The Arrogant Delusion of Modernity

31 December 2024

Rid us, O Lord, of the arrogant delusion that our age is harder to live in, harder to live through and be decent in than any age ever was, that we are being tried as our fathers never were, that we have more excuse for our neurotic screaming, our pitiful muddling, our eroded standards, our sentimental slobbering, our pinching terror at the shadows of the future cast upon our way than any men who ever walked beneath Your heaven and on Your earth. Teach us, O Lord, by Your sane and steadying Word that we stand before You as we always stood, living of Your grace and moving toward Your judgment, that the Bomb and the terrible technological trifles of our time have not altered the great, plain, steady fact that You are Lord and nd have not changed the blessed time of Your coming as a thief in the night.

        Martin Franzmann

God With Us

30 December 2024

Bethlehem means “house of bread.” Indeed, “bread of life, staff of life.” You will come, then, as the shepherds came. You will kneel as they did in adoration. And if your vision of faith is clear enough, you will see at the Altar not merely bread and wine, but the Christ-Child, the Word made flesh. After Christmas? You will do the same as did the Wise Men. They went home by another way, not by way of Jerusalem. You will go another way, the way of the new life. And with the shepherds you will also make known abroad all that you have seen and realized. The confession—“Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man,” will be more than a vague truth, more than an historical event. Christmas will be an experience. You will truly understand the truth of the angelic words: “They shall call His Name Immanuel, which is being interpreted, God with us,” aye, Immanuel—at the Altar.

        Berthold Von Schenk

On Prayer

29 December 2024

When the event you prayed for occurs your prayer has always contributed to it. When the opposite event occurs your prayer has never been ignored; it has been considered and refused, for your ultimate good and the good of the whole universe.

        C. S. Lewis

The Holy Innocents, Martyrs

28 December 2024

The darkest martyrdom must be the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. This event is not recorded outside of Matthew 2:13-18, but it certainly fits Herod’s reputation as a cruel and ruthless ruler. What senseless violence—and at Christmas! Yet, it is as nonsensical as God become man or the King born in a stable, as tragic as creatures who kill their Creator and Savior. In our world, violence and evil never take a holiday. The slaughter of babies newborn and unborn should give us pause; we, too, once dwelt in crib and womb. It could have been us! Christ sanctified all life by His conception and birth. It could have been Him; in fact, that was the whole idea.

Martyrs not of will but of deed alone, these babies died for the One who came to die for them. Their deaths bear witness to man’s cruelty and the world’s rage against Christ. Christianity isn’t all candy canes and snowflakes but life in a real world subjected to the futility of sin. Peace on earth is found only in Jesus’ blood. His death was the true martyrdom, bearing witness that our salvation is accomplished.

         “The Lutheran Witness,” December 2012

Christ Our Ransom

27 December 2024

And wonder not that the whole world was ransomed; for it was no mere man, but the only-begotten Son of God, who died on its behalf. Moreover one man's sin, even Adam's, had power to bring death to the world; but if by the trespass of the one death reigned over the world, how shall not life much rather reign by the righteousness of the One Romans 5:17-18? And if because of the tree of food they were then cast out of paradise, shall not believers now more easily enter into paradise because of the Tree of Jesus? If the first man formed out of the earth brought in universal death, shall not He who formed him out of the earth bring in eternal life, being Himself the Life? If Phinees, when he waxed zealous and slew the evil-doer, staved the wrath of God, shall not Jesus, who slew not another, but gave up Himself for a ransom 1 Timothy 2:6, put away the wrath which is against mankind?

        St. Cyril of Jerusalem

The Holy Trinity

26 December 2024

Even when the Word takes a body from Mary, the Trinity remains a Trinity, with neither increase nor decrease. It is for ever perfect. In the Trinity we acknowledge one Godhead, and thus one God, the Father of the Word, is proclaimed in the Church.

        St. Athanasius

On Love

25 December 2024

Beauty is never "necessary," "function," or "useful." And when, expectantly someone whom we love, we put a beautiful tablecloth on the table decorate with candles and flowers, we do all this not out of necessity but out of love. And the Church is love, expectation and joy.

      Alexander Schmemann

A Two-fold Coming

24 December 2024

There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time. There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece and a coming before all eyes, still in the future.

        Cyril of Jerusalem

On the Holy Spirit

23 December 2024

The Holy Spirit turns to joy whatever He touches.

        St. Seraphim of Sarov

On Divine Works

21 December 2024

Among divine works [...] nothing can be thought of which is marvelous than this divine accomplishment that the true God, the son of God, should become true man.

        Thomas Aquinas

On Pride

20 December 2024

The proud man always lives in troubles, is always angry, always unhappy.

        St. John Chrysostom

God's Love and Presence

19 December 2024

The shepherd says: I pity the one who draws himself back from my love, and does not seek the joy of my presence, though my heart is an open wound with love for her.

        John the Cross

The Nativity

18 December 2024

In any day of the year, dearly beloved, whenever we make our meditations, we are mindful of the birth from a Virgin Mother of our Lord and Saviour. Whenever our souls are uplifted in the worship of our Maker, whether we sigh in supplication, rejoice in praise, or offer sacrifice, there is nothing which we more frequently or more confidently set our minds upon than the fact that God, the Son of God, begotten of the co-eternal Father, was also born by a human birth.

        Leo the Great

Redemption and Salvation

17 December 2024

Praise to Thee, Who hast redeemed the human race when it had perished, lifted it up Thy shoulders, and carried it into the house of Thy Father.

