“Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” (Gal 6: 18)
Just as we often respond to a celebrating priest, “And with your spirit,” after he has blessed us at our church-services, so does St. Paul say to all of us, “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” Because all of us, both clergy and laity, while having different vocations, are given to share in One and the Same Spirit, as St. Paul writes: “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink (ἐποτίσθημεν) of one Spirit.” (1 Cor 12: 13)
Whatever my state of mind is today, and whatever “mood” I may be in, with regard to the whole business of my faith, – whether uplifted or discouraged or indifferent, – let me not be alone, but be reminded of the One Spirit, of Whom I, like all others baptized, have been given to “drink.” In “baptism,“ which means “immersion“ in Greek, I was “immersed“ into a new kind of Life and Death, of the One Lord over life and death, Jesus Christ. I am not alone, because I belong, with all my ups and downs, to the creative flow of energies of His Spirit, in the One Body of Jesus Christ. So let me re-embrace “my“ Spirit, in Whom I have been “sanctified“ (i.e., “dedicated“) to the One Body of Christ, and hear the Apostle say to me today: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.“ Amen! Happy Cheesefare-Tuesday from Nyack, NY, dear friends, and please see my Speaking Schedule here on our website, about my talk TODAY, Tuesday-evening at 7 pm in Brick, NJ! And please come, if you’re in the area! Love to all of you, Sister Vassa
