LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXIV — On Obedience

 

Dear Parish Faithful, The greatest offering we can present to the Lord is our self. We cannot do this without giving up our own will. We learn to do this through obedience, and obedience we learn through practice.... Besides fasting we have other teachers to whom we can show obedience. They meet us at every step in our daily life, if we only recognize their voices. Your wife wants you to take your raincoat with you: do as she wishes, to practice obedience. Your fellow-worker asks you to walk with her a little way: go with her to practice obedience. Wordlessly the infant asks for care and companionship: do as it wishes as far as you can, and thus practice obedience. A novice in a cloister could not find more opportunity for obedience than you in your own home. And likewise at your job and in your dealings with your neighbor. —Tito Colliander, Way of the Ascetics _____ Obedience - what an incredibly unpopular word! But read the Gospels and focus on just how totally obedient Christ is to His heavenly Father.

 

Two More Reflections on the Eclipse

 

Photo by Sarah Holiday, shared by Nuns of Holy Transfiguration

Dear Parish Faithful,

I have received two new reflections on yesterday's solar eclipse, and wanted to share them with the parish. 

First, this from Erin Settles, a wonderful "first-hand" witness! I am further aware that others in the parish witnessed the total eclipse. I liked her description of the great difference between witnessing a total eclipse compared to a partial eclipse. We were impressed with what we saw, but we missed the "real thing!"

Fr. Steven
____

Hi Fr Steven! 

I just read your email about the solar eclipse, and wanted of offer a few thoughts and observations. 

I traveled with Spencer, the kids, and my mother to Indianapolis to be in the path of totality for the eclipse. Spencer and I saw the 2017 eclipse, and were completely amazed, so we knew we wanted to try as hard as we could to see this one. John was only a baby then, and I hoped very much that he would get to see this one, since he is now almost 8 and would be able to appreciate it. I wanted my mom to be able to see it as well. For a while, forecasts were predicting cloud cover for our location, but John and I partnered in daily prayers regarding eclipse visibility, and are overjoyed that the Lord granted our request to have an unobscured view at the moment of totality!

In 2017, I read a quote by someone who said that the difference between a total eclipse and a partial eclipse is like the difference between dying and almost dying. I found that to be absolutely true. Things change dramatically in the last minute before totality, and when 100% eclipse is achieved, you are able to witness something unlike anything I have ever seen. There is a complete metamorphosis in that instant. The sunindeed appears to be “black as sackcloth,” with a stark, white, flower-like corona around it. There are 360 degrees of sunset surrounding you, and stars in the darkest part of the sky. It is an otherworldly vision that causes me, as a Christian, to praise the Creator for gifting us with such wonders.

And as I was praying that my family would be allowed to behold this particular wonder, I also prayed that it would serve as a witness to everyone who saw it that our world has been made “just so.” The type of solar eclipse we can experience on Earth is unique among the planets: our moon is unusually large compared to other planets’ moons, and while it is about 400 times smaller than the sun, it is also 400 times closer to us than the sun, so that the two objects appear almost exactly the same size in the sky. Not only that, but the moon’s orbit allows it to pass in front of the sun in such a way that it covers it precisely, blocking out 100% of its light, while still allowing its ghostly white atmosphere, the corona, to be plainly visible, which is the only time we are able to see it. If one’s mind is open to the idea, a total solar eclipse is a wonderful opportunity to see the fine tuning of what can seem to be a random universe.

My family will remember the eclipse of 2024 as an example of answered prayer, a demonstration of the beauty God lavishes on creation, a testament to His care in ordering the heavens, and a memorable time of excitement and adventure for our family.

Praise be to God in all things!

Erin Settles

_____

I also received this last night from our good friend, Mother Paula. You may want to look at the photos that the monastic mothers and sisters were able to take. Pretty impressive. I am glad that they made the trip and were able to enjoy the majesty of the eclipse!

Dear family and friends,

Some of us were blessed to travel to a state park in Garrettsville, Ohio east of Cleveland today to see the eclipse in its totality.

