Saint Teresa of Avila on Wedding Garments

Mention of the rough garment of offenses in Saint Cyril's catechesis brought to mind another prayer of repentance. Saint Teresa of Avila felt the need to repent for time lost in her vocation, time in which she had been insincere and sought comfort rather than serving God.

In my life, I have experienced that no time is lost to God; when at last we turn to him, there is a grace to see that he was leading us all along and that the "time lost" was time he used for formation and teaching, to turn this loss to gain. Repentance is a continual process that is first the awareness of our need for God and his desire for us to receive every grace he wants to give, even the smallest of which contains him in his fullness.

O my God! Source of all mercy! I acknowledge Your sovereign power. While recalling the wasted years that are past, I believe that You, Lord, can in an instant turn this loss to gain. Miserable as I am, yet I firmly believe that You can do all things. Please restore to me the time lost, giving me Your grace, both now and in the future, that I may appear before You in "wedding garments." 
Amen.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem on Repentance

Saint Cyril's best-known works are his catechetical lectures, which are addressed to those who had not yet entered the Church but are also valuable to those who have. In this catechesis, he is speaking of Baptism but it equally applies to Reconciliation, calling sinners to leave aside the rough garment of sins and be clothed with salvation.

This is something I have spent much time reflecting on during the first month of novitiate. It is a time of prayer, which always involves purgation, time to set aside the old self in order to put on Christ.

Disciples of the New Testament and partakers of the mysteries of Christ, as yet by calling only, but ere long by grace also, make you a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek. 18:31), that there may be gladness among the inhabitants of heaven.

For if over one sinner that repenteth there is joy, according to the Gospel (Luke 15:7), how much more shall the salvation of so many souls move the inhabitants of heaven to gladness.

As ye have entered upon a good and most glorious path, run with reverence the race of godliness.

For the Only-begotten Son of God is present here most ready to redeem you, saying, Come unto Me all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28).

Ye that are clothed with the rough garment of your offences, who are holden with the cords of your own sins, hear the voice of the Prophet saying, Wash you, make you clean, put away your iniquities from before Mine eyes (Isaiah 1:16): that the choir of Angels may chant over you, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (Ps. 32:1).

Ye who have just lighted the torches of faith, guard them carefully in your hands unquenched; that He, who erewhile on this all-holy Golgotha opened Paradise to the robber on account of his faith, may grant to you to sing the bridal song.

If any here is a slave of sin, let him promptly prepare himself through faith for the new birth into freedom and adoption; and having put off the miserable bondage of his sins, and taken on him the most blessed bondage of the Lord, so may he be counted worthy to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Put off, by confession, the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit, that ye may put on the new man, which is renewed according to knowledge of Him that created him (Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:10).

Get you the earnest of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22) through faith, that ye may be able to be received into the everlasting habitations (Luke 16:9).

Come for the mystical Seal, that ye may be easily recognised by the Master; be ye numbered among the holy and spiritual flock of Christ, to be set apart on His right hand, and inherit the life prepared for you.

For they to whom the rough garment of their sins still clings are found on the left hand, because they came not to the grace of God which is given through Christ at the new birth of Baptism:  new birth I mean not of bodies, but the spiritual new birth of the soul.

Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 313-386): Catechetical Lectures 1, 1-2.

The Third Way

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:

"What is your opinion?

A man had two sons.

He came to the first and said,

'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'

He said in reply, 'I will not, '

but afterwards changed his mind and went.

The man came to the other son and gave the same order.

He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, ‘but did not go.

Which of the two did his father's will?"

They answered, "The first."

Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you,

tax collectors and prostitutes

are entering the kingdom of God before you.

When John came to you in the way of righteousness,

you did not believe him;

but tax collectors and prostitutes did.

Yet even when you saw that,

you did not later change your minds and believe him."

-Matthew 21:28-32

One of the aspects of the Gospel that I reflected on today is the two ways presented by Jesus: the first that of those who rejected God but repented and the second that of the observers of the Law who thought they had no need of repentance. 

One way to engage with this is to explore how in my life that I have lived either of these ways, and I did spend time considering how I have alienated myself from God because of pride or because of shame. But after bringing these areas of my life before Jesus, I also began to reflect on the Third Way, that of both observing the law and repenting. The law of the Church is of course the new commandment, love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another (John 13:34), but the nature of this commandment can also easily be reduced to moralism in practice that excludes the need to repent.  

