Liturgical Seasons – In the Desert

March 3, 2019March 3, 2019

Repentance in the Final Hour

“A new light…cocks were crowing, there was music of hounds, and horns; above all this ten thousand tongues of men and woodland angels and the wood itself sang. ‘It comes, it comes!’ they sang. ‘Sleepers awake! It comes, it comes, it comes.’ One dreadful glance over my shoulder I essayed – not long enough to see (or did I see?) the rim of the sunrise that shoots Time dead with golden arrows and puts to flight all phantasmal shapes. Screaming, I buried my face in the fold of my Teacher’s robe. ‘The morning! The morning!’ I cried, ‘I am caught by the morning and I am a ghost’.”

February 25, 2019March 1, 2019

Demon of the Noonday

With each swing of his hammer, a blacksmith hits precisely where he wants. It is an art nearly as old as history and profound for being so rudimentary. A smith begins with a lump of raw, black iron. With fire and the strength of the arm, he pounds that iron into something beautiful. One day, as he was going about his routine, blacksmithing came to the mind of St. Anthony. He was a hermit who lived in the desert. Some pilgrims were with him and asked for advice about the spiritual life. The hermit responded with this illustration:

“Whoever hammers a lump of iron, first decides what he is going to make of it, a scythe, a sword, or an axe. Even so we ought to make up our minds what kind of virtue we want to forge or we labor in vain.”

January 28, 2019

Cultivating Faith

“He marvelled and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

What is faith that makes God marvel? “Faith is power for salvation and strength to eternal life,” St. Clement taught. An American poet writes, “Faith is raising the sail of our little boat until it is caught up in the soft winds above.” Isaiah professes that the faithful are “those who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress…your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches far” (33:16-17). Some people think faith is blindness, but it is the very opposite. Faith is what opens our eyes. Consider this, “Your eyes will see the king in his beauty.” This is not just a prophecy of the afterlife. It’s about our lives here and now. As our hearts fill up with faith, our ability see around us becomes clearer. With faith, our eyes open to reality.

January 13, 2019January 17, 2019

The Baptism of Confession

I can still feel the waters of baptism. They were tepid but exhilarating. They were the waters of death, signifying hades, in which I’d be plunged. They were the waters of life, out of which I’d rise a new creation. My priest dunked me in first, “In the Name of the Father,” again, “In the Name of the Son,” and again, “In the Name of the Holy Spirit.” Yet, at that third immersion, I felt pressure holding me down. He held me under the water, just for a moment, but long enough to never forget. Then he let go. When I rose, baptized, I turned to see a big grin on his face. “I wanted to be sure,” he said, “that you were baptized inside and out.” So we too must let our baptism in Christ be thorough, inside and out.

January 6, 2019

The Path: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh

In the Epiphany icon, you see the heart and soul of this season. The God-man is baptized in the waters. The waters below him are tempestuous. Demons and dragons look beneath him and flee violently. The heavens above open as the light of the Holy Spirit radiates down on him. This scene symbolizes the renewal of humanity and creation. The waters represent chaos and filth. Christ, a new humanity and new physical reality, plunges into the waters and they become calm. Then the Holy Spirit brings eternal Life. We must follow.

December 30, 2018December 30, 2018

Cultivating Wonder

“The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said of him” (Luke 2:33).

Today, our message is about wonder. Christ is born. The shepherds, magi, and heavenly host all gather around and wonder. You can only imagine what they felt. The shepherds had spent their lives in the fields. They lived a hard life, but a slow life. They’d each spent hours to themselves with nothing to distract them but the clouds in the sky, the bleating of sheep, and the rustling of the trees. You can imagine how life had taught them to wonder, and now they find themselves face to face with the God-child. They wondered.

December 26, 2018December 30, 2018

Peace On Earth

At the peak of winter, in the dead of night, in cold, darkness, poverty, rejection, and vulnerability, God was born in a manger.

What do we make of the manger? We could spend our whole life pondering it, and it would be a life worthwhile. Of all the places for God to be born…a manger? The world had so much to boast of. The Romans had carved out an empire. They had gold, silk, and luxuries beyond imagining. Yet, God was born in a manger

December 26, 2018December 30, 2018

Christmas is For Gratitude

I“In the center and around the throne were four living beings…Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty…’ Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne…the elders fall down and worship…and they lay their crowns before the throne and say, ‘You are worthy, O Lord our God’” (Rev. 4:6-11).

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December 19, 2018December 30, 2018

Into the Sea of God

A chance for adventure and fame! April 24, 1848, Sir John Franklin and his crew boarded their ships and sailed off to the arctic. They were cheered on with shouting and waving, utterly confident that they would be the first men to navigate the Northwest Passage. But how did they prepare? Each ship carried a 12-day supply of coal for a likely 2 to 3 year voyage. A minor overlook. Instead of extra coal, the ships made room for fine china, wine goblets, sterling silver, a 1,200-volume library and a baroque hand-organ.They sailed north sporting the finest uniforms of the British navy. Yet not one man brought the extra clothing needed for the bitter climates. No one came back. All 129 sailors sunk into the frozen sea.