So What Shall We Do during These Forty Days of Lent? [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]

To spend every waking moment trying to emulate Jesus.I know at the beginning that it is an impossible task, but I am going to try my darnedest to walk in his ways/

How many times have you posted just the right thing at just the right time?

I don’t know how you do it, but I do appreciate it.

Like I told Kolo above, I was going to post this thread later, but this morning decided to give it a go.

Holy Spirit, we thank you, someone needed these words today.

Speaking of crucifixions in modern art, here are two:

Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)

Salvador Dali

1954

Christ on the Cross

Georges Rouault

ca. 1920

Two more of the modern ones

Googling Crucifixion + modern art does not yield a whole lot. Perhaps, also:

Yellow Christ

Paul Gauguin
1889

I am awed by the Byzantine icons - as well as some modern--but I am SPELLBOUND by El Greco-- Doménikos Theotokópoulos' "Crucifixion" -Christ on the Cross - at the moment of expiration, with the Virgin and Saint John, and at the foot of the Cross, the Magdalene

Notice the languages

Why are all the corpi so sanitized. Wasn’t it Blessed Anne Catherine Emerich who said that Christ had over 5,000 wounds?

Reading 1

Sir 17:20-24

To the penitent God provides a way back,
he encourages those who are losing hope
and has chosen for them the lot of truth.
Return to him and give up sin,
pray to the LORD and make your offenses few.
Turn again to the Most High and away from your sin,
hate intensely what he loathes,
and know the justice and judgments of God,
Stand firm in the way set before you,
in prayer to the Most High God.

Who in the nether world can glorify the Most High
in place of the living who offer their praise?
Dwell no longer in the error of the ungodly,
but offer your praise before death.
No more can the dead give praise
than those who have never lived;
You who are alive and well
shall praise and glorify God in his mercies.
How great the mercy of the LORD,
his forgiveness of those who return to him!

An Orthodox prayer for enemies written by Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic:

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.

Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.

They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.

They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments.

They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself.

They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.

Bless my enemies, O Lord, Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.

Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.

Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:

so that my fleeing to You may have no return;

so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;

so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul;

so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins, arrogance and anger;

so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven;

ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.

One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.

It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies.

Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and enemies.

A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.

For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life.

Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them.

**Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.**

That’s an eye-opening WOW!

Secret Harbor ~ Portus Secretioris

28 February 2011

God's Mercy Spreads Its Waters Over All

I doubt if I can say enough of this on account of my wretchedness. I am a fallen angel! I have left the heights of Being where You placed me when You created me. I did not know how to remain on that divine level, where I was truly in Your presence, in order to receive and reproduce the movement of Your Spirit, and recognize Him and His praise in all the created notes which reproduced Him without their knowing it. I had received the light which reveals this Gift of Self in everything, and the upsurge, conscious, awakened and in full light, which makes it return to You. I have lost that light, and have prevented that upsurge. I turned the light on myself instead of directing it towards You. I have deprived You of that glory and have wanted it for myself. I have reduced it to the measure of my own being, which is 'nothing'. And I have remained in that 'nothingness', and all created things that I should have raised with me to You I have forced to remain there with me. What a loss for us all! The consequences of original sin - and for that matter of all sin - are terrible, if one only knew.

Our Lord knew this and bent beneath the weight of that knowledge. 'My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me'(Saint Matthew 26:39), He cried with His Face bowed down to the ground, and His whole Body sweating Blood, while His Soul was sorrowful unto death (cf. Saint Matthew 26:38). He had descended to the terrible depths of my wretchedness, and by His Incarnation used that very wretchedness to raise me up. To the abyss of my misery He opposed an abyss still more profound, that of His mercy. This latter is so deep that we meet God there, and find again our lost Paradise. Our very misery brings us back to God; it completes our movement and, without attempting to define that movement, I have the impression that nothing befits Love more than Mercy. To give Himself to our 'nothingness' is beautiful and is a revelation of God's goodness, but to give Himself to our wretchedness is even better. To raise up calls for more love - is more the gift of self - than to create. The Redemption, the Blood of Jesus which flowed in our Lord's agony, at the flagellation and on Calvary, is Love's final word - if love can have a final word!

And You are that Love: You are this culminating height, and it is there my life of praise must be spent. Nor is creation excluded. I am still the voice of all Your creation, but it is at the foot of the Cross that I must sing my praise, joined by their voices united to mine and to that of the Son of man, commending His soul into your hands (cf. Saint Luke 23:46). There all things are accomplished: all is consummated (cf. Saint John 19:30).

God's mercy, as seen on Calvary, would seem to demand some kind of qualification, an epithet which does not exist. We need something to express - what, of course, is impossible - this God Who dies. We must fathom the depths separating these two words 'God' and 'death'. We would like to have explained to us that death and all the circumstances to which He Who died was willing to submit: simple 'accidents' no doubt and more understandable than the Being Who died and the death of such a Being, but none the less beyond our imagination. We would like to know all His capacity for feeling and consequently for suffering, with a body in which all, literally all, was broken, bruised and crushed as in a winepress(cf. Isaiah 63:3), exacting the last drop of His Blood. But for that we must know the Soul that animated that Body, the Soul that felt the strokes the Body bore. But here, as always, the mind hesitates... Endless perspectives of physical torture and moral martyrdom pass before my gaze and seem to challenge it, to dare my courage - or rather my lack of courage - to gaze to the full. The saints have done it, and did nothing else. And at the end of their contemplation they declared that they had not even crossed the threshold of that abyss.

