Christ is in our midst!
My dear ones, we are approaching Holy Week next week! I personally feel that I need another week or two to enjoy this time! Great Lent is a time of deep reflection to focus solely on shortening our distance to God and to repair our relationship with Him.
Today on my way to litrugy for the feast day of the Annunciation, celebrated on the Old Calendar, I was listening to the Bible plan that I am doing in a year. Listening to Deuteronomy, tears come about. I am just like the early Israelites who questions faith in God; will lGod provide bread and water in times when I need it? In Egypt we had it, but here in the wilderness, will God provide? God did, and continues to, many miracles. The pillar of light, the cloud… the splitting of the Red Sea, to have seen these miracles performed would have quite the scene to see. Yet, the Hebrews still questioned God, groaned and moaned that they had fish and leeks in Egypt yet in the wilderness they are living off the manna bread! Manna! Bread fallen from heaven! That also must have been quite the scene! Here I am. Many miracles in my life. My life with my husband. My life revived and restored coming to the Orthodox Christian church. My parents back together after 20 years being divorced! To be blessed with health issues but it allows me to be hospitable and read the word of God. Glory be to God. “I want to serve you God. I am your servant. I don’t know how to serve You. Show me, O Lord, how am I to serve You!”, I tend to pray the most when struggling with my heavy cross on bended knees with tears in front of my icon corner. Recalling Abraham and his faithfulness to God reminds me that God blesses us when we sacrifice to Him with much more. Nothing can be above God; we must sacrifice what we are attached to and would die for. God, our Compassionate and Merciful Lord, blesses and gives back more what we sacrifice the thing we love most. Abraham is just one example of this.
The recipe I have to share with you today is one nourishing the soul. It is one to strengthen us for the next weeks until Pascha. As I was cleaning up my things after returning home from liturgy, I was flipping through my Orthodox books and seeing which ones to read to my never-ending pile of must reads. My “spiritual” cookbooks that feed my soul and repair my relationship with God. I struggle with health issues but have slowly, slowly, slowly accepted that it is a blessing. It is a heavy cross to bear at times. I have had to sacrifice many things, which makes me despair at times so I must practice gratitude, pray, cook with Agni Parthene on, and or go to church to strengthen my spirit aside from my spiritual cookbooks. As I am looking at my spiritual cookbooks, this one book catches my eye. “Meditations on The Lord’s Prayer” by Elaine Konstantopoulos. She has done a beautiful job putting this together. Elaine breaks down the mystery of this prayer line by line making the reader meditate. Along with these meditations are beautiful illuminated manuscript style for the verses that Elaine breaks down. I highly recommend purchasing this book and supporting our fellow sister in Christ.
Lord Jesus Christ is our Shepherd. We shall not want anything but Him and for Him to feed us His daily bread to sustain our souls. What use is it to follow our own will, to sell our souls to the world when we can enter eternal life with our dear Lord who created us? Following our Lord Jesus Christ gives us eternal Life and Light. This is something that takes time to understand.
A word from Archbishop Spyridon who wrote the introduction to the book:
The relationship between God and human being is a mystery. As Orthodox Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is at the center of Creation. The majesty of Creation resonates to that spiritual center within each of us that seeks to communicate with the Creator. When Jesus Christ was asked how we should pray, He gave us one and only prayer as the perfect model of communication between us and the Almighty. The Lord’s Prayer remains at the center of the Christian prayer experience. I am pleased that this meditation explores some of the deep questions that the Lord’s Prayer raises to those who experience its power to transform. For those who contemplate its profound meaning, the Lord’s Prayer will connect their innermost soul to the Creator. May all who enter into this mystery feel the love, joy, and peace of the Most High God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
+ Archbishop Spyridon, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of America
I pray that this strengthens you not just on this journey to Pascha but for your entire life. I highly encourage to purchase this book, once again. Without further ado, thank you Elaine for this wonderful resource for us all who desire to be closer to God. What a gift to have this! Efharisto parapoli!
Our Father
O Lord, You are our Father. You belong to all, even though there are times when I feel you are mine alone. We all feel that way, I suppose; it is the way a child feels toward his earthly father.
You have made us, and we belong to You — the Father, the Creator, the awesome Power of the universe. When we suffer, we cry to You to soothe our pain. When we know great joy, we turn to You in praise. When we seek advice, we share with You our secrets. And so, You are always the beginning of our prayer.
Who art in heaven,
Where is heaven, Lord? Is it above? When we were young, we were taught to look up when praying to You. Should we look elsewhere, Lord? Should we look around us to find heaven? Should we look within?