One of the most difficult aspects of the spiritual life in the beginning is accepting who I am right now. I want to be much better than I am, and I do not want to approach God before I have improved myself. It is a difficult truth that I must accept myself in order to accept that God loves me as I am right now. It goes against the implicit human approach to repentance, that I repent because I want God to love me, while in fact it is because God loves me that I repent.  

I sincerely repent when I come to know that God loves me and desires repentance for salvation; any other approach to repentance is not life-altering, unless the imperfect contrition of fear leads to the perfect contrition of love. It is the forgiveness of the penitent that opens one to love, for the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little (Luke 7:42) and the one who is forgiven much loves much. Repentance opens the heart to the love of God that is then shared freely in keeping the Lord's command.

Adventure in The Exercises

The word "exercise" used as a title for St. Ignatius of Loyola's spiritual methodology gives one the idea of challenge, rigor, and regimented repetition. While the outline for prayer and meditation does include those, it also has much more. It is, in fact, more of an adventure than anything.

The word 'discernment,' even for what is supposedly Ignatian-style discernment, is often used as a synonym for decision. But the two things could not be more different. Discernment in prayer is about relationship, and relationships are not problems that are resolved or issues that are decided, but entrances into mystery that cause us to stretch and grow. They are areas of tension and ambiguity, which inherently include discomfort exactly because of imprecision and indecision.


Thus adventure. The Exercises is about encounter; shedding everything non-essential that prevents encounter with God and initiation into the mystery of the Trinity, an encounter that can absorb me deeper and deeper and never be exhausted.

God's proposal to me during this novitiate has not been to solve the problem of the future or to reach a decision, but to embark on an adventure; to enter deeper into his mystery and discover myself more fully by sharing in my Creator's knowledge of me. 

When I begin contemplating the Gospel, I begin with a map and have some idea of where I want to go, but often I reach an unexpected fork in the road and have the opportunity to surrender to the Holy Spirit. I am the receiver of prayer, not the initiator; the follower on the adventure, not the leader. It has been a wonderful experience of learning to listen and follow.

It is a process of growing in knowledge and freedom: knowledge of myself and of God, of who he is creating me to be and how he is calling me to follow him; freedom of knowing God as the Master of creation and the One who draws all to fullness in himself. 

Saint Anthony on the Divine Physician

In my readings of the Desert Fathers over the past couple of weeks, I stumbled over some of St. Anthony's teachings on the omnipresence of God and his immanent presence to his creatures, reflecting on the law implanted within us (the Natural Law) and how it prepares us for Christ, showing us that we are inadequate and in need of God's mercy.


Truly, my beloved in the Lord, not at one time only did God visit His creatures; but from the foundation of the world, whenever any have come to the Creator of all by the law of His covenant implanted in them, God is present with each one of these in His bounty and grace by His Spirit.

But in the case of those rational natures in which that covenant grew cold, and their intellectual perception died, so that they were no longer able to know themselves according to their first condition; concerning them I say that they became altogether irrational, and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator.

But the Creator of all in His great bounty visited us by the implanted law of the covenant. For He is immortal substance.

And as many as became worthy of God and grew by His implanted law, and were taught by His Holy Spirit and received the Spirit of Adoption, these were able to worship their Creator as they ought: of whom Paul says that they received not the promise on account of us (Heb. 11:39).

And the Creator of All, who repents not of His love, desiring to visit our sickness and confusion, raised up Moses the Lawgiver, who gave us the law in writing, and founded for us the House of Truth, which is the Catholic Church, that makes us one in God; for He desires that we should be brought back to our first beginning.

Moses built the house, yet did not complete it, but left it and went away. Then again God raised up the choir of the Prophets by His Spirit. And they also built on the foundation of Moses, but could not complete the house, and likewise left it and went away.

And all of them, being clothed with the Spirit, saw that the wound was incurable, and that none of the creatures was able to heal it, but only the Only-begotten, who is the very Mind of the Father and His Image, who after the pattern of His Image made every rational creature.

For these knew that the Saviour is the great physician; and they assembled all together, and offered prayer for their members, that is, for us, crying out and saying, Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? (Jer. 8:22) We would have healed her, but she is not healed: now therefore let us forsake her and go away. (Jer.51:9)

Antony the Great (c. 251-356): Letter 2 (trans. Derwas J. Chitty).

