Will You Come to the Feast

Have Ye Any Meat

Inheriting the Dust

A homily on the Parable of the rich man who laid up stores in his warehouses and then sat back saying, " I have plenty stored up for many years. Now I shall rest and enjoy these things I have laid up." But, little did he know that his very soul is what would be required of him... and he had been found lacking in the one thing most needed.

Who Is My Neighbor

To Be Healed Completely

We read in today’s gospel about two very different people who approached Christ with their needs in different ways.  

Confessing Christ in a Hostile World

Sacrificing Doubt (A Lesson from St. Thomas the Apostle)

A homily given at Monastery of the the Glorious Ascension in Resaca, Georgia on St. Thomas the Apostle Sunday (10/19/2014).

Trading Our Stains for Gold

“Become merciful (compassionate) even as your Father in heaven is merciful.” What does this phrase tell us? Why it tells us what it means to be a Christian, and what the root of salvation is!. Christ did not come into the world so that God would consider us righteous by looking at us through His Son as some sort of filter! He came into the world so that we might be healed!  There are so many forms of spiritual sickness that keep us from fully living our lives to the fullest promise of the Gospel. There are so many times that we simply wish to cling to our own possessions of dust and stains rather than give them up to the promise of What God has to offer.

What happens when we do not experience God’s truth and love in a tactile way, or what happens when we feel that God is not merciful, or even more commonly, what happens when we feel that God is just not there? 

I’ll tell you that we begin to substitute our own self will to replace that which is God’s will and we become ever more distant from the source of Love and Mercy.

So the question remains... Why do we suffer at times and do not experience being filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit? Why do we, at times, do not feel “on fire” for Christ?

This Gospel tells us something about ourselves in that it points out our own propensity to want to live our own lives without the consequences of our bad behavior. Even worse, some of us may wish to live for Christ, but not have to carry the Cross.  Do do such is impossible! For we are called to be Christians; to be Christ Followers. If we follow Christ, we must also follow the way of the Cross. To not do so would be to become as the hypocrites who put on a good show for the benefit of others, but are inwardly hollow and dead in the Faith. 

St. Cyriacus of Palestine, when he was just 18 years old, heard the words of the Gospel in Matthew, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me”. He was so moved by these simple words of our Lord that he decided to dedicate his whole life to serving Christ simply and in all earnestness. In fact, he went straight from the Church to the harbor, without stopping by his home, from there, to set sail to the monastery near Sion. He lived a miraculous life totally dedicated to Christ in all aspects of what he said and did. He reposed in the Lord at 109 years of age.

But what of us when we do not feel God’s closeness in the dry times of the desert of our life? It is in these times most particularly that Faith is tested and the mettle of our spirit is determined. It is in these dry times that we will either strive further into the embrace of God’s mercy or we will turn away into the depths of our own self centered-ness. If we take refuge in God’s mercy, He will make us bear fruit even in the midst of the drought! Often the fruit is not what we were expecting. But it is the fruit that is most needed and of a particularly most excellent nature. Christ being the vine-dresser connects us to the Father’s love and mercy through communion with Him and thus, we become fully alive and a fully living vine bearing fruit for sustaining life.

In such a way we learn to be chastened against evil and kindled towards true Faith. We become the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells and indeed works. We are to feed daily upon the Gospel and to allow it’s truth to transform us entirely. This is the hard part of the walk that we must take as Christians! We have to sacrifice our own will to accept that of God’s. There is no other way to cultivate simple humility than to follow Christ’s own example. The saints and martyrs stand along the way, pointing towards Christ with their own examples of their lives and their deaths. You see... In the end... We all have to die to ourselves in order to live fully in Christ. 

So be merciful to all! Manifest God’s own mercy in your own words and actions. Pretty soon you will find that your words will no longer be your own. Your actions will no longer be that of your own doing. They will become God’s own words and His own will working through you. But don’t be afraid that you are losing yourself! No one who gives himself fully to God, goes away disappointed that he did. After all... You are exchanging dust and stains for unblemished gold. 

The Net That Gathers In

The Cross

Today's homily from Ascension Monastery today. (sorry about the sound...)  ;)

What Shall We Wear to the Feast

The Parable of the Tenants

Transfiguration and Transformation

Today, Our Lord's physical nature has been transfigured by the Holy Spirit within the witness of three of the apostles. The Holy Spirit, proceeding forth from the Father and whose voice testified of the Son, has given irrefuteable witness to the divinity of the Son.

But this has happened before in the witness of the Holy Scriptures, hasn't it? We must remember the Baptism of our Lord, which the Church calls and celebrates as Theophany is but another such occasion as the one we see before us here on the Transfiguration of our Lord.

The Father sends down the Holy Spirit upon Jesus as a dove. This is a proof positive that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone. So many outside of the Church forget this fact and fall into grievous error by mistakenly stating that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. These two great Feasts of the Church contain within them the essential basis of what we in the Church term "Christology"... meaning, the study of Christ's person and nature.

