The Jesus Prayer

We are approaching the first Sunday in the Lenten Triodion, when we remember the story of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Jesus Prayer is a central part of the account. Here is a video interview of (Church of England) Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward on practicing the presence of Christ, through devotional use of the Prayer.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us.

Reading:
Simon Barrington-Ward, The Jesus Prayer
Frederica Mathewes-Green, The Jesus Prayer
Bishop Kallistos Ware, The Jesus Prayer

Prayer ropes:
Legacy icons

Lenten Reading, 2020

The earth once more approaches the part of its path around the sun where the church turns her attention toward Lent, her heart toward the Cross, and her hope toward Pascha/Easter.

Reading:

Bible
Weekdays: Genes5is, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah
Weekends: Psalms, Mark, Hebrews
Holy Week (following Great Lent): Exodus, Ezekiel, Job

From my bookshelf

Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis, The Road Back to Christ
Fr John Behr, The Cross Stands While the World Turns
Donna Farley, Seasons of Grace
Fr Lawrence Farley, A Daily Calendar of Saints
Fr Thomas Hopko, The Lenten Spring
Johanna Manley, The Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox
Fr Vassilios Pappavassiliou, Meditations for Great Lent
Fr Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent: Journey to Pascha
The Lenten Triodion

Book Club
Jim Forest, The Ladder of the Beatitudes

Podcasts
Cynthia Damaskos will be taking a sabbatical from My Beautiful Lent this year. Recordings from previous years are available through her podcast, The Holistic Christian Life (on her web site, and also on ITunes).

Sense of time

From Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life, by Nicole Roccas:

However, the liturgical and doxological frameworks of the Church lend experiential structure and meaning to the present—the Church fills real time with the substance of salvation. Special prayers and services mark the different times of day, days of the week, and periods of the year. There are seasons of fasting and feasting, kneeling and standing. There are saints’ days and feasts to commemorate the critical events of Christ’s life. Every day, every moment is accounted for in the Church, and not just on an abstract level but physically and concretely through the fasts, feasts, and seasons, all of which seek to manifest Christ in and through time. 

The Church calls not just our minds but our whole being and all our wandering loose ends back into existence, back into presence. In this way, the timekeeping of the Church reaches beyond that of the clock, which provides little more than an abstract framework to partition time into quantities. Every juncture of sacred time links us to the Incarnation, the reaching of eternity into this world, and in doing so, unites us not only to Christ but to the realization of our very selves as icons of Him.

(Kindle, location 1071)

Lenten reading, watching

My Lenten reading:

The Bible and the Holy Fathers for the Orthodox selections for this period, which include the traditional Lenten texts from the books of:

Genesis, Isaiah, and Proverbs on week days, and 

Hebrews and Mark on weekends,

Followed by commentary from the early church Fathers.

When You Pray, by Joseph Letendre.

Viewing:

I have subscribed to the video series My Beautiful Lent, coordinated by Cynthia Damaskos, an Orthodox holistic health coach. She is offering new videos for this Lenten season, along with access to those from last year. Videos remain accessible until a week after the Feast (Pascha or Nativity).

I recommend it, along with her Christmas series, My Beautiful Advent. Both series provide a new spiritual interview on Sunday, and a health-related interview on Wednesday. The web site also offers meal plans for those observing the fasts, and physical workout videos for those who wish to use them.  

Grandma's wall mottos

When thou hast given thanks for every blessing sent,
What time dost there remain for murmer or lament?

*******
Only one life, 'twill soon be past.
Only what's done for Christ will last.

Doxology

Thank you to whoever posted this.

Lift your glad voices in triumph on high,
For Jesus hath risen, and man cannot die;
Vain were the terrors that gathered around Him,
And short the dominion of death and the grave;
He burst from the fetters of darkness that bound Him,
Resplendent in glory to live and to save!
Loud was the chorus of angels on high,
The Savior hath risen, and man shall not die.

Glory to God, in full anthems of joy;
The being He gave us death cannot destroy:
Sad were the life we must part with tomorrow,
If tears were our birthright, and death were our end;
But Jesus hath cheered the dark valley of sorrow,
And bade us, immortal, to Heaven ascend:
Lift then your voices in triumph on high,
For Jesus hath risen, and man shall not die.
---Henry Ware

(Listen to, as a funeral song, on Youtube.)

Horizon of hope

Today marks the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

All that has been and all that will be is prelude to, and anticipation of, an indomitable hope. All that has been and all that will be is premised upon the promise of Our Lord’s return in glory when, as we read in the Book of Revelation, “he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be sorrow nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” And all things will be new.

That is the horizon of hope that, from generation to generation, sustains the great human rights cause of our time and all times—the cause of life. We contend, and we contend relentlessly, for the dignity of the human person, of every human person, created in the image and likeness of God, destined from eternity for eternity—every human person, no matter how weak or how strong, no matter how young or how old, no matter how productive or how burdensome, no matter how welcome or how inconvenient. Nobody is a nobody; nobody is unwanted. All are wanted by God, and therefore to be respected, protected, and cherished by us.
---Richard John Neuhaus, We Shall Not Weary, We Shall Not Rest, First Things.

November Thanksgiving 13

Today I'm thankful we live in a place that has four seasons. I'm thankful for the local conservatory, as a respite in times of cold weather and dreary landscape.

I'm thankful for a good mattress, electric lights, an automatic dishwasher, and the wherewithal to share with others. I'm thankful to have spent the weekend mall-free.

