.... The war of thoughts is the war of every serious believer in the Lord Jesus! Do not fear... do not doubt and do not give up... But persist, and when the war besets you, cry you "Lord have mercy on me... Jesus have mercy on me..." At that moment the Lord is able to cause your tears to burst forth... tears of repentance, tears of longing, tears of hope, tears of silence, tears of moving from sorrow to tranquility. Then the Lord comes to console your heart with His presence and you rejoice at His being present with His light in the peace of your heart. The path of prayer is the path of following the Lord up to Golgotha! ....

Mother Maryam Zakka on Combatting Distracting Thoughts

http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/search/label/Mother%20Maryam%20Zakka

His Image Recovered 

So—and yes, I’m asking—what was the God to do? 
What other course—His being God and All—but to renew 

His lately none-too-vivid Image in the aspect of mankind, 

so that, by His Icon thus restored, we dim occasions might 

once more come to know Him? And how should this be done, 

save by the awful advent of the very God Himself, our Lord 

and King and gleaming Liberator Jesus Christ? 

Here, belovéd numbskulls, is a little picture: You gather, 

one presumes, what must be done when a portrait on a panel 

becomes obscured—maybe even lost—to external stain. 

The artist does not discard the panel, though the subject must return 

to sit for it again, whereupon the likeness is etched once more upon 

the same material. As He tells us in the Gospel, I came 

to seek and to save that which was lost—our faces, say.

- Scott Cairn, after St Athanasius

November 21/ December 4: Entrance of the Mother of God

This is the first feast of the season leading to the Nativity and Theophany. It is based on the account of the life of the Mother of God as a child in the Jerusalem Temple (found in the Protevangelion of James). It shows her to be the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, as the 'living temple': Today the Theotokos, the temple that is to hold God, is led into the Temple and Zacharias receives her..  

Fr John Behr wrtites: "...she becomes the one through whom the glory of God enters the world, by being the gateway through which the Lord enters the more perfect tabernacle, offering his eternal sacrifice and being the High Priest of the good things to come. She is the bridge, the passageway or the exodus from creation to recreation and redemption."

Over at Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment blog, he writes the following concerning relics, which I think a nice bit that could be put to good use. Speaking of the Feast of the Holy Relics, he affirms:

This feast is, in my view, rich in themes for evangelical preaching and teaching, and ripe for wider revival. It teaches the goodness of material things against a false 'spiritualism'; it preaches the ultimately indissoluble link between Body and Soul against the sub-Christian notion that only the soul really matters; it proclaims the transforming eschatological glory which will clothe this perishable with what is imperishable, and this mortal with what is immortal, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

October 1: Protection of the Mother of God

....  Calling on the saints, through communion in prayer, deepens the consciousness of the catholicity of the Church. In our invocation of the saints our measure of Christian love is exhibited, a living feeling of unanimity and the power of Church unity is expressed; and, conversely, doubt or inability to feel the intercession of grace and the intervention of saints on our behalf before God witnesses not only to a weakening of love and of the brotherly and Church ties and relationships but also to a decrease in the fullness of faith in the value and power of the Incarnation and Resurrection.

One of the most mysterious anticipations of the Orthodox Church is our contemplation on the "Protecting Veil of the Mother of God," of her constant standing in prayer for the world, surrounded by all the saints, before the throne of God. "Today the Virgin stands in the church and with hosts of saints invisibly prays to God for us; angels and bishops worship; apostles and prophets embrace each other - it is for us that the Mother of God prays unto the Eternal God!" Thus the Church remembers the vision which was once seen by St Andrew, the fool for Christ's sake. And that which was then visibly revealed remains now and will stand for all ages. The Protecting Veil of the Mother of God is a vision of the celestial Church, a vision of the unbreakable and ever-existent unity of the heavenly and earthly Church. And it is also a foreseeing that all existence beyond the grave, of the righteous and the saints, is one untiring prayer, one ceaseless intercession and mediation. For love is the "union of all perfection." And the blessedness of the righteous is an abiding in love...

- Fr Georges Florovsky, "On the Veneration of the Saints"

When our Lord was handed over to the will of his cruel foes, they ordered him, in mockery of his royal dignity, to carry the instrument of his own torture. This was done to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: "A child is born for as, a son is given to us; sovereignty is laid upon his shoulders."

