Downtown Pastor

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Wisdom of the Eastern Fathers, Lent 02/20/2018

“Being bountiful and full of love, God awaits with great patience the repentance of every sinner, and he celebrates the return of the sinner with celestial rejoicing… when one sees this generosity and patience [one may] make such generosity an excuse for indifference, adding sin to sin, offense to offense, laziness to laziness.… And fall into such transgression he is not able to recover himself.” St. Makarios of Egypt “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:7 Psalm 32 Lord, bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors. If it may not, give us strength to encounter what is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving to one another. As the clay to the potter, as the windmill to the wind, as children of

Wisdom of the Eastern Fathers, Lent 02/19/2018

Prayer for the Day: Through every minute of this day, through every day of all this week, through every week of all this year, through all the years of all this life, be with me, Lord! So shall the days and weeks and years be threaded on a golden cord. And all draw on with sweet accord unto your fullness, Lord, that so, when time is past, by grace I may at last, be with you, Lord. John Oxenham Psalm of the Day: # 31 “Even if you are not what you should be, you should not despair. It is bad enough you have sinned; why do you wrong God by regarding him in your ignorance as powerless? Is he, who for your sake created the great universe that you behold, incapable of saving your soul? Repent; and he will receive your repentance as he accepted that of the prodigal son.” -St. Peter of Damaskos “…while he was still far off, his father saw him and

Wisdom of the Eastern Fathers, Lent 02/17/2018

“If from the start we had wanted to keep the commandments and to remain as we were when baptized, we would not have fallen into so many sins of have needed the trials and tribulations of repentance. If we fail to repent, inevitably we will depart… into agelong punishment, more by our own free choice than against our will. Yet God did not create us for wrath but for salvation.” -St. Peter of Damaskos For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 Let no riches make me ever forget myself, no poverty make me to forget you; let no hope or fear, no pleasure or pain, no accident without, no weakness within, hinder or discompose my duty, or turn me from the ways of your commandments. Let your Spirit dwell in me forever, make my soul just and charitable, full of honesty and of religion, resolute and constant in holy purposes. Jere

Wisdom of the Eastern Fathers, Lent 02/16/2018

“We will not be condemned in the age to be because we have sinned, since we were given a mutable and unstable nature. But we will be pun-ished if, after sinning, we did not repent… for we have been given the power [and the time] to repent…. Not that God is angry with us: he is angry with evil. [God] is beyond passion and vengefulness….” -St. Theognostos The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Psalm 103:8 Psalm of the Day: # 31 Lord God, let us keep your Scripture in mind and meditate on them day and night, persevering in prayer, always on watch. We beg you, Lord, to give us real knowledge of what we read and to show us not only how to understand it, but how to put it into practice, So that we may deserve to obtain spiritual grace, enlightened by the law of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lor

Wisdom of the Eastern Fathers, Lent 02/15/18

“The moon as it waxes and wanes illustrates our condition: sometimes we do what is right, sometimes we sin and then through repentance return to a holy life. The… one who sins is not destroyed, just as the size of the moon does not diminish, but only its light. Through repentance we regain our true splendor, just as the moon after the period of waning clothes itself once more in its full light.” -St. John of Karpathos Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrecttion and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.” John 11:25 Psalm of the Day: #37 O Lord, let me not henceforth desire health or life except to spend them for you, with you and in you. You alone know what is good for me ; do what seems best to you. Give to me or take from me; conform my will to yours; and grant that with humble and perfect submission and in holy confidence I may receive the orders of you

Becoming Different in our Perceptions and Reactions

Perception and reaction. That’s what I write about this week. Perception of self and of others. Reaction to self and to others. Are religious people those who automatically perceive themselves as being good/forgiven/holy, and practice discernment through which they perceive others as bad/needing-to-be-forgiven/not-quite-as-holy? Perhaps to be religious is to be someone who knows they may be forgiven, but they are lacking in the good/holy department, but being religious means we manage others’ perceptions of us so that others are convinced we have goodness to go along with our forgiven status? How should we see ourselves, and how should we see others? And how does that influence the way we react to ourselves and to others? Don’t you find that we are a reactive people? Quick to react with judgment, and harshness. Quick to believe the worst in someone else. Shouldn’t something in our religious practice change that? As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sit

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