I'm thankful for the promise of heaven.

Thank you, Rebecca, for another month of focusing on our blessings. (I'm thankful we don't have your long winters!)

November Thanksgiving 12

Today I'm thankful for Amazon, the bookseller. I just received Libby Kumin's Helping Children with Down Syndrome Communicate Better, at a fraction of the list price.

I'm thankful for today's snow flurries. My brother's family from Florida is here for the holiday, and his sons wanted to see snow.

I'm thankful for chocolate, a working vacuum cleaner, the prospect of pumpkin pie, and Google's help with turkey brining recipes.

I'm thankful for a five-day vacation for my husband and my son. We all need a rest.

I'm thankful for how much easier the internet makes communication between school staff and parents.

November Thanksgiving 11

Today I'm thankful for:
-hot chocolate on a cold day.
-my husband and father's tickets to the OSU-Michigan game.
-the writings of C.S. Lewis, who (as Amanda reminded her readers) passed away 45 years ago today. By extension, I'm thankful for the British educational system, which contributed to the quality of his thinking, speaking, and writing.
-Trader Joe's friendly, smaller-scale grocery stores.
-Gordon Foods, for my mother's sake.

November Thanksgiving 10

I'm participating in Rebecca's annual November Thanksgiving posting.

Today I'm thankful for coffee shops, the Psalms, IDEA, money to cover the heating bill, and the essays in my Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible.
I'm thankful for the Ghost of Christmas Past, who reminds me of how blessed I've been with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and good food and conversation around a common table.

November Thanksgiving 9

Today I'm thankful for my husband's job, when so many are unemployed.
I'm thankful for a reliable vehicle for transportation.
I'm thankful for the mature trees in our backyard, their branches starkly beautiful against the sky, in every kind of autumn weather.
I'm thankful for progress our son has demonstrated in school this week.
I'm thankful for family coming for Thanksgiving.

November Thanksgiving 8

Today I'm thankful for the beauty of this morning's snowfall on the green leaves and red berries of the holly bush by the garage.
And that my husband is not a NASCAR fan.

November Thanksgiving 7

Today I'm thankful for my friends. I'm thankful my family, immediate and extended, are all in good health as we approach the holiday season.

I'm thankful for a good public library, one of the best in the country. Today we visited and found remains of the large annual book sale. I found a volume of Walker Percy's Signposts in a Strange Land, a children's picture Bible from the Taize community in France, a copy of Frederica Mathewes-Green's Facing East (for a friend), Henri Nouwen's Our Second Birth, an anthology of Jewish commentary on the Torah from medieval Yemen, and a copy of Jim MacDonald's Communicate with Your Child (for a friend). Plus a few others. (Emmylou Harris' Light of the Stable!)

I'm thankful for our beagle, who is good company, though she always wants a share of my snack, the front seat of the mini-van, and to be let in or out.

I'm thankful for houseplants, during cold months of the year. The $2.50 Wal-Mart poinsettia I bought a few years ago has grown into a small bush.

November Thanksgiving 6

I'm thankful the price of gas has gone down. Today I paid $1.99/gal.

I'm thankful we've had several days of beautiful weather, for our son's wonderful aide at school, for my husband's job, and for my parents, sisters, and brothers.

I'm thankful I survived last Friday's IEP meeting, my migraine headache ended, and the Crew won last night.

November Thanksgiving 5

Today I'm thankful for music. The local bookstore had a sale, and I came home with Kathleen Battle and Christopher Parkening's Angels' Glory and The Moody Blues' December. Christmas is coming early this year.

I'm thankful my husband helps so much with caring for our son.

I'm thankful we got to see the last Crew game of the regular season a few weeks ago, against DC United. It's one of the memories that will warm us in winter. The team plays for the Eastern Conference Championship this Thursday evening.








Crew cat

November Thanksgiving 4

Today I'm thankful for a washer, a dryer, sleep, weekends, discount bookstores, and fall weather.

November Thanksgiving 3

Some days, and weeks, gratitude is tough discipline. But for Rebecca, here goes.

I'm thankful for the Malem bedwetting alarm. A friend shared hers with me this summer, and today I was able to pass ours on to a friend.

I'm thankful we bought a house with a southern exposure for the family room. Light in cold weather is an antidote to cabin fever.

I'm thankful my grandmother's African violets are blooming again. She passed away in 1999, and the violets always found on her windowsill came home with us after her funeral. Thank you, Grandma.

I'm thankful for dental insurance and a pediatric dentist who welcomes children with special needs.

I'm thankful for the friends I've made through blogging. I have spells of being homebound and don't get to travel as much as I'd like. You're a window to the world. Thank you.

November Thanksgiving 2

Today I'm thankful for food to eat and a roof over our heads.

I'm thankful for the years I have been given. I watched part of Ted Kennedy's tribute to John F. Kennedy, Jr. a few years ago. The Senator stated, "Like his father, he had every gift but length of years." I feel I've been given length of years, some days more than others. . . .I'm thankful for the years our son has been given. Some children in our community, while not facing his challenges, have been gifted with fewer.

I'm thankful for money to buy books, most recently Kathleen Norris's Acedia. I was privileged to hear her speak at Calvin's Faith and Literature Conference. Norris's path through the topic is sometimes wandering, but always rich and discursive. Her account of her husband's illness and death is both generous and thoughtful.