In the action of the Holy Spirit descending from God the Father we are given an important truth about Christ and it is important in that we should be fully aware of who Christ is to realize all that He has done and continues to do for us.

Theophany and the Transfiguration teach us that the human and divine natures of Christ are united in One Person. Christ is not a disembodied spirit and neither is He simply a man claiming to be God, for such a man as this would be a madman with delusions of grandeur.  We are shown in the alighting of the Holy Spirit upon Christ that there is no unity without the presence of the Holy Spirit. For it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that reveals the glory that belongs to Christ. In the presence and witness of Moses and Elijah, we see that our Saviour is Lord over Life and Death, for Moses, who died, worships Him, and Elijah, who did not die, also worships Him. This is to be the answer to those Jews who would say that they have Moses as their father and that by some claim of birthright that they are owed a part and parcel in the Kingdom of God. This will prove to be a sure testimony against such claims.

But what the Transfiguration and Theophany really teach us is the value of and the journey towards repentance. You see, in our own journey as Orthodox Christians, we travel towards a sort of transformation ourselves. In fear and trembling we confess and repent of our many and manifold sins, hoping to be transfigured into that which Christ has called us to become. This process is called Theosis and it is the Orthodox Christian ideal of salvation. We are all at different points along the road of this journey. That's Ok. We are not in a competition with our fellow brother or sister. We are all running towards God. And let us not forget that we have been transfigured already. When you might ask? Well, at our own baptism, of course! Each of us went down into the waters as Christ descended into the grave. In this way, we died to ourselves. This process is even spoken in the Baptism Rite itself, when it says that we have put away the Old Man and his acts. We arise, alive, following Christ in His own resurrection from the dead... It is our own old nature that is left in the tomb for we have been transformed into a new creation in Christ. Behold, it is as Christ said from the cross, "Behold... I make all things new."

Being made new creations in Christ in our baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit from God the Father and are sealed in the Chrism of the Church as being now, the Faithful. No longer do we sit in the outer places of the Church during the Liturgy. No longer do we depart during the Litany of the Catechumens. We are fully present and partake of the full gifts and sacraments of the Church; which She has been given by Christ to sustain the Faithful until His coming again in glory.

And so, in the lesson of the Transfiguration, we are given an example to follow. In our own lives, we are gradually being transformed by the Holy Spirit and our own cooperation with the Holy Spirit. You see, the Christian life is likened to a fish in a swiftly moving stream. A fish that is alive swims against the current and succeeds by it's effort and life, which it possesses. One that is dead is swiftly carried away by the stream into oblivion. It is true also for the Christian. For he has been given life anew and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Now, it is up to him to persevere and to put forth the effort to journey against the currents of this present fallen age to attain to that far and distant shore where he is ever being drawn by the Holy Spirit within him. To that safe harbor of our Lord's love for us.

But remember, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Our own spiritual transformation is not a passive, automatic process within us. It does not simply occur just because we have the Holy Spirit within us.  For we can both go against the current and allow ourselves to be swept away with it in our complacency. We can spiritually progress, and we can also spiritually regress. We can be transfigured by the love of God or we can be disfigured by the love of sin. And like progress, regress is not sudden and dramatic, regression can be gradual, almost imperceptible until it becomes a swift moving current that drags us to the oblivion at the bottom of the falls.

Let us take heed and be watchful... and ever swimming strongly.

The Mountain & the Mustard Seed

The Mountain and the Mustard Seed



What are the three things most necessary to the Christian to do battle with evil? In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 17: 14-23, we are told that the three essentials are Faith, Prayer and Fasting. All three are the necessary pillars of our strength and our ability to overcome evil. But moreover, how much faith is necessary? The answer may surprise you. Let us contemplate the mountain and the mustard seed.



Jesus is approached by a man who kneels down in front of him and begs mercy for his son. We are told that the son suffers from a sickness; in this case epilepsy, and the father humbly begs for the healing of his son. Then, the father relates to Christ how His disciples were unable to cure his son.

The opening of this story tells us some very important things. In Scripture, sickness is often connected to activity of demonic origins. We are to gather that the son suffered his illness because of the agency of demons that were vexing him, causing him to thrash about and to fall into the fire often. The father kneels before Christ showing humility... but not necessarily Faith.  We can gather from the father's words that the disciples must have also lacked faith. They most certainly lacked faith in as much as what would have been needed to exorcise the demon from the afflicted son.

Christ rebukes the father because it is originally the father's lack of faith that has brought his son to such a perilous situation. In doing so, Christ publicly stands up for his disciples (although, He later rebukes them in private for their own lack of faith in dealing with the demon posessed man.) This serves as a lesson by example of how we should reprove and correct each other. Let us take it to the person in private first.

St. John Chrysostom tells us that this rebuke is directed at the nine apostles who could not cast out the demon. Whereas, the pillars of the Faith, Peter, James and John were not included because they had been on the mountain with Christ.



