Pray, Pray Always

 "On this earthly pilgrimage—which for many has become a lonely road--we must walk in faith, keeping in our hearts the love of God above all things.

If you don’t know the faith, learn it. If you have forgotten it, find someone who knows it...get out the Bible and read, study and inwardly digest it.

Don’t be caught up in endless pointless polemics about who is more catholic (or proper or spiritual or devoted or more right) than whom. It’s the grand strategy of the devil to pit us against each other. He can do that easily if we don’t know what we’re doing, where we’re going, or why we claim the name Christian.

"We are hearing about and experiencing censorship in one manner or another these days -- Remember- No-one or Nothing can censor our prayers except our own sins. Pray, Pray always." - NHA (Remnant)

Where is Peace Found?

Matthew 4:1-11 

Keep your eyes on the Heart that refused to turn stones into bread, jump from great heights, and rule with great power. 

Who allows His Heart to be touched by the poor, the maimed, the halt and blind.  A Heart that becomes poor with the poor, rejected with the rejected and abandoned with the abandoned. 

"Where is peace found? - it is there in those places of the heart we feel broken, insecure, in agony, most afraid..   

Why there?  

Because in our weakness our familiar ways of: controlling and manipulating are being stripped away, where we no longer fix, force or find! --  Right there where we are most vulnerable, The Peace That is Not of This World is mysteriously hidden - "Peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your HEARTS and mind through Christ Jesus." - Phil. 4-8. 

You see, I am convinced that everything which happens to us is the instrument by which He Himself draws us into His wounded Heart through our own human condition.  It is He who first suffers the pain we suffer -this is love!  Only in the awesome environment of such Truth can we hear Christ speak to us Heart to heart. 

My Elder, Fr. McNulty, shares a  conversation between himself and Christ - Jesus speaking to him:

"You and I are one. You must not look anywhere else for the meaning of your pain or darkness, no matter what the sin or the consequences of it.  Come into my Heart through yours and I will show you everything.  All I need is a heart pierced by its own human condition just like Mine has been pierced, a heart that has no place else to go but to My Heart. I will do the rest."

Only God can say and do things like that.  This is not psychology, or mere spirituality, but Grace formed by revelation, not meant to be learned theoretically, but personally experienced and assimilated." -Seraphim+ NHA

 

Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness

4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Crossroads

I don't know about you, but for me, these days, driving has become one of the must frustrating situations in which I find myself.  87% of those driving are either talking on the phone or texting, and then there are those who are talking on phone while sipping a soda and eating fries - total distratction, much like the way they approach their spiritual life.  They realize they are distracted when they veer off the road or are in the path of an approaching car - just like they only realize they need God when they find themselves in trouble.  We are all guilty of distractions.

Today, it was as exasperating as ever driving down I-65, when we caught glimpse of a decent driver of a big rig.  As we pulled up behind him we noticed the illustration on his truck:

Joshua 24:15 King James Version (KJV) . 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

There is so much to see in this illustration as it also points to repentance - if you end up on the path of sin you can turn around and at the Cross Roads and choose Jesus. 

"This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls" -Jeremiah 6:16.  Unfortunately, that verse continues with. "But you said, 'We will not walk in it.' "   The Way of the Cross is not easy and is laden with suffering, nevertheless, we are never alone - we are in this together as Jesus guides us as we take the 'good way' for there we shall find rest. 

Reparation for Crimes and Blasphames against Our Lord

God our Father, in reparation for crimes and blasphemes committed against Your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, I offer you His Holy Face, His HolyName and His Most Sacred Heart.

"To be one who makes repairs is to give our Lord what others deny him. Just recently I was told of a television show that featured various people urinat- ing on the Crucifix of our Lord. Upon hearing this I immediately went to the prayer chapel and placed eleven crucifixes on the altar, lit a candle that I intend to keep burning for 40 days and then offered incense in a deep spirit of reparation. Our Lord said “I thirst” (Jn.19:28). This thirst continues un- quenched because it is a thirst for souls, faith, hope, love, thanksgiving, petition and adoration. Our Lord’s thirst will continue until the end of time but so will the call to reparation continue among and in his people." -s

“Let the priest, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar” - Joel 2:17; Ezek. 22:30

