Fragments for Friday

 

Source: sthermansoca.org

"And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray." (MATT. 14:23)

According to St. Matthew's Gospel, Jesus walked upon the sea and subdued the wind that was threatening to capsize the boat of the disciples (MATT. 14:22-33), after he had fed the multitude of five thousand with two fish and five loaves of bread (MATT. 14:13-21). Therefore, these "mighty acts" of the Lord are linked together both chronologically and geographically according to the evangelist. But what may link these events together on a much deeper level is the evangelist's "note" that in between the feeding of the multitudes and the walking upon the sea, Jesus first withdrew in order to pray "by himself." In fact, it appears that Jesus spent a great deal of time in this instance alone and in prayer, for "when evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves..." (14:23-24). Jesus is sustained and strengthened by prayer. The Lord prayed (and fasted) in the desert before He began His earthly ministry; He prayed during His ministry, as recorded here; and He prayed with particular intensity in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prepared to complete and fulfill His earthly ministry by voluntarily ascending the Cross. Prayer was essential to Christ.

Perhaps we need to understand this as a "great mystery," for the Lord who prayed we believe to be the eternal Son of God incarnate! In His Person are united the divine and human natures "without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation." His sinless human nature is "deified" in the Incarnation. And that same human nature was transformed "from glory to glory" during the unfolding of His life and totally "perfected" and eternally glorified - through suffering! - in the resurrection and ascension following the crucifixion. Often, we understand the practice of prayer as our "communication" with God in order to discern God's will for our lives. (We also thank God in our prayer, intercede for others, or express our distress as lamentation before God in the form of prayer).

However, communication must be seen as an inadequate term for describing Christ's experience when praying to His heavenly Father. There are no indications that Christ did not know the will of God at all times. On the contrary, His every word and deed were in direct fulfillment of the will of God: "I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me." (JN. 6:38) This is so because the Lord's "natural" human will was in full union with the will of His heavenly Father. Jesus did not waver, vacillate, or "guess" when fulfilling the will of God (as we do so painfully often). In the theological language of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, the human will of Christ always followed and never resisted or opposed His divine will; both wills -the human and divine - being united in His one Person of the Son of God incarnate. Of course, Christ also thanked His heavenly Father in His prayer, interceded for others, and expressed His distress or lamentation, as in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross. Ultimately, though, we must speak of His prayer as communion with God. In a recent letter, Fr. John Breck wrote the following to me in relation to this subject of Jesus praying:

What occurred in Jesus' times of intense, more focused prayer (we can imagine that he was constantly at prayer to some degree) can't be discerned or described. His prayer was unique. Yet because our prayer in the Spirit is really "God praying to God," the same can be said with regard to Jesus' prayer: the Second Person, if you will, prays to the First Person of the Holy Trinity, a mystery we can only share in and experience insofar as we invite and allow the Spirit to pray within us. Prayer, accordingly, is essentially Trinitarian.

Whatever is human, apart from sin, is assumed by the Word of God who became man. The Lord was not a "ghost" as the frightened and amazed disciples first thought when they beheld Jesus coming to them across the water. To be human is to be in union with God - that is our "natural" state. And if prayer creates and sustains our relationship with God, then to be fully human is to pray. Since Christ was fully human, He prayed. "In the beginning," it was perfectly natural for human beings made "in the image and likeness of God" to nourish their bodies with food and drink. And it was natural for those human beings to nourish their souls through prayer. As the Last Adam, Christ perfectly exemplifies this natural state of humanity. The mysterious relationship between the divine and human natures of Christ is somehow revealed precisely here in the Lord's practice of prayer as communion with God.

I wrote recently about being too busy not to pray. We must find the time regardless of the "cost," because the only thing we cannot afford not to do is to pray. Each person must "be alone" in prayer with some kind of regularity, as the Lord was alone in prayer as recorded in the Gospels. We must make the time. Jesus would withdraw from the affairs of the world, at least temporarily, in order to strengthen - perhaps even "energize" - His human nature through the communion of prayer. Regardless of our ability or inability to fully explain Christ's prayer life as it presents itself before us in the Gospels, we know one thing for certain: we need to pray in order to be fully human.