We enjoyed hiking on the Rocky trails, having a picnic lunch and then watching the beautiful eclipse.
Hope you will enjoy The photos.

God is wonderful in all his works!

Yours in Christ,

Mother Paula
OMT nuns

Here's the link to our photo album for today

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Tpih2w226yv69Ltp6

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXIII — The Solar Eclipse

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

"And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night."  (Gen. 1:16)

“There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world.”  — Annie Dillard, describing her experience of the 1979 eclipse from a vantage point in central Washington State

"Most of our communal enthusiasms these days are human-made: the Oscars, the Super Bowl, the election, the new Beyoncé album. A total solar eclipse is a product of the natural world. It happens without elaborate stagecraft, without any outlay of capital. For this reason alone, it’s a rare occurrence. And there won’t be another in the United States until 2044."  — Melissa Kirsch of the NY Times

The current fascination - if not obsession - with yesterday's total solar eclipse is in itself a very interesting phenomenon. One issue, at least, is the question of motivation: What was behind the movement of an untold number of people all through Mexico and North America who did everything in their power to see as much of the eclipse as possible? Perhaps some of you traveled further north yesterday for that even more "total experience." As to motivation, we have astronomers/scientists, of both the actual and the "backyard" variety, who "live" for such moments. I can only imagine their mounting anticipation in the closing hours of the countdown. And I can only hope that their expectations were met, if not perhaps surpassed. There are countless human beings who are drawn to any and all of the different phenomena in the world of nature, both terrestrial and in the heavens above. Because of how rare it is, a total eclipse is then an event awaited for with great excitement. 

Then, there are theistic persons who are awed by God's omnipotent authority over the cosmos; and who desire to always glorify the "the Maker of heaven and earth and of all things both visible and invisible." The eclipse could have accentuated that impulse toward the glorification of God. Or, there are "religious" people who are determined to find a foreboding "sign" in the eclipse, even if it means embracing wild and baseless apocalyptic speculation, usually of the "doomsday" variety, and based on an offensive misappropriation of the Scriptures. And then, there are the countless multitudes drawn to the eclipse out of a curiosity to witness and participate with others in a rare spectacle drawing us closer for a few precious minutes in a communal experience - mingling shoulder-to-shoulder with our political and cultural rivals as we share a rare moment of peaceful co-existence as members of the human race! I was probably somewhere in that particular mix.

I stood outside the house with Presvytera Deborah and with neighbors up and down the block gazing upward with our solar eclipse glasses protecting us from the power of the sun. In fact, and perhaps strangely, I was equally impressed by just how light it still remained even though about 98% of the sun was covered by the moon here in Cincinnati. What a powerful source of light and energy! There is some real logic to the "solar worship" of days gone by. It was the cult of sol invictus that drew the Emperor Constantine toward monotheism and even the Christian revelation in the fourth century. And then it was over and we returned to the house and the mundane events of a typical day. All-in-all, a bit anti-climatic, but then again we did not witness the effect of a total eclipse and the surreal effect of total darkness for a few minutes in the middle of the day. The images that I later saw were quite impressive. Is that what Annie Dillard was describing in the passage above? And perhaps was that your experience? 

Doing a bit of follow-up reading on the subject, I came across a few voices that expressed some of the motivation and anticipation to behold the eclipse. In one article, I heard the voice of someone called Ali. She said the following: “I’m not a spiritual person. I don’t usually think about the bigger picture of what we’re swimming in. But I felt that at the eclipse. I had a sense that I’m this one person in this huge thing.” Ali further added: “Sometimes, the things that we’re not in control of are really beautiful. It’s not just bad things.” To use an astronomical term, that just may be appropriate in this context, was Ali and countless "non-spiritual" observers of the total eclipse somehow "orbiting" around the notion of a cosmos of not just intrinsic beauty, but of "something" purposeful, structured and designed? Were they longing for something or "Someone" that they cannot quite find the words for, but Who remains paradoxically present in His perceived absence? 

