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11 March ~ St. Constantine of Scotland, King & Martyr

Posted on by Fr. Peter

He died in 576. Constantine was a king of Cornwall, the son of Padeon, whose conversion probably dates from a confrontation with St. Petroc who was sheltering a stag which had taken refuge with him.

Constantine married a princess from Brittany who died shortly after the marriage and the King was so desolated that he left his kingdom and sought sanctuary, first at S. David’s monastery at Menevia and then in Ireland at Rathin, made famous by St. Carthage and Mochuda. He arrived at Rathin unannounced and was set to work in the granary, grinding corn in a stone quern. One day he was heard by one of the monks laughing and saying to himself, “Is this really Constantine, King of Cornwall, who wore a helmet and bore a shield, working this handmill? It is the same, and yet it is not”.
This conversation was reported to the abbot who took him into the community and after a while he was ordained priest. He had spent seven years at the abbey before he was recognised and by now he was quite an old man, but he desired to visit Iona and set off with the blessing of the abbot. St. Columba received him kindly and sent him on to Sr. Kentigern, whom he may have met when he was at Menevia. While visiting Glasgow he stayed for some time with St. Mirren at Paisley and the two became great friends so that Constantine decided to build himself a monastery nearby at Govan by the river. It is interesting that the ruined church of St. Constantine, on the shore of the Bay that bears his name, has the parish of St Merryn adjoining it and the font in St Merryn’s Church comes from St Constantine’s.
After St. Constantine had founded his monastery at Govan he still felt impelled to preach the Faith of Christ to the heathen and he went to Kintyre with a party of his monks. There, by Campbeltown Loch a party of robbers came upon him and hacked him and his one attendant to pieces. The ruins of a church at Kilchouslan are supposed to mark the spot where the first of the martyrs of Scotland was attacked and left to die, bleeding to death from a severed arm. His brethren found him and received his blessing before he died. They took his body back to Govan and buried him in the church that has his name. His sarcophagus was discovered in 1855 and has been restored to the church which keeps his festival on March 11th.
Troparion of St Constantine Tone 5
Grieving at the loss of thy young spouse,/ thou didst renounce the world, O Martyr Constantine,/ but seeing thy humility God called thee to leave thy solitude and serve Him as a priest./ Following thy example,/ we pray for grace to see that we must serve God as He wills/ and not as we desire,/ that we may be found worthy of His great mercy.
Kontakion of St Constantine Tone 4
Thou wast born to be King of Cornwall,/ O Martyr Constantine,/ and who could have foreseen that thou wouldst become the first hieromartyr of Scotland./ As we sing thy praises, O Saint,/ we acknowledge the folly of preferring human plans to the will of our God.
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Watchfulness

Posted on by Fr. Peter

The Gospel of Luke 21:8-9,25-27,33-36

The Lord said, “Take heed that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once. And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man.”

gizzmo

The Gospel passage quoted above is that set aside for the Saturday of Souls in the Orthodox Church.  This passage speaks directly to, what some will call, the end of the world.  I am not a bog person on the end of the world.  Some people see the things happening today and say that the end is near, I like to keep in mind that these things have been going on for generations, but that does not mean we don’t need to be ready.

Jesus is telling us that we must be terrified when we hear of wars and tumults, concerned, yes, but terrified, no.  He also cautions us not to be led astray by those who are saying, “The time is at hand!”  I often wonder about the Harold Campings of the world or the others like him, if they have ever read this Gospel passage.

There is a television show called Doomsday Preppers.  I have only watch the program one time and then I did not completely watch the episode.  The show is about people who getting ready for the end of the world by building bunkers and bug out bags and all manner of things.  My question is what are they doing to prepare their soul?  What are we doing to prepare our souls?  Are we more concerned with our lives here on earth then we are about our lives when this world passes away?  The world might be a better place is we focused our attention on the spiritual rather than the material for a while.

Jesus gives us hope, hope is something the doom and gloom crowd will not give us, but Jesus gives us hope that all will pass away save His word.  He reminds us to be watchful at all times as that will give us strength to go on with our lives.  We should not be so concerned with the things going on around us and we must be prepared.

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Making a Difference

Posted on by Fr. Peter

I will admit it, I like movies.  However, I have never been one to watch a movie and then think seriously about it.  I can remember in my college days, we used to go to the movies about once a week and watch whatever was playing.  After we would go and grab coffee somewhere and the conversation normally would gravitate towards the movie we just saw.  There were all of these deep thoughts about it, and I was like, “ya, it was a good story.”  Maybe I am not a deep thinker or maybe I just like entertainment.

With that said, last night I watched two movies.  It was snowing and nasty out, and I decided that I would spend the time with movies.  The first film was Coach Carter.  I thought I had watched this movie before, but parts of it did not sound familiar at all.

coach carterCoach Carter comes into a school to take on the coaching job of the basketball team.  He had attended that school and graduated, played basketball in college, and gone on to a successful career owning his own sporting goods store.  The school was run down and the kids are caught in the cycle that many inner city kids get caught in, and the cycle never seems to break.  Coach Carter, in his own way, tries to break that cycle.  He requires his players to sign a contract saying they will attend all of their classes, sit in the front row, wear a tie and jacket on game day, and maintain a 3.5 average.  The state only requires a 3.0 aver average.

At first there is much opposition to what he was trying to do, and when he locks the team out of the gym and cancels games because they are not living up to the terms of the contract, the parents go crazy.  “Basketball is all these kids have,” one of the parents said, and Coach Carter replied with, “and I am trying to give them more.”  He was trying to instill in them a sense of respect and a sense of pride.  They had given up, they had lost hope, they were trapped in the system, and he was trying to rescue them, one kid at a time.  What I was impressed by was the fact that he was trying to change them one person at a time.  He was not trying to change the system but only those kids on his team.

