В день Вознесения / On Ascension Day

On Thursday, we celebrate our Lord's Ascension into Heaven, which is described in Acts 1. I found a wonderful homily online, which describes the meaning of this feast for us and for our salvation. I have attempted a rough translation into English (I welcome corrections), and I hope you find it edifying. We will celebrate the Vigil service for the Ascension at 6:30 on Wednesday evening, and the Divine Liturgy at 9:00 on Thursday morning.

В Четверг, мы праздуем Вознесение Господня, которое описано в Деяние 1. Я нашел в сайте pravoslavie.ru поучительная проповедь об этом празднике, которая обясняет значение для нас и для нашего спасения. Смотрете внизу, после ангийского перевода. У нас будет Всеночная Бдение среда в 18.30 ч, и Божественная Литургия четверг в 9.00 ч.

A Homily on Ascension Day, by the Holy Hierarch Thaddeus Uspenskij

It isn't that Christ didn't wish to remain with the apostles visibly for ever. Rather, the world, which hates Christ, was not able to abide his Christ's continual presence. The world, hating Christ, was able again and again to condemn Him to death. The world was unable to see Christ any longer because of its unrighteousness, for which it would be reproved by the Holy Spirit when He came into the world (Jn 16:8-10).

The sin that man committed introduced the corruption of death and made man's eternal blessedness on earth impossible. The body, having received the seed of corruption, had to decay and die, for corruption doth not inherit incorruption (1 Cor 15:50). Sin itself, being the sting of death and its very source, could not be destroyed without the destruction of the perishable body, as the soul of fallen man had become fleshly and the flesh had become the bearer of sin. Even the earth had, through the sin of man, become the dwelling-place of corruption, tethering the heart of man to itself by means of the passions it incites. Therefore, "the earth also and the works that are therein" must eventually be burned up, melted away, destroyed, so that a new heaven and a new earth might appear, (2 Pet 3:10-13), the dwelling-place of the righteous.

First of all, the soul of man must be removed from earthly attachments, since the beginning of sin is in the soul. The heart, also, must be lifted up to God. Then, when sin is destroyed, then the body also can become incorruptible and spiritual, able to live in heaven.

By His Ascension, Christ prepared a place for man in heaven. He said that His Father has "many mansions," and that it is "better" that he go and prepare a place therefore those who believe in Him and love Him, so that they may be where He is (Jn 14:2-3, 16:7). In order to estrange man from the passions of the earth and to lead him to the mansions above, the Lord endured death, Rose and Ascended into heaven. After the Ascension, His work is continued by the Holy Spirit, Whom He sent into the world, cleansing from sin and granting spiritual life to man. Abiding at first with men in the flesh in order to lead them into communion with God, visibly at first, after the Ascension Christ appears to the disciples only occasionally, also in the body, but now a spiritual body, as if arranging our ascent from visible communion to spiritual. After the Ascension, He leads people into spiritual communion with Himself in the Holy Spirit. This is the mystery of the joy of the holy apostles after the Lord's Ascension. Their sorrow over separation from the Lord turned into the great joy of spiritual communion with Him in the Holy Spirit. Through faith this joy enters the hearts of those who love Christ, as it entered into the hears of the apostles.

Let us glorify Christ, who promised after his Ascension to be with us until the end of the world, who continues to see us, to hear us, to appear to us in various ways, leaving perceptible traces of his invisible presence in our lives, making all new (Rev 21:5).

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Слово в день Вознесения. Святитель Фаддей Успенский

Не Христос не хотел пребывать с апостолами видимо во веки, а мир, ненавидящий Христа, не мог вместить пребывания в нем Христа. Мир, ненавидя Христа, мог снова и снова осуждать Его на смерть. Мир не мог долее видеть Христа по причине своей неправды, которую и должен был обличить Дух Святой, пришедший в мир (Ин.16,8-10).

Грех, содеянный человеком, внес тление смерти, сделал невозможным вечное блаженство человека на земле. Тело, восприявшее семя тления, должно было разрушиться, умереть, потому что ''тление не наследует нетление'' (1Кор.15,50). Самый грех, бывший жалом смерти, ее источником, не мог уничтожиться без разрушения тленного тела, т. к. душа падшего человека как бы вся растворилась в плоти и плоть сделалась седалищем греха. И земля через грех человека стала жилищем тления, прилепив к себе сердце человека страстями, ею возбуждаемыми, а потому ''земля и все дела на ней'' должны некогда сгореть, стихии растаять, разрушиться, чтобы явились новое небо и новая земля (2Пет.3,10-13), жилище праведных.

Сначала должен был оторваться от пристрастий земных дух человека, потому что в нем начало греха. Должно было возвыситься к Богу и сердце. Когда же будет уничтожен грех, тогда и тело может стать нетленным и духовным, способным к обитанию на небе.

На небе через Свое Вознесение приготовил место человеку Христос. Говорил Он, что у Отца Его ''обителей много'' и что ''лучше'' Ему пойти и приготовить там место верующим и любящим Его, чтобы и они были там, где Он (Ин.14,2-3;16,7). Для отрешения человека от страстей земных и введения в горние обители претерпел Господь смерть, Воскрес и Вознесся на небо. По Вознесении Его дело спасения человека продолжает совершать Дух Святый, посланный Им в мир, очищающий от греха, дарующий жизнь духовную человеку. Пребывая сначала с людьми во плоти, чтобы ввести их в общение с Богом, начальное, видимое, Христос по Воскресении является ученикам лишь по временам, и в теле, уже одухотворенном, как бы устраивая переход от видимого общения к духовному. По Вознесении же Он вводит людей в духовное общение с Собой во Святом Духе. Вот тайна радости святых апостолов после Вознесения Господа, причина, по которой скорбь разлучения с Господом превратилась в великую радость вечного духовного общения с Ним в Святом Духе. Через веру эта радость входит в сердца любящих Христа, как вошла в сердца апостолов.

Прославим же Христа, обещавшего и по Вознесении пребывать с нами до скончания века, продолжающего нас видеть, слышать, являть себя различным образом, оставляя ощутительные, осязаемые следы своего невидимого пребывания в нашей жизни, творя все новое в ней (Апок.21,5).

http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life6950.htm

Audio talk on: Vespers, An overview of the themes of Vespers, and the Jewish character of Orthodox worship.

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In this catechetical talk, we give an overview of the themes of Vespers and the "Jewishness" of Orthodox worship.

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Сами слышали и узнали / We have heard ourselves and know

In English / По-Русский

St. Theophan the Recluse. Thoughts for every day of the year.

(John 4:5-42). The people of Samaria, after the Savior had spent two days with them, said to the Samaritan woman: "Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." It is this way with everybody. At first everybody is called to the Lord by the words of others - or, as for many today, by baptism as an infant - and later, once we experience for ourselves life in the Lord, we begin to cling to the Lord not only because of an external membership in the church, but because of an internal union with Him. We must all make it a law for ourselves not to satisfy ourselves with formal membership, but to diligently seek an internal communion with the Lord, so that we will then always carry within ourselves a witness that we stand in the truth. What must we do to do this? We must allow the truth of Christ to be incarnate within us - and the truth of Christ is the resurrection of the fallen. Thus, let us set aside the old man, passing away in vain lusts, and be clad with the new, formed in the image of God, in righteousness and truth - and let us then know in ourselves that the Lord Jesus Christ is in truth the Savior not only of the world, but also of ourselves.

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Святитель Феофан Затворник. Мысли на каждый день года

(Ин. 4, 5-42). Сограждане самарянки, после того как Спаситель пробыл у них два дня, говорили ей: "уже не по твоим речам веруем, ибо сами слышали и узнали, что Он истинно Спаситель мира, Христос". И у всех так бывает. Сначала внешним словом призываются ко Господу или, как у нас теперь, путем рождения, а потом, когда вкусят делом, что есть жизнь в Господе, уже не по внешнему принадлежанию к обществу христианскому держатся Господа, а по внутреннему с ним сочетанию. Это и надобно всем рождающимся в обществах христианских поставить себе законом, то есть не ограничиваться одним внешним принадлежанием к Господу, но озаботиться внутренне сочетаться с Ним, чтобы потом постоянно уже носить свидетельство в себе того, что они стоят во истине. Что же для этого нужно? Надо воплотить в себе истину Христову. Истина же Христова - восстановление падшего. Итак, отложи ветхого человека, тлеющего в похотях прелестных, и облекись в нового, созданного по Богу в правде и преподобии истины, и будешь сам в себе ведать, что Господь Иисус Христос есть воистину Спас не миру только, но собственно и тебе.

5th Sunday of Pascha, 2008, The Samaritan Woman. "She left her waterpot."

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John 4:5-42Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with [his] journey, sat thus on the well: [and] it was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth. 25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am [he]. 27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him [ought] to eat? 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and [then] cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his own word; 42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard [him] ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

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Fifth Sunday of Pascha, Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

The Conversation of Christ with the soul

http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/pascha-sunday-05_1999+the-samaritan-woman.html

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Christ is risen! Truly he is risen!

Today we are privileged to witness a holy conversation. This conversation is not just between Christ and a woman. It is between Christ and the soul. This is what we are privileged to see: God opening a window for us to look through, to see how the soul reacts, how it grows, how it learns, and how He enlightens it. The fathers understand this to be the conversation of Christ with the soul. Now he continues the theme of enlightenment that permeates all the services between Pascha and Pentecost, because the resurrection enlightens us, the resurrection vivifies; the resurrection gives us all that we need to know God.

