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Sermon ~ Getting to the heart of the Problem

Posted on by Fr. Peter

 

Last week, I spoke about the need for us to seek forgiveness for past hurts and for the transgressions that we might have committed.  I used the image of the spare room where we keep all of those things that we do not want anyone to see.  We stack them all up, one on top of the other, until they hit the ceiling and from wall to wall and there just is no more room.  In this area is stored not only our transgressions but our hurts, our fears, our unfulfilled desires, we lock them away, and we try not to deal with them.

The problem is as we try and deepen our spiritual life that area stand there like a beacon urging us to open the door and start to clear out all of that clutter.

At the very center of our spiritual life is repentance, conversion, and the transformation of our thoughts and our life.  For many of us, we spend time beating ourselves up when we fail, or we miss the mark in our spiritual life.  But if we are working towards a truly authentic spiritual life, and I hope we all are, then we will not beat ourselves up instead we will confront them, head on, and reject them, confess them, and then try not to fall again.  We must always remember that we are not our sins, our thoughts or our actions.  People are not defined by what we do or say, we are defined by being children of God and loved by God because of the very fact the He created us.  When we repent of all that we have done, we stop and renounce not only the actions that we are guilty of, but we also have to renounce the identity that goes along with it.

For many of us, we come to confession once or twice a year.  Many of us sitting here today have not been to confession in many, many years!  But when we come to the “annual” confession we are only dealing with that which lays on the surface our lives.  Because we only come once or twice a year, we do not have the time to do the work that is necessary to get to the root of the problem.

As you know I have a rather large garden planted out back.  Several times a week I spend time in the garden pulling weeds.  I try as hard as I can to pull them up by the roots so they will not grow back.  It would be easier for me just to trim off the part that sticks above the ground and leave the difficult part under the ground where no can see it.  But soon or later that weed will come back.  We pull those weeds because they take necessary nourishment away from the plants that produce the food that we need to sustain us.  Our transgressions work the same way.

When you come to confession and say things like I am sorry I get angry, or sorry I am judgmental towards another person, that is fine, but you are only slipping off that which is above the soil of our soul.  We need to go deep, much deeper than we have been willing to go before.  What causes us to get angry and what is the reason we are so judgmental.  The anger and judgment is a symptom, we can treat the symptom that is easy, but if we truly want to be cured of the illness that we need to get to the root of the problem.

As we place our hand on the door knob and begin to open that door to the secret place that we all have, we will come into contact with things that we have not spoken of ever or that we have not spoken of in many years.  Even after we have confessed a certain thing we might be bothered by the thoughts or the feelings that the remembrance of what it was that we confessed.  These thoughts and feelings might make us feel guilty and provoke our conscious to remind us that we have a broken relationship with God.  We have to prepare ourselves of what breaks our relationship with God and with other people.

Metropolitan Kalistos Ware reminds us that there are no personal sins for all sin affects our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Something like feeling anger towards one of the brethren and the evil that we might bear in our hearts toward them will have a damaging effect on the community.  At the start of every Liturgy we pray, “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  We have to be at peace with all or we will be distracted in prayer.  We have to fix that relationship not only with God but with the community as well.

One of the questions that I often hear asked about confession is why do I need to confess before a man when I can stand before God and confess?  There are two answers, one you are not confessing to a man because two you are standing before God.  It is not the priest who forgives, but God.  Metropolitan Kalistos also says  “every sin however secret is a stumbling block for others and makes it harder for them to serve Christ.”  Confession, in the early Church, used to be done in public.  People would rise, and confess what they had done and ask forgiveness from the entire community.  As the Church grew this became a time for scandal for some and thus was born confession between the parishioner and the priest.  Rather than standing before the community, the penitent stands before the priest and opens his/her heart under the conditions of secrecy.

When you come to confession here in the Church, you and I stand here before God. My role is to stand here and represent the community.  By our confession before another human being we realize that we have sinned against the community and our sins have a social aspect to them.  We seek not only forgiveness from God but from the community.  We stand here and speak out loud what we have done, not only in breaking our relationship with God, but to our relationship with the community.  God forgives you, and absolution is given not only as an assurance of that, but also to repair the damage that has been done in the community.

