knitternun

Saturday, March 29, 2008

on the Alice in Wonderland World of the Diocese of San Joaquin

http://cariocaconfessions.blogspot.com/2008/03/perfect-storm-brewing.htm

So I read it and was very amused by it too. But at the same time, I was disgusted. I am disgusted by the spin doctoring that goes on among the re-asserters. They are quick to claim that the Episcopal Church abandoned them. But what they do not see is their continual use of the "2 wrongs making a right"logic. They justify all of their own uncanonical actions on the basis that TEC made them do it because TEC was naughty first. Overlooking, of course, that everything TEC done has been by the book in accordance with the Canons and Constitutions.

Schofield and Cox could have chosen to be released from their vows. They did not so choose and there are logical consequences to any choice. It is disingenuous to cry "Foul! Play fair!" when one is asked to face those logical consequences. It is disingenuous to use the "he made me do it" defense. Our mothers taught us this was flawed logic when we were toddlers.

I quote now from the blog entry:


"But for reasons at this point known only to her, the Presiding
Bishop refused to recognize the loyalty of the six, despite clear knowledge
of their intention to follow the canons, and publicly declared her judgment
that there were in fact no continuing members of the Standing Committee of
the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin."


Let's see... If the first time the members of the Standing Committee
ever contacted the PB was after the fact, then the PB acted properly. What did this SC do in the first place to oppose Schofield's uncanonical actions? Did the SC contact the PB long before and ask for help?


"But in the case of both bishops, the deposition failed on a
technicality, though this was not noticed at the time."

And yet both are still guilty of abandonment of communion. If (and I
very much doubt there is an "if") any such technicality exists, they
are nonetheless guilty. After all, OJ was acquitted on technicalities and didn't
we all deplore that?




"Now the final ingredient in the Perfect Storm recipe--the one that will act
as a catalyst, joining with the others to ignite a cataclysm in the Anglican
world."

Personally, I think this must be in imitation of Jimmy Stewart addressing Tracy Lord in "The Philadelphia Story". And only Jimmy could get away with such hyperbole.

" In less than two days' time, the Presiding Bishop is intending to
call to order a special convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin
in the city of Lodi. While it is arguably her duty to facilitate the
reconfiguration and reinvigoration of TEC's ministry in that area, the way
she has gone about doing so seems to ignore, if not flout, the very
Constitution and Canons of the Church she serves."

Any one else see the contradiction? It is "her duty" while at the same time "flouting".

"This is where the
canonical cloud over the deposition of Bishop Schofield becomes extremely
relevant."

Of course, he hasn't even defined what this "canonical cloud" let alone proven one exists. There was some discussion after the House of Bishops that perhaps there wasn't a quorum, but it has since been demonstrated that all canonical considerations were followed by the House of Bishops. Some talk has also been made that Schofield and Cox did not speak up in their own defense but that would have been difficult considering how they chose not to go and do so.

"Only in the absence of a bishop can the Presiding Bishop step in
to a situation, and then only under strictly limited circumstances. But
there is plausible doubt whether Bishop Schofield has in fact been properly
deposed"

I begin to wonder if the author of this piece lives in any sort of
real world. Schofield ******left******* the Episcopal Church. He did
not bother to speak in his own defense, making it clear he really
didn't care what happened. IMO, that makes it pretty obvious that there is no bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin at this time.

When Schofield left TEC for the Southern Cone, he left the
Episcopalians of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin without a
bishop. Choices and logical consequences.

"But wait...there's more!"

I feel like the stylistic model for this blogger must be infomercials.

" The "unrecognized" Standing Committee--that is, the duly and canonically elected Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin--"

Which didn't do their jobs.

"made it clear to the Presiding Bishop on several occasions that, in the event of Bishop Schofield's lawful deposition, they stood ready to perform their duty and become the Ecclesiastical Authority of the diocese,"

But they were not ready to step in earlier as he prepared to abandon communion, apparently.

" cooperating with her office as appropriate under the constitution and canons. As recently as two weeks ago, they expected to shortly be called to act in accordance with the polity of "this Church." But because of the technical glitch, they cannot recognize the See of San Joaquin as vacant, and are therefore unable to lawfully step in."

If their excuse if a so-called technical glitch, then what we really have is a bunch of Schofield supporters in disguise who think they can fool the PB and the rest of TEC so they can continue to breed dissent and schism among faithful Episcopalians.


Yes, but did they act prior to Schofield's attempts to steal an entire
diocese? to oppose the uncanonical actions of Schofield? Or is all of
their fuss only after the fact in a CYA move, perhaps?


"So what we will have Saturday is a Perfect Storm--an institution going rogue
"on itself, ignoring its own polity, its own rules . . ."

Hmmm... perhaps the author's stylistic role models include the writers of TV melodramas. "An institution going rogue"... you know, I had no idea institutions had minds of their own.

This is laughable. Schofield violates his vows as priest and Bishop to
uphold the canons and constitutions of TEC but it's TEC that's gone
rogue?

Here's the bottom line: All Schofield and Cox had to do was ask to be
released from their vows. That's all. They chose not to do it.
Instead Schofield preferred to act in a manner so out of accord with
the very canons and constitutions he swore to uphold that it has
created a situation without precedent. "By their fruits you will know them" seems to me to say there are logical consequences.

Let's put the blame where it belongs: on Schofield, on any that
supported him in San Joaquin and on any that didn't oppose him.
Actions and choices have logical consequences.

"The harm that this will do to the commonweal of the Episcopal Church and the
Anglican Communion is untellable."

Well, there isn't going to be any. What there is going to be is
healing and reconciliation from the actions of those who sought to
take the law into their own hands, from those who acted as if the
rules didn't apply to them.


I am sick to death of those who object to people who don't play fair
when it is in fact the crybabies who cheated on the rules in the first
place.

"If we can't trust ourselves to live by our
own laws, if the ends are seen as justifying the means"

Which is I guess exactly how Schofield justified his behavior.

"if a mistake in the past is used as a justifying precedent for repeating the same mistake, then the confidence of the minority that the protections afforded them under our polity will indeed be effective evaporates like morning mist under the desert sun."

Poetic cliches are so trite, aren't they?

Well, if the Bishop of San Joaquin hadn't deserted those who depend
upon him in the first place...

"We are left to be drowned by the tyranny of the majority."

Who said TEC is a democracy? I wonder if this blogger feels that the Constitution of the USA drowns its citizens in a "tyranny of the majority"?

Schofield ****left**** TEC. There is no getting around that.
Schofield created the situation. There is no getting around that.
You can spin the facts all you want but bottom line: Schofield
walked. Period. End of sentence. End of discussion.

"But on the Last Day, I do not anticipate being envious of whose who, buoyed by a perception of power made invincible by righteousness, are in these days the instruments of such an unholy wrath."

I'm always grateful when hubris rfeveals itself for what it really is.

On the Last Day what will happen is this: Jesus is going to say "When
you gave food to the hungry, you gave food to Me. When you slake the
thirsty, you give drink to Me. When you cared for the sick, you cared
for Me. But instead you diverted time, energy, people, resources from
loving your neighbor as yourselves, from feeding the hungry, caring
for the sick to argue interminably about something I never said a word
about. You chose to ignore the things I myself told you to do.

I told you not to judge, but you judged. I told you to leave sin up
to Me but you wouldn't. You bore false witness which you were told not
to do. You twisted facts to suit yourselves. You decided the ends
justify the means. You believed that a perceived wrong made it ok to
do wrong yourselves.

