SNMOC - Come to the Feast...

As we get closer to the Nativity Feast, it is a joy to participate regularly in the Holy Mysteries.

Many things work against us to try to take us away from the regular participation in the mysteries of the Faith. Take heart and have Faith.

Christ bids us to come to Him, all who are heavy laden and He will give us rest. Divine worship is also about laying down the things of the world and taking upon ourselves heavenly things. This is why confession is heard before the Liturgy. We are Christians who are witness to the miracle of the Eucharist; partakers of the Cup of salvation. Heaven draws near and we are truly amongst the angels and archangels. With them, Christ is in our midst.

A note: Tacitus opined that when the Romans wanted to arrest the Christians, he said that to do so, one merely had to discover the location where they met, because on Sunday, all of the Christians would be there. Not some... all of them. For it had become known that those who were not at the worship of the Church were not 'in' the Church.

A stunning thought. We do not live in the danger of the police coming to round us up because of what we believe and profess as Christians. Well not yet... But let us do as it is said in the Divine Liturgy, "Let us who mystically represent the cherubim and sing the thrice holy hymn to the Life-giving Trinity, now lay aside all earthly cares... As we prepare to receive the King of All who is upborne upon the heavenly host'...

"Let us lay aside all earthly cares"...

NEW!!! SNMOC - Coats & Churches: Church Shopping as a Modern American Phenomenon

We Americans and others shop for churches like we shop for coats. Does the coat suit me? Does it make me look good? Does it "feel" good? Is it agreeable to my own sensibilities? If we ask ourselves those same questions and simply substitute the word "church", We will find the crux of the issue. Does this church suit me? Does this church make me look good? Does it make me feel good? Does this church agree with my own sensibilities? Dear ones... with such an outlook, we are looking for the church created in our own image and not the Church that is the Body of Christ. Think upon this. To become part of Christ's Holy Church one must sacrifice his own image in order to take upon himself the image and likeness of Christ; for indeed we are called to become imitations of Christ in all that we do. Even unto the Cross.

SNMOC - A Word for the Day: Of the Importance of Roots...

 There once was a husbandman who decided one day to plant some trees upon his property. He took young and healthy saplings and planted them on his property. The soil where he planted them was rich and fertile and in the southernmost parts of his fields where there was ample light and frequent irrigation from the rains that would come.


In time, these trees grew into big and strong maples providing verdant foliage and abundant shade in the heat of the day. Many of the maples formed deep and massive roots that anchored them well into the soil, even down as far as the bedrock. However, some of the trees laid down only shallow, smaller roots that spread out far around them but had no depth.


When in time, the heavy thunderstorms came; the deeply rooted trees swayed to and fro in the winds and even lost some of their leaves, but they remained firmly rooted to the good earth and hence, they survived. The others with the shallow smaller roots were not as fortunate. They swayed to and fro in the winds as well but were eventually uprooted and blown away with the storms. Even though their roots extended out farther around them, they had no depth and were not anchored to the good soil beneath them.


Dear ones... Let us be as the trees with deep roots anchored firmly to the solid foundation of the Christian Faith. We have a fertile home of abundance if we would persevere and send our roots deep into the Faith as it was once delivered for all time. Let us not expend our time looking here and there and sending smaller, more tentative roots out towards alternatives and unproven havens. The sure foundation of the Orthodox Church is the safe harbor of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Let us cling to the bedrock of our salvation.



Benedict+

SNMOC - Claiming Poverty With Full Storehouses

Today's Message: A homily on Luke 12: 16-21. The parable that Christ presents describes the folly of the rich man who fills up his storehouses with things so that he can sit back and "eat, drink and be merry".
However, as Christ points out, it is his soul that is required of him and he has been found wanting.

SNMOC - For We Are Legion (Homily on the Gadarene Demoniac)

A homily regarding Christ's exorcism of the Gadarene Demoniac and what it tells us about God's sovereignty over all creation...

SNMOC - The Duty of the Sentinel (A Homily on Ezekiel)

A homily by Father Benedict Simpson on Ezekiel 33:1-9 regarding the duty of the sentinel to sound the warning at impending attack. Today, we are constantly assailed by the proclivities of a fallen age. The Christian must remember well the call to sound the alarm for even now, the enemy's sword is at the ready. Shall we sound the alarm even when it is uncomfortable or unfashionable to do so?

SNMOC - A Call to Repentance (A Homily on Corinthians 6:16-7:1) 10/20/2013

Paul's message to the Corinthians is timeless. He speaks of the need to come out of worldliness and desires for temporal things and to develop a desire for those things that do not decay. He calls us towards "genuine repentance", not just some emotional response to having done something wrong and feeling bad for it. Repentance is what you do to keep those sins from becoming habitual sins. How to deal with those sins that have already become habitual. Salvation is to be seen more as a journey rather than an ending destination. After all... it is the journey that gets us there.