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February 16, 2007 - Notes for the Beginning of Great Lent - "Let's get off to a good start..."
Dear Parish Faithful,
Great Lent begins on Monday. It is very important to get off to a "good start." That possibility is always presented to us with the Forgiveness Vespers that we serve after the Liturgy on the eve of Great Lent. And that opportunity will present itself this coming Sunday. Mutual forgiveness is, according to Christ, essential for Christians who are committed to the Gospel. "Greet one another with a holy kiss" exhorts the Apostle Paul (I COR. 16:20). Exchanging that "holy kiss" in the Rite of Forgiveness is a humbling experience that serves to both soften our hearts toward others, and to prepare our hearts for the prayer and fasting to come. Without forgiveness - given and received - our fasting will be reduced to mere legalism.
The First Week of Great Lent is especially intense liturgically with a cycle of unique lenten services each evening. And how profound and beautiful these services are! The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete will be served on Monday - Thursday at 7:00 p.m. I exhort and urge you to make an effort - even a supreme effort if necessary - to come to at least one of these services. The penitential nature of the text - a heartfelt plea for repentance before God; and the entire rhythm of the service, punctuated by our many metanoias (or bows from the waist) accompanied by the chant "Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me," make this service unique and the perfect means of that "good start" that we all desire for our lenten effort.
This first week alone, we will serve the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. Receiving the Eucharist after a long day of fasting is "symbolic" of our belief that only Christ can satisfy our hunger. Partaking of the presanctified eucharist gifts during the week days of Great Lent - we do not serve the full Liturgy with the anaphora and consecration during the week days of Lent - is like receiving the gift of manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness as they journeyed toward the Promised Land.
Coming to the lenten services of the Church during Great Lent connects our lenten effort to the over-all vision and practice of the Church. The atmosphere of the church in these lenten services is meant to still our racing minds and bodies so that we can concentrate on "the one thing needful" - Jesus Christ and our need for repentance. I understand the difficulties involved, but I again urge you to "fit" your lives into Christ, and not "fit" Christ into your lives. For somewhat older children, these services can be a wonderful and memorable experience. Another approach among parents with younger children would be for one spouse to come alone to the services while the other took on the responsibility of watching the children. If you get really creative, you could "take turns!" Just imagine what something as humble-sounding as a quiet, peaceful and prayerful church setting can mean after a long hard day!
Once again, here is the schedule:
__________
On Confession:
Our parish has been growing steadily over the years. That, of course, is good news. That also means that every year there are more confessions that I need to hear within the context of Great Lent. Even though it concentrates it a bit more, I would highly appreciate it if everyone made a real point and effort to come to Confession before Holy Week. Waiting until Holy Week has the feel of the "last minute" or the "fitting in" of something obligatory. In addition to before and after Great Vespers on Saturday evenings, one can make an appointment with me for just about anytime during the day during Great Lent. In fact, that may work all the better if you have that freedom, so as to avoid the "long lines" on Saturday.
__________
On Fasting:
I am asked often about the "rules of fasting" for Great Lent. Here is a good summary, taken from the book, When You Fast - Recipes for Lenten Seasons, by Catherine Mandell: (There is one more copy of this book in our parish bookstore. It sells for $15.00 and is filled with a pretty wide variety of fasting recipes.)
Great Lent and Holy Week
This is the strictist fast of the church year. Fasting persons abstain from all meat products, oil, eggs, fish, wine, and alcoholic beverages. On certain fast days (Annunciation and Palm Sunday) fish, wine, and oil are allowed. On weekends, and indicated weekdays, with the exception of Holy Saturday, wine and oil are allowed. On Holy Saturday, only wine is allowed.
When You Fast, p. 244
As a family or individually, everyone needs to set some realistic goals based upon the above. Whatever you may settle on, you need to feel that you are fasting. You want to avoid the two extremes of taking on far more than your present capacity for fasting allows for, or choosing a token minimalism that makes your fasting essentially fruitless. As a working principle: if you do not feel tested, then you are not fasting. I would be glad to speak with anyone of the topic of fasting and how to integrate it into your over-all lenten effort.
