Fragments for Friday -- The Divine Liturgy - 'The Liturgy of the Word'

 

Source: orthodoxartsjournal.org

"We need to take refuge with the Church, to drink milk at her breast, to be fed with the Scriptures of the Lord. For the Church has been planted in the world as a paradise."

- St. Irenaeus of Lyons

"We are said to drink the blood of Christ not only when we receive it according to the rite of the mysteries, but also when we receive his words, in which life dwells, as he said himself: 'The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life'."

- Origen

To follow up on an introductory meditation on the Divine Liturgy from last week, here are a few brief words about the purpose of the Scripture readings during the Liturgy. The following is the briefest of outlines of the first part of the Liturgy.

+ My former professor, Fr. John Meyendorff, a great Orthodox historian and theologian, would always stress the  paschal nature of the Liturgy. This passage from darkness to light; and from death to life is the basic and most fundamental truth of the Liturgy. It is the crucified, risen and glorified Lord who is in our midst. 

+ When we come to the reading of the Scriptures and the ensuing homily, we have reached the culminating point of the first half of the Liturgy - the Liturgy of the Word or of the Catechumens, as it is usually called. The two texts cited above from St. Irenaeus and Origen already reveal to us the great power of the Scriptures. We are proclaiming the "words of the Word" (of God) at every Liturgy. That is why we first hear: "Let us Attend" before the actual reading. It is one thing to hear the Gospel; and another to listen with attention. In a very real sense, we commune with Christ in and through his living word, before we commune with him in the Eucharist. There is this "double Communion" at every Liturgy which we need to be mindful and respectful of. Therefore, arriving at the Liturgy after the Gospel means that one is not properly prepared to receive the Eucharist and should refrain from doing so.

+ The first part of the Liturgy is filled with litanies, antiphons and prayers. The first two antiphons and their preparatory prayers that we share together, are based on psalmody. The hymn attached to the second homily, "Only begotten Son of God," is thoroughly paschal in nature and is one example of how the paschal mystery permeates the Liturgy.

+ This is the immovable structure of the Liturgy - what remains unchanging; but every Sunday we sing and chant the various troparia and kontakia which change from Sunday to Sunday. The resurrectional troparia and kontakia rotate in an eight-week cycle according to the appointed tone of the week. The number eight is chosen for its symbolic value: the Liturgy is celebrated on the "eighth day" of the week - the day of the Kingdom which takes us beyond the time of this world signified by our seven-day week. We also sing troparia and kontakia commemorating the particular saints or events which fall on a given Sunday. This coming Sunday, we will sing in honor of one of our American saints: Jacob Netsvetov, Enlightener of the Peoples of Alaska

+ On Sunday, we will hear of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. This miracle, by anticipation, is a very eucharistic passage that will serve to prepare us the Liturgy of the Faithful, when Christ will "feed" and nourish us with His Body and Blood. This is a communal meal, uniting those who have gathered in the Name of the Lord.

Fragments for Friday -- The Divine Liturgy - Introduction

Source: orthodoxartsjournal.org

 

"The divine liturgy is truly a heavenly service on earth, in which God himself, in a particular, immediate and most clear manner is present and dwells with men, for he himself is the invisible celebrant of the service; he is both the offerer and the offering. There is on earth nothing higher, greater, more holy, than the liturgy; nothing more solemn, nothing more life-giving."

- St. John of Kronstadt

Keeping the words of Fr. John of Kronstadt in mind, I am going to offer a "few" meditations in the upcoming weeks on the meaning and practice of the Divine Liturgy. As I wrote a bit earlier, we all face the "temptation" to experience the month of July as devoid of major ecclesial events. But every Liturgy is a major ecclesial event as Fr. John expresses above so powerfully.

This will hopefully further inform our new visitors, inquirers, etc. about the depth of meaning found in the Liturgy. I will remind everyone else at the outset that it could seem like we were merely reviewing what we already know for the most part. But in the Church to review means to renew - to renew our commitment to Christ, to the Church, and to our deepest possible experience that is offered to us in the Divine Liturgy. Renewal is an ongoing process that is essential in our relationship with God. In short, to review is to renew. 

