10 Things to do on Vacation

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Fr. Peter

Now that summer is almost here and we start to think about taking a little time off here are some suggestions that come to us from the Blog, Orthodoxy Around the World.

1. Make every effort to improve your health: try to get enough sleep; go for walks in the fresh air as often as you can; put your daily regime in order. Having a bad time off and not restoring your strength can lead to difficulty in doing your work with proper concentration over the course of the year.

2. Expand your prayer rule by adding something that you do not normally have time to read: prayers, psalms, or a chapter from the Gospels. Or read your usual rule with greater attention and concentration.

3. Read at least one book about the faith: something by one of the Holy Fathers (for instance, St. John Chrysostom) or by a contemporary theologian.

4. Try to visit a monastery and venerate its sacred objects. Do not allow yourself to miss the Sunday Liturgy, justifying yourself by saying you are on vacation.

5. An information break is also essential. Put aside a few days of your vacation time that will be entirely free from the Internet, social networks, and frequent text messaging. Reduce the amount of time you spend reading the news or watching television. Hold out for as long as possible!

6. Communicate on a serious and deep level with members of your family – wife, husband, parents – without hurrying and without being distracted every five minutes by the telephone. Talk about life, joys, problems, and plans; rejoice in one another’s company.

7. As our children grow up, we often stop teaching them anything new in the same way we did when they were little. Read aloud to them an interesting but serious work that will open up something new to them. Watch a good, meaningful film with them. Teach them to listen to silence or to understand the beauty of poetry.

8. Think of something that members of your household have been asking you to do for some time, but that you have kept putting off. Take the children to the zoo, repair something, or sew up something – fulfill what was requested of you.

9. Complete an act of charity that you have long been putting off.

10. Visit your godparents, godchildren, or old family friends whom you have not seen for a long time.

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The Problem with Pride

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Fr. Peter

As someone involved in the spiritual direction and guiding others along the spiritual path, I often get the question about pride. We hear that pride is dangerous and that pride led to the first sin, and although all of that is true not all pride is bad, in fact, some pride is good for us.

For the past several weeks, I have been engaged in a virtual bible study using the Letter of St. James. (You can sign up here if you want to jump in) This letter, in my opinion, is often overlooked for its many nuggets of wisdom. There is much that can be learned from this letter, and some of the ones that follow it, that I believe a further study indeed is needed by all.

One of the verses this past week was from the 4^th chapter and verses 4-7 and reads thus:

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James meets what is an inevitable reaction to this picture of God as the jealous lover. If God is like that, how can anyone give to him the devotion he demands? James’ answer is that, if God makes a high demand, he gives great grace to fulfill it, and the greater the demand, the greater the grace God gives.

But the problem is that a man cannot receive this grace until he has realized he needs it and has approached God in humility asking for help. It must always remain faithful that God sets himself against the proud and gives his grace to the humble. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34) and (1 Peter 5:5).

But what is the destructive pride? The word for proud is huperephanos which means one who shows himself above other people. It’s real terror is that it is a thing of the heart. It means haughtiness, but the man who suffers from it might well appear to be walking in downcast humility while all the time there is in his heart a vast contempt for all his fellow man.

This type of pride shuts itself off from God for three reasons.

It does not know its need. It so admires itself that recognizes no need to be supplied.
It cherishes its independence. It will be beholden to no man and not even to God.
It does not recognize its sin. It is occupied thinking of its goodness and never realizes that has any sin from which it needs to be saved. Pride like this cannot receive help because it does not know that it needs aid and, therefore, it cannot ask.

James is pleading for a sense of humility that has two characteristics.

It knows that if a man takes a resolute stand against the devil, he will prove him a coward. The great example of this is in Jesus’ temptations in the desert. In this, we see that the Devil is not invincible when confronted with the word of God. With the word of God, the devil can be put to flight. The Christian has the humility that knows we must fight our battles with the tempter but not with our power but with the power of God.
It knows that it has the greatest privilege of all, access to God. No longer is it only the priest who can have access to God. Through the work of Jesus Christ, anyone can come before the throne of God, confident that they will find mercy and grace to help us in the time of need.