I plan of speaking of some of our lenten practices on Sunday during the post-Liturgy discussion. If you have any particular questions, please prepare them and ask them on Sunday.
Fr. Steven
February 15, 2007 - The Ascetical Effort of Great Lent, Part 3
Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
A third excerpt from Peter Boutenieff's book, Sweeter Than Honey, on the theme of asceticism:
Until now, I've mentioned only the negatives of asceticism, the restraints and checks. The positives are many: they involve an engagement with the life of the Church. That means an ongoing participation in the sacramental life, especially sacramental confession and Holy Communion, regular attendance at the church services, regular reading of Scripture, and regular prayer. Asceticism also involves what St. Paul call a meditation or thinking on "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious ... any excellence ... anything worthy of praise" (PHIL. 4:8). This is the right "input," which helps direct our response to the stimuli of our daily lives - all the words, images, sounds.
This is a way of reshaping the distorted image in us and recovering the God-given mind-heart that seeks the truth through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So we're back to a point made in chapter 1: seeking the truth and living rightly are inextricably bound to each other. The Church Fathers constantly repeat, "This is the knowledge of God: the keeping of the commandments" (St. Basil the Great, Homily 337.iv). The pursuit of theological truth entails living purely, or more precisely put, being on the road to purity, for one never arrives at purity of mind-heart or achieves it in a final way. Being on the way is all that is asked.
The pursuit of the truth, the discussion of theology, has certain preconditions, writes St. Gregory the Theologian. Alluding to Psalm 46:11, he says that "we need actually to 'be still' in order to know God." The study and discussion of theology, "is not for all, but only for those who have been tested and have found a sound footing in study and contemplation, and, more importantly, have undergone, or at the very least are undergoing, purification of body and soul." (Oration 27. iii; iv). St. John of the Ladder agrees: "It is dangerous to swim when fully dressed, and it is dangerous, when carried away by passions to investigate the mysteries of the Godhead." (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, step 27). We are familiar with another way of putting it: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (MATT. 5:8).
From SWEETER THAN HONEY - ORTHODOX THINKING ON DOGMA AND TRUTH, pp. 109-111.
Fr. Steven
February 14, 2007 - The Ascetical Effort of Great Lent, Part 2
Dear Parish Faithful,
Another excerpt from Peter Bouteneff's book, SWEETER THAT HONEY, on the theme of asceticism:
Throughout the history of Christian writing, the way to overcoming or redirecting passions is linked with learning the truth by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul sets it out plainly to the Galatians: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for they are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would" (5:16-17). He lists pursuits that are incompatible with walking by the Spirit: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, envy, and drunkenness (vv. 19-21). On the other hand, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (vv. 21-22). He sums up: "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (vv. 24-25).
Crucifying our flesh to walk by the Spirit and be led by the Spirit sounds radical, and it is. But it's not the physical flesh itself that is to be brought into submission, rather "its passions and desires." Asceticism is the checking, restraint, and redirection of our desires, compulsions, habits, addictions, and impulses. It takes many forms, depending on who we are and the context of our lives, but it will generally involve degrees of self-restraint in matters of food and drink, sexual expression, entertainment, acquisition, and other kinds of gratification and stimulation. All of these are good things when used properly, but they are also awfully prone to abuse.