You dissidents, schismatics, re-asserters were buoyed by a perception of power
made invincible by righteousness, are in these days the instruments of My
unholy wrath."

Friday, March 28, 2008

Daily Meditation 03/28/08

[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]




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 Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son 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 136; PM Psalm 118
Exod. 13:1-2,11-16; 1 Cor. 15:51-58; Luke 24:1-12
++++++++++

From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

John 21:1-14. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach.

This seems the most mysterious of the resurrection appearances.


There is the odd fact that Peter and the others decided to go back to fishing-had they despaired already of their mission? They had worked all night and caught nothing, but at a word from Jesus they cast the net on the other side of the boat and caught so many fish it was a wonder the net did not break.


Personalities come through clearly: perceptive John, the first to recognize Jesus; impetuous Peter, flinging himself into the sea, the first to meet Jesus on the beach. There was the surprising invitation to an outdoor breakfast of bread and fish. A lot going on.


For me, the most enduring image in this crowded scene is Jesus, standing alone on the shore as day is breaking, waiting for his own.


For centuries, Christians have pictured heaven on the far side of the Jordan River, eternal life as dawning beyond the night of our death. Jesus stood on the shore in the first light of day and invited his disciples to join him.


So he awaits us all, on the far side of whatever separates us from him now.
++++++++++

Other reflection's on the day's Scripture:

http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id132.html
++++++++++

Today we remember:
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary

March 28 , Friday in Easter Week:

Psalm 116:1-8 or 118:19-24;
Acts 4:1-12; John 21:1-14
++++++++++

Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Bungoma (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++

Prayers for Easter Season:http://www.churchyear.net/easterprayers.html

Prayer to the Resurrected Christ who Saves Us

O Jesus, King,
receive my supplication,
and consider my supplication,
as a pledge to You.
For you, O living King,
have gone forth and gone up,
out of Hell,
as Conqueror.

Woe to those who have rejected you;
For, to evil spirits and demons,
You are sorrow,
to Satan and to Death,
You are pain,
To Sin and Hell,
You are mourning.

Yet, joy has come today,
for those who are born anew.
On this great day therefore,
We give great glory to You,
who died and is now alive,
that to all you may give
life and resurrection!
Adapted by David Bennett from Nisibene Hymn 36:17,18, by St. Ephrem the Syrian
++++++++++

Praying for those attending General Convention, 2009: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/praygc
++++++++++

Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

Two springs

Daily Reading for March 28 • Friday in Easter Week

Holy Week is the world’s sacred Winter;
The earth is a widow, the skies are sere,
There’s a sound of scourging and nailing in the vinegary wind;
And the darkness chokes the Son of Man.

But spring, two springs, are coming to the world
From the depths on the third morning:
The lily, the primrose and the daffodil
Will follow the Saviour from the Egypt of soil.

The rejoicing is green and white, the praise is yellow
Because the new Adam has risen alive from the grave;
And the ivy, tying itself round the tree like the old serpent,
Is for us eternal life with God.

Gwenallt, Gwreiddiau, 1959 translated by Patrick Thomas, quoted in A Celtic Primer: The Complete Celtic Worship Resource and Collection, edited and compiled by Brendan O’Malley. Copyright © 2002. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com
++++++++++

Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. When people really listen to each other in a quiet, fascinated attention, the creative fountain inside each of us begins to spring and cast up new thoughts and unexpected wisdom.
— Brenda Ueland quoted in Finding What You Didn't Lose by John Fox

To Practice This Thought: Find a creative way — writing, painting, singing — to express something you have heard.
++++++++++

Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

In giving us His Son, His only Word (for He possesses no other), God spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and He has no more to say ... because what He spoke before to the prophets in parts, He has now spoken all at once by giving us the All who is His Son.
St John of the Cross
Romances
++++++++++

Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

Prove your love and zeal for wisdom in actual deeds.

St. Callistus Xanthopoulos
++++++++++

Daily Meditation from http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/PraytheOffice/morningprayer.html

Readings for Day 28

March 28

Psalm 145:1–3 I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. 2 Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. 3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.

2 Samuel 6:5,14–15 David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

Luke 18:1–8 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, `Grant me justice against my adversary.' 4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, `Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' " 6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
++++++++++

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.
++++++++++

From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

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/

God Works
March 28th, 2008
Friday’s Reflection

GOD CREATES “wide places,” which is to say, God’s grace works for our benefit, guiding, protecting, and instructing us. God gives us grace in our homes. God provides us places — both in childhood and adulthood — that are happy, safe, and peaceful. God reveals God’s self in the splendor of nature, in the carefree locations of childhood. God touches our lives in difficult places, one time converting us, another time saving us from trouble, another time giving us peace and strength. God gives us places of Christian fellowship that help us grow in grace. God helps us when, on occasion, that fellowship breaks down. Places illustrate ways that God both deals with us and helps us; places are both parable and memory.

- Paul E. Stroble
You Gave Me a Wide Place: Holy Places in Our Lives

From pp. 137-138 of You Gave Me a Wide Place by Paul E. Stroble. Copyright © 2006 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/
+++++++++++

Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

Easter

Question of the day:
Has the Resurrection taught us to forgive ourselves?



Lamb of God,
we ask that we might be defense-free people,
that we might be able to live a truly disarmed life,
that we might be able to be
secure enough in your love, Jesus,
to be insecure in this world,
to let go, Lord.

Take us close to you today and teach us the truth.
Accept our flaw, Lord, that we cannot accept.
Heal our wound. Forgive that fatal flaw,
Lord, that we cannot forgive.

Help us to forgive ourselves.
None of us has become
who we thought we wanted to be.

Our judgment is not greater than yours.
Free us to forgive what you so readily forgive.
What you have let go of, help us not to hold on to.

Amen.

from The Price of Peoplehood

++++++++++

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.
++++++++++

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/

March 28, July 28, November 27
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.

++++++++++

Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the Holy Orthodox Church.

Genesis 8:4-22 (3/28) 1st Reading at Vespers, Friday of the
3rd Week of the Great Fast

The Flood And Baptism V ~ Entering the New Life: Genesis 8:4-22,
especially vs. 22: "All the days of the earth, seed and harvest, cold
and heat, summer and spring, shall not cease by day or night." Those
who emerge from the waters of the Baptismal Mystery, like those who came
out of the ark after the Great Flood of waters, enter upon a new life, a
life sheltered under God's promises. Feet and hooves, claws and wings
emerged to a cleansed earth assured that life would "not cease by day or
night." Similarly, God promises those who come up from the waters of
Baptism "through the washing of regeneration,"1 a life illumined by the
Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

How do we realize and obtain the blessings of this reborn life? The
experience of the righteous Noah provides the example: with the eye of a
servant, he watched to discern God's will. He waited upon God's
direction to come out of the ark. When he emerged, his first action was
to worship. Similarly the new life in Christ is lived by watching,
waiting, and worshiping.

As the last of the furious rains ended and the ark rested upon the
mountains of Ararat, Noah watched that he might continue to move in the
will of God. He observed the order of things and their natural
interaction that he might see God's hand at work. He opened a window in
the ark to the new life beyond and observed. Just as then, the way we
watch makes a difference.