I thought about that movie, seriously thought deeply about it and about what we are trying to do here as Church.  We talk a lot about making a difference in people’s lives but do we actually do that?  Do we preach to transform or do we preach to survive?  Do we stay clear of controversial topics , so we do not upset the apple cart, or do we take them straight on?  Are we working to break the cycle, or are we just contributing to it?

In a recent conversation with fellow clergy, I made the statement that if we are not willing to have the difficult discussion about causes, and it does not matter what issue, poverty, abortion, hunger etc, there are root causes to all of these things.  If we are not willing to have the conversation then we truly have no business talking.  Yes,  we have to feed the hungry and clothe the naked but what are we doing about the causes of these issues?

Next up was a movie I had never heard of called Freedom Writers.  The story is about a first year teacher, Erin Gruwell, played by Hillary Swank,freedom writers who chooses to teach in a “voluntarily integrated” school in Long Beach California.  From the start of the movie one draws the conclusion that she has no idea what she is getting herself into and that the other teachers in the school resent this “voluntary integration.”

Erin is faced with a hostile classroom where the kids are separated by gangs along racial lines, with the exception of  one white kid in the room.  She tried her best and at one point in the movie one of the kids yells at her that she has no idea what it is like to grow up where they are growing up that they could be killed in gang violence at any moment , and their survival is what is uppermost on their list.  Once again we see kids trapped in a broken system with no hope of breaking free of it.

Just a word about systems.  I think that systems are vital.  We are able to do what we do here at the Church because of a system, the Food Bank network.  The problem with systems, as I see it, is that we trap people in them.  We create something , but we have no idea how to stop it and I think this goes back to my earlier comment that we are not willing to have the larger conversation about the causes of the problem.  In all of the debate about entitlements, or whatever you want to call them, there is no discussion about how to fix the need for such programs.

Ms. Gruell works hard to understand her kids.  When I was teaching in an inner city school, this was an essential part of getting through to them.  I remember one teacher who was screaming, and I do mean screaming, at a 4th grader who would not look her in the eye when she was talking to her.  The child was of Haitian culture and Haitians do not look authority figures in the eye.  If she had taken a half hour to read about Haitian culture she would have learned this, but she would rather yell at the kid.  I call that burnout by the way.

Eventually, she had them keep journals.  They could write about anything they wanted , but they had to write every day.  She would only read them if they wanted her to, but she would not grade them, only that they did the assignment of writing each day.  Through their writings,  she was able to come to an understanding about their lives, many of them by the way, took the bus more than two hours each day to school.  About their lives in gangs and what they have seen in their homes in their extremely short lives.  They had all been touched by gang violence, and all of them knew at least one person, killed because of gang violence.  She makes a difference in their lives with the hope that she can change their lives.

These are just two examples of the tens of thousands of talented teachers out there who are doing a extraordinarily difficult job under extremely difficult situations.  But what both of these stories point to is that we have to listen.

Not wanting to go to bed I watched an episode of West Wing.  Politics aside, West Wing was one of the best produced programs on television , and I liked it.  I watched the season three opener called Isaac and Ishmael.  The story begins with a lock down of the White House.  Trapped in the building is a group a high school kids, part of a program called Presidential Scholars.  They end up in the White House Mess and meet with various members of the administration, and the conversation turns to terrorism.  They are asking questions about why the terrorists hate us and they all have ideas why, but it comes down to the fact that we are pluralistic by design.  What extremists believe, and I do not care what kind of extremist it is, but extremists believe that their opinion is the only valid one and that all others do not even need to be listened to.  In a pluralistic society,  all opinions are valid, whether we agree with them or not.  I have often said that I might disagree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it.

In the end, the character of Josh Lyman, tells one kids to keep talking and keep listening.  The problem we have as I see it, is we do not listen to each other.  Sure we are all talking, talking at once by the way, but are we listening.  Erin Gruwell thought she knew what she was doing in the classroom, but it was not until she listened, really listened to her students, that she was able to reach them.  Once the parents listened, and understood what Coach Carter was trying to do, they got behind him and helped him.  We need to listen.

We need to listen to people’s stories and get to know them.  I cannot stand to hear it when people vilify those who are on welfare or other programs.  Sure there is abuse and the system needs to be reformed, but take time and talk to people who are receiving benefits, get to know them , and their stories, step outside of your comfort zone and reach out it is astounding what you will learn about people if you just listen to their stories.

So what did I learn, I learned that we need to spend more times listening, I learned that we need to change the world, and it is the only way it will change, one person at a time.  We need to see people as individuals and not as their issue or their skin color, in other words, we need to be more Christ like and less judgmental, me included.

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Saturday of the Dead

Posted on by Fr. Peter

lastjudgement1

From the Synarxarion (Explanation) in the Triodion of

THE SATURDAY OF THE DEAD
Soul Saturday

(Celebrated this year on March 9th)

On this day, Soul Saturday, according to the order instituted by our Holy Fathers, we call to remembrance all those who have died from the beginning of the ages in faith and in the hope of the resurrection and of life eternal.

The present commemoration of the dead is based on the reality that many of our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters died under such circumstances that funeral prayers and normal memorial services could not be offered for them. Either in a foreign land or on the seas, on impassable mountains or in gulfs or precipices, through starvation or diseases, in wars, in fires, or during earthquakes, and in so many other ways, perhaps in poverty or in need, our known and unknown brothers and sisters in Christ did not enjoy the chanting and necessary spiritual care. Therefore, our Holy Fathers, moved by their love for humanity, appointed the present celebration to take place in the Church everywhere, having received this from the Holy Apostles, so that all who have died through various mishaps or accidents may be remembered together, for the benefit of their souls. There is great profit to the soul from these memorials in the Church. This is the first reason.

