Apostles Fast Meditation - Holy Apostle Jude, the brother of the Lord

Source: legacyicons.com

How, if He is not risen but is dead, does He stop and drive out and cast down those false gods said by the unbelievers to be alive and the demons they worship? For where Christ and His faith are named, there all idolatry is purged away, every deceit of demons refuted and no demon endures the name but fleeing, only hearing it, disappears. This is not the work of one dead, but of one alive, and especially of God. …

For if it is true that one dead can effect nothing, but the Savior effects such great things every day—drawing to piety, persuading to virtue, teaching about immortality, leading to a desire for heavenly things, revealing the knowledge of the Father, inspiring power against death, showing Himself to each.

—St. Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation

Apostles Fast Meditation

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

God is indivisible in Himself. When He comes, He comes wholly, as He is in His eternal Being. We do not contain Him. He reveals Himself to us at the “point” where we knock: “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Lk. 11:9). He speaks in brief dicta but life is not long enough to uncover their full content.

Reverently we sense His Fatherhood, His clemency. We see that He hungers to communicate to us His eternal life; to have us attain the perfection of His Son, who is the equal mold of the Father. Incomprehensible is His design for us. From “nothing” He creates gods like Himself. And our whole being bows before Him—not in dread before the stern Master but in humble love for the Father.

—St. Sophrony, On Prayer: Reflections of a Modern Saint

Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: wikipedia.org

"The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room." - Blaise Pascal Recently, we chanted an Akathist Hymn to "Jesus - Light to Those in Darkness." It was written by Fr. Lawrence Farley. There is a great deal of theological/spiritual reflection found in any given Akathist Hymn, but this passage from Ikos Six caught my attention: The joy of Paschal processions around the House of God remains a distant memory, O Lord, and my soul is in despair ... Pascha was really not that long ago, actually as recent as April 12. However, the question remains as posed in Ikos Six: Is it already a "distant memory?" The point is surely not being made that we will or should maintain that "paschal exaltation" that many of the faithful have experienced - if only for a moment or two - on the "night brighter than the day." We know that that will pass. But does the whole paschal mystery, the vision of life sustained by the remarkable and saving events of the divine oikonimia - Incarnation, Redemptive Death, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord - recede into a well-worn religious compartment of our mind that is far less real than the events of our daily life that impinge upon us in a relentless and almost merciless urgency? What happens so quickly with the "joy of the Paschal procession?"  Yet, even if does quickly recede, the Ikos seems far too dramatic in its claim that our "soul is in despair..." We have developed great tools of adaptation to our environment to avoid something so calamitous as a "soul in despair." And one of those tools is simply a capacity and a desire to be constantly distracted. One event (Pascha?) - no matter how significant - is replaced by another event before the first event is fully absorbed, or so it seems. An unexpressed question is often: What's next? I would like to bring up the whole issue of how distraction relieves us of any such deeper and mindful reflection. To do so, I am turning to a book that I am currently reading, a kind of intellectual biography of the great French mathematician and religious philosopher, Blaise Pascal, author of the well-known Pensees. The author  of his biography - Graham Tomlin - clearly an "expert" on Pascal, even entitled Ch. 11, "Distracting Ourselves to Death." As a seventeenth century philosopher, a time that what we call the "modern world" was coming into existence, Pascal had a great deal of insight into the "human condition," and he already knew how we avoid the deeper dimensions of life through the enticements of distraction. Graham Tomlin, who subtitled his book "The Man Who Made the Modern World," begins with an opening paragraph that updates Pascal's thoughts on distraction by giving the topic a contemporary ring: "We live in an age of distraction. The gadgets in our pockets offer us ceaseless entertainment and instant gratification. At any moment when the slightest shadow of boredom flits across our minds, or when we feel slightly awkward in public, we can whip out our phones, trawl through social media posts, watch an endless stream of videos featuring all kinds of trivia or catch up on events that may be happening anywhere around the world. Even when we might decide to put aside our phones, there is the TV, radio, the internet, podcasts, a constant stream of messages and news about sport, politics or culture to fill every silent moment and to make sure that we are never left to the devices and desires or our hearts." (p. 245) Ah, our iPhones! They may just be best described by the terms St. John Klimakos used to capture our relationship to our own human body: friend and enemy. Or, is that "frenemy?" So, we are caught up in this need to be distracted, but the short term effect of being entertained has its own steep price to pay. As Pascal himself writes:  "The only thing that consoles us for our miseries is diversion. And yet it is the greatest of our miseries. For it is above all which prevents us thinking about ourselves and leads us imperceptibly to destruction. Diversion passes our time and brings us imperceptibly to our death." Perhaps a bit "heavy" for an early morning meditation. Yet, if Pascal's thoughts have the ring of truth to them; if, indeed, we are "distracting ourselves to death," then maybe our "soul is in despair," without our even knowing it!  We will close with a well-known statement of Pascal's that can redirect us away to some extent from the distractions that have such a hold on our minds, hearts and souls: "The immortality of the soul is something of such importance to us, affecting us so deeply, that one must have lost all feeling not to care about knowing the facts of the matter." Certainly, as the Lord said: There is one thing needful!