Saint Irenaeus on Freedom in the Holy Spirit

The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ. This line from Saint Irenaeus is echoed in one of my favorite selections from G. K. Chesterton:

...grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. (Orthodoxy)

In this excerpt from Against Heresies, Irenaeus is expounding on examples that show this is the new life, the youth and vitality of spirit that we are meant to receive through the Holy Spirit.


When the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God.


He had promised through the prophets that in these last days he would pour out his Spirit on his servants and handmaids, and that they would prophesy.

So when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed in this way to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God’s creation.

The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ.

Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant.

So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the first-fruits of all the nations.

This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God.

Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of broad, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven.

And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above.

Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like lightning.

If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an advocate as well.

And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself bound up his wounds…, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202): Adversus Haereses 3,17,1-3

Pride in Riches

     After a conversation with my confessor last week, I had some insight about pride being connected with gifts and talents, things that I think of as my strengths. I was reminded of Gospel passages about material riches that are equally applicable to intellect, character, and habit, and perhaps more so because it is easier to have blind spots in those areas.

     I have always been dismissive toward this interpretation (perhaps in part due to the corniness of the overused interlinguistic pun on the word "talent") but during this reflection I came to see it in a new light. I was walking back through the city and reflecting on this when an image from a book that I read recently came to me: water dripping onto a large rock and slowly eroding it. Water dissolving rock is not an uncommon metaphor for change that occurs slowly and imperceptibly, but it took on a new meaning for me from my experience in spiritual struggle with pride.

     Whenever I become aware of pride and motivated to struggle with it, I pull out a battering ram  to attack the solid rock and, quickly becoming tired and discouraged, abandon it shortly after. But grace in the spiritual life can be like drops of water - slow, but far more effective than the battering ram through persistence. The main challenge is to receive the drops as they come and not making a barrier that prevents them from reaching the stone.

     Novitiate is special because there is grace given that is different from any other time and because I am given the time to reflect on it and discern God's action in my life. It is time to watch the water work, pay attention to where the drops fall and how I receive them, and allow the accumulated silt of sins and faults to be carried away.

Akathist Hymn for the Exultation of the Holy Cross

The Akathist Hymn is one of the most beloved devotions of the Byzantine Rite. There has been some debate about the particular details of authorship of the first Akathist, but most scholars agree with the tradition that attributes it to St. Romanos the Melodist, who reposed in the year 556 in Constantinople. This original Akathist Hymn (to the Theotokos) proved so popular that many other hymns were written following its format praising other saints, holy events, Persons of the Trinity, etc. These pastiche forms are considered to be personal devotions; the only Akathist used liturgically is the original.
The word "akathistos" literally means "unseated," i.e., standing, because all participants stand while it is being prayed. The hymn is comprised of 24 stanzas, alternating long and short. Each short stanza (kontakion) ends with the singing of "Alleluia." Each longer stanza (ikos) ends with the refrain: "Rejoice, O Bride Unwedded," (or another invocation from the first kontakion).
As the hymn progresses, we encounter the object of the hymn more profoundly, repeatedly expressing needs, desires, and praises and finding them fulfilled in the glorious plan of salvation. Each person who participates in the Akathist tradition finds in these hymns an inspired means of expressing gratitude and praise to the Mother of God, Jesus, the Cross, etc. for what has been accomplished for their salvation.

Kontakion 1

O most blessed and all-worshipped Cross of Christ, faithfully do I venerate and magnify thee, being joyous at thy Exaltation. As a trophy of victory and unconquered weapon, protect, cover, and shelter me as I cry to thee: Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Ikos 1

I behold the fearful Cross glorified and exalted and see it now brilliant and shedding the light of grace upon all who rejoice in the victory of Christ, I now stand amazed and cry to thee:

Rejoice, O Cross, guardian of the world!

Rejoice, O glory of the holy Church!

Rejoice, thou that dost bountifully bestow healing!

Rejoice, thou that dost enlighten earth to its ends!

Rejoice, wood fragrant with life and treasury of wonders!

Rejoice, thrice-blessed bestower of grace!

Rejoice, for thou art the divine footstool!

Rejoice, for thou wast ordained for the worship of all!

Rejoice, bowl of nectar filled to the brim!

Rejoice, torch of heavenly radiance!

Rejoice, thou through which creation is blessed!

Rejoice, thou through which the Creator is worshipped!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 2

O faithful Cross, that throughout the ages hast born witness to the glory of Christ’s passion and mystery of his conquering death, may I who have eyes to behold, ears to hear, and a mouth to speak and never cease to proclaim his glorious victory and cry out: Alleluia!

