My peace I give to you...

Today I can't deny feeling the distinct excitement that comes with the knowledge of Holy Week being right around the corner with its culmination in the Feast of Pascha. I realize this may cause the knowledgeable eyebrow to slightly rise in light of the fact that this is the Sunday of St. John Climacus, a Sunday that highlights the Saint who gives counsels for living a Christian life (granted, while his audience is primarily for those who are monastics, his counsels are for anyone truly seeking to live a Christian life), and the counsels offer anything but ease, bon bons or...well, I think you get the idea.

Yes, Lent 2011 has been a struggle - an expected struggle with curve balls thrown in for good measure. However, there have been several joys as well that have balanced out the struggles that have served as reprieves and even buoys at needed points.

They've ranged from simply getting to listen to a priest teach me by example how to share the Gospel in a way that not only intrigues but even encourages a group of truth-seekers; getting to take lessons being learned in a chanting class and use them in unexpected ways at week-day services to help form a new bond with new friends that can only happen during times of prayer and worship; being given the appropriate levels of crap from siblings regarding my backpack's role in sending an iron table flying in a particular sibling's specific direction and getting to sit around and have coffee after services in community. And this is but a short list - thanks be to God!

Have there been tears? Yes, literal and figurative. Has there been wrestling? If it'd been physical I'd need a full-body cast. Has there been the oasis that is Liturgy and the Body & Blood of Christ received in Community? By God's grace yes!

Then today, on the day commemorating one of the more difficult teachers of the Church I was reminded yet again of what God has promised us as we go about struggling to seek Him step by step with the portion from the Psalm that not only got sung today but also pointed out by the celebrating priest: The Lord shall give strength to His people; the Lord shall bless His people with peace.

God knows we are fallen and to seek the life that He intends for us isn't easy in this life. However, He doesn't just sit there like a sadistic overlord laughing at us as some have been mislead to believe; rather, He is there to give us what we need as we need it each step of the way to help us take the next step in our walk/growth.

Whether that be in getting a simple smile, an uninitiated text message saying hello, a hug, getting sent into a giggle fit over a glass of wine to getting to worship in community in preparation for receiving the Medicine that is the Body & Blood of Christ - God does do things big and small to reach out to us to remind us of the reality that we are each loved, wanted, and so desired by Him that He even gives His Son up in a willing sacrifice to correct what went wrong when we were deceived back in the Garden instead of simply letting us wander about non-stop for eternity in our misery.

Yes, the enemy of our souls uses every angle and means at his disposal to fill the air with the smoke of his lies so as to get us to step off of the path we've undertaken to seek after God during this time of preparation (as well as outside of it). However, by keeping this very direct promise of God's peace being given to us by God Himself - and that He Himself with strengthen us in our daily, hourly and even minute-by-minute stumblings we can see right through the façade and bask in the wondrous reality that is God's love for us.

Those times in the harbor are important for us so that when we do return to the open sea we are not only freshly stocked with what's needed but we are in fact better than we were before arriving in the harbor that is one's parish community. Yes, it can get tricky when looking at the forming maelstrom to remember these things; which is why it is good to say them so as to instead of putting one's energy exclusively what's in front of us but to also keep an eye to the horizon and keep the compass pointed towards the Feast of Feasts. No it isn't the final arrival point but it will give us a good foretaste of that ultimate port we are sailing for. Yes, there will be trials, storms and struggles but in the midst of it all we are being strengthened and we are being given peace that surpasses anything the enemy tosses our way.

I am ready for the storm - yes, Sir ready!