Apostles Fast Meditation

 A healthy approach to yourself as sinner depends upon knowing something of God’s mercy. Without faith and trust in God—as merciful and loving beyond measure—our self-condemnation would be impossible to bear. It would be self-destructive. And there is no clearer portrait of God than the crucified Christ, who has voluntarily surrendered everything for us. The cross—the limitless self-giving, voluntary co-suffering that it represents, the extent of love and mercy that it conveys—reveals to us what it is to be God.

—Dr. Peter Bouteneff, How to Be a Sinner

Monday Morning Meditation

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 ***I recently shared this older meditation of mine with our catechetical class, hoping thought it would resonate with them as they journey to the Orthodox Church. I wrote to our catechumens: I realize that you are at the moment unable to participate in the fulness of the Liturgy, but hopefully this will further deepen your anticipation. My point, by the way, is not to simply criticize other forms of worship, but to reveal the sustaining power of the Liturgy throughout the centuries to the present day. 

And I have received a few requests to share the remarkable description of the Liturgy imbedded below, from Fr. Calivas, that I read in church yesterday during the homily.

_____

If you recall from yesterday, I forwarded an article in which the leaders of the successful Willow Creek "mega-church" acknowledged the failure of the "turnstile" approach of filling up a vast auditorium with thousands of souls, but ultimately leaving those thirsty souls program-saturated but spiritually empty. A good part of this failure must be the lightweight "worship" that is offered in the "sanctuary," but which may dangerously approximate "religious entertainment," rather than genuine liturgy. The hazards of "worship by committee" - subject to marketing and consumer trends that feel the need to be "audience-friendly" - are now being subject to a more careful scrutiny apparently, and seen to be wanting to an alarming degree. In all of this you sense a strong desire to appear relevant. Yet, what becomes irrelevant more quickly than the relevant? You only wear yourself out trying to keep up ...

Liturgy is organic, that is it grows and develops naturally through the historical life of the Church, maintaining enough sense of timelessness and changelessness that protects it from contemporary trends and fads. Thus, the pervasive sense of holiness and transcendence that characterizes even an aesthetically-poor celebration of the Liturgy. This is the gift of Tradition, the guarantor of continuity throughout the centuries. We are spared from having to "make it up" as we go along. Therefore, "Byzantine" as it may be, the Divine Liturgy is always "relevant!" 