The disciples, being rebuked in private asked the Lord, why could this demon not be cast out by them? Christ tells them that the casting out of demons requires as a pre-requisite Faith, Prayer, and Fasting.  These are the pillars of our Christian practice. These are the most necessary of the person who follows Christ. We are literally to have the Faith in Christ to pick up our cross and follow Him. We forsake all other vain pursuits.  Prayer is the conversation that we have with the Father to build the bridge that we tread upon and to come closer to Him each day. I often say that God is infinitely far away but yet, is as intimately close to us as our next breath. When we pray, we bridge the gulf that exists between heaven and earth and we take part in a two way conversation. It is not a soliloquy or a one-sided conversation we are having. God answers in the most amazing ways. It is an ongoing dialogue, much like that between two good friends.

Fasting is the whetstone that hones the edge of our Faith. It is that which trains us to deny the flesh for the sake of the spirit. As the body becomes weak, the spirit becomes strong and clarity of vision is given to accomplish the work of the Lord.



These three things; Faith, prayer and fasting are absolutely necessary to engage in spiritual warfare. There is no healing without all three. In the Didache, the Fathers teach that both the person who is afflicted and the person who is performing the healing must have all three for the healing to be efficacious.

But how great a Faith must we have?



We are given the example of the mustard seed and the mountain. The mustard seed being the tiniest of seeds is meant to tell us that Faith... pure faith need only be possessed in a minute quantity in order to achieve monumental things. It sounds pretty simple really until one realizes that pure Faith is extremely difficult to come by. The exclamation, "Lord... I believe... Help my disbelief!!!" comes to mind. Great and pure faith occurs in the smallest of acts. But the small act is usually extraordinary in nature. The act of praying when it seems that such is the least that one can do, is actually a great sign of faith. It is the ability to put aside one's doubts and to embrace the seemingly impossible. To reach outside of our normal sphere to grasp onto the hand of Christ who has been waiting for such a moment all along, perhaps wondering what took you so long.

But such a rarified faith requires and demands a sacrifice of what we think we know and what we think that we have control over. To turn off worldly knowledge and approach the unknowable as a simple child would... in simple, pure faith.

A Calm in the Midst of the Storm

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We are in the midst of Gospel readings having to do with Christ's many miracles that He performed within the midst all.  This part of the season is one of my favorites. It is refreshing to hear of these many miracles in this day and age. Especially with all that seems to be going wrong around us.
We modern Christians find it too easy to look at the world as it it exists today and find very little to be joyful about. We see the problems and tragedies of our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land and the greater Middle East and say to ourselves, where is God in all of this? We find ourselves thinking "What have I got to be excited about when there is so much terror and so much confusion in the world and heaven seems so far away?"

This example given to us in the Gospel of Matthew is yet the second time that Jesus leaves the disciples alone to go and pray. He bids the disciples to go into a ship and go on before Him while is remains alone to pray. But the disciples find that the crossing is frought with high seas and great winds which toss them about, putting them into great peril of imminent death. The disciples cry out to Christ in desperation thinking that their end was about to come swiftly! Surely we can relate to their fears in our modern times!
But let him who has ears hear the subtle truth behind this situation for it is a great truth and a parable to show us the path home.

Now open the eyes of your heart, listen with the ears of your heart, and try to understand what the Lord is teaching us. The Fathers give us the key. You see, the disciples represent the faithful: that is, all of us gathered here. The crowds that had been gathered upon the hillside previously, you know, the 5,000 who were fed of the five loaves and the two fishes; they are the God-fearing people who are not members of the Church yet. The boat that the disciples were told to embark upon is the Church. The sea with it's deep and often perilous waters represents the world. The wind that rises and is contrary is Satan who is trying to turn us away from our steady path home, which is the kingdom of God, i.e. the other side of the lake. The rough waves of the sea are the afflictions and tribulations, the trials and temptations which assail us during all our life. And of course... The crossing of the lake in the boat is the Christian life.

The true lesson here is the Love of God. For even in the midst of the storm, Christ comes to the disciples where they are. In fact, the laws of the physical world are suspended in a supernatural way so that Christ could come directly to their aid and assistance. The disciples seeing this are struck with fear and awe, thinking that this is a spirit coming toward them... A ghost is you will.

But Jesus calls out to them knowing their fears saying, "Be of good cheer, It is I... Be not afraid." This is my favorite quote of Christ for it is a salve to those who hear and believe and nonsense to those who do not. It is the word of our Lord calling out to our fears and our insecurities. It is so simple a phrase but knowing whose lips it proceeds from is absolutely awesome! It brings to mind the powerful phrase from First Peter 1:24-25

"All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord endures forever."

Powerful truth!!! St. Peter had the personal, first-hand knowledge of this truth. It was he who called out to the Lord and simply exited the boat to go out to meet the Lord where He was! And he was walking upon the water as Christ was because it was Christ who sustained him and lifted him up. But, Peter, bless his heart, he began to take his eyes off of Christ and started to pay attention to the storm and the squall rushing around him. And he began to sink. His faith left him when he took his eyes off of He who first came to him. How many of us can claim the same problem as Peter?

