28/03/07 week of 5th 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
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, 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/
AM Psalm 119:145-176; PM Psalm 128, 129, 130
Jer. 25:30-38; Rom. 10:14-21; John 10:1-18
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Romans 10:14-21. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!
My younger son once said that I had the weirdest feet he'd ever seen. A doctor described my right foot as a bag of bones, held together with orthotics and an ankle brace. But when my turn comes to preach the Sunday sermon, St. Paul tells me my feet are beautiful.
Actually, Paul isn't really talking about those who stand in pulpits Sunday morning. He's talking about all of us whose very lives are supposed to reflect the gospel. One of my seminary professors asked, "If your life is a sermon, what did you just preach today?" And, then commented, "If you want to know who you are, look at where your feet take you."
At heart, all this talk of feet is really about what we do with our lives. Having spent much of my life in education, I sometimes think that what goes on in my head is what matters. Paul, despite his agile mind, points instead to our feet and asks not, "What did you think about?" but "What did you do today? Where did you go?"
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. --Frances Ridley Havergal
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Today is a Lenten feria, a free day.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Nairobi (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
31. RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
WED 28 MAR
Do a random act of kindness. It does not need to be complicated.
Idea by: Jengie Jon
For example...
> Let a car or two move in front of you, even when you're in a hurry
> Pay for the lunch of the person behind you in the fast food line
> Wave and smile at the policeman directing traffic in rush hour
> Hold the door open for the person behind you
> Speak kindly to the person next to you on the bus or train
And while you are practising these random acts of kindness, remember the wonderful kindness of God and his gift to us in the sacrifice of his Son.
Idea by: SAM
Lent quote: "Give rest to the weary, visit the sick, support the poor: for this also is prayer." – Aphrahat
++++++++++
A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
Lamb of God, you shed for me
Your life upon a blood stained tree,
Your life for mine, love re-defined
An offering, a ransom, release
You gave so much, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
The doubts I have, the pain I feel
When at your feet I humbly kneel
You take it all, both great and small
Give freedom, forgiveness and peace
I have the choice, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
Lamb of God, I hear your voice,
And hearing know I have a choice
To make a start, within my heart
A willingness, to journey by faith
You ask no more, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
By waters still, through fire and storm
Your love continues to transform
And with that call, you welcome all
No barriers now, no limits, just grace
No more excuses Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
All things praise You, Lord of all the World!
St Teresa of Jesus
Life, 25.17
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
He also said, 'Humility and the fear of God are above all virtues.'
++++++++++
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
8. He used to say, More flesh, more worms: more treasures, more care: more maidservants, more lewdness: more menservants, more theft: more women, more witchcrafts: more Thorah, more life: more wisdom, more scholars: more righteousness, more peace. He who has gotten a good name has gotten it for himself. He who has gotten to himself words of Thorah, has gotten to himself the life of the world to come.
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Where Mourning and Dancing Touch Each Other
"[There is] a time for mourning, a time for dancing" (Ecclesiastes 3:4). But mourning and dancing are never fully separated. Their "times" do not necessarily follow each other. In fact, their "times" may become one "time." Mourning may turn into dancing and dancing into mourning without showing a clear point where one ends and the other starts.
Often our grief allows us to choreograph our dance while our dance creates the space for our grief. We lose a beloved friend, and in the midst of our tears we discover an unknown joy. We celebrate a success, and in the midst of the party we feel deep sadness. Mourning and dancing, grief and laughter, sadness and gladness - they belong together as the sad-faced clown and the happy-faced clown, who make us both cry and laugh. Let's trust that the beauty of our lives becomes visible where mourning and dancing touch each other.
