Category Archives: church

The Sunshine that ripens all.

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PRAYER for DISCERNMENT

O Lord Jesus Christ our God, who didst lead the people of Israel in a land unknown, a land of drought and deep darkness, a land none may pass through or dwell in: do thou, the same Lord, lead me all the days of my life, giving me to discern the times and their signs, and to redeem time’s passage – for the days are evil – guiding me in the way that I should go, that I may ever say: I love thee, O Lord, for thou hast heard the voice of my supplication from my mother’s womb, yea, from all eternity, and thou art the Way and the Truth, and the Resurrection and the Life, the Sunshine that ripens all who live and repose in thee, the Peace of God, and also our Peace with him: always, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

From Orthodox Christian Prayers

Christ Pantocrator, Decani Monastery, Serbia, 14th century.

Drawing all possible conclusions.

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When I was “newly illumined” in the Orthodox faith, my spiritual father recommended the books on prayer by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom. One thing I got from Metropolitan Anthony was the blunt truth that praying is uncomfortable, even scary, but it’s the source of our true life. It’s what we were made for. No matter how many times I read transcriptions of his talks — I think all the books we have by him are actually from homilies or lectures — I am always, always struck by the way he conveys the deep love of God with honesty and simplicity.

Today is the anniversary of his repose in 2003, his falling asleep in Christ and passing from death to life, and in his memory I am offering an excerpt from one of those books:

“Because we don’t know yet how to act without an outer reason, we discover that we don’t know what to do with ourselves, and then we begin to be increasingly bored. So first of all, you must learn to sit with yourselves and face boredom, drawing all the possible conclusions.”

― Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray

 

Possessing courage.

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“Do not be ashamed to enter again into the Church. Be ashamed when you sin. Do not be ashamed when you repent. Pay attention to what the devil did to you. These are two things: sin and repentance. Sin is a wound; repentance is a medicine. Just as there are for the body wounds and medicines, so for the soul are sins and repentance. However, sin has the shame  and repentance possesses the courage.”

-St. John Chrysostom, On Repentance and Almsgiving