Here is a list of the top posts of the past week here at Shepherd of Souls.
Orthodox Unity in America
The Parable of the Vineyard
The Challenge of our Time
Wedding Sermon
Sermon ~ Take Up Your Cross
Launching into the Deep
Blessed are your Poor
Orthodoxy and Contraception
Transsexuals & Orthodoxy
Sermon ~ Do Not Weep
You may have noticed that the ability to comment has been disabled. That is due to a high rate of spam comment, more than 100 in one day, so I have been forced to turn of the ability to comment on posts for the time being.
Fear not, commenting will return soon.
Thanks for your understanding.
The title of this essay comes from the 6th chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke and is part of a much larger talk by Jesus that has become part of the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes. When I hear this passage I conjure up images of people living on the street or perhaps standing in line for food, but is this what this verse is all about or is it about something else?
We often think of the poor of those who have less than we do in a material sense of our thinking. Our world today places a lot of emphasis on the accumulation of things. The bigger house, the larger car, more clothes, etc. The world measures success by the amount of stuff that we have and for some, even Christians, we have bought into this. The entirety of the so called “prosperity gospel” is all about the accumulation of things, but is this what Jesus was really making reference too?
I would suggest that the true meaning is unknown but it is also varied in its application. Sure Jesus was concerned about those who were, and are, affected by economics but what about those who are spiritually poor and left behind and marginalized by the church are these not poor as well?
The people who attend our Community Meals at the church come from many walks of life. We have those who come because they don’t have to cook. We have those who come because they live alone and spend most of their day alone and they are looking for company. We have those who come because it is the only meal that they can afford to eat and welcome the take home meals that we provide. And we have those who come to visit with friends, new and old. It is a wonderful group of people who share a meal with us twice a month.
Many of these folks are poor, not materially although some are, but they are poor in spirit and for some they lack meaning in life. They go thought their day just trying to survive for many reasons. I am constantly amazed at the number of folks who have opened up to me to discuss situations at home or at work and how lost they feel in their lives. It would be easy to pity them but pity is not what they are seeking they want someone to listen, just listen and be concerned for them and for their situation. Often times the only advice I have to offer is that I will pray for them and they seem surprised that I would do that. But each time they come back they smile and some tell of how things are getting better. All most people need and want, is a sympathetic ear to just listen to them.
Being a friend to someone and truly listening to them is the best medicine that we can give. As Christians this is our duty and it requires no special training or sanction from the Church all it takes is a willingness to listen, really listen to another person without judgment.
We are all poor in one way or another but each time we welcome another person into our lives we become a little richer. Who will you welcome today?
Recently, an essay was published on the blog of First Things with the title, Are You Greek? Unifying the Orthodox Church in the United States. Written by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick the essay takes the reader through a bit or American Orthodox history and the question of Orthodox unity here in The United States of America.
I am a priest in an ethnic Orthodox jurisdiction, the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese, however I am not ethnically Romanian. Like Fr. Andrew I am a convert to Orthodoxy and I chose the church that I call my home because of a connection to the spirituality of Romania that pre dates my conversion by many years. What I have come to realize is that Orthodoxy here in America is very young, not that we have not been here long because we have, but we are young because in many churches, and as Fr. Andrew points out, many of the bishops are first generation.
I agree with the statement from the essay that “the Orthodox in America are in the process of figuring out just who we are.” I will quickly add, as did the author, that this is not a doctrinal discussion but rather an administrative one. “For better or for worse (depending on one’s view), the Orthodox aren’t going to be giving up on our dogmatic ecumenical councils or revising our Divine Liturgy.” We are unified as a church with our doctrine and our Liturgy. Sure there might some applications of both Liturgy and doctrine that differ amongst the bishops and the clergy but, “Orthodox is Orthodox, no matter what other adjectives it might wear.”
