A new program from FOCUS North America that attempts to heal the wounds of the countries progressive policies towards the poor.
Scripture Readings ~ 12th Sunday after Pentecost
Today’s commemorated feasts and saints
12th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST — Tone 3. Hieromartyr Babylas (Vavíla), Bishop of Antioch, and with him Martyrs Urban, Prilidian, and Epolonius; and their mother, Christodula (251). Holy Prophet and Godseer Moses (16th c. B.C.). Uncovering of the Relics of St. Joasáph, Bishop of Bélgorod (1911). Martyr Hermione, daughter of St. Philip the Deacon (ca. 117). Martyr Babylas of Nicomedia, and with him 84 children (4th c.). Martyrs Theodore, Mianus (Ammianus), Julian, Kion (Oceanus), and Centurionus, of Nicomedia (305-311). Icon of the Most-holy Theotokos, “THE UNBURNT BUSH” (1680).
Matthew 28:16-20 (1st Matins Gospel)
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (Epistle)
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Matthew 19:16-26 (Gospel)
Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Top Posts August 2011
Another month has passed and I believe this was the biggest month for the blog. Google Analytics is a great tool for tracking visitors to the blog. For the month of August the blog had 2,105 visits. That is a high number for this blog but an even more amazing number is the number of new visitors to the blog in August. That number is 63.75%. More than half of you visited this blog for the first time. I say a bog thank you and I hope to see you again. Now on to the top posts for the month of August.
Prayer Against Bad Weather
Wednesday Recipe ~ Baked Haddock
Death Notification
About Me
The Churching of Women
On Rich and Poor
The Service of Naming a Child
Book Review ~ Divine Liturgy, A Student Text
Good Leaders must First be Good Followers
Hurricane Irene
Ecclesiastical New Year
The first day of the Church New Year is also called the beginning of the Indiction. The term Indiction comes from a Latin word meaning, “to impose.” It was originally applied to the imposition of taxes in Egypt. The first worldwide Indiction was in 312 when the Emperor Constantine (May 21) saw a miraculous vision of the Cross in the sky. Before the introduction of the Julian calendar, Rome began the New Year on September 1.
According to Holy Tradition, Christ entered the synagogue on September 1 to announce His mission to mankind (Luke 4:16-22). Quoting Isaiah 61:1-2), the Savior proclaimed, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…” This scene is depicted in a Vatican manuscript (Vatican, Biblioteca. Cod. Gr. 1613, p.1).
Tradition says that the Hebrews entered the Promised Land in September.
A Christian Understanding of Freedom
by Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas and the South (of Blessed Memory)
People generally use the word freedom in order to describe two things: the first and perhaps most persistent meaning of the term is simply lack of subjection to any kind of ownership or tyrannical authority, the lack of restriction of one’s actions, the absence of obstacles to self-determination or personal choices, the right to make up one’s own mind with regard to occupation, speech, assembly, religion and so on. Naturally, this kind of freedom is entirely desirable and, in many ways, our very nation came into being out of a deeply felt need for this. Although our democratic system of government has experienced many pitfalls and defects, and throughout the course of our history we have not always been able to achieve perfect freedom in the sense just described, it is none the less true that few would question the desirability for such freedom. Men are still willing to make enormous sacrifices – their very lives at times – for the ideal of freedom.
People generally use the word freedom in order to describe two things: the first and perhaps most persistent meaning of the term is simply lack of subjection to any kind of ownership or tyrannical authority, the lack of restriction of one’s actions, the absence of obstacles to self-determination or personal choices, the right to make up one’s own mind with regard to occupation, speech, assembly, religion and so on. Naturally, this kind of freedom is entirely desirable and, in many ways, our very nation came into being out of a deeply felt need for this. Although our democratic system of government has experienced many pitfalls and defects, and throughout the course of our history we have not always been able to achieve perfect freedom in the sense just described, it is none the less true that few would question the desirability for such freedom. Men are still willing to make enormous sacrifices – their very lives at times – for the ideal of freedom.
Christian teaching lies at the very heart of such an ideal. And in spite of the ups and downs of Church history, wherein even the Church has seemed to be an accomplice to agencies and forces that would deny this kind of basic right to the human race, it would be inaccurate to say that the Christian Church in most of its classical forms teaches that men are not destined to be free in this very sense. It is incompatible with Christian teaching to maintain that man should be shackled with restrictions against his personal freedom to pursue a way of life to his own choosing.
At the same time it appears also that freedom is being increasingly applied to a kind of license which says that man is not to be subjected to any kind of restriction that is not to his liking. Even when the common good demands the contrary he is somehow to be free to “do his own thing.” The blame for much of the disorder and confusion of our own times could perhaps be laid to this concept of freedom: the near capitulation of our legal system in face of demands for freedom to peddle pornography, to sell drugs, to defy the law enforcement agencies of the cities, etc.
