New Advent

Preparing for the season of Advent today, I came across a recommendation for approaching the daily readings. This is very helpful for me because I meditate on the readings every day, but even if you only focus on the Sunday readings it is still beneficial for entering into the readings more deeply.

The Two Parts of Advent 

(from Creighton University's Online Ministries)

Part 1: up until December 16
While most liturgical seasons have the gospel as their main focus, during the first weeks of Advent, the Church gives us daily readings from the prophet Isaiah.  With the eyes of faith, these foretell the coming of the Messiah. Rather than a continuous gospel narrative familiar to us for most of the year, this part of Advent offers a wide variety of gospel readings that support the first reading of the day. 

After almost two weeks of Isaiah readings, we hear the foretelling of a Messiah from other prophets from the Hebrew scriptures - in Sirach, Numbers, Zephaniah and returning to Isaiah. With each passing week, the prophets speak more clearly of the coming of a Savior. 

So, in reading the first reading, for the first part of Advent, we listen to the anticipation, expectation, hope and promise.  In listening to the second reading, we listen for the fulfillment or connection with the gospel.

Part 2: December 17 - 24

In these last eight days before Christmas, the relationship between the readings changes.  Now the gospel brings us to our celebration of Christmas.  The gospels are taken from the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke. 

Each of these days, the first reading is taken from the Hebrew scriptures, and chosen to match the gospel.  In many cases we can imagine Matthew or Luke having the first reading open on their desks while they wrote the gospel.

So, we can read the gospel first and then read the first reading.  The sense of anticipation and fulfillment builds as we read the story of the preparation for Jesus' first coming into this world for us.

Interior Desert

Desert spirituality has been very important in my spiritual life, and it is something that has been coming up consistently over the past two weeks. And what does this look like?

I wish!

The desert is a place of solitude, which makes it a place of encounter with 1) self, 2) God, and 3) evil.

It is a place that has loomed large in the spiritualities of monasticism and especially the Christian East, but there are many levels of interpretation and understanding the desert.

Fuge, tace, quiesce (be alone, be silent, be still)

In the Bible, the desert is a place where Israel is courted and betrothed to God, but also a place of temptations and trials. It becomes a battleground of the eschatological battle of Christ against the powers of the world. Defeating Satan means weakening him by spreading the kingdom of God and supporting other Christians through prayer. In the desert, the means to fight are acquired: mortification and penance used systematically for the practice of virtue keep the individual focused on the "narrow gate" of the Gospel, the asceticism (askesis, "exercise") essential for seeking union with God. By fasting and penance, it is also shown that man "shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4, Deut 8:3; cf. Vita Consecrata 7b).

The desert is a place to flee to "live alone for God alone," a place of radical detachment, an exhortation to the Church and contemporaries never to lose sight of the supreme vocation: to be always with the Lord (cf. Vita Consecrata 7b). The first encounter is with self: the discovery of how far one is from God and the difficulty of return. It thus becomes a place of spiritual combat, struggle against the passions and the devil that oppose union with God, against the evil in the world that begins in the individual heart. True knowledge of the human heart is attained in the desert. Its weaknesses and foibles are revealed and it is strengthened for spiritual battles. Herein lies the importance of controlling "thoughts" (custodia sensuum), understanding virtue and vice, and honing weapons: continuous prayer, nourishment by Scripture, humility, and mortification.

The importance of purifying the heart and the senses from passions (apatheia, "equanimity") is paramount: "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" (Mt 5:8).

In addition to this negative interpretation, there is also a positive one. The desert is a place of God's providence, where Elijah was nourished (1 Kings 19:7) and a place prepared for God's people (Exodus, cf. Rev 12:6). In Thomas Merton's book Thoughts in Solitude, he described the desert as a place dear to God precisely because it is useless to man, where there is nothing attractive and nothing to be exploited; it was made to be nothing but itself, the perfect place for man who seeks to be nothing but himself.

