"Elizaveta Iurievna Kuzmina-Karavaeva Skobtsova, later known as Mother Maria, was a Russian Orthodox religious thinker, poet and artist. Her multi-faceted legacy includes articles, poems, art, and drama. In the 1910s she was part of the literary milieu of St. Petersburg and was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. She fled Russia soon after the Bolsheviks' takeover and lived in Paris, where she became a nun. In 1935, she participated in organizing the so-called Orthodox Action, which was designed to help Russian immigrants in France. She and her fellow-workers from Orthodox Action opened a house for homeless and sick immigrants in Paris. During the Nazi occupation of the city, the house was transformed into a refuge for Jews and displaced persons. Mother Maria and her son were arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and died in the Ravensbruck camp in Germany. Mother Maria's selfless devotion to people and her death as a martyr will never be forgotten. In 2004, the Holy Synod confirmed the glorification of Mother Maria." - from Columbia University Libraries Special Collection link
What then are its Boundaries
"If ... this sacrificial and self-giving love stands at the center of the Church's life, what then are its boundaries, its limits? In this sense one can speak of the whole of Christianity as of an eternal offering of a Divine Liturgy beyond church walls. It means that we must offer the bloodless sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-offering love not only in a specific place, on the one altar of only one temple but that the whole world, in this sense, becomes the one altar of the one Temple - and that we must offer our hearts under the species of bread and wine, so that they may be transformed into Christ's love, that he may abide in them, that they may become hearts of Godmanhood, and that he would give these hearts of ours as food for the world, that he would commune the whole world with these sacrificed hearts of ours, in order that we would be one with him, that we not live but Christ would live in us, incarnate in our flesh ... " - Mother Maria of Ravensbruk
It is clear from the words here that this is a central theme and or a core value of Mother Maria. If our saint would have written up her own strategic plan, best practices, or even job description this statement would have been echoed all through out.
It is not that it is original. She surely takes this from the themes of Jesus on caring for the "other" and the self-emptying lowliness of the lovers of God. But, what is so substantial in this statement of hers is that she embodies it in her life and with her words, feelings and thoughts. When any of us as individuals begins to wrestle with this notion that we are to be eucharist for the world, as He is Eucharist for the world, then we are on the royal road or the right path.
When we can say: "I must be broken for the life of the world", then we have entered the kingdom. When we realize that the prize of attaining the kingdom is the marks of the wounds of Jesus, then we get it.
The Temple is everywhere because it is within. The altar is everywhere because it is within. "Lift up your hearts.... Let us give thanks to the LORD our God...." Empty yourself of yourself so that you may be filled with the FULLNESS of Jesus - be broken and poured out.
How will you serve today?
Ciao!
+Tom
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