Midweek Morning Meditation -- The Announcement of the Incarnation

Source: annunciationsac.org

"Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, be it unto me according to your will." (Lk. 1:38)

Today, March 25, is the Feast of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos. This great feast always falls during Great Lent, and when it falls on a weekday, it is the only instance of having the full eucharistic Liturgy served for its commemoration (the Vesperal Liturgy will be served this evening at 6:00 p.m). Clearly a sign of the feast’s significance. Thus, the Annunciation is something of a festal interlude that punctuates the eucharistic austerity of the lenten season. Yet, because it does occur during Great Lent, this magnificent feast appears and disappears rather abruptly. It seems as if we have just changed the lenten colors in church to the blue characteristic of feasts dedicated to the Theotokos, when they are immediately changed back again! This is so because the Leavetaking of the Annunciation is on March 26. If we are not alert, it can pass swiftly by undetected by our “spiritual radar” which needs to be operative on a daily basis.

This Feast has its roots in the biblical passage in St. Luke’s Gospel, wherein the evangelist narrates that incredibly refined dialogue between the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary (LK. 1:26-38). The angel Gabriel will “announce” the joyful news of the impending birth of the Messiah, and hence our English name of “Annunciation” for the Feast. However, the Greek title of Evangelismos is even richer in that it captures the truth that the Gospel – evangelion – is being “announced” in the encounter between God’s messenger and the young maiden destined to be the Mother of God. Her “overshadowing” by the Holy Spirit is “Good News” for her and for the entire world! Even though the Feast of the Lord’s Nativity in the flesh dominates our ecclesial and cultural consciousness, it is this Feast of the Annunciation that reveals the Incarnation, or the “becoming flesh” of the eternal Word of God. It is the Word’s conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary that is the “moment” of the Word’s enfleshment. Hence, the Church’s insistence that a new human being begins to exist at the moment of conception. The Word made flesh – our Lord Jesus Christ – will be born nine months later on December 25 according to our liturgical calendar; but again, His very conception is the beginning of His human life as God-made-man. The troparion of the Feast captures this well:

Today is the beginning of our salvation; the revelation of the eternal Mystery! 
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin as Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos: Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with you.

Was the Virgin Mary randomly chosen for this awesome role? Was she compelled to fulfill the will of God regardless of her spiritual relationship with God? Was she a mere instrument overwhelmed or even “used” by God for the sake of God’s eternal purpose? That the Virgin Mary was “hailed” as one “highly favored” or “full of grace” (Gk. kecharitōmenē) when the angel Gabriel first descended to her, points us well beyond any such utilitarian role for her. On the contrary, the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary is understood and presented by the Church as the supreme example of synergy in the Holy Scriptures. The word synergy denotes the harmonious combination and balance between divine grace and human freedom that can occur between God and human beings. God does not compel, but seeks our free cooperation to be a “co-worker” with God in the process of salvation and deification. In this way, God respects our human self-determination, or what we refer to as our freedom or “free will.” It is the Virgin Mary’s free assent to accept the unique vocation that was chosen for her from all eternity that allows her to become the Theotokos, or God-bearer. This is, of course, found in her response to the angel Gabriel’s announcement, and following her own perplexity:  “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” This teaching on synergy finds its classical expression in a justifiably famous passage from St. Nicholas Cabasilas’ Homily on the Annunciation. The passage itself is often cited as an excellent and eloquent expression of the Orthodox understanding of synergy: 

The incarnation of the Word was not only the work of the Father, Son and Spirit – the first consenting, the second descending, and third overshadowing – but it was also the work of the will and faith of the Virgin. Without the three divine persons this design could not have been set in motion; but likewise the plan could not have been carried into effect without the consent and faith of the all-pure Virgin. Only after teaching and persuading her does God make her his Mother and receive from her the flesh which she consciously wills to offer him. Just as he was conceived by his own free choice, so in the same way she became his Mother voluntarily and with her free consent.

We praise the Virgin Mary as representing our longing for God and for fulfilling her destiny so that we may receive the gift of salvation from our Lord who “came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man” (Nicene Creed):

Hail, thou who art full of grace: the Lord is with thee.