Midweek Morning Meditation -- Too Busy Not To Pray

Source: prayerrope.co

While looking through a catalogue recently from a Christian publishing company, I came across a rather intriguing title: Too Busy Not to Pray. I say intriguing because this is a theme that I think about often and one that I have raised with others before. Read that title again carefully, because it does not say Too Busy to Pray, but precisely Too Busy Not to Pray. 

Either title could serve as an invitation to a book that assumedly addresses the contemporary Christian’s struggle to maintain a regular prayer life amidst his or her busy schedule. However, the title as it stands captures the urgency of the issue much more effectively. I would express that urgency in the following manner: If we are indeed “too busy,” then the only way that we can prevent our lives from spinning out of control—or of losing a God-directed orientation or reducing prayer to moments of danger and stress—is for the “busy person” to be ever-vigilant about praying with regularity to guard such spiritual catastrophes from occurring.

We always need to pray with regularity—“pray without ceasing” [1 Thessalonians 5:17]. But it strikes me that the busier we are, the more urgent it becomes for us to pray. In other words, the busy person cannot afford not to pray. Busy people indeed need the nourishment of prayer. Otherwise, the spiritual dangers are immense. 

The “business” of our lives make us too busy to ... do what? We are certainly not “too busy” to socialize, to seek entertainment, pleasure and diversion—all necessary to one degree or another because of the pressures of work and other responsibilities. And these diversions are layered onto lives that already feel the strain of “multi-tasking” the endless activities that keep our children educated, developing, healthily-preoccupied, etc. (A social commentator recently wrote that mothers have been reduced to the roles of domestic caretakers and chauffeurs. And we still read such nonsense that actually questions  the very “need” of fathers?). Therefore, most people carefully construct their schedules so that these extra social and diversionary activities are not terribly neglected. We can cast this under the rubrics of “leisure time” or “recreational time.” (This all gets a bit sloppy when we go further and speak of “vegging out”). It is the careful, calculated and natural integration of such activities into our lives that leaves us with the overwhelming certainty that we are “too busy.” And “too busy” leaves us “too tired.”

And at that point, we just may be. 

The question then arises again, now with a certain persistence: to busy to ... do what? To pray, to read the Scriptures, to assist a needy neighbor, to visit someone who really needs a visit, or even to call someone we know who is lonely? We are “too busy” to integrate the life of the Church into our lives beyond Sunday mornings. We are “too busy” for Vespers, Bible Studies, Feast Days, etc. Perhaps, finally, we are “too busy” for God! How often do we postpone our relationship with God until we have more time? “If only my life would slow down a bit, then I could turn my attention to God, beyond the perfunctory rushed prayer of my busy, daily life—if I even get to it.”

Is this dilemma unavoidable and irresolvable? Of course not. Every Christian who does face—or face-up—to this dilemma must search his or her heart and ask, “how is it that I am ‘too busy’ to pray?” Whatever honest answers we come up with, I am convinced that we, indeed, are too busy not to pray.

Lenten Meditation -- Sixth Tuesday of Great Lent

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

“We know that the greater the love, the greater the sufferings of the soul,” said Staretz Silouan. The man to whom it has been given to feel Christ-like love is aware that such love moves the heart to wish everyone well, without exception. Such love is a life-giving fire. It is uncreated Light, and streams of energy beneficial for all mankind pour forth from him who possesses it. When it penetrates us it makes us Christ-like, and as it were naturally includes us in the sufferings of His love, which cannot bear to see man deprived of the highest good.

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

____

These words of St. Sophrony are very valuable and timely today. We are currently being subjected - at least in "public discourse" - to a very aggressive and intolerant form of "Christianity," that does not "wish everyone well, without exception."  Rather, it detects "enemies" everywhere. When that happens there is a real shortage of compassion for the "other," and not the slighest care for those "deprived of the highest good." 