This was my primary experience of "interior desert" over the past week. It is a place of profound silence and imperturbable solitude, a place of refreshment where food and water are forsaken for nourishment on God alone. It has been a place of rest with God, but also pilgrimage: no one who takes a long look at himself in the presence of God can be satisfied. The pilgrimage that begins and ends in the world must at some point pass through the dry wasteland where there is nothing to depend on but God and no one to blame but the self, and thus there is purgation. But beyond every desert is a promised land, beyond the teaching is the goal of the lesson, and beyond the pilgrimage is rest. 

Novice Life: Bunker Hill

This week was one of the last warm days of the season and we had the afternoon off from conferences and readings. We decided to hike to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. None of us had ever been before and we enjoyed the climb up 296 steps to the top of the monument.

It was a great day to get out, enjoy the weather, and have some time off to hang out. 

The Year of Consecrated Life

Today is the official beginning of the Year of Consecrated Life, which extends until the World Day of Consecrated Life on the Presentation of the Lord (2 February 2016). Just yesterday I finished reading Vita Consecrata, Saint John Paul II's post-synodal exhortation on religious and consecrated life promulgated in 1996.

The main image used in the exhortation is the Transfiguration: that in its contemplative aspect, all consecrated life is a participation in the Transfiguration and likewise a sign of future glory.


The evangelical basis of consecrated life is to be sought in the special relationship which Jesus, in his earthly life, established with some of his disciples. He called them not only to welcome the Kingdom of God into their own lives, but also to put their lives at its service, leaving everything behind and closely imitating his own way of life.

This mystery is constantly relived by the Church... Like the three chosen disciples, the Church contemplates the transfigured face of Christ in order to be confirmed in faith and to avoid being dismayed at his disfigured face on the Cross. All are equally called to follow Christ, to discover in him the ultimate meaning of their lives… but those who are called to the consecrated life have a special experience of the light which shines forth from the Incarnate Word. For the profession of the evangelical counsels makes them a kind of sign and prophetic statement for the community of the brethren and for the world; consequently they can echo in a particular way the ecstatic words spoken by Peter: "Lord, it is well that we are here" (Mt 17:4). These words eloquently express the radical nature of the vocation to the consecrated life: how good it is for us to be with you, to devote ourselves to you, to make you the one focus of our lives! 

The three disciples caught up in ecstasy hear the Father's call to listen to Christ, to place all their trust in him, to make him the centre of their lives. The words from on high give new depth to the invitation by which Jesus himself, at the beginning of his public life, called them to follow him, to leave their ordinary lives behind and to enter into a close relationship to him. It is precisely this special grace of intimacy which, in the consecrated life, makes possible and even demands the total gift of self in the profession of the evangelical counsels. The counsels, more than a simple renunciation, are a specific acceptance of the mystery of Christ, lived within the Church.

Vita Consecrata 14, 15, 16

Accessed from iconreader.wordpress.com

For more information on the Year of Consecrated Life, there are USCCB resources here and Vatican  resources here.

Saint Maximus the Confessor on Virtues

I have been reading some writings of Saint Maximus the Confessor recently, including something that speaks about the theological virtues. I especially liked the last part, in which he says it is absurd to try to separate God's love from God's essence. This reminded me of a retreat conference on prayer two years ago that I have never forgotten: remember that the goal of the spiritual life is God, not the consolations of God.



Love is a holy state of the soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above all created things.

We cannot attain lasting possession of such love while we are still attached to anything worldly.

Dispassion engenders love, hope in God engenders dispassion, and patience and forbearance engender hope in God.

These in turn are the product of complete self-control, which itself springs from fear of God. Fear of God is the result of faith in God.

If you have faith in the Lord you will fear punishment, and this fear will lead you to control the passions.

Once you control the passions you will accept affliction patiently, and through such acceptance you will acquire hope in God.

Hope in God separates the intellect (nous) from every worldly attachment, and when the intellect is detached in this way it will acquire love for God.

The person who loves God values knowledge of God more than anything created by God, and pursues such knowledge ardently and ceaselessly.

If everything that exists was made by God and for God, and God is superior to the things made by Him, he who abandons what is superior and devotes himself to what is inferior shows that he values things made by God more than God Himself.

When your intellect is concentrated on the love of God you will pay little attention to visible things and will regard even your own body as something alien.