The second reason is that since the Holy Fathers were going to place the memory of Christ’s Second Coming on the following day, Sunday, they appropriately commemorate the souls today, as it were, propitiating the fearful Judge, who cannot be deceived, to apply His usual compassion and to appoint them to the promised delight.

Furthermore, the Sunday following tomorrow is dedicated to Adam’s exile from Paradise, after which a new life is considered to begin for ourselves. Before this new beginning, the present memorial service has as its purpose to warn and frighten the living, so that they may meditate on their own death and proceed more diligently in the spiritual struggles of Great Lent. After their falling asleep, the Judgment shall follow by the Judge who cannot be bribed.

We always remember the souls of the dead on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath (Saturday) is the day of rest. In Hebrew, Sabbath literally means “rest.” As the Jews have this day for their repose and paused from every work and professional dealing, we Christians have it to remember the repose of our those who preceeded us. On this day, we hold memorial services and have koliva* blessed in the church, give alms, and perform various works of mercy. All these practices are of great benefit to the departed souls. Since the Orthodox Church does not celebrate Divine Liturgies on weekdays during Great Lent where the dead can be commemorated, the second, third, and fourth Saturdays of the Fast are designated as Soul Saturdays.

There are many proofs that the souls of the departed can be greatly benefited by what is done in their behalf. St. Marcarios the Egyptian once saw the dry skull of a pagan by the road on his way, and asked, saying, “Do you ever have any kind of consolation in Hades?” And the skull answered, “Yes, Father, especially when you pray for the sake of the dead; abundant is the comfort which we then enjoy.” The great man became very happy, because he always prayed for the dead and wished to be assured of the results of his intercessions.

Another saint, Gregory the Dialogist, saved the Roman Emperor Trajan through his prayers, although he heard from God never to pray like that on behalf of an impious non­Christian again. Also Theodora the Empress, by the prayers of the holy men and confessors, saved her husband, the iconoclast Emperor Theophilos abhorred by God, from the everlasting torments.

In his funeral oration to his brother Caesarios, St. Gregory the Theologian recommends alms on behalf of the reposed as being good. And the great Chrysostom in his commentary on Philippians says, “Let us think of ways to benefit the departed. Let us give them what help we can, namely almsgiving and offerings. For truly this brings them great advantage and very much gain and benefit. The custom of the priest commemorating those reposed in faith over the awesome Mysteries has not been without purpose nor arbitrarily ordained and delivered to God’s Church by His all-wise Disciples.” Again, “In making arrangements when you dispose of your property, together with your children and relatives, let your will also include the name of your Judge as a joint heir, and let not the mention of the poor be absent …”

St. Athanasius the Great also says that even if one has died and dissolved into the air, do not decline to provide oil and candles at the grave and to plead with Christ our God, for they are acceptable to God and bring great recompense: if the deceased was a sinner, that you may lose his sins; if righteous, that it may add to his reward. If one is a stranger without means, having no one to take care of these matters, God, being righteous and compassionate, will proportionately measure out to him His mercy, as He knows best. Moreover, he who offers such services to the dead also partakes of the reward, because he has shown love and concern for the salvation of his neighbor. It is as when one anoints a friend with perfumes, he receives the sweet aroma first. As for those who do not fulfill the wills and testaments of the deceased concerning these matters, they will positively be condemned.

Until Christ’s Second Coming, whatever is done for the souls of the dead is beneficial, as the Fathers say, particularly to those who had done some small good deeds when they were among the living. Even if the divine Scriptures declare certain things as needed for the chastening of the majority, yet as a rule God’s love for man prevails. For if the balance of good and shameful deeds is even, God’s love for man prevails. If the scale is weighed down a little by evil deeds, again His exceeding goodness prevails.

In the other life, everyone will be acquainted even with those whom they have never seen before, as the divine Chrysostom says, deducing this from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. All will recognize each other, but not from any bodily characteristics. For all shall be one age, and traits from birth will be absent. Rather, we shall recognize each other through the soul’s spiritual eyes, as St.Gregory the Theologian says in his funeral oration to Caesarios: “Then I shall see Caesarios, beaming with joy and glorious, such as you have often appeared to me in my dreams, O most beloved of brothers.”

St. Athanasios the Great also says in his homily on the dead that until the time of the universal resurrection it has been granted to the saints to recognize each other and revel together, while the sinners, on the other hand, have been deprived even of this. Regarding the holy martyrs, they are capable of observing our actions and even of visiting us. Then all shall know one another when the hidden secrets of every man shall be revealed.

We should know that, for the time being, the souls of the righteous dwell in certain places set aside for them, and the souls of the sinners in their own location. The former rejoice in their hope, but the latter grieve in expectation of future suffering. Therefore, the saints have not yet received the promised blessings, according to the words of the Holy Apostle Paul, who says, “God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us” (Heb. 11:40).

We should also know that not all who have suffered death by various accidents (falling down from precipices, being burned in fires, being sunk in seas, or perishing by starvation, poison, frost, and so on) have had such an end as a result of God’s command. For these are God’s judgments: some occur with His approval, others by His permission. Still others occur as a warning, a threat, or a chastisement. By foreknowledge He knows and is aware of everything, and everything occurs by His will, as with the sparrows about which the Holy Gospel speaks. He does not order that, for example, one man is to die by drowning and another to die normally, one as an old man and the other as an infant. But once and for all He determined — with some exceptions — the general times and various kinds of death in man. Within these constraints do the various means of death occur, without God’s determining them precisely from the beginning, only knowing. But in relation to the life of each and every person, God’s will plans the time and the manner of each one’s death.

