I love You, Lord. You embrace me in our communion of Eucharist. I believe in Your love for the sinner. I am that sinner. You come to me. I am empty and poor, yet You make my poverty Your paradise. Here I bring to You all You have given me.
Behold Your streaming waters tumbling over my rocky ground. Your light penetrates my depths; the caverns of my heart yield their darkness to You, O Holy Sun! Sit here beside me in silence, as praise becomes an uncontainable river within me. Flow from my humble abode to water Your thirsting world without. Delight, O Lord, at the crashing thunder as majestic waves rise before You in a crescendo of thanksgiving, finally pounding down upon the shore of my unworthiness. They ebb and flow and gather strength as I remember Your Mercies. All You have given me, I give now with gratitude.
Eagles dance in the air above our heads, grasping as claws hold fast, spinning in wedded bliss; their flight a symbol of our holy love.
Joann Nelander
Tag Archives: cross
The Precious and Life-giving Cross of Christ
From a sermon by Saint Theodore the Studite
The Precious and Life-giving Cross of ChristHow precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.
This was the tree on which Christ, like a king on a chariot, destroyed the devil, the Lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was the tree upon which the Lord, like a brave warrior wounded in his hands, feet and side, healed the wounds of sin that the evil serpent had inflicted on our nature. A tree once caused our death, but now a tree brings life. Once deceived by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an astonishing transformation! That death should become life, that decay should become immortality, that shame should become glory! Well might the holy Apostle exclaim: Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world! The supreme wisdom that flowered on the cross has shown the folly of worldly wisdom’s pride. The knowledge of all good, which is the fruit of the cross, has cut away the shoots of wickedness. Continue reading
In Times of Darkness – The Cross
A Prayer for the World
Lord Jesus, let flow from Your precious wounds opened in Your Crucifixion and Death on the Cross, a fresh torrent of Love and Mercy upon the world. Like stars lighting up the sky as did the Star of Bethlehem, let Your Light proceed from the nail holes in that eternal Wood on which you hung. Planted Now in Heaven, may that Tree bear fruit ever sweet and fresh to the world for whose Sin You willingly died. Amen.
Words of Jesus to St. Faustina
“All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be a great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the Cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day.”
Golgotha of Jasna Gora
When We Were Dead In Sin
From the book On the Holy Spirit by Saint Basil, bishop
By one death and resurrection the world was saved
When mankind was estranged from him by disobedience, God our Saviour made a plan for raising us from our fall and restoring us to friendship with himself. According to this plan Christ came in the flesh, he showed us the gospel way of life, he suffered, died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He did this so that we could be saved by imitation of him, and recover our original status as sons of God by adoption. Continue reading
Palm Sunday and Political Correctness Run Amuck
The young maker of this video has been taught well. He bends over backwards not to offend anyone of any other religion who might happen upon this video instruction. He says at the beginning (profusely), “It’s pure entertainment; nothing else!” After transforming the palm frond into a cross, he ends with, ” Don’t take this as anything against your religion; just pure entertainment; no stuff like that.”
Not that it is this young man’s intention, but now that this symbol of the Faith and the palm (distributed to the faithful as a reminder of our fickleness and unfaithfulness) have been devalued to the level of a pass-time, society must be all the better for it; right? The “entertainment” value of the Cross having been established, actually, does emphasize how quickly nice people forget and dissimilate. Little chance here that this young man will die a martyr. Little does he know what he’s missing. Jesus and the message the Cross, does offend and divide.
Be Holy! 