Weekly Reflection
On the Journey Toward Faithfulness
written by SUSAN M. S. BROWN
I've just taken part in a service to mark Candlemas (February 2) and its surrounding feasts, including the Feast of St. Blaise (February 3). And I'm savoring my discovery of this Armenian bishop of the late third and early fourth centuries. He is said to have miraculously cured a boy choking on a fishbone, thus becoming a "healer of all ailments of the throat." Even after I learned of St. Blaise through a brief entry in a book of saints, he was a distant and rather dusty figure, origin of a (to me) quaint-seeming ritual of blessing throats with crossed, lighted candles. But then I stumbled on an article by the massage therapist Gloria Ray Carpeneto that put this ritual in a broader context-not just preventing organic illness but helping us find our voices.
I grew up in the Methodist Church in the 1960s and '70s. We had no saints, few candles (except on Christmas Eve), and not many rituals, certainly none as exotic as crossing burning tapers over people's throats. But finding my voice-that's a longing I know well. And now, after 1,700 years, through fallible human beings and institutions, and despite the shadowy line between history and legend, the miracle of St. Blaise has come alive with new meaning for me and others.
Sometimes God touches us directly, but God's blessings are also preserved, passed on, and renewed by generations of the faithful. I give thanks for them and for the endlessly available opportunity to discover the significance of their gifts for our own lives.
The article by Gloria Ray Carpeneto is "Rethinking a Blessing: A Fresh Look at an Old Tradition," Praying, Jan.-Feb. 1997.
SUSAN M. S. BROWN is an Episcopalian laywoman and a freelance editor who lives near Boston, Massachusetts.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Twenty Eight - The Third Note -
Joy
Tertiaries, rejoicing in the Lord always, show in our lives the grace and beauty of divine joy. We remember that they follow the Son of Man, who came eating and drinking, who loved the birds and the flowers, who blessed little children, who was a friend of tax collectors and sinners, and who sat at the tables of both the rich and the poor. We delight in fun and laughter, rejoicing in God's world, its beauty and its living creatures, calling nothing common or unclean. We mix freely with all people, ready to bind up the broken-hearted and to bring joy into the lives of others. We carry within them an inner peace and happiness which others may perceive, even if they do not know its source.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
BY PRAYING with every part of who we are, we allow the grace that pours from the well of living water to trickle through all aspects of our being, nourishing and hydrating that which was parched and dis-eased.
- Daniel Wolpert
Creating a Life with God
From page 159 of Creating a Life with God by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2003 by Daniel Wolpert.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Earning God's Love"
The greatest act of faith is to believe God loves you, even in your nakedness, poverty and sinfulness. But human beings always think we have to earn God's love. We work for it and, by doing good things for God, think we are going to get God's blessing and love in return. This is Jesus-and-me religion. It ends up being a self-centered morality of self-perfection and discipline. Christians have so commonly used the phrase, "I must save my soul," or, "Priests are here to save souls." That is not New Testament. It is pure heresy to think you can save your soul. Jesus means "Yahweh saves." As long as you're busy saving your soul, you're preventing God from saving your soul.
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
Impress your death on my heart
Iwill not pardon the sin in you, I will punish it severely, but I myself will suffer the penalty for you. I will not forgive your debt at no cost, but I myself shall pay it for you. The Lord will repay me, that he might oblige me more. Surely it is a greater mercy of God, a greater clemency of God, a greater generosity of God to pay the price, rather to give himself as the price, than it is to remit the debt. Surely you could have done otherwise, Lord, but you paid the cost that you might commend your love to me in your death for me, that all my heart and my soul might be moved by you, that amazed, trembling, and fainting, I might consider how you died on my behalf.
O love! O charity! O goodness! O kindness of my God! Oh how much you love me, my love, how much you love me! Impress your death on my heart, for this is the heat lifting my soul to you; this is the fountain of water rising up and lifting my soul to eternal life. Your other works, Lord, move me to love you, but your passion leads me to ecstasy, it seizes me and inflames me above myself, so that I am completely dissolved in your love. And you have loved me in such a way that when I will have given all of myself to you, I will have given nothing, because you have given me your full self, my entire God.
Thomas of Villanova, O.S.A., 1529 - 1582), an Augustinian friar, while in prision in Africa and ministering to his fellow prisoners, wrote the book The Sufferings of Jesus, a work which has guided many people on the path to holiness, particularly Saint Elizabeth Ann Seaton of the United States who was greatly influenced by the work.
