Coffee With Sister Vassa: Prayer & Fasting

 

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA

PRAYER & FASTING 

“Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” (Mk 9:25)

In the Gospel-passage read in our churches on yesterday’s 4th Sundayof Lent, our Lord heals a certain man’s son who was afflicted with “a mute spirit,” which not only made the boy deaf and dumb, but also self-destructive, as the boy’s father says: “And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.” The disciples could not cast out this demon, and when they asked Jesus why, He said, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

Here's how we might relate to this story. If we or someone(s) in our midst are afflicted by a self-destructive deafness and dumbness, being unable to speak or hear the words we need to speak or to hear, it sounds like we’re stuck in something like an addiction. It’s cutting off all communication with others and leading to self-destruction. The solution is “nothing but prayer and fasting,” says the Lord. That is, we need to turn to God in “prayer,” letting Him into the picture and asking Him to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves; and we need “fasting,” which is abstinence from our usual routine or behaviour-pattern. Fasting breaks the usual pattern and helps us to re-focus; to step into new life, new communion and community, where God is in the picture. Fasting is an abandonment of the pattern we relied on before, which wasn’t working, wasn’t stopping the madness.

Thank You, God, for this reading at this point in our Lenten journey. Let me ask myself: Have I slipped into a self-destructive routine, which is crippling my ability to speak and to hear the words I need to speak and to hear? Is perhaps my sleeping or eating or working routine crippled by an addiction to scrolling through news on my phone? Or some other unhealthy habits? Let me abandon this pattern and let You into the picture again, my King and my God. Help me to help myself, and to return into the creative, not destructive, flow of Your divine energies, that I may be liberated to speak and hear the words I need to speak and to hear.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: The Great Paradox

 

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA

THE GREAT PARADOX 

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mk 8:35)

Here are a few thoughts, my friends, on this passage from yesterday’s Gospel, on the Sunday of the Cross. I have to let myself lose certain things and even certain people, including my “self,” in order to receive “salvation.” It’s a difficult truth to grasp, but you could think of it this way: You receive, when you give it away. Or: If you love him/her, you should (at times) let them go.

What is “salvation”? It is everything. It is wholeness, or a return to wholeness, from having been fragmented by “my”’desires of this or that thing or place or person(s). These desires are not always fulfilled in the ways I would want or expect. My wholeness, in harmony with God’s vision of me and my unique place in His bigger picture, is restored through my surrendering to His will, manifested through the ups and downs of my cross-carrying journey, to which He calls me every day. I do my part, by putting one foot in front of the other and doing the next right thing, but I also need to let go and let God do His part. I don’t know or understand it a lot of the time, but I trust Him. Because He sees the whole picture and my unique place in it, which is where I thrive and come into ever-new life.

Lead us not into temptation, our loving Father, but deliver us from the evil one, if we do become entangled in our misplaced or mis-timed desires. Because You are in the driver’s seat, and Yours is the kingdom, which is always breaking in to our little lives, and Yours is the power to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves, and Yours is the glory in which we bask, when we let you in. Amen!

The Announcement of the Incarnation

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 "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, be it unto me according to your will." (Lk. 1:38)

Today, March 25, is the Feast of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos. This great feast always falls during Great Lent, and when it falls on a weekday, it is the only instance of having the full eucharistic Liturgy served for its commemoration. Clearly a sign of the feast’s significance. Thus, the Annunciation is something of a festal interlude that punctuates the eucharistic austerity of the lenten season. Yet, because it does occur during Great Lent, this magnificent feast appears and disappears rather abruptly. It seems as if we have just changed the lenten colors in church to the blue characteristic of feasts dedicated to the Theotokos, when they are immediately changed back again! This is so because the Leavetaking of the Annunciation is on March 26. If we are not alert, it can pass swiftly by undetected by our “spiritual radar” which needs to be operative on a daily basis.

This Feast has its roots in the biblical passage in St. Luke’s Gospel, wherein the evangelist narrates that incredibly refined dialogue between the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary (LK. 1:26-38). The angel Gabriel will “announce” the joyful news of the impending birth of the Messiah, and hence our English name of “Annunciation” for the Feast. However, the Greek title of Evangelismos is even richer in that it captures the truth that the Gospel – evangelion – is being “announced” in the encounter between God’s messenger and the young maiden destined to be the Mother of God. Her “overshadowing” by the Holy Spirit is “Good News” for her and for the entire world! Even though the Feast of the Lord’s Nativity in the flesh dominates our ecclesial and cultural consciousness, it is this Feast of the Annunciation that reveals the Incarnation, or the “becoming flesh” of the eternal Word of God. It is the Word’s conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary that is the “moment” of the Word’s enfleshment. Hence, the Church’s insistence that a new human being begins to exist at the moment of conception. The Word made flesh – our Lord Jesus Christ – will be born nine months later on December 25 according to our liturgical calendar; but again, His very conception is the beginning of His human life as God-made-man. The troparion of the Feast captures this well:

Today is the beginning of our salvation; the revelation of the eternal Mystery! 
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin as Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos: Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with you.