The confession that I am describing is a confession that cannot be done just once or even twice a year.  If we are going to get serious about our spiritual lives then we have to be willing to put the work in that is necessary.  Many of you spend time working out and watching what you eat.  We do this so our bodies will be healthy.  Perhaps we have been to the doctor, and he has told us that we need to shed a few pounds.  Maybe we tried to put on last year’s pants and somehow them shrunk in the wash.  We read labels and count calories, we run on the tread mill or we walk around the block.  Whatever it is that we do we have to do it more than once or twice a year, or it is not going to work.  The same is true with our spiritual life.  We need to spend time on it.  Once a week will just not do!

As I said before, there are reasons why we do what we do and that is what we need to get to.  The reasons we do what we do are the things that we keep way in the back of the room under the pile at the bottom.  Those are the things that we cannot see because we have piled up all of the symptoms in front of them.  These are the things that might cause us pain, and so we do not want to remember them, we push them down, and we try to ignore them, and we become depressed and bitter.

As we progress through the spiritual life we have to confront this face to face, and we can only make this happen if we come and stand naked before God, and talk about what we need to talk about.  We have to be willing to do the work that is necessary to get to the root of the problem.  Just like in any physical activity, “no pain, no gain” is what we have to get to.  But we cannot do this alone.  We need someone who can lead us along this path, and point out where we need to go.  But it all begins with confession and a willingness to change our lives.

Last week I mentioned that we were going to spend the next few weeks looking at how to deepen our spiritual life.  No one, bishop, priest, or parishioner, can make this journey alone.  We need a guide to help us along the path.  That is my role, that is why I am here.  The work of the Church is healing and purification of the people.  The Church is where we come for healing of the passions so we might attain communion and unity with God.  The Church is the hospital for the those who are sick with sin and the bishops and priests are the healers of the people of God.

 It is the ministry of the priest, the spiritual father of the community, to help you along the journey to healing and a deeper spiritual life.  There is such richness in our Orthodox Spiritual tradition that is ripe for the taking.  We need to move past the surface and advance deeper and deeper below the surface to the roots of it all.

The work of the Church is therapeutic.  The Church and her priests seek to heal the sickness of the soul which torments all of us.  The tools are available, and we all need someone to show us how to use those tools.

The time has come for us to begin that work that is necessary to deepen our spiritual life.  On Wednesday we begin the fast period leading up to the great Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.  The fast periods of the Church are designed to be penitential and ideal times to return to confession, the ideal time to begin the work required to get to the roots.  Let us not allow that time pass.  Do not squander the opportunity you are being given to deepen your relationship with the God who created you.

The time is now, what are you waiting for?

 

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On those Orthodox who Support Abortion and Homosexuality

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Fr. Thomas Hopko

“In Orthodoxy, communicants in the sacramental mysteries are not only obliged to be steadfast in the Christian faith and perpetually repentant over their failures, they are also obliged to take full responsibility for the Church’s teachings and practices, and to be ready, at least in intention, to defend them unto death. For this reason, those who publicly affirm and promote homosexual behavior (like those who publicly advocate abortion) cannot be sacramental communicants in the Orthodox Church”

Fr Thomas Hopko (Christian Faith and Same-Sex Attraction, 108)

h/t Orthodox Christianity

 

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The Patriarch of Romania at the Celebration of the Saint Patron’s Day of Techirghiol Monastery

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Friday, 27 July 2012, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania was present at the celebration of the saint patron day of Saint Maria – Techirghiol, patriarchal stavropighia.

In the sermon delivered, the Patriarch of Romania showed that Saint Great Martyr Pantelimon represents a model of mercy and kindness for all those who suffer.

His Beatitude has also emphasised the importance of the prayer said for the sick: “Today, we pray Saint Great Martyr Pantelimon to protect us, to give us good health, help us heal the diseases of our soul and body and help us, at the same time, be more merciful because his name contains the mercy virtue. May the merciful one help us be merciful too and be able to help the poor, sick and grieved with our prayers, good words, a loaf of bread, and some money for medicine! We badly need to think of those who suffer. If we are in good health we must thank God for it and pray, at the same time, for the good health of those around us. If we help the sick, we visit them, show them mercy as Saint Patelimon did, and then we feel in us the joy of the presence of the merciful Christ in our life and become the merciful hands of Christ for our fellow beings”, informs us Trinitas Radio station.

