Orthodixie

The following is taken from The Hidden Man of the Heart by Archimandrite Zacharias.

Priesthood is a difficult task, and it is a marvel to see a priest dying in the same state of inspiration as the one which he began. Normally, priests die in states of much less grace, because all their ministry is to take upon themselves the death of their people.

Whatever a priest gathers when he is alone before God, he spreads to the people when he is with them. He takes upon himself their death and he gives them his life, the life of God which he receives.

But how are we to do this? When we inspire the people to love the salvation of God and to fight against sin, when we give them a word which comes from the eternal kingdom, and when their hearts receive that word, it provokes in them desire for eternal life. In fact, everything we do is done in the hope of regenerating the people.

I often say to the faithful who come to our monastery on Sundays: ‘Do not burden the priest unnecessarily with the trivialities of this life. Go to them and ask for a word for your salvation and be very attentive to what they tell you, because then you will make them prophets, and your life will be enriched.’ I do not have a recipe for that.

I remember once, a spiritual father from Cyprus came to our monastery and he said to me, ‘I have been made a spiritual father, but I do not know how to deal with people. Can you please give me some advice?’ I said to him, ‘There are no recipes for this ministry. When you become a spiritual father it is as if you have been thrown into the ocean. You have to swim and come to shore.’ That is to say, you have to cry to God continuously and hope for the best.

I always feel pity for priests because I know how difficult this ministry is. We are priests, in other words, we are partakers of the Priesthood of Christ, and if all the reproaches, all darkness, all evil fell upon Christ, threatening to annihilate His life if it were possible, as the Prophet said, the same happens to every priest who partakes of the Priesthood of Christ. This means that the priest has to assume the suffering and difficulties of his people, and to bring to them consolation from above, and give wings to their hope.

There is no recipe, only this attitude of wanting to help, to promote Christ in their lives, that Christ be magnified in their lives. And I am sure that there is a great reward for the priest whose ministry is done with fear, because he is on the receiving end of every evil and the attacks of the enemy finally concentrate on him. That is why it is a marvel not to be content with the reality of this present age, and not to abandon the inspiration and hope we had when we started our ministry. We all started with great furvour, and we must not let that life of the heart die away, or else our hope will be stolen from us. We must rather be like Simeon the Righteous who waited steadfastly until the last moment to receive Christ in his arms, and then said, ‘Lord, now lettest thou they servant depart in peace’ (Luke 2:29).

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I am Cath’lic, hear me roar
I’m too famous to ignore
And I know too much to go back an’ pretend
’cause I’ve heard it all before
And I’ve bent down there to the floor
No one’s ever gonna bend me down again

CHORUS
Oh yes I am wise
A Gnostic, that is plain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am de-vout

You can preach but never break me
’cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
’cause I’ve darkened the conviction in my soul

CHORUS

I am Cath’lic watch me grow
Yes I’m waffling vs. Roe
As I spread my lovin’ gnosis ‘cross the land
Besides what’s an embryo
But a lump; long way to go
How can I make my brother understand

Oh yes I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to I can face anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am de-vout …
and a Libra!

What’s this all about?

Check out Hopelessly Devoted to Fog.

In fact, check in with the good folks at GetReligion early & often.

Apologies to God-fearing Catholics and, ahem, Helen Reddy.

Libra the Scales, zodiac sign for September. Detail of archivolt above the west portal of Autun Cathedral, sculpted by Gislebertus around 1130. Source

I really need to get out more (or not); this story about Jews swinging chickens over their heads for remission of sins was news to me …

Rabbi Shea Hecht plucks a chicken off a truck parked behind a synagogue in Queens, N.Y., and demonstrates how to swing a chicken.

“You take it by the wing,” says the white-haired Hecht, careful not to get the chicken’s feathers or anything else on his black suit and tall black hat. “You put one wing over the other wing. See? It’s very relaxed. And you swing it very softly over your head like this.”

