Mist on the Mountain

Christ's Resurrection Mystically Reproduced in Us

2009-10-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

I was reading from the works of St. Symeon the New Theologian today and found this fascinating quote. I just wanted to share it.

"But, it you will, let us look and carefully examine what is the mystery of that resurrection of Christ our God which takes place mystically in us at all times, if we are willing, and how Christ is buried in us as in a tomb and how He unites Himself to our souls and rises again, and raises us with Himself." -- St. Symeon the New Theologian

Attributes of Love

2009-08-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

"When Grace is energized in the heart of the one who prays, then the love of God floods his entire being to such an extent that he may not be able to take more. Then this love is transferred to the love of the world and the human person. His love becomes so powerful that he asks to take upon himself all the suffering and unhappiness of the others so that they themselves may be relieved. He suffers with those who are in suffering even for the suffering of animals, so much so that he sheds bitter tears when he becomes aware of their pain. These are attributes of Love. But you must keep in mind that it is prayer that energized them and causes them. That is why those who have advanced in the prayer never stop praying for the World."
-- Monk Joseph in Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Speaking and Humility

2009-07-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

"It is not speaking that breaks our silence, but the anxiety to be heard. The words of the proud man impose silence upon all others, so that he alone may be heard. The humble man speaks only in order to be spoken to. The humble man asks nothing but an alms, then waits and listens." -- Thomas Merton in Thoughts in Solitude

Something Interesting from Dr. Markides

2009-07-23T04:54:00.000-07:00

"It increasingly became clear to me that the secular assumptions about reality, dominant during my university training, were in fact a grand illusion, a materialist superstition that had kept Western thought stranded and imprisoned for the last three hundred years. It was a destructive superstition that led sensitive Western intellectuals by the droves into existential despair, and in some cases even to suicide and madness. The realization of the phoniness of scientific materialism had a tremendously liberating effect on my mind."

-- Kyriacos Markides, Ph.D. in The Mountain of Silence

Doing Theology

2009-07-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

Doing theology is only useful if it can be nailed to the Cross. If it can't be nailed to the Cross, then it's just an intellectual exercise.

Two Theologies

2009-07-18T06:14:00.000-07:00

This excerpt from Archimandrite Sophrony couldn't be more accurate. I think it shows graphically how some Christians go astray.

"There are two ways for theology: the one, widely familiar in previous centuries, appertaining to the professional theologian; the other, which means being crucified with Christ, knowing Him in the secret places of the heart. The first of these types is accessible to the majority of the intellectually endowed having a preference for philosophical subjects--genuine belief in the Divinity of Christ expressing itself in a life lived according to the spirit of His commandments is not needed. The second is the theology of the confessors, which is born of a profound fear of God in the firey flames of repentance, leading to existential reality through the appearance of Uncreated Light. Academic theology combined with living faith affords blessed results. But it can easily degenerate into abstract theory, and cease to be what we see in the lives of the Apostles, Prophets, Fathers--the direct action of God in us."
-- Archimandrite Sophrony, On Prayer

Some Thougts on Mission and Learning

2009-07-17T20:19:00.001-07:00

"Evangelization is inseparable from professional teaching ever since the Word became flesh. Not even Eternal Wisdom could remain within the theological center of the Trinity, but He became a roaming teacher, and itinerant Instructor. Nature decreed that certain things kept to themsleves spoil. Almost everything in the universe was made to be spent. Wealth hoarded makes it keeper a miser. Learning for the sake of learning makes the student proud. University professors desiccate by never making their knowledge available to those who do not sit at desks. The Logos or Word of God taking a child on His lap will forever remain the misison of education--to share it as wealth must be shared." --Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Mind Weeds

2009-07-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

Whenever you're sitting in meditation or contemplative prayer do you allow other thoughts to creep into your head and disturb your focus? That happens to all of us, especially if we're new to contemplative prayer. In Zen practice they call those thoughts Mind Weeds. I rather like that term, so I've stolen it and use it myself to refer to distractions during my spiritual meditation and contemplative prayer times. I like the term because weeds tend to be unwanted visitors in our lawns and we often have trouble getting rid of them. It's the same with Mind Weeds.

O.K., just what are Mind Weeds? Well, as I mentioned above, they're thoughts that disturb your contemplation, but they can also be sounds, or maybe you're starting to daydream. All of these experiences are Mind Weeds. They take you away from the true focus of your contemplation. Dealing with them is rather easy. Just let them come and go. Don't consider them as bothersome, because as soon as you begin thinking about them they have drawn you away from your focus. Pretty soon you'll see this is how the mind learns to settle down and as you practice contemplative prayer you'll find these disturbances come less often.

Whether you're a beginner at contemplative prayer, or have been doing it for some time, another technique to combat Mind Weeds is to use the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner." By focusing on the Jesus Prayer you can calm your mind and soon you'll find that peace that is part of the experience of contemplative prayer. Of course, saying the Jesus Prayer is always a good thing and should itself be a focus of your contemplative prayer life.