To end with the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel consecrated the icon of Saint Great Martyr Pantelimon made of the mosaic of the fountain in the monastery court.

“This mosaic icon of Saint Great Martyr Pantelimon was consecrated by God’s grace. We thank Rev Archimandrite Cleopa Nistor who had this icon framed”, said His Beatitude.

Situated close to the shore of the Black Sea, in Techirghiol resort, “Saint Maria” Monastery dates as far back as 1928, when patriarch Miron Cristea bought a house with 16 rooms here. Later on, in 1951, a wooden church was brought here from the royal sheepfold of Sinaia, making a nuns’ skete. After several extensions, in 1999-2000 a treatment centre was arranged here, under the protection of Saint Pantelimon, which operates at present within the social-pastoral centre of Saint Maria. In 2003 the construction of the new brick church dedicated to the “Falling Asleep of the Mother of God” began, and in 2009, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel consecrated the chapel dedicated to “Saint Pantelimon” at the semi-basement of the new church.

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Eyeing the Catacombs – Again

Posted on by Fr. Peter

by Fr. Lawrence Farley

Fr. John Peck, Author of the Orthodox Church of Tomorrow, has an excellent discussion on his blog about how we Christians can survive in this world we live in today.  This essay by Fr. Farley is just one point in that discussion.  I suggest you surf on over and follow the discussion.

Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in his essay “A Meaningful Storm”, described the history of the Church as consisting of a series of layers.

The earliest layer (and most fundamental, I would suggest) is that of the early church, a time of pagan persecution when the Church lived its life in the catacombs as a hounded and illegal sect.  (Well, it lived in the catacombs metaphorically speaking—the Sunday service never was actually held in the catacombs, which were places of burial.)

Then came the second layer, after the Peace of Constantine, when the first Christian Emperor called off the dogs of persecution and gave the Church a privileged place in the sun, beginning the long and glorious Byzantine experiment of Church-State symphonia.

After about a millennium, when the Empire suffered increasing reversals and eventual overthrow in 1453, this was followed by the third layer, characterized by the growth of national churches in the various territories of what used to be the Byzantine Empire.  It has been called Byzance après Byzance, (Byzantium after Byzantium) when the double-headed eagle of Byzantine Rome made a reprise role among the newly-formed nations in the Balkans.

The Orthodox Church in North America, of course, while inheriting all this layered history, never experienced it directly, being far from the territory of Byzantium.  North America did, however, experience wave after wave of immigration, and became a kind of receptacle for a whirlpool of piety and practice from the Old World.  And though some would minimize the Christian foundations of America, it can make a credible claim to have been a Christian nation:  Abraham Lincoln called its citizens on three separate occasions to “a day of humiliation, prayer and fasting” in times of national crisis; the motto “In God We Trust” is famously inscribed on its currency; and Christian holy days still offer the occasions for its public holidays.  Even north of the US border, in the previous generation of the ‘50’s, pretty much everyone went to “the church or synagogue of their choice”.   It wasn’t exactly Byzantium or Holy Russia, but it sure felt Christian (especially, one imagines, to its Jewish population).

As anyone can see who hasn’t just emerged from a long snooze like the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, things have changed.  Our long kick at the Byzantine can is over, and we now live in a militantly post-Christian culture.   Witness the notorious 1989 “work of art” by American Andreas Serrano “Piss Christ”, consisting of a picture of Christ in a container of urine, and show-cased in the Vancouver Art Gallery.  Witness the current debate over homosexual marriage— for it doesn’t matter which side “wins” the debate; the very fact that it can be held reveals that a Christian cultural consensus has been lost.  Culturally-speaking, it is always open season on the Christians, for Christian symbols and beliefs can be openly mocked in a way no others can inNorth America.  (If you doubt this, ask yourself what the reaction would’ve been to a “Piss Mohammad” art exhibit, and whether or not an art gallery of a major city would have allowed it to be shown.)

So what does this mean?  I would suggest it means that it is time to “return to the catacombs”. Please don’t misunderstand me:  this does not mean that we opt out of public debate, or cease to vote, or refuse to run for office.  It does not mean that we no longer value the good things in North American culture (including the freedom of speech to debate unpopular things).  It does not mean that we eschew patriotism, as if love of country and love of God were somehow incompatible.  (Byzantium at least taught us that.)  It does not mean that we fill the moat, pull up the drawbridge and retreat into a frightened and paranoid huddle, fearing any contaminating contact with the world.