But Peter began to call out, "Lord... Save Me!" And Christ did. In more ways than one, Christ saved Peter. Christ not only lifted Peter up and returned him to the boat in safety, but Peter confessed Christ for who He is... He is the Son of God!

At this moment, the seas calmed and the winds died. Just as Satan's power to afflict the faithful dies at the confession of the truth of Christ's sovereignty over all of creation... so did the winds lose their power to toss the ship to the depths of the sea. Here is Christ in the truth of His nature. He holds dominion over all things. He is Lord and master of creation. Surely He is still as such to us even in this modern day.

We who turn to the calmer of the storm as the disciples did that night know that within the arms of our savior we find no tragedy... We find comfort and we are to understand that when we ask where is God in the midst of the troubles and catastrophes being played out in the world today? We find that God is still there where He has always been. God is upon the Throne and is triumphant in all of His glory. He is sovereign and has control and dominion over all. Let us take comfort in the this even in the midst of the storm... and be not afraid...

The Great Debate

There was once a day that the members of the body decided to rebel. The feet were jealous of the hands because of all of the things the hands were able to do. The hands were jealous of the mouth because of the wonderful victuals the hands lifted to the mouth but that the hands could never taste. The ears were envious of the eyes because they had heard how wonderful colors were, but alas, they were not able to see them. In all of this commotion and arguing it was finally the head, more importantly the mind itself that shouted, "Enough!!"

When all had fallen silent, the mind began to speak with clarity.

To the feet it said, "You would make very poor hands for your inability to be dextrous and your lack of a thumb. And yet, without you, the body would not stand nor be able to walk."

To the hands it said, "You cannot taste but if you failed to be the hands, the body would have no nourishment and it would die."

To the ears it said, "You cannot perceive the brilliance of vivid colors but it is because of you that the body may hear the wisdom of the Gospels and the Fathers. Without such enlightenment, how whould the body be saved?"

You see... The body is the Church of Christ. Christ is the Head of the Church. We are each members with a role. All are equally important for the Body (*the Church) to function.

Let us be about God's work in what has been given us to do.

B+

Five Loaves, Two Fishes & The Abundance of God's Grace

Listen to this article as a podcast by clicking here>Podcast for Five Loaves, Two Fishes & the Abundance of God's Grace

Today we hear of the wonderful miracle that Christ performed in the midst of the multitude that had gathered to hear him and to be healed by Him. The miracle of the feeding of 5,000 with the five loaves and two fishes. It is a wonderful miracle that shows us the depths of Christ's compassion for us and what he expects of His followers.

Many of you will remember that in our Russian Tradition that the priest will consecrate and use five prosphora in the preparation of the gifts, which we call the proskomedia. This practice is to remind us of this very miracle and of the charge that is given us by Christ to be faithful and to make use of that which He has given us to feed His sheep.

In the Gospel we are told that the multitudes of people saw Christ and they came by the thousands! They showed great faith even as he was departing. Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid and Bulgaria remarked in his commentary on this gospel that the fact that these people had dropped what they were doing and without making any preparations, rushed after Christ is yet another sign of how great a faith these people had. I am reminded of the passage where we are reminded to be ever watchful for Christ's return and that we should be about his work when the time comes. For who would want to be found sleeping when the Savior comes again? These people in this multitude certainly did not wish to miss this opportunity to hear and to be around this wonderworker! For from his lips slipped forth the words of God and from His hands came forth healing and forgiveness.

Here we see Christ's compassion for us. For he looked out across the multitude and did not retreat into the waiting boats that were anchored nearby, but he kindled His heart to meet these faithful who had come just as they were to be healed.

Dear ones... is there any other way to come to meet Christ? Is there anything that we are doing that would stand in the way of our chance encounter with the Lord? Have we any dead to bury before taking up the yoke of discipleship of our Christ? Will not the dead bury the dead? For here is life eternal in our very presence! Here is the word made flesh that we might touch him and know that He is real and has become one of us that we may become reunited with the Father.

The miracle of the feeding of the multitude with just five loaves and two fishes is not one of ostentatiousness or vain glory. It is of compassion and love. For if the faithful followed him into the dry desert places, then how could he who loves mankind do anything other than to care for their need?

We are to remember God's customary love and care for mankind. To Noah in the Ark, he sent a dove... to those who followed Moses into the wilderness, he sent food from heaven. To a dry and thirsty land he sent the rains. And as we will see in the passion of our Lord, He sent his only son to be the lamb that is sacrificed once and for all time for our sins. 

Here the five loaves become the food for the multitudes. And there is plenty to go around for the masses, so much in fact that no one goes away hungry and there is plenty in reserve left over. This is an archetype of the inexhaustible grace of God towards us and his ability to forgive us far beyond our propensity to sin against Him. In God's love we find a vastness and a depth that surpasses understanding. We perceive the profundity of the Father's care for us by His willingness to perform the seemingly impossible to meet our own overwhelming needs. You see, a miracle is nothing more and nothing less than God casting aside all of the known laws that seem to govern the universe to accomplish that which is most necessary for those that need it it the most.