++++++++++
Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
ISN'T THERE SOME MISUNDERSTANDING?
"Let us go into Judea. His disciples say unto Him . . . Goest Thou thither again?" John 11:7-8
I may not understand what Jesus Christ says, but it is dangerous to say that therefore He was mistaken in what He said. It is never right to think that my obedience to a word of God will bring dishonour to Jesus. The only thing that will bring dishonour is not obeying Him. To put my view of His honour in place of what He is plainly impelling me to do is never right, although it may arise from a real desire to prevent Him being put to open shame. I know when the proposition comes from God because of its quiet persistence: When I have to weigh the pros and cons, and doubt and debate come in, I am bringing in an element that is not of God, and I come to the conclusion that the suggestion was not a right one. Many of us are loyal to our notions of Jesus Christ, but how many of us are loyal to Him? Loyalty to Jesus means I have to step out where I do not see anything (cf. Matt. 14:29); loyalty to my notions means that I clear the ground first by my intelligence. Faith is not intelligent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way.
Are you debating whether to take a step in faith in Jesus or to wait until you can see how to do the thing yourself? Obey Him with glad reckless joy. When He says something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a conception of His honour which is not His honour. Are you loyal to Jesus or loyal to your notion of Him? Are you loyal to what He says, or are you trying to compromise with conceptions which never came from Him? "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it."
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor
Idleness is the enemy of the soul.
Therefore the sisters should be occupied
at certain times in manual labor,
and again at fixed hours in sacred reading.
To that end
we think that the times for each may be prescribed as follows.
From Easter until the Calends of October,
when they come out from Prime in the morning
let them labor at whatever is necessary
until about the fourth hour,
and from the fourth hour until about the sixth
let them apply themselves to reading.
After the sixth hour,
having left the table,
let them rest on their beds in perfect silence;
or if anyone may perhaps want to read,
let her read to herself
in such a way as not to disturb anyone else.
Let None be said rather early,
at the middle of the eighth hour,
and let them again do what work has to be done until Vespers.
And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty
should require that they themselves
do the work of gathering the harvest,
let them not be discontented;
for then are they truly monastics
when they live by the labor of their hands,
as did our Fathers and the Apostles.
Let all things be done with moderation, however,
for the sake of the faint-hearted.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
There is little room for excursion into the quixotic in the Rule of Benedict. If any chapter proves that point best, it may well be the chapter on work. Benedict doesn't labor the point but he clearly makes it: Benedictine life is life immersed in the sanctity of the real and work is a fundamental part of it. The function of the spiritual life is not to escape into the next world; it is to live well in this one. The monastic engages in creative work as a way to be responsible for the upbuilding of the community. Work periods, in fact, are specified just as prayer periods are. Work and prayer are opposite sides of the great coin of a life that is both holy and useful, immersed in God and dedicated to the transcendent in the human. It is labor's transfiguration of the commonplace, the transformation of the ordinary that makes co-creators of us all.
Benedictine spirituality exacts something so much harder for our century than rigor. Benedictine spirituality demands balance. Immediately after Benedict talks about the human need to work, to fill our lives with something useful and creative and worthy of our concentration, he talks about lectio, about holy reading and study. Then, in a world that depended on the rising and the setting of the sun to mark their days rather than on the artificial numbers on the face of a clock, Benedict shifts prayer, work and reading periods from season to season to allow for some of each and not too much of either as the days stretch or diminish from period to period. He wants prayer to be brief, work to be daily and study to be constant. With allowances for periodic changes, then, the community prayed and studied from about 2:00 am to dawn and then worked for a couple of hours until the hour of Terce at about 10:00 am. Then, after Terce they read for a couple of hours until Sext before the midday meal. After dinner they rested or read until about 2:30 and then went back to work for three or four hours until Vespers and supper in the late afternoon. After saying a very brief Compline or evening prayer they retired after sundown for the night. It was a gentle, full, enriching, regular, calm and balanced life. It was a prescription for life that ironically has become very hard to achieve in a world of light bulbs and telephones and cars but it may be more necessary than ever if the modern soul is to regain any of the real rhythm of life and so, its sanity as well.
