Life Along the Orthodox Way
and if I were rich one of my few luxuries would be Minnesota Twins season tickets but this whole thing with collapsing in front of the Yankees is just another form of injury, a tooth that gets pulled once a year with no painkillers.
And now on to a long winter…
why I like this commercial.
in their own way, full of a kind of simple love and gratitude. The more learned among us would poke holes in their faulty logic or misplaced theology. The simple but pious may not understand all the implications. Yet they are what they are.
When I was a child we called them the “old” hymns, old meaning for all intents and purposes the time before us. In our case it was the 19th century and the early part of the 20th. They were songs of revival, songs of personal gratitude for the presence and work of God, and songs about heaven composed in an era when people just didn’t live nearly as long as we do now and so it was a pressing topic.
Whatever else they could be, they were most often simple and direct. The voice of one loving heart sent to the Throne. People sometimes wept when they sang them and lives were changed by the words. Burdens were lifted and hope was restored. Broken people found the balm of Gilead and grace never stopped amazing.
I’ve been to Cathedrals with lovely choirs. I’ve attended Mozart’s “Requiem” and Bach’s “Passion according to St. Matthew”. All well and good yet I can hardly remember a word. Perhaps I’m not developed enough. Perhaps I have not yet risen to my Master of Divinity (what an awful name for a degree) and still have a long way to go.
Yet I remember and if the words to those “old” hymns aren’t always so capital “O” Orthodox the love they touch on is and if that’s all that remains I still will be the better for it. “Nearer my God to Thee” indeed.
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
* Refrain:
Than to be the king of a vast domain,
Or be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
I’d rather be true to His holy name
He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead
When we walk with the Lord
in the light of his word,
what a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will,
he abides with us still,
and with all who will trust and obey.
Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a burden we bear,
not a sorrow we share,
but our toil he doth richly repay;
not a grief or a loss,
not a frown or a cross,
but is blest if we trust and obey.
But we never can prove
the delights of his love
until all on the altar we lay;
for the favor he shows,
for the joy he bestows,
are for them who will trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet
we will sit at his feet,
or we’ll walk by his side in the way;
what he says we will do,
where he sends we will go;
never fear, only trust and obey.
on “Mother Churches” and “Episcopal Primacy” in the Orthodox Church. Sixteen pages worth reading from Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA.
and become “green” or else. Eco-fascism in the UK. (Warning- Graphic Images)
on the real status of Orthodoxy in the United States. Suffice it to say some of the numbers, such as the total number of Orthodox, are much less than is commonly publicized.
The one thing needful
(From the spiritual diary of St. John of Kronstadt, “My Life in Christ”)
What do I need? There is nothing on earth that I need, except that which is most essential. What do I need, what is most essential? I need the Lord, I need His grace, His kingdom within me. On earth, which is the place of my wanderings, my temporary being, there is nothing that is truly mine, everything belongs to God and is temporal, everything serves my needs temporarily. What do I need? I need true and active Christian love; I need a loving heart which takes compassion on its neighbors; I need joy over their prosperity and well-being, and sorrow over their sorrows and illnesses, their sins, failings, disorders, woes, poverty; I need warm and sincere compassion for all the circumstances of their lives, joy for those who are joyous and tears for those who are in tears. Enough of selfishness, egoism, living only for oneself and acquiring everything only for oneself: riches, pleasures, the glory of this world; enough of spiritual dying instead of living, grieving instead of rejoicing, and carrying within oneself the poison of selfishness, for selfishness is a poison that is continuously poured into our hearts by Satan. O, let me cry out with King David: Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart. Grant me, O Lord, true life, dispel the darkness of my passions, disperse their power with Thy strength, for with Thee all things are possible!
