This inviting of the dead relatives to the wedding is a tradition practiced in Galichnik, Macedonia. They place goblets of wine and horderves in the cemetery for them. I wonder what would happen if one of these dead spirits expressed a physical presence at the wedding? I imagine the room would empty out in record time.
This pagan practice is lauded by the Macedonians. (Russians did similar things at Easter) We were invited to such a wedding ceremony this past week. Fortunately or unfortunately, we had guests coming so we could not attend, but it was supposedly a great honor to be invited. Here in Macedonia not only are the dead relatives invited to the weddings, but people regularly light candles for the dead and those who pray, pray for the dead.
I pray about really foolish things too. I pray for health and happiness about 80% of the time. That is about as important as praying for the dead. Yet a large portion of my prayer energy is focused on these selfish matters -- for me and mine. You know that scripture that says, "When you pray, pray for yourself." Right? Not hardly.
You probably starting reading this thinking it was going to be some good story about some pagan practices in far away lands. Well its more about some pagan practices in your life, and my life. Here people do not pray because the priests tell them that they 1. don’t know how to pray, 2. are not qualified to pray, and 3. it wouldn’t do any good anyways.
As Westerners we don't pray because we don’t believe anyone is listening. If we did, we would pray far more, and for far more significant things. We would not pray the standard wish-list of my happiness and my health, neither of which have a whit of eternal value. I will never forget that the most challenging assignment I had in my doctoral studies was to be still and quiet for 15 minutes a day for three months, in an exercise of strengthening our prayer muscles. I discovered, to my deep shame, that 15 minutes of focused prayer, alone, in deep silence, was almost beyond me. It wasn’t the silence as much as the stillness that was so difficult. My world is marked by frenetic activity. My life is far too much like exercise wheel in a hamsters cage. Whatever happened to “Be still and know that I am God.”? Can I only know that He is God if I stop all this frantic activity and be still?
OK I don’t know for sure and I gotta hit the road for my next meeting.
This pagan practice is lauded by the Macedonians. (Russians did similar things at Easter) We were invited to such a wedding ceremony this past week. Fortunately or unfortunately, we had guests coming so we could not attend, but it was supposedly a great honor to be invited. Here in Macedonia not only are the dead relatives invited to the weddings, but people regularly light candles for the dead and those who pray, pray for the dead.
I pray about really foolish things too. I pray for health and happiness about 80% of the time. That is about as important as praying for the dead. Yet a large portion of my prayer energy is focused on these selfish matters -- for me and mine. You know that scripture that says, "When you pray, pray for yourself." Right? Not hardly.
You probably starting reading this thinking it was going to be some good story about some pagan practices in far away lands. Well its more about some pagan practices in your life, and my life. Here people do not pray because the priests tell them that they 1. don’t know how to pray, 2. are not qualified to pray, and 3. it wouldn’t do any good anyways.
As Westerners we don't pray because we don’t believe anyone is listening. If we did, we would pray far more, and for far more significant things. We would not pray the standard wish-list of my happiness and my health, neither of which have a whit of eternal value. I will never forget that the most challenging assignment I had in my doctoral studies was to be still and quiet for 15 minutes a day for three months, in an exercise of strengthening our prayer muscles. I discovered, to my deep shame, that 15 minutes of focused prayer, alone, in deep silence, was almost beyond me. It wasn’t the silence as much as the stillness that was so difficult. My world is marked by frenetic activity. My life is far too much like exercise wheel in a hamsters cage. Whatever happened to “Be still and know that I am God.”? Can I only know that He is God if I stop all this frantic activity and be still?
OK I don’t know for sure and I gotta hit the road for my next meeting.
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