Author: Jobin

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    She Stood There: The Theotokos at the Foot of the Cross

    ByJobin

    She Stood There: The Theotokos at the Foot of the Cross

    🕯️ Thirty-three years before Golgotha, Simeon held the infant Jesus in the temple and said to Mary:

    “A sword will pierce through your own soul also.”

    She did not know then what the sword would look like.
    Today she knew.

    St. John Chrysostom says the sword was real. The pain of watching her son crucified was not spiritualised away or made bearable by some special divine protection. She felt what any mother would feel. The theology of the Incarnation does not exempt the Theotokos from human suffering. If anything it intensifies it. Because she knew, with a clarity no one else had, exactly who it was dying on that Cross.

    She knew He was the Son of God.

    And she stood there watching the Son of God die.

    And she did not leave. Not until He gave her somewhere to go.

    Good Friday reflection on the blog. On the Theotokos at the foot of the Cross. On the sword that was promised and the standing that received it.

    She stood there. And today we stand with her.

  • Wrestling Through the Night: Jacob and the God Who Wounds to Bless

    ByJobin

    *Wrestling Through the Night: Jacob and the God Who Wounds to Bless*
    _Faces of the Fast – Movement II, Post 3_

    🕯️ He went into the night self-sufficient and strategic.

    He came out limping.

    Jacob wrestled with God at the ford of the Jabbok all night long. And as dawn was breaking the mysterious wrestler touched the socket of his hip and wrenched it out of joint.

    With a dislocated hip Jacob was still holding on.

    *_”I will not let you go unless you bless me.”_*

    The wound and the blessing came from the same encounter. They could not be separated. He crossed the river into the morning carrying both of them together.

    Now stand that image beside what we are remembering this week.

    The risen Christ appears to His disciples and shows them His hands and His side. The wounds are still there. The Resurrection did not erase them. It transfigured them. The wounds of Good Friday are present in the glorified body of Easter Sunday. Still real. Still visible. Now luminous.

    Jacob’s limp and the wounds of the risen Christ are the same testimony in two different moments of salvation history. The blessing and the wound came from the same night. The glory and the marks came from the same Cross.

    Holy Week reflection on the blog now. On Jacob. On Gethsemane. On what it means to hold on through the darkness when you have run out of everything else.

    Full reflection on Seeking Theosis:

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 46 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Lenten Reflection – Day 46 of the Great Lent: Maundy Thursday – Luke 22:14–30 & John 13:1-20
    The Table, the Towel and the New Covenant

    “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

    Christ longed for this meal. Not dreading it. Longing. Because this is the meal that changes everything. The Passover that fulfils every Passover. The lamb of Egypt giving way to the Lamb of God.

    St. Cyril: the words “this is My body” create what they declare. The bread becomes the body. The wine becomes the blood. Not symbolically. Really.

    After forty-six days of fasting: the bread that was denied is now the body that is given. Receive.

    Further, the washing of the feet is participation. Not spectacle. We must be washed. We must receive. We must let the God of the universe touch our dirt.

    That is harder than any act of service. Letting ourselves be served by the One who made us.

    Tonight: sit still. Extend your feet. Receive.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 45 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Wednesday of Holy Week – John 12:19-50: The Last Day of the Light

    “A little while longer the light is with you.”

    The most urgent sentence in Holy Week. A little while. Hours. By tomorrow evening, the light will be arrested. By Friday afternoon, extinguished. By Friday evening, in the tomb.

    “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you.”

    The fast has been forty-five days of walking in the light. Every reflection. Every prayer. Every Scripture. The light has been saying: walk while you have Me.
    Wednesday asks: have you walked? The little while is almost over.

    For our journey today
    – Let the grain fall
    – Speak the secret belief
    – Walk while you have the light

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 44 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Tuesday of Holy Week – Matthew 22:15–33: Two Traps, Two Truths

    The Pharisees and the Sadducees both tried to trap Christ in the Temple on Tuesday. Both failed.

