Coffee With Sister Vassa -- REFLECTION for WEDNESDAY of THE 1st WEEK OF LENT

“For if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding; and if you seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding, and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way;” (Prov 2: 3-7)

Discernment. Wisdom. Knowledge. Understanding. Are these the things I’ve been searching for “diligently, …as for treasures”? At times, yes. But I need to be reminded, again and again, that these essential gifts, without which my life becomes utterly unmanageable, come from God. I must not only ask Him for them, but “cry out” for them when need be. Because I desperately need God to nudge me in the right direction, despite the weaknesses and distortions in my own vision of things.

Let me re-connect with, and stay close to, Him, this first Wednesday of Lent, especially when I don’t know what I’m doing, or what to do next. Because “from his presence come knowledge and wisdom.” Help me, Lord, do the next right thing today, in Your presence and grace. Amen!

Fr. Thomas Hopko on the purpose of Lent

 

Sent to me by Mother Paula, an Orthodox nun who was once a member of our parish. + Fr. Thomas Hopko: MP’s notes from his homilies  During Great Lent we are purposely remembering paradise. Radically repenting and changing our hearts and minds. Lent is called the tithe of the year. 10% of the year (365 days) We must be merciful. Forgiveness stops the power of evil. When one really forgives, we want everyone to be saved. Remember, we have been baptized, died, raised with Him and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Our life is not our own, we belong to God, our master. It is only through truth that we are loved by God, created, saved, wounded and healed. No matter how much we fall and sin, He takes us back. He never turns his back on us. We are God’s workmanship. During the Fast all things we do are a means to an end.Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, etc. Read the daily Lenten Bible readings. Attend the Lenten Church services. Receive Lent with gladness!Pray to God to show mercy to one another, constantly forgiving. Lent is a gift from the crucified Lord. Take it and say thank you! God gives us the grace to do this. Pray, accept the gift of life during this time. Fasting and almsgiving should all be done in secret. Pray, go into your heart, your closet. Be joyful when you fast, be not dismal. Just live one day at a time. All of our problems come from thinking, analyzing, and trying to figure things out. Instead we should think of God and have an awareness of Him. Don’t look back and don’t be anxious for tomorrow.Live peacefully, calmly and patiently. Lent is a gift given to us by God for our salvation and for the glory of God. The purpose of the Great Fast is to obtain a broken, contrite and humble heart. “Come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is good and my burden is light.” (Mt. 11: 28- 30)

The Place of the Body in Christian Life

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

GREAT LENT: Day One

Nostalgia for Paradise

The Sunday Before Great Lent is called Cheesefare Sunday, because we begin to fast from dairy products after this day. But another theme is the "Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise." There is a wonderful hymn from the Great Vespers that unfolds that theme with both rich imagery, "compunction" (Gk. katanuxis) and spiritual insight:

Adam was cast out of Paradise through eating the tree. Seated before the gates he wept, lamenting with a pitiful voice and saying: 'Woe is me, what have I suffered in my misery! I transgressed one commandment of the Master, and now I am deprived of every blessing. O most holy Pardise, planted for my sake and now shut up, pray to Him that made thee and fashioned me, that once more I may take pleasure in thy flowers.' Then the Savior said to him: 'I desire not the loss of the creature which I fashioned, but that he should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; and when he comes to me I will not cast him out. 

Apostikha from Great Vespers of the Sunday Before Great Lent

The Future Life and the Body

It is perhaps most obvious during Great Lent just how much our bodies participate in the very act of worship. We will soon be making prostrations and bowing deeply at the waist; services during which we do our best to stand are somewhat longer, and so forth. Of course, that is the "outward person" and not yet the "inward person." Those very practices can be lifeless if done somewhat mechanically. Yet, the point I am trying to make her very briefly is that we need to respect our "bodily nature" as integral to our very humanity. That this is expressive of a holistic Orthodox anthropology at its most complete. These are simply a few comments which are meant to preface a passage from the book Theology of the Body by the French Orthodox theologian, Jean-Claude Larchet. His book is a very thorough examination of the many-sided approaches to the human body and its relation to the "soul" and/or "spirit" which are essential for us to understand to fully grasp our understanding and experience of human nature as created by God. The passage here is a nice summary of the over-all teaching of the Church on the body:

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The fact remains that original, authentic Christianity is, by its very nature, the one religion that values the body most of all. This is seen in the doctrine of creation, whereby the body too is deemed to be made in the image of God. Similarly, Christianity's portrayal of future life is one in which the body is also called to participate. Indeed, it is seen in its conception of the human person as composed inextricably of soul and body, and who thus does not simply have a body but in part is a body, marked by all its spiritual qualities. Without question, such exceptional value and significance accord the body is lined to the very basis of Christianity - namely, the incarnation. It is a consequence of the fact that the Son of God became man, assuming not simply a human soul but a human body; that in this body he experienced what we experience; that in his person he delivered it from its weaknesses and ills, making it incorruptible, granting it eternal life; and that he gave it as food to his disciples and believers, making them partakers of his divinity, and of all associated blessing.