That is simply a few introductory thoughts to what I consider a densely wonderful and profound description of the Divine Liturgy provided below by Fr. Alkiviadis Calivas. As a liturgical scholar, but more importantly, as a priest and celebrant of the Liturgy, Fr. Alkiviadis brings together many of the sacred strands of liturgical experience that organically unite in the Liturgy, thus providing us with a short, but very memorable mediation on the Church's core act of worship:

"In this present age between the two comings of Jesus Christ our Lord, the Divine Liturgy is always the messianic banquet, the meal of the Kingdom, the time and place in which the heavenly joins and mingles with the earthly. The Eucharist initiates humankind, nature, and time into the mystery of the uncreated Trinity. The Divine Liturgy is not some sacred drama or a mere representation of the past events. It constitutes the very presence of God's embracing love, which purifies, enlightens, perfects and deifies (2 PET. 1:4) all those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (REV. 19:9), all who through baptism and chrismation have been incorporated into the Church and have become Christ-bearers and Spirit-bearers. In the Divine Liturgy we do not commemorate one or another isolated event of sacred history. We celebrate, in joy and thanksgiving, the whole mystery of the divine economy, from creation to the incarnation, especially, in the words of the Divine Liturgy, "the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand, and the second and glorious coming." Thus, in experiencing the risen and reigning Christ in the Divine Liturgy, the past, present and the future of the history of salvation are lived as one reality." (ASPECTS OF ORTHODOX WORSHIP)

That is more than enough for any given Sunday morning! Not only is there nothing wanting, but the fullness and plenitude of divine grace and truth are present whenever we assemble as the Church to celebrate the Liturgy. We prepare for the Liturgy and then the Liturgy prepares us for our return to the world "in peace" - "the peace of God which passes all understanding."(PHIL. 4:7) When we return to the world of every day experience, we then enter the time of the "liturgy after the liturgy." This is the living out of our lives based upon the nourishment we received at the messianic banquet, the "meal of the kingdom" as described above. We are not returning to "profane time," but to life itself, all of which is potentially permeated with God's loving presence. At any point in history, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church can be "mega" or mini." Whatever its historical circumstances, as the anticipation of the Kingdom which is to come, the Church is a source of unfailing spiritual nourishment. Any hunger on our part is self-generated and based upon our refusal to eat from the Tree of Life. That "food" comes to us in various forms - the Eucharist, the Scripture, prayer, etc. If we ever feel spiritually starved, perhaps our priorities need to be re-examined.

Apostles fast Meditation - All Saints of America

 

Source: oca.org

Now the will of God is precisely what Christ both did and taught. It entails being humble in our lifestyle, steadfast in our faith, modest in our words, just in our actions, merciful in our dealings, disciplined in our conduct, incapable of inflicting a wrong but able to bear one inflicted on us; keeping peace with our brothers; loving God with all our heart; cherishing Him as Father while fearing Him as God; putting absolutely nothing before Christ, since He put nothing before us; clinging tenaciously to His love; standing, brave and confident, by His cross; and whenever His name and honor are involved, displaying in our speech the constancy to confess Him, under torture the courage to fight for Him, and in death patience for which we shall be crowned.

—St. Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lord’s Prayer

Apostles Fast Meditation

Source: pmb.ox.ac.uk

 Active life requires on our side effort, struggle, the persistent exertion of our free will. “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life. … Not everyone that says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father” (Mt. 7:14, 21). We are to hold in balance two complementary truths: without God’s grace we can do nothing; but without our voluntary cooperation God will do nothing. Our salvation results from the convergence of two factors, unequal in value yet both indispensable: divine initiative and human response. What God does is incomparably the more important, but man’s response is also required.

—Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way

Apostles Fast Meditation

Source: orthodoxartsjournal.org

Worship God in spirit and in truth; in truth, for instance when you say, “Hallowed by Thy Name.” Do you really desire that God’s name should be hallowed by the good works of others and by your own? When you say, “Thy kingdom come,” do you indeed desire the coming of God’s kingdom? Do you wish to be the abode of the Spirit of God, and not the abode of sin?

Would you not more willingly live in sin? When you say, “Thy will be done,” do you not rather seek your own will than that of God? Ay, it is so! When you say, “Give us this day our daily bread,” do you not say something like this in your heart, “I do not need to ask this of Thee—I have enough without asking; let the poor ask for this?” Or else, do we not greedily seek for more, and are not satisfied with the little or with that which God has given us?

We do not thank God for what we have as we ought to.