Was the Virgin Mary randomly chosen for this awesome role? Was she compelled to fulfill the will of God regardless of her spiritual relationship with God? Was she a mere instrument overwhelmed or even “used” by God for the sake of God’s eternal purpose? That the Virgin Mary was “hailed” as one “highly favored” or “full of grace” (Gk. kecharitōmenē) when the angel Gabriel first descended to her, points us well beyond any such utilitarian role for her. On the contrary, the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary is understood and presented by the Church as the supreme example of synergy in the Holy Scriptures. The word synergy denotes the harmonious combination and balance between divine grace and human freedom that can occur between God and human beings. God does not compel, but seeks our free cooperation to be a “co-worker” with God in the process of salvation and deification. In this way, God respects our human self-determination, or what we refer to as our freedom or “free will.” 

It is the Virgin Mary’s free assent to accept the unique vocation that was chosen for her from all eternity that allows her to become the Theotokos, or God-bearer. This is, of course, found in her response to the angel Gabriel’s announcement, and following her own perplexity:  “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” This teaching on synergy finds its classical expression in a justifiably famous passage from St. Nicholas Cabasilas’ Homily on the Annunciation. The passage itself is often cited as an excellent and eloquent expression of the Orthodox understanding of synergy: 

The incarnation of the Word was not only the work of the Father, Son and Spirit – the first consenting, the second descending, and third overshadowing – but it was also the work of the will and faith of the Virgin. Without the three divine persons this design could not have been set in motion; but likewise the plan could not have been carried into effect without the consent and faith of the all-pure Virgin. Only after teaching and persuading her does God make her his Mother and receive from her the flesh which she consciously wills to offer him. Just as he was conceived by his own free choice, so in the same way she became his Mother voluntarily and with her free consent.

We praise the Virgin Mary as representing our longing for God and for fulfilling her destiny so that we may receive the gift of salvation from our Lord who “came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man” (Nicene Creed):

Hail, thou who art full of grace: the Lord is with thee.

Hail, O pure Virgin;

Hail, O Bride unwedded

Hail, Mother of life: blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

(Dogmatikon, Vespers of the Annunciation)

Monday Morning Meditation: 'Cross-bearers' - Not Simply 'Cross-wearers'

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 At the very midpoint of Great Lent we venerate the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. If we have in any way taken up the cross of asceticism in obedience to the Church and in reaction to our over-indulgent surroundings, then by the Third Sunday of Great Lent the purpose of our ascetical efforts - and the very goal of our journey - are brought to our attention: to stand by the Cross of the Lord as we journey toward Jerusalem and Holy Week. 

The timing is perfect, for by this third Sunday of Great Lent we begin to tire, if not "wear out" with our lenten effort to this point. However, in our weakness we can find the strength and resolve to continue our journey with enthusiasm, and not simply obligation. This is made possible by the presence of the Cross, not only at the heart and center of Great Lent, but at the heart and center of the biblical revelation; of the entire historical process; of the cosmos; and at the heart and center of the Trinity, as the Lamb of God is slain before the foundation of the world. 

With that in mind, we can chant and sing the appointed hymns cited above, not only as fine examples of Byzantine rhetoric, but as profound insights into the meaning and purpose of the Cross. 

What may appear at first sight as hyperbole or exaggeration in the Church's hymnography, is discovered, upon deeper meditation, to be the search for words and images adequate to the great mystery of the Cross, in itself the inexhaustible wisdom of God as the "breadth and length, and height and depth" of that wisdom which will fill us "with the fulness of God"(EPH. 3:18-19). The only response to this Mystery once we begin to assimilate it, is to "bow down" in worship before the Master's Cross in awe and adoration. 

In our liturgical tradition we decorate the Cross with flowers in order to enhance and reveal its inner beauty, as we bring the Cross in solemn procession into the midst of the church for veneration. The decorated Cross is one way of trying to capture the paradoxical nature of the Cross.

For in no way is the Church trying to cover up the horror and brutality of crucifixionas one of the most perverse and twisted means of humanity's sinful capacity to inflict pain and humiliation on others. Here is the dark side of human nature at its most lethal. This is all clearly beneath the surface in the Gospels and their restrained and sober narrative of the Lord dying on the Cross. And it is on Golgotha "when they had crucified him" (MATT. 27:35) that we can begin to understand why the Lord "cried with a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, la'ma sabach'-tha'ni' that is 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (MATT. 27:46). It is in and through this cry of solidarity with suffering humanity while lifted up on the Cross that we never soften or "sing away" the horror of the Cross. We respect what it meant for the Lord to ascend the Cross. A clear-sighted realism demands that of us.

Yet, Christ is our Passover, the Lamb of God "who takes away the sin of the world"(JN. 1:29). On the Cross, as the sinless Son of God, Christ absorbs and takes upon Himself all of that sin in order to overcome it from within. He died on the Cross, but death had no hold over Him. He died for the life of the world and its salvation. By His obedience to the will of the Father, Christ destroys death by death.