Since the soul is more noble than the body and God incom­parably more noble than the world created by Him, he who values the body more than the soul and the world created by God more than the Creator Himself is simply a worshipper of idols.

If you distract your intellect from its love for God and concentrate it, not on God, but on some sensible object, you thereby show that you value the body more than the soul and the things made by God more than God Himself.

Since the light of spiritual knowledge is the intellect’s life, and since this light is engendered by love for God, it is rightly said that nothing is greater than divine love (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13).

When in the intensity of its love for God the intellect goes out of itself, then it has no sense of itself or of any created thing.

For when it is illumined by the infinite light of God, it becomes insensible to everything made by Him, just as the eye becomes insensible to the stars when the sun rises.

Maximus the Confessor (580-662): Four Hundred Texts on Love 1-10

Asceticism and Mysticism: Origen on the Kingdom of God

Asceticism and mysticism are essential elements of every spirituality, yet these words are widely misunderstood and therefore feared by many. Among Roman Catholics in particular, they are thought of as extremely unusual, confined to either the eccentric or the elite.

But they are simply the two facets of the spiritual life: asceticism is striving to reach the perfection attainable by human nature (human virtue), while mysticism is receiving the gift of what is beyond human nature (divine virtue).

This is illustrated by the second reading of the Office for the Solemnity of Christ the King, which addresses both the unmerited gift of the kingdom of God in us (the indwelling of the Trinity conferred by sacraments and actual graces) and the impetus for human nature to be completely subjected to it (by mortification and discipline).  

Second reading
From a notebook On Prayer by Origen, priest

Your kingdom come

The kingdom of God, in the words of our Lord and Savior, does not come for all to see; nor shall they say: Behold, here it is, or behold, there it is, but the kingdom of God is within us, for the word of God is very near, in our mouth and in our heart. Thus it is clear that he who prays for the coming of God’s kingdom prays rightly to have it within himself, that there it may grow and bear fruit and become perfect. For God reigns in each of his holy ones. Anyone who is holy obeys the spiritual laws of God, who dwells in him as in a well-ordered city. The Father is present in the perfect soul, and with him Christ reigns, according to the words: We shall come to him and make our home with him.

Thus the kingdom of God within us, as we continue to make progress, will reach its highest point when the Apostle’s words are fulfilled, and Christ, having subjected all his enemies to himself, will hand over his kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all. Therefore, let us pray unceasingly with that disposition of soul which the Word may make divine, saying to our Father who is in heaven: Hallowed by thy name; thy kingdom come.

Note this too about the kingdom of God. It is not a sharing of justice with iniquity, nor a society of light with darkness, nor a meeting of Christ with Belial. The kingdom of God cannot exist alongside the reign of sin.

Therefore, if we wish God to reign in us, in no way should sin reign in our mortal body; rather we should mortify our members which are upon the earth and bear fruit in the Spirit. There should be in us a kind of spiritual paradise where God may walk and be our sole ruler with his Christ. In us the Lord will sit at the right hand of that spiritual power which we wish to receive. And he will sit there until all his enemies who are within us become his footstool, and every principality, power and virtue in us is cast out.

All this can happen in each one of us, and the last enemy, death, can be destroyed; then Christ will say in us: O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory? And so, what is corruptible in us must be clothed in holiness and incorruptibility; and what is mortal must be clothed, now that death has been conquered, in the Father’s immortality. Then God will reign in us, and we shall enjoy even now the blessings of rebirth and resurrection. 

The Counsels in Daily Life

This week, the evangelical counsels have been prominent in both our novitiate conferences and in the Gospel readings. The Wednesday Gospel, for example, is one in which the counsels really stood out to me even though they are hidden in the parable: the servants received an extravagant gift (one talent was about fifteen years' wages) that is unmerited (chastity), given to them in trust for another (poverty) to use according to the master's will (obedience).

In meditating on this, what came up was living these counsels in daily life. Not having taken public vows can seem to make living the counsels a lofty goal in the future; as a novice I am obliged to live the counsels now in a 'hidden' way, but my daily life (custody of the senses, material dependence on others, fulfilling my obligations and obeying superiors willingly) is that of religious life, of living the counsels in the ordinary actions of everyday life.