        St. Ephraim the Syrian

God is a Consuming Fire

16 December 2024

The divine word says that our God is a "consuming fire" and that "he draws rivers of fire before him." He even enters a "refiner's fire and as a fuller's herb" to purify his own people. But when he is said to be a " consuming fire," we inquire what are the things which are appropriate to be consumed by God. And we assert that they are wickedness, and the works which result from it.

        Origen

The New Man

15 December 2024

For unless the new man, by being made in the likeness of sinful humanity, had taken on himself the nature of our first parents, unless he had stooped to be one in substance with his mother while sharing the Father's substance and, being alone free from sin, united our nature to his, the whole human race would still be held captive under the dominion of Satan. The Conqueror's victory would have profited us nothing if the battle had been fought outside our human condition.

        Leo the Great

On Greed

14 December 2024

What then did Christ say? “How difficult it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” He was not criticizing money itself but the wills of those who are taken captive by it. If it will be difficult for the rich, how much more so for the avaricious!

        St. John Chrysostom

The Body of Christ

13 December 2024

Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has deigned to style the universal Church of God His body, and has made us individually members one of another, has moreover granted to all of us to live in intimate association with one another, as befits the agreement of the members. Wherefore, although we dwell far away from one another, yet, as regards our close conjunction, we are very near.

        St. Basil the Great

On Prayers

12 December 2024

Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you.

        J.C. Ryle

The Corporal Acts of Mercy

11 December 2024

When you receive another, you receive Him. [...] Let a hungry Christ be fed here, a thirsty Christ be given drink, a naked Christ be clothed, a foreigner Christ to be taken in, a ill Christ be visited," he said. "These are needs that arise on the journey. This is how we are to live in a world in where Christ is in need."

        Saint Augustine of Hippo

Advent

10 December 2024

Beloved, now is the acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation: the great season of Advent.  This is the time eagerly awaited by the patriarchs and prophets, the time that holy Simeon rejoiced at last to see.  This is the season that the Church has always celebrated with special solemnity.  We too should always observe it with faith and love, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the mercy and love he has shown us in this mystery.  In his infinite love for us, though we were sinners, he sent his only son to free us from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into its innermost recesses, to show us truth itself, to train us in right conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

        Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop

On Being Human

9 December 2024

Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man for it is the image of God. You agree? Good, then go with my blessings, but I warn you, do not expect to make many friends.

        Thomas Merton

The Two-fold Coming of Jesus Christ

8 December 2024

We preach not one coming only of Jesus Christ, but a second also, far more glorious than the first.  The first revealed the meaning of his patient endurance; the second brings with it the crown of the divine kingdom.

Generally speaking, everything that concerns our Lord Jesus Christ is twofold.  His birth is twofold: one, of God before time began; the other, of the Virgin in the fullness of time.  His descent is twofold: one, unperceived like the dew falling on the fleece; the other, before the eyes of all, is yet to happen.

In his first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger.  In his second coming he is clothed with light as with a garment.  In his first coming he bore the cross, despising its shame; he will come a second time in glory accompanied by the hosts of angels.

It is not enough for us, then, to be content with his first coming; we must wait in hope of his second coming.  What we said at his first coming, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, we shall repeat at his last coming.  Running out with the angels to meet the Master we shall cry out in adoration, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’. The Savior will come not to be judged again but to call to judgment those who called him to judgment.  He who was silent when he was first judged, will indict the malefactors who dared to perpetrate the outrage of the cross, and say, ‘These things you did and I was silent’.

He first came in the order of divine providence to teach men by gentle persuasion; but when he comes again they will, whether they wish it or not, be subjected to his kingship.

The prophet Malachi has something to say about each of these comings. ‘The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple’.  That is the first coming.

Again, of the second coming he says, ‘And the angel of the covenant whom you seek.  Behold, the Lord almighty will come: but who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?  For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap; he will sit like a refiners and a purifier’.  Paul pointed to the two comings when he wrote to Titus, ‘The grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ’. You see how he has spoken of the first coming, for which he gives thanks, and of the second to which we look forward.

Hence it is that by the faith we profess, which has just been handed on to you, we believe in him ‘who ascended into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead; and his kingdom will have no end’.

Our Lord Jesus Christ will, then, come from heaven.  He will come in glory at the end of this world on the last day.   Then there will be an end to this world, and this created world will be made new.

        Cyril of Jerusalem

The Priest

6 December 2024

Yes, the priest stands at the altar, the priest stands there and makes a long supplication, not in order that fire from heaven may consume the things that lie to open view, but that grace, lighting on the Sacrifice, may thereby in flame the souls of all, and show them brighter than silver purified in the fire. Art thou ignorant that the soul of man could never bear this fire of the Sacrifice, but that all would be utterly consumed, were not the aid of the grace of God abundant? For if one would but consider how great a thing it is for a mortal, and one still clothed with flesh and blood, to be enabled to be nigh to that blessed and immortal nature, he would then see how great an honor the grace of the Spirit has vouchsafed to priests.

        St. John Chrysostom

Advent and the Coming(s) of the Lord

3 December 2024

There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time. There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece, and a coming before all eyes, still in the future.

        Cyril of Jerusalem

The Advent Wreath

1 December 2024

The lighting of the Advent wreath during the Advent season is a Christian ceremony which has come down to us from about the time of Martin Luther. As before the birth of Christ the light of prophecy concerning His advent and His redemptive work became brighter and brighter, so the nearer we come in the church year to the feast of His nativity, the greater the amount of light from the Advent wreath. This ceremony is helpful for recalling, discussing, and teaching the significance of Advent.

        Paul H.D. Lang