WEBVTT 00:00:01.929 --> 00:00:07.110 that most monks work out their salvation in the 00:00:07.110 --> 00:00:11.789 common life, living together. And this same emphasis 00:00:11.789 --> 00:00:17.510 on common life monasticism is found in the father 00:00:17.510 --> 00:00:22.070 of Eastern monasticism, Basil, and the father 00:00:22.070 --> 00:00:26.710 of Western monasticism, Benedict, also emphasize 00:00:26.710 --> 00:00:34.350 this, that most monks... Like all people, work 00:00:34.350 --> 00:00:39.630 out our salvation together. And it's only in 00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:43.850 those extraordinary circumstances when a monk 00:00:43.850 --> 00:00:48.570 gets a blessing from his abbot to go out and, 00:00:48.710 --> 00:00:52.189 as monastic literature frequently refers to it, 00:00:52.270 --> 00:00:56.850 go out to the single -handed combat of the desert, 00:00:57.049 --> 00:01:03.100 to go out and struggle. As a solitary, struggle 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:07.379 with yourself, struggle with Satan's temptations, 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:13.180 struggle to come into communion with God. But 00:01:13.180 --> 00:01:16.540 for most monks, as I said, and for most of us, 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:23.040 our life is in common. Truly, our struggles are 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:27.359 with other people. When we're first born, it's 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:31.159 hard for kids to obey their parents. Then as 00:01:31.159 --> 00:01:33.980 they get older, their struggles are with their 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:38.620 siblings, that constant squabbling that normal 00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:42.519 brothers and sisters have among themselves. And 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:47.500 then they outgrow that, and then they go off 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:51.560 to school, which is the challenge for young people, 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:54.760 to get along with other kids, no matter who they 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:58.700 are. Some of them are bullies. Some of them are 00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:02.709 just downright mean. to other people. And then 00:02:02.709 --> 00:02:07.049 going on to college, oftentimes it's hard for 00:02:07.049 --> 00:02:10.389 kids to get along with their roommate. Then when 00:02:10.389 --> 00:02:14.930 you get to adulthood, to go and work. And those 00:02:14.930 --> 00:02:19.530 of you who work know very well how difficult 00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:23.710 it can be to work with other people and how other 00:02:23.710 --> 00:02:27.590 people get on your nerves. Same is true in a 00:02:27.590 --> 00:02:31.180 parish. There's not everybody each and every 00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:36.400 one of us likes in any given parish. It's natural. 00:02:36.539 --> 00:02:41.360 Human beings are different. Some people have 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:46.539 little habits that annoy us, and we do too. I 00:02:46.539 --> 00:02:49.400 always tell people that when they confess that 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:52.400 in confession. I say, hey, you think you don't 00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:55.199 have any problems that annoy other people, other 00:02:55.199 --> 00:03:00.259 habits? The point of all of this is that whether 00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:06.099 it's for monks and nuns and for us, so to speak, 00:03:06.139 --> 00:03:10.560 normal Christians, we work out our salvation 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:15.879 in common. Practicing what is probably the most 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:20.300 difficult of the virtues in asceticism, which 00:03:20.300 --> 00:03:25.180 is charity and fraternal love. Loving our spouse. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:29.719 loving our parents, loving our children, loving 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:33.539 our brothers and sisters, yes, even loving the 00:03:33.539 --> 00:03:38.479 people that we work with. The other point that 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:41.960 I think is extraordinary about Mary of Egypt, 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:47.219 as I said, is that she accomplished all of this 00:03:47.219 --> 00:03:52.159 without receiving Holy Communion for 47 years. 00:03:53.020 --> 00:03:56.060 You know her story. She was a sinful woman. She 00:03:56.060 --> 00:04:00.240 wanted to go and see what all this interest was 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:04.759 and venerate the true cross. And there was a 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:07.919 force which kept her from going into the church. 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:13.340 And then she had her conversion experience. She 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:17.800 went out and repented of her ways. And then towards 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:21.040 the end of these 47 years, her life tells us. 00:04:22.580 --> 00:04:28.639 that St. Zosima, Fr. Zosima, a monk, came and 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:32.459 happened to run into her, so to speak, in the 00:04:32.459 --> 00:04:37.100 desert, and she asked him to give her Holy Communion. 