Now we're waiting upon the Holy Spirit, and as good and faithful disciples, we should be more zealous at this time of year than at any other time. Unfortunately, it is quite the opposite, as the years go by. This is the least zealous time for Christians, but it is the most important time. I guess that's why people are so haphazard at this time of year: because it's so important. In many ways, this time is even more important than Great Lent. This is the time for your blessing. God wants to enlighten you. God wants to show you so many things. This period of time is very holy. Unfortunately it is also one of the most ignored times of the year, an ignored holy time of the year.

Christ is showing us, the church is enlightening us about how we are to live, what the resurrection means. We already know so much about what we should do and why we should do it, and the dos and the don'ts. What we need as human beings is the sure certainty that we can do things, that we can change and the enlightenment of the revelation of God in the human soul. This comes about because of the resurrection, these two things: certainty that we can change, and the revelation of God in the human heart. This is what Christianity is, and this is what we are being shown today. This is a holy thing, to be able to observe, to eavesdrop upon this conversation of Christ with the soul.

Now, as it is in many, many passages of scripture, most of them, we should put ourselves in this situation. We should consider ourselves as the Samaritan Woman at this point, and wonder how we would react. Where would we need to improve? This woman is great, but she was a sinner, there is no doubt about it: she had had five husbands, she was living in an illicit relationship with another man, and she believed in false religion. Samaritans were sort of semi-pagans; some of them worshipped other gods. They sort of worshipped God as the Jews understood, but then they mixed in some of the pagan things that happened that God had warned them against, and some of the Jews didn't take heed and so there was sort of a mixture, an amalgam of the true religion mixed together with the false. We can see that in other areas of the world, too, where animism mixes with Christianity, because people want to hedge their bets, I guess, and believe in all. So this woman was not a true believer, and she was not living a moral life.

But there was a greatness in her soul, because as God revealed Himself to her, slowly, there was awakened in her a great thirst, and a great and a brutal honesty. She was honest . Not just that she told the truth to Jesus, but that when she heard the truth, she accepted it. Not the truth that He was Messiah. That truth, as important as it is, is less important than the fact that she had to accept what Christ said about her. She had to accept that Christ had the right to tell her things and to and to look into her soul.

Many people proclaim Jesus as the Christ, and that truth doesn't save them. When we accept Jesus as the Christ in our hearts, when we accept that He has rights to tell us how to live, then we are on the road to salvation. Our life is full of many, many moments, when God tries to reach out and touch us. Many of these moments we have missed, sometimes because we have other things to do, other priorities. Sometimes because we are just bouncing around with that narcotic kind of wave of life, we don't listen and don't hear. God is only heard in that still, small voice, as Elias heard. He had to be still and quiet before he could hear. And so must we.

So this woman is in the whole bustle of life. She is going in the heat of the day, about noontime to get water, and Christ is by himself at the well. And he engages her in conversation, which was amazing to her. Not only is she a woman - it was not usual for a man to engage a strange woman in conversation - but she was a Samaritan. He was clearly a Jew, the Jews clearly hated Samaritans, and the feeling was mutual. Why in the world would this man be talking to her? But He awakened in her a thirst, and this thirst is what saved her soul. And He cleansed the unclean life that she was leading, and the unclean belief she had had all her life, and the arguments, and the hatred that she had toward the Jews, and everything else, because He touched her.

This conversation is long. It gets recounted in a few words, but it probably took quite some time, because there is certainly more that went on. This conversation is sort of our life in microcosm. And if you break off a conversation, you do not receive the full benefit of it. This is what I really want to tell you today.

This woman pursued the conversation. This woman pursued the conversation. Jesus said, "Give me to drink." She said, "Sir, why would you want to talk to me?" And then He brings in the idea of water, living water, and the woman begins to pursue after this idea, first carnally. She only understood it in terms of water that "I don't have to thirst for, I don't have to carry my water pot anymore, water that doesn't go bad. This is a wonderful thing. How can this man help me? Maybe he is a magician, maybe he is a sorcerer." She pursued, and he pursued, and she became a flame. She started to understand things - only in a figure, only a little bit - but that's because the conversation continued . She desired this water greatly. And what is this water? The living water that Christ talks about. Not from a spring, nor from a river, it is the Holy Spirit that God wells up in a man. This is what Christ is promising to the woman, but she doesn't understand yet.

But this woman had another difficulty besides an incorrect understanding of God. She was living in sins, and they were dulling her intellect. Indeed she had quite a bright intellect, because eventually she became St. Photini, equal to the apostles, and a martyr. And you can see even in the end of this reading she became an apostle, for she evangelized the entire town. Now this is a woman that was probably of some notoriety in this town. Because even among the Samaritans, what she was doing was not acceptable. And yet she evangelized the whole town. She must have been aflame with the knowledge of Christ at this point, and she communicated it because she believed it. But she had to stop thinking carnally, and start thinking spiritually, and in order for that to happen Christ had to show her what was wrong with her life.

So he skillfully turns the conversation to her by asking an innocuous question, an innocent question. "Go, call thy husband." "I don't have a husband." "Thou hast spoken truly. Thou hadst had five husbands, and the one that thou hast now is not your husband." Now with the vast majority of people in the world, the conversation would have ended there. She would have come irate: how dares He? She would have stomped off, or become belligerent in the conversation, and what God wanted to give her wouldn't have been given. She would have cut if off right there. And I daresay all of us in this room should consider how we would react to the revelation of our sins in this manner.

Indeed I daresay, that we do react in this manner. We cut off our conversation with God. The conversation that is sweet, the conversation of Christ with the soul, but because we do not continue to ask questions, we do not continue to listen to the Master. We have our own priorities, our things we do. We don't say our prayers very often, we don't come to church, except haphazardly. We don't commune or confess very often. These are all parts of the conversation.

And you don't even know what you've missed. If this woman had become angry because of what Christ said, or maybe become disinterested in the very beginning, saying, "Oh, I don't really want to talk to a Jew today. I've had a hard time. I'm tired. I just want to get home, and I want to begin the rest of my household duties." Or at any other point in the conversation, if she had cut it off, she would not have found out about the living water, and she wouldn't have known. It wouldn't have been a tragedy in her life right then. She would not have known. It would not have occurred to her that she had God before her, and she had sinned. She wouldn't have noticed it. She would have gone on with her life, and lived and died. And never known what she'd miss. What a tragedy!

This is what happens to us, too. God wants to shed grace upon us abundantly, yet we cut off the conversation. We don't even know what it is that He wants to give us. We are dull-witted because we do not sharpen our senses with the sword of the Holy Spirit that cuts to the marrow, tells us who we really are, and what we 're really like - not the vision that we give to other people, or even that we give to ourselves - but what we're really like. And then God reveals Who He really is. It has to be deep within the soul that He reveals this, and it is only in a protracted and intimate and intense conversation that this can occur. That's where the Holy Spirit reveals himself to a man, when we are intense, when we are fixed. One can easily imagine in this conversation that the woman was intense. She must have been gazing upon Christ with both eyes, listening to His every word, interpreting, asking questions, making many mistakes and many false assumptions, but every single thing He said drew her on. You can bet that she did not pay attention to the weather or that she was hot. She forgot her waterpot when she went away - what need did she have for the waterpot when He was promising living water?

This intense conversation is what we must have, and what we so seldom do, because we have our own priorities. Sometimes not even our own priorities. We just seem to be so unpracticed at the ways of piety. We say our prayers so infrequently, and such a small amount. We watch ten times more television than we pray. We read things that are either unholy or useless, rather than the Holy Scriptures. We say we don't have time for this, or the drive is too long, or da-da-da-da-da-da. And we don't even know what we missed.

I've learned something. I'll tell you a secret about myself that I'm continually finding out. Sometimes I get demoralized. It's a weakness of my character. And a day seems like just another day to me, and I've got duties to perform, and I'm going to perform them to the best of my ability. I'm going to try to pray. I'm going to try to do what I can, but the spark of zeal, of the expectation of visitation by God, is missing. And this often happens to me on Sunday, struggling with this demon of despondency. And then something happens during the course of that day - someone I meet, something someone says, a place where I am where God uses my poor self in my ministry as a priest to affect a human soul. It often happens at the end of the day. But I could have missed it, and indeed I don't know the days that I have missed, because I can't tell you about those days, when I wasn't open to what God wanted me to do. I can't tell you about the missed opportunities, except to believe that they happened. Many times this has happened to me, countless times, hundreds of times it has happened. It must have happened also hundreds of times - God forgive us - God forgive me and God forgive you because I'm positive it's happening to you today, where you've missed the opportunities for God's grace.

You must continue the intensity of the conversation. You must continue gazing at Christ and asking Him. He told you to ask Him for everything. But implicit in that command is that you must accept His answers, and ask Him for more answers. This woman is great among the saints because she was intense and was willing to accept what God would tell her. We don't do that. We don't like to be told much about ourselves. I've encountered this countless times myself also. People do not like to know what's really wrong with them. They get very, very prickly when things are too exposed. And unfortunately I am sometimes the agent of the exposing, so I can see it first hand. I see myself as in a mirror when I see this occur, because I don't like to be exposed either. But this conversation that Christ had with the Samaritan woman took time. Gradually her sins were exposed to her. When it was time for Christ to show her that He absolutely knew all about her, she was ready to accept it. But that was only because of the effort that she had put into the conversation up to that point. We must put effort into this conversation.

