Nikolai Velimirovich: “The Love of God is Shed Abroad in Our Hearts by the Holy Spirit” Wednesday, May 15 2013

“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Love is joy and love anoints the heart of man with joy. Brethren, love is power and love anoints the heart of man with power.

Love is peace and love anoints the heart of man with peace. And from joy, power and peace, courage is born and love anoints the heart of man with courage.

The love of God, as a fragrant oil, is shed abroad in our hearts by no other than the Holy Spirit, the All-gentle and All-powerful Spirit.

Completely undeserved by us, the Spirit of God is shed abroad in us: the love of God in our hearts in the Mystery of Chrismation.

However, in time we neglect this love and by sin we alienate ourselves from God and fall into the disease of spiritual paralysis.

And the Holy Spirit unwilling to abide in an impure vessel, distances Itself from our heart.

When the Holy Spirit distances Itself from us, then joy, power, peace and courage also departs from us immediately.

We become sorrowful, weakened, disturbed and fearful. But the All-good Spirit of God only distances Itself from us but does not abandon us completely.

He does not abandon us but He offers to us who are sick, remedies through the Mystery of Repentance and the Mystery of Holy Communion.

When we again cleanse ourselves through the Mysteries of Repentance and Communion then He, the Holy Spirit of God, again abides in us and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.

We fall, we rise, we fall and we rise! When we fall, the Spirit of God stands by us and raises us if we desire to be raised.

However, when we are raised, the Spirit of God stands within us all until we, by sin and foolishness, do not desire to fall.

Thus, we in this life interchangeably become a fertile field and a wilderness, sons of repentance and prodigal sons, fullness and emptiness, light and darkness.

O All-good Holy Spirit of God, do not depart from us either when we want You and when we do not want You.

Be with us all the time until our death and save us for life eternal.

Nikolai Velimirovich (1880-1956; Orthodox Church): Prologue from Ohrid, May 24th.

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Basil the Great: The Dispensations Made for Man by Jesus Christ are Accomplished through the Grace of the Spirit Tuesday, May 14 2013

When we speak of the dispensations made for man by our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who will gainsay their having been accomplished through the grace of the Spirit?

Whether you wish to examine ancient evidence;—the blessings of the patriarchs, the succour given through the legislation, the types, the prophecies, the valorous feats in war, the signs wrought through just men;—or on the other hand the things done in the dispensation of the coming of our Lord in the flesh;—all is through the Spirit.

In the first place He was made an unction, and being inseparably present was with the very flesh of the Lord, according to that which is written, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same is” “my beloved Son;” and “Jesus of Nazareth” whom “God anointed with the Holy Ghost.”

After this every operation was wrought with the co-operation of the Spirit.  He was present when the Lord was being tempted by the devil; for, it is said, “Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.” He was inseparably with Him while working His wonderful works; for, it is said, “If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils.”

And He did not leave Him when He had risen from the dead; for when renewing man, and, by breathing on the face of the disciples, restoring the grace, that came of the inbreathing of God, which man had lost, what did the Lord say?  “Receive ye the Holy Ghost:  whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever ye retain, they are retained.”

And is it not plain and incontestable that the ordering of the Church is effected through the Spirit?  For He gave, it is said, “in the church, first Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues,” for this order is ordained in accordance with the division of the gifts that are of the Spirit.

Moreover by anyone who carefully uses his reason it will be found that even at the moment of the expected appearance of the Lord from heaven the Holy Spirit…will be present with Him.

For who is so ignorant of the good things prepared by God for them that are worthy, as not to know that the crown of the righteous is the grace of the Spirit, bestowed in more abundant and perfect measure in that day, when spiritual glory shall be distributed to each in proportion as he shall have nobly played the man?

Basil the Great (330-379): On the Holy Spirit 16, 39-40.

 

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Georges Florovsky: Within the Church, through an Acquisition of the Spirit in the Fellowship of Sacraments, the Ascension Continues…Until the Measure is Full Tuesday, May 14 2013

The revelation of the Holy Trinity was completed. Now the Spirit Comforter is poured forth on all flesh.

“Hence comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of good gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God, the being made like to God, and, highest of all, ,the being made God!” (St Basil, On the Holy Spirit, IX).

