What does Perichoresis mean?

The Christian understanding of beauty emerges not only naturally, but necessarily, from the Christian understanding of God as a perichoresis of love, dynamic coinherence of the three divine persons, whose life is eternally one of shared regard, delight, fellowship, feasting, and joy. David Bentley Hart from his book The Beauty of the Infinite

Perichoresis is a theological term that first appears in St. Gregory of Nazianzus (330-389) but was explored more by St. John of Damascus (675-749 St. John of Damascus’ Feast Day is today, December 4). It refers to the mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity; God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Perichoresis is the theological term explaining the intimacy and indwelling that the Father and the Son and the Spirit share together.

I and the Father are one. John 10:30

And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Mark 1:11

And the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. Luke 3:22.

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. John 17:21

The subsistences [i.e., the three Persons] dwell and are established firmly in one another. For they are inseparable and cannot part from one another, but keep to their separate courses within one another, without coalescing or mingling, but cleaving to each other. For the Son is in the Father and the Spirit: and the Spirit in the Father and the Son: and the Father in the Son and the Spirit, but there is no coalescence or commingling or confusion. And there is one and the same motion: for there is one impulse and one motion of the three subsistences, which is not to be observed in any created nature. St. John of Damascus Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 1.14

Can We Change the Lord’s Mind?

On Camelback Mountain this morning I sat and prayed over my kid’s schools. It is not something that I normally do but the schools are easily seen and I wanted to pray a bit before hiking down. I have been thinking about interceding with the Lord lately. Especially in light of my friend, Resa, who was at death’s door 2 weeks ago and who is making a recovery, albeit a slow one.

The Hospitality of Abraham

My wife and I had lunch together today and she reminded me of the story about Abraham in Genesis 18. If you have read it before you may remember the hospitality of Abraham as he entertains the Lord and 2 angels before they go to Sodom and Gomorrah to see if the outcry against these cities is warranted.

Based on this passage, Intercession works like this:

• The Lord revealed to Abraham what He was about to do (Genesis 18:17).
• Abraham remained before the Lord (Genesis 18:22).
• Abraham asked the Lord to not do what the Lord was planning to do (Genesis 18:23).
• The Lord said if there were 50 righteous people in Sodom he would not destroy it (Genesis 18:26).
• Abraham petitions the Lord asking Him not to destroy Sodom if there can be found (here is where Abraham and the Lord go back and forth and Abraham keeps arguing for fewer and fewer righteous people) 45, 40, 30, 20 and finally, 10 righteous people in the entire city (Genesis 18:25-32). The angels can only find 4 (Lot, his wife and 2 daughters) that are righteous in these cities. The angels aid Lot and his family in their escape and then the towns, their inhabitants and every living thing in them are destroyed.

Even though the Lord knew in advance that there were fewer then 10 righteous he revealed to Abraham His plan. One might surmise (and some commentators say) that Abraham’s intercession for his kinsman, Lot, aided in Lot’s escape. Abraham was chosen to have a special role (Genesis 12:1-3 where we learn that Abraham is going to be the father of a great nation). But the fact that Abraham was brought into the Lord’s counsel was not solely based on his special role because the Lord continues to reveal Himself unto us, even us.

Do we sometimes hear the voice of the Lord when we intercede for others? And, if we do, can we change the Lord’s mind?

Brethren, Fly

Once the Abbot Macarius, after he had given the benediction to the brethren in the church at Skete, said to them, “Brethren, fly.” One of the elders answered him, “How can we fly further than this, seeing we are here in the desert?” Then Macarius placed his finger on his mouth and said, “Fly from this.” So saying, he entered his cell and shut the door.”

You want to hear my confession? I have an iPhone. This technological wonder is supposed to save me time so that I can live better. But my iPhone begs for attention and with it my life is faster and more hectic than ever. It is difficult to be still when you can be gotten all the time. there is no putting your finger on your mouth when there is an iPhone in your hand. It is difficult to be still when we are talking all the time. To be still is to be quiet, to be calm. But we do too much to be still. So this verse keeps coming up for me (and maybe for you too): Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10. So, without further delay, I am instituting 2 rules for slowing down and 2 rules for being quiet.

Two rules for slowing down:

1. do less
2. repeat # 1

Two rules for being quiet:

1. speak less
2. repeat #1

I have written a post about stillness called My Holy Mountain.

