“He who has a voracious stomach always has dreams that annoy his heart. But he, who reduces eating, becomes clear hearted. As the sky is getting dark when cloudy, so the mind also is darkened when the stomach is getting full of food.”
Category: Faith
Lent is a…
kind of war. If you participate in it at all you’ll realize how counter cultural the whole thing is, how defiant it is of the prevailing order of things. In a gluttonous culture you decide to fast. In a promiscuous culture you stand for chastity. In a consumerist culture you decide to share. In a culture of immediacy you choose to see eternity. Face it, Lent is making war on just about everything American pop society values.
So why should you be surprised when the whole thing decides to push back? Think of the sheer amount of money invested in you being promiscuous, gluttonous, greedy, and self-centered. Whole industries would collapse if the spirit of Lent caught on in the general population. Important people would lose their jobs. Politicians would be out of power. A whole political – economic system that thrives on human depravity would fall into disuse.
That’s why it’s easier to stigmatize you as a relic, someone out of touch with the “real” world, a throwback to a less civilized time. If someone asks questions they may not get the answers our world has predetermined to be correct. If someone stands back from the whole mess and sees that it really is a mess they might consider opting out. If the emperor really is naked then the people selling us invisible clothes will stop having their sway. What will the plantation owner do if the slaves taste freedom and decide to act on it?
So they tell you its a burden, an unrealistic expectation, even a kind of oppression. Lent is warfare. Lent is the animal looking up from trough and slaughter and seeing the sun beyond the pen. Lent is the realization there is so much more than toys and games and endless work to pay for it all. For the price of a little less food we get to see eternity. For the sacrifice of moments we would waste in front of the TV we get to experience the presence of God. For 40 days, we get to taste authentic life, which is what, when you boil it down, the Kingdom of God actually is.
Yet don’t except this without a fight. Your soul is on the line and you can give it to God or sell it on the open market for the next new gadget.
Do the right thing.
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Wisdom for Lent
Beware of limiting the good of fasting to mere abstinence from meats. Real fasting is alienation from evil. ‘Loose the bands of wickedness.’ Forgive your neighbor the mischief he has done you. Forgive him his trespasses against you. Do not ‘fast for strife and debate.’ You do not devour flesh, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but you indulge in outrages. You wait for evening before you take food, but you spend the day in the law courts. Woe to those who are ‘drunken, but not with wine.’ Anger is the intoxication of the soul, and makes it out of its wits like wine.
St. Basil, in his homilies on the Holy Spirit
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Wisdom for Lent…
† Abba Joseph asked Abba Poemen: “How should we fast?” And Abba Poemen said: “I myself think it’s good to eat every day a little at a time so as not to get full.” Abba Joseph said: “Well, when you were young, didn’t you used to fast for two days at a time?” And the old man said: “Believe me, indeed I did, for three days, and even a week. But the great elders tried all of this, and found that it is good to eat every day a little less each time. In this way, they showed us the royal highway, for it is light and easy.” Abba Poemen teaches us that we should be careful not to undertake efforts too great for us. It is better to make slow and steady progress with moderate efforts than to become discouraged or to miss the goal altogether with efforts too great for us.
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Romans 12…
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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Desert Fathers in Lent…
There were two old men who dwelt together for many years and who never quarreled. Then one said to the other: “Let us pick a quarrel with each other like other men do.” “I do not know how quarrels arise,” answered his companion. So the other said to him: “Look, I will put a brick down here between us and I will say ‘This is mine.’ Then you can say ‘No it is not, it is mine.’ Then we will be able to have a quarrel.” So they placed the brick between them and the first one said: “This is mine.”His companion answered him: “This is not so, for it is mine.” To this, the first one said: “If it is so and the brick is yours, then take it and go your way.” And so they were not able to have a quarrel.
Read more here.
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Wise Thoughts Before Lent…
What then? some one will say: ‘We have been beguiled and are lost. Is there then
no salvation left? We have fallen: Is it not possible to rise again? We have been
blinded: May we not recover our sight? We have become crippled: Can we never walk
upright? In a word, we are dead: May we not rise again?’ He that woke Lazarus who
was four days dead and already stank, shall He not, O man, much more easily raise
thee who art alive? He who shed His precious blood for us, shall Himself deliver
us from sin. Let us not despair of ourselves, brethren; let us not abandon
ourselves to a hopeless condition. For it is a fearful thing not to believe in a
hope of repentance.
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It’s a Saturday of Souls…
the time when we remember in Liturgy those who have left this life, and among the greatest gifts of Orthodoxy was the return of people I loved who’ve traveled ahead. No longer were they gone until “some day”. No longer did they become strangers to me simply because they had gone to be with Christ. Those precious people who had walked with me in life also, in a special and unique way, continued to be my companions.
It’s as simple, really, as Moses and Elijah appearing with Jesus at the Transfiguration and speaking about what was to come. It was apparent as the rich man, who even in his lonely and doomed state, had the capacity to care for his still living brothers. It came to mind when God was called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the living. It was in the prayer of the martyrs around the throne, alive, awake, aware, and asking God for justice in the world that violently expelled them.
Somewhere, just beyond my vision, are those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, alive, conscious, and mystically able to remember those who are still running the race. They are the great cloud of witnesses and how could they be witnesses if they could not somehow, by the grace of God, see, understand, and remember us? No, they are not mediators, there is only one, Christ. Yet they are friends and even death cannot stop them from being my brothers and sisters in Jesus. Even death cannot keep them from praying for me and me praying for them.
Where is the sting of death, ultimately, when those who rest in Christ are so near? Where is loneliness when even those who have left us for a little while still remember as we remember? Those who loved me love me still. Those who have passed away remain my family. Those who live in the nearer presence of Christ have not forgotten me, or you, or the world. Until, and after, the day I join them I will have this gift, this comfort, a never ending Saturday of Souls.
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Someone Once Said…
“Enter into Orthodoxy walking forward and singing and not walking backward and shouting.”
I’ve been many places on my way to Orthodoxy and all of them, even the crazy ones, were a necessary part of the journey. The people who were there, the people who mentored me, who cared for me, who taught me, all of them were part of the plan. Even the mistakes I made were steps along the way. When I made it through the gates of Orthodoxy there was no reason to vilify everything that had gone before or the people who were along the path. After all, they helped me get where I am and for that I am grateful.
So, if you’re somewhere along the way cherish each moment and each person. For the present they may not be traveling on the same road but they are now and always will be a part of your life. Its the same with the places and parishes along the way. You don’t have to prove you’re Orthodox by flinging curses on your own history. Thank God for where you are, pray for everyone, and enter the gates with joy.
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Wisdom from St. John of Kronstadt…
With death all will be taken from us, all earthly goods, riches, beauty of body and raiment, spacious dwellings, etc., but the virtue of the soul, that incorruptible raiment, shall remain with us eternally.
The Beautiful Path 