I think I’m willing to find out…I think I’m gonna try something new.

Yep, til Christmas, I commit to:
1. fast one day a week (no food, only drink)
2. pray EVERY day for 30 minutes (yikes!)
3. see those around me and do or say two nice things, every day
4. at least once a week give time, goods or money so that others might sense God’s love for them

I’ll try to blog about how this goes….I’ll try to muster the guts to share my adventure…

Tomorrow it starts…today, though, we wrap up Thanksgiving with turkey meal #3 at my in-laws.  Gobble, gobble!

Lent, the four week period in the church year, where we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ. This is not only a time to prepare the gift list, guest list or menu, but especially the heart and mind to be able to accept Christ anew. Now is a good time to start with a four week fast, abstaining from something to remind yourself constantly that Christ came and He will return. It is also a time to spend extra minutes in prayer. Fasting and prayer prepare the soil of the heart to deliver fruit of the Spirit.

Do You Believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus?

By now, you have discovered that the outline for this series of posts has not been firmly set in stone and while in my last post, I indicated that I would begin to talk about the religious contexts for the idea of resurrection and I will be getting to that soon, I’m still doing some reading. In the interim, I have noticed that while the names of the three major scholars that I will reference are reasonably well known, it is probably helpful to share a bit about who they really are.

Read more

In the Orthodox Church the Christmas Holiday Season begins on November 15 with the beginning of the Nativity Fast.  Traditionally in Orthodoxy the Pre-Christmas season was intended to be one of quietness and simplicity as one meditated on the Incarnation of God the Word which is a key part of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.   Jesus came into the world in the poverty of a cave where animals were sheltered from the weather.   At that time there were no 40 days of shopping and over eating by the Holy Family in preparation for the fulfillment of God’s promise.  Mary contemplated the meaning of the birth of God’s Son, as should we all.   She did this in the simplicity and poverty of life which were part of her lot in life.  

One way to prepare for the Nativity is to examine your own heart and conscience regarding how well you follow Christ in your daily life and then to go to the Sacrament of Confession.  This would certainly be a godly way to prepare yourself and your family for the celebration of the Nativity of the Savior. 

A dynamic priest-friend of ours shocked his parish at the beginning of Lent with a sermon that ignored the traditional things people tend to “give up” or “do” for the forty days. Instead, he focused on scouring the blasé attitude of their hearts. “Who needs your religiosity, your fasts, icons, prostrations, services, Bible studies, periods of meditation, and good works,” he said pointedly, “when they are not rooted in your heart, permeating your thoughts and actions with goodness? And you claim you are good? When is the last time that you really looked at your life honestly?”   (The Monks of New Skete, In the Spirit of Happiness)

Christ came into the world opening not only heaven to us, but also opening our hearts so that each of us could see cleary what is in our hearts. 

The Lord said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles.  For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”  (Mark 7:20-23, NRSV)

According to our Lord Jesus Christ, sin does not come upon from outside of ourselves.  Rather sin emerges from within.  Confession is not magic to ward off evil from entering our lives, but rather is part of our ascetic effort  to uproot and expunge the evil that lurks within us.  It is not external temptations that cuase us to sin but rather the passions from within that we fail to tame.  In Confession we acknowledge this spiritual warfare, we name the sins that are at work within our hearts in order to triumph over them.  Repentance means that we change ourselves from within.  We recognize the root of our problem is in our hearts and we begin the difficult task of putting the passions under control so that we can follow Christ.

Delivered at the 2002 Lenten Series at Trinity Church, UM in Kendallville, Indiana

Matthew 4:1-11

For 12 of the first 20 years of my life, a collie mix, named Penny, was part of my life. She did a lot of interesting things such as using her water dish, a rather heavy tin saucepan, as a part-Frisbee, part-football toy. We were always concerned that she would hurt herself as took the pan by the handles and threw it up into the air and caught it on the fly.

But it was another of her little quirks that brings me to mention her today. It involved our cookie jar. More specifically it involved the clink of the cookie jar lid.

No matter where she was in the house, or if, during the summer, she was outside and the windows and doors were open, the clink of the cookie jar lid brought her into your immediate presence. And you had to decide whether or not you were going to share your cookie with her or have her stare you down into either guilt or shame for not sharing.

Now, in order to avoid these situations, you learned how to very carefully open and close the lid on the jar.

When Pastor Dave asked if I would be willing to speak during this Lenten season and I said that I would take this day and he told me what the text and theme was, I starting thinking of the clink of that cookie jar. When I think of that clink, and I can hear even as I speak of it, the reality, the force of temptation came to my mind because the sneakiness with which you attempt to open a cookie jar lid is to me such a clear metaphor for the challenges of resisting temptation.

