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The Epiclesis /Part four: The Epiclesis – The Temple and Iconostasis/
Post date: 2018-12-04Autor: BCP
The biblical model of the Christian temple is the vision given by God (to Moses). It was applied to the Jerusalem Temple. The basic structure consists of the Holy of Holies, where God is present in a special way, the Holy Place, where the priests offered sacrifices to God, and the place for people. The Eastern temple with an iconostasis, altar and tabernacle has preserved this biblical structure to this day. The Western Church had preserved it only until the Second Vatican Council which carried out an absurd reform. After the reform, the priest, who represents the people and offers sacrifice to God on the altar in their behalf, has turned his back to the centre of the temple, which is the tabernacle where God’s presence dwells constantly. The basis for the necessary reform today is to restore the liturgical posture of the priest so that he faces the tabernacle – the spiritual centre of the temple – as it used to be practised throughout the history.
Reflection on Rom 6:16
Post date: 2018-11-30Autor: BCP
This verse from the Scripture reveals a deep truth about obedience the fruit of which is eternal life in heaven or eternal death in hell. If we do not serve God wholeheartedly, we are not free but we are slaves of original sin which is in us. We automatically obey original sin, i.e. the source of lies and evil in our heart. Original sin clouds our mind and weakens our will so that we hate the truth about ourselves, reject the true good and refuse to serve God and keep His commandments.
The Epiclesis /Part two: The Holy Spirit and the Epiclesis/
Post date: 2018-11-29Autor: BCP
When did the Holy Spirit come? Only after Jesus accomplished His sacrifice on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven on the fortieth day where He was glorified. Only then does He send the Holy Spirit in fullness on the Apostles, and the Holy Spirit enlightens their mind and strengthens their will. The Apostles, who fled out of fear and did not stand by the cross, now become heroes of faith who, one by one, shed their blood for Christ’s sake as martyrs. After the descent of the Holy Spirit they understood what Jesus had done at the Last Supper when He established the new covenant and gave His body and blood for the remission of sins. They understood that the Holy Spirit makes present this mystery through His words of Institution and through those whom Jesus chose, i.e. the Apostles and their successors.
The Epiclesis /Part one: The Difference between Eastern and Western Liturgy/
Post date: 2018-11-27Autor: BCP
The Eastern Liturgy of St Basil the Great and St John Chrysostom (4th century) contains the Epiclesis. The Epiclesis is also found in other Eastern rites. It comes directly from the Apostolic Tradition. What is the difference between Eastern and Western Liturgy? The Western Liturgy was radically modified at the Second Vatican Council. The reform introduced four Canons instead of one. The pre-conciliar Latin Liturgy had no mention of the Holy Spirit in the Canon. The reformed conciliar Liturgy does make mention of the Holy Spirit but it has been inserted before the words of Institution. Unlike the Latin Liturgy, the Eastern Liturgy includes a so-called intense invocation of the Holy Spirit, or the Epiclesis, after the words of Institution.
Reflection on Rom 6:13
Post date: 2018-11-17Autor: BCP
“...do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin…”. What does it mean? It calls for steps of practical faith and following Christ. Everyone can gain personal experience from this faith. Naturally, it involves a struggle, a kind of transformation or gradual spiritual operation – we should no longer present our members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. On the contrary, we should present our members as instruments of righteousness to God.
What happens when man dies? (+german version)
Post date: 2018-11-13Autor: BCP
When man dies, the body remains lying where it is. Then it is taken to the morgue. But at the moment when man dies, the personal judgment of his soul takes place immediately. It awaits each one of us. We will encounter Christ face to face. At one moment our whole life will be screened, all our deeds, words, thoughts, both good and bad.
No one can escape death (+german version)
Post date: 2018-11-05Autor: BCP
What is human life? Nothing but toil, trouble, suffering and finally death. However, death is not the end. It is followed by eternity. We can see that our life is short and it is in the hands of God. It is a test of love whether we have chosen God, divine values and good or united to evil and the Evil One. So each of you decide your eternity during your life. Jesus has given us His Word, that we may live a responsible life and not lose eternal life. It is therefore foolishness to settle down on this earth. In the hour of death we must leave everything – our relationships to people, things… He lives wisely who is mindful of death.
