To all of my Western Christian readers I wish you a joyous Palm Sunday and a blessed Holy Week. I will remember you in my prayers at the altar today, and if you think of it say a little prayer for me as well.
Collect for Friday
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Prayer Book Office
14 March ~ Benedict the Righteous of Nusia
Today on the Eastern Calendar is the feast of Benedict the Rigtheous of Nursia. I have a special place in my heart for Benedict as 10 years ago next Friday I took my first vows as a Benedictine at Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham, Massachusetts. I spent some of the best years of my life in the community and I often say if I knew then what I know now I would still be there. Benedict is known as the father of Western Monasticism as most of the monks in the Western World followed his rule of life. Benedict quoted St. Basil in many places in his rule and loved the early saints of the undivided church.
Here is his information from http://www.goarch.org/
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
The image of God, was faithfully preserved in you, O Father. For you took up the Cross and followed Christ. By Your actions you taught us to look beyond the flesh for it passes, rather to be concerned about the soul which is immortal. Wherefore, O Holy Benedict, your soul rejoices with the angels.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
O sun that shinest with the Mystic Dayspring’s radiance, who didst enlighten the monastics of the western lands, thou art worthily the namesake of benediction; do thou purge us of the filth of passions thoroughly by the sweat of thine illustrious accomplishments, for we cry to thee: Rejoice, O thrice-blessed Benedict.
Reading:
This Saint, whose name means “blessed,” was born in 480 in Nursia, a small town about seventy miles northeast of Rome. He struggled in asceticism from his youth in deserted regions, where his example drew many who desired to emulate him. Hence, he ascended Mount Cassino in Campania and built a monastery there. The Rule that he gave his monks, which was inspired by the writings of Saint John Cassian, Saint Basil the Great, and other Fathers, became a pattern for monasticism in the West; because of this, he is often called the first teacher of monks in the West. He reposed in 547.
Thursday Morning Prayer
As the light of dawn awakens earth’s creatures
and stirs into song the birds of the morning
so may I be brought t life this day.
Rising to see the light
to hear the wind
to smell the fragrance of what grows from the ground
to taste its fruit
and touch its textures
so may my inner senses be awakened to you
so may my sense be awakened to you, O God.
Celtic Benediction, Morning and Night Prayer, J Philip Newell
A Lenten Struggle
Shame on my thoughts, how they stray from me!
I fear great danger from this on the day of judgement.
During the Psalms they wander on a path that is not right;
They run, they distract, they misbehave before the eyes of the great God…
One moment they follow ways of loveliness, and the nest ways of riotous shame – no lie!
O beloved truly chaste Christ, to whom every eye is clear, may the grace of the sevenfold Spirit come to help them, to hold them in check!
Rule this heart of mine, O swift God of the elements, that you may be my love, and that I may do your will.
Traditional Gaelic Prayer
10 March ~ St. John Ogilvie
The first papal canonisation creating saints did not take place until the Church had been in existence for twelve centuries. Among early saints was Scotland’s Queen Margaret in 1250. In the eighth century Adamnan and his companions were recognized, but without formal processes of canonisation. There have been no further canonisations affecting Scotland until 1976, when the final processes for the canonisation of John Ogilvie were completed.
Ogilvie came to the cadet branch of the family well known in north-east Scotland. He was born in Banffshire so it is hardly correct to call him, as some books do, a Highlander, for most people from this corner of the country reject the title. They are of different stock and have a distinctly different accent.
It was this part – Moray, Nairn, Banff and Aberdeen – which at the Reformation clung most closely to ‘the old faith’, and districts like the Enzie and the Cabrach nurtured a new generation of priests. This mission of the Counter Reformation, as we might expect, became the especial care of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. It was the Jesuits who in the end trained and ordained the new saint, but by a roundabout route, for, while surrounded by the Catholicism of the district, his father, and as far as we know his other relatives, were Calvinists and emphatically Protestant.
In 1592 at the age of 13 the lad left home to complete his education on the continent – quite usual in those days for one in his station in society. At some point during the four years of his travels he turned from Calvinism to Catholicism. His personal arguments for this step were simple. The Protestants, he felt, lacked unity, antiquity and the power of miracles. IN 1596 he applied for admission to the Scots college of Douai, then housed at Louvain. Its students were largely from Scottish noble families. Within two years he was transferred to the Benedictine college at Ratisbon, then back tot he Jesuits at Olmutz. He became a novice in 1599.
His desire after his ordination was to return to the Jesuit mission in Scotland, and he knew only too well the dangerous nature of such work. Not until 1613 did his superiors allow him to join the Scottish mission. At the same tome Scots Catholicism was at a low ebb; James had allowed the consecration of Episcopalian bishops but intensified his persecution of the Catholics. Ogilvie, because of the penal laws, travelled as a horse dealer or a soldier. For a short period he removed to London but was sharply instructed by the authorities to return to Scotland where he found friendship and relative safety for a time with William Sinclair and his Catholic household. He ministered for a time in Glasgow and Renfrew as well as Edinburgh and his arrest came unexpectedly in Glasgow market-place where he was betrayed as a priest by on Adam Boyd,a nephew of the sheriff, who introduced himself as wanting instruction in the Catholic faith. Ogilvie was imprisoned both in Glasgow and in Edinburgh and during his imprisonment suffered torture, not so much physical as mental and psychological, through being deprived of sleep and propped upright for long periods. only when he was certified near to death was any respite granted.
The result of the examination was a foregone conclusion. The scaffold had already been prepared. At the end, Ogilvie asked the prayers of the Virgin, the Angels and the Saints. Below the scaffold the crowd of Glasgow citizens, mainly Protestants, were committing the unfortunate priest to God’s mercy. ‘If there be heere any hidden catholikes, let them pray for me,’ came the final words from the scaffold,, ‘but the prayers of heretics I will not have.’ On all sides it was an age of intolerance.
