The Dormition Fast: Commitment vs. Convenience

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
 

August 1 is the beginning of the relatively short Dormition Fast that culminates with the celebration of the Great Feast of the Dormition on August 15.

Every fast presents us with a challenge and a choice. In this instance, I would say that our choice is between “convenience” and “commitment.”

We can choose convenience because of the simple fact that to fast is decidedly in-convenient. It takes planning, vigilance, discipline, self denial, and an overall concerted effort. It is convenient to allow life to flow on at its usual (summer) rhythm, which includes searching for that comfort level of least resistance. To break our established patterns of living is always difficult, and it may be something we would only contemplate with reluctance.

Commitment signifies that we are looking beyond what is convenient toward what is meaningful. It would be a choice in which we recognize our weaknesses, and our need precisely for the planning, vigilance, discipline, self-denial and over-all concerted effort that distinguishes the seeker of the “mind of Christ.” And this we have as a gift within the life of the Church.

This is a difficult choice to make, and one that is perhaps particularly difficult within the life of a family with children who are often resistant to any changes. I still believe, though, that such a difficult choice has its “rewards” and that such a commitment will bear fruit in our families and in our parishes. (If embraced legalistically and judgmentally, however, we will lose our access to the potential fruitfulness of the Fast and only succeed in creating a miserable atmosphere in our homes). It is a choice that is determined to seize a good opportunity as at least a potential tool that leads to spiritual growth.

My observation is that we combine the “convenient” with our “commitment” within our contemporary social and cultural life to some degree. We often don’t allow the Church to “get in the way” of our plans and goals and admittedly there are times when that may be hard to avoid in the circumstances and conditions of our present way of life. Yet, the Church as "second choice" can easily harden into an automatic and unchallenged principle. It is hard to prevail in the never-ending “battle of the calendars!” The surrounding social and cultural milieu no longer supports our commitment to Christ and the Church. In fact, it is usually quite indifferent and it may even be hostile toward such a commitment. Though we may hesitate to admit it, we find it very challenging not to conform to the world around us.

But it is never impossible to choose our commitment to our Orthodox Christian way of life over what is merely convenient – or simply desired. That may just be one of those “daily crosses” that the Lord spoke of – though it may be a stretch to call that a “cross.” This also entails choices, and we have to assess these choices with honesty as we look at all the factors that make up our lives. In short, it is very difficult – but profoundly rewarding – to practice our Orthodox Christian Faith today!

I remain confident, however, that the heart of a sincere Orthodox Christian desires to choose the hard path of commitment over the easy (and rather boring?) path of convenience. 

We now have the God-given opportunity to escape the summer doldrums that drain our spiritual energy. With prayer, almsgiving and fasting, we can renew our tired bodies and souls. We can lift up our “drooping hands” and strengthen our "weak knees" (Heb 12:12) in an attitude of prayer and thanksgiving. 

The Dormition of the Theotokos has often been called “pascha in the summer.” It celebrates the victory of life over death—or of death as a translation into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Dormition Fast is our spiritually vigilant preparation leading up to that glorious celebration.  “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Sister Vassa: 'Why Pray to the Saints?'

 

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA

WHY PRAY TO THE “SAINTS”?

 

“…Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit. My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5: 16-20)

This passage explains not only why we should pray to the (canonized) “saints,” but also why we should ask one another for prayers, and why we should, ourselves, pray for others. The Prophet Elijah is indeed one of the greatest saints of Salvation History, but he was, nonetheless, “a man of like nature with ourselves.” On occasion Elijah demonstrated small-heartedness, and even prayed that he might die (1 Kings 19: 4), – in which case God did not “harken” to his prayer. But God did hear the “fervent” prayers of His prophet.

Thus we ask for the prayers of the “saints,” not because they were perfect, but because they were “sanctified,” that is to say, “dedicated” to God. This is also why we ask for the prayers of, and pray for, other faithful in our church-community, because we have all been “sanctified” in Holy Baptism. The extent of our or their “saint-hood” is not something we are given to judge or evaluate. But even those of us who are well aware of our own falling short in the area of “saint-hood” need not hesitate to pray fervently for others in need of prayers, because this “labor of love” for others can also “save” our own “soul from death,” and “cover a multitude of sins” of our own. Prayer for others is a “sacri-fice,” from the words “sacra” (holy) and “facere” (to make or do), or “holy making.” That is to say, we become more sanctified by praying for others, not only because this takes time and energy, but because we become more invested in the well-being of these others, when we’re investing our precious prayer-time and energy in them. Being invested in another’s well-being in this way brings us really to love them.

So, let us pray for one another, and love one another, because it’s good for all of us, both ourselves and our others! “Remembering our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.”

