Comments on: Hidden Wonders

By: Michael Bauman

Michael Bauman — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 22:49:24 +0000

Perhaps it is the “hidden wonders” that are the real essence of life in Christ, those pearls of great price that have to be sought out, even in the community of the faithful. Look at what we have to experience, what we have to suffer to find the joy of the Resurection.

Perhaps it is the hidden wonders that allow the Church to withstand the gates of hell and protect all who come to her wanting God. Surely it is these hidden wonders so profuse within the Church that are the foundation for a genuine prophetic voice in the world.

By: Fatherstephen

Fatherstephen — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:47:41 +0000

Let alone to unbind us!

By: Michael Bauman

Michael Bauman — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:06:22 +0000

Yes, Father. Jesus raises us from the dead, but often it takes our friends to call us out of the tomb.

By: Fr Stephen

Fr Stephen — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 16:45:15 +0000

Michael,

It it truly is. Our parish, in its first Bright Week, had a member, the beloved wife of one of our parishioners who had been Chrismated at Pascha, to be killed in a car wreck that Bright Wednesday. We clung to each other, to Christ and the Mother of God, and sang our way through what turned out to be another Pascha. We truly became a parish in that week. We have borne things since, but we learned the love of the ever-present Christ that week. And I value her prayers greatly, as the first among our Founders.

By: Michael Bauman

Michael Bauman — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 16:08:48 +0000

Before I became Christian, let alone Orthodox, I knew that for any faith to be true it had to effectively address the problem of evil in the world and provide an avenue for overcoming the pain that evil causes. The four major responses: It doesn’t really exist because the physical world is an illusion; you just have to suffer through it because its what we deserve; if you believe and are saved, your reward will come later; through Jesus Christ and His Church you can be healed and be victorious over evil and pain. It took me twenty years to find the last answer; the answer lived by the Orthodox Church. It has been another 20 before I began to allow the healing and the victory to take hold a little in my own soul.

Jesus Christ is there for us in His Church when we need Him the most. He is present in the Holy Mysteries, in the clergy, and in our fellow parishioners. He and His mother come and comfort us as we cry out in the middle of the night. I count the moment I really became Orthodox when I attended a funeral for a member of my parish. It was so unlike any other funeral I had ever attended—genuinely cathartic emotionally and spiritually. There was no false bravado, no empty assurance but the reality of repentance and forgiveness that brings true hope and even joy in the midst of death.

Here is the true hidden wonder.

By: Alyssa

Alyssa — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:45:22 +0000

The view from the choir loft is quite spectacular on many levels, Fr. Stephen. I don’t know if there are any photos or other renderings of that scene you described floating out there presently, but there is apparently a member of the congregation who is in the process of completing a book detailing the icons at St. Nicholas from floor to ceiling…so one may be availabe in the near future.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Alyssa