Orthodixie

Building up the heart by vigilance and prayer

Vigilance = watchfulness of mind

You should regulate your attitude toward God at the beginning of the day.

Exercise self-restraint and patience during prayer = helps direct the intellect.

Three types of prayer:
1) said aloud
2) of the mind
3) of the mind in the heart

The Jesus Prayer is based on a revealed relationship with the Holy Trinity … other prayers/paths not so based.

Divestiture of the world is only half of the model.
Constant vesting of the soul with the grace of God [is the other half].

God showed His love through offering His pain and suffering.
Man can reciprocate by offering to God his pain and suffering.

When we are unmindful of God, the Enemy slays us.

The Fathers say: Forgetfulness of God = the greatest Passion.

Part One.

Part Two.

Part Three.

Part Four.

These terse notes were taken during the annual Clergy Retreat for the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, February 6-9, 2007. The retreat was led by Archimandrite Zacharias of the Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights-by-Maldon, Essex, U.K. These are my notes and were filtered through my poor faculties. Any and all errors theological are mine. Forgive me.

UPDATE: Listen to the entire talk — CDs now available!

It’s a pretty good piece.

Really.

Pic & link courtesy of THUNDERSTRUCK

Once upon a time, Episcopalians were, I believe, personified by Thurston Howell the Third. Every now and then you’d find the bumbling Anglo-Catholic version, ala Hugh Grant, or the warm and homey granddad, ala Bill Cosby. As time passed, one began to see firebrands with faces and viewpoints contorted by controversy — like, say (in a twisted way) Michael Savage.

Then, for what it’s worth, came the E.Y.W. — the Eternal Year of the Woman. They were ordained illegally … and later ratified. This, coupled with Prayer Book revision, split the church and set precedent for future distortions. Boy George became Fr George — who was later, of course, spotted in a tree … yes … k.i.s.s.i.n.g.

(Not to mention E.I.E.I.O.)

Now we come to Oz. Which explains the church hymnody, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” mentioned in yesterday’s post.

I am finally starting to get it. Not like the folks at Get Religion would define “get it” … [After all: “The Episcopal Church: Where neither politics or religion is spoken.”] … but, from that venerable site comes this:

There was a time when the Episcopal Church in the United States was known as “the Republican Party at prayer,” but in the last 30 years it has evolved into the Rainbow Coalition of Christianity.

Now the conservatives who numerically dominate the global Anglican Communion have handed their Episcopal branch in the United States an ultimatum that requires the church to reel in the rainbow if it wants to remain a part of the Communion.

Read tmatt’s take.

The Rainbow Coalition of Christianity, viewed through a proper lens, could be a good thing. But when it fails to continually CONVERT it loses the Christianity part. The Scarecrow still sits in the pew lacking a brain, the Tin Man is missing a heart, and no courage is found in the Lion. Dorothy is still lost. And, forgive me, but God only knows what new ministries might soon be found for Toto if such a bereft coalition continues.

In a very strange way the fault may lie as equally with Billy Graham crusades as with Henry the Eighth. (Ya gotta admit Big Harry — and, especially, Elizabeth — must be rolling in the grave over this news.) By that I mean the hymn that helped to shape generations: “Just As I Am” —

Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just a I am; thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be thine, yea, thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

The perversion enters when “just as I am” becomes “just fine by me.” I mean, even the devil accepts you “just as you are.” People struggling with sexual sin (I refuse to break it down to the G and L words) have always been welcomed in the multicolored tapestry of the Church. Yet, like the rest of us sinners, all are welcomed to continually struggle toward the Kingdom through fidelity. There’s no Fairy Godmothers, Magic Shoes, Flying Monkeys or Talking Trees. But there is forgiveness and salvation available for all.

Some day I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me
Source

Uh?

No.

You can’t just click your heels nor merely dream of a magical land called heaven. But, by God’s grace, you may convert.

The Prodigal when he found himself wallowing in pig slop came to himself and said: How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”

And he arose and came to his father.

But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him …
Luke 15:17b – 20

As says our Lord, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Fall down. Get back up. Fall down. Get back up …

Goodbye yellow brick road.

Hello Reality.

And, yes, I know that it’s Episcopalians, not “Episcopals” … but.

The Tanzania Communique.