As I see it the problem of Orthodox unity is not one of figuring out how to make it happen but rather it is one of patience. I, like many Orthodox here in America, greeted the creation of the Assembly of Bishops with mush joy and hope for the future. For the first time all of the Orthodox bishops in America would come together in a single place to meet and talk about the future of the church. What helps is that the “mother churches” given the bishops the mandate to do this so in one sense they are forced to do this and that may not be a bad thing.
There are roughly 50 Orthodox bishops in the United States, when the Assembly was first created it included Canada and Mexico but they have recently been separated into their own assembly, and when they met for the first time in 2010 many of them did not know each other. They spent most of that first meeting, and they only meet face to face once a year, getting to know each other. I like to think of it as a marriage, we would not expect a man and woman to get married after their first date so we should not expect the very difficult task of joining together different jurisdictions to take place overnight.
The Orthodox Church here in America is much different from the Orthodox church of even a generation ago. As Fr. Andrew points out we work together on many levels from the international right down to the local. The churches here in my town work closer together then we ever have before. Can it get better, sure it can. The amalgamation of departments of religious education, clergy benefits, insurance, and the like can happy now and should happen now, but patience is what is needed at the moment.
I am not a fisherman but references to fishing are often used in Scripture to explain a point. One of my favorite fishing sayings is “you have to hold the fish gently or it will flop right out of your hand.”
There are voices from some quarters of Orthodoxy saying that the Assembly is a waste of time and things are moving too slowly. I recall a discussion at conference a few years before the creation of the assembly where one of the participants argued that this could, and should, be wrapped up in a year it is like the merger of two corporations, well it is not that simple.
In my opinion, and I welcome others to chime in here, part of this comes down to trust. Let us not forget that it was less than a generation ago that there were shouts of Communist be thrown at some members of our church which led to the separation of ethnic jurisdictions. My own Romanian Orthodox Church is split into two diocese that have been trying for the last, however many years, to repair a rift that never should have happened in the first place. Try as we might, with all of the good and righteous intentions, there is still a layer of mistrust bubbling under the surface. Until we come to grips with our past we will never be able to move into the future.
We have achieved Orthodoxy unity in America. Our bishops meet and have friendly discussion. Our parishioners know each other and work together. The clergy of the various jurisdictions meet and work together on projects. This is far more than we had even a generation ago.
It has taken the entire history of Orthodoxy in America to get to this point we cannot expect that the future will be changed and mapped out in a single meeting.
Fr. Andrew concludes his essay with these words:
Someone from outside the Orthodox Church may look at all this confusion and declare us hopeless. Certainly, this division makes it harder to see American Orthodox Christians as the local representatives of the second largest Christian communion in the world. Yet Orthodox doctrine, worship and spiritual life are remarkably unified despite all our administrative confusion, disunity and even rivalries—and given a choice between administrative confusion and confusion over doctrine and worship, I’ll take the first any day. Yes, we have an untidy organization, but we know who we are when it comes to what really matters. Orthodox is Orthodox, no matter what other adjectives it might wear.
I could not have said it better myself.
“The great Russian bishop of the last century, Theophanes “The Recluse” (d. 1894), in one of his pastoral letters makes a startling statement. What the Russian Church most needed, he said, was “a band of firebrands,” which would set the world on fire. The incendiaries must be themselves burning and go around to inflame human minds and hearts. Theophanes did not trust a “residual Christianity.” Customs could be perpetuated by inertia, he said, but convictions and beliefs could be kept only by spiritual vigilance and continuous effort by the spirit. Theophanes felt that there was too much routine and convention in the life of Russian Christians. He anticipated a crisis and even a collapse. He resigned his diocese and retired to a monastery, because he felt that he could do much more service to the Church by writing books than by administering a bishopric.”
Fr. George Florovsky
The Gospel of Luke 5:1-11
At that time, Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he was astonished, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Very often in the Gospels Jesus would use images that his listeners would understand, or at least he would hope they would understand. In this pericope used on the 18th Sunday after Pentecost the image of fish and fishing is employed to make a point about what we are all supposed to be doing.
