The wonder of the Holy Eucharist

 

What the Lord did not endure on the Cross (the breaking of His legs), He submits to now in His sacrifice for His love for you. He permits Himself to be broken into pieces that all may be filled. What is in the chalice is the same as that which flowed from Christ’s side. What is the Bread? Christ’s Body. Not only ought we to see the Lord, we ought to take Him and unite ourselves with Him in the closest union. 

On astrology

The belief in stars is a foolish disbelief against God’s omnipotence and creativity, for God is subjected to the star’s power. 

On voluntary poverty

Let no man then accuse poverty as being the cause of innumerable evils, nor let him contradict Christ, who declared it to be the perfection of virtue, saying, ‘If you will be perfect.’ [Matthew 19:21] For this He both uttered in His words, and showed by His acts, and taught by His disciples. Let us therefore follow after poverty, it is the greatest good to the sober-minded.

Perhaps some of those who hear me, avoid it as a thing of ill omen. I do not doubt it. For this disease is great among most men, and such is the tyranny of wealth, that they cannot even as far as words endure the renunciation of it, but avoid it as of ill omen. Far be this from the Christian’s soul: for nothing is richer than he who chooses poverty of his own accord, and with a ready mind. 

 

God knows

 

If we want to do something but cannot, then before God, Who knows our hearts, it is as if we have done it.  This is true whether the intended action is good or bad. 

Accept the troubles...

St. Nicholas of Myra--December 6

I like to put this out a few days before the feast--feel free to share it with others:

The Real Santa Claus

St. Nicholas Day will soon be here (December 6). I would like to share a resource with you that a friend and I put together a few years ago for an educational purpose. It is an Orthodox presentation on the life of St. Nicholas of Myra, parked on a closed YouTube channel.

The video was produced by myself and a brother in Christ from New Zealand, Frank McDonald, while my family was yet serving the Church in Alaska. As many of you know, our family is now serving the Church in New Hampshire.  I apologize that parts of the presentation are "frozen in time" and credits unfinished.  That said, please enjoy the presentation (just under 10 minutes long). May you find it edifying.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh74DcbSqfk

Because this is a "closed" YouTube channel, you won't find this presentation by searching on YouTube unless you have the link above.   

Please keep in mind it the presentation is only for the sake of edification and education—it gives a historical profile of the “real” Santa Claus. The presentation itself is not for replication and/or sale nor should any profit be made by sharing it with others.  

Wondrous is God in His Saints!

Pres. Candace Schefe



St. John Chrysostom on thanksgiving

Wouldest thou learn words of thanksgiving? Hearken unto the Three Children, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have transgressed. Thou art righteous, O Lord, in all that thou hast done unto us, because thou hast brought all things upon us by a true judgment’ (Prayer of Azariah; Book of Daniel LXX). For to confess one’s own sins, this is to give thanks with confessions unto God: a kind of thing which implies one to be guilty of numberless offenses, yet not to have the due penalty exacted. This man most of all is the giver of thanks.