I also reflected on responsibility, that those faithful in small matters are to be entrusted with greater matters. In the human mind, responsibility is something to be earned, something given after trustworthiness has been proven. But what I had from this Gospel was a sense of divine pedagogy: we do not prove ourselves to God in order to earn gifts but rather he trains us for greater responsibilities through lesser ones. It is for our own sake, for our own growth that some things are withheld and others allowed, that growing pains occur before new doors are opened and we are given our food in the proper season.

Boston in the Fall

The picturesque portion of the season with full leaf color is mostly over here, but with the resurgence of  warm weather I thought to share some of my images of Autumn in the New England area.

Boston Common and Boston Public Garden

St. Edmund Campion Center and Walden Pond

Novice Life: Novitiate Movies

Our novitiate includes a great reduction in exposure to media, especially digital media, in order to preserve a spirit of silence and recollection in our daily rhythm of life. We do not listen to music, we do not use the internet without special permission, we do not watch television, and we watch few films outside of educational programming. The films we do watch are mostly for the value of spiritual edification: the lives of saints, documentaries, and rarely an action movie that includes moral dilemmas ;)

This weekend a couple of us decided to check out YouTube, which is a surprisingly good resource for feature-length films spanning a range from well-known to obscure.

I selected The Song of Bernadette, a classic and Oscar-winning film from 1943. It had been a long time since I had seen it and I wanted to share some of my insights that have been shaped by the history studies in novitiate, particularly relating to the post-enlightenment intellectual mind and European politics in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. 

The town officials of Lourdes, portrayed by Vincent Price et al., are depicted as maniacally bent on preventing the populace from following Bernadette Soubirous and believing that she experienced apparitions. In some scenes the scripting is a little on the nose, but even aside from that they seem to be presented as caricatures, so antagonistic that they become protagonists in harassing a young girl and her family to intimidate them into silence. Whether or not this was intended by the film's producers and based on the factual evidence I cannot say, but from what I have learned of European politics during the period it is actually quite accurate.

During the French Revolution and extending through the Napoleonic Era, the ideas of the Enlightenment became instituted in European politics, slowly at first and then almost universally. Government was seized by intellectuals hostile to the Christianity in general and to the Catholic Church in particular, which in their minds represented an obstacle to progress and social development. It began in France and then spread throughout Europe, with revolutions, coups d'etat, and appointments bringing to power totalitarian rulers who were determined to reconfigure society according to the Enlightenment model. Emperor Joseph II of Austria-Hungary was a pioneer in suppressing contemplative religious orders that "provided no tangible benefits to society." Napoleon became notorious for ignoring the concordat he had made with the Church; property was seized, religious orders were suppressed, Church appointments and administration were interfered with; he had participated in the abduction and imprisonment of Pope Pius VI as a commander in the Republican army in 1796, and as Emperor he kept Pope Pius VII prisoner in Rome.

The main impetus behind the French Republic's conquest had been to extend the government of the Enlightenment across Europe, and although the state itself failed, it proved largely successful in its goal. The Congress of Vienna (1814-15) introduced the Restoration period with the reinstitution of monarchies and the Church, but decades of French influence had deeply affected the continent. Within several years, most countries were experiencing upheaval again, this time from within. The mid 19th century witnessed bloody revolutions and overthrown monarchies all over Europe in the name of liberalism and progress in states of all sizes. 

The Church was tolerated because it was either impossible to seize control of it entirely or it provided an effective means to pacify the populace. Secular clergy were especially protected because of strong historical ties that existed between local dioceses and governments. Religious orders were targeted for suppression and eviction because central organization beyond the reach of civil government made them difficult to control. Those of apostolic life in education and nursing were tolerated to the extent they were needed; those of contemplative life were not tolerated at all. Some civil leaders were indifferent to the Church, but many were openly hostile because of Freemasonry or intellectual opposition and they gained a monopoly on civil power (cf. Mexican governments of the 20th century and Cristiada). 