+ The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom as served and celebrated today, is the result of a long process of development. — From the apostolic "breaking of bread" to the ongoing experience of the Liturgy to this day, we find a remarkable continuity of meaning and experience. The Liturgy is identical with itself all through the history of the Church. We all experience the same presence of Christ and the reception of the Eucharist as did the earliest Christians in the apostolic Church. On that level the Liturgy is unchanging. Yet, there have been many changes, additions, embellishments and expansive elements in the outward form of the Liturgy. We are essentially serving a Byzantine-style Liturgy that did not reach its completed form until the late medieval period within the context of the Eastern Christian world, centered in Constantinople (now Istanbul). You can trace this development in a fine book by Hugh Wybreth on the Liturgy.

+ The very title of "Divine Liturgy" is deeply meaningful. — Liturgy is from the Gk. leitourgia meaning the "common action" or "common work" of the assembled people. This is just one more word from the realm of ancient Greek culture "baptized" by the Church to now refer to the assembly of the Christian faithful prepared to offer its "common action/work" of being the People of God and Body of Christ - the Church - in a given local setting. Liturgy is something that we do. There are no passive participants. By praying together with the prayers of the Liturgy and sealing those common prayers with our collective "amen," we are all doing something in common and communal. To come to church is "to liturgize" within the framework of the Liturgy.

+ The Liturgy is "divine" because it is ultimately from God. — We gather to worship the living God - the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Liturgy is about God before it is about us. This sense of the holiness of God pervades the Liturgy: "Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God of Sabbaoth!" If we actualize the presence of Christ in the Liturgy, then Christ is the Gift of God to us and for us. We are thus working with God in the Liturgy as we prepare to encounter Christ in the Gospel and in the Eucharist.

+ We begin the Liturgy with the solemn doxology: "Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." Our destination is announced from the beginning. — The Kingdom of God is an already present reality that we perhaps most clearly perceive and experience precisely in the Liturgy. We "ascend" into the Kingdom in the Liturgy and from the heavenly banquet table we receive and partake of the the Lamb of God "slain before the foundation of the world." We thus anticipate the Kingdom that will come at the end of history here and now in the Liturgy. We even "remember" the "second and glorious coming" in the anamnesis.

+ St. John of Kronstadt has got it right: there is nothing comparable to the Liturgy for Orthodox Christians. — It is the heart and soul of parish life from which everything else flows outwardly into our lives and into the world as we carry it with us when we "depart in peace."

+ Upcoming meditations will concentrate on the first part of the Liturgy culminating with the reading of the Scriptures.

Monday Morning Meditation

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 ***I recently shared this older meditation of mine with our catechetical class, hoping thought it would resonate with them as they journey to the Orthodox Church. I wrote to our catechumens: I realize that you are at the moment unable to participate in the fulness of the Liturgy, but hopefully this will further deepen your anticipation. My point, by the way, is not to simply criticize other forms of worship, but to reveal the sustaining power of the Liturgy throughout the centuries to the present day. 

And I have received a few requests to share the remarkable description of the Liturgy imbedded below, from Fr. Calivas, that I read in church yesterday during the homily.

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If you recall from yesterday, I forwarded an article in which the leaders of the successful Willow Creek "mega-church" acknowledged the failure of the "turnstile" approach of filling up a vast auditorium with thousands of souls, but ultimately leaving those thirsty souls program-saturated but spiritually empty. A good part of this failure must be the lightweight "worship" that is offered in the "sanctuary," but which may dangerously approximate "religious entertainment," rather than genuine liturgy. The hazards of "worship by committee" - subject to marketing and consumer trends that feel the need to be "audience-friendly" - are now being subject to a more careful scrutiny apparently, and seen to be wanting to an alarming degree. In all of this you sense a strong desire to appear relevant. Yet, what becomes irrelevant more quickly than the relevant? You only wear yourself out trying to keep up ...

Liturgy is organic, that is it grows and develops naturally through the historical life of the Church, maintaining enough sense of timelessness and changelessness that protects it from contemporary trends and fads. Thus, the pervasive sense of holiness and transcendence that characterizes even an aesthetically-poor celebration of the Liturgy. This is the gift of Tradition, the guarantor of continuity throughout the centuries. We are spared from having to "make it up" as we go along. Therefore, "Byzantine" as it may be, the Divine Liturgy is always "relevant!" 