Pardon my French, but … Episcopalians!
The Sunday after General Convention I returned to my home parish for Gay Pride Sunday and participated in a Disco Mass for which gays and lesbians turned out in force. The opening hymn was a beautiful jazz rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” Musical offerings came from gay men in sequined tank tops and from the Director of Music who was ushered into the service singing a disco number complete with Go-Go girls. The queen of St. Mark’s appeared in full drag to deliver the homily and the closing hymn was, Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” As I stood singing among straight men and women, young parents with their children, gays and lesbians, teenagers in hip hop clothing, Asians, whites, African Americans and Spanish speaking people I realized I was part of the realm of God and I was glad to be there – in a place where God’s creation of a new thing was being lived out.

If you must: Source

HT Bible Belt Blogger

THANKS: Jason

BTW, the pic is not gay — just funny; Camp St Thekla, 2005.

Oh. On this Lenten Day … Speaking of the French.

Spoken at the beginning of the Great Fast by St Theodore the Studite

Brethren and fathers, the season of Lent, when compared to the whole year, may be likened to a storm-free harbour, in which all who are sailing together enjoy a spiritual calm. For the present season is one of salvation not for monks and nuns only, but also for lay people, for great and small, for rulers and ruled, for emperors and priests, for every race and for every age. For cities and villages reduce their hubbub and bustle, while psalmody and hymns, prayers and entreaties take their place, by which our good God is propitiated and so guides our spirits to peace and pardons our offences, if, with a sincere heart, we will only fall down before him with fear and trembling and weep before him, promising improvement for the future. But let the leaders of the churches speak of what is suitable to lay people, for just as those who run in the stadium need the vocal support of their fellow contestants, so fasters need the encouragement of their teachers.

But I, since I have been placed at your head, honoured brethren, will also talk to you briefly. Fasting then is a renewal of the soul, for the holy Apostle says, Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward is being renewed day by day. And if it is being renewed, clearly it is being made beautiful according to its original beauty; made beautiful in itself it is being drawn lovingly to the one who said, I and the Father will come and make our dwelling with him. If then such is the grace of fasting, that it makes us into a dwelling place of God, we must welcome it, brethren, gladly, not grieving at the plainness of the diet, for we know that the Lord, though he is able to nourish lavishly, made a banquet for thousands in the wilderness from bread and water. Also because what is unusual, with enthusiasm becomes acceptable and painless.

Fasting is not defined by foods alone, but by every abstinence from evil, as our godly fathers have explained. And so, I beg you, let us abstain from despondency, idleness, luggishness, jealousy, strife, maliciousness, self-indulgence, self-reliance; let us abstain from destructive desire which the manyshaped serpent lays before us when we are fasting. Let us listen to the one who says, ‘The fruit which slew me was beautiful to behold and fair to eat’. And observe: he says beautiful to behold, not beautiful by nature. For just as if someone taking a pomegranate decked out with a scarlet rind should find it rotten, in the same way pleasure feigns untold sweetness, but when it is plucked it is found more bitter than gall, or rather, than a sharpened two-edged sword which devours the soul it has captured.

This is what our forefather Adam suffered when he was tricked by the serpent; for when he touched the forbidden food, he found death instead of life. This too is what all they have suffered who from then until now have been similarly deceived by the dragon. For just as he, who is darkness, transforms himself into an angel of light, so he knows how to transform bad into good, bitter into sweet, dark into light, ugly into beautiful, deadly into life-giving; and so the all-evil one does not cease to lead the world astray at every opportunity. But let us at least, brethren, not be led astray by his manifold deceptions, nor suffer the fate of the birds who greedily approach what seems to be food and fall into the hunter’s trap. Let us rather look on the outer coverings of evil as dung and when with the mind we have looked on evil in its nakedness we shall flee from it at once.

In addition let us welcome the times of psalmody, be enthusiastic for hymnody, attentive to the readings, making prostrations according to the given measure at each hour; working with our own hands, because working is good and because one who does not work is not judged worthy of eating. Let us bear one another’s burdens, for one is weak and another strong, making use of food and drink and the other necessities with moderation, so that there is no provoking to jealousy among evil people, but zeal in goodness. In everything be good to one another, compassionate, reasonable, obedient, full of mercy and good fruits, and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and thoughts.

And now, may you be found worthy without condemnation to reach the supreme day of the Resurrection, but in the age to come at the resurrection of the dead to gain the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages.

Amen.

IMAGE: St Theodore the Studite (from 11th-century mosaic), Nea Moni, Chios. Source