23/03/07 week of the 4th Sunday in Lent
[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT. PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CHRISTIANITY. THANK YOU]
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Blessed are those for whom Easter is...
not a hunt, but a find;
not a greeting, but a proclamation;
not outward fashions, but inward grace;
not a day, but an eternity.
Collect
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 95* & 102; Psalm 107:1-32; Jer. 23:1-8; Rom. 8:28-39; John 6:52-59
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Romans 8:28-39. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul asserts that nothing--in life or in death--can separate us from the love of God. In baptism we are "sealed by the Holy Spirit...and marked as Christ's own for ever."
These promises aren't some kind of "insurance" against human suffering, but something more and far deeper: they offer us a permanent place in Christ's extended family and the assurance that God's love will outlast anything we do or that is done to us. For ever. For eternity. We belong. We are loved.
As members of Christ's family and recipients of God's astonishingly generous love, we have the responsibilities that come with all relational living: to honor and help one another, to ask and offer forgiveness, to share sorrows and celebrations.
How much easier all this would be if we actually awoke every morning remembering that, by the grace of God, we do belong, we are loved--because that's the gospel truth!
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Gregory the Illuminator
Psalm 33:6-11 or 98:1-4; Acts 17:22-31; Matthew 5:11-16
Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Gregory the Illuminator to be a light in the world, and to preach the Gospel to the people of Armenia: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Mumias (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
26. HELP A CHILD IN SCHOOL
THURS 22 MAR
Buy a desk and chair, or school dinners for 100 children, or even pay for text books for a whole class of children who need them. All available from Oxfam Unwrapped:
http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com
Idea by: frin
Lent quote: "Faith is a living, restless thing. It cannot do nothing. We are not saved by works; but if we do no works, there must be something wrong with our faith." – Martin Luther
++++++++++
A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
There are people we like
and those we do not
but the difficult situations arise
when those we love turn against us
for no logical reason
We are hurt and angry at such betrayal
when someone who has shared our lives
should now use that knowledge against us.
It is a broken relationship, Lord
almost impossible to repair.
That you should share bread and wine
at the same table as Judas
knowing the secrets of his heart
That you could share your love
knowing what was to follow
on the road to Calvary
defies our human understanding.
And yet, Lord this is the road
you would have us follow
the road that leads to the cross
the road that only makes sense
when seen through your eyes
the road of sacrificial love
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
She lived in solitude, and now in Solitude has built her nest; and in Solitude her beloved alone guides her, who also bears in solitude the wound of love.
St John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, 35.
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
Some brethren came one day to test him to see whether he would let his thoughts get dissipated and speak of the things of this world. They said to him 'We give thanks to God that this year there has been much rain and the palm trees have been able to drink, and their shoots have grown, and the brethren have found manual work.' Abba John said to them, 'So it is when the Holy Spirit descends into the hearts of men; they are renewed and they put forth leaves in the fear of God.'
++++++++++
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
Rabban Shime'on ben Gamliel said, On three things the world stands; on Judgment, and on Truth, and on Peace.
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
A friend is more than a therapist or a confessor, even though a friend can sometimes heal us and offer us God's forgiveness.
A friend is that other person with whom we can share our solitude, our silence, and our prayer. A friend is that other person with whom we can look at a tree and say, "Isn't that beautiful," or sit on the beach and silently watch the sun disappear under the horizon. With a friend we don't have to say or do something special. With a friend we can be still and know that God is there with both of us.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Twenty Three - The First Note, cont'd
Humility confesses that we have nothing that we have not received and admits the fact of our insufficiency and our dependence upon God. It is the basis of all Christian virtues. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said, "No spiritual house can stand for a moment except on the foundation of humility." It is the first condition of a joyful life within any community.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
THINK OF SOME SITUATION ahead of you in which you may be in a difficult encounter with another. Ask the living Christ to go ahead of you to prepare that place for you, so that when you get there, in time you will feel the welcome and the special strength God gives. Think of yourself or envision yourself surrounded with God’s light, breathing God’s breath, giving yourself a space for listening, reflecting, then acting out of that center of inner strength. …
Give thanks to God that a deep change already is working within you. God’s gentle, radical power is re-creating you.