This year’s Lenten Series in entitled, Come To Calvary. And my topic, from the Lectionary, on this Ash Wednesday, 2002 concerns the temptation of the new Adam, Jesus Christ. What’s the link, the connection, between the two? Let’s find out!

During this Lenten season, a season of serious and deep reflection and denial, I would suggest this thought for our consideration. In order for us to come to Calvary and receive the benefits of Calvary, Jesus Christ had to go there on our behalf.

And for Jesus to go there, He had to go through the Wilderness experience. He had to face Satan’s direct temptations. Why? It is because He was the first perfect man since Adam to appear on earth.

Now before we examine this passage in Matthew 4, I want us to also briefly contrast and compare this segment with the temptation of the first Adam, as recorded in Genesis 3.

First of all, both first humans were together when they were tempted. Jesus faced temptation alone.

Adam and Eve faced one temptation – the temptation to think that they could become like God, as we read in Genesis 3:5. Jesus faced three different temptations.

But Satan was very suggestive in both cases. And his suggestion to Adam and Eve that they could become just like their creator was too irresistible to pass up. Clink.

But, what was the purpose of Satan’s temptation of Christ? To keep Him from getting back what God had “lost” at Eden – the love and fellowship of humanity.

The first temptation, the temptation to turn stones into bread represents perhaps the most common type of temptation. Using an illegitimate means to fulfill a legitimate need.

Jesus was hungry. I would be after 40 days with no food, wouldn’t you? He had a legitimate need for food. Satan offered him an illegitimate way to fulfill that need. Use your power to change things, Jesus. Go ahead! Make bread! Oh how subtle temptation can be. Clink!

Go ahead take what you need! You deserve it! You’ve earned it! Go ahead! Make bread!         And we get into all sorts of bondage – financial, emotional, relational, you name it, we get it.

Well, what does Jesus say? People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God.

By coming to Calvary, we realize that life is more than food, clothing, and other possessions. It is about the intangibles – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – and the character they represent as we allow the power of the cross to transform us into the persons, and the people, of God.

Now Satan takes things up a notch with temptation number 2. “Jump,” Satan says. “Jump off this Temple! If you are the Son of God, jump off and prove that you are! Have faith, man! Your angelic secret service will protect you! Jump!

Jesus protests. “Do not test the Lord your God!”

I assume this noon hour that most all of us here are parents. Remember when you were tested? That your authority was challenged? What was it about?

Certainly it was about limits. Knowing what is appropriate and what is not is a part of growing up.

But, it was also about power. Who’s in charge here? Is it mom or dad or junior or Sally?

Satan takes on the power and authority of God as he challenges Jesus to jump! Clink!

One of the favorite parts of a hockey game for me is during the power play. During this segment of a game, one team is short-handed because of a penalty that puts one of their teammates in the penalty box. They must defend their goal minus one player. The other team has a man advantage. They seek to score.

This becomes a test of both teams: the one to defend, the other to score.

What we have in our text is a spiritual power play of epic proportions. Jesus is at a disadvantage. He is physically and emotionally depleted.

Satan holds the advantage. He is full of power, of life, if you will. And he pressing to score and score big.

But, Jesus refused to do something that would have demonstrated His power. Why? Because He was not on the earth to demonstrate that kind of power. And had He done so, none of us would reap the benefits of Calvary.

Power is such a sought after thing in our time, isn’t it? We seek to have power over situations and other people. We seek to be in the driver’s seat and not the passenger’s seat.

And we are tempted to grab for that power that influence, that ability to “call the shots.” But, that is directly contrary to model of and statements about servant hood that Jesus would demonstrate to the point of death at Calvary. What a hard temptation to resist!

Finally we look at temptation number 3. Satan pulls out all the stops. He disengages the governor on the engine.

“See all of this power? See all of this worldly glory and glitz? I will give it all to you! Just bow down and worship me!” No fine print babble here! Bold print! Front-page stuff! Brazenly tempting statements. Clink!

I think that this was the toughest temptation for Jesus to resist. Why? Because it was the closest one to God’s heart.

As Jesus was faced with this temptation, it was not the glitz and glamour that created the problem. I believe that it was the fact that he saw all of humanity right there before Him!