What then does it mean?  Life in the catacombs simply means that we acknowledge that to be a confessing Christian involves embracing a life that is now in open conflict with the reigning values of our culture.   And, I further suggest, this involves the following:

1.  We must at all costs retain the world-affirming sacramental approach of Orthodoxy and refuse to adopt a cultish mindset.  In a lecture in Delaware in 1981, Fr. Alexander spoke of the need to live “between Utopia and Escape”, avoiding the extremes of imagining we could create Utopia through our own efforts, or of making a retreat from the world, escaping into closed communities dedicated to re-creating Byzantium, Holy Russia or some other mythical version of our past.  It is significant that the liturgies of the early church reflect a world-embracing concern for all, giving thanks for everything and offering it back to God in a spirit of peace and joy.  One would never know these liturgies were prayed by people under threat of arrest and death. In “the catacombs” especially it is important to remember that “the whole earth is full of His glory” (Is. 6:3), and to retain the joy of living in God’s world.

2.  We must recover a sense that to be baptized means that we have come out of the world, and now belong not to this age, but to the age to come.  In the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, the groom-to-be allows himself to be baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church, and then immediately afterwards says to his intended Greek bride, “Now I’m a Greek!” Voila l’enemie!—our enemy is the attitude which equates being a Christian with being a respectable member of an earthly culture.  In fact Christians have always been “a third race”—neither Jew, nor Greek (i.e. Gentile of any kind, be that American, Canadian or any other people), but the Church of God(see 1 Cor. 10:32). We must recover a sense of being different, of being, as St. Paul says, “blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).  Baptism brings us out of one culture and into another; it is an act of spiritual emigration from this world to the next.  All immigrants know they have left one country and entered another.  We too must recover this sense of distance from the culture around us.

3.  Finally, living as a catacomb people will give us a particular love for others who share that space, even if they are not of our jurisdiction—even if (dare I say it?) they are Christians who are not yet Orthodox.  Don’t get me wrong—our ecumenical mandate to heal the schisms remains.  Bluntly put, we still need to offer the fullness of the Faith to all who love Christ, and pray for them to become Orthodox.  But living as part of an increasingly-marginalized Christian minority means the things we share with non-Orthodox Christians are more important than the things which separate us, and nothing drives that point home like persecution targeting all who confess the Holy Name.  It is possible that what the World Council of Churches could not accomplish, increased hostility from outside the churches will.

In conclusion, one might think that a “catacomb” existence would be a cramped one, darkened by fear and hopelessness and depression. I assert the opposite. The catacombs (as the early church knew) are illumined by the light of Christ, and made spacious by His joy which swells the heart.  And when things get really bad, we have been told to straighten up and lift up our heads, because our redemption is drawing near (Lk. 21:28). Life in the catacombs will be just fine, because in the catacombs or out of it, we live as glory-bound children of God.

Source

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Blessing at Childbirth

Posted on by Fr. Peter

One of the blessings a priest has in his ministry is the welcoming of new life into the world.  It is not something that I have the opportunity to do all that often so it is a very special occasions when I am asked to pray the Prayers at Childbirth.  There is a progression of these prayers that start with the prayers after childbirth.  Following that would be the naming prayers on the 8th day.  The baptism usually follows and of course in the days gone by due to many reasons, the mother was not always present at the baptism.  Following those prayers would be the Churching of women prayers some days latter.

I had the honor last summer of praying the prayers at the naming of the child, usually prayed on the 8th day after the birth, and like that time this blessing was done for the family of a fellow priest.

My friend and fellow Podcaster Fr. Greg and Prez Eleni gave birth to their son Ambrose last week.  Fr. Greg called and asked if I would be willing to come and read the prayers and of course I jumped at the chance.  It was an honor to be part of this families special time and to pray for them and for their health.

The prayers are simple and to the point.  The first asks for healing for the mother and that she be restored to health as soon as possible.  We pray that she is covered by the “shelter of your wings from this day until her last breath.”  The second prayer is more general and again is a prayer for healing and protection.

These prayers are not used all that often any longer and that is something that we should try to change.  I hope I get asked to participate in services such as this in the future.