That is simply a few introductory thoughts to what I consider a densely wonderful and profound description of the Divine Liturgy provided below by Fr. Alkiviadis Calivas. As a liturgical scholar, but more importantly, as a priest and celebrant of the Liturgy, Fr. Alkiviadis brings together many of the sacred strands of liturgical experience that organically unite in the Liturgy, thus providing us with a short, but very memorable mediation on the Church's core act of worship:

"In this present age between the two comings of Jesus Christ our Lord, the Divine Liturgy is always the messianic banquet, the meal of the Kingdom, the time and place in which the heavenly joins and mingles with the earthly. The Eucharist initiates humankind, nature, and time into the mystery of the uncreated Trinity. The Divine Liturgy is not some sacred drama or a mere representation of the past events. It constitutes the very presence of God's embracing love, which purifies, enlightens, perfects and deifies (2 PET. 1:4) all those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (REV. 19:9), all who through baptism and chrismation have been incorporated into the Church and have become Christ-bearers and Spirit-bearers. In the Divine Liturgy we do not commemorate one or another isolated event of sacred history. We celebrate, in joy and thanksgiving, the whole mystery of the divine economy, from creation to the incarnation, especially, in the words of the Divine Liturgy, "the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand, and the second and glorious coming." Thus, in experiencing the risen and reigning Christ in the Divine Liturgy, the past, present and the future of the history of salvation are lived as one reality." (ASPECTS OF ORTHODOX WORSHIP)

That is more than enough for any given Sunday morning! Not only is there nothing wanting, but the fullness and plenitude of divine grace and truth are present whenever we assemble as the Church to celebrate the Liturgy. We prepare for the Liturgy and then the Liturgy prepares us for our return to the world "in peace" - "the peace of God which passes all understanding."(PHIL. 4:7) When we return to the world of every day experience, we then enter the time of the "liturgy after the liturgy." This is the living out of our lives based upon the nourishment we received at the messianic banquet, the "meal of the kingdom" as described above. We are not returning to "profane time," but to life itself, all of which is potentially permeated with God's loving presence. At any point in history, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church can be "mega" or mini." Whatever its historical circumstances, as the anticipation of the Kingdom which is to come, the Church is a source of unfailing spiritual nourishment. Any hunger on our part is self-generated and based upon our refusal to eat from the Tree of Life. That "food" comes to us in various forms - the Eucharist, the Scripture, prayer, etc. If we ever feel spiritually starved, perhaps our priorities need to be re-examined.

The Liturgy of St. Basil the Great: Deserving our Deepest Attention and Overwhelming Awe

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

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.

Monday Morning Meditation: Let Us Attend! - The Divine Liturgy and the Scripture Readings

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

One theme of yesterday's homily during the Liturgy was that "hearing" the words of the Sower carefully, so that we allow them to enter the heart in order to transform us from within. Christ did exclaim at the end of the parable: "He who has ears to hear let him hear!" Thus, I am sharing this older meditation with precisely that theme this morning.

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"Take heed then to how you hear." (LK. 18:18)

Make sure that you never refuse to listen when He speaks." (HEB. 12:25)

We are blessed with hearing the Scriptures at every Divine Liturgy, be it the Lord's Day or any other day on which the Liturgy is celebrated. Therefore, we will hear at least one reading from an Epistle and one from a Gospel. When the calendar so designates it, there may be two readings. When there exists a complicated convergence of feast days and commemorations, there are even Liturgies at which there may be as many as three prescribed readings! 

The readings from the Scriptures are the culminating moments of the first part of the Liturgy, referred to as the "Liturgy of the Word," or "The Liturgy of the Catechumens." Before we commune with Christ in the Eucharist, we commune with Him through the inspired words of the Holy Scriptures - the words of the Word. This is the public proclamation of the Word of God, meant to complement each believer's personal or "domestic" reading of the Scriptures. 

