Food for Thought – Page 6

Saving Attitude of Gratitude

Spider web bejewelled with morning dewdrops

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:6-7

There’s always something to be grateful for, even in the midst of trials and tribulations… And an attitude of gratitude with thanksgiving, dispels fear and carries hope – filling the heart with joy!

We’re not meant to trudge through life’s storms alone, but are encouraged to entrust our worries, heartaches, and requests, daily and directly into God’s Hands.

What a Friend and Saviour we have in Jesus Christ!

Although He always knows what’s going on in our lives, He patiently waits for us to choose to reach out and talk with Him… to transfer any crushing load off ourselves, and freely give Him the control to direct our efforts.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ~ St. Matthew 11:29

As simply and as trustingly as a child reaches out to someone they dearly love, we’re also taught to earnestly entreat God. This draws us closer to our Heavenly Father.

By casting cares and anxiety aside… by sharing our needs through prayer, we bring He Who Is our Daily Bread… into ourselves, and under the roof of our soul…

And Lo! He promises and lovingly responds in kind; embracing our hearts and minds with a Holy, Gentle, Peace from Above – a Gift which transcends all understanding.

Glory to God for all things!

Sailing the Sea of Life

(And Jesus said) …Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. ~ St. Matthew 28:20

Memory Eternal

Greetings on the Forefeast of the Transfiguration… and today’s Feast Day of St. John James the Chozebite!

…It seems to me that when the time of my departure comes, it will be something very simple, because Death does not exist. It will be like closing one door and opening another! I remember a fine painting showing two rose gardens separated by a wall. A twig, from one of the rose bushes, had worked its way through a crack in a wall and a beautiful rose had bloomed on the other side. That’s how it is with our life. We leave this world and go to blossom in The Next. ~ St. Gavrilia (The Ascetic of Love)

Memory Eternal Archpriest John – a true vessel of the Holy Spirit, who gently left us to Blossom in The Next… Where there’s no more pain, sickness, sighing, nor sorrow, but Life Everlasting, an Eternal Pascha!

Discovering the Extraordinary

Salal Leaf in Recent Holiday Table Bouquet

In our spiritual vision we are not only to see each thing in sharp relief, standing out in all the brilliance of its specific being, but we are also to to see each thing as transparent: in and through each created thing we are to discern the Creator...

The contemplation of nature has two correlative aspects. First, it means appreciating the “thusness” or “thisness” of particular things, persons and moments. We are to see each stone, each leaf, each blade of grass, each frog, each human face, for what it truly is, in all the distinctness and intensity of its specific being. As the prophet Zephaniah warns us, we are not to “despise the day of small things” (4:10). “True mysticism” says Olivier Clément, “is to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.”

~ Metropolitan Kallistos Ware: The Orthodox Way.

Letting Go

There’s a golden glow
in letting go, and letting God
assuage our sorrow.
For it’s not life’s pain
that saps or drains our shattered souls
today, tomorrow…
But how we avoid
embracing the fullness of pain
as a healing balm.
May we emulate
the centurion’s faith of yore,
in Capernaum.
And, into God’s Hands
where time touches eternity,
release our petals.

Florescence of Efforts

Your job is to work upon yourself: for this you are chosen; the rest is in the Hands of God. ~ St. Theophan the Recluse

Very many wish to be vouchsafed the Kingdom without labours, without struggles, without sweat; but this is impossible. ~ St. Macarius of Egypt

Beauty is found in the physical and numinous splendour surrounding us… and God rewards the florescence of efforts with refreshing Spiritual Dew!

The Isles of the Sea

Icon of All the Saints of the British Isles

Today we celebrate All the Saints of Great Britain.

These Spiritual Blossoms of the Isles (circa 37 A.D. to 1054 A.D.) are rooted in England, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, and Wales, and continue to exude their Spiritual Fragrance today!

The saints are shown to be fair blossoms of the Garden of Eden, laden with the nectar of good works and the sweet scent of Orthodox teachings, whereby our souls are fed and our spiritual thirst is quenched, Come ye therefore, let us hasten beneath their shade and let us bless them as the delight and adornment of the Isles, and as a model and pattern for our lives, for they have received unfading crowns of glory and all together they beseech the Pre-Eternal God for us. ~ Ikos

A Brief History of Orthodox England

Timeline of Orthodoxy in the British Isles

Throughout the whole world, God’s Name is glorified in the memory of His saints, and as all are alive in Christ, the saints are our friends, and alive in Heaven. They are venerated, but not worshipped… and having run the race and the course of faith, they are glorified.