—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

Apostles Fast Meditation - Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas

Source: orthodoxchristiansupply.com

 Christian freedom is not merely a “freedom from” the world; it is also a positive experience and a positive dignity. It is not only a power to choose, but also the very likeness of God in man, unattainable except by communion with God. Once this communion is given, the world cannot take it back. In this sense Christian freedom is the joy and the dignity of slaves, of the persecuted, of the deprived, and of the humiliated, in other words of all those who are victims of this world, of its power, and of the determinism from which Christ freed man when He died on the Cross, and its meaning is best understood by those who are themselves suffering from the powerful.

—Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, Living Tradition

Meditation for the Apostles Fast

Source: athoniteusa.com

 Somebody asked Abba Anthony: “By observing which [precept] shall I be well-pleasing to God?” The elder answered: “Observe what I am telling you: Always have God before your eyes wherever you go. Whatever you are doing, have the testimony from Holy Scripture to hand. Wherever you are living, do not be in a hurry to move away. Observe these three [precepts] and you will be saved.”

—Abba Anthony, Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Meditation for the Apostles Fast

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 “I AM THAT I AM.” It is impossible to detect the actual process of our inner growth. I think this may be because our spirit thirsts for “those things which cannot be shaken” (Heb. 12:27–28)—that are not subject to progression. A life of profound prayer is a combination of our natural upsurges towards the eternal Being and the eternal Being’s descent to us. When the one true God reveals Himself to us, we are introduced into the sphere of His Being and undergo a radical alteration in our whole self not to be defined in ordinary language. We are too circumscribed to contain the gift completely. Nevertheless, our heart experiences an indescribable harmony of love, and the mind falls silent, astounded by the inconceivable vision.

—St. Sophrony, On Prayer: Reflections of a Modern Saint

Fragments for Friday - Become What You Are

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 Come, O believers,

Let us celebrate in song today,
Glorifying the memory of all the saints:
Hail, O glorious apostles, prophets, martyrs, and bishops!
Hail, O company of all the just!
Hail, O ranks of holy women!
Pray that Christ will grant our souls great mercy!

(Sunday of All Saints, Aposticha, Vespers)

The Sunday of All Saints fittingly follows the Sunday of Pentecost, for the saints of the Church are the “fruit” and manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence among us. They are the living icons that are transparent to the glory of God that shines in and through each of them as a gift of the Holy Spirit. The saints (literally, the “holy ones”) have “escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of passion and become partakers of the divine nature” (II PET 1:4). Created in the image of God, they “are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another” (II COR 3:18). In the Book of Revelation, St. John has recorded his incomparable vision of the saints in heaven:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all the tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” (REV. 7:9-10)

Since, in the one Church of Christ, the heavenly and earthly realms are united, the saints are “the great cloud of witnesses” that surround us and exhort us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith”(HEB. 12:1-2). At the most basic level, the saints are the true friends of God: “But to me, exceedingly honorable are Thy friends, O Lord”(PS. 138:16, LXX). The saints put Christ above all else in the fulfillment of their Master’s words:

"He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." (MATT. 10:37-39)

The words of the Scriptures are the seeds that nourish the life of sanctity which results in the slow transformation of a human being, made in God’s image, into the very likeness of God, so that this particular person becomes by grace what Christ is by nature. The saint is thus a scriptural man or a scriptural woman, inasmuch as he/she hears the Word of God and keeps it – meaning acting upon and living out what is heard. The saint has responded positively to the paradoxical admonition: “Become what you are!”

Now, as we like to say today: “No pain – no gain!” If we were “bought with a price” (I COR. 6:20), then we could say that the saints “bought” their sanctity at “a price,” abandoning security, comfort and safety which, we acknowledge, are so central to our own understanding of life. (It is rather easy, though it may go unnoticed, for Christians to be transformed in Epicureans over time: avoid pain and seek pleasure). Being “destitute, afflicted, and ill-treated” they “wandered over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” As such, God has revealed that “the world was not worthy” of them. (HEB. 11:37-38)

The “diversity” of the saints is remarkable: fathers (and mothers), patriarchs (and matriarchs), prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and every righteous spirit made perfect in faith,” culminating in “our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary” (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).