St. Nikiphoros the Hesychast tells of St. Antony seated at prayer on a
desert mountain. Suddenly and urgently, St. Antony sent two monks with
water "along the road leading to Egypt," to find two men there, one who
had died and another about to die because of thirst. When St.
Nikiphoros was asked why St. Antony did not dispatch relief sooner, he
answered that the decision about death rested with God, not Antony.
That the miracle happened was because the Saint "kept his heart
watchful, and so the Lord showed him what was happening a long way off."2

Great shifts and changes happen around us continually in all aspects of
life: physical, social, and spiritual. Most of these, being beyond our
control, begin and end with God. The first work of a servant of Christ
for realizing the fullness of regeneration is to "look unto the hands of
[our] master[s]" (Ps. 122:2), to discern what God is doing, how He is
calling us to act. Such watchfulness must be continuous; otherwise, the
heart may be wounded and our birth into the new life in Christ will be
disrupted, injured, and possibly still-born.

As Noah watched, he tested the conditions. He sent out a raven and then
a dove. Each of these brought him signs that "the water had ceased from
off the earth" (Gen. 8:8). Still Noah waited (vss. 10,12), and as he
waited, in the words of the Baptismal Liturgy, God "didst send unto them
that were in the ark of Noah [His] dove, bearing in its beak a twig of
olive, the token of reconciliation and of salvation from the flood, the
foreshadowing of the mystery of grace."3

Observe: Noah waited for God, and only when the Lord spoke did the
Patriarch leave the ark. The combination of waiting, watching, and
testing is essential to discern God's will fully, for the enemy
constantly sows both good and evil thoughts to distract us from God's
highest and best. Let us wait for God, for He alone leads us in truth
and teaches us (Ps. 24:5).

And when God directed Noah to leave the ark, the first thing the
Patriarch did was to make a "holocaust offering" to the Lord, a
sacrifice in which the entire animal was consumed by fire, to signify
the total surrender of self to God. Regeneration in Christ requires
total worship and full surrender of the self. The heart must say:
"Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee, on behalf of all and for
all,"4 by which we give self totally to the will of God in all our ways.

We have put Thee on, O Christ our God. Teach us to watch and wait for
Thee alone, O merciful One, that we may be victors even unto the end,
through Thy crown incorruptible.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Praying the Psalms

Among the many reasons it is important to pray the psalms is this:
the psalms make it clear that there is no part of the human condition
that cannot be brought to God. Some of the psalms express some
downright nasty human emotion. Yet they have been a part of our holy
writings for thousands of years.

Something praying the psalms helps me with is to be more honest with
myself, to come out of denial about that which I would prefer to
pretend is not true about myself. It is only when I face truth that I
am set free, it is only then that the light can pierce and ultimately
shatter that darkness.

God wants our every thought, word and deed. He wants our every
weakness. He wants our every sin, too. It is only when we are as
honest with ourselves as certain psalms demonstrate honesty, only then
will God transform our weaknesses into strengths.

Labels:

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Daily Meditation 03/23/08, Easter

[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]




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, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; 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/

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24;
Acts 10:34-43 or Jermiah 31:1-6 ; Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43;
John 20:1-18) or Matthew 28:1-10
++++++++++

From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

John 20:1-18. I have seen the Lord.

Mary went alone. To Jesus' tomb. In the dark. And found it empty. Desolation upon desolation.


Appalled to think that someone had stolen Jesus' body, she ran back to Peter and John, who ran to the tomb to see for themselves, and then ran home again. Then the flurry of astonished activity was over, and Mary was left with her sorrow and bewilderment, weeping outside the tomb.


And then occurred one of the loveliest encounters ever recorded. In a tender (almost Shakespearian) comedy of echoed questions and mistaken identity and final joyful recognition, Mary was the first of all who loved him to meet her Risen Lord, the first to be sent to tell the good news.


In Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth, Mary bursts in on the disciples with her ringing annunciation of resurrection: her face shines like the sun as she proclaims,
"I have seen the Lord."


Like Moses at Sinai--like Jesus on the mountain--Mary is transfigured by resurrection light. We are all meant to be God's radiant Easter people. May we pray with St. Augustine: "By thy gift, O Lord, we are set on fire, borne aloft; we burn and are on the way."


REJOICE and be glad now, Mother Church,
and let your holy courts, in radiant light,
resound with the praises of your people.
--Exsultet
++++++++++

Other reflection's on the day's Scripture:

http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id132.html
++++++++++

Prayers for Easter Season:http://www.churchyear.net/easterprayers.html

Christ is Risen: The world below lies desolate
Christ is Risen: The spirits of evil are fallen
Christ is Risen: The angels of God are rejoicing
Christ is Risen: The tombs of the dead are empty
Christ is Risen indeed from the dead,
the first of the sleepers,
Glory and power are his forever and ever

St. Hippolytus (AD 190-236)
++++++++++

Praying for those attending General Convention, 2009: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/praygc
++++++++++

Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

In the midst of death we are in life

Daily Reading for March 23 • The Feast of the Resurrection: Easter Day

The last certainty is the certainty of death. It is the one thing of which we can be sure. We may try to forget it, but it will not forget us. Nor can we ever really forget it until we have faced it and come to a decision about it. In the midst of life we are in death, unless we know that in the midst of death we are in life.

Faith in eternal life is and must be the logical conclusion—using logic in its fullest human sense—of the instinct of self-preservation. As we grow, so grows that divine discontent that severs us completely from the rest of the animal creation and bids us reach out to fuller and fuller life. We can find endless reasons to justify the instinctive craving, but it is the instinct that sets us reasoning, and unless the world is a fraud, that instinct points to something real by which it can be satisfied.

Unless then life mocks us and has no meaning, the instinct for self-preservation must have its perfect work and must lead to truth, not falsehood. The Christian hypothesis is that life is as good as God revealed in Christ and that behind the Cross there is ever and always the resurrection. And it is only by taking that hypothesis and living life as though it were true, flinging ourselves upon it recklessly in the faith that God keeps the good wine until the last, that we can come to that triumphant certainty which destroys death and makes us sure that in the midst of death we are in life everlasting.

From The Wicket Gate by G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, quoted in A Time to Turn: Anglican Readings for Lent and Easter Week by Christopher L. Webber. Copyright © 2004. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com
++++++++++

Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

As Lester Brown says, the number one issue in the environmental revolution is inertia. What is the opposite of inertia? Zeal. Aquinas says zeal comes from the experience of the intense lovability of things. And of intense beauty.
— Matthew Fox quoted in Listening to the Land by Derrick Jensen

To Practice This Thought: To be fully alive, seek out things that animate you to love and to appreciate beauty.
++++++++++

Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Imitate Our Lady and consider how great she must be and what a good thing it is that we have her for our Patroness.
St Teresa of Jesus
++++++++++

Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

Prove your love and zeal for wisdom in actual deeds.

St. Callistus Xanthopoulos
++++++++++

Daily Meditation from http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/PraytheOffice/morningprayer.html

Meditation for Day 23

As the rain hides the stars,
as the autumn mist hides the hills,
happenings of my lot
hide the shining of Thy face from me.
Yet, if I may hold Thy hand
in the darkness,
it is enough;
since I know that,
though I may stumble in my going,
Thou dost not fall.
Alistair Maclean

The Lord is thy keeper,
the Lord is thy shade.
The sun shall not smite thee by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee,
thy soul from all evil;
the Lord shall preserve thee,
thy going and thy coming,
from this time forward,
and even for evermore.
from Psalm 121

As it was, as it is,
and as it shall be
evermore, God of grace,
God in Trinity!
With the ebb, with the flow,
ever it is so,
God of grace, O Trinity,
with the ebb and flow.
Traditional Gaelic prayer learned from
Alexander Macneill, fishsalter, Barra
++++++++++

Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Sharing Our Solitude

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: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

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/

The Morning of New Life
March 23rd, 2008
EASTER
Sunday’s Reflection

HOLY JESUS, I hear God’s mighty “Yes!”
in your Resurrection.
You invite me to live also,
and I want to say “Yes!” to you.
Take me out of the tomb that imprisons me,
lead me into the morning of new life,
and walk with me wherever your love may lead.
Amen.

