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Let
your speech be alway[s] with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know
how ye
ought to answer every man.
-- St. Paul the Apostle
When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but
the woman, he said unto her, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no
man condemned thee?”
-- The Gospels
Remember them which
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith
follow, considering the end of their conversation.
-- The Apostle Paul
If you should think of me in my unworthiness, offer my name in prayer.
– the unworthy
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Your History
Godchildren, you’ve been my friends for some time – you,
my godson, since 2000 and you, my goddaughter, since 2005. You’ve been under
my tutelage since March of last year (my godson), when you believed in the
Incarnation of Christ, and August (my goddaughter), when you began to ask
what we were talking about, and have been Catechumens in the Church since
October, with the blessing of Archbishop, and by the hands of Father Joseph
since, and have remained students of mine and with me.
Do Nothing Without
The Bishop – St. Ignatius
In having led you, and with the very first lessons I
provided from our father among the saints Ignatius, you know how I have
always exhorted you to cling to the Bishop, venerating him as Christ, without
whom there is no Church to save. And you have always done so. In fact, since
there has been no priest at the local mission, which has been under the
Bishop’s care, so that it is the Bishop who has been our priest, as Father
Basil has put it. Again, I have had cause, recently, though you have not been
the cause, to remind you to cling to the Bishop. We must always resist the
temptation to do anything against his intent or instructions. Without the
Bishop, we will drift in a sea of our own delusion, cutting ourselves off
from the Apostles and from Christ, our first Bishop and prototype of all. I
would be remiss, seeing how we have need again to seek the safety of his
omophor, if I did not charge you, though I know already where you hearts lie,
to flee independence, cast aside any temptation to illusory liberty, and to
cling to him. Do not be lax in this endeavour.
Save Yourself – St.
Seraphim
You have probably also grown used to my rather constant
refrain of the words of holy St. Seraphim – ‘save yourself, and thousands
around you will be saved’. Again, though, I’ve had recent cause to remind
you, not to correct but to protect you. We must each seek first our own
salvation, if we are to have anything to give to others. It’s like avoiding
waste or luxury, so we have something to give to the poor. We must pursue theosis before all else. Before
mission. Before comfort. And we must sometimes endure difficulty, solitude or
desertion; we must sometimes take pains. “Save me by any means,” we pray.
That is our great work of mission.
We can give out of our poverty, only by the richness of union with Christ,
but it is all idle talk if we step off the path to guide others, and lose our
own way. This is the humility that robs us, of which the Holy Apostle warns
the Church at Colossi; it is not yet the humility of Christ.
Reverence in Speech
Throughout the scriptures, we learn to be gentle in our
speech with others, to season our speech with grace, to be reverent of that
which is worthy of reverence, wherever we find it, and to avoid speaking ill
of that which is not helped by our condemnation. Christ did not condemn the
woman taken in adultery, but spoke with Grace. The Apostle warned us of
speaking flippantly – without gravity – of angels, reviling the bodiless
powers. You have heard me many times also say to you that we should offer
piety in our speech, not casually throwing around the word “Jesus” or “Mary”
as we would “dude” or “bud”, and to take such pains with our prayers, also,
following the example of the Holy Fathers, indeed of Christ. Particularly
grievous is flippancy when speaking of clergy, as likewise I’ve already
advised you – even calling a priest “Jimmy” or ‘that guy’ instead of Fr.
James teaches our minds an inappropriate (lack of) piety. Let us always avoid
the temptation to speak too casually of those who are responsible for our
salvation; the next step toward the pit, after that, is to speak against
them, and then to denounce them. Let us not even set out into such darkness.
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