On the Sunday of All Saints, we do not commemorate only the saints whose names have been included on our ecclesiastical calendars; those, in other words, who have been officially “glorified/canonized” by the Church and whom we remember and venerate by name. We remember all of the saints, that vast multitude, both known and unknown, (symbolically numbered at 144,000 in the Book of Revelation; a multiple of 12 that signifies an incalculable figure as well as wholeness and totality – much to the dismay, I would imagine, of the Jehovah’s Witnesses) “who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (REV. 21:27). Perhaps this will include our own ancestors who lived modest and humble Christian lives.

All of the saints, therefore, intercede before the throne of God on our behalf. They are with us and not cut off from us by death. Rather, they are now more alive than ever and being “in Christ” are present wherever Christ is present. The earthly lives of the saints become sources of inspiration and models of emulation for us, teaching by examples of faith, hope and love; of long-suffering, perseverance and patience; of lives steeped in prayer, almsgiving and fasting. They do not discourage us because they attained what may seem unattainable to us; but rather they encourage us to struggle to overcome our weaknesses as men and women who did precisely that in their own lives. They were not born saints or privileged from birth. They became saints by co-operating with the grace of God. We, in turn, simply need to become what we already are: saints of God through Baptism and Chrismation and membership in the Church!

Many of us are deeply impressed by the total dedication, perseverance, training, commitment and love of the sport exhibited by today’s athletes. (Possible envy of their great wealth and fame is a different subject). Many may shake their heads in disbelief or nod in admiration. Hardly anyone will call these athletes “fanatics.” But if someone is that single-minded and intent upon the life in God, that is a word that will inevitably ring out. But the saints are not fanatics – they simply have a passion for God and put the Gospel and the Kingdom of God above all else.

To be inducted into any particular Hall of Fame – from baseball to Rock ‘n Roll – is considered to be a great human achievement and a goal only an elite few could even aspire to. However, these Halls of Fame are the secular and rather pale – if not pitiful – reflections of an earlier age’s striving for the heavenly realm of the Kingdom of God. The saints looked beyond the fleeting and temporal “glory of men” to the unchanging and eternal “glory of God.” That seems to be the vocation of all Christians and the Lord’s desire for us.

Midweek Morning Meditation - 49 plus 1: Pentecost and the Life Beyond Time

Source: holymyrrhbearers.com

 "And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting."  (Acts. 2:2)

At the Vespers of Pentecost, served on Pentecost Sunday, we implored the Risen Lord, Who sat down at the “right hand” of God the Father, to send the Holy Spirit upon us, as He did upon the apostles who “were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1).

It is quite significant that Pentecost occurred exactly 50 days after the Resurrection of Christ. In the ancient world, there was a deep symbolic—or even sacred—character to the use of numbers, and this is fully shared and reflected in the Scriptures. Father Alexander Schmemann explains this “sacred numerology” as it relates to the Feast of Pentecost. He writes:

“Pentecost in Greek means 50, and in the sacred biblical symbolism of numbers, the number 50 symbolizes both the fullness of time and that which is beyond time: the Kingdom of God itself.

It symbolizes the fullness of time by its first component—49—which is the fullness of seven (7 x 7): the number of time. And, it symbolizes that which is beyond time by its second component — 49 + 1 — this "1" being the new day, the “day without evening” of God’s eternal Kingdom.

With the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ’s disciples, the time of salvation, the Divine work of redemption has been completed, the fullness revealed, all gifts bestowed; it belongs to us now to “appropriate” these gifts, to be that which we have become in Christ: participants and citizens of His Kingdom.”

This reality that takes us beyond the fullness of time as experienced in this world we call eschatological—the fullness of the Kingdom of God which is “not of this world” but yet experienced here and now within the grace-filled life of the Church, herself the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The “appropriation” of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, referred to above by Father Alexander, implies the rejection of a way of life that is described as “fleshly.” 

