And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ~Ephesians 6:18
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ~ James 5:16
As bread is food for the body and virtue is food for the soul, so spiritual prayer is food for the mind. ~ St. Nilus of Mt. Sinai
If you do not feel like praying, you have to force yourself. The Holy Fathers say that prayer with force is higher than prayer unforced. You do not want to, but force yourself. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force (Matt. 11:12). ~ St. Ambrose of Optina
Abba Macarius was asked, ‘How should one pray?’ The old man said, ‘There is no need at all to make long discourses, it is enough to stretch out one’s hands and say, “Lord, as You will, and as You know, have mercy.” And if the conflict grows fiercer say, “Lord, help!” He knows very well what we need and He shows us His mercy.’ ~ Abba Macarius
For what is prayer? Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God- for praise and thanksgiving and beseeching Him for the good things necessary for soul and body. The essence of prayer, then is the mental ascent to God from the heart. The mind stands in the heart consciously before the face of God and, filled with proper and necessary reverence, it begins to pour out its heart before Him. This is prayer of the heart! ~ St. Theophan the Recluse
If you feel sweetness or compunction at some word of your prayer, dwell on it; for then our guardian angel is praying with us. ~ St. John Climacus
Each dawn’s a blessing… a herald of this day’s golden opportunities.
The Present, and what we are, is God’s Gift to us… but what we do with ourselves today, is our gift to God.
I remember and sing a sweet and simple folk-hymn from my youth: Thank You for giving me this morning, thank You for everyday that’s new, thank You that I can know my worries can be cast on You!
Let us joyfully gift-wrapourselves in one of (hopefully many) today’s gifts back to God… at least beginning with thankfulness – for His many blessings!
The day is young. Plain and humble wrapping paper is probably best.
Pass the tape please!
Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly the angel who guards you will honour your patience… Nothing equals or excels God’s mercies~ St. John Climacus
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:6-7
Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! ~ 1 Chronicles 16:11
Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! ~ Psalm 57:8
But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. ~ Psalm 88:13
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. ~ Psalm 118:24
I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words. ~ Psalm 119: 147
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God… And when I wake up, you are still with me! ~ Psalm 139:17-18
Rear view of family housing in Bari, Italy – 2017. This is near St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Basilica, which houses his myrrh-streaming relics. They were moved in the 11th century from his original shrine in Myra, Turkey, to Bari, Italy- for protection, when Myra came under Saracen rule.
Happy Feast Dayand Family Day to my family, near and far… Related by blood or Spirit. May God grant all your petitions according to your salvation!
Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ~ Exodus 20:12
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell in unity! ~Psalm 133:1
My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. ~ Proverbs 6:20
Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. ~ Proverbs 17:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. ~ Proverbs 22:6
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her… ~ Proverbs 31:28
As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. ~ Isaiah 66:13
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. ~ St. Matthew 12:50.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named… ~Ephesians 3:14-15
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. ~ Colossians 3:20
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers… ~ 1 Timothy 5:1
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ~ 1 Timothy 5:8
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation… ~ 1 Peter 2:2
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. ~ 1 Peter 4:8
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ~ Psalm 51: 6-7
Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! ~ Psalm 148: 7-8
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. ~ Isaiah 55: 10-12
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters. ~ Proverbs 25: 11-13
When Jesus was forty days old, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph the Betrothed brought Christ to the temple, in order to fulfill the law and dedicate Him to God.
The Orthodox Christian tradition of Churching a mother on her return to church with her child for a blessing, 40 days after the birth of the baby, comes from the Jewish rite observed in this feast.
One of the many beautiful hymns written by 9th Century female saint, St. Kassiani:
“How can I hold Thee as a Child, Thou, who holdest everything together? How do I bring Thee to the temple, Thou, who art beyond goodness? How do I deliver Thee into the arms of the elder, Thou, who sitteth in the bosom of the Father? How dost Thou endure purification, Thou, who purifieth the whole corrupt nature?” So sayeth the Virgin, the temple, who containeth God – Marvelling at Thy great condescension, O Christ.
Since 450 AD, church candles are also blessed on this day, because of elder St. Simeon’s reference to Christ as a Light of revelation to the Gentiles. (Candlemas)
Just when the cherry blossom trees think it’s safe to nudge their sleepy little pink buds awake… it snows. Every February.