And all of them used to be His father’s! His father had created them! His Father had brought them into existence! His Father had created them to worship and follow Him! And oh, how His Father wanted them all back to make them what they had once been! That’s why Jesus came to earth – to make it possible for the Creator’s crowning glory to come home. But, Satan was standing in his way to tempt Him away from doing what He had been sent to do – get them back.

This temptation is about what we worship. It is about our ultimate loyalty. For what we worship, where our treasure is, there our heart, our loyalty, is also.

What did Jesus say? Get out of here Satan! You must worship the Lord your God; serve Him only.

Nowhere else in this passage does Jesus say, “Get out of here Satan!” But He says it here and it says to me, that Satan really started getting to Jesus because he got to the heart issue that really mattered to Jesus the most – the worship and loyalty of humanity.

This is the ultimate temptation, one that is directly tied to the temptation of the First Adam – the temptation that all of us face – Who are we going to follow – God or self!

But, Jesus resisted. And He persisted to His death at Calvary. A death that was not in vain. A death and a resurrection that can help us to resist this temptation to think that we are God and live the life that God has always wanted us to live.

We face the same temptations that Christ, the second Adam did. We must go to Calvary to find both forgiveness for giving in and strength to resist the temptations that come our way.

Before we spend a few moments in silent meditation, I offer this verse of scripture to meditate upon as we begin our season of Lent in a very, very different world. A verse that remind us of just how much our God understand our situation:

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it. Amen!

for some reason I never got around to putting this one up during Lent, here it is now for your enjoyment… (just close your eyes and imagine its spring, I mean after you’ve finished reading, because you can’t read with your eyes closed)

When I was little it seemed I was always in trouble, going barefoot when I was supposed to keep my shoes on, wandering in the woods and forgetting to tell anyone where I was going, reading when I was supposed to be doing homework, always getting dirty and making messes, half the time I could be found up a tree and the other half coming home with bloody knees and elbows from wiping out on my bike. When Michael Domizio called me ‘bossy’ in the fourth grade he said it as if it meant exile – nobody likes a bossy girl. and in fifth grade after a series of trips to the principal’s office for getting in fist fights with boys I knew he must be right. All the pictures and statues in church showed girls and women with downcast eyes and pristine robes. No grass stains on their knees, not a single dirty fingernail. We sang songs of obedient Mary, meek and mild. I was sure there was no hope for me.

I love today’s gospel story, though my past is not nearly as colorful the Samaritan woman, this woman at the well is someone I can identify with. Cantankerous, argumentative, someone who had quit trying to fit in because she knew it just wasn’t going to happen. But none of that seems to be a hindrance to Jesus, he almost seems to relish her rebelliousness.

It’s easy to hear this story with modern ears and miss the absolute impossibility of it. This woman, and Jesus, are breaking all the rules. She doesn’t belong at the well at midday, all the respectable women have come early in the morning to get their water. He shouldn’t be talking to her she is his enemy, a Samaritan, one of those who practiced an impure and adulterated version of Judaism AND she is a woman, unaccompanied. The risk and scandal of this conversation is difficult for us to grasp.

John’s Gospel offers us this conversion story on two levels. On a Grand symbolic level John explores important themes:

–the new life brought to all by Jesus,

–right worship –the “five husbands” Jesus references may represent the other Gods the Samaritans serve instead of following the covenant of the One God-

–the well in the Hebrew scriptures is a symbol for wisdom and for the law and a gift from God;

But also on a literal and very concrete level John’s story reveals to us:

- an outcast who becomes the first missionary when she shares her encounter with the others in her town

- an enemy who believes in Jesus Messiahship before the disciples themselves begin to understand,

- a person looking for love in all the wrong places and finding something worth so much more in what Jesus offers her

Jesus looks through her eyes and into her soul as if to say: I know who you are, I know where you’ve been, and I want to offer you something better, I invite you to drink in a love and a promise and a fullness of life, unsurpassed. Jesus repurposes her anger and turns it into a fire that shares the zeal of her discovery, that he himself is the messiah, the living water.

Jesus gift IS greater than Jacob’s. Jesus will replace God’s gifts with himself. The old locations for prayer, limited by geography and ritual will be swept away and people will worship ‘in spirit and in truth’. Now the living waters will be an internal spring of Jesus teaching and the Holy Spirit. It will be IN the faithful as God’s gift to them.