O Master, Lord Almighty, who heal every illness and every infirmity, heal now this your servant (N) who has today given birth, and raise her up from the bed on which she lies. For according to the words of the Prophet David, we were conceived in iniquity and in sin we were brought forth. Guard her and the child that she has borne; cover he with the shelter of your wings from this day until her last breath; through the intercession of the all-pure Theotokos and of all the saints; for you are blessed to the ages of ages.  Amen.

O Lord, our God, who freely chose to come down from heaven and to be born from the holy Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary for the salvation of us sinners, who know the frailty of human nature: Bless your servant (N) who has this day given birth. For you have said, O Lord, “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and rule over it.” Therefore we, your servants, pray and cry out to the holy name of your kingdom: Look down from heaven and bless your servant (N) and all her household and all here present; for you are a good and merciful God who love mankind. Amen.

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Confession and the Interior Life

Posted on by Fr. Peter

In my last essay I wrote about how we need to find inner silence or inner peace.  In order to do this we need to find the strength to open the door to the room where we hide all of those things that we do not want to deal with.  All of the resentments, hurts, fears etc. that keep us from truly following God.

At the very core of our Christian life is repentance, conversion, and the transformation of our mind and our life.  We do not beat ourselves up for our sins but we confront them and reject them and after confessing them, we try not to do them again.  We must always remember that we are not our sins, our thoughts or our actions.  When we repent, we stop and renounce not only the actions that we are guilty of but we have to renounce the identity that goes with it.

As we open than door to that room, where our hidden life resides, we will come into contact with sins that we have not confessed.  Even after we confess the sin we might still be bothered by the thoughts or the feelings that the remembrance of that sin.  These things make us feel guilty and provoke our conscious to remind us that we have a broken relationship with God.  We have to train ourselves to become aware of what breaks our relationship with God and with other people.

Metropolitan Kalistos Ware reminds us that there are not private sins for all sin affects our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Something like feeling anger towards one of the brethren the evil that we hold in our hearts will have a destructive effect on the community.  At the start of every Liturgy we pray, “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  We have to be at peace with all or we will be distracted in prayer.

One of the criticisms I hear about confession is why do I need to confess before a man when I can stand before God and confess.  Every sin is a sin against the community.  Metropolitan Kalistos again says that, “every sin however secret is a stumbling block for others and makes it harder for them to serve Christ.”  Confession, in the early Church, used to be done in public.  People would rise, and confess what they had done and ask forgiveness from the entire community.  As the Church grew this became a moment for scandal for some and thus was born confession between the parishioner and the priest.  Rather than standing before the community, the penitent stands before the priest and opens his/her heart under the conditions of secrecy.

The priest stands with the penitent before God and represent the community, he represents the people of the community.  By our confession before another human being we recognize that we have sinned against the community and our sins have a social dimension to them.  We seek not only forgiveness from God but from the community.

The other thing to remember is that it is not the priest who forgives but it is God who forgives.  The prayers of confession use the following words:

“My spiritual child, who have made your confession to my humble person: I, a humble sinner, have no power to forgive sins only God can do that… We are bold to say: whatever you have related to my humble and lowly person, and whatever you have failed to say either from ignorance or from forgetfulness, whatever it may be, may God forgive you in this present age and in the age to come.”

Frequent confession of our inner thoughts and sins is central to the spiritual life.  I usually recommend to those who see me as spiritual father, that they avail themselves of confession and reconciliation at least monthly.  Exposing our excessive and sinful thoughts to our confessor is valuable in our journey.  By putting our thoughts into words during confession will deprive them of their power over us

The process of inner peace and stillness continues to go deeper and deeper.  We learn how not to have resentment in our lives and then as we go deeper we start to remove out deeper buried resentments and passions.  The memories of hurt and sin comes to the front of our consciousness and be begin to think clearly, and work towards the purity of heart.

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Untangling Our Spiritual Life

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Yesterday I dropped something behind my computer, and when I went to retrieve it I noticed the unusually large tangle of wires and what not back there.  All of those wires, in some way, bring the power to the computer that make posting this article possible.  Then I started to think about our spiritual life and how intertwined the different parts of that life are.

On Sunday, I preached a sermon with the title “Forgive us our Trespasses.”  This is the first of a series I have planned on getting more serious about our spiritual life.  Future sermons will focus on finding a spiritual guide, regular confession, daily Scripture reading, prayer, and fasting.  All of these parts of our spiritual life sometimes get tangled in each other, and we need to find a way to untangle them.

