Orthodixie

I started listening to the CD’s this week. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. It could only be topped by seeing Archimandrite Zacharias deliver the message in person. He sounds like a Saint! Thanks very much for the recommendation. This has to be one of the best audio resources I have come across.

H E R E

Brethren and fathers, Lent is already galloping past and the soul rejoices at the imminence of Pascha, because by it it finds rest and is relieved of many toils.

Why did this thought sound for me in advance? Because it is as if our whole life directs its reason contemplating the eternal Pascha. For this present Pascha, even though it is great and revered, is nevertheless, as our fathers explain, only a type of that Pascha to come. For this Pascha is for one day and it passes, while that Pascha has no successor. From it pain, grief and sighing have fled away; there everlasting joy, gladness and rejoicing; there the sound of those who feast, a choir of those who keep festival and contemplation of eternal light; where there is the blessed breakfast of Christ and the new drink of which Christ spoke, I shall not drink of the fruit of this vine, until I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.

Of this he spoke to his disciples when he was about to ascend to heaven, I am going to prepare a place for you and, if I go, I will prepare a place for you. I am coming again and I will take you to myself, so that where I am you maybe also. And where I am going you know, and the way you know. And a little further on, On that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. And elsewhere, Father, I wish that where I am they may be with me also, so that they may see my glory, which you gave me, because you loved from before the foundation of the world.

But because this concerns not only the Apostles, but also ourselves, he also said, I do not ask this only for them, but also for those who through their word believe in me, so that all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they may also be one in us.

What could be more comforting than these words?

What could be more appealing?

What soul can they not soften?

What heart not prick with compunction, even should someone say that the human heart is a nature of stone?

With thoughts like these the saints bore all that they bore, considering afflictions as joys, constraints as freedoms, struggles as delights, harsh training as relaxation, deaths as lives.

I beseech you, my brother, should not we also, since we have the same aim and seek the same Pascha, bravely and courageously bear our present condition, not falling, not succumbing to despondency, but rather roused with greater fervor watching for the wicked serpent who works to deceive us by the passions, transforming himself into an angel of light, and altering things from what they are; show dark as light, bitter as sweet.

This was how he ensnared our forefather, bewitching his sight and depicting as beautiful what was not, and as a result through food casting him out of Paradise.

But let us, who have learned by experience what a deceiver he is, not leave the paradise of God’s commandments, nor, when he indicates to us that the fruit is beautiful, let the eye of soul or body be directed there, otherwise we are being caught in the snare. But let us flee by every means from looking.

What is the fruit which seems beautiful?

The love of the flesh, the evil lust of every one of the destructive passions. If we avoid experiencing them, my brothers, we shall be saved and easter * to age on age, with all the Saints in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

by St Theodore the Studite
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* Here St Theodore uses a very rare verb paschazein. The only reference in Lampe is to St Theodore’s contemporary Theophanes, who uses it of the Quartodecimans, who ‘easter’ with the Jews.

From an email to the Clergy Brotherhood of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America.

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The very Irreverent Joffy Next was the minister for the Global Standard Deity’s first church in England. The GSD has a little bit of all religions, arguing that if there was one God, then He would really have very little to do with all the fluff and muddle down here on the material plane, and a streamlining of the faiths might very well be in His interest. Worshippers came and went as they pleased, prayed according to how they felt most happy, and mingled freely with other GSD members. It enjoyed moderate success, but what God actually thought of it no one ever really knew.”

Chapter 21’s intro note on The Global Standard Deity found in Jasper Fforde’s novel Lost in a Good Book.

I read Fforde’s The Eyre Affair a while back, and am just finishing (in my just before sleep reading) the second book in the series, Lost in a Good Book.

FWIW … another [timely] quote:

The camera switched back to the studio.

