Category: Feasts of the Church

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Meditation on the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt – The Fifth Sunday of Great Lent

St. Mary of Egypt and Abba Zosimas

On this the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, we have an opportunity to learn from three different examples that the Church presents us, the Epistle, the Gospel reading, and the life of St. Mary of Egypt. 

As a starting point let’s look at the last sentence of the Epistle reading (Hebrews. 9, 13). St. Paul ends this passage with the statement “Purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” We might ask ourselves, what are ‘dead works?” For examples let’s first go to the Gospel reading of today (Mark 10, 32 – 45).  Jesus tells His disciples exactly what is going to happen during His passion. James and John respond in a way that shows how much they don’t get it. They believe Jesus will be an earthly ruler and they want to share in His glory and His power. Their selfish desire is to have a position of prominence over the other disciples. Driven by their egos, they want to be first. In response to their desire to be the most important of the disciples, Jesus defines true leadership for them and  for us. Christ replaces their “dead works” of ambition with what it is to truly live in Christ as a servant leader.

The next lesson that the Church presents to us today to help us purify our ‘dead works’ is the story of St. Mary of Egypt. We all know Mary’s story, her conversion from sinner to saint. Looking at her and her early life of degradation, we can see several lessons of “dead works.” No doubt, her lifestyle is a warning to us to not attach ourselves to the pleasures of this life, the pleasures that seduced Mary.  There is also a much deeper lesson here for us. Think, what do we feel of when we look at the young Mary? We might say to ourselves – “what a sinner, she is beyond hope, I thank God I am not like her.”  How can we point our finger and judge her?  We see that God is not finished with Mary, but in our own mind we have already passed judgement on her! 

As Mary’s life unfolds, we see the love of God and the prayers of the Theotokos bring her to repentance and to conversion. She destroys her dead works and becomes a model of contrition. Being prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher  by the  force of her sins.  Mary recognizes her wretchedness and asks for forgiveness and seeks redemption. After being freed to venerate Christ’s Holy Cross, she flees to the desert beyond the Jordan in obedience to the directions of the Theotokos. Here she finds her true self. 

The life of Mary was documented for us by St. Sophronios, the Patriarch of Jerusalem in the seventh century.  Sophronios introduces us to the Monk Zosimas, who is lead by God to travel to the desert in search of a holier monk to spiritually edify him.  Zosimas journeys into the Jordanian wilderness and encounters a naked stranger. Without telling him her name, Mary recounts her life story. She confesses all her past sins leaving out nothing. She relates how she came to the desert lead by the instructions of the Theotokos. She informs him that she has struggled in the wasteland for 47 years. She tells the monk that for the first 17 years, she battled her demons of temptation; but how her heart was cleansed and purified by God’s love. As she speaks, Zosimas is profoundly affected by her humility and her holiness. Mary’s old life, all her “dead works,” have been purged away and Zosimas sees a soul truly alive in Christ. For us today during this period of “social isolation,” we are living isolated as did Mary. Isolated from everyone, Mary found God and God’s grace. What an opportunity we have to follow the lonely isolation that Mary’s example provides us.

Take a moment to look at the icon, it shows Abba Zosimas giving St. Mary Holy Communion. He returned, one year after their first encounter on Holy Thursday,  as Mary had requested. He had not said anything about her to anyone. To his amazement, he witnessed  a miracle, as this still unidentified woman, walked on the water and crossed the River Jordan so that she could receive the sacrament. The holy woman asks the monk to return again next year on that very same day to the spot they first met to again give her Holy Communion. Zosimas does as she asks, only to find the incorrupt body of the dead saint laying on the ground. Scratched in the sand beside her was a note asking the monk to bury and to pray for “Mary, the miserable sinner”. The note also said that she had died the very day she first received communion from his hands the year before. Zosimas marveled that Mary had traveled the journey of two days in only one hour and had then peacefully fallen asleep in the Lord. With the miraculous help of a wild lion, Zosimas buried body of the holy saint and returned to his monastery to relate her story. This is the story that was chronicled for us by St. Sophronios. There are many more details you can read for yourself in her life. But even now, close to the end of Great Lent and during our time of isolation, let us remember that Our Lord can heal our dead works of ego, ambition, pride and sinful living if we only turn to Him in sincere repentance. ….God Bless! dn g