Hail, O pure Virgin;

Hail, O Bride unwedded

Hail, Mother of life: blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

(Dogmatikon, Vespers of the Annunciation)

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We have a remarkably rich resource page for this Feast on our parish website. It is a veritable feast in itself of homilies - from the Fathers or contemporary Orthodox theologians - that bring to mind the riches of the Annunciation. As we are home most of the time, please avail yourselves of some of this rich material.

https://www.christthesavioroca.org/annunciation

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- THE INTRIGUING NUMBER 17

 

The number 17 has special meaning in the Bible and in certain Lives of the Saints, like Mary of Egypt and Alexios the Man of God. It consists of the number 10, signifying perfect order (and it’s easiest to order or count things in groups of 10, not only because we have ten fingers on our hands), and the number 7, signifying completion (of something either bad or good) and/or complete victory. Thus, Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold into slavery in Egypt, completing the childhood years he had spent at home; The Great Flood in Noah’s time began on the 17th day of the second month, putting an end to the wickedness of the rest of humanity; Noah’s Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month; and Jesus Christ is often interpreted to have resurrected from the Tomb on 17 Nisan, completing His victory over death.

In the Life of St. Mary of Egypt: 1. She spends 17 years as a sex-addict in Alexandria (and on that 17th year, she goes to Jerusalem and experiences conversion); and 2. She then spends 17 years in the desert ‘ in constant danger,’ battling her passions, until she attains peace, after which she lives for another 30 years in the desert until Zosimas discovers her there. I also noticed recently that another saint, Alexios the Man of God, celebrated on March 17 on the Orthodox church-calendar and on July 17 on the Roman Catholic church-calendar, also has other significant 17’s in his story: 1. Alexios spent 17 years in fasting & prayer in Edessa in Syria, after he secretly left home; and 2. He then returned home and spent a further 17 years under the stairs of his parents’ home, until his death.

All-of-the-above helps to read and interpret the little symbolic details of traditioned texts, like the Lives of the Saints. The 17-year periods in the abovementioned lives are the periods in which something in them was brought to completion; was overcome. And then came the next 17-year phase, when something else still needed to be worked on, either in themselves or in others, or both. In the case of Alexios the Man of God it is most intriguing, because one wonders, why in the world he returned home, specifically to his childhood home. But the number 17 does give us a clue, that he needed to work on something unresolved, un-healed, between him and his family, to which he ministered, in a way, during the time he was under the stairs. They didn’t have the eyes to ‘see’ or recognize him for who he was, until he died, probably because they could only see him in the role they expected of him, to be their son or (in the case of his wife) her husband. But they did nourish him from their table, as a beggar, which was a strange way in which they did share a certain kind of communion, and extended their hearts to a beggar, in ways that they could not to their son/husband, insofar as he was not meeting their expectations.

Anyway, Happy Tuesday of the Fifth Week! ❤

Lenten Meditation -- Fifth Monday of Great Lent

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 How Shall We Escape, If We Neglect So Great a Salvation? (Hebrews 2.3)

Who will give us back this present time if we waste it? ...We are not yet perfect, but at least we desire to be so, and this is the beginning of our salvation...someone wanting to acquire the spiritual craft must not interest himself in anything else but, day and night, attend to it...unless a man drives himself and fights against his evil inclinations he readily falls away and diverges from the path of virtues.

—St Dorotheos of Gaza, Discourses, X: On Traveling the Way of God, as found inThe Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- WHY “FEAR” GOD?

 “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and he leaves his children a support. The commandment of the Lord is a fountain of life; and it causes men to turn aside from the snare of death.” (Prov 14: 26-27, Septuagint-translation)

“Fear” is a life-giving, God-given gift, essential for survival. It is an evolved capacity in the human being, so science tells us. But like other God-given gifts and drives, which I inherently have as a human being, fear becomes harmful to me when it is divorced from God; when it is not “ of God” and takes on a life of its own. Inherent, human fear in a life not God-focused is crippling, existential anxiety in the face of the many uncertainties and ambivalences that are part-and-parcel of any human life.

“ In the fear of the Lord,” I am reminded as I begin the fifth week of Lent, “is strong confidence.” I “fear” losing my connection with Him and focus on Him, the Source of love, wisdom, and forgiveness of my sins, and this “ fear of the Lord” liberates me from merely-human fears, of financial insecurity, of human opinion, of loneliness, and so on. “ I walk the line” He sets out before me today, in the situations, work, and relationships I am given in my particular vocation, or “ commandment of the Lord.” So let me do the next right thing today, according to His call, – that is, according to my immediate responsibilities. Let my vocation be what it is meant to betoday, “ a fountain of life,” which causes me “ to turn aside from the snare of death.”