Like those cables I mentioned before, all of the parts of our spiritual life bring power and the ability to strengthen our walk with the Lord.  Sometimes, however, they get so tangled we spend more time worrying about the outward appearance of it all and very short time on the inward journey.

The spiritual life is not about externals.  Don’t get me wrong doing things the right way is necessary, but we cannot spend more time worrying about how low I am bowing and less time on why we bow.  Recently I was part of a conversation about confession.  During the course of that discussion, it was revealed that some people were upset with a certain priest because he heard confessions sitting down.  I think we are missing the point of it all when we get so upset by something like this.  I asked the question, did God still forgive your sins and did you confess that you have been judgmental toward another person?  If not, you better get back to confession.  When we tangle things up this is what can happen, we lose sight of what is necessary.

The first step on the spiritual journey should be to keep the whole journey is perspective.  We need to have the goal in mind so we do not get lost along the way.  This is difficult for some, especially those of us who are converts to the Orthodox faith.  We want it all now and we do not wish to wait.  We become zealots for the faith, and in doing so we tend to make many mistakes and fall.  I am constantly trying to slow people down in their spiritual life.  Build a solid foundation before putting the roof on.  We have a life time to build the house.

So how do we accomplish all of this?  We start by understanding what the spiritual life is all about.  The biggest and hardest step in the spiritual life in acquiring a sense of inner silence.  It is only through this inner silence that we will hear the still small voice of God, but it is in that inner silence that we have to deal with all of the hurts, betrayals, and other junk we keep within.

In my sermon on Sunday, I mentioned that each of us has a place where we keep all life’s little bumps in the road.  All of the resentments, disappointments, hurt, etc. We keep them closed up so no one, including us, will be able to see them.  The most hurtful of these issues is kept way at the back behind a lifetime of experiences.  In trying to obtain inner silence, we have to unpack that area and deal with each and every one of those issues until the room is empty.  The secret is once we carry out an issue and deal with it we do not put it back in.  Oh we may move things around a little, but eventually we need to deal with everything in that area head on.

But we cannot go it alone, we need someone who can help us and help us along this path.  We need a person who we trust that we can honestly share those issues with and help us deal with them as they come to light.  Some will be hurtful to us and will take more time to deal with them others, but we have to plow through to deal with them all.  This is where the spiritual guide comes in.

I have written before about the image I like to use when discussing the spiritual guide.  I prefer the Celtic notion of the Anamcara or Soul Friend.  The Soul Friend is just that, a friend, someone who is on the journey with you to help you carry your burdens when you need help.  The Spiritual Guide is not a director that tells you to do this and do that, but a loving person who helps you achieve your full potential.  You have to do the work, the guide is there to help you when you want it but not to do the work for you.

Over the next few weeks, there will be more on the untangling of the spiritual life but for now consider finding a true spiritual guide to help you untangle the cords of your life.

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Sermon: Forgive us our Trespasses

Posted on by Fr. Peter

For those of you who have raised children you know that they grow up.  You might wish that they remain as babies for as long as possible but eventually you come to the realization that your babies are growing up.  Growth requires us to move on if you will; we cannot stay in the same place forever.  We learn to walk, and we learn to talk.  We go off to school, we fall in love for the first time, we fall, a lot, but we get back up and keep moving.  Growth requires advancement from here to there.  Our spiritual life is the same, we cannot just come here week after week, sing the hymns, listen to the sermon and leave the same way we came in, we have to grow, or we just end up in the same place.  We are the greatest obstacles to our won growth.

All of us here today are different yet in some way we are the same.  For many of us, the common bond is family and possibly friendship, but all of us here share the common bond of our faith in Jesus Christ.  There is no such thing as a Christian in solitary; we have to be Christians in solidarity.  We need each other for it is in community that we work out our salvation.  One of the greatest spiritual writers of the 20th century was the Benedictine Monk Thomas Merton.  Merton wrote books based on his own spiritual journey and the years he spent not only in community but as hermit living in a little hut all by himself.  However, he was required, once a day, to join the rest of the community for the Eucharistic Celebration.  He had to come together for communion!  We need each other.

