knitternun

Saturday, April 14, 2007

14/04/07 Saturday in Holy Week

[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE ONE OR MORE MEDITATIONS. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT. PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CHRISTIANITY. IT IS HOPED THAT ALL WILL PRAY THE COLLECT, REFLECT ON THE DAY'S SCRIPTURES AND PRAY THE ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER. AFTER THAT, YOUR CHOICE. THANK YOU]

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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

We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us to eternal joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

AM Psalm 145; PM Psalm 104
Isa. 25:1-9; Acts 4:13-21(22-31) or 2 Cor. 4:16-5:10; John 16:16-33
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Mark 16:9-15, 20. He appeared first to Mary Magdalene... But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

Mary Magdalene is the first person to see the resurrected Lord. The writer tells us that. Then, almost as an aside, he adds that the disciples didn't believe her.


This is the same Mary Magdalene whose veracity had been proved only days before, when Peter and John saw the same empty tomb and angel she had reported. This is the same woman, who, with the other women, stayed with Jesus at the cross. These are the same men who have just seen an empty tomb, who also saw miracles, and lives transformed.


None of it matters. "They would not believe it." Did Peter and the others ever say "sorry" to her, once the Lord also appeared to them? I like to think they did. I like to think this whole business of continually doubting Mary became something of an in-group joke, a loving family story. How the women were honored with angelic explanations, and even by the Lord, but the menfolk were such dolts they didn't believe them. "Can you imagine?" one of the disciples would say, "What were we thinking?" And everyone would laugh, Peter and John most of all.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of The New Guinea Islands (Papua New Guinea)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

If you would progress a long way on this road and ascend to the Mansions of your desire, the important thing is not to think much but to love much; do then, whatever most arouses your love.
St Teresa of Jesus
Interior Castle, IV.1
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

One day, the inhabitants of Scetis assembled together to discuss Melchizedek and they forgot to invite Abba Copres. Later on they called him and asked him about this matter. Tapping his mouth three times, he said 'Alas for you, Copres! For that which God commanded you do, you have put aside, and you are wanting to learn something which you have not been required to know about.' When they heard these words, the brothers fled to their cells.
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Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm

Everything is foreseen; and freewill is given. And the world is judged by grace; and everything is according to work.
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Laying Down Your Life for Your Friends

Good Shepherds are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep (see John 10:11). As spiritual leaders walking in the footsteps of Jesus, we are called to lay down our lives for our people. This laying down might in special circumstances mean dying for others. But it means first of all making our own lives - our sorrows and joys, our despair and hope, our loneliness and experience of intimacy - available to others as sources of new life.

One of the greatest gifts we can give others is ourselves. We offer consolation and comfort, especially in moments of crisis, when we say: "Do not be afraid, I know what you are living and I am living it with you. You are not alone." Thus we become Christ-like shepherds.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

Day Fourteen - The First Way of Service -

Prayer

Tertiaries seek to live in an atmosphere of praise and prayer. We aim to be constantly aware of God's presence, so that we may indeed pray without ceasing. Our ever deepening devotion to the indwelling Christ is a source of strength and joy. It is Christ's love that inspires us to service, and strengthens us for sacrifice.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

MANY DEMANDS UPON OUR TIME and many opportunities waiting to be explored often fill our lives too full with activities and distractions. When this happens it is not surprising that we grow anxious and lose our sense of peace and tranquility. Today remember that God and God alone is able to care for all that exists; we can trust our smallest and largest concern to the wisdom and love of God. Peace, hope, calm, and joy are the fruits of placing our confidence in God. May these gifts be yours in abundance.