++++++++++
Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XX1
++++++++++
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Great Fast The Venerable
Hilarion the New
6th Hour: Isaiah 58:1-11 1st Vespers: Genesis 43:26-31
2nd Vespers: Proverbs 21:23-22:4
Assessing the Fast: Isaiah 58:1-12 LXX, especially vss. 1, 2: "My
people....seek Me day by day...to know My ways, as a people that had
done righteousness, and had not forsaken the judgment of their God: they
now ask of Me righteous judgment." We stand in a long tradition of
fasting as an important form of piety, devotion, and spiritual growth.
When our Lord Jesus came among us, the practice of fasting was already
well-established among the People of God.
This present reading reveals that, prior to the Lord Jesus' teaching
about fasting (Mt. 6:16-18; 9:14-17; Lk. 18:9-14), God had defined the
essentials. The Prophesies are both Holy Tradition and history.
Observe the harmony between the word of the Lord in Isaiah and Jesus'
teachings. This passage is a God-given "measuring rod" for evaluating
our own fasting.
Let us ponder these verses for help in finishing well the Fast we have
begun. It is not too late to mend our ways, as His words touch our
hearts. The Good Thief found Paradise in one moment as he, on an
adjoining cross, was dying beside the Lord. Read a verse from Isaiah,
consider its meaning, and then ask the questions below to correct,
support, or guide you.
Verse One: Which do I use, my standards or God's? Look again at the
Beatitudes (Mt. 5:3-12), the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17), the Lord's
sermons (Mt. 5-7), or the Apostles' teachings (Rom. 12; Eph. 4-6; 1 Pet.
2-4; and the Epistle of James).
Verse Two: What in me is resisting God's teaching, His guidance, or His
correction?
Verse Three A: What do I believe pleases God in my fasting: limiting
food, added prayers, or using these means to grow in love and obedience
to Him for keeping His ways?
Verse Three B: How does my fasting serve my ego, my goals, my needs
rather than the Lord's desires and goals? What of God's graces do I
miss in my self-serving?
Verse Three C: Do I justify being cross, curt, or mean when I fast?
Verse Four: How have I increased or decreased quarreling during the Fast?
Verse Five: What are the ways that I make my fasting visible to others
rather than hiding my devotion to the Lord as He commands (Mt. 6:16-18)?
Verse Six: What efforts have I made to remove circumstances or
conditions that lead others to sin? How have I made life more difficult
for others? How have I eased the pain of others? What wrongs have I
corrected to lighten the struggle of others?
Verse Seven: What am I doing personally to relieve someone's hunger, to
provide shelter to any homeless persons, or to assure that others
receive needed clothing?
Verse Eight: To what extent have I asked God to enlighten me in
practical ways so that I might provide aid, comfort, and / or assistance
to some needy person or families?
Verse Nine: In what ways have I asked God to free me, to notice my
problems or to hear me, while in the meantime I have neglected the
dignity, freedom, needs or cries of others?
Verse Ten: To what degree do I help others - as a legalistic duty
rather than giving, sharing, and aiding them from my heart, in
thanksgiving to God Who has so richly provided for me?
Verse Eleven: To what extent do I fast to please myself or to impress or
ingratiate my fellow Christians rather than fasting in order to become
more aware of God's presence?
Verse Twelve: What in the Lenten Fast is a waste of time or energy from
my perspective? What about fasting do I find spiritually empty? What
in me makes the Fast "one more thing to get through"? How is the Fast
adding or detracting from my growth in faith, hope, and love? Am I
drawing nearer to God and finding His peace in my heart? Why or why not?
Grant me reverence, estrangement from evil, and perfect discipline,
and save me, Lord Jesus!