- Flora Slosson Wuellner
Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey
From page 62 of Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey by Flora Slosson Wuellner. Copyright © 2001 by Flora Slosson Wuellner.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Love Challenges the Beloved"
Humans do not want a God of love, because a love always makes demands. That is the very nature of love and humanity doesn't want it. We seek to hide from it and destroy it. So people sought to destroy Jesus, brother to creation. Jesus did not have to be a great prophet to see the handwriting on the wall, to see that his word was not being received. The people did not want relationship; they wanted religion. Should that seem so unreal to us? It is the same for us today. It is the same for the Church for the last two thousand years. Humans do not want love relationships; we want religion and all its trappings because that is much more comfortable. A love relationship continues to challenge and make demands. It also offers a joy that we cannot tolerate: too near, too lavish, too spacious. What might we do with such freedom? It's easier just to go to church.
from The Great Themes of Scripture
++++++++++
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.htm
Mercy and fullness of redemption
How perfect I might think myself, how advanced in wisdom, if only I could qualify as a true disciple of Jesus crucified, for God has made him not only our wisdom but also our righteousness, our holiness, and our freedom! If anyone is nailed to the cross with Christ he is altogether wise, righteous, holy, and free. Wise, because he has been raised with Christ above the earth, and now seeks and understands the things of heaven; righteous, because sin has been put to death in him and he is no longer enslaved to it; holy, because he has offered himself to God as a living sacrifice, consecrated and acceptable to him; free, because the Son of God has redeemed him, and in freedom of spirit he can now boldly repeat the Son's confident words: The prince of this world is on his way, but he has no claim on me.
Truly there is mercy and fullness of redemption with our crucified Lord. So completely has he redeemed Israel from all its iniquity that it is now acquitted of any accusation that the prince of this world could make against it.
Guerric of Igny
++++++++++
Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
AM I CARNALLY MINDED?
"Whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal?" 1 Corinthians 3:3
No natural man knows anything about carnality. The flesh lusting against the Spirit that came in at regeneration, and the Spirit lusting against the flesh, produces carnality. "Walk in the Spirit," says Paul, "and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh"; and carnality will disappear.
Are you contentious, easily troubled about trifles? "Oh, but no one who is a Christian ever is!" Paul says they are, he connects these things with carnality. Is there a truth in the Bible that instantly awakens petulance in you? That is a proof that you are yet carnal. If sanctification is being worked out, there is no trace of that spirit left.
If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He does not ask you to put it right; He asks you to accept the light, and He will put it right. A child of the light confesses instantly and stands bared before God; a child of the darkness says - "Oh, I can explain that away." When once the light breaks and the conviction of wrong comes, be a child of the light, and confess, and God will deal with what is wrong; if you vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.
What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone it is the most real thing imaginable. God will see that you have any number of opportunities to prove to yourself the marvel of His grace. The practical test is the only proof. "Why," you say, "if this had happened before, there would have been the spirit of resentment!" You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 43: On Those Who Come Late to the Work of God or to Table
Anyone who does not come to table before the verse,
so that all together may say the verse and the oration
and all sit down to table at the same time --
anyone who
through his own carelessness or bad habit
does not come on time
shall be corrected for this up to the second time.
If then he does not amend,
he shall not be allowed to share in the common table,
but shall be separated from the company of all
and made to eat alone,
and his portion of wine shall be taken away from him,
until he has made satisfaction and has amended.
And let him suffer a like penalty who is not present
at the verse said after the meal.
And let no one presume
to take any food or drink
before or after the appointed time.
But if anyone is offered something by the superior
and refuses to take it,
then when the time comes
that he desires what he formerly refused
or something else,
let him receive nothing whatever
until he has made proper satisfaction.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
In a world of fast food drive-in restaurants, multiple family schedules and three-car garages, the family meal has taken a decided second place in the spiritual and social formation of the culture. In Benedictine spirituality, however, the sacramental value of a meal in which the human concern we promise daily at the altar is demonstrated in the dining room where we prepare and serve and clean up after one another. The Rule is at least as firm on presence at meals at it is about presence at prayer. No one is to be late. No one is to eat before or after meals, or on her own, or on the run because monastic spirituality doesn't revolve around food, either having it or not having it. Monastic spirituality revolves around becoming a contributing part of a people of faith, living with them, learning with them, bearing their burdens, sharing their lives. The meal becomes the sanctifying center that reminds us, day in and day out, that unless we go on building the community around us, participating in it and bearing its burdens then the words family and humanity become a sham, no matter how good our work at the office, no matter how important our work in the world around us.