But we come with a lot of baggage that sometimes interferes with that communion, communion not only with each other but with God.  We all have inner clutter in our lives that we need to rid ourselves with.  I have told you before about the room I have where I store all the stuff I cannot get rid of for one reason or another.  We do the same with our inner lives.  We have hidden clutter in our lives, in our hearts, and in our souls.  Most of it revolves around resentments.

In the innermost parts of our lives, the place we do not let people see, we find remembrance of wrongs, we find self-justifications, we find all of these things in our lives because of pride.  Pride is what makes us hold on to our justifications for our continued anger against other people.  And it is hurt pride, or vainglory that feeds our envy and jealousy.  Envy and jealousy lead to resentment.  The more we resent the more we are consumed by our passions which lead us deeper into sinful behavior.

So how do we deal with all of this clutter that we have been carrying around for many years?  I have heard stories, and I have my own stories as well, about how this one or that one hurt you or your family years ago.  If you are still talking about it, then you still resent the people involved, and that will keep us from actual communion with God, the communion that He desires for each one of us.

How do we deal with all of this?  We deal with it through forgiveness.

Today we commemorate one of the most misunderstood people in Church history, Mary Magdalene.  Our Orthodox Church tradition tells us that Jesus cast 7 demons out of her, and she became one of his followers.  We know that she was present at the Crucifixion, and she was one of the Myrrhbearers that brought the spices to the tomb of Jesus.  We know that she was the first one that Christ revealed his resurrection to and in fact we know that she was the first Evangelist as she raced back to tell the Apostles that had happened.  But there is also the tradition that she was a prostitute.  Either way what we know is that Mary Magdalene was a broken person, broken by her sin, whatever that was, and she needed the healing power of Jesus and she found it.  That healing power in available to all of us if we just ask.

We need to seek forgiveness of, and for all that clutter we carry around with us.  Forgiveness does not mean excusing or justifying the actions of someone.  If someone has abused you that was a sin against you, but when we hold resentments because of that action we hold anger and bitterness within ourselves, and against those who have hurt us, we take that abuse, and we continue it on ourselves.  We need to break the cycle.  The person may be long gone, but for the sake of our own soul and for the sake of our own peace, we need to forgive.  We should not justify their actions, but we need to overlook the action and see that there is a person there who is also struggling with sin.  We should not be lying in the tall grass waiting to get them.  Getting them back is resentment and we need to forgive for the healing to begin.  As long as we carry that resentment we will never be healed.

Resentment is an impassioned reaction, based on a judgment of a person where our passions are ignited.  Resentment is a reaction which we hold within ourselves, and allow ourselves to nurture.  It comes from and feeds off of our passions, for the judgment of others.  Resentment is judgment and objectification of a person according to their actions which have offended us.  The key to resolving resentment is to realize that it is not the other person who is causing it, but that it is our own reaction.  The other persons actions or words may have precipitated the reaction, but how we react to those sins, words, or deeds is purely our own.  Blame and resentment lead nowhere, except to bitterness and unhappiness.  They make us into helpless victims which in turn rob us of the power we need to take responsibility for ourselves.

It would be easier in all of this if the person who has harmed us in some would ask us to forgive.  But we cannot wait for that to happen because it may never happen.  Some of us have been waiting a lifetime, how much longer are we going to carry this clutter around with us.

Many years ago, when the social media was just starting out, I was contacted by someone I went to Jr High School with.  I have to admit I honestly did not remember this person, as she, unlike me, looked remarkably different than she did in Jr. High School.  She contacted me to ask forgiveness for kicking me in the knee all those years ago.  I did not even remember that event, but when she asked I had a vivid memory of what happened, and I granted her request and forgave her.  As it turned out she had been diagnosed with cancer, and she was preparing herself for whatever was going to happen.  She died last year of that cancer, and when I heard the news I was glad I was able to help her die a little more at peace with herself.  I guess in my own mind since I actually did not remember that incident, I forgave her years ago, but my telling her I forgave her put her soul at peace.