[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
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, 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/
AM Psalm 119:145-176; PM Psalm 128, 129, 130
Jer. 25:30-38; Rom. 10:14-21; John 10:1-18
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Romans 10:14-21. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!
My younger son once said that I had the weirdest feet he'd ever seen. A doctor described my right foot as a bag of bones, held together with orthotics and an ankle brace. But when my turn comes to preach the Sunday sermon, St. Paul tells me my feet are beautiful.
Actually, Paul isn't really talking about those who stand in pulpits Sunday morning. He's talking about all of us whose very lives are supposed to reflect the gospel. One of my seminary professors asked, "If your life is a sermon, what did you just preach today?" And, then commented, "If you want to know who you are, look at where your feet take you."
At heart, all this talk of feet is really about what we do with our lives. Having spent much of my life in education, I sometimes think that what goes on in my head is what matters. Paul, despite his agile mind, points instead to our feet and asks not, "What did you think about?" but "What did you do today? Where did you go?"
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. --Frances Ridley Havergal
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Today is a Lenten feria, a free day.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Nairobi (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
31. RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
WED 28 MAR
Do a random act of kindness. It does not need to be complicated.
Idea by: Jengie Jon
For example...
> Let a car or two move in front of you, even when you're in a hurry
> Pay for the lunch of the person behind you in the fast food line
> Wave and smile at the policeman directing traffic in rush hour
> Hold the door open for the person behind you
> Speak kindly to the person next to you on the bus or train
And while you are practising these random acts of kindness, remember the wonderful kindness of God and his gift to us in the sacrifice of his Son.
Idea by: SAM
Lent quote: "Give rest to the weary, visit the sick, support the poor: for this also is prayer." – Aphrahat
++++++++++
A Celtic lenten Calendar
http://www.oursanctuary.net/celticlent.html
Lamb of God, you shed for me
Your life upon a blood stained tree,
Your life for mine, love re-defined
An offering, a ransom, release
You gave so much, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
The doubts I have, the pain I feel
When at your feet I humbly kneel
You take it all, both great and small
Give freedom, forgiveness and peace
I have the choice, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
Lamb of God, I hear your voice,
And hearing know I have a choice
To make a start, within my heart
A willingness, to journey by faith
You ask no more, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
By waters still, through fire and storm
Your love continues to transform
And with that call, you welcome all
No barriers now, no limits, just grace
No more excuses Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
All things praise You, Lord of all the World!
St Teresa of Jesus
Life, 25.17
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
He also said, 'Humility and the fear of God are above all virtues.'
++++++++++
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
8. He used to say, More flesh, more worms: more treasures, more care: more maidservants, more lewdness: more menservants, more theft: more women, more witchcrafts: more Thorah, more life: more wisdom, more scholars: more righteousness, more peace. He who has gotten a good name has gotten it for himself. He who has gotten to himself words of Thorah, has gotten to himself the life of the world to come.
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Where Mourning and Dancing Touch Each Other
"[There is] a time for mourning, a time for dancing" (Ecclesiastes 3:4). But mourning and dancing are never fully separated. Their "times" do not necessarily follow each other. In fact, their "times" may become one "time." Mourning may turn into dancing and dancing into mourning without showing a clear point where one ends and the other starts.
Often our grief allows us to choreograph our dance while our dance creates the space for our grief. We lose a beloved friend, and in the midst of our tears we discover an unknown joy. We celebrate a success, and in the midst of the party we feel deep sadness. Mourning and dancing, grief and laughter, sadness and gladness - they belong together as the sad-faced clown and the happy-faced clown, who make us both cry and laugh. Let's trust that the beauty of our lives becomes visible where mourning and dancing touch each other.