For this reason, when we venerate the Cross we simultaneously glorify the Lord's "holy Resurrection." It is on the Cross that Christ is victorious, not in spite of the Cross. The Son glorifies the Father precisely while lifted up on the Cross. "I call Him King, because I see Him crucified," said St. John Chrysostom. 

As we sing at every Liturgy after having received the Body and Blood of Christ: "for through the Cross joy has come into the world." That is an incredible claim, but through faith we understand that claim as the very heart of the Gospel, the "good news" that life has overcome death "once and for all." 

Whenever we taste of that joy, we taste of the glory of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps here we discover the paradoxical nature of a decorated Cross: the ultimate sign of defeat and death has become the "unconquerable trophy of the true faith." Or, as the Apostle Paul has declared:  "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (I COR. 1:18).

The Lord taught us:  "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (MK. 8:34). These words challenge us to never be content with being passive observers of the Cross, but rather active participants in the life of self-denial and co-suffering love that are implied in taking up the Cross.

This further means that by our very vocation as Christians, we are "cross-bearers" and not simply "cross-wearers." It is one thing to wear a cross, and another thing to bear a cross. 

Of course it is a good thing that Christians do wear a cross. This is something of a identity badge that reveals that we are indeed Christians, but this worn cross is certainly not another piece of jewelry - Byzantine, three-barred, Celtic or Ethiopian! By wearing a cross we are saying in effect: I am a Christian, and therefore I belong to the Crucified One, who is none other than the "Lord and Master of my life." My ultimate allegiance is to Him, and to no other person or party. With the Apostle Paul, I also confess:  "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith ..." (ROM. 1:16). 

Such a confession already takes us way beyond passively being a "cross-wearer" to actively being a "cross-bearer." Dying to sin in Baptism makes the impossible possible. And with a faith in Christ that is ever-deepening in maturity, we can further exclaim with the great Apostle:  "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (GAL. 5:24).

The Third Sunday of Great Lent - The Adoration of the Life-Giving Cross - reveals, I believe, that here is something that makes Lent potentially great. Here are reasons that make taking Lent seriously a worthy and noble endeavor. We are slowly learning to be Cross-bearers, and in the process transforming the simple profession "I am a Christian," into a powerful confession of Faith.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: Praying From the Heart

 

COFFEE WITH SISTER VASSA: ON PRAYING FROM THE HEART

 

I'm sharing today an email I got from a young woman-catechumen who is currently doing my Orthodoxy 101 course, in case anyone is interested:

Hi Sister Vassa,
All has been going well with the daily prayers and the readings. I've actually really been enjoying the rhythm it gives to the day.

I would love to hear any advice you might have on how to stay present and tap into a sense of depth while saying the prayers and not just go through the motions of recitation. I notice myself slipping into autopilot while praying, especially as I memorize the daily prayers (Our Father, Oh Heavenly King, etc..)...

N. 

Dear N,

Thank you for your message. The "slipping into autopilot" that you write about, when reciting or memorizing certain ready-made prayers, is something that happens to all of us, time and again. It's part of the learning process, of learning to work on our relationship with God. The reasons we learn ready-made prayers, which are more difficult to pray from the heart (because these are not our own words), are:

1. These prayers help us to understand better, how and who God is, - for example, He is our common "Father" in the best sense of that concept; and He is the life-giving Spirit and King (as in the prayer, O Heavenly King) that is our primary and life-inspiring authority, beyond and above any political "king" or leader. And these prayers help us better understand how we approach Him, and what types of things we thank Him for, ask Him for, and cherish His presence in our lives for.

2. Ready-made prayers enable us to pray together with other people in our church-tradition, on those occasions when we pray together in church, before and after meals, etc. When we're not with other people and we pray these prayers, we are also, in a sense, praying together with other Christians who are also praying these prayers on their own, in different parts of the world. This is why most of these prayers are formulated in the first person plural, ("we," "our"), so we become aware of the fact that we are not alone, but part of a bigger whole, of a humanity that recognizes we are all children of "our" Father.

SOME TIPS, for learning to pray from the heart:

1. CONTEMPLATION: When we take pause and contemplate a bit, about the meaning of these ready-made prayers, it helps us to make them "our own" words.

2. BODILY POSITION & RITUALIZING: Another thing that helps, in the whole business of making these prayers "our own," and to pray them truly "by heart" (or from the heart), is to get creative with our prayer-learning-process. We can try changing our bodily position when we say them. For example, you can try kneeling (either at the side of your bed, like you see sometimes in movies where a child or someone prays before bedtime), and imagine you are in the presence of God, who is always close; or you can pray before an icon of Jesus Christ, and you can "ritualize" your prayer in other ways sometimes, by lighting a little candle before an icon. Or you can stand and raise your arms with your palms uplifted, as you say the Our Father, if that works for you. You also might set up a special place in your home for prayer, like a little corner with icons or a candle or where on occasion you put a vase of flowers and keep a religious book you are reading, or something like that. Make it nice and I would even say, playful. We learn best through playing. And NOTE: All these external bodily gestures are done to help our internal attention to focus on the presence of God; they are not done to demean us, nor are they done because God "needs" our prayers or our subservience to Him. What He wants is for us to participate in His divine energies, called "grace," so that we don't lead an existence that is limited only to the oft-divisive merely-human energies in our world.