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A New Year's Challenge

The Saints of January
The Saints of January

If you take a quick look at January’s ecclesiastical calendar you notice that it is dominated by big events.  Christ’s Circumcision, St Basil, Epiphany and its associated feast days, St. John the Forerunner, St. Anthony, Sts. Athanasios and Cyril and the Three Hierarchs (together and separately).  Goodness, it’s enough to make you tired. With this post, I would like to look at some of the other commemoration; lest they slip by us.  January has a great number of saints that are not featured in bold type, but are extremely interesting in their diversity and their spiritual examples to us.  From the very first day, we see the unfolding of families of holiness with Gregory of Nanzianzos (Sr.), father of Gregory the Theologian, to the last day Sts. Cyrus and John the Unmercinaries. We see examples of piety, sacrifice, people who defended the faith and ascetics.  There really isn’t enough space to write concerning each saint, but needless to say  the variety and diversity are a little mind boggling.

Perhaps, it is more beneficial to think a moment of the intent of the Church to commemorate saints at all. Why do we bother?  What good do all these strange names and strange sounding places do us?  Most of the people held up for our consideration are literally strangers. We might know someone named Gregory or Tatiana, but few of us know a Hermylos or a Kalogeras.  What good do all these historical figures do us?  It would seem to me that we can all acknowledge that we live in an age of celebrity.  All over television, radio, newsstands and the internet we can not get away from what some “personality” wore last night, said inappropriately, or with whom they were seen.  From film stars, to sports’ figures, politicians or the new name of the week; we are constantly inundated by useless prattle about someone who is looking for their fifteen minutes of fame.  The sad truth is that many times, we stop and pay attention; only, so that we are “in the know”.  What a sad commentary!  When confronted by the Church calendar, do we think that these people, who are commemorated, have been held up as examples for hundreds or even thousands of years?  How many present day celebrities will have that kind of staying power? The answers to these rhetorical questions truly challenge us to put our priorities straight.  Who do we wish to understand, some temporary here today gone tomorrow plastic celebrity or a saint who has been remembered by Christians throughout the ages.  Perhaps, we should put a little effort in getting to know a new saint a month. Pick one, choose a new name and look them up.  You can even Google most of them.  Make this a project this year. Less fluff and more substance; it might be fun and think of how edifying it will be when we know twelve new saints.  Within these saints there very well might be a new friend or someone who catches our imagination with the way they brought Christ alive in their time. If you would like refer to Prologue of Ohrid for information on the saints. (http://www.westsrbdio.org/prolog/my.html.)

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Traveling to Bethlehem (December 23. 2010)

Holy Family
Holy Family

Question: How are the Old and New Testament related? This time of year is the best time to ask this question. As we prepare to celebrate the Nativity in the Flesh, the best thing we can ask is what relationship between the two parts of the Bible. For we Orthodox, the Old and New Testaments are inexorably linked. The Old Testament is the foretelling of the New.  It holds up a mirror to Christ and to all the individual features of his life.  What do I mean?  Shall we look at the details?

  • Virgin Birth: Isaiah 7, 14 and Ezekiel 44, 27 – 44:4
  • Birth in Bethlehem: Micah 4 – 5
  • The Adoration of the Magi: Numbers 24, 15 – 17
  • Christ the Prince of Peace: Isaiah 6, 6 – 7.

These details of the Nativity show how God prepared the world through His prophets.  The Old Testament provides us Christ in shadow and in smoke.  The word that the Church uses for this relationship is foreshadow.  The arrival of the Messiah was an event for which God had to prepare the world. Christmas is two days away, are you spiritually prepared?

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Traveling to Bethlehem (20 December 2010)

The Martyrdom Of St. Ignatius
The Martyrdom Of St. Ignatius

Question: What is an apostolic father? Today, this is a fitting question. It is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the God-bearer. St Ignatius was the second bishop of Antioch after St. Peter.  Back to the original question, Ignatius is an apostolic father;  because he was a disciple of an apostle of Christ.  In St. Ignatius’ case, he was a disciple of St John the Evangelist, the beloved disciple of Christ.  His writings allow us to see the development of theology in the first part of the second century. Ignatius was sentenced to death in the arena at Rome about 108 AD. On his way to his death from Antioch, Ignatius wrote several letters to various Churches along the route. These epistles give a serious glimpse into the early theology of the nascent Christian Church. Some of the most interesting topics which Ignatius discussed were the three distinct pastoral offices: bishop, presbyter and deacon, the concept of divine economy (God’s plan of salvation), the idea of Christ as the God/Man, the theology of the Episcopos (Bishop) and the role of Rome in the early Christian community.

