The Calligraphy class, that is the learning of writing beautifully from early years of schooling, disappeared and have been replaced by the typing lessons. A few years ago, a colleague told us that he was so happy when coming across with news that the handwriting will be fully replaced by typewriting in schools, very soon. So, the identification of the letters as symbols on the keyboard will be achieved by students very quickly, and then the typewriting will follow in these steps, to the joy of so many… A catastrophic event, similar with the placement of shackles on free hands!

If the odd leadership in charge with almost every country decides to finish off with the handwriting, then the human being already manipulated heavily will be losing such ability, aptitude which is not just an ordinary skill. A short history of the written account versus the oral memory could be a good starting point. The spoken word has a higher ground than the written one as this superiority is found in the God’s Creation: “and God said…” Imitating own Creator is a natural way to go, especially in this fallen world. Everything that man achieved on the Right Path was passed to next generation of sons and daughters, by a direct and oral teaching.

Jews of the Old Testament, waiting for God to be shown, knew very well all the instructions given to them by the Righteous Ones and Prophets. These instructions which also included rituals from on High, that man could understand and practice, were just briefly written. The reason was that the main transmission happened through spoken words and practice rituals, therefore written documents were ‘just’ the backup. Amongst other great Saints and Theologians, Blessed Metropolitan Bartholomew of Cluj-Napoca in Romania, who reposed into Christ in 2011, wrote about such facts in Theological reports to his Biblical translations.

After Christ’s death and Resurrection, many Jews who rejected His teaching lost their connection with a past which became incomprehensible to them in these new circumstances of ‘evasion’. Therefore such Divine Writings became stumbling blocks to those unfaithful Jews who then decided to ‘alter’ the Old Testament account on all Prophesies about Christ’s Incarnation, Death and Resurrection. That alteration ‘had’ to be done and then followed by people who lost the position of Chosen Ones, producing instead demonic writings…

Primary oral knowledge and additional written accounts were turned upside down. Since that change in favour of written documents, the descent to even worse written ‘proofs’ became evident, in the whole course of apostasy. But the Orthodox writings are very different, because the evidence is Christ Himself and His Teaching: the spoken Word was planted into the heart of man and latter on, written in a Divine and Beautiful handwritings, as Gospels and Epistles. With the invention of print press in the apostate West, the incunabula documents became easily multiplied with less trouble, especially in regards to the fake ones…

The printer and copy machine from today are easily manipulated, multiplying deceptive documents. Even ‘non-religious’ people could feel the trickery of this un-natural activity in the sphere of making enormous copies of pornographic materials… One can point to the fact that so many true informative documents, available to everyone through the internet and quick printing and other mobile devices, are found with difficulty! Because the very availability of everything, through the random chance processes of searching, even with pages of great Orthodox documents around, makes this course of action almost impossible. Therefore, one has to know what to search for, before searching. Advertisements of all kinds, including on Orthodox sources, are producing deceptions and conflicting information. The gossip of the world is so loud and strong that is deafening all ears which are supposed to listen to the Word of God.

The oral transmission turn into noise and the written words become no more comprehensible, or equally ‘intelligible’ in a way that this understanding kills the soul. The only Living Church has both of them, in the correct arrangement, for She brings the Right Order into everything which is useful for one’s Salvation. The beautiful handwriting that one learns to master could be a good starting point, in any spiritual journey. By means of calligraphy to write letters in needed documents will prevent us from using foul language, lies or heretical assertions. “Beauty will save the world” said Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which is exactly what we all need to think of, in this world, shackled with computer keyboards. We utilize one now, dreaming of penholder and inkwell, instead…