St. Basil the Great speaks about the limits of man’s life, although he is alluding to God’s words, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). St. Paul also writes to the Corinthians, “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep” (1 Cor. 11:29-30). Here the word sleep refers to death. The Holy Prophet David says, “Do not take me away in the midst of my days. Your years are throughout all generations”(Ps. 101:25). Again, “You have made my days a few spans, and my existence is nothing in your sight” (Ps. 38:6). The Holy King Solomon says, “Son, honor your father, that you may live many years, and not die before your time” (Ecclus 3:5-6). And the Lord himself, speaking to Eliphaz the Temanite, says, “For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:8).

Hence it is evident that there is no set term of life. Or, if there is one, it is whatever God wills. For as He so wishes He adds to or deletes from the time of the life of this or that individual, administering all things for our benefit. And when He so wills, God arranges both the place and the time of repose. According to St. Athanasios the Great, the term of each person’s life is set by the will and counsel of God: “Through the depths of Thy judgments shalt Thou care for all, O Christ.” According to St. Basil the Great, death comes as soon as the term of life has been fulfilled; by the words term of life, God’s will is meant. For if the term of life had already been determined, then for what do we need God, or even a physician? And why do we pray for our children?

One ought to know that baptized infants who die shall enjoy the bliss of Paradise; those not baptized and those of the heathen shall go neither to the place of bliss nor to Hades.

When the soul has left the body, it no longer has any concern for earthly things but is continually concerned with matters in the next life.

We celebrate the first memorial service on the third day after death, because by the third day the dead one’s appearance is altered. We serve the second memorial service on the ninth day after death, because by this day the entire body is dissolved, except for the heart. We serve the third memorial service on the fortieth day, for by this day the heart has deteriorated. The same progression, in reverse order, is made at birth: by the third day after conception the heart is formed; by the ninth day the flesh is fashioned, and by the fortieth day the full form appears.

O Master Christ, set the souls of Your departed servants
in the tabernacles of Your righteous,
and have mercy upon us and save us,
as You are the only Immortal One. Amen.

 

_________________________________

*Offering koliva at the memorial services is a practice which can be traced to the middle of the fourth century. In earlier times, bread and wine with olives, cheese, or rice were offered in charity, and those who partook of them would pray, “Blessed be his memory.” This is why in the Greek Orthodox tradition, these funeral meals are called Makaria, or Blessings. A continuation of this ancient custom are the luncheons and light refreshments offered today by the relatives of the deceased to those who prayed with them at the Memorial Services.

Koliva is wheat or rice cooked with honey or sugar and sometimes mixed with figs, raisins, nuts, and other sweets. The grain and fruit brought to the commemoration of the dead signifies that the dead will truly rise again from the grave, for both grain, which is sown in the earth, and fruit, which is laid on the earth, decays first and afterwards brings forth abundant ripe, whole fruit. The honey or sugar used in the koliva signifies that after the resurrection of the Orthodox and the righteous, there awaits a joyous and blessed life in the Heavenly Kingdom and not a bitter or sorrowful one. The koliva prepared from grain expresses the faith of the living in the resurrection of the dead to a better life, just as that seed, having fallen upon the ground, although undergoing corruption, yet grows to attain a better appearance.

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Why Conservative Christians Should Oppose Teaching the Bible in Public Schools

Posted on by Fr. Peter
(AP) A Bible class at Woodland High School in Cartersville, Ga.
(AP) A Bible class at Woodland High School in Cartersville, Ga.

 ~ Religion News Service

On Sunday night, the long awaited mini-series “The Bible” premiered on the History Channel. Produced by reality TV mogul Mark Burnett of “Survivor” fame and former “Touched by an Angel” star Roma Downey in an effort to dramatize key stories from Scripture, the series is already being embraced by Christians nationwide. After all, when is the last time “Hagar” was trending on twitter?

Two days before the first episode aired, however, the couple penned a controversial opinion column in The Wall Street Journal titled, “Why Public Schools Should Teach the Bible.” They argued that public schools should encourage or perhaps mandate teaching courses on the sacred book. This should apparently top the list of priorities in a time when America’s educational system is faced with depleting resources and failing to keep up with the rest of the world’s students.

Christian pastors and leaders in social media lauded Burnett and Downey’s article as wise and appropriate. And while the timing of publication could not have been more perfect—the article reads like a thinly veiled marketing piece with a commercial for the television show inserted as the seventh paragraph—the  arguments are worth considering.

Should Christians support teaching the Bible in America’s public schools?

The answer as I see it is a resounding “no” and not because I don’t agree with some of Burnett and Downey’s reasoning. Yes, the Bible has been a primary document of Western civilization. Yes, it is bursting with widely applicable wisdom and knowledge. But, no, Christians should still not support it being taught in public schools.

Too much of this debate has centered around the question of if teaching the Bible is appropriate in a public school setting, but few recognize that the question of how is far more contentious. The strongest support for implementing such a curriculum comes presumably from conservative evangelicals who mostly claim to read the Scriptures literally. They assume the Bible would be taught accordingly, but it most certainly will not.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, only 3 in 10 Americans say they read the Bible literally. Seventeen percent say the Bible is a book of fables or legends. And those who believe the Bible is “the word of God” decreases as their education level increases.

Those who teach these courses will most likely be non-literalists trained at secular state universities, not homeschooled conservative evangelicals or Bible college graduates. They may believe that the many “seeming contradictions” of the Bible are actual ones. If asked, they may teach students that the stories of “Jonah and the Whale” or “Noah’s Ark” are mythic allegories, rather than historical accounts of miraculous events.

