Cultivate Communion with the Saints

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a gem.

Flannery & I read this book last week.  It was great! 

On Facebook, a friend of mine had posted a video of Father Thomas Hopko's 55 maxims for Christian living.  I googled the podcast transcript and was just completely overwhelmed by the wisdom in this little list that an Orthodox priest (who died 1 year ago yesterday, May his memory be eternal.) had written.

Here is just a tiny snippet of his list of maxims:

4.  Say the Lord's Prayer several times a day.
5.  Have a short prayer that you constantly repeat when your mind is not occupied.
7.  Eat good foods in moderation.
8.  Practice silence, inner and outer. Just sit for a few minutes everyday in total silence.
9.  Do acts of mercy in secret.
16.  Read good books, a little at a time.
17.  Cultivate communion with the saints.
18.  Be an ordinary person.  Try to be like others as much as you can.
19.  Be polite with everyone--first of all, the members of your own family.
20.  Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.

There is so much here!

But what struck me most was #17 - to cultivate communion with the saints.  I've talked about this before on this blog, about how helpful it is for me to "consider the saints" and learn about them, so that I can be encouraged in this life on earth, which can really be tough.  The saints that went before us faced the same problems we do, and worse.  Yet they managed to rise above them.  They weren't  superhuman.  They were just people like us.  

For example, Flannery and I read last week about Saint Patrick.  I didn't know that he was captured from Britain as a child and taken to Ireland as a slave.  After six years as a slave shepherd, he escaped and tried to get away on a ship.  The ship was full of hunting hounds, and the story goes that when Patrick tried to board the ship, the captain didn't want him there because he suspected he was an escaped slave.  But the hounds howled and barked each time Patrick stepped away from them and quieted when Patrick was near, so eventually the captain agreed to take him home.  And even though he made it home to his family, Patrick felt called to leave them to share the word of God with the people of Ireland (who had earlier enslaved him!).  He went back and started a church in a barn in Ireland.  And now he is Ireland's patron saint.  I mean, I may have a stressful life sometimes, but I've never had to go try to teach my former captors about love and forgiveness.

So today, as I look ahead at a week crammed with too many evaluation reports to write and too many meetings to hold and too many meals to plan and too many birthday presents to buy and too many appointments to keep, it helps to think that others have faced all this and more.  That others have fought the good fight and won, and are now cheering me on from above.  It might sound cheesy, but in the Orthodox faith, we do believe that the Saints are able to intercede for us and to help us in our worldly struggles, even now.  Sometimes when I'm having a tough day, I like to pray for Saint John the Wonderworker to pray for me, and it gives me strength.  I also often pray that my grandparents (and my husband's grandfathers) and my uncle pray for me & my family.  Many times, I have felt so comforted by the thought that they are interceding on our part.

Cultivate communion with the saints.  It's more than just "considering" the saints, I think.  And this week, I'm going to try to do just that.



What about you?  Do you feel connected to those who have gone before you on this journey?  How do you cultivate that communion?  

Celebrate Life

"He is mine in a way that he will never be hers, yet he is hers in a way that he will never be mine, and so together, we are motherhood." ~Desha Wood

My daughter's godparents just adopted a sweet baby boy.

A sweet baby boy with long fingers and wiggly legs and a wispy dusting of dark hair. A sweet baby boy who already likes music.

This baby is just a miracle.

He's been prayed for and hoped for and prepared for, for so long now.

What a gift to get to share in the joy of a new little life!

My mom once said, "Everything gets magical again when you have a baby." And it's so true. Every gust of wind outside is something brand new for the baby to experience for the first time. Every dog lick on the baby's naked curled up toes is a moment where you get to experience dog licks again for the very first time. Every photo you take now, one day becomes his view of how his life began.

(Baby boy, just so you know, your life began with so much love and wonder surrounding you!)

Magical indeed.




What miracle are you hoping or preparing for? Tell your friends and family, and let them share in the fun of the anticipation!

Pray without Ceasing

I used to hear people use the term, "prayer warrior," and it sort of made my skin crawl. It seemed so holier than thou. And sort of creepy to think of a spiritual battle ground going on behind the scenes of everyday life.

But someone called me a prayer warrior the other day. Someone I know and love dearly.

And I was humbled.

From this person, it seemed like a huge compliment, an honor, to be called a prayer warrior.

Anyway.

The thing is, I don't pray as often as I think I should. I don't have a consistent time I set aside each day for prayer. I don't have any sort of prayer routine yet, although I really wish I did.

But, in the past year or so, prayer has become a big part of what I do each day. Any time I have a free second--in the car, waiting in line at the ATM, cuddling quietly with my daughter--my mind is usually drawn to prayer. Not because I'm a great person or a very disciplined person. Just because I care deeply about the people around me. And it seems to me that every person I know is fighting their own private battle of some sort. Big battles with no easy solution. And those battles are constantly on my mind. Job searching in a bad economy, health issues, financial issues, fertility issues, figuring out how life works with a child with a disability, trying to find a diagnosis for your child's rare disorder, loss of a parent, loneliness...it seems no one is spared and given an "easy" life.