- Peter Storey
Listening at Golgotha: Jesus’ Words from the Cross

From pp. 87-88 of Listening at Golgotha: Jesus’ Words from the Cross by Peter Storey. Copyright © 2004 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/
+++++++++++

Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

Easter

Question of the day:
Who will roll away the stone of our disbelief?

The Jewish Sabbath is over and three women arrive to anoint him on this first day of the week just as the sun is rising. And as the women walk toward the tomb they are saying, "Who will roll away the stone?"

Now we have the new question: who will roll away the stone of our disbelief?

Jesus becomes the image and the icon of the things God did once, as a sign and a promise for what God is doing everywhere for everybody. The God of Israel turns death into life—that is the meaning of the Resurrection. The real act of faith is seeing it as a pattern that is happening in your life—God can turn your crucifixion into resurrection and God is going to do it with humanity.

from Classes given in Albuquerque
++++++++++

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/

March 23, July 23, November 22
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.
++++++++++

Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the Holy Orthodox Church.


St. Mark 2:1-12 (3/23) Gospel for the Sunday of Gregory Palamas:
the 2nd of Great Lent

Revelation Concerning Healing: St. Mark 2:1-12, especially vss. 10, 11:
"'But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to
forgive sins' - He said to the paralytic, 'I say to you, arise, take up
your bed, and go to your house.'" When the Lord Jesus came to
Capernaum, "immediately many gathered together" (vs. 2). Despite the
press of the crowd, the friends of a paralyzed man brought him to Jesus
for healing (vs. 3-4). Our Lord responded to the faith of these friends
and spoke to the paralytic about his primary problem - his need for
forgiveness (vs. 5). However, Jesus was aware of the "reasoning" of the
scribes, "in their hearts" (vs. 6). These theologians believed "this
Man," Jesus, was blaspheming by forgiving sins (vs. 7). How ironic!
They were correct in saying that the authority and power to forgive are
vested in God alone.

Therefore, the Lord Jesus addressed their spiritual resistance and
declared that "the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" (Mk.
2:10). As Blessed Theophylact notes, "by healing the body, the Lord
makes credible and certain the healing of the soul as well, confirming
the invisible by means of the visible."1 Do you see? The healing
occurred in a believing community gathered to the Lord. The friends'
faith was more important than paralytic's.

The scene in Capernaum has, in fact, the appearance of the Church.
Christ the Lord is in "the house" (vs. 1). People learn that He is
there, and gather together. He preaches to them (vs. 2). Father
Alexander Schmemann reminds us that the first and often overlooked
action of the Liturgy is the gathering of the Faithful, what he calls
the "Sacrament of the Assembly:" "When I say that I am going to Church,
it means I am going into the assembly of the Faithful in order, together
with them, to constitute the Church, in order to be what I became on the
day of my Baptism - a member, in the fullest, absolute meaning of the
term, of the Body of Christ."2 The full expression of the Church's
gifts, including every sort of spiritual and physical healing, is most
appropriate and likely in the context of the Church gathered around her
Lord. Church - the Assembly of the Faithful - is the locus for
anticipating Christ "Who is gracious unto all thine iniquities, Who
healest all thine infirmities, Who redeemeth thy life from corruption,
Who crowneth thee with mercy and compassion" (Ps. 102:3,4 LXX).

Second, notice that the paralytic man was passive, not merely because of
his physical need to be carried (Mk. 2:3). There was more. The man
never said a word. He did nothing until he was directed to "... arise,
take up your bed and go to your house" (vs. 11). Then he acted, but
still without a word. It was not his faith to which the Lord responded,
but rather the faith of those who brought him (vs. 5). Healing requires
the faith of the Church more than the faith of a single individual. The
system of Godparents, for example, is founded on this principle, which
is especially evidenced with infants. The Orthodox anointing service,
most often seen on Great and Holy Wednesday Evening, requires the
reading of seven gospels by seven priests. The number seven expresses
this same reality of the wholeness of the Church gathered in faith with
her Lord.

Finally, this lesson reveals that all healing - physical and spiritual -
takes its source from Christ. The scribes had the right point but with
wrong reasoning (vs. 7). The Lord agreed with their assertion, but
simultaneously fixed the authoritative power to heal in Himself: "But
that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive
sins," He commanded the man to rise and walk (vs. 10). The poor
scribes! The Lord revealed their innermost thoughts, healed the man's
body, and still they were not healed of delusion; still they could not
receive their Savior.

O Master, Lord our God, raise us up from our sickness through the mercy
of Thy goodness, that we who share in Thine inexpressible love toward
mankind may sing Thy praises.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Reading 03/21/08

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

March 21, July 21, November 20
Chapter 42: That No One Speak After Compline

Monastics ought to be zealous for silence at all times,
but especially during the hours of the night.
For every season, therefore,
whether there be fasting or two meals,
let the program be as follows:

If it be a season when there are two meals,
then as soon as they have risen from supper
they shall all sit together,
and one of them shall read the Conferences
or the Lives of the Fathers
or something else that may edify the hearers;
not the Heptateuch or the Books of Kings, however,
because it will not be expedient for weak minds
to hear those parts of Scripture at that hour;
but they shall be read at other times.

If it be a day of fast,
then having allowed a short interval after Vespers
they shall proceed at once to the reading of the Conferences,
as prescribed above;
four or five pages being read, or as much as time permits,
so that during the delay provided by this reading
all may come together,
including those who may have been occupied
in some work assigned them.

When all, therefore, are gathered together,
let them say Compline;
and when they come out from Compline,
no one shall be allowed to say anything from that time on.
And if anyone should be found evading this rule of silence,
let her undergo severe punishment.
An exception shall be made
if the need of speaking to guests should arise
or if the Abbess should give someone an order.
But even this should be done with the utmost gravity
and the most becoming restraint.


Some Thoughts:

One might be forgiven for thinking this section really ought to be called "What to read in the evenings" as more attention seems to be given to that than silence, as the chapter says. Seems to me, though, the importance of the selection of reading materials is very much linked to what is or is not conducive to silence.

The Hepateuch, the 1st 7 books of the Bible, Genesis through Judges, is fraught, at least for me, with some of the most challenging passages in all of Scripture. Ditto Kings. For that matter, 1st and 2nd Samuel also, which Benedict did not specify.

Perhaps Benedict knew far earlier than most that what we put into our minds just before bedtime will have repercussions on our sleep, our ability to find repose in God and therefore affect us the next day.

I find myself wondering how many people would have fewer nightmares, anxieties, insomnia etc if they did not use the 11PM news as their bedtime story.

Labels: , ,

Daily Meditation 03/21/08, Good Friday

[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]






Collect http://www.io.com/~kellywp/

Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son 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 136; PM Psalm 118
Exod. 13:1-2,11-16; 1 Cor. 15:51-58; Luke 24:1-12
++++++++++

From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

John 18:1-19:42. Jesus said, "I am thirstywine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth."...so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.