Do the Christians crying for a reintroduction of Bible courses want their children taught, for example, that the creation account in Genesis is little more than pretty poetry? It’s safe to assume they do not. But most haven’t thought this deeply about the issue.

Conservative Christians should know better than to advocate for such courses. After all, they have long decried the well-documented “liberalizing effect” of public college and universities who offer similar courses. Many conservative Christians leave home for college, take an introduction to religion course, and return with an entirely different worldview than their parents hold. Do they want the same experience with their seventh graders?

Support for teaching the Bible is not merely an obscure position held only by fringe conservatives. Last year, a poll conducted by conservative news outlet The Blaze found that 74% of the 1,658 respondents supported reading the Bible during class time. The outcry swelled in the wake of the Newtown shootings when some Americans wondered if prayer and Bible reading should be reintroduced into schools. When those elements were present, they reasoned, we didn’t have tragedies such as Newtown and Columbine. (Proponents failed to recognize that school systems in many wildly secular countries like Canada haven’t faced an epidemic of violence either.)

But if those conservatives who advocate for such a shift in public education get their way—and it is admittedly an unlikely scenario at best—it will likely be another case of getting what they want and then not wanting what they get. By advocating for teaching the bible in schools, Christians are unwittingly lobbying for something they could never accept. They think they want it, but they really don’t.

As a lifelong evangelical, I’ve experienced firsthand the value of Biblical literacy. But in the end, this sacred text is best encountered where it can be taught according to the beliefs of individual faith communities. In homes and houses of worship, and for the next nine Sundays, on the History Channel.

Jonathan is a faith and culture writer whose hundreds of articles have appeared in outlets like USA Today, The Atlantic, and National Journal. His most recent book is “A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars.”

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Sermon ~ Time to Return to Your Father’s House

Posted on by Fr. Peter

PRODSON

The Gospel of Luke 15:11-32

The Lord said this parable: “There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'”

gizzmo

Today we come face to face with the story of our own lives.  Today we see ourselves in this story of a man who decides he wants to go it alone.  He sets off from his father’s house, with his inheritance, and heads out into the great unknown.  This is every child’s dream when they are growing up.  Taking their fortune, and leaving behind all of the rules and regulations that parents place on children, and getting to do what they want to do when they want to do it.  They get to stay up late, can watch whatever they want too on television, they get to eat Ice Cream for breakfast, whatever they want, they can do.

But what happens when we come to the realization, and we all do, that we cannot go it alone?  What happens when we determine that the rules really were not that bad after all, that having a place to lay your head is worth putting up with a few rules, that having a decent meal to eat and a roof over your head looks pretty good.  Well, we all come to that determination as well.

Today’s Gospel is a story of, what I like to call the three R’s, recognition, repentance, and reconciliation.

We are presented with three characters, the father and his two sons.  One son stays at home and works and other one, takes what he has coming to him, and goes out into the world.  All three have a sense of who they are and what their role is supposed to be but they all see it a little different.

One son, decides he wants to leave so he goes to his father and asks for his inheritance, after all it is his right?  He asks his dad, who has worked his entire life, for all the money that he will get when his father dies.  He does not do this so he can go and invest it, or perhaps even buy another farm in a nearby town, no, he wants to do what he wants to do because after all he knows better what he needs then his father does.

Now the father, who loves each of his children unconditionally, is sad, but gives in to his sons request and gives his what he has coming.  There is no evidence in Scripture that he tries to talk his son out of leaving, there is no bargaining with the son to stay, nothing, the father simply gives him his freedom to walk away.  And the son does just that and does not look back.

I remember when I got my first apartment.  I was out of the Army and back home, I had finished two years of college and had secured my first real job.  The apartment was small and had gold shag carpet on the floor, but it was mine a place to call my own.  So I set about setting up my new home.  I moved my furniture out of my parent’s house, I say my furniture only that it had been in the room that my parents had allowed me to live in all these years, into my new place.  It was great and I loved it, then the bills started to arrive and soon I was in over my head.

We think we know it all.  We think that the previous generation has no idea what it is like to be us.  Every generation has gone through this and every generation will go through this.  The old generation is just that, old, and what could they possibly know about being young.  But like all good parents, the father in this story, has to let his son go out into the world and make his own mistakes.  He needs to let him fall, and figure out how to pick himself up, because that is where the growth happens.

We hear in today’s scripture, that he spent all of his money in a far country, he wasted all of his possessions and then a famine came to that land, and he went to work for what the pigs would not eat, he was in a pretty bad way.  Then he came to himself, the father’s tell us, he had recognition of his sinful life, realized he was living outside of himself and had to do something.  So he return to his father’s house, but not without shame.

He tells himself that he will return and take the lowest place in his father’s household to earn his living and to have some security.  Surely his father will not welcome him back as his son after what he has done.  But, as we hear in the story today in this is not to be the case.

The father sees his son returning and runs out to meet him, kills the fatted calf, puts his best robe on him and his prize ring, and all is well.  I like stories with a happy ending.

The son had recognition that he had sinned in his life.  Last week I said that if we think we have not sinned and have no need of confession then we are guilty of the sin of pride.  Pride is the sin of all sins and it is the sin that put humanity out of paradise and is the sin that is at the root cause of all of the others.  The son thought he knew better than his father, in this case, God.  He did not need the rules and regulations on how to regulate his life, he knows what he wants and what he needs and no one is going to tell him different.  But we must recognize that we are all sinners.

The son, after this recognition, repented for what he had done.  He was hungry, he had physical hunger as well as spiritual hunger, he needed to return to his father’s table, the table of the altar where we are feed each week with the living bread of our faith, the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation.  This is the food that we all need and desire.  But we cannot come if we are not ready.

