The Sorrowing Apostles

Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.” And they were exceedingly sorrowful. (Matthew 17:22-23) 

There are some texts in Scripture which I gloss over as a I read them because they seem familiar and unexciting and then suddenly something in the text jumps off the page to me.  The above text from Matthew’s Gospel is one of those.  It is after Christ tells His disciples that “the Son of Man” will be raised up on the third day after His death that the disciples react by becoming “exceedingly sorrowful.”  Apparently all they could understand was Christ predicting His own death, but His promise to be raised up didn’t mean anything to them and so couldn’t overcome their sorrow at hearing Him prophesy His own death. 

For us, 2000 years after the Resurrection, Christ’s words have a particular meaning, especially for those of us who have celebrated Pascha at midnight.  There is a joy and an awe, but no sorrow.  The disciples were walking with Jesus before His death and resurrection, and it is obvious that Christ’s reference to being ‘raised up’ did not mean much to the disciples.  They were troubled and grieved by hearing of His betrayal and execution.  [I assume they understood Christ’s reference to the “Son of Man” as a way that He referred to Himself, but maybe even that was not clear to them.] They no doubt were well aware that the Jewish leadership had become increasingly antagonistic towards Jesus and His disciples. So they probably understood that something bad was brewing against their Master which was dashing their hopes that He was the Messiah.  They are hoping that Jesus is the Messiah and that the times of trial and tribulation on earth are coming to an end, and yet Jesus appears to be talking about His own demise, not the end of oppression for the Jews. [Remember also Peter rebuking Jesus for His talking about His impending death (Matthew 16:22), and Thomas gloomily saying they should go up to Jerusalem to die with Christ (John 11:16) after Jesus announces He is going to Jerusalem to awaken Lazarus (another resurrection reference the disciples didn’t understand).] 

Christ is giving them some bad news, but then He ends His statement with reference to being raised up, which we understand as hopeful, but it didn’t sound so to the Twelve disciples. There are some hymns in the Orthodox Church which do claim that Jesus was trying to prepare the Twelve for His arrest and execution.  For example, the Kontakion of the Transfiguration says:   

On the Mountain You were Transfigured, O Christ God, and Your disciples beheld Your glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold You crucified, they would understand that Your suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world, that You are truly the Radiance of the Father! 

The Transfiguration is heralded as an event to help the disciples get through the days following Christ’s crucifixion.  Jesus was showing them that He is Lord, and as Lord goes to His voluntary death for the salvation of the world. They only needed to keep faith in Him and trust Him despite what events might unfold.

Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar once wrote about time as being a possible healer for our pains: 

The past which held its share of bitter pain,  

Whose ghost we prayed that Time might exorcise  

(The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Kindle 785-786) 

It does happen for the disciples that their time of grief is replaced by a time of rejoicing as they came to understand the resurrection as God defeating death and revealing that Jesus truly is the Christ. Indeed their sorrow and doubt was exorcised by the passing of time and their growing comprehension of the resurrection. Their sorrow was turning into joy as Jesus promised them: 

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. (John 16:20-22) 

The disciple’s grief forced them to contemplate the events that were unfolding before them.  Their hope was turning into sorrow, but that sorrow would eventually turn into an everlasting joy. It would just take time for this to happen. 

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

When the Women Disciples of the Lord learned from the angel the joyous message of Your Resurrection, they cast away the ancestral curse and elatedly told the Apostles: Death is overthrown! Christ God is risen, granting the world great mercy! (Tone 4 Resurrectional Troparion)

St Olympias, the Deaconess

While today there are those who actively oppose having women deacons in the Church, there was a time in Orthodox history when deaconesses were the norm.  St John Chrysostom writes about them and sees them as a necessary office of the Church. The fact that he does not write much about what they did has been attributed to the fact that for Chrysostom the office of the deaconess was self-evident and normative and so needed little explanation or defense.

Orthodox Seminary Professor David Ford comments on the role of the deaconess in the time of St John Chrysostom, commenting particularly on St Deaconess Olympias, whom Chrysostom highly praised:

“We also see here an indication of the high esteem in which godly women were held in the Eastern Church as being exemplars and teachers of the highest degree of virtue. This helped lead to the institutionalizing of the ordained office of the deaconess in the Eastern Church. As Joan L. Roccasalvo writes, ‘For at least eleven centuries, ordained deaconesses fulfilled a vital ministerial role in the living tradition of the Eastern Churches.’  . . .

