A quick trip this morning up to Grafton to see the eagles - we must have seen 30 or 40.
31 December 2005
30 December 2005
The End of a Beautiful Week
Many thanks to God for this wonderful week.
Christmas with Dave and Jo... Cindi struggling to sing on Christmas eve and succeeding... Anna, Cindi, and Lauren singing "Dona Nobis Pacem"... Singing carols around the piano... Playing taboo and sevens and liverpool... Lunch at the Bottleworks with Dave and Jo and visits to Archangels' bookstore... The joy of seeing David's face with his new car... Sean and Bekah, Dean and Lauren... David happy as can be returning from the "big date"... Vicar's facing beaming with joy as he preaches the Gospel of Christmas eve... The boar's head carol... Saints gathering in the dark to pray Matins on St. Stephen's, St. John's, and Holy Innocents and then to receive the Supper... Meeting Tom and seeing Daina again... Sleeping in on December 28 and 29... Celebrating Elsie's heavenly birthday with her favorite carol... Cindi suggesting we really need to buy the beautiful ikon of the nativity... Discussions about the faith with the family... The awesome CD the Akathist of Thanksgiving... Opa fixing the vaccuum cleaner!!!... Opa fixing the curtain rod... Thanks be to God for Opa!... The sadness of seeing Opa and Grandma leave tomorrow... And reigning through it all: the joy of the Savior who delivers us from death and forgives our every sin. Glory to thee, O God! Glory to thee!
Christmas with Dave and Jo... Cindi struggling to sing on Christmas eve and succeeding... Anna, Cindi, and Lauren singing "Dona Nobis Pacem"... Singing carols around the piano... Playing taboo and sevens and liverpool... Lunch at the Bottleworks with Dave and Jo and visits to Archangels' bookstore... The joy of seeing David's face with his new car... Sean and Bekah, Dean and Lauren... David happy as can be returning from the "big date"... Vicar's facing beaming with joy as he preaches the Gospel of Christmas eve... The boar's head carol... Saints gathering in the dark to pray Matins on St. Stephen's, St. John's, and Holy Innocents and then to receive the Supper... Meeting Tom and seeing Daina again... Sleeping in on December 28 and 29... Celebrating Elsie's heavenly birthday with her favorite carol... Cindi suggesting we really need to buy the beautiful ikon of the nativity... Discussions about the faith with the family... The awesome CD the Akathist of Thanksgiving... Opa fixing the vaccuum cleaner!!!... Opa fixing the curtain rod... Thanks be to God for Opa!... The sadness of seeing Opa and Grandma leave tomorrow... And reigning through it all: the joy of the Savior who delivers us from death and forgives our every sin. Glory to thee, O God! Glory to thee!
Homily for New Year's Eve - 2005 (Luke 12:235-40)
Two things to be watching for; two things to be prepared for. The arrival of the thief, that is the devil, trying to rob us of our inheritance, and the arrival of the Master, our Lord Jesus, when he comes at an unknown hour. Thus a double vigilance is required of his people. This is a worthy text to meditate upon in the waning hours of 2005.
A year is almost done. It contained numerous sorrows and countless joys. It brought us opportunities both seized and missed. But the Lord is not tonight inviting us to ponder with either sorrow or pride the time that is past. Rather, he is reminding of the time which He always wishes for us to be concerned with: the present and our final future.
The present, where God has placed you now, in the situations God has given you now, these are where he calls for vigilance: against the thief and with eager waiting for the Master.
The promise of vigilance for the Master’s coming is great: He himself will come to SERVE His servants. Incredible as that may sound, they will find themselves not serving, but being served by the Master a banquet beyond all imagining – a gift of love utterly transfiguring – something that has never entered into the hearts of fallen men, how greatly God loves them.
But there is one who would rob you of the Master’s hospitality; there is one who would persuade you to live your lives in the present merely for the here and now and NOT for the future that is surely coming. That one, our Lord tells us, is the thief. And there’s no better name for the devil than that. He’s the one who comes to us to take from us everything that God in His mercy and love toward us would give us: health of body and soul, joy in the kingdom of God, love toward all, and peace that passes understanding. He would snatch all of that away. He doesn’t want us to have ANY of those things.
