Sunday 7 March 2021

Third Sunday in Lent

" St Silouan the Athonite"

 “I pray to thee, Merciful Lord, that all the people of the earth will know thee by the Holy Spirit”. 

This simple and profound prayer is in the writings of St Silouan the Athonite, known for his personal humility and simplicity. 

His spiritual journey was, like ours, to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. (1Corinthians 6:19-20). He cooperated with the grace of Jesus, mindful of the Gospel scene, in many Churches this Sunday, where Jesus makes sure the temple is cleaned out. (John 2:  13-16) 

The wonderful Icon writer, Leonid Ouspensky, captures (right) dear Silouan looking at Jesus. 

Jesus, we see, blessing Silouan whose right hand is raised in prayer. 

We follow the gaze of the saint towards our Saviour. 

Ouspensky himself was once an atheist. He travelled around villages in his native Russia, preaching atheism. 

In a biographical note about him, his wife Lydia conveys that he even entered homes and threw icons out of the windows! 

Later, caught up in Russia’s early 20th century conflicts, he ended up captured and faced a firing squad. At the moment rifles were raised a colonel went by. He commanded the firing squad to stop. 

Lydia records that Leonid looked down at his feet and seeing grass, thought that he had never seen such extraordinary beauty. 

Sometimes it takes a shock like that to wake us to the wonder of being here at all. 

Wake us up, that is, to the beauty of the very ordinary. To the specialness of the absolutely, ordinary. 

A saintly parishioner said quietly to me as she left after worship last Sunday that, upon waking each morning, she offers a prayer of gratitude for the gift of another day. This dear soul has a role in ensuring that some of what we use in worship is perfectly, meticulously prepared. She quietly contributes to our offering of our very best to God. 

After many difficulties Leonid, like many in that turbulent period before World War Two, ended up in Paris. He already knew he had a love of painting, but it took a friend's challenge for him to try and paint an icon. He had told the friend he thought it would be easy “but immediately after he finished this work, he destroyed it, realising he had done something inappropriate. Gradually, through a growing serious interest in the icon, he came to a genuine faith...” (Lydia Ouspensky in Recovering the Icon: The Life and Work of Leonid Ouspensky”  St Vladimir’s Seminary Press 2008). 

So, the same person who once threw icons out of windows in atheistic fervour, ended up a devoted person whose icons help the devotion of we who ponder them in contemplative silence! 

While there are many such stories of the patient, gracious love of God and of people finding salvation, we may be more aware of those lost, bereft of hope, even hostile. 

Hence, in these Lenten days, with St Silouan:

“Merciful Lord, we pray that all the people of the earth may know you by the Holy Spirit. Amen” 

Bishop Philip Huggins, NCCA President