In this particular article it is not our intention to dwell on the matter of freedom as described above, making this a plea for law and order. Rather, we wish to present a general account of the Orthodox Church’s understanding of freedom, in light of Christ’s work of redemption, His “breaking the chains of hell and overthrowing the tyranny of hades.”
Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” And those who heard Him said, “We are Abraham’s seed, and we were never in bondage to any man, how sayest thou, you shall be made free?” And He answered, Verily I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” (1 John 8:31-34)
He said in another place, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you should have known my Father also; and from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him.” (John 14: 6-7)
Jesus Christ is the truth about God and the truth about man, since He is both God and man. God’s real nature is completely revealed in the Son of God, the Incarnate Word, and the whole truth about man, his worth, value and dignity, are realized and made manifest to man in the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth. And since man’s fundamental sin was and is godlessness or atheism, we then understand what is meant by the statement that “Christ came into the world to save His people from their sins.”
An author once pointed out that, “Mankind is in bondage until Christ sets men free.” St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans says, “For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. But what fruit had you then from those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now set free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and as your end, life everlasting.” (6:20-22)
The deepest and most fundamental of the Church’s understandings of freedom is simply the freedom from sin and its wage or consequences. The understanding that Christ has given to men a freedom that cannot be taken away, no matter what the external circumstances of life may be, has provided the strength, the dynamism, the very life of the Church in the different periods of her bondage, her restrictions. There was the long three century persecution of the Church by the Roman Empire, and the very martyrs were witnesses and advocates of their freedom in Christ. The Moslem conquest and domination of much of the world that had been Christian, and the reduction of Christians to second-class citizenship, the restrictions against their proclaiming the Gospel, brought no despair to those who knew Christ and His truth. This lasted well into the nineteenth century in certain places. And in our own twentieth century, restrictions and persecutions, perhaps heavier and more severe than in any other time, in Communist lands failed to extinguish the light of Christian truth, and finally the most essential Christian freedom.
It is in Christ, as perfect Man, that man comes to the full realization of what it means to be in the image and likeness of God. For man’s freedom is an Icon, an image of the Divine Freedom itself.
It is just when our freedom lies within the “opus Dei,” the work of God, that it does not cease to be true freedom. The “Let it be to me according to thy word,” of the Virgin at the Annunciation does not come from a simple submission to His will, but that very acceptance expresses the ultimate freedom of her being. In this sense, she was the first fruits of the intervention of God into human time and history, the first product of the Incarnation. She is the image of the Church, those who receive the Word of God and keep it, of those who would lose their life and gain it.
Christ, in becoming Incarnate, has permitted us, not to imitate, but to relive His life, to conform ourselves to His essence.
In each Christian’s response to God, in saying, “let it be to me according to Thy will,” he identifies himself with the God-Man Christ, and in this way, the Divine Will, freedom comes as an expression of one’s own will. The will of God, His work, His freedom have become one’s own. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” says St. Paul. (Galatians 2:20)
None of the foregoing is said to diminish or to negate in any sense the validity and importance of all human beings, especially Christians, to seek, to work for freedom in the usual earthly, if you will, sense of the word: social justice, equality, and the right to pursue, unrestricted, a better life here and now for the human race. The Christian, if he takes his commitment seriously, can never be guilty of putting restrictions in the path of others, of coercing, of forcing. On the other hand, what has been said is conceived as a reminder that much of the Christian world, my own Church, has a long experience of this, has lived under repression in places where freedom, justice, equality, and the right to differ, were given lip-service, but were not realities. The hope of Christians, their consolation is based on a higher freedom, which only God can give, which our Lord Jesus Christ showed us.
31 August ~ The Placing of the Cincture (Sash) of the Most Holy Mother of God
The Placing of the Venerable Belt of the Most Holy Theotokos in a church of Constantinople’s Chalcoprateia district took place during the reign of the emperor Theodosius the Younger. Before this the holy relic, entrusted to the Apostle Thomas by the Mother of God Herself, was kept by pious Christians at Jerusalem after Her Dormition. During the reign of Emperor Leo the Wise (886-911), his wife Zoe was afllicted with an unclean spirit, and he prayed that God would heal her.
The empress had a vision that she would be healed of her infirmity if the Belt of the Mother of God were placed upon her. The emperor then asked the Patriarch to open the coffer. The Patriarch removed the seal and opened the coffer in which the relic was kept, and the Belt of the Mother of God appeared completely whole and undamaged by time. The Patriarch placed the Belt on the sick empress, and immediately she was freed from her infirmity. They sang hymns of thanksgiving to the Most Holy Theotokos, then they placed the venerable Belt back into the coffer and resealed it.
