Publican and the Pharisee 2023 Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.

Glory to God. The thoughts that I want to share

with you this morning are about prayer. As Orthodox,

we know there are two types of prayer for all

Christians and all peoples. Public liturgical

prayer and so -called private prayer. And it's

a private prayer that I want to focus on. I think

some of the temptations for Christians and people

in general is to think of prayer as something

that, well, that's what we do when we go to the

church or the synagogue or something. But prayer

should be characteristic of each and every day

in our life, saying private prayers, coming into

communion with God in prayer. Prayer for me and

for all of you, we're all beginners. We are all

novices in prayer. Nobody is, even the best prayers,

so to speak, will say that they are just beginners

in prayer. Indeed, many of the fathers refer

to the church as a school of learning to be in

communion with God. One of my morning prayers

is to say the prayer of the Optina elders. The

Optina elders was a group of Russian monks in

the 18th, 19th century monastery of Optina. And

the one phrase in there that I really try and

focus on every time I read it and say to myself

is we say, Lord, teach me. to pray, to hope,

to believe, to love, to endure, and to forgive.

Teach me to do all of these things. There are

four types of prayer. We praise God, we adore

him, we thank him for his many benefits, we admit

our sorrow and our sinfulness, Admit we express

our repentance. Then, of course, the one that

we more readily, I think, identify with this

prayer is petition, asking God for certain favors

and blessings in our life. What's important for

us in our private prayers is regularity. At least

every day we should say some type of prayer.

In our rich liturgical repertoire, we have morning

and evening prayers. Excellent. And I think also

for married couples and for families should pray

together. Say some kind of prayer together. Even

if it's only the Our Father. Or say some of the

morning and evening prayers. Family that prays

together stays together, as the old saying is.

And one thing that we've been doing, well, later

in our life, is saying some of the Psalms every

day. And I say a few verses. and then my matushka

says a few verses, and we alternate back and

forth like that. So that's a practice that we

found very inspiring, if nothing else, and it

gives us more and more familiarity with the Psalms,

which is really the Old Testament prayer book,

expressing all different types of human emotions

and needs. So I urge you especially to have familiarity

with and pray the Psalms. Also, in addition to

the prayers from a prayer book, scripture reading.

That's a prayer. Every day we have an epistle

and a gospel. You can look them up on the OCA

website or look at your church calendar. and

see what the daily readings are. The OCA website

also has the lives of the saints for that particular

day. That's worth looking into. Daily and regularity.

Also, what tradition calls Lectio Divina, or

spiritual reading. To get a book, whether it

is a life of a saint or reading about one of

the books of the scriptures, we have a whole,

you've got a library and all kinds of books in

the bookstore. I mean, there's no lack of information

that's available to us for spiritual reading,

especially during Lent. I think this is the point

here. that we're coming up to that period of

Lent. And Lent is a time when I think we should

do something over and above what we have been

doing. So of all the things that I've mentioned,

the possibilities, I imagine, well, to be honest

with you, I don't do every day each one of those

things. Many of you have even less available

time. than I as a retired person have. You have

got to go to work, you've got to raise your family,

you've got to help cook meals, whatever it might

be. But these are possibilities that are open

to us. And I would urge you very strongly of

the things that I've mentioned, if you do one

or two, or even if you do none of them, Pick

out something that you want to do more to be

in communion with God. And don't do it just during

Lent. Have it a practice that you begin during

Lent and you're faithful and consistent with

that even after Lent. I'll tell you what I'm

doing, and I thought of this a couple of days

ago, and I'm going to... actually make it a focus

of the Thursday evening Bible study. I'm going

to read the book of Jeremiah, which is preeminently

a prophecy book of prayer and repentance, because

Jeremiah was called by God to speak on his behalf.

That's what a prophet is, not foretelling the

future, but to speak on behalf of God. Yet he

called the Jewish people to repentance. In his

book of Jeremiah, and then he also is the author

of the book that comes right after Jeremiah,

which is the Lamentations. So he called the people

to repentance. Why? Because of the imminent danger

of the Babylonian Assyrian army. They were poised

to come in from the north. and attack Israel.

So he told the Hebrew people, return to the Lord

your God. Be close to him. Make your sacrifices

from the heart. Circumcise your heart, not your

flesh. All this kind of vivid imagery is in the

book of Jeremiah. But as we know, it really wasn't

100 % successful because The Assyrians and Babylonians

did come in from the north. They sacked Jerusalem.

They tore down the temple that Solomon had built.

And then as their trophy of war, they took off

with the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the

Covenant, symbol of God's presence among his

people. So they took off with that and it's...

Never been seen before until Harrison Ford found

it 20 or so years ago. Interesting movie. Good

points and bad points. But that was a symbol

of God's presence. And so all the Hebrew prophets

are calling you, change your ways, repent. The

message is not something new. It is an age -old

message. Precisely because people... who want

to be in communion with God occasionally slack

off. So it's a time to refocus our life, to make

God even more central to our life, individually,

as couples, and as family. Not only during Lent,

not only attending church services, I think for

Orthodox, we have such a rich liturgical life,

and of course you could say that really for all

Christians or all Jews, that praying is something

we do in church. No, no, no, no, no. That's one

aspect. Our church prayer and our private prayer

go hand in hand as means for us to... express

our love for God, and to come in closer and closer

communion with him. So let us make these plans,

these objectives, part of our time as we prepare

for Lent, during Lent, and for the rest of our

lives. Amen.