A Simpler Life

Whereas the Lord tells us to sell, we buy instead and accumulate. – St. Cyprian of Carthage (c 210-258)

I got a second chance at life. I am not going to waste it on a big house and a new car every year and a bunch of friends who want a big house and a new car every year. – Larry Darrell in the Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham

In order to live a simpler life:

1. Do not buy books about living a simpler life: There is nothing better than going to a bookstore and seeing all the $20 books about simplifying your life in 7 easy steps. I just want to laugh a little too loudly that there is an entire marketing machine cranking out products that we feel compelled to buy about simplification. The simple thing is to not buy a book about scaling back. Thinking about the quote above led me to search “simplify” at Amazon.com. I narrowed the search to just the book department. The search engine found 201,884 results. Ha! Surely by now someone has written the book on simplifying and we can stop publishing all those other books.

2. There is no need to subscribe to a magazine about organizing your magazines: “Real Simple,” a magazine geared towards “busy women looking to make life easier,” began in March 2000 and is a huge hit. The magazine currently reaches 8.6 million readers every month. It is clear that people want to simplify, to live simpler lives. But a magazine subscription about having a more organized kitchen and closet is not enough.

There are 2 battles we must win in order to live simpler lives:

1. We need to own less
2. We need to want less

It is the fasting season of preparation for the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s also fast from wasting time, money and food. We need to share all of our stuff and let go of our possessions. A practical piece of advice I picked up somewhere is that we should give away everything that we have not worn or used in the past year. The first step on the Ladder of Divine Ascent is to renounce a worldly life for a heavenly one. The second rung on the ladder is detachment. Being free from our attachment to things and from the opinions of others puts us the path to a simple life.

What do you think?

God Loves Him Because He is Lovable

“One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Jesus from the Gospel of Luke 18:18-27 (See entire reading below)

This rich man is not interested in God. He is interested in doing the right rules perfectly. He wants to test Jesus not try to know him, not depend on Him.

The one thing the rich man doesn’t realize, the one thing he doesn’t have on board, is the fact that God is already loving him. Already God loves him – not because he keeps all the commandments but because he is lovable. Jesus asks him to give it all up. In order that he might remove what stands in his way from getting to God. Jesus wants us to know everything in communion with God. So Jesus pushes on the false place in the man’s life and says get rid of it.

The rich man can’t do it. Wealth was seen then as it is now in some circles – even so-called Christian circles – as a sign of favor from God.

Jesus is turning that way of thinking upside down.

At that time, a man came testing Jesus and asking, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother.’” And the man said, “All these I have observed from my youth.” And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the man heard this he became sad, for he was very rich. Jesus, seeing him sad, said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said “Who then can be saved?” And He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. St. Luke 18:18-27

Thankful to have discovered TWLOHA

Went to bed last night thankful for my family and my life. Last thing I read yesterday was about a non-profit called To Write Love on Her Arms. I want you to know about it. These movements: OCF, TWLOHA, and Invisible Children have captured the Gospel and my imagination. Here is their vision statement. Let me know what you think.

Thanksgiving: The Last Sermon of Fr. Alexander Schmemann

The Last Sermon of Fr. Alexander Schmemann preached on Thanksgiving Day in 1983. Father Alexander Schmemann celebrated the divine liturgy for the last time on Thanksgiving Day. This was particularly appropriate since Father Alexander had devoted his whole life to teaching, writing and preaching about the Eucharist (Greek word defined as “thanksgiving”). At the conclusion of the liturgy, Father Alexander took from his pocket a short written sermon, in the form of a prayer, which he proceeded to read. This was a strange occurrence since Father never wrote his liturgical homilies, but delivered them extemporaneously. These were his words, which proved to be the last he would preach.

SERMON FOR THANKSGIVING

Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation and eternal joy.

Thank You, O Lord, for having accepted this Eucharist, which we offered to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and which filled our hearts with the joy, peace and righteousness of the Holy Spirit.

Thank You, O Lord, for having revealed Yourself unto us and given us the foretaste of Your Kingdom.

Thank You, O Lord, for having united us to one another in serving You and Your Holy Church.

Thank You, O Lord, for having helped us to overcome all difficulties, tensions, passions temptations and restored peace, mutual love and joy in sharing the communion of the Holy Spirit.

Thank You, O Lord, for the sufferings You bestowed upon us, for they are purifying us from selfishness and reminding us of the “one thing needed;” Your eternal Kingdom.

