Okay so I made the switch to the new blogging software, let’s see if it is any different.
Benedict and Bartholomew
On Tuesday, Pope Benedict will travel to Turkey to visit with Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople. My good friend Huw has a prayer on his blog for the visit. I think we all should adopt this prayer for this week as the visit continues.
Here is a link to the prayer.
30th Sunday After Pentecost
Colossians 3:12-16
Luke 18:18-27
In today’s gospel passage we see Jesus once again taking a swipe at rich people. The rich young man comes and asks Jesus what he has to do to get into Heaven. First Jesus rebukes him for calling him good. “No one is good but One, that is, God.” is Jesus reply to this question. Next he asks what he needs to do. Jesus lists off the commandments that he must obey. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. Okay seems simple so far. Most of us would be able to do all of these things without any question. Then the whammy comes. Go sell all you have, give to the poor, come and follow me. Oh man not that! I can only imagine what this man must have thought. Ask me anything else and I will do it, but not that. I have too much stuff.
Okay, last week we were faced with the same thing. Does Jesus not like rich people? Maybe, but more important that that he is speaking in terms of sacrifice. Sacrifice is something that we need to do as Christians. How many of us sacrifice to be Christians? This week Pope Benedict will travel to Turkey to make an official visit to the Turkish government but also to Patriarch Bartholomew. Christians in Turkey are a minority and suffer each day for their faith. The patriarch himself is a captive in his own residence and can only move about with official permission. I would say that he suffers for his faith. Now I am not saying that we all need to move to Turkey and suffer along with our brothers and sisters there, no but we should sacrifice a little for our faith.
This time of advent is a time of preparation and time of sacrifice. In the Orthodox Church we fast during this time of the year as we do during great lent. Give something up these days as an offering to God. It does not matter what it is just do it.
In his writings about this verse, St. John Chrysostom teaches the following, Jesus loved the man, He named these conditions for his particular need. That is the key phrase here, his particular need. Jesus is not saying that we all need to sell all we have and give to the poor, but for this man that is what he needed to do. Pray that God will reveal what you must do to have eternal life. It will be different for all of us.
Thanksgiving
Today in the US is Thanksgiving Day. Let us pause this day to say thanks for all that we have and let us not forget those that will go without today.
Christmas
Fr. Greg has a great post about Christmas. Check it out.
Liturgical Words
Over on Fr. Z’s blog there has been an interesting conversation going on about two little Latin words that are used in the Liturgy of the Roman Church during the consecration. I first have to give a shout out to Fr. Z for having such a wonderful Blog. I have learned many things from his blog and he has a wonderful section on the Patristic sense of the Rosary prayers that it is just great.
The two words are “pro multis” and this has gone all the way to Rome to be fixed. It seems in the present form of the English version of the Roman Liturgy the words have been translated to mean “for all” The argument is this. With the present words “for all” it not only distorts the original Latin meaning of the phrase but there is also the theological implication that all men are saved regardless of the relationship that they have with Christ. Fr. Z makes the point, and I agree that the words “for many” more clearly state theologically what is going on. Fr. Z makes his point this way: “The more natural translation, ‘for many,’ more accurately suggests that while Christ’s redemptive suffering makes salvation available to all, it does not follow that all men are saved.” Okay sowhat’ss the big deal. Well I remember one professor I had in seminary that told us that the language of theology is veryprecisee and if we use the wrong words we can easily slip into heresy. Man I don’t want to that.
So this got me thinking about what words do we Orthodox use in the Divine Liturgy. You would think I would have these words memorized, but I wanted to check all the same. Now the words we arereferringg too hereoccure during the consecration of the cup and we say the following: “Drink this all of you! This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins!” So it would appear that we use the proper words. I have checked several English translations and they all say the same thing.
Now not being a language scholar I called upon Fr. Greg and asked him what it says in Greek. his response was the following. The literal translation from the Greek, the original language of the Liturgy, is “for the many” and in English we have dropped the article “the” and just use the words “for many”.
So why is all of this important. Like I said, we need to use veryprecisee language in theology other wise we can lead people down the wrong road. I mean if your giving direction and tell some one that you just turn down the street, and there are two ways to go, the person could and would get lost. Perhaps they would guess correctly and take the right turn, but why leave that to chance. The same is true with theology.
