Reflections

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 33 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    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.

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 32 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 32 of the Great Lent – Mark 6:47–50 – The Fourth Watch

    The disciples had been rowing since evening. For six to nine hours. Against the wind. In the dark. Getting nowhere.

    Christ came in the fourth watch. Between three and six in the morning. The last possible moment before dawn. When the arms are too heavy to row and the darkness has been total for so long you have forgotten what light looks like.

    That is when He walks across the water. Not the first watch when you are fresh. The fourth. When everything else has been exhausted.

    We are in the fourth watch of the fast. And Christ is walking toward us.

    For our journey today
    – Name the storm we are rowing against
    – Listen for the voice in the storm
    – Reach for the hem

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 31 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    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

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 30 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 30 of the Great Lent – Mark 5:2-20: Sitting, Clothed, and in His Right Mind
    The most broken person in the Gospels. Living among the dead. Naked. Screaming. Cutting himself with stones. A legion of demons. No chain could hold him. No one could help.

    Christ crossed the sea. Stood in front of the most dangerous, most broken, most hopeless person in the region. And said: come out.

    The man was found sitting. Clothed. In his right mind.

    No one is too far gone. There is no graveyard Christ will not enter. There is no legion He cannot command. The Man in the boat is coming.
    For our Journey today
    – Stop Running
    – Let the Stones Fall
    – Go Home and Tell
    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 29 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 29 of the Great Lent – Romans 9:14-21: The Potter’s Hands
    “Who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?'”
    This feels harsh. Until you look at the hands.
    These are the hands that touched the leper on Garbo Sunday. That straightened the bent woman on Kfiftho Sunday. That broke bread in the wilderness. That were nailed to wood on Great Friday.
    The hands that shape you are the hands that bled for you. They are not cruel hands. They are gentle hands. Wounded hands. And they handle clay with care.
    For our journey today:
    – Be soft clay today
    – Stop asking why
    – Look at the potter’s hands
    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 28 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 28 of the Great Lent – Kfiftho Sunday/Sunday of the Bent Woman – Luke 13:10-17
    Eighteen years of looking at the ground. Seeing only feet, dust, and the hem of garments. Unable to look anyone in the eye. Unable to see the sky. The stars. The faces of people she loved.

    Christ laid His hands on her. Immediately she was made straight. And glorified God.

    St. Macarius: sin bends the soul downward. Toward the temporary. Toward the earthly. The bending is so gradual you do not notice. Until one day you cannot look up. And in that moment, Christ walks in.

    Twenty-eight days of looking inward. Today: look up. The sky is still there.

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 27 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 27 of the Great Lent. Train, Do Not Punish. 1 Corinthians 9:25–27.
    The fast is not a punishment. It is training. The athlete does not hate his body. He trains it. He disciplines it not because the body is evil but because the body is powerful and must be directed.
    St. Basil the Great: the faster does not hate food. He loves God more. The fast is the alignment of body and spirit. Both pulling toward the same finish line. Toward the same crown.
    Today, change the language of your fasting. From “I have to give up” to “I am training for.” From “I cannot eat” to “I am learning to want something more.”
    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 26 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 26 of the Great Lent – Luke 17:1-10 – We Are Unprofitable Servants
    Twenty-six days. More than half the fast. We have been working hard. Fasting. Praying. Confessing. Giving. Some of us have not missed a single prayer.

    And today Christ says: you are an unprofitable servant. You did your duty.

    Sounds harsh. It is freedom.

    Because if our obedience earns nothing, then our failure costs nothing. God’s love for us today is exactly the same as it was before the fast began. Not one degree warmer because of our twenty-six days. It has nothing to do with our performance. It has to do with His nature.
    For our journey today:
    – Say it out loud “We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.”
    – Forgive the seventh time
    – Release the claim
    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    Lenten Reflection – Day 25 of the Great Lent

    ByJobin

    Day 25 of the Great Lent: Matthew 19:16-26 – “What Do I Still Lack?”
    The rich young ruler had kept every commandment since his youth. He did not steal, lie, cheat, or dishonour his parents. By any external measure, he was a good man.
    And he knew something was missing. “What do I still lack?”
    Jesus told him: sell everything and follow Me.
    He went away sorrowful. He could not let go.
    St. Ephrem: the command was not about money. It was about the heart’s deepest attachment. The “ruling love” that sits on the throne of the heart and will not yield.
    Twenty-five days of fasting. What is the one thing you have been protecting?
    For our journey today
    – Name the one thing
    – Bring it to the Cross
    – Do not go away sorrowful

    Full reflection at Seeking Theosis

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    The Promise and the Long Wait: Abraham and Sarah

    ByJobin

    *Faces of the Fast series* – _The Promise and the Long Wait: Abraham & Sarah_

    🕯️ God took Abraham outside in the dark. “Look up”, He said. “Count the stars if you can.”

    Abraham was old. Childless. Twenty-five years into a promise that had not yet been fulfilled. He looked up at the sky and chose to believe.

    Not because the evidence supported it. Because he had chosen to orient himself toward the One who had spoken rather than toward everything that contradicted it.

    The fourth reflection in Faces of the Fast is now on the blog. We move into Movement II of the series today.

    On Abraham and Sarah. On the long wait. On the laughter that was not the last word. On what it means to stand under the stars and say: I believe.

    It is a reflection for anyone who has been carrying something for a long time and has not yet seen it fulfilled. For anyone in the middle weeks of Lent when the freshness has worn off and the destination still feels distant.

    The One who made the promise is the same One who pointed Abraham to the stars.

    _Walking from Eden to the Upper Room. One biblical face at a time._ 🕯️