Monday

1 Cor. 9:13-18; Matt. 16:1-6

The Pharisees and Sadducees wanted the Lord to show them a sign, but they did not see the sign before their very eyes. The Lord Himself was the sign. His teaching and works clearly showed Who He was, and no additional evidence was needed. The works that I do...they bear witness of Me (John 10:25), He said to the Jews. The Lord denounced them, saying: Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye discern the signs of the times? (Matt. 16:3). Why did this happen with them? Because they lived an outward life and did not enter within themselves. Without collectedness, attentiveness, and self-searching it is impossible until this day. Christianity is before everyone's eyes as the true sign of God, but those who look at it do not see this, are shaken in faith, and step away. Their eyes lose the ability to see the stamp of divinity in it, and they are ready like the Jews to ask for special signs from heaven. But a sign is not given and shall not be given, because those who seek this do so only to tempt, and not in order to walk the path of Christ. Just enter onto this path, and from the first step you will see that is is Divine, that is leads to God and brings God nearer to you. The Lord said to the Jews: There shall no sign be given...but the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matt. 12:39). The Lord foresaw today's unbelievers as well, and prepared for them an answer: Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the troves of the earth mourn. (Matt. 24:30).

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Highest and Best Use (of the Church?)

Last Monday at our parish council meeting we spent some time at the end of our meeting talking about what the church is called to be/do.  I offered six thoughts in response to this question which I’d like to share with the parish at large.  They are:

1. Local – the church is a local manifestation of Christ (i.e. the people we are called to serve (primarily) are those geographically near the church);
2. A place of fellowship – the friendships and relationships we create through the church should be different than those in the world – since we have Christ as the foundation of those relationships;
3. A place of service – “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink….  Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,  you did it to me” (Matt. 25:35, 40);
4. A place of discipleship – A disciple is a follower.  So discipleship is the process of our becoming better and better followers of Jesus Christ – through education/worship/service (in some sense it’s all of the items on this list actively growing and operating in our lives);
5. A place of worship – The sacramental life is what connects us to Jesus Christ – and it’s something we can only get through the church and our active and regular participation in its life.  It is to our soul what blood and oxygen are to our body;
6. A place of outreach/evangelism/missions – Healthy organisms are growing organisms.  Our Lord is very clear that his followers are to “be witnesses to [Him] in Jerusalem [i.e. in our neighborhood], and in all Judea and Samaria [throughout America?], and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

No doubt as we read through this list we feel more comfortable with some of these items and less comfortable with others.  But, for a parish to be truly healthy, it has to have all of these things operating in a healthy way – the church is simply the sum of the parts.  To omit a part (or to do it very poorly) is to reduce the health of the church.

As you read this I would challenge you to ask yourself what you think about each of these items – are they a part of your own walk with God?  If not, why not?

I hope to expand on each of these points in the weeks ahead through short articles.  I invite you to (and very much hope you will) join me on the journey.  God bless.

- offered by Fr. Panteleimon Dalianis

Monday

1 Cor. 5:9-6; Matt. 13:54-58

The Nazarenes did not believe the word of the Lord, because when He lived among them, He had no attractive luster or outward dignity that might have commanded involuntary respect. "We know Who He is," they said; "there can't be anything extraordinary about Him." Their reaction, however, did not induce the Lord to assume an imposing appearance. He remained extremely simple in appearance. Later, the Apostles bore themselves the same way, as did all those who truly followed and emulated them. Why is this so? Because there is no man-made luster that could fully correspond to the light of life in Jesus Christ. Moreover, we recognize that it is better to relegate external appearance to the lowest value, so that it does not obstruct what is within. Let him who has eyes to see look directly at the latter, without arresting his attention upon the former. The Holy Apostle Paul expressed it is like this: We have this treasure in earthen vessels (II Cor. 4:7). If we could see the outward appearance of those persons whom we now never and call upon in prayer, we would not believe our eyes-they were so simple. But to this day, those who have come to know the life in Jesus Christ abandon what is outward and turn fully within. That is why the former falls away on its own, but the latter is raised up and grows. It often happens that no one even notices this inner brightness, not even the one who possesses it. The human eye is evil; it is not shown what is truly good, as long as it is capable of harming it. 

