Tag: prayers

A Letter to the President…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

Sent to the White House today…

Dear Mr. President,

Presidents lead in many ways and my encouragement, as a pastor and citizen, would be for you to seize the opportunity to lead in something so crucial to our country at the present moment, civility.

I know there are a lot of loud voices out there and I’m not one of them. I’m just the pastor of a medium sized church in Wisconsin that has seen my parishioners get caught up in the swirl of harsh words and angry feelings so typical of our American politics as of late and I see the weariness in their souls as the kinds of structures we so need to keep our country together have frayed under the stress of harsh political rhetoric and unchecked emotions.

Yes, we do need to make America great again, but we need to do that together and that means we have to find a way to build bridges and find common ground. If our political and social discourse has degraded to name calling and stereotypes so many truly important things will be left undone, things you would like to do as well, and this great American experiment will die not with a whimper but a scream.

I have a small pulpit, you have the largest one, the honor and office of President of our great nation. I pray for you always and all of our civil authorities as is common to my Orthodox Christian faith, and I truly wish God’s grace on everyone in political office. In that spirit I would encourage you to both lead and leave a legacy.

Take the initiative regardless of what others may say or do and speak nobly, honorably, and with words that would uplift us all, even those who may not agree with you. Someone has to be the first to be the better man, to take the higher road, and to do the work of unity and I believe you have that capability within you.

Then, in doing so, you’ll leave a legacy not of love/hate but rather of respect for both you and the office of President. We so need that again and 100 years from now when people look back on you and your legacy your determination to be a Christian gentleman in the best sense of that word could be just the gift you could leave to all of us, a legacy of being, in a time of verbal and social chaos, a leader, the one who’s love for country was expressed in calm, assured, and eloquent speech just at the time when things looked like they were going to fall apart.

Again, please be assured of my prayers for you and all of our civil authorities. Those prayers are not political or partisan but rather reflect a deep wish that God would grant wisdom, peace, and good judgement to everyone in political office and they’ll continue in both my personal and parish life as they have for centuries in our Orthodox Christian tradition.

May God grant you grace, peace, health, safety, and wisdom in both your personal and public life.

In Christ,

Fr John Chagnon

Prayers by the Lake…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

You pour out light over the darkness, Lord, and colors and shapes emerge. You bend Your face over the abyss, whose name is Nothingness, and the abyss tries to depict the beauty of Your face in shadows. All creation expresses You the way the abyss dreams of You.

My lake is also beautiful while the peaceful face of the sun remains bent over it. And all those who pass by praise the beauty of my lake. But as soon as the sun hides its face, my lake becomes dark and abysmal. And no passerby ever offers any praise for the lake except in the presence of the sun or the sun’s radiant companions.

The face of the abyss intoxicates those who do not see the sun bent over the abyss. The beauty of things begins when an onlooker bends his face over them. There is no mirror if there is no face in front of the mirror. But even a face in front of a mirror means nothing if there is no light.

In the light of Your face I pay no attention to any creature. Without You, creatures and I would not be mirrors of one another, but rather darkness, and an abyss, and an opaque chill.

Creation distorts Your beauty the way a dream distorts reality. Creation torments me just as dreams torment me. For what is creation except dreams of Your inexpressible Reality?

My neighbors say: “We have dreamed beautiful dreams.” The universe is my witness when I tell you that you are more beautiful than your dreams. The universe also dreams, and cannot dream enough about its own beauty. O my sleepy universe: as long as a dream dreams a dream, one dream is afraid of another, even if one dream seeks an interpreter and comforter in another. Who is prophesying to whom: the dream to reality or reality to the dream?

O my beautiful universe: dream of Reality and Reality will tell you everything. Admit the Reality, of which you are a dream, and you will awaken, and will no longer ramble about beauty, but will be Beauty. There is only one Reality and only one Beauty, and it is the reason for your dream.

Do not tell me, children, about the beauty of the stars. If the Lord withdrew Himself from the stars, your mouths would be struck dumb. Stand in the thick darkness by my lake and try to sing to it. Truly you will be struck dumb and remain silent until the sun dawns, until the sun pours its beauty over the lake and gives your speechless throat its voice.

Your face pours beauty over all creation. The universe swims in Your beauty as a boat swims in the sea. And when You bend over cold ashes, the ashes are transfigured and receive a face.
Bring my heart to its senses, my Lord, so that it may not be captivated by mortal beauty but by You, my Immortal Beauty.
O my only Beauty!
Allow me to see Your Face, just more and more–of Your Face.