3. PATIENCE: Finally, don't get discouraged and have patience with yourself, in this learning process. It's the most worthwhile thing we can learn, in the long run, to have and maintain faith in the presence of a loving God in our lives. We will lose our focus, again and again, but we learn more about ourselves and about God, through our mistakes and even our "sins," like self-centered fears, ingratitude, resentments, or whatever, each time we let God help us overcome these ugliness-es in our hearts. He wants us to be free of such things that block our growth and our effectiveness in leading a good life, but it's by walking through these things and overcoming them that we grow stronger and more whole, as participants in the flow of creative, divine energies that are available to us, in communion with God.

Sorry this was long, N. I look forward to seeing you next week.

Love from Rome,

SV

In the Life of the Church

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Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, Looking back to our immediate past, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, in the context of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, I focused on the notion of Holy Tradition in the homily. Following that homily, Presvytera Deborah reminded me of two outstanding passages on this all-important subject from Fr. John Meyendorff (+1996), both a prominent historian and theologian from the 20th c. and my professor at St. Vladimir's Seminary. The importance of these two passages is found in the fact that Fr. John both recognizes our Lord's condemnation of "human traditions" when they become an obstacle in our relationship with God; while simultaneously making it clear that there is a Holy Tradition by which the Church lives, moves and has its being. Faithful Orthodox Christians always need to keep that in mind, as small "traditions" can at times consume our attention at the expense of the  endlessly-widening expanse of Holy Tradition. These texts are equally important for our inquirers, who are coming to terms with learning about the Church's Holy Tradition from a background that either ignores or rejects the very notion of "tradition." _____ "No clear notion of the true meaning of Tradition can be reached without constantly keeping in mind the well-known condemnation of "human traditions" by the Lord Himself. The one Holy Tradition, which constitutes the self-identity of the Church throughout the ages and is the organic and visible expression of the life of the Spirit in the Church, is not to be confused with the inevitable, often creative and positive, sometimes sinful, and always relative accumulation of human traditions in the historical Church." Living Tradition, p. 21. "The very reality of Tradition, a living and organic reality manifesting the presence of the Spirit in the Church and therefore also its unity, cannot be fully understood unless it is clearly distinguished from everything which creates a normal diversity inside the one Church. To disengage Holy Tradition from the human traditions which tend to monopolize it is in fact a necessary condition of its preservation, for once it becomes petrified into the forms of a particular culture, it not only excludes the others and betrays the catholicity of the Church, but it also identifies itself with passing and relative reality and is in danger of disappearing with it." Living Tradition, 25-26.

Monday Morning Meditation

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 Dear Parish Faithful,

O Light of Orthodoxy! Teacher of the Church. Its Confirmation! O Ideal of Monks and Champion of Theologians!

Yesterday, on the Second Sunday of Great Lent, we commemorated St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki (+1359). I focused on St. Gregory's understanding of the place and role of the human body in the realm of what we call the "spiritual life." The passage below is quite indicative of St. Gregory's deep insight into the relationship between "soul and body." St. Gregory also employs the term "mind" below. This is the Greek nous, probably better translated as "spiritual intellect." This is a marvelous passagethat deserves a careful and thoughtful reading:

_____

There are indeed blessed passions and common activities of body and soul, which ... serve to draw the flesh to a dignity close to that of the spirit, and persuade it too tend towards what is above. Such spiritual activities … do not enter the mind from the body, but descend into the body from the mind, in order to transform the body into something better and to deify it … In spiritual man, the grace of the Spirit, transmitted to the body through the soul, grants to the body also the experiences of things divine and allows it the same blessed experiences as the soul undergoes. … When the soul pursues this blessed activity, it deifies the body also; which, being no longer driven by corporeal and material passions … rejects all contact with evil things. Indeed it inspires its own sanctification and inalienable divinization.

_____

I also said yesterday that St. Gregory is not exactly a "household name," and that includes Orthodox households. Therefore, I am providing a link to a fairly detailed account of his life from the OCA webpage. St. Gregory Palamas was a great Church Father who deserves our attention:

https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/03/16/12-2nd-sunday-of-great-lent-st-gregory-palamas

Fragments for Friday

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 Dear Parish Faithful,

The Book of Proverbs is one of the three OT books prescribed for Great Lent. The genre is Wisdom literature. In the opening chapters, we read repeatedly of a father exhorting his son to listen to his counsel, for life experience
and a desire to acquire wisdom are characteristics that the father would like to impart to his son, so that he would not make those types of mistakes that youth are so prone to. Here is one of many examples:

My son, be attentive to my wisdom,
incline your ear to my understanding;that you may keep discretion,and your lips may guard knowledge.