Jesus has just finished teaching and he asks Peter, and a few others, to get in their boats and to “put out into the deep” and drop their nets. At first they protest as they had been out all night and were understandably tired but Jesus asks them to trust Him and so they do as He directed. Eventually they pull in more fish than one boat can handle and they need assistance from others to help them pull in the nets.
St. Ambrose viewed this image of putting out into the deep as the call for all of us to put out deeper into our lives with Christ. As Christians we are required to do something, to take action, not only in the world but in our own lives. It has been described as a Christian walk and as such we need to keep moving. Sure we stop and dwell from time to time, but the essence of our Christian life is movement and growth. We are constantly being called to move deeper and deeper in our relationship with Jesus because if we don’t we have stopped walking and we are standing still.
We do not live our lives in isolation we live them in community be it family or be it the Church community. As Christians we cannot walk our walk alone, we need the support of the community and the support of a Spiritual Father to help us along the path we are on and if need be, put us back on the path.
Peter has the realization that he has come face to face with the Divine Power, mush as Moses did when he came into the presence of the Burning Bush. He fell to his knees and asked Jesus to depart from him because of this realization that he was unworthy. How many of us have felt that way? Peter came to the realization that he is not worthy but we, who know the end of the story, know that God can use us worthy or not, for great things if we have the willingness to say yes and to launch out into the deep and cast our nets.
The glory of our Christian life and walk, if we are in fact walking and standing still, is that little by little we do become worthy if we want to become worthy. Thanks be to God He can use me even when I am at my weakest and when I am broken. God used Peter, who denied Christ, God used Paul, who persecuted and killed multitudes of Christians for good even in their brokenness. They were willing to be used and that is what need a willingness.
The fisherman had worked a long had night and they were tired all they wanted was to fix their nets and go home and get some sleep. They were beaten down physically by their hard work and emotionally by the fact that they did not catch anything. Jesus asked them to trust Him and to try again and because of that trust and obedience to the will of God, they caught more than they could handle. They were willing and obedient and were used for great things. The great catch of fish is symbolic of the work that they would do for the kingdom of God. Simple tired and worn out fisherman set the world on fire because they were willing and obedient.
If you have been following these pages for the last few months you know that I have begun working as a chaplain for a local hospice provider. This work has added a dimension to my ministry that I never thought I would have. Helping people, both patients and their families, during their last days has many rewards and I am glad I decided to pursue this work.
At a recent meeting of the hospice team, one team member mentioned the Poem The Dash. I had never heard of this poem before so I did a quick Google search to find it. The poem is about the dash that lies between your birth date and the date of your death and represent your entire life. This has taken on a new meaning for me as I listen to the life stories of those on my hospice service.
The author of the poem, Linda Ellis, has asked that a link is posted to her website rather than copying the poem and placing it on mine so I will honor her request. Please do take a few moments to follow the link below and read The Dash and think about your dash.
Over the last few weeks the world has come face to face with an absolute evil known as the group ISIS or whatever it is we are calling it now. As I write this, word has come that another person has been beheaded by this so-called group of religious fighters. I have not watched, nor do I recommend that you watch, the videos of these three murders, as they are very gruesome. It is very difficult to not hate the people who are doing this but, as Christians, that is exactly what we are called to do, not hate.
In a recent speech, Vice-President Biden spoke of these “evil people” and that we have to follow them to hell because that is where they belong. I can certainly understand the sentiment and I support the effort to fight back, but Mr. Vice President…people are not evil – their actions are – but people are not evil.
I have written of this countless numbers of times but it bears repeating. All of humanity is created in the image and likeness of God and as such humanity is created fundamentally good because God is good. Evil is not something that comes from God but is a creation of this fallen world and the sinful nature and corruption of humanity. I am not writing this to excuse the behavior of people – far from it – but to show that at our core we are good people and that evil is something that we are taught.