Just as we pray both liturgically and personally; so we hear/read the Scriptures both liturgically and personally. Each is essential to support and make the other meaningful. To ignore one or the other is to impoverish our relationship with Christ.
By the presence of the Spirit, our minds are open to the full meaning of the sacred texts that we hear. This was revealed to all Christians of all generations on the Road to Emmaus, when the Risen Lord encountered Cleopas and an unknown disciple: "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (LK. 24:27).

Following this encounter and the "breaking of the bread," during which these disciples recognized the Risen Lord, "They said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures'?" (LK. 24:32). 

Christ speaks to us today through the reading of the Scriptures, thus making it possible for us today to experience the identical "burning of heart" when we, too, make the time to read the Scriptures. As Fr. John Behr succinctly said: "In the Church, we are still on the road to Emmaus."

Due to the great importance of the liturgical proclamation of the Scriptures, these readings are prefaced by a dialogue between the celebrant, the designated reader and the gathered faithful. I will concentrate here on the liturgical reading from the Gospel, aware that the preparation for the Epistle also has its own solemn and very similar introduction. Before the reading from the Gospel, we thus always hear:

Priest or Deacon: Wisdom! Let us stand aright. Let us listen to the Holy Gospel.

Bishop or Priest: Peace be unto all.

Choir: And to your spirit.

Priest or Deacon: The reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint _____.

Choir: Glory to Thee, O Lord, glory to Thee.

Priest: Let us attend!

This solemn dialogue both reveals to us that we are about to do something of great importance: proclaim the living Word of God amidst the assembled believers - clergy and laity alike. And this prefatory dialogue is therefore meant to get our attention. In fact, the final words before the actual reading are: "Let us attend!" In some translations, it may be: "Let us be attentive!" In simple English it could be: "Pay attention!"

Right before this we are first directed to "stand aright." This is lost in some translations, which twice read "Let us attend," as a translation of two different Gk. words in this dialogue. When we hear "Let us attend" for the first time, this is actually "Let us stand aright," based on the Gk. command "Orthi" which means more-or-less literally "stand aright." The second "Let us attend!" is based on the Gk. word proskhomen.

The point is that standing at attention is a potentially better bodily posture than sitting for the gathering of our (scattered?) thoughts, as well as simply a bodily posture that expresses greater respect for listening to the Lord teaching us through the words of the Gospel. Strange as it may sound to us, there is something of the soldier standing at solemn attention as he is about to hear his "orders" that must be faithfully fulfilled. This is an image that is found often in Christian antiquity. 

In our Liturgy today, it is a time when there should be no movement in the church, and nothing to distract us from hearing the Gospel with an attentiveness that expresses our love of the Gospel as the "precious pearl" worth more than anything else. An outer silence in the church will hopefully facilitate an inner stillness within our minds and hearts that honors the Gospel reading as the sharing of the "words of eternal life" on our behalf. 

As a possible "test" to measure our actual attentiveness at a given Liturgy, we can ask ourselves later in the day - or perhaps even during the week! - what was the Gospel reading that I heard earlier in the Liturgy? An attentive listening of the Gospel would mean that we can identify the evangelist and, even more importantly, the prescribed text for the day. And the same should hold true for the Epistle reading.  "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

If our ultimate goal is to live out the teachings of the Gospel beyond the initial hearing of the Gospel, then our awareness of the text, accompanied by a "burning of heart" will allow us to meditate upon a given passage with the goal in mind of actualizing the teaching heard in our daily lives. How would any of this be possible if we forget the Gospel reading once we leave the church? (The homily is meant to support that process - but that may or may not happen!). If we forget the Gospel reading, that means that we may have "attended" church, but that we were not "attentive" in church. To "be" there cannot be reduced to our bodily presence.

