I am happy to now have these blogs on my blog list. One is Dom Donald's Blog and the other is Enlarging the Heart. Thanks, men of God. Links for these blogs are on blog list.
Second Reading From the writings of Saint Cyril of Alexandria (The Adoration and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth ill: PG 68, 269-292)
Christ became a holocaust and a peace offering
When Christ saw the human race being destroyed by death he became our advocate with the Father. He offered himself for us and of his own free will submitted to death, confounding the destroyer by saying the sin was his. This does not mean that he himself had committed it, but that as the Scriptures say: He bore our sins and suffered for our sake, and he was taken for a criminal. He was innocent, but for our sake he became accursed. David said the shepherd ought to suffer rather than the sheep, and Christ like a good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep.
On the way to perfection, it is imperative that we understand that our perfection is in Christ, with Christ and through Christ.
On the way to perfection, it is imperative that we understand that our perfection is in Christ, with Christ and through Christ.
In obedience to God's command blessed David set up an altar in the place where he had seen the angel of destruction stop, and he offered God holocausts and peace offerings. By this place, which was a threshing floor, you must understand the Church, for it is there that death was halted and overcome, there that the destroyer stayed his once terrible and devastating hand. For the Church is the dwelling place of him who is life by his very nature - that is, of Christ.
I love this last line, as we see that the Church is where we work out our perfection: orthodoxy first, then purgation, then illumination, the unity.
By way of simile or comparison we call the Church a threshing floor, because there are gathered, like sheaves of wheat, those cut off from the life of this world by the word of holy reapers, that is, of the apostles and evangelists. Then, when all useless and unnecessary thoughts and actions, which may be thought of as chaff, have been removed, they are to be carried up like winnowed grain into the courts above in the heavenly Jerusalem, into what we may call the granary of the Lord.
If we are watching television, the impetus for contemplation is being taken over by nonsense. I have written about this before. You will not be perfect in the world unless you make a concerted effort to be counter-cultural. All Those useless thoughts PREVENT us from being purified.
Sadly, many Christians are living a half-life of holiness. They act without God's power. When I finally realized that most of my good works were USELESS AND WITHOUT MERIT, simply because I was working out of my own power and not God's that was a huge breakthrough.
I love this last line, as we see that the Church is where we work out our perfection: orthodoxy first, then purgation, then illumination, the unity.
By way of simile or comparison we call the Church a threshing floor, because there are gathered, like sheaves of wheat, those cut off from the life of this world by the word of holy reapers, that is, of the apostles and evangelists. Then, when all useless and unnecessary thoughts and actions, which may be thought of as chaff, have been removed, they are to be carried up like winnowed grain into the courts above in the heavenly Jerusalem, into what we may call the granary of the Lord.
If we are watching television, the impetus for contemplation is being taken over by nonsense. I have written about this before. You will not be perfect in the world unless you make a concerted effort to be counter-cultural. All Those useless thoughts PREVENT us from being purified.
Sadly, many Christians are living a half-life of holiness. They act without God's power. When I finally realized that most of my good works were USELESS AND WITHOUT MERIT, simply because I was working out of my own power and not God's that was a huge breakthrough.
Christ asked his holy apostles: Do you not say: "In four months it will be harvest time"? But look, I tell you, look at the fields: they are already white and ready for harvesting. Already the reaper is receiving his wages, he is gathering in a harvest for eternal life. On another occasion he said: The harvest is plentiful, but the la borers are few. You must therefore beg the Lord of the harvest to send people out to reap it.
What a waste! Unless you work with and in Christ, not on your own steam but after purgation and in grace, people will not be saved through your efforts.
What a waste! Unless you work with and in Christ, not on your own steam but after purgation and in grace, people will not be saved through your efforts.
Now as I understand it, the harvest Christ spoke of is a spiritual one, namely, the great multitude of those who would one day believe in him. The holy reapers are those who have in their minds and on their tongues the word of God, which is living and active, and cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword, piercing to the meeting place of soul and spirit, to the innermost recesses of our being.
Projects, programs, new ministries and plans do not save people. The Holy Spirit does and either we cooperate by allowing purgation to happen, or our labors are in vain. Yes, Christ can work DESPITE our lack of holiness, but how sad that the fullness of power which is possible does not happen.
Projects, programs, new ministries and plans do not save people. The Holy Spirit does and either we cooperate by allowing purgation to happen, or our labors are in vain. Yes, Christ can work DESPITE our lack of holiness, but how sad that the fullness of power which is possible does not happen.
Christ purchased the spiritual threshing floor which is the Church for fifty shekels: in other words, he paid for it dearly. He gave himself for the Church, he set up an altar within it, and since he was both the priest and the sacrifice, he offered himself as though he were the beast that treads out the grain, and he became a holocaust and a peace offering.
Can we do anything less? If single people understand that the monastery and convents are short-cuts to perfection, would they not line up to get in?
Bernard had 700 monks at the height of Clairvaux. Where are these men now-the heroes of our generations?
To be continued....
Can we do anything less? If single people understand that the monastery and convents are short-cuts to perfection, would they not line up to get in?
Bernard had 700 monks at the height of Clairvaux. Where are these men now-the heroes of our generations?
To be continued....