So, the next time you're in contemplative prayer and you experience distractions, just know they're Mind Weeds and let them go. It will be as though a pond has been disturbed and all of the muck and mire has settled to the bottom leaving the water clear and peaceful.

Coming and Going

2009-07-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

Coming and going can be one of our biggest problems. It keeps us from being quiet and opening our hearts to God. Sometimes we just need to sit....most of the time we just need to sit. Quiet is the key.

More Merton

2009-07-11T10:41:00.001-07:00

"We find God in our own being which is the mirror of God. But how do we find our being? Actions are the doors and windows of being. Unless we act we have no way of knowing what we are. And the experience of our existence is impossible without some experience of knowing or some experience of experience. Hence we cannot find the depths of our being by renouncing all activity...But when we act accordint to grace, our actions are not ours alone, they belong to God. If we follow them to their source, we will become at least potentially capable of an experience of God. For His actions in us reveal His being in us.

The whole of life is to spiritualize our activities by humility and faith, to silence our nature by charity."
-- Thomas Merton Thoughts in Solitude

The Rich Man and Lazarus

2009-06-14T04:47:00.000-07:00

In the 16th Chapter of St. Luke's Gospel Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. It's a powerful Gospel passage and one of the important things to understand about it is that Jesus has already warned us about the outcome of the rich man in the parable.

Jesus tells the story of a very rich man. He has a wall around his house and a gate that anyone who wishes to enter must pass through. The gate serves to protect him from intruders, but it also serves another purpose. it separates him from the beggars and the less fortunate. he doesn't have to see them and can pretend they don't exist.

Then there's Lazarus. We don't know much about him except that he's a poor beggar with sores who sat outside the gate to the rich man's house. Lazarus was hungry and only desired scraps from the rich man's table. I'm sure the rich man had seen Lazarus several times sitting outside his gate, but completely ignored him. Well, the guy's rich; he's got beautiful clothes and plenty of food. He's obviously an important man. why should he waste time with a beggar with open sores? I'm sure he thought that beggar should get a job and make something of himself, or at least get away from the gate so decent people don't need to see him. So the rich man just ignores Lazarus. He doesn't give him the table scraps. He feeds those to his dogs. Even the dogs have more compassion that the rich man. At least they try to make Lazarus feel better by licking his sores.

Well, both men die and what happens? Lazarus goes to heaven and the rich man goes to hell. Now to the rich man that was a very unexpected turn of events. Naturally, he had been a powerful man. He probably attended the temple regularly. I'm sure it was a shock to him that he should end up in hell and the filthy beggar at his door should end up in heaven.

The rich man sees Lazarus in heaven in the embrace of Abraham. What does he do? He asks Abraham to allow Lazarus to dip his fingers in water and bring the rich man relief from the flames. Now the tables are turned. It's the rich man who is begging for help from the poor man. Interesting, isn't it?

Abraham tells the rich man he has had his warnings from Moses and the prophets. he says not even sending someone who could rise form the dead would change the hearts of these callous people. what's more, Abraham tells the rich man there is a chasm between him and heaven that is so broad no one can cross it.

There are several truths here and they all point to one bottom line. Let's look at them now.

first, let's look at the rules. Jesus Himself set them and they're very simple. Anglicans hear them every time we attend the Eucharist in the Summary of the Law. Jesus said:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

The Summary of the Law contains the rules, all two of them, that encompass everything Jesus wants us to do. The first is to love God unconditionally and the second is to love other people unconditionally. Period...dot! There is no equivocation here.

To love others as you would love yourself means that you should always treat every human being as you wish to be treated. However, it goes deeper than that. It's a requirement that we are, in fact, our brother's keeper. We have a responsibility to care for others. To care for them even if they don't look like us, or smell bad and have sores.....especially if they smell bad and have sores. The focus is on others and not ourselves.

In St. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 19 verse 24 and St. Mark's Gospel, chapter 10 verse 25, Jesus says that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. He's not condemning the rich. it's O.K. to have a lot of money or power. The question is, "What do you do with that money or power?" There are always two choices: 1) Squander it on oneself, or 2) Reach out to help others.

In the camel metaphor, Jesus is saying that the rich often have themselves as the total focus of their lives and you can't get to heaven if the only one you care about is yourself. Although Jesus uses a rich man for this example, He could be talking about anything that causes us to focus on ourselves over loving and caring for others.

Looking out for number one is not the way of the Cross. It's not the path to heaven.

If this metaphor about the camel isn't enough, in Matthew, 25:34 - 46 Jesus warns us of what happens to us when we don't follow the second great commandment:

"Then the King will say to those at his right hand, 'Come o blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?' And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, 'Lord when did we wee thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.' and they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Here the people all respond to the king and ask when they snubbed him and failed to care for him. The point is that they would have absolutely taken care ofthe king if they had known it was, in fact, the king himself. You can almost hear them: "Wow, sire...I mean if I'd know it was you....well, I'd surely have taken care of YOU."