Beginning with the Apostles, and through communion with them – by an unbroken succession – Grace is spread to all believers. Through renewal and glorification in the Ascended Christ, man’s nature became receptive of the Spirit. “And unto the world He gives quickening forces through His human body,” says Bishop Theophanes.

“He holds it completely in Himself and penetrates it with His strength, out of Himself; and He likewise draws the angels to Himself through the spirit of man, giving them space for action and thus making them blessed.”

All this is done through the Church, which is “the Body of Christ;” that is, His “fullness” (Ephesians 1:23). “The Church is the fulfillment of Christ,” continues Bishop Theophanes, “perhaps in the same way as the tree is the fulfillment of the seed. That which is contained in the seed in a contracted form receives its development in the tree.”

The very existence of the Church is the fruit of the Ascension. It is in the Church that man’s nature is truly ascended to the Divine heights. “And gave Him to be Head over all things” (Ephesians 1:22).

St John Chrysostom comments: “Amazing! Look again, whither He has raised the Church. As though He were lifting it up by some engine, He has raised it up to a vast height, and set it on yonder throne; for where the Head is, there is the body also.

“There is no interval of separation between the Head and the body; for were there a separation, then would the one no longer be a body, nor would the other any longer be a Head.”

The whole race of men is to follow Christ, even in His ultimate exaltation, “to follow in His train.” Within the Church, through an acquisition of the Spirit in the fellowship of Sacraments, the Ascension continues still, and will continue until the measure is full.

“Only then shall the Head be filled up, when the body is rendered perfect, when we are knit together and united,” concludes St John Chrysostom. The Ascension is a sign and token of the Second Coming. “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

Georges Florovsky (1893-1979; Eastern Orthodox): And Ascended Into Heaven…; originally published in St Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly, Vol. 2 # 3, 1954; full text @ Mystagogy.

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Gregory Nazianzen: The Coming of the Holy Spirit in Tongues of Fire Monday, May 13 2013

He [the Holy Spirit] worked…in the disciples of Christ…on three occasions—before Christ was glorified by the Passion; and after He was glorified by the Resurrection; and after His Ascension….

Now the first of these manifests Him—the healing of the sick and casting out of evil spirits, which could not be apart from the Spirit;

and so does that breathing upon them after the Resurrection, which was clearly a divine inspiration;

and so too the present distribution of the fiery tongues, which we are now commemorating.

But the first manifested Him indistinctly, the second more expressly, this present one more perfectly, since He is no longer present only in energy, but as we may say, substantially, associating with us, and dwelling in us.

[...] And therefore He came after Christ, that a Comforter should not be lacking unto us; but “another Comforter”, that you might acknowledge His co-equality.

For this word “another” marks an “alter ego”, a name of equal Lordship, not of inequality.  For “another” is not said, I know, of different kinds, but of things consubstantial.

And He came in the form of tongues because of His close relation to the Word.  And they were of fire, perhaps because of His purifying power…, or else because of His Substance.  For our God is a consuming fire….

And the tongues were cloven, because of the diversity of gifts. And they sat to signify His royalty and rest among the saints, and because the cherubim are the throne of God.

And it took place in an upper chamber …, because those who should receive it were to ascend and be raised above the earth; for also certain upper chambers are covered with divine waters, by which the praise of God are sung.

And Jesus Himself in an upper chamber gave the communion of the Sacrament to those who were being initiated into the higher mysteries, that thereby might be shown on the one hand that God must come down to us, as I know He did of old to Moses;

and on the other that we must go up to Him, and that so there should come to pass a communion of God with men, by a coalescing of the dignity.

For as long as either remains on its own footing, the one in His glory the other in his lowliness, so long the goodness of God cannot mingle with us, and His loving-kindness is incommunicable, and there is a great gulf between, which cannot be crossed;

and which separates not only the rich man from Lazarus and Abraham’s Bosom which he longs for, but also the created and changing natures from that which is eternal and immutable.

Gregory Nazianzen (c.330-390): Oration 41 (on Pentecost), 11-12.

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Gaudentius of Brescia: “Whither shall I Go from Thy Spirit?” Sunday, May 12 2013

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I descend into hell, thou art present.  If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea (Ps. 138).

