Sunshine on a Tuesday

A new day.
*
I've been thinking about days and time.
Each day seems so unique.
I've been thinking about this longer video
that I am still not finished watching
but in one section it talked about time.
That there is only one time available to us:
NOW.
That God is with us in the present.
How we do not have in our hands our yesterdays
and we can't hold onto a future tomorrow
as we can't grasp it
and, as the Fr. in this video said,
we only have now.
The Acceptable Time is now.
Now is Christmas, Now is the Crucifixion, Now is the Resurrection.
*
I remember in a talk I listened to by Mother Gabriella
that every day can be a new revelation of God to us.
*
Everyday is like a new pearl
different than the one that is now yesterday.

One never knows
for the most part
if today is a day of joy, a day of sorrow or
a day that is in-between;
how often I wake and how I wake and the thoughts
that come then
determine the rest of the day.

I remember reading the beginning of
the way of the ascetic
(I only read the beginning of it so far)
spoke of the determination to get up and go to God.
To fight sloth and turn to God.
*
I have thought of how easy this can seem
when one is young
and how as the years ago by
it is a struggle one was not expecting
in those golden days of youth.

Candles from monasteries;
how monasteries use time differently
in prayer and how to live in the world and still
have prayer...
*
I am really appreciating the videos I am watching of
Fr. Rafail Noica and this is the longest
(over 12 minutes) one I found
and his view of things and of
what one is called to do
and that a lay person can have prayer too;
it strikes me.
*
I read somewhere recently about a woman
who was about to give up God and prayer
when she found Fr. Sophrony who told her
that the prayer is in already within her
and she prayed and prayer exploded in her;
and that she later became Orthodox and would
spend hours kneeling in prayer.
*
It seems that I walked through this story just last night;
it was still with me as I saw the icon corner in our bedroom upon entering...
but now, where did I read it? Ah! I found it.
In my search for more on Fr. Rafail Noica
I came across this blog that has more on him.
*
Each day
each hour
each moment
is NOW
with God.
*
How am I going to live out this day?
*
The long video of the monastic father
(that I first blogged about here)
spoke also
of love as the rule by which
we are judged.
Did I love today?
These thoughts and impressions are within me
now but will I pay attention to them? 

This is my icon of St. Gregory Palamas.
I got it from my parish in Ottawa
some years ago.
It is St. Gregory's Sunday this past Sunday
and I am planning on having his icon out all week
until the Sunday of the Holy Cross/Annunciation
which is next Sunday.
*
I am hoping to get St. Gregory's Homilies soon.
I have been wanting them for a few years now
and my spiritual father in Ottawa loves them
and recommend them most highly
one of the times that Mr. Husband
was with me in my Ottawa parish.

 

St. Gregory Palamas - the love and pride of
Thessalonica.
I know so little but I can see how much
many priests whose sermons I have heard
on St. Gregory's day
love him
and how much light St. Gregory brings.
*
How easy I forget
the brilliance that is in the church.
*
These stories found in the videos and blog posts;
they are so alive,
if one listens or reads them they can
fill one's mind and life with a presence that
can stay with them if one
will stay with them;
somehow it is both/and
and now is the when.