Lenten Meditation -- Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, St. John Climacus

 

Source: legacyicons.com

He who has lost sensibility is … a self-contradictory windbag, a blind man who teaches others to see. He talks about healing a wound, and does not stop irritating it. He complains of sickness, and does not stop eating what is harmful. … He philosophizes about death, but he behaves as if he were immortal. … He talks of temperance and self-control, but he lives for gluttony. … He reads about vainglory, and is vainglorious while actually reading it. He repeats what he has learnt about vigil, and drops asleep on the spot. He praises prayer, but runs from it as from the plague. He blesses obedience, but he is the first to disobey. He praises detachment, but he is not ashamed to be spiteful and to fight for a rag. When angered, he gets bitter. … He looks people in the face with passion, and talks about chastity. … All the time he is his own accuser, and he does not want to come to his senses–I will not say cannot.

—St. John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, as found in The Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox

Lenten Meditation -- Fourth Friday of Great Lent

Source: stjohngoc.org

The thing about Confession is that it is natural. That is, it is Real. Almost everything else we do with our sin is false and unnatural. We punish ourselves, justify our actions, and hide. Yet, in Confession—in opening ourselves to God the Light—we expose the hypocrisy of our double life. In truth, we’ve been living a lie. Without Confession, Absolution, and Reconciliation we live a lie before God and Man as if it were Reality. In reality, no one is fooled—not our neighbor, not ourselves. And—let’s be real—certainly not God.

—Fr. Joseph David Huneycutt, Defeating Sin

Thursday's Theological Thoughts -- The Cross: 'To Refresh Our Souls and Encourage Us'

 

Source: pixnio.com

“Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify.”

This hymn – together with the accompanying rite of venerating the Cross – replaces the usual Trisagion hymn during the Divine Liturgy on the Third Sunday of Great Lent. According to The Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion and Pentecostarion, the full title of this mid-lenten commemoration is “The Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross.” Notice, that though our concentration is on the Cross of our Lord, the hymn culminates with the Resurrection. This is in full agreement with the Gospel passages in which Christ reveals to His disciples that He is bound for Jerusalem and death on the Cross and that He will rise on the third day. (MK. 8:31; 9:31; 10:34) In a wonderful commentary, The Synaxarion sets before our spiritual sight the meaning of this particular commemoration and its timing: 

The precious and Life-Giving Cross is now placed before us to refresh our souls and encourage us who may be filled with a sense of bitterness, resentment, and depression. The Cross reminds us of the Passion of our Lord, and by presenting to us His example, it encourages us to follow Him in struggle and sacrifice, being refreshed, assured and comforted. [p. 78]

Hopefully, the first three weeks of the Fast – even if we have truly “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” [Galatians 5:24] – have not led us to experience “bitterness, resentment and depression!” However, we could be suffering from precisely those spiritual wounds for other reasons and diverse circumstances in our lives, both external and internal. My own pastoral experience tells me that this is probably – if not assuredly – the case. And there is no better time than Great Lent to acknowledge this. Such acknowledgment could lead to genuine healing if pursued in a patient and humble manner.

How, then, can we be healed? Perhaps the Sunday of the Cross reveals our basic starting point. The Cross of our Lord, placed before our vision, can release us from our bondage to these passions when we realize that Christ transformed this instrument of pain, suffering and death into an “emblem of victory.” Christ has absorbed and taken our sins upon Himself, nailing them to the Cross. In the process, “He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in Him" -- or, in some variations, “in it,” meaning the Cross [Colossians 2:15]. These “principalities and powers” continue to harass us to this day, but if we are “in Christ,” then we can actualize His victory over them and reveal their actual powerlessness. Our lenten journey is leading us to the foot of the Cross and to the empty and life-giving tomb, and the Third Sunday of Great Lent anticipates our final goal so as to encourage us. Again, from The Synaxarion:

As they who walk on a long and hard way are bowed down by fatigue find great relief and strengthening under the cool shade of a leafy tree, so do we find comfort, refreshment, and rejuvenation under the Life-Giving Cross, which our Holy Fathers 'planted' on this Sunday. Thus, we are fortified and enabled to continue our Lenten journey with a light way, rested and encouraged. [p. 79]

Certainly none of the above is meant to deflect our attention away from the “scandal of the Cross” by poeticizing this scandal away in pious rhetoric. We must never lose sight of the sufferings of our Lord on the Cross, and the “price” He paid to release us from bondage to sin and death. The world in its indifference will never come to understand the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice. So as not to lose sight of the utter horror of crucifixion as a form of capital punishment, I would like to include a passage from Martin Hengel’s book Crucifixion:

Crucifixion satisfied the primitive lust for revenge and the sadistic cruelty of individual rulers and of the masses. It was usually associated with other forms of torture, including at least flogging. At relatively small expense and to great public effect the criminal could be tortured to death for days in an unspeakable way. Crucifixion is thus a specific expression of the inhumanity dormant within men which these days is expressed, for example, in the call for the death penalty, for popular justice and for harsher treatment of criminals, as an expression of retribution. It is a manifestation of trans-subjective evil, a form of execution which manifests the demonic character of human cruelty and bestiality. [p. 87]

So much for the “noble simplicity and greatness” of the ancient world - and the contemporary world, for that matter! But there is “nothing new under the sun,” and fallen human nature is just as cruel and evil today. Again, Christ absorbed all of that human cruelty and bestiality on the Cross. This was a scandal, for the Son of God died the death of a slave on the Cross [Philippians 2:8]. Now, as a “new creation” in Christ, we must of course manifest our freedom from precisely that dark and demonic abyss into which human beings can plunge, and manifest the transfiguration of our human “energy” into the virtues that are so wonderfully revealed in the lives of the saints. This was the prayer of the Apostle Paul when the light of the crucified and risen Lord began to shine in a world of darkness: 

May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us [or you] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [Colossians 1:14]

The Church understands and will put before our gaze the sufferings of the Lord during Holy Week. But it is also from within the Church that we come to know the victory of Christ achieved through His death on the Cross and fully revealed in His Resurrection. Thus the marvelous paradox of venerating a “Life-Giving Cross!” The rhetoric of the Church’s language is thereby not empty but revelatory of a mystery that has been accomplished in our midst.  The Synaxarion concludes its section on “The Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross” with the following prayer, a fitting way, I hope, to conclude this meditation: 

O Christ our God, through the power of the Holy Cross, deliver us from the influence of our crafty enemy and count us worthy to pass with courage through the course of the forty days and to venerate Thy divine Passion and Thy Life-Giving Resurrection. Be merciful to us, for Thou alone art good and full of love for mankind. Amen.

In Memory of Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko

 

Source: oca.org

This just came to me today from St. Vladimir's Seminary. I will assume that just about everybody in the parish has either read or listened to Fr. Thomas Hopko at some point in time, and that includes our newly-baptized/chrismated members, present catechumens and inquirers. For Fr. Hopko's four volume set on Orthodox Christianity has been required reading in our Catechetical Class for years now. 

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Today we remember Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko (March 28, 1939–March 18, 2015), our beloved former dean and profoundly gifted priest, theologian, preacher, and speaker.

Members of the St. Vladimir's Seminary community, led by Archpriest Alexander Rentel and Dean Dr. Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, will conduct memorial prayers this week at the graves of Fr. Thomas and Matushka Anne at the Orthodox Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration in Ellwood City, PA.

May the memories of Fr. Thomas and Matushka Anne be eternal!

The Life of Fr Thomas Hopko

Books & Audio

Sermons & Lectures

Podcasts

Unfortunately, the purple bars above obscure the link's title of each of them. For clarity: the first link is to The Life of Fr. Thomas Hopko; the second to Books & Audio; the third to Sermons and Lectures; and the fourth to Podcasts. 

I discourage "Internet Orthodoxy," but one exception is certainly Fr. Thomas Hopko. He is not only "safe" and guaranteed not to mislead any genuine inquirer; but he will proclaim Orthodox Christianity with great vibrancy, inspiration and insight. So, you may want to avail yourselves of some of what is offered here as we seek to grow toward the full stature of Christ.

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- RAINBOWS & GOD’S OTHER SIGNS

 

“And the Lord God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I set between me and you, and between every living creature which is with you for perpetual generations. I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of covenant between me and the earth. And it shall be when I gather clouds upon the earth, that my rainbow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, and between every living soul in all flesh, and there shall no longer be water for a flood, so as to blot out all flesh.” (Gen 9: 12-15)

So, a “ rainbow in a cloud” is a special “ sign of covenant,” of a certain kind of agreement, understanding, or, simply put, “connection” that God has with us, also among our ‘clouds’ and storms. Really there are countless “signs” in God’s created world, which point us to Him as our common Creator, if we have the eyes to see. But we don’t always have those eyes, as Simon and Garfunkel note in their brilliant song, “ My Little Town”: “ And after it rains, there’s a rainbow, / And all of the colors are black, / It’s not that the colors aren’t there, / It’s just imagination they lack, / Everything’s the same back / In my little town.”