In cases where misdirection of our passions has gone far, and in cases of genuine addiction and compulsion, self-restraint can be a superhuman effort, sometimes best undertaken with professional guidance and/or the help of a twelve-step program. The road to recovery can really feel like a crucifixion of the flesh. But in less extreme cases as well, our use of the things of the world and our care for our bodily needs and desires must be excercised consciously and continuously. There is a kind of asceticism that we undertake only periodically, such as when we give up certain activities during fasting periods; otherwise, it's a constant thing for us as we restrain ourselves from speaking an extra word or gossip or anger, hold back from a third cup of coffee, refrain from indulging in a lustful glance. Again, depending on our character and our situation, it will look different for different people. The ways we apply asceticism are best described with the assistance of a spiritual guide who knows us: we are not on this road alone. And sometimes we are not the best judges of ourselves. The way of purity, like the way of theology, as we shall see, is both a personal and a communal enterprise.
From SWEETER THAN HONEY - ORTHODOX THINKING ON DOGMA AND TRUTH, pp. 108-109.
To be continued...
Fr. Steven
February 12, 2007 - The Ascetical Effort of Great Lent, Part 1
Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
Integral to the Christian life is the practice of asceticism. To put that a slightly different way, to be a Christian is to be ascetical. This refers broadly to a life of self-discipline which has at its heart prayer and fasting. In the conditions of today's world and with its manifold temptations and false enticements, one must be an an ascetic to some extent to be a genuine Christian. This involves both soul and body. Great Lent is the time of year that we are probably our most ascetical, because of our fasting which is meant to liberate us from our many appetites, beginning with the most basic: food and drink.
From the book Sweeter Than Honey - Orthodox Thinking on Dogma and Truth, by Peter Bouteneff, I am excerpting a fine section on the meaning and practice of asceticism for you to read and be inspired by. This passage I am sure will give you a broader view of what we mean and intend to accomplish by being ascetical during Great Lent. Asceticism is a tool that we use to achieve our final and greater aims in being Christians - union with the living God Who has saved us in Christ.
Asceticism isn't only about hair shirts and vows; neither is it the exclusive task of the people called to a monastic way of life. Asceticism is work toward purity and virtue; it is the task of all Christians, of anyone who wants to think and live truly. We are holistic beings, and the pursuit of right-mindedness or whole-mindedness (as in the Greek sophrosyne or the Russian tselomudrie) involves our whole being. Asceticism is the redirection of our selves toward God, in our minds and bodies. Though we believe that the human person is created good - in body, soul, and mind - and remains inherently good despite the distortions, we need to be in the business of overcoming the distortions and finding our true selves. It's not for nothing that we say that people who are sane, composed, and thinking properly are "in their right mind," while people who are thinking in a distorted way are "out of their mind." Asceticism is, among other things, the striving ever to be in our right mind.
The distortions I keep talking about have to do with the passions. The passions are what Christians (and also Greek philosophers and other thinkers) narrow down to the basic faculties of zeal and desire. Properly oriented, these become a passionate zeal and desire for God, truth, communion with each other in Christ, everything that is truly good and beautiful. When the passions are turned the wrong way, zeal becomes anger, bitterness, pride, despair. Desire becomes the lust for pleasure and power. Doesn't this ring true when we look at ourselves?
From SWEETER THAN HONEY - ORTHODOX THINKING ON DOGMA AND TRUTH, pp. 107-108
To be continued...
Fr. Steven
February 8, 2007 - Invitation to Repentance
Dear Parish Faithful,
If Great Lent is a time to focus our minds and soften our hearts, then our surest path to both is through repentance. Thus, Great Lent is also an invitation to repentance. For repentance means a "change of mind." The great ascetic Fathers knew this well as they teach us: "God requires us to go on repenting until our last breath" (St. Isaias); and "This life has been given you for repentance. Do not waste it on other things." (St. Isaac the Syrian) Building on this living spiritual tradition, one of our great contemporary theologians, Archbishop Kallistos Ware, has expressed the meaning of repentance with a width and breadth; and a height and depth, that I find rather exhilarating in its expansiveness and hopefulness:
How often, when we "repent," do we simply look back with remorse (and with regret and a good amount of guilt) at what we have done wrong, and fail to look forward to what God promises us through His saving grace. Of course, we need to feel remorse - and "guilt" - for the sins that we do commit, and which may hurt and/or harm others. But the wonderful words of Archbishop Kallistos take us way beyond that into a future that is always potentially hopeful because of the victory of Christ over sin and death. To repent is thus to draw closer, or to return, to our heavenly Father as He has been revealed to us in His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. This is "the re-centering of our whole life upon the Trinity" that lies at the heart of repentance according to Archbishop Kallistos. Please inform me immediately if you have discovered anything more positive than that!