Today is the third Sunday of Lent-that point in our preparation and penitence where we can get tired and lose heart. Like those grumbly Israelites in the desert. We need to be reminded of God’s constant, daily, hourly, moment by moment providence from the love in our lives to each breath that we take. We fast and pray and sacrifice so that we will not fall victim to the false notion that what we accomplish is all our own doing. As much as we might prefer to be something else- as human creatures we are fragile, dependent, needy. Letting ourselves become hungry and thirsty reminds us – we are limited – it allows us hear the call of psalmist: ‘harden not your hearts’

The closer we get to Easter the more we are called to a change of heart. Over the next few weeks we’ll hear a series of conversion stories- each more dramatic than the one before- this weekend’s story of the Samaritan woman at the well, next week the man born blind is read, and then the story of Lazarus being raised. The gospel readings move us from sin to holiness, from blindness to sight, from death to life.

Each of us can stand in the place of the Samaritan woman, and in the place of the Israelites, each of us has challenged, grumbled, turned from what God has called us to, taken God’s goodness for granted, but may this Lent be our heart changing encounter with Jesus at the well: whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.

May this Lent be our conversion: the water I give will become in YOU a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

]]> http://sowingseedsoforthodoxy.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/the-orthodox-faith-worship-the-daily-cycles-of-prayer-hours-compline-and-nocturne/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:20:47 +0000 sowingseedsoforthodoxy http://sowingseedsoforthodoxy.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/the-orthodox-faith-worship-the-daily-cycles-of-prayer-hours-compline-and-nocturne/

[As stated in my About, I want to tell the world about the Orthodox faith. Up to this point, my blogs have somewhat unorganized to do that. Now God has given me a more coorinated way to do that. I will be sharing articles from the Orthodox Faith.

This will be a long series, but I trust it will be profitable to you in learning about the Orthodox faith. From time to time, I will also provide addition blogs of interest.  - Herman Art]

Hours, Compline and Nocturne

Child welfare officials investigate the case of a baby who was reportedly rented out to beggars in the Indian city of Bangalore…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: city skyline. The blog is also related to: spelling city.

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, ‘Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?’

I laughed and enthusiastically responded; ‘Of course you may!’ and she gave me a giant squeeze.

‘Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?’ I asked.

She jokingly replied, ‘I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…’

‘No seriously,’ I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

‘I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!’ she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop.  I was always mesmerized listening to this ‘time machine’ as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went.  She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.  She was introduced and stepped up to the podium.  As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.  Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, ‘I’m sorry I’m so jittery.  I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.’

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, ‘ We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success.  You have to laugh and find humor every day.  You’ve got to have a dream.  When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.  If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older.  That doesn’t take any talent or ability.  The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do.  The only people who fear death are those with regrets.’

She concluded her speech by courageously singing ‘The Rose.’

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.  At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.

When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they’ll really enjoy it!

These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.

REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY.  GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.

We make a Living by what we get. We make a Life by what we give.

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

Pass this message on.  If you choose not, then you refuse to bless someone else.

‘Good friends are like stars… You don’t always see them, but you know they are always there.’

If I’d known the 20 years between age 10 and age 30 were going to go by so fast, I would have:

1.  Colored more pictures.

2.  Taken the old mason jar with holes punched into the cover and caught and released more fireflies.

3.  Played more marble games.

4.  Saved my won marbles.

5.  Watched more cloud formations.

6.  Eaten more berries by the handful on a sunny day.

7.  Stolen more rhubarb from gardens.

8.  Skipped rope more with my friends.

9.  Written down my friends names and addresses so we could always be in touch.

10.  I would NEVER have given up chocolate for Lent.

11.  Dated more.

12.  Listened to more music.

13.  Saved ALL of my earned money.

14.  Given my Mom more flowers.

15.  Told my Grandmother I loved her – even though she knew I did.

16.  Kept writing in my Diary.

17.  Travelled more.

18.  Visited more friends.

19.  Been kinder to my brothers and sisters.

20.  Kept on trying to ride a bike – even though the first time resulted in the bike going across the road and over the river bank where it was thrown against the rocks and I was also banged up and bruised.

Little pumpkin all set to trick or treat

Ghouls and ghosties are the order of the night for Hallowe’en. Trick or treating, visiting neighbours – to leave a dare or receive a treasure – has become not just an American ritual, but one which has caught on in the Western World.

How many of our children know the origins of the celebration which fills their imaginations with scary images until they shake with glee or cry for consolation?

2000 years ago the Celtic year began at Samhain. And as the Celts calculated in moons, their ‘new year’ night was celebrated during the moon of 31 October – 1 November: what is now known worldwide as Hallowe’en. For all Celtic peoples – contemporary with the height of Roman civilization – Samhain was a time of deliberate misrule and contrariness, rather like the Roman Saturnalia which was celebrated at winter solstice, or if calculated in the Julian calendar, beginning December 17 and lasting for a period of six days.