The Christian must have humility, but a humility that gives us the dauntless courage and knows that the way to God is open to the most fearful saint.

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A Little Summer Reading

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Fr. Peter

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a reenactment of the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was a fascinating experience to be involved in such an historic event and I came to the realization that, although I only live a few miles away from the actual site of the Battle, I had never been there and I did not know that much about it. I turned to my friend Liz Covart who hosts the outstanding podcast Ben Franklin’s World and asked her for a suggestion of a good book about the battle.

As with any historical topic there are many books about the Battle of Bunker Hill and I always lean towards recent scholarly works when seeking out information on historical topics. In the past I have been accused of being a revisionist historian but I feel that recent scholarship is the way to go.

Liz recommended the book by Nathanial Philbrick Bunker Hill, A City, A Siege, A Revolution so I set off to the book sellers and purchased it straight away. Released in 2013 by Viking Press this handsome book of more than 350 pages of text and illustrations is hard to put down. Philbrick takes the reader back in time not only to the Battle of Bunker Hill but to the very complex series of events that leads up to the Battle Itself.

Writing simply about the Battle would have been a challenging event in and of itself but to discuss the reasons, and the characters, behind the events is even more important for the reader to truly understand what this had to happen. Just like any discussion about the causes of the Civil War, the causes of the American Revolution cannot be boiled down into a nice little bundle and it is often not what one would think.

I am little less than halfway through the volume but I already have a much different perspective on the Battle and on the events leading up to it. I look forward to reading the remained of the book.

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3 Ways to Reach Millennials

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Fr. Peter

Much has been written about the recent Pew Research poll about the condition of religion in America. I have said before that if we are all about the numbers this would be a little troubling, but I try to focus on quality and not necessarily quantity. Sure, it’s nice to have a full church but then again it’s nice when anyone shows up at all!

But what about the millennials?

Millennials make up the generation that follows Generation X, my generation. They were born between 1980 and 2000 although those dates have not been agreed upon. So that puts them between the ages of 35 to 15, a rather large portion of the population and, although I hate this term, our target audience.

By and large millennials distrust any organization and so they are not quick to “join up.” They are very tech savvy and will be apter to “check you out” on the internet than walk through your door. This is one of the main reasons you need to have a website for your church and not just a static website but a website that is built for the millennial generation (oh yes and is mobile ready) There will be more about the tech savviness of millennials in a future essay.

The Barna Group is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization that conducts research leading to the understanding of cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. The research is geared towards those of us involved in church work, and it is necessary research for us to understand the changing times we live in. Although we do not market the church per se, we need to know where people are and what they are seeking.

In a recent survey of Millennials, conducted from January 17-23, 2013 more than one-third of respondents say that their negative perceptions are a result of moral failures in church leadership. And substantial millennials who do not go to church say they see Christians as judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), anti-homosexual (91%) and insensitive to others (70%). This is what we are up against!

When asked to select an image that best represent present day Christianity this is what the results showed.

41% chose the pointing finger, and 22% chose the man with bull horn. 19% chose the helping hand image and 18% the worship service image. We have a lot of public relations to do if we are going to reverse this trends.

One this Millennials desire is authentic Christianity. They can smell a fraud from 10 steps away and do not want to interact with them. They are seeking a deeper relationship with God and with others but in a gentler way than perhaps we are used to. They do not just want to be told how to live their lives they want to be authentically shown how to live and have open and frank discussion with people about their struggles and how they have overcome them.

So how do we fix this perception? Well, we can start by being less judgmental and move loving. We need leaders, both clergy and lay, which are dedicated to the Gospel message of love and acceptance. As I write in my last essay, acceptance does not mean approval but we first have to love people. If we have the message of eternal life, they will never hear it unless they come through the door.

Millennials wish to help change the world and so the church needs to be involved in helping their fellow man right in their neighborhood, so we need to have more opportunities for them to engage with the church at this level.