If you will joyfully concede that point and if you are still with me, then we can immediately apply our energy together as we set off along the path of repentance. As members of the Church we are all in this together - clergy and laity alike. If, as the prodigal son, we have sqaundered the gifts given to us by our heavenly Father; and if we are tired and hungry after miserably failing to satisfy ourselves on the food fit for pigs - the various "isms" of worldly wisdom beginning, perhaps, with consumerism - then we can come to our senses as did the same prodigal son, and return to the embrace of our compassionate heavenly Father. If not, then we will be doomed to singing along with that poor fellow in the song, who endlessly shouts: "Can't get no satisfaction!"
The prodigal son, of course, is a character in a parable, which is essentially a story, and not a historical figure. Nevertheless, he is no less "real" because of this. In fact, he is uncannily and uncomfortably more than "true to life." If there are "Hamlets" and "Don Quixotes" out there among us, then there also "prodigal sons" among us. A parable conveys truth no less than the "facts." Paradoxically, then, the prodigal son is simultaneously "no one" and "everyone." He is no one because he is not a historical figure, and yet everyone in that he represents all of humanity alienated from God.
For those of us who participate in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church with regularity, there still does not exist any automatic protection from such alienation from God. Surely, there is nothing lacking in the Church. The fulness of grace and truth is found only in the Church. If we have "ears to hear" and "eyes to see," then we will never be misled into doctrinal, ethical or moral error. The very gift of deification is bestowed upon us in the Church! Everything that we encounter in the life of the Church communicates Christ to us, and He is the Way the Truth and the Life. But this does not guarantee that our minds and hearts will not wander off into a "far country" and squander our God-given possessions in "loose living." Without quite realizing how or why, we can, like Dante the pilgrim, find ourselves lost in a "savage forest, dense and difficult" and with seemingly no easy way out. And then the same sense of dread comes pouring over us as we feel lost and lonely.
If and when this happens, we too need to come to our senses and return to our heavenly Father's embrace. For indeed, God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (I TIM. 2:4) And we cannot let our membership in the Church - or any other position of worldly status or recognition - blind us to our need to repent. For sheer unattractiveness, can anything top a self-satisfied Christian? We may not have to repent so much for what we have done wrong, but for what we have not done right. Christ was not exactly praising the older brother of the parable. His "correctness" had clearly hardened his heart. The elder son's bitter complaint to his father was "reasonable," and we cannot help but sympathize with him as we recognize ourselves in his reaction (thus precluding our condemnation of him); but he lost all sense of compassion and forgiveness, and thus the capacity to rejoice.
Of all of the invitations we receive, the invitation to repent from Christ Himself, has to be the most attractive, hopeful and promising. It is issued on a daily basis, but with the coming of Great Lent, its annual appeal is very openly and widely declared in such a way that we can neither miss it - nor afford to ignore it.
Fr. Steven
February 2, 2007 - Super Sunday?
Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
Super Sunday is upon us. I have read a few articles that I believe were serious in advocating that this day - or the Monday following - be declared a national holiday. The Super Bowl has to that extent entered into our cultural consciousness. The Nielson rating for the game is projected at about 40 - 45. This is big! What really struck me was the length of the whole affair. The game begins at 6:30 p.m. and most project it lasting until about 10:00 p.m. - with commercials, "Prince" or "the former-artist known as Prince," playing at halftime, analysis, etc. Fair enough. But what really caught my attention is the fact that the Pre-game begins at 2:00 p.m.! That is four hours before kick-off! Thus, you could conceivably spend eight hours on the Super Bowl this Sunday! And there are many who certainly will. This seems to me to be not only extreme, but almost obscence if not "orgiastic." It is, after all, "only" a game. It does not matter who wins in the greater scheme of life. I would love to hear St. John Chrysostom preach a homily on the Super Bowl! Actually, he preached such homilies, though concerning the chariot races in the amphitheatre. When the faithful ran out of church to get to the races in time, St. John was not very pleased, to say the least.
For those who can bear with me - or simply bear it - I like to call Pascha the "Real Super Sunday," as an obvious allusion to this coming Sunday's event and how we should keep our priorites straight. And this year that will be April 8. Whatever we individually consider to be the "real" Super Sunday in our lives can say a good deal about our worldview! Allow me to draw some comparisons. The Super Bowl has a "pre-frestal" and a "post-festal" period. In fact, the "pre-feast" is a full two weeks in length. Obviously, that is significantly shorter than Great Lent, but a full week longer than Holy Week, the final prelude to Pascha. As long as our paschal celebration is, it cannot compare to the Super Bowl. Our entire paschal cycle of services - from Nocturns through Matins and Liturgy probably falls a bit short of the three-and-a-half hours of the game itself. And when you add on the pre-game, they are not comparable.
None of the above has been written to suggest that one should not watch the Super Bowl. May you enjoy yourselves. This game has no particular interest to me, and I avoid the Super Bowl - almost as as a "counter-cultural protest" over our obsession with it. But this is all relative. In Byzantine Constantinople there existed two teams: the "blues" and the "greens." They would cheer for their respective charioteers and sometimes riot or shed bled when one of their champions lost! There is "nothing new under the sun." So as not to leave the wrong impression, there are some sports events that I thoroughly enjoy and avidly watch. I always watch the baseball World Series and the NBA playoffs. It is all relative and a matter of choice. (Although I will argue for the "superiority," as a game, of baseball over football, and as America's traditional "pastime!") In fact, I can get "too avid" or caught up in the game, as when recently watching the Detroit Tigers (my hometown) go up in smoke in this past World Series. I'm just about over that now ...
Yet, if we watch the game with great concentration, energy and emotion; if we prepare very carefully by reading or listening to all the scouting reports, getting the right foods ready, etc.; if, when someone walks in front of the screen for a moment and our immediate reaction would be to consign that person - our spouse? our child? - to outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth; then how much more carefully, energetically, wholeheartedly and faithfully need we to prepare for Pascha! Of course, it is much longer and profoundly challenging. We are working with our fallen human nature which resists violently at times. On that level there is no comparison. But then again Great Lent, Holy Week and Pascha deal with what should be the deepest of our concerns: sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, and eternal life.
Practically, how can you find yourselves possibly protesting or "complaining" - if only inwardly - about the length of the services during Great Lent (St. Basil's Liturgy and the lengthy prayers comes immediately to mind) - while during the Super Bowl you may "pray" for overtime?! What does it mean that we can focus our minds with an intense concentration on the game, and find our minds hopelessly wandering during the Liturgy or other services? How can we devour huge amounts of pre-game analysis in magazines and on the internet, and struggle to read a few chapters from the Holy Scriptures or the writings of the saints over the course of many weeks? As I wrote earlier in the week, this is precisely why Great Lent is a time to focus our minds and soften our hearts. Thank God the Super Bowl comes before Great Lent, so that we can put this "event" behind us and not deal with any unwanted conflcts - there are enough as it is.
Just a few fragmentary thoughts as we approach our secular society's Super Sunday.
By the way, on the strength of Peyton Manning's arm, I believe that Indianapolis will win ...