To further emphasize the great significance of the Gospel reading at the Liturgy, there is a wonderful prayer said by the celebrant before we actually get to the dialogue outlined and commented on above. This prayer is placed immediately after the final alleluia verse following the Epistle reading. And it prepares us for the ensuing dialogue. For this reason alone it is my humble opinion that this "prayer before the Gospel" must be chanted/read aloud by the celebrant of the Liturgy - the bishop or priest. That is the practice in our parish. Why should a prayer that embraces everyone present be read "silently" by the clergy alone? Though we have heard this prayer countless times, perhaps bringing it to mind here will be helpful. For the attentive reader of the Scriptures, there are various scriptural passages that are gathered together, alluded to, or paraphrased in this prayer, a few of which will be pointed out:

Illumine our hearts (II COR. 4:6), O Master who lovest mankind, with the pure light (REV. 21:23-25) of Thy divine knowledge. Open the eyes of our mind (EPH. 1:18; LK. 24:45) to the understanding of Thy gospel teachings. Implant also in us the fear of Thy blessed commandments, that trampling down carnal desires (II PET. 2:10), we may enter upon a spiritual manner of living (I COR. 2:12), both thinking and doing such things as are well-pleasing unto Thee (PHIL. 2:13). For Thou art the illumination of our souls and bodies, O Christ our God, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, who is from everlasting, and Thine all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Obviously, a good deal is made of the Gospel Reading at each and every Liturgy. This is because the Gospel is "Good News" to be attentively listened to and obeyed. Familiarity may dull our appreciation of this, but we must always struggle against familiarity leading to spiritual laziness or inattentiveness. When (over-) familiarity turns to boredom then we are facing a spiritual crisis of sorts.

Putting aside any such temptation, let us acknowledge how privileged and blessed we are to "stand aright" in church at the Liturgy and to hear the Holy Gospel.  "Let us attend!"

Monday Morning Meditation

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 At the Liturgy yesterday, the homily focused on the Nicene Creed (1700th anniversary this year, 325-2025) and our belief in "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." So I am now  sharing two very different types of approaches to the Church, one by a distinguished contemporary biblical scholar and the second by a very prominent Orthodox theologian who died in a Soviet prison camp. The first is more-or-less a short definition by the Australian biblical scholar, Brendan Byrne. I hope that it doesn't sound a bit too "textbook" in style, but it gives us an overall - though very concise - explanation of the very term used for the Church, primarily as encountered in the Apostle Paul:

"Church - In secular Greek usage the term ekklesia refers to an assembly of citizens "called out" from their homes (ek-kalein) by the civic herald to gather in the assembly to hear a solemn proclamation from the ruler or to make decisions. The early believers saw themselves as called out from the darkness of unbelief to hear in community the Good New of their risen Lord. In each separate locality they constitute "the assembly [ekklesia] of God." Paul usually employs the term with reference to the local communities but this does not mean that he lacks a sense of a total ekklesia, a renewed people of God, made up, on the analogy of Israel, from the spread (diaspora) of communities in each place (cf. I Cor. 1:1-2)"

Then, there is this from the early 20th theologian Fr. Pavel Florensky, whose words reflect more the mystery of the Church as a reality that is experienced more than it is described:

"There is no concept of ecclesiality, but ecclesiality itself is, and for every living member of the Church, the life of the Church is the most definite and tangible thing that he knows. But the life of the Church is assimilated and known only through life - not in the abstract, not in a rational way. If one must nevertheless apply concepts to the life of the Church, the most appropriate concepts would be not juridical and archaeological, but ones that are biological and aesthetic ones."

(Guest) Monday Morning Meditation

Source: store.ancientfaith.com

At the Liturgy yesterday, the homily focused on the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Feeding of the Multitude (Matt. 14:14-22). This led further to speaking about the Eucharist. Therefore, I would like to share these comments below by one of our new catechumens, Sarah Emerick, and her initial experience of the Divine Liturgy.

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One reason I want to become Orthodox is because the Divine Liturgy is the first worship experience where I’ve felt the veil between Heaven and earth is thinnest. I truly believe the persons in the icons I venerate are present there with me. The Divine Liturgy is a place where I feel removed from time, from culture, from the crushing weight of the human experience. I feel that I have one foot in this reality, and the rest of me is participating to my utmost ability in the coexisting Kingdom of God that I know is present all around us, although unseen. The Divine Liturgy makes real something I have always felt to be true, the Kingdom of God is at hand, it actually is already here, all around us.

Another reason I wish to become Orthodox is the incorporation of the whole body and the senses in worship. Everything matters, everything has meaning, from the way we sit, the way we stand, the way we make the Sign of the Cross, the words we use, the hymns we sing, etc. Everything is intentional, everything is deeply rooted in tradition and connects us with the two-millennium’s worth of Orthodox Christians that have come before us. 

