Category: Faith & Ideology
Friday, 7/15/16
Put on your thinking cap
Police, prosecutors, and sundry
Sunday, 7/10/16
I’m numb. I don’t think I’m alone.
The police shootings. The police shot. Too little time to think things through. Life to live. Family to visit.
The Facebook mêmes and (especially) the Tweets ring false and partisan. Maybe “tribal” is a better word. They don’t help make sense of it. Not really.
Then this luminous essay arrives from two blocks away from the Dallas police shootings. I already shared it on social media, commending it strongly. But then I re-read it and need to excerpt and comment a bit.
In a piece that generally doesn’t single out anyone for shame, this stuck out:
Each of the major presidential candidates is so divisive that it’s a blessing neither of them chose to visit. It’s also very sad: presidential election opponents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, even George W. Bush and Al Gore, could have (and probably would have) changed their plans and made an appearance in Dallas, after the worst strike against law enforcement in more than 100 years. This year, neither of the candidates has any place preaching healing or unity.
That’s a tragic benchmark.
The real split, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn knew, runs not between parties, races or religions. It’s the line that divides the human heart itself …
How bizarre it is to see a violent rampage on a monitor and recognize all the street signs, landmarks, storefronts … because all of it is still happening just two blocks down the street. When I finally walked the dog, my super warned me to make it brief: “There’s a least one active shooter still at large.” Uh, yeah, we made it brief.
… [U]ltimately, it isn’t the conflict between one group and another that causes chaos. In a lily-white society like 1930s Germany, or an all-black republic like 1990s Rwanda, we will still find sufficient divisions to make us hate each other, if that’s where our hearts incline. And incline there they will, if we don’t push back continually against the powerful currents that otherwise sweep us along — the world, the flesh and the devil.
The real split, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn knew, runs not between parties, races or religions. It’s the line that divides the human heart itself, between what we’re inclined to do because it is easy and obvious, and what our conscience tells us instead.
Every last little piece of the social chaos that feeds the crime that draws the cops, who fear for their lives and sometimes panic with tragic results, was born on the wrong side of that line ….
We cannot stay on the right side of Solzhenitsyn’s line. Not by ourselves. What unites us is our helplessness, our absolute need for Grace, which only comes in one color — the deep, rich red that flowed from the Cross.
Thank you, John Zmirak, and thank you Paul Cella for calling it to my attention.
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“In learning as in traveling and, of course, in lovemaking, all the charm lies in not coming too quickly to the point, but in meandering around for a while.” (Eva Brann)
Thursday, 7/7/16
Some Holiday or Other 2016
Saints of North America
Today, the Second Sunday after Pentecost, my Church commemorates all the Saints of North America. Selected stikera from Vespers:
Come, let us praise the saints of North America,
holy hierarchs, venerable monastics and glorious martyrs,
pious men, women and children, both known and unknown!
Through their words and deeds, in various walks of life,
by the grace of the Spirit they achieved true holiness.
Now as they stand in the presence of Christ Who glorified them,
they pray for us, who celebrate their memory with love.Come, let us assemble today
and glorify the luminaries of the North American lands,
the glorious martyrs and holy bishops who confirmed our faith,
the righteous dwellers in the wilderness and guides of the spiritual life!
Let us cry out to them in joy:
“All Saints of North America, known and unknown, pray to God for us!”As the brightest sun,
as the brilliance of the Morning Star,
the precious feast of the saints of North America has dawned for us,
to illumine us and to set our hearts on fire,
to imitate their godly lives,
and to follow their example of zeal for God.Come, let us assemble today
and let us praise the elect of North America!
Having fought the good fight, you have persevered in the faith,
receiving your crowns of victory from God.
Beseech Him to deliver from every calamity and sorrow
all who keep your holy memory in faith and in love!The earth rejoices and the heavens are glad,
O venerable Saints of America,
praising your labors and lives, your spiritual fortitude and purity of heart.
By driving away a multitude of demons
and enlightening many people with the light of the Orthodox Faith,
you have confirmed our land.Rejoice, O mountains of Pennsylvania;
leap for joy, O waters of the Great Lakes;
rise up, O fertile plains of Canada;
for the elect of Christ who dwelt in you are glorified,
men and women who left their homes for a new land!
With faith, hope and patience as their armor,
they courageously fought the good fight.
Comforted by the beauty of the Orthodox Faith,
they labored in mines and mills, they tilled the land,
they braved the challenges of the great cities,
enduring many hardships and sufferings.
Never failing to worship God in spirit and truth
and unyielding in devotion to His most pure Mother,
they erected many temples to His glory.
Come, O assembly of the Orthodox,
and with love let us praise the holy women, men and children,
those known to us and those known only to God,
and let us cry out to them:
“Rejoice, All Saints of North America and pray to God for us!”Rejoice, O continent of North America, illumined by the holy Gospel!
Rejoice, every province, state, city and town,
which raised up citizens of the heavenly Kingdom!
Rejoice, our venerable Father Herman, first saint of our land!
Rejoice O Martyrs Juvenaly and Peter,
for your blood has watered the seed of faith planted in Alaska!
Rejoice, O holy Hierarchs: Innocent, Tikhon, Nicholas, Raphael and John!
Rejoice, O holy Fathers Alexis, John, and all righteous priests!
Rejoice, All Saints of North America,
for your light has shone forth to the ends of the earth!
We beseech you to pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved!Today, as we celebrate the memory of all the Saints of North America,
let us praise them as is fitting,
for they lived all of Christ’s beatitudes.
Deprived of material wealth, they became rich in spirit;
meek, they inherited the earth;
mourning, they were comforted;
thirsting for righteousness, they were satisfied;
merciful, they obtainedmercy;
pure in heart, they beheld the image of God;
as peacemakers, they became God’s children;
persecuted and tortured for righteousness’ sake, they now rejoice in
heaven;
and they pray fervently to the Lord that He may have mercy on our souls.
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Texts from the Orthodox Church in America website, which gives further credit:
Liturgical texts for this service represent modified versions of translations provided by Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, Otego, New York and St. Tikhon’s Monastery, South Canaan, Pa. The Department of Liturgical Music and Translations of the Orthodox Church in America expresses its gratitude to Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery and St. Tikhon’s Monastery and to those translators whose work has been consulted at times in the course of reviewing and modifying these texts to their present form: Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware), Archimandrite Ephrem (Lash), Archimandrite Juvenaly, Father Benedict Churchill, Isaac Lambertson, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and Holy Transfiguration Monastery, among others.
Liturgical music for selected stichera and other hymns, published by the Department of Liturgical Music, can be downloaded at www.oca.org ; Liturgical Music and Translations; Music Downloads; Services of the Yearly Cycle; June 29, SS Peter and Paul
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“In learning as in traveling and, of course, in lovemaking, all the charm lies in not coming too quickly to the point, but in meandering around for a while.” (Eva Brann)
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 