March 15, 2015

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O John, our leader and father, the Lord has placed you on high as a true guiding star lighting the ends of the earth with the truth of your virtue

gfweek4On this fourth weekend of the Great Fast, the Church would have us remember St. John Climacus (579-649), an Eastern Ascetic Father of the Church who wrote on the spiritual life. His main work was the Heavenly Ladder, one of the most widely used Greek handbooks of the ascetic life. Its popularity with lay as well as monastic readers is attested by the existence of 33 different illustrated Greek manuscripts as well as an uncounted number of copies without illustration. The work was translated into Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian and Church Slavonic as well as a number of modern languages.

The Ladder, written while the author was abbot of the monastery at Mt. Sinai, shows striking psychological insight, stemming from his acute powers of observation and deep knowledge of the spiritual life. As the title indicates, the ascetic life is portrayed in the form of a   ladder that the monk must ascend, each step on the ladder representing a virtue that must be acquired or a vice that must be eradicated. There are 30 steps, representing the 30 years of the hidden life of Christ, before the beginning of His public ministry.

The commemoration of St. John is paired with the Gospel story of the curing of the deaf-mute boy. The boy was brought to Jesus to be cured because, as the father shared with Jesus, your disciples were unable to expel the spirit that possessed the boy, making him mute.

As I think about St. John’s Ladder and this story of the inability of disciples to cure the deaf-mute boy, it reminds me that I too must pray and fast in order to embrace a life of self-discipline that will help me to change my heart and mind, enabling me to live more like Jesus. In order to change my attitudes – ways of thinking – and my behaviors, bringing them more into concert with those of Jesus. I must work at changing my life and not be deaf to the things the Church shares with me. The Church and the Fathers, like St. John, give us ideas about how we can go about this. We too often are deaf to their suggestions. Listen to them and put their suggestions into practice.

Let us ask God to cure of our spiritual deafness!

LENTEN PRACTICE FOR THE FIFTH WEEK

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The practice for this week is to take the time to sit down and actually compose a prayer of your own. It is important that you don’t simply recite it to yourself but actually take the time to write it out, edit it and come to a decision about what you want to say exactly. THEN, anonymously send it to me either by snail mail or by email. It is confidential!

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20150315

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It is because the Gospel of John is considered the most theological of the four Gospels and the most spiritual or mystical (because it is here that we receive the revelation of Jesus and the teaching of the early disciples on the indwelling Trinity) that John in Christian art and iconography is pictured as an eagle. He has a most penetrating gaze into the hidden mysteries of the very community of triune love that explodes into creation in order that the Trinity might share its very own life with us, made in God’s Word – His image.

Prayerfully reading this Gospel requires a certain knowledge given by the Holy Spirit who reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God. This is the hidden wisdom of God that both Paul and John preached as the wisdom of the truly spiritually mature. Such is the darkness of our own intellectual abilities that a light of faith from the Spirit of the risen Lord is required if we are to believe that God is not only ecstatically in love with us in His constant self-giving, but that He eagerly waits for our return of love.

John’s world is quite radically different from the historical accounts given of Jesus’ life in the three Synoptic Gospels. In these three Gospels, Jesus is seen as actively engaged in preaching, teaching and healing. In John, there is less action and more of longer discourses. Symbolic metaphors such as glory, truth, life and light are used as John urges us to reflect on the meaning of Christ in our daily lives.

John is a master story teller. But the details – with some core of historical tradition behind them – are not as important as the spiritual meaning set forth in symbols which usher us into the hidden reality of the triune God’s active presence in this world. In the I AM statements, Jesus uses symbols to lead the reader into various meanings hidden inside the reality of Jesus.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20150315

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In the last installment of this article I began sharing ideas about the Gospel of John. I highlighted some differences in John’s Gospel when compared to the three Synoptic Gospels. There are some things, however, that John’s Gospel has in common with the other three gospels. They are:

Gospel of John

• Jesus’ adult life begins with His baptism by John;
• Jesus’ public activity begins in Galilee;
• Jesus walks on water and comes to His disciples on a stormy sea;
• Jesus feeds a multitude with a few loaves and fish;
• Jesus gives sight to a blind man;
• Jesus raises a dead person;
• Jesus heals a paralytic.

Finally and importantly, John and the synoptics emphasize Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem and his crucifixion and resurrection. Indeed, John devotes more of his gospel to this than the other gospels do.

But even when John and the other three gospels share similar stories, John most often tells them differently. So also the story of Jesus’ final week is told very differently. In John, much of it consists of Jesus’ farewell discourses, spoken on the evening of His arrest. The story of Jesus before Pilate is significantly different. In the synoptics, Jesus is basically silent. In John, the two engage in conversation in which Jesus bests Pilate. Indeed, Jesus seems to be in control of the process.