- Rueben P. Job
A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

From pages 369-370 of A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job. Copyright © 2003 by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"The Life on the Other Side of Death"

Eternal life, the life that the Virgin Mother bears into the world, is the life that's on the other side of death. It's for those who can face the death, demons, darkness, and still live. One cannot take that journey without a mother. Whatever we find in the eyes of Jesus must first have been in the eyes of Mary. The mother's vision of life is powerfully communicated to her children. Mary had to be the spiritual director, the one who gave the vision to Jesus, who taught Jesus how to believe. What was in his eyes was somehow first in hers. And in both of their eyes is what they both believe about God. Mary holds us naked at each end of life: the Madonna bringing us into life; the grief-stricken mother of the Pieta handing us over to death. She expands our capacity to feel, to enter the compassion and the pain of being human. She holds joy deeply, where death cannot get at it. He learns by watching her. The mother of the suffering servant is the one who teaches us to trust life, to trust the space in between, to say yes to it, and on the other end, to trust death. But the life she calls us to trust is not an easily created life. It's not just a life that happens in a moment. It's the life on the other side of death, and therefore indestructible. The mother teaches us by the way she stands at the foot of the cross. Not a word is spoken; she simply trusts and gives space and silence. She is present. The Church without Mary is a Church of technique, product and function. It is a Church that is driven to win and to control. It is overly rational, ideological; it is obsessed with trying instead of trusting. Faith is not for overcoming obstacles; it is for experiencing them. The Church without Mary does not understand faith; it does not understand love. Therefore, it does not understand resurrection.

from How Mary Faced Life
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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

The beginning of a new life

Because it revolves in cycles and never comes to an end, the year is a symbol of eternity. Christ, the sacrifice that was offered for us, is the father of the world to come. He puts an end to our former life, and through the regenerating waters of baptism in which we imitate his death and resurrection, he gives us the beginning of a new life.

The knowledge that Christ is the passover lamb who was sacrificed for us should make us regard the moment of his immolation as the beginning of our own lives. As far as we are concerned, Christ's immolation on our behalf takes place when we become aware of his grace and understand the life conferred on us by this sacrifice. Having once understood it, we should enter upon this new life with all eagerness and never return to the old one, which is now at an end. As scripture says: We have died to sin—how then can we continue to live in it?

John Chrysostom, (347 - 407), patriarch of Constantinople, spent a life of preaching and earned the title of "the golden-mouthed."
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

INSPIRED INVINCIBILITY

"Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." Matthew 11:29

"Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth." How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us into the place where we can have communion with Him, and we groan and say - "O Lord, let me be like other people!" Jesus is asking us to take one end of the yoke - "My yoke is easy, get alongside Me and we will pull together." Are you identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God for the pressure of His hand.

"To them that have no might He increaseth strength." God comes and takes us out of our sentimentality, and our complaining turns into a pæan of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and learn of Him.

"The joy of the Lord is your strength." Where do the saints get their joy from? If we did not know some saints, we would say - "Oh, he, or she, has nothing to bear." Lift the veil. The fact that the peace and the light and the joy of God are there is proof that the burden is there too. The burden God places squeezes the grapes and out comes the wine; most of us see the wine only. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit, it is an inner unconquerableness.

If you have the whine in you, kick it out ruthlessly. It is a positive crime to be weak in God's strength.
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G. K. Chesterton Day by Day
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/gkcday/gkcday.html

AS it is in politics with the specially potent man, so it is in history with the specially learned. We do not need the learned man to teach us the important things. We all know the important things, though we all violate and neglect them. Gigantic industry, abysmal knowledge are needed for the discovery of the tiny things -- the things that seem hardly worth the trouble. Generally speaking, the ordinary man should be content with the terrible secret that men are men -- which is another way of saying that they are brothers.

'Illustrated London News.'
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 60: On Priests Who May Wish to Live in the Monastery

If any ordained priest
should ask to be received into the monastery,
permission shall not be granted too readily.
But if he is quite persistent in his request,
let him know
that he will have to observe the whole discipline of the Rule
and that nothing will be relaxed in his favor,
that it may be as it is written:
"Friend, for what have you come (Matt. 26:50)?"

It shall be granted him, however, to stand next after the Abbot
and to give blessings and to celebrate Mass,
but only by order of the Abbot.
Without such order let him not make any exceptions for himself,
knowing that he is subject to the discipline of the Rule;
but rather let him give an example of humility to all.

