The air is cool tonight…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

and children wander the streets in costume. The game is on TV but its just sound and noise. Everything that matters is far away and lost in time.

I’m back home, a child again in Wausau, running from house to house collecting candy. Laughter floats in the air and neighbors pretend they don’t know who we are. Tomorrow is school and stories of the collection, but tonight is about magic of a kind found only in an innocence lost and far away.

Too soon the world comes, a ghoul without a mask. Too soon cool nights become winter. Too soon we find ourselves far away from the child within. The world of deadlines and jobs and the knowledge of good and evil keeps pushing backward through time and we are caught up in it before we notice. The child, the hometown, the friends forever all gone.

It’s all I can do this Halloween night to stop from driving my car east and seeing if anyone is still home. A fool’s errand for sure because the world is the world and there are no magical nights left for anyone, even children. Yet for the sake for the sake of the dream. For the sake of the dream…

Psalm 121…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment
A Song of Ascents.

1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Psalm 63…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

1O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

2To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

3Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

4Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

5My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

6When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

7Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

8My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

9But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

10They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.

11But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

Some thoughts…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

I’m tired, sad, perplexed, sometimes angry, and not a whole lot make sense right now. I wish things were different but they’re not. In other words I’m grieving.

Yet I’m not going to give up on Orthodoxy. I’m not going to stop serving where I can. Even if I’m not sure which people I can trust I know I can trust God. Though I’m not sure I like Church right now I know where its been and where, eventually, it is going and so I hope to stay close. Somewhere along the line the things which look so dark and hazy at the present will clear up and the best I can do right now is keep my face towards the Light and try to move towards morning.

I’ve been serving people in ministry for a quarter century and I can only think of a few times that I have felt as overwhelmed as these past days. Yet I know from all those years that God’s good cannot be denied and weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. I’m learning again that princes of any kind are seldom worth my complete trust but God is and in my prayers, my silences, my perplexities, my angry moments and whatever is to come there will be a still small voice with the directions to help me find my way home.

Lord give me the faith to see wherever You are and the courage to follow.

A Word…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

of thanks and gratitude to Bishop Mark on this last weekend of his official capacity as a Bishop in the Antiochian Archdiocese. I am grateful for your listening and your care. I appreciate the fact that you didn’t ignore the little or the distant churches in your diocese. I am glad that I never felt like I was a tool in your greater plan. I am impressed by your courage. Our loss will be the OCA’s gain and those of us who understand will not forget. Axios!

Another Childhood Hymn…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

A Question…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

arises in everything that has happened and is happening in the life of the Antiochian Archdiocese. Is this of Christ? Is what’s coming down, as it were, from the top and what is coming up from below matching the example of Christ? Is how we, and I, relate to each other in all of this full of the presence of Christ? If everyone involved in all of these things were to look in the mirror and see the face they present to the world and each other would it be the face of Christ?

The Scriptures, the creeds, the canons, our polity, the sum of our Tradition, none of it is an end to itself and all exist to assist us in becoming like Christ, to being joined with Him. Outside of that purpose they can easily become grotesque caricatures. We, too, can become deformed from the image of Christ to the extent we lose touch with, and live outside of, this truth.

In the end seeking to know where our Lord is in all of this and seeking to be what and who He would have us be will be the only right path through and out of what is happening. Choose it and these events, hard as they are, will be a tough but needed step forward. Ignore this and the days, months, and years ahead will be full and overwhelming with dark potentials.