Ikos 2

Shining as a light upon all in hades, O Savior, Thou didst enlighten them that lay below, and just as Thou didst deliver them, deliver me also that I may behold the Cross and cry:

Rejoice, through which we have such joy!

Rejoice, consolation of them that mourn!  

Rejoice, despoiling of the treasures of hades!

Rejoice, enjoyment of the Paradise of delight!

Rejoice, thou rod that didst drown the Egyptian army!

Rejoice, that which in turn didst water the Israelite people!

Rejoice, living Tree, that Thief’s salvation!

Rejoice, fragrant rose, sweet scent of the godly!

Rejoice, food of the hungry in spirit!

Rejoice, seal that men have received!

Rejoice, doorway to mysteries!

Rejoice, that from which divine streams pour forth!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 3

O holy and blessed wood, on which our Savior raised man to a higher dignity than that forfeited in the Garden, let me never turn to the Tree of Knowledge in pride but rather keep my eyes fixed upon the Tree of Life in humility and approach in fear and trembling to intone: Alleluia!

Ikos 3

O Cross, which didst first receive the cleansing water and nourishing blood from the side of Christ, wounded by the lance thrust by sin and returning a blessing for a curse, may I never cease to give thanks for the wellspring of grace flowing from the life-giving passion and sing: Alleluia!

Rejoice, hope of all men born into despair!

Rejoice, refuge of sinful man before God!

Rejoice, which draw all men to thyself!

Rejoice, that bore him who bore all the word’s sorrows

Rejoice, that unitest men of every time and place!

Rejoice, sign of life springing from death!

Rejoice, which received the first blood of the Lord!

Rejoice, heaviest burden ever born!

Rejoice, burden most lovingly born!

Rejoice, despised by all men but embraced by Christ!

Rejoice, who embraced him who the world rejected!

Rejoice, witness of the redemption of sinners!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 4

O Cross, which didst embrace the Savior that sinners denied and condemned, thou didst accept him who was despised and rejected although he rejected none; may the faithful who confess him Lord never cease to honor his chosen Cross and cry out: Alleluia!

Ikos 4

He Who on Sinai did give the law to the Godseer of old, by His own will was nailed to the Cross, lawlessly for lawless men; and He loosed the ancient curse of the law, so that beholding the might of the Cross, we might all now cry:

Rejoice, where love was most profoundly revealed!

Rejoice, uplifting of the fallen!

Rejoice, downfall of those who adore the world!

Rejoice, inauguration of the Resurrection of Christ!

Rejoice, divine joy of monastics!

Rejoice, shady-leafed Tree sheltering believers!

Rejoice, prophet-proclaimed Tree planted on earth!

Rejoice, mighty protection of the state!

Rejoice, manifestation of the just Judge!

Rejoice, condemnation of offending mortals!

Rejoice, succor of orphans!

Rejoice, enricher of the poor!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 5

O Cross, thou wert designed by the Father of lies and Slanderer to defeat man’s hope of redemption; may I, wretched sinner who have so often used creation for selfish and evil ends, be eager to turn God’s gifts to good and sanctification that I may behold his gifts in their goodness and cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 5

Like to the sun has the Cross appeared in the world to fill men with its light; may I ever view it as the cause of good raised up by divine hands and bless it, saying:

Rejoice, dawn of the spiritual sun!

Rejoice, unfailing fount of myrrh!

Rejoice, death-blow to the prince of hades!

Rejoice, which in exaltation, thou dost now also exalt us!

Rejoice, that in being veneration, thou dost sanctify men’s souls!

Rejoice, most plentiful strength of the martyrs!

Rejoice, thou through which hades was cast down!

Rejoice, thou through which God did rise up!

Rejoice, sign of contradiction and confoundment to the world!

Rejoice, whose arms embrace all the world in its Maker!

Rejoice, weapon of the enemy made instrument of his defeat!

Rejoice, sign of hope for those in a legacy of despair!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 6

With the purpose of saving his creation the Lord of the world ineffably descended to it and submitted to the Cross; and being God, for us He accepteth all that pertaineth to our nature. Wherefore, having also redeemed us, he heareth from all: Alleluia!

Ikos 6

O Cross, thou wast designed to humble the proud and humiliate, but in the mystery of the divine plan thou wert used to manifest and exalt him who is most humble; may I who am the proudest of sinners and most vain of evildoers learn humility that I may be worthy for initiation to the mystery and cry:

Rejoice, who was never embraced before thy Maker came to thee!