“Trouble at MoleTV,” continued the anchorman, “and a bitter blow for the producers of Surviving Cortez, the channel’s popular Aztec conquering reenactment series when, instead of being simply voted out of the sealed set of Tenochtitlan, a contestant was sacrificed live to the Sun God. The show has been canceled and an inquiry has been launched. MoleTV were said to be ‘sorry and dismayed about the incident’ but pointed out that the show was ‘the highest-rated on TV, even after the blood sacrifice.’ Brett?”

The camera switched to the other newsreader …
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Fforde’s Thursday Next novels are constantly referred to as “Harry Potter for adults …” On the contrary, I see nothing wrong with Harry Potter FOR adults.

But, that said, it’s fun reading.

Fford’s page.

There’s two news stories currently making the rounds which make the excerpts above seem timely.

AMHERST — An Episcopal minister will stop performing all wedding ceremonies to protest the denomination’s prohibition of …

I kid you not.

UPDATE: “I am convinced that when gays and lesbians are baptized, they become full members of the body of Christ,” said Bullitt-Jonas. “They are not partial members or conditional members or second-class members.”

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Gee-My-Nittley!

Those of us struggling under the leadership of Coach Cullivan knew that phrase well. It could be heard at any time, especially if we were losing at the half.

Stealing an image from yesterday’s guest preacher, Camille Baba (Youth Director at St George, Wichita) …

Brothers and Sisters in Christ — concerning the Great Lenten Fast — it’s halftime!

Heading to the locker room, no matter the score, is always similar to the words of Forrest Gump’s mama:

“My mama always said [half time] was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

Obviously, it’s always better to be winning at the half.

I mean, really.

But, with few exceptions, the second half’s a different experience from the first. Perspective has changed. Coming down the homestretch. Make it or break it. No pain, no gain — etc.

Yesterday’s Feast of the Cross pointed us toward the goal. No matter how far we are behind, no matter how well we have struggled, no matter our matters … THE Matter is in sight. It requires sacrifice. Obedience is better than sacrifice. And, still, like all things God-pleasing, one goes with the other.

Obedience, sacrifice … the Cross. It’s halftime!

I remember once hearing a priest tell of a “bad Lent.” It was Holy Week, Great and Holy Thursday, and he went to Confession prior to that night’s “12 Gospel Service” and tearfully confessed to being slothful through the whole of the Fast. He admitted to God, before his brother priest, that he had not fasted as he ought, had let his secular job override his prayers and service attendance, had not given and forgiven more, struggled harder, sinned less …

The priest hearing his Confession said: “Well, tonight my brother, you get to place Christ on the Cross.”

[During the service, past the mid-point of the Gospel readings, in a darkened church, with great reverence the Crucifixion is re-enacted — with a large icon of the body of Christ being placed on the Cross in the midst of the temple.]

The slothful priest, when he later did this, said he had tears streaming down his face … NOT so much because of his sins, but in awesome wonder at God’s love, forgiveness, and mercy.

Here at “halftime,” as we make our way back out onto the spiritual battle field … heading toward that great and holy day, the Passover of our Lord from death to Life — PASCHA — let us yet be mindful of the words of our Father among the Saints, John Chrysostom:

If any have laboured long in fasting,
Let him how receive his recompense.
If any have wrought from the first hour,
Let him today receive his just reward.
If any have come at the third hour,
Let him with thankfulness keep the feast.
If any have arrived at the sixth hour,
Let him have no misgivings;
Because he shall in nowise be deprived therefore.
If any have delayed until the ninth hour,
Let him draw near, fearing nothing.
And if any have tarried even until the eleventh hour,
Let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness.
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HERE’S THE IMPORTANT PART: At a recent Lenten Retreat, Fr Paul Tarazi said that some who hear these words — about those even at the eleventh hour (the final minutes of the game!) — being allowed to enter into the joy of the Feast might well say:

“Then, WHY DID WE FAST?”

The answer: “So you could understand what St John Chrysostom was saying!”

It’s Halftime. Our goal is in sight.

We’re encouraged by the choir as we walk out onto the field:

Before Thy Cross we bow down O Master, and thy Holy Resurrection we glorify!

Pep talk’s over. Press on.

Glory to God for all things!

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