Pascha the Passover of the World

"The Church is the entrance into the risen life of Christ. It is communion in life eternal. Joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.  It is the expectation of the day without evening of the Kingdom. Of the fulfillment of all things and all life in Christ. In Christ death itself has become an act of life; for he has filled it with himself with his love and his light. And if I make this new life of Christ my own; mine this hunger and thirst for the kingdom, mine this expectation of Christ, mine the certitude that Christ is life then my very death will be an act of communion with life. For neither life nor death can separate us from the love of Christ. I do not know how and when the fulfillment will come. I do not know when all things will be consummated in Christ. I know nothing about the whens and the how's. But I do know that in Christ this great passage the Pascha the passover of the world has begun. That the light of the world comes to us in the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit. For Christ is risen and life reigns."

-Alexander Schmemann in For the Life of the World

2 No's 1 Yes and Eschatology!

" When I die you can write my immemorian in one brief paragraph. You can say that my vision consisted in 2 No's 1 Yes and the Kingdom of God (eschatology). The first No is to secularism in all it's forms. To any attempt to define man and the world without reference to God. The second No is to religion. By this I mean religion as one part of life. One sacred compartment as opposed to all the rest considered as profane and worldly. Christ did not come to bring religion. Christianity is not religion. Christ brought the Kingdom of God. The righteousness the peace the joy in the Holy Spirit. This is my yes. Yes to Christ and the Church. Yes to Christ's Church understood not as an institution or an organization or an agency of any sort. However helpful and laudable it's purposes. But Yes to the church as the sacramental presence in this world of the eternal life of the world to come. Yes to the whole of God's creation. To all of Life. As found and fulfilled in it's God given substance in Christ and in the Church." 

- Father Alexander Schmemann

The Glorious Mystery of The Descent of the Holy Spirit

"and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4)

Within this Mystery the veil that has so long shrouded the trinity has been pulled back. With the descent of the Holy Spirit we the Church welcome the appearance of the blessed and undivided Holy Trinity in it's fullness. We have a clear picture of the Father sending; through the Son the Holy Spirit; Paraclete, Advocate, Consoler, and "Spirit of truth" (John 16:13). As our Paraclete he calls us to remember the Risen and Ascended Lord: "the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26). As our Advocate The Holy Spirit teaches us Christ's truth "the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me" (John 15:26).  Finally as our Consoler the Holy Spirit opens our hearts to wholly welcome the truth. 

As the "other tongues" suggest the incommunicable language of the Trinity has now become a human language of prayer available to each member of the Church. St. Paul himself announces the special gift that comes with the grace of Pentecost: "When we cry 'Abba Father!' it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:15). When we remember that the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to communicate with God, then we recognize the possibility of sharing that communion with others.  It is through the now fulfilled and revealed love shared by the Holy Trinity we are reminded of Christ's wish "that they may be one" (John 17 :11). This plan of love, which was conceived by the Father and realized by the Son victorious over death, continually unfolds under the impulse of the Holy Spirit who leads "to all truth" (John 16:13). While contemplating this Glorious descent of the Holy Spirit  we are given an occasion to thank God for his grace, and to recall that which unites us in divine truth. 

The Glorious Mystery of the Ascenscion

"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19).

Here we have the very beginning of the public ministry of the Church. Christ's physical body returns to heaven and his mystical body (the church) is established on earth. At the ascension the disciples witnessed Christ pass from their visible sight. No longer will he remain present among them. In the same moment the disciples learn that they must now become witnesses to his presence throughout the world. Christ has entrusted his message to his church; which by the the power of the Holy Spirit will preach and manifest "the mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him"(Acts 2:22) " to the entire world. However Christ has not left us to the cleverness of ourselves to win the the hearts of men, rather he "consequently is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb 7:25). 

While this glorious mystery celebrates the absence of Christ's presence in the world, it also celebrates the presence of Christ in the Church of faith and sacraments. The visible presence of Christ has now passed to his Church and the sacraments. The most precious gift that the ascended Christ offers to his church is the bread of heaven itself. The mystery of the ascension prepares the Church to contemplate the blessed Eucharist. In this blessed sacrament we venerate the real presence of Christ, even as we struggle in faith the absence of his visible appearance. That which the eyes of our bodies cannot see of the visible Christ, the eyes of faith behold in the sacrament of Eucharist. The sacraments are not just signs but rather they are "sacred realities". Our Holy Communion with the body and blood of Christ develops unity and charity within the church, and in these gifts  we experience the very presence of our saviour who has gone to "sit at the right hand of the Father".   

O God illumine the riches of your glorious mystery the ascension,

  so that your saint's may glorify your holy name. Amen

The little birds of Francis

Up soared the lark into the air,

A shaft of song, a winged prayer,

As if a soul released from pain

Were flying back to heaven again.

St. Francis heard: it was to him

An emblem of the seraphim

The upward motion of fire

The light, the heat, the heart's desire.

Around Assissi's convent gate

The bird's, God's poor who cannot wait,

From moor and mere and darksome wood

Come flocking for their dole of food

"O brother birds," Francis said,

"Ye come to me and ask for bread,

But not with bread alone today

Shall ye be fed and sent away.

"Ye shall be fed, ye happy birds,

With manna of celestial words;

Not mine, though mine they seem to be,

Not mine, though they be spoken through me."

"Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise 

The great Creator in your lays;

He giveth you your plumes of down,

Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown.

"He giveth you your wings to fly

And breathe a purer air on high,

And who careth for you everywhere,

Who for yourselves so little care!"

With flutter of soft wings and songs

Together rose the feathered throngs,

And singing scattered far apart;

Deep peace was in St. Francis' heart.

He knew not if the brotherhood

His homily had understood;

He only knew that to one ear

The meaning of his words was clear.

-Anonymous