He Sees

One day, while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting nearby (they had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem); and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. Just then some men came, carrying a paralysed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’ Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, ‘Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you”, or to say, “Stand up and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the one who was paralysed—‘I say to you, stand up and take your bed and go to your home.’ Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God.
Luke 5:17-25 (all emphasis mine)

The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
James 5:16 

Someone asked me recently why I pray to the saints. My response is that their faith is so much greater than mine. Their prayers are right there, before the Lord. "In His face" so to speak. The faith of the saints is visible to Him and mine is so small and weak sometimes. I don't pretend to be a giant of faith because I know very well that I am not. I have so many doubts and misunderstandings that sometimes I am fairly certain my prayers just rebound off the ceiling. Knowing I don't have to rely only upon myself but can call upon the collective prayers of these holy ones makes me feel so much more secure when things in my life go awry, or I can't control what is going on.

I ask for the prayers of the Theotokos for my son, especially when he is away from me. I ask for her prayers and that of his patron and guardian angel, the Archangel Gabriel, for his safety, protection and guidance. I always pray for him to love God and the Church and for him to know that he always has a place he can call home. I ask for her prayers for myself also, so that I will be a good mother and that she would keep me ever before God.I ask for her prayers for my family and friends as well. I don't recite what I think God should do for them or anything but lift their names up for Him to remember in His kingdom and for the Theotokos to remember them in her prayers as well.

There are saints whose stories resonate with me and I see how they lived their lives and know how inadequate I am in comparison. I don't know if I would be able to watch my son be put to a painful death without compromising or face some of the horrors the saints faced without "looking back". These days I get put out by a faulty internet connection or my a/c going out, let alone having my skin pulled off in strips or hot irons applied to my body. So I ask for their prayers because they truly did finish the course well. And don't get me wrong, I ask my mom and grandmother and great-grandmother to pray for me, because they, too, are in that great cloud of witnesses!

I guess I no longer understand the point of view that asking the saints to pray for me is "idolatry". I mean, is it idolatry to ask my friend or priest to pray for me? (James 5:16) Are we not all a part of the great communion of saints, known and unknown? (Nicene Creed)  Is not God the God of the living? (Mark 12:27, Luke 20:38) Do they not witness us in a great cloud? (Hebrews 12:1) For me the answer is an obvious and resounding YES. And so I ask for their prayers because I need them.

When Christians depart this life, they aren't separated from the Church, they are still part of the Body of Christ. They are alive with the Lord in heaven (Hebrews 12:23), worshiping God (Revelation 4:10) and inhabit His heavenly dwelling places (John 14:2).We join them communion with the saints in our worship of God (Hebrews 12:22). And we should imitate them in running "the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1). Rejecting or ignoring the saints is simply a denial that those who have died in Christ are still part of His Holy Church. 


Holy saints of God, pray to God for us!

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!

Relevant Reading
Mark 12:27
Luke 5:17-25
Luke 20:38
John 14:2 
Hebrews 12:1
Hebrews 12:22-24
James 5:16 
Revelation 4:10
Prayer to the Saints
Canonization

Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel

 

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone

As thou beholdest the glory of God in Heaven, and on earth dost bestow grace from on high, O leader of Angels, wise Gabriel, minister of the glory of God, and divine defender of the world, save and keep my son, I cry to thee: Be thyself his helper, and no one can be against him.

Gabriel is the great Messenger of God. He brought news to Daniel in Babylon; he brought the news of John the Forerunner's impending birth to Zacharias in the temple; he brought the news of Christ's impending birth to the Theotokos; he announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds; he was the young man clad in white who sat on the stone and announced the resurrection to the women disciples of the Lord; and is believed to be the angel who will sopund the trumpet heralding Christ's return in the Last Days. Tradition holds that he announced the birth of the Theotokos to her parents, too. Gabriel brings Good News whenever he shows up!

In iconography, Gabriel always "wears blue or white and he holds either a lily (representing the Theotokos), a trumpet, a shining lantern, a branch from Paradise presented to him by the Theotokos, or a spear in his right hand and often a mirror—made of jasper and with a Χ (the first letter of Christ (Χριστος) in Greek)—in his left hand." He doesn't carry a sword; he is the angel who is charged with proclaiming salvation to mankind not war.

There are a number of feast days for the Archangel Gabriel on the Church's calendar: 26 March which is the day after the Annunciation, today (13 July) and 8 November, the day all the Archangels are feasted. Since I have an angel living with me, I try to remember all his feast days!

A blessed feast day of the 
Archangel Gabriel to my son! 
God grant him many more years!!

Relevant Reading

The Prologue from Ochrid

OCA - Feasts & Saints: Archangel Gabriel

LOL! Good Advice!

A female minister while studying the book of Ruth said to the single women: "While waiting on your Boaz don't settle for any of his relatives: Lyingaz, Cheatingaz, Goodfornothingaz, Poaz, Lockedupaz, Lazyaz, Brokeaz, or his third cousin Beatyoaz. He also needs to respect yoaz!"

Holla!

God have mercy on me, a sinner!

Relevant Reading
The Book of Ruth

Interview with Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

Evangelical magazine interviews Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)A recent interview with His Eminence, Metropolitan Kallistos [Ware], is now available online.

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

For Gabriel...