From Calvary, God's mercy spread its waters over all men, at all times and in all places. It does so still, and will continue to spread them until the end of time. But here still, here always, mystery confronts me, puzzles me, defies and overwhelms me. How is one to penetrate the marvels operated by grace in a single soul? The words of the Psalmist come back to me: 'He has rejoiced as a giant to run the way' (Psalm 18:6). The Redeemer is the Giant Who runs. I see Him set out, but the way escapes me. I only know that it is immense, that the mere idea of knowing it and following in His Steps fills my heart with joy. And yet I must resign myself ever to confess my utter powerlessness, of which every meditation adds to my conviction and awakens my sorrow, were not even this sorrow a praise to the divine Majesty. Fortunately, Holy Scripture is there with its words full of comforting light and consolation; its words telling me almost all without my seeking, at least all I need to know. Perhaps one day I shall see it all more clearly; from that spring, which seems to me so deep, I may catch glimpses of those rivers that water the City of God (cf. Psalm 45:5). For the moment, I recall just one, but one so intensely moving, that its syllables have always been to me like a mother's caress: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore have I drawn you, taking pity on you' (Jeremiah 31:3).

How well You know, my God, to say these things, how delicate is Your touch. In You there is only love, and I still have not seen it clearly enough. Your mercy is but the reflection of Your love, when its light crosses the zone of the shadow cast by our sins. It is the movement of that light in the darkness(cf. Saint John 1:5). Our Lord, Who is that Light, came to enlighten that darkness. He, so to speak, left His Kingdom in order to meet that darkness and there restore the radiant Image of the Father. He came because He is Love. He is the Son of the Father Who is Love, and is that Love's perfect ray (cf. Wisdom 7:26). From the Father He received that essential movement - the need to give Himself - and thus Love gave birth, and is eternally giving birth, to Mercy. That love, that mercy, needs to spread itself, to communicate itself, to radiate its brightness. It bears this need within itself, because it is born of the paternal Bosom, whence this movement proceeds. The darkness, where that love and mercy do not shine, draws Him, appeals to this need, an appeal which seems to come from within it and says to him: 'Come....' And Mercy cannot resist this appeal, since it corresponds perfectly to this need so essential to His Being that He leaps and rejoices as a giant to run 'the way' (cf. Psalm 18:6). He becomes the Light Who gives Himself to the darkness, and shines therein becoming Mercy, the Love of 'Him Who is' for those who 'are not'.

And to this nothingness He gives the power to give itself, even as He gives Himself: that is, freely and by love. This is man's privilege, his free choice. He can welcome that Love or refuse it. If he responds, he becomes one with Him, and participates in His life and greatness. If he refuses, he remains in himself, in his nothingness, but in a nothingness shorn of all hope, a nothingness that could have been united to Being, to God. It was called to be so united by grace, and was given the necessary powers. It could have enjoyed that union of love, but has failed to fulfil God's plan for it. As a result, it has been left a failure and a ruined thing. This is the real unhappiness that the divine Mercy wants to succour.

~ Dom Augustin Guillerand ~

Sent with the most recent Parish newsletter, compiled from various postings in these discussions over the years:

The Lenten fast is two-fold. The external fast can include limitation of secular music, particularly the more profane forms, refraining from attending “parties,” etc. Any of the following penitential practices might be used on a given day:

• Take less of what you like and more of what you dislike at meals.
• Take nothing to eat between meals.
• Take only one helping of each item at meals.
• Arise from bed immediately at the first call or alarm—no snooze
button.
• Avoid listening to the radio or television all day;
instead, read the Passion of Christ in Bible.

But that is the easy list. Much more difficult is the spiritual or Internal Fast, which consists of abstinence from “all evil” — sin. St. John Chrysostom taught that the “value of fasting consists not so much in abstinence from food, but rather in withdrawal from sinful practices.”

And St. Basil l the great explains: “Turning away from all wickedness means keeping our tongue in check, restraining our anger, suppressing evil desires, and avoiding all gossip, lying, and swearing. To abstain from these things — herein lies the true value of fast! “

Any of these very difficult disciplines will help to “keep a Good Lent”:

• Don’t be distracted with someone else’s business.
• Refrain from saying some unnecessary thing you wish to say.
• Force yourself to smile and be cheerful when feeling sad or irritated.
• Restrain any anger, and go out of your way to be kind to the person
who caused your anger.
•. Do not complain of little discomforts and inconveniences, and even,
at times, seek them out.
• Say, “Thank You, God,” whenever something happens contrary to
your will.

The great difficulty, indeed, outright impossibility in keeping these lists drives us to a greater awareness that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved through Him who prayed “not my will, but Thine, be done”; and Who then lived—and died—those words.

Thanks be to God!

Thank you for the Luther quotation.

Many Christians of all stripes--including many a Lutheran--cannot fathom that Luther had no difficulty in calling Blessed Mary the Theotokos

Love that prayer.

Wonderful list of suggestions! Thank you

Bookmarking your excellent post. Thank you.

Arise from bed immediately at the first call or alarm—no snooze button.

Ouch.

:)

What a wonderful thread!