Rejoice, ladder to heaven for us, the earth-bound!

Rejoice, foundation of godliness!

Rejoice, conquest of the promised land!

Rejoice, thou that dost put the spiritual Amalek to flight!

Rejoice, thout that wast prefigured by the hands of Jacob!

Rejoice, for thou didst fulfill the prophetic utterances!

Rejoice, thou that disdt bear the Savior of all!

Rejoice, thou that didst destroy the corrupter of souls!

Rejoice, through which we are united with angels!

Rejoice, through which we are illumined by light!

Rejoice, for with honor we worship thee!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 7

O Cross of rough, unfinished wood, which held the Lord even as the manger had at his birth, thou didst hold him displayed for the world to behold and mock; may I, wretched sinner fond of sensuality, desire to forsake comforts for the sake of him to whom I sing: Alleluia!

Ikos 7

Entire, he came down from on high, retaining His divinity, the only Word from before all ages; and being born of a Virgin Mother, He appeared to the world as a lowly man, accepting the Cross, and gave life to them that cry thereto:

Rejoice, weapon of peace!

Rejoice, starting point and goal of travelers!

Rejoice, wisdom and firm support of the saved!

Rejoice, folly and destruction of the damned!

Rejoice, fruitful, immortal, life-bearing plant!

Rejoice, flower that blossomed with our salvation!

Rejoice, for thou dost join together things on earth with things above!

Rejoice, for thou dost enlighten the hearts of them below!

Rejoice, thou through which corruption is banished!

Rejoice, thou through which sorrow has vanished!

Rejoice, thou myriad-numbered wealth of good things!

Rejoice, thou myriad-named boast of believers!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 8

Having willed to grant grace unto men, Christ stretched out His hands on the tree, and doth call all the nations together, granting the Kingdom of Heaven to all that faithfully sing the hymn and faithfully cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 8

Chanting the hymn, out of love I praise thee as the living Tree of the Lord; for being nailed upon thee in the flesh, He that ruleth over the Hosts on high hath sanctified, glorified and taught us to cry these words unto thee:

Rejoice, spiritual sword!

Rejoice, thou holy gaze of saints!

Rejoice, wonder of the saints!

Rejoice, dread of the demons!

Rejoice, prediction of the prophets and the righteous!
Rejoice, brilliant strategem of Christ!

Rejoice, beauty and crown of pious kings!

Rejoice, strength and stronghold of reverent priests!

Rejoice, fair and noble jewel of truth!

Rejoice, joyful splendor of all!

Rejoice, lamp of purest light!

Rejoice, thou gladness of my soul!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 9

Fallen is the profane legion of demons, seeing the Cross worshipped with longing, as it doth ever gush forth healing to them that cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 9

Having all beheld the God-crowned Tree, let us come under its protection. Taking it up as a weapon, with it we put our enemies to flight and, touching the untouchable, with our lips we cry to it:

Rejoice, height of the wisdom of God!

Rejoice, thou depth of his providence!

Rejoice, heavenly scepter of the faithful king!

Rejoice, thou that turnest back the ranks of our foes!

Rejoice, thou flame that burnest demons!

Rejoice, invincible trophy of those who love Christ!

Rejoice, thou that humblest the arrogant!

Rejoice, undoer of the trespass of the first-created!

Rejoice, opener of the entrance to Paradise!

Rejoice, revered by all!

Rejoice, healer of the sick!

Rejoice, constant help of them that weep!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 10

O Cross, which became the altar of self-immolation for the great High Priest, bearing the one acceptable Sacrifice who atones for transgressions of this most wretched sinner, may I never cease to give thanks for him who freely chose thee and withheld nothing, and follow in his example by embracing three and crying out: Alleluia!

Ikos 10

O Cross of joy, that although designed and fashioned by men for death and misery hast become the cause of our rejoicing, may I who have been created to glorify God never cease to rejoice before men and declare:

Rejoice, sign of veritable joy!

Rejoice, redemption from the ancient curse!

Rejoice, that didst appear in the stars as a sign!

Rejoice, accomplishment of the ineffable counsel!

Rejoice, on whose account the Christ-bearers rejoice!

Rejoice, ladder set on high, foreseen once of old!

Rejoice, wonder of the angels!

Rejoice, wound of the demons!

Rejoice, welcome relic of the world!

Rejoice, quencher of deception’s fire!

Rejoice, protection of the helpless!

