Liturgical Life

The Divine Liturgy, sacraments, feasts, fasts, and the rhythms of the Church year

  • Day 11: The Palace, and the Girl Who Said She Had No Palace

    ByJobin

    Day 11 of the Shoonoyo Fast

    The Palace, and the Girl Who Said She Had No Palace

    What makes a palace a palace?

    Not its size, beauty or wealth. A palace matters because the king lives there.

    St Ephrem calls the Blessed Virgin a royal palace for precisely this reason:

    “She is a royal palace, because of You, O Royal Son.”

    Yet in a beautiful Syriac dialogue with the Magi, Mary looks at the poverty of her home and wonders how they could possibly have come there looking for a king. There is no royal treasure, no splendour, nothing regal to see.

    The Magi know what she cannot yet see.

    The house may be poor. The King is not.

    Perhaps that is something we need to hear on Day 11 of the fast. We can look at our own spiritual lives and see only what is unfinished, distracted and ordinary.

    But God has never needed grandeur before He comes to dwell.

    The King chooses the address. His presence makes the palace.

    📖 Read Day 11: The Palace, and the Girl Who Said She Had No Palace on Seeking Theosis.

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    Day 10: The Tree That Was Not There the Day Before

    ByJobin

    🐏 The Tree That Was Not There the Day Before
    Isaac looked at the wood he was carrying and asked the question Abraham must have dreaded:

    “Where is the lamb?”

    Abraham answered, “God will provide.”

    St Ephrem saw something remarkable in what happened next. The ram caught in the thicket was not merely Abraham’s escape from an impossible moment. It was a sign pointing ahead to another mountain, another piece of wood, and another Son.

    The Syriac Fathers then make an extraordinary connection:

    “Mary and the tree are one; the lamb was hung up in its branches, as our Lord was on Golgotha.”

    At Moriah, the son was spared and the lamb died in his place.

    At Golgotha, there was no substitute.

    The Lamb saved Isaac.
    The Lamb of God saved creation.

    📖 Read Day 10: The Tree That Was Not There the Day Before on Seeking Theosis.

  • Day 9: The Dead Stick That Flowered in the Dark

    ByJobin

    🌿 DAY 9: THE DEAD STICK THAT FLOWERED IN THE DARK

    Twelve dry staffs were placed before the Lord.

    No roots. No soil. No water. No sunlight.

    By every ordinary expectation, nothing should have happened.

    Yet when Moses entered the tent the following morning, Aaron’s rod had produced buds, blossoms and almonds.

    The Syriac Fathers saw in this a beautiful image of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

    “Amid all the dry staffs it alone grew moist.”

    Another hymn says that although the staff was “unwatered and unplanted,” it sprouted in order to bear the wondrous Fruit.

    Mary is the staff.

    Christ is the Fruit.

    But there is another part of the story that speaks especially powerfully during the Shoonoyo Fast.

    The miracle happened at night, away from every human eye. Nobody watched the first bud appear. Nobody saw the blossom open. While Israel slept outside, God was quietly bringing life from dry wood.

    Perhaps nine days into the fast, some of us feel dry too. Prayer may seem repetitive. The discipline may feel ordinary. We may wonder whether anything is actually changing.

    The staff tells us not to confuse hiddenness with absence.

    God may be working where we cannot yet see Him.

    Stay in the tent. Morning comes, and sometimes only then do we discover that God had been at work all night.

    📖 Read the full Day 9 reflection, The Dead Stick That Flowered in the Dark, on Seeking Theosis.

  • Day 8: The Tent That God Moved Into

    ByJobin

    ⛺ DAY 8: THE TENT THAT GOD MOVED INTO

    At the end of Exodus, something extraordinary happens.

    Israel has not reached the Promised Land. They are still in the wilderness. Yet God does not wait for them to arrive before making His dwelling among them.

    The cloud descends.

    The glory fills the Tabernacle.

    And centuries later, the mystery becomes greater still.

    Our Church sings of the Blessed Theotokos:

    **“Bless’d are you, tabernacle.”**

    One of the Syriac homilies puts the mystery beautifully:

    *”He entered and dwelt in Mary’s womb, He for whom the heaven is too small!”*

    The God whom heaven cannot contain became small enough to be carried, fed and held.

    And another remarkable line tells us why:

    **“In her He has grown small, to make us great.”**

    There is something here for us on the eighth day of the Shoonoyo Fast.

    Perhaps we expected to be further along by now, more prayerful, less distracted, more patient. But God dwelt with Israel while they were still travelling.

    He did not wait for the finished version of them.

    And He does not wait for the finished version of us.

    **He pitched His tent in the wilderness.
    He has not waited for us to arrive.
    He travels with us.**

    📖 Read the full Day 8 reflection,

  • Day 7: The Rock in the Wilderness

    ByJobin

    💧 Day 7 – The Rock That Gave Water

    The people at Rephidim were not behaving like saints.

