We are asked to observe several fasts in the course of the year. Some do it; others do not. Some know why the Church encourages us to fast; many have no clue as to why we fast and the spiritual and physical benefits to fasting.
Join our friend, Abouna Moses to learn the “why” behind the fast!
Being that today is the feast day of the apostle and evangelist, St. Luke, who is the patron saint of iconographers and artists, we ought to lift up in prayer all of the iconographers who have given the talent to serve the Lord with beautiful sacred art. This art is not wall decoration; icons are windows opening into the arena of the Divine. I am thinking in particular of Marek Czarnecki of Meriden, CT, who is a terrific, trained and prayerful iconographer.
Here is a beautiful, insightful presentation on holy icons given by his Eminence Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware). He recently reposed in the Lord. The presentation was recorded in 2007 for a meeting of the Orientale Lumine Conference.
September 1 is the New Year for the Greek Church; the Latin begin their new liturgical year on the first Sunday of Advent. Today, is also designated the Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Environment –an observance of many of the mainline Christians. More on this day of prayer in another post.
The point for today is to place our trust and dependance on the Lord of Life. As Christians we deeply realize that we don’t make ourselves, that someone greater than ourselves sustains and directs our being in faith, hope, love and reason. That’s God made us, we are His, and we live in relation to Him.
Together with the Church we pray:
“Maker of the universe, O Lord who alone have power over seasons and times: bless this year with your bounty, preserve our country in safety and keep your people in peace, through the prayers of the Mother of God save us.” (Troparion)
and
O Creator and Master of time and eternity, super substantial od of all, O Merciful One: bless the course of this year, and in your boundless mercy, save all those who worship You our one and on Master and who cry out to You in fear: “O Savior, grant a happy year to all mankind.” (Kondakion)
Archpriest David Petras offers this perspective for today:
We call this the “Church” New Year, but it was, of course, the civil New Year of the Byzanrine Emperor. The book, “Mapping Time, “ by E. G. Richards, says, “In AD 312 Constantine had instituted a 15-year cycle of indications (censuses of people’s ability to pay taxes). These started on 1 September …. The Byzantine year started on 1 September and this system was used by the supreme tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire until it was abolished by Napoleon in 1806.” The ancient Roman Empire began the year on January 1, and therefore September was the seventh month (from the Latin word for seven, “septem”). Of course, it is now the ninth month (!) Because of the interpolation of July (for Julius Caesar) and August (for August Caesar). Many seriously advocate making September 1 the New Year again, because, after all, this is the beginning of the school year and fall programs. It would also enable people to get home on dry roads rather than on snow and ice. In any case, the gospel today has the blessing of our Lord on the New Year, ““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19)”
Today is the Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Environment, a day we praise God for His creation.
In 1989, the Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrius instituted a Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Environment, establishing it on September 1. Pope Francis has extended that remembrance to the Catholic Church.
In 2016, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said, “Following for many years the catastrophic world developments in environmental matters, the Holy and Great Mother Church of Christ, on its own initiative set the start of every ecclesiastical year as a day dedicated to Creation, to the environment, calling during this day upon the whole Orthodox and Christian world to raise a prayer and supplication to the Creator of all, to give thanks for the great gift of Creation, make supplications for the protection and safeguarding from every visible and invisible attack by man. Therefore also this year during the aforementioned day, from the Ecumenical Patriarchy we recall the need to make EVERYONE aware of the ecological problems faced by our planet.”
The environmental issue has become a polarizing political issue, but since the leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and all the nations of the world have called for measures to protect the environment, all faithful should pray, at least, that we act to protect clean air and water, so as not “to make America stink again.” Pope Francis wrote, “These include the awareness that each creature reflects something of God and has a message to convey to us, and the security that Christ has taken unto himself this material world and now, risen, is intimately present to each being, surrounding it with his affection and penetrating it with his light.” (Laudato Si, 221)
The Orthodox Church has a liturgical office for this day:
“Lover of Mankind, keep unharmed the environment that clothes the earth, through which, by your will, we who inhabit the earth live and move and have our being, so that we, your unworthy suppliants, may be delivered from destruction and ruin,” (Stichera at Psalm 140).
Do you struggle to follow the Apostle Paul’s exhortation to “pray always”? For most of us living and working in the world, it can be difficult to let our prayer and participation in the liturgy permeate our entire lives and transform our hearts.
God invites us to persevere, and He has blessed the Church with many holy teachers and spiritual traditions to help us draw closer to Him.
In this Tuesday’s live webinar, discover the meaning and power of a centuries-old traditional prayer that has helped many devout Christians throughout the ages broaden their view of prayer and incorporate it more deeply into their lives.
THE WAY OF THE PILGRIM: Entering Into the Jesus Prayer
Tuesday, August 23
8:00 pm ET / Pre-class discussion 30 minutes prior
Register at: https://instituteofcatholicculture.org
According to the Synaxarion, the feast celebrates the veneration of the Holy Cross in Constantinople. The early days of August were dangerous in antiquity. Because of the heat, many diseases became strong, and so the Cross was displayed in various places in the city for fourteen days. This feast was then introduced into Rus in the fifteenth century.