The Vatican has decried that all new translation of the Liturgy into English must make this change. So over the next few years these words will find themselves working their way back into the Liturgy. I am sure no one will notice, but I think we will be better off for it in the long run.
Just my two cents worth.
Entrance of the Mother of God in the Temple
Hebrews 9:1-7
Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28
Today we celebrate the feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God in the Temple although not a biblical event it is one of the 12 major feast days of the Church. What are we celebrating in this feast? Fr. Thomas Hopko states in his book the Winter Pascha:
“Its purpose is not so much to commemorate an historical happening as to celebrate a dogmatic mystery of the Christian faith, namely, that every human being is made to be a living temple of God.” (p 16)
In the entrance into the temple she becomes the new spiritual temple of the indwelling of God that through her we all become in her Son and the Holy Spirit. It is through this that we all become the church. This is the beginning of all that is to come for us as Christians.
26th Sunday After Pentecost
Ephesians 5:8-19
Luke 12:16-21
Luke 12:16-21
I believe that this is one of the most misunderstood gospel passages and I get to preach on it today. It speaks of storing up treasures and I think it is a gospel about faith, faith in God and not in your stuff. I also think that what Jesus is getting at here is not that stuff is bad but rather we should not love those things in life that will not last over the stuff that will like the love of God. Simple, yes, but difficult at the same time.
We all love our stuff. Last week people stood out in line for hours to get the new PS3 game thing, that I will admit I know nothing about. I still like the old pong game from my youth. However, here are these people with nothing better to do staying out in all weather just to buy a game. And the worst part of that is that at a Wal-Mart near the village a person was shot waiting in line. The other part of this is that these were not kids standing in line but adults! I would say that these folks love their stuff more and they love God.
An interesting question is do you love your stuff so much that you would be willing to give it all up? Several times in the Gospel Jesus tells us to go sell all we have and give it to the poor. Have we done that? I am sure most of us have not. I know I have not. There is something very comfortable about my stuff, the laptop I am using right now for example. But we must be willing to give it all up.
Another question would be, do we trust God for what we need? How many of us are willing to just say God will provide? I am not saying that we should just lie about and say God will provide, not it won’t work trust me I have tried. God gave us talent and we must use that talent, but He will provide. Faith is the theme here of today’s Gospel. Faith in God and not in man is what we are getting at.
Advent
Wednesday of this week the Orthodox Church began the season of Advent. Although we do not really use that term I use it here because people will know what I am talking about. This is the season of preparation and getting ones self ready for the birth of our Savior. Sometimes this season is called Christmas Lent and during this time the orthodox will fast just as one would fast during lent before Easter. There is an article here about fasting and why we fast as we do in the orthodox church. As I have said before, fasting is not the most important part of all of this. Sometimes we get so caught up in all of the mechanics of things that we forget why we are doing them. Advent is a time of preparation we need to be prepared. We are called to holiness as Christians and this time of the year is a good time to stop and look at the things we are doing and why we do them. Confession is another part of this time of year. Try and get yourselves to confession, don’t just try, do it. Get there…
Some of the other things I would suggest would be to begin a time of prayer. This does on have to be a long period. If you are not used to this start slow and build up from there. Start with 15 minutes in the morning and maybe another 15 in the evening. Here is another resource for your prayer time. Another thing would be to begin, or continue daily scripture reading. Reading the Word of God each day puts our mind in the right place for the day. I find the morning the best time of day for this to happen. Get yourself a cup of coffee and settle in a good chair and read the readings if the day. Not sure what they are? Check here. Thanks to our friends at the Greek Archdiocese, you don’t even need to have a bible, although you should have one.
Arms for the poor. This is one way that we all can participate in the life of the church. Giving to the poor is part of our Christian life and we must do this. There are many ways this can happen. Donate to the local food bank, toys for tots has begun, or donate to a local homeless shelter. Take some of the money that you will spend on toys or other things that will pass away, and donate that money to do something good for someone else.
The last bit of advice I will give is to do all these things with a cherry heart. Don’t go around telling people what you are doing, just do them.
St. Hilda
Abbess, born 614; died 680. Practically speaking, all our knowledge of St. Hilda is derived from the pages of Bede. She was the daughter of Hereric, the nephew of King Edwin of Northumbria, and she seems like her great-uncle to have become a Christian through the preaching of St. Paulinus about the year 627, when she was thirteen years old.