This is the only thing that is important in our lives - the dialogue of Christ with our soul. Nothing else matters. It is why we were born. It is why God has given us life, so that we could have intimate knowledge of Him. Intimate knowledge happens in a quiet, intense conversation of God with the soul, through everything we do in our life. When you make bad decisions, when you are lazy, when you don't come to church, when you don't say your prayers, when you decide to eat some nibble of food that is not fasting, all these things are breaking the conversation. And you know how it is when you are distracted in a conversation. Let's say you are having a conversation with someone and the radio or the television is on in the background, you get distracted. "Oh, yes, what did you say?" You don't make much headway in it. There's not much revelation in it. This is the way we are. It is lamentable, and sad, but it is the way we are.

What a glorious thing it is for Christ to speak with the soul. What a glorious thing it is to be promised living water, never to be thirsty again. Never to be sad. Never to be hungry. Not to have anything wrong with us. No wounds. No incompleteness. No imperfections. No longer pain and longing. This is what He promises us. It is only realizable, though, if we are participating with Him, as He reveals Himself and reveals to us ourselves as we live our life. It is only possible if we continually participate. I harp again and again about consistency. Saying your prayers consistently, keeping the fast consistently, coming to the services consistently. Not haphazardly. Not just most Sundays, not just some Saturdays. All of them. The reason I say this is because deeply imbedded in the mind of the church is the reality of this conversation between Jesus Christ and St. Photini. It is the conversation of God with the soul and it happens every day and every single word, every nuance is critical. None can be missed.

I cannot tell you how many of these words or nuances you can miss and still be saved. It is unknown, but not many. This is why I speak about all these things in terms of the externals of our life. The externals are critical so that God can speak. Otherwise we are too distracted. So I tell you boldly, when you don't want to say your prayers, or when you don't feel like coming to church, or when you're bored in church and leave early or when you have some other thing to do, it's not only boredom. It's not that your feet hurt or your back hurts. It's not that you have some other duty that overrides what you should be doing in church, or prayer at home, or keeping the fast. It's not those reasons that you might think it is. It's purely and simply because if this conversation is broken you will make no progress. So Satan does what he can to break the conversation. And we are too willing to allow the distractions to occur in our life.

God wants to give us so much. I think this conversation between this Samaritan woman and Christ is a great promise. He accepted her where she was, with all of her sins, and all of her false opinions, and she was willing to continue to listen, and He brought her to where she needed to be. It is the same with all of us.

Now she said she had five husbands. Five dead husbands. But she had another who was not her husband. We indeed also have husbands. Unfortunately they are not dead. We have distractions, and we have false priorities and other things that cause us to commit adultery against our true spouse, our lord Jesus Christ. Let those husbands die. And let us be faithful, true to the bridegroom. May God help you to continue the conversation. To the end of your life, not omitting one detail. God will enlighten you if you continue this conversation. Absolutely certain, there is great news today. Continue with the conversation. God will enlighten you. Glorious news this is. Amen.

В Преполовение / On Mid-Pentecost

Святитель Феофан Затворник. Мысли на каждый день года

(Дея. 14, 6-18; Ин. 7, 14-30). В Преполовение слышится воззвание от
лица Господа: "кто жаждет, иди ко Мне и пей" (Ин. 7, 37). Если так, то
пойдемте все к Нему. Кто чего бы ни жаждал, только бы то не противно
было духу Господа, непременно найдет удовлетворение. Жаждущие знания,
идите ко Господу, ибо Он - единственный свет, истинно просвещаюший
всякого человека. Жаждущие очищения от грехов и утоления совестного
жжения, идите ко Господу; ибо Он вознес грехи всего мира на древо и
рукописание их разодрал. Жаждущие покоя сердечного, идите ко Господу;
ибо Он есть сокровище, обладание которым заставит вас забыть все
лишения и презреть все блага, чтобы обладать Им единым. - Сила кому
нужна - у Него всякая сила. Слава ли - у Него слава премирная. Свобода
ли - Он дарователь истинной свободы. Он решит все наши недоумения,
расторгнет узы страстей, развеет все скорби и туги, даст преодолеть
все препоны, все искушения и козни врага. и уравняет путь нашей жизни
духовной. Пойдемте же все ко Господу!

from days.pravoslavie.ru.

Rough translation:

St. Theophan the Recluse - Thoughts for every day of the year

(Acts 14:6-18; John 7:14-30) On Mid-Pentecost we hear the call of the
Lord: "whosoever thirsteth, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37).
If this is so, then let us all run to Him. Whatever you thirst for -
so long as it is not contrary to the spirit of the Lord - you will
find relief in Him. If you thirst for knowledge, run to the Lord, for
He is the one and only light, enlightening every man. If you thirst
for cleansing from sin and quenching of the flames of your conscience,
run to the Lord, for he tore asunder the handwriting of our sins upon
the Cross. If you thirst for peace in your heart, run to the Lord, for
He is the treasury of all good, Whose abundance will teach you to
forget all deprivations and despise all earthly good, so as to be
filled with Him alone. If you need strength, He is almighty. If you
need glory, His glory surpasses the world. If you desire freedom, He
gives true freedom. He will resolve all of our doubts, loose the bonds
of our passions, dispel all our troubles and difficulties, will enable
us to overcome all obstacles, temptations and intrigues of the enemy,
and will make smooth the path of our spiritual life. Let us all run to
the Lord!

The Paralytic 2008 - Baptism explained - 4th Sunday of Pascha - John 5:1-15

LISTEN NOW

John 5:1-15After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep [market] a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time [in that case], he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. 10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry [thy] bed. 11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. 12 Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? 13 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in [that] place. 14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. 15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.

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Liturgy on the Land - Slideshow and movie medley

Complements of Natalia Hawthorne, two videos chronicling our first liturgy on the new land in McKinney. This was an outdoor liturgy on Thomas Sunday, 2008. We are building on this land this summer.



Liturgy On The Land (Slideshow) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQCLufUrTtk




Liturgy On The Land (Movie medley) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVO7oaxPcdA

4th Sun of Pascha - The Paralytic - John 5:1-5

Wilt Thou be made whole?

In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

Today is the Sunday of the paralytic, in which we hear the story of a man who'd been ill for thirty-eight years and was finally healed. We have much to learn from this story. Now, the reason why it's said now, or part of the reason, is because, as the services said last night, at "mid-feast", Jesus visited this paralytic. It's almost mid-feast now, it is almost mid-Pentecost. Pentecost is a feast of 50 days, and we're in that period awaiting Pentecost. And the Jews celebrated Pentecost also; they didn't understand the same meaning as we do, it changed, but they had a 50-day feast. So Jesus came about towards the middle of that feast - mid-Pentecost - and saw this man by the pool of Siloam, with five porches there.

We can learn many things from this short story. Certainly we can learn something about patience, endurance, not complaining about what is our lot in life, what's wrong with our life, what's going on that we don't like. We complain constantly and incessantly, and our complaining is a stench that rises up to God. Because when you complain, you're showing a lack of faith, a lack of obedience, a lack of love - indeed, a lack of understanding of who the God-man Jesus Christ is. Who of all among us, if anyone, could complain and feel justified - our Lord is the only one. But of course He understood what his task was and He took it joyfully, and with obedience, in order to save us by living on the earth, showing us the way, teaching us and then backing up what He said with His actions and his resurrection from the dead after His crucifixion. Indeed, we can learn a lot about patience by seeing this man; he wasn't complaining, and he was there for 38 years.

We can also learn something about Who it is who can cure, and what it is that He really cures. Whether a man is halt, whether a man is withered, lame, blind, or whatever infirmity a man has, it is small compared to the infirmity of the soul. Jesus healed this man not just of his infirmity of being palsied, but of the infirmity of his soul. How do we know this? Because later on we see after he was healed and the man was in the temple - which is a good sign, he was thanking God - Jesus explained some things to Him. Now listen carefully! In our society we don't like to hear this, in our society this is somehow not allowed, people don't like to admit this, they almost think you're crazy or reactionary to make the connection with sin that our Savior did when He said, 'Thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee." Now the fathers understand - and if you just know English you can understand - that he's making a reference to his palsy, his being a paralytic was in some measure caused by his sins.

This is not always the case. In fact, one time Christ was asked, "was it because of the sins of his parents or himself that this man was born without eyes, blind?" Christ said neither one; if was that the glory of God might be made manifest. It's not always because of sins that a person suffers some affliction, but most of the time it is because of sins. Either because sin causes the affliction - smoking, drinking alcohol to abuse, drugs, promiscuity, there's a long litany of things, diseases, that are caused by our own stupidity, by our wanton abuses. You can see fractured families because people don't deal with their anger, or their lust, or their lust, or their impatience, or their selfishness; sin causes many problems such as that in a direct way. But in an indirect way sin causes many other afflictions, because we're so thickheaded we don't see God. We don't see God in the good things, and we take advantage of those good things and fall into depravity.