Rejoice, thou stern trainer of the victors!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 11

Every hymn falleth short that would comprehend the multitude of thy many wonders; for though we should offer thee a multitude of praises, O precious Cross, we should do nothing worthy of what thou hast granted us, but still we cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 11

The radiance that giveth light to them in darkness doth this Life-giving Cross bestow; for it hath shown us the immaterial light, and hath illumined the way for all to divine knowledge; and being lifted up, it now lifteth up our minds that we might chant these words:

Rejoice, thou that dost receive tenderly the souls of men!

Rejoice, luminary that shineth on them in darkness!

Rejoice, star that dawneth upon the world!

Rejoice, defense against many evils!

Rejoice, award of many good things!

Rejoice, fulfillment of the most mysterious prophecies!

Rejoice, thou whose form hath appeared from Heaven!

Rejoice, thou whose power doth dispel evil!

Rejoice, thou that dost signify mortification of the flesh!

Rejoice, thou that dost slay the insurrection of the passions!

Rejoice, thou upon which Christ was crucified!

Rejoice, thou by which all the world was saved!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 12

Seeing the strange wonder, let us live our life as strangers, lifting our minds up to heaven; since for this was Christ nailed to the cross, and suffered in the flesh, having willed to draw to the heights them that cry to it: Alleluia!

Ikos 12

O wondrous Cross, which is beheld by all creation as the instrument of salvation to the confoundment of the world, may we accept the saving embrace of our Master as thou didst and never cease to bear him on our bodies that we may continue to wonder and cry out:

Rejoice, vessel of light!

Rejoice, treasury of life!

Rejoice, bestower of the gifts of the Passion!

Rejoice, calm port for those at sea!

Rejoice, table that holdest Christ as Sacrifice!

Rejoice, vine that bearest the cluster dripping mystical wine!

Rejoice, protector of God-fearing princes!

Rejoice, which dost crush the heads of great serpents!

Rejoice, illustrious sign of the faith!

Rejoice, preservation of all the world!

Rejoice, blessing of God upon mortals!

Rejoice, mediation of mortals with God!

Rejoice, O exalted Cross of Christ!

Kontakion 13

O most laudable Tree which held the Word, the most holy of all holy beings, having received our entreaties, deliver us from every calamity and redeem from eternal torment all them that cry to thee: Alleluia!

(Kontakion 13 is repeated three times. Then Ikos 1 and Kontakion 1 are repeated in that order.)

Franciscan Repentance

A theme in some of my spiritual reading this week was conversion of heart toward God through continual repentance. It was largely from a Franciscan perspective, one that I do not generally find easiest for me to understand and relate to, but the insight has proven very helpful. 

Thinking about sins and faults is often discouraging, because it becomes focused on my failure, and that it why it is important to remain focused on God in this area of the spiritual life. Sins and faults are insurmountable obstacles for me, but they are not obstacles for merciful God! Constant repentance is not about focusing on how I have failed but rather on how God is calling me to grow in love of him.

This is related to embracing the cross that God has given - the spiritual principle is the same: focusing on my efforts leads to discouragement, while focusing on Jesus who calls me to follow him leads to growth in the self-forgetfulness of love.  

One last thought from St. Francis de Sales:

Montréal

Labor Day was low-key this year. We had a quiet day and a small cookout in the courtyard during the afternoon. But later in the week, the novice master decided to give the three of us a little break from all the activity in the house and the noise of the city, so we went up to Montreal for a couple of days and stopped at the beach on Lake Champlain on the way there and back.

Multi-day trips during novitiate are exceptional, but because there is an Oblate house there the provincial can designate it as the novitiate residence for a certain period of time, allowing us to have a get away without loosing any of the 365 days required for novitiate.

Nice, windy Lake Champlain: much cooler than Boston this week.

Paul getting ready to jump off a bridge into the lake

Hanging out with Fr. Shawn's father and brother at the beach

The Oblate house in Montreal, right on the bank of the St. Lawrence "Fleuve"

Morning view from the porch

Outside Notre Dame du Montreal, a ~0.25 scale replica of Notre Dame du Paris

Interior

The main altarpiece 

7,000-pipe organ

We also visited St. Joseph's Oratory, which I had been to on my last visit two years ago.

It was good to get out of the city during the heat wave and go somewhere a little cooler and less humid, but most of all to get away from the noise and activity for a few days. We didn't do very many activities or see many sights outside of our pilgrimage to the Oratory shrine, and we were able to spend a lot of extra time reading in addition to our normal novitiate routine.