Empty Bowls, Smiles and Love

You know that gnawing rumble in your belly...



that wanting feeling you get when the bowl is empty and the food is all gone?  ...and you are still hungry?



...When everybody shared but nobody got filled because there simply wasn't enough food to go around - have you experience that?



Maybe you have experienced the real pains of hunger, ...maybe you haven't.



One thing is for sure: these children have - - day after day.



And though their bowls are empty,



their stomaches aching with hunger,



these children's hearts



and souls are filled to the brim



with love and laughter.






These children understand what many of us in the West do not, that even if they are going to be hungry tonight they've been given what they need by God to deal with being hungry tonight.  And so they are thankful in the midst of empty bowls.



Life is tough in Sierra Leone, especially in the villages.



Its hard to find the substance to exist,  but the people of Sierra Leone, especially these children ("Lest ye become like little children..."), they know how



to make life happen in the trauma of turmoil,



in the struggle of going without,




in the debilitation of disease.



These children squeeze every drop of life and use it to its fullest,



playfully licking the empty bowls they've been handed in life and finding and enjoying all that they have.

Within the Rule of St. Simeon Skete, The Thousand Day Nazareth, is The Five Faults of a Receptacle©.  "In praying The Thousand Day Nazareth,  we avoid the Five Faults of a receptacle.

1. If we don't listen to the teaching, we are like an overturned bowl, nothing can enter in. (Isa. 28:12; Mk 8:18)
2. If we don't put the teachings into practice, we are like a bowl with a hole in it, everything leaks out (James 1:22; 4:17)
3. If we are double minded, this is similar to using an unclean bowl, corrupting what it holds (James 1:8; Mt. 23:25)
4. If we are full of ourselves we are like a bowl - "Inn" - where there is no room for Him. (Lk 2:7; Rev. 3:20) 
5. If we are untrusting then what is placed in our bowl will never be enough (Lk. 2:25-32; Mt. 6:33). 

We go about receiving what is placed in our day (our bowl), good or bad, this then becomes our offering to God and God's nourishment to us." - S+

These children with their empty bowls understand this in a way that many of us in the West have failed to consider. 

On our prayer ropes at St. Simeon Skete we have little silver bowls, they are there for several reasons.  

One is to remind us to avoid the 5 Faults of a Receptacle.

One way to keep us from being too full of ourselves is to think of, have compassion upon and to give to others.  

Help NHA place some nourishment in a few bowls physically - give today to Nazareth House Apostolates Mission work in Sierra Leone.  

By day end, the Elections will be over in America, howbeit, it won't stop the dialing for dollars the politicians have overwhelmed our phones and mailboxes with especially the last few months.  They still have to raise enough to pay for all of their campaign expenses - win or lose.  It costs a lot to travel from State to State, eating at fine restaurants and staying in fine hotels.  And people will dig deep to help out their candidates.  The winners will be ecstatic, the losers somber and sad.  In all likelihood, neither will consider what's been placed in their bowls to be enough - they will want more.   

It is our hope that the hidden poor, quietly scraping their empty bowls in West African villages tonight will also be given the same consideration that as those who eagerly help their candidates retire the campaign debt, they will also consider the children and their silent campaign to stay alive.  

These children in Sierra Leone, bowls empty or filled, it doesn't matter - they send you their love and heartfelt smiles.  

Donations can be mailed to:

Nazareth House Apostolate

185 Captains Cove Drive

Taylorsville, KY 40071 USA 

or made via credit card through our Paypal Donation link on our website

www.nazarethhouseap.org 

The Seven Sleepers

October was such a busy month for Nazareth House Apostolate.  There were so many activities and projects that I am only now beginning to “catch up” on the blog to share with the excitement of it all.  

One of the most special times for me was on Monday, October 22.  On this day it is our custom to celebrate the Feast of the Seven Sleepers. 

The icon of “The Seven Sleepers” pictured above is a 19th century Russian icon and is enthroned at the Holy Trinity Kellia at St. Simeon Skete. 

This icon depicts the seven youths of Ephesus: Maximilian, Lamblicus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Constantine and Antoninus, who lived in the mid-third century. During the reign of Emperor Decius (249-251) and upon persecution, the youths fled from the city and hid in a cave on Mt. Ochlon, where they passed their time in prayer, preparing for martyrdom. Learning where the youths were hidden, the emperor ordered the cave to be sealed with stones so that the Saints would perish from hunger and thirst. 

The tale then transports us nearly two centuries to the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Younger (408-450), when all persecutions against Christians ceased… having fallen asleep, the youths awake to a Christian Empire, unaware that they had been sleeping for almost 200 years. 

The icon of “The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus” is used for the Redemptive Rosary to remind us that the Seven Redemptive Names of God lay waiting in the cave of our heart to be “awakened.” May God send His angel to roll the stone from the entrance of our heart that His Holy Name may come forth into our lives.

Seraphim's Redemptive Rosary, booklet & compass

On the morning of October 22nd, 2012 Seraphim made his way down to the cave in the woods at the Skete.  Some thirty years ago, Seraphim was making his way to a hermitage in Northern Michigan.  In that hermitage he began to pray and observe the Seven Redemptive Names relative to the Seven Sleepers. 