Fr. Steven
January 29, 2007 - Let Us Learn Humility From The Publican's Tears
Dear Parish Faithful,
- Let us flee from the pride of the Pharisee and learn humility from the Publican's tears. Let us cry
- to our Savior: Have mercy on us, O only-merciful One. (Kontakion)
With the reading and hearing of the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee at the eucharistic Liturgy, we have entered into the pre-lenten season that will lead us into Great Lent three weeks from today, on February 19. These carefully-chosen Gospel passages are meant to focus our minds and soften our hearts as we approach the rigorous yet liberating period of the lenten fast - itself a preparation for the annual paschal mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ on April 8 this year. Great Lent will begin quite early this year - perhaps too early for many of us - but we cannot say that we were not prepared by the Church, especially through the pre-lenten cycle of Gospels readings: The Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (LK. 18:10-14); the Parable of the Prodigal Son (LK. 15:11-32); the Parable of the Last Judgment (MATT. 25:31-46); and the Lord's teaching on forgiveness and fasting. (MATT. 6:14-21)
We need to focus our minds because they are often distracted by "thoughts" (logismoi) according to our spiritual tradition. These distracting thoughts can cover the essential, the unavoidable, the useless, and the openly sinful. Our focus (on God) is dissipated by the demands, anxieties, chores and cares of an everyday nature. This is the realm of the essential and unavoidable. When such "thoughts" become either overwhelming or tiresome, we seek distraction in entertainment or amusement, thus engendering more thoughts as we further fail to focus on God. Nothing like surfing or shopping on the internet to escape the pressing problems of life! Anything and everything is only a click of the mouse away! This is the realm of the useless - and perhaps even of the sinful.
Then there are the distractions of our endless plans, projects, ambitions, agendas and goals, seemingly designed more to satisfy our desire for self-gratification than harmonize with the Christian pursuit of virtue, thus placing at least some of these very plans in contrast to our commitment to the Gospel. Hence, an endless tension between our life in the Church and our life in the world, and the resultant tendency to compartmentalize our "religious" life so that we can feel satisfied in fulfilling its "obligations" as we pursue the illusions of our many distracting "thoughts" that have no real relation to God outside of our desire that He "bless" any and all of our activities. Again, one of the many meaningful purposes behind the pre-lenten season - and of Great Lent itself, of course - is to focus our minds on God and the "one thing needful" - the Gospel of His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. To focus will further help us clarify our vision of life.
The pre-lenten series of Gospel readiing are also meant to soften our hearts. Not in the sense of making us emotional and/or susceptible to the vagaries of religous "feelings." Nothing could possibly be more unstable or ephemeral. But since we do somehow harden our hearts, not only to our "neighbor," but to the very grace of God, we desire to "soften" them so that the grace of God can once again penetrate, without imposing itself, upon this isolating shell. Actually, since we cannot love God and hate our neighbor according to St. John, we are forced to reap the bitter fruit of closing ourselves off to the people who surround or interact with us, and that would be distancing ourselves from God. If the "soil" of the heart is hard, then the seeds of the Word will not find a place to increase and multiply. The "joy-creating sorrow" of Great Lent is meant to both soften our hearts, and to form them into recepticles of the grace of God
The Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee reminds us of the alienating nature of religious pride. It alienates us from our neighbor because it breeds contempt for other sinners: God, I thank you that I am not like other men ... " (LK. 18:11) It alienates us from the grace of God because it instills in us a self-righteous satisfaction with our own accomplishments: "I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess." (LK. 18:12) Pride in all of its manifestations is about the self. When we are proud, even God is somehow there to further our misplaced need for self-affirmation. The Church is the place that we receive the recognition and validation of our neighbors, though our fellow-believers may see through our pretensions of religious piety. That seems to be a "hard saying," but it also seems to be what Christ is driving at in this short but powerful parable. The self need not be, but can become a final barrier between our "selves" and God.