The Sufi tell a story. To a group of disciples whose hearts were set on a pilgrimage, the elder said:" Take this bitter gourd along. Make sure you dip it into all the holy rivers and bring it into all the holy shrines." When the disciples returned, the bitter gourd was cooked and served. "Strange," said the elder slyly after they had tasted it, "the holy water and the shrines have failed to sweeten it." All the prayer in the world, Benedict knows, is fruitless and futile if it does not translate into a life of human community made richer and sweeter by the efforts of us all. Both community and prayer, therefore, are essential elements of Benedictine spirituality and we may not neglect either.
++++++++++
Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 61-70
++++++++++
Friday, March 23, 2007 Great Fast
Venerable Martyr Luke of St. Anne Skete on Athos
1st Vespers Annunciation: Genesis 28:10-17 1st Vespers: Genesis
22:1-18
2nd Vespers: Proverbs 17:17-18:5
The Ladder: Genesis 28: 10-17LXX, especially vs. 12: "...behold a ladder
fixed on the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and the angels of God
ascended and descended on it. And the Lord stood upon it...." At the
Great Vespers of Annunciation, in the first sticheron intoned during the
Psalm, "Lord I have cried..." (Ps. 140 LXX), the Church exclaims to the
Theotokos: "Rejoice, O lofty ladder whom Jacob did behold!" Hereby, we
learn to recognize the Theotokos in the type of the Ladder that Jacob
saw; for in her birth-giving, she became the link between heaven and
earth, by which God descended to our mortal, human existence. In a
similar way, a Catechism of the Church points out that "elsewhere, she
is called the Gate of heaven, for it is through her that God makes His
entrance among men in the person of Jesus."
Earlier, this same Catechism observes that the identification of the
Virgin as the "Ladder of Jacob" and the "Gate of heaven" is "the first
manifestation of Jacob's dream." Indeed, the great Manifestation of the
Patriarch's vision descended from heaven through her, and before men.
He manifestly has united our race to God. He Himself declares to us:
"Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and
the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (Jn.
1:51). Hence, the Theotokos is the antitype of Jesus. It is He Who is
the Archetype of the Ladder, the One by Whom the Lord has fixed upon
earth the Way leading "to the Holy of Holies, [making] manifest the God
of love."
See what we learn from Jacob's vision: "behold a ladder fixed on the
earth, whose top reached to heaven" (Gen. 28:12 LXX). The Catechism
reminds us that "When God becomes Incarnate, taking human flesh, heaven
and earth become reunited." In Christ, the gate to Paradise which was
shut against Adam and Eve now is reopened for all mankind.. God
provides us with a means of ascent - the Archetypal Ladder. The
conjunction of God and Man lead St. Andrew of Crete to prompt us: "The
ladder of old which the great Patriarch saw, my soul, is a model...so,
if you wish to live in activity, knowledge, and contemplation, be renewed."
In his dream, Jacob saw "the angels of God" ascending and descending on
the Ladder (vs. 12). Christ Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life"
by His own testimony (Jn. 14:6). God has fashioned an eternal means of
communication between the finite world and Himself, giving us knowledge
of the Unknowable, allowing us to handle the Word of Life (1 Jn. 1:1).
Concerning the ladder, St. Andrew of Crete prompts us to cling "to the
sure step of piety." St. John of the Ladder adds: "Let him who has
mounted it not turn back."
God promised to give the land on which Jacob lay and on which the ladder
was "fixed" to his "seed" (Gen. 28:13 LXX). From the Apostle Paul we
learn that this "seed" that God mentions "is Christ" (Gal. 3:16).
Through this Seed that is Christ, multitudes of people who live on earth
will receive strength to struggle up the Ladder and "walk in the light
of [His] face all the day long" (see Ps. 88:15). Hence "shall all the
tribes of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 28:14).
Jacob's response to the dream was to awake in awe before a new potential
for eternity in this life. He continued his life-journey with hope and
great expectation, because he knew the Ladder existed, and so may we!
So let us remember the counsel of Elder Joseph the Hesychast, "little
children of the heavenly Father and heirs of His Kingdom, run, hasten,
weep, rejoice, shed tears of love. Sink your nous in Him Who sank His
body into the earth to save us. Our sweet Jesus descended so that we
may ascend. He died and rose in order to raise us."
Come, ye believers, let us ascend in a divine manner and behold a divine
condescension revealed to us from on high; and let us offer virtues to
Him Who is the Lover of mankind.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
To enroll send email to: orthodoxdynamis-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To withdraw send email to: orthodoxdynamis-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Blessed are those for whom Easter is...
not a hunt, but a find;
not a greeting, but a proclamation;
not outward fashions, but inward grace;
not a day, but an eternity.