C.D. Ford, A Highlander for Heaven, 1976
Monday Morning Prayer
For the morning light
and its irresistible dawning,
for your untameable utterances of life
in boundless stretches of space
and the strength of the waves of the sea
I give you thanks, O God.
Release in me the power of your Spirit
that my souls may be free
and my spirit string.
Release in me the freedom of your Spirit
that I may be bridled by nothing but love
that I may be bridled only by love.
Forgiveness Sunday
For all those whom I’ve caused offense, pain, or scandal, forgive me, a sinner.
Sunday Morning Prayer
I watch this morning
for the light that the darkness has not overcome.
I watch for the fire that was in the beginning
and that burns still in the brilliance of the rising sun.
I watch for the glow of life that gleams in the growing earth
and glistens in the sea and sky.
I watch for your light, O God,
in the eyes of every living creature
and in the ever-living flam of my own soul.
If the grace of seeing were mine this day
I would glimpse you in all that lives.
Grant me the grace of seeing this day.
Grant me the grace of seeing.
Celtic Benediction, Morning and Night Prayer, J Philip Newell
+ B A R T H O L O M E W BY THE MERCY OF GOD ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH GRACE AND PEACE FROM OUR SAVIOR AND LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND FROM US BENEDICTION BLESSING AND FORGIVENESS
During this period of Holy and Great Lent, our Church calls us to repentance. Doubtless, as contemporary man hears this invitation to repentance, he does not feel comfortable, because he has accustomed himself to a certain way of life, and does not wish to question his own rectitude. Calling one’s own rectitude into question produces feelings of insecurity,because the ideological structure within which you have sure and certain refuge is clearly risked.
However, a deeper examination of the issue compels us to accept that people’s convictions do not “conform to objective reality, on the basis of reasonable judgment. Rather, they create a justification that is pleasing to self, namely: excuses in sins” (Psalm 140:4). When a person justifies his or her action sand self-vindicates on the basis of erroneous values, significant harm happens, because inevitably, the moment come when the truth emerges, and we find ourselves without excuse. Moreover, there may be no more time to adjust our convictions: that is, to repent of our sinful deeds and erroneous,through which we have tried to justify our behavior.
Now as Christians, we are used to both hearing about and practicing repentance, and we do not feel a conflict with our Church’s call to repentance. However, there is a need for us to make a deliberate and conscious effort to realize that a complete repentance has two objectives.
The first objective is threefold: a renunciation of our sins, a decision to cease and desist from sinful deeds and habits, and a decision to make amends for the consequences of our sins. For example, the publican Zaccheus, who sincerely repented during his encounter with Christ, demonstrated his repentance in a practical way by repaying fourfold the very people from whom he had unjustly seized wealth.
The second objective of repentance is that we should change our mentality.We should replace our understandings with other higher and loftier ones; or in the words of the Psalmist: “to ascend in our hearts” (Psalm 83:6). This second objective needs to be pursued especially by those who are unconvinced by their consciousness about specific sins. For example, our understanding of love surely falls short of perfection; likewise our understanding of humility. For when we compare our own spiritual state to the perfection of God, a perfection we are called to imitate, surely we will see our shortcomings and realize the endless road we must traverse in order to find ourselves in the path of those who are like unto God.
As we examine the quality of our inner peace, we ascertain that we fall short of the peace of Christ “which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). Pondering the level to which we trust our lives to God’s Providence, we sadly realize that we are often seized by anxiety and uncertainty about the future, as if we were either of little faith or even with out faith. In general, upon examination of the purity of our conscience, we realize that we fall short of understanding correctly the many feelings we harbor within ourselves that are detrimental to our purity,often mistaking them as healthy. Thus, a new and more complete enlightenment of our conscience is needed through the teachings of the Fathers and of the Gospel, so that we will be in a better position to think critically about ourselves and our shortcomings, in line with the judgment of God. Since no one can claim to judge himself perfectly, by the same token no one can claim that he has no need of a renewed mind, a more enlightened mind, a transformation of mind, a correction of mind and mentality, i.e. a need of repentance.
The call of our Orthodox Church to repentance is not merely a call to self-reproach. Self-reproach can be useful, as are deep contrition and tears of repentance; but they are not of themselves sufficient. We need to experience the joy emanating from the forgiveness granted to us by God, the sense of deliverance from the burdens of the bondage of sin, and the sense of God’s love for us. Our repentance does not deprive us from the joy of life, making us indignant at the hearing of the sermon calling to repentance. Repentance means cleansing and enlightenment of our minds, more ardent love for Christ and His creation, freedom and joy through the newness of life into which we continually enter through our constant repentance.
The one who constantly repents, ever progresses, ever rejoices through new ascents, finds constant satisfaction in deeper understandings of all things.Through the transformation of mentality and understanding, the one who repents better understands the whole world, becomes wiser, more judicious,more discreet, nobler and a true friend of Christ. Therefore, the preaching of repentance should be favorably received by wise persons who are able to appreciate any improvement that comes from the renewal of the human person through repentance.
Therefore, brothers and sisters and beloved children in the Lord, let us accept the invitation of our Church to repentance as we have set forth above. Let us who have fallen short through sin cleanse ourselves from sin through confession. Let us constantly examine our own presuppositions, so our judgments and thoughts may be godly and pure, just and true.Finally, we paternally pray that all of you may enjoy the every assistance and help of the Lord on your road to repentance and throughout your renewed life in Christ.
Holy and Great Lent 2008
BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople
The fervent intercessor for you all before God