Calvin

Now let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God, conscious of our faults, praying that he may not only forgive us but may daily cleanse us of them. May he remove them far from us. so that we are no longer captive and imprisoned by them. Rather, led and controlled by his Holy Spirit, may we walk in such holiness of life that we may seek above all to yield to his will. And since we know ourselves to be such weak and feeble creatures, may he support us in all our imperfections, until he has rid us of them and fully clothes us with his righteousness.

Pentecost Links Around the Blogosphere

Still under the weather, so for now here are a few quick Pentecost links. I’ll try to post some of my own reflections on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit within the next few days
- Karen:

Pentecost Blog Carnival (I’ve tried not to duplicate too many links. The blog carnival has several EXCELLENT links I have not posted.)

Splendor in the Ordinary: Ideas for Celebrating Pentecost as a Family (FANTASTIC! Don’t miss this…)

Anglican Mainstream has a collection of reflections on Pentecost from various saints & Church Fathers – Must reading! : Pentecost: the living water of the Holy Spirit poured out upon us

Fr. Tim Fountain at Northern Plains Anglican has Come Down O Love Divine, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Reflections on Pentecost and a prayer of preparation for Pentecost

Pat Dague at Transfigurations has Pope Benedict’s The Gift of God is the Holy Spirit

Ten O’Clock Scholar: Pentecost: Reignite Your Ember

At A Hen’s Pace: Pentecost Sunday

Cruciform Life: Preparing for Pentecost and Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart

Kingdom People has a Pentecost Prayer

Victor Hoagland has two reflections on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

Amy at On a Joyful Journey has posted St. Augustine’s Prayer to the Holy Spirit. I’ll close with that:

Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Saint Augustine of Hippo

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.
Amen.

Gregory of Nazianzus on the cure of souls

Today is the feast day of Gregory of Nazianzus

The scope of our art is to provide the soul with wings, to rescue it from the world and give it to God, and to watch over that which is in His image, if it abides. To take it by the hand, if it is in danger, or restore it, if ruined, to make Christ to dwell in the heart by the Spirit: and, in short, to deify, and bestow heavenly bliss upon, one who belongs to the heavenly host.   

This is the wish of our schoolmaster the law, of the prophets who intervened between Christ and the law, of Christ who is the fulfiller and end of the spiritual law; of the emptied Godhead, of the assumed flesh, of the novel union between God and man, one consisting of two, and both in one.

Monnica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo

Monnica prayed for decades for the conversion of her pagan husband and son.  She was told “it cannot be that the son of these tears should perish.”

O Lord, who through spiritual discipline did strengthen Your servant Monnica to persevere in offering her love and prayers and tears for the conversion of her family, deepen the devotion of the intercessors for the Anglican Consultative Council and use their love and prayers and tears in accordance with Your will for the Anglican Communion.  Amen.

Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, 373

Today is the feast day of Athanasius, the “pillar of the Church” and the church’s “God-given physician of her wounds.” In his battle against the heresy of Arianism, Athanasius was exiled five times. He was successful in winning approval for the phrase in the Nicene Creed which has ever since been recognized as expressing unequivocally the full godhead of the Son: “of one Being with the Father” (homoousios).
Another bishop of Egypt is present at the Anglican Consultative Council, Mouneer Anis, and he is a physician. Please pray that Bishop Anis will defend unequivocally the full godhead of the Son, uphold the body of Christ, and be a God-given physician for her wounds.

Uphold your Church, O God of truth, as you upheld your servant Athanasius, to maintain and proclaim boldly the catholic faith against all opposition, trusting solely in the grace of your eternal Word, who took upon himself our humanity that we might share his divinity; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

St. Philip and St. James, Apostles

Little is known about these apostles. According to tradition, Philip was crucified in Turkey and James the son of Alpheus crucified in Egypt. The body of James was then sawn in two.

