I have been doing some reading lately that has, as so often happens a similar message but authors that are not related and from different times and places.
The message of both articles/books being that Christ came to earth and left as a legacy what... ? Not the Bible, but the Church.
The Church began at the death of Christ with passage of the teachings that Christ left to the disciples and of course with the teachings of Paul. It continued along with the growth of that teaching through martyrdoms, monasticism and word of mouth and the Bible, that record of the memory of God's relationship with His people, the Jews, and a recording of the memory of relationships with Christ the Messiah.
At the great schism it broke in two... 1054....with the one path leading on as it always had been and the other path renamed and re-theologized to become the Roman church. After that there were other breakings and re-theologizings until the "Christian Religion" came diluted into many teachings into this Century.
If one retraces that One Church and the practices that make up the ancient Church, one finds the Orthodox Christian Church; and it is found now in its motion in the prelude of Christ's continuing departure in Great and all Holy Lent.
The Fast.
What does the Fast do? It leads us away from the earthly physical beauty of the world into a closet, so to speak. A closet that should hang empty of things. It seems to me that I can fill that closet up again with the trappings of the world or I can not only leave it empty, but expand it in space and time and silence in willingness to have it be Jesus Christ's. The expansion happens through Confession and Sacrifice, and a putting away of the garments of the ego.
What are those garments? How are we to be re-created? Certainly not totally through our own mechanizations, but through this mystical season within the Church. Our actions can not really change who and what we are, but Jesus Christ can.
I underline mystical...something that happens in time and space through our efforts, in a certain direction, but not by our effort alone, but by an amazing miracle that takes place through Grace and our willingness to abandon our current self for one that God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit re-create in us. Imagine....who did God create you to be before this world and your ego got hold of you? I cannot even conceive of that. But God can and does. The mystery awaits in the emptied closet.
The Fast is at hand.
The Church and its Body, the Saints will pray for us on our journey forward.
The Cross is at hand.
The message of both articles/books being that Christ came to earth and left as a legacy what... ? Not the Bible, but the Church.
The Church began at the death of Christ with passage of the teachings that Christ left to the disciples and of course with the teachings of Paul. It continued along with the growth of that teaching through martyrdoms, monasticism and word of mouth and the Bible, that record of the memory of God's relationship with His people, the Jews, and a recording of the memory of relationships with Christ the Messiah.
At the great schism it broke in two... 1054....with the one path leading on as it always had been and the other path renamed and re-theologized to become the Roman church. After that there were other breakings and re-theologizings until the "Christian Religion" came diluted into many teachings into this Century.
If one retraces that One Church and the practices that make up the ancient Church, one finds the Orthodox Christian Church; and it is found now in its motion in the prelude of Christ's continuing departure in Great and all Holy Lent.
The Fast.
What does the Fast do? It leads us away from the earthly physical beauty of the world into a closet, so to speak. A closet that should hang empty of things. It seems to me that I can fill that closet up again with the trappings of the world or I can not only leave it empty, but expand it in space and time and silence in willingness to have it be Jesus Christ's. The expansion happens through Confession and Sacrifice, and a putting away of the garments of the ego.
What are those garments? How are we to be re-created? Certainly not totally through our own mechanizations, but through this mystical season within the Church. Our actions can not really change who and what we are, but Jesus Christ can.
I underline mystical...something that happens in time and space through our efforts, in a certain direction, but not by our effort alone, but by an amazing miracle that takes place through Grace and our willingness to abandon our current self for one that God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit re-create in us. Imagine....who did God create you to be before this world and your ego got hold of you? I cannot even conceive of that. But God can and does. The mystery awaits in the emptied closet.
The Fast is at hand.
The Church and its Body, the Saints will pray for us on our journey forward.
The Cross is at hand.
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