Collect
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 95* & 102; Psalm 107:1-32; Jer. 23:1-8; Rom. 8:28-39; John 6:52-59
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Romans 8:28-39. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul asserts that nothing--in life or in death--can separate us from the love of God. In baptism we are "sealed by the Holy Spirit...and marked as Christ's own for ever."
These promises aren't some kind of "insurance" against human suffering, but something more and far deeper: they offer us a permanent place in Christ's extended family and the assurance that God's love will outlast anything we do or that is done to us. For ever. For eternity. We belong. We are loved.
As members of Christ's family and recipients of God's astonishingly generous love, we have the responsibilities that come with all relational living: to honor and help one another, to ask and offer forgiveness, to share sorrows and celebrations.
How much easier all this would be if we actually awoke every morning remembering that, by the grace of God, we do belong, we are loved--because that's the gospel truth!
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Gregory the Illuminator
Psalm 33:6-11 or 98:1-4; Acts 17:22-31; Matthew 5:11-16
Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, and who raised up your servant Gregory the Illuminator to be a light in the world, and to preach the Gospel to the people of Armenia: Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Mumias (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
26. HELP A CHILD IN SCHOOL
THURS 22 MAR
Buy a desk and chair, or school dinners for 100 children, or even pay for text books for a whole class of children who need them. All available from Oxfam Unwrapped:
http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com
Idea by: frin
Lent quote: "Faith is a living, restless thing. It cannot do nothing. We are not saved by works; but if we do no works, there must be something wrong with our faith." – Martin Luther
++++++++++
A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
There are people we like
and those we do not
but the difficult situations arise
when those we love turn against us
for no logical reason
We are hurt and angry at such betrayal
when someone who has shared our lives
should now use that knowledge against us.
It is a broken relationship, Lord
almost impossible to repair.
That you should share bread and wine
at the same table as Judas
knowing the secrets of his heart
That you could share your love
knowing what was to follow
on the road to Calvary
defies our human understanding.
And yet, Lord this is the road
you would have us follow
the road that leads to the cross
the road that only makes sense
when seen through your eyes
the road of sacrificial love
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
She lived in solitude, and now in Solitude has built her nest; and in Solitude her beloved alone guides her, who also bears in solitude the wound of love.
St John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, 35.
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
Some brethren came one day to test him to see whether he would let his thoughts get dissipated and speak of the things of this world. They said to him 'We give thanks to God that this year there has been much rain and the palm trees have been able to drink, and their shoots have grown, and the brethren have found manual work.' Abba John said to them, 'So it is when the Holy Spirit descends into the hearts of men; they are renewed and they put forth leaves in the fear of God.'
++++++++++
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
Rabban Shime'on ben Gamliel said, On three things the world stands; on Judgment, and on Truth, and on Peace.
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
A friend is more than a therapist or a confessor, even though a friend can sometimes heal us and offer us God's forgiveness.
A friend is that other person with whom we can share our solitude, our silence, and our prayer. A friend is that other person with whom we can look at a tree and say, "Isn't that beautiful," or sit on the beach and silently watch the sun disappear under the horizon. With a friend we don't have to say or do something special. With a friend we can be still and know that God is there with both of us.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Twenty Three - The First Note, cont'd
Humility confesses that we have nothing that we have not received and admits the fact of our insufficiency and our dependence upon God. It is the basis of all Christian virtues. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux said, "No spiritual house can stand for a moment except on the foundation of humility." It is the first condition of a joyful life within any community.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
THINK OF SOME SITUATION ahead of you in which you may be in a difficult encounter with another. Ask the living Christ to go ahead of you to prepare that place for you, so that when you get there, in time you will feel the welcome and the special strength God gives. Think of yourself or envision yourself surrounded with God’s light, breathing God’s breath, giving yourself a space for listening, reflecting, then acting out of that center of inner strength. …
Give thanks to God that a deep change already is working within you. God’s gentle, radical power is re-creating you.
