My Pensake: St. Ephrem the Syrian

Something that is true to all writers is that they have a certain talent for what we can call “subject focus”. What is meant by “subject focus” is simply how it sounds: a particular focus or strength in a given area, especially when it comes to writing. You see this amongst many Doctors of the Church, that they have one or more areas that they are subject-focused (The Incarnation, Our Lady and/or St. Joseph to name a few).

This is where we come to the “Harp of the Holy Spirit”, St. Ephrem the Syrian. As Franciscan Media says, “Born in Nisibis, Mesopotamia, he was baptized as a young man and became famous as a teacher in his native city…He had a prolific pen, and his writings best illumine his holiness. Although he was not a man of great scholarship, his works reflect deep insight and knowledge of the Scriptures…He would take the popular songs of the heretical groups and using their melodies, compose beautiful hymns embodying orthodox doctrine.” Notice a few things that were his focus: teaching, writing music (especially what we consider parodies today) and deeply written works.

What is fascinating is not so much, at least to me, his writing on Catholic theology, but the fact that he took songs of the day and turned them around to become Catholic in nature. This is why he is my “pensake” and why I try to emulate his spirituality in this matter. For if we are overwhelmed by the errors of the day, all we need to do is take them to the Holy Spirit and He will turn them around to become better than they were before.

As the Holy Spirit always does, He makes things anew.

Let us be made anew by the Holy Spirit this very moment, no matter our talents.

Let us give all we have back to God.

St. Ephrem, pray for us.