Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
thanksgiving is
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” – Henry David Thoreau
Father Alexander Schmemann of blessed memory says that thanksgiving and joy are the essential elements of a life in Christ and Saint John of Kronstadt says that the soul involuntarily longs to praise God. This blessed gift is already present within each us but requires tending and nurture.
To give thanksgiving is to bless and also to love, for when we give thanks we return and offer back to God what He has bestowed to us.
Gratitude is fertilizer to the soil of prayer germinating seeds of hope, patience in tribulation, and a tissue blessing tears.
Thanksgiving is Eukharistia and seeks not to be right but rather righteousness and it is yielding and forgiving; grounded in reality.
Thanksgiving is healing and the candlelight of vigil. It rejoices with those who rejoice and mourns with those who mourn (Romans 12:35). It seeks no glory but glorifies.
Offering thanks gives much peace to the present moment, and cultivates wonder at the fragrant act of a costly oil of spikenard, poured upon and anointing the feet of Jesus.
and that’s what Christmas is about
Christmas is all about God’s gift of unselfish love, Christ’s gift of Himself to us.
Vigen Guroian
little lent
“In the earliest Christian tradition, the Cross that bore Christ is the Tree of Life that, long hidden within the earth, sprang up from the rock of Golgotha. Every tree that I plant and that I grow in my garden reminds me that the cross is my redemption, that the reward from my agony in the garden is the blossom of an everlasting rose.”
Vigen Gurioan
From the Cross Christ gave thanks.
Eukharistia.
He blessed it.
Life calls unto Life and Deep to deep leading us forward on our little Lent into Nativity.
Temperatures for many are dropping and we hope for beautiful snow and frost to blanket the earth. Give us a white Nativity! Yet do not be fooled by exterior seasons of weather – no matter how cold. For the crystalline silver-white cold of winter melts into spring before the interiorly warm hidden beating heart vigil candles of Orthodox Christian pilgrims preparing whole hearts yes, our whole beings to receive the cherished promised God-man-babe, in Whom we all live and move and have our being.
kitcheri
With prayer and fasting in the Lenten spring, the Christian clears the self’s soil of stony sin and makes rooms within for the birth within of the pierced heart and bleeding flesh of Jesus. “A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26) Our love and labor along with God’s grace can make even the poorest stony soil grow round red beets, sweet hearts of flesh. Vigen Guroian – Inheriting Paradise : Meditations on Gardening
Healing foods : tonight I am making my family an Indian dish called Kitchari – pronounced kitch-r-ree. It is fast friendly, and aside from that it is an alkalizing nutrient rich meal which is so easy to digest and brings balance to the body. It is very good for anyone suffering intestinal discomfort. It is traditionally vegetarian, but one can use chicken or bone broth instead of vegetable broth.
KITCHARI
1 cup basmati rice – rinsed
1 cup mung bean dal (split yellow) 6 cups fresh organic spinach
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon cumin seed
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon Celtic sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 inch piece fresh peeled minced ginger
4-6 cups water, vegetable broth or homemade bone broth
3 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil
1 can coconut milk
Preparation
Soak Mung Dal overnight. This makes them easier to digest. .
Place ghee and seeds in large skillet over medium heat. Once seeds start to pop and are fragrant add remaining spices and ginger.
Add rice and beans stirring to coat. Do this quickly to avoid burning. .
Add liquid (bone broth, veggie stock and/or water)
Bring to a boil and lower heat. Co we with lid and cook for 45-60 minutes. .
Add spinach and coconut milk. .
Stir to wilt spinach. Add salt and stir. .
This recipe makes 4-6 servings.
The lentil and rice combination makes for a complete protein. It stabilizes blood sugar and helps the body detoxify. It is so easy to digest that it soothes the intestinal wall.
fasting or feasting?
“The more deeply we grow into the psalms and the more often we pray them as our own,
the more simple and rich will our prayer become.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Today begins for Orthodox Christians our preparations toward the Nativity and it is such a gratitude that psalter prayer groups begin today in countless Orthodox Churches and social media groups. Especially for moms, between this weekend and Nativity most everything becomes a blur. If you have kids there are lots of Christmas concerts and pageants and festivities that all require their share of running around and planning and time. Each one of them is a joy – but if we’re honest, most people find that need for balance, focus and silence catches up with them because there is so much to do and it all just blends together.
Those holiday hectivities (I just made that word up) is one reason I am so fortunate that for the past many many years I have been with a local Psalter Prayer group formed by an extraordinary group of prayerful women – I’ve learned so much from them.
One thing in particular I have learned is that the whole body of us is so much greater than the sum of our persons. That is because when we start praying the Kathismas on the 15th the entire psalter along with our individual intentions and commemorations will be offered daily. That is a mighty thing.
Praying a Kathisma is about twenty minutes that often passes so quickly, one feels they have barely begun.
What else I have learned from these prayer warriors is that on those days when I fail in my prayers I know that I have been born on the prayers of others.
It’s the beginning of the Nativity Fast, most of us are having some combination of veggies and beans for the next forty days, and yet feasting on the Psalms we lack nothing. May this Nativity Season be blessed and bountiful for you and for all of us!
book ends
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It is a fearful thing to hate whom God has loved.
To look upon another, his weaknesses, his sins, his defects,
is to look upon one who is suffering.
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Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
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always choose kind
From kindness, people see things entirely differently.
Saint Ambrose
optina elders
the middle way
Be humble and you will never be disturbed.
It is very difficult in practice.
Mother Teresa
just good
“and they told about the things that happened on the road, and how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread” (Luke 24:35) . . . Or in the simple gift of coffee and a donut.
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This summer I went on vacation with my dad for the first time in 40 years, but that’s not what this blog post is about. It’s about the enormous power of kindness. My dad had two long days of driving from Florida, 400 miles each – to get to us on the beaches of the Carolinas. He was exhausted when he arrived but told us over dinner that when he went to pay at the last rest stop for his coffee & donut the cashier said that the gentleman in front of him (an African American man) had already paid for his order.
My dad knew his appearance, because they had chatted briefly in line. He hurried from the register to look for the kind stranger to give thanks but found that he had already left.
Gone.
I was so overjoyed to hear that, in his absence my dad thanked God for the man, the coffee, the donut and the gift. ❤️ The next morning I read the scripture above in my daily readings and it brought to mind my dad’s encounter.
To be honest, the whole story had me almost crying but we were in a restaurant, so I kept it in check…. But I asked my dad if the gentleman left him a card with a scripture verse – because our local Christian radio has the “Drive thru Difference”.
You pay for the person behind you but leave the card that says someone cares and has a scripture verse – but nothing. So it was just out of the pure goodness of his heart that he did it.
No promotions – no gimmicks – no recognition.
Just good – uplifting – kind.
Grace working in the lives of ordinary people.
gladsomelife.com 