Millennials desire a place to find answers to living a meaningful life and also wish to experience transcendence in worship, in prayer, and in teaching. They do not need a liturgical experience that hip or cool but one that is authentic and real a place where they can come into contact with the living God and with real people struggling to live lives dedicated to God, not fake people who put on airs.

Not all hope is lost, and there is much more to understand about the research. I will be posting additional essays as well as podcasts about this shortly so stay tuned.

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Ministry of Presence

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Fr. Peter

Much of what we do as clergy can get lost in the sameness of life. The humdrum of life marches every forward moving us along with it. Sometimes we go from meeting to meeting, Sunday to Sunday just going through the motions and then there is an event that changes it all.

If you have been reading these pages for a time, you know that also to being a pastor I also serve as chaplain to the local fire department and as a hospice chaplain. I have had some of my most intimate ministry experiences in the most unusual places. The bumper of a fire truck, leaning against a telephone pole in the middle of the night outside of a burned out house, or at the bedside of a dying woman.

Yesterday I was called to the bedside of one of my hospice patients. I knew she was not doing well and had planned to visit, but the nurse called and made it all that more urgent. At that point, much of what I do is for the family. The patient, the person, is ready and is transitioning to the next phase of their life. I don’t like the phrase “pass away” as that is not a precise description, but a transition is more appropriate.

In any event, I arrived, and her two daughters were in the room with her. I had met one of them when I admitted her mother, but the second was one was new. We sat and talked about many things and then the question came, “Why is God allowing my mom to suffer?” I don’t get this question as often as I thought I would, but it is never an easy answer. Sure there is the textbook answer but I have found that those answers are not very good when the person is asking is watching their loved one die an agonizing death. Much of the seminary dribble seems to go right out the window at those moments.

I looked her in the eye and said, “I don’t know.” I followed that up with, “what I do know is that God never promised us a life where we would not suffer. He never promised us that we would not die in pain. But I hold on to the fact that he did promise us that we would not go through it alone, and I feel his presence her now with us.” She looked back at me for a long time, well what seemed like a long time anyway, and she thanked me for those words. I told her I was going to write them down so I could use them again! We all had a good laugh!

We talked for a while longer and then they asked me to pray. I never force prayer on people rather I let them run the visit. Who knows what their faith life is like and most of the time I feel I am more of a friend than the minister and if that is what they want then that is what they need. I introduce myself as Peter, the chaplain from hospice. No pretentious father or minister just Peter the Chaplain.

So I took out my prayer book, I stink at extemporaneous prayer, so I use the prayer book, and I selected the prayer for the terminally ill. This is a prayer for comfort and a prayer of forgiveness and reconciliation. I prayed this prayer and as I said Amen, she took her last breath. We stood there silent for a moment just watching to see if her body would move and it did not. She had received the assurance that she was not alone, that God was with her, as well as her family, and this stranger and she very quietly slipped away.

One of the daughters turned to me and said you released her! I joked and said I needed to be careful who I used that prayer with. I must add here that just before I prayed I joked that I better not say the wrong prayer because I did not know what would happen. We all laughed.

So there we were, some crying a little tear and some just grateful that God was faithful to his promise never to leave us. Oh sure we may leave him but he never leaves us!

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Acceptance does not mean approval

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Fr. Peter

Over the past few months, I have been meditating on this idea of acceptance as it relates to other people and how, as a Christian, I should be thinking about this. I believe that we have this idea in our minds that if we do not approve of the behavior of someone that means we do not have to accept them and that my friends are just plain wrong.

There are three instances in Scripture that I will use to illustrate my point.

The calling of Matthew the Tax Collector (Matthew 9:1-13)

Matthew was a tax collector and, therefore, was not an honorable man. Tax collectors, by their very nature, were considered liars and cheats by the population and a Jewish tax collector were seen as cooperating with the government and also taking more than they should. Jesus comes along and calls Matthew simply with the words, “Follow me.” Scripture tells us that Matthew “arose and followed him.” Notice that Jesus did not call him out as a sinner. Jesus did not say change your ways and follow me. Jesus invited him, and he accepted the invitation. Jesus never judged him nor called him a sinner. Jesus asked the sinner to come and change his life. Jesus accepted Matthew in love and understanding and asked Matthew to come and follow. Matthews’s life was changed, but he first was accepted by Jesus.