The accounts even differ on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. In the three other gospels, it happens on the day of Passover (Passover is both a weeklong and a particular day festival). The day of Passover began at dusk, so the whole sequence of the synoptics from Jesus’ last supper with his followers through His arrest, torture and death all happened on Passover. In John, it all happens the day before Passover. Jesus dies at the same hour that he Passover lambs are being slaughtered for that evening’s Passover meal. Jesus is dead before the Passover begins.
These differences and similarities have led mainline scholars to wonder whether John knew any of the synoptic Gospels. Had he read or heard one or more of them? There is no consensus. Some think he knew Mark and perhaps Luke. The majority are undecided, because the case is inconclusive. Verbal parallels – the kind that are precise enough to imply that an author knew another document – are few.

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20150315

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In the last installment of this article I began sharing with you what the Fathers thought being in Christ concretely means. They felt and believed that the new life in Christ, brought about by the actions of Christ, implies personal and free commitment. I shared with you that this element of freedom is essential to the doctrine of salvation as understood by the Byzantine Fathers. On the last day the Resurrection will indeed be universal, but blessedness will be given only to those who longer for it. Nicholas Cabasilas, one of the preeminent Fathers of our Eastern Church, tells us that baptismal “resurrection of nature” is a free gift from God, given even to children who do not express consent; but “the Kingdom, the contemplation of God, and common life with Christ belong to free will.”

What does this tell us? In order to have a real experience of God we have to want to have this experience of God and be prepared, by how we lived this life, to truly have this experience. If we have not wanted to have an experience of God, we are not prepared to have one. So a very important part of life’s journey is to cooperate with life and develop a desire to experience God.

Byzantine theologians seldom devote much explicit attention to speculation about the exact fate of souls after death. The fact that the Logos assumed human nature as such implied the universal   validity of redemption, but not of universal salvation, a doctrine which in 533 was formally condemned as Origenistic. Freedom must remain an inalienable element of every man, and no one is to be forced into the Kingdom of God against his own free choice; the idea of universal salvation had to be rejected precisely because it presupposed an ultimate limitation of human freedom – the freedom to remain outside of God.

But by rejecting God, human freedom, in fact, destroys itself. Outside of God, man ceases to be authentically and fully human. He is enslaved to the devil through death. This idea, which is       central to the thought of Maximus and which made him profess so strongly the existence of a human, created will in Christ, serves as the basis of the Byzantine understanding of the destiny of man: participation in God, or Theosis (deification), as the goal of human existence.

This, I think, is a very important point. If the goal of human existence is truly participation in God, then this goal becomes the meaning and purpose of life. The life given to us is designed to help us achieve a greater participation in God, Who we are joined to by sharing in His life. This is how we must begin to think about ourselves and our lives.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Faith — 20150315

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One of the unique things about our Church is that through her liturgical practices during the Great Fast she leads us gradually to the celebration of the Great and Holy Week, one of two weeks which she celebrates as beyond time. The other week beyond time is Bright and Holy Week – from Easter to the Anti-Pasch – which is celebrated as eight days and depicts the beginning of the new creation that God brought about by His incarnation as Jesus, the Christ.

Ladder of Divine AccentThe Great and Holy Week, which we will be observing shortly (March 29-April 4), summarizes in a concrete way the total of God’s revelation through Jesus to humankind. Like John’s depiction of the process of spiritual growth as a step-by-step process, (i.e., like climbing a ladder), so too is the revelation of God to us a step-by-step process. Throughout the liturgical year our Church uses Gospel stories and various commemorations to gradually help us see what the process of spiritual growth is like. She exhorts us to climb the ladder of spiritual growth. We, however, have to voluntarily accept the challenge and begin to make the climb. Our Church does everything in her power to help us see the importance of this process. She uses images and activities (i.e., the Great Fast) to help us become engaged in the process. She never forces us to become engaged but continuously reminds us of how others have accomplished the task and exhorts us, for our own good, to follow in their footsteps. She presents saints, who were people like us, who embraced the way of metanoia, that is the way of spiritual growth through personal discipline which can help us change our minds and hearts.

If we really become attuned to the life of our Church, we will be led to the way of metanoia – we will truly embrace this way of living. Earnestly living our life with the life of our Church will lead us to the conclusion that it is most beneficial to live as Jesus lived as others have lived it throughout our Christian history.

Of course this means that we have to voluntarily embrace a life which is in sync with our Church. It also means more than just attending weekly services, although weekly attendance is a true beginning. When we feel that we need to attend weekly services because they help us to live, then we know that we are on the road to making our ascent to God – we’re on the first rung of the ladder. The first step: importance of regular worship of God in community.

Let us truly begin our climb to union with God!