Weekly Reflection
On the Journey Toward Faithfulness
written by SUSAN M. S. BROWN
I've just taken part in a service to mark Candlemas (February 2) and its surrounding feasts, including the Feast of St. Blaise (February 3). And I'm savoring my discovery of this Armenian bishop of the late third and early fourth centuries. He is said to have miraculously cured a boy choking on a fishbone, thus becoming a "healer of all ailments of the throat." Even after I learned of St. Blaise through a brief entry in a book of saints, he was a distant and rather dusty figure, origin of a (to me) quaint-seeming ritual of blessing throats with crossed, lighted candles. But then I stumbled on an article by the massage therapist Gloria Ray Carpeneto that put this ritual in a broader context-not just preventing organic illness but helping us find our voices.
I grew up in the Methodist Church in the 1960s and '70s. We had no saints, few candles (except on Christmas Eve), and not many rituals, certainly none as exotic as crossing burning tapers over people's throats. But finding my voice-that's a longing I know well. And now, after 1,700 years, through fallible human beings and institutions, and despite the shadowy line between history and legend, the miracle of St. Blaise has come alive with new meaning for me and others.
Sometimes God touches us directly, but God's blessings are also preserved, passed on, and renewed by generations of the faithful. I give thanks for them and for the endlessly available opportunity to discover the significance of their gifts for our own lives.
The article by Gloria Ray Carpeneto is "Rethinking a Blessing: A Fresh Look at an Old Tradition," Praying, Jan.-Feb. 1997.
SUSAN M. S. BROWN is an Episcopalian laywoman and a freelance editor who lives near Boston, Massachusetts.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Twenty Eight - The Third Note -
Joy
Tertiaries, rejoicing in the Lord always, show in our lives the grace and beauty of divine joy. We remember that they follow the Son of Man, who came eating and drinking, who loved the birds and the flowers, who blessed little children, who was a friend of tax collectors and sinners, and who sat at the tables of both the rich and the poor. We delight in fun and laughter, rejoicing in God's world, its beauty and its living creatures, calling nothing common or unclean. We mix freely with all people, ready to bind up the broken-hearted and to bring joy into the lives of others. We carry within them an inner peace and happiness which others may perceive, even if they do not know its source.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
BY PRAYING with every part of who we are, we allow the grace that pours from the well of living water to trickle through all aspects of our being, nourishing and hydrating that which was parched and dis-eased.
- Daniel Wolpert
Creating a Life with God
From page 159 of Creating a Life with God by Daniel Wolpert. Copyright © 2003 by Daniel Wolpert.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Earning God's Love"
The greatest act of faith is to believe God loves you, even in your nakedness, poverty and sinfulness. But human beings always think we have to earn God's love. We work for it and, by doing good things for God, think we are going to get God's blessing and love in return. This is Jesus-and-me religion. It ends up being a self-centered morality of self-perfection and discipline. Christians have so commonly used the phrase, "I must save my soul," or, "Priests are here to save souls." That is not New Testament. It is pure heresy to think you can save your soul. Jesus means "Yahweh saves." As long as you're busy saving your soul, you're preventing God from saving your soul.
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
Impress your death on my heart
Iwill not pardon the sin in you, I will punish it severely, but I myself will suffer the penalty for you. I will not forgive your debt at no cost, but I myself shall pay it for you. The Lord will repay me, that he might oblige me more. Surely it is a greater mercy of God, a greater clemency of God, a greater generosity of God to pay the price, rather to give himself as the price, than it is to remit the debt. Surely you could have done otherwise, Lord, but you paid the cost that you might commend your love to me in your death for me, that all my heart and my soul might be moved by you, that amazed, trembling, and fainting, I might consider how you died on my behalf.
O love! O charity! O goodness! O kindness of my God! Oh how much you love me, my love, how much you love me! Impress your death on my heart, for this is the heat lifting my soul to you; this is the fountain of water rising up and lifting my soul to eternal life. Your other works, Lord, move me to love you, but your passion leads me to ecstasy, it seizes me and inflames me above myself, so that I am completely dissolved in your love. And you have loved me in such a way that when I will have given all of myself to you, I will have given nothing, because you have given me your full self, my entire God.
Thomas of Villanova, O.S.A., 1529 - 1582), an Augustinian friar, while in prision in Africa and ministering to his fellow prisoners, wrote the book The Sufferings of Jesus, a work which has guided many people on the path to holiness, particularly Saint Elizabeth Ann Seaton of the United States who was greatly influenced by the work.
