Author: Jobin

Day 39 of the Great Lent – 2 Corinthians 6:1–10: Now Is the Accepted Time

Paul slams the word “now” into the sentence like a fist on a table. NOW is the accepted time. NOW is the day of salvation.

The fast has a deadline. Passion Week is approaching. The window that thirty-nine days of discipline have opened will not stay open forever.

St. John Chrysostom: do not wait for a more convenient season. There is no more convenient season. The inconvenience of the fast is the convenience of the grace.

Eleven days before Pascha. The clay is as soft as it will be. Receive what God is offering. Now.

For our journey today:
– Receive the grace now
– Hold the paradox
– Name what you possess

Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

*Day 38 of the Great Lent – Galatians 5:13–26* : Works versus Fruit
The flesh produces works. A work is something we manufacture. We go to a factory. We apply energy. We follow a process. We produce an output. The output is a product of our effort.

The Spirit produces fruit. A fruit is something that grows. We do not manufacture an apple. We plant a tree. Water it. And we wait. The tree produces the fruit. Not because we forced it. Because the life in the tree produced it.

After thirty-eight days of fasting, praying, confessing, and running: was the output works or fruit? Did we manufacture holiness by effort? Or did the Spirit grow something in us while we were tending?

Look for the fruit. It is quieter than you expected. And more beautiful.

For our journey today:
– Look for the fruit
– Name the joy
– Tend the tree, stop manufacturing the fruit.

Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

Day 37 of the Great Lent – Romans 8:12-27: The Spirit Who Prays When You Cannot
“We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Thirty-seven days of prayer. And Paul says: you do not know how to pray. Not properly. The words are insufficient. The understanding is incomplete.

But the Spirit knows. And the Spirit has been praying in you since before you opened your mouth. Every morning you thought you were dragging yourself to prayer by willpower, it was the Spirit. Every confession that broke through pride, it was the Spirit. Every “Abba” that escaped your lips in the dark was the Spirit crying through you.

You were never alone. Not for a single day of this fast.

For our journey today:
– Stop and listen
– Say “Abba”
– Groan with creation

Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

Day 36 of the Great Lent – Luke 19:1-10: Presence, Not Command

The rich young ruler (Day 25) was given a command: sell everything. He could not. He walked away sorrowful.

Zacchaeus was given no command at all. Jesus said: I am coming to your house. That is it. And in the presence of Christ at his table, Zacchaeus gave half of everything to the poor and offered fourfold restitution.

St. Ephrem: when Christ sits at a sinner’s table, the table becomes an altar.

Sometimes the presence does what the command cannot. Today: invite Him to your table. And let the proximity change you.

For our journey today:
– Come down from the tree
– Let the presence do the work
– Give back

Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

Day 35 of the Great Lent – John 9:1-41 – Samiyo Sunday – One Thing I Know

The Pharisees pressed him. Interrogated him. Demanded answers. Insisted Jesus was a sinner.

The man said: “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

No theology. No credentials. No counter-argument. Just autobiography. I was there. Now I am here. And the distance between the two is Christ.

Thirty-five days. Can you say, honestly, in any area of your life: I was blind, now I see?

Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

Stretch Out Your Hand: St. Luke 6:1-12 “Then He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.” (6:10) A kind note to the readers, this blog pertains to the Saturday before the 6th Sunday of the Great Lent. Yesterday Christ came…

Day 33 of the Great Lent – St. Matthew 9:18–31 – The Interruption and the Resurrection

“The journey to one miracle was interrupted by another. Both were completed. Both were necessary. Both were the work of the same hands.”

St. Ephrem: Christ’s power is like the sun. It does not decide which plants to warm. It shines and everything within its reach is warmed. All it needs is contact.

The father’s public faith. The woman’s hidden faith. The blind men’s spoken faith. All different. All honoured. All sufficient.

For our journey today:
– Bring the dead thing
– Reach from behind
– Answer the question

New reflection on the blog.

Day 31 of the Great Lent – Mark 6:30-31 ” Come Apart and Rest. ”

The apostles returned from ministry exhausted. Not from failure. From faithfulness. They had preached, healed, and cast out demons. The crowd was pressing in. The needs were endless.

“They did not even have time to eat.”

Jesus said: come apart. Rest. Not because the work was wrong. Because the work needed a source. And the source is found in the silence.

St. Isaac the Syrian: the person who eliminates all empty space from the spiritual life eliminates the space where God does His deepest work.
For our journey today:
– Create a deserted place
– Stop feeding and be fed
– Recognize the scattered sheep

Full reflection at Seeking Theosis