Crazy joy, when I see the eyes of my baby boy
I pledge to you, I will always do
Everything I can
Show you how to be a man
Dignity, integrity, honor an
An' I don't mind if you lose, long as you came with it
An' you can cry, ain't no shame it it
It didn't work out with me an' your [dad]
But yo, push come to shove
You was conceived in love
So if the world attacks, and you slide off track
Remember one fact, I got your back

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

A Good Name

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
   and favour is better than silver or gold.
The rich and the poor have this in common:
   the Lord is the maker of them all.
The clever see danger and hide;
   but the simple go on, and suffer for it.
The reward for humility and fear of the Lord
   is riches and honour and life.
Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;
   the cautious will keep far from them.
Train children in the right way,
   and when old, they will not stray.
The rich rules over the poor,
   and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
   and the rod of anger will fail.
Those who are generous are blessed,
   for they share their bread with the poor.
Drive out a scoffer, and strife goes out;
   quarrelling and abuse will cease.
Those who love a pure heart and are gracious in speech
   will have the king as a friend.
The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
   but he overthrows the words of the faithless.
The lazy person says, ‘There is a lion outside!
   I shall be killed in the streets!’
The mouth of a loose woman is a deep pit;
   he with whom the Lord is angry falls into it.
Folly is bound up in the heart of a boy,
   but the rod of discipline drives it far away.
Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself,
   and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss. 
Proverbs 22

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

Phish Food & New Martyrs: An Update

For the past few days I have been without air conditioning. This might not be a problem but I live in North Carolina and the summers here are sweltering to say the very least. It hasn't been that bad though, especially at night. Nights have been quite comfortable with the fans going and the windows open. In fact, yesterday was the hottest so far and God was good enough to send a lovely thunderboomer my way. The temp outside dropped about 20 degrees in an hour or so and inside it got down to comfortable (I keep the thermostat at about 76-77). I was downright chilly!! Today there wasn't a thunderstorm so I decided I could eat ice cream for supper. Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. Chocolate ice cream, marshmallow and caramel swirls and little fudge fish. Yum!

In other news, today is my Name Day!

My patron saint is St Elizabeth Feodorovna Grand Duchess of Russia and New Martyr of the Communist Yoke. St Elizabeth was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England the wife of Grand Duke Sergei of Russia. She was raised Lutheran but converted to Orthodoxy after marrying Sergei and attending the Orthodox services with her husband in Russia. She wrote to her family:

"I am sure God's blessing will accompany my act which I do with such fervent belief, with the feeling that I may become a better Christian and be one step nearer to God." Explaining the reasons for her decision, she writes in a letter: "Above all one's conscience must be pure and true... many will -- I know -- scream about (it), yet I feel it brings me nearer to God... You tell me that the outer brilliance of the church charmed me... in that you are mistaken -- nothing in the outer signs attracted me -- no -- the service, the service, the outer signs are only to remind us of the inner things."

And I feel the same way. The Church is a wonderful place to be. I never feel better than when I have attended liturgy (except, perhaps, after confession). What is truly wonderful is that no matter where I am, if I attend an Orthodox church, I will know what the service is--be it in Russian, Greek or even Southern-accented English! LOL! I can be absorbed by the worship and know God...As much as I can know this Infinite and Incredible Lord of ours. His presence is always palpable in the services of the Orthodox Church and all I can do is sing to Him, "Holy, Holy Holy!"

St Elizabeth is also a paragon of forgiveness which is something I know I need to practice regularly. When her husband was assassinated, she gathered together the parts of his body and prayed over them, then visited his confessed murderer in prison and asked his forgiveness for whatever they had done to cause him to want the Grand Duke's death. She gave him a gospel and begged him to repent and then left the prison.

I am nowhere near that point in my life. One of my constant prayers is that I would be able to more closely emulate her in this way.

She left Russian Royal society after the death of her husband and became a monastic, but she did not withdraw from the world entirely. She founded a convent dedicated to serving the poor and sick of Moscow which is extant in Moscow to this day. A few years after this, the Bolsheviks forcibly removed her and the rest of the imperial family from Moscow and she was eventually martyred. Her remains were transported to the convent of St Mary Magdalene of Gethemane in Israel where they are to this day.
 
Anyway...I read about St Elizabeth during my investigation of the Church and I feel a special kinship with her and with St Ruth because, among other reasons, both of them were converts to the Faith of God. The Lord has had me camped out in the Book of Ruth for several years now and I never cease to be amazed at the amount of wisdom that can be found in that little book.

Conversion is something that must happen daily. Hourly, almost. I must grow in faith, zeal, knowledge, love, sanctification, holiness, and joy every day of my life into eternity. I cannot give others something I do not have and my chosen patrons, Holy God-pleasers, Elizabeth and Ruth by their examples prove this to me. All too often I have been more a convert of the world than of Christ.Hopefully with their help and fervent prayers I will become more like them and eventually truly be able to reflect the glory of God in my life.

Pray to God for me, O saints Elizabeth and Ruth, well-pleasing to God, for I readily recommend myself to you, who are the speedy helper and intercessors for my soul. Amen. 

Rejoice, lamb burning with the love of God;
   rejoice, handmaid of Christ the Lord!
Rejoice, scroll whereon the Holy Spirit inscribed the Christian virtues;
   rejoice, divinely wise princess and new martyr!
Rejoice, daughter who forsook they father’s house and turned to Holy Orthodoxy;
Rejoice, vessel wherein the wine of gladness
   and the oil of healing are mingled together;
   rejoice, upholder of the traditions of piety!
Rejoice, treasure-house of compassion;
   rejoice, radiant star resplendent with heavenly glory!

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

Relevant Reading
Blog Post: St Elizabeth the New Martyr
Book of Ruth
Martha and Mary Convent of Moscow
Akathist to St Elizabeth the New Martyr