St. Sophrony is outlining the "Orthodox Way," and that is a "way" that can cause "the sufferings to the soul." It is a "way" that can only be cultivated through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, practiced with humility and our sense of being sinners redeemed by Christ on the Cross.

The Prayers of the Saints

The Saints of North America

One of our parishioners recently shared this excellent explanation of the role of the saints in the Church, especially in regard to their intercessory prayer. This can be very helpful to all of us, but especially to people with a Protestant background, and to those for whom this is such a foreign concept and experience. For the Orthodox, it is natural.

Do we pray to saints—or ask them to pray for us?

Behind this question is a deeper one: what do we really believe about the Church, the resurrection, and the communion of saints?

In the Orthodox Church, we don’t see death as a wall that severs us from those who’ve gone before us in Christ. We proclaim the life everlasting. And if Christ is risen, then the saints are not gone—they are alive in Him.

We affirm that Christ is risen. And if He is truly risen, then death is not the end. It is not separation. It is not silence. For those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, death has become the gateway to deeper life. They are not gone—they are alive in Him.

When we ask a saint to pray for us, we aren’t replacing Christ. We aren’t offering them worship. We are asking our brothers and sisters—who now behold the face of God without veil or distraction—to intercede for us in love.

We are participating in the communion of the Church, which is not divided by the grave. The saints are members of the same Body we belong to, only now they see clearly, love fully, and pray without ceasing in the presence of God.

Revelation 8:3–4 gives us a glimpse of this heavenly reality:

“And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints... and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God.”

What do we see here? The prayers of the saints—both those on earth and those in heaven—rising before God together. Offered with incense. Borne up by angelic hands. Received by the Lord.

Prayer, in the Orthodox life, is not a solitary act. It is communion. It is participation in the worship of heaven. And the saints, who now stand in the light of Christ, are not passive observers. They are active intercessors—part of the great cloud of witnesses who pray with us and for us.

The problem comes when we reduce prayer to a transaction—words sent upward, hoping for a response. But prayer, in the Orthodox life, is communion. It’s a relationship, a participation in the life of God. And because the saints are in Him, our relationship with them continues in love.

To ask for their prayers is not idolatry. It’s not superstition. It is faith in the risen Christ, who unites heaven and earth in His Body, the Church.

To ask for their prayers is to confess the Gospel: that Christ is alive, that His Church is one, and that nothing—not even death—can separate us from the love of God in Him.

So when we whisper, “Holy Theotokos, pray for us,” or “St. Nicholas, intercede for my child,” we are not breaking faith. We are confessing it.

So yes—we ask the saints to pray for us. Because we believe in the life of the world to come. Because we believe the tomb is empty. Because we believe in Christ.

Father-Don Purdum

Orthodox Priest/Pastor, Holy Trinity Orthodox Church-AOCC (Elizabethtown, PA), Historian, Theologian

SUPRASL - A Prayer Campaign

 

A Prayer Campaign

SUPRASL - THE MEADOW

Theoretically we all know what prayer for a spiritual work is. If, however, we are honest, we must confess that in spite of the great amount of literature about prayer currently in circulation, our own prayer in fact remains pale, superficial, lacking in vigor. We are absorbed by action, councils, discussions, technique in general, and "a little prayer" comes second, something like an appendix to a footnote. But our work cannot spread roots in the fertile earth of the "life in Christ" in this way, and so remains bloodless.

It is just at this point that we must be extremely careful. For if those words "without me ye can do nothing" constitute the foundation of every spiritual effort, they should be all the more so of a work that entails a head-on clash with idolatry, where the forces of darkness have reigned for centuries.

Precisely because of this, we must see to it that prayer is placed before every activity of ours, or, more exactly, into every activity of ours. Not just as some spices are mixed in a cake to give it flavor and taste, but as the yeast is mixed with the dough in order to ferment it. We can only hope to achieve something if and when prayer becomes for our work what the heart is for our body: feeding, renewing and vivifying with vital blood the whole organism down to the last cell.

