Daily Meditations Archives - Page 324 of 353

THE LENTEN PRAYER OF ST. EPHREM THE SYRIAN (Part I)

04/08/2013

Of all Lenten hymns and prayers, one short prayer can be termed the Lenten prayer. Tradition ascribes it to one of the great teachers of spiritual life—St. Ephrem the Syrian. Here is its text: O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant

Why We Glorify the Cross during Great Lent

04/05/2013

In the services for this Sunday the Holy Church glorifies the Holy Cross and the fruits of the death of the Savior on the Cross. She will carry out the Holy Cross into the middle of the temple for veneration, and is why the Sunday is called the Veneration of the Cross. In the hymns for this day the holy Church, inviting us to honor the holy cross, tenderly appeals: “Now the angelic hosts gather

A LENTEN MEDITATION, by Saint Leo the Great

04/04/2013

Dear friends, at every moment the earth is full of the mercy of God, and nature itself is a lesson for all the faithful in the worship of God. The heavens, the sea and all that is in them bear witness to the goodness and omnipotence of their Creator, and the marvelous beauty of the elements as they obey him demands from the intelligent creation a fitting expression of its gratitude. But with the return

LENT: THE JOURNEY TO PASCHA (Part III)

04/03/2013

If we realize [our nominal Christianity], then we may understand why Easter needs and presupposes Lent. For we may then understand that the liturgical traditions of the Church, all its cycles and services, exist, first of all, in order to help us recover the vision and the taste of that new life which we so easily lose and betray, so that we may repent and return to it. How can we love and desire something

LENT: THE JOURNEY TO PASCHA (Part II)

04/02/2013

When a man leaves on a journey, he must know where he is going. Thus with Lent. Above all, Lent is a spiritual journey and its destination is Easter, “the Feast of Feasts.” It is the preparation for the “fulfillment of Pascha, the true Revelation.” We must begin, therefore, by trying to understand this connection between Lent and Easter, for it reveals something very essential, very crucial about our Christian faith and life. Is it

LENT: THE JOURNEY TO PASCHA (Part I)

04/01/2013

They are many today, who desire a better understanding of the liturgical tradition of the Church and a more conscious participation in her life. Repentance, we are told, is the beginning and the condition of a truly Christian life. Christ’s first word when He began to preach was: “Repent!” (Matt. 4:17). But what is repentance? In the rush of our daily life, we have no time to think about it, and we simply assume that

“. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part VI)

03/29/2013

What could be the meaning of Lent during the long hours we spend outside of home—commuting, sitting at our desks, taking care of our professional duties, meeting our colleagues and friends? Although no clear-cut “recipe” can be given here as in any other area, some very general considerations are possible. In the first place, Lent is a good time to measure the incredibly superficial character of our relations with men, things, and work. The “keep

“. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part V)

03/28/2013

Everyone will no doubt agree that the whole style of family existence has been radically altered by radio and television. These media of “mass communication” permeate today our whole life. One does not have to “go out” in order to “be out.” The whole world is permanently here within my reach. And, little by little, the elementary experience of living within an inner world, of the beauty of that “interiority,” simply disappears from our modern

“. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part IV)

03/27/2013

Attending liturgical services, fasting, and even praying at regular intervals do not exhaust the lenten effort. Or rather, in order to be effective and meaningful, they need the support of our whole life. They need, in other terms, a “style of life” which would not be in contradiction with them, would not lead to a “split” existence. In the past, in Orthodox countries, such support was given by society itself: it was that complex of

“. . . BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING” (Part III)

03/26/2013

[Fasting] should be practiced on two levels: first, as ascetical fast; and second, as total fast. The ascetical fast consists of a drastic reduction of food so that the permanent state of a certain hunger might be lived as a reminder of God and a constant effort to keep our mind on Him. Everyone who has practiced it—be it only a little—knows that this ascetical fast rather than weakening us makes us light, concentrated, sober,