Sunday, April 3, 2011

Focus

This morning as I prayed Morning Prayers in front of the icons, I was taken by the fact that in the midst of all the varying things going on around me, Christ Pantokrator is always there, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Blessed Theotokos hold Christ our God and directs us to Him, Savior and Lover of Mankind. Sts Constantine and Helen, patron saints of our parish, maintain their guard, interceding for us.

All of this is contrasted with the cacophany of sounds, images, thoughts, opinions and ideas that bombard us, especially through the media every day. Sound bites and half thought out commentary appeal to the passions, seeking to throw us off course and even into worry and despair. It is so easy to take our eyes off Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith as the Evil One seeks to lure us elsewhere. We find ourselves torn apart as the passions we seek to control by the blessing of the Holy Spirit seek to control us.

During this Great and Holy Lent (and throughout our lives) we would do well to fast from other images in our lives. It would do us well to limit the use of TV, Internet, radio, that we might indeed look to Jesus, our Salvation, to Christ our God. It would be better to spend more time in our icon corner, and less time glued to the TV.

In my own life, I've taken to a different discipline when driving the 28 miles to work. I may check the radio for traffic, but then I listen to a pray the hours as they are prayed in abbreviated form on Ancient Faith Radio. On the way to work, it is Matins through 9th Hour. On the way home it is Vespers and Compline ... and perhaps some practice of chant with the CD I have burned. My spirit is calmed -- and the constant panic about this or that in the world are moved to the background.

In the midst of all the changes and chances in our lives, Christ God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God the Father continues to love us and bless us with the Holy Spirit!

Just some thoughts from one lately come ...