Christ is not justifying the publican because he is a sinner, but because he recognized the depth of his sin. The publican is a sinner and he knows it. That recognition means that now he can begin the process of repentance and recovery. But he must first "beat his breast" and cry out: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (LK. 18:13) The publican must "humble" himself so that God can "exalt" him. Humility is not a synonym for abject self-denegration. It is the capacity to recognize the holiness of God, the absolute equality of our neighbors, and to live accordingly, liberated from the charades of social conventions - including those that promote self-centered religious pridefulness - that obscure our vision of both God and neighbor. It is therefore one of the great virtues according to the Gospel and our entire spiritual tradition.
Sin means "missing the mark." So, when Great Lent comes around after a whole year, we may just have to acknowledge that we have indeed been "missing the mark" through our unfocused mind, our hard hearts and our pride. To walk through the doors of the church just once and cry out to God in our hearts, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" would be to discover and experience the whole purpose of Great Lent.
Fr. Steven
January 25, 2007 - Sanctity of Life: From Abstract to Active
Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
Big is God! (Mother Ines of the Hogar Rafael Ayau Orphanage)
I wanted to further extend the significance of the recent Sanctity of Life Sunday, as I believe it has a genuine bearing on one of our most important parish ministries in recent years: financial, moral and missionary support of the Hogar Rafael Ayau Orphanage in Guatemala City. This has by far been our most sustained, successful and widely-supported ministry for the last five years. To repeat some of the more important figures: we have sent a Mission Team to the Hogar for five consecutive summers (2002-2006), with about twenty-five different parish participants; we have had appeals for the Hogar that have raised thousands of dollars, especially the last couple of years; and we have delivered an enormous amount of material goods, from clothing to games.
All of this on behalf of children that some of the more aggressive pro-abortion advocates theoretically claim would have been "better off" if they were aborted in the beginning. Many, if not most, of these children are the result of unwanted or unplanned pregnancies - or worse. They were born to parents who were incapable or unwillingly to take proper care of them, both materially and emotionally. These children not only lacked loving environments, but were often abused and/or abandoned. They carry both physical and emotional scars that may remain with them throughout their lives. They faced a very bleak and unpromising future, and were potentially an unwanted burden on the State. It would be quite naive on our part if we blinded ourselves to the fact that indeed many such childen will have poor lives. Yet, by the grace of God, a relatively small group of such children made their way to the Hogar and found a home for themselves where they are loved and nourished. As with all children, they instinctively cling to life in all of its manifestations. Just speak with any of the Hogar "missionaries" in our parish as to their liveliness! Some will be given undreamed of future possibilities, and all will be trained to lead productive lives.
It is "meet and right" to be a small part of this process of not only speaking out abstractly in favor of the "sacred gift of life" to all children, but to actively support those who, having been born under difficult conditions, need our active assistance - and not only our words and ideas. I am hoping that this adds another dimension to our ministry to the Hogar: to not only advocate protection for those inside the womb, but to also protect those outside of the womb in a timely and generous fashion. If that is our position than that is also our responsibility. Therefore, we have nothing to boast about, though if we were to boast, we will boast in the Lord for directing us to act according to His will.
Even though we are not sending a Mission Team down to Guatemala this summer, I sincerely hope that we can continue to support the work of Madres Ines, Ivonne and Maria, together with the entire staff of the Hogar - and of course the lively and lovely children that have entered into our lives by the grace of God.
Fr. Steven
January 22, 2007 - Affirming the Sanctity of Life
Dear Parish Faithful,
As I told those present at yesterday's Liturgy, I was born and raised in Detroit, a city sufficiently familiar with genuine winter weather, so therefore I could only rate yesterday's "storm" as a relatively moderate snowfall. And, thank God, I was able to make it to church without any great difficulty in time for the Liturgy. I like to think of myself as the ecclesiastical equivalent of the postman - whatever the conditions of the weather, as long as my car can move, I will make an effort to be ready for the Liturgy. (I was snowed in once, I believe, in my first parish in Granite City, IL. Eighteen inches fell overnight, and it was impossible to dig out of it. In fact, it took a couple of days) Be that as it may, we probably had about one half of the parish here yesterday, though we had to cancel Church School. We even had a family who joined us because the services were cancelled in their own church! Now, if that snowfall hit us this morning, most of you would not have to be at work! Here, in the form of a meditation, is what I spoke about in church yesterday.