Watch against him constantly, the Lord Jesus exhorts us, so that in the end we are not deprived of what the Lord’s good things – the bounty He died to win for us.
But how does one watch against the thief, the devil? In the self-same way that one watches for the Lord! With constant and vigilant prayer.
A few years ago a rather obvious thought dawned on me: when the Lord said, stay awake and watch, he meant it! You see, people loved by God, nighttime is not just for sleeping. You know that. Because there are those nights when you put your head on the pillow, but the sleep doesn’t come. There are those nights you end up pacing the floor, and how long and dark are those hours then! So it was for me too until I realized what was happening.
Do remember when God called to Samuel as he lay sleeping? “Here am I,” he ran to Eli to say. But Eli had not called him. Again and again this was repeated until old Eli realized that God was calling the lad. So Eli said: When he calls, say: “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” So let it be with us, my friends. When in the middle of the night the Lord calls, let us get up and answer and say: “Speak, O Lord!” Let us waken to prayer and vigilance, and watch through the dark hours with prayers of expectation, with thanksgiving, and with eager longing for the moment when our Lord and Master will appear. And especially in those hours let us guard against the wretched thief who would come to take away from us our joy in the Lord. Let us call out to the Lord: “Come, Lord Jesus!” and “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Let us seek His mercy and pray for ourselves, our loved ones, our enemies, and all people.
Are you the type given to resolutions on New Years? If so, might I be bold to suggest that the one resolution you make this year will be that when sleep is taken from your eyes at night, you will spend some time in vigilance and prayer? Reading the Word of God, reflecting on God’s promises and waiting with eager longing for the promised coming of the Master? Look up the stars in the skies and remember His promise to return.
It was at midnight that the Christ was born into this world, according to the Wisdom of Solomon: “When the night was half spent Your Almighty Word, O Lord, descended from the royal throne.” It was during the hours of night that Angels announced the Savior’s birth to Shepherds on Bethlehem’s hills. It was at night that the Magi followed a star from Jerusalem to David’s City and found the great Desire of Nations, and bowed before Him in worship, with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It was during the hours of night that that holy Child, grown to manhood, spent time in prayer to the Father. It was during the night that He was transfigured and began to shine as bright as the sun before His astonished chosen three. It was during the darkness of night that He broke bread and fed His own with His body and blood; at night that He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was during the darkness of night that He was betrayed and handed over in order to give life to the world. Nighttime and prayer and Jesus – they just go hand in hand together.
And so we are gathered here in prayer tonight, ready to bid farewell to 2005 and welcome in a new year, 2006, the year of our Congregation’s 150th birthday. And again we shall pray and He shall come in answer to our prayers in a way beyond all our understanding, to serve us with His body and blood, taking away our sins and giving us His life – the Lord of Calvary and Easter, the Lord of that glorious Last Day – just as He has always done for His people since that first Lord’s Supper and will do to the end of the world.
We feast with Him and He serves us and bids us eat and drink, and watch and wait. Wait for that glorious day when it will not be by faith, but with our very eyes we shall see Him and join the saints who have preceded us with all the holy angels in falling down before Him, giving endless praise and honor to Him, and to His Father, and to His Spirit, the Blessed and Most Glorious Trinity, to whom shall be praise and honor unto the ages of ages! Grant us this, O Lord! Amen.
A year is almost done. It contained numerous sorrows and countless joys. It brought us opportunities both seized and missed. But the Lord is not tonight inviting us to ponder with either sorrow or pride the time that is past. Rather, he is reminding of the time which He always wishes for us to be concerned with: the present and our final future.
The present, where God has placed you now, in the situations God has given you now, these are where he calls for vigilance: against the thief and with eager waiting for the Master.
The promise of vigilance for the Master’s coming is great: He himself will come to SERVE His servants. Incredible as that may sound, they will find themselves not serving, but being served by the Master a banquet beyond all imagining – a gift of love utterly transfiguring – something that has never entered into the hearts of fallen men, how greatly God loves them.