Today it announces the coming of the great feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14, approximately forty days from now. I think in may ways we misunderstand the Cross, we equate it with pain and suffering, as a negative sign that Christians were made to be miserable. That is not what St. Paul says in today’s epistle, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God …. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 18:18.23-24).
St. John calls the Cross the glory of Jesus, not because of its ugliness, but because it witnesses to the infinite love of God for his people. Because of love the cross is a “trophy of victory.”
In the Ambon Prayer of the Feast of the Exaltation, we pray, “You are glorified by the exaltation of your venerable Cross and by it accomplish our purification from the pride of demons.” As the people of Constantinople centuries ago looked to the Cross for deliverance from illness, we look at it today as our hope for deliverance from sin and evil.
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
Many Christians tend to think of the spiritual life as something entirely opposed to physical reality. This can translate into Christian practice today in the form of plain churches and simple services, especially among Protestant denominations.
In contrast, apostolic Christianity is incarnational and sacramental, incorporating many physical things into worship: not just in the art and music accompanying the liturgy, but in the very liturgy itself we make use of fire and water, bread and oil, gestures and postures. Are these merely relics of a more religious era, or does the Church recognize there is something fundamental to our human nature that needs such signs and symbols?
This Tuesday, Fr. David Anderson will explore the meaning of the “stuff” of our Christian practice in order to restore a sacramental vision in our secular age.
SACRED SIGNS: Pointing the Way to Heaven
Tuesday, July 12
8:00 pm ET / Pre-class discussion 30 minutes prior
About the Instructor
Father David Anderson is a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago and has served as a parish priest for 37 years. He is also a published translator of patristic texts and Byzantine liturgical texts. For over 40 years, he has presented many classes on liturgy and the Church Fathers throughout the country, but especially in northern California. He is presently the Byzantine-rite chaplain at Wyoming Catholic College.
As ever-blooming fruits, you offer the teachings of your God-given book, O wise John, most blessed, while sweetening the hearts of all them that heed it with vigilance; for it is a ladder from the earth unto Heaven that confers glory on the souls that ascend it and honor you faithfully. (Kontakion)
Here are the resources for the Sunday of St John Climacus (or, known as “of the Ladder”), the 4th Sunday of Lent. In particular, we ought to listen to the resurrection hymn and the gospel reflection by Father Hezekias and Sebastian.
Do yourself a favor, spend time with the Word of the Lord in preparation for Sunday Liturgy.
A 7th century monk of Mount Sinai of Egypt. He is the author of a famous text of spiritual discipline. He spent 40 years as a hermit and later abbot. He is famous for his book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, which was written with the presumption of a monastic context. That is, the contents speaks of how to raise the soul to God by the acquiring virtues and rejecting specific sins. The ascent is of the soul is described in 30 steps (think of the image of a ladder with 30 steps) and the number 30 corresponds with the age that Jesus began his public ministry. A widely read book in Byzantine spirituality.
Why are we celebrating a famous monk and his book when we are not monks? The activity that St John Climacus speaks about, just like the gospel passage read today, that of the Lord’s Transfiguration, is what we followers of Jesus desire, too. That is, we desire to be personally transfigured from someone not too acceptable, into someone beautiful and desirable. Just as Moses who saw God on the mountain and came back to his followers to convey what he is seen. The connection with the gospel of the Transfiguration and St John Climacus comes in the line, “Lord, I believe but help my unbelief.” Prayer and asking for help. Faith is strengthened in prayer and fasting.
We ought to read daily a spiritual book, first starting with a passage of Scripture and then a good spiritual book. Place yourself in the presence of the Lord, so that you can cast out demons. Have faith!
Having just finished the Nativity Cycle we start moving toward the Lenten Cycle and Zacchaeus is our man. In fact, he’s the model of Christian conversion: turning toward the Lord.
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”(Luke 19:5) Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.” (19:9)
Jesus is passing through the town of Jericho and there is a crowd of people gathering to catch sight of the Lord passing by. Zacchaeus is one such person who had heard of Jesus’ talks (sermons) and miraculous deeds. However, Zaccheus has a disadvantage, an impediment: he is of small stature. So what does Zaccheus do? He climbs up a sycamore tree and this way he’d be able to catch a glimpse of the Lord passing by. This does not go unnoticed. Our Lord sees Zaccheus and says: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”
A reaction from the crowd follows. They had begun to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” Zaccheus was a tax collector who worked for the Roman government. And thus Zaccheus was not well-liked and looked down upon. Besides that, the crowd is judgmental over the Lord’s decision to become a guest at a sinner’s home, namely Zaccheus.
Nonetheless, Zaccheus holds his ground, defending his integrity: “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” (19:8) Repayment or restitution fourfold is indeed a great amount. For according to today’s Catholic moral teaching, restitution or repayment is to be made as close to the value or worth of what was wrongfully taken.
There is a simplicity and honesty in the dialogue between Zaccheus and Our Lord. Zaccheus was not hard-hearted, but rather had an openness of heart by which God finds a path to enter. Yes, He can even enter the heart of any and every sinner, no matter how great a sinner he or she is. To Zaccheus, Jesus had become the source of true joy and happiness here on earth, but more importantly for all eternity.