Sometimes in moments of overwhelming catastrophe, unable to grasp the significance of the whole, our minds focus on details instead. Perhaps that is why I, confronted with the crucifixion, keep thinking about hyssop.


Hyssop, a common Mediterranean plant with medicinal and cleansing properties, is what people used to daub the blood of the paschal lamb on the lintels of their houses so that death would pass them by (Exodus 12:22). Moses used hyssop to sprinkle the blood of sacrifice on the people to seal the covenant with God (Exodus 24:8; Hebrews 9:19).


At the end of vespers, in the monastic community where I am an oblate, the prior sprinkles us with holy water as we sing (from Psalm 51), "Wash me with
hyssop branches, and I shall be clean as the new snow."


What an almost unbearable richness of association. The sour wine is lifted on a branch of hyssop to Jesus' thirst as he hangs on the cross: he himself the Paschal lamb, the atoning sacrifice, the purifying fountain of living water, his own blood the wine of the new covenant.


Maybe God is indeed, as they say, in the details.
++++++++++

Other reflection's on the day's Scripture:

http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id132.html
++++++++++

Today we remember:
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary

March 28 , Friday in Easter Week:

Psalm 116:1-8 or 118:19-24;
Acts 4:1-12; John 21:1-14

++++++++++

Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Jerusalem (Middle East)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++

40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html

39. WALK AND PRAY
FRI 21 MAR

Go out to walk and pray in the area where you live. Use the Lord's Prayer or another short prayer as a "spacer", and when you have finished praying that prayer, look around and make specific prayers for where you are. Keep walking as you pray, using spacer prayers and specific prayers.

You might want to use the Jesus Prayer as a spacer...

Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me,
a sinner.

Idea by: babybear

"God, enable me in some measure to live here on earth as Jesus lived, and to act in all things as he would have acted." – Ashton Oxenden
++++++++++

Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html

St. Leo the Great: Sermon XLIX (On Lent XI)
++++++++++

Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/

They know not what they do

Daily Reading for March 21 • Good Friday

In Jesus’ time, crucifixion was not against the law. It was carried out by the law. It was an exceptionally gruesome method of torturing a person to death, carried out by the government not in secret dungeons but in public. Everyone knew what it looked like, smelled like, sounded like—the horrific sight of completely naked men in agony, the smell and sight of their bodily functions taking place in full view of all, the sounds of their groans and labored breathing going on for hours and, in some cases, for days. Perhaps worst of all is the fact that no one cared. All of this took place in public, and no one cared. That is why, from the early Christian era, a verse from the book of Lamentations was attached to the Good Friday scene: “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” (1:12). . . .

The crosses were placed by the roadside as a form of public announcement: these miserable beings that you see before you are not of the same species as the rest of us. The purpose of pinning the victims up like insects was to invite the gratuitous abuse of the passersby. Those crowds understood that their role was to increase, by jeering and mocking, the degredation of those who had been thus designated unfit to live. The theological meaning of this is that crucifixion is an enactment of the worst that we are, an embodiment of the most sadistic and inhuman impulses that lie within us. The Son of God absorbed all that, drew it into himself. All the cruelty of the human race came to focus in him.

In his first word from the Cross, Jesus does not pray for the good and the innocent. He prays for people doing terrible things. He prays for men who are committing sadistic acts, offering them to his Father’s mercy. It is for his enemies that he prays, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

There is a suggestion here that human beings are in the grip of something they do not fully comprehend. The evil that lodges in the human heart is greater than we know. This means at least two things. It means that there is nothing that you or I could ever do, or say, or be, that would put us beyond the reach of Jesus’ prayers. Nothing at all. And it also means that no one else, no one at all, is beyond that reach. His prayer for the worst of the worst comes from a place beyond human understanding. From that sphere of divine power we hear these words today as though they were spoken for the first time, as though they were being spoken at this very moment by the living Spirit, spoken of each one of us: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

From The Seven Last Words from the Cross by Fleming Rutledge (Eerdmans, 2005).

++++++++++

Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

You keep insisting, I feel good because the world is right! Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That's what all the mystics are saying.
— Anthony de Mello in Awareness

To Practice This Thought: Let your enthusiasm, hope, joy, and good tidings carry you through the holidays and into the New Year.
++++++++++

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
++++++++++

Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

What purposelessness, oh the deceit of life; truly in vain does
each man vex himself, and truly blessed and thrice-blessed are
those who have left everything for the Lord, that they may attain
the good things announced in the Gospels. For what profit will it
be for a man to enjoy the whole world, but lose his soul, to which
the whole universe is not equivalent? All the splendor of man is
like the blossom of grass. For the grass departs and the blossom
dies, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever.

St. Nicon "Repent Ye"
++++++++++

Daily Meditation from http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/PraytheOffice/morningprayer.html

Meditation for Day 21

Seven times a day, as I work upon this hungry farm,I say to Thee,
'Lord, why am I here?
What is there here to stir my gifts to growth?
What great thing can I do for others - I who am captive to this dreary toil?'

And seven times a day Thou answerest,
'I cannot do without thee.
Once did My Son live thy life,
and by His faithfulness did show My mind,
My kindness, and My truth to men.
But now He is come to My side, and thou must take His place.'
From Hebridean Altars
++++++++++

Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Claiming the Sacredness of Our Being

Are we friends with ourselves? Do we love who we are? These are important questions because we cannot develop good friendships with others unless we have befriended ourselves.

How then do we befriend ourselves? We have to start by acknowledging the truth of ourselves. We are beautiful but also limited, rich but also poor, generous but also worried about our security. Yet beyond all that we are people with souls, sparks of the divine. To acknowledge the truth of ourselves is to claim the sacredness of our being, without fully understanding it. Our deepest being escapes our own mental or emotional grasp. But when we trust that our souls are embraced by a loving God, we can befriend ourselves and reach out to others in loving relationships.
++++++++++

From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

Day Twenty One - The Three Notes of the Order

Humility, love, and joy are the three notes which mark the lives of Tertiaries. When these characteristics are evident throughout the Order, its work will be fruitful. Without them, all that it attempts will be in vain.
++++++++++

Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

Forgive Them
March 21st, 2008
GOOD FRIDAY
Friday’s Reflection

IF WE CLAIM to follow Jesus, we must believe that love, not force, is God’s mightiest weapon; that evil may seem to be rampant as it certainly appeared to be on Good Friday, but it is only the second strongest power in the universe.

Let us pray for grace to live by these words from the cross:

Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.

- Peter Storey
Listening at Golgotha: Jesus’ Words from the Cross

From p. 23 of Listening at Golgotha by Peter Storey. Copyright © 2004 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/.
+++++++++++

Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

Holy Week

Question of the day:
What does the "irony of the crucifixion" mean to you?



The supreme irony of the whole crucifixion scene is this: He who was everything had everything taken away from him. He who was King of Kings and Lord of Lords was crowned with thorns.

All of the humanity to which he was brother was taken away from him and he walked the journey alone.

Jesus, the brother to creation, was nailed to the wood of the cross, his arms nailed open. He is the eternal sign of God to us, yet his arms were nailed open because he said in his life three most dangerous words: "I love you."

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

Christ's patience

Christ did not govern his disciples as a master rules his slaves. He was kind and gentle, loving them as brothers, even washing the feet of the apostles, showing by his example how a servant should bear himself toward his equals when his master dealt in such a way with his servants. No wonder he could show such goodness to the disciples who obeyed him, if he was able to bear so long and so patiently with Judas, eating and drinking with his enemy, recognizing the foe in his own household yet neither exposing him publicly nor refusing his treacherous kiss.