Ignatius is known as the “God-bearer” which features his theological concept of being in Christ. This is the idea that centres us on Bethlehem.  Each of us are called to welcome Christ to be born in our hearts as He was in the manger.  Ignatius prays for the Church:

I pray that there may be a union based on the flesh and

the spirit of Jesus Christ, who is everlasting life, a union

of faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred, but

especially a union with Jesus and the Father.

(Epistle to the Magnesians)

Here we see Christians are united to Christ. They allow Christ to be born into their hearts and their community through the Eucharist,  in communion with their Bishop.  All Christians are called to be Christ-bearers as was St. Ignatius. This is our calling. This is the destination of our journey to Bethlehem.

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Traveling to Bethlehem (13 December 2010)

The Northern Lights
The Northern Lights
Northern lights – the Aurora Borealis, this phenomenon has longed amazed us. As we look into the northern skies, we Orthodox should remember that we have our own northern luminaries.  Today is a great day to reflect  on our own stars from the North. Today, Orthodoxy commemorates the first North American to be canonised a Saint. St Herman (Germanos) of Alaska was one of the trailblazers of the faith, who came to these shore not to find treasure, but to bring a treasure, the Holy Orthodox faith.  Yesterday, the Church commemorated a spiritual descendant of St. Herman, a martyr for the faith, St. Peter the Aleut.  In these two days, we look at labour and its fruit. St. Herman was the labourer and St. Peter the fruit of the labour. How can we Orthodox faithful in America not rejoice today?  No matter what our own backgrounds, how can we not express admiration and ask for the blessing of St. Herman? As the Enlightener of the Aleuts, Herman worked to save souls and to bring Christ to the Native peoples of Russian Alaska. The light by which he enlightened is brighter today because of the seeds St. Herman planted.  Orthodoxy is no longer a strange faith from a foreign land, but part of the fabric of life on this continent.  As we see in the news, a raging blizzard is blowing across the Midwest.  We hear of travel delays, snow and ice paralysing the country, but think how it was in the early nineteenth century in the small hut of St. Herman. He had the warmth of God’s Holy Spirit and the brightness within his heart to warm his hut. He has become an adornment in the northern sky.  Even though the Aurora Borealis is a natural occurrence; perhaps, it is God’s way of focusing our spiritual eyes on the great northern lights of Orthodoxy.
The Lights of the North
The Lights of the North
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Traveling to Bethlehem (12 December 2010)

St. Spyridon of Trimythous
St. Spyridon of Trimythous

All these icons look alike! How many time have we Orthodox heard this comment about icons.  The reality is that there are subtle differences, often with great theological meaning.  Today, is one of these times.  The saint who we commemorate today is St Spyridon of Thymithous. Look closely, what is different about this icon?  We see the familiar icon of a hierarch of the Church with his ecclesial vestments and carrying the Gospel book.  Not much different from many icons we see in the Church.  But, when we look closely we notice a strange hat on the figure.  Most icons of the hierarchs are bare headed, what is the meaning of this strange triangular hat.  By reading a bit, we discover that St. Spyridon had been a shepherd and was elected bishop because of his great piety.  What did Spyridon do then? According to the Prologue of Ohrid, he continued to live simply and care for his livestock.  He also shepherded his spiritual flock the people of his diocese.  He was devoted to being a shepherd of souls. As we know, St. Spyridon was present at the first Ecumenical Council. A country bishop from a backwater diocese, really an unsophisticated, uneducated delegate.  As his story tells us, the Holy Spirit enlightened Spyridon to expound the true theology of Christ, fully man and fully God.  While he preached the truth, Arian one of the most erudite scholars in the Empire was put to shame.  A shepherd and a bishop; perhaps our modern hierarchs can remember that they are at their hearts – simple shepherds. ]]>

 

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Traveling to Bethlehem (09 December 2010)

