The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20150308

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The early Eastern theologians – and John the Evangelist was always considered the theologian and model for them all – were the seasoned ascetics who, pure in heart, were caught up in the non-objectified, mysterious, circular movement of triadic love. They were taught a knowledge of God that was not different from experienced love of God. And they taught, not by relaying to others a system of abstract truths about God, but by leading other Christians into the mystery of God.

But when speculative theology became divorced from the mysticism of John and Paul, the doctrine of the Trinity became something taught, to which Christians gave an intellectual assent and accepted as true. It was not taught and preached, though, as the most “practical” revealed truth of all, having transforming effects on our understanding of God, Christ, ourselves, the Church and the world.

Karl Rahner complains with great disappointment in his book, The Trinity, that, if this doctrine were to be declared unnecessary to the Christian faith, few Christian lives would be affected, and sadly enough he writes: the major part of religious literature could well remain virtually unchanged.

The Eastern Church sees the doctrine of the Trinity as absolutely foundational to our belief in God. It also sees as absolutely important that our understanding of the Trinity should not be academic and abstract but, rather, experiential. Our understanding of God as Triune in nature is critical to our understanding of our relationship with Him and that His Spirit, which is love personified, is the             essential force that binds us to Him and to all other humans. That is why in the teachings of Jesus we see that He stresses the absolute importance of unconditional love.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20150308

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Holy Eucharist IconAccording to our tradition, there is, as I have shared with you, no celebration of the Eucharist on fasting days because the celebration is one continuous movement of joy. Think about this. In our Church every weekend celebrates the Resurrection of our Lord. Every weekend we sing one of the eight tones that are the prayers of Bright Week (the days after Easter). The Church sees the week from Easter to St. Thomas Sunday, called Anti-Pasch, as the only week that is comprised of eight days. This signals the beginning of the new creation which Christ’s death and resurrection initiated. Each day of this eight-day week we use a new tone, that is a set of special prayers. This is where we get the eight tones we use during the year.

Further, from Easter to Pentecost,   Sunday is considered the first day of the week. During ordinary time, that is the rest of the liturgical year, Sunday is actually considered the last day of the week.

Just as the visible Christ has ascended into heaven yet is invisibly present in the world, just as Pascha is celebrated once a year yet its rays illumine the whole life of the Church, just as the Kingdom of God is yet to come but is already in the midst of us, so too with the Eucharist. As the sacrament and the celebration of the Kingdom, as the feast of the Church, it is incompatible with fasting and is not celebrated during the Great Fast. As the grace and the power of the Kingdom which are at work in the world, as our supplier of the essential food and the support for our life’s journey, it is at the very center of the Great Fast, is indeed the heavenly manna that keeps us alive in our journey through the desert of Lent.

Again, why should we practice this since many parishes do not. In not doing it they are not doing something wrong. Keeping this practice, however, helps us to more fully to understand our tradition. Our tradition is well thought out, coherent and quite comprehensible. It fits perfectly with our theology. So in choosing to observe this tradition we have an opportunity to   comprehend the Eastern approach to religion and worship of God.

Our synod of Bishops, under our new Patriarch, has encouraged all of our parishes to embrace our tradition. Our tradition, I believe, makes our religious practice much more intelligible and provides us with a more dimensional understanding of one of the greatest mysteries of faith, namely the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

A Prayer-A Day for the Great Fast SUNDAY, MARCH 8th

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O Lord Jesus Christ, Who I profess to be true God and true man, help me this day to bow low before Your Cross and to proclaim Your Resurrection. Help me to truly be filled with the desire to serve You and bear witness to You, my God, as I venerate Your Cross. Do not allow me to just venerate Your Cross out of custom or tradition but, rather, help me, when I venerate It, to truly offer my pledge to take up my cross and follow You. Help me to understand that You, my loving God, endured Your suffering on the Cross, together with all the other maltreatment, to teach me how to live. 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.

LENTEN PRACTICE FOR THE FOURTH WEEK

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cross_lgThis week, just find time to sit quietly for about ten minutes and do two things: (1) think about what Christ’s crucifixion means to you, and (2) how you would like to be remembered by those who know you. Take the time to write down this second item and then put it away with a note leaving it to those who will survive you.

