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PRAYERS
for the
Journey Along
THE WAY
(4) HOLINESS
My Lord and my God --
-
- Here I am again, daily falling down before Your
Holiness. How I long to abide in Your holiness, yet how far, far away I am --
light-years away. My whole life I have known You and sought to be close to You.
Yet it seems that the closer I come, the further away I am. Or maybe it is
that the closer I come, the more aware I become of how far away from You and Your Holiness
I am, because of my sinfulness. Those whom we look up to as Christian heroes and
role models, those whom we honor as saints, seem to have been so acutely aware of their
sinfulness -- yet we call them holy. Is this another example of divine Truth as
paradox?
-
- Lord, You told us to be perfect, that is, holy, as
our Father in Heaven is holy, or perfect. But the desire to be holy as You are holy
seems not to be taken seriously by most people in Your Church, even by those who attend
Divine Services regularly and are "active." Why is it that it seems so few
of Your followers really want to be holy, but instead take a minimalistic attitude of
"What is the least I can do and still manage to get by?" They say,
"Well, I am not a monk," or "Well, that
is just for monks." But monastics are just people like us, although people who
really and truly try to devote themselves to living holy lives, dedicated to serving You,
but without the extra encumbrances of a spouse, children and living "in the
world."
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- But Lord, don't you call all of us to live lives of
holiness, loving and serving you above all else, whether married or single, with or
without children, regardless of the type of work we do, being in
the world but not of the world? I know that You never said
it would be easy for us to take up our crosses and follow You. I know that You and
Your Presence should be enough to satisfy me. But if we could and would support each
other more in our daily struggles to truly follow You, we probably wouldn't feel so
isolated. I think that such support would be helpful to us all as
fellow--travellers-along-THE-WAY. I wouldn''t be surpprised if there really were far
more fellow-travellers-on-THE-WAY -- on the path of holiness -- than I realize. I
sure hope so. I think that even we who are in the Church have picked up so much our
society's animosity towards holiness, so that talking about "holy" or
"spiritual" things is rather taboo -- even in the Church, and even among the
clergy. And then Satan really wins some significant victories, when so many churches
become social and ethnic clubs or vehicles of social reform rather than soul reform.
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- Lord, You told us through Your Apostle, St. Paul,
that each of us forms a part, a member of Your One Body, the Church, Your Bride.
Please help me and all Your disciples and fellow-travellers-on-THE-WAY to desire You and
Your Holiness with all our hearts and minds and strength, so that you may form Yourself
within us. Please help us to support each other on our daily path along THE WAY, and
work together in unity as fellow members of Your One Body. Amen.
(by a member of St. Innocent Orthodox Community, Redford,
Michigan)
- The icon of "Christ Made-Without-Hands" (detail) is by Fr.
Theodore Jurewicz
- and is at St. Innocent Orthodox Church, Redford, Michigan.
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ST. INNOCENT/