    They were thirsty. Frightened. Angry with Moses. They even accused God of bringing them into the wilderness to die.

    And God gave them water anyway.

    That simple detail lies at the heart of today’s reflection.

    The Syriac Fathers looked at the rock struck by Moses and discovered layers of meaning within it. They saw a figure of the Virgin, from whom the “Drink of Heaven” came forth. St Paul tells us even more plainly:

    “That Rock was Christ.”
    1 Corinthians 10:4

    And Sebastian Brock points to another beautiful Syriac connection: the water flowing from the rock also recalls the waters of Baptism, waters from which the Christian drinks and receives new life.

    The rock was struck, and water flowed.

    Christ was pierced, and blood and water came forth.

    Seven days into the Shoonoyo Fast, perhaps fasting has begun to uncover something beneath our ordinary appetites:

    What are we really thirsty for?

    And if the fast has not gone as we hoped, the answer of Rephidim is not despair.

    It is an invitation:

    Come and drink.

    📖 Read the full Day 7 reflection, The Rock That Gave Water, on Seeking Theosis.

  • Day 6: The Bush That Burned But Was Not Burnt Up

    ByJobin

    The Bush That Burned and Was Not ConsumedThe Burning Bush.The Virgin Mary.The Mount of Transfiguration.Three moments. One mystery.The God who appeared to Moses in the flame is the same Lord who dwelt in the Virgin’s womb and revealed His glory upon Mount Tabor.The Syriac Fathers saw in the Burning Bush a beautiful image of the Mother of God: The bush remained a bush. The Fire remained Fire.Neither was diminished.This is also our calling. God does not come to erase who we are. He comes to fill us with His own life.As we continue the Dormition Fast, may the light of Christ illumine our hearts and prepare us to behold His glory. Read the full reflection on Seeking Theosis.”The divine Fire does not consume those who love Him. It illumines them.”

  • Day 5 – The Ship Whose Cargo is God

    ByJobin

    The Syriac Fathers gave the Blessed Virgin one of the most beautiful titles ever written:

    “Welcome, O Ship whose cargo is God.”

    She carried no earthly treasure.

    She carried the eternal Word made flesh.

    The One who steers the whole creation allowed Himself to be carried within His Mother’s womb so that the riches of heaven might reach the shores of humanity.

    Even today, this beautiful imagery continues to be sung in the Friday Vespers of the Shehimo in the Indian Orthodox Church.

    As we continue our journey through the Shoonoyo Fast, the question it leaves us with is simple:

    Are we waiting with open hearts to receive the Treasure that heaven has brought to us?

    📖 Read the full reflection on Seeking Theosis.

    “She is the ship. He is the Treasure.”

  • Day 4: The Ark of the Covenant

    ByJobin

    ✨ The Ark of the Covenant

    The Ark was more than gold and acacia wood.

    It became holy because God chose to dwell there.

    The Syriac Fathers saw in the Ark a beautiful image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who bore within her not tablets of stone, but the eternal Word made flesh.

    The Ark carried the covenant.

    Mary carried the Lord of the covenant.

    And today, in the Holy Eucharist, that same Lord comes to dwell within us.

    As we continue this season of fasting, may we slow our hearts, recover a sense of holy wonder, and approach Christ with reverence and love.

    📖 Read the full reflection on Seeking Theosis.

  • Day 3: A Garden, and What Grew In It

    ByJobin

    🌿 A Garden, and What Grew in It

    The Syriac Fathers saw the Blessed Virgin not simply as an enclosed garden, but as the New Eden.

    Not because of the walls around the garden…

    But because of the Tree growing within it.

    “The Tree of Life, hidden in Paradise, has sprung forth in Mary.”

    The first Eden witnessed humanity reaching for the tree that brought death.

    The new Eden offered the Tree that gives eternal life.

    As we journey through this fast, perhaps the question is not simply what we have given up.

    Perhaps the deeper question is:

    🌱 What is growing within me?

    May Christ, the Tree of Life, take root in our hearts.

    📖 Full reflection available on Seeking Theosis.

  • Day 2: The Earth That Had Never Been Dug

    ByJobin

    “The earth brought forth Adam. Mary brought forth Adam’s Lord.”

    The Fathers of the Syriac Church found profound theology in a detail many of us pass over.

    Before Adam was formed, the earth had never been tilled or cultivated. From untouched earth God fashioned the first man.

    Centuries later, from the untouched womb of the Virgin Mary, God brought forth the New Adam, Jesus Christ.

    Yet the comparison is not merely about virginity.

    The earth could not answer.

    Mary freely said, “Let it be to me according to your word.”

    Our own spiritual journey follows the same pattern. God continually takes what is humble and ordinary and fills it with His divine life.

    Perhaps holiness is not escaping our humanity, but allowing God to transform it.

    Read the full reflection through the link in bio.

    ✨ “Theosis is not an escape from the dust. It is what happens to dust when it says yes.”