Today I’m reminded that God has His “signs” all over the place, as the Holy Spirit continues to “rain” and pour out His mercy most abundantly on “ my little town.” Everything is never the same, from day to day, in the abundance of “colors” God shows me in the people, places and things He brings my way. Let me be both grateful and teachable today, that I can learn more about His presence and grace in our midst, even if the skies above our world are not cloudless.

Lenten Meditation -- Fourth Tuesday of Great Lent

 

Source: athoniteusa.com

Our new parishioners may want to integrate this lenten prayer par excellence into their own personal prayer at home. This great prayer from St. Ephraim is used on Monday - Friday during the Lenten season; and then Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week. If Great Lent is about overcoming our passions and acquiring the virtues, this short prayer reveals that very clearly.

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk.

(Prostration)

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to thy servant.

(Prostration)

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art thou, unto ages of ages. Amen.

(Prostration)

O God, cleanse me a sinner! (12x)

Then the entire prayer one more time (with prostration).

—St. Ephrem the Syrian, Lenten Prayer

Lenten Meditation

Source: saintpaulsicons.com

"Gaze upon the Lord, hanging on the Cross. You see that, having ascended the Cross, He never left it until He surrendered His spirit to God the Father. So you also, having entered into the ascetic labor of struggling with the passions in view of pleasing the Lord, have begun to feel as if you are nailed to the cross. Such is how it is. But watch that you abide on this cross in peace, do not fret and do not thrash about, and especially cut off every thought of descending until the moment comes to say, 'Fathers, into Your hands I commit My spirit' Ilk. 23:46)." The meaning of these words is this: do not weaken your resolve; do not indulge yourself; do not change the ascetic struggle that you have begun; walk firmly on the sorrowful path of self-sacrifice. It will lead you to a blessed repose in the bosom of the Heavenly Father."

St.Theophan the Recluse

Monday Morning Meditation -- 'Cross-bearers' - Not Simply 'Cross-wearers'

Source: thegoodheart.blogspot.ca

Shine, Cross of the Lord, shine with the light of thy grace upon the hearts of those that honor thee!

Hail! life-giving Cross, the fair Paradise of the Church, Tree of incorruption that brings us the enjoyment of eternal glory.

Hail! life-giving Cross, unconquerable trophy of the true faith, door to Paradise, succor the faithful, rampart set about the Church.

(Stichera of Great Vespers for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross)

At the very midpoint of Great Lent we venerate the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. If we have in any way taken up the cross of asceticism in obedience to the Church and in reaction to our over-indulgent surroundings, then by the Third Sunday of Great Lent the purpose of our ascetical efforts - and the very goal of our journey - are brought to our attention: to stand by the Cross of the Lord as we journey toward Jerusalem and Holy Week. 

The timing is perfect, for by this third Sunday of Great Lent we begin to tire, if not "wear out" with our lenten effort to this point. However, in our weakness we can find the strength and resolve to continue our journey with enthusiasm, and not simply obligation. This is made possible by the presence of the Cross, not only at the heart and center of Great Lent, but at the heart and center of the biblical revelation; of the entire historical process; of the cosmos; and at the heart and center of the Trinity, as the Lamb of God is slain before the foundation of the world. 

With that in mind, we can chant and sing the appointed hymns cited above, not only as fine examples of Byzantine rhetoric, but as profound insights into the meaning and purpose of the Cross. 

What may appear at first sight as hyperbole or exaggeration in the Church's hymnography, is discovered, upon deeper meditation, to be the search for words and images adequate to the great mystery of the Cross, in itself the inexhaustible wisdom of God as the "breadth and length, and height and depth"of that wisdom which will fill us "with the fulness of God" (EPH. 3:18-19). The only response to this Mystery once we begin to assimilate it, is to "bow down" in worship before the Master's Cross in awe and adoration. 

In our liturgical tradition we decorate the Cross with flowers in order to enhance and reveal its inner beauty, as we bring the Cross in solemn procession into the midst of the church for veneration. The decorated Cross is one way of trying to capture the paradoxical nature of the Cross.