It will require fervent, persistent corporate prayer to push the gate of our missionary tradition wide open, rusty as it is through prolonged immobility and the drizzle of doubt, and to make our way through the many obstacles that have piled up behind it.

The Lord has assured us, however, that such prayer is omnipotent: “Truly I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.” (Mt. 18, 19). If this is true of anything, then how much more so of the spreading of His Truth! And if the common prayer of two of the faithful for a certain thing is so effective, what of the common prayer of two hundred or two thousand people?

Before any other form of co-operation or concentration of forces, we must, therefore, launch a prayer campaign for the cause of missions. Every one of us must clearly realize that he must be daily “present” in this battle of prayer; and that he must also mobilize more people for this “call up.” We prefer to use military terms in order to make it perfectly clear that in this case we do not refer to that casual prayer which is said once, by chance, but to a prayer which has grown into a daily “task” and “struggle.”

The members of a future Orthodox missionary effort, before joining in a common promise of a certain contribution, must be united even now by the daily contribution of a “fighting” prayer.

It must be a strong, fervent, vigorous prayer, verging even upon “importunity” (Lk 11, 8). This word, full of meaning, is used by the Lord Himself in the characteristic parable which St. Luke relates in the eleventh chapter of his gospel, and which ends with the dual assertion: “And I say unto you ask and it shall be given unto you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (v. 9, 10). These are chosen and meaningful words: “to him that knocketh, “ not simply, “to him that draweth near the door”; “he who asketh receiveth, “not simply “he who desireth.” We can better understand this meaning of “asketh” when we think of someone who has lost something important which must be found: how absorbed he is in his search, using eyes, hands, thought, his whole self! The Holy Scriptures are full of characteristic passages underlining the importance and power of persistent prayer. We should do well to make them the object of study and contemplation, so that we may understand still better that saying of our Lord: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name he will give you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive, that our joy may be full" (John 16, 24).

These thoughts have led forty or fifty young people in Athens to make the following decision:

(a) every evening at 10.30 they stop working, wherever they may happen to be, and say a short prayer for the cause of external missions.

(b) each of them tries to recruit at least one or two more, who in their turn undertake to do the same.

The creation of such "prayer groups" within the various local Christian movements is badly needed, if we wish this idea of common prayer for the cause of external missions to become a reality, and to spread roots.

The slogan "campaign of prayer" must not remain simply "a nice idea," which will vanish together with the first enthusiasm.

It must be transformed into an act of fighting spirit, which will strengthen, purify and fire this enthusiasm.

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: Praying From the Heart

 

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA: ON PRAYING FROM THE HEART

 

I'm sharing today an email I got from a young woman-catechumen who is currently doing my Orthodoxy 101 course, in case anyone is interested:

Hi Sister Vassa,
All has been going well with the daily prayers and the readings. I've actually really been enjoying the rhythm it gives to the day.

I would love to hear any advice you might have on how to stay present and tap into a sense of depth while saying the prayers and not just go through the motions of recitation. I notice myself slipping into autopilot while praying, especially as I memorize the daily prayers (Our Father, Oh Heavenly King, etc..)...

N. 

Dear N,

Thank you for your message. The "slipping into autopilot" that you write about, when reciting or memorizing certain ready-made prayers, is something that happens to all of us, time and again. It's part of the learning process, of learning to work on our relationship with God. The reasons we learn ready-made prayers, which are more difficult to pray from the heart (because these are not our own words), are:

1. These prayers help us to understand better, how and who God is, - for example, He is our common "Father" in the best sense of that concept; and He is the life-giving Spirit and King (as in the prayer, O Heavenly King) that is our primary and life-inspiring authority, beyond and above any political "king" or leader. And these prayers help us better understand how we approach Him, and what types of things we thank Him for, ask Him for, and cherish His presence in our lives for.