The Call To Holiness — 20150315

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At this point I would like to review what I have been sharing with you about the call to holiness. Each person’s journey toward God is unique. But the common element of every journey, if it is to succeed, is the need to review and examine one’s life on a regular basis. At first, most people are very enthusiastic about the journey. They feel strong and energized by their desire for a more intense spiritual life. Then, as the way becomes obscure and obstacles block the path, their resolve weakens. They grow weary of living up to their initial commitment, or practicing new patterns of behavior and ways of thinking. With all of the stimulation and chaos around us in this modern world, it is easy to become distracted – easy to begin adopting the attitudes of our society, fearing those who threaten our way of life and generalizing our hatred for others who are not like us or who, we believe, threaten to harm us. Stereotyping seems to come easily to us humans – generalizing to entire populations of people from our experience with one or just a few persons in a population. This weariness creates frustration and can eventually lead to giving up entirely the journey. But if people take the time to review and examine their lives on a regular basis, they can discover ways of dealing with their weariness and find the strength they need to persevere in the journey.
This review and self-examination should not be limited to faultfinding. While it is important to identify the obstacles blocking our path, it is just as important to realize how much we have traveled. The basic question in our review should not be “Where have we failed?” but “How much have we loved?” By asking ourselves the right question, we can get a much better picture of just where we are on our journey. When our answers lead to the discovery of unconverted areas in our lives, we can humbly ask for God’s healing grace and continue on living the great and mysterious gift God has given us.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20150315

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Mystical Supper

Mystical Supper

The weekend Divine Liturgy during the Great Fast is that of St, Basil the Great. It is the older of the two main liturgies we use during the year. That St. Basil composed a Liturgy, or rather reformed an existing Liturgy, is beyond doubt. The constant tradition of the Byzantine Church testifies to this fact. In a fifth century treatise on the liturgy attributed to St. Proclus, one of the Archbishops of Constantinople, it is stated that when St. Basil noticed that those who attended the Liturgy became wearied because of its length, he shortened it (it is now the longer of the liturgies that we use).

More testimony to the existence of a liturgical text which went under the name of St. Basil is given in a letter of Peter the Deacon, one of the Scythian monks sent to Rome to settle certain dogmatic questions. Writing about the year 520 to the African bishops in exile in Sardinia, Peter, an Oriental, mentions a Liturgy of St. Basil, which was known and used throughout the entire East, and even quotes a passage from it.

Leontius of Byzantium, writing   about the middle of the sixth century, censures Theodore of Mopsuestia because he was not content with the liturgies handed down by the Fathers to the churches, but composed a Liturgy of his own, showing thereby no reverence either for that of the Apostles or for that composed in the same spirit by St. Basil. The Quinisext Council, or “Council In Trullo” (692), in its thirty-second canon, draws an argument from the written Liturgy of the Archbishop of the church of the Cæsareans, St. Basil, whose glory has spread through the whole world[. Finally, in the Barberini library there is a manuscript of the latter part of the eighth, or the early part of the ninth, century which contains a Greek Liturgy entitled the Liturgy of St. Basil.

It is not known precisely just what the nature of Basil’s reform was, nor what liturgy served as the basis of his work. Very probably he shortened and changed somewhat the liturgy of his own eparchy, which would have been akin to the Liturgy of St. James. In later times it underwent further development, so that with our present knowledge of its history it would be almost impossible to reconstruct it as it came from the pen of the Bishop of Cæsarea.

Although our typicon (book which outlines how to take services) prescribes its use during special times during the year, it is THE EUCHARISTIC LITURGY of the Great Fast.
(More to come)

A Prayer-A Day for the Great Fast SUNDAY, MARCH 15th

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O Christ my true God, Who willingly accepted crucifixion for the resurrection of mankind, who dyed Your finger with blood through the crimson of the Cross, and through this Cross compassionately ordained forgiveness for me and all mankind, forsake me not when I am threatened with estrangement from You. Have compassion on me, O You Who alone are long-suffering. Help me to imitate Your way of living and imitate how You treated Your fellowmen. I know and believe that You underwent the Cross to make me aware that it is important how I live and how I treat my fellowmen. As I request Your help, O God, I offer my praise to You, Who I know to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not only now but forever and ever. Amen.

A Prayer-A Day for the Great Fast SATURDAY, MARCH 14th

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Help me, O loving Lord, to truly spend the remaining time of this Great Fast in a manner that will prepare me to celebrate Your glorious resurrection. Help me to understand that Your resurrection could not have truly taken place without Your voluntary surrender and dignified embrace of Your death on the Cross. I have so much to learn from the way You lived and died, O Lord. Help me in my ignorance. Help me to truly desire to follow in Your footsteps and become our Heavenly Father’s child. As I request Your help, O God, I offer my praise to You, Who I know to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not only now but forever and ever. Amen