But the Holy Spirit was not in heaven only; He was not absent from earth; and neither would the Son so ascend into heaven as to forsake the earth; neither did the Father alone possess the throne of Heaven, whither the Son is said to return, and whence the Holy Ghost is said to come.

For the most blessed prophet makes this acknowledgement to the Father…. If I take wings in the morning, he says, etc. … What manner then of wings has he? The soul of the believer takes to itself wings of faith, so that raised above earthly things, and dwelling wholly in the spirit, it can comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth of the knowledge of God (Eph. 3:18, 19).

[...] Whither shall I go, he says, from Thy Spirit?  From Thy Paraclete, that is, Whose fulness the Apostles receiving made known through the mouth of Peter the fulfilment of the divine promise, proclaiming: This is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel: and in the last days I shall pour out my Spirit upon all flesh (Acts 2:16, 17). And whither shall I flee from thy face?

From the Son, therefore, Who is the Face of the Father; since the Father is seen in the Son, according to the words of Our Lord and Saviour Himself, Who when Philip besought Him:

Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us, so answered…: Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. How sayest thou, Shew us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? (John 14:9).

Neither must the Holy Spirit be regarded as separated from the Father, Whose Spirit He is, nor the Son be believed to be separated from Him Whose Face He is, and Right Hand, and Power, and Wisdom.

He does not say: “If I ascend into heaven Thy Spirit is there, or Thy Face and Thy Spirit are there”, but Thou, He says, art present; and with Thy Son and with the Holy Ghost; for one and the same everywhere and forever is the divinity of the ever adorable Trinity.

But so that a clear faith and separate belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost might be given to those who believe, it is accordingly written that the Father sends both the Son and the Holy Ghost; since neither He Who sends nor He Who is sent can be believed to be God, if there is a place where He is, and a place where He is not.

Gaudentius of Brescia (d. 410): Sermon 20, translated by M.F. Toale, D.D. @ Lectionary Central.

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Basil the Great: The Perfection of the Powers of Heaven through Communion in the Holy Spirit Saturday, May 11 2013

You are…to perceive three, the Lord [the Father] who gives the order, the Word [the Son] who creates, and the Spirit who confirms.

And what other thing could confirmation be than the perfecting according to holiness?  This perfecting expresses the confirmation’s firmness, unchangeableness, and fixity in good.  But there is no sanctification without the Spirit.

The powers of the heavens [angels] are not holy by nature; were it so there would in this respect be no difference between them and the Holy Spirit.  It is in proportion to their relative excellence that they have their recompense of holiness from the Spirit.

[...]  But their sanctification, being external to their substance, superinduces their perfection through the communion of the Spirit.  They keep their rank by their abiding in the good and true, and while they retain their freedom of will, never fall away from their patient attendance on Him who is truly good.

[...] How are angels to cry “Glory to God in the highest” without being empowered by the Spirit?  For “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, and no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed;” as might be said by wicked and hostile spirits, whose fall establishes our statement of the freedom of the will of the invisible powers.

[...] And how could “thrones, dominions, principalities and powers” live their blessed life, did they not “behold the face of the Father which is in heaven”?  But to behold it is impossible without the Spirit!

Just as at night, if you withdraw the light from the house, the eyes fall blind and their faculties become inactive, and the worth of objects cannot be discerned, and gold is trodden on in ignorance as though it were iron, so in the order of the intellectual world it is impossible for the high life of Law to abide without the Spirit.

[...] How could the Seraphim cry “Holy, Holy, Holy,” were they not taught by the Spirit how often true religion requires them to lift their voice in this ascription of glory?  Do “all His angels” and “all His hosts” praise God?  It is through the co-operation of the Spirit.

[...] All the glorious and unspeakable harmony of the highest heavens both in the service of God, and in the mutual concord of the celestial powers, can therefore only be preserved by the direction of the Spirit.

Thus with those beings [angels] who are not gradually perfected by increase and advance, but are perfect from the moment of the creation, there is in creation the presence of the Holy Spirit, who confers on them the grace that flows from Him for the completion and perfection of their essence.

Basil the Great (330-379): On the Holy Spirit 16, 38.