O Father, I don’t know what the future holds for the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Church in North America. Grant Your servants grace and strength to bear witness to the truth. May they glorify in life and in death the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

St. Gregory the Great’s Easter Prayer

It is only right,
with all the powers of our heart and mind,
to praise You Father
and Your Only-begotten Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ:
Dear Father, by Your wondrous
condescension of loving-kindness toward us,
Your servants, You gave up Your Son.
Dear Jesus You paid the debt of Adam
for us to the Eternal Father by
Your Blood poured
fourth in loving-kindness.
You cleared away the darkness of sin
By Your magnificent and radiant Resurrection.
You broke the bonds of death
and rose from the grave as a Conqueror.
You reconciled heaven and earth.
Our life had no hope of eternal happiness
before You redeemed us.
Your Resurrection has washed away our sins,
restored our innocence and brought us joy.
How inestimable is the tenderness
of Your love!

– Saint Gregory the Great’s Easter Prayer

found here

A Prayer of St. Anselm: Lord Jesus, let me seek You by desiring You

We posted an excerpt of this prayer during Lent, but today our blogging friend Scott Gilbreath has posted the whole prayer for St. Anselm’s commemoration:

A prayer of St Anselm

Lord Jesus Christ; Let me seek you by desiring you,
and let me desire you by seeking you;
let me find you by loving you,
and love you in finding you.

I confess, Lord, with thanksgiving,
that you have made me in your image,
so that I can remember you, think of you, and love you.

But that image is so worn and blotted out by faults,
and darkened by the smoke of sin,
that it cannot do that for which it was made,
unless you renew and refashion it.

Lord, I am not trying to make my way to your height,
for my understanding is in no way equal to that,
but I do desire to understand a little of your truth
which my heart already believes and loves.

I do not seek to understand so that I can believe,
but I believe so that I may understand;
and what is more,
I believe that unless I do believe, I shall not understand.

Source: The Oxford Book of Prayer, George Appleton (gen. ed.), 1985, 2002.

Easter Quotes: St. John Chrysostom – Christ is risen and life is liberated!

Below is the final section – probably the best known portion – of St. John Chrysostom’s Easter sermon.  May the Lord fill us with joy as we remember these truths and may the Lord help us live in the victory of His conquest over sin and hell.  In Christ’s resurrection we are freed from the slavery to sin and liberated to truly live in His abundant life, to become who He created us to be.  Hallelujah! Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!

Art Credit:  Christ’s Descent among the Dead

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Listen:  The Victor (Keith Green, No Compromise, 1978 )  iTunes link

some of the lyrics:

Swallowed into earth’s dark womb
Death has triumphed, That’s what they say
But try to hold Him in the tomb
The Son of Life rose on the third day

Just look
The gates of hell
They’re falling!
Crumbling from the inside out
He’s bursting through
The walls with laughter (Hah!)
Listen to the Angels shout

It is finished
He has done it
Life conquered death
Jesus Christ
Has won it!

His plan of battle
You know it fooled them all
They led Him off to prison to die
But as He entered Hades hall
He broke those hellish chains with a cry

Just listen to those demons screaming
See Him bruise the serpent’s head
The prisoners of Hell
He’s redeeming (Oh!)
All the power of death is dead

Easter Quotes: St. John Chrysostom – forgiveness has risen from the grave

I find myself struck afresh very powerfully by St. John Chrysostom’s Easter Sermon this year.  I am rereading it every day this week and will be daily posting excerpts that have encouraged and blessed me.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;  for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

– St. John Chrysostom Easter sermon (c. 400 AD)

The April 13th St. John Chryostom quote is here

Easter Quotes: St. John Chrysostom – Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

St. John Chrysostom’s Easter homily is quite often quoted.  I’m sure we’ve posted it in the past here at Lent & Beyond.  Reading the text over at David Fischler’s Reformed Pastor blog this morning though, something new struck me.  We are all equally invited to partake in the joyful celebration of Easter.  First and last, rich & poor, and those who have kept the Lenten fast and those who have not.

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!  First and last alike receive your reward;  rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,  rejoice today for the Table is richly laden! Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

While Lent is an important and deeply helpful preparation for Easter, it is not a pre-requisite.  May all of us who fell far short of what we had hoped in terms of our Lenten disciplines rejoice.  God’s grace and joy is for us ALL.  Let us consciously choose to enter into the joy of the Lord!