2. Ready-made prayers enable us to pray together with other people in our church-tradition, on those occasions when we pray together in church, before and after meals, etc. When we're not with other people and we pray these prayers, we are also, in a sense, praying together with other Christians who are also praying these prayers on their own, in different parts of the world. This is why most of these prayers are formulated in the first person plural, ("we," "our"), so we become aware of the fact that we are not alone, but part of a bigger whole, of a humanity that recognizes we are all children of "our" Father.

SOME TIPS, for learning to pray from the heart:

1. CONTEMPLATION: When we take pause and contemplate a bit, about the meaning of these ready-made prayers, it helps us to make them "our own" words.

2. BODILY POSITION & RITUALIZING: Another thing that helps, in the whole business of making these prayers "our own," and to pray them truly "by heart" (or from the heart), is to get creative with our prayer-learning-process. We can try changing our bodily position when we say them. For example, you can try kneeling (either at the side of your bed, like you see sometimes in movies where a child or someone prays before bedtime), and imagine you are in the presence of God, who is always close; or you can pray before an icon of Jesus Christ, and you can "ritualize" your prayer in other ways sometimes, by lighting a little candle before an icon. Or you can stand and raise your arms with your palms uplifted, as you say the Our Father, if that works for you. You also might set up a special place in your home for prayer, like a little corner with icons or a candle or where on occasion you put a vase of flowers and keep a religious book you are reading, or something like that. Make it nice and I would even say, playful. We learn best through playing. And NOTE: All these external bodily gestures are done to help our internal attention to focus on the presence of God; they are not done to demean us, nor are they done because God "needs" our prayers or our subservience to Him. What He wants is for us to participate in His divine energies, called "grace," so that we don't lead an existence that is limited only to the oft-divisive merely-human energies in our world.

3. PATIENCE: Finally, don't get discouraged and have patience with yourself, in this learning process. It's the most worthwhile thing we can learn, in the long run, to have and maintain faith in the presence of a loving God in our lives. We will lose our focus, again and again, but we learn more about ourselves and about God, through our mistakes and even our "sins," like self-centered fears, ingratitude, resentments, or whatever, each time we let God help us overcome these ugliness-es in our hearts. He wants us to be free of such things that block our growth and our effectiveness in leading a good life, but it's by walking through these things and overcoming them that we grow stronger and more whole, as participants in the flow of creative, divine energies that are available to us, in communion with God.

Sorry this was long, N. I look forward to seeing you next week.

Love from Rome,

SV

Taking Lent Seriously

 Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, 

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.

May God be with you and with our entire parish community!

Building Up a Christian Community

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 Thursday's Theological Thoughts

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christl,

I have been reading and studying First Peter, a magnificent but much-neglected epistle. The following passage is characteristic of the epistle's tone and the extent to which the epistle is so Gospel-oriented:

The end of all things is at hand.Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. As each one has received a gift, use is to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. I Pet. 4:7-10)

If we "unpack" this densely-filled passage with its variety of Christian virtues, we find four practices that are meant to exemplify a genuine Christian community/parish:

• prayer in v. 7
• love in v. 8
• hospitality in v. 9
• service to one another in. v. 10

Through these practices, a Christian community will stand out from its immediate environment, and environment that often enough finds no interest or meaning in just such practices. Love in v. 8 "covers a multitude of sins." We find this thought already in the Old Testament (Prov. 10:12; Ps. 32:1); and elsewhere in the New Testament (Jm. 5:20). By love, the believer fulfills the Gospel's greatest imperative, and this in turn leads to receiving the great mercy and forgiveness of God. 

The teaching of the Lord and the apostles is meant to be practiced "in season and out of season" (II Tim. 4:5). However, I believe that we do have a tendency to either forget these deeper scriptural truths, or treat them with a certain formalism, not exactly aflame with a love for both God and neighbor! With that in mind, we can be inspired in the approaching "season" of Great Lent, to recover what we have lost through forgetfulness or indifference; or by the sheer overwhelming daily responsibilities and cares that can swamp the best of our intentions. 