++++++++++
Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
ISN'T THERE SOME MISUNDERSTANDING?
"Let us go into Judea. His disciples say unto Him . . . Goest Thou thither again?" John 11:7-8
I may not understand what Jesus Christ says, but it is dangerous to say that therefore He was mistaken in what He said. It is never right to think that my obedience to a word of God will bring dishonour to Jesus. The only thing that will bring dishonour is not obeying Him. To put my view of His honour in place of what He is plainly impelling me to do is never right, although it may arise from a real desire to prevent Him being put to open shame. I know when the proposition comes from God because of its quiet persistence: When I have to weigh the pros and cons, and doubt and debate come in, I am bringing in an element that is not of God, and I come to the conclusion that the suggestion was not a right one. Many of us are loyal to our notions of Jesus Christ, but how many of us are loyal to Him? Loyalty to Jesus means I have to step out where I do not see anything (cf. Matt. 14:29); loyalty to my notions means that I clear the ground first by my intelligence. Faith is not intelligent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way.
Are you debating whether to take a step in faith in Jesus or to wait until you can see how to do the thing yourself? Obey Him with glad reckless joy. When He says something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a conception of His honour which is not His honour. Are you loyal to Jesus or loyal to your notion of Him? Are you loyal to what He says, or are you trying to compromise with conceptions which never came from Him? "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it."
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor
Idleness is the enemy of the soul.
Therefore the sisters should be occupied
at certain times in manual labor,
and again at fixed hours in sacred reading.
To that end
we think that the times for each may be prescribed as follows.
From Easter until the Calends of October,
when they come out from Prime in the morning
let them labor at whatever is necessary
until about the fourth hour,
and from the fourth hour until about the sixth
let them apply themselves to reading.
After the sixth hour,
having left the table,
let them rest on their beds in perfect silence;
or if anyone may perhaps want to read,
let her read to herself
in such a way as not to disturb anyone else.
Let None be said rather early,
at the middle of the eighth hour,
and let them again do what work has to be done until Vespers.
And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty
should require that they themselves
do the work of gathering the harvest,
let them not be discontented;
for then are they truly monastics
when they live by the labor of their hands,
as did our Fathers and the Apostles.
Let all things be done with moderation, however,
for the sake of the faint-hearted.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
There is little room for excursion into the quixotic in the Rule of Benedict. If any chapter proves that point best, it may well be the chapter on work. Benedict doesn't labor the point but he clearly makes it: Benedictine life is life immersed in the sanctity of the real and work is a fundamental part of it. The function of the spiritual life is not to escape into the next world; it is to live well in this one. The monastic engages in creative work as a way to be responsible for the upbuilding of the community. Work periods, in fact, are specified just as prayer periods are. Work and prayer are opposite sides of the great coin of a life that is both holy and useful, immersed in God and dedicated to the transcendent in the human. It is labor's transfiguration of the commonplace, the transformation of the ordinary that makes co-creators of us all.
Benedictine spirituality exacts something so much harder for our century than rigor. Benedictine spirituality demands balance. Immediately after Benedict talks about the human need to work, to fill our lives with something useful and creative and worthy of our concentration, he talks about lectio, about holy reading and study. Then, in a world that depended on the rising and the setting of the sun to mark their days rather than on the artificial numbers on the face of a clock, Benedict shifts prayer, work and reading periods from season to season to allow for some of each and not too much of either as the days stretch or diminish from period to period. He wants prayer to be brief, work to be daily and study to be constant. With allowances for periodic changes, then, the community prayed and studied from about 2:00 am to dawn and then worked for a couple of hours until the hour of Terce at about 10:00 am. Then, after Terce they read for a couple of hours until Sext before the midday meal. After dinner they rested or read until about 2:30 and then went back to work for three or four hours until Vespers and supper in the late afternoon. After saying a very brief Compline or evening prayer they retired after sundown for the night. It was a gentle, full, enriching, regular, calm and balanced life. It was a prescription for life that ironically has become very hard to achieve in a world of light bulbs and telephones and cars but it may be more necessary than ever if the modern soul is to regain any of the real rhythm of life and so, its sanity as well.
