Monday Morning Meditation: Our Commitment to Holy Week

Source: legacyicons.com

 As we are drawing near to Holy Week, I would like to send out this mediation in anticipation of our arrival there in a week's time.

We have reached the saving passion of Christ our God.
Let us, the faithful, glorify His ineffable forbearance,
that in His compassion He may raise us up who were dead in sin,
for He is good and loves mankind. 
(Matins of Holy Monday)

I am trying to fit in one more book before Pascha, and that is On the Tree of the Cross - George Florovsky and the Patristic Doctrine of the Atonement. This book is a collection of excellent essays on the Orthodox understanding of the atoning death of Christ, all very rich and filled with insights primarily drawn from the Fathers. The culminating essays belong to Fr. George Florovsky, arguably the preeminent Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century. Fr. George completely expands our notion of atonement - he prefers the word "redemption" - when referring to the "saving work" of Christ. I will share some key passages from this book during Holy Week. My goal now is to simply share a few comments about the upcoming Holy Week and our approach to it.

As Orthodox, we "live" for Holy Week and realize that it is the key week of our liturgical year - and our Faith - as it will culminate in the Lord's Death and Resurrection - the great paschal mystery. As Fr. Sergius Bulgakov once wrote: 

"Holy Week sweeps the Orthodox believer along as if on a mystic torrent."

Our problem may just be observing Holy Week with focused attention and prayerful participation, as other demands of life impinge upon us in a never-ending flow of responsibilities - and distractions.

Therefore, I would simply like to provide a few pastoral suggestions that everyone can think about and perhaps incorporate into your daily lives as Holy Week unfolds:

• One must first make a commitment to Holy Week and make it the priority for your respective households, regardless of how often you actually make it to the services. This is a week of strict fasting, and no other activities should impinge upon that. Your commitment to making Holy Week the center of your lives is synonymous with your commitment to Christ.

• Try and arrange your schedules so that you are able to attend the services as well as possible. However, if you are not able to attend the services, it must not be because of something of "entertainment value;" or some other distraction that can wait for a more appropriate time. Be especially aware of Great and Holy Friday and Saturday. These are the days of the Lord's Death and Sabbath rest in the tomb. These are days of fasting, silence and sobriety. Respect that fact that you are participating in a great mystery - the mystery of redemption and salvation.

• Parents, you may think of taking your children out of school on Holy Friday and attending the Vespers service in the afternoon. Other children have their "holy days" on which they may miss school; and we, as Orthodox Christians, have our own. And adults may also consider being free from work that day, if that is possible.

• Reduce or eliminate TV and other viewings for the week. Keep off the internet except for essential matters. Struggle against smart phone distraction/app obsessions.

• Be regular in your prayers.

• Try not to gossip or speak poorly of other persons.

• Choose at least one of the Passion Narratives from the four Gospels - MK. 14-15; MATT. 26-27; LK. 22-23; JN. 18-19 - and read it carefully through the week.There is also other good literature about Holy Week and Pascha that could be read. Actually, this is an incredibly rich resource page from our own parish website that offers extensive and intensive insights into the meaning of Holy Week.

• If you have access to any of the Holy Week service booklets, read and study the services carefully before coming to church. This will deepen your understanding of that particular service's emphasis as Holy Week unfolds.

• If you come to the midnight Paschal Liturgy, do your best to stay for the entire service, prepared to receive the Eucharist. It does not make a great deal of sense to leave the Liturgy before Holy Communion. 

Our goal, I believe, is to make of Holy Week and Pascha something a great deal more than a colorful/cultural event that is fleeting in nature and quickly forgotten. To encounter this "more" requires our own human effort working together with the grace of God so that the heart is enlarged with the presence of the crucified and risen Christ.

__________

At the last of our Presanctified Liturgies for this year, we heard the following hymn:

I am rich in passions, I am wrapped in the false robe of hypocrisy.Lacking self-restraint I delight in self-indulgence. I show a boundless lack of love.I see my mind cast down before the gates of repentance,starved of true goodness and sick with inattention. But make me like Lazarus, who was poor in sin, lest I receive no answer when I pray, no finger dipped in water to relieve my burning tongue; and make me dwell in Abraham's bosom in Your love for mankind.

Does this possibly sound familiar to anyone? Do you know of anyone that this hymn may be describing? Is this person well-known to you? If so, you may want to keep this person in your prayers so that he or she may one day - by the grace of God - be freed of these spiritually-harmful traits.

But our primary aim is to focus on the beauty and depth of Holy Week; a beauty and depth that flows naturally from Jesus Christ our Savior.

Fragments for Friday

Source: oca.org

 Returning to St. John Klimakos and The Ladder of Divine Ascent, I would like to make available two wonderful texts from STEP 1 of the Ladder. Here it is not simply the austere ascetic from Sinai analyzing the passions and the virtues; but a very open-minded Christian speaking to all Christians of no matter what particular vocation. He reminds us of the generosity of God and of those essential qualities of living and relating to others that reflect basic decency and honesty.

