eleven – sure, it is not many but it is enough.
"Annunciation"
WE CONGRATULATE EVERYBODY
ON THE HOLY DAY OF RESURRECTION!