To all of you on Thanksgiving Day and in the Advent Season!
Padre John
Author: Fr. John Chagnon
Worthy Thoughts…
Shopping — even on Black Friday — is not a sin. I do give my kids gifts. But our quasi-official start to the Christmas season sets the wrong tone. Rather than delivering us to the peace and fulfillment of a love that will never end, the Black Friday ritual hollows us out, leaving us only with a hunger that can never, ever be satisfied.
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Wisdom…
“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?” ~
G.K. Chesterton
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For Your Consideration…
But just as modern Christians “do not get the Church,” so they “do not get the Eucharist.” An individualized, democratic culture sees the Eucharist as an entitlement and the refusal of eucharistic “hospitality” to be an insult to Christian unity. The refusal of eucharistic “hospitality” is not an insult to unity – it is rather the careful and accurate expression the boundary of the Church. The scandal lies within the modern refusal to embrace the unity of the faith. The heedless “eucharistic hospitality” practiced by the denominations is simply an extension of their refusal to take the Church as a serious matter of the faith. Eucharistic hospitality is easy (and cheap) when unity itself has been emptied of meaning. The critique of Orthodox integrity with regard to the Eucharist is nothing less than an assault on the Eucharist itself.
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Wisdom…
“There is nothing impossible unto those who believe; lively and unshaken faith can accomplish great miracles in the twinkling of an eye. Besides, even without our sincere and firm faith, miracles are accomplished, such as the miracles of the sacraments; for God’s Mystery is always accomplished, even though we were incredulous or unbelieving at the time of its celebration. “Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” (Rom. 3:3). Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God’s wisdom, nor our infirmity God’s omnipotence.” —
My Life in Christ (autobiography of St. John of Kronstadt)
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There is…
only one thing I must do and that is be a Christian in the best sense of that word. Other things are important, for sure, but this is the most important thing. If I do this to the best of my ability aided by God’s grace, everything else I must do or be will find its proper place and perspective. If I fail at this everything that matters is lost.
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People Have Forgotten…
I think, that the Liturgy is a most powerful weapon in the cause of good in the world. In the Divine Liturgy we gather and collectively pray for welfare of the entire Church and the world. These collective prayers are powerful forces of good. The worship of God releases tremendous grace not just for us but for all that ails the world. When people worship God the powers of evil tremble and darkness is destroyed. When people share in the Eucharist, the very reality of Christ, they are profoundly and deeply transformed from darkness to light. The worship of God is perhaps the most revolutionary act a person can do in this sad, broken, world. No one who truly worships is left unchanged and no darkness can last forever in any place where there is worship. There are many tasks to accomplish in this world, there is much work to be done, but the most profound and powerful thing we can do, the root of all the other good things we are charged with, is the worship of God in the Liturgy and in our lives.
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I Know…
what’s going on in the world. I read the news. I’ve scanned the web. I wish things weren’t this way. So I could get mad. I could get political. I could become just another angry activist. I could be another shrill voice out there calling for one sort of revolution or another. Or I could try as best I can to live my Christian live and hope my small light will make things a little less dark. This I will try to do and perhaps that will be the change we need.
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Worth the Read…
I was looking through vestments and my mind recalled this selection from St. John Chrysostom (from Orthodox Church Fathers, a discussion of beauty and the needs of the poor). I have recently visited a number of parishes with dwindling numbers and was saddened by their state while at the same time taken with how beautiful their sanctuaries were. There was a connection, I thought, between their insularity and their present state. Their buildings were in residential areas but they connected very little with the people who had moved to the neighborhood generations after the church had been built.
We think quite often about the next big benefactor to endow a project, but it seems that we hollow our parishes out when we fail to care for the poor. St. John the Almsgiver once said, “Those whom you call poor and beggars, these I proclaim my masters and helpers. For they, and they only, are really able to help us and bestow upon us the kingdom of heaven.” When we cooperate with God in His saving plan for mankind we shine a bright, beckoning light on all near us. But, when we fail to take in those in need, we are a hospital that admits no new patients. Beautiful, but pointless.
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On Icons and Miracles…
“DO ICONS AND RELICS WORK MIRACLES?
To put this question in proper perspective, let’s consider a few other questions: Did the Ark of the Covenant work miracles (e.g. Joshua 3:15ff; 1st Samuel 4-6; 2nd Samuel 11-12)? Did the Bronze Serpent heal those bitten by snakes (Numbers 21:9)? Did the Prophet Elisha’s bones raise a man from the dead (2nd Kings 13:21)? Did St. Peter’s shadow heal the sick (Acts 5:15)? Did aprons and handkerchiefs that had touched St. Paul heal the sick and cast out evil spirits (Acts 19:12)?
The answer to these questions is, yes, in a manner of speaking. Nevertheless, to be precise, it was God who chose to work miracles through these things. In the case of the Ark and the Bronze serpent, we have images used to work miracles. God worked a miracle through the relics of the Prophet Elisha, through the shadow of a Saint, and through things that had merely touched a Saint. Why? Because God honors those who honor Him (1st Samuel 2:30), and thus takes delight in working miracles through his Saints, even by these indirect means. The fact that God can sanctify material things should come as no surprise to those familiar with Scripture. For example, not only was the Altar of the Temple holy, but anything that touched it was holy as well (Exodus 29:37). To reject the truth that God works through material things is to fall into Gnosticism.
So yes, loosely speaking, Icons can work miracles—but to be precise, it is God who works miracles through Icons, because He honors those who have honored Him.”
The Beautiful Path 