So God, in His wisdom, in His love, in His mercy, chastises us in order so that we might cleave unto Him. It's the same principle with parents and their children; sometimes you must punish a child to help turn him to the right way, sometimes you must let a child suffer grievously in order to let him turn to the right way. If someone has a child that, let's say, gets involved in extremely dangerous and illicit behaviors and goes to jail, sometimes it's best not to bail the child out. God does the same thing with us. Our sins cause our suffering.

This society doesn't like to say that - "oh, how can you say this?" It does happen, to all of us. So if you have any situation in your life you're not pleased with - whether it's a physical infirmity, whether it's a relationship, whether it's job, or neighborhood, or family or whatever it is, "Physician, heal thyself. " Look the in mirror; look in the mirror of the soul. What's wrong with you? What's causing it? As I said before, it's possible that such things could be caused not through your sins at all, but because of something else. But for the most part, our sins cause our sufferings. And yet we complain, and we complain and we complain. But we always complain about that person and that person, but never ourselves. That's the person you need to complain about. Complain, ask God to help you with your sins, with that which fills you with evil.

I was reading from a wonderful sermon by Bishop Nicholaj Velimirovich, and he said "A Christian should expect to suffer." How about that for politically incorrect speaking! He expects to suffer, and he is surprised and glad and rejoices when he does not suffer. He expects to suffer because of his sins, just as you, if you were subject to a king and had killed the king's deer, you expect that the king is going to have you executed. You're not going to complain about that, you're going to be sorry and ask for forgiveness to the king. And if the king gives you forgiveness - but you know, he'll say Don't kill any more of my deer, but I forgive you this time - then you'll rejoice. Now we can do this with an earthly king, but with our Heavenly Father we don't do this.

We seem to think we're owed so much. We breathe it in the very air, it's so polluted with Western ideas that pollute us. "We're owed something." We're not owed anything in terms of your lot in life. Much of your lot in life is affected by God's providence. All of it actually, but some of it caused by God, and some of it allowed by God depending on your own ingenuity and your own abilities. But it all goes away in a vapor, how you lived, what you've done in this world. What matters is how your soul has developed, and if you're made whole.

I see that there are three things in this story that really jump out at me. Now you know that the water represents baptism, and that the person who was put in the water was made whole. Notice how it is says "made whole"; not just their infirmity was healed, but they were made whole. . But only one person, at one time in the season.

Christianity is to make one whole. Baptism is for all men, not just for one man, at one time in the season. And the man said to Christ, when Christ said, "wilt thou be made whole?" he said, 'I have nobody to help me." And he was looking at the Man who would help him; he was looking at the God-man who would help him, and he didn't know who He was yet. Christ asks us this question continually. "Wilt thou be made whole?" And for the most part we answer him with a resounding "No." For the most part we answer Him that way.

To some extent we've answered "yes"; we've come to the waters of baptism, we make an effort to fast, to come to the services - sometimes, unfortunately, a very poor effort to come to the services and I must mention that again. Don't lose your zeal; some of you are in very great danger of losing your zeal. But we make our small efforts, so yes indeed we say, to some extent, "Yes, I want to be made whole, O Lord!" But for the most part we say, "No, I don't want to! give up what I'm doing; I don't want to give up the sweetness of sin, or the sweetness of complaining, or the sweetness of excuses." They're so sweet, aren't they? But they cover up bitter, bitter poison.

So we must answer this question completely and totally, "Yes, I want to be make whole! I want to be cleansed of all my sins, and I don't blame Thee, the Lord, nor my friends, nor my family, nor anyone else for my sins and for my afflictions; they are mine and mine alone, and they are my fault. But Thou canst heal it; Thou art the man that can bring me into the water and can refresh me."

He is the one. We don't fully recognize that, either - oh, we believe it with our minds, with our lips, but if we really believed it we'd make much greater effort in living the Christian life.
And another things that jumps out at me: when Christ said "behold, thou art made whole; sin no more." Christianity is a constant process of becoming whole, but it involved two free wills - God's, who is perfectly free, and we, who should be free but have enslaved ourselves to the passions and lusts and corruptible things. But we were made to be free. It was our purpose. God made us to have perfect freedom. You know the Gospel of John where it says "he will go in and out and find pasture"? The sheep, being able to go in and out, go wherever they wish, perfect freedom, but freedom in godliness, freedom in purity, freedom in perfection. This is the purpose of our life - perfect freedom! So we have to answer Christ, when He asks us the question "wilt thou be made whole?", "Yes!" And any portion which answers "no" we must confess with bitter tears.

Stop making excuses for yourself. Don't make excuses for not being able to say your prayers, for not being able to come to church, for not being able to come to confession, for not doing this, for not doing that, for this reason, for that reason, for why you do this and why you do that. You know it's all a lie. I know it is a lie in my own life, so I strive to be honest concerning these things also. It's a lie. And every time you make an excuse, you are saying "NO." You're saying "I don't want to be made whole. I like laying in the gutter, I like laying in filth. I like wallowing in my sins."

Don't allow yourself to do this. That's why the church has an order. This order is not rules and regulations, it is for our benefit. That's why I must speak of it over and over, and especially during this season, because during this season is the most likely time for a person to fall away. Part of that is because God has given us such great grace on Pascha, and we hardly accepted it; we accepted a few things, we accepted some of the sweet meats, but we didn't accept and take into ourselves the resurrection. We couldn't bear it and so, because of unthankfulness, we're starting to fall away. I don't really know anybody who is honest who doesn't say that this happens to them during the Paschal season. It happens to me, but I struggle against it.

So I beseech you, my brothers and sisters, struggle against this; don't make excuses, don't let your life be in the way of eternal life. Don't let your temporal life impair you, don't make excuses, don't say NO. If you understood what Christ is saying, and says, when He says "wilt thou be made whole?", you'd be begging me to serve daily Liturgies. You'd be begging me, because you wouldn't want to go away from the temple, if you knew what wholeness really is. So taste God more and more, and as you taste more and more of God, you won't want to taste depravity.

But if you don't continue to taste of Him, and to "mount up like eagles" as it says in the Scriptures, to struggle, then it'll be a gradual slide. It might not be anything you notice, it might not be anything I notice - and I tell what, I keep my eyes peeled because, although I'm unworthy, I'm called to be a shepherd here, so I watch and I worry and I wait and I pray. But you know, in the long run, I'm not responsible for your salvation. To some degree I might have to answer if my own sins have caused you to falter, but you are all responsible for your own salvation. In the context of living the Christian life in community and in obedience, you are responsible.

Think a little about what it means to be whole. Which do you prefer - the inconstancy, the depravity, the weakness, the infirmity of this life, or wholeness, completeness, perfection and freedom? You and I are paralytics to some degree, sometimes to a great degree, and tragically this is usually of our own making. So when Christ asks you - and He's asking you today, He asks you every moment of your life - "Wilt thou be made whole?" You MUST struggle to say "YES" and then you MUST back up your promise with action, with effort, with desire. Then indeed, you will be made whole.

God help you!

4th Sun of Pascha - The Paralytic - John 5:1-5

"Rise, take up thy bed, and walk!"

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the holy Spirit Amen.

Today we see a man who is healed ... twice. The man's healing was completed in stages, as it is for us also. And we Orthodox Christians must recognize how God heals us, and how that obligates us. As Christians we fall far short of the mark. We are very poor at giving thanks to God, we are very poor at remembering His mercies. We are very poor at changing our priorities, at arranging our schedules. And because of this, we too often fall far short of receiving the SECOND healing.

The paralytic could not walk, his legs were not strong. He hoped to be healed, and so he waited, lying on his bed, by the sheep's pool. And he waited a long time. Thirty eight years is taken by the Fathers to be an indication of a lifetime - maybe not a lifetime now but very near an average lifetime then. And this lifetime indicates everything that is wrong with a man - all sins, all infirmities, all incompleteness, everything that is lacking in us. Any man who has any honesty in his heart knows that he is incomplete, and longs to be changed.


For the paralytic, the first healing was of his legs, so that he could be able to stand. For us, this first healing is bringing us into the church.

Now the second healing is when the man was enlightened by Christ. Our Lord saw him in the temple (which was a good place for him to be, and the reason why he received the second healing), and He conveyed to the man Who he was. And Jesus told the man something very important: "Thou art made whole - sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee". In other words, now that you have been made whole, and I have forgiven your sins, live according to the commandments!

I want you to understand the true nature of this second healing. In the story, it is mentioned once, but we know that our ascent to wholeness and perfection occurs during our whole life.

We will not receive this second healing in full measure without us forcing our will to struggle to follow the commandments. This is why the place where Christ found the man is so significant. He was in the temple, praying, giving thanks. God provides the grace, but we must supply the effort.

We Orthodox Christians are very poor at remembering these things that the Lord says, such as "sin no more". God's mercy is linked very strongly to our responsibility to think to act, to breath as Christians. We are very poor at fulfilling this responsibility. It is very strange that the time of the worst church attendance is after Pascha. This is the time when people often tell me in confession that they have hardly said their prayers. Satan steals away the grace from us, like the birds steal the seed away from the ground by the wayside, because it has not taken root.