The ordination prayer for deaconesses, as recorded in the Apostolic Constitutions (late 4th century), conveys this esteem for the leadership capabilities of women:

O Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and woman, who didst replenish with the Spirit Miriam, and Deborah, and Anna, and Huldah, who did not disdain that Thy only begotten Son should be born of a woman; who also in the tabernacle of the testimony, and in the temple, didst ordain women to be keepers of the holy gates,—do Thou now also look down upon this Thy servant, who is to be ordained to the office of deaconess, and grant her Thy Holy Spirit, and ‘cleanse her from all filthiness of flesh and spirit,’ that she may worthily discharge the work which is committed to her to Thy glory.

The Apostolic constitutions also exhort: ‘And let the deaconess be honored by you as an image of the Holy Spirit.’ (WOMEN AND MEN IN THE EARLY CHURCH, pp 35-36)

David Ford further writes:

Besides these ways in which all women are called to participate in the ongoing life of the church, there were in Chrysostom’s time three specific offices or vowed states in which women could serve—deaconess, widow, and virgin. As we saw in the first chapter, the office of the deaconess was a fully ordained position in the church. Since there were sizable numbers of deaconesses in the church in Antioch and Constantinople, it is surprising that Chrysostom does not talk more in his sermons about the office itself. Apparently he saw no need to do so. His high esteem for deaconesses is vividly seen in his interpretation of 1 Timothy 3: 11 (‘The woman likewise must be serious…‘ [RSV]), a verse which he is convinced substantiates the existence of deaconesses in the Apostolic Church:

Some have thought that this is said of women generally, but it is not so, for why would he introduce anything about women in general to interfere with his subject [in this passage, i.e., the requirements for the offices of bishop and deacon]? He is speaking of those who hold the rank of deaconess (diaconias). …  this order is greatly (sphodra) necessary (anangkiaon) and useful and honorable (kosmion) in the church.

In his biography of Chrysostom, in reference to Chrysostom’s words of farewell to the deaconesses as he was being banished from the capital for the second and last time, Bauer says of them:

They really belonged with the clergy of the cathedral, and the great services which they had rendered to him and to the Church, as well as the spiritual fellowship which bound him to these noblewomen, clearly justified this attention.

Bauer describes their duties in this way:

For the service of women, ecclesiastical deaconesses were assigned. These were widows, or older single women, who were consecrated by the bishop, in a special ceremony involving the laying on of hands, and the donation of a stole or chalice for the liturgical service of the church. It was their special duty to keep order among the women at the divine service [i.e., the liturgy]; they gave them the kiss of peace, and also had to admonish the women who did not live as they should. They helped with the training of the women catechumens, anointed them at baptism, and also had the duty of bringing Holy Communion to the sick women.

St Olympias, the leading deaconess of Chrysostom’s time in Constantinople, was considered by him to be the very embodiment of the ideal deaconess, as we see from his many accolades of her in his letters to her. Her activities are glowingly listed by the anonymous author of The Life of Olympias:

She lived faultlessly (anendeos) in unmeasured tears night and day, ‘submitting to every human being for the sake of the Lord‘ (1 Peter 2:13), full of every reverence, bowing before the saints, venerating the bishops, honoring the presbyters, respecting the priests, welcoming the ascetics, being anxious for the virgins, supplying the widows, raising the orphans, shielding the elderly, looking after the weak, having compassion on sinners, guiding the lost, having pity on all, attending with all her heart to the poor, catechizing many unbelieving women and making provision for all their material necessities of life. Thus, she left a reputation for goodness throughout her whole life which is ever to be remembered. Having called from slavery to freedom her myriad household servants, she proclaimed them to be of equal honor (isotimon) as her own nobility (eugenias).   (WOMEN AND MEN IN THE EARLY CHURCH, pp 223-224)

[Note in the above icon of St Theodora, though a woman, she is carrying the chalice. Today many bishops would forbid any woman from touching the chalice, but at one time it was perfectly Orthodox to do so.]