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Tuesday

1 Cor. 1:1-9; Matt. 13:24-30

The good seed was sown, but the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. The tares in the Church are heroes and schisms, while in each of us they are bad thoughts, feelings, desires, and passions. A person accepts the good see of the word of God, decides to live in a holy way, and begins to live in this way. When himself weakens, then the enemy of salvation comes and places evil ideas in him which, if not rejected at the start, ripen into desires and dispositions, introducing their own spheres of activity, which mix themselves in with good works, feelings, and thoughts. In this way both remain together until the harvest. This harvest is repentance. The Lord sends the angels-a feeling of contrition and the fear of God-and they come in like a sickle, then burn up all the tares in the fire of painful self-condemnation. Pure wheat remains in the granary of the heart, to the joy of the man, the angels, and the Most Good God worshipped in Trinity.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Rom. 12:4-5, 15-21; Matt. 12:9-13

It is lawful to do well on the sabbath days (Matt. 12:12). After healing the man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath, the Lord said this as a reproach to the Pharisees, who took the commandments about the Sabbath rest so far that they even measured the number of steps they could walk that day. But since it is not possible to do good works without movement, they would sooner have agreed to neglect good works than to allow ant extra movement. The Savior denounced them for this time and again, because the Sabbath required rest from worldly cares and not from works of piety and brotherly love. In Christianity, instead of the Sabbath, Sunday is celebrated with the same goal: rest from all worldly affairs and the devotion of that day solely to God's works. Christian sobriety has never reached the point of pharisaic pettiness concerning not doing things on this day has been set far beyond the proper limits. Not doing things kept the Pharisees from performing good works, whereas the things which Christians allow themselves are what lead them away from good works. On the eve of Sunday they go to the theater and then to some other entertainment. In the morning, they oversleep and there is no time to go to church. There are several visits, then lunch, and in the evening again entertainment. Thus all their time relegated to the belly and to pleasing the other senses, and there is no time even to remember God and good works.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Rom. 9:18-33; Matt. 11:2-15

The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violence take it by force (Matt. 11:12). The Kingdom suffereth violence-that is, it is attained with violence, with labor, force, and difficult spiritual struggles. Therefore, only those who lead a labor-filled ascetic life attain it. Thus, every sort of comforts renounced along the path to the Kingdom. Pleasures of all types distance us from the Kingdom. But these days we have concern only for pleasures- sometimes emotional, but more often fleshly: to eat, drink, have fun, make merry, and luxuriate in everything. We have said to the Kingdom, "I beg you to excuse me," although there is a feast in the Kingdom-a royal feast-one so sumptuous that we could not even conceive of it, because we do not have the taste for it. What is considered sweet there is bitter to us, what is pleasant there is repulsive to us, what gladdens one there is a burden for us. We have gone totally separate ways. And the Kingdom, together with the violent who take it by force, withdraws from us. We are glad about this, and are even ready to drive them away more quickly. Indeed, we have already started talking about it, but the evil one has not yet managed to arrange this.

-From St. Theophan the Recluse

Monday

Rom. 7:1-13; Matt. 9:36-10:8

Sending the Holy Apostles to preach, the Lord commanded them to call everyone, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matt. 10:7), that is, the Kingdom has come-go toward it. What ought we to preach? We should cry to all, "Sons of the Kingdom! Don't run from the Kingdom into bondage and slavery"-for they are in fact running. Some are captivated by freedom of mind. They say, "We don't want the bonds of faith and the oppression of authority, even Divine authority; we'll figure things out and make up our minds for ourselves." So they have made up their minds. They have built fables in which there is more childishness than in the mythology of the Greeks-and they magnify themselves...Others are enticed by the broad path of the passions. They say, "We don't want to know positive commandments or the demands of conscience-this is all abstract: we need tangible naturalness." And they have gone after it. What has come of it? They have bowed down before dumb beasts. Has not the theory that man originated from animals arisen from this moral fall? This is where they have gone! And everyone runs from the Lord, everyone runs...

-From St. Theophan the Recluse