But there is one who would rob you of the Master’s hospitality; there is one who would persuade you to live your lives in the present merely for the here and now and NOT for the future that is surely coming. That one, our Lord tells us, is the thief. And there’s no better name for the devil than that. He’s the one who comes to us to take from us everything that God in His mercy and love toward us would give us: health of body and soul, joy in the kingdom of God, love toward all, and peace that passes understanding. He would snatch all of that away. He doesn’t want us to have ANY of those things.
Watch against him constantly, the Lord Jesus exhorts us, so that in the end we are not deprived of what the Lord’s good things – the bounty He died to win for us.
But how does one watch against the thief, the devil? In the self-same way that one watches for the Lord! With constant and vigilant prayer.
A few years ago a rather obvious thought dawned on me: when the Lord said, stay awake and watch, he meant it! You see, people loved by God, nighttime is not just for sleeping. You know that. Because there are those nights when you put your head on the pillow, but the sleep doesn’t come. There are those nights you end up pacing the floor, and how long and dark are those hours then! So it was for me too until I realized what was happening.
Do remember when God called to Samuel as he lay sleeping? “Here am I,” he ran to Eli to say. But Eli had not called him. Again and again this was repeated until old Eli realized that God was calling the lad. So Eli said: When he calls, say: “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” So let it be with us, my friends. When in the middle of the night the Lord calls, let us get up and answer and say: “Speak, O Lord!” Let us waken to prayer and vigilance, and watch through the dark hours with prayers of expectation, with thanksgiving, and with eager longing for the moment when our Lord and Master will appear. And especially in those hours let us guard against the wretched thief who would come to take away from us our joy in the Lord. Let us call out to the Lord: “Come, Lord Jesus!” and “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Let us seek His mercy and pray for ourselves, our loved ones, our enemies, and all people.
Are you the type given to resolutions on New Years? If so, might I be bold to suggest that the one resolution you make this year will be that when sleep is taken from your eyes at night, you will spend some time in vigilance and prayer? Reading the Word of God, reflecting on God’s promises and waiting with eager longing for the promised coming of the Master? Look up the stars in the skies and remember His promise to return.
It was at midnight that the Christ was born into this world, according to the Wisdom of Solomon: “When the night was half spent Your Almighty Word, O Lord, descended from the royal throne.” It was during the hours of night that Angels announced the Savior’s birth to Shepherds on Bethlehem’s hills. It was at night that the Magi followed a star from Jerusalem to David’s City and found the great Desire of Nations, and bowed before Him in worship, with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It was during the hours of night that that holy Child, grown to manhood, spent time in prayer to the Father. It was during the night that He was transfigured and began to shine as bright as the sun before His astonished chosen three. It was during the darkness of night that He broke bread and fed His own with His body and blood; at night that He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was during the darkness of night that He was betrayed and handed over in order to give life to the world. Nighttime and prayer and Jesus – they just go hand in hand together.
And so we are gathered here in prayer tonight, ready to bid farewell to 2005 and welcome in a new year, 2006, the year of our Congregation’s 150th birthday. And again we shall pray and He shall come in answer to our prayers in a way beyond all our understanding, to serve us with His body and blood, taking away our sins and giving us His life – the Lord of Calvary and Easter, the Lord of that glorious Last Day – just as He has always done for His people since that first Lord’s Supper and will do to the end of the world.
We feast with Him and He serves us and bids us eat and drink, and watch and wait. Wait for that glorious day when it will not be by faith, but with our very eyes we shall see Him and join the saints who have preceded us with all the holy angels in falling down before Him, giving endless praise and honor to Him, and to His Father, and to His Spirit, the Blessed and Most Glorious Trinity, to whom shall be praise and honor unto the ages of ages! Grant us this, O Lord! Amen.
Patristic Quote for the Day
My Savior cries out to me, to His disciple: Do not despair of thy salvation; I will restore thee and forgive thee thy sins. I have found thee and I will not leave thee; for I have redeemed thee with My very own Blood. - St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #26
29 December 2005
Patristic Quote for the Day
If He who comes from the uncircumscribable Father is uncircumsribable, then obviously He who comes from a circumscribed mother is circumscribed - unless we are to understand that the begetting is true but theh birth false. But if both are true of the one Christ, the He has also acquired the properties of both origins, and is uncircumscribable and circumscribed. - St. Theodore the Studite, *On the Holy Icons* Third Refutation, Par. 39
China and Christianity
A quite fascinating story on when Christianity arrived in China, with implications for Christian iconography:
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-12/22/content_505587.htm
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-12/22/content_505587.htm
28 December 2005
26 December 2005
On the Feast of Stephen...
Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal King. Today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of his soldier. Yesterday our King, clothed in his robe of flesh, left his place in the virgin's womb and graciously visited this world. Today his soldier leaves the tabernacle of his body and goes triumphantly to heaven... And so the love that brought Christ from heaven raised Stephen from earth to heaven: shown first in the King, it later shone forth in His soldier. Love was Stephen's weapon by which he gained every battle, and so won the crown signified by his name. - Fulgentius of Ruspe (468-533), cited in *For All the Saints*, vol. 1, p. 140
25 December 2005
NO question
the Advent fast is over. The amazing Cindi prepared an astonishing meal for us today. We had tenderloin roast (with hollandaise) and roast chicken, home-made light rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potato sufflé, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh broc, carrots, and peppers, and then pecan pie and/or pumpkin pie and coffee. Fabulous - and we were blessed to be joined by Lauren's friend, Dean, and Vicar, not to mention Opa and Grandma. The day included not just the feast, but singing around the piano, a few tickle episdoes and ice down assorted backs, some back scratches (not nearly enough!) and lots of chit-chat. And no limit on the wine today. Yippee! Merry Christmas to one and all!
Patristic Quote for the Day
We confess one and the same individual as perfect God and perfect Man. He is God the Word which was flesh.
For if He was not flesh, why was Mary chosen? And if He is not God, whom does Gabriel call Lord?
If He was not flesh, who was laid in a manger? And if He is not God, whom did the angels who came down from heaven glorify?
If He was not flesh, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes? And if He is not God, in whose honor did the star appear?
If He was not flesh, whom did Simeon hold in his arms? And if He is not God, to whom did Simeon say: Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace?
If He was not flesh, whom did Joseph take when he fled into Egypt? And if He is not God, who fulfilled the prophesy: Out of Egypt I have called my Son? - St. Ephraim, *A Spiritual Psalter* #23
For if He was not flesh, why was Mary chosen? And if He is not God, whom does Gabriel call Lord?
If He was not flesh, who was laid in a manger? And if He is not God, whom did the angels who came down from heaven glorify?
If He was not flesh, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes? And if He is not God, in whose honor did the star appear?
If He was not flesh, whom did Simeon hold in his arms? And if He is not God, to whom did Simeon say: Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace?
If He was not flesh, whom did Joseph take when he fled into Egypt? And if He is not God, who fulfilled the prophesy: Out of Egypt I have called my Son? - St. Ephraim, *A Spiritual Psalter* #23
24 December 2005
Just so you know...
...this boy is doing the happy dance! In-laws (who have ZERO in-lawish quality, if you know what I mean) will be joining us today, God-willing, and with us for the upcoming week. We always have such a good time together and we don't get to see them anywhere near as much as we'd like. The kids are home, Dave and Jo will be with us, and NOW the weatherman is even hinting that we MIGHT have some snow come midnight. Glory to God in the highest!
A Homily for Christmas Eve
(from several years ago)
Is it not astounding that no matter how well we know the Christmas story, no matter how often we hear it, it still is as powerful and moving as when we first learned it as little children? I have heard this story preached on from the perspective of the shepherds, sitting out with their flocks on the hills of Bethlehem. I have heard it preached from the perspective of the Blessed Virgin who listened in astonishment as these rough strangers from the hills broke into the silence of the stable and knelt to adore her child. But it was not until I was at seminary that I heard the story from the perspective not of earth, but of heaven. The story about what it meant to God the Father and the holy angels who sang out that night. And the story wasn’t in a sermon, but in a poem. I’d like to share it with you. God the Father is speaking to the angels of heaven, giving them last minute instructions before they soar off to Bethlehem. Listen:
Before the marvel of this night
Adoring fold your wings and bow,
Then tear the sky apart with light
And with your news the world endow.
Proclaim the birth of Christ and peace
That fear and death and sorrow cease.
Sing peace! Sing peace! Sing gift of peace!
Awake the sleeping world with song.
This is the day the Lord has made.