Although deeply rooted traditions are present, there is also this feeling of personal freedom when it comes to worship as an Orthodox. It is a beautiful juxtaposition of communal tradition and spiritual individuality. Speaking of individuality, the final reason I will comment on why I want to become Orthodox is its insistence on the beauty and dignity of each individual person. The Orthodox faith doesn’t hijack the phrase “dignity of human life” to merely push their political anti-abortion agenda. It’s been made clear to me over my months of inquiry that honoring the dignity of a human person means honoring every. single. person. Full stop. End of.

The Orthodox faith is so much more open, incredibly loving, and inviting than I ever gave it credit for. Thought, not because I ever thought ill of the Orthodox Church, I just didn't have the exposure. I was prepared to be turned away when I first began attending Christ the Savior/Holy Spirit for many reasons: I am not cradle Orthodox, and I'm in no way Eastern European. However, none of those things matters and I was welcomed and cherished beyond what I could have hoped for.

HOLY TRADITION IS NOT DEAD FORMALISM

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

Holy Tradition is the “ongoing life of the Holy Spirit within the Church” (Nicholas Lossky).

What does this mean? Simply that the very best of what the Church carries forward through time and history is offered as a perpetual gift to each new generation, preserved as a sacred treasure so that “all might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). 

This is the inheritance of the saints, which includes the holy scriptures, the ethical teachings of the commandments, the liturgical tradition of “worship in spirit and truth,” the ascetical practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, just to name a few. Yet Holy Tradition must not be understood as something unbending or monolithic either. We must not think of the vocation of Christian Orthodoxy as the preservation of the faith in a merely rigid sense. Yes, there are many “fixed” features of the Orthodox faith that will remain forever a part of the treasury of our faith— the Bible, the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, etc. But it would be a great mistake to think of Holy Tradition as an attempt to embalm some by-gone ecclesial era and declare it as the totality of Christian Orthodoxy. The gospel disallows us from replicating (usually for the sake of romance or nostalgia) any kind of a sacred “era”— Byzantine, Russian, or otherwise. 

Take for instance the so-called “secret prayers” of the Orthodox services. These prayers, offered by the priest or bishop, are found at the end of all the litanies: the Great Litany, the little litanies, etc., just before the doxologies, “For unto You are due all glory…” etc. These prayers are very ancient and are extremely rich in meaning as they point to the spiritual purpose of the services themselves. And by far, the most beautiful of these “secret prayers” are the prayers of the “holy anaphora” which end in the consecration of the bread and wine into the holy Body and Blood of Christ. Over the centuries, however, with the explosion of hymnography, these prayers were truncated (cut) by being said “silently” by the priest, so that all the faithful hear at the end of each litany is the doxology – “For Yours is the majesty…” etc. 

Yet within the last 50 years of worldwide Orthodoxy there has been a liturgical renewal which, among other things, has sought to restore the secret prayers to their rightful place within the worship of the Church by being read out loud by the celebrants. In this way, then, the faithful are edified by these prayers, as they allow for a more deepened experience of the holy services.

The liturgical prayers reveal the mystery of the Church as the means and the “mode” of our salvation in Christ, specifically by extrapolating in a practical manner all the great biblical themes of faith: sanctification, redemption, justification, etc. So it is here, with these “secret prayers,” that the faithful are made more capable of coming to a stronger engagement with the worship of the Church, to such an extent that it, the liturgy, becomes the foundational structure upon which a genuine Orthodox way of life is built. As believers grow and begin to thrive in their faith, they learn how absolutely essential the services of the Church are for building up one’s faith. 

How sad it is that there are many, still, who hold on to a narrow idea of Holy Tradition as a simple repetition and replication of the past, of 19th Century pre-revolutionary Russian Orthodoxy, where none of the secret prayers were ever prayed aloud (with the exception of “O God of spirits and of all flesh” during the Orthodox funeral service). How sad it is that the advice of the likes of St. Tikhon of Moscow, who himself was a 19th Century Russian bishop, is completely ignored, as even he both recognized and advocated for the reading aloud of the secret prayers “for the benefit of the faithful.” 

