How Frequently Should We Go to Confession?

Enter into the Church and wash away your sin, for there is a hospital for sinners and not a court of law.

St. John Chrysostom

As we celebrate the First Reconciliation-Confession of our parish children maybe we should take time to focus on this important question. The answer to this question is interrelated with the similar question---how frequently should we receive Holy Communion? The goal and purpose of the Christian life is to be united with the Lord, which can occur only as we become increasingly like Him, little by little. Therefore, since being united with Him in Holy Communion and overcoming our sins by frequent Holy Confession are very effective means (within a life daily prayer) of moving towards this goal of the spiritual life, ideally we should receive Holy Communion at every Divine Liturgy and go to Confession frequently. Let me ask you this question: How often do you see your doctor? Once a year… More often than that… If you are suffering from a physical illness you visit your doctor on more regular bases. Therefore in order to heal our souls and bodies we are to go to Confession on more regular bases. As a child I remember the practice of so-called "First Fridays", which encouraged the faithful to go to Confession on monthly bases. What we witness now days is the tendency to receive Holy Communion more frequently, but often without the adequate preparation that includes frequent Holy Confession. It is fairly common today that if a person receives Holy Communion every week, it is considered acceptable that they go to Confession just during the two penitential seasons (Philip's Fast-Advent and Great Fast-Lent).

    We must remember that our sins make us sick in our souls (and sometimes bodies). Therefore, we need to visit our spiritual physician (our Father Confessor) and receive the "Medicine of Immortality" as frequently as possible, if we are to have any hope of overcoming our sins and receiving healing of our sin-sick souls and bodies. Let us strive to do the most possible to be united more fully with the Lord, rather than to settle for the least we can get by with. It is virtually impossible to love the Lord too much, or desire to be united with Him too much. Similarly, it is virtually impossible to receive Christ's Body and Blood too often, or to go to Confession too often, as long as we participate in these Holy Mysteries with sincere prayer and preparation.

Sunday of the Man Born Blind

We do not know from experience what physical blindness is, but we can imagine how this man was walled in himself, how all the world around him existed only as a distant sound, something he could not picture, imagine. He was a prisoner within his own body. He could live by imaginations, he could invent a world around himself, he could by touch and by hearing approximate what really was around him; but the total, full reality could only escape him. We are not physically blind, but how many of us are locked in ourselves! We meet people, and we see them with our eyes; but seldom it happens that beyond the outer shape, features, clothes, - how often does it happen that we see something of the depth of the person? How seldom it is that we look into a person's eyes and go deep in understanding! We are surrounded by people and every person is unique to God, but are people unique to us? Are not people that surround us just 'people', who have names, surnames, nicknames, whom we can recognize by their outer looks but whom we do not know at any depth?

Often this is our condition: we are blind, we are deaf, we are insensitive to the outer world, and yet, we are called to read meanings. When we meet a person, we should approach this person as a mystery, that is as something which we can discover only by a deep communion, by entering into a relationship, perhaps silent, perhaps in words, but so deep that we can know one another not quite as God knows us, but in the light of God that enlightens all and each of us. But are we doing this? Is our concern to convey the width, and the depth, the beauty and the meaning of things to every person whom we meet? Are we not rather concerned with receiving than with giving? And yet, Saint Paul who knew what it meant to receive and to give, said, "It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive".

On this Sunday let us reflect on how rich, how richly endowed we are, how much it was given us to see, and to hear. And let us realize at the same time how tragically walled we are within ourselves unless we break this wall in order to give, as generously, as richly, as abundantly as we were given. And then indeed, our joy will be fulfilled according to Christ's promise. And no one, nothing will ever be able to take it away from us. Amen

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Today's Gospel reading from St. John the Evangelist (Jn 4:5-42) does not give us the name of the Samaritan woman. But the Tradition of the Church remembers, and calls her in Greek - Photini, in Ukrainian - Svitlana, in Western languages - Claire. And all these names speak to us of one thing - of light.