Prov. 5:1-2

My immediate purpose in turning to Proverbs is to provide a short introduction to the paragraph below. It was sent to me by Spencer Settles, in reaction to Wednesday's Midmorning Meditation that centered around a passage from Theology of the Body by Jean Claude Larchet. And that passage, if you recall, was an excellent summary of the Church's understanding of what it means to created "in the image andaccording to the likeness of God." As a Proverbs father, Spencer chose to speak to his older son, John, about this passage. (John, by the way, is 8 1/2 yrs. old!). The conversation helped Spencer come to a fuller understanding of that teaching, and the meaning of amartia (sin) and how it undermines that human vocation of attaining the likeness of God. 

_____

John and I just had a conversation yesterday about striving after the “likeness.” We were talking about sin and I was trying to help him see that sin is not so much about rule breaking (though it manifests that way, particularly as a child), but is ultimately about departing from our course toward Christlikeness. We talked about how, in the analogy of an arrow “missing the mark” (what I’ve been told “hamartia” harkens to), we are not the archer, whose arrows either hits the mark or don’t, over and over again. But rather we are the arrow, either on a trajectory toward the target or deviating from it over the course of our lives. He and I both tend to be moralists, focusing on each of our actions and whether or not they were a “bullseye,” but I’m learning to think about my whole life as an arrow’s journey home. Maybe at various points it twists and yaws, upset by some crosswind or another, but these are mere moments in an overall trajectory toward the likeness of Christ. 

______

A father-son conversation right out of the Book of Proverbs!

Thursday's Theological Thoughts - "Walk on By"

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 Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

During Great Vespers on Saturday evening, and during some feasts, we sing a hymn that we call “Blessed is the Man.” Those are the very first words found in Psalm 1, and hence at the very beginning of the Psalter (Book of Psalms). The hymn in its entirety (the shortened version that we normally use) is actually a medley of verses taken from the first three psalms of the Psalter. In other words, our Great Vespers hymn is comprised of various verses taken from the first stasis of the First Kathisma, appointed for Saturday evening. For my purposes here, I would like to simply quote Ps. 1:1 (realizing that we do not even use the full verse at Great Vespers):

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the 

wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

I have highlighted the words “walks,” “stands” and “sits.” There is clearly a progression in these three bodily movements or positions. Actually, a regression, for understood metaphorically, we find a description of the descent into sin – a descent that the psalmist is exhorting us to avoid, and saying that any person who does so is truly “blessed.” If one is aware of the “counsel of the wicked” – from meaningless and frivolous gossip, to destructive plans of betrayal or worse – then it is truly blessed to “walk on by,” so that one’s attention and then attractiveness to such pernicious plans do not enter the mind or heart. Yet, a person who chooses to stand and listen for a while is that much more susceptible to giving this wicked counsel a hearing. And what a person hears, though acknowledged as sinful, becomes more attractive, with whatever tools of rationalization are used for that purpose. But, to then sit, is to declare: I am in! A person then becomes quite open on that “counsel of the wicked.” Extricating oneself at that point will not be easy!

This insight is expressed with great depth by the saints in a more technical language that belongs to our ascetical tradition. With such terms as “(initial) provocation,” “momentary disturbance,” “coupling” and “assent,” the ascetic tradition outlines with great psychological penetration, the pitfalls embedded in the scriptural terms from the psalm: walking, standing, and sitting. Once we are “sitting,” they basically teach us that we are then facing a “predisposition” (to sin), followed by slavery to a/the “passion(s).” The passions bind us to such an extent that they can be called "addictions" as we use that term today. And it takes some work to liberate oneself at that point. A reason why the teaching exhorts us to practice “rebuttal” when we are first faced with an initial provocation. In other words, to use another term that I notice is gaining popularity: Avoid going down that “rabbit hole.” Which, on the spiritual level is equivalent to a “black hole.” 

Those of us from an older generation remember well the pop song, “Walk on By,” sung so smoothly, but also achingly, by Dionne Warwick. That song surely did not have our spiritual tradition in mind! But, as an expression, it can stay with us, and it captures the significance of the first verse of the Book of Psalms: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.” 

I thought to append the remainder of the hymn “Blessed is the Man” that we sing at every Great Vespers on Saturday evening:

for the Lord knows the way of the

righteous, but the way of the wicked

will perish.

Serve the Lord with fear,

And rejoice in him with trembling;

Blessed are all who take refuge in

him.

Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God!

Salvation belongs to the LORD; thy

Blessing be upon thy people!

(Ps. 1:1,6; 2:11; 3:7-8)

Midweek Morning Meditation

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 Dear Parish Faithful,

As I continue to read Theology of the Body by Jean-Claude Larchet, I come across some very fine passages that clearly articulate the Orthodox understanding of our humanity. We need to read and absorb those deep insights, think hard about them, and then seek ways that we can apply this teaching to how we live our lives in the world. This is essential, for we live in a time of an almost radical reduction of our humanity; what Fr. Alexander Schmemann called an "anthropological minimalism." This minimalism permeates every aspect of the contemporary world, including what we call "higher education." We can appreciate the insights that we learn from the world around us and our education, but we turn to the "mind of the Church" to fully understand what and who we are. Be that as it may, in this passage Larchet offers us a fine summary of what the Tradition has always taught us about our creation "in the image and according to the likeness of God." 