According to a Person’s Ability

For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end…  (2 Corinthians 1:13)

Although St Paul can soar in his spiritual life to the highest of places (2 Corinthians 12:2-3), he is also clear that he speaks to people on their own level.  He is not trying to present things to people which they are not capable or prepared to understand.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law—though not being myself under the law—that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law—not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ—that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Paul speaks in words that those who are listening to him can understand. To the educated, he speaks as an educated man, to those unlettered, he speaks at a level that they can understand. We each receive from the Scriptures what we are able to understand and put into practice.   Thus, different people receive different ‘words’ from God since ‘No one size fits all.’ In Christ’s Parable of the Talents differing things are given to each of the servants according to the ability of each. God has varying expectations for each of the servants. “For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability” (Matthew 25:14-15; emphasis added).  St Cyril of Alexandria comments: “That the gifts are given in equal proportion to the total perfection of those thus honored, Christ, the distributor of these things, here shows” (GLAPHYRA ON THE PENTATEUCH Vol 1, p 282). Christ knows each of us and knows the proper spiritual gifts to give each of us, according to our abilities.  And in the Parable of the Talents, each proves his abilities including the one with the least abilities who didn’t do anything with the one talent he was given. So God does not give the same gifts or to the same degree to each individual.  Some receive more than others as God deems appropriate, but also God expects more from these gifted people than others.

All of this is a good warning to each Christian not to judge what others are doing, nor to compare oneself to others as each has differing abilities and each must serve God according to their abilities. “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4).

Russian Starets Macarius once wrote to one of his disciples:

What I write to you, I write to you alone, and I must ask you to refrain from passing any of it on to others as a general rule of conduct for all. It is nothing of the kind. My advice to you is fashioned according to your inner and outer circumstances. Hence, it can be right only for you. (RUSSIAN LETTERS OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION 1834-1860, p 25)

It is a warning not to convert every Gospel verse or every spiritual advice into hard and steadfast laws that apply to all.  Wisdom and love tell us that discernment is needed in how we apply spiritual direction to our lives.  Spiritual direction is often geared toward one person or towards a few people and must not always be read as law applying to everyone.  As wisdom says, “one cannot teach by exception”, meaning some general principles are necessary for the sake of educating a population or a parish, however, to turn all spiritual guidance into unbending laws for everyone in all situations, is to forget that God is concerned with each one of us, not just with the cosmos as a whole.

Comfort in Affliction

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1: 3-4) 

Regarding the trials and tribulations of life, which Christ promised us are sure to happen (John 16:33; Luke 17:1), we have two thoughts, one ancient and one modern. From antiquity comes a comment by St Mark the Ascetic: 

When tested by some trial you should try to find out not why or through whom it came, but only how to endure it gratefully, without distress or rancor. (THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, p 57) 

The question is not why did this happen, but what do I do as a Christian now that it has happened. The second comment from the current age, comes from biblical scholar Frances Young.  She reminds us that the modern age has developed a particular attitude toward life’s problems which in itself may not be helpful or Christian: 

“… we should remind ourselves of the post-Enlightenment tendency to view suffering, atrocity, and so on as grounds for atheism. The current assumptions of our culture include the notion that all ills can be removed, death can be indefinitely postponed, and all risk can be eliminated, if we can only find the right formula.

This has been reinforced by the success of modern medicine and the assumption that we all have the right to treatments that will cure whatever afflicts us. The media encourage us in our refusal to face our vulnerability, mortality, and creatureliness. The presupposition is that bad thing shouldn’t happen, or certainly shouldn’t happen to good people; and since they do happen and the world is imperfect, there cannot be a God. Indeed, the world is so dreadful, as it impinges on us in our living rooms on the small screen, that trying to put it right or make sense of it seems beyond us—as compassion fatigue sets in and we find ourselves lost and insecure, confronted with the world so threatening that the most noticeable reaction is the creation of comfort zones. Indeed, religion itself is reduced to a private comfort zone, which the majority rejects as ‘pie in the sky when you die,’ while those of us who hang on in there are the more anguished about the state of the world, or the awful things that happen to us or those we know, and the insistent doubts and questions which are raised. We all want utopia now and cannot understand why things are the way they are. The cliches, ‘life is a journey’ or ‘going through a wilderness experience,’ have lost their power to shape the way we handle life. (BROKENNESS & BLESSING, p 30)

“I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) 

Jesus doesn’t promise us a life without struggle, nor does He promise to preserve us from struggling. What He tells us is that trials, tribulations and struggles cannot separate us from Him. Abiding in Him is what gets us through the trials of life, and even death cannot separate us from Him.  It is sometimes a hard pill for us to swallow as we would prefer not being comforted in affliction, but rather completely protected from affliction.  I remember when my 16-year-old daughter had a serious Lupus flare which lasted for months and she became critically ill as her kidneys failed.  The doctor told me they had come to the end of traditional treatments and now it was time to ‘cope and manage’ – my daughter had to learn to cope with the disease and the medical team would try to help manage the disease.  I wanted to shout, “NO! to cope and manage, we want a cure!”  But there was no cure to be had. Coping in Christ is what we had, and it wasn’t easy.