Reflection on Rom 6:11
Post date: 2018-11-03Autor: BCP
This verse from chapter six of the Epistle to the Romans again is a mystery. The condition for its revelation is a living faith and walking by faith, in other words putting the truth of faith into practice. We can see that the most important thing for us to reckon with spiritual laws by faith is our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, because these laws work in Him alone. In His death on the cross and in His glorious resurrection is the victory over sin. That is why it is important for us to have a personal relationship to Christ crucified and risen. Through baptism we were immersed in Christ’s death and resurrection, and we should live these truths by faith within the framework of time: in Christ Jesus we are dead to sin and alive to God!
Anti Immorality Youth Manifesto
Post date: 2018-10-24Autor: BCP
Contemporary Christianity is incapable of giving young people a goal to aim for or answering the most basic questions about the meaning of life, death, God’s judgment and eternity. It does not emphasize the struggle with evil in us and in the world and with the spirit of lies. This should be considered by the bishops at the current Synod. First, they must set a personal example of repentance and return to the orthodox teaching and morals given us by God. One cannot expect that the bishops at the Synod would motivate youth to make a commitment to premarital chastity and to one hour of prayer daily. This Synod does not aim to create conditions for real spiritual life. To replace this foundation with some sociology or psychology – just to hide the real intention of legalizing homosexuality at the Synod – is a great deceit and crime against Catholic youth!
PROPHETIC PRAYER FOR THE RESURRECTION OF AMERICA
Post date: 2018-10-03Autor: BCP
Before beginning this prayer, confess your sins before God and before yourself: I am an egoist. When someone admonishes me for whatever error, I take offence. I avoid sound self-criticism. I criticize and condemn others; however, what I condemn I do myself. Whenever I do something good, it just increases my feeling of superiority. I see the speck in my neighbor’s eye, but I cannot see the log in my own eye. I am lazy to seek the truth and to endure suffering for its sake. I do not read the Bible and the lives of saints, and I am not familiar with them. I do not bear in mind the ultimate reality, which is death, God’s judgment and eternity! I am interested in all kinds of philosophies or psychologies, but I do not seek the true psychology and philosophy of the Gospel which is vital in life. “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus died for you and for your sins. The name “Jesus” is a Grecized form of the Hebrew name “Yehoshua”. It is the holy name of God and the Word of God says about it: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom 10:13)
One for all, all for one (+german version)
Post date: 2018-08-24Autor: BCP
Although the four musketeers were fighters of the world, fighting in unity against evil and against church hierarchy, there was a lot of sense in their motto, if correctly understood: One for all, all for one. Jesus is the One because He has already died for us, and He wants to build this unity in us all.
Reflection on Rom 5:18
Post date: 2018-08-11Autor: BCP
It is emphasized here again: Adam’s one trespass led to condemnation for all his descendants. On the other hand, one act of righteousness of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, leads to justification and life for all men. But there is one problem. Christ died for all people, but not all people will be saved. To be saved they must admit their sin both to themselves and to God, and accept by faith justification and life given us through Christ’s act of righteousness.
Reflection on Rom 5:15
Post date: 2018-07-28Autor: BCP
This Word of life points out again the relation to Adam, through whom sin entered human nature, and it points out our relation to Christ, through whom we have been justified by grace. For two weeks we are going to recite verse 15, which says, “But the free gift is not like the offense. By the one man’s offense many died.” For example, we know that if someone practises occultism, the curse for this offence is passed on through three to four generations. Naturally, its manifestation is not the same with all the offspring. For example, when the father is a chronic alcoholic, his children, mostly boys, are strongly predisposed to alcoholism. Of course, if they become conscious of the sins of their parents and pray with perseverance for the grace of God, they can overcome these consequences and are not affected by them.