Jesus says we are Him and he is us. If you fail to care for anyone, you fail Him. Even more specifically, He says when you fail to care for the least important person, then you fail the most important person....Jesus Christ.

In our man-made values we might look at a less fortunate persona and say, "Well he should just go get a job." Or maybe we'd say, "He's responsible for his own plight, why should I help him .. hey, I've worked hard to get what I've got. Why should I share it with someone who has no job?" You've heard all of those types of arguments. Well, they're obviously a result of man-made values, not God-made values. God's values don't discriminate between rich and poor. God's values don't allow us to put ourselves first over the pain of others. God's values don't have qualification statements like man-made values do. god's values only say we must care for all people.

You see the chasm that Abraham said separated the rich man in hell and Lazarus in heaven is an understanding of God's grace and love for others. It's love freely given. What did we do to merit the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross? Nothing. There is nothing we could do. We don't merit salvation in and of our own doing. It's only by God's grace that Christ's sacrifice is possible. It's grace that is totally lacking in the rich man. Without the acceptance and recognition of our failings and our unworthiness we can't understand how God's grace can save us. Just like the rich man can't understand how he could be an instrument of that grace by caring for others.

If you're living with grace you can't step into hell and if you're in hell and oblivious to grace you can't step into heaven. Notice, nowhere in Jesus' parable did the rich man repent. He just asked for someone to tell his relatives to improve their behaviour. He still didn't understand. That's when Abraham told him that eve someone coming back form the dead wouldn't convince people with such hard hearts. The problem with Abraham's statement is that it's as true today as when Christ told the parable. Even God's extension of love and grace through the death and resurrection of Christ won't impress people who can't soften their hearts and understand the second great commandment.

If we can't understand grace, how it applies to us, and how we are to be instruments of grace, then we are like the rich man. We just don't get it and we're going to end up just where he did. Given the passage from Matthew I quoted above, what happened to the rich man should come as no surprise. Jesus has already given us fair warning. We and we alone are free to choose how we are going to respond to those in our global home who are helpless, or in need.

We can turn a deaf ear and rationalize why we shouldn't care for others, or we can respond to the command of Christ and reach out our hand and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give water to those who are thirsty, and be the physical hand of God through which love can be transmitted.

We've heard what our Lord has to say and there's no equivocation to His statements. It's not always what we, in our comfortable lives and surroundings want to hear. However, Jesus doesn't really care what we want to hear. He cares about our salvation and he cares about all of the children of His Father's creation. he's telling us how much to love and He has given us the warning. Now it's up to us, through our actions, to show we have the capacity to love others as He loves us. For..."When you have done it unto one of the least of these, You've done it unto me."

Our Mini-Pentecost

2009-05-31T16:47:00.000-07:00

Since today is Pentecost, I was thinking about the Holy Spirit and how we don't talk about Him as often as we probably should. In the Gospel for today Jesus promises the gift of the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) and that promise is fulfilled when we read the appointed Epistle from the book of Acts which tells of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Two weeks ago at our church we were fortunate to have our diocesan bishop visit and confirm two adults. This coming weekend I will be representing him at one of our churches in Florida where I will confirm two people as well. How exciting it is that these confirmations come so close to Whitsunday, also called Pentecost. I think it's exciting because I see each confirmation as that person's mini-Pentecost. It is that special time in the life of an Anglican Christian when we specifically receive the Holy Spirit as our defender and helper as we grow in our Christian faith.

Why is this laying on of hands so important? Well, it's because the Bible says it is vitally important for us as Christians to receive the Holy Spirit through a process of laying on of hands. This is done through bishops who perform the Apostolic ministry today. Let's look at what we find in Acts 8:14 - 17: "Now when the Apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit."

This passage is so important to us. It tells us that our Christian formation isn't complete until we receive the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands (and then we have even more work to do). Notice that in Acts it is assumed that a believer is not compete just with baptism alone, but must experience the laying on of hands and receive the gift of the Holy spirit. The gift of the Holy spirit helps us live faithful Christian lives. He is our defender and helper. He is fully part of the Trinity and is God just like Jesus is God. Everything we say about God and Jesus is equally true of the Holy Spirit. How amazing it is that He comes to dwell in us so perfectly, In today's Gospel (John 15:15ff) Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit dwells in us and will give us comfort. What a great promise!

Each person of the Trinity has a specific part to p lay in our salvation. God the Father decreed that it should be so, Godthe Son is our mediator, and God the Holy Spirit is the direct actor in our lives who makes everything happen. Jesus' great promise is true and living in each one of us.

So the next time you attend an Anglican confirmation service listen really hard to what the bishop says when he places his hands on the head of those to be confirmed: "Defend, O Lord, this Thy child with Thy heavenly grace that he may continue Thine forever, and daily increase in Thy Holy Spirit more and more until he come unto Thy everlasting kingdom." Amen!

Do We Talk About God Too Much?