In commemoration of the miraculous occurrence and the twofold Placing of the venerable Belt, the Feast of the Placing of the Venerable Belt of the Most Holy Theotokos was established. Parts of the holy Belt are in the Vatopedi monastery on Mt. Athos, in Trier monastery, and in Georgia.
31 August ~ St. Eanswythe
A Saxon princess who founded a nunnery on the coast near Folkestone, Kent.
She was grand-daughter of King Saint Aethelbert. She is also known as Eanswida, Eanswide, Eanswith. She died August 31, c. 640…
The monastery she founded was destroyed by the Danes, but restored by King Athelstan, then refounded in 1095 for the Black Benedictines. Part of it was swallowed up by the sea, and so the community was moved to Folkestone. Her relics were translated to the church built by Eadbald in honor of Saint Peter, but later known as Saints Mary and Eanswyth. In 1885, a Saxon coffer was found in the north wall containing the bones of a young woman, which were assumed to be those of the saint.
In art, Saint Eanswyth is portrayed as a crowned abbess with a book and two fish. She is venerated at Folkestone, where her image is incorporated on its seals.
31 August ~ St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne
Saint Aidan is said to have been a disciple of Saint Senan (f.d. March 8) on Scattery Island, but nothing else is known with certainty of his early life before he became a monk of Iona…
He was well received by King Oswald, who had lived in exile among the Irish monks of Iona and had requested monks to evangelize his kingdom. The first missionary, Corman, was unsuccessful because of the roughness of his methods, so Aidan was sent to replace him. Oswald bestowed the isle of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) on Aidan for his episcopal seat and his diocese reached from the Forth to the Humber.
By his actions he showed that he neither sought nor loved the things of this world; the presents which were given to him by the king or other rich men he distributed among the poor. He rarely attended the king at table, and never without taking with him one or two of his clergy, and always afterwards made haste to get away and back to his work.
The centre of his activity was Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, between Berwick and Bamburgh. Here he established a monastery under the Rule of Saint Columcille; it was not improperly been called the English Iona, for from it the paganism of Northumbria was gradually dispelled and barbarian customs undermined. The community was not allowed to accumulate wealth; surpluses were applied to the needs of the poor and the manumission of slaves. From Lindisfarne Aidan made journeys on foot throughout the diocese, visiting his flock and establishing missionary centres.
Aidan’s apostolate was advanced by numerous miracles according to Saint Bede, who wrote his biography. It was also aided by the fact that Aidan preached in Irish and the king provided the translation. Saint Aidan took to this monastery 12 English boys to be raised there, and he was indefatigable in tending to the welfare of children and slaves, for the manumission of many of whom he paid from alms bestowed on him.
The great king Saint Oswald assisted his bishop in every possible way until his death in battle against the pagan King Penda in 642. A beautiful story preserved by Saint Bede tells that Oswald was sitting at dinner one Easter day, Saint Aidan at his side, when he was told a great crowd of poor people were seeking alms at the gate. Taking a massive silver dish, he loaded it with meat from his own table and ordered it distributed amongst the poor, and ordered the silver dish to be broken in fragments, and those too distributed to them. Aidan, Bede says, took hold of the king’s right hand, saying “Let this hand never decay!” His blessing was fulfilled. After Oswald’s death his incorrupt right arm was preserved as a sacred relic.
Oswald’s successor, Saint Oswin, also supported Aidan’s apostolate and when in 651, Oswin was murdered in Gilling, Aidan survived him only 11 days. He died at the royal castle of Bamburgh, which he used as a missionary centre, leaning against a wall of the church where a tent had been erected to shelter him. He was first buried in the cemetery of Lindisfarne, but when the new church of Saint Peter was finished, his body was translated into the sanctuary.
The monks of Lindisfarne, fleeing repeated Viking attacks, abandoned their holy island in 875, taking with them the relics of St. Oswald and St. Aidan packed into the coffin containing St. Cuthbert’s uncorrupted body. For over 100 years the monks wandered, settling here and there, and founding churches. In 995, fearing another attack from Danish raiders, the monks again fled with their precious relics. According to legend, when the monks approached the town of Durham the coffin began to grow heavy and one of the monks had a dream in which Cuthbert said his body would finally rest at ‘Dunholme’. None of the monks knew of such a place but, inquiring of local villagers, overheard two women speaking about a lost cow which was said to have strayed into ‘the Dunholme’. Investigated by the monks, this turned out to be a wooded promontory in a loop above the River Wear, which is where Durham cathedral now stands.