St. Hippolytus – Christ is Risen!

Art Credit: Web Gallery of Art

RUBENS, The Resurrection of Christ, c. 1612

Listen: Christ the Lord is Risen Today (Steve Green, Hymns, A Portrait of Christ, 1992)

Christ is Risen: The world below lies desolate
Christ is Risen: The spirits of evil are fallen
Christ is Risen: The angels of God are rejoicing
Christ is Risen: The tombs of the dead are empty
Christ is Risen indeed from the dead,
the first of the sleepers,
Glory and power are his forever and ever

–St. Hippolytus (AD 190-236)

source: Churchyear.net

note: music links have been deactivated to protect copyrights.  The song is available at iTunes

Good Friday Quotes – St. Theodore the Studite: Now a Tree Brings Life

How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.

This was the tree on which Christ, like a king on a chariot, destroyed the devil, the Lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was the tree upon which the Lord, like a brave warrior wounded in his hands, feet and side, healed the wounds of sin that the evil serpent had inflicted on our nature. A tree once caused our death, but now a tree brings life. Once deceived by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an astonishing transformation! That death should become life, that decay should become immortality, that shame should become glory! Well might the holy Apostle exclaim: Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world! The supreme wisdom that flowered on the cross has shown the folly of worldly wisdom’s pride. The knowledge of all good, which is the fruit of the cross, has cut away the shoots of wickedness.

Read the full text here at the Crossroads Initiative.

St. Gregory the Great: Prayer of Acclaim to the Suffering Christ

A Lenten Prayer: Prayer of Acclaim to the Suffering Christ

Filed under: Saints & Church Fathers, Lent 2007, Illustrated Devotionals, Lent Prayers — Karen B.

Prayer of Acclaim to the Suffering Christ

O Lord, you received affronts without number from your blasphemers, yet each day you free captive souls from the grip of the ancient enemy.

You did not avert your face from the spittle of perfidy, yet you wash souls in saving waters.

You accepted your scourging without murmur, yet through your mediation you deliver us from endless chastisements.

You endured ill-treatment of all kinds, yet you want to give us a share in the choirs of angels in glory everlasting.

You did not refuse to be crowned with thorns, yet you save us from the wounds of sin.

In your thirst you accepted the bitterness of gall, yet you prepare yourself to fill us with eternal delights.

You kept silence under the derisive homage rendered you by your executioners, yet you petition the Father for us although you are his equal in divinity.

You came to taste death, yet you were the Life and had come to bring it to the dead. Amen.

— Saint Gregory the Great

source: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pray0540.htm

Art Credit: Web Gallery of Art, Tiziano, The Scourging of Christ, Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome

Holy Week Sermon of St. Melito – God has been murdered

Holy Week remembers the Passion of Jesus Christ Crucified
This is the one who patiently endured many things in many people:
This is the one who was murdered in Abel, and bound as a sacrifice in Isaac,
and exiled in Jacob, and sold in Joseph,
and exposed in Moses, and sacrificed in the lamb,
and hunted down in David, and dishonored in the prophets.

This is the one who became human in a virgin,
who was hanged on the tree, who was buried in the earth,
who was resurrected from among the dead,
and who raised mankind up out of the grave below to the heights of heaven.

The one who hung the earth in space, is himself hanged;
the one who fixed the heavens in place, is himself impaled;
the one who firmly fixed all things, is himself firmly fixed to the tree.
The Lord is insulted, God has been murdered,
the King of Israel has been destroyed by the right hand of Israel.

This is the lamb that was slain. This is the lamb that was silent.
This is the one who was taken from the flock, and was dragged to sacrifice,
and was killed in the evening, and was buried at night;
the one who was not broken while on the tree,
who did not see dissolution while in the earth.
who rose up from the dead, and who raised up mankind from the grave below.

–St. Melito (a Holy Week sermon from the Bishop of Sardis given around 170 A.D.)

From the Crossroads Initiative