In an extraordinary passage of the Apostle Paul found in his Epistle to the Galatians, we encounter the contrast between the “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-24). Saint Paul emphasizes this contrast at the beginning of this passage: 

“But I say to you, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law” (Galatians 5:16-17).

It is essential to realize that the Apostle Paul does not mean by “flesh” what we would call our “bodies” or physical existence. He is not attacking our bodily, physical existence as such. That would introduce us to the realm of dualism, an artificial and non-Scriptural conflict between the spiritual and the material. By “flesh,” the Apostle Paul means the human person in rebellion against God, that results in a self-centered way of life that further results in perversions of both the body and soul. 

As this passage continues, you can clearly discern the comprehensive nature of the “flesh” as encompassing both the mind and body and directing them to sinful activities or attitudes:

“Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21).

My intention is not to be discouraging, but if anything here sounds self-descriptive or reminiscent of one’s most recent confession, then one is still contending with the “works of the flesh.” According to the Apostle, the long-term prospects for such a way of life are not very promising, if not altogether bleak:  “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21).

However, the “good news” is that there exists another way of life, one that is “spiritual” but expressed through our bodily existence in the rhythms of our daily life:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

There is no mention in these “fruits of the Spirit” of miracle-working, visions, ecstatic and/or mystical experiences. Saint Paul calls upon very human virtues, but with the implication that they are heightened—or deepened—by the Holy Spirit in such a way that a new manner of living is being manifested, one he calls elsewhere a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This newness of life in the Holy Spirit distinguished the early Christians from their environment, and is meant to distinguish Christians to this day.

Failure to live by the “fruit of the Spirit” is essentially a failure of our Christian vocation. Saint Paul implies as much when he writes with confidence: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). 

And a final exhortation with behavioral consequences concludes this remarkable passage on the newness of life made possible by the Holy Spirit: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another”(Galatians 5:25).

As members of the original Pentecostal Church, Orthodox Christians have every opportunity to both “live by the Spirit” and “walk by the Spirit.”

Monday Morning Meditation - Acquiring the Gift of the Holy Spirit

 

Source: legacyicons.com

"The aim of the Christian life is to return to that perfect grace of the most holy and life-giving Spirit, which was originally conferred upon us through divine baptism." (St. Kallistos and St. Ignatios Xanthopoulos)

Although the Feast of Pentecost reveals the trinitarian nature of God, it is on this "last and great day of Pentecost" that we concentrate on the Holy Spirit. This is clear from the prescribed readings for the Sunday of Pentecost: ACTS 2:1-11 describing the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost; and JN. 7:37-52. 8:12, the Gospel passage which speaks of the giving of the Holy Spirit by the glorified Christ. 

As Orthodox Christians we do not reduce the Holy Spirit to a kind of indefinite divine power or energy. Rather, we clearly proclaim that the Holy Spirit is God, the "Third Person" of the "holy, consubstantial, life-creating, and undivided Trinity." We further believe that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father" (JN. 15:26) and "Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed). As one of the many beautiful hymns of the Vespers of Pentecost expresses this truth: 

The Holy Spirit was, is, and ever shall be
Without beginning, without end,
Forever united and numbered with the Father and the Son ...

The Holy Spirit, present within the dispensation of the Old Testament and more openly within the earthly ministry of Christ, descends into the world in a unique, but decisive and final way on the Great Day of Pentecost, fifty days after the Savior's resurrection. The coming of the Holy Spirit gave birth to the New Testament Church and the Holy Spirit abides in the Church as the life-giving Power of renewal, rebirth and regeneration. The Church would grow old and die (as do empires, nations, cultures and secular institutions) because of our many human and historical sins, if not for this presence of the Holy Spirit, making the Church ever-young and cleansing us all "from every impurity" as the personal Source of sanctification. We come to the Father through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Or, as St. Gregory of Nyssa puts it a bit more fully: 

"One does not think of the Father without the Son and one does not conceive of the Son without the Holy Spirit. For it is impossible to attain to the Father except by being raised by the Son, and it is impossible to call Jesus Lord save in the Holy Spirit."