To the wicked, the sight of the Lord carrying his own cross was indeed an object of derision; but to the faithful a great mystery was revealed, for the cross was destined to become the scepter of his power.

Here was the majestic spectacle of a glorious conqueror mightily overthrowing the hostile forces of the devil and nobly bearing the trophy of his victory.

On the shoulders of his invincible patience he carried the sign of salvation for all the kingdoms of the earth to worship, as if on that day he would strengthen all his future disciples by the symbol of his work, and say to them: "Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."

It was not in the temple, whose cult was now at an end, that Christ, as the new and authentic sacrifice of reconciliation, offered himself to the Father; nor was it within the walls of the city doomed to destruction for its crimes.

It was beyond the city gates, outside the camp, that he was crucified, in order that when the ancient sacrificial dispensation came to an end a new victim might be laid on a new altar, and the cross of Christ become the altar not of the temple, but of the world.

O the marvelous power of the cross, the glory of the passion! No tongue can fully describe it. Here we see the judgment seat of the Lord, here sentence is passed upon the world, and here the sovereignty of the Crucified is revealed.

You drew all things to yourself, Lord, when you stretched out your hands all the day long to a people that denied and opposed you, until at last the whole world was brought to proclaim your majesty.

You drew all things to yourself, Lord, when all the elements combined to pronounce judgment in execration of that crime; when the lights of heaven were darkened and the day was turned into night; when the land was shaken by unwonted earthquakes, and all creation refused to serve those wicked people.

Yes, Lord, you drew all things to yourself. The veil of the temple was torn in two and the Holy of Holies taken away from those unworthy high priests. Figures gave way to reality, prophecy to manifestation, law to gospel.

You drew all things to yourself in order that the worship of the whole human race could be celebrated everywhere in a sacramental form which would openly fulfil what had been enacted by means of veiled symbols in that single Jewish temple.

Now that the multiplicity of animal sacrifices has ceased, the single offering of your body and blood takes the place of that diversity of victims, since you are the true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and in yourself you fulfil all the rites of the old law, so that as there is now a single sacrifice in place of all those victims, so there is a single kingdom formed of all the peoples of the earth.

- St Leo the Great, Sermon 8 on the Passion of the Lord, 4-6: PL 54, 339-41

..... we cannot understand the glory of the Transfiguration or the Resurrection if we have not made the Cross part of our own life.

- Fr Andreas Andreopoulos

The Christian God is the "God of Jesus Christ." He, whom Jesus means when he says, "My Father." He, by whom Jesus is sent. Through whom he lives, and towards whom he is turned. God is he who is "the God and Father of Jesus Christ." It is not possible to detach a "Christian conception of God," a "Christian truth," from the concrete Christ. What is Christian doctrine remains Christian only as long as it is heard as if from the mouth of Christ; as long as it is understood in a living way, drawing its life from him, from his existence and action. There is no "essence of Christianity" separable from him—we repeat, separable from him, and expressible in a free-floating, conceptual scheme. The essence of Christianity is Christ. What he is; whence he comes and towards what he goes; what lives in him and around him—heard living from his mouth, read from his countenance. A demand is here made of the philosophical mind, which is, in reality, a stumbling block for mere philosophy: that the definitive category of Christianity—and "category" means the inescapable condition for all assertions about a given subject matter—is the particular, unique reality of the concrete personality of Jesus of Nazareth.

- Romano Guardini, Pascal For Our Time (1935) (New York: Herder, 1966)

The kingdom of heaven has no price tag on it: it is worth as much as
you have. For Zacchaeus it was worth half of what he owned, because
the other half that he had unjustly pocketed he promised to restore
fourfold. For Peter and Andrew it was worth the nets and vessel they
had left behind; for the widow it was worth two copper coins; for
another it was worth a cup of cold water. So, as we said, the kingdom
of heaven is worth as much as you have.

(Saint Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies, 5.2)

White Sunday (Henry Vaughan)

WHITE SUNDAY.

Welcome, white day! a thousand suns,
Though seen at once, were black to thee;
For after their light, darkness comes,
But thine shines to eternity.