Theology of the Body, p. 11, by Jean-Claude Larchet

Forgiveness Vespers

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

"Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me."

Great Lent will begin on Monday, February 23; but actually for the parish it will begin as we serve the Forgiveness Vespers on Sunday following the Liturgy. 

This is a very "special" service that inaugurates the lenten fast. The theme, together with the beginning of Great Lent, is that of forgiveness. And that is clearly at the heart of the service, which is the Rite of Forgiveness, which actually comes at the very end.

What happens is this: Everyone comes and stands before everyone else at the service - beginning with me as the parish priest and our other clergy. 

We make a full bow at the waist before each other, accompanied by the words: "Forgive me." The response is then: "God forgives," and then we move on to the next person. We will not exchange the "kiss of peace," and it is not the place to chat with each other. 

We continue to move along in this fashion to the next person, who has taken a position in the line after his/her exchange with the last person in the line, until we have gone through to the very last person. 

The point is to fulfill the Gospel command to forgive one another, as God has forgiven us. The Gospel reading for Sunday's Liturgy will be Matt. 6:14-21. 

Everyone who is there is invited to stay. And that, of course, is a matter of choice. It is a free decision. No compulsion or obligation. 

On Monday - Thursday of the First Week of Lent, there will be a unique lenten service, described in the following manner by Fr. Thomas Hopko:

"At the Compline services of the first week of lent the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete is read. This is a long series of penitential verses based on Biblical themes, to each of which the people respond: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me (with a bow at the waist." This canon will be repeated on the Fifth Monday of Great Lent (only this year) in a modified form.

Fragments for Friday -- Taking Lent Seriously

 

Source: pixbay.com

The gateway to divine repentance has been opened: let us enter eagerly, purified in our bodies and observing abstinence from food and passions, as obedient servants of Christ who has called the world into the heavenly Kingdom. Let us offer to the King of all a tenth part of the whole year, that we may look with love upon His Resurrection.

(Sessional Hymn, Matins of Cheese Week)

Meatfare Sunday is behind us and we are now in The Week Before Lent known as Cheese Week approaching Cheesfare Sunday. If that sounds a bit esoteric, it simply means that – prepared or not - we are approaching the beginning of Great Lent on Monday, February 23. (But we did have four weeks of pre-lenten preparation). Holy Week follows Great Lent and that leads to Pascha on April 12. (The Western Easter in on April 5 this year.  Holy Week and Pascha are at the very heart of the liturgical year and of our lives as Orthodox Christians.

Great Lent is the “school of repentance.” It is roughly equivalent to an“annual tithe” in which we offer ourselves back to God so as to be received with love as was the prodigal son. As such, Great Lent is a gift from God, guiding us toward a way of life we may be reluctant to assume on our own, suffering as we often are from spiritual apathy or a simple lack of focus. Great Lent is also goal-oriented, for it leads us on a spiritual pilgrimage of preparation toward the “night brighter than the day” of Pascha and the Risen Lord. Great Lent is “sacred” and “soul-profiting.” It is a key component in the Orthodox Way of living out the Christian life we have been committed to in holy Baptism.

During Great Lent we will recover the essential practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. These practices are the tools that can assist us in returning and remaining close to God. Liturgical services unique to Great Lent immerse us in a way of communal pray that is solemn and penitent; but which also lighten and unburden the soul through the mercy and grace of God so abundantly poured out upon us through these inspired services. You leave the church tired in body perhaps, but brighter inside – in the mind and heart. 

Great Lent invites us to see our neighbors as children of God and of equal value in the eyes of God, and thus deserving of our attention, patience and care. Charity can be distributed through material means or through an encouraging and warmly-spoken word. Great Lent liberates us from the excessive appetites of our bodies through the discipline of fasting. Our diet essentially becomes vegan as we seek to be less weighed down by a body overly-satiated with food and drink. This is healthy for both soul and body. The human person does not live by bread alone as the Lord taught us as He Himself fasted in the desert for forty days. We also fast from entertainment, bad habits, obsessions, useless distractions, vulgar language and the like. We try and simplify life and redeem our newfound time through more focused and virtue-creating tasks. If approached seriously, perhaps we will be able to carry some of this over into the paschal season – and beyond. 

What can we do? How do we not squander this time set aside for God? 

• Prayer - Make provision to be in church for some of the Lenten services. Start with the first week of Great Lent and the Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete. Assume or resume a regular Rule of Prayer in your home. Read the psalms and other Scripture carefully and prayerfully. Pray for others.
• Charity – Open your heart to your neighbor. If you believe that Christ dwells within you, then try and see Christ in your neighbor. Make your presence for the “other” encouraging and supportive. Restrain your “ego” for the sake of your neighbor. Help someone in a concrete manner this Great Lent. 
• Fasting – Set domestic goals about the manner in which you will observe the fast. Test yourselves. Resist minimalism. If you “break” the fast, do not get discouraged or “give up,” but start over. Assume that your Orthodox neighbor is observing the fast. Seek silence. Allow for a different atmosphere in the home.