And finally we see he had repentance.  He had to return to his father’s house, and he was ready to take the lowest of jobs in the household, he was ready to sleep in the barn and become a slave if it meant being able to come home.  He was willing to do whatever his father asked of him just he could feel secure again.

But we see it different.  His father was not wrathful, he did not beat him or cause him harm in anyway, he welcomed him home with open arms, in fact he ran out to greet him.  Such is his love for this one who was lost, that he dropped everything and ran out to meet him.  This is what God does for each of us.  He weeps when one of his children strays and he rejoices when we return.  He runs out to meet us, with open arms, the open arms of Jesus on the cross, and He welcomes us home and throws a banquet for us, with the best He has to offer, and that is His only Son!  He gives us His only Son, right here each time we receive the Eucharist.

All of us must be like to prodigal and come to a realization that we need to return home.  We need to turn away from what we want and what we desire, and turn back to toward the will of God.  We need to stop eating with pigs, and eat at the table of the King who will always welcome us home, no matter how long we have been away.

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Clerical Celibacy

Posted on by Fr. Peter

me speaking

With the resignation of Pope Benedict earlier this month, traditional media and social media have been a buzz with thoughts about a reformer Pope who will change the Church.  Well, I don’t think the change people want will happen regardless of who is elected the next Pope of Rome.  However, as with the media, they seem continually to grasp the idea of clerical celibacy wrong.

Let’s start with some definitions:

Celibacy is defined as the state of being unmarried and sexually abstinent.

Chastity has to do with our concept of sexual relations.  All of humanity is called to chastity.  If we live in an unmarried state, then we are to remain chaste, i.e. not having sexual relations, and if we are married we are to remain chaste i.e. only having sexual relationships with the one we are married to.  Any deviation from this, the Church would say, is sinful behavior.

With that said I need to further clarify another misconception, the Orthodox Church does not allow priests to marry.  Yes, the Orthodox Church has optional celibacy for her clergy, but a man needs to be married prior to his ordination to deacon.  Once a man is ordained deacon he cannot marry.  If a deacon or a priest who is married finds himself a widower, he cannot remarry.

It is critical of us to use the correct terms when speaking of this issue so as not to confuse people about the issue.

There also seems to be a misconception amongst the clergy, and those who want to change the way the Church operates, that celibacy is related to sexual abuse.  From a clinical standpoint, sexual abuse has very little to do with sex and a lot to do with control.  Let me state right up front that I believe any deacon, priest, or bishop who is found guilty by either civil or canonical court of any sexual misconduct, be it sexual relations or sexual harassment should never be allowed to serve in public ministry again.  They should be stripped of their clerical state and returned to that of a layman.  They have abused their trust placed on them at their ordination, and although we need to forgive them, they should never again serve or be allowed to call themselves, deacon, priest, or bishop.

Just a word about those who would try and cover up such actions.  I believe that anyone who has knowledge of such behavior, unless heard in sacramental confession, has a duty to report such actions to appropriate authorities.  If anyone in the clerical state, deacon, priest, or bishop tries to cover up such actions they too should be removed from the clerical state permanently!  In my mind,  the cover up victimizes people all over again and victimizes the whole church.  They have lost their moral authority and therefore should never serve in public ministry again.  This may sound harsh, but we clergy are held to a high standard.

There is very little evidence that a celibate man or woman is more likely to abuse.  The majority of reported cases of sexual abuse usually involve a parent or another family member who may or may not be married.  So let’s just stop talking about that.

Clerical celibacy is a sacred gift, given to the man or woman called to this type of ministry, and it is not easy.  We have to rededicate ourselves to this calling each and every day.  The problem is not with those of us who have chosen to live this way; the problem is with society’s overactive libido.  Our society is obsessed with sex!  You cannot turn on television and watch a program or a movie without some aspect of sex being thrown in your face.  I wrote about this after the super bowl and the sexualization of America and the degrading of women who are reduced to objects by these actions.  Although I did not watch the Academy Awards, I understand the same type of behavior was witnessed there on the part of the host.  Society wants to put their lack of morality on to the church, and that is not the way it works.

When a man or a woman, chooses to live the celibate life they are not just vowing to give up sex they vow to give up the possibility of a family.  We will grow old without having our own children and to see them grow.  However, we freely do this so we can take on the Church as our family.  I have children, I have wonderful children, they are my parishioners, and I get the joy of watching them grow into mature Christians.  I celebrate their joys, and I celebrate their hardships.  I baptize them, and I bury them.  I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been called to this ministry that I now serve in.

Is it difficult, sure it is, but so is the life of a Christian.  Is it countercultural, sure it is, but so is being a Christian.  We, all of us are called to live lives vastly different from what the world wants us to.  We are all of us, called to a certain level of asceticism in our lives and to live lives that Christ wants us to live in conformity with His church and His Commandments.

In a 2007 interview, then Abbot Jonah of the St. John of Shanghai Monastery in California had this to say about our lives as Christians.  He is speaking about how we are to be different and live our lives transformed as Christians:

It’s this renunciation of the world which is actually the fundamental key to being a Christian that every Christian has to embrace in one form or another. There’s no Christianity without asceticism. There is no Christianity without self-denial and taking up the cross. Otherwise, you have just a parody of Christianity.

We must rededicate ourselves daily to live lives that rise above the muck and mire of this world.  We need to turn toward the Son and away from the darkness that inhabits this world we live in and make the promise to live as Christ wants us to live.