A Prayer-A Day for the Great Fast SATURDAY, MARCH 7th

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O Merciful Father, the Fast that brings integrity has now almost run half its course. These past days have proved acceptable and now I see the need for the days to come. I beseech Your Son, Christ our Benefactor, who fasted and endured the Cross for me, to help me complete this Fast in a manner that will allow me to truly share in the joy of His divine Pasch which I am preparing to celebrate. Help me to truly understand the revelation You made to me and all mankind when You, in the Person of Your Son Jesus, died on the Cross for us. 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.

Pastoral Letter of His Beatitude Sviatoslav for Lent 2015

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Eminence and Most Reverend Bishop! Reverend, Reverend Fathers and vysokoprepodobni! Dearly beloved in Christ brothers and sisters!

Lent – a special period of the liturgical year, a spiritual awakening and cleaning. The Lord encourages us to attention and reflect on personal life, our relationship to God and neighbor; invites us to test how well we experience the historical circumstances in which we have to pass this year path of Lent.

Our relationship to God we Christians call faith. Living in complete trust in God and His dosvidchuyuchy active presence in our lives through prayer, we find in him a source of hope – become strong His power and His love vidrodzhuyemosya. To live with faith in God – means continually updated. In particular, during the Lenten journey we must endure “spiritual reform-renewal” – turning to God.

This conversion we traditionally call repentance, directing all thoughts, desires and aspirations to God, the restoration of the ability to fight evil, strengthening resistance lies. True repentance is not only deep inner nature and is not just our personal relationship with God. Just as sin spreads around us death and destruction, conversion to our Creator has the ability to beneficially affect our society. That is why the post – period conversion, penance and prayer – we call time revival, renewal and healing believer, and through it the whole society – the power and action of the Holy Spirit.

Fighting evil, falsehood and sin is a matter not only of individuals. As people able to resist aggression attacker only united, together, just personal spiritual revival of Christian life is impossible without upgrading its relations with neighbors. No real fasting and prayer without charity, as you can not love God without noticing pain neighbor. On this occasion, the Lord tells us, “That’s Fast, dating, break the shackles of injustice, to undo the yoke solved at liberty to release the oppressed, to break every yoke, his bread with the hungry to share, enter the house of the poor, the homeless, seeing naked, wear it on your brother not hide “(Isa. 58: 6-7). Like St. Augustine teaches, noting that the first step in the Lenten journey be a step towards the neighbor: “Love your neighbor and then look inside himself where this nascent love of God and see how you would be possible” (Treatise on the Gospel of John 17, 7-9).

By calling us to repentance conscience – the voice of God in our souls, our true “I”, which will meet with the light of God’s truth. Right experienced Lent strengthens this voice allows us to better hear it, not zahlushuvaly it without losing the brightness of God’s truth in our hearts and not gone astray.

However, not only a few people can zamulyuvaty his conscience and indulge in self-deception. History and reality show us that this state of flow goals of society. Therefore, every person, society also needs renovation, conversion and look at themselves in the light of Truth.

Christian love is manifested in social terms as social justice. Conversely, social injustice is both evil and falsehood and sin. That’s why the first step in a national repentance should be a revival of justice for those who are weakest, the most vulnerable and most in need. “Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy – in hard times God will save it” (Ps. 41: 2).

The court shall cease to be valid if not looking for the truth, and the judge – when acting against God’s truth and His law.

One of the indicators of social conscience in the state is the judiciary, as evidence of the moral health of the state is a fair trial, which is the basis for a viable law of God. This Court is meeting point between God’s truth and personal and social life of the citizen. It ceases to be valid if not looking for the truth, and the judge – when acting against God’s truth and His law. Lord instructs judges words of Scripture: “Look what you’re doing, because you are doing is not for the court, as to the Lord, and he shall be with you when you judge. Suppose, therefore, will you fear the Lord: proceed with caution because the Lord our God, there lies no storonnychosty or pidkupstva “(2 Chron. 19, 5-7). Earthly judges must not forget that before God and they defendants because he calls himself Lord Judge and Final Judgment – “highest authority” – leaves himself, for his “judgment is righteous” (cf. Jn. 5, 30).

