Friday, July 1, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Power outage revelation
Upon returning to my parents' home after supper the other night we discovered the power went down for the whole neighbourhood. Fortunately, their home is on city water, so we had water the whole night.
This led me to thinking about people and their spiritual lives...
Too often a lack of power, or external evidence, can leave people feeling as though they have an inferior spiritual life, especially when they compare themselves to others. However, the reality is the Holy Spirit, the water, is still moving! Life and growth is still happening!
Too often we fail to realize and/or recognize God is ALWAYS moving in our lives. It is up to us to rest in that knowledge and believe even when things look "dark," God is working both to will and do His good pleasure in our lives, in our midst, in our congregations, in our communities.
Though it may be easier said than done, let us hold fast to this knowledge and embrace the move and refreshing of the Holy Spirit.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Prepping for the Holy Triduum
I have been reflecting on the days of Holy Week, however this year the Triduum (three days) have particularly arrested my attention.
Most of the time we jump in our focus from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Not much is made of Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and yet something changed in the atmosphere of Jerusalem between Palm Sunday and Thursday. The storm began to brood...
Being from Kansas almost guarantees you have the makings of an amateur meteorologist engrained in you. We look for the signs of the storm before it hits. This makes it easier for us to respond to the storm.
As we move into the Holy Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) it is good to pause and meditate upon the portions of Scripture which describe how we reached this point and the people in the Scripture.
What was brooding:
--in the Pharisees to seek to kill Jesus?
--in Judas before he kissed Jesus?
--in John before he fled the garden?
--in Peter before he denied Jesus?
--in Pilate before he pronounced sentence?
Monday, April 18, 2011
Holy Week
It's official - we are now firmly in Holy Week!
Holy Week marks the eight days from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. During this time we recall the journey of Jesus from being hailed at the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, to the instituting of a new way of living on Maundy Thursday, to the ultimate expresson of Love on Good Friday, finally culminating in the Resurrection of Easter Sunday.
As you journey with Jesus through the trials and joys of this week, ask the Holy Spirit to increase your awareness to those around you, that you may help them bear their burdens and rejoice with them in their joys.
Friday, March 11, 2011
New EP out...
I released a new EP of electronic music last week. You can download it for free here.
It was made in response to the RPM (Radio Production Month) Challenge. It features collaborations based upon words, phrases, or poems given to me by others, upon which I composed a tune (in addition to drawing inspiration from their own lives for the key signature, time signature, tempo marking, and instrumentation).
I look forward to next year's challenge...
It was made in response to the RPM (Radio Production Month) Challenge. It features collaborations based upon words, phrases, or poems given to me by others, upon which I composed a tune (in addition to drawing inspiration from their own lives for the key signature, time signature, tempo marking, and instrumentation).
I look forward to next year's challenge...
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Ash Wednesday
It is Ash Wednesday. For some reason, that makes me feel good...You would think a time that causes one to examine their faults would be a sorrowful, or discouraging time. Yet, I enjoy Ash Wednesday.
I like seeing the dark purple and praying for God's grace...
I savor the aroma of the incense wafting, smoldering, as I kneel before my Maker and express my sorrow to Him...
I enjoy sealing people's foreheads with the sign of cross with ash, made from the palm leaves of last year's jubilant Palm Sunday celebration...
I appreciate feeling the cool ashes applied to my own forehead, receiving the sign of forgiveness and blessing...
I love knowing God loves me...that overwhelms me...
That is why, on this most solemn of days, I feel good...
Monday, February 28, 2011
Repentance that Changes Us
This is a devotional for Wednesday from DYNAMIS (http://www.dynamispublications.org/), an Orthodox Christian daily devotional. The text is Joel 2:12-26; the commentator is discussing the relation between fasting and repentance in light of God's call to His people:
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Joel 2:12-26 (3/2-3/15) First Vesperal Reading, Wednesday of the Week of Forgiveness
Fasting III ~ Repentance that Changes Us: Joel 2:12-26, SAAS, especially vs. 13: "...rend your hearts, and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate. He is long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and repents of evils."
Fasting can be viewed, at bare minimum, as limitations imposed on types and quantities of food, sleep, and other pleasures. But as Father Georges Florovsky noted, "Asceticism does not exist of prohibitions. Asceticism is activity, a 'working out,' a perfection of one's self....inspired by the task of inspiration." Thus, fasting may direct attention to sinful deeds, but we benefit most when it prompts us to repudiate the evil thoughts that precede sinful acts, when both thoughts and acts are repugnant to God. The Prophet teaches us to rend the heart when turning to God the Lord.
The significance of evil thoughts is twofold: 1) the inward corruption they work in the heart, and, of course, 2) the resulting sinful acts and consequences that follow from wicked thoughts. Do remember that among the consequences that follow our evil thoughts and actions are the Divine judgments that befall us. Through His Prophet Joel, the Lord kindly invites us to heartfelt repentance and promises to "...restore to you the years the grasshopper and the locust have eaten, and for the blight, and the caterpillar..."