Honoring God with Your Heart

But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32) 

From the desert fathers we read a story about the difference between nice, pious practices and actually having a heart for God. Pious practices can be little more than hearing God’s Word with the ear only, but not having a heart for God. Jesus criticized the people of His day with these words: “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me…” (Matthew 15:7-8). 

Two brethren went to an elder who lived alone in Scete. And the first one said: Father, I have learned all of the Old and New Testaments by heart.  

The elder said to him: You have filled the air with words.  

The other one said: I have copied out the Old and New Testaments and have them in my cell.  

And to this one the elder replied: you have filled your window with parchment. But do you not know him who said: The Kingdom of God is not in words, but in power? [1 Corinthians 4:20] And again, not those who hear the law will be justified before God but those who carry it out (Romans 2:13).  

They asked him, therefore, what was the way of salvation, and he said to them: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord [Proverbs 9:10], and humility with patience.   (Thomas Merton, THE WISDOM OF THE DESERT, pp 74-75) 

Memorizing bible verses might be helpful for reminding us of the things of the Lord. Being able to recite entire scripture passages may impress others.  However, it is only when we put into practice God’s wisdom that we attain salvation. “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17). This is why at times having the example of saints – whose lives, words and deeds can be imitated – is better than having a Bible.  For the saint becomes the living word to us, whereas the Bible may remain as print on a page. We do well to remember St Paul’s warning in 2 Corinthians 3:6 – “for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 

You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)

The Resurrected Body is a Spiritual Body

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain – perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. (1 Corinthians 15:35-38)

St Paul gives us some insight into the resurrection – the body that dies and is buried in the ground like a seed, is not the same body that will arise in the resurrection. We plant a seed and don’t hope for a bigger seed to grow and emerge. Rather, we want the seed to produce a plant which in turn will produce more seeds. The same is true of the resurrection of humans – what is sown in the ground, the seed, is the human corpse. We are not hoping for the corpse to re-emerge, but rather look for a new, vibrant and re-created body to emerge which is no longer subject to corruption, decay and death. The body which is buried is the mere seed or grain. What will emerge in the resurrection is not a seed but new life, a transfigured body, a new creation. The resurrected body (and so the resurrected life) is not merely an endless continuation of this life, but a new life, a spiritual one which will never end and is glorious, but unlike anything we’ve known up until now. “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:43-44).

Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov comments:

Thus, the spirituality of the body signifies, first of all, the power of the spirit over its soul and its animated body, the transparence of the body for the spirit and its obedience to the latter.  In general, it signifies the adequacy of man to his idea or proto-image. But this proto-image can be revealed not at the beginning but only in the fullness of times…The psychic body, by contrast, is a darkened and distorted image, and the psychic man is diminished to enslavement by the flesh and the loss of his human image. He can be freed from this slavery only by death and resurrection, by the power of Christ…

Resurrected bodies…are characterized, first of all, by transparence for and obedience to the spirit, where they overcome the fleshly weight of the psychic body and are liberated from its constraints and limits. The body is freed, first of all, from the purely fleshly needs of stomach and sex that keep the psychic man in bondage. Resurrection in incorruptibility and immortality bestows this freedom. Life in the body with its sensuousness is not abolished but becomes innocent and immaculate, a holy life together with nature, which becomes a source of joy and an object of admiration. (The Bride of the Lamb, pgs 448-449)

Dormition of the Theotokos (2022)

And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” (Luke 1:46-48)

St Andrew of Crete (d. Ca. 725AD) comments on the Dormition of the Theotokos, which already had a well developed theological and homiletic tradition by the time he lived. Here he stands in awe that a woman entered the heavenly sanctuary – the Holy of Holies.  He recognizes her as being “more honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim.” That a human could attain such a rank was miraculous in his eyes, but that it was a woman who did this is beyond understanding for him. It does tell us that despite all the angelology of the Patristic writers, humans remain God’s centerpiece in creation – the ones who will be united to the Holy Trinity, while angels will always be God’s servants and messengers whose purpose in life is to serve humanity.  Humans become deified, not angels. Only a woman could be Theotokos, neither angels nor males nor the most ascetic monks could ever attain her status.