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Nikolai Velimirovich: The Spirit of God then Rejoices in Us and Our Entire Being Trembles from Certain Inexpressible Joy Saturday, May 11 2013

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, where by you are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

[...] Even in normal relations between men, happy is the one who gives the gift and happy is also he who receives the gift. Giving is joy on both sides. The greater the gift, the greater the joy.

God rejoices when He gives the Grace of His Holy Spirit: why then should men not rejoice who receive it?

The needy one who receives usually rejoices more than the rich man who gives; why then should not miserable men rejoice who receive this enormous gift from the rich God?

In what way do men grieve the Holy Spirit? The apostle who commanded that we not grieve the Spirit of God immediately adds, by what means is the Spirit grieved:

“All bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking (swearing) and all malice. All of that to be put away from you” (Ephesians 4:31), says the apostle.

In other words, the Spirit of God is grieved by our every sin. Let every sin be put away from us and the Spirit of God will be joyful and by Him we will be rejoicing.

When we have an important guest in our home we endeavor to do everything that is well pleasing for that guest. Can there be a greater guest than the Holy Spirit of God?

Since He is our greatest and most desired guest, we need to invest the utmost effort to please Him.

We know with what we please the Spirit of God – with the same, with which we please Christ the Lord. The Lord said: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (St. John 14:15).

He who, therefore, keeps the commandments of Christ has love toward the Son and toward the Holy Spirit. He who pleases the Son, keeping His commandments, also pleases the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The apostle especially recommends: “be you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another” (Ephesians 4:32). If we are kind, if we are tenderhearted [merciful], if we forgive one another, by this we please the Spirit of God Who is a guest in our hearts.

The Spirit of God then rejoices in us and our entire being trembles from certain inexpressible joy.

O my brethren, let us take care that we not grieve our Most High Guest Who comes to us with the richest gifts.

O God the Holy Spirit, forgive our negligence toward Your Immortal Majesty and do not leave us empty and worthless without You.

Nikolai Velimirovich (1880-1956; Orthodox Church): Prologue from Ohrid, May 23rd.

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Benedict XVI: The Invisible Presence of Jesus Working through the Power of His Spirit Friday, May 10 2013

The Evangelist Luke says that after the Ascension the disciples returned to Jerusalem “with great joy” (24: 52).

Their joy stems from the fact that what had happened was not really a separation, the Lord’s permanent absence.

On the contrary, they were then certain that the Crucified-Risen One was alive and that in him God’s gates, the gates of eternal life, had been opened to humanity for ever.

In other words, his Ascension did not imply a temporary absence from the world but rather inaugurated the new, definitive and insuppressible form of his presence by virtue of his participation in the royal power of God.

It was to be up to them, the disciples emboldened by the power of the Holy Spirit, to make his presence visible by their witness, preaching and missionary zeal.

The Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension must also fill us with serenity and enthusiasm, just as it did the Apostles who set out again from the Mount of Olives “with great joy”.

Like them, we too, accepting the invitation of the “two men in dazzling apparel”, must not stay gazing up at the sky, but, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit must go everywhere and proclaim the saving message of Christ’s death and Resurrection.

His very words, with which the Gospel according to St Matthew ends, accompany and comfort us: “and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28: 19).

Dear brothers and sisters, the historical character of the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension helps us to recognize and understand the transcendent condition of the Church which was not born and does not live to compensate for the absence of her Lord who has “disappeared” but on the contrary finds the reason for her existence and mission in the invisible presence of Jesus, a presence working through the power of his Spirit.

In other words, we might say that the Church does not carry out the role of preparing for the return of an “absent” Jesus, but, on the contrary, lives and works to proclaim his “glorious presence” in a historical and existential way.

Since the day of the Ascension, every Christian community has advanced on its earthly pilgrimage toward the fulfilment of the messianic promises, fed by the word of God and nourished by the Body and Blood of her Lord.

This is the condition of the Church, the Second Vatican Council recalls, as she “presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God’, announcing the Cross and death of the Lord until he comes” (Lumen Gentium, n. 8).

Benedict XVI (b. 1927): Homily on the Solemnity of the Ascension, 2009.

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Georges Florovsky: The Victory of Christ is Wrought in Us by the Power of the Holy Spirit Friday, May 10 2013

Terror-stricken and trembling stand the angelic hosts, contemplating the Ascension of Christ.

