Rebuild My Domestic Church

Brian Isenbarger

Easter is NOT a Finish Line

If you’re like me, you are usually relieved to make it to Easter Sunday. Finally, all of that Lent stuff is over and you can eat sweets and go back to life as “normal.” For my entire life until this year, that has been my approach to Easter. However, thanks to the coronavirus, this Easter felt totally different and much less like that joyous finish line I had looked forward to. After all, what did we do to celebrate?

We stayed in, just like everyone else living under the stay-at-home order.

But then, I was reading in the Acts of the Apostles (1:4-5), and realized that Jesus gave his disciples a kind of stay-at-home order following that first Easter Sunday:

“And while staying with them he [Jesus] charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

You see, Jesus told his disciples to stay at home in Jerusalem and to wait for the promise of the Father – the baptism of the Holy Spirit! In other words, Jesus tells his disciples to stay put because the best is yet to come!

So often, and rightly so, we place such a heavy emphasis on the resurrection. It is the trademark belief of Christianity. St. Paul tells us that we are absolute fools to be Christians and not believe in the resurrection (see 1 Cor. 15). But because of the unfathomable goodness of God, we cannot stop there. There is more!

There is still the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus calls the promise of the Father. The resurrection by itself is not enough – the Lord wants to give us even more.

If we stop and think of the Israelites, God was not finished with them after the Exodus event. Sure, they defeated Pharaoh and were delivered from the bondage of Egypt, but that was not the end of the story. They eventually were brought to Sinai where the entered into a covenant with God and were given the Law.

In the same way, Jesus defeats death and delivers us from the bondage of sin by the power of his resurrection, but the promise of the Father and the Law of the Holy Spirit is yet to come. This is what we celebrate at Pentecost – entering into a covenant with the Father written on our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, let’s listen to Jesus’ stay-at-home order like those first disciples in the Upper Room. We need to pray and wait with the Blessed Virgin for the promise of the Father to come upon us once more. Certainly, by baptism and confirmation the Holy Spirit was sacramentally poured out upon us – but we can never exhaust the unfathomable and unending riches of God. We MUST ask for more of the Spirit’s creating power – especially at a time like this.

Here are three suggestions:

  1. A daily renewal of your baptismal promises – stir up the Spirit already dwelling in your heart. You can use something like this.
  2. Pray the Rosary everyday. Mary was there with the disciples in the Upper Room and is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Where she is, there is the Spirit.
  3. Pray the Veni Creator Spiritus. It’s one of the Church’s most ancient prayers to the Spirit, and is a very popular prayer in preparation for Pentecost.

Like I said above, this is not the finish line, so let’s start now!

Renew Your Baptism…Everyday

In this time when many of us feel distant from each other, and perhaps even distant from God, let’s remind ourselves of this unchanging fact: by baptism, you and I are truly children of God. Don’t take my word for it. Look to St. Paul:

“As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.”

Galatians 4:6-7

At our baptism, the Holy Spirit was poured into our hearts configuring to Christ Jesus’ Body so that we can truly call God our Abba (an English equivalent would be something like “Daddy” or “Papa”). And not only this, but our baptism has also made us heirs and inheritors of the Kingdom of God. 

Usually, we renew our baptismal promises (and the grace associated with it) on Holy Saturday during the Easter Vigil or at the baptisms of new members of the Church. But why limit it to only these few times a year?

Why not seek to live in the fullness of grace each and every day?

Below is a helpful page to do just that – make a daily renewal of your baptismal grace. Perhaps, you could print it out and place it somewhere you will see it daily (bathroom mirror, fridge, etc.) and reclaim the grace to call God your Abba. Better yet, maybe it could be something all the members of your family renew each morning or at least each Sunday. You could even get a little holy water to bless yourselves in order to recall your baptism. 

The Holy Spirit is the never ending fount of the Lord’s love who dwells in you by baptism. There is nothing, absolutely nothing (including COVID-19) which can separate you from this love (see Romans 8:38-39). So fear not. God is not only with us – He is in us!

Let’s stir up the life of grace already within us and watch the Lord do more than we could ever imagine.

Daily-Renewal-of-Baptismal-Grace-REVISED

How Icons Have Re-created My World

An Icon by Art Cislo

For anyone who has seen my “inner room” (or my only room at seminary!) it is impossible to miss my prayer corner filled with icons. Now, I’m not talking about those tiny things on your computer screen, but those sacred images which have such a rich history in the Christian tradition. In fact, one of the most pressing issues of the Second Council of Nicaea (787) was the preservation of the use of sacred images in Christian prayer. Moreover, no less than the great John Damascene (a doctor of the Church declared by Leo XIII in 1890) dedicated much of his ministry to the defense of icons – you can check out his work for free here.

So, why all this fuss about icons, and even more so about the importance of setting up a little oratory, or prayer space in our homes?

In a word, because all of creation is an icon of God and has been re-created through the Incarnation. If you think about it, there is nothing in creation which does not in some way speak to the wonder and majesty of God. Even the seemingly most insignificant creatures (ladybugs, for example) testify to the creative power and greatness of God. What’s more, though, is the fact that God did not only create our humanity, but in Jesus Christ, actually took on our own humanity. In this way, our humanity not only bears the image of God, but has actually been taken up into God Himself.

In the use of icons and sacred images, there is something much more than decorative beauty or fine artistry taking place. Through the co-creativity of the human and Divine Artist, the mystery of the Incarnation actually re-creates this material world to give glory and honor to God. St. Paul beautifully speaks of this in Romans 8:19-23.

For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.  We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”

In this passage, he shows that all of creation (yes, all of it) eagerly longs for the revelation of the children of God. Who are those children? Those of us, who by baptism, have been adopted by the Father through the Incarnation of the Son. And by the work of the Christian artist co-creating through the work of grace, creation is being given back to the Father in honor and glory.

This is the exact same thing we are called to do in our homes – to allow the reality of the Incarnation to penetrate every fiber of our lives so that all of creation can glorify God.

In the Christian East, there is a long tradition of calling icons “windows to heaven.” I think it is an apt description. For what will be taking place in heaven? All of creation giving glory and honor to God. And with the use of icons, that reality can begin to take place even now.

So, take some time. Find some beautiful icons and set up a home altar or oratory. After all, the whole of creation, including our own homes, is eagerly awaiting for you and I to reveal the reality of Christ’s Incarnation.

Here are a couple places who make beautiful icons for your home:

Legacy Icons

Skete

Uncut Mountain Supply