- Flora Slosson Wuellner
Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey
From page 62 of Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey by Flora Slosson Wuellner. Copyright © 2001 by Flora Slosson Wuellner.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Love Challenges the Beloved"
Humans do not want a God of love, because a love always makes demands. That is the very nature of love and humanity doesn't want it. We seek to hide from it and destroy it. So people sought to destroy Jesus, brother to creation. Jesus did not have to be a great prophet to see the handwriting on the wall, to see that his word was not being received. The people did not want relationship; they wanted religion. Should that seem so unreal to us? It is the same for us today. It is the same for the Church for the last two thousand years. Humans do not want love relationships; we want religion and all its trappings because that is much more comfortable. A love relationship continues to challenge and make demands. It also offers a joy that we cannot tolerate: too near, too lavish, too spacious. What might we do with such freedom? It's easier just to go to church.
from The Great Themes of Scripture
++++++++++
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.htm
Mercy and fullness of redemption
How perfect I might think myself, how advanced in wisdom, if only I could qualify as a true disciple of Jesus crucified, for God has made him not only our wisdom but also our righteousness, our holiness, and our freedom! If anyone is nailed to the cross with Christ he is altogether wise, righteous, holy, and free. Wise, because he has been raised with Christ above the earth, and now seeks and understands the things of heaven; righteous, because sin has been put to death in him and he is no longer enslaved to it; holy, because he has offered himself to God as a living sacrifice, consecrated and acceptable to him; free, because the Son of God has redeemed him, and in freedom of spirit he can now boldly repeat the Son's confident words: The prince of this world is on his way, but he has no claim on me.
Truly there is mercy and fullness of redemption with our crucified Lord. So completely has he redeemed Israel from all its iniquity that it is now acquitted of any accusation that the prince of this world could make against it.
Guerric of Igny
++++++++++
Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
AM I CARNALLY MINDED?
"Whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal?" 1 Corinthians 3:3
No natural man knows anything about carnality. The flesh lusting against the Spirit that came in at regeneration, and the Spirit lusting against the flesh, produces carnality. "Walk in the Spirit," says Paul, "and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh"; and carnality will disappear.
Are you contentious, easily troubled about trifles? "Oh, but no one who is a Christian ever is!" Paul says they are, he connects these things with carnality. Is there a truth in the Bible that instantly awakens petulance in you? That is a proof that you are yet carnal. If sanctification is being worked out, there is no trace of that spirit left.
If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He does not ask you to put it right; He asks you to accept the light, and He will put it right. A child of the light confesses instantly and stands bared before God; a child of the darkness says - "Oh, I can explain that away." When once the light breaks and the conviction of wrong comes, be a child of the light, and confess, and God will deal with what is wrong; if you vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.
What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone it is the most real thing imaginable. God will see that you have any number of opportunities to prove to yourself the marvel of His grace. The practical test is the only proof. "Why," you say, "if this had happened before, there would have been the spirit of resentment!" You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 43: On Those Who Come Late to the Work of God or to Table
Anyone who does not come to table before the verse,
so that all together may say the verse and the oration
and all sit down to table at the same time --
anyone who
through his own carelessness or bad habit
does not come on time
shall be corrected for this up to the second time.
If then he does not amend,
he shall not be allowed to share in the common table,
but shall be separated from the company of all
and made to eat alone,
and his portion of wine shall be taken away from him,
until he has made satisfaction and has amended.
And let him suffer a like penalty who is not present
at the verse said after the meal.
And let no one presume
to take any food or drink
before or after the appointed time.
But if anyone is offered something by the superior
and refuses to take it,
then when the time comes
that he desires what he formerly refused
or something else,
let him receive nothing whatever
until he has made proper satisfaction.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
In a world of fast food drive-in restaurants, multiple family schedules and three-car garages, the family meal has taken a decided second place in the spiritual and social formation of the culture. In Benedictine spirituality, however, the sacramental value of a meal in which the human concern we promise daily at the altar is demonstrated in the dining room where we prepare and serve and clean up after one another. The Rule is at least as firm on presence at meals at it is about presence at prayer. No one is to be late. No one is to eat before or after meals, or on her own, or on the run because monastic spirituality doesn't revolve around food, either having it or not having it. Monastic spirituality revolves around becoming a contributing part of a people of faith, living with them, learning with them, bearing their burdens, sharing their lives. The meal becomes the sanctifying center that reminds us, day in and day out, that unless we go on building the community around us, participating in it and bearing its burdens then the words family and humanity become a sham, no matter how good our work at the office, no matter how important our work in the world around us.
