Tag: suffering

The Wrath of God According to St. John Chrysostom

· Fr. Michael Gillis 7 Leave a Comment on %s
One of the earliest writings of St. John Chrysostom are two letters written to a friend, Theodore, who had fallen away from Christ.  In these letters, St. John encourages Theodore to return to Christ and repent of his sinful folly—Theodore had run away from the monastic life to return to academia and a life of wealth, privilege and, most of all, fornication.  Theodore had become captivated by the beauty of a young…

Wednesday Evening of Holy Week

· Fr. Michael Gillis
The usual service on Wednesday evening of Holy Week is the Holy Unction.  It replaces in parish practice the Matins service for the Last Supper.  However, this year our Bishop has asked us to pray this Matins service.  I speculate that one of the reasons it is normally replaced by Holy Unction is that the hymns for this Matins service are extremely sad.  The themes of the service are Christ’s humility in the…

On Not Trying Harder

· Fr. Michael Gillis 2 Leave a Comment on %s
There are many situations in our struggle for holiness that require us to try harder.  Some such situations might include getting out of bed to pray—assuming that you went to bed at a reasonable hour the night before and have slept adequately.   Not getting out of bed to pray just because one doesn’t want to is a classic situation that might call for one to try harder.  Another situation that might…

Why We Have To Suffer

· Fr. Michael Gillis 4 Leave a Comment on %s
There is something within me that just doesn’t want to believe Jesus, that doesn’t want to believe that the hard things Jesus said apply to me.  “In this world you will have tribulation,” He said (John 16:33).  Why is it that every time I face something hard, something painful, something unfair, why is it that I think something is wrong?  I can’t  just accept that this painful trial, this tribulation, is the…

Turning Earth Into Heaven

· Fr. Michael Gillis 10 Leave a Comment on %s
I don’t think I can repeat often enough that the one Greek word peirasmos means both a trial and a temptation.  These two concepts, trial and temptation, are quite distinct in English and so it’s hard for us English speakers to understand statements in the Fathers such as “this sickness is a temptation.”  How can a sickness be a temptation if I don’t want to be sick?  It doesn’t make sense in…

Meeting God in Unanswered Prayer

· Fr. Michael Gillis 6 Leave a Comment on %s
Someone, apparently a young adult, wrote me recently and asked about prayer.  This person was having a hard time discerning the difference between worry and prayer.  He or she was wondering if prayer, although salutary to ourselves, really does have an effect on those we pray for.  Particularly, this person was worried about and/or praying for his or her parents who seemed to be getting further and further apart.  Did God hear his/her…

A Small Affliction Born For God’s Sake

· Fr. Michael Gillis 1 Leave a Comment on %s
A small affliction borne for God’s sake is better before God than a great work performed without tribulation; for affliction willingly borne brings to light the proof of love…. St. Isaac The Syrian: Homily 36 Someone has famously said, the exact attribution is under dispute, that it is not the mountain that wears us out but the grain of sand in our shoe.  St. Isaac is, I think, saying something similar.  In…

A Charismatic Learns To Take Up Her Cross

· Fr. Michael Gillis 3 Leave a Comment on %s
I am rereading a book that I read on my way to becoming Orthodox almost twenty years ago.  The book is Abbess Thaisia: An Autobiography.  It is published by St. Herman Brotherhood Press.  When the Charismatic Protestant community that I was a part of first discovered Holy Orthodoxy, our only contact with the the Orthodox Church was through the books published by the St. Herman Brotherhood—who at that time published books mainly…

Surviving The Valleys

· Fr. Michael Gillis 1 Leave a Comment on %s
Homily 70 One of the realities of created life in this fallen world is variableness, according to St. Isaac the Syrian.  Variableness is the reality of change, both good and bad. In a sense, you can say that this variableness of life is what mankind chose (and continues to choose) in the Garden of Eden by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Life as we…

Lord, If You Had Been Here….

· Fr. Michael Gillis
Lord, if you had been here… When Lazarus dies, his sisters, Martha and Mary, are overwhelmed with sadness, confusion and probably not a little anger. A few days before Lazarus’ death, Martha and Mary sent messengers to Jesus telling Him, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.” Martha and Mary reached out to Jesus because they believed in Him. They believed in His love for them and their brother. They believed…