For in no way is the Church trying to cover up the horror and brutality of crucifixion as one of the most perverse and twisted means of humanity's sinful capacity to inflict pain and humiliation on others. Here is the dark side of human nature at its most lethal. This is all clearly beneath the surface in the Gospels and their restrained and sober narrative of the Lord dying on the Cross. And it is on Golgotha "when they had crucified him" (MATT. 27:35) that we can begin to understand why the Lord "cried with a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, la'ma sabach'-tha'ni' that is 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (MATT. 27:46). It is in and through this cry of solidarity with suffering humanity while lifted up on the Cross that we never soften or "sing away" the horror of the Cross. We respect what it meant for the Lord to ascend the Cross. A clear-sighted realism demands that of us.

Yet, Christ is our Passover, the Lamb of God "who takes away the sin of the world" (JN. 1:29). On the Cross, as the sinless Son of God, Christ absorbs and takes upon Himself all of that sin in order to overcome it from within. He died on the Cross, but death had no hold over Him. He died for the life of the world and its salvation. By His obedience to the will of the Father, Christ destroys death by death.

For this reason, when we venerate the Cross we simultaneously glorify the Lord's "holy Resurrection." It is on the Cross that Christ is victorious, not in spite of the Cross. The Son glorifies the Father precisely while lifted up on the Cross. "I call Him King, because I see Him crucified," said St. John Chrysostom. 

As we sing at every Liturgy after having received the Body and Blood of Christ: "for through the Cross joy has come into the world." That is an incredible claim, but through faith we understand that claim as the very heart of the Gospel, the "good news" that life has overcome death "once and for all." Whenever we taste of that joy, we taste of the glory of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps here we discover the paradoxical nature of a decorated Cross: the ultimate sign of defeat and death has become the "unconquerable trophy of the true faith." Or, as the Apostle Paul has declared:  "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (I COR. 1:18).

The Lord taught us:  "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (MK. 8:34). These words challenge us to never be content with being passive observers of the Cross, but rather active participants in the life of self-denial and co-suffering love that are implied in taking up the Cross.

This further means that by our very vocation as Christians, we are "cross-bearers" and not simply "cross-wearers." It is one thing to wear a cross, and another thing to bear a cross. 

Of course it is a good thing that Christians do wear a cross. This is something of a identity badge that reveals that we are indeed Christians, but this worn cross is certainly not another piece of jewelry - Byzantine, three-barred, Celtic or Ethiopian! By wearing a cross we are saying in effect: I am a Christian, and therefore I belong to the Crucified One, who is none other than the "Lord and Master of my life." My ultimate allegiance is to Him, and to no other person or party. With the Apostle Paul, I also confess:  "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith ..." (ROM. 1:16). 

Such a confession already takes us way beyond passively being a "cross-wearer" to actively being a "cross-bearer." Dying to sin in Baptism makes the impossible possible. And with a faith in Christ that is ever-deepening in maturity, we can further exclaim with the great Apostle:  "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (GAL. 5:24).

The Third Sunday of Great Lent - The Adoration of the Life-Giving Cross - reveals, I believe, that here is something that makes Lent potentially great. Here are reasons that make taking Lent seriously a worthy and noble endeavor. We are slowly learning to be Cross-bearers, and in the process transforming the simple profession "I am a Christian," into a powerful confession of Faith.

Lenten Meditation on the Cross -- The Veneration of the Cross

Source: pixnio.com

The meaning of all this is clear. We are in mid-Lent. On the one hand, the physical and spiritual effort, if it is serious and consistent, begins to be felt, its burden becomes more burdensome, our fatigue more evident. We need help and encouragement. On the other hand, having endured this fatigue, having climbed the mountain up to this point, we begin to see the end of our pilgrimage, and the rays of Easter grow in their intensity. Lent is our self-crucifixion, our experience, limited as it is, of Christ’s commandment heard in the gospel lesson of thatSunday: If any many would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). But we cannot take up our cross and follow Christ unless we have his Cross which he took up in order to save us. It is his Cross, not ours, that saves....

The emphasis shifts now from us, from our repentance and effort, to the events that took place “for our sake and for our salvation.”

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent

Lenten Meditation -- Third Friday of Great Lent

 

“I am the foremost of sinners” [1 Tim. 1:15]. 

How can I make sense of this statement as I strive to make it my own? … Surely, there are worse sinners than me. …

To the best of my knowledge, it is actually true. I can’t fully know the misdeeds, circumstances, external strictures, inner struggles, or repentance of other people. It is not mine to analyze other people’s shortcomings or their motivations. Doing so will not benefit me. … I have access to and control over only myself. 

