illumined tears

Leave a comment April 4, 2015 nourishinggrace

“Jesus wept” (John 11:35)

such is His his heartfelt Love for you and for me

displayed

“We understand that it is because He wept, because He loved His friend Lazarus that Jesus had the power of calling him back to life. The power of resurrection is not a divine “power in itself”, but the power of love – or rather love as power.

God is Love and Love is Life.

Love creates Life.

It is Love that weeps at the grave and it is Love that restores life.

This is the meaning of the divine tears of Jesus. In them love is at work again – recreating, redeeming, restoring the life of man: Lazarus! Come forth!”

Father Alexander Schmemman

the heart of the fast

Leave a comment March 11, 2015 nourishinggrace

Fasting, in the Orthodox understanding, includes more than abstinence from certain types of food. It implies prayer, silence, and internal disposition of mind, an attempt to be charitable, kind, and – in one word – spiritual. “Brethren, while fasting bodily, let us also fast spiritually.”

Father Alexander Schmemman

Great Lend : A School of Repentance

It’s Meaning for Orthodox Christians

great lent and renewal

Leave a comment March 5, 2015 nourishinggrace

“We must always pray. But Lent is the time of an increase of prayer and also of its deepening. The simplest way is, first, to add the Lenten prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian to our private morning and evening prayers. Then, it is good and profitable to set certain hours of the day for a short prayer: this can be done “internally”—at the office, in the car, everywhere. The important thing here is to remember constantly that we are in Lent, to be spiritually “referred” to its final goal: renewal, penitence, closer contact with God.”

Father Alexander Schmemman

Great Lent: A School of Repentance

Its Meaning for Orthodox Christians

lenten pantry

Leave a comment February 28, 2015 nourishinggrace

“it is important to know that the Church considers

the psalms to be an essential spiritual food

for the Lenten season”

Father Alexander Schmemann

Great Lent: A School of Repentance Its Meaning for Orthodox Christians

“…no soul can exist without God, without His Son,

without His Spirit. God is my being, my breath,

my light, my strength, my drink, my food.

He carries me as a mother

carries her infant in her arms.

More than this. Carrying me, my soul and body,

He dwells in me, and is united to me.”