The Sunday on or the closest to January 21, is annually desginated as "Sanctity of Life Sunday" in the Orthodox Church in Amerca, for that date marks the infamous Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 that effectively legalized unrestricted access to abortion in our country to this day. This Sunday, therefore, allows us to express our strong disagreement with such a law, thus providing us with a glaring and painful example of finding something morally and ethically unacceptable though it is "legal." Our "peaceful protests" (violent protests by "pro-life" advocates is hardly justifiable) in our liturgical assemblies afford us the opportunities of simply reminding ourselves of the Church's ancient rejection of abortion. As the Church began to expand in its initial period of growth, in came into contact and conflict with the Roman Empire and the proliferation of beliefs and practices that characterized the Empire's prevailing culture. As the "superpower" of its day, the Empire imposed itself both militarily and culturally on its far-flung territories and inhabitants. Both abortion and infanticide were widespread practices, hardly challenged, I believe, for the most part. An early formulation of Christian resistance to these practices can be found in the Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, probably an early 2nd c. document:
In the 4th c., St. Basil the Great wrote the following:
St. Basil clearly does not apply all of the responsibility for this decision upon the mother of the child, but includes those who provide the "service." In today's world, one can only imagine the enormous pressure placed upon a young and vulnerable woman to "terminate" an "unwanted pregnancy" by those around her, including her "medical advisors." The pressure increases with the psychological assurance that what is legal cannot be wrong - though one's maternal intuitions and instincts may be offering an internal protest of a different nature.
It is essential to offer a positive response to the practice of abortion, and not simply to reject it as immoral, though our very human instincts make such a rejection perfectly natural. As Christians, we must continue to affirm the sacred gift of life within the context of what some have gone so far as to name a "culture of death," in my opinion not an unfair characterization. I find such an affirmation at the very beginning of Fr. John Breck's wonderful book, The Sacred Gift of Life, as he embarks on a theological, bioethical and pastoral articulation of what the Church has proclaimed "from the beginning" - the victory of life over death in Christ:
- Orthodox Christianity affirms that life is a gift, freely bestowed by the God of love. Human life, therefore, is to be received and welcomed with an attitude of joy and thanksgiving. It is to be cherished, preserved and protected as the most sublime expression of God's creative activity. God has brought us "from non-being into being" for more than mere biological existence. He has chosen us for Life, of which the ultimate end is participation in the eternal glory of the Risen Christ, "in the inheritance of the saints in light" (COL. 1:12; EPH. 1:18)
- (The Sacred Gift of Life, Introduction, pp. 5-6)
At the Liturgy on this particular Sunday, we are directed to add these prayerful petitions to the Litany of Fervent Supplication:
- Again we pray that You will grant to the people of this nation the will to do good, to flee from evil, and to practice all righteousness, making us respectful of life and sharers of Your blessings, caring for one another in mercy and truth.
- Again we pray that You will banish all evil from our hearts and wickedness from our laws, enabling us to be servants of Your holy will and performers of Your Love.
- Again we pray that You will kindle in our hearts the will to care for the needy, to show kindness to the poor, to aid the homeless and help the helpless.
If I am hearing these petitions correctly, we cannot simply be content with denouncing abortion as a evil practice, true as that may be. We must actively seek to alleviate the conditions of those tempted into such a decision because of their harsh environments or marginalized social status. Compassion more than judgment can be a much more effective response to a deeply troubling practice that wounds the sensibility and soul of any Christian who is aware of the God of life Who has granted us life abundantly in Christ Jesus.
Fr. Steven