This is our “Orthodox moment” in America. Many of our nation’s young are entering into the faith with love and zeal. Will we offer them a liturgical life which includes the richness of the Church’s prayers? Or will we offer them a museum filled with dead formalism that is only a semblance of the living Church? 

Fr. Paul Jannakos 

___

Fr. Paul is a good friend of mine who is serving a parish in our Midwest Diocese in the Chicago area. Fr. Paul and I go all the way back to our seminary days at St. Vladimir's when Fr. Alexander Schmemann was the dean.

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.

Comparisons Between II Corinthians and the Liturgy

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Comparisons Between II Corinthians and the Liturgy

At Sunday's Liturgy, I drew attention in the homily to three particular passages in II Corinthians that have now entered into our liturgical prayer, since that is the Epistle that is currently prescribed on Sundays. These are now scriptural texts that we are familiar with through hearing and praying them with such regularity. Yet, this is only a small fraction of the scriptural texts that have been absorbed into the Liturgy and other services of the Church. In fact, according to Met. Kallistos Ware in his book The Orthodox Church: " ... the whole text of each service is shot through with Biblical language, and it has been calculated that the Liturgy contains 98 quotations from the Old Testament and 114 from the new." Thus, in the Liturgy, we "pray the Scriptures."

__________

II Cor. 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.” 

Liturgy (Litany of Fervent Supplication) – A Christian ending to our life: painless, blameless, and peaceful; and a good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ …

II Cor. 7:1 – “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.”

Liturgy (Second Prayer of the Faithful) – … Thou would cleanse our souls and bodies from all defilement of flesh and spirit …

II Cor 13:13 - “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”

Liturgy (The Anaphora) – The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

__________

II Cor. 3:18 – “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

“One ought not then to be distressed when one considers this tendency in our nature; rather let us change in such a way that we may constantly evolve towards what is better, being transformed from glory to glory, and thus always improving and ever becoming more perfect by daily growth, and never arriving at any limit of perfection. For that perfection consists in our never stopping in our growth in good, never circumscribing our perfection by any limitation.”

St. Gregory of Nyssa On Perfection

Coffee with Sister Vassa: LET US LIFT UP OUR HEARTS!

LET US LIFT UP OUR HEARTS!

“Priest: Let us lift up our hearts. (Ἄνω σχῶμεν τὰς καρδίας. Горé имеим сердца.)
People/Choir: We have them (lifted up) to the Lord. (Ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν Κύριον. Имамы ко Господу.)“ (Eucharistic Prayer, Byzantine Divine Liturgy)

The Eucharistic Prayer is not only a text, read (mostly) by our priest. It is also an action and an event, “done” by the entire Church, all of us, as we gather by invitation of the Host of this event, our Lord Jesus Christ. And the place where we get to meet our Host, if we suit up and show up to this event, is “above,” in the Presence of God. This is an “above” that becomes accessible to us, in our (down) here and now, as we let ourselves be lifted up into communion with the God-Man Jesus Christ. It is He Who has elevated our humanity to the very Throne of God, having been seated at His Father’s right hand, – and yet remains in our midst, – by the grace of His ever-generous, ever-descending into our world, Holy Spirit.

For us, every prayer, not only the Eucharistic Prayer, is an ascent into the Oneness of God, and away from the fragmentation of merely-human being, with its oft-contradictory cares, wants, opinions, fears, and other God-less things that drag us down and cripple our growth. For God, meeting us in prayer is a descent into our here and now, in the sacramental “above” that is brought “down” into our world by His Son, and repeatedly made accessible to us by the generous Self-Giving of His Holy Spirit. Let me not miss out on this human-divine socializing going on in our world, also outside of church, letting my heart be “lifted up” and liberated, by God’s grace, into prayer.

_____

What Sister Vassa expresses here so well, reminds me of the liturgical theology of Fr. Alexander Schmemann. His vision for the Church entering into a post-Christian world, was to liberate the Liturgy and Eucharist from a formal ritualism or even a kind of "legalistic reduction," to what is "valid." Bringing the Liturgy to "life" is the legacy that Fr. Schmemann left to the Church. In one very real sense, that is not hard, because the whole text of the Liturgy - and its rites - are clearly designed to be life-giving! The Liturgy brings Christ to us. We simply had to uncover that vision and we have to consciously maintain it as we press forward into the future.