The monks of Glastonbury claimed that they held the bones of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne (in Northumberland) as early as the 11th century. We know that this was not his whole body, as it was accepted that half of it lay at Iona in Scotland, and some relics were also claimed by Durham Cathedral. As only a partial saint and the earliest recorded, it seems likely that Aidan may have been the only Northern relic brought south to Glastonbury by Tyccea, though not apparently because of the Viking threat.
Saint Bede highly praises the Irish Aidan who did so much to bring the Gospel to his Anglo-Saxon brothers. “He neither sought nor loved anything of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately to the poor whatever was given him by kings or rich men of the world. He traversed both town and country on foot, never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity. Wherever on his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited them, if pagans, to embrace the mystery of the faith; or if they were believers, he sought to strengthen them in their faith and stir them up by words and actions to alms and good works.”
He wrote that Saint Aidan “was a man of remarkable gentleness, goodness, and moderation, zealous for God; but not fully according to knowledge… “By which Bede means that he followed and taught the liturgical and disciplinary customs of the Celtic Christians, which differed from those of Continental Christianity. Montague notes that one effort of Anglo-Saxon education being conducted by Irish monks was that English writing was distinguished by its Irish orthography. Aidan brought to Ireland the custom of Wednesday and Friday fasts [see the Didache].
In art, Saint Aidan is portrayed as a bishop with the monastery of Lindisfarne in his hand and a stag at his feet (because of the legend that his prayer rendered invisible a deer pursued by hunters). He might also be portrayed (1) holding a light torch; (2) giving a horse to a poor man; (3) calming a storm; or (4) extinguishing a fire by his prayers, He is especially venerated at Glastonbury, Lindisfarne, and Whitby.
Prayer for Priests
I read many blogs on a daily basis. I thought of listing them all but I would need another blog just to do that. The other day I was reading the blog of Fr. Z, a Roman Catholic Priest, who blogs on a variety of topics. He posted a request for prayer for a priest that he knows that is going through some difficulty at the moment and that got me thinking. How often do we pray for our priests? I have a group of folks who pray for me each day. Being a priest is not easy, especially these days, and we can use all the prayer we can get.
St. Gregory Palamas wrote this prayer for priests and I would ask that you make this part of your daily prayer. Pray for priests that you know as they minister daily to God’s people.
O Lord Jesus Christ, enkindle the hearts of all thy priests with the fire of zealous love for Thee, that they may ever seek Thy glory; Give them strength that they may labor unceasingly in Thine earthly vineyard for the salvation of our souls and the glory of Thine All-Honorable and Majestic Name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Hurricane Irene
Unless you live under a rock, you know that this past weekend, the eastern part of the United States suffered the effects of Hurricane Irene. By the time it reached us here in the Village it had been Tropical Storm with a lot of wind and rain. Many people in our local area, including yours truly, lost power and some of them still do not have their power restored. All in all I would say we were lucky.
It did not take long for people to start blaming the media for hyping up the storm and making people afraid. I have heard stories of folks in New York who are angry at Mayor Bloomberg for all of the precautions he took and evacuations he ordered. Well as a former Boy Scout I would much rather over react then under react.
Following the advice of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts we canceled church here at St. Michael on Sunday and everyone just stayed put, safe and dry. As the day wore on and we could see that for us anyway, the storm was not going to cause much damage I ventured out to see what was up. We did get some water in the Church, but that is not uncommon for a rain storm of this magnitude but other than that no damage at all.
I did find it fascinating that after the storm had passed is when the cable and the power went out. I do remember the weather folks saying the worst winds would be on the south side of the Hurricane, and I guess they were.
There was some loss of life from this storm. I am not sure of the details of all, but I know some of them did not have to happen if the people had only heeded the warnings and stayed off the road. Here in the Village we had the only thus far reported death, and that happened just this morning. A worker from the DPW was electrocuted on his own porch by a downed electric wire that he did not see. This just reaffirms to me how serious safety is before, during, and after and event such as this. He was on his was to remove tree limbs so residents could have their power restored, I find this ironic.
Our neighbors to the west and the north were not as lucky as we were. Last night, the TV news, was full of images of Brattleboro, Vermont under water as the banks of a nearby river overflowed. Several communities in the Western Part of Massachusetts suffered the same tragic events as Brattleboro had. For those of us who have been inconvenienced with lack of power and cable we have much to be thankful for.
So in the end I for one am glad the media told us to be ready. One thing that I always try to keep in mind is that it is called weather forecasting and weather predicting not weather certainty. It could have been much worse here then it was and I am glad I was ready.