Category Archives: church

Celebrating March with bread and blossoms.

church, food and cooking, my garden, winter, , , , ,

Over the years since I planted two Elephant Heart plum trees in my back yard garden, I have begun to notice a pattern: In February or March the trees begin to put out their blooms, and in the same months we get hailstorms. Then I say something on my blog, like, “I worry about my plum blossoms!”

This is the eighth springtime that these trees have found themselves in my garden when they woke from dormancy. Every summer I get more fruit, so I guess things are pretty good. This particular first day of March is still very cold and windy, but the sun is shining in a blue sky, and it looks like we’ll have three days of sunshine before we welcome the rain again.

I’m almost out of firewood, and it doesn’t look like I’ll get any more for this season; but I have a good furnace, which I wouldn’t mind using even more than I do if it weren’t so noisy. When I get tired of its roar I turn down the thermostat and put on a coat. Today I have time to build a fire before going to a Lenten service in the evening, and it will be nice to come home to a cozy and quiet house.

What’s another cozy and homey thing? Baking bread! Even if it’s done in the big church kitchen. Three of us made that kitchen nice and comfortable yesterday when we made these loaves of Communion bread together.

My computer guy came yesterday afternoon to do a check-up on my desktop; he hadn’t been here for so long, we had a lot to catch up on. His happiest news was all the sourdough bread baking he has been doing for his family, of which he showed me photos of the sort they put on the covers of artisan bread cookbooks. He is going to leave a jar of his starter on my doorstep tomorrow! I have been thinking for a few months that I want to come out of my bread-baking retirement. It’s just too severe a cutting away of my former self, not baking bread, and I’m going to try to graft that branch back in.

One reason I gave it up was that so many people are eating gluten-free, and it seemed a challenge to find people to give my (mostly excess) bread to; I feel differently about that part now, for some reason. Yesterday we ended up with two little bits of dough left over, and made them into two “buns” that we baked along with the regular loaves. You can see the smaller one at the top left of the photo above. I took that one home and ate it for lunch, and it was the most delicious thing. Bread is a wonder.

The ladder and the toil.

church, Lent, work, , , , ,

During Lent we Orthodox sing the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, a long penitential hymn composed in the seventh century. It is divided into four parts, which are sung in four different services in the first week.

“A basic distinguishing feature of the Great Canon is its extremely broad use of images and subjects taken both from the Old and New Testaments. As the Canon progresses, the congregation encounters many biblical examples of sin and repentance. The Bible (and therefore, the Canon) speaks of some individuals in a positive light, and about others in a negative one—the penitents are expected to emulate the positive examples of sanctity and repentance, and to learn from and avoid the negative examples of sin, fallen nature and pride.” -Orthodox Wiki

One of the exhortations which caught my attention this year was regarding the lessons that might be learned from the life of the patriarch Jacob:

The ladder which the great Patriarch Jacob saw of old is an example, O my soul,
of approach through action and of ascent in knowledge. If then thou dost wish to live rightly in action and knowledge and contemplation, be thou made new. (Genesis 28:12; Rom. 12:2; Titus 3:5)

In privation Jacob the Patriarch endured the burning heat by day and the frost by night, making daily gains of sheep and cattle, shepherding, wrestling and serving, to win his two wives. (Genesis 29:16-30; 31-40)

By the two wives, understand action and knowledge in contemplation. Leah is action, for she had many children; and Rachel as knowledge, for she endured great toil. For without toil, O my soul, neither action nor contemplation will succeed.

May God strengthen us!

Slave, servant, son: St. Onesimus

church, saints, , , , , ,

“Although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.”

This is a middle portion of the Letter to Philemon that St. Paul wrote to his friend about a runaway slave. It’s an unusually short and focused epistle in the New Testament, dealing mainly with this issue of the freedom of Onesimus, who had been converted while he and the apostle were in prison together.

The article, “Holy Apostle Onesimus as a Model for our Lives,” contrasts the former life of Onesimus as a “worthless slave” to his new life as a brother in Christ, and a valuable servant, as St. Paul describes him so movingly:

“I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.”

St. Philemon did forgive Onesimus, and sent him back to Paul as requested. Philemon was later made bishop of Gaza, and Onesimus continued to serve the apostles and was also consecrated as bishop.

This article on the Life of Onesimus gives more details about his bishopric and preaching, and ends with his death in this fashion:

“During the reign of the emperor Trajan (89-117), Saint Onesimus was arrested and brought to trial before the eparch Tertillus. He held the saint in prison for eighteen days, and then sent him to prison in the city of Puteoli. After a certain while, the eparch sent for the prisoner and, convincing himself that Saint Onesimus maintained his faith in Christ, had him stoned, after which they beheaded the saint with a sword. A certain illustrious woman took the body of the martyr and placed it in a silver coffin. This took place in the year 109.”

At this season of the year the Orthodox Church remembers both St. Philemon and St. Onesimus, which is why I was prompted to revisit this story, which I find I love more than ever. It prompts the author of the first article linked above to this thought:

“Let us pray that God shows us true spiritual fathers, even in our days,
who can help people be reborn, so as to acquire perfect love,
and from useless servants to become useful and free.”
-Fr. George Papavarnavas