1. Essays & Reflections: Meditating on COVID-19 by Hans Boersma
The Western Church has entered Holy Week, the week of Christ’s Passion; the Eastern Church will follow next week. As we both enter/approach Passion Week, our friend and supporter Hans Boersma reflects on COVID-19 in light of our calling to meditate on the passion of Christ.
“During the two weeks between Passion Sunday and Easter, we are called upon to meditate on Jesus’s suffering and death. For the most part, our preoccupation with suffering and death leaves Jesus out, so as to focus strictly on ourselves. We hear, think, and talk about little else these days but the coronavirus and its death-dealing effects in our midst.
As Christians, we face a crucial question: Does our collective preoccupation with the coronavirus get in the way of our ecclesial calling to meditate upon Jesus’s passion?”
2. Essays & Reflections: Lazarus Saturday by Monk of the Eastern Church
Every year, as we approach Holy Week, we celebrate the raising of Lazarus. It’s an important feast day as we are already thinking about the coming resurrection of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. Here’s what Lev Gilet, a monk of the Eastern Church, has to say about it:
“The raising of Lazarus announces the resurrection of the dead which is a consequence of Jesus’s resurrection: “O Christ, when Thou didst bring Lazarus back to life from amongst the dead, Thou didst establish the principle of universal resurrection…. Thou didst raise him, Thou the giver of life, thus confirming the resurrection of the world…. Through Thy friend as intermediary Thou didst predict that humanity was released from corruption.” Lazarus Saturday is, in a way, the feast of all the dead. It gives us the opportunity to confirm and give precision to our faith in the resurrection.”
3. Essays & Reflections: Holy Week by Monk of the Eastern Church
Holy Week can be viewed as a summary of the whole economy of our salvation. For the West, you have already entered into it; the East is still preparing for it next week. Lev Gilet, continues his Lenten reflections with this piece on Holy Week:
“We now enter the most sacred week of the year. It starts with the feast of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, which, as we have already said, taken with the raising of Lazarus, forms a prelude of joy and glory to the harrowing humiliations which are to follow. The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week are a preparation for the Passion. They already have a strongly accented character of mourning and repentance. The Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Holy Week belong to the paschal solemnities – each one of these days reveals to us a special aspect of the mystery of Easter.”
4. Books: The Year of the Grace of the Lord by Monk of the Eastern Church
Here is a review
of the book from which the previous two reflections are taken. Check it out and order a copy from Eighth Day Books so you can have reflections on the rest of the important feast days for the Church’s liturgical year.
5. Poetry: “Stephen to Lazarus” by C. S. Lewis in his book Poems.
But was I the first martyr, who
Gave up no more than life, while you,
Already free among the dead,
Your rags stripped off, your fetters shed,
Surrendered what all other men
Irrevocably keep, and when
Your battered ship at anchor lay
Seemingly safe in the dark bay
No ripple stirs, obediently
Put out a second time to sea
Well knowing that your death (in vain
Died once) must all be died again?
6. Bible: Is. 48:17-49:4, Gen. 27:1-41, Prov. 19:16-25. Online here.
7. Liturgy: Vespers on Friday Evening for the Saturday of the Holy and Righteous Lazarus by the Emperor Leo
"O Lord, wishing to see the tomb of Lazarus – for Thou was soon to dwell by Thine own choice within a tomb – Thou hast asked: 'Where have ye laid him?' And, learning that which was already known to Thee, Thou hast cried to him whom Thou hast loved: 'Lazarus, come forth.' And he who was without breath obeyed the One who gave him breath, even Thee, the Savior of our souls."
8. Word from the Fathers: "The Raising of Lazarus" by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom
“Here is the image for us: in each of us Lazarus is lying dead, vanquished surrounded by our often hopeless grieving. But the Gospel reading just before the days of the Passion has this message: “Do not fear, I am the Resurrection and the Life. The Lord’s friend that is in you whom you consider irrevocably dead can rise again at a single word of mine, and indeed will rise again.” So let us enter the days of the Passion with the hope, with the certainty that we are going towards the transition from the temporary to the eternal, from death to life, from our defeat to the victory of God. Let us enter these days of the Passion with trepidation at the knowledge of how much the Lord loves us and at what cost He gives us life. Let us enter with hope and light in our hearts, and joy in the coming resurrection.”
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