++++++++++
Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XX1
++++++++++
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Great Fast The Venerable
Hilarion the New
6th Hour: Isaiah 58:1-11 1st Vespers: Genesis 43:26-31
2nd Vespers: Proverbs 21:23-22:4
Assessing the Fast: Isaiah 58:1-12 LXX, especially vss. 1, 2: "My
people....seek Me day by day...to know My ways, as a people that had
done righteousness, and had not forsaken the judgment of their God: they
now ask of Me righteous judgment." We stand in a long tradition of
fasting as an important form of piety, devotion, and spiritual growth.
When our Lord Jesus came among us, the practice of fasting was already
well-established among the People of God.
This present reading reveals that, prior to the Lord Jesus' teaching
about fasting (Mt. 6:16-18; 9:14-17; Lk. 18:9-14), God had defined the
essentials. The Prophesies are both Holy Tradition and history.
Observe the harmony between the word of the Lord in Isaiah and Jesus'
teachings. This passage is a God-given "measuring rod" for evaluating
our own fasting.
Let us ponder these verses for help in finishing well the Fast we have
begun. It is not too late to mend our ways, as His words touch our
hearts. The Good Thief found Paradise in one moment as he, on an
adjoining cross, was dying beside the Lord. Read a verse from Isaiah,
consider its meaning, and then ask the questions below to correct,
support, or guide you.
Verse One: Which do I use, my standards or God's? Look again at the
Beatitudes (Mt. 5:3-12), the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1-17), the Lord's
sermons (Mt. 5-7), or the Apostles' teachings (Rom. 12; Eph. 4-6; 1 Pet.
2-4; and the Epistle of James).
Verse Two: What in me is resisting God's teaching, His guidance, or His
correction?
Verse Three A: What do I believe pleases God in my fasting: limiting
food, added prayers, or using these means to grow in love and obedience
to Him for keeping His ways?
Verse Three B: How does my fasting serve my ego, my goals, my needs
rather than the Lord's desires and goals? What of God's graces do I
miss in my self-serving?
Verse Three C: Do I justify being cross, curt, or mean when I fast?
Verse Four: How have I increased or decreased quarreling during the Fast?
Verse Five: What are the ways that I make my fasting visible to others
rather than hiding my devotion to the Lord as He commands (Mt. 6:16-18)?
Verse Six: What efforts have I made to remove circumstances or
conditions that lead others to sin? How have I made life more difficult
for others? How have I eased the pain of others? What wrongs have I
corrected to lighten the struggle of others?
Verse Seven: What am I doing personally to relieve someone's hunger, to
provide shelter to any homeless persons, or to assure that others
receive needed clothing?
Verse Eight: To what extent have I asked God to enlighten me in
practical ways so that I might provide aid, comfort, and / or assistance
to some needy person or families?
Verse Nine: In what ways have I asked God to free me, to notice my
problems or to hear me, while in the meantime I have neglected the
dignity, freedom, needs or cries of others?
Verse Ten: To what degree do I help others - as a legalistic duty
rather than giving, sharing, and aiding them from my heart, in
thanksgiving to God Who has so richly provided for me?
Verse Eleven: To what extent do I fast to please myself or to impress or
ingratiate my fellow Christians rather than fasting in order to become
more aware of God's presence?
Verse Twelve: What in the Lenten Fast is a waste of time or energy from
my perspective? What about fasting do I find spiritually empty? What
in me makes the Fast "one more thing to get through"? How is the Fast
adding or detracting from my growth in faith, hope, and love? Am I
drawing nearer to God and finding His peace in my heart? Why or why not?
Grant me reverence, estrangement from evil, and perfect discipline,
and save me, Lord Jesus!
[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 @ 11:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home