At the time of his passion and cross, even before it had gone as far as the inhuman crucifixion and the shedding of his blood, how patiently he bore reviling and reproach, insult and mockery! A little while before, he had cured the eyes of a blind man with his spittle, yet now he allowed his tormentors to spit in his face. His servants today scourge the devil and his angels in the name of Christ, but at the time of his passion Christ himself submitted to being scourged. He crowns the martyrs with never-fading flowers, though he himself was crowned with thorns. He was struck in the face with the palms of men's hands, yet it is he who awards the palm of victory to all who overcome. Others he clothes in the garment of immortality, yet he himself was stripped of his earthly garments. He had fed them with bread from heaven, yet he himself was fed with gall; and he who had poured out the saving cup was offered vinegar to drink.

He the innocent, he the just, he rather who is the embodiment of innocence and justice, is counted among evil-doers. Truth is confuted by false evidence. The future judge is subjected to judgment; the Word of God is led to the cross in silence. At the Lord's crucifixion the stars are thrown into confusion, the elements are disturbed, earth trembles, and night swallows up day. But he himself is silent, unmoved, hiding every sign of his Godhead throughout the whole duration of his passion. Enduring all things, he perseveres to the end, so that in him patience may be brought to its full measure of perfection.

Cyprian of Carthage
++++++++++

Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

INTEREST OR IDENTIFICATION?


"I have been crucified with Christ." Galatians 2:20

The imperative need spiritually is to sign the death warrant of the disposition of sin, to turn all emotional impressions and intellectual beliefs into a moral verdict against the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself. Paul says - "I have been crucified with Christ"; he does not say - "I have determined to imitate Jesus Christ," or, "I will endeavour to follow Him" - but - "I have been identified with Him in His death." When I come to such a moral decision and act upon it, then all that Christ wrought for me on the Cross is wrought in me. The free committal of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the chance to impart to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

". . . nevertheless I live. . . ." The individuality remains, but the mainspring, the ruling disposition, is radically altered. The same human body remains, but the old satanic right to myself is destroyed.

"And the life which I now live in the flesh . . . ," not the life which I long to live and pray to live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh, the life which men can see, "I live by the faith of the Son of God." This faith is not Paul's faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him - "the faith of the Son of God." It is no longer faith in faith, but faith which has overleapt all conscious bounds, the identical faith of the Son of God.
++++++++++

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

March 21, July 21, November 20
Chapter 42: That No One Speak After Compline

Monastics ought to be zealous for silence at all times,
but especially during the hours of the night.
For every season, therefore,
whether there be fasting or two meals,
let the program be as follows:

If it be a season when there are two meals,
then as soon as they have risen from supper
they shall all sit together,
and one of them shall read the Conferences
or the Lives of the Fathers
or something else that may edify the hearers;
not the Heptateuch or the Books of Kings, however,
because it will not be expedient for weak minds
to hear those parts of Scripture at that hour;
but they shall be read at other times.

If it be a day of fast,
then having allowed a short interval after Vespers
they shall proceed at once to the reading of the Conferences,
as prescribed above;
four or five pages being read, or as much as time permits,
so that during the delay provided by this reading
all may come together,
including those who may have been occupied
in some work assigned them.

When all, therefore, are gathered together,
let them say Compline;
and when they come out from Compline,
no one shall be allowed to say anything from that time on.
And if anyone should be found evading this rule of silence,
let her undergo severe punishment.
An exception shall be made
if the need of speaking to guests should arise
or if the Abbess should give someone an order.
But even this should be done with the utmost gravity
and the most becoming restraint.
++++++++++

Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the Holy Orthodox Church.


Genesis 6:1-9 (3/21) 1st Reading at Vespers, Friday of the
2nd Week of the Great Fast

Beyond Eden V ~ Grace Abounds: Genesis 6:1-9, especially vss. 6, 7, 91:
"And the Lord God having seen that the wicked actions of men were
multiplied upon the earth....laid it to heart that He had made man upon
the earth....But Noah found grace before the Lord God." This passage is
part one of the prelude to the Great Flood. It begins and ends with
Noah (vss. 1,9). Herein, God reveals the cause of the coming deluge:
men born from fathers in Seth's lineage evaluate life solely by
appearances. They orient their activities around material things, and,
though they become renowned, they are unfit as dwelling places for the
Holy Spirit of God. However, one man, Noah, finds grace before God (vs.
9).

At the present, as ever, great tidal waves of evil are sweeping over the
nations of earth producing era after era, all reminiscent of the age of
Noah - with men "intently brooding over evil continually" (vs. 6). "Men
of renown" stand out as giants of human achievement, yet many of them
are devoid of a living relationship with God. Still, in this dark
world, grace may be found at the hand of our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ. May we who have united ourselves to Christ and who live in this
dark world heed carefully the caution of Nicholas Cabasilas: in order
"that we may not destroy the grace that we have received, but preserve
it to the end and depart this life in possession of the treasure, there
is need of something human, of endeavor on our part."2 Grace abounds to
those who seek it in their hearts and lives.

Consider Noah's contemporaries: they slipped into evaluating everything
by appearances - other people, relationships, and activities. The
example presented in today's passage is the universal human activity,
the selection of a suitable marriage partner. The men of Noah's
generation chose wives because "they were beautiful" (vs. 3). Although
these men had a godly background, they seem to have ignored the
importance of choosing a wife by "the incorruptible beauty of a gentle
and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God" (1 Pet.
3:4). They focused on externals, as do many today. Look not on outward
appearance, but to the heart (1 Kings 16:7). Before undertaking
relationships, careers, or any activity, as our Lord teaches, "seek
first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Mt. 6:33).

Having shifted from a spiritual to a materialistic focus, the
orientation of Noah's entire generation became "the flesh." This
prevented the Spirit of God from remaining "...among these men for
ever..." (Gen. 6:4). Describing men who stray from a true, godly
heritage as "flesh" is a Biblical way of speaking. Since the things of
material culture really are extensions of our physical flesh: clothes,
tools, shelter, means of transportation and communication. Thus, the
moment tangibles become what one serves in life, one becomes "flesh."
The heart becomes preoccupied by the material. To recover true,
God-given humanity, it first is necessary to reject such an orientation
and to seek the true life of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus says plainly:
"You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt. 6:24). What is essential is
being united with Him through prayer, meditation, immersion in worship
and the receiving of Christ's Holy Gifts.

Finally, when people dedicate their lives to the "flesh," they still may
become giants of achievement: in industry, in knowledge, and in
political power; but within such persons the Spirit of God is silenced.
All thought and activity become intent on evil for no place is allowed
for "...righteousness and sanctification and redemption..." (1 Cor.
1:30). We, however, are meant, as St. Seraphim says, to make the
acquisition of the Holy Spirit the true aim of our lives.3

Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from
me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and with Thy governing
Spirit establish me. (Ps. 50:11,12 LXX)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Reading 03/19/08

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

March 19, July 19, November 18
Chapter 40: On the Measure of Drink

"Everyone has her own gift from God,
one in this way and another in that" (1 Cor. 7:7).
It is therefore with some misgiving
that we regulate the measure of others' sustenance.
Nevertheless, keeping in view the needs of the weak,
we believe that a hemina of wine a day is sufficient for each.
But those to whom God gives the strength to abstain
should know that they will receive a special reward.