All authentic life in the Church is life lived in the Holy Trinity, and on the Day of Pentecost the coming of the Holy Spirit is the final revelation of precisely this greatest of mysteries - that the one God is "tri-hypostastic" (meaning "tri-personal"), being the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here is a typical example from the Church Fathers of expressing the great paradox of the One God in Three Persons: 

"The single divinity of the Trinity is undivided and the three Persons of the one divinity are unconfused. We confess Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, divided yet without division and united yet with distinctions." (St. Thalassios the Libyan)

The Sunday of Pentecost is, then, the Feast of the Holy Trinity, Pentecost Monday being the day of the Holy Spirit. Of the divine attributes of the Holy Spirit, St. Basil the Great enumerates the following: 

"From this Source comes foreknowledge of the future, the understanding of mysteries, the apprehension of things hidden, the partaking of spiritual gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the choir of angels, unending joy, the power to abide in God, to become like God, and, highest of all ends to which we can aspire, to become divine."

This can strike us as abstract. But theology reveals to us the foundation and the vision on which and in which we order our spiritual lives. The dogma of the Trinity must impact our lives.

The beginning of this process of discerning the presence of God in our lives and in trying to live out that presence is to be found in the Sacraments of Baptism and Chrismation. Each and every human person, baptized and chrismated into the life of the Orthodox Church so as to receive the gift of salvation from sin and death unto life eternal, has participated in his/her own personal Pascha and Pentecost. To be baptized is to die and rise in Christ; to be chrismated is to receive "the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit." Alive in Christ, sealed and filled with the Holy Spirit! New life and the power with which and in which we are enabled to continue in that life!

Without Christ we "can do nothing" (JN. 15:5), and without the Holy Spirit - poured out upon us by the risen, ascended and glorified Christ at Pentecost - we cannot say that "Jesus is Lord." (I COR. 12:3) 

As St. Seraphim of Sarov put it: "The true goal of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Spirit of God."

Yet, I cannot but wonder if - or to what extent - we are troubled if we squander the "great grace of Baptism" that we received when we were buried with Christ in the baptismal font, both a tomb (dying to sin) and a womb (rebirth). It seems as if we can be insensitive to the withdrawal of the Spirit's presence from our minds and hearts through sheer inattention and lack of vigilance.

The saints would weep for their sins - in fact, this is called "gifts of tears" as the means of restoring that very baptismal grace forfeited by sin - while we shrug off our own sins as "normal" and practically inevitable considering the conditions and circumstances of life. If we are more-or-less "like other people" in conformity with a basic set of moral principles, and thus maintaining a good image in the eyes of others, then we are usually quite content with our own sinfulness. In this way, we domesticate and normalize sin by rendering it innocuous and easy to live with. 

So understood, sin is no longer that tragic "missing of the mark" that renders sin both such a tragic and banal reality, a reality from which we needed to be saved by the death of our Savior. Thus, we re-define sin so that our notion of sin hardly resembles what we find in the Scriptures!

But how we may weep and gnash our teeth if and when we lose money, property, status, or simply "things;" how we mourn the loss of even a "trinket" if we have invested it with sentimental value. It is these types of losses that are meaningful and which demand our attention and concern, while the muting of the "voice" of the Spirit deep within our conscience will only draw a lukewarm sigh. This is a most unfortunate reversal of values; for losing the "seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit" is tantamount to losing our "heavenly treasure;" while losing our earthly treasures is only to lose what "moth and rust consume" despite our heroic efforts to escape that process. 

This is a paradox: When, by the grace of God, our spiritual lives have matured in such a way that we truly mourn (and even weep!) over our sins which strip us of the presence of the "Comforter and Spirit of Truth," then through genuine repentance, the Holy Spirit will "come and abide in us" to "warm our hearts with perfect love," according to the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov.

"The Lord gave us the Holy Spirit, and the person in whom the Holy Spirit lives feels that he has paradise within." (St. Silouan of Mt. Athos)