_____

God made man not only in his image but according to this likeness: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." (Gen. 1:26). Most of the Fathers distinguish between these two notions; giving them different meanings. The image is actual, already realized; the likeness, on the other hand, is potential or virtual, something still to be accomplished. Whereas the image relates to our nature and is independent of our will- which is why it remains a permanent characteristic of every human being - the likeness relates to our person and depends on our choices, on the inclination of our will, on our way of life as shown in our moods, our inner states, and our actions. Yet the two concepts are not unrelated. On the one hand, it is the image that makes us aim at achieving this likeness and which, moreover, contains the necessary powers and means that it is our responsibility to make use of attaining it. On the other hand, the realization of the likeness corresponds to an actualization of the image's potential. In other words, to strive for the likeness enables us to accomplish, in our own person, our nature as humans, to flourish, and to realize ourselves fully.

For the Fathers, it is by means of the virtues that we can become like God, and it is in this likeness to God, acquired by a collaboration between free will and the grace given us that we can ultimately become a partaker of divine life - a participation to which we are both destined by our nature and called by personal vocation.

Theology of the Body, p. 27

The Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

Source: orthodoxchristiansupply.com

 

St Basil's Liturgy: Deserving our Deepest Attention and Overwhelming Awe

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


During the five Sundays of Great Lent we turn to the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great for our Eucharistic celebration on the Lord's Day. This Liturgy is used another five times during the year, two more of which are during Holy Week - Thursday and Saturday. (The other three times are the Feasts of Nativity and Theophany, and then on St. Basil's day of commemoration, January 1). This Liturgy is known for its long(er) prayers, some of which may challenge our capacity to stand still in concentration and prayerful attention. But what prayers! They strike me personally as being unrivaled in our entire Tradition for their beauty of expression and the depth of their theological/spiritual content. Even though we are hearing them in translation, that beauty and depth remain intact and shine through quite well.

Now St. Basil did not sit down and "compose" the entire Liturgy "from scratch," to use that expression. The basic structure of the Liturgy was already an essential element of the Church's living liturgical Tradition. However, there is every reason to believe that he is responsible for the magnificent Anaphora prayers. These prayers reflect St. Basil's intense preoccupation with the Church's Trinitarian faith - that we worship the One God as the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the Son and the Holy Spirit being consubstantial with the Father as to their divine nature, and thus co-enthroned and co-glorified with the Father from all eternity. (St. Basil wrote a separate magnificent treatise On the Holy Spirit, demonstrating the divinity of the Holy Spirit through his knowledge of the Scriptures and the Church's liturgical Tradition). 

That belief in the Holy Trinity, though present "in the beginning" of the Church's proclamation of the Gospel, was under attack during the turbulent fourth century, with the Arian heresy and its various offshoots stirring up seemingly interminable debate and dissension. St. Basil was one of the premier exponents of the Church's faith that the one God is the Holy Trinity; and he helped establish the classical terminology of the Church in expressing that Faith: God is one in "essence" (Gk. ousia), yet three distinct "Persons" (Gk. hypostaseis). That terminology remains intact to this day. The opening Anaphora Prayer, "O Existing One, Master, Lord God, Father almighty and adorable! ..." is steeped in praise and glorification of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and thus deserves our deepest attention and sense of overwhelming awe as we stand in the presence of the Holy Trinity and as we join the angelic powers in "singing, shouting, and proclaiming: Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord of Sabaoth!

In profound relationship to the prayers of the Liturgy revealing the Church's belief in the Holy Trinity, we find St. Basil's unrivaled expression of the divine "economy" (Gk. oikonomia) throughout. This refers to God's providential dispensation/design toward His creation - culminating in the salvation of the world - in and through the Incarnation, Death, Resurrection and Glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I were asked to present to an interested inquirer the most compelling and succinct expression of the divine economy as taught and proclaimed by the Orthodox Church, I would definitely refer this person to the long Anaphora Prayer of St. Basil's Liturgy beginning where the Thrice-holy left off:

"With these blessed powers, O Master who lovest mankind ..."

After praising God "for the magnificence of Thy holiness," we begin to prayerfully recall - and thus make present - the full extent of His providential dispensation toward the world:

"When Thou didst create man by taking dust from the earth, and didst honor him with Thine own image, O God ..."

This long remembrance takes us through what we refer to as the "Fall," through the promises of the prophets — "foretelling to us the salvation which was to come ..." — all the way through to the Lord's Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and even Second Coming:

"Ascending into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of Thy majesty on high, and He will come to render to every man according to his works ..."