If the circumstances of the place,
or the work
or the heat of summer
require a greater measure,
the superior shall use her judgment in the matter,
taking care always
that there be no occasion for surfeit or drunkenness.
We read
it is true,
that wine is by no means a drink for monastics;
but since the monastics of our day cannot be persuaded of this
let us at least agree to drink sparingly and not to satiety,
because "wine makes even the wise fall away" (Eccles. 19:2).

But where the circumstances of the place are such
that not even the measure prescribed above can be supplied,
but much less or none at all,
let those who live there bless God and not murmur.
Above all things do we give this admonition,
that they abstain from murmuring.

Some thoughts:

I hardly know where to begin. I've been rather ill for several days now. To be honest, I've been asleep for most of the past 2 1/2 weeks.

I daresay booze was as big a factor in life in Benedict's day as it is now. Was there anything comparable to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, I wonder, in an attempt to keep people from drunkeningly driving their wagons or chariots? I would read the warnings about drunkeness to mean that it was a problem back then.

Read somewhere that a hemina of wine is about 8 ozs. That seems to me to be rather a lot for anyone to drink on a daily basis. OTOH, we are being told today that a modest portion of any alcohol is actually heart healthy. In fact, there is evidence that light drinkers actually live longer than do those who do not imbibe at all. I think, though, that Benedict's postition ends up being the wisest: if one will drink, do it moderately.

I wonder too what occasioned him to add the bit about where "not even this amount or none at all". But the point is clear: thank God for what we do have and cease to complain about what we do not.

Labels: , ,

Daily Meditation 03/19/08

My apologies that there has been no DM for so long. I have been ill.


[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]






Collect http://www.io.com/~kellywp/

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
++++++++++

Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

AM Psalm 55; PM Psalm 74
Lam. 2:1-9; 2 Cor. 1:23-2:11; Mark 12:1-11
++++++++++

From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

John 13:21-32. He immediately went out. And it was night.

There are apparently two kinds of spiritual night. There is the mysteriously blessed "dark night of the soul" that St. John of the Cross knew-the "deep but dazzling darkness" at the heart of God that the poet Henry Vaughan described.


Then there is the night that Judas precipitated, that he pulled down around him as deliberately as Samson pulled down the pillars of the temple, with defiance, isolation, treachery, and self-destruction tumbling into an abyss of ruin.


A painting of the Last Supper by Nicolas Poussin illustrates this fateful moment: the disciples gathered with Jesus around the table at the Last Supper, leaning toward each other in community, their faces touched by the same light-while at the very edge of the scene, Judas, insubstantial and alone, departs into darkness.


He has allowed Jesus to wash his feet; he has received bread from Jesus' hand. But before this night is over, he will stand with the soldiers and police in the flaring torchlight of Gethsemane while they arrest Jesus; then, in John's Gospel, we hear of him no more.


God grant we never see, nor cause, such night.
++++++++++

Other reflection's on the day's Scripture:

http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id132.html
++++++++++

Today we remember:
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary

March 19, Wednesday in Holy Week:

Psalm 70 ;
Isaiah 50:4-9a; Hebrews 12:1-3; John 13:21-32
++++++++++

Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Hong Kong Island (Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++

40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html

37. LOOK OUT THE WINDOW
WED 19 MAR

Whenever you're near a window today – at home, at work, on the bus, on the train – look out properly and take in the shapes, patterns, contrasts and textures of what you can see. Don't stop looking until you find something beautiful you hadn't noticed before.

Idea by: Peter Graystone

"Grant me, Lord, to hate the things that are unworthy in your sight, and to prize the things that are precious to you." – Thomas à Kempis
++++++++++

Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html

St. Leo the Great: Letter XXVIII (called the "Tome"):
++++++++++

Speaking to the Soul: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/



Daily Reading for March 19 • Wednesday in Holy Week

Sin, sorrow, and suffering, and death itself, were indeed taken away at the Cross, but we mortals must enter into the depths of this mystery in actual experience. The fact that the Savior bore all this for us does not mean that we bear nothing of it; rather, it means that we are invited in to that place (the Cross) where suffering is transfigured. We (the Church) are his Body, says St. Paul. As such, we share in his suffering for the life of the world.

Jesus tells his followers that they will drink the cup of which he drank and be baptized with the baptism with which he was to be baptized (he was speaking specifically of his imminent suffering in Jerusalem). Where, suddenly, is the theology that teaches that because the Savior did it all, we thereby are reduced to the status of inert bystanders? Whether the sorrow of the moment is a lost glove or a lost spouse or a bombed city, I am invited by the Divine Mercy to unite this terrible loss (for the child, the loss of the glove may threaten the end of the world) with the suffering of the Savior at Calvary and thus to discover that my suffering is his suffering, and that—paradox of paradoxes—his is ours (again—we are his Body).

From “The Crucifix” by Thomas Howard, quoted in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Plough Publishing House, 2003).
++++++++++

Spiritual Practice of the Day http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/

Music makes an altar out of our ears. A single struck tone, a note blown from a flute, can flush the body with goodness.
— W. A. Mathieu in The Musical Life

To Practice This Thought: Imagine that your ears are an altar. What do you hear in this sacred space?
++++++++++

Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

I understood that love comprised all vocations, that love was everything, that it embraced all times and places, in a word, that it was eternal! ... O Jesus, my Love ... my vocation, at last I have found it, my vocation is love! ...in the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall be Love.
St Therese of the Child Jesus
++++++++++

Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

from http://www.balamandmonastery.org.lb/fathers/indexsayings2.htm

When the blessed Eulogius saw an angel distributing gifts to the
monks who toiled at all-night vigils, to one he gave a gold piece
with the image of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to another a silver piece
with a cross, to another a copper piece, to another a bronze
piece, and to another nothing. The others who had remained in the
church, left the church empty-handed. It was revealed to him that
the ones who had obtained the gifts are those who toil at vigils
and are diligent in prayers, supplications, psalms, chants, and
readings. Those who received nothing or who left the church
empty-handed are those who are heedless of their salvation, are
enslaved to vainglory and the clamors of life, and stand feebly
and lazily at vigils and whisper and jest.

St. Joseph of Volokalamsk
++++++++++

Daily Meditation from http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/PraytheOffice/morningprayer.html

Meditation for Day 19



A HAVEN
Lord, take this song
and fill it with Your presence.
Let it bring a word of hope
to weary care-full hearts.
Take this song
and fill it, Lord.
Fill it with Yourself.

Lord, take my life
and fill it with Your praises.
Let me speak a word of peace
that Jesus brings in me.
Take this life
and fill it, Lord.
Fill it with Yourself.

Lord, take this place
and fill it
with Your blessing.
Let it be a haven
where the
poor in spirit
sing.
Take this place
and fill it, Lord.
Fill it with Your praise.
++++++++++

Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

The Infinite Value of Life

Some people live long lives, some die very young. Is a long life better than a short life? What truly counts is not the length of our lives but their quality. Jesus was in his early thirties when he was killed. Thérése de Lisieux was in her twenties when she died. Anne Frank was a teenager when she lost her life. But their short lives continue to bear fruit long after their deaths.