—Peter Bouteneff, How to Be a Sinner

Thursday's Theological Thoughts

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

"There is still time for endurance, time for patience, time for healing, time for change. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand among sinners, but leap aside."

St. Basil the Great (+379)

What a wonderful and encouraging counsel from one of our great Church Fathers sent to me this morning by one of our faithful parishioners! Direct, simple and to the point. The very words that we need to hear if Great Lent is (already) beginning to drag on. Again, St. Basil is known as an illustrious Church Father. This next passage is an excellent description of the role of the Fathers of the Church and an inspiring passage that may lead us to acquainting ourselves with them with eagerness and a deep reverence in the presence of their holiness.

"To study the Fathers, therefore, means to study Christ. It means to enter into the communion of the saints, to become part of a living tradition, to share in God's own life. In the Fathers of the Church, the gift of sanctity, the gift of holiness, was woven together with their outstanding intellectual ability, usually based on an outstanding education, and, of course, on a deeply moral and spiritual life, a life of ascetic prayer. Thus we do not simply learn about Christ from them, but through them we enter into communion with Christ. Reading the Fathers, then, is a door or passageway to a spiritual experience; the study of the Fathers is always spiritually rewarding and beneficial, and has the power to transform us."

Archimandrite Maximos Constas

For those who would like to pursue this a bit more, here is an older meditation I wrote, "Reading the Holy Fathers - A Pastoral Challenge." I list a few of the more well-known classics that have an enduing value to this day.

https://orthodoxmeditations.blogspot.com/2019/07/reading-holy-fathers-pastoral-challenge.html

Lenten Meditation -- Third Tuesday of Great Lent

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

“Do not fast to quarrel and fight, but loose every bond of iniquity” [Is. 58:4, 6]. And the Lord [adds]: “Do not be gloomy, but wash your face and anoint your head” [Mt. 6:16–17]. So let us acquire the disposition that we have been taught, not looking gloomy on the days [of fasting] we are currently observing, but cheerfully disposed toward them, as is fitting for the saints. No one crowned is despondent; no one glum holds up a trophy. Do not be gloomy while you are being healed. It is absurd not to rejoice in the soul’s health, and rather to sorrow over the change in food and to appear to favor the pleasure of the stomach over the care of the soul. After all, while self-indulgence gratifies the stomach, fasting brings gain to the soul. Be cheerful since the Physician has given you sin-destroying medicine.

—St. Basil the Great, First Homily on Fasting (Translated by Susan R. Holman and Mark DelCogliano in On Fasting and Feasts)

Monday Morning Meditation -- GREAT LENT: The Fifteenth Day

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

As we enter the week of St. Gregory Palamas, and press on toward the Sunday of the Cross, I would like to share a few insightful passages from the book Passions and Virtues according to St. Gregory Palamas, by Anesris Keselopoulos. In these fine passages, he is essentially summarizing St. Gregory's teaching on both the passions and the virtues, and in so doing, offering excellent summaries of our entire spiritual tradition:

"The first aspect of the spiritual struggle is the wrestling for freedom from the passions, which leads to purification. The second is the acquisition of the virtues, which culminate in the heights of that 'divine passion' called theosis."

"In patristic teaching, it is commonly held that sinful habits reveal the soul's sickness, whereas virtues reveal its health and natural state."

"For the Fathers and St. Gregory Palamas, the word 'virtue' has a far richer meaning than what is commonly encountered in ethical teachings. They view the human person as 'the one who by virtue becomes like unto God Himself'."

"Besides natural revelation, which directs human beings towards God, the human person is also given the innate moral law of the human conscience. Palamas characterizes the conscience as a judge who is quite difficult to deceive, as well as a teacher with whom one cannot be unreasonable."

"In the work of our salvation, we see that if grace is essentially the action of God, then virtue is the joint-action of the human person and grace. And even though God is the One Who bestows the virtues, the human person is called to offer up his sweat for each of them."

"Indeed to speak about the imitation of the virtues of Christ apart from participation in the mysteries of the Church is from an Orthodox perspective impossible. The flesh of the Lord, as the Body of the Incarnate Word of God is, for Palamas and the Orthodox tradition, the point of contact between the human person and God, and it shows the way toward existential communion with the virtue of Christ."