That was the beginning of the Redemptive Rosary and he has been observing this day yearly ever since. 

We have named it "the Cave of the Seven Sleepers".   

That morning Seraphim built an altar out of rocks and then poured oil over the altar.  

 In that space, Seraphim spent the day in prayer - contemplating the Seven Redemptive Names of God. 

Concerning The Seven Redemptive Names of God 

Prayer using the Divine Names is based on God’s revelation to man, not on the speculations of man’s intellect. The Names were made known to the Prophets after great spiritual battles, when their lives were totally turned toward God. Each Name contained a twofold energy: the sensation of the Living God and knowledge of Him. Thus the Prophet’s prayer was tirelessly directed toward God in hope of deepening this sensation and knowledge through the practice of invoking the Name. May our trust in the Name be as intensely real as the terrors which inspired the Prophets to call upon it. Perhaps most mysterious of all, the Name also invokes. Who knows, maybe it has in-voked us to this very place and time, to invoke the Name that invokes us. “Lazarus come forth. And he that was dead came forth.” (John 11:43-44). Our Re-deemer, Jesus, who said “IAM” (John 8:58; Ex.3:14; Heb. 13:8), is each of the seven Names personalized. “IAM” is the holiest sound in Christianity and the first sound of the cosmos. This Name is considered “the key to the other Names”. The Divine IAM is the all-comprehensive Name, since it brings together every other Name of God. Each of the other Names have their own characteristics which sets them apart from the others. Only IAM is truly the universal Name and when this “gate” (Gen. 28:17; Ps. 118:20) is reached, it opens to the personal Name Jesus. It is my sense that one must “go through” the Redemptive Names to get to Mt. Horeb, to the “IAM” in order to get to the Name Jesus who personifies all, incarnating them into a beginning-less beginning and an end-less end. 

After the 3:00 PM Office that afternoon, I hiked down to join Seraphim in the cave.  Together we said the Redemptive Rosary - “Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved” Rom. 10:13; Joel 2:23

Being in a cave, praying the Redemptive Rosary, pondering on the lives of the Seven Sleepers and praying the Seven Redemptive Names of God was a moment I won’t soon forget and one that I want to find myself in more often.  

I am hoping to commit to doing this at least once a week and I hope that my administrative schedule allows me to do so.   

  

NHA Family has increased by a village

Greetings from yet another new village that James has placed under the care of Nazareth House Apostolate.  

It is a good distance away from the NHA Compound in Kabala and very difficult to bring supplies by foot or motorbike.



 Nevertheless, James makes his way to the hidden villages



where those in the furtherest places out seek the minimal substance that will enable them to survive.



This is one of the many reasons we must provide a Vehicle for James.  James' entrance into their community is the first sign of hope to them.

Nazareth House has been begging for assistance in getting this transportation situation handled.



Its not easy raising the money when the economy is strained, politicians are doing their own fundraising and disasters require our attention.



However, its not easy for the people that James presents to us for help.  Its not easy on James, either.  He hikes into these villages, witnessing poverty at utmost extremes.... and he knows it depends entirely on God as He expresses His generosity through us...  that is, when we hear Him and heed his call.  

Despite this weakened economy, many of us have enough to grab an extra latte' or eat out several times a week - and with gas prices increasing weekly, we still manage to drive from one place to the next with little cutbacks.  Some of us are suffering, others have had to cutback but are still in a position to help those who are struggling to survive. 

When the cupboard is bare, how many of us have had to resort to roasting a snake to feed our family?

...and how many of us would have such a satisfied smile for the provision?

I don't know how to share with you how very great the need is other than to tell you that it is huge and show you in these pictures that James sends from these villages.  



There is no government assistance for these people.  They are not lazy, they work hard all day long, men women and children.



The resources are simply not there for them.  They haven't asked for our help, they voice no complaints for their living conditions.



 In fact, they daily, frequently throughout the day,


 give thanks to God for what they have.  

It is James who bears witness to the poor and brings it to us.  It is up to us to have compassion and in turn offer a hand or we can look away, ignore.

By next week, the politicians will end their campaigns and your phones will stop ringing and your email inboxes won't be filled up with campaign requests for money and votes.  Win or lose, the politicians will survive and maybe we and they can return to normal lives.  Campaigns ending, maybe unity can begin to be considered.

 Adjusters and Insurance will do their best for the people in the Northeast. Unfortunately, those poor people will be besieged with contractors - some legit, some not. It is our prayer that those who have suffered the horrendous storm damage will begin to see a glimmer of hope, in the kindness and generosity of those who place "helping thy neighbor" in to action.  Some lost their lives, others lost their possessions.  It won't be a quick fix for those who survived the hurricane, it will take time, patience and steadfastness.  Please keep them in your prayers and be ready to lend a hand.



Neither will there be a quick fix for these villages in Sierra Leone.  It takes many of us working together, not forsaking one human tragedy for the next.  Seraphim's father always said "son, be nice to everybody, because everyone is having a rough time"  That was good advice then and it remains good advice now.  There is no insurance or government aid coming to the villagers rescue, their glimmer of hope is totally dependent on your love, support and compassion. 

Give today

Nazareth House Apostolate

185 Captains Cove Drive

Taylorsville, KY 40071