Further recalling, and thus actualizing "the night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world," this entire process will culminate with the Epiklesis, or Invocation of the Holy Spirit "to bless, to hallow and to show" that the bread and wine of our offering will "become" the Body and Blood of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. We will then receive the Holy Gifts "for the remission of sins and unto life everlasting."

Today, the Orthodox faithful are blessed in that the prayers of St. Basil's Liturgy are read aloud so that the entire gathered assembly of believers may actually "hear" the prayers that reveal the Lord God's Trinitarian nature and the divine economy together with the consecration of the Holy Gifts. In the past that may have not been so, and even today it is not so in all Orthodox churches. So we thank God for our own liturgical revival which has so enlivened our contemporary worship experience with full parish participation in the Church at prayer and praise.

 And there is a final prayer near the very end of the Liturgy that the priest will say while facing the Table of Preparation and the remaining Holy Communion that will eventually be consumed by the priest or deacon, and while the choir is singing "Blessed be the name of the Lord, henceforth and forevermore"three times:

The mystery of Thy dispensation, O Christ our God, has been accomplished and perfected as far as it was in our power;
for we have had the memorial of Thy death; we have seen the type of Thy Resurrection; we have been filled with Thine
unending life; we have enjoyed Thine inexhaustible food; which in the world to come be well-pleased to vouchsafe to us
all, through the grace of Thine eternal Father, and Thine holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto
ages of ages. Amen.

This summation of the meaning, purpose and experience of the Liturgy is an "awesome" claim that perhaps may strike us in its awesomeness even more effectively if we break the prayer down into its component parts:

• We have had the memorial of the Lord's death;
• We have seen the type of the Lord's Resurrection;
• We have been filled with the Lord's unending life;
• We have enjoyed the Lord's inexhaustible food;
• We ask to continue in this partaking in the world to come;
• All this through the grace of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

That is quite a Sunday morning experience which we so blandly describe as "going to church!" Clearly the remainder of the day is all downhill - no matter what we do! When we begin the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great we know that we have a long road ahead of us. That will require some patience, concentration, and a willingness to "stay with it" through to its dismissal. If we are able to do that, then the "rewards" are inestimable. It will also test our deepest desires about what is "the one thing needful" in our lives and what is the treasure of our hearts. Yet, the Sundays of Great Lent are a unique opportunity to further our movement towards the Lord as we move through Great Lent and our lives toward the gladsome light of the Kingdom of God.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: The Lenten Exile

 

THE LENTEN EXILE

This past Sunday immediately preceding the beginning of Lent recalled the Exile from Paradise, inviting us to embrace “Adam’s Lament” over a Paradise Lost. How and why should we relate to the whole topic of Exile, which is a leitmotif of Great Lent? Note that it’s also the main theme of Psalm 136/137, By the Rivers of Babylon…, chanted in our churches these past three Sundays, so, there’s something very important about Exile that we’re meant to recognize as part of our human (or human-divine) story, as we enter into the voluntary, communal Lamentof the Lenten season.

We all experience some form of exile, or separation from something or someone beloved, at some point in our lives. Some of us are from war-torn or otherwise troubled countries, which we had to leave and which we might miss. Some of us have experienced a painful divorce from a once-beloved spouse. Others of us might have lost our jobs; or lost a loved one who passed away, and we might feel lost without them. Maybe we have experienced burnout in this or that occupation, and feel we have lost ourselves. Or maybe we have lost our freedom by slipping into a crippling addiction or obsession, which now alienates us from others, to some degree.

These are all different experiences that can help us relate to the biblical narratives related to Exile. And we can channel our pain toward and into the healing hands of a loving Father, our loving God, who clothes us (as He made clothing for Adam and Eve at the end of Genesis 3) before entrusting us with the new, productive work we are given to do henceforth in our Exile. This “work” is described in Genesis 3 as bearing children and working the soil, symbolizing the kinds of God-given creativity we are blessed with in different ways; our creativity, which brings forth new life in our world.

It’s not a joyless or unproductive “lament,” is my point, even while we do have this hole in our hearts that “remembers” our Paradise Lost. On the way of the cross, which is always leading to resurrection, our pain is transfigured into new life, with God’s blessing and “clothing.” The new clothing in the era of the Church is our being clothed in Christ, all of us who are baptized in Christ. We’re getting back in touch with this reality, with these truths, throughout Lent, so we can “re-story” ourselves and regain a proper perspective of our common, human-divine story, which is neither meaningless nor purposeless in our Exile. Anyway, these are a few thoughts on our upcoming, dignifying journey towards Pascha. Happy Lent to you, dear friends. Forgive me and pray for me a bit, if you could. SV

___

Please remember: Sister Vassa  will visit our parish and deliver a talk on March 19. The title of the talk is: "Great Lent as the Great Catechism."

