POP! SIX! SQUISH! CICERO! LIPSCHITZ!

John the Evangelist in the Book of Kells, c. 9th century AD, Ireland 

In Cork, Ireland. Erected in memory of the Choctaw Nation which sent badly needed funds to the starving Irish during the Great Famine in 1848 even though they were in dire need themselves.

Song of the Sea (Ireland, 2014)

“We should not understand our relationship with God to be an ‘external’ matter, as if we were one individual and God another. Our union with God, birthed in us at Holy Baptism, is far more profound.

'He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.’ (1Co 6:17)

God does not 'help’ us in the manner of encouraging us or simply arranging for things to work out. Rather, He is in us, working in union with our work. The mystery of ascesis (the practice of prayer, fasting, self-denial, etc.) only makes true sense in this context.

The 'works’ that a Christian does, are properly done in union with Christ, such that the works are not those of an individual, but of our common life with and in Christ. When we fast, it is Christ who fasts in us. When we pray, it is Christ who prays in us. When we give alms it is Christ who gives alms in us.

And we should understand that Christ-in-us longs to fast. Christ-in-us longs to pray. Christ-in-us longs to show mercy. The disciplines of the Church are not a prescription for behaving ourselves or a map of moral perfection. Rather, the commandments of Christ (as manifest in the life of the Church) are themselves a description, an icon of Christ Himself.”

~Fr. Stephen Freeman

(Photo © dramoor 2013 St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland)

John the Evangelist in the Book of Kells, c. 9th century AD, Ireland