2009-05-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

I think that sometimes we talk so much about God that our words get in the way of experiencing Him and letting Him into our hearts. We become so concerned with "doing theology" that we completely miss encountering God in truly meaningful, personal ways. Here are a couple of observations I've found very helpful:

"Does all our talk and discussion about God bring us closer to Him?" - Thomas Merton

"In the way of thinking that involves talking, discussing, analyzing, and criticizing, there is scarcely room for the God who speaks whenever we are silent and who comes in whenever we have emptied ourselves." - Henri Nouwen

Both quotes are from "Encounters With Merton" by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Gossip: It Defiles the Person

2009-04-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

“It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” Matthew 15:11.

Gossip.

It’s big business.

Just look at the grocery store rags like “The National Enquirer”, or any of those other papers of that ilk. How about the celebrity gossip shows on TV such as Entertainment Tonight and the reality shows like Big Brother, Survivor, The Bachelor, or any of the others. These shows trade on real time gossip. Voyeurism brought into our living rooms. The gossip media preys on the worst part of our human nature. The part that wants to see someone hurt. Gossip is a horrible thing.

As Christians we should be furious any time we hear gossip because it’s 180 degrees away from how we’re supposed to behave. The Bible has a lot to say about gossip; and none of it is good.

Proverbs 16:28 (NIV), “A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.”

Proverbs 20:19, (KJV) He that goeth about as a talebearer (gossip) revealeth secrets. Therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.”

Proverbs 26:20 (NIV), “Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.”

James 3: 5 - 6 (Living Bible), “…the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A great forest can be set on fire by one tiny spark. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness, and poisons every part of the body. And the tongue is set on fire by hell itself, and can turn our whole lives into a blazing flame of destruction and disaster.”

Matthew 12: 34 – 36, “…a man’s heart determines his speech. A good man’s speech reveals the rich treasures within him. An evil-hearted man is filled with venom, and his speech reveals it…And I tell you this, that you must give an account on Judgment Day for every idle word you speak. Your words now reflect your fate then: either you will be justified by them or condemned.”

Each one of us is here as part of the Body of Christ to love and care for one another. We are here to bring others to Christ through our witness and our example. Is gossip the kind of example we wish to present to others? The words in the Book of Proverbs are quite specific. Gossip serves only to harm others. Its only purpose is to tear someone down. Gossip doesn’t care about what is true and what is false. It only seeks to harm. In the general parlance of today we must ask the question: “How Christian is that?” The answer is, “It’s not Christian at all!”

We hear in the quote from James just how powerful and vile gossip is and just what damage it does to others as well as ourselves. Jesus is no less specific. He says that our speech reveals how we behave and who we really are inside. If we truly love others and care for them as we should, people will be able to hear that in the way we talk. If we are evil with a vile heart inside our speech shows that as well. Jesus also warns us that evil speech and gossip will be dealt with harshly at our judgment.

How can we build the church if we’re tearing others down? Have you ever visited a church several times and decided not to make it your church home because of gossip and division that you witnessed?

We are called to be greater than gossip. As the Body of Christ we are called to love, not hate; help not harm. The next time you’re tempted to talk about others in a negative way, or someone tries to draw you into such a conversation ask yourself these questions:

1. Are we talking about ways we can help this person?
2. Is our speech lifting this person up or tearing them down?
3. If this person walked into the room, would I stop talking?

Someone needs to explain to me how gossip fulfills the second great commandment in Jesus’ Summary of the Law: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Gossip flies in the face of Jesus’ teaching and should not be tolerated by us, His children. We are each made in the image and likeness of God. Each of us is called to imitate Christ in our daily lives. Don’t be known as a gossiper and don’t participate in it when it’s going on. Don’t allow yourself to be defiled by gossip.

“Let your so light shine before men that they may see your good works (and words) and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.”

The Soul is the Sole Reason for the Incarnation

2009-04-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday was last week and what a wonderful day of joy it is for all us Christians! It’s hard for me as a Christian to understand how the resurrection of Jesus could be seen as anything other than the greatest event in history. I mean, I might be a simple guy, but it seems to me that when eternal life is available to me through Christ’s death and resurrection I should sit up, take notice, and celebrate. After all, that’s no small thing. However, to rejoice in the resurrection is to also accept the reason why it needed to occur at all. Of course, I’m talking about the Fall of Adam and the sin which is part of our lives as human beings.

The soul is the sole reason for the Incarnation. The salvation of mankind from sin and death is the reason Christ’s incarnation was necessary. After all, if there’s no sin, then there’s no reason for the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus. If the entire world is sweetness and light, if we’re all basically good people at heart, if all we need to do is be good to others, then we really don’t need Jesus. We can do this all on our own. It seems the current Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church seems to hold this belief. Just look at her statement in Parabola, Spring 2007 as quoted in the report of the American Anglican Council: “The question is always how can we get beyond our own narrow self-interest and see that our salvation lies in attending to the needs of other people.” O.K., so all I need to do is work in a soup kitchen and I’m good to go! Right? Oh, gosh, that’s just wrong on so many levels.