Midweek Morning Meditation

Source: ancientfaith.com

 Dear Parish Faithful,

It is perhaps most obvious during Great Lent just how much our bodies participate in the very act of worship. We are now making prostrations and bowing deeply at the waist; services during which we do our best to stand are somewhat longer, and so forth. Of course, that is the "outward person" and not yet the "inward person." Those very practices can be lifeless if done somewhat mechanically. Yet, the point I am trying to make her very briefly is that we need to respect our "bodily nature" as integral to our very humanity. That this is expressive of a holistic Orthodox anthropology at its most complete. These are simply a few comments which are meant to preface a passage from the book Theology of the Body by the French Orthodox theologian, Jean-Claude Larchet. His book is a very thorough examination of the many-sided approaches to the human body and its relation to the "soul" and/or "spirit" which are essential for us to understand. Only then will we fully grasp our understanding and experience of human nature as created by God. 

The passage here is a nice summary of the over-all teaching of the Church on the body:

____

The fact remains that original, authentic Christianity is, by its very nature, the one religion that values the body most of all. This is seen in the doctrine of creation, whereby the body too is deemed to be made in the image of God. Similarly, Christianity's portrayal of future life is one in which the body is also called to participate. Indeed, it is seen in its conception of the human person as composed inextricably of soul and body, and who thus does not simply have a body but in part is a body, marked by all its spiritual qualities. Without question, such exceptional value and significance accorded the body is linked to the very basis of Christianity - namely, the incarnation. It is a consequence of the fact that the Son of God became man, assuming not simply a human soul but a human body; that in this body he experienced what we experience; that in his person he delivered it from its weaknesses and ills, making it incorruptible, granting it eternal life; and that he gave it as food to his disciples and believers, making them partakers of his divinity, and of all associated blessing.

_____

From Theology of the Body by Jean-Claude Larchet, p. 11

Taking Lent Seriously

 Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, 

Great Lent is the “school of repentance.” It is roughly equivalent to an“annual tithe” in which we offer ourselves back to God so as to be received with love as was the prodigal son. As such, Great Lent is a gift from God, guiding us toward a way of life we may be reluctant to assume on our own, suffering as we often are from spiritual apathy or a simple lack of focus. Great Lent is also goal-oriented, for it leads us on a spiritual pilgrimage of preparation toward the “night brighter than the day” of Pascha and the Risen Lord. Great Lent is “sacred” and “soul-profiting.” It is a key component in the Orthodox Way of living out the Christian life we have been committed to in holy Baptism.

During Great Lent we will recover the essential practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. These practices are the tools that can assist us in returning and remaining close to God. Liturgical services unique to Great Lent immerse us in a way of communal pray that is solemn and penitent; but which also lighten and unburden the soul through the mercy and grace of God so abundantly poured out upon us through these inspired services. You leave the church tired in body perhaps, but brighter inside – in the mind and heart.

Great Lent invites us to see our neighbors as children of God and of equal value in the eyes of God, and thus deserving of our attention, patience and care. Charity can be distributed through material means or through an encouraging and warmly-spoken word. Great Lent liberates us from the excessive appetites of our bodies through the discipline of fasting. 

Our diet essentially becomes vegan as we seek to be less weighed down by a body overly-satiated with food and drink. This is healthy for both soul and body. The human person does not live by bread alone as the Lord taught us as He Himself fasted in the desert for forty days. 

We also fast from entertainment, bad habits, obsessions, useless distractions, vulgar language and the like. We try and simplify life and redeem our newfound time through more focused and virtue-creating tasks. If approached seriously, perhaps we will be able to carry some of this over into the paschal season – and beyond.

What can we do? How do we not squander this time set aside for God?

• Prayer - Make provision to be in church for some of the Lenten services. Start with the first week of Great Lent and the Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete. Assume or resume a regular Rule of Prayer in your home. Read the psalms and other Scripture carefully and prayerfully. Pray for others.

• Charity – Open your heart to your neighbor. If you believe that Christ dwells within you, then try and see Christ in your neighbor. Make your presence for the “other” encouraging and supportive. Restrain your “ego” for the sake of your neighbor. Help someone in a concrete manner this Great Lent.

• Fasting – Set domestic goals about the manner in which you will observe the fast. Test yourselves. Resist minimalism. If you “break” the fast, do not get discouraged or “give up,” but start over. Assume that your Orthodox neighbor is observing the fast. Seek silence. Allow for a different atmosphere in the home.

Jesus set the example of fasting for forty days. We imitate Him for the same period of forty days. If it was hard for Him, it will be hard for us; but not as hard as it was for Him. Jesus went to the Cross following His “holy week” in Jerusalem. We follow Him in our holy week observance and practices. Jesus was raised from the dead following His crucifixion, death and burial. We seek the resurrection of our spiritual lives here and now as we await our own death at the appointed time and the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

“Taking Lent seriously” (Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s phrase) is a concrete sign of taking God seriously. Our surrounding culture is not serious about taking anything too seriously. When serious issues arise, however, people have a difficult time dealing with them. Yet Jesus was very serious. Especially when it came to issues of life and death – and God and salvation, and so forth. Great Lent helps us to focus on these very themes, therefore making it meaningful and important for our lives.

May God be with you and with our entire parish community!