A long life is a blessing when it is well lived and leads to gratitude, wisdom, and sanctity. But some people can live truly full lives even when their years are few. As we see so many young people die of cancer and AIDS let us do everything possible to show our friends that, though their lives may be short, they are of infinite value.
++++++++++

From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis: http://www.tssf.org/textonly/principles.shtml

Day Nineteen - The Third Way of Service - Work

Jesus took on himself the form of a servant. He came not to be served, but to serve. He went about doing good: healing the sick, preaching good news to the poor, and binding up the broken hearted.
++++++++++

Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

Self-Forgetful
March 19th, 2008
Wednesday’s Reflection

TAKE FROM ME, gracious God, all that separates me from you — my sense of past sin, my pride in present achievements, my anxieties for the future. Make me self-forgetful as I gaze on you, and let me know the joy of finding my true self in you. Amen.

- Helen Julian CSF
The Road to Emmaus: Companions for the Journey through Lent

From p. 95 of The Road to Emmaus by Helen Julian CSF. Copyright © 2006 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/
+++++++++++

Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

Holy Week

Question of the day:
How have you experienced true freedom?



"The greatest among you must behave as if you were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves" (Luke 22:26) That is probably the simplest and most powerful statement about the Christian definition of authority to be found in all four gospels.

"For who is the greater, the one at table or the one who serves?" The world would say immediately, "The one at table." He says,"Surely, yet, here I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27). Jesus says, in effect, "I'm telling you that the world's way will not work. The essence of true freedom is the freedom to serve other people—to wait upon them."

from The Good News According to Luke
++++++++++

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

Joseph, the father of Jesus

Who can doubt that when Joseph reached the end of his life, his divine foster child in his turn carried that saintly father from this world to the next, to Abraham's bosom, to be taken to himself in glory on the day of his ascension?

A saint who had loved so deeply during his life could not but die of love. Unable to love his dear Jesus as he wished amid the distractions of this life, and having completed the service required by our Lord's tender years, it only remained for him to say to the Father: "I have finished the work which you gave me to do"; and to the Son: "My child, to my hands your heavenly Father entrusted your body on the day when you came into this world; now to your hands I entrust my spirit on the day I leave this world."

Such, I believe, was the death of this great patriarch, the man chosen to perform for the Son of God the tenderest and most loving offices possible, apart from those fulfilled by his heaven-sent wife, the true mother of that same Son.

Francis de Sales
++++++++++

Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/

THE WAY OF ABRAHAM IN FAITH


He went out, not knowing whither he went." Hebrews 11:8

In the Old Testament, personal relationship with God showed itself in separation, and this is symbolized in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and from his kith and kin. To day the separation is more of a mental and moral separation from the way that those who are dearest to us look at things, that is, if they have not a personal relationship with God. Jesus Christ emphasized this (see Luke 14:26).

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. It is a life of Faith, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us "go." The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.

The final stage in the life of faith is attainment of character. There are many passing transfigurations of character; when we pray we feel the blessing of God enwrapping us and for the time being we are changed, then we get back to the ordinary days and ways and the glory vanishes. The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting. It is not a question of sanctification; but of something infinitely further on than sanctification, of faith that has been tried and proved and has stood the test. Abraham is not a type of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith, a tried faith built on a real God. "Abraham believed God."
++++++++++

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

March 19, July 19, November 18
Chapter 40: On the Measure of Drink

"Everyone has her own gift from God,
one in this way and another in that" (1 Cor. 7:7).
It is therefore with some misgiving
that we regulate the measure of others' sustenance.
Nevertheless, keeping in view the needs of the weak,
we believe that a hemina of wine a day is sufficient for each.
But those to whom God gives the strength to abstain
should know that they will receive a special reward.

If the circumstances of the place,
or the work
or the heat of summer
require a greater measure,
the superior shall use her judgment in the matter,
taking care always
that there be no occasion for surfeit or drunkenness.
We read
it is true,
that wine is by no means a drink for monastics;
but since the monastics of our day cannot be persuaded of this
let us at least agree to drink sparingly and not to satiety,
because "wine makes even the wise fall away" (Eccles. 19:2).

But where the circumstances of the place are such
that not even the measure prescribed above can be supplied,
but much less or none at all,
let those who live there bless God and not murmur.
Above all things do we give this admonition,
that they abstain from murmuring.
++++++++++

Dynamis http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/
Dynamis is a daily Bible meditation based upon the lectionary of the Holy Orthodox Church.

Genesis 4:16-26 (3/19) 1st Reading at Vespers, Wednesday, 2nd
Week of the Great Fast

Beyond Eden-III ~ Secularism Revealed: Genesis 4:16-26, especially vs.
16: "...Cain went forth from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in
the land of Nod over against Eden." This passage from Genesis describes
the history of Cain and his descendants, those we may well call "the
first secularists." Cain and his family disclose what becomes of human
life devoid of all thought of the Lord God. We see the heart of secular
man: the deformed spirit, existence organized around the material and
psychological dimensions of life, a place where the passions reign over
men.

God curses Cain, casting him out "from the face of the earth" (Gen
4:12-14). Cain is estranged from a rooted life tilling the soil (see
Gen. 4:2). He learns what it means to be "hidden from [God's] presence"
(vs. 14). His rootlessness is emphasized in Hebrew in which "Nod"
literally means, "the land of wandering" (vs. 16). Wandering takes him
"forth from the presence of God" (vs. 16). Thus, the Lord is
effectively removed from his thoughts. He lives solely for the
"seculum," the material world. In physical existence he fashions a
community of here and now. St. Augustine describes Cain as a man who in
heart and will "belonged to the city of man," and, therefore, "it is
recorded of Cain that he built a city,"1 a human construct to replace
rightful life in communion with God. Secularism is life devoid of
relationship with God.

The Apostle Paul teaches us that when men exchange "the truth of God for
the lie," and worship and serve "the creature rather than the Creator,"
they become "futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts [are]
darkened" (Rom. 1:25,21). Still, in God's mercy, the darkening of men's
hearts does not destroy all facility of the human spirit. Also, the
Lord leaves in place His gifts for the just and the unjust (Mt. 5:45).
Artistic capacity remains in the hearts of all men. Hence, the
descendants of Cain employed their spiritual faculties, inventing and
fashioning the various elements of material culture, the husbandry of
livestock, the development of music and instruments, and the mastery of
bronze and iron artistry (Gen. 4:20-22).

But compare these talented, worldly craftsmen with the godly artisans
who were filled "with a divine spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and
knowledge, to invent in every work..." (Ex. 31:3). Clearly, the
mysteries of faith and the beauties of worship are rightly expressed
only by those whom God chooses, ordains, and inspires. For this reason,
vestment making, iconography, Church music, and other forms of Orthodox
craftsmanship are conducted under the protection of canonical
definition, prayer, and fasting, so that God is honored in all things.

Secularism leads men to greater indulgence of the passions. Cain's
descendant, Lamech, provides two examples of this, in his sexual lust
and his anger. God ordained monogamy as the basis for human marriages
(Gen 2:24). However Lamech, in a materialist spirit, takes two wives
(Gen. 4:19). No ills appear to follow from his bigamy, but Scripture
reveals numerous other cases where multiple wives and indulgence of the
sexual passions only brings great grief.

Lamech also exhibits a man fully under the sway of the passion of anger
- greater than his grandfather, Cain, who killed one man. In Lamech the
passion of anger becomes far more violent and sinister. He wildly
boasts of wholesale revenge, announcing every intention to indulge in
blood feud and multiple murder (vss. 23,24). His ethics are founded on
unrestrained passion and self-indulgence. He epitomizes the spirit of
every secularist ideology that promotes terror, genocide, mass-murder,
war, and violence in order to achieve its "ideals."

Blessed be the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, both now