Sleepless.
How to say, what to say?
Same old
Gospel
Tenth time
Round
Sleepless.
Where’s the wrong?
Broken. Promises
Judgmental
Other
Ness
Sleepless.
What would God have me do?
Silence
Worry
Struggle
Darkness
Sleepless.
Are the bills …?
Should we be …?
Where’s the …?
The devil
Sigh
Sleepless.
Temptation
Doubts
Past
The Fall
falling
Briefly
falling
Joy comes in the …
Falling
Glory to God.
Falling
Aslee …
The thing about Confession is it’s natural. That is, it’s Real. Most everything else we do with our sin is false and unnatural. We punish ourselves, justify our actions, and hide. Yet, in Confession — in opening ourselves to God, the Light — we expose the hypocrisy of our double life. In truth, we’ve been living a lie. Without Confession, Absolution, and Reconciliation we live a lie before God and Man as if it were Reality. In reality, no one is fooled — not our neighbor nor ourselves. And, let’s be real, certainly not God.
Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
— Prayer of President George Washington for our Country.
Thanks to FWD from Fr Josiah Trenham.
Helen was two. All you had to do was ask her. “How old are you?”
“Two!” (The number of fingers accompanying this reply could vary.)
In truth, being two is hard. Barring extraordinary circumstances, during the ripe old age of two you enter the World of No.
Formerly, you lived in Yes World where everything you did was “Yes!”
You smile. Yes!
Laugh. Yes!
Stop crying. Yes!
Crawl. Yes!
Talk. Yes!
Walk. Yes!
Your every move and most waking moments is utterly adorable. Yes!
Then one day you entered discipline’s door. Search as you may, the door to Yes World is, from that time forward, only a goal. Yes World has ambassadors, grandparents, teachers, and other wrinkled acquaintances. But the people you live with have apparently chosen, for the foreseeable future, to live in the World of No.
You mark on the walls. No!
Hit your brother. No!
Tear up the toilet paper. No!
Run through the parking lot. No!
Impersonate a beast in Church. No!
Eat all the chocolate. No!
It would be easy to believe, as grandparents apparently do, that parents have lost all measure of charity. That’s not exactly true. As the comic says, “Grandchildren are God’s way of rewarding you for not killing your children.” In fact, all parents are familiar with the World of No.
Such struggles are also fleshed out in our spiritual lives.
“He who enters into a covenant of prayer with the Father in the name of Christ has first to consign himself to ‘Chastisement Kindergarten,’ then to ‘Suffering Primary School,’ then to the ‘Higher Institute of Affliction.’ ‘For it is fitting that he … should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering’ (Heb.2.10). For it is impossible to share his glory without first sharing with him in his sufferings.”
So writes Matthew the Poor in his book, Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way.
He continues: “Everyone who wishes to be made perfect in faith has to be first made perfect and purified by the Spirit. He has to undergo the various kinds of discipline to become fit to witness to faith in God amidst sufferings and tribulations, and before the fiercest threats of death. For as one’s sufferings bear witness to one’s worthiness of glory, so will God also bear witness: ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (Mt 25.34).
As you can see brothers and sisters, by God’s mercy and charity – Yes World – still exists. Let us all, children unto Him, persevere in faith, hope, and love.
This meditation originally appeared on the Antiochian webpage.