So, rather than viewing the villains of The Song of Bernadette as caricatures, I think the portrayal of self-styled intellectuals laboring to disabuse the peasantry of superstitions by any means at their disposal is probably fairly accurate, whether it was intended or not.

We also recently watched another film I can recommend as excellent: the life of Saint Charbel (in Arabic with English subtitles). It is well-written, well-acted, and presents the biography of a hermit in a compelling way with little elaboration. I would rate it as a top quality film if not for the unfortunate flaw of terrible costume beards.

The Lanterian Charism: Personal Charism

I have previously written some brief and deficient descriptions of the Lanterian charism of the OMV (here and here) and it is something I am continuing to elaborate as I progress in my formation this year.

Last week we had nine men in discernment visit the seminary and, although it was a busy week, it gave me excellent opportunities to reflect on my own discernment when I was at that stage and make a then/now comparison. I was also deeply involved in several discernment visits last year, but I have a very different perspective now in novitiate from studying the charism of the founder and the congregation closely.

The charism of the founder, an idea put forth and elaborated in Vatican Council II conciliar and post-conciliar documents, is something we have begun to unpack slowly over the past month.

The essence of the Council's teaching is that the founder of each religious institute experienced a movement of the Spirit, a unique inspiration that educed a charism to serve the needs of the Church in a particular way according to the needs of their specific place and time. It is out of this personal charism of the founder that the charism of the institute springs, which is important because it explains why the Council's addresses to religious urged them to return to the "original inspiration and charism" of their founders in order to reform and renew their institutes; the charism of an institute is not precisely the same thing as the charism of a founder; some change over time and acquire new features, such as Jesuits spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart and Marians of the Immaculate Conception adopting the Divine Mercy apostolate, but in some instances religious had strayed far from the original purpose of their foundation.

In practical application, many religious took this invitation and used it as an occasion to reform their institute in conformity with their vision rather than their founder's, but it was meant to be an occasion to return to the heart of the way of life and apostolic works proper to each institute according to the founder's charism. In almost all instances, it led to heated debate if not outright strife over how the rule/constitutions should be interpreted and what life for each institute should look like in the 20th century.

The OMV are not an exception to this. There was not much debate in the 1960s; the congregation was vastly more stable and assured of its identity and orthodoxy than the majority of religious institutes, which is precisely why the tiny Italian community began attracting large numbers of American seminarians at a time when Archbishop Fulton Sheen said he could not recommend a single seminary in the United States to any young men discerning the priesthood. It was some of these Americans who read the writings of the founder and discovered that the Ignatian aspect of the congregation's charism was not being practiced the way he had intended. This began a slow process of renewal and rejuvenation that has been progressing slowly but steadily, and not without resistance and disagreement.

Anyway, that is all background information to what affects me most directly.

We have also been learning about the personal charism of individual religious; these are the means by which each individual is constituted in relation to a founder and a community. A religious vocation is recognized by a community when an individual expresses the same movement of the Spirit experienced by the founder, or rather a similar movement or an echo of the founder's call. This immediately grabbed my attention because it expresses and formulates my experience in a way that I have not previously framed it.

When I was learning about the Oblates and reading Venerable Bruno's writings, I could not express my experience that clearly, and yet I felt a strong attraction to the founder's spirituality; I sensed that these were passions and desires that I shared, and that I wanted to participate in his mission. I felt that his Spiritual Directory was a way of life I had already felt drawn toward and that his passion for the Spiritual Exercises and media apostolate was exciting to me also.

Learning about this was timed perfectly with the discernment visit, giving me an occasion to reflect on my experience and what made me feel so strongly about my OMV vocation. Four years ago, my identification with the founder's charism seemed to be one reason among many that gave me enough certainty to leave everything and move to Boston, but looking back I now appreciate its importance more fully and understand the interior movements that preceded and followed my first encounter with the founder's charism and those that have continued since.

Spiritual Thought: Sympathy/Antipathy

In my colloquies after meditation, there is often a thought that stays with me. Sometimes it is a clear message that came in prayer, sometimes it is a summary of what I experienced; a "spiritual thought" to take and carry through the day. Sometimes they seem transitory, but sometimes they recur and surface repeatedly during a period of days, weeks, or months.