Those flames which on the Apostles rush'd
At this great Feast, and in a tire
Of cloven tongues their heads all brush'd,
And crown'd them with prophetic fire:

Can these new lights be like to those ?
These lights of serpents like the Dove ?
But I will know which way to look.
Thou hadst no gall, ev'n for Thy foes,
And Thy two wings were Grief and Love.

'Though then some boast that fire, each day,
And on Christ's coat pin all their shreds ;
Not sparing openly to say,
His candle shines upon their heads:

'Yet while some rays of that great light
Shine here below within Thy Book,
"They never shall so blind my sight
But I will know which way to look.

For though Thou dost that great light lock,
And by this lesser commerce keep:
Yet by these glances of the flock
I can discern wolves from the sheep.

Not but that I have wishes too,
And pray, " These last maybe as first,
Or better "; but Thou long ago Hast said,
"These last should be the worst."

Besides, Thy method with Thy own,
Thy own dear people, pens our times;
Our stories are in theirs set down.
And penalties spread to our crimes.

Again, if worst and worst implies
A state that no redress admits.
Then from Thy Cross unto these days
The rule without exception fits.

And yet, as in Night's gloomy page
One silent star may interline;
So in this last and lewdest age
But I will know which way to look.
Thy ancient love on some may shine.

For, though we hourly breathe decays,
And our best note and highest ease
Is but mere changing of the keys,
And a consumption that doth please

Yet Thou, the great eternal Rock
Whose height above all ages shines,
Art still the same, and canst unlock
But I will know which way to look.
Thy waters to a soul that pines.

Since then Thou art the same this day
And ever, as Thou wert of old,
And nothing doth Thy love allay,
But our heart's dead and sinful cold;

As Thou long since wert pleas'd to buy
Our drown 'd estate, taking the curse
Upon Thyself, so to destroy
The knots we tied upon Thy purse;

So let Thy grace now make the way
Even for Thy love; for by that means
We, who are nothing but foul clay,
Shall be fine gold which Thou didst cleanse

O come! refine us with Thy fire!
Refine us! we are at a loss.
Let not Thy stars for Balaam's hire
Dissolve into the common dross

.... about 

catastrophe or how to behave in one
what do I know, except what everyone knows—
if there when Grace dances, I should dance.

- from W.H. Auden, Whitsunday in Kirchstetten

Eve's Lament

Eve's Lament, from “Paradise Lost,” Book XI.

O UNEXPECTED stroke, worse than of death!
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave
Thee, native soil! these happy walks and shades,
Fit haunt of gods; where I had hope to spend,
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day        
That must be mortal to us both? O flowers,
That never will in other climate grow,
My early visitation, and my last
At even, which I bred up with tender hand
From the first opening bud, and gave ye names!        
Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank
Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount?
Thee, lastly, nuptial bower! by me adorned
With what to sight or smell was sweet, from thee
How shall I part, and whither wander down        
Into a lower world, to this obscure
And wild? how shall we breathe in other air
Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits?

Filled with love, the holy Apostles went into the world, preaching salvation to mankind and fearing nothing, for the Spirit of God was their strength. When St. Andrew was threatened with death upon the cross if he did not stop his preaching he answered: ‘If I feared the cross I should not be preaching the Cross.” In this manner all the other Apostles, and after them the martyrs and holy men who wrestled against evil, went forward with joy to meet pain and suffering. For the Holy Spirit, sweet and gracious, draws the soul to love the Lord, and in the sweetness of the Holy Spirit the soul loses her fear of suffering.

(St Silouan of Athos in Wisdom from Mount Athos: The Writings of Staretz Silouan, 1866-1938)

Liturgy consists of the various means whereby the Church makes it possible for the faithful to experience through their senses the mysteries of religion, that is, the sweetness of the Kingdom. 

- Photis Kontoglou in Byzantine Sacred Art (Belmont, Mass: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1985) Ed. Constantine Cavranos.

From The Unrepentant Son, in The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales by Peter Rollins (2009)

Forgiveness is a word that has a lot of currency in our personal relationships, discussion in churches, political discourse, and even business affairs. Yet, the question we must ask concerns how much of what we baptize with the name forgiveness is really worthy of that name. 

In politics when the word is used, we can assume something is afoot, and that there is a reason for the forgiveness being offered. One can assume that the word is uttered only after a variety of in-depth citizen surveys have been carried out and the legal experts have worked out a cost/benefit analysis. In short, this forgiveness is strategic and comes with conditions. 