With such a feat as this, we are to be reminded that to us that are given much, much is expected. We are to live an uncommon Faith. We are called to do that which is seemingly impossible, even better yet... we are called to be as Christ by not sending those who are in most need away. Christ did not abandon the multitude that had followed him into the desert. He cared for them as a good shepherd. The disciples did not see beyond their own noses here. They wanted to send the throngs away so they could feed themselves. Christ had other ideas. He said, "You feed them". Not only did He say this but He provided the way forward. You see, God never tells us to do something if He is going to simply say it and not provide the means. To Moses He gave many signs and miracles along the way. Without these miracles, the Israelites would have remained in Pharoah's Egypt.

Likewise, when the people come to you with a genuine need, do not simply send them away with a polite, I'll pray for you! Give them of what you have and pray that God will give you more that you may give even more abundantly! Do not take heed of how little you have, but be faithful that God will provide even more that you may have an abundance to give. This is the message of the five loaves! Give until your brother is full and lo, you will see an abundance left over. SUCH IS THE LOVE OF GOD! 

According to Your Faith Let It Be Done Unto You...

According to Your Faith, Let It Be Done Unto You…

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A Homily by Fr. Benedict Simpson on Romans 9:27-35 (July 14^th / 27^th 2014)

Jesus encounters two blind men in today’s Gospel Reading. Now Jesus had just previously come from a local ruler’s house where he performed two very great miracles. One was the healing of a woman whom we are told has had a terminal issue of blood for twelve years. We are not told the nature of this illness other than the fact that Christ healed her as he was on his way to attend to the ruler’s daughter, whom we are told has died.  Christ comes to where the family has laid the body of the child and were mourning her. Christ put the crowd out of the room and proceeded to raise her from the dead.

Now, as Christ departed from that place, he begins to be followed by two blind men. These men are crying after Christ saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us”.  This is very important in that it is signifying the coming of the Messianic Age, as foretold by the Prophet Isaiah.  Isaiah prophesied saying, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear…” In the Gospel, Christ heals them both, thus proving that He is the long awaited Messiah.  It is rather significant and a further proof of the great Faith that these two had when they hailed Jesus as “Son of David”. This is a term used only for one person in all of Heaven and Earth. It is a title reserved for the Christ, the Messiah.  This puts into definite terms that Jesus is the Messiah, unequivocably.

St. Nikodemus the Hagiorite (of the Holy Mountain) had this to say regarding Faith:

“Faith is a power that dwells in the mind and the will of a man. The mind is enlightened by heavenly light and contains that which the Lord reveals to it. The will is like­wise moved by God to the fulfillment of every good thing that the mind commands it to do. When faith is weak, the mind cannot understand the mysteries of God, and even before the mind understands them the will has no desire to love them. Blessed Augustine said that man can love what is invisible to him, but not what is unknown. This we see in those Christians who consider themselves believers, not because they live according to the teachings of Christ, but only because they were born of Christian parents and were baptized. In actuality they feel the greatness of the Mysteries very little, and know still less of the essence of our faith and how it differs from other religions. In this condi­tion they differ very little from unbelievers.”

The witness of the two blind men is an incredible testimony of the power of Great Faith. It has been said that all of mankind’s reasoning, rationalization, and indeed, his science has a definite termination when his life ceases. In other words, all worldly knowledge has an end in physical death. It is Faith alone that can safely ferry us to the distant shore after physical death. Faith points to that which is unseen. It is not a hopeful longing of that in which we believe, but it is rather a sure expectation of what God has promised.

But what are the marks of Great Faith?  Firstly, Great Faith is humble. Seeks nothing of worldly acknowledgement.

St. John Cassian said:

“The thief who received the kingdom of heaven, though not as the reward of virtue, is a true witness to the fact that salvation is ours through the grace and mercy of God.

All of our holy fathers knew this and all with one accord teach that perfection in holiness can be achieved only through humility.

Humility, in its turn, can be achieved only through faith, fear of God, gentleness and the shedding of all possessions.

It is by means of these that we attain perfect love, through the grace and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory through all the ages. Amen.”

Great Faith is persistent and enduring. It pushes the Christian beyond the fear of death and the pain of death.  It blossoms into fullness and is strongest in persecution and suffering, but suffers in times of idleness and worldly pursuits. But even at it’s weakest, it can be used by the Holy Spirit to call us to repentance and reconciliation.  You see, man learns when he is under duress or is suffering some calamity. Fr. Seraphim Rose spoke with clarity when he said,

“Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? Very simply, because pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world. “

Great Faith is brave and drives one through adversities. Even though the senses of a man may tell him that his physical limitations as defined by this world are set in stone; Faith tells him to turn his weaknesses and limitations over to God and allow Him to turn them into tools for His work, His Glory, and His victory upon the Earth. This is what we do as Christians! We make a sacrifice of our weaknesses to God by simply trusting in God to provide and saying, “Here I am Lord… Lord use me!”