"Christianity is a middle eastern religion, in intimate familial relationship with Judaism. Reparation is needed if we are other than. Reparation is a returning. The sights and sounds of this returning should be mystical, Semitic and ancient, hovering in an incense shrouded air. The climate of this Reparation Returning is one of changelessness (Heb.13:8; Ex. 3:14; 2Cor.1:19-20; Jude 25). Western rites are sanitized versions of this mysterious drama. In this Returning, time vanishes and with bare feet* we approach the eerie secrets of an antiquity of which we are repaired. Here we have the impression of being sourced from Christian civilzation. This is an interior state externalized in observable rite of reparative prayer. At this point the Theologian takes over from the anthropologist and the Practitioner from the theologian." -s

“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise (16) Redeeming (Repairing) the time, because the days are evil. (17) Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” -Eph. 5:15-17

“The Rosary is, for me, making the past better so the present and future are better than they would have been.” -Seraphim

*Ex. 3:5

Showering of Prayer

There are many Holy Places to pray here at the skete, especially the Church, the chapels, the Prayer Wall and the Cave.  However, I always find myself able to pray with clarity in the shower.

There is something about standing there, water pouring on you, as the steam is rising towards the light... 

Water - purifying, Lev. 15:13

Steam - prayer rising, Mal.1:11

light - The Light, John 14:6

I remember Seraphim's story about his time when he was teaching in Scotland.  He was at the Servite Fathers and there was a crowd of Students.  And they loved his talk and gathered around him.  Afterwards he begin to feel quite good about himself and the reception and his talk.  That night he went to take his shower before bed.  At the Servites, there was no hot water.  And as he showered in the cold water he thought, "all we really are is who we are cold, naked, standing before God."   We can pretend and puff up, but our reality is who we are in a cold shower. 

Today's Feast (January 25): Conversion of Paul, Apostle

Before his conversion, Paul had been a leading persecutor of Christians. While journeying to Damascus to persecute more Christians, Paul had his conversion. He saw a great light and heard a voice say,"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" Paul responded, "Who art thou, Lord? Jesus responded, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." Paul's conversion resulted in witnessing the resurrected Christ to others, and was thus one of belief rather than of conscience. May we, too, know the truth of the risen Christ, and spend ourselves following the holy doctrine which Paul taught, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

On the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, it is our custom at Nazareth House Apostolate to drive 1 hour 14 minutes just so we could pray on a street named "Straight Street."

This street is toward the south of us and in a subdivision.  So we stay in the car and pray the 6th Decade of the Remnant Rosary - The Name.  Then we return home. 

The LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

"The ideal in prayer is to simplify it to the point where you no longer need a subject to pray about. 

     >"Father, in the Name of Jesus, give me your Spirit" - Jn. 16:23-25

       "in the Name of the Lord Jesus" Col. 3:17.  

You sense that these words of Paul could unify your life in continual prayer. This is the reason why you should rediscover this basic traditional attitude of the middle East, as Christianity was and is a middle Eastern religion. 

When you stay on the surface of the world, you are torn apart by departures and quarrels. All this belongs to the deceptive aspect of the surface.  Leave the surface and cross the visible outward areas to be with people from within.  The deeper you go into God, the less you are conscious of the distance travelled. 

Progress in prayer means a steady impoverishment.  In other areas, progress means adding a new friend, etc. whereas in prayer everything is gradually reduced to a single insight or a few word(s) or Name endlessly repeated. 

It's a wonder, a privilege to call God Father and to use that 'little' word "our" to embrace all of God's Children.  From wherever we pray, we reach up to the throne of heaven and reach out to believers in "every tribe and language and people and nations" (Rev. 5:9).  God sees, God hears, God knows, God comes, God delivers" - Ex. 3:7-8.  

This is the 'work', joy, hope and wonderment of Nazareth House Apostolate and the World Prayer Corp, i.e. to Pray the Lord's Prayer." - Seraphim 

Shared Blinks

I read yesterday, a quote from Saint John Paul II: 

"My greatest desire in life is to be in 

constant eyelash-to-eyelash 

relationship with God."  

I found the quote to be a beautiful description of the depth and longing of closeness with The Almighty.  