If there happens to be question of an appointment
or of some business in the monastery,
let him expect the rank due him
according to the date of his entrance into the monastery,
and not the place granted him
out of reverence for the priesthood.

If any clerics, moved by the same desire,
should wish to join the monastery,
let them be placed in a middle rank.
But they too are to be admitted only if they promise
observance of the Rule and stability.
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Bright Saturday, April 14, 2007 Christ is Risen!
Martyr Thomais of Alexandria
4th Paschal Vigil: Jonah 3:1-10 Apostle: Acts 3:11-16
Gospel: St. John 3:22-33

Reluctant Prophet III: Jonah 3:1-10 LXX, especially vs. 5: "And the men
of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloths,
from the greatest of them to the least of them." The style of the Book
of Jonah is consistently terse, so that readers regularly must imagine
much of the development from event to event. For instance, we are told
virtually nothing of Jonah's prophecy in Nineveh, only that he spoke
"according to the former preaching" to which God had directed him (vs.
2). Referring back to the first Chapter to discover what were God's
"former" instructions, we find only the simple command to "rise and go
to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it; for the cry of its
wickedness is come up to Me" (Jon. 1:2). Aside from these slight clues,
the passage reports that the Prophet also said, "Yet three days, and
Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jon. 3:4 LXX). Reading such a clipped
narrative expands one's appreciation for the response of the Ninevites:
"the men of Nineveh believed God" (vs. 5).

The account that follows reveals that the Ninevites responded in a
God-pleasing manner - in repentance. They affirmed that God's judgment
concerning their spiritual state was correct (vs. 5); cried for their
sins (vs. 8), evinced true sorrow for their wrongs (vss. 5-7), and
effectively ended wrong doing, for "they turned every one from their
evil way" (vs. 8). They took full responsibility for "the iniquity that
was in their hands" (vs. 8) and in no way attributed their faults to
God, but, rather, they gave themselves over to His will (vs. 9).

God, Who is not deceived by show, perceived that they had turned from
their evil ways, and He stayed His hand from the judgment for which the
Ninevites had readied themselves.

Historical records affirm that the prevailing conditions in the Assyrian
Empire at that time encouraged genuine, swift, God-pleasing repentance
on the part of the citizens and leadership of Nineveh in response to
Jonah's announcement of the city's imminent overthrow (vs. 4). The
country's military condition was weak, for they had recently lost
important forts at Carchemish, Militene, and Commagene. On a day in
June during this time, the Assyrian records also show that there was a
total solar eclipse. Among the omen texts of Nineveh itself, it was
said that following a solar eclipse, "the King will die, rain from
heaven will flood the land. There will be famine" [and] "a deity will
strike the King and fire consume the land."

Let us be attentive to what the Lord is teaching in the Biblical
passage: it was not Jonah the people of Nineveh believe; they took God
at His word. The Prophet fulfilled his duty by going to the great city
and declaring God's word to its pagan people - as God instructed him;
and the Ninevites believed God. There is no record of any discussion
between the Ninevites and Jonah; they submitted to the Lord. Let us
likewise be careful to repent as did the Ninevites.

Foremost: recall that Orthodox Christian life is characterized as a life
of repentance. Thus, even now at Pascha, with all the joy of the Feast,
as the Paschal stichera command "let us be illumined for the Feast, and
embrace one another. Let us speak, brothers, even unto those that hate
us, and forgive all for the sake of the Resurrection." We are called
away from every unforgiving and "evil way, and from the iniquity" of our
hands (vs. 8), just as were the Ninevites.

Should we be careless enough to think that God will be impressed by the
awesome solemnity of our celebration of Great and Holy Pascha, and
should we then fail to forgive and put away our evil ways, we will be in
danger of missing God's message. Why did the Ninevites believe God?
Because they knew that He saw into their hearts. Let us also repent and
be saved!

Make us worthy, O Master Who lovest mankind, to partake of Thy terrible
Mysteries: unto remission of sins, unto forgiveness and unto
inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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