One such thought concerns sympathy and antipathy in relationships. Here I do not mean sympathy in the sense of feeling sorry for someone but rather in the word's primitive sense of "feeling with" them, being "in synch" or "on the same wavelength," and antipathy as the opposite of this.

Every person has this experience: there are people we sense a connection with or identify with  strongly; wet find them easy to get along with and that they understand our thoughts and experiences with minimal explanation. There are other people who we do not feel this connection with; sometimes it seems they do not understand us with any amount of explanation and attempts to relate to them can be exasperating. We encounter both types in all situations of life: school, work, church, and even family.

I was struggling with this realization a couple of weeks ago and how it is manifested in religious community: the temptation to develop particular friendships or "cliques." I considered this and how it can be presented as a false charity: a convenient way to keep everyone happy by avoiding conflicts and uncomfortable situations, but leading to the far more sinister prospect of a fractured and dysfunctional community. (This is something Pope Francis has addressed several times, even very recently, and strongly cautioned against).

I took this to prayer and had a strong confirmation:
"I have given you the sympathetic for your edification, but the antipathetic for your perfection."

This gave me new terms for my reflection, and I further considered how both types of relationship are necessary: I have those sympathetic to me with whom I can relate more easily when I am tired and frustrated because I need the comfort of feeling understood and being encouraged; I have those antipathetic to me who stretch me and make me work hard to develop deep relationships. It is through the latter, not the former, that I am invited to grow in the perfection of charity.

Saint Augustine of Hippo on the Second Coming

Well, we are in the last two weeks of Ordinary Time, something that the Office of Readings today brought home to me with a discourse by Saint Augustine that focuses on preparation for the second coming of Christ. 

Some of my reflection (full text below):

What is more true than that they should not themselves expect mercy from the judge, who themselves were unwilling to show mercy. What is imputed to those placed on his left side? That they refused to show mercy. 

The only criterion ever given by Jesus for particular judgment is whether mercy was freely given, and it should therefore be the most desirable of attributes. Mercy cannot be understood without justice: we know what we deserve and fear to suffer those consequences. Thinking of them as separate, I want to prefer one over the other, but in the Divine Essence these are not separate: God is entirely Mercy, God is completely Justice, and they are therefore inseparable. 

Let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them.

It is a strange idea that we should be grateful for punishment, that this ought to increase our love for God. But justice is an attribute of our Creator and something built into our nature: to love justice is essentially human, and by overcoming fear we come to desire it even for our own offenses. It is a gift that allows us to grow through our faults, a demonstration of God's desire that we overcome obstacles in order to increase and purify our love; he gives us the remedy of mercy by the treatment of justice.

If you wish to receive mercy, be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you; give of your abundance. 

Here the Doctor makes it clear that he is referring to giving of material wealth, yet even those of us who lacking that have much to give in forgiveness. Everyone who receives God's forgiveness and mercy will receive it in abundance and therefore have much to give to others.

Second reading
From a discourse on the Psalms by Saint Augustine, bishop
Let us not resist the first coming, so that we may not dread the second

All the trees of the forest will exult before the face of the Lord, for he has come, he has come to judge the earth. He has come the first time, and he will come again. At his first coming, his own voice declared in the gospel: Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds. What does he mean by hereafter? Does he not mean that the Lord will come at a future time when all the nations of the earth will be striking their breasts in grief ? Previously he came through his preachers, and he filled the whole world. Let us not resist his first coming, so that we may not dread the second.

What then should the Christian do? He ought to use the world, not become its slave. And what does this mean? It means having, as though not having. So says the Apostle: My brethren, the appointed time is short: from now on let those who have wives live as though they had none; and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing; and those who buy as though they had no goods; and those who deal with this world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. But I wish you to be without anxiety. He who is without anxiety waits without fear until his Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear his coming? Brothers, do we not have to blush for shame? We love him, yet we fear his coming. Are we really certain that we love him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them. He will come whether we wish it or not. Do not think that because he is not coming just now, he will not come at all. He will come, you know not when; and provided he finds you prepared, your ignorance of the time of his coming will not be held against you.

