Metropolitan Anthony Bloom on Mother Maria

Here is a quote from Metropolitan Anthony on Mother Maria of Paris.  It is taken from the preface to Pearl of Great Price.


Infinite pity and compassion possessed her; there was no suffering to which she was a stranger; there were no difficulties which could cause her to turn aside. She could not tolerate hypocrisy, cruelty or injustice. The Spirit of Truth which dwelt in her led her to criticize sharply all that is deficient, all that is dead in Christianity and, particularly, in what she mistakenly conceived to be classical monasticism. Mistakenly, for what she was attacking was an empty shell, a petrified form. At the same time, with the perception of a seer, she saw the hidden, glorious content of the monastic life in the fulfillment of the gospel, in the realization of divine love, a love which has room to be active and creative in and through people who have turned away from all things and – above all – from themselves in order to live God’s life and to be his presence among men, his compassion, his love. ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’: this she understood, this she lived for. This is also what she died for.

Mother Maria is a saint of our day and for our day: a woman of flesh and blood possessed by the love of God, who stood fearlessly face to face with the problems of this century.

ANTHONY
Metropolitan of Sourozh


Peace,


Tom +

What Happened in Rutba

There is a monastic house in the south - Rutba House.  It is named after a town in Iraq where some missionaries were cared for by Iraqi doctors.  During the hostilities of war, this hospital made a vow to care for anyone who needed care.  It did not matter what side they were on.  This amazing story of compassion reminds us of the harrowing words Jesus shares in the story of the Good Samaritan.

This group is a part of the new monasticism and is worth your time to follow their community.  Rutba House

Follow this link for the story: http://www.rustyparts.com/wp/2003/10/31/rutba-house/

Life affirming stories are often so lost in today's media blitz.  This story of grace has blossomed into a community of hope.

Peace,

Tom +

Saint Anthony - father of monasticism

One Beggar Sharing Where He Found Food

Today as we begin the Lenten Journey (in the West) may we recognize the call to action.  A call that reminds us we are all beginning in the same place.  Our acts of mercy and compassion are not done because we are better than those we serve, our acts of service are nothing more than "beggars sharing where they found food with the other beggars."  This call is a call that comes to us from Christ's reminder to see Him in the "least of these" - those the world has chosen to ignore.  For, this is who we are - we are the ignored of the world.  We are the forgotten ones.  Forgotten, because the life of God's beggars is rubbish to the world.  To us, it is what makes us alive.  One beggar sharing where he found food - that is all. O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust of power, and idle talk; But grant rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.

prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian - 4th century See also the tale of the Beggar King - a wonderful parable from Jewish folk-lore.  An apt reminder that our heart holds the key to how we see the world.  it is a wonderful tale quite parallel to our journey through Lent - our journey toward humility. Beggar King Blind Beggar Peace, Tom +

Pure Determination

When we look at the lives of saints we often wonder how they can accomplish so much.  Look at Thomas Merton, Mother Theresa, Mother Maria of Ravensbruk, Catherine De Hueck Doherty, Dorothy Day - all of them were consummate achievers for the kingdom.  We ask ourselves how they did it.  They did it one small act at a time.  They did it one small act at a time repeated daily, consistently over time.  If you wrote a page every day for 365 days that is 365 pages.  That is a lot, but it is not a lot on the daily scene.  If you took one box of food to the poor a week, that would be 52 boxes of food in a year.  If you prayed and meditated for 10 - 20 minutes a day that would amass a monumental practice.

The key is to pick one thing and do it repeatedly.  Commit to getting that one thing done and it will grow.  Many of us look at the act of choosing itself and get overwhelmed and so we never choose.  Thus we never practice.  Find your act of mercy, charity or spiritual discipline and make a little bit of time every day.  Small things for God - over time - make huge differences.

Peace,

Tom +

Jesus and the Pearl

Today, a simple rest from reading and thinking.  Grab an icon, a chair, a candle and your laptop.  Just listen to the Orthodox Chants I threw on this widget.  Let peace, stillness and love enter your every pore...from our Beloved Jesus...to you.  Blessed listening.  Why not imagine Jesus sitting with you and Him reaching into His Divine heart and bringing forth a pearl of Great Price.  Then Him placing it in your heart.  Receive the Kingdom.  As one who is in love with caring for the poor and disenfranchised, then, share this pearl from your heart - in your visualization - with all the poor, suffering, and alone you can imagine.

Peace,

Tom +

Check out the Pearl of Great Price at Art by Alex

What If for Lent We Fasted From Selfishness

What if for Lent this year we saved one can of food each day.  And each week we took the bag to a shelter, a pantry, or dropped it off (anonymously) at the house of a person in need.  What if for Lent this year we baked fresh bread and took it to a nursing home or assisted living and shared it - with some butter and jam - with the residents, and sat with them for a bit.  What if for Lent we purchased a pair of socks, or some shirts each day and took them to a children's home and gave them to the staff to distribute.

What if this year during Lent we fasted from selfishness, jealous, and greed.  What if we gave up ignorance, sloth, and sin.  What if we longed for the greatest gift of all - the Holy Presence - and then we shared that with someone who is alone.

What if this year we really found Jesus.

On Fasting, by S. John Chrysostom - A GREAT READ!

Peace,

Tom +

Simple, Ordinary Kindness

Today is the reading of the Judgement in the Orthodox cycle.  The passage from Saint Matthew's Gospel telling us that those who feed Christ in the Poor are the ones who receive Eternal Reward.  Those who do not feed Christ in the Poor are sent off into damnation.

At some point we have to wrestle with our motives.  When we are new believers, it is expected that we will be in it for the reward.  But, having been believers for a while, we should start to do these things because we are asked.  And, ultimately because we recognize that they are the right things to do.

Along with this maturation we also develop a deeper understanding of the mundane.  We may be called to great and heroic deeds on occasion, but most of the time we are called to do each little thing we do with love.  Small, simple and ordinary things done with kindness bespeak a regularity and a steadiness in our compassion.  They reveal that our compassion is truly a part of our hearts.

Peace,

Tom +

Icon of Sweet Kissing

Encounter, Engagement, and Transformation

There tends to be polarization in people's minds concerning worship and suffering.  People see worship as one thing and our ability to deal with suffering as a completely separate thing.

I believe that worship is really all about encounter, engagement, and transformation.  Regardless of the liturgical nature of the worship (high church, low church, or free church worship) it is all about encountering the ONE, engaging with the ONE, and being transformed by the ONE.

Worshiping without turning away from the altar and walking out into the world and relieving suffering (by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned) is purely selfish.  The whole experience of worship is about setting things right and communing.

We set things right by approaching the Divine and we commune with the Divine via the very aspects of the worship (song, word, sacrament, silence).  This is a coming together and a vivifying of life: man and God.

To walk away from this encounter and not desire to be an embodier of this same process for the life of the world is to disengage from the process of encounter, engagement, and transformation itself.  If we meet God and are transformed, how can we not go out into all the world and be agents of that transformation for the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned and alone.

Encounter with the HOLY always supposes that it changes the individual.  This change is an agent of change itself.  It is to provoke us into changing the world.  Evangelism is nothing more that encountering, engaging, and being transformed by the HOLY and turning around and enabling others to encounter, engage, and be transformed.

Does not our encounter with ABBA remove our suffering, help us redeem (by suffering with us -"com-passion" - or for us, i.e, the Incarnation) our suffering, or in someway relieve (lessen even if by granting understanding of our suffering) our suffering?  How do we enable encounter without also removing or redeeming (by suffering with or for) or relieving (lessening even if by granting understanding) others' suffering?

We cannot.  Worship without visiting the sick and the suffering is hollow.  Encounter with the ONE without encountering the suffering neighbor is no encounter at all.

Is there a belief that we can remove all the suffering?  I do not believe so.  This, however, is not a reason to not remove, redeem, and relieve suffering or be about the tasks of doing so.  At the very least, if we cannot remove, or redeem suffering, we should look to relieve it.

Again, the Incarnation becomes the rule.  He came to live with us.  We are to live with others.

There is no spiritual journey for the individual alone.  It is always a spiritual journey for all mankind.  As in the teachings of the Buddha, no one Buddha is ever "saved" until all beings are "saved".

On one hand we encounter, engage, and become transformed with God.  On the other we encounter, engage, and become transformed with our neighbor.  It is one circular act; each fed by the other.

Ciao!

+Tom

The New Monasticism

When the dregs of depression over the state of the denominational churches takes hold of your hungry heart, have faith.  There is hope.  There is a whole new wave of spiritual life dawning for the Church Universal.  All over the nation, and the world, pockets of intentional communities are emerging and calling themselves a New Monasticism.

Combined with the crest of the Emergent Church, this New Monasticism is build on some simple basic rules of community.  They are:


1) Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire.
2) Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.
3) Hospitality to the stranger
4) Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities
combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.
5) Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church.
6) Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the
community along the lines of the old novitiate.
7) Nurturing common life among members of intentional community.
8) Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children.
9) Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life.
10) Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies.
11) Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18.
12) Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life.

WOW is this something, or what.

A community based on the sharing of things in common, prayer, poverty, intentional formation and contemplation - this sounds like the SECOND CHAPTER OF ACTS.  It is worth looking into.  Just google the words NEW MONASTICISM.

I am including a link to a publisher that is carrying some of the best mongraphs the movement has produced.  Check them out:  Wipf and Stock Publishers

Ciao!

+Tom