The Woman Caught in Adultery (John 8:1-11)

Jesus was in the Temple, and the Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to him who had been caught in the act of adultery. By the law of the day, the woman should have been stoned for what she had done. Notice that there is no such penalty for the man just for the woman. Of course, the Scribes and Pharisees were testing Jesus to see if they might catch him in a transgression of the law. But, Jesus being Jesus, he knew this. He stoops down and begins to write in the sand with his finger. Some commenters on this passage say he is writing their names and their sins next to it, but we do not know. They press him for an answer while he is writing this, and he says to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (v 7). He then returns to his writing on the ground. Scripture then tells us, “those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience went out one by one” (v 9). When Jesus looked up there was no one there but the woman and himself. He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers if yours? Has no one condemned you?” She answered him, “No one, Lord.” Jesus tells her, “Neither do I condemn you: go and sin no more” (v 10-11). This is amazing! He accepted he; he did not condemn her. He did not tell her that unless she changed her ways she was going to hell. He told her that he did not condemn her, but he also told her to sin no more. He accepted her, but he did not approve of her conduct.

The Samaritan Woman at the Well (John 4:1-30)

This is one of my favorite pericopes and one I have written and preached on before. Jesus has been traveling and stopped by a well to get a drink. A woman of Samaria comes along, in the heat of the day to collect her water. She notices Jesus there and is not sure what to do. Samaritans and Jews did not get along. Jesus asks her for a drink, and an amazing dialog begins. She questions him about not having anything to draw the water with and that she is a woman, and a Samaritan and why is he asking her for a drink? He tells her that he is the living water, and she responds by telling him that she wants this water. He invited her, and she has accepted. There has been no judgment although Jesus knows all about her. Jesus tells her to go and call her husband, and she replies that she has no husband. She has come face to face with her life and were in sorrow for it at this moment. Jesus has given her an opportunity to come clean with him, and she has taken it. He has shown her love, and no condemnation, and that has paved the way for her to open her life to him and for a desire to change. Her life changes right there at the well. She leaves her jar behind and returns to the city to tell those there what had happened. Her life was changed because of love!

These are but three examples of many from the Scriptures that witness to us this concept of radical, unconditional love. This love is central to the spiritual life, and dare I say is what our spiritual life hangs on. Jesus did not accept the behavior of the three people from these stories, but he showed them love and compassion and in fact he only told one of them to sin no more! By his loving example, the others were compelled to change their lives but he first showed them love and compassion and when they were ready, they changed their lives.

All of us are in need of this unconditional compassionate love, and it is what we are required to show others that we might come into contact with. We are the only Bible that most people will ever read what do we want those pages to say.

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Having Eyes, They See Not

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Fr. Peter

This past week we were present with the Gospel story of the man who was born blind (John 9:1-38). In this story, we see Jesus healing them man by placing the clay on his eyes and directing him to go and wash and when I man did as directed he was healed. We also come face to face with the Pharisees who objected to the healing because it did not follow the proper usage of the law. They could see the miracle before them, but they were blinded by the fact that it was done in accordance with the law.

A tourist took one look at the Grand Canyon and said to the security guard standing nearby, “Where is the golf course?” When the guard told him that there wasn’t any, he said, “What do you do around here all day?” In the presence of one of the most sublime and awe-inspiring spectacles of the world, this man saw nothing. He had eyes, but his capacity to see beauty and grandeur had not been developed. Having eyes, he saw not.

The problem for most of us is not our physical sight but our spiritual sight.

Much of our blindness is willful. We shut things out that we do not want to acknowledge. It is as if we don’t see it then it does not exist. Things are happening all around us, and we are blissfully unaware of it all. How many times have we been driving somewhere and when we arrive we do not remember the journey? We get so caught up in our stuff that we miss what is around us.