(Joel 2:25). We pay a heavy price for unrestrained evil thoughts and passions. Like locusts, they eat up our hearts and souls, a process Saint Gregory of Nyssa summarizes: "...man was a thing divine before his humanity got within reach of the assault of evil...then, however, with the inroad of evil...afflictions broke in upon him." Our passions rise from their natural state and turn into a destructive swarm of marauding insects, eating our hearts - wrath, fear, cowardice, impudence, depression and indulgence, hatred, strife, merciless cruelty, envy as well as flattery and brutality together with brooding over injuries. These turn into a ravenous plague within us. Joel likens these swarming passions to conquering nations who desolate and mock 'the good land' we inherit in Christ (vs. 17). The image of God in us becomes despoiled! But the Lord promises to drive away the desolating adversary (vs. 26) and restore those things necessary for life (vs. 24).
Thus, our loving Lord connects fasting with repentance: "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting and wailing and with mourning; rend your heart and not your garments" (vss. 12,13). He holds up repentance, as one would an icon of promise, to encourage us. Let the Priests sound the trumpet, God's people gather, and even newly-weds set aside their nuptial joys. Let God's People weep for both inward and outward sins crying to God, "O Lord, spare Your people, do not give Your inheritance to reproach..." with godless powers ruling over us (vss. 15-17).
God declares that He will turn His "...face away from [our] sins, and blot out all [our] iniquities" (Ps. 50:9). He desires not the death of sinners but that we should repent and live. He describes Himself as "...merciful and compassionate...longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and repents of evils" (Joel 2:13). The Lord is inviting us to embrace the coming Great Fast, and "...be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He gives food that is right for you" (vs. 21).
Joel declares God's promises: "He will shower you as before with the early and the late rain" (vs. 23). So let us sow well in our hearts. He will "restore to [us] the years" eaten away by our sins (vs. 25). As Metropolitan Hierotheos says, "Repentance...in deep mourning and joined with confession is what unveils the eyes of the soul to see the great things of God." Repentance is the promise of Great Lent. Let us pursue it diligently and we shall be able to "...praise the name of the Lord [our] God for what He has so wondrously done unto [us]" (vs. 26).
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Joel 2:12-26 (3/2-3/15) First Vesperal Reading, Wednesday of the Week of Forgiveness
Fasting III ~ Repentance that Changes Us: Joel 2:12-26, SAAS, especially vs. 13: "...rend your hearts, and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate. He is long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and repents of evils."
Fasting can be viewed, at bare minimum, as limitations imposed on types and quantities of food, sleep, and other pleasures. But as Father Georges Florovsky noted, "Asceticism does not exist of prohibitions. Asceticism is activity, a 'working out,' a perfection of one's self....inspired by the task of inspiration." Thus, fasting may direct attention to sinful deeds, but we benefit most when it prompts us to repudiate the evil thoughts that precede sinful acts, when both thoughts and acts are repugnant to God. The Prophet teaches us to rend the heart when turning to God the Lord.
The significance of evil thoughts is twofold: 1) the inward corruption they work in the heart, and, of course, 2) the resulting sinful acts and consequences that follow from wicked thoughts. Do remember that among the consequences that follow our evil thoughts and actions are the Divine judgments that befall us. Through His Prophet Joel, the Lord kindly invites us to heartfelt repentance and promises to "...restore to you the years the grasshopper and the locust have eaten, and for the blight, and the caterpillar..."
(Joel 2:25). We pay a heavy price for unrestrained evil thoughts and passions. Like locusts, they eat up our hearts and souls, a process Saint Gregory of Nyssa summarizes: "...man was a thing divine before his humanity got within reach of the assault of evil...then, however, with the inroad of evil...afflictions broke in upon him." Our passions rise from their natural state and turn into a destructive swarm of marauding insects, eating our hearts - wrath, fear, cowardice, impudence, depression and indulgence, hatred, strife, merciless cruelty, envy as well as flattery and brutality together with brooding over injuries. These turn into a ravenous plague within us. Joel likens these swarming passions to conquering nations who desolate and mock 'the good land' we inherit in Christ (vs. 17). The image of God in us becomes despoiled! But the Lord promises to drive away the desolating adversary (vs. 26) and restore those things necessary for life (vs. 24).
Thus, our loving Lord connects fasting with repentance: "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting and wailing and with mourning; rend your heart and not your garments" (vss. 12,13). He holds up repentance, as one would an icon of promise, to encourage us. Let the Priests sound the trumpet, God's people gather, and even newly-weds set aside their nuptial joys. Let God's People weep for both inward and outward sins crying to God, "O Lord, spare Your people, do not give Your inheritance to reproach..." with godless powers ruling over us (vss. 15-17).
God declares that He will turn His "...face away from [our] sins, and blot out all [our] iniquities" (Ps. 50:9). He desires not the death of sinners but that we should repent and live. He describes Himself as "...merciful and compassionate...longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and repents of evils" (Joel 2:13). The Lord is inviting us to embrace the coming Great Fast, and "...be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He gives food that is right for you" (vs. 21).
Joel declares God's promises: "He will shower you as before with the early and the late rain" (vs. 23). So let us sow well in our hearts. He will "restore to [us] the years" eaten away by our sins (vs. 25). As Metropolitan Hierotheos says, "Repentance...in deep mourning and joined with confession is what unveils the eyes of the soul to see the great things of God." Repentance is the promise of Great Lent. Let us pursue it diligently and we shall be able to "...praise the name of the Lord [our] God for what He has so wondrously done unto [us]" (vs. 26).
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