Jesus set the example of fasting for forty days. We imitate Him for the same period of forty days. If it was hard for Him, it will be hard for us; but not as hard as it was for Him! Jesus went to the Cross following His “holy week” in Jerusalem. We follow Him in our Holy Week observance and practices. Jesus was raised from the dead following His crucifixion, death and burial. We seek the resurrection of our spiritual lives here and now as we await our own death at the appointed time and the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

“Taking Lent seriously” (Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s phrase) is a concrete sign of taking God seriously. Our surrounding culture is not serious about taking anything too seriously. When serious issues arise, however, people have a difficult time dealing with them. Yet Jesus was very serious. Especially when it came to issues of life and death – and God and salvation, and so forth. Great Lent helps us to focus on these very themes, therefore making it meaningful and important for our lives.

Monday Morning Meditation -- The living God who 'does not throw away people'

 

Source: orthodoxartsjournal.org

I was thinking about the words of Christ from the incomparable Gospel teaching that we call the Discourse on The Last Judgment heard this last Sunday: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."(Matt. 25:40) In the words of Jesus, the "least" would include people who do not have enough food to eat; or enough drink to satisfy their thirst; strangers in need of hospitality; those lacking proper clothing; those sick in hospitals; or those languishing alone in prison. We like the sound of this coming from Christ: His universal love for all of humankind. His identification with those Dostoevsky called "the insulted and the injured" (or sometimes "the humiliated and the wronged"), is deeply moving. His refusal to ignore those with no status and thus with no protection awakens our Christian sense of equality and justice.

But upon further reflection our ardor for these compassionate words of Christ may cool when we attempt to further objectively identify those described as "the least" in our contemporary setting. Just who are these "least of my brethren" - and "sisters," we should add - for the sake of clarifying the inclusiveness of the Lord's embrace? Are they the "unwashed/uneducated masses?" Perhaps the "proletariats" of George Orwell's 1984? Prisoners, drug addicts and/or prostitutes? Unwed mothers with nowhere to turn? The chronically unemployed? Neglected minorities? Undocumented immigrants? Even perhaps those dismissed as the undifferentiated "riff raff" drifting along the margins of society. These are descriptive terms for those countless human beings that are both neglected and dismissed as not counting for much. Or, with a bit more respect and regard, are "the least" just "simple people" who go through life without leaving a memorable trace (this possibility might be getting uncomfortably close). 

At the same time I was recently thinking of the dedication of Sister Verna Nonna Harrison's remarkable book, God's Many Splendored Image. I frequently assigned this book while teaching at Xavier University. My students had a genuine positive experience reading this book for the simple fact that they were reading about things they have never thought about up to this point in their young lives. And that would include the notion of human beings made "in the image and likeness of God." Or that not all Christians look at human nature as debased and inherently sinful. (This book is a "must read" for Orthodox Christians, in my humble opinion).

Getting back to her heartfelt dedication, Sister Nonna writes: "This book is dedicated to all those people whom other people have thrown away. It shows that God does not throw away people." What a unique and deeply moving dedication! A good part of human history is a dreary chronicle of horrific human suffering, as the strong throw away the weak with impunity and hardly a second thought: Man is a wolf to man as it has been said. Recent history makes this terrifyingly clear: Two World Wars; the Holocaust; the Gulag; the Cultural Revolution; Cambodian genocide. Step back one more century, and we face our own unconscionable national examples of slavery and the near-genocide of native Americans. Step into the contemporary world and we see slums, massive poverty, child abuse, human trafficking and endless other examples of "people whom other people have thrown away." We live with this, just glad that we and our loved ones are not part of this discarded humanity. 

The positive side of Sister Nonna's dedication is "that God does not throw away people." Each human person is as worthy as the next in the eyes of God - and the "range" traversed is from saint to sinner. Our eschatological hope is for the great reversal when the "least of these my brethren" are embraced by the love of God, transforming their sorrow into joy, "where the voice of those who feast is unceasing, and the sweetness of those who behold the ineffable beauty of thy countenance is beyond telling." (St. Basil the Great). What a wonderful expectation! But Christ in His teaching in Matt. 25:31-46, is concerned with how we treat the "least" here and now within the context and confines of our earthly existence.

The question that looms over us is this: Are we, as Orthodox Christians and members of the Body of Christ, torn between our commitment to the Gospel, but also to an ideology - political, social or cultural - that does not leave much room in our minds and hearts for those considered "the least." Are we indifferent to our fellow human beings who are marginalized and disregarded? Even worse, do we look down on them with (unspoken) disdain or contempt? Are we open to acknowledging that each and every human person is made "in the image and likeness of God," including those "whom other people have thrown away?" Do we resent it when our hard-earned "tax dollars" that may go to supportive programs for those in need - meaning the poor, the unemployed and the homeless? How many of us troubled when our government defunded USAid, thus cutting of essential funds that were devoted to assisting the human being spoken of by the Lord in His great discourse? (Yet, are we as resentful toward the wealthy who know how to avoid paying their fair share of taxes or who are corrupt and steal the needed resources of others?). Am I troubled by childhood poverty though I live in the wealthiest country in the world? 