All around us are people living in distress, in despair, in loneliness, in sorrow, in sickness. Do we see them? We have learned to walk down the street and never see any of them. When we do walk down the street, do we look at other people or do we keep our eyes focused somewhere else so as not to catch their attention?

Even more than the blind man in today’s Gospel we need to ask Jesus to restore our sight that we may see the suffering and afflictions of our fellow humans. We refuse to see the image of God that abides in every human being. Sometimes we are blind to the things that close to us; we can only see what lies ahead in the distance.

We are farsighted. We can easily see the sins of others but not our own. We condemn those whose lifestyle we do not agree with but all the while we are living a life that the church does not agree with, it is much easier to point out others sins than deal with our own. How desperately we need to pray Lord, let me receive my sight that I may see and remove the log that is my eye before I concern myself with the speck in someone else eye!

We miss the many miracles that take place all around us. The new growth of spring, the cry of a baby, the laughter of a child, the rain, the wind and we fail to see that Christ is present with us, right here in this very place, in the form of bread and wine, but if we are spiritually blind we do not see it and miss out on a tremendous opportunity.

Perhaps we miss seeing God in the world because we do not have enough of God in our lives. We have failed to cultivate this vision; we have trained our eyes to see things, but we neglected the most significant capacity that belonged to a man, the ability to see God in prayer and worship!

If we are to see again, then a miracle must take place in our lives. Jesus must touch our eyes just as he touched those of the blind man in today’s Gospel. Then slowly we will begin to see, and then we will come to realize that without Jesus we cannot truly see and that without him we will continue to be blind.

Jesus is the opener of the eyes of the soul and with him there will always be darkness. I am the light of the world, Jesus tells us, He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

There is a story of a lonely man who felt so rejected by the cold city in which he lived that he decided to kill himself by throwing himself into the river. As he left his room, he told himself, “If I meet someone on the street whose eyes catch mine, which somehow takes notice of me as a human being, I’ll turn back. Only then.” So he began his walk to the river.

Here the story ends. But is poses this question: suppose he had met you on the street, would he have turned back?

Fr. Peter-Michael Preble is the pastor of St. Michael Orthodox Church in Southbridge Massachusetts and blogs at www.frpeterpreble.com. Follow Fr. Peter on Twitter @frpeterpreble

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PODCAST: The Woman at the Well

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Fr. Peter

What do you do when you’re confronted with your sin face to face?

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It’s Not Just about the Numbers

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Fr. Peter

Recently, the Pew Research Forum released a study concerning the religious landscape in America. The results are sobering for those of us in church work and require much thought and consultation moving forward. I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone but the numbers of Christians, or rather people who consider themselves Christian, has fallen in the time from 2007 to 2014. The numbers are down across the board, and it is not confined to just one denomination.

But it is not just about the numbers!

Since the start of Christianity, people have been coming and going in the Church. People join and then for some reason, perhaps marriage, perhaps they move, perhaps the grow out of their faith, whatever the reason people have and continue to move on from one Church to another. Should we be concerned? Sure, those of doing the work of the Church should always be concerned about how and why people leave our congregations. But the question I have to ask is, are we listening?

Sometimes I feel we spend way too much time on those who wish to not be part of our congregations. I read in one of Rick Warren’s books that if someone leaves follow up with them, but they know where you are and what time your services are, why spend time on people who do not wish to belong? This is a serious question that needs some serious thought and meditation.

All the time we spend on trying to get those back what are we doing for those who remain? I believe that quality is better than quantity. But we do have to listen to why people are leaving the Church. Sometimes we might be able to make some slight changes, I know Church folk don’t really like the “C” word, but sometimes we cannot.

Are we afraid to ask the question why? Are we afraid of the answer?

If the young people are saying that the Church is not relevant to their lives what are we, or can we, do to change that? Are we convening meetings with them to see what their needs are and how we can fill them? Are we focusing on the wrong things? Where is our attention and where is our focus? Are we using Church property for the benefit of the community as a whole or are we merely maintaining great museums.