I cannot begin to understand the mind of people who are willing to do this but it all stems from a corruption of, and a zealous belief in, a religious thought. It seems to be the right thing to do, in some minds, to brand all followers of Islam as terrorist and radicals and that is simply not the case. I do believe, as an Orthodox Christian, that Islam is wrong and that Jesus is the only way, but the corruption of religious thought for evil purposes, any religious thought, is just simply wrong.
This radicalization of religious thought comes from hatred and intolerance of people who are and believe differently than they do. They see it as their job to rid the world of this “wrong belief” and purify the earth. The only place that this comes from is from the evil one. Every life is sacred and the taking of a life, for any purpose, goes against the plan of God so the cleansing of the infidel cannot be from God.
Hatred is, plain and simple, evil, and we have to be ever-vigilant to not let it invade our spiritual lives. What we are witnessing in the Middle East is the direct result of what hatred can do to a person on a physical and spiritual level. Hatred blinds us to the truth and to the ultimate goodness of humanity and causes us to act in an irrational way. We have to be on guard against hatred less we fall into the same trap.
However, with that said, there is a difference between hating the sinful actions of people and hating the people who are perpetrating the sinful acts and this is true with any sinful action. I do not think that the members of the Westboro Baptist Church rise to the level of ISIS but they have been used as an example of Christian radicalism and a misapplication of Christian teaching and I will use them as an example as well.
What we see in these protests is a complete misunderstanding of the message of Jesus to love your neighbor as yourself. They have taken the message of love and turned it to a message of hate. The venom that is spewed is the same venom that was spewed at Christ as He was led to His crucifixion. It is very easy to point your finger at someone else all the time missing the sins in our own lives. It is easy to engage in hate speech, be it white supremacy, anti-Semitism, anti-Arab or whatever it might be rather than engage in conversation that could lead to an understanding. Tolerance is a funny word that extends in both directions and what we are called to is a sense of toleration, not acceptance, of other people and their behavior. Jesus was very tolerant of everyone, even those who eventually crucified Him, but He was not accepting of their behavior and He never hated and that is the message of the Gospel – love.
Love of one’s enemy is one of the hardest things we are called to do as Christians but it is necessary for our spiritual well-being and, I believe, the mark of a mature Christian. It is not easy, and takes much prayer and guidance from a spiritual parent, but if we hope to live a balanced spiritual life then we have to do it. It is time that we as a Christian community turned our attention toward prayer and away from hate; hate is easy – love is difficult.
We as a nation have to act. We have to protect ourselves and others from evil and sometimes that means the use of our military to do so. My prayer is for those who will be sent into harm’s way and for those who will be caught in the middle. May we use our military might for justice and for protection of the innocent.
On September 11, 2001 Fr. Mychal Judge was going about his daily routine when he heard that a plane had struck one of the buildings of the World Trade Center. Fr. Mychal had the honor of being the Chaplain for the New York City Fire Department and when the call went out, he grabbed his gear and went right to the scene.
The Chaplain usually stands at the Command Post to be available to the scene commander and also to be available if he is needed by one of the guys working the fire ground. Fr. Mychal was in the lobby of the North Tower of the World Trade Center giving last rites to many of the dead.
At 9:59 am when the Tower collapsed, debris went flying through the air and Fr. Mychal was hit in the back of the head and killed instantly. His body was found by a NYPD Lieutenant and 2 fire fighters, and they carried his body to nearby St. Peter’s Church and placed there before the altar.
Fr. Mychal died doing what he loved, “Serving Those Who Serve” and he is the main reason I am a fire chaplain today. 2001 was my first year in the seminary and I made the decision that I would, one day, serve those who serve. In October 2004 I was appointed the first Department Chaplain for the Dudley Fire Department and since 2016 I have been Chaplain to the Quincy Fire Department and I am proud to serve.
