Year: 2011

On the Lord’s Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee – Various ways the Evil One attacks virtue. St Gregory Palamas

The unseen patron of evil is full of evil ingenuity. Right at the beginning he can drag away, by means of hopelessness and lack of faith, the foundations of virtue already laid in the soul. Again, by means of indifference and laziness, he can make an attempt on the walls of virtue’s house just when they are being built up. Or he can bring down the roof of good works after its construction, by means of pride and madness. …

Sunday Of Zacchaeus. He Sought To See Jesus Who He Was.

Jesus will show Himself to every man, without exception. Why is it that some, such as Zacchaeus see Him as He really is, and others such as the crowd who judged Zacchaeus, do not see Him even though He is in their midst? The whole point to life is to "see Jesus", that is, to know Him. Zacchaeus gives us import instructions as to how to accomplish this. Every day, we must be like Zacchaeus, recognizing who we are, and how little we are and how much our sins present an obstacle to knowing God, and run ahead of them to await the Lord coming to us. HE will always come – are we always in the proper state of mind to receive Him?

Zacchaeus Sunday A before and beginning story, to be continued… Text and audio.

Today, brothers and sisters, we have a “before” story and a “beginning” story. It is appropriate on this Sunday – only four Sundays remain now after this Sunday before Great Lent. On this day we talk about Zacchaeus, how he was before, at the beginning of the salvation. And it is appropriate because during Great Lent should be, for all of us, a struggle to become more spiritual, to know more about ourselves and about God, to do good works, to pray, to fast.

It’s a struggle that is difficult. We will see next Sunday the prayer of the Publican. In our mind’s eye, we think of Zacchaeus when we think of the Publican and the Pharisee, when he was crying: “Oh, God, be merciful to me a sinner”, because he felt the weight of his sins. This is after Zacchaeus had been received by Christ, and he had entered into the struggle against his passions.

In the Christian life salvation comes to us by degrees, because salvation is us being changed. We change by degrees. Nobody changes all at once. You might make a decision at a critical moment in your life as Zacchaeus did, but you don’t change all at once. You change with struggle.

Now, what happened to Zacchaeus …

Murphy’s law and molebens. Logismoi. How to think about personal intercessory prayer.

We all know about “Murphy’s Law” – “If anything can go wrong, it will”. It has many corollaries, and is sometimes funny in context. But it is not funny when applied to real life – and by this I mean our inner life, in which we gain our salvation.

There is an “occupational hazard” in the pastoral life, which, I believe afflicts all but the truly humble and perfected. It consists of “Murphy’s law type of thinking – “logismoi” – negative thoughts.

I have these thoughts, and they are like mosquitoes – very hard to get rid of – and the best way to deal with them is to ignore them and just keep doing the right thing….

As many have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. An explanation by Saint Gregory Palamas

Water is a means of cleaning, but not for souls. It can remove dirt from those being baptized, but not the grime which comes from sin. For that reason, the Healer of souls, the Father of Spirits (Heb 12:9), Christ, Who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), enters into the water before us to be baptized …

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. – The key to progress in life. Audio homily 36th Sunday after Pentecost, 2011

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” This extreme statement by the Apostle Paul must define the way we live our life, and is the key to making any progress in virtue. It is a &mindset” that permiates Orthodox Christian life and prayers, but is not well understood. Let us look at how in our daily lives we can make this saying “worthy of all acceptation”. Many examples from the scriptures will help us, such as the publican, the woman who annointed the Lord’s feet, and the Apostle Peter.

“Lord, have mercy!”

The text below is a wonderful homily by Fr. David Moser explaining, on the basis of today's scripture readings, why "Lord, have mercy!" is the essential Christian prayer. Source: http://stseraphimboise.org/homily.html 1 Timothy 1:15-17 Luke 18:35-43 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief … for this reason I obtained… Continue reading “Lord, have mercy!”