Assemble here, celestial throng,
In royal splendor come arrayed.
Give earth a glimpse of heavenly bliss,
A teasing taste of what they miss.
Sing bliss, sing bliss, sing endless bliss.
The love that we have always known
Our constant joy and endless light
Now to the loveless world be shown,
Now break upon its deathly night.
Into one song compress the love
That rules our universe above.
Sing love! Sing love! Sing God is love!
Sing love! Sing God is love!
Isn’t that awesome? Before the marvel of this night, adoring fold your wings and bow. The marvel of this night: the Holy God, the Mighty God, the Immortal God, had become man, born of a Virgin in humility. Before their very eyes the angels saw the Creator who had made himself a creature. They knew, always knew, that He was love, but now they get a glimpse of how measureless beyond all measuring is the love he bears for the children of Adam and Eve, his love for you and for me.
Did they know the full story - those angels of Bethlehem? They sang of a Savior. Did they know HOW he would save? Did they see already the shadow of nailprints in his tiny infant hands? For the marvel of this night is not only that God has crossed the impossible distance between Creator and creation. The full marvel of this night is that the Word was made flesh so that He might bear our sins in His own body and die with them. So that He, the sinless One might be full of our sin and so destroy our death. So that He, the Immortal One who cannot die, might by taking our flesh die in our place.
Marvel indeed, before which nothing is appropriate but adoration. “Venite Adoremus!” Oh, come, let us adore Him. It is the call of the angels, each to each on this holy night. “Oh come! Let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!” For tonight He is given to the world to be its Savior, bearing the gift of peace.
Peace? I know that it hardly seems to us as though his coming brought peace. Twenty centuries of creulty and bloodshed and mean-spiritedness seem to belie the angel’s words. Was it just a hope? Were they wrong?
No! For though they proclaim peace on earth, it was no earthly peace they proclaimed. These messengers of light proclaim the peace of heaven as it captures the hearts of men on earth. Peace. Peace between God and man. Peace, not the absense of war and strife, but the joy of living together with God in harmony. Peace that comes through the Child, who is named Prince of Peace. The angels, looking down from the heights see this. The Child will be the one through whom the creation would be reconciled to God. The Child will be the One through whom a warring, divided, hate-filled people will become one, filled with the light of love. It wasn’t a pipe-dream. The angels do not lie. They proclaim the birth of Christ and the gift of peace.
And God commands them “Give earth a glimpse of heavenly bliss, a teasing taste of whay they miss. Sing bliss! Sing bliss! Sing endless bliss!” The Child has come not quench the joy of life. That is the impression that people often receive. They think that our holy faith is just full of unpleasant “dos” and even more filled with “don’ts.” Oh, how little we understand this night if that is what we think. The Child was born and the angels sang and the bliss, the endless joy of heaven, was tasted upon earth. A teasing taste of what we miss. What the angels offered the shepherds that night, and through the shepherds, offer you and me, is joy. There is no joy on earth that can compare with knowing that this Child was born for you, to take away your sin, to destroy your death. There is no joy on earth that can rival the joy to be found when your heart is the manger for the Christ Child and he is welcomed in. When you come forward to receive Him in the body that the Virgin bore, in the blood that he poured out for you, what you are entering into is the joy of the angels: fellowship with God in Christ. No wonder the angel said to the shepherds: “I bring you good news of a great joy which will be to all people.” Jesus is that Great Joy!
“Into one song,” says the Father, “compress the love that rules our universe above. Sing love! Sing love! Sing God is love! Sing love! Sing, God is love!” The love that is God - this is what fills the angels hearts to overflowing so that their song rings out over the earth, and it echoes still. May it echo in your heart forever. Amen.
Is it not astounding that no matter how well we know the Christmas story, no matter how often we hear it, it still is as powerful and moving as when we first learned it as little children? I have heard this story preached on from the perspective of the shepherds, sitting out with their flocks on the hills of Bethlehem. I have heard it preached from the perspective of the Blessed Virgin who listened in astonishment as these rough strangers from the hills broke into the silence of the stable and knelt to adore her child. But it was not until I was at seminary that I heard the story from the perspective not of earth, but of heaven. The story about what it meant to God the Father and the holy angels who sang out that night. And the story wasn’t in a sermon, but in a poem. I’d like to share it with you. God the Father is speaking to the angels of heaven, giving them last minute instructions before they soar off to Bethlehem. Listen:
Before the marvel of this nightAdoring fold your wings and bow,
Then tear the sky apart with light
And with your news the world endow.