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Sequestration

Posted on by Fr. Peter

On Friday, March 1st, the United States faces what is being called Sequestration.  Now, I do not know what the fine details are but what I do know is the US will face an automatic $85 billion in budget cuts. Officially called the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 it is aimed, as usual, at the most vulnerable people in the United States.

I fully understand that there is a tremendous amount of waste in the Federal Budget and there are programs that are broken and need to be fixed, but why is it that the people who make the decisions will not be hurt by this program at all?  Why is that members of Congress and the Executive branch will not suffer one bit?

I have some suggestions of place that can be cut.  These would be symbolic in the $85 million but you get the picture.

Congress

Each member of the House receives an Annual Salary of $168,000 x 435 = $73,080,000
(The Leadership receives more but for this exercise we will pay them all the same)
Speaker of the of the House Annual Salary of $215,000
Each member of the House receives between $1.2 million and $1.6 million
We will use and average $1.4 million x 435 = $609 million
(Each House member can hire up to 18 staff members)

Total House of Representatives Cost = $683 million

Each Senator Receives the same amount as Congressman $168,000 x 100 = $16.8 million
Their office expense is based on the size of their sate and is anywhere from $2.5 million to $4.1 million.  Again using the average $3.5 million = $1.2 Billion (This is an average and not scientific in any way.

Total Senate Cost = $1.216 billion

Total Legislative Branch Cost = $1.8 billion

Note: This does not include the cost of any congressional travel or the cost to maintain the Capitol building or the House and Senate Office Buildings.

Now let’s look at the Executive Branch

President’s Salary $450,000
Vice President’s Salary $208,000

I did not realize until I started this research but the President does not get a free ride in the White House.  He must pay for all meals that he and his family will consume in the private dining room.  Obviously State dinners are paid for by you and me, but if the first family dines in the White House they have to pay for it themselves.

It costs $1.5 billion a year to run the White House.  I found this very cool website with a breakdown of the expenses.  It is from 2008 so one can assume it has gone up.  Also keep in mind that any campaign related travel must be paid by the campaign and not by the White House Budget.  If the President or the Vice President flies off to campaign for themselves or a congressman that is paid for by the Campaign.  The White House also has no control over security, that is decided, without comment from the White House, by the Secret Service.

Compensation of the president (including an expense allowance of $50,000): $ 450,000

The Executive Residence operating expenses: $12,814,000

The Executive Residence—repair and restoration: $1,600,000

The vice president’s downtown office: $15,511,9603

Residence of the vice president—operating expenses: $320,000

The White House Office (including the Homeland Security Council): $53,656,000

Office of Policy Development (the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council): $3,482,000

National Security Council: $30,300,820

One-eighth of the Office of Administration, for direct services to the president pursuant to Section 3(a) of Executive Order 12028: $11,468,125

The president’s unanticipated needs: $1,000,000

White House Center Service Delivery Team (in the GSA budget): $26,000,000

U.S. Postal Service, White House branch: $726,000

National Archives professional archival support of the White House: $1,000,000

Value of gifts supplied by the Department of State for presentation to foreign leaders at White House official entertainment functions: $50,000

White House Communications Agency (in the budget of the Defense Information Systems Agency): $173,900,000

Air Force One (in U.S. Air Force budget) (classified) (Estimated cost: $200,000,000)

Helicopter squadron HMX-One (in the Marine Corps budget; this is the fiscal year 2008 appropriation segment of a fifteen year-long procurement of twenty-eight new helicopters): $271,000,000

Camp David (in the Navy/Seabees budget): $7,900,0005

Salary costs for 2,300 employees in above units 15, 16, 17, and 18 (all in the budget of the Department of Defense): $151,800,000

U.S. Secret Service (in the budget of the Department of Homeland Security) (21-26)

Protection of persons and facilities: $689,535,000

For protective intelligence activities: $57,704,000

For handling “special security events,” such as the 2009 Inaugural: $1,000,000

For screening of White House mail: $16,201,000

Operations of the James J. Rowley Training Center: $51,954,000

Improvements at the James J. Rowley Training Center: $3,725,000

Commission on White House Fellowships (in the budget of the Office of Personnel Management): $850,000

National Park Service White House Liaison Office, including the White House Visitor Center (in the budget of the National Park Service): $8,700,000

Cost of detailees who work more than six months in a calendar year: $227,349

Total Cost of the Decision Makers to the US Taxpayer is approx. $3.3 Billion. 

Since these are the folks that make the decisions that affect the rest of us we should start with cutting $3.3 billion from the budget.  Let them all work for the median income in the United States, that was $50,502 in 2011 or better yet they should all work for minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and pay them 35 hours a week with no benefits or $13,195 per year.  Throw in one person to run their office and answer their phone.

I am for all the government we can afford, but if our elected officials are not going to do the hard work of making cuts then I say let the automatic cuts happen but it needs to start with them!

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Sermon ~ Are You Ready for the Persecution

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Publican and Pharisee
The Publican and Pharisee

Today we begin the season known as the Triodion.  The Triodion are the books that we will use now until after Pascha, and they contain all of the services for the weeks of preparation as well as those of Great Lent.  This is a time of preparation, and it is a time that we need to take seriously.

In today’s Gospel,  we are confronted with two decidedly different men.  On one hand we have the publican, who knows of his sinful life, he has come to grips with it, he is so weighed down by his grief over his sins that he cannot even lift his head up or find the words to pray.  Then we have the Pharisee, in his finest robes with all of his attendants, who comes into the Temple for all the world to see.  He makes a grand entrance and stands in the middle of the Temple, and asks the Lord to forgive him.  But, we see no remorse in his prayer, he is not humble before God, and he even pokes fun at the publican who is also there praying.