Having met the Lord Jesus Christ she has become a light shining in the world, a light that enlightens those who meet her. Every Saint is offered to us as an example; but we cannot always emulate the concrete ways in which a Saint lived, we cannot always repeat their way from earth to heaven. But we can learn from each of them two things. The one is that by the grace of God we can achieve what seems humanly impossible; that is, to become a person in the image and likeness of God, to be - in this world of darkness and tragedy which is in the power of lies - a word of truth, a sign of hope, the certainty that God can conquer if we only allow Him access to our souls. Because if the Kingdom of God is not established within us, if God is not enthroned in our minds and hearts, a fire that destroys everything unworthy of ourselves and of Him, we cannot spread God's light around.

And the second thing which the Saints can teach us is to understand the message which their names convey to us. Today's Samaritan woman learns and speaks of light. Christ has said that He is the Light of the world, the light that enlightens all people; and we are called to give shelter within our souls, minds and hearts - indeed, within our whole self - to this light; so that the word spoken by Christ, "Let your light so shine before all men, that seeing your good deeds they may give glory to your Father who is in heaven", may be fulfilled and accomplished in and through us.

It is only through seeing our deeds, through seeing how we live that people can believe that the light is God's light; it is not in our words, unless they are words of truth and of power like those of the Apostles, or of Christ Himself indeed. On this Sunday of the Samaritan Woman let us reflect, each of us, on the meaning of our name and on the way in which we can become what we are called. Amen.

Real Courage…

When I was a small boy, I attended Church every Sunday at a big Gothic Presbyterian bastion in Chicago. The preaching was powerful and the music was great. But for me, the most awesome moment in the morning service was the offertory, when twelve solemn, frock-coated ushers marched in lock-step down the main aisle to receive the brass plates for collecting the offering. These men, so serious about their business of serving the Lord in this magnificent house of worship, were the business and professional leaders of Chicago. One of the twelve ushers was a man named Frank Loesch. He was not a very imposing looking man, but in Chicago he was a living legend, for he was the man who had stood up to Al Capone.

In the prohibition years, Capone's rule was absolute. The local and state police and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation were afraid to oppose him. But singlehandedly, Frank Loesch, as a Christian layman and without any government support, organized the Chicago Crime Commission, a group of citizens who were determined to take Mr. Capone to court and put him away. During the months that the Crime Commission met, Frank Loesch's life was in constant danger. There were threats on the lives of his family and friends. But he never wavered. Ultimately he won the case against Capone and was the instrument for removing this blight from the city of Chicago. Frank Loesch had risked his life to live out his faith. Each Sunday at this point of the service, my father, a Chicago businessman himself, never failed to poke me and silently point to Frank Loesch with pride. Sometimes I'd catch a tear in my father's eye. For my dad and for all of us this was and is what authentic living is all about.

-Bruce Larson, in Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity.

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

Winston Churchill

Sunday of St. Thomas

Sunday of St. Thomas

 

On this Sunday we are keeping the day of St Thomas the Apostle. Too often we remember him only as a doubter; indeed he is the one who questioned the message which the other Apostles brought to him when they said: Christ is risen! We have seen Him alive!

Why did he not accept their message? Why did he doubt? Why did he say that he must have proofs, material proofs? Because when he looked at them, he saw them rejoicing in what they had seen, rejoicing that Christ was not dead, rejoicing that Christ was alive, rejoicing that victory had been won. Yet, when he looked at them he saw no difference in them. These were the same men, only full of joy instead of fear. And Thomas said: Unless I see, unless I probe the Resurrection, I cannot believe you. Is it not the same thing that anyone can say to us who meets us?

We proclaimed the Resurrection of Christ, passionately, sincerely, truthfully, a few days ago. We believe in it with all our being; and yet, when people meet us in our homes, in the street, in our place of work, anywhere, do they look at us and say: Who are these people? What has happened to them? As we read the Holy Scripture we see that the Apostles had seen Christ risen, but the Resurrection had not become part of their own experience. They had not come out of death into eternal life. So it is also with us; except with the saints, when they see them, they know that their message is true. What is it in our message that is not heard? We should be so different from people who have no experience of the living Christ, risen from the dead, who has shared His life with us, who sent the Holy Spirit to us. As in the words of C.S. Lewis, a living person is different from a statue. A statue may be beautiful, magnificent, glorious, but it is stone. A human being can be much less moving in his outer presence, yet he is alive, he is a testimony of life.

