She and her husband are raising four sons and wrote a book together on grieving the loss of children, " Grieving Together: A Couple’s Journey through Miscarriage." She is the author of seven books including " Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting" and " Living Your Discipleship: 7 Ways to Express Your Deepest Calling." You can find out more about her here. Laura Kelly Fanucci is a mother, writer, and director of a theological project on vocation. See what pruning God has in store for you. Click to tweet Twitter If you're up for it, sister, pray the Litany of Humility with regularity. God is waiting to grow in you.Ībundance awaits. As you decrease-your desires, your selfishness, your lunging after success or lusting after praise-God will grow into the spaces you have cut back.Ībundance awaits. Yet what joy this decrease brings, increasing all the fruits of the Spirit! The trajectory of the Christian life is not toward self, but God. We decrease for the increase that God is itching to grow through us, waiting to blossom into our lives. We do not decrease for the sake of decrease, a pruning without growth. Picture the fruits of the Spirit’s growing presence: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:25-26). Think about the fullness of this flourishing. We don’t want to do it we shrink from the prospect.īut we forget the promise of the first phrase: God will increase. Ambition or affirmation, comfort or ease, friends or followers, money or beauty, certainty or safety-whatever we desire that keeps us from God. We fixate on the second phrase: our sin and selfishness, all that we know we must whittle away. In work I have to decrease (my ego and my desire for success) so that community can increase.īut I bet I’m not alone in cringing every time I read these words: "He must increase I must decrease." In pregnancy I had to decrease (my activity and my desire for control) so that life could increase. In marriage I had to decrease (my self-centeredness and my desire for independence) so that love could increase. Times when you stepped back, stepped away, or stepped out of the spotlight. More attention, popularity, money, power, success, likes, shares, wins, and fame. What if my life is meant to be smaller, quieter, and slower? What if God wants me to want less? And if He doesn’t, let us love and trust God enough to submit our hearts for examination by the gentle Holy Spirit to diagnose why Christ isn’t first in our lives."He must increase I must decrease" (John 3:30). Thomas tomorrow and hear Thomas’ confession of faith, let us examine our hearts to see if Christ holds the top priority in our lives, actions, and motivations. On this Bright Saturday, as we continue to bask in the glow of Pascha, and prepare to meet Christ with St. But they willingly did all this because at the center of their lives was a singular devotion to a Person – Jesus Christ. All three of these men paid a high price for their obedience. John obeyed the call of God to prepare the way for the Messiah to come to Israel through his preaching and baptising. Cyril and Methodius introduced a whole race of people to the healing “spiritual medicine” of Orthodoxy by devising an alphabet for the Slavs and translating the Orthodox worship services into that language. If He isn’t the reason why we do what we do, then chances are they won’t last. The lesson is that Christ must be preeminent in our motivations for ministry. John, I am struck by a common lesson from all these Christian heroes.
Cyril and Methodius and the humility of St. John’s followers are now following Jesus. John is nearing the end of his earthly ministry and some of his disciples are concerned that many of St. John the Baptist say this: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (St. As a precious seminary professor at Holy Cross is fond of reminding us “Our God is not a tribal deity.” Our Lord Jesus would not have commanded the Apostles to “go into all the world” if the faith were only meant for one tribe of people. All right, let’s go to point two, He must increase. That is not to say the Church values reducing the worship of the Church to vulgar slang, but that the Church believes the Incarnation of Christ means that the faith can be (and should be) brought to all peoples and communicated to all peoples of the earth. All right, that was point one, I must decrease, from last week. The Christian East has always valued worship in the vernacular of the people. “Since you were equal in character to the Apostles, and teachers of the Slavic lands, O divinely-wise Cyril and Methodius, pray to the Lord of all to strengthen all nations in Orthodoxy and unity of thought, to convert and reconcile the world to God, and to save our souls.” Apolytikion 4th Tone Cyril and Methodius, the Equal-to-the-Apostles and Enlighteners of the Slavic peoples. On this Bright Saturday, we recall with love and joy Sts.
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