All the trees of the forest will exult. He has come the first time, and he will come again to judge the earth; he will find those rejoicing who believed in his first coming, for he has come.

He will judge the world with equity and the peoples in his truth. What are equity and truth? He will gather together with him for the judgment his chosen ones, but the others he will set apart; for he will place some on his right, others on his left. What is more equitable, what more true than that they should not themselves expect mercy from the judge, who themselves were unwilling to show mercy before the judge’s coming. Those, however, who were willing to show mercy will be judged with mercy. For it will be said to those placed on his right: Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world. And he reckons to their account their works of mercy: For I was hungry and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

What is imputed to those placed on his left side? That they refused to show mercy. And where will they go? Depart into the everlasting fire. The hearing of this condemnation will cause much wailing. But what has another psalm said? The just man will be held in everlasting remembrance; he will not fear the evil report. What is the evil report? Depart into the everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. Whoever rejoices to hear the good report will not fear the bad. This is equity, this is truth.

Or do you, because you are unjust, expect the judge not to be just? Or because you are a liar, will the truthful one not be true? Rather, if you wish to receive mercy, be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you; give of your abundance. Of whose possessions do you give, if not from his? If you were to give of your own, it would be largess; but since you give of his, it is restitution. For what do you have, that you have not received? These are the sacrifices most pleasing to God: mercy, humility, praise, peace, charity. Such as these, then, let us bring and, free from fear, we shall await the coming of the judge who will judge the world in equity and the peoples in his truth.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa on Prayer and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the foundation of Christian prayer, yet often seems like an obligation or afterthought to the time I want Jesus to spend fixing my problems. Awareness of its importance is one reminder not to skimp on gratitude in prayer, and so I have been looking at teachings on it over the course of the last several weeks.

This excerpt is from Saint Gregory's teaching on the Lord's Prayer and is a very circumspect reflection on how objective inspection of life yields more than enough reasons for gratitude to God.



In return for all that we have received, we have but one gift to exchange with the Benefactor – prayer and thanksgiving.

I can envision the possibility that we could extend our conversation with God in thanksgiving and prayer for the whole duration of life.

Nevertheless, we would still fall so short in adequate exchanged value, as if we had never even begun to think about a return gift to the Benefactor.

For example, the Lord’s generosity is received in all dimensions of time measured in three parts the past, the present, and the future.

If you think of the present, it is in Him that you live. If the future, it is He who is the hope of your expectations. If the past, you did not even exist before you were created by Him.

You benefited by receiving your very existence from Him. Once born, you benefited by living and moving in Him (Acts 17:28), as the Apostle says.

Your future hopes are dependent on the same divine energy… for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ʻFor we are also His offspring.ʼ

Only the present is at your disposal, but even if you never cease giving thanks to God, you will barely render satisfaction for the gift of the present.

Neither for the future, nor for the past, can you conceive some way to give back sufficient thanks to God for all the things you owe Him.

Yet we are so lacking in thanksgiving that we do not show gratitude even in what is possible:

[...]  Who has laid out the earth beneath my feet? Who has given me reason to make the seas passable? Who has established heaven for my sake? Who lights up the sun before my eyes? Who “makes springs gush forth in valleys” (Ps 104:10)?

[...] Who has made me, lifeless dust that I am, to share in both life and reason? Who has formed this clay according to the image of the divine seal? Who has restored again in me that ancient beauty of the divine image which had been darkened by sin?

Having been exiled from paradise and deprived of the tree of life, who draws me back to the original bliss from being engulfed in the pit of material life? Scripture says, “There is no one who has understanding” (Rom 3:11).

If we contemplated these things, we would offer endless thanksgiving without ceasing throughout our entire life. But now nearly all human beings are quick to pursue only material things.

[...]  But no word whatever is said about God’s true blessings, whether those visible or those promised.

Gregory of Nyssa (c 335 – after 394): First Homily on The Lord’s Prayer.