On this Sunday of St. Thomas let us examine ourselves. Let us be ready to answer before our own conscience and do what is necessary to change our lives in such a way that people meeting us may look at us and say: Such people we have never seen. There is something about them that we have never seen in anyone. What is it? And we could answer: It is the life of Christ abroad in us. We are His limbs. This is the life of the Spirit in us. We are His temple. Amen.

Do You Believe...

Do You Believe...

 

There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats. All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow. An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, "Tightrope, I don't believe you can do it, but I'm willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls." Now, Tightrope wrote back, "Sir, although I've never been to America and seen the Niagara Falls, I'd love to come." Well, after a lot of promotion and setting the whole thing up, many people came to see the event. Tightrope was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. Drums roll, and he comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls -- blindfolded!! And he makes it across easily. The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, "Well, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?" "Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it." "No," said Tightrope, "do you really believe I can do it?" "Well of course I do, you just did it." "No, no, no," said Tightrope, "do you believe I can do it?" "Yes," said Mr. Promoter, "I believe you can do it." "Good," said Tightrope, "then you get in the wheel barrow."

The word "believe" in Greek means "to live by". This is a nice story...makes you ask, how often do we say that we believe Christ can do it, but refuse to get in the wheelbarrow?

Live in faith and hope, though it be in darkness, for in this darkness God protects the soul. Cast your care upon God for you are His and He will not forget you. Do not think that He is leaving you alone, for that would be to wrong Him.

-St. John of the Cross.

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

-St. Augustine

Artos

 

In our Holy Church during Bright Week, the week following Pascha/Easter, you will notice that the Holy Doors in the Iconostasis are open and there is a table in front to the right of the opening on which there is a round loaf of bread. If you look closely you will note that on this bread is either the icon of the Resurrection of Our Lord or another symbol of Christ's victory over death, the Cross surmounted by a crown of thorns. This bread is called the Artos. "Artos" is a Greek word meaning bread made with yeast. It is blessed at the end of the Resurrection Matins and the faithful kiss it at the end of the Pascal Divine Liturgy. According to the oldest tradition, the Apostles, after the Ascension of Our Lord, placed bread on the Holy Table-Altar each time during the Divine Services, for the Divine Master. This they did for their Master, confessing or believing in His invisible presence among them. At the end of the services they took the bread and lifted it up with the words: "Glory be to You, O Christ, Our God, Glory be to You. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." The Apostles, after receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day, went to preach the Gospel throughout the world and, according to tradition, left a loaf of bread on the Altar in remembrance of His Glorious Resurrection.

 

It is interesting that at the blessing, the priest chants: ..."May we who offer it (this bread), and those who shall kiss it and shall take of it, may be partakers of Thy heavenly benediction; and by Thy might root out from us all sickness and infirmity, granting health to all. For Thou are the source of blessing, and the bestower of health..." The significance of the Artos is that it serves to remind all Christians of the events connected with the Resurrection of Our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ. While still living on earth, the Lord called Himself the Bread of Life, saying: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst" (John 6:35).
The Artos is put before us as a symbol of Jesus Christ the Bread of life Who nourishes us with the food of His divine mercies. This is somewhat reminiscent of the Shewbread mentioned in Exodus 25:30; Numbers 4:7; 1 Samuel 21:6; Nehemiah 10:33; Matthew 12:4; and Hebrews 9:2. However, it was unleavened and was to be eaten by the Old Testament priests only while the Artos is leavened, alive with yeast symbolizing life and is to be eaten by all believers who are alive in the Lord. It is a pious custom amongst our faithful to keep a piece of the Artos in their Icon Corner throughout the year and with faith to eat a piece of it when they are sick or under stress. Sometimes, a sip of Holy Water blessed on the Feast of Theophany is taken with it.