06/06/2026
Here is the Morning Mediation from Fr Philip McCaffery:
"O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth,
Who art everywhere present and fillest all things,
Treasury of good gifts and Giver of Life,
Come and abide in us and cleanse us of all impurity,
And save our souls, O Good One."
Troparion of Pentecost.
Today is the last day of the Feast of Pentecost whereby the liturgical prayer of the Church returns to the beginning of the Feast in its prayers. Many of the special hymns of the Church today are a "repetition" of those we heard on the first day - hopefully with a deeper understanding of their meaning as a result of our week-long contemplation of the Mystery of the Church herself - the Bride of Christ who becomes "one flesh" with Him in the communion of the Holy Spirit.
We who have been made participants in this Mystery have a much different understanding of the Church than that of those "in the world" who are yet unable to see us as anything more than a "religious organization", whereby some people seek to find satisfaction of their peculiar "spiritual' (psychological) needs. Certainly, most people find their way into the Church from very mixed, personal 'needs". Generally, fish do not bite empty hooks. What is discovered,however, is something very different from anything we could ever have imagined.
As Fr. John Rominides has written,"The crux of the matter from the Patristc point of view is that every human being is sick. There is not a single human being who functions normally, apert from the Saints". It is the Saints who reveal the reality of the Church as a successful means by which people are cured of their soul-sickness. I believe that it was also Fr. Romanides who first quipped that there are three kinds of people in the Church. The first group is that of the Saints, who have been sufficiently healed in this life so as to be examples for others. The second group is those who are consciously trying to submit themselves to, and practice the course of healing that Christ and The Holy Spirit offers them through the Church. These are making progress, getting well, and beginning to "see things differently." The third group, according to Fr. John, have "no idea why they are there." I am just barely in the second group. So far, at least, my advisors seem to believe that I am making progress - slow, but progress nonetheless.
I do understand now what G. K Chesterton once wrote about popular materialists who liked to say that Christianity had "failed", since it had not made everybody happy. He said something along the lines of "Christianity has not been tried, and found inadequate, it has been found hard, and left untried." How I regret all the years I spent looking for a softer, easier way. But now things are changing. This is the Lord's doing. One day at a time.
The Holy Spirit has descended!
Fr. Philip.
Father Philip McCaffery
Holy Transfiguration Church
East Syracuse, NY
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