Maybe I'm a worrier. A little anxious sometimes. Or a lot of the time. But my mind stops and rests on these concerns of my friends, family, and clients about a thousand times a day. Is that normal? I really don't know.

But I think that's why I pray. Because of my busy mind. And my wonderful friends and family and clients who are brave enough to divulge real life difficulties to me, to open up about their own little stories, their own little trials, and big trials. And huge trials.

And it doesn't hurt that I'm a member of an online prayer group through my old church. The other members of this prayer group--now they're the prayer warriors. Me, I'm not sure. That word still makes me a little nervous. But maybe I'm at least beginning to have the instinct to pray without ceasing.

In any case, prayer brings me a lot of happiness. It brings me calm and peace, and a feeling of connection with those I'm praying for, and with God and the angels and saints. Does that sound crazy? In Orthodoxy, we believe that we can pray to saints to ask them to pray for us, too. And that when we are in church worshiping, the saints and angels are singing and praying along with us. So even if we're the only person besides a priest in a service, there's really a whole crowd of saints and angels worshiping alongside us. I really think it's such a beautiful image. And sorry if I make any non-Orthodox folks out there cringe...I know it's a lot to swallow. But the communion with the saints stuff is really a big part of why prayer has been so meaningful to me lately.



If you pray, why is prayer meaningful for you? How often do you pray? Do you pray with words or just general thoughts? Do you hold images in your head when praying? Do you think that prayer makes you feel happier or more connected--to people and to the spiritual world?


By the way, the icon at the top of the post is Saint Melania the Younger. I took her name when I became Orthodox, so my Orthodox name is Melania. Check out her story if you're interested.

When There's Nothing I Can Do, There's Something I Can Do

My hubby is interviewing for a job today. The perfect job for him. A job I can just see him succeeding in and loving and being very fulfilled by.

And I really hate that there's nothing I can do to help with the whole process. It's a pretty grueling process. There will be a big presentation, a day of interviews, lots of questions by lots of people all day long. I know he's up to the task, but still, I wish there was something more I could do to help out.

But, lately I've been reminding myself that when there's nothing left to do, there is something left to do. I can pray. And that's something. A rather big something, actually.

So today I'm praying in every spare little moment.

Would you mind praying, too? Or if you don't pray, sending good tenure-track thoughts to my hubby?



What do you do that helps you get through when things are out of your control?

Hold This Picture in Your Head

It snowed again! We made the biggest snowman on the block, as you can see. Actually, it was the only snowman on the block, can you believe it? As Flannery says, "We live in a snowy place now." So I guess the locals are bored by the snow and don't play in it like we Georgia natives do.

Today was a my-cup-runneth-over-with-happiness kind of day. We woke up to beautiful snow, had heart pancakes for breakfast, made a snowman, had cocoa, did art, I got to take a long hot bath, and then I went for a massage.

See? Cup overflowing. With marshmallowy chocolatey snowy relaxing happiness.

Anyway, what I wanted to write about today was visual images. I started thinking about this as I was getting my massage. I tried to do some mindfulness meditation while I was lying there getting massaged, but it was too complicated to try to focus on recognizing my thoughts while someone was kneading the tension out of my shoulders. So, I decided to try focusing on visualizing to increase my relaxation.

I learned about using visualizing for relaxation as an undergrad student in my Abnormal Psychology class. In class one day, we paired up with a friend, and while we took turns massaging one another's shoulders and necks, the instructor used guided imagery to help us relax. The instructor said that the more you visualized a certain scene while you were in a relaxing situation (ex: getting a massage, taking a warm long bath, etc.), the easier it would be later to just call upon the visual image to bring you the same feelings of relaxation. A little associative learning process.

So, back to the massage table. Me, lying with eyes closed, picturing people I love, places I love. Breathing. Trying to think of only the image in my mind and my breathing.

I'm sure the massage therapist thought I had fallen asleep or taken a heavy sedative before the session, because I'm generally a really chatty massage client. But I really didn't care what the therapist thought. I was getting my money's worth of relaxation!

And it really was one of the most relaxing massage sessions I've ever had. Which made my heart feel super happy. (Can you tell I've been watching Ni Hao Kai Lan a little too much?)




What pictures do you bring to mind to make you feel happy or peaceful?

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By the way, I've also been using visualizing during my daily prayer times (usually as I'm driving in my car) as a way to increase my attention and focus while I'm praying. I'll try to hold the picture of whoever I'm praying for in my head for the whole time I'm saying a prayer. It's really a lot harder than you'd think it would be! Try it! And let me know how it goes! (Unless it's super easy for you, in which case, you should really keep that to yourself so I don't feel like a weird inattentive crazy person. Which I am. But still.) ;)