Second Sunday of Great Lent: St Gregory Palamas

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

In his incomparable love for men, the Son of God did not merely unite his divine Hypostasis to our nature, clothing himself with a living body and an intelligent soul, “to appear on earth and live with men” [Baruch 3.38], but, O incomparable and magnificent miracle! He unites himself also to human hypostases, joining himself to each of the faithful by communion in his holy Body. For he becomes one body with us [Eph 3.6] making us a temple of the whole Godhead—for in the very Body of Christ “the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells corporeally” [Col 3.9]. How then would he not illuminate those who share worthily in the divine radiance of his Body within us, shining upon their soul as he once shone on the bodies of the apostles on Tabor? For as this Body, the source of the light of grace, was at that time not yet united to our body, it shone exteriorly on those who came near it worthily, transmitting light to the soul through the eyes of sense. But today, since it is united to us and dwells within us, it illumines the soul interiorly.

—St Gregory Palamas, from The Triads

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- JOY-CREATING SORROW

 

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” (2 Cor 7:10)

Yesterday evening in Rome, on the eve of this Saturday of the Deceased, I was sitting in the courtyard of the basilica of St. Agnes, a 13-year-old martyred for her faith in the 4th century, whose relics are in this basilica. And I observed a steady stream of women, one by one, coming into the courtyard to pray and/or light a candle in front of the statue of the Mother of God, at the place you see in this photo. There was a kind of sorrow in the air, which wasn’t a morbid kind of sorrow, but the kind of lamentation that’s in the air during Lent; the kind that women might bring to a place where the relics of St. Agnes rest, who was executed after being dragged naked through the streets to a brothel (where she was probably raped), and where a statue of the long-suffering (in her own lifetime) Mother of God looks over the courtyard.

On my way home, I was thinking about the above-quoted words of St. Paul. What would the not-godly sorrow be, the “sorrow of the world” that “produces death”? It’s the sorrow human beings feel for losing what we are meant to lose, in order that we may gain eternal life. It’s the sorrow over our ageing process, which is a sign that we’re closer to parting from this world, which is what our soul desires, but our body resists. It’s the sorrow over losing the friend or friends we used to have, because either they or we have moved on, as God willed it to be, either because they died, or some other circumstances beyond our control. It’s the sorrow over the world not bringing us what we expected, but what God brought us instead, by His loving providence.

Thank You, Lord, for last evening in this holy city. What is usually known as “Adam’s lament,” I saw as “Eve’s lament,” because it happened only to be women, who passed by this place where I was sitting; and there was St. Agnes and the Theotokos, looking over us, as women who had already experienced the godly sorrow that led to salvation, after many trials. By their prayers, dear God, help us, save us, and keep us by Your grace, throughout the joy-creating sorrow of our Lenten journey.

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA -- IDLE TALK

 

O Lord and Master of my life, grant me not the spirit of idleness(ἀργίας, праздности), despondency, lust of power, and idle talk / idle words(ἀργο-λογίας, праздно-словия).“ (Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem, part 1)

It is important for us to talk and to share with one another our thoughts, sorrows, joys, and so on. No doubt about it. In fact I think we don’t do enough of that today, when we are so often “ alone together,“ even as a family, with each member staring into his or her computer/phone while sitting at the same table. Nonetheless, there is such a thing as “ idle talk/words,“ so let me reflect on that a bit. What is it?

Just like “idleness” (ἀργία, from ἀ-ἐργία, or “ not doing”) means “ not doing” what I am supposed to be doing, how, when and why I am supposed to be doing it, so does my “idle” use of words (ἀργο-λογία), whether spoken, written, or typed on my computer, mean my “ not saying” what I am supposed to be saying, how, when and why I am supposed to be saying it, according to my vocation. So, “ idle words” involve the inappropriate and untimely use of words, as well as their use with the wrong motivation. “ Idle words” are always unconstructive, unproductive ones, which do more harm than good both to myself and others.

What are some of the “wrong” motivations for using words, and why are they harmful? I can, for example, “over-talk” about my certain aspirations or problems, out of self-assertion, self-justification, or self-pity. The harm in that is, I may be avoiding the silent contemplation of these issues; avoiding listening for the answers God may be sending me toward their further resolution, either through other people or otherwise. So I am blocking out the answers through my own words. I can similarly over-talk to God, as Christ warns us: “ And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words…” (Mt 6: 7)

So let me be reminded today of something I recently read (in the “ Harvard Business Review,” if you want to know). It’s a bit of advice very useful in matters both practical and spiritual: “ Silence is a greatly underestimated source of power… In silence, it can be easier to reach the truth.” Let me stop my own words, when they cease to be of service, and become a bit more teachable, in silence and openness to God’s voice in my life.