This is also true in the world of work. Here, forgiveness can be a great strategy for helping to ensure return business and a good reputation. Again, the word comes with implicit conditions. It is inscribed in a type of economics (whereby something is offered in return for something else). 

Sadly, when it comes to religion, the same economic approach can also be seen at play. As John Caputo notes in his book What Would Jesus Deconstruct? forgiveness all too often comes after a set of criteria have been met, namely an expression of sorrow, a turning away from the act, a promise not to return to the act, and a willingness to do penance. Forgiveness thus follows repentance and so cannot take place until repentance has occurred.
This is the common understanding of forgiveness, and such an approach would have been welcomed by the religious authorities of Jesus’ day. Religious groups have always loved repentant sinners. After all, there is nothing quite like parading a repentant sinner in church for inspiring the faithful. 

But what if Jesus had an infinitely more radical message than this? What if Jesus taught an impossible forgiveness, a forgiveness without conditions, a forgiveness that would forgive before some condition was met? Now, that kind of forgiveness can really annoy people, and might help to explain why Jesus got a reputation for hanging out with drunkards and prostitutes (rather than with ex-drunkards and ex-prostitutes)! Indeed, it would seem clear from the Bible that Jesus did not hang out with drunkards and prostitutes merely as a strategy to make them ex-drunkards and ex-prostitutes. 

Yet is it not true that the unconditional gift of forgiveness, without need of repentance, houses within it the power to evoke repentance? As most of us know, it is often impossible to change until we meet someone who says to us, “You don’t have to change. I love you just the way you are.” 

What if a forgiveness that has conditions, that is wrapped up in economy, is not really forgiveness at all, but rather is nothing more than a prudent bet? What if such forgiveness is like a love that loves only those who love us? What if repentance is not the necessary condition for forgiveness but rather the freely given response to it?
So, is this idea of forgiveness really what Jesus is talking about in the Gospels? Upon first looking at the original story of the prodigal son we might conclude that forgiveness is bound up in economy. After all, we read, When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.” So he got up and went to his father. (Luke 15:17–20) 

It would initially seem then that repentance in the story came before the forgiveness. Yet, is the younger son really repentant here? The text states that he came to his “senses,” that is, he started to make a sensible calculation. One would have expected the narrative to claim something like, “in repentance he returned to his father’s home,” but the story describes the son’s internal monologue as a strategic decision rather than a change of heart. 

But even if this repentance were genuine, and not some kind of strategy that would allow the son to get a good meal and sleep in a warm bed, the father’s response shows that no economy is at work in the kingdom. After all, we read these powerful words, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). 

The father has no interest in whether or not his son is repentant. All he cares about is the son’s return. In these lines, the Father is presented as having no idea what his son is thinking, and of having no concern about whether or not his son has a contrite heart. The father does not wait to see what his son says but simply embraces him in love.

The above story thus simply attempts to draw out the radical idea of forgiveness that is already embedded in the original story. It adds a conclusion that imagines how such unconditional love may have actually provided the power needed to precipitate a change of heart in the son, rather than his experiences of eating with pigs.

A pyramid is to a triangle as a marriage crowned in the Church is to marriage in the natural order. [by which is meant a civil marriage - trans]

- Scheme abbess Ariadne of the White Lake 'Surety of Sinners' hermitage, near Lesovadosk c. 1932

.... The Word recognizes three Births for us; namely, the natural birth,
that of Baptism, and that of the Resurrection. Of these the first is
by night, and is servile, and involves passion; but the second is by
day, and is destructive of passion, cutting off all the veil that is
derived from birth, and leading on to the higher life; and the third
is more terrible and shorter, bringing together in a moment all
mankind, to stand before its Creator, and to give an account of its
service and conversation here; whether it has followed the flesh, or
whether it has mounted up with the spirit, and worshiped the grace of
its new creation. My Lord Jesus Christ has showed that He honoured all
these births in His own Person; the first, by that first and
quickening Inbreathing;  the second by His Incarnation
and the Baptism wherewith He Himself was baptized; and the third by
the Resurrection of which He was the Firstfruits; condescending, as He
became the Firstborn among many brethren, so also to
become the Firstborn from the dead.... 

- St Gregory Nazianzus