The Prousiotissa Mother of God ~ Shhh!

This icon of the Prousiotissa Mother of God had its feast day celebrated on the Eastern Church calendar — June 23. The Mother of God is spiritually wide-eyed and awake to her Infant Son who appears as a little man. Jesus is always the Lord whose message is, stay awake. "Wake up from your sleep, climb out of your coffins. Christ will show you the light." Ephesians 5:14. She is the first disciple who patterns this soul-disposition for us.

The icon's traditional story is regrettably full of dread, paralysis and a dis-empowering fear of God. In the account, when the Holy Mother performs wonders, the people thank her with gifts of gold and silver. Wouldn't converted hearts please her more? How it is that we settle for distortion, the shrinking of God and ourselves? The world, weary with violence and death, hopes for a message that is fresh, relevant and genuinely spiritual. 

Notice the Mother of God looks out at us, proposing a personal and interior involvement. In truth, the Prousiotissa Icon is a story about the  curing of a deadly virus, a plague-like influenza. Of course, we think of our own time of Coronavirus epidemic. But I'd suggest there's more. There is also the epidemic of too much thinking and talking in religion. I sometimes wonder if I am alone in feeling like a talking head at the end of Mass. What happens to awe (even ecstasy) when there's only talking? 

I remember in my first year of seminary there was mandatory 7:00 A.M. meditation. We knelt in rows facing forward while a priest in the rear of the chapel talked us through our meditation for an hour. You could hear elbows and heads clunking off the kneelers. 

As the icon appears here on our screens, might I propose a new prayer which pays attention to her nimbus (halo). Let's not think the nimbus is just decoration. Heaven keep us from the religion of decoration, especially decorative talking and thinking.

Your nimbus, O Lady,

filled with swirling

clouds of unknowing —

the inner darkness,

pious imaginings,

fanciful God-knowledge,

the voluminous study of

what everyone else has said,

the keep-you-in-a-box of God-cliches,

the tidy, "just believe it," religion...

like tree-top birds,

  wide-winged,

  currant riding birds

  kept in cages.

Pierce with

  a bowing love,

  a hushed love,

the amorphous cloud-thoughts

  shrinking the vastness,

  claiming to know.

Only by love!

Here is a selection from a boy's choir concert in St. Petersburg, Russia. The first minute or so is not important, as the boys are getting themselves organized and the crowd is unsettled. Then we hear a very young voice coming from somewhere. Perhaps, like an angel, he is making an announcement. The photographer seems startled at what he hears — his camera spins around almost to the ceiling and then to the rear door of the church where a small boy sings a repeated phrase. 

Returning to the front of the church, a serious young man (both modern and traditional) shocks us with his voice. Why so serious? Perhaps he is just nervous at being featured. Many adults are terrified of speaking, reading or singing in public. I'm wondering he is so serious because he's singing about serious things. Maybe the lyrics peek into the incomprehensible enormity and vast depth of God's presence and love. That would shock us!

We have no translation of the song, but that needn't trouble us. We are left free to imagine. I'm thinking perhaps the little boy is singing:

Awake my heart!

Awake my heart!

Only by love will we know God!

Then the older boy:

God cannot be grasped by thought

but only by love!

Shelve your 

calculations,

plans, hopes, fears,

imaginings —

even the pious ones,

 your anxieties and dreams

your too-small ideas!

Break free of the brain-box;

distorting, distracting,

diminishing,

and come to God by love,

the nature of which is to grow!

P.S. Some have said this young man will one day be a great Russian opera baritone or bass. But why do we jump to that conclusion? Is it because he will make big money that way? It's not enough to sing profoundly and with skill to God's glory — we need the biggest applause and notoriety?

Intercessions ~ Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This July 4th weekend,/ recalling the words of the much-loved national hymn,/ may we learn that the spacious skies stretch over all of us,/ including the native peoples who were here first,/ those brought here in slavery,/ and all who flee from danger and death./ We pray to the Lord.

The word independence means freedom./ May we be freed of all hatred,/ degradation of others,/ slander/ and bitter lies./ May the people of this nation be renewed/ and live up to our most noble aspirations./ We pray to the Lord.

On the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul this week,/ Pope Francis invited all the baptised to be builders of unity in a fractured and angry time./ May we join him in this hope and prayer./ We pray to the Lord.

The Coronavirus is very much with us,/ claiming lives and exhausting the nation,/ largely due to willful ignorance,/ indifference and selfishness./ Grant that we would learn to care for others,/ especially the most vulnerable ones./ We pray to the Lord.

In the summertime,/ we pray for the safety of travelers and any who have to work in the heat./ For the sick and those who work to comfort and heal them./ We pray to the Lord.

For the President of the United States and those who lead  in any capacity,/ may they desire only to serve the people,/ forfeiting vanity,/ power and the love of money./ We pray to the Lord.