First it denies Original Sin and the basic fallen nature of mankind. It denies the need for a savior at all. In fact, it says we are our own saviors. We don’t need Jesus. This is not a new idea. Back in the fourth century a monk named Pelagius thought the same thing. Basically, he said that the Fall had no effect on human nature and therefore there was no need for divine grace. Well, I don’t think he was a very observant person because the fallen nature of man and the impact of sin have always been readily observable to anyone with eyes to see. (Must have been that cloistered monk thing.) The rose colored glasses this provides keeps us from looking at ourselves and others realistically. It can cause us to deny our sins and rationalize our behaviors. If mean, if the Fall had no effect on us, then we’re pretty much perfect as human beings right now….right? I guess we mess up now and then, but we can fix it by donating old clothes to the poor. According to Bishop Schori, we’re attending to the needs of others and therein lies our salvation.

This is such self-involved nonsense that it goes beyond the pale. It not only reduces Jesus’ death to an inconsequential act, it denies God’s judgment. It’s part of the slippery slope to the “feel good” gospel. You know what I’m talking about. I’m O.K., you’re O.K., God loves us anyway, so let’s just focus on the good stuff. We don’t need to think about all of that unpleasant bad stuff that can happen because we’re basically good anyway. Why focus on negative things when we can just look at the positive side? What can’t we all just feel good? There are lots of "feel good" preachers out there today and they're making a lot of money telling people what they want to hear. Giving motivational speeches instead of the truth of the cross.

The theologian H. Richard Niebuhr criticized the “feel good” gospel when he said, “…a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” In one sentence, Dr. Neibuhr has told us what’s wrong with the “feel good” gospel. It denies God as a Father who cares about us and can be angry with us when we separate ourselves from Him through sin. The “feel good” gospel takes away from us a Trinity that saves us and replaces it with pabulum that salves our conscience and minimizes our faults.

You know what? I don’t want anyone minimizing my sins. I’m a normal human being which means I sin like everyone else. I don’t want to hear that I’m my own savior. I don’t want to hear I can fix it myself. Just like everyone else, I’m lousy at the job. I want to know that my God loves me in spite of my errors. That Christ loved me enough to die for me. I want to know that Christ’s sacrifice means something. I want to know that no matter how I distance myself from God, I’m always welcome home. I need a savior. You need a savior.

Don’t buy the pabulum of the “feel good” gospel. So many churches are trying to sell it these days because it fills the pews. It might fill the pews, but it does nothing to save our souls. It’s a lie that denies who Jesus really is and why He became man. It tricks us into looking at ourselves for salvation rather than looking to Christ. Don’t be fooled. Wake up! We need a savior and we’ve got one!

Thomas Merton on Meditative Prayer

2009-03-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

"What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we are busy planning our own kind of answer to our prayer?" From Thoughts in Solitude

"In meditative prayer, one thinks and speaks not only with his mind and lips, but in a certain sense with his whole being. Prayer is then not just a formula of words, or a series of desires springing up in the heart - it is the orientation of our whole body, mind, and spirit to God in silence, attention, and adoration. All good meditative prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God." From Thoughts in Solitude

Anglicans Have a Full Gospel Church

2009-02-26T14:47:00.000-08:00

One of the false assumptions that is usually made about churches with formal liturgical worship is that somehow they’re short on scripture. The error or “urban legend” that some wish to spread is that because Anglicans (you can also insert Roman Catholics, or Orthodox) have a structured worship that always includes a lot of written prayers and Holy Communion we are somehow not focused on scripture as a central point of our experience as Christians. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact our worship is not only structured to focus on scripture itself, just about everything we do and say in the Eucharist or Choral Offices comes directly from scripture.

Take the Eucharist for example. The Eucharist is divided into two basic sections: The Liturgy of the Word and The Liturgy of the Sacrament. The first half of our liturgy is devoted exclusively to scripture. There are readings from the Epistles and Gospels and sometimes readings from the Old Testament as well. The readings are set on a schedule called a lectionary which provides the worshipper with a guided lesson plan on the faith based upon the liturgical or church year. If you read the prescribed readings for Morning and Evening Prayer every day and attend the Eucharist on Sundays you will have read almost the entire Bible in one year. That doesn’t count any Bible study groups you might belong to during the week. That just assumes you’re following the church year and reading the designated scriptures for that day.

Many of the churches that consider themselves “Bible churches” don’t have that detailed of a scripture study program as part of their normal worship. A pastor can pick whatever passage of scripture he wants to preach on and cut loose. However, we Anglican priests aren’t normally encouraged to do that. Oh, I can preach on anything I want on any Sunday, but actually why would I want to do that regularly when I've got such a rich offering of readings from which to choose? Especially when the prescribed readings are so perfectly connected with the various events in the life of Jesus and his ministry.

Of course it does no good to have Bible readings if we’re not paying attention to them. If we let our minds wander rather than pay attention to what is being read we aren’t respecting the presence of Christ in the Word. In the third century the great Christian scholar Origin said:

“You who are accustomed to take part in the divine mysteries know, when you receive the body of the Lord, how you protect it with all caution and veneration…if you are so careful to preserve His body, and rightly so, how do you think that there is less guilt to have neglected God’s word than to have neglected His body?”

