09 October 2012

On God’s Image and Likeness

Eternal Father, you said, "Let us make mankind in our image and likeness." Thus, you were willing to share with us your Own greatness. You gave us the intellect to share your truth. You gave us the wisdom to share your goodness. And you gave us the free will to love that which is true and just. Why did you dignify us? It was because you looked upon us and fell in love with us. It was love which first prompted you to create us; and it was love which caused you to share with us your truth and goodness. Yet your heart must break when you see us turn against you. You must weep when you see us abusing our intellect in pursuit of that which is false. You must cry with pain when we distort our wisdom in order to justify evil. But you never desert us. Out of the same love that caused you to create us, you have now sent your only Son to save us. He is your perfect image and likeness, and so through Him we can be restored to your image and likeness. 

Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

29 September 2012

 On the Blessings of Daily Prayer

I routinely am blessed reading Weedon’s Blog several times and week and listening to The God Whisperers  ans Issues Etc on the internet. For the past past week I am daily blessed with the daily prayers at Pray As You Go.

26 August 2012

On Means of Grace

 

Church embraces also the Sacraments. To avoid that ambiguous and so often misused word of ecclesiastical Latin, we should say that Church embraces also Baptism, absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. However, one wants to name these things, whether one speaks of sacraments with the Latin Church or of mysteries with the Eastern Church, or whether one includes them with the Word in the collective term “means of grace,” one thing they all have in common : they have eschatological importance. The coming world is anticipated in them. They do not merely describe a divine, heavenly reality; they bestow right now a share in it. The forgiveness of sins, which we receive in Baptism and the absolution, is the anticipation of the acquittal in the Last Judgment. Our death and our resurrection to eternal life have begun already in our baptism (Roman 6:3-11). In the holy Supper Christ comes to us now and gives us a share in the “messianic” heavenly feast.

HERMAN SASSE, THIS IS MY BODY, P.358

02 August 2012

2012 Olympic Tribute To Victims of 7/7 Islamic Terrorist Attacks

Shame on NBC for for not airing this

29 July 2012

On Abba Agathon

It was said concerning Abba Agathon that some monks came to find him having heard tell of his great discernment. Wanting to see if he would lose his temper they said to him 'Aren't you that Agathon who is said to be a fornicator and a proud man?' 'Yes, it is very true,' he answered. They resumed, 'Aren't you that Agothon who is always talking nonsense?' 'I am." Again they said 'Aren't you Agothon the heretic?' But at that he replied 'I am not a heretic.' So they asked him, 'Tell us why you accepted everything we cast you, but repudiated this last insult.' He replied 'The first accusations I take to myself for that is good for my soul. But heresy is separation from God. Now I have no wish to be separated from God.' At this saying they were astonished at his discernment and returned, edified.

SAYINGS OF THE DESERT FATHERS, P.18

22 June 2012

On Incarnation

The mystery of the Incarnation, in which God draws near to us, also shows us the incomparable dignity of every human life. In his loving plan, from the beginning of creation, God has entrusted to the family founded on matrimony the most lofty mission of being the fundamental cell of society and an authentic domestic church. With this certainty, you, dear husbands and wives, are called to be, especially for your children, a real and visible sign of the love of Christ for the Church.

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Santiago de Cuba, March 26, 2012

 

25 May 2012

Our Injustices

"The bread you do not use is the bread of the hungry. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of the person who is naked. The shoes you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot. The money you keep locked away is the money of the poor. The acts of charity you do not perform are the injustices you commit."

- St. Basil the Great

29 April 2012

A Homily of Gregory the Great

We should allow no misfortune to distract us from this happiness and deep joy; for if you are determined to reach the destination of you spiritual journey the roughness of the road will not deter you. Nor should the delights of material prosperity in this life ever entice you astray; only the foolish traveler, spotting a pleasant field on the way, forgets that he is en route to a greater destination.

13 April 2012

Easter Geetings

31 March 2012

Prayer of St Ephrem - 4th Century

O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency,
lust of power, and idle talk;

But grant rather
the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love
to thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King,
grant me to see my own transgressions,
and not to judge my brother;
for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.

24 February 2012

On Ash Wednesday

    Today, with the beginning of Lent, comes the ashes. This soot applied to the foreheads on the first day of the purple season−Ash Wednesday−can be a rich symbol. It is a gift of the Middle Ages, when Christians sorry for their sins came to the church as Lent began, barefoot and clad in rough cloth. After the prayers, ashes made from palms (whose leaves have been saved for almost a year from the previous Palm Sunday) were tossed into the air or sprinkled on the head.  