I maintain that these are legitimate questions in the light of Christ's teaching that we just recently heard in the great Discourse on the Last Judgment found in Matt. 25:31-46. These words are directed to us as we stand in church and hear the Gospel proclaimed. The merciful and loving God that we believe in is also the One who will judge us, or perhaps we should say who will pronounce the sentence that we have "earned" throughout the years of our earthly existence. The Gospel is not about social programs but about the heart of each of us and how we treat "the least" that are so dear to Christ. If we fail to be neighbors to those in need, it is then that we need "safety nets" coming from our religious, social and political leaders.

On a personal level, we need to help the "the least" of Christ's brothers and sisters. And we need to feel deeply in our hearts a painful recognition and sorrow for "those people whom other people have thrown away." Can we even grasp for a moment what it will mean for us to hear the words of the glorified Son of man: "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 25:34) For we worship "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," the living God (Matt. 22:32) who "does not throw away people." I, for one, am deeply grateful to Sister Nonna Verna Harrison for bringing this to our attention through her heartfelt dedication found at the beginning of her marvelous book.

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- MEATFARE SATURDAY & VALENTINE’S DAY

Aside from being Valentine’s Day this Saturday, a day of celebrating romantic love, it is also the pre-Lenten ‘ Meatfare Saturday’ in the Orthodox churches (called thus, because we’re saying ‘farewell’ to meat this weekend), on which we commemorate all the deceased. Actually, every Saturday from ancient Christian times was dedicated to remembering the deceased and ‘ all saints,’ before other commemorations and feasts gradually entered the church calendar, often obscuring the ancient meaning of Saturday. Historical note: The Lenten season returns us to many of our most ancient traditions, because the liturgical ‘high’ seasons, like Lent and Pascha-to-Pentecost, remain less changed by later developments in the church-calendar than the rest of the church-year.

Let’s reflect a bit on the ancient meaning of Saturday, the Sabbath, and see how we can integrate it into this Valentine’s Day. The Hebrew word for Saturday, ‘shabat’ (שָׁבַת֙), often translated as “ He rested,” literally means, “ He ceased” or “ He desisted,” recalling the words of Genesis 2:3 that God desisted on this Seventh Day of the week, from the specific work He had done throughout the Six Days of creation. This was notan invitation to human beings to become Deists, believing falsely that God ceased to intervene in our lives or to work with us, throughout our lives. This was rather a sign that God was henceforth entrusting us, the God-like creatures He had made on the Sixth Day, with bringing forward His creative work, by “ increasing and multiplying” all that He had given us. Our creative abilities were always to be inspired and enlivened by our Source of Life, God, in harmony and communion with His faithful, hopeful and loving will for us and the world. What makes us ‘tick’ properly, in sync with God’s will, and what drives us to move forward to ‘increase and multiply’ properly (whether or not we have children), is the faith, hope, and love for God and one another, all three of which (faith, hope and love) His Spirit breathes into our hearts, in communion with Him.

Both the Saturday of the Deceased and Valentine’s Day are an occasion to celebrate our God-given ‘drives’ that move us forward and help us grow, to ‘ increase and multiply,’ rather than be diminished: faith, hope and love. Whether we grievetoday our beloved deceased, or our beloved from whom we might otherwise be separated; or we celebrate the beloved we have right next to us, we might remembertoday with gratitude that it is God who gives us both the capacity to grieve, to yearn, and to desire ‘more,’ not to put us down and diminish us, but so that we grow toward the ‘more’ that He has in store for us. Here on earth, we are only given glimpses of the ultimate unity or union we all desire. At times, we might channel this desire into only one person, our beloved, and if the feeling is mutual, this is a great gift. It’s also a great gift if the feeling is not mutual, if we ‘let go and let God,’ because this helps us learn more about who we are and to re-direct ourselves accordingly. In any event, sooner or later, for various reasons our ‘one person’ will not be sufficient to fill that God-shaped hole in our hearts, which ‘groans,’ as St. Paul writes, for more: “ For in this(our ‘earthly house’) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven...” (2 Cor 5:1-2). On this Saturday, let us be grateful for our loves and losses, channeling towards God and recharging in Him our faith, hope and love in His undying presence among us.❤

In place of a meditation

 

Source: newliturgicalmovement.org

Not exactly a very "spiritual" meditation, but I received this from our parishioner Jeffrey Robinson. It speaks for itself in terms of the horrors that the people of Ukraine continue to endure at the hands of the authoritarian Russian regime. 

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I received this update from friends connected to Ukraine. It seems very dire for the people I know living in Zaporizhzhia. I am grateful for the continued prayers offered up in the Divine Liturgy

On February 4: “The security situation in Zaporizhzhia has deteriorated sharply over the past two months. Russian forces are exploiting the cold weather to deprive Ukrainians of heat, light, electricity, and water. 