Acknowledgement of our sins before God is an exceptionally large part of our spiritual life.  I know most of us think we have not sinned.  But you are just fooling yourself, in fact, if I dare say, we are guilty of the sin of pride, pride, the first sin and the one that causes all of the others.  If we believe that we do not need to come to confession if we believe that we can go through our daily lives and come each Sunday to receive the precious body and blood of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, without going to confession, then we are guilty of the sin of pride.

I have mentioned to you before that to be a Christian is to be different.  We are called not to be like the rest of the world, we are called to stand out and to take a stand and to show the world that we follow Jesus Christ regardless of the consequences.  As Orthodox Christians, we live our spirituality every day.  Again I have said, many times, that Orthodoxy is not just another religion or a denomination, no Orthodoxy is a way of life.  We have to live our Orthodoxy each and every day and the spirituality that comes with it.  Sometimes we believe that we do not have to obey the rules of our faith, and yes there are many, we want to do things the way we want to do them, again that is the sin of pride and is the essence of all other sins.

In the Epistle reading selected by the Church for today is written by St. Paul to his dear friend Timothy.  Paul writes this letter from prison in Rome.  Paul is facing the end of his life and the end of his ministry, and he is attempting to pass along just a bit of his knowledge to his friend.  Timothy is leading the Church in Ephesus, and they are starting to turn away from the faith.  Many false preachers have come into the city, and they are preaching all sorts of nonsense.  Paul is telling Timothy that he needs to hold fast, he needs to preach the truth no matter what happens.

Then he tells Timothy, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  Paul, writing from prison, reminds Timothy that we will all face persecution.  In some ways,  they are facing that already.  Many have turned away from the faith there, and they are persecuting those who have not.  In our 21st century life,  we simply have no idea of what this must be like.  We live relatively persecution free lives here in America.  We can practice our faith as we see fit without any interruption of that.  But that has not always been the case.

We have all witnessed the violence taking place in Middle East towards Christians.  Systematically, Christians are being burned and beaten out of their homes.  Christians risk their lives to attend liturgy on Sunday and yet they come in record numbers.  Clergy, stand up in the pulpit and speak about what the government is doing and how wrong that is, and many of them are killed, martyred for it.  Our brothers and sisters are being murdered for no other reason than they are Christians, some of them by governments sponsored and supported by our own government.  We have a responsibility to stand up for injustice when we see it!  As Christians,  we have to come to the decision that we are going to live the Christian life no matter what the consequences.  It is not about coming to church, singing happy songs, and feeling good about ourselves.  It is not about changing what we believe based on the latest public opinion poll or who is in power.  It is about standing up for a principal, it is about standing up for what is right, it’s about what St. Paul tells Timothy, “you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of.”  It’s about preaching the truth, even when the truth is not popular.  It’s about adhering to the spirituality of the Church regardless of how hard it is to do.  It is supposed to be hard.

St. Paul warns Timothy today about evil men and imposters, these are the ones who are leading the faithful away.  But it is not just false teachers that will lead them away, St. Paul warns of greed, and the desire to always want more and more and more.  Yes, false preachers will lead people away with lies and false teaching, this is pride, pride that some know better than the Church knows.  Some will say, and have said that the Church is wrong, and I know better.  Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley and the list goes on.  We say we have found the true faith, and we either need to understand that and get serious about it, or we simply need to sit down and stay quiet.

We are about to enter the most challenging time of the Church year.  We are being asked to change the way we do many things, we are being asked to change the way we eat and how we think about food.  We are called to come to Church more often, to pray more often, and to change the way we think about our own sense of spirituality.  We are being called to realize that we are sinful people, and we need reconciliation with God, with the Church, and with humanity.  We are called to be different, and if you are not prepared to be different if you are not ready to turn away from the world and to focus your attention on the things that are Holy, then these weeks will help you to do that but only if you enter into them with that sense of needing to change.

Great Lent is the time of the year when we turn our backs on the world.  We have to be different during this time of the year. The time has come for us to stop paying lip service to the Gospel.  We cannot just come here week after week and nod our heads when we hear the Gospel teaching about loving each other, about feeding the hungry and caring for those who have less than we do.   We have to stop being like the Pharisee and start being more like the publican!

Last night at Vespers, and let me just say that if you miss Vespers you are doing yourself a disservice, we heard these words:

Brothers, let us not pray like the Pharisee! He who exalts himself will be humbled. Let us prepare to abase ourselves by fasting; let us cry aloud with the voice of the Publican: “O God, forgive us sinners!”

The time has come to make a decision.  The time has come for us to get serious and do the hard work that is required to call ourselves a follower of Jesus Christ.  The time has come to turn away from Pharisee and to turn towards the publican, it’s your choice.

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Liturgy Returns to Oxford

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Jerome-in-Oxford

Oxford’s Keble College played host to a very special ceremony when it welcomed Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, of the Russian Orthodox Church.

When His Grace celebrated a Western Orthodox Episcopal Liturgy on Friday, it was the first time the service had been held in the UK since 1066.

Before then the church in the UK was Orthodox, but the Norman Conquest saw the Roman church take over.

Father Stephen Platt, parish priest at the Russian Orthodox church St Nicholas the Wonderworker in Marston, Oxford, said: “Orthodox services generally have an Eastern origin, while Catholic and Anglican churches have services which originate in Ancient Rome.”

Philip Pughe-Morgan, who came from Weston-super-Mare for the service, said: “Many people are put off by what they see as a form of worship which doesn’t relate to their traditional culture.

“The Russian Church has now introduced a mission to offer worship in the form and culture of these islands which developed here in the early centuries.”

During his visit, Bishop Jerome also met members of the public at St Barnabas Church in Jericho.

h/t Journey to Orthodoxy

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