Great Lent is after all, a "school for repentance," a genuine "turning" from one mode of existence to another. Could the Apostle's teaching then serve as what is called a podvig in our spiritual tradition - a conscious and exerted effort that we take up as a way of returning to the love and embrace of God? Could an intensification of prayer, love, hospitality and service to one another be that much-needed "lenten program" that will make any ascetical fasting meaningful and not simply a cultural or legalistic undertaking devoid of any lasting significance?

The Apostle closes this section of teaching with further exhortations and then a doxology in praise of God through Jesus Christ:

... whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belongs glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (I Pet. 4:11).

In jus a few verses an entire "worldview" that combines theory and practice with Jesus Christ as the Cornerstone (Is. 28:16; I Pet. 2:6)!

From the Archives: Forty Shopping (and Fasting) Days Until Christmas

Image source: wikiart.org

 Here is a meditation from a few years back that I do not overly hesitate to send yet again, because the issues presented here for us to think hard about ("meditate" on), are certainly with us today and are far from being resolved: "There is nothing new under the sun." I hope everyone is prepared to make a real effort to embrace the forty-day Nativity Fast on a level that works for you and your family and that commits us to the life of the Church in a meaningful manner. If we are not prepared, perhaps what you read here will alert you to the Season we are now entering. 

~ Fr. Steven

Coffee With Sister Vassa: PRAYING THE CREED

Coffee With Sister Vassa

PRAYING THE CREED

 

“I believe in God, the Father almighty…” (Beginning of the Apostles’ Creed)

I once read in an interview with the late John McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona, that he scratched these seven words from the beginning of “The Apostles’ Creed” on a wall of his tiny cell in Vietnam, where he was imprisoned and tortured for over five years. These words, this profession of faith in “God, the Father almighty,” were an important part of what kept him going in a life-threatening situation.

How many of us really pray the Creed, – either this one, or the Nicene-Constantinopolitan one, more commonly used in our Orthodox Church, – and recognize its life-sustaining power, in the face of fear? Few of us have the experience of a John McCain, but many of us know the prison that is fear, which envelops us so easily when we abandon faith. 

I’m reminded today that we have very powerful, life-affirming tools in our Tradition, like the Creed, which can lift us out of fear and re-connect us with Life. “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of all things, visible and invisible,” I say today, from the bottom of my heart, as so many have said before me, and also say with me today, amidst their fears and worries. I need not be alone in any prison today, because I can re-connect with the Triune God and others, in what is greater and beyond the walls of any prison-cell, which is faith in Him. It is also hope. It’s hope in the new life He can bring us daily through the cross-carrying Way: “I look for the resurrection of the dead,” which happens daily when we rise after our falls, “and the life of the age to come,”which is always coming, and occasionally breaking into even the darkest of our places.

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In 2025, we will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (325-2025). That means that The Creed has real "staying power," as a concise statement of the Church's universal and timeless Faith. Actually, the Creed was completed at the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, but the basis of the Creed was established in Nicea in 325, when the great breakthrough in theological terminology strengthened the Church's claim to the co-eternal status of the Son in His relationship with the Father within the life of the Trinity. And that term was homoousios ("of one [identical] essence") We will spend a good time next year reviewing the Nicene Creed in honor of that anniversary. 

I am glad that Sister Vassa turned to the late Senator John McCain as the image of a true hero who withstood the horrors of being a prisoner during the Vietnam War. I did not know this deeply-moving fact about his use of the opening of the Apostle's Creed as a statement of personal faith that sustained him during that most trying of times. John McCain returned to public life as a very honorable and respected political figure. He was an image of political integrity throughout his long career.  