I suspect you may not have thought of our scripture readings as Origin did, but you should. Whenever we as Christians hear the Word of God we must affirm our belief in its truth and power. We must stand in awe of it just as we do at the Body and Blood of Christ on the altar. You see the separation of the liturgy into two parts is somewhat misleading because the Word of God permeates everything, including the Liturgy of the Sacrament. The Word was in the beginning with God and is without end. When God’s Word is proclaimed we should be attentive as well as meditative. We should allow His Word to wash over us and fill us because it is only by the Word becoming flesh, living with us, and dying for us that we are saved.

So if you happen to be an Anglican like me, the next time you hear someone suggest we Anglicans need to get more into scripture, invite them to church. Show them what being into scripture is all about.

A Meditation on the Centurion's Prayer

2009-02-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

As we enter the Lenten season I keep thinking about Jesus’ encounter with the Centurion in Matthew’s Gospel. You remember the Gospel passage I’m sure. A Roman Centurion approaches Jesus and tells our Lord that his servant is paralyzed and ill. Jesus offers to go to the Centurion’s home, but the Roman military leader says something very striking, “Lord, I’m not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.” Jesus does heal the servant, but the Centurion’s request has come to be known as The Centurion’s Prayer. This brief encounter not only reinforces for us who Jesus is, but it also instructs us as to how we are to approach our Savior and this pleading from the Centurion has become a familiar prayer in the Church.

I think we can see three themes in this meeting: 1) Faith; 2) Trust; and 3) Humility. The Centurion who approached Jesus had only heard of Him, but had never met Him in person. he had heard of Jesus’ teaching and his miracles, but he had experienced none of that for himself. However, a servant he cared about very deeply was gravely ill and so he came to Jesus for help. He didn’t really know what would happen. This is the first step in faith.

We don’t always have some concrete evidence in front of us concerning what our Lord can or will do for us, but we reach out to Him in faith, believing He will hear us. Like the Centurion, we often find ourselves reaching out to Christ for His help and we take it on faith that he will respond. Our belief that Jesus is the Son of the living God allows us to draw close to Him and put ourselves in His hands, just as the Centurion drew close to Christ and put his faith and he servant’s well being in Jesus’ hands. For us to do this it means that our faith must combine with the second theme of this meeting: Trust.

While the Centurion’s faith led him to Christ, it was his trust that told him Jesus would do just what he had heard He would do: That Jesus would love so much that He would not turn down the Centurion’s pleas for his servant. And pleas they were because the word “beseech” that we find in this Gospel passage connotes a pleading. It’s not just asking for a favor, it’s a down-on-your-knees pleading for someone to grant a request. So the Centurion was pleading with Jesus.

Here was a man of great power over others. A man who was accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed immediately, yet he comes in faith to someone about whom he has only heard, trusting that Jesus will be who he has heard that He is. he puts aside his position and power and approaches a man who is standing before him in poor clothing and sandals….and he begs. This brings us to the final theme: Humility.

This man of power shows us graphically how we are to approach our Savior. When he comes to Jesus does he tell the Lord of his (the Centurion’s) power over others and order Jesus to heal his servant? No. He tells Jesus that he (the Centurion) has the power to order men to come and go. He is emphasizing his temporal power and he’s doing that for a reason. By doing that in this way he’s saying, “Look, I can make people do things, I have power over many things, but you have a far greater power than I. You have power over all Creation.” Then he says something that is very unexpected for a man of temporal power. He humbles himself and says, “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.”

Where have we heard that before? Well, we frequently hear it at the Eucharist. After the consecration the priest may turn around to the congregation, show them the body and blood of Christ. His Real Presence in the Eucharist. The priest might say, “Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who taketh away the sins of the world.”

Like the Centurion, we are saying that Christ has power over all creation, over sin, and death. Now, we are confronted face-to-face with the Real Presence of our Savior in the Eucharist and how do we respond? No we do it casually and matter-of-factly? No. We approach our Lord as the Centurion did and say, “Lord I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my soul shall be healed.”

We say almost the same words as the Centurion. In doing this we are approaching Christ just as he did. We approach in faith, believing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. We approach in trust, knowing in our hearts that Jesus will fulfill all of the promises of the Gospel for us. That He loves us, cares for us, and He alone can bring us to the Kingdom of Heaven. We approach in humility, knowing, like the Centurion, that no matter how powerful we are here on earth, we only have power of small, temporal things. We have poser over things that are impermanent and that will wither away in time. However, He has power over all creation. He can tell a mountain to move and it will move. He has complete and utter power over all sin and evil. He is the Son of God who has come to save us. He is present here with us in all His majesty and glory.

So we must ask ourselves how we can respond to Christ other than with faith, trust, and humility. What to we say to the Son of god who has saved us? In this Lenten season perhaps we should say, “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my soul shall be healed.” May each and every one of you have a Lenten season of growth in love for our Lord.