“Russian terrorists have advanced closer to Zaporizhzhia, enabling them to fire drones and rocket artillery directly at the civilian population. … For the past couple of weeks, air raid sirens have sounded almost continuously – 23 to 24 hours each day – signaling the constant threat of shelling. Explosions echo across the city.”

The KYIV POST, a daily paper published in Ukraine, reported on February 3:

“With temperatures plunging and heating outages spreading …, Russia launched what Ukrainian officials describe as the largest strike on the energy grid so far this year.”

“The human toll is clear. Multi-story buildings are dark, heating is out.” … People try to stay alive in minus four degree temperatures. 

The city of Zaporizhzhia is about eight (8) miles from the front lines of the war, meaning that it could be invaded by enemy forces at any time.”

Midweek Morning Meditation -- Have I Ever Really 'Heard' the Parable of the Prodigal Son?

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

As we move forward in the pre-lenten Sundays and the upcoming week of the Last Judgment (MATT. 25:31-46), perhaps we can "meditate" throughout this week on the Parable of the Prodigal Son from yesterday's Liturgy. When thought over deeply, we begin to understand how inexhaustible it really is!

This parable is chosen at this particular time in order to draw us toward repentance (Gk. metanoia); to remind us that Great Lent is the “school of repentance;” and that without repentance, our other “lenten efforts” become rather meaningless – if not spiritually dangerous. What will it take to convince us that we, too, need that “change of mind” and return to our heavenly Father that is the truest expression of living according to the Gospel?

As I ponder that question, I ask myself further: Have I ever really heard this parable in the way that Christ refers to “hearing?” And that would mean being shaken at the very core of my being. Am I only paying “lip service” to this greatest of the parables, as I listen to it as a wonderful short story that is exciting to analyze and discuss; but not quite capable of moving me any closer to genuine repentance? Again, these are the questions that come to my mind as I have heard this parable in the Liturgy for over forty four years now as a priest.

Yet, if we have spent some time in analyzing the richness of this parable, then we realize that it is not only about the prodigal son, with the two other characters – the father and the older brother – acting in a clearly subordinate manner or for the sake of rounding out the story. They are both integral to the parable and hold equal weight as we try and grasp the parable as a whole. Without the father and the older son, the parable would suffer from a certain one-sidedness or incompleteness.

This is absolutely true when it comes to the very core meaning of the parable - which is repentance. We are deeply moved by the movement of the prodigal son toward his return to his father’s home. We first read of his journey to a “faraway country” and rapid and total decline wherein he wastes his inheritance in “loose living.” An all too-familiar tale. This is followed by a spiraling descent that has him longing for the pods that serve as food for the pigs he has been hired to tend. His re-ascent begins with his “coming to himself” after what must have been a painfully honest self-assessment of his stricken condition of estrangement from even basic human fellowship. This culminates in the thought of returning to his father and begging for mercy and the actual movement of “arising” and doing it.

None of this would have born any fruit, however, without the compassion and love of the prodigal son’s father who embodies the forgiveness that completes his repentance. If the father had been stern, or absorbed with his own sense of being offended; if he had chastised his son with the predictable and perhaps satisfying retort, “I told you so;” then the parable would collapse with an all too-human reaction that would be plausible but unworthy of the Gospel that Jesus came to proclaim. For the father of the parable is a figure of our heavenly Father’s compassion, love and forgiveness that Christ came to offer to all and every sinner. The father remains unforgettable as a “character” precisely because he confounds our expectations in his boundless love fully revealed by running out to his son, falling on his neck and kissing him. This is how the Father “Who is without beginning” acts toward his wayward creatures who have spent their inheritance – the “image and likeness” of God – in the faraway country of self-autonomy and the “swinish” fulfillment of the most base desires. Our repentance results in a cosmic joy that God shares with the angels and the preparation of the “banquet of immortality.”

The older son represents precisely that all too-human response referred to above of hurt feeling and an offended sensibility that leaves him insensitive to his repentant brother’s return and salvation. No matter how justified such a response would seem from our human perspective, it remains outside of the Gospel’s “transvaluation of values.” If our "common sense" approach would align us with the older brother, then the image of God presented by Jesus would only prove to be scandalous, as it would challenge us to leave the false security of defending our wounded pride and ego. 

This is our “invitation” to Great Lent offered to us by the Lord Jesus Christ: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (MATT. 4:17). To help us understand the beauty of that movement of repentance, the Lord delivers what just may be his “parable of parables,” the one we usually name after the prodigal son. So before we get out our lenten cookbooks, we must first really “hear” this parable and pray to God that He will direct and guide us toward true repentance. 

The lenten cookbook will not save us – but repentance and acceptance of the grace of God will.