Moved by the example of her sister Hereswith, who, after marrying Ethelhere of East Anglia, became a nun at Chelles in Gaul, Hilda also journeyed to East Anglia, intending to follow her sister abroad. But St. Aidan recalled her to her own country, and after leading a monastic life for a while on the north bank of the Wear and afterwards at Hartlepool, where she ruled a double monastery of monks and nuns with great success, Hilda eventually undertook to set in order a monastery at Streaneshalch, a place to which the Danes a century or two later gave the name of Whitby.
Under the rule of St. Hilda the monastery at Whitby became very famous. The Sacred Scriptures were specially studied there, and no less than five of the inmates became bishops, St. John, Bishop of Hexham, and still more St. Wilfrid, Bishop of York, rendering untold service to the Anglo-Saxon Church at this critical period of the struggle with paganism. Here, in 664, was held the important synod at which King Oswy, convinced by the arguments of St. Wilfrid, decided the observance of Easter and other moot points. St. Hilda herself later on seems to have sided with Theodore against Wilfrid. The fame of St. Hilda’s wisdom was so great that from far and near monks and even royal personages came to consult her. Seven years before her death the saint was stricken down with a grievous fever which never left her till she breathed her last, but, in spite of this, she neglected none of her duties to God or to her subjects. She passed away most peacefully after receiving the Holy Viaticum, and the tolling of the monastery bell was heard miraculously at Hackness thirteen miles away, where also a devout nun named Begu saw the soul of St. Hilda borne to heaven by angels.
With St. Hilda is intimately connected the story of Caedmon (q. v.), the sacred bard. When he was brought before St. Hilda she admitted him to take monastic vows in her monastery, where he most piously died.
The cultus of St. Hilda from an early period is attested by the inclusion of her name in the calendar of St. Willibrord, written at the beginning of the eighth century. It was alleged at a later date the remains of St. Hilda were translated to Glastonbury by King Edmund, but this is only part of the “great Glastonbury myth.” Another story states that St. Edmund brought her relics to Gloucester. St. Hilda’s feast seems to have been kept on 17 November. There are a dozen or more old Egnlish churches dedicated to St. Hilda on the northeast coast and South Shields is probably a corruption of St. Hilda.
Moved by the example of her sister Hereswith, who, after marrying Ethelhere of East Anglia, became a nun at Chelles in Gaul, Hilda also journeyed to East Anglia, intending to follow her sister abroad. But St. Aidan recalled her to her own country, and after leading a monastic life for a while on the north bank of the Wear and afterwards at Hartlepool, where she ruled a double monastery of monks and nuns with great success, Hilda eventually undertook to set in order a monastery at Streaneshalch, a place to which the Danes a century or two later gave the name of Whitby.
Under the rule of St. Hilda the monastery at Whitby became very famous. The Sacred Scriptures were specially studied there, and no less than five of the inmates became bishops, St. John, Bishop of Hexham, and still more St. Wilfrid, Bishop of York, rendering untold service to the Anglo-Saxon Church at this critical period of the struggle with paganism. Here, in 664, was held the important synod at which King Oswy, convinced by the arguments of St. Wilfrid, decided the observance of Easter and other moot points. St. Hilda herself later on seems to have sided with Theodore against Wilfrid. The fame of St. Hilda’s wisdom was so great that from far and near monks and even royal personages came to consult her. Seven years before her death the saint was stricken down with a grievous fever which never left her till she breathed her last, but, in spite of this, she neglected none of her duties to God or to her subjects. She passed away most peacefully after receiving the Holy Viaticum, and the tolling of the monastery bell was heard miraculously at Hackness thirteen miles away, where also a devout nun named Begu saw the soul of St. Hilda borne to heaven by angels.
With St. Hilda is intimately connected the story of Caedmon (q. v.), the sacred bard. When he was brought before St. Hilda she admitted him to take monastic vows in her monastery, where he most piously died.
The cultus of St. Hilda from an early period is attested by the inclusion of her name in the calendar of St. Willibrord, written at the beginning of the eighth century. It was alleged at a later date the remains of St. Hilda were translated to Glastonbury by King Edmund, but this is only part of the “great Glastonbury myth.” Another story states that St. Edmund brought her relics to Gloucester. St. Hilda’s feast seems to have been kept on 17 November. There are a dozen or more old Egnlish churches dedicated to St. Hilda on the northeast coast and South Shields is probably a corruption of St. Hilda.