Proclaim the birth of Christ and peace
That fear and death and sorrow cease.
Sing peace! Sing peace! Sing gift of peace!
Awake the sleeping world with song.
This is the day the Lord has made.
Assemble here, celestial throng,
In royal splendor come arrayed.
Give earth a glimpse of heavenly bliss,
A teasing taste of what they miss.
Sing bliss, sing bliss, sing endless bliss.
The love that we have always known
Our constant joy and endless light
Now to the loveless world be shown,
Now break upon its deathly night.
Into one song compress the love
That rules our universe above.
Sing love! Sing love! Sing God is love!
Sing love! Sing God is love!
Isn’t that awesome? Before the marvel of this night, adoring fold your wings and bow. The marvel of this night: the Holy God, the Mighty God, the Immortal God, had become man, born of a Virgin in humility. Before their very eyes the angels saw the Creator who had made himself a creature. They knew, always knew, that He was love, but now they get a glimpse of how measureless beyond all measuring is the love he bears for the children of Adam and Eve, his love for you and for me.
Did they know the full story - those angels of Bethlehem? They sang of a Savior. Did they know HOW he would save? Did they see already the shadow of nailprints in his tiny infant hands? For the marvel of this night is not only that God has crossed the impossible distance between Creator and creation. The full marvel of this night is that the Word was made flesh so that He might bear our sins in His own body and die with them. So that He, the sinless One might be full of our sin and so destroy our death. So that He, the Immortal One who cannot die, might by taking our flesh die in our place.
Marvel indeed, before which nothing is appropriate but adoration. “Venite Adoremus!” Oh, come, let us adore Him. It is the call of the angels, each to each on this holy night. “Oh come! Let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!” For tonight He is given to the world to be its Savior, bearing the gift of peace.
Peace? I know that it hardly seems to us as though his coming brought peace. Twenty centuries of creulty and bloodshed and mean-spiritedness seem to belie the angel’s words. Was it just a hope? Were they wrong?
No! For though they proclaim peace on earth, it was no earthly peace they proclaimed. These messengers of light proclaim the peace of heaven as it captures the hearts of men on earth. Peace. Peace between God and man. Peace, not the absense of war and strife, but the joy of living together with God in harmony. Peace that comes through the Child, who is named Prince of Peace. The angels, looking down from the heights see this. The Child will be the one through whom the creation would be reconciled to God. The Child will be the One through whom a warring, divided, hate-filled people will become one, filled with the light of love. It wasn’t a pipe-dream. The angels do not lie. They proclaim the birth of Christ and the gift of peace.
And God commands them “Give earth a glimpse of heavenly bliss, a teasing taste of whay they miss. Sing bliss! Sing bliss! Sing endless bliss!” The Child has come not quench the joy of life. That is the impression that people often receive. They think that our holy faith is just full of unpleasant “dos” and even more filled with “don’ts.” Oh, how little we understand this night if that is what we think. The Child was born and the angels sang and the bliss, the endless joy of heaven, was tasted upon earth. A teasing taste of what we miss. What the angels offered the shepherds that night, and through the shepherds, offer you and me, is joy. There is no joy on earth that can compare with knowing that this Child was born for you, to take away your sin, to destroy your death. There is no joy on earth that can rival the joy to be found when your heart is the manger for the Christ Child and he is welcomed in. When you come forward to receive Him in the body that the Virgin bore, in the blood that he poured out for you, what you are entering into is the joy of the angels: fellowship with God in Christ. No wonder the angel said to the shepherds: “I bring you good news of a great joy which will be to all people.” Jesus is that Great Joy!
“Into one song,” says the Father, “compress the love that rules our universe above. Sing love! Sing love! Sing God is love! Sing love! Sing, God is love!” The love that is God - this is what fills the angels hearts to overflowing so that their song rings out over the earth, and it echoes still. May it echo in your heart forever. Amen.