PRAYER OF UNITY AND POWER /second modified version/
Post date: 2018-07-22Autor: BCP
Mk 11:23: "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says." The name of Jesus comes from the Hebrew name Yehoshua*, which means: The Lord is salvation. This is the name of God, a holy name, and the Word of God says that “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13). In this name the sick were healed and demons cast out (Mk 16:17; Acts 3:16; Acts 4:10). In this prayer of “unity and power”, pronounce slowly and quietly “Ye-ho-shu-” and then breathe out the lengthened vowel “aaa” three times. This helps to abide in God and His Word at the present moment (cf. Joh 15:7)
Reflection on Gal 5:16-17
Post date: 2018-07-14Autor: BCP
Walking in the Spirit is a stimulus to self-sacrificing love, as Jesus says: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words.” And He continues: “We will come to him,” – the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus – “and make Our home with him” (Jn 14:23). The keeping of Jesus’ words entails little sacrifices, a kind of self-discipline, without which self-sacrificing love of God and man is impossible. And this sacrifice indeed is our spiritual act of worship. Whenever we lose, for God’s sake, the evil desires that tempt us, this our sacrifice in which the Holy Spirit strengthens us brings us true freedom and, moreover, we bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace. This spiritual act of worship involves short moments of a living faith and inner self-denial – that is a sacrifice which brings us peace and joy.
Reflection on Gal 4:18-19
Post date: 2018-06-30Autor: BCP
Let us focus, in this Word of life, on the depth of the words: “I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”The word formed is of great importance here. It is the Greek verb “morfoó” which means “to morph, or to form” or in the passive voice “to assume a form, or to be formed”. “Metamorphosis” is a familiar word which means transformation. The Apostle is zealous for one thing: that Christians become mature, that they be truly rooted in Christ, and he literally says, that Christ be formed in them. And he himself not only prays for them, not only instructs them in God’s Word, but he himself undergoes this process of change spiritually. He literally says: “I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” The Apostle undergoes this process and endures this pain practically until the end of his life. It culminates in his martyr’s death in Rome, which again is a sacrifice for his spiritual children, won by him for Christ, who became children of God, heirs of God’s kingdom.
Let us live this day, this very moment, by faith (+german version)
Post date: 2018-06-28Autor: BCP
Someone can say: “I will live a lukewarm life, which will not cost me much effort, and then I will go to purgatory.” But this is foolish. What costs pennies here on earth will cost thousands or millions in eternity. Only a fool would miss a chance to escape purgatory. We have a precious thing here on earth, which is called time. Let us redeem the time, transform it by faith.
Reflection on Gal 3:26-27
Post date: 2018-06-16Autor: BCP
Let us be aware that we are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus rather than through works. We are in Him spiritually; not only through baptism – as it is written that being baptized into Christ we have clothed ourselves with Christ – but also through faith and through the holy sacraments we should be aware of this deep truth, draw strength from it for spiritual struggle and rejoice that Jesus is with us, that we are in Him, and He is in us. As Jesus said: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.” And this happens during Holy Communion in the Divine Liturgy.
Reflection on Rom 5:9
Post date: 2018-06-02Autor: BCP
Let us notice the words justified by His blood – i.e. the blood of Jesus. It means that we have received the righteousness of Jesus, and through His blood God no longer sees us as debtors since Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, has once and for all paid the debt for all our sins. On our part, we need to realize again and again the saving faith which presupposes that we admit our sins both before God and before ourselves, and not conceal them, and that we turn with trust to Jesus on the cross every time we say during our prayer stop: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner!”
God speaks to us...
Post date: 2018-05-23Autor: BCP
God speaks to us but the problem is that we are unable to hear Him. The problem is in our receiver. Our heart needs to be attuned to His voice. He wants to work through you, through your faith too. The weaker we are, the more trust we need to place in the Lord, because “when I am weak, then I am strong”. Jesus, I trust in You.