Sts. Joachim and Anna
Sts. Joachim and Anna

“Can you tell me the differences between the Roman Catholic Church and our Church?’  I cannot tell you how often I have been asked this question!  Well, today is a big part of that answer.  Today, we commemorate The Conception of the Theotokos by Saints Anna and Joachim.  Last night, I wrote about this holy couple’s great desire to have God intercede in their lives, listen to their prayers and bless them with a child.  Not unlike Sara and Abraham and other Old Testament couples, Joachim and Anna were advanced in age, perhaps too advanced. But, God did heard their prayers and allowed them to conceive. This is the first important point that must be noted, the Virgin Mary was conceived in the normal biological manner; the product of the loving union between a husband and wife. God’s blessing and the intervention of His Holy Spirit enabled this to happen.  This is one of the reasons Joachim and Anna are the image of married bliss for Orthodox couples. The Conception of the Theotokos is a source of another divergence in theology between  Orthodoxy and Catholicism.  We, Orthodox, do not believe in the “Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.”  We must be very careful here! We (Orthodox) DO believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ was Immaculately Conceived.  Christ being Fully God and Full Man was born without sin. God can not have sin. But this was not the case for his mother, the Theotokos.  The Orthodox Church teaches that Mary was born with sin,  just as all of humanity. Furthermore, the Church believes that Mary lived a life of purity and she found favour with God because of her righteousness.  She was cleansed of her sin by the Spirit of God at the Annunciation, so that she could carry  the Christ Child within her body. Turning to the Roman Catholic understanding, it started to divert from the Orthodox very early. The Western Church began to develop the teaching of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin.  Their teaching states that God, fore-knowing, that Mary would bear the Christ; provided that she was born without sin.  This teaching was a pious belief until 1854, when Pope Pius lX declared the teaching – dogma of the Catholic Church.  This decree was then ratified by Vatican I in 1870. So we can see this is a relatively new doctrine.  This is a rather simplistic explanation. There are other deeper theological implications, but nonetheless, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is a major area of theological disagreement between the two Churches.]]>

 

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Traveling to Bethlehem (08 December 2010)

Prayer of St. Anna
Prayer of St. Anna

Today is one of those days of preparation that the Church provides us to get ready for a holiday.  Tomorrow, we commemorate the Conception of the Theotokos.  Today, we get ready.  We have an opportunity to pause and consider the importance of the coming event.  Where should we look for a better understanding of the feast?  Like many feasts of the Church this occurrence is not documented “in the Bible,” yet it is a significant happening in salvation history.  Where does one go to learn about this festival? Where do you start? I decided to ask this question out loud; so that we could learn from each other. We know that the hymns of the Church describe the theology of a feast. What do they say? The Troparion sung at the Vespers for tomorrow speaks of the “bonds of barrenness being loosed” and of the “prayers” of Joachim and Anna asking for “birth beyond hope.”  What do these clues tell us?  If we read closely, we see that this couple was without children and beyond the hope of having children, they prayed for God to change their life. In an earlier post, we stated that many of our hymnographers got inspiration from the other writings, from the Christian Apocrypha.  The book, the Protevagelium of James, (The Infancy Gospel of James) tells us the story of the birth of the Virgin Mary. We read in the first part of this book about the “prayer of St. Anna.” In her garden, Anna turns to God in her prayer. She describes her barren womb as contrasted to the fruitfulness of the natural creation. Anna begs Our Lord to bless her and allow to “bring forth fruit in her season.” An angel of the Lord appears to St. Anna and informs her that God has heard her prayer. He tells her that she would conceive and give birth to a child. In gratitude, Anna pledges to dedicate her child as a gift to God, since it would be a gift from God.  Not only are these ancient sources inspiration for hymnographers; but also for iconographers (as we can see above). The child, which the angel announces is conceived as every child is, as a blessing from God; but this child is a blessing for all of humanity. ]]>

 

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Traveling to Bethlehem (7 Dec. 2010)

St. Ambrose of Milan
St. Ambrose of Milan

Ours or Theirs?  Grammatically, this might be an odd construct, but the question is valid.  About now, you are probably asking yourself; what is he talking about?  Have you ever wondered why we as Orthodox have difficulty accepting pre-schism western saints as ours? This is most common, I believe, it applies more when the saint in question is a famous or well known western saints.  Today is a good example: St. Ambrose of Milan of St. Augustine.  The more significant the contribution of a saint to the history of the western church the less we tend to recognize them.  A few days ago, both Churches commemorated the memory of St. Cecelia.  The question would then follow: “Is she one of ours?” I had the privilege of studying in England, in a small town called Durham.  In the famous Durham Cathedral are entombed several Saints Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, Venerable Bede and King Oswald of North Umbria. My first reaction when I saw the tombs was to run to an Horologion to check if they were ”kosher.”  This type of reaction is complicated by linguistic variations.  How many know that St Photini, the Samaritan Woman, is called St Svetlana in Russia, St. Claire in France and St. Fiona in Celtic countries. Today the example of this possible confusion is St. Ambrose.  St Ambrose fought Arianism being influenced by Athanasius, corresponded with St Basil and was a great influence on St. Augustine of Hippo. When we look at Saints think across the universal Church.  Theirs are ours and ours are theirs and we are all enriched by this understanding.

 

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