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.
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.
Read the rest here…
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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.”
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On Helping Others…
“Helping a person in need is good in itself. But the degree of goodness is hugely affected by the attitude with which it is done. If you show resentment because you are helping the person out of a reluctant sense of duty, then the person may receive your help but may feel awkward and embarrassed. This is because he will feel beholden to you. If,on the other hand, you help the person in a spirit of joy, then the help will be received joyfully. The person will feel neither demeaned nor humiliated by your help, but rather will feel glad to have caused you pleasure by receiving your help. And joy is the appropriate attitude with which to help others because acts of generosity are a source of blessing to the giver as well as the receiver.”
St. John Chrysostom
h/t to Deacon John
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What Do I Need…
The one thing needful
(From the spiritual diary of St. John of Kronstadt, “My Life in Christ”)
(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!
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To Be Tempted…
is not to be a failure. All the great Saints, even Jesus Himself, were tempted. Too many times people think the presence of temptations is a sign they are failing but temptations are just that, pieces of thought that flow in and around us and mean nothing, in one sense, except that we are human beings who share the common mortality of our kind on this Earth. What matters is what we do with those random pieces of thought. Do we cultivate them, nurture them, and act on them? Then, and only then, do they have the potential to become sin and do us, and others, harm.
That being said I still wish temptations would go away. I find them annoying in the least and paralyzing, sometimes, at worst. Any moments of peace from their assault is a gift and those slender moments when all of who I am is in some state of holiness are treasures. I wither, sometimes, under the assault of temptation, and sometimes, too often, I fall. I desperately wish that life would be free of such things yet even those who live as hermits are not immune. So this seems to be part of what it is to be a human and I will have these things buzzing around my head like gnats until my last breath.
Still truth remains and I will try not to despair. To follow this beautiful path is to be challenged on all sides every day by everything that is less beautiful, less good, and less real. In time the peace will come. Its not what flies around me that matters so much as that which I embrace. In the end there is some comfort in that and some hope, as well.
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If It Were Up to Me…
I would just sit this morning, sit and let the services flow over me. Close my eyes and listen to the words. Hear the music and ponder the presence. To step away for a time would be to see the mystery and beauty of the dance without the loss of wonder that comes with the earthy business of choreography, of steps that have to be taken, of charts and diagrams and directions and rubrics.
I ponder what it must be like to be a Bishop at times, to nearly always come in to parishes that struggle with the hows and whys and where’s of worship on that one Sunday, for them, of the year. For a parish this is a challenge to be overcome. For a Bishop this is every Sunday. How do they themselves see the beauty and holiness of what they are doing when they are constantly giving directions, answering questions, and saying “Stand there, sit there, move to this place.”
In some ways it’s a blessing to have an iconostasis, a shield to protect those who stand without from the chaos that sometimes is within. For those who celebrate, the time spent behind those sacred walls is time to snatch glimpses of the holy, snippets of worship, and flashes of the beauty of what is happening all around them, the beauty that drove them to become celebrants in the first place. It’s as if when one circles the altar in ordination they are also sacrificing, for their lives, the ability to completely bask in that which brought them to the altar in the first place. From this day forward you will be directing altar boys, making sure you are on the right page, dealing with people who come into the sanctuary unannounced, and answering questions in the middle of prayers.
Perhaps, in the end, this is the ultimate offering of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, the temporary suspension of ever having a complete moment of reverence and awe so that others could have it if they so choose. On earth we are asked to catch glimpses, in heaven, in the presence of the Priest, we will be able to live and worship as we desire. Yet love even for the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table somehow keeps us going.
And now off to Liturgy.
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The Dry Times Come…
and the past few months have been dry, restless, challenging, and spiritually thin. There are things that I’ve wanted to do for decades that still haven’t happened and things I need to do that I’m not crazy about. There are places where I am and places where I want to be. There are dreams that remain unfulfilled and realities that have worn me down. Woven in and through it all is the sense that time is short and growing shorter.
These things happen, even when you’re a Priest. No collar makes you immune from the cares of life, or, for that matter, a heavy dose of mid-life crisis. Like everyone else you ask questions, wonder if you did or are doing the right thing, and sometimes ponder the life that could have been if you had, say, went to law school instead of seminary.
So what do you do? Like anyone else you figure out what things you can do something about and in what order they can be done. Then you pray and think and work and risk and second guess. All the kinds of things that everyone else does. Oh, and you hope that the dry times will someday end, someday feel the first drops of holy rain on the parched earth of your soul.
They do, they will, but until then you wait.
The Beautiful Path 