One of the great "breakthroughs" that allowed that rediscovery to happen, was the restoration of the ancient Church's practice of hearing all of the prayers out loud, chanted by the celebrant, so that the clergy and laity could together make that ascent to God by which are hearts are truly "lifted up." Hearing the prayers of the Liturgy as a Body - especially in the anaphora - has transformed the "ancient" Liturgy into such a lively service of worship to the triune God, that any "going back" to the "old days" would be a regression that would deaden the spirit of the Liturgy. I hope that the "rumors" of that actually happening are not true. We cannot allow such a "breakthrough" to recede into the past.

 

PASCHA - Day Nine — The Glorious First and Eighth Day of the Week

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,


CHRIST IS RISEN! 

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

In St. John's account of the first appearance of the Risen Lord to the disciples as a group (Jn. 20:19-31), we find the liturgical structure of the Church as it exists to this very day in his account of this incredible encounter. For St. John records: "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week ..."(20:19). The first day of the week is the day after the Sabbath, and that would be our Sunday.

It was on this day that the risen Christ appeared to his bewildered, dejected, and frightened disciples in order to convince them that He was risen from the dead. "Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord" (20:20). That “glad” sounds like a classic understatement, in all due respect to the Evangelist John! Jesus returned to further convince the unbelieving Thomas that He was indeed risen. And significantly, this next appearance was "eight days later" (20:26). Which means, of course, the following Sunday.

Since those memorable two days until today, we use the language - with all of its symbolic meaning - of the First and Eighth Day of the week for our liturgical assemblies on the Lord's Day - Sunday. In a deep sense, the first day of the week is the eighth day, if we understand the "eighth day" as taking us beyond the seven days of the week as a kind of anticipation of the Kingdom of God which is beyond the "time" of this world.

St. Gregory Palamas (+1359), Archbishop of Thessaloniki, in a homily entitled "On the Sabbath and the Lord's Day," explains it like this:

You will see that it was Sunday when the disciples assembled and the Lord came to them. On Sunday He approached them for the first time as they were gathered together and eight day later, when Sunday came around again, He appeared to their assembly. Christ's Church continually reflects these gatherings by holding its meetings mostly on Sundays and we come among you and preach what pertains to salvation and lead you towards piety and a godly way of life.

Yet, as a pastor, St. Gregory continued his homily with this admonition:

Let no one out of laziness or continuous worldly occupations miss these holy Sunday gatherings, which God Himself handed down to us, lest he be justly abandoned by God and suffer like Thomas, who did not come at the right time. If you are detained and do not attend on one occasion, make up for it the next time, bringing yourself to Christ's Church. Otherwise you may remain uncured, suffering unbelief in your soul because of deeds or words, and failing to approach Christ's surgery to receive, like divine Thomas, holy healing.

To our modern sensibilities, even these words of pastoral admonition may seem over-stated if not harsh to us today. But the saint was trying to reinforce the sense of commitment that the believer needs to have towards the Lord's Day Liturgy which brings us directly into the presence of the Risen Christ - "Christ is in our midst!" - as we joyfully exclaim at the Liturgy.

St. Gregory's homily clearly places commitment over convenience. This is our first priority. He was writing to a Christian society that was not as pluralistic or diverse as our own, there is no doubt. That means that the pressure for us is "out there" to conform to those "worldly occupations" that St. Gregory warns us about. Today, that could even have a bearing on our presence at the Sunday morning Liturgy. As one example from among many: How many Orthodox parents have to deal with their child's sports events scheduled these days on Sunday morning? So, we can see that the challenges are out there.

In the light of the Gospel revelation about the glorious first and eighth day of the week, we should at least think hard about any such choices. To be in church on Lord’s Day for the Liturgy; to hear the words of Christ that we use to this day: “Peace be to you;” to be gathered as disciples of the Risen Lord; and to receive the Eucharist together as the meal anticipating the Kingdom. This is to receive gift upon gift. Let us glorify the living God for these wonderful gifts!

Christ is Risen!