Lord’s Prayer Archive

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A Message from Fr. Lou – Come to Me and I will give you rest…

– May 7, 2013

A MESSAGE FROM FATHER LOU
Come to Me…
“Come to Me, you who labor and are heavy lad-
en and I will give you
rest.” (Mt. 11:28). Doesn’t it seem like we are constantly searching? We are searching for happiness. We are search- ing for success, for fulfillment, for the meaning of life, for peace. Promises abound as to where we can find that which we are searching for.
We have completed our annual Lenten Journey – a
corporate and private annual adventure of discovery and have begun Holy Week. The invitation is always the same. Our Lord invites us to come to Him. We are invited to come to the One who will provide us all that we search for. We are invited to be- come one with His disciples: to see the sights; smell the aro- mas; and hear the sounds. We are invited to see the miracles of healings out of love and compassion. We are invited to smell the aromas of spring signifying new life and to listen to the teachings – words of life and salvation. But we also hear the jeers and mockings of judgment and hatred. The exuberance of “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord,” we hear transformed to the feeding frenzy of “Crucify Him, Cru- cify Him!” We are invited to the enthronement of the “King of Kings” only to discover that the way to His heavenly throne, are the crooked stones on the road to Golgotha.
We are invited to His trial, to His scourging, to His hu- miliation, to His crucifixion. As we gaze around, we see that most have deserted Him. Where are You Peter? Andrew? James? Bartholomew? Where are you, Disciples? We of course see His mother. We hear her agony and we feel her pain. We see the other Marys and the Myrrhbearing women. John is there as well. We, perhaps catch glimpses of others dear to Him in the crowd at a distance, but we cannot be certain… Perhaps we ask ourselves, if we were there 2000 years ago, would we be with the Panagia, the Marys and John, or would we too have scattered in fear? A sadness and a heaviness would follow such

a question as the probability of the “scattering in fear” reality sets in. There is an emptiness that may bid us to look elsewhere for fulfillment, for the meaning of life, for peace, for happiness. The words of Cleopas resonate within out hearts “… but we were hop- ing that it was He who was going to redeem Israel …” (Luke 24:21).
“Today is hung upon the tree, He who suspended the earth in the midst of the waters. A crown of thorns crowns Him, who is the King of the Angels. He who wrapped the heavens with clouds is clothed with a purple of mockery. He who freed Adam in the Jordan received buffetings. He was transfixed with nails, who is the Bridegroom of the Church. He was pierced with a lance, who is the Son of the Virgin. We venerate you passion, O Christ… Show us also Your glorious Resurrection.” (From Holy Friday Mat- ins sung Thursday night).
The pain, sorrow and death of our Lord, followed by the sadness and hopeless depth of the sealed tomb however is Grace-fully followed by a different emptiness. The emptiness of sorrow and hopelessness is miraculously transformed to an emp- tiness of exuberance, joy, celebration, salvation, and life! The empty tomb…
“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week be- gan to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb, and behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door…the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen…’”. (Mt 28:1-6). “O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are annihilated! Christ is risen and the demons have fallen! Christ is risen and the Angels rejoice! Christ is risen and life is liberated! Christ is risen and the tomb is emp- tied of the dead!” (Paschal sermon of St. John Chrysostom).
Once again our Lord invites us to come. Let us accept His invitation and come to Him, to His venerable and life giving Pascha – a Pascha which is Christ the Redeemer. If you find Him, you will indeed find the One who gives meaning to life. Have a deeply blessed Holy Week and a glorious Pascha, and may we cry out together “Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!”
A Blessed Pascha, Fr. Lou

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JUST SAY “NO”!

– November 8, 2005

Just Say No

My September “Kandili” article encouraged the readers to join Fr. Paul, Fr. Evan and me in beginning each day of our new Ecclesiastical year focusing on Christ our Lord.  After all, life is about Him, not us.  Last month, we examined humility with a reminder of our Lord’s great challenge to be converted to become as “small children” if we desired to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. (Mt. 18:1-5).  Now, this does not refer to being “childish” with the immaturities of childhood.  What it does refer to is to be childlike with a purity of faith, trust and love for God, our True Parent.  A “conversion” here is necessary as following the Fall of Humankind, our tendency is to rely on self and not God.  Quite simply, in order to say “Yes” to God and God’s Will, we must say “No” to our self and our will.  Is this a challenge, or what?

We hear in the Lord’s Prayer, “…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  To become childlike is to place God’s Will above our own.  What is practically necessary for us to do this?  Humility is of course.  Prayer and fasting are also absolutely necessary as they express our humility on the one hand and serve to deepen it on the other hand.  Why are prayer and fasting absolutely necessary?  They are necessary because they both redirect the focus in our life away from us and towards God, when done with the proper attitude.  Orthodoxy teaches us that proper fasting provides a heart receptive to a genuine encounter with God.  Just what is “proper” fasting?  Simply it is a discipline to help us to learn to say “no” to certain things in our lives with a purpose to learn to say “no” to our wants and desires, to our self.  Again, to say “yes” to God and God’s Will is to say “no” to our self and our will.  Remember what our Lord said to His disciples?  “Whosoever desires to follow me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.” ( Mk. 8:34).  Proper fasting helps us to conquer our own selfish desires.  It is like a small “self-persecution”.  Tito Colliander states, “Ultimately it is just this ‘self-persecution’ on which your warfare depends, for as long as your selfish will rules, you cannot pray to the Lord with a pure heart: Thy will be done.  If you cannot get rid of your own greatness, neither can you lay yourself open for real greatness.  If you cling to your own freedom, you cannot share in true freedom, where only one will reigns.”  (Way of the Ascetics, pg. 12).

We must remember that this whole process is going against the post-Fall flow, against what feels natural to us and against what we are often taught and learn in the world around us.  We learn to care for and focus on our self and our wants and desires.  When we do go against the flow and move out of our self, who do we encounter?  Bishop Theophan answers, “We meet God and our neighbor.  It is for this reason that denying oneself is a stipulation, and the chief one, for the person who seeks salvation in Christ:  only so can the center of our being be moved from self to Christ, who is both God and our neighbor.  This means that all the care, concern and love we now lavish on ourselves is then quite naturally and without our noticing it transferred to God and thereby to our fellowmen.” (Way of The Ascetic, pg. 20).

This November, as we celebrate the Entrance into the Temple of the Theotokos on November 21, the Feast of our Patroness, St. Catherine the Great Martyr, November 25, let us allow their great example of sacrificial love to encourage us to live the same way.  On this Thanksgiving Day, the 24th of the month, let us offer thanks to our Lord for life and all of our blessings by loving Him and one another.  Let’s say “no” to our self by saying “yes” to God in all we do.
With the Lord’s blessings,

Fr. Lou