Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. Abraham Lincoln
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it.
John F. Kennedy *** The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
John F. Kennedy, speech at Vanderbilt University, May 18, 1963 ***
Being watchful in it in gratitude, Daily
Reflection, Sister Vassa Larina, Vendredi le 8 Juillet 2016
Objet :
Daily Reflection
De :
Coffee with Sr. Vassa (coffeewithsistervassa@gmail.com)
À :
Olivia Marcov@yahoo.fr;
Date :
Vendredi 8 juillet 2016 11h33
Amen,
My Sister !
(Friday, July 8)
“Continue
steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it in gratitude;”
(Col 4: 2)
How, in practical terms, does one go about prayerfully “being watchful,”
– and not only “watchful,” but “in gratitude”? In practice, I find
that the two are connected. When I am “watchful,” I take note of the ups and downs of my day, jotting these down in
a notebook for just a few minutes before I go to sleep. And in connection with
prayer this little exercise brings me gratitude, because I begin to see my life as God’s work in
progress, as a journey in Him, rather than letting it pass me by meaninglessly. So for me, “life” is not,
as John Lennon sadly noted, “what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
Today let me take a few minutes to “be watchful,” because I know
that this brings me gratitude, - and gratitude changes everything. Lord, open
my eyes today, that I may see what You have to show me, in the circumstances,
failures or successes You send my way this summer day.
It's
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They wondered(ἐθαύμασαν)that he was talking with a woman,
Daily Reflection, le 23 juin 2016, Coffee with Sister Vassa Larina
Objet :
Daily
Reflection
De :
Coffee with Sister Vassa
(coffeewithsistervassa@gmail.com)
À :
Olivia Marcov@yahoo.fr;
Date :
Jeudi 23 juin 2016 9h22
(Thursday, June 23)
“Just then his disciples came. They wondered(ἐθαύμασαν)that he was talking with a woman,
but none said, ‘What do you wish?’ or, ‘Why are you talking with her?’ So the
woman left her water jar, and went away into the city…” (Jn 4: 27-28)
The
disciples had reasons for being scandalized that Jesus was talking with a
Samaritan woman, but they said nothing.
Today let
this be a reminder to me of an important spiritual principle: When I feel disturbed or “scandalized” by
someone else’s behaviour, this signalizes a problem within me, not them. So
it’s better to take pause and say nothing, asking myself how it is that my
focus has thus slipped, to evaluating others to the point of disturbance. God
knows what He is doing with others, just as He knows what He is doing with me,
so let me “be still” and leave judgment to Him. “Be still,” He says to me today, “and know that I am God.” (Ps 45/46:
10).
Brokenness, in Jesus loving
and life-creating hands, I am broken for new life, Daily Reflection, Coffee
with Sr.Vassa Larina, 4 juin 2016
Objet :
Tr : Daily
Reflection
De :
Olivia Marcov (...@yahoo.fr)
À :
...
Cc :
...
Date :
Samedi 4 juin 2016 21h05
olivia
Le Samedi 4 juin 2016 9h30, Coffee with Sr. Vassa
<coffeewithsistervassa@gmail.com> a écrit :
(Saturday, June 4)
“And
he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This
is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’" (Lk 22: 19)
Just
as He took the bread, broke it with His own, loving hands, and gave it to His
disciples, so does He, the Bread of Life, continue to give Himself to us, in
loving brokenness. And so does He also break me, having taken me and blessed me
on a cross-carrying journey with and within His life-giving Body.
But
there is more than one way to “brokenness.” I can be broken without Him, in
which case my brokenness leads to bitterness, resentment, and cynicism. But in
His loving and life-creating hands, I am broken for new life, new growth, new
service and self-giving, in His way. So let me turn my will and my life over
into His hands today, because only He gives it back to me, transformed and
blessed in His ever-new Gifts.
Daily Reflection, Jesus and
The Samaritan woman ( 1 ), ( 2 ), ( 3 ), Coffee with Sr.Vassa Larina, May the
27th, 2016
Objet :
Tr : Daily
Reflection
De :
Olivia Marcov (...@yahoo.fr)
À :
Date
:
Vendredi 27 mai 2016 16h19
olivia
Le Vendredi 27 mai 2016 10h07, Coffee
with Sister Vassa <coffeewithsistervassa@gmail.com> a écrit :
(Friday, May 27)
“So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as
he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
There came a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ For his disciples had gone
away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it
that you, a Jew, ask a drinkof
me, a woman of Samaria?’
For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the
gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would
have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’” (Jn 4: 5-10)
Indeed, at first the Samaritan woman does not see “who it
is” that is speaking with her. She merely sees the externals and politics of
status. She sees not Christ, but “a Jew,” and herself, “a Samaritan” and “a
woman,” drawing an immediate, accepted line of demarcation between herself and
the Stranger. But our Lord crosses this line, speaking to her not as to “a
woman” or “a Samaritan,” or some other category, but as to a distinct person.
Differently from her, He recognizes “the gift of God” and exactly “who
it is” with whom He speaks, – a concrete human being – and He calls her to do
the same.