When you consider the use of 'eyelashes' in the quote; "*The key is hidden inside the word “reconciliation.” Many words contain what are called dead metaphors—“dead” because their metaphorical meaning has become lost to us as language has changed. So, for example, when we say someone has scruples, we mean they have a sensitive conscience; but, in Latin, a scrupulum is a small pebble, so when someone has scruples, it’s like they have a rock in their shoe, niggling them. It’s easy to recognize the similarity in the two situations.

Another metaphor lies within the word “reconciliation.” The Latin word for eyelash is cilia. If you were so close to someone as to have your eyelashes with theirs (“with” being cum or con-  in Latin), you’d be con–cilia. And if you were once that close, but had drifted apart and then returned again (“again” being re- in Latin), you would be re-con-cilia—you would be reconciled.

This one word, with its hidden metaphor, succinctly summarizes salvation history. In the beginning, human beings shared a great closeness with God. In their innocence, Adam and Eve stood uncovered before God, not needing to hide anything. God walked with them in the garden in the cool of evening, like you might do with an old friend after a big dinner.

But we separated ourselves from God by our pride; we withdrew from that closeness, that intimacy, by wanting to change the nature of the relationship, by trying to be equal to God. Instead of being gentle infants held in our Father’s arms, cheek to cheek, we were headstrong toddlers who pushed and wiggled and squirmed out. And when we realized what we did, we hid, we covered ourselves, and we couldn’t look God in the face anymore.

But God loved us and wanted us back. God wanted us to be able to look Him in the eye again. So He came among us as one of us, like to us in all things but sin—he had arms and legs, hands and feet, a heart and a mind… and eyelashes. 

Icon: Our Lady of Tenderness, Anna House (St. Simeon Skete)

Jesus came to sinners, to the afflicted, to the poor, and stood eye to eye with them and said: “Your sins are forgiven you.” And by His Cross, as man he stood eyelash to eyelash with God on our behalf and said, “Father, forgive them,” and as God could respond, “It is accomplished.” Thus God “reconciled the world to Himself,” as the prayer of absolution says." -Nicholas Senz

*-Nicholas Senz

And so this is Advent

Today begins the preparatory Season of Advent.

Advent wreath at table in Holy Trinity Kellia, St. Simeon Skete

The Gospel for 1st Sunday of Advent
St. Matthew xxi. 1.

WHEN they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name 'of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 

Jesus tells His disciples to go into the city  AND He tells them to find a tethered colt that no one had ridden.   
Think about that image:  "a tethered colt which no one has ridden..."

Young mule of Denny & JoanE Markwell,  members of St. Simeon Skete

Of course the people are waiting for a dominative, powerful, substantive image - a King, A Ruler who is going to change everything from the outside (the surface).  

But Jesus says "I'm not going to come in on a horse, in triumph but ...as Zechariah 9:9 prophesied... I'm coming in on a donkey to redefine what power is, worth is, strength is, trust is...

This colt/donkey, THIS powerless image is a tethered colt, its been tied up in all of history.  No one's ever wanted to use it, no one's ridden this kind before but Jesus is going to ride it into the city to show the world a different way, a new way, the way of trust, the way of vulnerability, the way of powerlessness.  


When your generosity has been tied up, loosen it and when greed rises up and asks "what are you doing?", say, "The Lord has need of it"  When your humility is tied up, loosen it and when pride questions you, say "The Lord has need of it."  When your forgiveness is tied up, untie it and when mercilessness asks you "why?,  say "The Lord has need of it." 
As Jesus rides into the city in this "different way" the people wonder "Who is this?"  "What is this new way?"  Jesus upsets the system and says: "its prayer". 

Jeremy Lopez, in prayer before his Confirmation.  Nazareth House Apostolate, Athens, Georgia

Of all the battles that God has with human consciousness, the battle to get rid of those things (furniture) that keep us from making our souls a house of prayer must be God's most difficult battle.   Culture wants to rearrange the "furniture" by dominative power - the ability to influence others through coercion, hiring and firing, punishing, threatening, lawsuits, money, position.  This will rearrange the "furniture" and most will respond to it.  But at best, this is all we can do: re-arrange the "furniture".   But Jesus doesn't re-arrange the furniture, He pitches it - throws it out - opting for a House of Prayer!  Anything in your life that is keeping you from prayer needs to be pitched! 
As the Holiday Season approaches many will be re-arranging their living rooms to prepare for Holiday guests or give a new look but only PRAYER can change the living room into a LIVING room.  

Personal milagro of Seraphim, housed where he hangs his prayer beads

Advent Collect

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen. 

Pilgrimage

Seeing the divisiveness of the world today, especially in America, a young reporter sought out a Desert monk to receive wisdom on how religion could "fix things".   The reporter tried to be clever and was hoping to get a story that might either generate disagreement or a positive response in order to better the ratings.  However, when asked the question on how to reclaim unity,  and bring people back to God, the monk just answered "Pilgrimage" and turned and walked away.  The Reporter was speechless and stood there, trying to figure out what to do next.

We understand the monk completely. At the Nazareth House Apostolate,  we have always sought to make pilgrimage.

 Throughout history people have made pilgrimages to Holy Places.

Pilgrimage is both a journey and a sacred destination.  Its a conscious effort to journey afar either in search of meaning or as an act of praise, prayer and worship.

"The evolution of modern transportation systems and requirements to fit into work schedules have changed pilgrimage.  Few today would entertain a year -round trip from the UK to the Holy Land, which was the norm in the middle ages - along with all the hardships."  - Dr. Justine Digance of Griffith University of Australia.  In America, even fewer make pilgrimages.

When the monk replied "Pilgrimage"; what he was saying is that if more people began to come apart from the daily bombardment of the media, the political scene and the economy that seek to divide us with the industrialization of horror and doubt and if we instead searched out holy places we would begin to disconnect to connect.  And the connection is a re-connecting to God.  The journey done right makes the arriving rewarding.

The definition of a Pilgrim is a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.

As you've heard us say so many times here at NHA, it is the walking the path we pray and praying the path we walk.

A pilgrimage is a spiritual journey with a sacred purpose.  It's much more than jumping into the car to go look at Religious Statues.  Its an act of prayer, each step brings us to an intersection of integrating the past, present and future.  Progress is determined by the rest and action.  In our steps, the progress, moving forward is determined by the stability of the rest as found in the foot that holds the weight of the body and the foot that moves forward.  Here we learn to be at home with the ground at our feet.

What do we do on pilgrimage?

"And what I say unto you, I say unto all: Watch." Mk. 13:37

Let us create space dedicated to God in our lives, departing from the ways of the world.  

Pilgrimage

Seeing the divisiveness of the world today, especially in America, a young reporter sought out a Desert monk to receive wisdom on how religion could "fix things".   The reporter tried to be clever and was hoping to get a story that might either generate disagreement or a positive response in order to better the ratings.  However, when asked the question on how to reclaim unity,  and bring people back to God, the monk just answered "Pilgrimage" and turned and walked away.  The Reporter was speechless and stood there, trying to figure out what to do next.

We understand the monk completely. At Nazareth House Apostolate,  we have always sought to make pilgrimage.

 Throughout history people have made pilgrimages to Holy Places.

Pilgrimage is both a journey and a sacred destination.  Its a conscious effort to journey afar either in search of meaning or as an act of praise, prayer and worship.

"The evolution of modern transportation systems and requirements to fit into work schedules have changed pilgrimage.  Few today would entertain a year -round trip from the UK to the Holy Land, which was the norm in the middle ages - along with all the hardships."  - Dr. Justine Digance of Griffith University of Australia.  In America, even fewer make pilgrimages.

When the monk replied "Pilgrimage"; what he was saying is that if more people began to come apart from the daily bombardment of the media, the political scene and the economy that seek to divide us with horror and doubt and if we instead searched out holy places we would begin to disconnect to connect.  And the connection is a re-connecting to God.  The journey done right makes the arriving rewarding.

The definition of a Pilgrim is a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.

As you've heard us say so many times here at NHA, it is the walking the path we pray and praying the path we walk.

A pilgrimage is a spiritual journey with a sacred purpose.  It's much more than jumping into the car to go look at Religious Statues.  Its an act of prayer, each step brings us to an intersection of integrating the past, present and future.  Progress is determined by the rest and action.  In our steps, the progress, moving forward is determined by the stability of the rest as found in the foot that holds the weight of the body and the foot that moves forward.  Here we learn to be at home at the ground of our feet.

What do we do on pilgrimage?

"And what I say unto you, I say unto all: Watch." Mk. 13:37