 

'Substance' and 'Evidence'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

In session V of our Summer Bible Study yesterday evening, we focused on that great definition/description of faith found in Heb. 11:1: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I have deliberately modified the RSV translation. For the word "substance" above is a convincing translation of the Gk. hypostasis (it is substance in Heb. 1:3); and the word "evidence" is a convincing translation of the Gk. elenchos. Both "substance" and "evidence" indicate a more objective dimension to the sacred author's definition of faith (the words used in the KJV); though the fact that such words as "assurance" and "conviction" are used in the RSV, also indicates the wide-ranging intent of the author. It is the one great definition of faith found in the New Testament.

Be that as it may, we had a long discussion on this text, and many participants shared their own insights into the meaning and experience of "faith." I wanted to share one of those insights from the group. This one came over zoom chat from Kevin Rains:

"Faith = trust = confidence (in whom we place our confidence, and where we place our confidence, etc.) = allegiance." Kevin went on to qualify his use of "allegiance," by writing the following: "Allegiance obviously has some political overtones - as in 'I pledge allegiance ...' Yet we are reminded weekly in the Liturgy to "put not our trust in princes or sons of men"." 

All in all, that is a nice progression that steadily broadens our understanding and experience of faith. Too often "faith" is reduced to some kind of vague intuition, a highly subjective feeling; and perhaps worst of all, as a form of "wishful thinking" that someone may desperately cling to when "all else fails." Of course, our faith is so very much subject to change and fluctuation. We all empathize with the desperate father in Mk. 9:24, when he cried out to the Lord: "I believe, help my unbelief!" The words translated as "I believe" (pisteúo) and "unbelief" (apistia) in this passage both stem from the Gk. word that is used for faith: pistis.

Heb. 11:1 has given us a remarkable and encouraging insight into faith that, when truly manifested in our lives, is deeply convincing and stabilizing. We begin the Nicene Creed with the words: "I believe" (pisteúo). The Creed is therefore one of many confessions of faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." We have faith in the "one God, maker of heaven and earth;" we trust in God; we place our confidence in God; and we proclaim our allegiance to God, an allegiance that far transcends any such allegiance to "princes and sons of men."

Sister Vassa: 'Let Us Commend Ourselves and One Another'

 

LET US COMMEND OURSELVES AND ONE ANOTHER

“Commemorating our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend (παραθώμεθα, предадим) ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.” (Great Litany, Byzantine Liturgy)

Let me “commend” or hand myself, and my “others,” over to Christ today, if I am feeling frustrated by not being able to control “us.” It may sound ridiculous to people more sane than me, but I sometimes feel frustrated, or even fearful, about my powerlessness over “our” behaviour(s) and lives; my own, and that of my loved ones. In our self-help culture, we tend to concentrate more on the things we need to do, in order to “fix” this or that aspect of our lives. We might also approach our spiritual lives in this way, forgetting about the important capacity “not” to do, and to surrender to God, in certain moments and ways.

Today let me hand over or “commend” or surrender the complexities of my “whole life” and the lives of my “others” into the hands of God. Because He has all the power, where I do not. He can “handle” all our complexities and trials, and guide us through them, as He guided “all the saints” throughout all their very-different lives, throughout the centuries. So, let me not endeavor to carry the burdens of my whole life, and of the lives of my loved ones, on my own shoulders. But let me let my cross-carrying Lord carry them, as He has done for so many generations before us, and continues to do today. Let me let go and let God, as they say. “Let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God!”

 

Sister Vassa: 'Staying Teachable'

 

STAYING TEACHABLE

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, ‘We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her children.” (Mt 11: 16-19)

God reveals His wisdom to us in different ways, and through different sorts of people. But if our hearts are closed to God’s wisdom, particularly when we’re stuck in our own “wisdom”; when we are “wise in our own eyes” (Is 5: 21), then we reject God’s wisdom on any pretext. And the most common pretext for rejecting God’s message, as it’s preached in this world, seems to be criticism of the behavior of His messengers. I would become a Christian, it is said, if I ever met a “real” Christian. But this mindset, blinded as it is by judging others; by the conviction that “I” am in a position to judge the standing or falling of other human beings, would not recognize a “real” Christian in Christ Himself. Nonetheless, God’s wisdom “is justified” throughout the ages by her many “children”; by the many who chose to heed His message, while leaving the judgment of God’s messengers to God.