Just what is the "bigger picture?" Or, just what are we "swimming in?" I am hoping that it is not a hauntingly beautiful, but yet empty cosmos utterly devoid of any transcendent presence. Not to crash the party, but without God, I cannot but wonder what anything is really "about," including cosmic phenomena. Random beauty can both attract, but also evoke a certain dread on another, more intuitive level - the level of meaning. I am certainly not denying the meaningfulness of any distinct person's experience of the eclipse regardless of their worldview. And that would include the older man I saw briefly on the television who could not speak because he was weeping so hard when interviewed about what he witnessed. But on a day on which we literally looked up from our earthbound concerns, I think that many of us cannot but turn our minds to the "God question." Is everything around us - on earth below or in the heavens above - God-sourced or self-sourced?

At every Vespers service, when singing or chanting Psalm 104, we glorify our Creator for the magnificence and abundance of His creation: "Thou hast made the moon to mark the seasons, the sun knows its time for setting." (v.19) These two great "lights" are God's handiwork, effortlessly brought into existence by God's uttered Word and perfected by God's Spirit. These two lights were brought to our attention yesterday, and regardless of how momentarily, I do hope that it evoked a sense of awe from our limited vantage point. Or, perhaps we can simply say, together with Mireya Munez of Mexico: “I wanted to thank God because we are alive and He allowed us to see it,” she said. “I hope to be alive to see the next one, too.”

O LORD, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom has thou made them all. (v. 24)

Fr. Steven

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXII — The Midpoint and the Cross

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

The meaning of all this is clear. We are in mid-Lent. On the one hand, the physical and spiritual effort, if it is serious and consistent, begins to be felt, its burden becomes more burdensome, our fatigue more evident. We need help and encouragement. 

On the other hand, having endured this fatigue, having climbed the mountain up to this point, we begin to see the end of our pilgrimage, and the rays of Easter grow in their intensity. Lent is our self-crucifixion, our experience, limited as it is, of Christ’s commandment heard in the gospel lesson of that Sunday: If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8.34). But we cannot take up our cross and follow Christ unless we have his Cross which he took up in order to save us. It is his Cross, not ours, that saves....

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

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent

_____

This fine passage from Fr. Schmemann prepares us for the second half of Great Lent. We hope and pray that there is still something "in the tank" as the original zeal and commitments for these "all revered days" perhaps begins to wane. It is precisely because the Cross of Christ saves us that we are privileged to sing at every Liturgy: "For through the Cross, joy has come into the world." That joy is sourced in the following: When Jesus prepares His disciples for the Cross (Mk. 8:31; 9:31-32; 10:33-34), He also simultaneously reveals to them, that "after three days he will rise."

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XX — Saturdays in Lent, and the Ultimate Goal

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Sabbath, the day of Creation, the day of [the goodness of] “this world,” became—in Christ—the day of expectation, the day before the Lord’s Day.... 

[Saturday is] a day of feast and a day of death. It is a feast because it is in this world and in its time that Christ overcame death and inaugurated his kingdom, because his incarnation, death, and Resurrection are the fulfillment of creation in which God rejoiced at the beginning. It is a day of death because in Christ’s death the world died, and its salvation, fulfillment, and transfiguration are beyond the grave, in the “age to come.”... 

During Lent this meaning of Saturdays acquires a special intensity, for the purpose of Lent is precisely to recover the Christian meaning of time as preparation and pilgrimage and of the status of the Christian as “alien” and “exile” in this world (1 Peter 2.11). These Saturdays refer to the lenten effort to the future fulfillment and thus give Lent its special rhythm. On the one hand, Saturday in Lent is a “eucharistic” day marked by the celebration of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, and Eucharist always means feast. The peculiar character of that feast, however, is that it refers to Lent itself as journey, patience, and effort and thus becomes a “stopover” whose purpose is to make us reflect on the ultimate goal of that journey.

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent

_____

A wonderful passage from Fr. Alexander on this "Memorial Saturday," on which we are commemorating our departed loved ones.