We live together with them (the Saints in heaven), in the house of the Heavenly Father, only in different parts of it. We live in the earthly, they in the heavenly half; but we can converse with them, and they with us. ~ St. John of Kronstadt

In God and in His Church there is no division between the living and the departed, but all are one in the love of the Father. Whether we are alive or whether we are dead, as members of the Church we still belong to the same family, and still have a duty to bear one another’s burdens. Therefore just as Orthodox Christians here on earth pray for one another and ask for one another’s prayers, so they pray for the faithful departed and ask the faithful departed to pray for them. Death cannot sever the bond of mutual love which links the members of the Church together. ~ Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith… Hebrews 12:1-2

From the ends of the earth, O Lord, the Isles of the Sea offer Thee all the saints who have shone forth therein as the fair fruit of Thy salvific splendour. Through their supplications and through the Theotokos, preserve Thy Church and Thine Isles in the profoundest peace, O most Merciful One. ~ Festal Troparion for All the Saints of the British Isles

Today the choirs of the saints who have pleased God in the Isles, standeth in the Church and invisibly prayeth to God for us. With them the angels give glory; and all the saints of the Church of Christ celebrate with them, and all together they beseech the Pre-Eternal God for us. ~ Kontakion Tone 3

We magnify thee, O all ye saints who have shone forth in the Isles, and we honour thy holy memory, for ye intercede with Christ our God on our behalf. ~ Saints of the British Isles Magnification

O all ye Saints of the British Isles, pray to God for us!

> Greater Than! >

Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash

God is greater! Greater than your illness whatever it may be. Greater than your than your deepest disappointment. Greater than your greatest worry. Greater than your worst enemy. Greater than your most difficult problem. Greater than life. Greater than death. God is greater! Believe it! Live by it! Affirm it! Claim it by faith and use it as a pillow to rest your weary soul. God is greater! If your God is not greater, then the God you believe in is too small. He is not the God the Church believes in. ~ St. Isaac the Syrian

Many people that I know are facing extra challenges these days (myself included), so I particularly love the part of St. Isaac’s encouraging quote which reminds us to use faith “as a pillow to rest your weary soul. God is greater!”

I’ll be re-fluffing my sleep-pillow of faith (as needed), tonight… by affirming in my heart He Always Hears Us!… And by rejoicing upon my bed that God is With Us!

When I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. ~ Psalm 63:6-8

Thank you dear Lord for all your blessings, and for always hearing our prayers. Please give us patience and acceptance to await Your Help that will come when it’s best for us. Amen.

Lord have mercy!

All Saints of North America

Today we celebrated All Saints of North America!

Above – 3 Icons of saints celebrated today: Synaxis of All Saints of America, 3rd century physicians Sts. Cosmas and Damian and St. Nikolai Velimirovich.

Excellent Resource and List of North American Saints

Children’s Activity Book – North American Saints

Come, let us praise the saints of North America, holy hierarchs, venerable monastics, and glorious martyrs, pious men, women, and children, both known and unknown! Through their words and deeds in various walks of life, by the grace of the Spirit they achieved true holiness. As they now stand before Christ Who glorified them, and they pray for us who celebrate their memory with love… ~ Stichos 6; Stichera of the North American Saints

Rejoice… leap for joy, O waters of the Great Lakes; rise up, O fertile plains of Canada; for the elect of Christ who dwelt in you are glorified, men and women who left their homes for a new land! With faith, hope and patience as their armour, they courageously fought the good fight. Comforted by the beauty of the Orthodox Faith… ~ Stichos 1; Stichera of the North American Saints

It’s wonderful to joyfully celebrate so great and shining cloud of witnesses in our land!

When I first came to Orthodoxy, I was greatly influenced by reading the life of the recently canonized (1980) young indigenous martyr, St. Peter the Aleut. (Seen on the far right of the Synaxis of the Saints of America icon) He touched my heart, and I love him dearly.

Recent – Canonization of Matushka Olga of Alaska

Through the prayers of Matushka Olga and of all the Saints who have shone forth in North America, may the Lord grant His mercy and blessings.

Amen!

The Sweeting

An early morning detente. Honey bee and tiny Hoverfly (a flower-fly that mimic bees in appearance but has no stinger) kindly share the same lavender blossom.

The bee is more honoured than other animals, not because she labours, but because she labours for others. ~ St. John Chrysostom

Like a bee that secretly fashions its comb in the hive, so also grace forms in hearts it own love. It changes to sweetness what is bitter, what is rough into that which is smooth. ~ Anonymous 4th century Egyptian monk

Sweeting
Those who resemble
the sweet honey bee,
Seek to find goodness
in all that they see!
~ a rhyme inspired/borrowed from St. Paisios’ honey bee verses fly quote below…

Some people resemble the honey bee and some resemble the fly. Those who resemble the fly seek to find evil in every circumstance and are preoccupied with it; they see no good anywhere. But those who resemble the honey bee only see the good in everything they see. ~ St. Paisios

If only we could more resemble the honey bee, and bee ye kinde one to another…

If we could try to see Christ Himself more often in others… we could, but only with Love of our neighbour… help change some of this world’s bitterness into sweetness!

Even just a little bit.