Beneath the sulking trees we made a snowman with the GG’s, and a dear friend shared her really coolartistic ice creations and how to make them! (((Thank you Vera)))
I put stuff in a flower pot saucer, add water and let it freeze. The temperature needs to stay at about -5 C for a couple of days at least. When frozen, I pop it out and … ta da!
Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word. ~ Psalm 148:8
Born in 451, St. Brigid (pronounced Bree-jyah in Gaelic) was the daughter of Dubtach, a pagan king. Brocca, her mother, was a Christian Pictish slave, baptized by St. Patrick himself.
Even as a child, Brigid noticed poverty and destitution. She responded by giving away her own and her family’s considerable possessions to people in need. This generosity did not meet with her father’s approval, who complained to a friend that his daughter was bankrupting the household. His friend answered, “Let her be… She has more virtue before God, than either you or I.”
She established a monastic community with several other young women, located under a large oak tree. It became known as the Church of the Oak (in Gaelic Cill-Dara)… sometimes she is called Brigid of Kildare.
The community grew in numbers, reputation and achievement. Brigid was the abbess, and continued her care for the poor, selling whatever she had to give them what they needed. People who lived in the area flocked to the monastery to receive medical help, food, and to pray with the nuns. They would often see the abbess out in the fields, tending to the community’s cattle. Brigid and the sisters cared for the local children and established schools for them. Others heard of these efforts, and before long, the abbess travelled Ireland to start schools, to oversee the building of hospitals, and encourage people in their faith… by her own steadfast, cheerful example.
Under Brigid’s direction, the monastery itself became an art school, where metal work and manuscript illumination (decoration of manuscript pages with coloured figures and designs) were taught. The products of this school included a Gospel book, famously beautiful for its harmony of colors and intricate designs. To some it almost seemed that this Book of Kildare must have been the work of angels… with humans merely copying the figures shown to them by the angels. Unfortunately, this book and many other Christian relics throughout the land were lost during King Henry VIII’s destruction and pillaging of holy sites.
When St. Brigid died in 525 AD, the nuns kept a fire burning in an enclosure at her Kildare convent. This fire burned for centuries, tended by the Sisters and did not burn out until 1220 AD. It was re-lit and burned for another 400 years.
St. Brigid’s association with fire and the closeness of her feast day to the Feast of the Meeting of our Lord in the Temple (also known as Candlemas), a day celebrating Christ as the Light Unto the Nations, links the two Feasts.
St. Brigid is also affectionately known as Bride, Bridey, or the Mary of the Gael. She is patroness of dairy maids, infants, midwives, blacksmiths, poets, nuns, and students.
Along with Saints Patrick and Columba (Columcille), she is also the patroness of Ireland. St. Brigid is usually depicted in icons as a nun with a Cross woven from rushes and with fire (a candle, lamp, or bowl of fire).
It is said the origin of the St. Brigid’s cross came when she was called to the bedside of a dying pagan chieftain. While sitting with the dying man, St. Brigid picked up some rushes from the floor and began to weave them into a cross. The sick man asked her what she was doing, and St. Brigid told him of Jesus Christ. Before he died, the chieftain become a Christian.
How to make a St. Brigid Cross, woven from rushes.
As Christians, we are called to help provide for the poor and needy (not just during spells of cold weather).
May we acquire the gift to see Christ in every person, as St. Brigid did.
Cat caught napping amid ancient Church Ruins in Thyatira (Western Turkey) – 2004
In the New Testament Book of Acts, we meet Lydia of Thyatira who was a business woman and a seller of purple. She and her household had moved to Philippi and converted to Christianity after meeting the Apostle Paul. Acts 16:13-15;40. Further along in the Acts, we read of Paul and Silas’ miraculous release from a Philippi prison Acts 16:16-40. They returned to stay with Lydia and her family briefly, before continuing along their journey.
Thyatira was an ancient Greek city and important cloth trade centre famous for its dyeing facilities. Thousands of marine snails were collected and boiled for days in gigantic vats, producing vibrant purple pigment for fabric.
Since apostolic times, Thyatira had been home to a significant Christian church, and was mentioned as one of the Seven Churches in the Book of Revelation.
The Christian community continued there until 1922, when the city and surrounding areas were captured by the Turkish army resulting in the deaths and deportations of thousands of Christians. (Most of the deportees also died in harsh conditions.) A church in Thyatira, harbouring about five hundred souls seeking sanctuary, was set on fire. May God rest their souls with the saints!
No operational church or Christian community remains in Thyatira, and the official name for the city changed to Akhisar.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. ~ Isaiah 40:8