00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:41.120 And then she also asked, come back again next 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:45.079 year, Holy Thursday, and I'll be waiting to receive 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:48.199 Holy Communion again. And when he did, he found 00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:52.250 that Mary of Egypt had died. and the notes for 00:04:52.250 --> 00:04:56.170 her burial and instructions were next to her 00:04:56.170 --> 00:05:02.170 body. So this person accomplished so much, which 00:05:02.170 --> 00:05:06.389 to all of us, without the aid of Holy Communion, 00:05:06.389 --> 00:05:10.370 which is to all of us, I'm sure is so central 00:05:10.370 --> 00:05:13.829 in our spiritual life. From my point of view, 00:05:13.930 --> 00:05:18.759 the highlight of the week is... receiving holy 00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:22.160 communion at the Sunday Divine Liturgy. Everything 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:26.319 leads up to that and then flows away out of that. 00:05:27.620 --> 00:05:33.199 But it's also, and I've reminded you before about 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:37.199 this point, that the frequent reception of holy 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:41.199 communion is something, I won't call it a novel 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:45.870 practice. But in our lifetime, my lifetime, it 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:49.110 is a novel practice. Of course, communion is 00:05:49.110 --> 00:05:55.110 instituted by our Lord to be consumed, to eat 00:05:55.110 --> 00:05:57.529 the body and drink the blood of the Lord. That 00:05:57.529 --> 00:06:01.370 is the purpose of the Eucharist, not a service 00:06:01.370 --> 00:06:05.430 that we sort of watch and attend. But until quite 00:06:05.430 --> 00:06:10.189 recently, in many parts of the Orthodox world, 00:06:10.670 --> 00:06:13.750 and even in the non -Orthodox Christian world, 00:06:13.829 --> 00:06:17.889 to receive Holy Communion was considered something 00:06:17.889 --> 00:06:21.089 very extraordinary. It is, of course, extraordinary. 00:06:21.730 --> 00:06:25.850 But so that you only went to receive communion 00:06:25.850 --> 00:06:29.750 after you went to confession, and then the next 00:06:29.750 --> 00:06:32.930 day, communion, and you only did this a few times 00:06:32.930 --> 00:06:36.589 a year. I can remember when I was first ordained 00:06:36.589 --> 00:06:40.790 in 69. There was a practice in many metropolia, 00:06:40.850 --> 00:06:44.329 which was the old name for the Orthodox Church 00:06:44.329 --> 00:06:48.129 in America, metropolia churches, and then also 00:06:48.129 --> 00:06:52.269 other Orthodox parishes, that frequent communion 00:06:52.269 --> 00:07:00.829 was not practiced. And then finally, I would 00:07:00.829 --> 00:07:03.490 say through the grace of the Holy Spirit and 00:07:03.490 --> 00:07:07.870 the study of liturgical scholars. it dawned on 00:07:07.870 --> 00:07:11.189 us about the centrality of receiving communion. 00:07:11.769 --> 00:07:16.509 So you have two extremes. We who are blessed 00:07:16.509 --> 00:07:20.410 with the frequent reception of Holy Communion 00:07:20.410 --> 00:07:24.290 and so many of these extraordinary saints, and 00:07:24.290 --> 00:07:28.550 Mary of Egypt wasn't the only one who lived for 00:07:28.550 --> 00:07:31.850 a long time without receiving Holy Communion. 00:07:31.930 --> 00:07:37.899 These are extremes in a sense. And our extreme 00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:42.180 of receiving communion frequently should be something 00:07:42.180 --> 00:07:46.259 that we are thankful for and that it doesn't 00:07:46.259 --> 00:07:51.360 become routine for us. There you go. We have 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:53.819 this blessing to receive communion frequently. 00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:58.639 Let it not be routine. Priests have to struggle 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:02.759 with that too. How extraordinary it is what we 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:06.009 are about to do in a few minutes. And so the 00:08:06.009 --> 00:08:11.069 frequency should not give way to routine approach 00:08:11.069 --> 00:08:19.370 to it. We go to confession periodically. We pray 00:08:19.370 --> 00:08:24.850 regularly. For some people, prayer means going 00:08:24.850 --> 00:08:28.930 to church on Sunday. Uh -uh. Prayer is what you 00:08:28.930 --> 00:08:33.750 do every day, and then it culminates in the Eucharist 00:08:33.750 --> 00:08:37.899 on Sunday. But daily prayer, and then either 00:08:37.899 --> 00:08:41.600 the night before or the morning of, to say those 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:46.440 special prayers of contrition in preparation 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:51.840 before receiving Holy Communion. So, in conclusion 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:55.700 then, I would say, what does Mary of Egypt inspire 00:08:55.700 --> 00:09:00.559 us? Number one, she worked out her salvation 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:05.820 alone. In the single -handed combat of the desert, 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:11.419 we work out our salvation by showing love and 00:09:11.419 --> 00:09:14.460 fraternal charity with those in our lives, no 00:09:14.460 --> 00:09:19.340 matter who or where they may be. And also, even 00:09:19.340 --> 00:09:24.019 though I did mean to say she received communion, 00:09:24.179 --> 00:09:27.519 and then her life tells us that it was important 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:30.200 for her, she probably had a premonition that 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:33.820 she was going to die. She received Holy Communion. 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:39.559 So fraternal love and charity is the greatest 00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:45.779 practice that we can exercise. And then also 00:09:45.779 --> 00:09:52.320 a reflective and pious regular reception of the 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:55.659 body and blood of the Lord in communion. Amen.