        The Ashes mark our sin. They remind us that because we sin, we die, and dying we return to dust, to ashes, with the ashes we confess what we already know about ourselves, wearing our sins upon our brow.

        The ashes went wrong when they were linked to penance-something we must do that makes us suffer, as if our suffering, could earn us some forgiveness. Nothing could be further from the truth! It is His suffering on the cross of Calvary that saves, and His alone. If the ashes infringe upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, then they must be put away. And so they were, falling out of use in many Lutheran Churches.

        And yet there was a time, you may recall, when ashes were a substitute for soap, something for cleansing and renewal. Now that gets closer to the truth. We are Christians, and for us the last word is never sin, to death, or ash. The last word-the endpoint, the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 10:4), God’s yes! (2 Corinthians 1:20), God or us (Romans 5:8), the fullness of the Gospel−is Jesus Christ.

        And so if you come near the altar this Ash Wednesday, the ashes will be traced upon your skin where Name and water once graced you at baptism. They will be given to you in the sign of the cross, reminding you that you belong to Christ, that he alone forgives you, and that there is no penance you can do to save yourself, in part or full. Free of charge, it is He who cleanses and renews you, He who saves you as a gift (Ephesians 2:1-10).

        The ashes mark your salvation. They remind us because of Christ, we live, and living to return to life, to discipleship. With ashes we confess what we already know about ourselves, wearing our salvation on our brow.

        The gift of ashes is a symbol, rich and deep, but nothing more. If you think it will help your piety, your discipline, your rejoicing, your faith, then come to the front for ashes on this first Wednesday of the purple season. And if you do not, or if you would simply like to pass it by this year, please do! Faith finds an aid−but not its ground−in this ancient custom. The only ground of faith and life is Christ.

        Always remember with the ashes or without, you are free, as you are Christ’s.

Happy Lent!

Scott Bruzek

21 February 2012

On the Eucharist

The word "Eucharist" means literally "thanksgiving."  A Eucharistic life is one lived in gratitude.  The story, which is also our story, of the two friends walking to Emmaus has shown that gratitude is not an obvious attitude toward life.  Gratitude needs to be discovered and to be lived with great inner attentiveness.  Our losses, our experiences of rejection and abandonment, and our many moments of disillusionment keep pulling us into anger, bitterness, and resentment.  When we simply let the "facts" speak, there will always be enough facts to convince us that life, in the end, leads to nothing and that every attempt to beat that fate is only a sign of profound naiveté.

Jesus gave us the Eucharist to enable us to choose gratitude.  It is a choice we, ourselves, have to make.  Nobody can make it for us. But the Eucharist prompts us to cry out to God for mercy, to listen to the words of Jesus, to invite him into our home, to enter into communion with him and proclaim good news to the world; it opens the possibility of gradually letting go of our many resentments and choosing to be grateful.  The Eucharistic celebration keeps inviting us to that attitude.  In our daily lives we have countless opportunities to be grateful instead of resentful.  At first, we might not recognize these opportunities.  Before we fully realized, we have already said: "This is too much for me.  I have no choice but to be angry and to let my anger show.  Life isn't fair, and I can't act as if it is,"  However, there is always the voice that, ever and again, suggests that we are blinded by our own understanding and pull ourselves and each other into a hole.  It is the voice that calls us "foolish," the voice that asks us to have a completely new look at our lives, a look not from below, where we count our losses, but from above, where God offers us his glory.

Eucharist-thanksgiving-in the end, comes from above.  It is the gift that we cannot fabricate for ourselves.  It is to be received.  It is freely offered and asks to be freely received.  That is where the choice is!  We can choose to let the stranger continue his journey and so remain a stranger.  But we can also invite him into our inner lives, let him touch every part of our being and then transform our resentments into gratitude.  We don't have to do this.  In fact, most people don't.  But as often as we make that choice, everything, even the most trivial things, become new.  Our little lives become great - part of the mysterious work of God's salvation.  Once that happens, nothing is accidental, casual, or futile any more.  Even the most insignificant event speaks the language of faith, hope, and, above all, love.

That's the Eucharistic life, the life in which everything becomes a way of saying "Thank you" to him who joined us on the road.

Henri J. M. Nouwen, With Burning Hearts, pp. 124-126