+Wes

A Little More Merton Wisdom

2009-01-14T19:18:00.000-08:00

"Grace, which is charity, contains in itslef all virtues in a hidden and potential manner, like the leaves and the branches of the oak tree hidden in the meat of an acorn. To be an acorn is to have a taste for being an oak tree. Habitual grace brings with it all the Christian virtues in their seed.

Actual grace moves us to actualize these hidden powers and to realize what they mean: Christ acting in us."
-- Thomas Merton from "Thoughts in Solitude"

Some Perspective on Theology

2009-01-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

Reading theology is a wonderful thing. It helps us try to comprehend something about God. The problem is that it's easy to just live in our heads and not make the connection to our hearts. Prayer makes that connection. Prayer, especially contemplative prayer, takes us out of our heads and puts us into our hearts where we can connect with God. That is not to say we don't use our intellect, we do, but we must keep perspective that our intellect is not the end in itself, but a means to develop a thought process that we can use in contemplation.

When we pray we should pray with our entire selves, giving everything we have at that moment in time. On meditative prayer Thomas Merton said, "In meditative prayer, one thinks and speaks not only with his mind and lips, but in a certain sense with his whole being. Prayer is then not just a formula of words, or a series of desires springing up in the heart -- it is the orientation of our whole body, mind, and spirit to God in silence, attention, and adoration. All good meditative prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God." (From "Thoughts", p.48)

Merton's words emphasize what I've said above, we must not be content to just theologize about God. We really need to encounter Him and to do that we must use our minds and our hearts and every faculty that He has given us. Everything He has given us has made it possible for us to worship Him more perfectly and to love Him more fully. So if we just stay in our heads and develop an intellectual understanding of God we aren't really allowing ourselves to truly know Him. We are being egotistical thinking we can get to Him through our minds alone. Unfortunately, we are fooling ourselves. We must open our hearts through meditation and prayer. It's the only way to make the connection with our heads that will allow us to experience something of the mystery of God.

Christ as Mystery

2008-12-31T19:12:00.000-08:00

"Christ is a Mystery; in the mystical as well as in the sacramental sense of the word, and the more we approach him as such and we delve into the mystery, the more we come closer to God. We cannot say that we understand the mystery or the work of Jesus, but we can ask God to give us a sense of this mystery, which is beyond words."

-- From "The Sign of the Cross, the Gesture, the Mystery, the History"
by Dr. Andreas Andreopoulos, Lecturer in Christian theology at the University of Wales

Why Care About the Saints?

2008-12-26T11:41:00.001-08:00

My children know me only too well. For Christmas they got me two gift cards at one of the local bookstores. I love books and I read constantly. I particularly enjoy books about the saints or Christian mystics.

The saints are people who have truly come close to God. They have that personal, visceral relationship with Him that we all should desire. They may or may not have ever studied much theology, but that's O.K. and it really doesn't matter because they've internalized how the Gospel wants us to live our lives in relation to God and our neighbor. They truly understand the Summary of the Law.....and they live it. That's why one of the books I bought today was "Mystics and Miracles: True Stories of Lives Touched by God" written by Dr Bert Ghezzi. I'd like to share what Dr. Ghezzi says about mystics and the saints and why we should pay attention to them and how they can be examples of how to come closer to God.

"God gave is mystics to show us that ordinary people can live extraordinary lives. he never meant for us to put them on pedestals or view them and superhuman, far beyond anything we mortals could ever hope to be. Mystics are not preternaturally gifted aliens from another planet, but human beings just like us. we esteem them not because, like Superman, they have supernatural powers and can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but because they show us how to live good lives.

When I look closely at mystics, I wonder if I grasp what it means to really imitate them. they did everything in extremes. no cost seemed too high. Me, I'm much more balanced. I count the cost all right, but i often find the price is steeper than I'm willing to pay.

St. Theresa Margaret was ill herself but put aside her own suffering to care for the sick sisters in her convent. I'm not that way. If I get sick, I hop into bed and expect someone to wait on me.

Solanus Casey humbly accepted decisions of his superiors that severely restricted his life and ministry. For half a century he labored without complaint. I'm not like him. Even little inconveniences chafe me. I fight back, big time.....just ask the clerks in our local stores.

What can I say about St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who though a queen spent herself and her fortunes serving Christ in the poor? Or St. Martin de Porres? For fifty years he lived every moment of each day for God and for others.

When I stand myself beside these giants, I feel puny.

Comedian Stephen Wright says he once went to a convenience store that bragged it was ope twenty-four hours, only to find it closed. Later, the proprietor explained that his store was open twenty-four hours, just not twenty-four hours in a row! That's how I am in my imitation of the saints. I'm inconsistent. I try to be like the saints. But only in some ways. And not all of the time.

However, I keep looking at them. I try to stay close to them. I think that if I draw nearer to them. they might infect me with their virtue."