This story really is present at this time of the year not for this message that I am trying to give you now, but instead to further focus us on how the resurrection changes and enlightens a man. We will see this again and again during this post Paschal period, how God enlightens and how the resurrection is applied to our life. We will see it in the paralytic, and the blind man, and the Samaritan woman. But we also must see a sidebar to these healings and these enlightenments that we will look at, even if only briefly, on a Sunday. We are obligated.

Every year I wrestle, and I think I lose the wrestling match each year, but my pastoral conscience compels me to emphasize the Lord's words given to the paralytic after his first healing, which we do not take enough heed of: "Take up your bed and walk!"

You must look in the mirror and judge yourself, am I living as a Christian? Am I fasting with care, am I coming to church when I can, or only when it is convenient to me? Am I saying my prayers or am I just making the sign of the cross as I bolt out the door into my car, in order to immediately turn on the radio and immerse myself into the secular minutia of the day? Am I struggling against my passions? Is this struggle my chief aim of my day?


We are obligated brothers and sisters. And this obligation is not a rule God requires that is enforced with an iron fist. God wants to give you every blessing, and I as a minister of the gospel am charged with making everything possible available to you, that I as a mortal who has been given the responsibility and the ability to deal with the immortal, can do. But you must TAKE it! You must grab it! You must pray. You must fast. You must come to the services. You must take up your bed and walk.

Perhaps I will win this wrestling match some year, and only speak of the joy of Pascha and the enlightenment that God gives. Take up your bed and walk!

You have been healed, you have been put in the waters of baptism, and emerged a new creature. That is what the troubling of the waters in this story means. This theology is a lot more important than the movie of the week you know. We should know these things. The troubling of the water indicates baptism, but only man was healed a year, when the Archangel Michael went down into the water. You should know the angel's identity from the evening vigil service. Archangel Michael troubles the water. This is not mentioned in the scriptures, but our Holy tradition knows this. One man only was healed! But Christ can heal the whole man, and He can heal everybody.

This is exciting news. But when the God-man says "Take up your bed and walk", He does just tell you to do it. He gives you the ability to do it! Who are we, to languish in inconstancy, and laziness, and in falling headlong in to the narcotic stream of life, when we have been directed by our Savior to work, and He has given us all things to fulfill his command. When we remain unchanged, we are not recognizing the mercy of God. And you will miss the grace. It streams by you, and you do not catch any of it, or only catch a small amount, because the grace of God which He bestows is retained only by the active, who are, carrying their beds, that is struggling in the Christina life. And still have all of your sins, and all of your passions and all of your problems, and the grace of God is right there for you to use!

We have the oasis only within a few steps and we are thirsting to death. A heavily laden table full of sweet meats is nearby, and we are hungry! Pick up your bed and walk! You still have time in this blessed period between now and Pentecost, when God wants to revel in a very significant extreme way, His enlightenment. We must to be here to listen. Not just "here" in this building, but in our prayers, in our reading, in all these things that are necessary for our souls. Not for my sake, for your sake.

I pray that next year I will win this wrestling match, and I will speak to you about what I really want to talk about - exciting news. But this kind of news can only be shared by people that are of the same mind striving together. Let's be of the same mind, about the living of the Christian life. Struggle with me. I am not a very good struggler, and I need a lot of help and support. Let's struggle together. Make up your mind you are going to fast better, that you will say your prayers in the morning , and not just a minutes worth. If you always have a habit of listening to Paul Harvey at 12 noon, and always remember that, then you can remember 5 minutes of prayer in the morning, or fifteen. Lets start with five. And five at night. And read something holy each day.

If you do this you will expand! God will fill you with knowledge And some of the problems that have been assailing you will start to be washed away. The process if agonizingly slow for most Christians ands they see very little progress, because they have not added enough EFFORT to God's grace! So may we take up our bed and walk. Some of us can run, some of us can fly like eagles. Some of us can only crawl. I can only crawl, but if that is the case for you as well, then let's crawl together.

May God help us to take up our bed and walk, to struggle with all the things in the Christian life for our benefit. God has much to give us, and we don't see it, even though it is right here! Do you realize the angels are present right now? They are right here, among us, but do we see them? No, because our eyes have scales on them. We do not see what God wants to give us. This is a tragedy - that we don't see the angels, that we do not feel the fullness of what is happening right now.

May God enlighten us! It will be as little bit at a time, small steps. He is not asking you to pray in the air tomorrow . He is asking you to respond to his grace, like a flower responds to the sun and grows towards it. The flower never turns away from the sun, and yet the Christian does. Let us not be like the world. Let us focus our lives on what matters, the salvation of our souls, so that we can see what God wants to show us. There is exciting news, incredible news concerning what God has in store for those who struggle. May God bless you and help you. Amen.

Путь к Богу / The Path to God

The way to God is prayer. A soul that is healed from sin years for prayer, strives for union with God through prayer --- And yet we pray so little! We attend church infrequently, and we have become so unaccostomed to our personal prayer rule that is is a burden to us. We can find time for anything except prayer!

-a loose translation of the original text (below) by Archimandrite John (Krestyankin)

---

Путь к Богу — молитва. Если душа выздоравливает от греха, она тянется к молитве, стремится к единению в ней с Богом. А мы совсем мало молимся! Редко ходим в храм, домашнее правило вообще стало нам в необыкновенную тяжесть. На все хватает времени, только не на молитву!

-АРХИМАНДРИТ ИОАНН (КРЕСТЬЯНКИНЫЙ).

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/080517100043

Море житейское

http://www.pagez.ru/days/index.php?id=begin

"Вот, Он убивает меня; но я буду надеяться"
(Иов. 13, 15)

Плывет корабль. И, как бы ни была глубока пучина морская, как бы ни были сильны волны, как бы ни свирепствовала буря, - все хорошо, пока вода в него не проникла. Не в том задача мореплавателя, чтобы вывести корабль из моря, а в том, чтобы вода его не залила. Так и задача жизни христианина состоит не в избежании забот, испытаний, искушений, а в том, чтобы все это не могло нарушить его душевный покой и залить его душу неудержимой волной, не оставляя места ничему другому.
Если оставить в своем сердце свободный доступ бесчисленным мелким и крупным заботам, постоянно осаждающим каждого из нас, они очень скоро породят в нас недовольство, раздражение, горечь, и мы будем в тягость себе и другим. Наше мрачное расположение духа будет бросать тень на все окружающее, и от нас будет веять холодом.
Научимся же не поддаваться нашим заботам и затруднениям и не будем преувеличивать их значение, тогда и душевный наш мир не будет нарушен, и среди всех этих бурь мы будем "всегда радоваться".
Нет ничего отраднее и утешительнее, чем видеть человека всегда спокойного, мирного, радостного даже среди многих и тяжелых забот. Такой человек светит ярко среди жизненного мрака, действует лучше всякой проповеди, может ободрить и поддержать унывающего брата и дать ему силу продолжать тяжелый путь.

"Нас наказывают, но мы не умираем, нас огорчают, а мы всегда радуемся" (2 Кор. 10, 6, 9).

The wise men teach us

Кланяясь, повергнем все пред Ним из рук своих. Если есть у нас злато, принесем Ему, а не будем закапывать. Если тогда иноплеменники почтили Его своими дарами, то за кого надобно почесть тебя, когда ты отказываешь требующему твоей помощи? Если они подъяли такой великий путь для того, чтоб узреть рожденного, то чем извинишься ты, который не хочешь пройти одной улицы для посещения страждущего и заключенного в узах? Мы милосердуем о самих врагах наших, когда они в болезни или узах, а ты не чувствуешь сострадания к Благодетелю твоему и Господу. Те принесли злато, а ты едва подаешь хлеба. Те, увидев звезду, возрадовались, а ты не трогаешься, видя самого Христа и странна и нага. Но найдется ли кто-нибудь между вами, хотя один из числа получивших тысячу благодеяний, кто бы предпринимал для Христа такое путешествие, какое совершили эти мудрейшие самых мудрецов варвары? Но что я говорю - такое путешествие? Многие женщины у нас так изнежены, что если не будут привезены на мулах, не хотят пройти и одной улицы для того, чтобы увидеть Христа в духовных яслях? Если же и есть такие, которые могут приходить ко Христу, то одни из них предпочитают хлопоты по домашним делам, а другие даже посещение зрелищ хождению в это наше собрание. Варвары, не видав еще Христа, столь великий для Него протекли путь; а ты, и видев Его, не подражаешь им, но, взглянув, оставляешь Его и спешишь смотреть на шута (я обращаюсь опять к тому же, о чем говорил и прежде) и, видя Христа, лежащего в яслях, бежишь от Него для того, чтобы видеть на сцене женщин.

http://www.ccel.org/contrib/ru/Zlatmat1/Mat1_07.html

The wise men teach us

As I make my way through the sermons of St John Chrysostom, I am reminded of many things that I wish to share with my parish. This makes for very slow reading!


St John ALWAYS emphasizes the MORAL aspects of the scripture. Everything in the scripture is about morality, that is, following God's law, because it is the way of life. Every story, every character, good or bad, every event, every dogma expressed must remind of of how to live the moral way of life.


I have many times told you that we must read the scriptures in such a way that they apply to us personally. We must assume that each word is meant for us, and attempt to glean the most benefit possible from it. To do this takes a little creativity at times.


Below is an example from St John's sermons. He had just finished a wonderful exposition of the visit of the wise men to the Christ child, and as is his wont, immediately applies this to the morality or lack thereof of his audience.