Monday Morning Meditation -- Re-centering Until Our Last Breath

Source: novoscriptorium.com

"God requires of us to go on repenting until our last breath."  (St. Isaias the Solitary)

"Repentance is not negative but positive. It means not self-pity or remorse, but conversion, the re-centering of our whole life upon the Trinity. It is to not look back with regret but forward with hope - not downwards at our own shortcomings but upward at God's love It is to see, not what we have failed to be, but what by divine grace we can now become; and it is to act upon what we see."(Archbishop Kallistos Ware)

I believe that we should think of the Sunday of the Prodigal Son extending itself throughout the week, thus giving us the Week of the Prodigal Son and the possibility of meditating upon this extraordinary parable carefully and thoughtfully. This parable is perhaps "the parable of parables," and thus deserving of a great deal of attention on our part. Sundays come and go, perhaps too rapidly, and we find ourselves back in our "routines," and living in a world far different than the one we are given a glimpse into through the Liturgy. That fleeting glimpse, which is actually a vision of life that is Christ-centered and Spirit-guided, may thus appear to be "ideal," but not "real." However, it may actually be the vision of the one underlying Reality of all that exists and which makes everything else not only tolerable or endurable, but meaningful and embraceable. If our liturgical and eucharistic experience is forgotten the moment it is over, as we move on to Sunday's entertainment (the "Super Bowl?"), and then prepare to endure Monday morning's responsibilities; perhaps then we are "cheating" ourselves of "the one thing needful." And in the process we lose sight of the riches of the Gospel if we only absentmindedly await next Sunday's. That certainly applies to the Parable of the Prodigal Son!

Yet, before briefly looking into some of the riches of this well-known parable, perhaps we should place it within the wider context of its setting in the Gospel According to St. Luke. For the evangelist Luke places the Parable of the Prodigal Son as the climax of a series of three parables in chapter 15 that reveal the "joy in heaven" when sinners are "found" following an implied or clearly stated repentance. In fact, these parables are told to a group of "tax collectors and sinners" who "were drawing near to hear him." (LK. 15:1) The first of these is the Parable of the Lost Sheep:

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.(15:3-7)

The Parable of the Lost Coin follows immediately:

Or what woman, having ten silver coins, is she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.' Just so, I tell you , there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.(15:8-10)

These are wonderful parables that serve as images of our heavenly Father rejoicing when He "finds" a sinner who has returned to Him through repentance. This "rejoicing" links together these two shorter parables with the masterpiece to come that closes out this trilogy of repentance-oriented parables. For the father of the parable will command his household to "make merry" with the return of his wayward son. (15:24, 32) Repentance is not simply a time of hand-wringing, regret and guilt. It is the beginning of a new life and an open-ended future that is a radical change in direction from the "no exit" of sin and alienation from God. The somber and stultifying atmosphere of sin is driven away by the "breath" of the Spirit, which "blows where it wills." Of course, repentance is hard work - for old habits die hard - but sustained by the grace of God and the promise of salvation, the entire process to this day is most perfectly described by St. John Klimakos as "joy-creating sorrow." Remorse for the past devoid of forgiveness will only produce sorrow - if not despair. 

The acceptance of divine forgiveness produces joy - both for God and the sinner. A profound awareness of God's gift of salvation as the only meaningful release from the sorrow of sin leads to the "gift of tears" according to the experience of the saints. Their weeping was the expression of an inner joy that was overwhelming.

If (or As?) we squander our "inheritance" from our heavenly Father, we will unfailingly resemble that representative figure of the prodigal son. We too, then, "journey into a far country" there to waste our wealth in "loose living." (15:13) Unlike the prodigal son, though, we can do this without moving a step away from our homes. We need only retreat into the seemingly limitless space of our imaginations where fantasies entice us with unrealizable visions of "self-realization" or "pleasure." Then, there are the murky recesses of our hearts; uncharted territory that if not filled with the grace of God will "fill up" with "inner demons" that will eventually frighten us by the sheer audacity of temptations we never thought ourselves capable of entertaining. Or, perhaps a bit less dramatically, there are "the pods that the swine ate" (15:16), symbolic of philosophies and worldviews totally foreign to the Christ-centered life of the Church. 

The end result will be an emptiness and desolation that will exhaust our own inner resources. Our humbled minds and bodies will begin to search elsewhere for more satisfying nourishment. Anyone in such a predicament will only hope to be blessed - as was true of the prodigal son - with that mysterious process that leads to repentance, described simply as, "he came to himself." (15:17) Then, in words that have an urgency far greater than in an entire book of theology, we too may cry out, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants." (15:18-19)

We all know what follows: the compassionate father who runs to embrace his son in love; the clothing of the son in festal garments; the orders and preparations for a sumptuous banquet of joy; and the solemn words: "for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." (15:24) As this parable repeats itself endlessly until the end of time, with its finely-etched descriptions of sin, repentance and redemption; we continue to witness some of the "mini-resurrections" that make up the meaningful dramas of everyday life.

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- THE DISOBEDIENCE OF A VIRGIN MARTYR

 

Today is the feast of the 15-year-old Virgin Martyr, St. Agatha of Catania in Sicily, one of the most venerated female saints in Christian antiquity. Martyred in AD 251 for her refusal to marry the local pagan governor, St. Agatha became the patron-saint of women who are victims of rape and other violence. She’s also the patron-saint of many others, including breast cancer patients, victims of fire, and of bell-ringers, because bells are shaped like breasts, and part of the sexual violence that St. Agatha endured was that her torturers cut off her breasts. In our day in Catania, there’s a huge Festival of Saint Agatha that lasts from January 30 to February 12 (the main three days being February 3-5), drawing hundreds of thousands every year. This festival involves processions with St. Agatha’s relics through the streets of the city, special Masses commemorating women victims of violence, the armed forces, and religious (monastic) men and women.