_____

God is the life of all free beings. He is the salvation of believers and unbelievers, of the just or the unjust ... of monks or those living in the world, of the educated or the illiterate, of the healthy or the sick, of the young or the very old. He is like the outpouring of light, the glimpse of the sun, or the changes of the weather, which are the same for everyone without exception. "For God is no respecter of persons." (Rom. 2:11)

Do whatever good you may. Speak evil of no one. Rob no one. Tell no lie. Despise no one and carry no hate. Do not separate yourselves from the church assemblies. Show compassion to the needy. Do not be a cause of scandal to anyone. Stay away from the bed of another, and be satisfied with what your own spouse can provide you. If you do all of this, you will not be far from the kingdom of heaven. (STEP 1)

St. John Klimakos on the Body

Source: legacyicons.com

This last Sunday, we commemorated St. John Klimakos (of the Ladder). I shared some passages from his Ladder of Divine Ascent during the homily. I would like now to share his well-known reflection on the human body, found in Step 15. This passage is incredible in that it captures all the ambiguities and tensions of our bodily existence - and existence ordained by our Creator. I am not sure if this is intentional or not in such a severe ascetic, but there is even some humor in how well St. John articulates our constant struggle with our own bodies within the realm of what we call "spiritual warfare." I believe we can only shake our heads and smile in recognition of how well he articulates our struggles with our "friend" and "enemy."

_____

By what rule or manner can I bind this body of mine? By what precedent can I judge him? Before I can bind him he is let loose,before I condemn him I am reconciled to him, before I can punish him I bow down to him and feel sorry for him. How can I hate him when my nature disposes me to love him? How can I break away from him when I am bound to him forever? How can I escape from him when he is going to rise with me? How can I make him incorrupt when he has received a corruptible nature? How can I argue with him when all the arguments of nature are on his side?

... He is my helper and my enemy, my assistant and my opponent, a protector and a traitor. I am kind to him and he assaults me. If I wear him out he gets weak. If he has a rest he becomes unruly. If I upset him (or, "if I turn away from him in loathing") he cannot stand it. If I mortify him I endanger myself. If I strike him down I have nothing left by which to acquire virtues. I embrace him. And I turn away from him.

What is this mystery in me? What is the principle of this mixture of body and soul? How can I be my own friend and my own enemy?

Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 15

Coffee With Sister Vassa: Prayer & Fasting

 

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA

PRAYER & FASTING 

“Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” (Mk 9:25)

In the Gospel-passage read in our churches on yesterday’s 4th Sundayof Lent, our Lord heals a certain man’s son who was afflicted with “a mute spirit,” which not only made the boy deaf and dumb, but also self-destructive, as the boy’s father says: “And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.” The disciples could not cast out this demon, and when they asked Jesus why, He said, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

Here's how we might relate to this story. If we or someone(s) in our midst are afflicted by a self-destructive deafness and dumbness, being unable to speak or hear the words we need to speak or to hear, it sounds like we’re stuck in something like an addiction. It’s cutting off all communication with others and leading to self-destruction. The solution is “nothing but prayer and fasting,” says the Lord. That is, we need to turn to God in “prayer,” letting Him into the picture and asking Him to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves; and we need “fasting,” which is abstinence from our usual routine or behaviour-pattern. Fasting breaks the usual pattern and helps us to re-focus; to step into new life, new communion and community, where God is in the picture. Fasting is an abandonment of the pattern we relied on before, which wasn’t working, wasn’t stopping the madness.

Thank You, God, for this reading at this point in our Lenten journey. Let me ask myself: Have I slipped into a self-destructive routine, which is crippling my ability to speak and to hear the words I need to speak and to hear? Is perhaps my sleeping or eating or working routine crippled by an addiction to scrolling through news on my phone? Or some other unhealthy habits? Let me abandon this pattern and let You into the picture again, my King and my God. Help me to help myself, and to return into the creative, not destructive, flow of Your divine energies, that I may be liberated to speak and hear the words I need to speak and to hear.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: The Great Paradox

 

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA

THE GREAT PARADOX 

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mk 8:35)

Here are a few thoughts, my friends, on this passage from yesterday’s Gospel, on the Sunday of the Cross. I have to let myself lose certain things and even certain people, including my “self,” in order to receive “salvation.” It’s a difficult truth to grasp, but you could think of it this way: You receive, when you give it away. Or: If you love him/her, you should (at times) let them go.

What is “salvation”? It is everything. It is wholeness, or a return to wholeness, from having been fragmented by “my”’desires of this or that thing or place or person(s). These desires are not always fulfilled in the ways I would want or expect. My wholeness, in harmony with God’s vision of me and my unique place in His bigger picture, is restored through my surrendering to His will, manifested through the ups and downs of my cross-carrying journey, to which He calls me every day. I do my part, by putting one foot in front of the other and doing the next right thing, but I also need to let go and let God do His part. I don’t know or understand it a lot of the time, but I trust Him. Because He sees the whole picture and my unique place in it, which is where I thrive and come into ever-new life.

Lead us not into temptation, our loving Father, but deliver us from the evil one, if we do become entangled in our misplaced or mis-timed desires. Because You are in the driver’s seat, and Yours is the kingdom, which is always breaking in to our little lives, and Yours is the power to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves, and Yours is the glory in which we bask, when we let you in. Amen!