'Think About These Things'

 

Icon of the Indiction

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

As we are about to embark on yet another Church New Year on September 1, this wonderful passage from The Epistle to the Philippians comes to mind (4:8-9):

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

The Apostle exhorts us to “think about these things.” That may actually take some effort on our part. For without having the time to pause and “think about these things,” we may have lost the inclination to do so. It would be spiritually hazardous to think that such virtues as enumerated here somehow come to us automatically, simply because we are “church-going” Christians. I therefore believe that it is imperative that we listen to the Apostle Paul and “think about these things” and in so doing give ourselves the opportunity to search out all that is wholesome in life. 

In this passage, St. Paul has essentially borrowed a list of virtues that were common within various Greek philosophical schools current in his lifetime. The pursuit of such virtues would lead to the “good life,” for only a life dedicated to such a pursuit would be considered worthy of living. St. Paul apparently continued to respect this centuries-old tradition. We should bear this in mind whenever confronted with other religious beliefs or serious philosophical schools of thought. As much as we may disagree with them about some fundamental issues from our Christian perspective, there is also much to be found that is honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise that are taught and promoted by these other religions and philosophies. To think otherwise would be to succumb to the temptations of a sectarian mind. A sect is a group that cannot find anything of value outside of its narrowly-defined borders. This eventually breeds some form of obscurantism and narrow-mindedness, if not eventually fanaticism. A “catholic” mind as understood by the great Church Fathers can rejoice in whatever is true even if found outside of the Church.

I recall a time when I was a seminarian, and the above theme entered into the ensuing conversation around us. Fr. John Meyendorff, the great patristic scholar, was present, and he was prompted to say: "I like to believe that Mozart will be in the Kingdom because of the beauty of the music that he created." 

At the same time, the Apostle has included this exhortation in an epistle that is thoroughly and consistently Christocentric. The living reality of Christ permeates all of St. Paul’s thoughts and actions. There is nothing that is worthy of pursuit that is outside of Christ. For the Apostle Paul nothing will be able to compare with the knowledge of Christ. And this “knowledge” is not intellectual but deeply experiential. In one of his most famous passages in Philippians (3:7-8) he writes:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse(Gk. skivala = rubbish, dung, excrement,) in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him …”

 

Anything that is of the truth somehow belongs to Christ and comes from Christ – even if not acknowledged. So the virtues that St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to pursue are found in Christ in a most preeminent form. Those virtues – though taught and found elsewhere - will find their most perfect manifestation in Christ. Yet the point remains that we can rejoice in all that is good wherever we encounter it. The Apostle assures us that with such an approach to life, the “God of peace” will be with us.

With the end of August, we have arrived at the end of the Church Year and prepare for the next. We have had every opportunity to deepen our relationship with Christ through the ongoing rhythm of fasting and feasting according to the Church liturgical calendar and, of course, in the Eucharist, the "sacrament of sacraments." The feasts of the Church and the Liturgy have actualized the presence of Christ and the Theotokos in the midst of the grace-filled life of the Church - the "sanctification of time as it has been called" - and within the depths of our minds and hearts. We have been further nurtured by the Word of God as proclaimed in the Holy Scriptures in our liturgical assemblies and in the quiet of our rooms with the door shut. As we live our lives in the surrounding world, perhaps we have been deeply and positively impacted through our human relationships, the beauty of the natural world, or an enduring work of art. 

These God-given encounters reveal to us all that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent and worthy of praise. In other words, we have had every opportunity to simply become more human - and, in becoming more human, we simultaneously draw closer to God. Further, the richness of life presupposes our ever-vigilant struggle against sin and our ongoing repentance. The Prayer of the Hours reveals to us the fruits of repentance: to "sanctify our souls, purify our bodies, correct our minds, cleanse our thoughts; and deliver us from all tribulation, evil and distress." That is indeed a great endeavor, "but with God all things are possible." (Mt. 19:27)

May the Church New Year be a blessing for everyone and for our parish community!

 

Sister Vassa: 'Why Pray to the Saints?'

 

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA

WHY PRAY TO THE “SAINTS”?