Today let me not waste time on judging the people I might encounter, lest I miss what I might learn through them. Let me pray this morning that I be a bit more teachable, that I may grow in Him, rather than be stuck in my own head. “O Christ the true light, who enlightens and sanctifies every person who comes into the world: Let the light of Your countenance shine on us, that in it we may behold the uncreated light. Guide our footsteps aright in keeping Your commandments, through the intercessions of Your most-pure mother and of all the saints.” (Prayer of the First Hour)

Sister Vassa: 'On Casting Stones'

 

ON CASTING STONES

“Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?’ This they said, testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though he did not hear. So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.’ And again h e stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” (Jn 8: 3-11)

I’m thinking of our reaction, when someone in our public eye is “caught in adultery,” or “in the very act” of some other sex-related sin. I’m not talking about criminal acts like rape and domestic violence, but about sexual missteps that are morally reprehensible, but not legally actionable. We do not physically stone the culprits to death, but we quite readily bombard them with our collective outcry, mostly on social media, to the point that the culprit’s name and career is erased from the public sphere, with no hope for redemption, regardless of their very-public apologies or explanations. (I’ll note parenthetically that our “verbal stoning” is usually unleashed on men, and only rarely on women.)

Why does Christ call us to take note of our own sins, in these situations? It’s not because “two wrongs make a right.” It’s rather because, while our “eye” is blinded by the “log” in it, we can’t say, as He does to this adultress, “Go and sin no more,” empowering her to do so by His grace-filled word. All we have to offer, in our unreflectingly-angry lack of self-awareness, is death-bringing stones, which can only destroy, but can’t empower anyone to do better. Thank You, Lord, for not “condemning” us, as we so often do one another, but empowering us to do better, by Your compassionate and grace-filled Word.

Coffee With Sister Vassa

_____

Sister Vassa lives in Vienna, so I am unaware of how publicly "sexual sins" are reported in her social and cultural setting. But it sounds similar to America, unless she is basing her words on a more international scale. Americans are obsessed with the sexual sins of other people - at least Christians are - just as we are obsessed with sex in general. The pervasiveness of sex in our society is clearly unhealthy, and we do our best to watch over our children's access to its less than desirable effects. 

Yet, all of the churches, including the Orthodox Church, are beset with the same sexual sins and of course they are deeply damaging to all the people involved. And it is worse when there are attempts to "cover up" these sins when they become high-profile cases. "Circling the wagons" to save the institutional reputation of the Church is clearly counter-productive; and only proves that the Church does not take these sexual sins seriously, though they are denounced in public pronouncements and from the amvon. All of this only leads to justifiable accusations of hypocrisy by the secular world. As Metropolitan Kallistos Ware once famously said: "Peeping through the keyhole of another person's bedroom is a very undignified position!" 

Her use of the term "verbal stoning" is effective. I do not think that she is at all advocating any kind of "moral relativism," as Christ certainly did not in the dramatic episode from St. John's Gospel that Sister Vassa recounts above. 

Her call for us to be vigilant so that we can remove the "log" from our own eyes is always timely. If we can drop the stones we have prepared for other people and their sins, I think we would feel much lighter.

'I am the door...'

 

Christ the Door - Uncut Mtn Supply

I AM THE DOOR

Coffee With Sister Vassa

“I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” (Jn 10: 9-16)

We all need to “belong.” Why? Because we were made that way, to share in, and be part of, God’s Oneness and God’s “abundant” Life. It is both spiritually and psychologically tormenting for us, to feel shut out from Life, like puzzle-pieces that don’t fit anywhere. Many people go through life feeling that way, or have felt that way, at some time or another. It is part of our human “fallenness” or brokenness, which cannot be put together again by merely-human means.

Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, is the “door” through Whom we, who were once outsiders and misfits, “enter” true Life, and truly become a part of God’s world. We are thus "saved," meaning, returned home, or made whole. Other, merely-human community-builders might offer us some sense of belonging, but none of these “hirelings” can “save” us, that is to say, make us “whole” within ourselves and with God’s world. Outside communion with Christ and His unifying and humbling Spirit, we will always find ourselves “scattered” and searching for a certain someone or something that we never seem to find.

Today I let myself be “found” or saved by Christ, the Good Shepherd, and take His door, of humility, patience, and self-offering love. Thank You, Lord, for laying Your life down for us, and claiming us as Your own, and nobody else’s. Today I hear Your voice, and let myself be led by Your purpose for me, rather than wander about alone, where I never really belong.

Happy Fourth of July!

A Feast of Theology

 

From Legacy Icons

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

 

Come, O people,

let us worship the Godhead in three Persons:

the Son in the Father, with the Holy Spirit.

For the Father timelessly begot the Son, co-eternal and co-enthroned with Him;

and the Holy Spirit was in the Father and is glorified with the Son.

We worship one Power, one Essence, one Godhead,

and we say: “Holy God,

Who hast created all things through Thy Son

with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit;

Holy Mighty,

through Whom we know the Father;

and through Whom the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the world;

Holy Immortal,

Comforting Spirit, 

Who proceedest from the Father and restest in the Son.//

O Holy Trinity, glory to Thee!”

[Apostikha, Vespers of Pentecost]

____

In that vast, seemingly limitless body of Orthodox hymnography accumulated over the centuries, I cannot bring to mind a hymn that is as rich as this one is, theologically. 

