In speaking of joyfulness of heart, we should say a word about the nature of the heart in question. What sort of heart is it that feels this joyfullness? A broken heart, a heart that breaks itself oopen because of the majesty that it feels. When a person lives as a true member of the Church, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail (Matt 16:18) when he lives in the state of majesty that is proper to him, then he attains his fulfillment, his authetic self-expression, the revelation of his own true self. True self discovery occurs only within the consciousness of the Church. Becoming one with the body of the Church and living within its assurances and certitude, enables one to be free from changes, anxiety and sadness.
The life of the faithful should be filled with joy and gladness, which are among the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself gives these fruits both to our souls and to our community. At the same time, our life must be something that transcends the world, informed by theological thought and feeling, manifesting the experience of eternity the place and time in which we live. We are obliged truly to be people of eternity….
We are obliged to learn, to think, and to live, to rejoice and to weep, to experience God, and to be raised to the heavens, exactly as did the Saints of the Church. This follows from the unity of the Church, which is something that God grants to us when we gather together.
Prayer then, since it is communion with God, is gladdening. Certainly we shall have our struggle against our sins, and our passions. But not even this should depress us, once we have put our life into Jesus Christ’s hands. The struggle is necessary, however, for our life to be blessed.
The name of Jesus, prayer of the heart, is called a vessel of myrrh by the Holy Fathers. ⠀⠀
You open it, you turn it upside down and the myrrh flows out, the place is filled with fragrance. … for each one of us is a temple of God, and when we pray we become celebrants of a great mystery.⠀⠀
This is why one of the Fathers of the Church says, very beautifully “ take a censer and cense, because Christ is in your heart from which rises the cry, “Lord Jesus Christ” and elsewhere he says, ⠀
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“when we hear the swing of the censer, let us remember that we are a temple and let us feel in our minds that we are censing Christ., Who is in each of us, and thus let us venerate this tabernacle of the Holy Spirit”⠀
O Word supreme in love, who with the Father and the Spirit hast created all things visible and invisible in Thy wisdom past speech, grant that we may spend the season of the joyful Fast in profound peace.
Matins: Tuesday in Cheesefare Week
This past week of Meatfare and this present week of Cheesefare offers Orthodox Christians a wonderful occasion to clean our pantries of leftover meat, dairy and eggs as we ease into the strictness of the Fast – when, through the effort of Lent, we also clean the pantry of our hearts. During the forty day fast we forgo heavy and clogging meals, seeking instead our nourishment from lighter and more cleansing plant-based sustenance. All of this fasting fare is, of course, fortified with the Lenten services and soul-restorative calories found as the faithful graze within the beautiful spiritual pastures Lent.
Throughout these past weeks, our Mother the Church, has shepherded, taught and nudged the faithful closer and closer to the bounds of the Great Lent. It is through these weeks of preparation that the aspiration of this Great Fast has been made clear once again – that it is not the rigidity of dietary restrictions (to which we are certainly called to adhere), but rather the grace of an inner change of heart.
Genuine fasting has as an essential ingredient the relationships of family and community. Isn’t it pleasant when brothers dwell in unity… we are not saved alone. A wise retired priest told me once that being in family and community can be likened to a satchel of sharp jagged rocks. Through the jostling of life we rub each other, sometimes the wrong way, with our sharp edges. Friction happens – but through time and forgiveness, those rocky edges become smooth and mellowed. Forgiveness Vespers seeks to erode those jagged edges of relationship.
And so it is, that this Sunday, the Orthodox Christian Lenten journey is ushered in with love and forgiveness.
How appropriate that the first flavor of this awesome labor of fasting is found in a feast… the blessed taste of forgiveness – that given and received – during the Vespers of Forgiveness this very weekend. These past weeks of the humility of the Publican, the faithful perseverance of the woman at the well, the coming to his senses of the Prodigal – a return to the Father – these intend to soften hearts.
Great Lent is a walk of joy, an annual journey of the faithful body of Christ.
Does it really come as any great surprise that the faithful rejoice in this Fast with gladness? For truly, to savor even a crumb off of Lenten tables laden with fasting, reminds us that we are blessed, we are blessed, we are so very richly blessed!
O come ye faithful, let us work the words of God in light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, let us cast away from ourselves every unjust writing against our neighbor and not put a stumbling block as an occasion for his falling on the way.
A clear rule handed down by the Fathers is this: stop eating while still hungry and do not continue until you are satisfied.
Saint John Cassian, Philokalia, Vol. 1 Faber & Faber, 1986, p.74
This fasting is in regard to food. Living in an age in which man much too easily lives for the sake of exterior effects, we can be fooled into thinking that fasting from food should be sufficient for spiritual growth. But in the holy Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ says, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come….all these evil things,… and they defile a man.” (Mark 7:21-23) Here the Savior teaches us that most important is the purification from within of our heart and soul. Fasting of soul is the defeat of egotism, the renunciation sins and the abstention from passions. It is a a humble realization within ourselves emulating the example of Saint John the Baptist, the greatest man born frogwoman and the greatest faster. He says, He [Christ] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30) In order to receive Christ in our hearts… we must work to destroy all that separates us from Him. We have the means close at hand to accomplish this”
repentance and sincere Confession, which are the hyssop which makes our souls whiter than snow (Psalm 50:7)
love of God and fellow creatures who are made in the image of God” this is the great commandment of God, making us like Him Who is true Love
charity, which covers a multitude of sins and changes the vanity of this world into eternal glory
spiritual hymns and pure prayer, which is the center from which all good deeds draw their power and strength
and above all, participation at Holy Liturgy and receiving of Holy Communion
When we join these efforts to bodily fasting, then our fast truly becomes a knitting together of ascetically effort in both body and soul. All these things we must accomplish with joy of heart as the Lord teaches us when He says: “but when you fast, anent your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:17-18)
Cover a man who stumbles, so long as your receive no harm from him, and give him encouragement; then your Master’s lovingkindness will bear you up. Support with a word the infirm, and those who are grieved at heart, in so far as this lies within your hands, then the Right Hand that sustains all will also sustain you. Through the toil of prayer and the anguish of your heart commune with those who are grieved of heart, and the Source of mercy will be opened to your petitions.
The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian
Homily Two : On Thankfulness to God, In Which There Are Also Essential Elementary Lessons
The Thanksgiving of the receiver incites the Giver to give gifts greater than the first. He that returns no thanks in small matters is a dissembler and dishonest in greater ones also. If a man is ill and he recognizes his ailment, his healing will be easy. If he confesses his pain, he draws nigh its cure. There are many pangs for the unyielding heart, and the patient who resists his physician amplifies his torment. There is no unpardonable sin, save the unrepented one. Nor does any gift remain without addition, save that whites received without thanksgiving.
The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian
Homily Two : On Thankfulness to God, In Which There Are Also Essential Elementary Lessons
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