Hecht holds the bird, waves it three times above his head, and says the prayer of Kapparot (or Kapparos, depending on heritage). He prays that his sins will be transferred to the bird and he will escape the divine punishment that he deserves. The prayer is more than 1,000 years old, and countless Orthodox Jews will recite it in the days before Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, which begins at sundown Sunday. Hecht says waving the chicken isn’t the point of this ritual.

“The main part of the service,” he says, “is handing the chicken to the slaughterer and watching the chicken being slaughtered. Because that is where you have an emotional moment, where you say, ‘Oops, you know what? That could have been me.’ “

Read the whole story.

More about the kapparot ceremony.

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No matter how crazy we try to be sometimes, it seems the truth, at least things really happening in real time, can often surpass our invented or imagined nuttiness.

You’ve, no doubt, heard it said: A time is coming when people will go mad and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, “You are mad, you are not like us.”

Back when I worked at a substance abuse recovery center, I would work the crossword puzzles from the daily paper each weekday morning. I’d also run off copies from the newspaper for the waking residents. The residents would often kid me when I make a mistake and, when asked, they’d help me with the clues.

One day, just after the 6:30 am wake-up, one of the clients said, “We needed your help last night. We were working one of the crossword puzzles and we needed to know the answer … Who was Jesus’ wife?”

My coworker and I stared at him for a second, looked at each other, back to him, and in tandem, with grimace, said: “Jesus’ wife?”

“Yeah,” he said, “the clue was, ‘Who was Jesus’ wife?’ The answer’s ‘Mary’ right? Is that right? Mary? Jesus’ wife?”

Another mutual glance between Bill & I.

I mean, I was aware of confusion caused by the best-selling book, The DaVinci Code and other Gnostic stuff floating around. But the local mainstream newspaper in Buncombe County, North Carolina? (Uh … more on that later.)

“No … no. Was this in the newspaper?” I asked.

“Yeah! Right, guys?” He got nods of verification from several others.

Back to Bill; then I stared out into space for a second. “You know,” I said (as I let show my total ignorance of Spanish), “I’ll bet they meant ‘Hay-sues’ … you know, Spanish … like ‘Who was Hay-sues’ wife?’ … and the answer was ‘Senorita’ or something.”

“Nope. I think the answer began with an L … only had four letters. But I’m pretty sure it was talking about the Lord.” (Quick glance at Bill. “The Lord?” Back to the clients). “Isn’t that right guys? Wasn’t it talking about the Lord?” he asked.

Yup. They all agreed.

Dang.

“I dunno,” I said.

We all went about our business for the next 10 minutes or so till my coworker piped up: “Lady!”

Wha-?

“Lady. The Lord’s wife … Lady.”

Ha! It took a little explaining to the clients but, for two guys, it was a hoot.

Thanks to the fantasies of folks like Dan Brown and the modern media’s fascination with all things nutty, Gnostic, and heretical, it’s no wonder otherwise sane folks are often confused about matters of True Faith.

I was reminiscing about this the other day, September 19th to be exact, when it came to my attention that it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

You know, the day when instead of “Good morning, how are you?”

You’re supposed to say …

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

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All those “peace signs” I drew as a kid, my seven year old draws now … Uh-oh!

On the sign in front of St. Benedict Orthodox Church is what is called a “three-bar cross.” Rather than the usual one transept intersecting the main post, there are three, including a small transept at the bottom which is angled upward on the right side. This unusual cross is uniquely Russian Orthodox, but it is so uncommon in this part of the country that recent passers-by of our church felt pressed to ask us if it was a satanic sign.

I am assuming that they mistook it for the satanic inverted cross with broken transepts [sometimes called the “peace” sign]. This question begged the issue of explaining why we use the three-bar cross.

As I mentioned above, the three-bar cross derives from the Russian Orthodox (Christian) tradition. However, its powerful symbolism has made it popular among many Orthodox Christians regardless of their jurisdiction. It is unclear what the origin of the three bars is …

Read the whole article from the Times-Record News, Wichita Falls, Texas – HERE.

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