Great Faith moves mountains. It transcends the fallen-ness of this world and is the well tallowed wick that readily receives the flame of the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All miracles ever performed by God have as their beginning the willing and guileless Faith of the one for whom the miracle is performed or witnessed by. Great Faith has seen the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, the feeding of the multitude with five loaves and two fishes, the healing of the paralytic, the bestowal of sight to the blind and indeed, the raising back to life of those whom had been handed over to death and the tomb. 

Faith transcends time, death and eternity. It is the chief weapon in the arsenal of the Christian that is a sword against demons, armor against affliction and a shield against the lies and deceit of the evil one. As we read in the Gospel narrative regarding of the casting out of the demons in the man who was mute, we overhear the grumblings of the Pharisees. They said ,”He casts out demons by the prince of demons.” Such nonsense is the mark of a weak and tepid faith. It would be better that such men as these had no faith at all, for their obvious lack of insight into the truth of the miracle just performed in their sight is a staggering condemnation of their own souls. Such as these have souls that are starving because they are deprived of the good spiritual nourishment that only Faith can provide. How will men like these weather the storms and battles of this life to attain to the far and distant shore of safe harbor in the next life? It can be said that the two blind men received their sight according to their great faith, but such as these Pharisees will remain blind in ignorance and unbelief because of their own lack of faith. They cannot be healed because they lack the sure medicine of Faith that is the catalyst of all healing; spiritual and otherwise.  Glory Be Unto the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…

Baptism: The Gate Through Which We Enter In

On Earth as in Heaven: The Origins of Orthodox Worship by Subdeacon Gabe Martini

On Earth as in Heaven: The Origins of Orthodox Worship

April 12, 2013 by Gabe Martini

While it is true that Orthodox worship serves as a fulfillment of old covenant worship—being fulfilled in and through the risen Christ—the ultimate parallel or comparison that should be drawn is between the Orthodox worship on earth and that which exists in eternity (or, in “heaven”).

It is easy to discern the type-fulfillment relationships between the old covenant shadows and the new covenant fulfillment. For example, the seven-branched candelabras of the temple and those of an Orthodox altar; the budded rod of Aaron and the budded Cross from which the priestly blessing is given; the ark of the covenant in the most holy place of the temple and the tabernacle and “Mary of the Sign” iconography in the apse of a traditional Orthodox church building; etc.

However, what both the worship of the old covenant and that of the new share most in common is that they are both patterned after the worship which occurs in the throne room of the Lord in eternity. As with the prayer of the Lord, we worship “on earth as it is in heaven.” It would seem apparent, then, that anyone who desires to worship the Lord properly (and we know that worship is serious business, as Nadab and Abihu exemplify, cf. Lev. 10:1-3) should desire to worship the Lord as it is done in heaven.

While many of the Church’s worship traditions have been handed down through apostolic tradition, we are given a few visions of heavenly worship throughout the holy scriptures.

The vision of Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-7) comes immediately to mind, as we see a picture of the Lord’s throne room, complete with the smoke of burning incense, the antiphonal praise of the seraphim (“Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth,” which is of course a part of the Eucharistic liturgy in the Orthodox Church), a set of doors (like the royal doors of an Orthodox iconostasis), and a type of the Eucharist itself in the coals taken by tongs from the fiery altar and being placed upon Isaiah’s lips (just as a priest or deacon will place the Eucharist in the mouth of a communicant with the spoon). In fact, a priest quotes the very words of the seraphim in this vision when they partake of the Eucharist (or when they give it to the communicants), saying: “Behold, this has touched thy lips, and will take away thine iniquities, and will purge off thy sins.”

This timeless, heavenly worship takes place “at all times and at every hour” as the liturgy proclaims, and our worship on earth is an apocalyptic (the timeless reality being brought into the finite present) participation in that same worship. In a similar manner, our partaking of the Eucharist is the same bread as shared by the apostles in the upper room, which in turn was the same Wedding Feast of the Lamb as seen in John’s Apocalypse. This is why our icons of the Mystical Supper are not pictures of the upper room in first century Palestine, but are instead an image of the yet-to-come Great Feast in eternity.

As just mentioned, the Apocalypse or “Revelation” to the apostle John gives us another window into heavenly worship. In chapter 4, the throne room of the Lord is again described, and in a similar manner to Isaiah: a great throne of the Lord (Rev. 4:2-3), surrounded by 24 smaller thrones and presbyters (perhaps symbolic of the totality of God’s people in both the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles of the new covenant, cf. Rev. 4:4), and seven lamps of fire (just as the seven-branched candelabra in both the temple and upon an Orthodox altar, cf. Rev. 4:5), which are the seven Archangels.

This symbolism and the connection between both angels and deacons is made more apparent in the apostolic practice of having but seven deacons to a local church (to a bishop), the entry/exit of a deacon through the “angel’s doors” of later Orthodox church buildings, and the description of the deacon (and first martyr of the Church) Saint Stephen, who had “the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). Saint Irenaeus also connects the seven candles with the seven heavens (cf. 1-2 Enoch), as well as the seven Archangels (cf. Tobit 12:15) of those heavens.