“It is truly a new spectacle, never before conceived of: a woman who surpasses the heavens in purity of nature enters the holy tabernacle of the heavenly sanctuary; a virgin, who surpasses the very nature of the Seraphim by the miracle of giving birth to God, draws near to God, the first of natures and begetter of all things; a mother, who has brought forth life itself, produces an ending of her own life to match that of her Son. It is a miracle worthy both of God and of our faith! For as her womb was not corrupted in giving birth, so her flesh did not perish in dying. But a miracle!”   (ON THE DORMITION OF MARY, p 110)

The two main hymns for the Feast marvel at the mystery of who Mary is.

 In giving birth you preserved your virginity, in falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life, O Mother of Life, and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death. (Troparion)

Neither the tomb, nor death could hold the Theotokos, who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions. For being the Mother of Life, she was translated to life by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb. (Kontakion)

Christ Pushed His Disciples Into the Storm

Then Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:22-34)

Origen (d. 254AD) was perhaps the greatest Christian biblical scholar of the 3rd Century. Although he commented on the literal meaning of biblical texts, he is most famous for digging deeper into the texts to look for the meanings which God had hidden in the Scriptures but wanted humans to seek out in order to know the truth.  He relied on allegorical interpretations or typological ones – looking to discover those deeper meanings of the biblical text.  He applied his methodology not only to the Old Testament but also to the New. Here is an example of his thinking as he digs into the above Gospel lesson and sees in the Gospel lesson far more than a miracle for it is a teaching to guide all disciples:

‘Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds’ (Matthew 14:22). For the crowd could not go across to the other side,  . . . instead this was for the disciples of Jesus to do: I mean to go across to the other side and go beyond the material things and ‘the things that are seen’ as ‘transient,’ and come to ‘the things that are unseen and eternal‘ (2 Corinthians 4:18).  . . .

Except that the disciples were unable to go before Jesus to the other side; for when they had come as far as the middle of the sea and the boat was in distress because ‘the wind was against them,’ they were afraid; and then, ‘in the fourth watch of the night, [Jesus] came to them‘ (Matthew 14:24-25).  . . .   But what is the boat into which Jesus forced the disciples to embark? Is it perhaps the conflict of temptations and trials into which one is forced by the WORD, and to which one goes unwillingly, as it were, all because the Savior wishes his disciples to get some training in this boat as it gets buffeted by the waves and the contrary wind?  . . .   For it is not possible to get to the other side without enduring the temptations of waves and contrary wind. (SPIRIT AND FIRE, p 118)

In this case he sees the lesson about the disciples being tossed about at night on the sea as teaching us about getting through the temptations and trials of life. Christ the Word of God pushes His disciples to get into the boat and go out onto the sea which He knows will become stormy.  Christ doesn’t spare His disciples such trials and temptations, something we wish He did. Rather, He uses these trials and temptations to help strengthen their faith and trust in God. The stormy boat ride was a means to help prepare them for the trials they would endure when they went into all the world to proclaim the Gospel.

Picturing Psalm 104:25-32

Yonder is the sea, great and wide, 

creeping things innumerable are there, 

living things both small and great. 

There go the ships,

and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

These all look to you 

to give them their food in due season; 

when you give to them, they gather it up; 

when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. 

When you hide your face, they are dismayed; 

when you take away their breath, they die 

and return to their dust. 

When you send forth your spirit, they are created; 

and you renew the face of the ground.  

May the glory of the LORD endure forever; 

may the LORD rejoice in his works— 

who looks on the earth and it trembles, 

who touches the mountains and they smoke.  

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Picturing Psalm 104:19-24

You have made the moon to mark the seasons; 

the sun knows its time for setting. 

You make darkness, and it is night, 

when all the animals of the forest come creeping out. 

The young lions roar for their prey, 

seeking their food from God. 

When the sun rises, they withdraw 

and lie down in their dens. 

People go out to their work 

and to their labor until the evening. 

O LORD, how manifold are your works! 

In wisdom you have made them all; 

the earth is full of your creatures. 

You can see all of my photos at TBoboshFlickr.  Scroll down the page or through the pages and click on any of the icons/albums to see what is in them.