Dr. Ghezzi has put it very well. Unlike the saints, we tend to count the cost....and we tend to extend ourselves only so far. I just wanted to share this rather long quote because it makes two points: 1) Why we should care about and emulate the saints, and 2) How and why we tend to fall short. I know that speaks accurately to me. I hope you've found something here as well.

The Mystery of the Incarnation

2008-12-25T06:09:00.000-08:00

The contemporary Anglican theologian, Dr J.I. Packer has said, "Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is the truth of the incarnation." Let's think about that for a minute. The idea that the immortal and invisible God would become human and walk among us is quite amazing. That He would choose to do so by beginning life as we all do....as a child...is truly phenomenal. The fact that this is not fiction, but fact is the most amazing thing of all.

The lectionary for the Anglican 1928 Book of Common Prayer has two Gospel readings for the Eucharist on Christmas day. The first is John 1:1 and the second is Luke 2:1. The lectionary requires that the passage from St. John's Gospel be read and the Lucan account should be used if a second Eucharist is to be celebrated on the same day. You might ask, "Why not use just one account of Jesus' birth on Christmas day? Why not just use the passages from St. Luke with which we're all familiar?" Well, I really like the idea of combining both of these Gospel messages on Christmas day. In fact, I wish we could read them back-to-back. Both are talking about the same thing: the incarnation of Christ, but both approach it from different perspectives.

St. Luke gives us a wonderful story of the events of Jesus' birth, all the while reinforcing that he is the savior who has come to establish God's kingdom on earth. We're familiar with this story and really expect it to be read on Christmas. Like reading a novel, we become involved with Mary, Joseph, and all of the things that happen when Jesus is born. A child is born in Bethlehem of simple parents. He's announced by angels and all come to worship him, from the lowliest shepherd to wise men from the East. It establishes who Jesus is through a story that is very direct, fun to read, and easy to understand. Then there's the passage from St. John.

St. John is the mystic of the four Evangelists. While the other Gospel authors talk about Jesus and his ministry from a more experiential point of view, John emphasizes the spiritual fact of who Jesus is and what he's about.

St. John tells us the Word (Jesus) existed before all things, eternally with God. He tells us the Word was God and thereby makes the statement that Jesus Christ is both God and human. He tells us that Christ was a partner with the Father in the creation of everything that exists: "...all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made." Therefore Jesus is God; the same God who created the universe. The is the incarnation of the Creator, the second Person of the Holy Trinity. he bears the light of God's truth. John says, "The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world." St. John says that no one has ever seen God, but the Son comes to make Him known: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made Him known."

The two Gospels are both saying the same thing, but in very different ways. St. Luke emphasizes Jesus a s the Savior who has come to redeem the world. St. John emphasizes the mystical/spiritual aspect of the incarnation and makes the statement that Jesus is God. Both are important in our understanding of the Christmas miracle.

The fact is that the incarnation of Christ is a miracle truly beyond our comprehension. We think we can understand it, but we really can't. How does God become flesh? How can Jesus be fully God and fully human with both of those two natures: perfectly God and perfectly man? how can any of this be possible? Asking these questions I think we sound a little bit like Mary at the Annunciation. The angel tells her she's going to bear a son and Mary says, "How is this possible? I have no husband!" Remember, at the time of the Annunciation, Mary and Joseph were betrothed, but not yet married, so for the angel to say such things was truly beyond belief to her. The angel tells her the Holy Spirit will come over her and she will conceive a son and will call him Jesus. Now comes one of the most important parts of the Annunciation: Mary accedes to the will of God. She makes no protests, asks no questions, she simply says: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." She has completely and totally submitted herself to the will of God. In doing this, she's the perfect example for us.

Like Jesus' Blessed Mother's experience at the Annunciation, the Christmas miracle presents us with something so amazing, so fantastic, that it's almost unbelievable. I agree with Dr. Packer that it's purely astounding. However, in the incarnation we have truth, not fiction. In the incarnation we have the beginning of the Easter miracle; the beginning of our salvation and our eternal life. Easter would not be possible without Christmas. The beautiful baby in the manger will become the Christ in agony on the cross. It is the child who ultimately sheds his blood that we might be saved. Only through the incarnation is the Eucharist possible where we take the body and blood of Christ so that "...we may dwell in him and he in us."

We Christians need to follow the example of Jesus' Blessed Mother who, upon hearing another fantastic story about how she will bear a child, accepts what the angel tells her and submits to the will of God. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Lord as human flesh. As a humble child who is our God. We can't explain it, but, like Mary at the Annunciation, we can accept and celebrate this wonderful mystery which starts us on the path to eternal life. Merry Christmas!!

A Little Something from C.S. Lewis

2008-12-20T06:57:00.000-08:00

"When we exhale our last breath on earth, we take our next breath in heaven." - C.S. Lewis

St. Bruno on Silence

2008-12-07T17:38:00.000-08:00

"Let him make a practice of resorting, from time to time, to a tranquil listening of the heart, that allows God to enter through all its doors and passages." - St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order