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| Sanctuary Lamp glow and flickering Cleft in the Log (Cleft in the Rock, Moses,Elijah) |
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Last
day of January
Thursday
of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
MASS
Alleluia,
alleluia! You will shine in the world like
bright stars because you are offering
it the word of life. AIleluia!
• A lamp is to be put on a lamp-stand, The amount you measure out is the amount you
will be given .•
A
reading from
the
holy Gospel according to Mark 4:21-25
JESUS
SAID TO his disciples, "Would you bring in a lamp
to put it under a tub or under the bed? Surely you will put it on
the lamp-stand?
For there is nothing hidden but it
must be disclosed, nothing kept
secret except to be brought to light.
If
anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this." ...
MEDITATION OF THE DAY
Kindling
Our Lamp
God
is fire and he is so called by all
the inspired Scripture (cf. He 12:29).
The
soul of each of us is a lamp.
Now
a lamp is wholly in darkness, even
though it be filled with oil or tow or other combustible matter, until it
receives fire and is kindled.
So
too the soul, though it may seem to be adorned with all virtues, yet does not
receive the fire-in other words, has
not received the divine nature and light-and
is still unkindled and dark and its
works are uncertain.
All
things must be tested and manifested by the light (cf. Ep 5:13).
The
man whose sours lamp is still in
darkness, that is, untouched by the divine fire, stands the more in need of a guide with a shining torch, who
will discern his actions.
As
he has compassion for the faults he reveals in confession he will straightway
straighten out whatever is crooked in his actions.
Just
as he who walks in the night cannot avoid stumbling, so
he who has not yet seen the divine light
cannot avoid falling into sin.
As
Christ says, "If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because
he sees this light.
But
if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because
he has not the light in him"
(In 11:9- 10).
When
he said "in him", he meant the divine and immaterial light, for no one can possess the
physical light in himself.
SAINT
SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN +1022
(5 customer reviews) Amazon com Book Description
Father George Maloney in his introduction to this volume focuses directly on the special importance of St. Symeon and on how similar the religious situation of his era is to our own. "Concretely, the battle of two opposing views of theology centered around St. Symeon and his mystical apophatic approach of the experiencing of God immanently present to the individual, as opposed to the "head trip" scholastic theology as represented by Archbishop Stephen of Nicomedia, the official theologian at the court of Constantinople. Stephen represented the abstract, philosophical type of theologizing while Symeon strove to restore theology to its pristine mystical tendency as a wisdom infused by the Holy Spirit into the Christian after he had been thoroughly purified through a rigorous asceticism and a state of constant repentance."
This great spiritual master of Eastern Christianity was an abbot, spiritual director of renown, theologian and important church reformer. These Discourses which form the central work of his life were preached by St. Symeon to his monks during their morning Matins ritual. They treat such basic spiritual themes as repentance, detachment, renunciation, the works of charity, impassiblity, remembrance of death, sorrow for sins, the practice of God's commandments, mystical union with the indwelling Trinity, faith and contemplation.
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