Day 07 Advent Devotional - Dec 07, 2015

Dec 07, 2015

Scripture of the Day:

Psalm 72 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+72 )

Thought of the day: Messiah King – Ruler and Judge

As the second week of Advent Lent begins let us recap our journey thus far. We began by following the advice of St John the Baptist and turning to Our Lord. In order for us to approach Our Lord with greater intimacy we examined the person of Jesus. It is in the midst of that quest that we stand today. Jesus is the Messiah who has come as an offspring of David to establish his Kingdom. Psalm 72 is one of the Messianic Psalms in which we find prophecies of the Messiah King.

The messiah King is a righteous and just king. “May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice” (Psalm 72:2).  The just King is concerned about the welfare of all his people – the poor, the needy and even the oppressor. The fate of the oppressor is much different than that of the poor. St Mary had recognized this as well. St. Mary tells St Elizabeth, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;  he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (St Luke 1:52-53). In the Kingdom of God the righteous King meets out justice to all.

When we look at our world we see that we live in an unjust world. People use all types of violence to inflict pain on the innocent. In such a world let us cry out to the righteous King that “thy will be done on earth.”

               

Song of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvUKuD7cJIM

Icon of the Day:

http://www.orthodoxmom.com/2012/03/05/why-i-love-the-christ-pantocrator-of-mt-sinai-icon/

Quote of the day:

“One should not seek among others the truth that can be easily gotten from the Church. For in her, as in a rich treasury, the apostles have placed all that pertains to truth, so that everyone can drink this beverage of life. She is the door of life.”  St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, III.4

Day 04 Advent Devotional Dec 04

Dec 04, 2015

Scripture of the Day: 2 Samuel 7:8-16

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+7%3A8-16&version=NRSV

Thought of the day: Descendant of David.

Davidic lineage was one of more prominent features of the expected Messiah. As indicated in the Scripture of the Day, God spoke through the prophet Nathan and told David of a coming King and God’s work through that coming king.

First God will establish a Kingdom through the offspring of David. God tells David that his ‘Throne’ would last forever. In the annunciation to St. Mary, the angel Gabriel tells that this prophecy will be fulfilled in Jesus. Gabriel tells her that the throne of his ancestor David would be given to Jesus (Luke 1:32). Jesus came to establish his Kingdom.

Secondly this King will build a ‘house’ for God’s name. The house that the King will build is the church. We can see this fulfilled in Jesus’s work upon earth. Jesus tells Peter that he will build the church. By our baptism we have become stones in this living building.

God also assures that the house and the kingdom will be kept under God’s divine protection. This assurance ought to inspire us to work for the Kingdom of God and to relish our membership in His house – the church.

Song of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2PgQANC6eY

Icon of the Day:

http://www.theotokos.org/?page_id=729

Quote of the day:

The largest challenge of modern world surely is the presence, throughout Western society, of a deeply secular outlook. Certainly in Britain, in Western Europe, in North America, the great majority of people have lost a sense of the immediate presence of God in the world. Yes, of course, there are many people who still go to church, but they do not have an integral world view where Christ enters into every aspect of daily life. Religion has been pushed into a corner, something that we do for an hour or two on Sunday and then we get on with the rest of our life. But let us remember that the Christian is the one who where ever he or she looks, sees everywhere Christ and rejoices in Him, so this is the greatest challenge to see

Christ everywhere, to see all things in God and God in all things, to void a separation between the sacred and the secular. All things can be sacred; the presence of the Holy Spirit can be found everywhere. So this is the most important challenge in the modern world, to resist the separation between the sacred and the secular, to resist the tendency to isolate Christianity into a tiny corner, to see that Christ enters every aspect of our daily life. – Met. Kallistos Ware

(https://thehandmaid.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/the-challenge/ )

Day 03 - Advent Devotional- Dec 03

Dec 03, 2015

Scripture of the Day: Isaiah 9:1-7

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+9%3A1-7&version=NRSV

Thought of the day: Jesus The Christ

Who are we approaching? We began the Advent Lent by turning to Jesus Christ. As Christians we are so used to such expressions that they have even become cliché. Let us spend a few days meditating on the identity of Jesus. We ought to reexamine the scriptures to assist us in this meditation. The Gospel of St Matthew opens by declaring “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Let us reflect on the title Messiah.

St John the Theologian teaches us that “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1). Why is it important to believe that Jesus is the Christ? The Greek word Christos means anointed one (Messiah is simply the Hebrew equivalent). The most basic Christian confession is that Jesus is the Christ. When we confess this we are confessing Jesus to be one who is spoken of by the prophets.

The prophecy given through Isaiah in chapter 9 clarifies Jesus’ identity as the Messiah. It says that “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—    on them light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2). The messiah brings light to darkness. In fact the messiah is light. Often our lives are covered in darkness. We are often stumbling in this gloomy existence. It is into such a bleak world that the bright light of the Christ shines. This is why one of the symbols of Christmas season is a star. Just as the star guided the wise men on their journey, Christ guides us on our journeys too.

Song of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah_XPrnnob0

Icon of the Day:

https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/jesus-christ-the-icon-of-the-father/

Quote of the day:

Bethlehem this day resembles heaven; hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices; and in place of the sun, enfolds within itself on every side, the Sun of justice. And ask not how: for where God wills, the order of nature yields. For He willed; He had the power; He descended; He redeemed; all things yielded in obedience to God. This day He Who is, is Born; and He Who is, becomes what He was not. For when He was God, He became man; yet not departing from the Godhead that is His. Nor yet by any loss of divinity became He man, nor through increase became He God from man; but being the Word He became flesh, His nature, because of impassability, remaining unchanged. – St John Chrysostom Homily on Nativity (http://www.antiochian.org/node/21955 )

Day 02 Advent Devotional Dec 02

Dec 02, 2015

Scripture of the Day: 1 Peter 2:4-5

Thought of the day: Come to the Living Stone

Why should we follow St John’s advice and turn? And to what do we turn? St Peter’s words from his first epistle give us the answer:
“Come to him, a living stone” (1 Peter 2:4-5, NRSV)
St Peter reminds us that our journey is towards a person – Jesus Christ the Living Stone. This is clear from the icon of St John the Baptist as well. St John is depicted with his hands open and pointing towards Christ. So if St John reminds us to turn, he is telling us to turn to Christ.  We should change our course if our present path will not get us towards our goal. In other words if the way that we live now is not taking us closer to Christ then it is time to change our direction.
The title that St Peter ascribes to Christ is a poignant one – “living stone.” Christ is the precious stone upon which we are built. St Peter, the one was titled the rock by Christ, now reveals us to the foundation of his own strength. Furthermore this foundation is not a mythical past but the very present and living person. Our foundation is not a story or principle but the person of Jesus Christ himself. Approaching Christ isn’t something done in the past either. It is a continual return and drawing closer to Christ. The closer we get to Christ the more we realize how much more we need to approach him.
During this advent season let us come to Christ the Living Stone.

Song of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWswqTy2OaE

Icon of the Day:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deesis

Quote of the day:

"So He united man with God and wrought a communion of God and man, we being unable to have any participation in incorruptibility if it were not for His coming to us, for incorruptibility, whilst being invisible, benefited us nothing: so He became visible, that we might, in all ways, obtain a participation in incorruptibility." (St Irenaeus of Lyons, On the Apostolic Preaching, 31)