Today let me recognize His voice, however and whenever He
might strike up a conversation with me. Let me recognize “the gift of God”
in His messengers, be they women, men, Jews, Samarians, Greeks, Russians,
Americans, Georgians, Romanians, Serbs, or
others. And let me pray, as the Holy and Great Council nears, in a divided and
divisive world: O Lord, Founder and Spirit of our unity, may You speak and be
heard among us, regardless of our human lines of demarcation and politics of
status, that we may have living water. Glory be to You.
Objet :
Daily Reflection
De :
Coffee with Sister Vassa
(coffeewithsistervassa@gmail.com)
À :
...@yahoo.fr;
Date :
Samedi 28 mai 2016 10h58
(Saturday,
May 28)
“Jesus
said to her(the Samaritan
woman),‘Every one who drinks
of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall
give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir,
give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said
to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have
no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;
for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband;
this you said truly.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a
prophet…” (Jn 4: 13-19)
Our Lord is
drawing the woman out of herself, letting her tell Him things He already knows,
- first, about her “thirst“ for His kind of “water,“ and second, ...about that
other thing. It is that thing in her life, that repeating, troublesome pattern,
which needs to be said aloud and addressed, so that a real conversation with
Christ can begin. And so that she can receive “living water“ that will become
in her "a spring of water welling up to eternal life." She
can’t quite say it herself, so He helps her out, and says it for her, like an
experienced, skillful father-confessor: You have had five husbands... You’ve
been trying to quench that “thirst“ in the wrong place. After this, we see her
eyes and heart begin to open, and she starts asking Him the right questions.
Today let
me not fear a conversation like this one; a confession that liberates me from
“that thing“ in my life that may be blocking me from truly quenching my
“thirst.“ My Lord can and will give me more than I can give myself, or that any
human being can give me. He gives me water that becomes in me “a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.“ So let me open up to Him today. “Give
me this water,“ I say to Him this morning, “that I may not thirst,“
nor come to draw in the wrong places.
Objet :
Daily
Reflection
De :
Coffee
with Sr. Vassa (coffeewithsistervassa@gmail.com)
À :
...@yahoo.fr;
Date :
Dimanche
29 mai 2016 10h13
(Sunday,
May 29)
“Many
Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He
told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked
him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed
because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of your
words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this
is indeed the Savior of the world.’” (Jn 4: 39-42)
Two
surprising moments here: First, “many” Samaritans believe because of the
testimony of a woman. And not just any woman, but one who had already had five
husbands and was now with a sixth guy, who wasn’t even her husband.
Nonetheless, she was evidently a figure of considerable authority, whose
testimony is trusted within her community. So our Lord knew what He was doing,
choosing her as His messenger. Second, Jesus chooses to stay with the heretical
Samaritans, with whom Jews were to have no contact at all, for two whole days.
Our Lord cuts through important, yet secondary, issues of tradition and
propriety, in order to bring His light to more people, that they might know “that
this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
How
different are His choices from ours today, in matters of evangelization and
church-building. On the eve of the Holy and Great Council, we stumble over
these very same, secondary issues. We hotly debate the “traditionality” of
women’s participation, the status of heretics and the use of the word “church,”
while allowing church-unity to fall by the wayside. We are willing to hinder
the unified voice of the Church, the unified testimony to Him, to be heard in
this world, as we quibble about our traditions. Today I pray that my Lord help
me cut through the secondary issues, and focus on the primary, as He did on
those two sunny days in Samaria.
Daily Reflection, Jesus and
The Samaritan woman ( 1 ), Coffee with Sr.Vassa Larina, May the 27th,
2016
Objet :
Tr : Daily
Reflection
De :
Olivia Marcov (...@yahoo.fr)
À :
Date
:
Vendredi 27 mai 2016 16h19
olivia
Le Vendredi 27 mai 2016 10h07, Coffee
with Sister Vassa <coffeewithsistervassa@gmail.com> a écrit :
(Friday, May 27)
“So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as
he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
There came a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ For his disciples had gone
away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it
that you, a Jew, ask a drinkof me, a woman of Samaria?’ For Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans. Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is
that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he
would have given you living water.’” (Jn 4: 5-10)
Indeed, at first the
Samaritan woman does not see “who it is” that is speaking with her. She merely
sees the externals and politics of status. She sees not Christ, but “a Jew,”
and herself, “a Samaritan” and “a woman,” drawing an immediate, accepted line
of demarcation between herself and the Stranger. But our Lord crosses this
line, speaking to her not as to “a woman” or “a Samaritan,” or some other
category, but as to a distinct person. Differently from her, He recognizes “the gift of God” and exactly “who it is”
with whom He speaks, – a concrete human being – and He calls her to do the
same.
Today let me recognize
His voice, however and whenever He might strike up a conversation with me. Let
me recognize “the gift of God”
in His messengers, be they women, men, Jews, Samarians, Greeks, Russians,
Americans, Georgians, Romanians, Serbs, or others. And
let me pray, as the Holy and Great Council nears, in a divided and divisive
world: O Lord, Founder and Spirit of our unity, may You speak and be heard
among us, regardless of our human lines of demarcation and politics of status,
that we may have living water. Glory be to You.