The story of St. Agatha, born in AD 236 to wealthy Christian parents in Catania, is one of her resistance to the advances of the powerful local governor, the pagan Quintianus, who thought he could force her to marry him. After she repeatedly rejected him, because (according to a 13th-century account of her life) she had made a vow of virginity, Quintianus had her brought before him as a Christian, as this was during the brutal persecutions of Emperor Decius. First, Quintianus tried threatening Agatha with torture for not offering incense to the gods and for the well-being of the Emperor, and flattering Agatha for her beauty, promising her more wealth and status as his wife. When none of his creepy advances worked, he had her imprisoned in a brothel kept by a woman named Aphrodisia, who, with her daughters was meant to entice Agatha to change her mind by dressing her in sexy clothing, serving her wine and praising Agatha’s beauty and the desirability of Quintianus. When all this failed, Agatha was brought back to a furious Quintianus, who had her stripped and subjected to various tortures, including the severing of her breasts, as he watched. After this, St. Agatha was thrown into a prison-cell, where she continued to pray and the Apostle Peter appeared to her, healing all her wounds. Quintianus sentenced her to be burnt at the stake, but an earthquake disrupted this and St. Agatha died in her prison-cell.

All the celebrated ‘ virgin martyrs’ of those early centuries remind us, on the one hand, of how the Church cherishes the non-conformism and disobedience to rapacious male authorities of those beautiful Christian women, who represent church-resistance to the violence against the ‘she’ that is the Church-Mother. On the other hand, we’re reminded that rich and powerful men who commit sexual crimes against women, also underaged women, are unequivocally condemned in our church-memory. One might take pause to think about this today, amidst the ongoing scandal of the Epstein-files, which some Christians are tempted to dismiss out of political loyalty to the rich and powerful men exposed in them, disregarding the vulnerable female victims trafficked to pleasure them, often from ‘Orthodox’ countries like Russia, Ukraine, and others in Eastern Europe. Also, the ongoing travesty of Putin’s rapacious destruction and torture of Ukrainians, both women and men, who resist his genocidal ‘advances,’ because they don’t want to subject themselves to his creepy authority, might remind us of St. Agatha’s refusal of Quintianus’s advances. By her prayers, Lord, help us discern right from wrong, the victims from the aggressors, and to resist rapacious authorities by Your grace.

Midweek Morning Meditation

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

"Save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved.”

• St. Seraphim of Sarov

“God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.”

• Fyodor Dostoevsky

A major preoccupation for many people today are the so-called “culture wars.” Conservatives and Liberals - or religious and secular - fighting it out on both an ideological and practical level, and claiming to know the truth on issues as far-ranging as political, moral, social, ethical, and ultimately, religious. As the old group Buffalo Springfield sang: “Hurrah for my side.” There is a real shortage of humility as these positions are presented as unassailable and hardly open to “negotiation.” Over time, positions often harden, rather than soften, to a more flexible level of mutual understanding. 

I simply bring that current cultural situation to mind as we are asked to meditate on the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, and exhorted to “flee from the pride of the Pharisee,” blinded by his self-righteousness. And that is a spiritual condition that is further aggravated by condescension, judgmentalism and hypocrisy. Hardly traits that allow for any openness to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit! Therefore, anyone fully immersed in “culture wars” is put on notice that the temptation to become like the Pharisee is ever-present. That is not to impugn the rightness of a particular position – on the moral and ethical level – we need to bear in mind. Yet, the more “right” one is – and certain of being right – the more that self-righteousness is ever-present and threatening to engulf one in the process.

There is a remarkable passage from St. Gregory the Theologian (+391) who makes this abundantly clear when speaking of his own need to pay heed to himself (as a priest) before pointing out the sinfulness of other human beings. In other words, the “spiritual warfare” of “saving oneself” by honest self-reflection, confession of one’s own sins, and a basic sense of being caught up in the same struggle as one’s ideological “enemy” is the true starting point before venturing out into the dangerous terrain of culture wars. As St. Gregory writes:

“I have not yet spoken about the war within – even within ourselves – that rages among th passions. We are engaged in war with them night and day, brough on by our “lowly body,” sometimes in secret and sometimes openly, and by the turmoil that sweeps over us like a wave from above and below, whirling through our sensations and the other delights of this life, and by the “miry clay” in which we are stuck, and the “law of sin that wars against the law of the Spirit” and is attempting to destroy the royal image in us, as we well as whatever foundations of divine self-communication has been laid in us … Before one has gained control if this, as far as he is able, and has sufficiently purified his way of thinking, and before one has surpassed the others in growing near to God, I am certain it is unsafe to receive the office of leading souls or of mediating between God and human beings … “

Oration 2, 91

Aleksander Solzhenitsyn went right to the “heart” of the matter, when after suffering for years at the hands of a godless and authoritarian regime, he realized the deeper issue before us all:

“if only it were so simply! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

Perhaps blogging away, and crushing the arguments of our culture opponents, is not the surest way to the Kingdom of God. If we begin with the Truth of the Gospel, and a humble acknowledgment of our own sinfulness, combined with a deep awareness of our dependency on the mercy and grace of God, then the acceptance of the “spiritual warfare” within may produce a greater fruitfulness of heart.

A follow-through commentary

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

A fine follow-through commentary on the mediation sent our earlier this morning, from Shannon Grubb:

I may have said this before, but what has always struck me the most in reading this parable was that the Pharisee's prayer includes no petition whatever: he doesn't ask anything of God. And that, to me, shows his confidence in his Self and works. For we all need 'something' from God on a continual basis, and indeed, even when at special times we think we'll offer God a prayer of pure thanksgiving, somehow petitions always sneak in. And God does not mind those, I do not think. So for the Pharisee to stand at the temple and ask for nothing - for himself or even for his fellow man - betrays a hardened heart. 

Secondly, I'm about half way through St. Athanasius' Life of Antony (my first time!) I believe it was Antony (if so, I haven't reached that part yet, but I could be wrong) who had a vision where he saw, stretching between him and his destination (God) a field completely full of snares and traps (the Devil's), all the way to the horizon. He asked how it would be in any way possible to navigate through all of those. And the answer came back, "By humility." Also many monks since have maintained that humility is the surest way to defeat the Enemy. And I think it was the same saint who was told "you fast, but Satan does not eat. You keep vigil, but Satan never sleeps (either). However, there is one thing he cannot do: humble himself." Anyway, all good lessons on the necessity of humility. 

Shannon

The Publican and the Pharisee, and the Struggle for Humility

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

The parable of the Publican and the Pharisee confronts us with a stark contrast between religious pride and self-righteousness, on the one hand; and heartfelt humility and repentance on the other hand. The Pharisee, of course, is the one who manifests the pride, and it is the publican who manifests the humility. The Lord closes this short parable by declaring the Pharisee “condemned” and the publican “justified.” This is a genuine “reversal of fortune” upending our preconceived notions of piety and righteousness, as forcefully as this must have struck those who initially heard the parable as delivered by Christ. Yet, that reversal of fortune should not obscure other notable factors that are also working within this parable.

For Christ is not condemning the actions of the Pharisee. The Lord is not telling us through this parable that the Pharisee – or anyone else, and that includes us – is wasting both time and energy by going up to the temple to pray, by fasting and by tithing. These are not being condemned as empty practices, thus consigning all such practitioners to the barren realm of hypocrisy and religious formalism. We, as contemporary Christians, are encouraged to enter the church with regularity and offer our prayer to God; to practice the self-restraint and discipline of fasting; and to share our financial resources with the generosity implied by the biblical tithe. We could add other practices to that. In fact, we would do well to imitate the outward actions of the Pharisee in practicing our Faith! 

Yet, on a deeper and far more significant level, the Pharisee got it all wrong. He was consumed by a self-satisfied and self-righteous interior attitude that left no room for God to transform him by divine grace. The Pharisee’s prayer was seemingly directed to God, but in reality it was an exercise in self-congratulations (for not being like other sinful men). Here was a man who did not suffer over low self-esteem! The Pharisee was self-centered, but not God-centered. Something went wrong, and the self replaced God as the center of his energy and passion. The exterior forms of piety that he practiced were disconnected from the interior realm of the heart, where God is meant to dwell and, again, transform the human person from within, so that each person becomes less self-centered and more God-centered with time and patience.

Based on our knowledge of the role of the publican in first century Israel, we can be assured that Christ was not “justifying” the particular “life-style” that made the publicans such notorious and despised figures of that world. In fact, they were always included with “harlots” when reference was being made to the marginalized, if not ostracized, members of first-century Judaism. Rather, the publican was declared “justified” for the very fact that he recognized and was profoundly struck by just how sinful he had become in cheating and defrauding his neighbor as a hated tax-collector working for the occupying Roman authority. He had the experience of true contrition of heart; he realized that he stood self-condemned before the Lord; yet he did not despair but cried out plaintively: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Lk. 18:13) 

Human persons are not saved as sinners, but as sinners who in humility repent before God and then offer the fruits of repentance.

The hymnography for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee exhorts us to flee from pride and to embrace humility. We live in a culture obsessed with the self and thus not only susceptible, but openly promoting, both pride and vainglory. “In your face” is widely seen as a “heroic” gesture of self-defiance and legitimate self-promotion. Humility is treated as weakness and ineffectual for “getting ahead” or for fulfilling one’s desires. We hear the voice of the Lord and we hear the voice of the world. It is our choice as to which voice we will listen to. And that choice will be determined to a great extent by just what the desires that move us to action are actually for. “For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:21)