He deftly teaches us to use the story of the wise men as a sort of mnemonic device, a spur for our memory, when we are tempted to be lazy and indifferent. Read and learn how a holy man uses the scripture to teach himself to be holy. It is invigorating to read St John's holy admonitions! He is so fervent, and creative, and frightening. Sometimes it seems as if he can see into our very souls.

...

And let us cast everything out of our hands when we are to worship; though it be gold that we have, let us offer it unto him and not bury it. For if those barbarians [the wise men, (priest seraphim)] then offered it for honor, what will become of thee, not giving even to Him that hath need?

If those men journeyed so far to see Him newly born, what sort of excuse wilt thou have, not going out of thy way one alley’s length, that thou mayest visit Him sick or in bonds?

And yet when they are sick or in bonds, even our enemies have our pity; thine is denied even to thy Benefactor and Lord.

And they offered gold, thou hardly givest bread.

They saw the star and were glad, thou, seeing Christ Himself a stranger and naked, art not moved.

For which of you, for Christ’s sake, hath made so long a pilgrimage, you that have received countless benefits, as these barbarians, or rather, these wiser than the wisest philosophers?

And why say I, so long a journey? Nay, many of our women are so delicate, that they go not over so much as one crossing of the streets to behold Him on the spiritual manger, Or, “Spiritual Table.” [He is talking about coming to the services here (priest seraphim)] unless they can have mules to draw them. And others being able to walk, yet prefer to their attendance here, some a crowd of worldly business, some the theatres.

Whereas the barbarians accomplished so great a journey for His sake, before seeing Him; thou not even after thou hast seen Him dost emulate them, but forsakest Him after seeing Him, and runnest to see the stage player. ... And seeing Christ lying in the manger, thou leavest Him, that thou mayest see women on the stage.

NPNF1-10. St. Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Homily VII. Matt. II. 4, 5: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.VII.html

(I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IS SOMEONE SENT THE LINK TO THIS SERMON IN RUSSIAN TEXT. I ASSUME IT IS ONLINE SOMEWHERE. As I have said before, I must at this time write in English, and most of what I write will be untranslated, but I wish that everything on this blog is accessible to as many people as possible)

....

St John continues to rail against the immorality of his time. I have only included a portion of his admonition (and he was only just getting warmed up!) I cannot see any difference in the events he later describes and watching half naked dancers try to win some stupid prize on TV, or indulging in the trash that passes for entertainment these days.

It would be good for you to read it. Here is the link: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.VII.html. The text I have cited is near the end of the sermon. He who has ears to hear and eyes which see things that should not be seen, let him hear.

ПОУЧЕНИЕ В НЕДЕЛЮ ЖЕН-МИРОНОСИЦ - Святитель Игнатий (Брянчанинов)

Евангелие возвещало сегодня^[1] о подвиге святых жен, последовавших Богочеловеку во время Его земного странствования, бывших свидетельницами Его страданий, присутствовавших при Его погребении. Погребение совершилось в вечер пятка. Когда злоба иудеев изливалась, как бы огненная лава из огнедышащей Этны, устремляясь не только на Господа, но и на всех близких Ему; когда святые апостолы вынуждены были скрыться или только издали могли наблюдать за изумительным событием; когда один наперсник любви, для которой нет страшного, неотступно пребывал при Господе, тогда ученик, бывший всегда потаенным, постоянно скрывавший свой сердечный залог из опасения преследований от Синедриона, почетный член Синедриона, Иосиф, внезапно попирает все препятствия, колебания, недоумения, доселе связывавшие и волновавшие его, приходит к холодному и жестокому Пилату, просит тело казненного поносною казнью, получает тело, погребает тело с благоговением и почестью.

Евангелие дает деянию Иосифа значение деяния великодушного, мужественного. Таким оно и было. Член Синедриона, пред лицом Синедриона, совершившего богоубийство, пред лицом Иерусалима, принявшего участие в богоубийстве, снимает с креста тело Богочеловека, убитого человеками, относит в сад, расположенный близ городских ворот и стен. Там, в уединении и тишине, под тенью древ, в новом гробе, иссеченном в цельной каменной скале, при обильном пролиянии ароматов и мастей, полагает тело, которым искуплены и тела и души всех человеков, обвив это тело чистейшими пеленами, как обвивается и укрывается драгоценное сокровище. В погребении Господа принял участие другой член Синедриона, Никодим, приходивший ночью к Господу, признавший Господа посланником Бога. Привалив великий камень к дверям гроба - дверями названо в Евангелии низменное отверстие в пещеру - Иосиф уходит как окончивший с должною удовлетворительностью свое служение. Синедрион следил за действиями Иосифа. По отшествии его, он озаботился приставить стражу ко гробу, приложить печать к камню, заграждавшему вход. Погребение Господа засвидетельствовано и последователями и врагами Его. Одни члены Синедриона, в исступлении и бешенстве совершая величайшее злодеяние, бессознательно совершили величайшее жертвоприношение^[2]: они закланием всесвятой Жертвы искупили человечество, заключили бесплодный ряд преобразовательных жертв, соделали излишними и эти жертвы и самое установление их. Другие члены Синедриона, представители всех ветхозаветных праведников, в богоугодном направлении и расположении духа послужили погребению Искупителя человеков, окончили и запечатлели этим действием благочестивую деятельность сынов Ветхого Завета. Отселе начинается исключительное служение деятелей Нового Завета.

Святые жены не уступают в мужественном самоотвержении Иосифу. Присутствовав при погребении в пяток, они не сочли позволительным в субботу - в день покоя - нарушить тот покой, которым покоилось в священном мраке и затворе гробовой пещеры тело Господа. Жены намерены были излить свое усердие к Господу излиянием мира на Его тело. Возвратившись с погребения в пяток, они немедленно купили значительное количество благоуханных составов и ожидали наступающего дня по субботе, именуемого днем недельным, воскресным. В этот день, лишь воссияло солнце, благочестивые жены направились ко гробу. На пути они вспомнили, что ко входу во гроб привален большой камень. Это озаботило их, и жены начали говорить между собою: кто отвалит нам камень от дверей гроба (Мк. 16: 2)? Камень был велий зело. Пришедши ко гробу, они, к удивлению своему, увидели камень отваленным. Отвалил его светоносный, сильный ангел: он, по воскресении Господа, снисшел с неба ко гробу, вместившему Невместимого небом, поразил ужасом стражей, вместе и сокрушил печать и отодвинул тяжелый камень. Он сел на камне, ожидая пришествия жен. Когда они пришли, он возвестил им о воскресении Господа, повелев сказать о том апостолам. За усердие свое к Богочеловеку, за решимость воздать почесть всесвятому телу, которое охраняла воинская стража, за которым зорко наблюдала ненависть Синедриона, святые жены, первые из человеков, получили точное и верное сведение о воскресении Христа, соделались первыми и сильными проповедниками воскресения, как выслушавшие известие о нем из уст ангела. У всесовершенного Бога нет лицеприятия: все человеки равны пред ним, и тот из человеков сподобляется особенных даров Божиих, в особенном обилии и духовном изяществе, который с большим самоотвержением устремится к Богу.

Кто отвалит нам камень от дверей гроба? Эти слова святых жен имеют свое таинственное значение. Оно так назидательно, что любовь к ближним и желание им душевной пользы не дозволяют умолчать о нем.

Гроб � наше сердце. Было сердце храмом; соделалось оно гробом. В него входит Христос посредством таинства Крещения, чтоб обитать в нас и действовать из нас. Тогда сердце освящается в храм Богу. Мы отнимаем у Христа возможность к действованию, оживляя нашего ветхого человека, действуя постоянно по влечению нашей падшей воли, нашего отравленного ложью разума. Христос, введенный Крещением, продолжает пребывать в нас, но как бы изъязвленный и умерщвленный нашим поведением. Нерукотворенный храм Божий превращается в тесный и темный гроб. Ко входу его приваливается камень велий зело. Враги Божии приставляют ко гробу стражу, скрепляют печатью отверстие, замкнутое камнем, припечатывая камень к скале, чтоб, кроме тяжести, знаменательная печать воспрещала прикасаться к камню. Враги Божии сами наблюдают за сохранением умерщвления! Они обдумали и установили все препятствия, чтоб предупредить воскресение, воспрепятствовать ему, соделать его невозможным.

Камень � это недуг души, которым хранятся в неприкосновенности все прочие недуги и который святые отцы называют нечувствием^[3]. Что это за грех? О нем мы и не слыхали, скажут многие. По определению Отцов, нечувствие есть умерщвление духовных ощущений, есть невидимая смерть духа человеческого по отношению к духовным предметам при полном развитии жизни по отношению к предметам вещественным. Случается, что от долговременной телесной болезни истощатся все силы, увянут все способности тела, тогда болезнь, не находя себе пищи, престает терзать телосложение; она покидает больного, оставя его изнуренным, как бы умерщвленным, неспособным к деятельности по причине изнурения страданиями, по причине страшной, немой болезненности, не выражающейся никаким особенным страданием. То же самое совершается и с духом человеческим. Долговременная нерадивая жизнь среди постоянного развлечения, среди постоянных произвольных согрешений, при забвении о Боге, о вечности, при невнимании или при внимании самом поверхностном заповедям и учению Евангелия отнимает у нашего духа сочувствие к духовным предметам, умерщвляет его по отношению к ним. Существуя, они перестают существовать для него, потому что жизнь его для них прекратилась: все силы его направлены к одному вещественному, временному, суетному, греховному.