Heaven is where the saints and angels are, O Lord, ready for You to send them to help us. We see the things You have made and therefore know where You have been and what You have touched. Heaven is with You, O Lord. I pray that I will always be close to You, until one day, by Your mercy, I join You — because I cannot imagine life without You.
Hallowed be Thy Name.
“Praise the Name of the Lord, for it is good.” The psalmist has said it best. Your name is sacred, Lord, and should be uttered only with awe and reverence. When we consider something sacred, we hold it tenderly and dearly, close to our hearts. It becomes for us the most precious thing in the world… So is Your Name, Lord — most beautiful, most sacred, most sublime.
Thy Kingdom come.
Lord, one day this world with all its problems and difficulties will pass, and all those who have lived will live again forever. A never-ending day will dawn when there will be no sickness — or death — when evil will end forever.
On that day we will see things plainly and be in Your presence eternally. We cannot know when that day may be, Lord. Give us the grace ti be ready when it comes.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven.
Why is it so difficult to remember that You are in charge, Lord? You always have been and always will be. Why do we act as if we are in charge? What do we control that is of real significance? Do we control the elements? Can we make a blade of grass grow? Can we make a bird sing? Can we give life to an embryo, or take the soul into our hands when death beckons? God, help me to put my life back into Your most capable hands. And when I pray, help me not to tell You what to do. Can I tell You how to run the universe? You know what is best. You know our needs even before we ask. Please forgive us when we forget this, O Lord.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Give us only what we need today, Lord. You, better than anyone else, know what we need at any given time. One day it may be bread itself; another day it might the bread of spiritual nourishment satisfying our hungry souls like manna in the desert. One day we may need guidance; one day, compassion; but always we need Your love.
My daily bread is nothing without Your love, O Lord; for it is Your love that truly gives me life.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
How can we ask for Your forgiveness, Lord, if we cannot forgive others? Yet we do it all the time! We say, “Lord, please forgive the wrong I have done. I didn’t mean it; I will never do it again.” At the same time, however, we carry a grudge against someone who has caused us pain. If You can forgive us, Lord, when we have caused You pain, why can we not forgive another?
You have told us that we must become like You — in every respect. There can be no room in heaven for those who cannot forgive. If we do not love, we are not Your disciples. Help us to learn, Lord, that forgiving is easier than hating and not forgiving. And Lord, as we forgive others, help us to forgive ourselves as well.
And lead us not into temptation,
It’s all around us, Lord — so much to turn us astray, so much to distract us, so much to lead us away from You. We know better than to follow these temptations; but sometimes we find it difficult to obey You. When temptations present themselves, we often wander off Your path. We are great justifiers, finding excuses for our sins. We need strength, Lord, to keep to Your path. Shield me, I pray, from every temptation, that I may walk according to Your will and not my own.
But deliver us from the evil one.
Evil does exist, Lord. I know, for I have seen its ugliness. I have seen how it can twist truth and deceive. I have witnessed how it destroys. Deliver me, O Lord, from the snares of such a horrific spirit. Enter my soul, Lord, for You alone are invited to dwell within me. I am Yours, Lord, and on bended knee I ask You to remain with me. Guard my soul as Your Angel guarded the entrance to the Garden of Eden. Stand at the end of the road so that I may see Your Light and not fear the darkness that surrounds me. Evil can flourish only when we fail to listen to You, when we hear the evil one instead. But deliver me from him, O Lord, now and always — and especially when I leave this world, that I may be delivered straight to You, O loving and holy and all-forgiving Father.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
The only true kingdom is Your kingdom. You are the Power, the Energy, the Life Force. It is because of You that all Creation lives and breathes. We humbly kneel before You, our God, for all the glory we could possibly ever offer is Yours. “The heavens declare Thy glory,” and so do we, dear God.
Of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.
“Forever” is a concept impossible for us to comprehend, Lord. We can grasp only the finite. For us, all things must end, but not for You. You were, are, and always will be. How awesome a thought! You are eternal and give each of us the opportunity to spend eternity with You. Help me to remember that the steps to eternity begin now. And guide my footsteps, O Lord, that day by day I may follow the path that leads to You. Amen.
My dear Lord, have mercy on us sinners and give us strength. For nothing is impossible when we have You in our life. Glory to You, O God, glory to Thee!
Source
“Meditations on The Lord’s Prayer” by Elaine Konstantopoulos
A Spiritual Steward 
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