Just as with Isaiah’s vision, the antiphonal chanting of the angels is the same in John’s vision: “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Sabaoth!” (Rev. 4:8). There is also liturgical movement (processions), prostrations (bowing before the Lord), and offerings being given, not to mention the burning of incense by the angels (who are typified by deacons and priests here on earth, cf. Rev. 5:8). Anyone remotely familiar with Orthodox worship will inescapably draw comparisons between the worship that takes place in heaven, and that which occurs here on earth; and this is by design, of course.

I think it is safe to say, therefore, that if one desires to worship the Lord “on earth as it is in heaven,” this should be done with all of the above elements involved: the processions, the bowing, the antiphonal chanting, the offering of incense, the reception of the Eucharist, the seven-branched candles, the altar, the thrones, etc. These are all elements which exist both in heaven and here on earth in Orthodox worship.

Orthodox worship is not the result of centuries of paganization or “corruption” in the Christian community, but is instead a very conscious imaging of heavenly worship here on earth. As the Church became more and more “free” through the efforts of the emperor Saint Constantine the Great, beginning to build its own houses of worship, this emphasis became all the more clear.

Reposted with permission: http://onbehalfofall.org/on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven-a-brief-look-at-the-origins-of-orthodox-worship/

For Love Has Set Me Upon My Feet (The Homily for The Sunday of the Paral...

Today's homily on the Sunday of the Paralytic from the Monastery of the Glorious Ascension in Resaca, Georgia on 05/11/2014.

Love Has Set My Feet Upon The Ground (*A Homily on the Sunday of the Paralytic)

Dear brothers and sisters, today's Gospel reading in chapter five of the testimony of St. John tells us a wonderful story about love and forgiveness and profound healing. It is not a mushy type of story. It is not one that everyone will understand either. It is the story of a humble man who has been paralyzed and lays upon a cot beside of a pool with mysterious healing powers. We are told that at this pool, every now and then the waters are stirred up by an angel and that the first person who enters into the pool at the sign of the stirring will be healed of whatever it is that afflicts them.

Of course the man is not the only one who sits by the pool waiting for the angel to stir the waters. There are many more. In fact, there are so many that the man has trouble getting to the pool in time to benefit from his healing properties. The man has a loan for he says he has no one to help him get to the edge of the pool. This is a sorrowful tale of this person's inner loneliness and despair.

Saint Cyprian of Carthage once said, “Everyone falls alone, but we are being saved in the community”. In a way we see instantly that this man and his state of affairs can tell us a little bit about ourselves and about salvation and how is the understood in the Orthodox Church. The man who is paralyzed is alone by himself, and in utter despair. He has no helper and no sense of hope left with him. Yet, he still sits by the pool unable to move forward and unable to carry himself home. How many of us can see this picture and view ourselves in the same predicament? How many of us by our own efforts can save themselves?

Later on in the narrative, we are given a clue to help us see the nature of the man's illness. We are led to the understanding that his illness and his state of being are caused by sin. This fact is incredibly important and actually is the hinge pin upon which we can use to fully understand the deep truth is being shown to us.

It is none other than Christ Himself, who comes to the men's aid. He asks a very simple question. "Do you wish to be healed?" it sounds simple on the surface but it implies a much deeper meaning! Let him who has ears hear the truth and understand it. That if the man's unrepented sins have caused him to be in such a helpless situation, does he now, in the depths of his affliction, wish to repent? He answered as I suppose anyone of us would answer. Of course! I wish to be healed! What Christ says next is amazing. He says "Take up thy bed and walk home." Any other person saying this to a paralyzed man would have been thought to be cruel and perhaps even a bit of a fool. But this was Jesus the Christ saying this. For it was given to Him to heal illnesses and to forgive sins.

And so the man got up, having instantly been made whole, picked up instead and WALKED towards his home. Another miracle! This man who could not walk before could now do so! But the bigger miracle still was in the forgiveness of the formerly unrepented sin. The sickness of the soul had been healed and with it, the body as well.

But of course, this was all lost upon the Pharisees. All they saw was a man performing labor on the Sabbath. They stopped man and ask him why he was performing labor on the Sabbath when it was forbidden. The enormity of the situation was utterly lost upon them. All they saw was a breach of the law and to them the law was everything and that there was nothing above the law. But by the miracle of the healing and forgiveness of the man's sins,  Christ proved that His grace is above the law.

You see, the law is useful in as much as it shows us what is right and what is wrong. It teaches us to fear punishment and in a way, to fear the source of the law (*i.e- God). But it is through Grace that we are ultimately healed. Grace teaches us to do that which is right because of our love for Christ. That love for Christ is merely a reflection of the incredible love that Christ has for us. Because of this love that he has for us, Christ came to this man who could not come to His healing upon his own volition. It was through His grace that God sought out the paralytic, in the same way He even now seeks us out in the depths of our deepest sins. He has come to heal us. As He did with the paralytic, it is through His love and our acceptance of it through repentance that He has placed us upon our feet and through such healing, we can walk forward towards our home with the Father.

