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April 17, 2007

VT Victims

Our hearty condolences to the bereaving family of the victims of VT massacre. May His presence comfort and console you as you mourn the loss of your dear ones through this tragedy. Words can't bring you enough comfort but our thoughts and prayers could.

May the souls of the dear departed through the mercy of God rest in His lasting peace. Amen

Posted by frleo at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2007

Easter Musings

Due to a technical upgrade, I could not wish you a HAPPY EASTER! However, liturgically we are in the Easter Octave and therefore, "Happy Easter" and may the peace of the Risen Christ and the joy of the holy season be yours.

The Holy Week was a loaded one, both spiritually and emotionally for all those who participated in the services. Partaking in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ in the kairological mode, though we do this in chronological times, was very involving. It's a wonderful way to own up to the Passion, Death and Ressurection of Christ to ourselves.

The Risen Savior is in our midst, having faced all the agonies of humanity in his passion. Jesus is, in His Risen Glory, much closer to us in our humanity. He is "Emmanuel" - God who is with us - through every phase of our lives. As in the Blessing of the Paschal Candle of the Easter Vigil service, we read:

Christ yesterday and today
the Beginning and the end Alpha
and Omega (omega below the cross)
all time belongs to him
and all the ages
to him be glory and power
through every age for ever. Amen

Here's St. Paul's quote of Jesus as the image of the invisible God.How wonderful is the knowledge of this.

10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:10-20)

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May the Lord of our lives bless you during this Easter season and everyday of your life with His own words, "Peace be with you!"

Posted by frleo at 8:27 AM | Comments (0)

April 6, 2007

There is power in the precious blood of the Lamb

Good Friday! Good because Goodness was sacrificed on Calvary to save you and me. There is mercy and grace aplenty for all of us, who are aware of our sinfulness, even those who are not conscious of them. Christ died once and for all. His precious blood was poured out for us. Yes His blood has been upon us to bring us healing and forgiveness.

Hear what St. John Chrysostom has to say on this instance of the soldier who pierced the side of Jesus to check if He was dead. Even at this time, the Lord oozes blood and water and the tradition has it that the soldier's sight was restored. Goodness prevails even in the midst of affliction and suffering.

If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish”, commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors”. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.


If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.


“There flowed from his side water and blood”. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.


Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.

St. John Chrysostom


Posted by frleo at 6:47 PM | Comments (0)

April 5, 2007

Holy Thursday

With tonight's service we begin the Paschal Triduum - three days that mark the crucial moments in the life our Lord - His Passion, Death and Resurrection. Tonight we will have the Maundy Thursday service - Washing of the Feet, The Lord's Supper, The greatest commandment of love. Tonight also is the night that commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders. Great example of serving the Lord and His body - the Church through the ministerial priesthood. These are moments of grace and blessing. Let us participate in them with deep faith. Also the moving ceremony of the stripping of the altar and the church at the end of the service, commemorating the passion of the Lord. Tonight is the only night throughout the world the Eucharist is celebrated and have enough communion in reserve for distribution on Good Friday. On Good Friday there will be no Eucharistic celebration in any corner of the earth, commemorating the singular sacrifice that Christ paid for our sins.

On Good Friday, we commemorate the Lord's death through the devotion of the stations of the Cross at noon, followed by meditations on the last seven words of Jesus and their impact on the lives of individuals, shared through testimonials. After a small lenten lunch, we begin the Good Friday Liturgy that begins with the dramatized version of the passion narrative, then the veneration of the cross and holy communion.

On Holy Saturday, the Easter vigil service will take us through the liturgical celebration of the Paschal candle procession, commemorative of the passage of the Israelites through the red sea, and through the death of Christ, the passage from death to life, darkness to light, mortality to immortality. New fire is blessed from which the paschal candle is lit. This is followed by the Paschal Proclamation that recounts the salvation brought to us by the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This would be followed by the Liturgy of the Word. Then the Liturgy of the Baptismal vows, then the Holy Eucharist. Nothing is more important in the life of a Christian than these three days. So, please make sure to attend these momentous commemoration of our salvation.


Also today, we need to pray for the clergy and the postulants.

I'm requesting your prayers for Jean Chase who was in the ER when I saw her and is now admitted in Washington Regional. She was very much saddened by what the doctors told her and she is not sure if she will make it through to her 87th birthday. Her lungs are becoming more and more incapacitated.

Also, your prayers are requested for Ruth Casey who has had a fall and is recuperating. We need to pray for Glenn Johnston, the father of Audra Johnston who has been in the ER. Let us lift them all up to the Lord and pray for His strength and healing for them all.

Posted by frleo at 9:03 PM | Comments (0)

April 4, 2007

"When I am lifted up..."