Всякий, кто захочет беспристрастно и основательно исследовать состояние души своей, усмотрит в ней недуг нечувствия, усмотрит обширность значения его, усмотрит тяжесть и важность его, сознается, что он - проявление и свидетельство мертвости духа. Когда мы захотим заняться чтением Слова Божия, какая нападает на нас скука! Как все, читаемое нами, представляется нам малопонятным, не заслуживающим внимания, странным! Как желаем мы освободиться скорее от этого чтения! Отчего это? Оттого, что мы не сочувствуем Слову Божию.

Когда мы встанем на молитву, какую ощущаем сухость, холодность! Как спешим окончить наше поверхностное, исполненное развлечения моление! Это отчего? Оттого, что мы чужды Богу: мы веруем в существование Бога мертвою верою; Его нет для ощущения нашего. Отчего забыта нами вечность? Разве мы исключены из числа тех, которые должны вступить в ее необъятную область? Разве смерть не предстоит нам лицом к лицу, как предстоит она прочим человекам? Отчего это? Оттого, что мы прилепились всею душою к веществу, никогда не думаем и не хотим думать о вечности, утратили драгоценное предощущение ее, стяжали ложное ощущение к нашему земному странствованию. Это ложное ощущение представляет нам земную жизнь бесконечною. Мы столько обмануты и увлечены ложным ощущением, что сообразно ему располагаем все действия наши, принося способности души и тела в жертву тлению, нисколько не заботясь об ожидающем нас ином мире, между тем как мы непременно должны сделаться вечными жителями этого мира.

Отчего источаются из нас, как из источника, празднословие, смехословие, осуждение ближних, колкие насмешки над ними? Отчего мы проводим без отягощения многие часы в пустейших увеселениях, не находим сытости в них, стараемся одно суетное занятие заменить другим, а кратчайшего времени не хотим посвятить на рассматривание согрешений своих, на плач о них? Оттого, что мы стяжали сочувствие к греху, ко всему суетному, ко всему, чем вводится грех в человека и чем хранится грех в человеке; оттого, что мы утратили сочувствие ко всем упражнениям, вводящим в человека, умножающим и хранящим в человеке боголюбезные добродетели. Нечувствие насаждается в душу враждебным Богу миром и враждебными Богу падшими ангелами при содействии нашего произволения. Оно возрастает и укрепляется жизнью по началам мира; оно возрастает и укрепляется от последования своим падшим разуму и воле, от оставления служения Богу и от небрежного служения Богу. Когда нечувствие укоснит в душе и соделается ее качеством, тогда мир и миродержцы прилагают к камню печать свою. Печать эта состоит в общении человеческого духа с падшими духами, в усвоении духом человеческим впечатлений, произведенных на него духами падшими, в подчинении насильственному влиянию и преобладанию духов отверженных.

Кто отвалит нам камень от дверей гроба? Вопрос, исполненный заботливости, печали, недоумения. Ощущают эту заботливость, эту печаль, это недоумение те души, которые направились ко Господу, оставив служение миру и греху. Пред взорами их обнаруживается, во всем ужасном объеме и значении своем, недуг нечувствия. Они желают и молиться с умилением и упражняться в чтении Слова Божия вне всякого другого чтения, и пребывать в постоянном созерцании греховности своей, в постоянном болезновании о ней, словом сказать, желают усвоиться, принадлежать Богу, - встречают неожиданное, неизвестное служителям мира сопротивление в самих себе: нечувствие сердца. Сердце, пораженное предшествовавшею нерадивою жизнью, как бы смертельною язвою, не обнаруживает никакого признака жизни. Тщетно собирает ум помышления о смерти, о суде Божием, о множестве согрешений своих, о муках ада, о наслаждении рая; тщетно старается ум ударять в сердце этими помышлениями: оно пребывает без сочувствия к ним, как бы и ад, и рай, и суд Божий, и согрешения, и состояние падения и погибели не имели к сердцу никакого отношения. Оно спит глубоким сном, сном смертным; оно спит, напоенное и упоенное греховною отравою. Кто отвалит нам камень от дверей гроба? Камень этот - велий зело.

По наставлению святых Отцов, для уничтожения нечувствия нужно со стороны человека постоянное, терпеливое, непрерывное действие против нечувствия, нужна постоянная, благочестивая, внимательная жизнь. Такою жизнью наветуется жизнь нечувствия; но одними собственными усилиями человека не умерщвляется эта смерть духа человеческого: уничтожается нечувствие действием Божественной благодати. Ангел Божий, по повелению Бога, нисходит в помощь к труждающейся и утружденной душе, отваливает камень ожесточения от сердца, исполняет сердце умиления, возвещает душе воскресение, которое бывает обычным последствием постоянного умиления^[4]. Умиление есть первый признак оживления сердца в отношении к Богу и к вечности. Что такое умиление? Умиление есть ощущение человеком милости и сострадания к самому себе, к своему бедственному состоянию, состоянию падения, состоянию вечной смерти. О иерусалимлянах, приведенных в это настроение проповедью святого апостола Петра и склонившихся принять христианство, Писание говорит, что они умилишася сердцем (Деян. 2:37).

Не нуждалось тело Господа в благовонном мире мироносиц. Помазание миром оно предварило воскресением. Но святые жены благовременною покупкою мира, ранним шествием, при первых лучах солнца, к живоносному гробу, пренебрежением страха, который внушался злобою Синедриона и воинственною стражею, сторожившею гроб и Погребенного, явили и доказали опытно свой сердечный залог к Господу. Дар их оказался излишним: сторично вознагражден он явлением доселе невиданного женами ангела, известием, не могущим не быть преизобильно верным, о воскресении Богочеловека и воскресении с Ним человечества.

Не нужно Богу, для Него Самого, посвящение жизни нашей, посвящение всех сил и способностей наших в служение Ему - для нас это необходимо. Принесем их, как миро, ко гробу Господа. Благовременно купим миро - благое произволение. С юности нашей отречемся от всех жертв греху; на эту цену купим миро - благое произволение. Служение греху невозможно соединить с служением Богу: первым уничтожается второе. Не попустим греху умертвить в духе нашем сочувствие к Богу и ко всему Божественному! Не попустим греху запечатлеть нас своими впечатлениями, получить над нами преобладание насильственное.

Вступивший в служение Богу с дней неиспорченной юности и пребывающий в этом служении с постоянством подчиняется непрестанному влиянию Святаго Духа, запечатлевается исходящими от Него благодатными, всесвятыми впечатлениями, стяжает, в свое время, деятельное познание воскресения Христова, оживает во Христе духом, соделывается, по избранию и повелению Божиим, проповедником воскресения для братии своей. Кто по неведению или увлечению поработился греху, вступил в общение с падшими духами, сопричислился им, утратил в духе своем связь с Богом и небожителями, тот да уврачует себя покаянием. Не будем отлагать врачевания нашего день на день, чтоб не подкралась неожиданно смерть, не восхитила нас внезапно, чтоб мы не оказались неспособными к вступлению в селения некончающегося покоя и праздника, чтоб не были ввергнуты, как непотребные плевелы, в пламень адский, вечно жгущий и никогда не сожигающий. Врачевание застарелых недугов совершается не так скоро и не так удобно, как то представляет себе неведение. Не без причины милосердие Божие дарует нам время на покаяние; не без причины все святые умоляли Бога о даровании им времени на покаяние. Нужно время для изглаждения впечатлений греховных; нужно время, чтоб запечатлеться впечатлениями Святого Духа; нужно время для очищения себя от скверны; нужно время, чтоб облечься в ризы добродетелей, украситься боголюбезными качествами, которыми украшены все небожители.

Воскресает в человеке, приготовленном к тому, Христос, и гроб - сердце - снова претворяется в храм Божий. Воскресни, Господи, спаси мя, Боже мой (Пс. 3: 8); в этом таинственном и вместе существенном воскресении Твоем заключается мое спасение. Аминь.

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^[1] Мк. 69 зач. (Мк. 15: 43 � 16: 8)

^[2] См. Деян. 3:17-18

^[3] Лествица. Слово 18-е

^[4] Лествица. Слово 1-е, гл. 6.

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/080511093001

3rd Sun of Pascha - The Holy Myrhhbearers

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Christ is risen!

Today is the third Sunday after Pascha, and it is the Sunday of the myrrh-bearing women. And it is quite an interesting reading which we have because these women and these men, Joseph of Arimathaea, who is mentioned today, and also Nicodemus [1] , who is not mentioned in this gospel (but is mentioned in St. John's gospel), who acted with great love, but also in great ignorance. They were trying to do something that they were not going to be able to accomplish. These women wanted to anoint the Lord with myrrh, and Joseph and Nicodemus had prepared the Lord's body so carefully, wrapping it in clean, fine linen. Myrrh and aloes had been applied, according to the custom of the Jews. They carefully placed our Lord's body in a tomb that had been hewn out of a rock, which was Joseph's [2] . All this they did in ignorance. They acted without full knowledge, but with great desire and with great love.