 The task of the theologian - and a hymnographer is a theologian - is the search for words "adequate to God." And here is a hymn that actually approximates that lofty goal of expressing in words "adequate to God" a vision of the trinitarian splendor of the living God. And it is precisely in the form of a hymn that is sung or chanted that we are able to hear of that "strange doctrine" (an expression from a different hymn) of the Holy Trinity. "Strange" because the limits of logic are transcended in the revelation of God's trinitarian nature. It was St. Dionysius the Areopagite - author of The Mystical Theology - who claimed that true theology in actually to celebrate (literally, hymnein) God. Therefore, we are simultaneously praising and worshiping God as we sing or chant a hymn of a theological nature.

This means that true theology, as practiced at its best in the Church - as in the hymn above - is meant for everyone, not just "learned experts." As such it is not dry, boring or academic; but rather lively, joyful and even exciting. It stimulates the heart as well as the mind. Now, it was at the end of a long morning yesterday that we heard this hymn being sung. Following the Liturgy, we immediately served a shortened version of the Vespers of Pentecost with kneeling prayers. As our endurance was possibly being tested, the choir sang this marvelous hymn. If our capacity to concentrate was diminished at that point, here is an opportunity to absorb this hymn by carefully studying its marvelous insights into the three Persons of the Trinity and their inner-trinitarian relationships. 

Enjoy this "feast of theology!"

Pentecostal Renewal or the Summertime Blues?

 

 

Icon of All Saints

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

This last Sunday was the First Sunday After Pentecost. All of the subsequent Sundays of the liturgical year until the pre-lenten Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee sometime next year will be so numbered. We have thus completed the long and integrated cycle of the pre-lenten Sundays, Great Lent, Pascha and Pentecost for this year. This was a full nineteen weeks during which the Church drew on both The Triodion and The Pentecostarion. This coming Sunday will be the Second Sunday After Pentecost. This is not intended to help us count better. 

The purpose is to keep before our spiritual sight the overwhelming significance of Pentecost in the divine economy. 

The New Testament era of the Church began its existence on the Day of Pentecost with the Spirit’s descent as a mighty rushing wind that took on the form of fiery tongues alighting upon the heads of the future apostles (ACTS 2:1-13). The Church has always existed, but the Church as a remnant of Israel that would flourish and grow with the addition of the Gentiles began its final phase of existence with the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who, seated at the right hand of the Father, would send the Holy Spirit into the world and upon “all flesh” on the Day of Pentecost. As St. Epiphanius of Cyprus wrote in the fourth century: 

“The Catholic Church, which exists from the ages, is revealed most clearly in the incarnate advent of Christ.”

 

The simple calendar rubric of numbering the Sundays after Pentecost is one way of reminding us of this essential truth of the Christian Faith. The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and in and through the sacramental life of the Church we experience something like a permanent pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is this outpouring of the Spirit "on all flesh" that offers the possibility and the promise of human holiness. The fact that so many men, women and children throughout the centuries of the Church's existence received this gift with joy and gladness is revealed to us in the lives of the saints. It is these "holy persons" that we commemorated this last Sunday on the Sunday of All Saints.

However, as we embark upon the Sundays of Pentecost we immediately encounter a prevailing tension between the "rhythm" of the Church and the "rhythm" of our personal lives. We begin these Pentecostal Sundays just when summer is also beginning - and our summer schedules often minimize our participation in the Church. 

So, as we receive the Spirit of renewal and re-commitment to the Church as the source of authentic life; as we pray to the Heavenly King and Spirit of Truth to "come and abide in us;" we more-or-less settle into our church summer schedules that have something of a lazy-hazy approach to the Church. There seems to exist an Orthodox version of "the summertime blues!" 

This can especially afflict Orthodox parents who equate "summer vacation" from school and summer vacation from church school. The notion of "we're off until the Fall!" can translate into sporadic attendance at the Lord's Day Liturgy, let alone any other services or events in the church. Fortunately for us, God's providential care for us is not seasonal.

Thus, the tension between Pentecostal renewal and the beginning of summer. If anyone gets the urge to just stay home on Sunday for leisure purposes or for no particular reason at all, my pastoral response is: that is a temptation that must be resisted. It was recorded that St. Seraphim of Sarov (+1833) once said that if were too ill or infirm to walk to the Liturgy, then he would crawl there on his hands and knees!

Be present in the church as often as possible: "The Church is the presence of the Most Trinity in the midst of us and in us. It is the action of the Life-giving Trinity in his creatures." (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh).

The Lord's Day cycle for the Second Sunday of Pentecost - when we commemorate the Saints of North America - begins with Great Vespers on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. and culminates with the Hours and Liturgy on Sunday morning at 9:10 and 9:30 a.m. respectively. 

Pentecostal renewal or the summertime blues?