The Massachusetts Corps of Fire Chaplains created an award given to a Fire Department Chaplain “In grateful acknowledgement of the time, energy, and faithfulness given to the men and women of the Fire Service.” I was honored with this award in 2008.
I wear a small metal bracelet on my wrist each and every day that bears the name of Fr. Mychal. It is a constant reminder to me of why I do what I do and I pause on this day and think of Fr. Mychal and how he died doing what he loved.
There is a short prayer that is attributed to Fr. Mychal and I try to remember to say it each time I head out the door on a call,
“Lord take me where you want me to go:
Let me meet who you want me to meet:
Tell me what you want me to say:
And keep me out of your way.”
Fr. Mychal Judge, Pray for us!
National Preparedness Month is almost upon us, and in light of that, I thought a quick look at why being prepared makes sense, and can, in fact, be a fun activity for yourself and your family. Why should you do it at all?
Let’s quickly review a few things we’ve seen in the past few months.
Believe me, I could easily go on. Being prepared is not just a Boy Scout motto, but an American way of life. The CDC wants you to be ready for a Zombie Apocalypse(the idea being, if you are prepared for a Zombie Apocalypse, you’re prepared for anything). For the person who believes you have never done any ‘preparing’ – you actually have!
When you go to the store before a storm to pick up a few extras, when you buy to keep yourself going until the next paycheck, when you just have a little extra medicine, in case of an emergency, you’ve been preparing. It does not require a complete change of life, buying bunkers, gas masks and exotic items for survival. For most folks, it means having more than three days worth of necessities. If you have three days, work on three weeks. If you have three weeks, work on three months. It’s not as hard as you think.
This episode of “Surviving Disaster” describes in simple detail what it actually takes to survive three months at home. Enjoy the show, and take a few notes.
For years now, the IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) has recommended that Americans, wherever they live, should make preparations for unexpected natural disasters or serious civil problems, such as terrorist attacks, which can make getting supplies almost impossible. By preparing yourself, no matter where you are, you take the burden off of emergency responders to get to folks who need help – who did not prepare.
Here is the link to the IOCC Preparedness Emergency Kit Flyer. I recommend you download it and get to work!
According to the 2009 Citizen Corps National Survey, only 36 percent of individuals believed there was a high likelihood of a natural disaster to EVER happen in their community. Many people think they have everything they need in the event of an emergency at hand, and can simply “grab and go.” It’s called a 72 hour bag, but goes by many other names (i.e., BOB – Bug Out Bag).
You are your family’s first responder, and in many ways you are your neighbor’s first responder. All of us as participants in our communities and members of our families need to take concrete steps to proactively prepare for emergencies and disasters. Local, state, and national authorities are going to help, but they may not be able to get to you right away.
We all need to be prepared for those first 72 hours before help can reach us.
September is the perfect time to take action and get your family Ready. Readiness comes in many forms and preparedness is everyone’s responsibility. We have to work together, as a team, to ensure that our families, neighborhoods, and communities are Ready.
To help get your family started, Ready Kids is a family-friendly, children-oriented tool to help parents and teachers educate children, ages 8-12, about emergencies and how they can help families better prepare. The Ready Kids Web site at ready.gov features fun activities such as a Scavenger Hunt, Pack It Up Matching game, crossword puzzles and coloring pages, as well as age-appropriate, step-by-step instructions on what families can do to better prepare for emergencies and the role kids can play in that effort.
It’s important to explain to your children that families can prepare for emergencies before they take place and that they can help, too. By doing so, you can alleviate anxiety if an emergency does occur and help to nurture a more prepared society for generations to come.
Visit Ready.gov to get a kit, make a plan, and stay informed.
Visit ready.gov/kids today and help your kids get ready.
Visit the Arizona Emergency Preparedness Page at Ready.gov.
Again, here is the link to the IOCC Emergency Preparedness Kit Flyer.