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart(Hebrews 12:1-3)
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We gaze on Him who was lifted up on the cross for our sins. Our focus is on Jesus. St. Basil says, " There is one death for the world, and one resurrection from the dead"

There is no one to compare with Jesus and His sacrifice that He underwent on behalf of humanity to save us from sin and restore us back to the freedom of the children of God. This Jesus walked in flesh and blood upon this planet earth, suffered, died and rose again. However one might attempt to claim the mere humanity of Jesus, we cannot forget that He is also the son of God who came down that we might have life and life in its abundance. Yes, our eyes are indeed fixed on the son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

In our own times C.S. Lewis' portrayal of Azlan and its rendition in the movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia" is very evocative of the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of humanity. As one review succinctly puts it, "...the children’s arrival in Narnia had long since been a matter of prophesy, heralding the arrival of a King who would restore the true nature of the land and “save” it’s inhabitants from the bonds of enslavement. It’s not hard to see the parallels here between Azlan and the prophesied arrival of Christ. Similarly Azlan willingly offers himself as a sacrifice to save the life of Edmund, whose character obviously represents not only Judas Iscariot, but the weakness and fallibility of mankind. Much like Christ, Azlan delivers himself into the hands of his enemy of his own volition, in order that he might be sacrificed to “save” Edmund as well as his followers. He is bound, tormented, shorn and then killed on a sacrificial altar, but is resurrected in order to protect his people from death. He also goes to the Witches castle and brings back to life hundreds of his people whom the Witch had killed by turning them to stone and ice.

The holy week, is a reminder of what Christ did for us: He died for us while we were yet sinners, redeeming us from sin and shame. Liturgically, the Holy week brings us this opportunity to realize our sinfulness and reconcile ourselves with God through the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will continue to celebrate and proclaim His salvific acts in the Liturgy, until His second coming. Just as the letter to the Hebrews invites us, "so let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

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April 2, 2007

"Easter message: Christ did not die for sin" - Is that right?

Christ did not die for sin - This is what pretty much all the loveable and all embracing heretic clergy of today would like to trumpet. We've heard this before in another primate's words: 'Jesus is not the only way.' Sadly enough, there is no one to question them or hold them accountable. And there are still followers of these wolves in sheep's clothing. Process theology and its advocates where are you heading?

Read on but don't miss what St. Augustine had to say right below this excerpt.


Easter message: Christ did not die for sin By Jonathan Wynne-Jones., Sunday Telegraph

The Church's traditional teaching of Christ's crucifixion is "repulsive" and "insane", a controversial cleric will claim on the BBC this week.

The Very Rev Jeffrey John, who had to withdraw before taking up an appointment as bishop of Reading in 2003 after it emerged he was in a long-term homosexual relationship, is set to ignite a row over one of the most fundamental tenets of Christian belief.

Clergy who preach this Easter that Christ was sent to earth to die in atonement for the sins of mankind are "making God sound like a psychopath", he will say.

advertisementIn a BBC Radio 4 show, Mr John, who is now Dean of St Albans, urges a revision of the traditional explanation, known as "penal substitution".

Christian theology has taught that because humans have sinned, God sent Christ as a substitute to suffer and die in our place.

"In other words, Jesus took the rap and we got forgiven as long as we said we believed in him," says Mr John. "This is repulsive as well as nonsensical. It makes God sound like a psychopath. If a human behaved like this we'd say that they were a monster."

Mr John argues that too many Christians go through their lives failing to realise that God is about "love and truth", not "wrath and punishment". He offers an alternative interpretation, suggesting that Christ was crucified so he could "share in the worst of grief and suffering that life can throw at us".

But listen to St. Augustine's homily marked for the Monday in Holy Week in the Breviary. We meditated on this tonight during our evening prayer.

The passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the hope of glory and a lesson in patience.

What may not the hearts of believers promise themselves as the gift of God’s grace, when for their sake God’s only Son, co-eternal with the Father, was not content only to be born as man from human stock but even died at the hands of the men he had created?

It is a great thing that we are promised by the Lord, but far greater is what has already been done for us, and which we now commemorate. Where were the sinners, what were they, when Christ died for them? When Christ has already given us the gift of his death, who is to doubt that he will give the saints the gift of his own life? Why does our human frailty hesitate to believe that mankind will one day live with God?

Who is Christ if not the Word of God: in the beginning was the Word, and the Words was with God, and the Word was God? This Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. He had no power of himself to die for us: he had to take from us our mortal flesh. This was the way in which, though immortal, he was able to die; the way in which he chose to give life to mortal men: he would first share with us, and then enable us to share with him. Of ourselves we had no power to live, nor did he of himself have the power to die.

In other words, he performed the most wonderful exchange with us. Through us, he died; through him, we shall live.

The death of the Lord our God should not be a cause of shame for us; rather, it should be our greatest hope, our greatest glory. In taking upon himself the death that he found in us, he has most faithfully promised to give us life in him, such as we cannot have of ourselves.

He loved us so much that, sinless himself, he suffered for us sinners the punishment we deserved for our sins. How then can he fail to give us the reward we deserve for our righteousness, for he is the source of righteousness? How can he, whose promises are true, fail to reward the saints when he bore the punishment of sinners, though without sin himself?

Brethren, let us then fearlessly acknowledge, and even openly proclaim, that Christ was crucified for us; let us confess it, not in fear but in joy, not in shame but in glory.

The apostle Paul saw Christ, and extolled his claim to glory. He had many great and inspired things to say about Christ, but he did not say that he boasted in Christ’s wonderful works: in creating the world, since he was God with the Father, or in ruling the world, though he was also a man like us. Rather, he said: Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ

Let us focus on Christ who suffered for our sins, including our beloved heretics who would stop at nothing, in order to paint a sinless world. For they would love to be loved as they are, even should they wallow in the myres of sin. According to them the commandments of God cause anxiety, so why admit what is sinful!
Father forgive even those who knowingly assault the very economy of salvation, for Christ died for them as well, just as He died for ours. By His stripes we are healed. Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders!



Posted by frleo at 9:53 PM | Comments (0)