We all know that the unjust court can be an instrument of violence and reprisals against human, means of repression and neglect the dignity of the whole nation. Each wrong and injustice impressive, but wrong and injustice which people undergo where it should protect against injustice strikes and hurts much stronger and denies hope. In our country most people feel helpless just before the judiciary, as is the need for judicial reform in us or not acute.

And fast, and reforms need to self, work on yourself, which can even be painful. This year, the preparation of the Passover of the Lord will be marked scourge of war and economic hardship. Let our endurance in the struggle for freedom and a better future of their people updated through voluntary self-denial for renewal of private and public life, personal sacrifice for the victory of love over hatred.

We Christians know that the result of this reform, renewal depends not only on us, and on our first accord with God by keeping two prerequisites real fast – prayer and almsgiving. Prayer opens us to God, He invites us to act, and charity, to others and the overcoming of injustice in the world, is voluntary mortification of our evil inclinations for pilgrimage to the resurrection.

Let renewed strength of the Christian faith, hope and love gives us certainty in the inevitability of the victory of God’s justice over injustice – the victory over every enemy, internal and external, that rebels against God and the dignity of man, created in His image and likeness. “Nevertheless, brethren, rejoice, strive for excellence, pidbadoryuytesya, be of one mind, live peacefully, and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (II Cor. 13, 11).

† SVIATOSLAV

Given in Kyiv
at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection,
the day of the Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom,
February 12, 2015

A Prayer-A Day for the Great Fast FRIDAY, MARCH 6th

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O Merciful Father, because I have recognized my weaknesses and the misdeeds that have flowed from those weaknesses, I beg Your help. I know that I have, at times, enjoyed fleeting pleasures and found my treasure in the things of this world. O Good Father, take not Your Spirit away from me but have mercy on me and receive me as You received the prodigal son. Help me to allow Your Spirit to enlighten my mind and heart so that I might know how to truly serve You and make Your Kingdom truly real where I live, work and play. Help me to witness to Your love and kindness. 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 THURSDAY, MARCH 5th

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O Compassionate Father, as I prepare to venerate Your Son’s Cross, help me to understand the great love that is expressed by it. Your Son voluntarily endured suffering and death because You know that we humans fear these to life experiences the most. Out of love You revealed to us that neither suffering nor death can separate us from You, O Father, if we accept these are a part of human life and learn from them. Help me to take up my cross and carry it. 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 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4th

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Help me, O my most loving God, to understand this prayer that the Church offers to You: Into an evil land I have wandered, prodigal that I am. The wealth You gave me, O compassionate Father, I have squandered in a life not focused on You. I am clothed with the shame of my misdeeds. Help me to be truly repentant and seek to only do that which brings glory to You. Now, in my hunger, I long for the good I have lost and cry out to You: I know I have sinned. In Your kindness receive me as Your hired servant. Help me to dedicate myself to Your service and imitate Your Son, Jesus. 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

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20150503

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Ladder of Divine AccentThe second rung on Climacus’ Divine Ladder of Ascent, is Detachment. This is closely allied to his first rung which, as I have shared, is Renunciation. While truly detachment involves letting go of our need for self-gratification, it is also more than this. It involves detaching ourselves from our ego, our pride. For it is pride that fills us with anger when we are wronged. It is pride that makes us think, I don’t deserve to be treated like this! How dare they speak to me that way!

Detachment from pride is the imitation of Christ, because if anyone did not deserve to be derided, mocked, jeered, beaten and put to death, it is Christ. Who are we to think we deserve better than He? Yet our pride makes us think we deserve respect, dignity, and comfort. And if we think as the world thinks, we may be right. Wicked people do wicked things and get everything they want, while good people suffer. Where is the justice in that? But as Christians who have renounced the ways and, indeed, the justice of the world, we are to compare ourselves not to others but to Christ alone. He is our true model. It is He who we are called to imitate, not our fellowmen.

This is why so many saints of the Church faced martyrdom with joy, for in that martyrdom they knew they were following Christ crucified and did not give a thought to What did I do to deserve this?

If we are persecuted and hated for no good reason, even if it is not for our faith, it is a blessing in disguise. For in that moment, we have been given an opportunity to imitate Christ to the full, to truly be His disciples.

Perhaps the most effective way to begin developing this important attitude of detachment is to first discover to what we are truly attached. There is nothing in this world that is more worthy of attachment than God Himself.