 

“…Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit. My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5: 16-20)

This passage explains not only why we should pray to the (canonized) “saints,” but also why we should ask one another for prayers, and why we should, ourselves, pray for others. The Prophet Elijah is indeed one of the greatest saints of Salvation History, but he was, nonetheless, “a man of like nature with ourselves.” On occasion Elijah demonstrated small-heartedness, and even prayed that he might die (1 Kings 19: 4), – in which case God did not “harken” to his prayer. But God did hear the “fervent” prayers of His prophet.

Thus we ask for the prayers of the “saints,” not because they were perfect, but because they were “sanctified,” that is to say, “dedicated” to God. This is also why we ask for the prayers of, and pray for, other faithful in our church-community, because we have all been “sanctified” in Holy Baptism. The extent of our or their “saint-hood” is not something we are given to judge or evaluate. But even those of us who are well aware of our own falling short in the area of “saint-hood” need not hesitate to pray fervently for others in need of prayers, because this “labor of love” for others can also “save” our own “soul from death,” and “cover a multitude of sins” of our own. Prayer for others is a “sacri-fice,” from the words “sacra” (holy) and “facere” (to make or do), or “holy making.” That is to say, we become more sanctified by praying for others, not only because this takes time and energy, but because we become more invested in the well-being of these others, when we’re investing our precious prayer-time and energy in them. Being invested in another’s well-being in this way brings us really to love them.

So, let us pray for one another, and love one another, because it’s good for all of us, both ourselves and our others! “Remembering our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.”

 

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XL — 'Glory to Thee, O God, Glory to Thee'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

'Glory to Thee, O God, Glory to Thee' (3x)

When the soul enters into the trial of spiritual aridity, or dryness, for the first time, it becomes extremely dismayed. This is especially true if there was a disciplined devotion to worship in sincerity of heart. One begins to be troubled and to wonder why this has happened and to look for the faults that may be the cause.

But spiritual aridity is not a sign of any kind of failure in a healthy relationship with God. It is only an important phase that the soul has to undergo, which may be regarded as a kind of pruning to prepare the soul for a more advanced spiritual life, not contingent upon psychological incentives or subjective pleasures....

It is therefore wrong to be upset during the phase of aridity. It is also wrong to stop praying on the pretext of finding no pleasure in prayer, for aridity is a living part of the very nature of prayer. It is able, if we accept it with contentment and understanding, to raise us to the higher stage of pure prayer, which is not contingent on emotions, sentiments, or incentives of any kind.

Thus, whenever you feel that grace seems to have abandoned you, be content with its hidden action. Rely instead on the strength of the impetus previously gained from your life with God....

The best thing to do is to accept aridity as it is and persist in spiritual activity with calm and awareness. Allow yourself to exert every effort to keep on progressing at the speed of one who travels across the desert and is never deterred by the pleasures of the city he has left behind from striding across the arid wilderness until he reaches his destination....

Spiritual trials in general are not undergone for the sake of attaining perfection, for this implies a sense of self-deification. Rather, we should submit to the sovereign purposes of God so that we may fulfill his will, for our obedience to God is the foundation of our life with him, and it is only this that leads us to perfection.

—Matthew the Poor,  Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way

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If I am not mistaken, Matthew the Poor, a very well-known and respected Coptic monk/elder, is referring by "aridity" what the spiritual tradition terms akedia. This is translated as "spiritual torpor," "listlessness," "apathy," etc. It literally means "not caring." It is a widespread spiritual condition, and not too many people - including desert-dwelling monks! - can escape its clutches. So encouraging, then, to hear how a spiritual master examines this condition and finds the providential dimension inherent in it.

A short personal note: When I was quite young, and well before I moved toward seminary and the priesthood, I encountered a small article about Matthew the Poor in Time magazine. This 20th c. desert-dwelling recluse (Egypt) really grabbed my attention at the time!

 

*** In yesterday's meditation on Phono sapiens, I failed to credit the author of the first paragraph, and hence that now rather unforgettable term. It was Matthew Gasda.