Light from East and West
Kontakion for December 24 from the Eastern Liturgy
On this day the Virgin
cometh to a cave to give birth to God the
Word ineffable, Who was before all the ages.
Dance for joy, O earth, on hearing the
gladsome tidings; with the Angels and the
shepherds now glorify Him Who is willing to
be gazed on as a young Child Who before the
ages is God.
Corde Natus ex Parentis (Aurelius Prudentius, ca. 413) from the Western Liturgy
Oh, that birth forever blessed
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving
Bare the Savior of our race.
And the Babe, the world's Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.
O ye heights of heaven, adore Him!
Angel hosts, His praises sing!
Powers, dominions, bow before Him
And extol your God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent;
Every voice in concert ring
Evermore and evermore.
Christ, to Thee, with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
And unending praises be,
Honor, glory, and dominion
And eternal victory
Evermore and evermore.
On this day the Virgin
cometh to a cave to give birth to God the
Word ineffable, Who was before all the ages.
Dance for joy, O earth, on hearing the
gladsome tidings; with the Angels and the
shepherds now glorify Him Who is willing to
be gazed on as a young Child Who before the
ages is God.
Corde Natus ex Parentis (Aurelius Prudentius, ca. 413) from the Western Liturgy
Oh, that birth forever blessed
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving
Bare the Savior of our race.
And the Babe, the world's Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.
O ye heights of heaven, adore Him!
Angel hosts, His praises sing!
Powers, dominions, bow before Him
And extol your God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent;
Every voice in concert ring
Evermore and evermore.
Christ, to Thee, with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
And unending praises be,
Honor, glory, and dominion
And eternal victory
Evermore and evermore.
23 December 2005
O Antiphon for December 23
O Emmanuel, our King and our Lord, the Anointed for the nations and their Savior: come and save us, O Lord our God!
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to Thee,
O Israel!
http://www.kfuo.org/mp3/Issues4/Dec_23c.mp3
22 December 2005
Joys Abounding...
I was so shocked to open a Christmas present from a parishioner and discover the three volumes of the Philokalia that I did not yet own! St. Maximos (of whom you have received but a foretaste in today's Patristic Quote of the Day), here I come. Irma, you're a gem and a half!!!
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Patristic Quote for the Day
Death in the true sense is separation from God, and 'the sting of death is sin' (1 Cor. 15:56). Adam, who received the sting, became at the same time an exile from the tree of life, from paradise and from God; and this was necessarily followed by the body's death. Life, in the true sense, is He who said, 'I am the life' (John 11:25), and who, having entered into death, led back to life him who had died. - St. Maximos the Confessor, Second Century on Love, #93
O Antiphon for December 22
O King of the nations, the ruler they long for, the cornerstone uniting all people: Come and save us all, whom You formed out of clay!
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease
And be Thyself our King of Peace!
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to Thee,
O Israel!
http://www.kfuo.org/mp3/Issues4/Dec_22c.mp3
21 December 2005
Patristic Quote for the Day
Well, okay, not quite, but it's a goodie from G. K. Chesterton:
You cannot chip away the statue of a mother from all around that of a new-born child.
You cannot suspend the new-born child in mid-air; indeed, you cannot really have a statue of a new-born child at all.
Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a new-born child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother.
You cannot visit the child without visiting the mother; you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother.
If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at all, the other idea follows as it followed in history.
We must either leave Christ out of Christmas or Christmas out of Christ, or we must admit, if only as we admit it in the old picture, that those holy heads are too near together for the haloes not to mingle and cross.
- The Everlasting Man (cited in *For All the Saints*, vol. 1, page 111 - published by the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau)
You cannot chip away the statue of a mother from all around that of a new-born child.
You cannot suspend the new-born child in mid-air; indeed, you cannot really have a statue of a new-born child at all.
Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a new-born child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother.You cannot visit the child without visiting the mother; you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother.
If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at all, the other idea follows as it followed in history.
We must either leave Christ out of Christmas or Christmas out of Christ, or we must admit, if only as we admit it in the old picture, that those holy heads are too near together for the haloes not to mingle and cross.
- The Everlasting Man (cited in *For All the Saints*, vol. 1, page 111 - published by the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau)
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