We say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  If we don’t forgive, we cannot even pray this prayer that Jesus taught us without condemning ourselves.  We condemn ourselves for refusing to forgive.  We will never have peace if we do not forgive; all we will have is bitterness and resentment.  We must always forgive not only because God forgives us but because by our refusing to forgive we hurt ourselves

The world we live in does not understand how we can forgive.  The world wants us to carry around the bitterness and hatred that we have for that person.  The world wants us to lie in the tall grass and wait, just for the moment when we can get them back.  Sure we may get a pleasant feeling for a short period of time, but the pain does not go away, we have done more damage to ourselves by that action than the person did to us originally.  Like I said, we need to break the cycle.

Forgiveness is one of the hardest things that we are asked to do.  Forgiveness calls us to look at the person, face to face or in our minds eye, and to love them despite how they may have sinned against us.  Their sin is their sin, and they have to deal with those themselves.  But we sin in our reaction against their sin.

Over the next few weeks we will continue this discussion but for now think of people who have harmed you and you have not forgiven, including yourself.  Pray that God will give you the strength you need to be able to truly forgive that person.  If you need help, ask me I am here to help you on this journey.  We all need help in our spiritual life whether we are bishop, priest, or parishioner we all need someone to show us the way.  I do not have all the answers, but we can look for them together.  Know that you are not in this alone.

The time has come for real growth to occur.  The time has come for us to open the door of that room where we keep all of that clutter, and the time has come to ask for some help to help make sense of it all.  Hasn’t it been long enough?  Time to let go.

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Patriarch Daniel: Gratitude Must Be Confessed

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Today, 22 July 2012, the evangelical pericope of Saint Matthew (cap. 9, vs. 27-35) on the miraculous healing of two blind people and of a dumb one by Jesus, our Saviour, in Capernaum town, was read in all the places of worship of the Romanian Patriarchate.

The evangelical text teaches us, first of all, that the Saviour provides healing as a reward for persistent prayer, said His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel in the sermon delivered during the Divine Liturgy celebrated at Caraiman Monastery, as Trinitas Radio station informs us.

The Saviour asks the two blind men not to tell anybody that they were healed. But they do not obey Him and tell everybody about the good Jesus Christ has done to them. Thus, we learn how important gratitude is, towards God and towards those who help us, also said His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.

“Gratitude is the greatest virtue of man when he expresses his love towards his benefactor or benefactors. People say that gratitude is a rare flower. Very often people do not thank any more. The young ones do no longer thank their parents for having given life to them and grown them up, the students do no longer thank their professors, and lots of neighbours do no longer thank those who helped them when they needed.

Due to the fact that besides preaching the Gospel the Saviour healed the bodies and souls too, the Church learned that aiding events should be organised for those in need.

“The Church has organised houses and canteens for the poor, widows, old people, orphanages, children and hospitals for those who suffered for a long time. But amid charity and merciful love it was the Church, the Liturgy as source of the merciful love for the poor people. So, after we listen to the Gospel we should not forget about the poor, needy, sick ones. We must visit the helpless sick. If we cannot reach them we should pray for them, send them some money for medicine. We can help in many ways and whenever we help those who pray God for help we become the hands of God’s love.

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On the Importance of Communion

Posted on by Fr. Peter
St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite 1749-1809

Although Confession and satisfaction [the fulfillment of a rule (kanonas) given by a spiritual Father or Confessor — trans.] can forgive sins, nonetheless Holy Communion is necessary for the remission of sins. Just as one first extracts the maggots from a malodorous wound, then cuts off the rotten parts, and subsequently applies ointment to heal it, since, if he leaves it, it reverts to its former state, so the same thing happens with sin: Confession extracts the maggots, satisfaction cuts off the rotten parts, and subsequently Divine Communion acts as an ointment and heals the wound of sin. For, if he does not receive Divine Communion, the wretched sinner reverts to his original state, and ‘the last state of that man is worse than the first.’

If someone deprives us for just one day of eating bodily foods, we become upset and impatient and it strikes us as being a great evil; but if we deprive ourselves of the spiritual and heavenly fare of the Divine Mysteries once, or twice, or for whole months, we do not consider it a bad thing. O the great lack of discrimination which today’s Christians make between bodily and spiritual things! For they embrace the former wholeheartedly, but for the latter they have no desire whatsoever. (Concerning Frequent Communion of the Immaculate Mysteries of Christ, trans- lated in Hieromonk Patapios and Archbishop Chrysostomos, Manna from Athos: The Issue of Frequent Communion on the Holy Mountain in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries [Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006], pp. 125-126, 131)

h/t Classical Christianity

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