The Sufi tell a story. To a group of disciples whose hearts were set on a pilgrimage, the elder said:" Take this bitter gourd along. Make sure you dip it into all the holy rivers and bring it into all the holy shrines." When the disciples returned, the bitter gourd was cooked and served. "Strange," said the elder slyly after they had tasted it, "the holy water and the shrines have failed to sweeten it." All the prayer in the world, Benedict knows, is fruitless and futile if it does not translate into a life of human community made richer and sweeter by the efforts of us all. Both community and prayer, therefore, are essential elements of Benedictine spirituality and we may not neglect either.
++++++++++
Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 61-70
++++++++++
Friday, March 23, 2007 Great Fast
Venerable Martyr Luke of St. Anne Skete on Athos
1st Vespers Annunciation: Genesis 28:10-17 1st Vespers: Genesis
22:1-18
2nd Vespers: Proverbs 17:17-18:5
The Ladder: Genesis 28: 10-17LXX, especially vs. 12: "...behold a ladder
fixed on the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and the angels of God
ascended and descended on it. And the Lord stood upon it...." At the
Great Vespers of Annunciation, in the first sticheron intoned during the
Psalm, "Lord I have cried..." (Ps. 140 LXX), the Church exclaims to the
Theotokos: "Rejoice, O lofty ladder whom Jacob did behold!" Hereby, we
learn to recognize the Theotokos in the type of the Ladder that Jacob
saw; for in her birth-giving, she became the link between heaven and
earth, by which God descended to our mortal, human existence. In a
similar way, a Catechism of the Church points out that "elsewhere, she
is called the Gate of heaven, for it is through her that God makes His
entrance among men in the person of Jesus."
Earlier, this same Catechism observes that the identification of the
Virgin as the "Ladder of Jacob" and the "Gate of heaven" is "the first
manifestation of Jacob's dream." Indeed, the great Manifestation of the
Patriarch's vision descended from heaven through her, and before men.
He manifestly has united our race to God. He Himself declares to us:
"Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and
the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (Jn.
1:51). Hence, the Theotokos is the antitype of Jesus. It is He Who is
the Archetype of the Ladder, the One by Whom the Lord has fixed upon
earth the Way leading "to the Holy of Holies, [making] manifest the God
of love."
See what we learn from Jacob's vision: "behold a ladder fixed on the
earth, whose top reached to heaven" (Gen. 28:12 LXX). The Catechism
reminds us that "When God becomes Incarnate, taking human flesh, heaven
and earth become reunited." In Christ, the gate to Paradise which was
shut against Adam and Eve now is reopened for all mankind.. God
provides us with a means of ascent - the Archetypal Ladder. The
conjunction of God and Man lead St. Andrew of Crete to prompt us: "The
ladder of old which the great Patriarch saw, my soul, is a model...so,
if you wish to live in activity, knowledge, and contemplation, be renewed."
In his dream, Jacob saw "the angels of God" ascending and descending on
the Ladder (vs. 12). Christ Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life"
by His own testimony (Jn. 14:6). God has fashioned an eternal means of
communication between the finite world and Himself, giving us knowledge
of the Unknowable, allowing us to handle the Word of Life (1 Jn. 1:1).
Concerning the ladder, St. Andrew of Crete prompts us to cling "to the
sure step of piety." St. John of the Ladder adds: "Let him who has
mounted it not turn back."
God promised to give the land on which Jacob lay and on which the ladder
was "fixed" to his "seed" (Gen. 28:13 LXX). From the Apostle Paul we
learn that this "seed" that God mentions "is Christ" (Gal. 3:16).
Through this Seed that is Christ, multitudes of people who live on earth
will receive strength to struggle up the Ladder and "walk in the light
of [His] face all the day long" (see Ps. 88:15). Hence "shall all the
tribes of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 28:14).
Jacob's response to the dream was to awake in awe before a new potential
for eternity in this life. He continued his life-journey with hope and
great expectation, because he knew the Ladder existed, and so may we!
So let us remember the counsel of Elder Joseph the Hesychast, "little
children of the heavenly Father and heirs of His Kingdom, run, hasten,
weep, rejoice, shed tears of love. Sink your nous in Him Who sank His
body into the earth to save us. Our sweet Jesus descended so that we
may ascend. He died and rose in order to raise us."
Come, ye believers, let us ascend in a divine manner and behold a divine
condescension revealed to us from on high; and let us offer virtues to
Him Who is the Lover of mankind.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
To enroll send email to: orthodoxdynamis-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To withdraw send email to: orthodoxdynamis-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 9:49 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home