There is a lesson for us. Pascha is God making man able to know God. This is really what Pascha is. It is not an event only; it is a fundamental change in human nature. The God-man becoming incarnate made us able to live. He accomplished our salvation by His death and His resurrection, and basically all of the period from Pascha to Pentecost we think about how He enlightens us and the practical ramifications of what Pascha means for the soul. In essence, it means enlightenment. It means to know God. But to know God you have to be able to live like God, and you must live in virtue before you have full enlightenment.

These women and these two men, Joseph and Nicodemus, acted with great love for our Savior, but in ignorance. The women came to anoint a body, and there was no body to anoint, Joseph and Nicodemus prepared so carefully a dead man, who was already alive, and in Hades, and in only a few hours would show Himself as resurrected. So they acted in ignorance. And there is a lesson for us because we don't know the whole story. We don't know very much, in fact, and we are ignorant of many things. We are ignorant even of what God wants to give to us. Part of that is our own fault because too few of us read the Scriptures very carefully or because we are wrapped up in worldly things and don't really think of holy things very much. If you don't think of holy things, you're not going to master them, you know. I wish some people knew about the Bible as well as they knew about a 56 Chevy manual. Some people understand about things like that better than they understand the Gospel. We poor Christians are too willfully ignorant, because of our worldly choices and misdirected priorities.

Much of our ignorance is really because we are not able to assimilate all that God has give to us. But that should not stop us. These women came to the tomb early in the morning. The early hour is mentioned because to get up early is a difficult thing. It shows that the first thing on their mind was Christ. As soon as they could go and anoint the body, according to the Jewish law, they did, and they brought myrrh and ointments. These myrrh and ointments signify bringing to Christ our good works, bringing to Christ our desire to live as He has shown us to live. They didn't come to Him empty-handed, as we unfortunately so often do. They came to Him bearing what they could, giving what they could . Even though it was the wrong gift, God received it because it was out of love that they bore this gift.

Myrrh also has an interesting property. It is a desiccant, and will dry out things and preserve them, and it's very sweet smelling. So let us dry out that which is wet in us, the passions. Let us dry it out with the heat of the Holy Spirit, and let us make ourselves sweet as myrrh smells sweet, and the ointment smells sweet.

Now the women went to a tomb that was hewn out of a rock. St Luke had said that never had a man been laid in it. It was a new tomb, unused, undefiled, and to hew a tomb out of a rock takes great work. It is very, very difficult, especially in that age with that technology. This tomb is the place where we would put Christ. The rock removed represents work we must do to our soul. We must hew out a place for Christ. This involves effort; this involves desire, toil. I've said it before and I'll say it a thousand times again if God gives me breath. I believe the greatest heresy ever in the history of man is that salvation can be garnered without labor. This idea that only faith is needed, and not works. This is the greatest of the heresies. We must not subscribe to it. We must hew the tomb out of the rock. We must make a place for Christ to be, for Him to abide.

Now the women, when they were walking to the tomb, they were talking amongst themselves, saying, "Who's going to roll away the stone?" They were afraid, you know, for to do such a thing was to mark them for death. And also they were frail women. How were they going to roll away a great stone that takes a great many men to roll in front of the tomb? Well, if we will go to the tomb with our ointments, our stone will be rolled away, too. And what is that stone? That stone is what covers up the heart and makes us unable to see, or even sometimes to feel God, to become like Him. We have a stone in front of our hearts many times. God will roll it away. The angel is all-powerful, and he moved the stone with no effort at all. The women were not able to do it, and neither are we, although we are required to make some effort to do so.

I'm struck again and again when I read this passage: the women were walking to the tomb, and they had no way to roll away the stone, and they had no clue how it was going to happen, and they went despite all this! This stone is the things that assail us, our sins and our passions, which each one of us can mention, only in our heart of hearts, I'm sure. Some things we can't even mention aloud when we are the only one in the room. There are sins and passions that assail us. We cannot gain ascendancy over them. These sins, these difficulties, this jealousy, this anger, this lust, this laziness, this feeling of despondency, this feeling of worthlessness, these wicked habits that seem to take us over, despite our best intentions. I could name a dozen or two dozen other sins. These things are a large stone, in front of our tomb, the place where we want to put Christ.

God will roll it away, but we must go to this tomb. We must not say, "I don't know how it's going to be taken care of, and therefore, I'm not going to go." The women didn't do that. What they did, I want to impress upon you, brothers and sisters, was completely unrealistic. There was no reason for them to think that the tomb would be open, but they went. They didn't even think about it. They were outside of themselves. Love does that. Love for Christ makes us struggle even though there is a stone over our hearts, and we don't know how this stone will be moved. But we go anyway. We fast anyway, we come to the church anyway, we confess anyway. We say our prayers and force ourselves to pray in the morning and in the evening. We force ourselves to do things that are righteous, and the things that we are not able to change, that is, that big stone, God will move. This is only if we go to the tomb, only if we struggle.

These women didn't understand that they were going to anoint the God-man Who was risen from the dead. Their knowledge wasn't perfect, but their love was perfect, and because of their love, God enlightened them. It took quite some effort. They didn't even understand the first time when the angel spoke to them, and they trembled and were afraid and they forgot the command and they didn't tell the apostles the first time [3]. But they went back another time, and then they saw the risen Lord! And the apostles were the same way. They couldn't believe it the first time. The only one who believed with the first evidence was John [4] . Everyone else couldn't believe. It was too terrible, too wonderful for them, too outside of their understanding. God enlightened them, stepwise, a little bit at a time. This is what He does with us, but only if we make a great effort in our lives.

Christianity is very simple. The light of Christ illumines all men. We walk in this light, while there is the light, as the Savior says [5], and as we walk in this light, God gives us more light, more to see, more to spur us on. And we increase in knowledge and in virtue. It is impossible for a man to increase in knowledge without increasing in virtue or vice-versa, because the two are linked. The two are two sides of the same coin. To know Christ is to become like Him.

Now you and I, we are poor ones. We know very little. We don't know how to pray the prayer of the heart. We don't know how to cease jealousy when someone gains some position that we wanted. We don't know how to return goodness for evil. When someone rails against us, in our heart we tremble with ill feeling. These are the stones that we cannot turn away. We need help for these stones. And as a pastor, my prayer for you, my plea to God, is that all of you would believe in the resurrection and believe that these things that are assailing you will be removed. I pray that you will not fall into despondency, and look at the size of the stone and not believe that it cannot be changed, because then you will fall into disbelief and basically atheism and you won't be believers in the resurrection, nor in He Who was resurrected. And if you do not believe in the resurrection, that stone will stay there, in front of the tomb, and you will remain unenlightened, and basically, unchanged.

See how marvelous the scriptures are? In a few short words they sum up the whole of the Christian life. We struggle to follow Christ in the light that He has given. Some of us may have a little more light than others at this point in our life. We struggle, enabled by the light we've been given, and more light comes. And the things that we believed impossible, they are possible. All things are possible with God, but I tell you, it is not possible to be saved unless you struggle. God will only save those who have desire. He'll save many who had desire and didn't do a very good job of it. He'll save many who sinned grievously but desired to change [6] . But He will not save those who did not struggle to change, and who had the audacity to gaze into the empty tomb, and to still believe that the stone in front in their tomb could not be moved. We must believe the stone can be, indeed, WILL BE moved.

We must live this, and the key is in living virtuously. There's no replacement for it, because if we live virtuously, not only will God enlighten us more, we will also gain confidence. You know, some of you are still children, but those of us who were children, remember when you did something bad, and your mother or father or aunt or uncle didn't know about it when they came into the room? You know your feeling, that feeling of great guilt. But when you were doing something right -- I assume when we were kids we did something right! -- when you were doing things right you felt good when they came into the room. You felt at peace. Our virtues, small though they may be, will gain us confidence that God will change those things that we cannot change yet.

Believe this, brothers and sisters. Take your myrrh and your aloes and your ointment, no matter how small the flask is, take it to the tomb. Believe that the stone will be rolled away. Just continue to go to the tomb. That is our entire life, that trek to the tomb. And if you believe it, God will remove the stone, but only if you live according to the light. May God help you to live in the light of the resurrection, to live with virtue, and to believe, to believe the stone will be removed. Christ will have a place to abide in you, and you will be full of joy. May God help you in this. Christ is risen!

The Gospel

Mark 15:43-47

Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. {44} And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. {45} And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. {46} And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. {47} And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid. {16:1} And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. {2} And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. {3} And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? {4} And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. {5} And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. {6} And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. {7} But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. {8} And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid."

[1] (John 19:38-39) "And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. {39} And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight."

[2] (Luke 23:50-54) "And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: {51} (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. {52} This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. {53} And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. {54} And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on."

[3] Some of the Fathers say in regards to this passage: "And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid." (Mark 16:8), that the women's silence refers to the enemies of Christ, and strangers, and they did immediately go to the apostles with the news they had been commissioned to tell.

[4] (John 20:3-8) "Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. {4} So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. {5} And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. {6} Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, {7} And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. {8} Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed."

[5] (John 12:35-36) "Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. {36} While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light..."

[6] The examples in the scriptures of this important truth are numerous. Cf. (as but one example) (Mat 21:28-31) "But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. {29} He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. {30} And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. {31} Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you."