Pumpkins ready for carving into Hallowe'en lanterns

Saturnalia did not otherwise survive 2000 years of change.

Hallowe’en, on the other hand, seems not only to have survived, but blossomed: its increasing popularity attributed perhaps to its ability to touch on the element of fire – candles flickering in lanterns – the dark, calculation by the moon, the unknown.

Celtic names                   Modern months                  Meaning

Samonios                                       October/November        Seed-fall
Dumannios                            November/December    Darkest depths
Riuros                                          December/January           Cold-time
Anagantios                              January/February        Stay-home time
Ogronios                                    February/March                  Ice time
Cutios                                          March/April                         Windy time
Giamonios                                 April/May                           Shoots-show
Simivisonios                                May/June                            Bright time

Equos                                             June/July                           Horse-time

Elembiuos                                      July/August                      Claim-time
Edrinios                           August/September      Arbitration-time
Cantlos                                         September/October             Song-time

In the earliest known Celtic calendar, the Coligny Calendar of 13 moons (months), now in the Palais des Arts in Lyon, Samhain was the fire-Festival of the Dead. It was a time when the veil between this world and the Otherworld was thought to be so thin that the dead could return to warm themselves at the hearths of the living, and some of the living – especially poets, artists, clairvoyants and shaman-healers – were able to enter the Otherworld through the doorways of the sidhe, or fairyfolk, such as the stone-lined entrance to the Celtic Hill of Tara in Ireland.

2000-year old Coligny calendrical calculations are quite complex and sophisticated, using a combination of moon and sun calculations which are obviously significant to the belief that the cycle of the moon ruled (and rules) people’s lives. The calendar dates from circa 1st century BC, and is made up of bronze fragments, once a single huge plate, inscribed with Latin characters, but written in the Gaulish language. It begins each month with the full moon, and covers a 30-year period of five cycles of 62 lunar months, with one of 61. It divides each month into fortnights (two-week periods) rather than single weeks, with individual days designated – from observation – as MAT (good) or ANM (not good). Each year is divided into thirteen (lunar) months.

The Christian Gregorian calendar never fully succeeded in spreading a veneer over its Celtic predecessor. It managed, however, to change the ancient festival of New Year – Samhain- from night to day, making the day of November 1st a celebration for All Saints, instead of the eerie ‘pagan’ concept of a nighttime fire-festival by moonlight the previous night. That was considered too ‘devilish’, rural or ‘ignorant’ to continue in an enlightened Christian world. But celebrate the country people continued to do.

Hallowe’en simply means the evening (night or moon-time) before All Hallows. So the older pre-Christian fire festival succeeded in perpetuating its Samhain roots, with parades and mocking the Dead – or even the Undead – allowing the Underworld to merge with the ‘real’ world, cavorting with spirits through the thinnest of veils. By perpetuating Samhain as Hallowe’en, the populace voted with its feet: adopting the Christian calendar name and applying it to a pre-Christian fire festival which would not go away.

This time of year we loosen Saturn’s bonds.
The ancient God awakens from His sleep,
and rules the Earth as in the Golden Age.

Trick or treat

Saturn’s influence, while associated with midwinter solstice, is also felt in the giving of gifts, or, what has become the fun of Hallowe’en: trick-or-treating. The Saturnalia was not just another fire festival to celebrate a time of misrule or night lording it over day, but for giving thanks for the bounty of harvest; and knowledge, said to have been brought to Earth by Saturn the God who showed Man how to store and preserve seed from a bountiful crop until sown again in spring furrows. While the giving of gifts perpetuates in most festivals of the Christian calendar (feasting after Lenten fast, Christmas Day giving and gift-unwrapping) the Celts were also masters of the soil, adept at tilling the Earth to encourage her to provide for next year. So the ‘treats’ of Hallowe’en are also rooted in that pre-Christian tradition of gift-giving and appreciation.

Star-shaped piñata for Lent from original Chinese paper-decorated designs

Piñata now decorate supermarket shelves at any time, not just at Lent

Hallowe’en may have survived its 2000-year transition, but it is doubtful whether any Celtic wraith floating in through the veil would recognize the 21st century version.

Here’s a tune for Lent.

Hear O Lord

I’ll get back to finding a free mp3 of this one. I have heard it on a Libera album – they jazz things up a little, but alright in small doses.

This rather dubious looking site has a recording:

Schola od sv. Tom�e – Attende Domine Found at abmp3 search engine