Spiritual Thought: "Skandala"

After my daily meditation, there is often a thought that stays with me. Sometimes it is a clear message that came in prayer, sometimes it is a summary of what I experienced; a "spiritual thought" to take and carry through the day. Sometimes these are themes that surface repeatedly during a period of days, weeks, or months.

One of those recurring has been about skandala (obstacles) in the spiritual life. "My sins and faults are obstacles for me; they are not obstacles for God."

This is something worthwhile for meditation in moments of discouragement and failure; simply calling this to mind can allow me to access God's mercy and be reminded that humanity is an instrument not an obstacle for God.

Consider that temptations, faults, and sins are allowed by God as occasions of humility to remind me of my constant need for him and allow me to grow in my desire for him. This becomes an opportunity to enter into deeper prayer and be reminded that God is infinitely greater than my sins and limitations.

Saint Aphrahat the Persian on Love

This week I discovered the writings of a rather obscure saint- Saint Aphrahat the Persian.
His sermon really grabbed my attention because charity was a big theme in my prayer last week and the line If [Jesus] commanded us to love our enemies and to pray for those who hate us, what shall be our excuse to Him in the day of judgment, who have hated our brothers and our own members? stayed with me after reading.

I had the opportunity to work at a soup kitchen with the other novices on Saturday morning and while peeling turnips I was thinking about love of neighbor, specifically the remote versus the proximate neighbor. I noted that while it is easier to serve others in charity in the place, time, and manner of my choosing, this exercise is foundational for learning to do so in other contexts as well and that it trains the heart to respond in charity when it is not convenient.

Saint Ephrem, Saint Isaac the Syrian, Saint Aphrahat

Love is more excellent than anything else, and by it the righteous ones of the old times were perfected.

Scripture shows concerning Moses that he gave himself in behalf of the sons of his people, and he wished that he might be blotted out of the book of life if only the people might not be blotted out.

And also when they rose up against him to stone him, he offered up prayer before God in their behalf that they might be saved.

And David also showed an example of love when he was persecuted by Saul, and a trap was continually set for his life so that they might kill him.

David by love was generously performing acts of mercies in behalf of Saul his enemy, who was seeking his life.

Saul was twice delivered into the hands of David, and he did not kill him and repaid good in place of evil. Because of this good did not depart from his house, and he who forsook him was forsaken.

And Saul who repaid evil in place of good, evil did not depart from his house, and He called to God and He did not answer him, and he fell by the sword of the Philistines, and David wept over him bitterly.

And David fulfilled beforehand the precept of our Saviour, who said: “Love your enemies,” and “forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you.” Thus David loved and was loved, and forgave and it was forgiven unto him.

And Elisha also showed love in respect to this, when his enemies came against him to take him so that they might do evil to him, and he, doing good to them, set forth bread and water before them and sent them away from him in peace.

Elisha fulfilled the word which is written: “If thine enemy is hungry feed him, and if he thirsts give him to drink.”

And also Jeremiah the prophet in behalf of those who made him a captive in a pit and were continually putting him to torture, but he also prayed ardently for them before God.

By this example of those who went before our Saviour taught us that we should love our enemies and pray for those who hate us.

And if He commanded us to love our enemies and to pray for those who hate us, what shall be our excuse to Him in the day of judgment, who have hated our brothers and our own members?

Because we are of the Body of Christ and members of His members. For he who hates one of the members of Christ will be separated from the whole body, and he who hates his brother will be separated from the sons of God.

Aphrahat the Persian (c.270-c.345): Demonstrations, 2 – On Love (17; 18).

B.Phil.

In addition to birthday surprises planned by family and friends, my diploma arrived in the mail on Saturday! My ability to philosophize is now officially validated.

Fun fact: Saint John's is the only seminary and one of only five institutions in the United States that award a bachelor of philosophy degree. 

Birthday Surprise

I had an unexpected birthday treat this weekend: my family surprised me with a delivery of delicious Armenian food on Friday! 

It was a really good idea for a surprise; I was not at home when it was delivered, so these two bags of food with my name on them appeared in the refrigerator and I spent two entire days trying to figure out where it came from and who in Boston knew to get me muhammura and leblebi. 

So I have a wonderful birthday dinner tonight with plenty to share. Thank you!