There was a time in New England when the Church was the center of life in the Town. In many places, the Church also served as the Town Hall. The meetings of the “Sons of Liberty” was held in pubs in Boston but also in Churches. Are we opening our doors to those in need? Are we preaching sermons that move people to action or are our words filled with judgement and condemnation?

It’s not all about the number but we have to listen to what the numbers are saying to us and yes, we have to be willing to change, or the Church will indeed become irrelevant in not only people’s lives but in the world.

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Those Pesky Pharisees

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Fr. Peter

Read John 9:1-38

A long time ago, in a writing class I was in, the teacher said that every good story has a hero and an antagonist. In the Gospel story from the 9^th chapter of John presents just that the hero, the blind man or perhaps Jesus (although he is the hero of all biblical stories) and the Pharisees.

Jesus and walking along the road and he meets a man that has been blind since birth. Biblical commentators say that the man is known to Jesus and his Apostles and would have known his story and that he was blind from his birth. Being blind from birth is essential to the story as sometimes there was a question about healing and the fact that perhaps the person was not sick. In any case, the Apostles asked who had sinned the man or his parents.

The ancients believed there was a direct correlation between sickness and sin. In some way, this might be true. When we sin we do not always make the best choices, and this can lead to severe consequences but, in this case, since the man was born this way, it is unlikely this happened. However, Jesus provides us with the answer in verse 3, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

Jesus makes clay with some of his spit; this harkens back to the creation of the world and put the clay on his eyes. He then directs the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam, which was located quite a distance from the Temple. The man had to participate in the gift that Jesus was giving him. Sure Jesus could have just healed the man, we see this on several occasions, but he asked the man to participate in his healing as a way to show us that we too need to take part in our healing.

Now this is where the story gets good.

Later on the man’s neighbors see him and they start to ask if this was indeed the man who had been born blind. He tells them that yes it is he, and they ask how he was healed. He tells them the story of Jesus; he is evangelizing his neighbors, and they were so interested in the fact that their friend could now see that they take him to the Pharisees.

The Pharisees question the man about his healing and when they discover that it was Jesus, who they apparently knew about by this point in His ministry, and when they realized that it had been done on the Sabbath they become enraged. It was unlawful to perform any work on the Sabbath and the action of Jesus “making the clay” was considered work. Since he broke the Sabbath, he was. Therefore, a sinner and this “healing” could not have been from God.

The bring in the man’s parents to verify the story and the parents tell the Pharisees that he was in fact born blind, but they have no idea how he was healed in fact they tell the Pharisees that the man in “of age” go and ask him. They were so terrified of the Pharisees and being thrown out of the Temple, that they were willing to sacrifice their son! This is what religion can do.

So they bring in the man again and ask him for his healing. The man answers that he had already told them what had happened in fact he scolds them because they did not listen the first time. I am sure that went over well with them. He then asks them if they too wish to become a disciple of Jesus. Well this sets them off, and they become indignant and they proclaim that they follow Moses, they condemn the man and cast him out of the Temple.

The Pharisees were the truly blind ones in this story. Their lack of faith so blinded them; their hatred of Jesus so blinded them, their fear of Jesus so blinded them and perhaps their loss of position, which they missed the miracle for the rule. The law said you cannot work on the Sabbath, and that is all they were able to see. A man who had been blind from birth had received his sight and had been made whole and rather than giving God the glory and rejoicing they were giving the law the glory and used it to condemn not only Jesus but the poor man who had been healed.

This happens more than we would like to think it does in the church today. We get so caught up in the rules and the laws that we forget about the people. We see their sin, and not ours by the way, and all we wish to do in condemn them for it. We enshrine the law in gold and use it a weapon against the people. We cast them out, maybe not as the Pharisees did in the story, but we cast them out with our words and with our actions.

But the story does not end there. Jesus finds the man and asks him what happened and asks the man if he believes in the Son of God. The man asks who he is that he might believe in him. Jesus responds that it is himself, and the man believes. Jesus responds in verse 39, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see and that those who see may be made blind.” Blinded by the law they threw out a man who could see because of his faith.