[...] The Office for the Feast of the Ascension depicts the mystery in a poetical language. As on the day of Christ’s Nativity the earth was astonished on beholding God in the flesh, so now the Heavens do tremble and cry out.

“The Lord of Hosts, Who reigns over all, Who is Himself the head of all, Who is preeminent in all things, Who has reinstated creation in its former order – He is the King of Glory.”

And the heavenly doors are opened: “Open, Oh heavenly gates, and receive God in the flesh.” It is an open allusion to Psalms 24:7-10, now prophetically interpreted.

“Lift up your heads, Oh ye gates, and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty….”

St Chrysostom says, “Now the angels have received that for which they have long waited, the archangels see that for which they have long thirsted.

“They have seen our nature shining on the King’s throne, glistening with glory and eternal beauty…. Therefore they descend in order to see the unusual and marvelous vision: Man appearing in heaven.”

The Ascension is the token of Pentecost, the sign of its coming, “The Lord has ascended to heaven and will send the Comforter to the world”.

For the Holy Spirit was not yet in the world, until Jesus was glorified. And the Lord Himself told the disciples, “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you” (John 16:7).

The gifts of the Spirit are “gifts of reconciliation,” a seal of an accomplished salvation and of the ultimate reunion of the world with God. And this was accomplished only in the Ascension.

“And one saw miracles follow miracles,” says St John Chrysostom, “ten days prior to this our nature ascended to the King’s throne, while today the Holy Ghost has descended on to our nature.”

The joy of the Ascension lies in the promise of the Spirit. “Thou didst give joy to Thy disciples by a promise of the Holy Spirit.” The victory of Christ is wrought in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

“On high is His body, here below with us is His Spirit. And so we have His token on high, that is His body, which He received from us, and here below we have His Spirit with us.

“Heaven received the Holy Body, and the earth accepted the Holy Spirit. Christ came and sent the Spirit. He ascended, and with Him our body ascended also” (St John Chrysostom).

Georges Florovsky (1893-1979; Eastern Orthodox): And Ascended Into Heaven…; originally published in St Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly, Vol. 2 # 3, 1954; full text @ Mystagogy.

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Cyril of Alexandria: Partakers in the Divine Nature through Communion with the Holy Spirit Thursday, May 9 2013

The Son…brought Himself as a Victim and holy Sacrifice to God the Father, reconciling the world unto Himself, and bringing into kinship with Him that which had fallen away, that is, the race of man.

[...] Indeed, our reconciliation to God could not have been accomplished through Christ who saves us except by communion in the Spirit and sanctification.

For that which knits us together, and, as it were, unites us with God, is the Holy Spirit.

If we receive the Spirit, we are proved sharers and partakers in the divine nature, and we admit the Father Himself into our hearts, through the Son and in the Son.

Further, the wise John writes for us concerning Him: Hereby know we that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 

And what does Paul also say? And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 

For if we had chanced to remain without partaking of the Spirit, we could never at all have known that God was in us.

And, if we had not been enriched with the Spirit that puts us into the rank of sons, we should never have been at all the sons of God.

How, then, should we…have been shown to be partakers in divine nature unless God had been in us, and unless we been joined to Him through having been called to communion with the Spirit?

But now are we both partakers and sharers in the divine substance that transcends the universe, and are become temples of God.

For the Only-begotten sanctified Himself for our sins. That is, offered Himself up, and brought Himself as a holy sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savour to God the Father.

He did this in order that, while He as God came between and hedged off and built a wall of partition between human nature and sin.

This was so that nothing might hinder our being able to have access to God, and to have close fellowship with Him through communion – that is, with the Holy Spirit moulding us anew to righteousness and sanctification and the original likeness of man.

For if sin sunders and dissevers man from God, surely righteousness will be a bond of union, and will somehow set us by the side of God Himself, with nothing to part us.

We have been justified through faith in Christ, Who was delivered up for our trespasses, according to the Scripture, and was raised for our justification. 

For in Him, as in the first-fruits of the race, the nature of man was wholly reformed into newness of life, and ascending, as it were, to its own first beginning, was moulded anew into sanctification.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Commentary on St John’s Gospel, book 11, c.10 [on John 17:18-19].

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