Christ has sought us out first because He knew that we could not, in the depths of our sinfulness, reach Him. He asks us as He once asked the paralytic, "Do you wish to be healed?" What shall your answer be?

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Father Benedict+
Chaplain
Monastery of the Glorious Ascension
Resaca, Georgia

Baptism at the Monastery (05/03/2014)

Today we celebrated the baptism and illumination of little Emma into the Holy Orthodox Church. An incredible day filled with joy and celebration. We rejoice in the fact that this little lamb has been added to the number of those who have been baptized into Christ. Glory be unto God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit always now and ever until the ages of ages.

Lord I Believe Help My Disbelief (Homily for Thomas Sunday)

Thomas the Doubter had to see and to touch to believe. How many of us approach faith in the same way? How many of us are willing to take the step off of the cliff without having seen the bridge that lays before us?

The Entry of the King... A Homily for Palm Sunday

The Entry of the King: http://youtu.be/mJYigl6c_Aw

If Only You Had Been There (Homily for Lazarus Sunday)

The miracle of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead is one of the most poignant in the Bible. What does it say to us about our own hoped for resurrection? Father Benedict explores that in this homily that was recorded at the Monastery of the Glorious Ascension on Lazarus Saturday (April 12, 2014).

Cultivating the Monastery Within

This morning's homily "Cultivating the Monastery Within". We will discuss St. John Climacus in the context of living the ascetic ideal in everyday life. Father Benedict discusses this important contribution on the Sunday of St. John of the Ladder at the Monastery of the Glorious Ascension on March 30, 2014.

How Heavy is Your Cross??? ~A Homily on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross (March 23, 2014)

(Paraphrased from the homily on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross on March 23rd. 2014 at the Monastery of the Glorious Ascension in Resaca, Georgia) 
On this day, the Orthodox Church commemorates the discovery of the True Cross (*the Cross upon which Christ was crucified) by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine.  It's discovery is a priceless treasure for the Church and for Her faithful as it represents an undeniable reality that Christ's crucifixion actually occurred and that while we have found His cross, we have not found the body that was laid upon it.

The Cross is an image of contradictions. It was once looked at as a symbol of Roman oppression, torture, and death. It was used to provide the most agonizing and humiliating death that could be meted out by the Roman authorities.  Christ's death upon just such an instrument of humiliation was looked at as being like so many others at the time. He was hung between two thieves in a place that was known as the garbage heap of Jerusalem. It was a pretty horrific and ignoble death. It was His resurrection, however, that turned the Cross into a symbol of salvation for the Christian world. A symbol of death transformed into a symbol of life. From instrument of persecution to a bridge to freedom.

One can perceive the Cross as an archetype. It is often referred to as a tree. There was one other tree

mentioned in scripture with a similar description. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was affixed in the center of the Garden of Eden. It bore upon it's branches the fruit of knowledge. However, it was a knowledge that the human race could have done without. You see... through that tree, death entered into the world. Eden was lost and through Adam & Eve's disobedience, the devil set up shop and has been doing quite a brisk business ever since. In comparison, the Cross was an instrument of death that was turned into a symbol of everlasting life. What was lost in Eden became restored at Golgotha. A bridge was built. The apple of sinfulness had rotted and fallen away but the Cross of Christ still stands as a beacon to redemption.

As the tree that once stood in the center of Eden, the Cross stood in the center of two thieves. One thief chose to remain in his fallen state. The other one, chose life. Christ stood upon the Cross in the center. Now, the Cross stands at the center of history as the defining moment where we humans have to make a choice. You see, it is ludicrous to think that we have to "find God" or to "seek out God" because it has been God

seeking US out all along! Even in the midst of wherever we are or what we are doing, He seeks us. He seeks us out in our going to sleep and in our waking. He seeks us out in our day to day activities. Yes... He even is seeking us out in the midst of the commission of our worst sins. The Cross is the message that has been established in the middle of everything to let us know that God is still listening, He is still holding out His hands to us to beckon us to come across that bridge. Even as the world turns about, the Cross of Christ stands fast, resolute, and unmoving. It is the anchor of truth in the midst of all untruth. Through it, Christ beckons us to take up our cross and follow Him, however; we must first lay down our own will and take up HIS will. We cannot carry our own cross without first taking upon ourselves His. Many of us will say that we carry our own cross because of what or who we deal with in life. But that is a gross overstatement of what we truly deal with. When Christ died upon the Cross, it held the sins of the world upon it. It became the heaviest thing in all of the universe! Yet, Christ bore it in all humility. Like a lamb before it's shearers is dumb, He spoke not. In His humility His judgment was taken away. How heavy were the sins placed upon Him on that day!

How heavy is YOUR cross?
Does your cross lead to salvation? Does it lead to justification?

The Cross of Christ bore the Lamb who was sacrificed for the whole world. His blood became the healing balm of all who would avail themselves of it for the remission of sins. Forgiveness had entered world through the an instrument of death and the sacrifice of ultimate love that was placed upon it.

How heavy is YOUR cross?
Is it heavier than Christ's?

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Father Benedict+