Author: Paul Zalonski

Icons reveal character

Icons reveal something about the character of the world in which we live. They reveal that there is a distortion within us such as what things seem to be is not what they are. Icons are windows to heaven but also windows to the Truth and thus also windows into the truth about our selves. The fact that icons cannot be truly seen without also being venerated points to the fact that our perception of the world and reality is rooted in our relationship with the world and reality. Perceiving the Truth is not an abstract, gnostic exercise, but a function of love and holding things in the proper place of honor.

Stephen Freeman

Nothing more important than Sacred Liturgy

There is nothing on Earth, higher, greater or more holy than the divine liturgy, nothing more solemn, nothing more life-giving.

~Saint John Kronstadt

Experience and the witness of the saints on the importance of the sacred Liturgy (or Divine Liturgy, if you will) has a correspondence to truth that is undeniable. Much of what passes as the worship of the Triune God is unspeakable. What needs to happen in the Church, especially here in the Northeast, is a move to adopt a living sense of the Catholic Tradition.

Holy Prophet Micah

In the Liturgy of the Latin Church the the holy prophets are not recalled except that the Roman Martyrology remembers. The Eastern Churches have the prophets on their liturgical calendar and commemorated in the Liturgy. I find it important to remember in the sacred Liturgy the prophets because they are a distinct part of our biblical history and literature, our moral thinking and acting, our spiritual and liturgical lives. Today, is the memorial of the famous holy prophet, Micah (even if commemorated with our Eastern brethren).

Micah prophesied between 750 and 687 bc. He was a contemporary of Amos and Isaiah. Micah’s words were an indictment against the rich, the avaricious money lenders, swindling merchants, families divided by rivalry, and all petty tyrants and bureaucrats, whether dressed as judges or rulers, priests or prophets. They were the very antithesis of the divine ideal he preached, namely, “to deal justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with God.”

Failure to do these things, Micah warned, will bring punishment. He specified the destruction of Samaria and the fall of Jerusalem, but he also held out a hope for the faithful remnant. He described the birth of a peaceful king who will pasture the flock of the Lord. Micah foretold that this event would take place in Bethlehem of Ephratah, which was known as “the least of the clans of Judah.” (NS)

Prayer to Bless New Honey

Prayer to Bless New Honey

Priest: Let us pray to the Lord.
Laity: Lord, have mercy.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Whose mercies cannot be contained and Whose bounties are ineffable; Who are wondrous in glory and Who works miracles, Who by the operation of the Holy Spirit once blessed Israel and nourished them with honey from a rock and fed ascetics with honey: as the same Lord, look down now from above on this Your work, and with Your heavenly blessing bless and consecrate this honey.

Grant to the honey the action of a blessing beyond all perfection, so that all tasting of it, receiving it and eating it, may find good health, and by this nourishment be satisfied and filled with all good things.

For You are He Who bestows all good things, and to You we ascribe glory, together with Your Father Who is without beginning, and Your Most-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

The priest sprinkles the honey with Holy Water, saying:

This honey is sanctified by the sprinkling of this Holy Water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

***Typically, the blessing of new honey among the Eastern European Byzantines happens on the first day of the Dormition Fast (on the new Gregorian calendar that would be August 1) but the blessing can happen on other days for example on the Transfiguration like many of the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics from the Eastern part of the country.

Blessings on the Transfiguration 2019

At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy for the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, Father Iura (St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church, New Haven, CT) blessed grapes, harvested fruits and vegetables and honey.

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing.” Grapes connect us to the wine changed in the Blood of Christ at the Liturgy, the fruits and vegetables return to the Lord the blessings He’s bestowed on us, and honey reminds of the sweetness of the Beauty of God.

The blessings, therefore, remind us of place of the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Liturgy and how we are transfigured into someone new in Christ.

As close followers (disciples) of Jesus Christ we know we don’t give ourselves anything; everything we have is a gift. Therefore, we say we depend on God for everything in our lives. It was same recognition that Moses had and taught the people of Israel to offer their first and finest harvest back to the Lord.

St Ignatius of Loyola

“God freely created us so that we might know, love, and serve him in this life and be happy with him forever. God’s purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may attain our goal of everlasting happiness with him in heaven. All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully. As a result, we ought to appreciate and use these gifts of God insofar as they help us toward our goal of loving service and union with God. But insofar as any created things hinder our progress toward our goal, we ought to let them go.” ― Ignatius of Loyola

Familiarity with God’s Word

Are you familiar (at the deepest possible level as able) with sacred Scripture? Daily, it is recommended, to spend time doing lectio divina.

While John Paul is addressing members in consecrated life, the teaching is fitting and prudent for the laity, too.

“As the church’s spiritual tradition teaches, meditation on God’s word, and on the mysteries of Christ in particular, gives rise to fervor in contemplation and the ardor of apostolic activity. Both in contemplative and active religious life, it has always been men and women of prayer, those who truly interpret and put into practice the will of God, who do great works.

“From familiarity with God’s word they draw the light needed for that individual and communal discernment which helps them to seek the ways of the Lord in the signs of the times. In this way they acquire a kind of supernatural intuition which allows them to avoid being conformed to the mentality of this world, but rather to be renewed in their own mind, in order to discern God’s will about what is good, perfect, and pleasing to him (see Romans 12:2).

Saint John Paul II, The Consecrated Life

St Phocas the Gardener

Today we remember St. Phocas the Gardener. He is the patron of farmers, fieldworkers, agriculture, and gardeners. He was a man connected to his land and to his neighbor, and who understood ecology in the deep sense of not living just for oneself but for all. He was both a bishop and a simple farmer, and he devoted everything he grew to be given to the poor.

He is also the patron of hospitality. When soldiers came looking for him to execute him for being a Christian, he welcomed them with open arms, and practicing the command of Christ to love one’s enemies, he fed them and treated them as Christ himself. The soldiers did not realize that their host was the same Phocas they were to execute, and St. Phocas promised them that he would help them find their target.

When Phocas revealed himself to them, they were reluctant to kill him. Phocas, however, refused to fight them or to hinder their duty, and instead invited the soldiers to do what they were there to do, offering his neck. For this he was martyred.

St. Phocas is also the patron of sailers. There is an old sailing custom whereby at each meal, a portion is set aside called ‘St. Phocas portion.’ This portion is sold and the money collected is donated to the poor whenever port is reached. In this way, Phocas’ love for strangers, enemies, the poor, the land, and his neighbors continued to extend even past his death.

Holy Phocas, pray for us!

thanks to In Communion