Thank You, O Lord, for having given us this country where we are free to worship You.

Thank You, O Lord, for this school, where the name of God is proclaimed.

Thank You, O Lord, for our families: husbands wives and, especially, children who teach us how to celebrate Your holy Name in joy, movement and holy noise.

Thank You, O Lord, for everyone and everything.

Great are You, O Lord, and marvelous are Your deeds, and no word is sufficient to celebrate Your miracles.

Lord, it is good to be here! Amen.

Orthodox Priest Murdered Last Week

(Moscow Times) – Hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday to pay their respects to Father Daniil Sysoyev, a Russian Orthodox priest famous for his missionary work and criticism of Islam, after he was gunned down in his church last week.

Church insiders said the attack, which happened late Thursday in southern Moscow, could have been the work of radical Islamists, who had regularly threatened him for preaching to Muslims. Law enforcement officials said they believed religion was the primary motive in the killing.

The 35-year-old Sysoyev, who led the St. Thomas Church on Kantemirovskaya Ulitsa, was shot point-blank four times by an unidentified man wearing a medical face mask, police said. He was severely wounded and died in an ambulance.

Vladimir Strelbitsky, a 41-year-old regent who was nearby during the attack, was also shot and remains hospitalized in serious condition.

Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, Interfax reported that the killer called Sysoyev twice shortly before the shooting. Viktor Kupriyanchuk, the church’s elder, told Kommersant that the killer burst into the church shouting, “Where’s Sysoyev?” When Sysoyev stepped forward from behind the altar, the assailant shot him several times and attempted to flee.

The shooter encountered and wounded Strelbitsky on his way out of the church, Kupriyanchuk said.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said “witness accounts were collected indicating that Father Daniil had long received threats because of his religious activity.”

In February 2008, Sysoyev said on television that he had received “10 threats via e-mail that I shall have my head cut off,” unless he stopped preaching to Muslims. “As I see it, it is a sin not to preach to Muslims.”

Called to the Holy Mountain: The Monks of Mount Athos

Photograph by Travis Dove

By Robert Draper, National Geographic

The holy peninsula of Mount Athos reaches 31 miles out into the Aegean Sea like an appendage struggling to dislocate itself from the secular corpus of northeastern Greece. For the past thousand years or so, a community of Eastern Orthodox monks has dwelled here, purposefully removed from everything except God. They live only to become one with Jesus Christ. Their enclave—crashing waves, dense chestnut forests, the specter of snowy-veined Mount Athos, 6,670 feet high—is the very essence of isolation.Living in one of the peninsula’s 20 monasteries, dozen cloisters, or hundreds of cells, the monks are detached even from each other, reserving most of their time for prayer and solitude. In their heavy beards and black garb—worn to signify their death to the world—the monks seem to recede into a Byzantine fresco, an ageless brotherhood of ritual, acute simplicity, and constant worship, but also imperfection. There is an awareness, as one elder puts it, that “even on Mount Athos we are humans walking every day on the razor’s edge.”

They are men—exclusively. According to rigidly enforced custom, women have been forbidden to visit Mount Athos since its earliest days—a position born out of weakness rather than spite. As one monk says, “If women were to come here, two-thirds of us would go off with them and get married.” Mount Athos Photo Gallery from National Geographic

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

The Lord spoke this parable: “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” As He said this, Jesus called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” St. Luke. (12:16-21)

This man did not include God in his plans whatsoever. He is self absorbed just count the number of times “I,” “my” and “myself” are repeated over and over again in these few short verses! In verses 17 and 18 alone, these words appear at least nine times.

God is nowhere and mean’s nothing to this man. The man wants to be in complete control, and does not reflect any trust in God. He is distracted by what he thinks are his possessions.

The farmer gave no thought to the needs of others. He was thinking only of himself. He had no regard for God, and he had no regard for God’s will which is to love God and his neighbor. He had no desire to share his abundance with anyone. All of this abundance was his and he was in control.

Leo Tolstoy once wrote a story about a farmer who was not satisfied with his lot. He wanted more of everything. One day he received a novel offer. For a small sum, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day. The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown.

Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace. By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point. He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run; knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost.

As the sun began to set, he came within sight of the finish line. Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared. He immediately collapsed and died.

Afterwards, his friends dug a grave. It was six feet long and three feet wide. The title of Tolstoy’s story was: “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”

We must remember that everything we have is from God and is God’s gift to us.