    The tax trap revealed the truth about identity. The coin bears Caesar’s image; give it to Caesar. You bear God’s image; give yourself to God.

    The resurrection trap revealed the truth about God. “I AM the God of Abraham.” Present tense. God does not preside over corpses. The dead are alive in Him.

    The traps failed on Tuesday. By Friday, the enemies will bypass the arguments and use soldiers instead. But by Sunday, the resurrection argument will be proved. From inside an empty tomb.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 43 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Monday of Holy Week: Luke 19:40-20:8 – He Saw the City and Wept

    Yesterday: hosannas. Today: tears.
    Christ looked at Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives and wept.

    Not quiet tears. Audible sobbing. The King who entered in triumph yesterday is breaking down today.

    “If you had known, even you, the things that make for your peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

    St. Ephrem: God’s first response to final refusal is not punishment. It is grief. The physician weeps when the patient refuses the cure.

    The fast has been offering peace for forty-two days. Have you received it? The “if” is still open. But the week is moving.

    St. John Chrysostom: when you refuse the shield, you are exposed to the sword. God does not destroy the city. God offered the peace. The city refused. And the consequences followed.

    The Great Lent has been a shield. Forty-two days of prayer, fasting, repentance, and the Spirit’s intercession. The shield was offered. Today: is it in your hands? Or on the ground?

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 42 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Palm Sunday – The Donkey, Not the Chariot: Mark 11:1–7

    The King of the universe had every option. Gold chariots. War horses. The full display of imperial power.

    He chose a borrowed donkey that had never been ridden.
    From the Bo’utho of Mor Jacob: “He loathed ornate chariots of the nobility, and instead chose a colt in His humility.”

    St. Ephrem: the colt is humanity itself. Bound. Tied. Waiting. And Christ sends His disciples: untie it. Bring it. I will ride upon it.

    The bound thing becomes the King’s vehicle. The thing no one valued becomes the instrument of salvation.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 41 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 41 of the Great Lent – Lazarus Saturday: John 11:14-46

    Martha heard theology. “Your brother will rise again.” She knew the doctrine. Someday. At the end. When everything is made right.

    Christ corrected her. Not by adding information. By changing the tense.

    “I AM the resurrection and the life.”

    St. Cyril of Alexandria: the resurrection is not an act Christ performs. It is who Christ is. Where He is, death cannot remain. The tomb that contains His presence cannot contain death.

    Martha’s confession at the grave: “Yes, Lord. I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

    Before the miracle. In the grief. At the tomb. That is the faith the raising stood on.

    For our journey today:
    – Roll away your stone
    – Hear your name
    – Unwrap the graveclothes

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 40 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 40 of the Great Lent – The 40th Friday:Matthew 4:1–11

    Forty days. Moses fasted forty days on Sinai and came down with the Law. Elijah fasted forty days to Horeb and heard the still small voice. Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness and defeated the devil with the Word of God.

    The Sedro prayer: “This is the fast through which the Lord of all defeated the boastful adversary who defeated the first Adam through food.”

    Adam fell because he ate. Christ stands because He fasts. The first Adam lost the battle through food. The second Adam wins it through the Word.

    The forty days are complete. Holy Week begins. “Make us worthy to fight in this battle, at the least as the workers of the eleventh hour.”

    The fortieth day does not end with a victory lap. It ends with a plea for mercy. The sins are great. The mercy is greater. And the blood is precious.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Feast of the Annunciation to the Mother of God – March 25

    ByJobin

    Feast of the Annunciation – March 25

    The Creator of the universe asked a teenage girl for permission. He sent an angel. He spoke through words. He waited for a response.

    Mary said: “Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.”

    And the Word became flesh. In her womb. Nine months before Bethlehem. The road from the manger to the Cross began in this room. On this day. With this yes.

    St. Ephrem: heaven and earth heard the yes simultaneously. The angels from their side. Creation from ours. And the Word began His journey from the throne to the manger.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis