Forgiveness Vespers

 

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

"Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me."

Great Lent will begin on Monday, February 23; but actually for the parish it will begin as we serve the Forgiveness Vespers on Sunday following the Liturgy. 

This is a very "special" service that inaugurates the lenten fast. The theme, together with the beginning of Great Lent, is that of forgiveness. And that is clearly at the heart of the service, which is the Rite of Forgiveness, which actually comes at the very end.

What happens is this: Everyone comes and stands before everyone else at the service - beginning with me as the parish priest and our other clergy. 

We make a full bow at the waist before each other, accompanied by the words: "Forgive me." The response is then: "God forgives," and then we move on to the next person. We will not exchange the "kiss of peace," and it is not the place to chat with each other. 

We continue to move along in this fashion to the next person, who has taken a position in the line after his/her exchange with the last person in the line, until we have gone through to the very last person. 

The point is to fulfill the Gospel command to forgive one another, as God has forgiven us. The Gospel reading for Sunday's Liturgy will be Matt. 6:14-21. 

Everyone who is there is invited to stay. And that, of course, is a matter of choice. It is a free decision. No compulsion or obligation. 

On Monday - Thursday of the First Week of Lent, there will be a unique lenten service, described in the following manner by Fr. Thomas Hopko:

"At the Compline services of the first week of lent the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete is read. This is a long series of penitential verses based on Biblical themes, to each of which the people respond: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me (with a bow at the waist." This canon will be repeated on the Fifth Monday of Great Lent (only this year) in a modified form.

Lenten Reading List, Part 2

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Another list of excellent Orthodox reading material for Great Lent meant to supplement Monday's list. This will allow you plenty of time before Great Lent begins on March 18 to purchase whatever book(s)  you may choose. Please contact me if you would like to discuss any of these books with me.

+ The Place of the Heart by Elizabeth Behr-Sigel. The author has been described as the “grandmother” of 20^th c. Orthodox writers. A European lay theologian, Behr-Sigel’s book is subtitled “An Introduction to Orthodox Spirituality.” This is a far-ranging description of how our immensely rich spiritual tradition developed from the Scriptures to the present day. A very rich presentation. Actually, Arch. Ware’s essay on The Power of the Name is included here as an Appendix.

+ Becoming Human by Fr. John Behr. A marvelous and profound meditation – accompanied by iconographic images – on the Person of Christ and how Christ is the link toward our own true humanity. Many great new insights here that Fr. John has put into a short meditative form based on his other scholarly studies of the early Christian tradition. A profound link is made between Christ – the one true human being – and our own emerging humanity after His image.

+  God’s Many-Splendored Image by Nonna Verna Harrison. Verna Harrison is an Orthodox nun, known as Sister Nonna. She is also a highly-respected patristic scholar and theologian. This book explores “theological anthropology for Christian formation.” That sounds rather intimidating, but prominent readers have said that “clarity, simplicity, beauty, and depth” characterize the content and style of this book. A truly wonderful exploration of what it means to be, as a human being, “God’s many-splendored image.” Insightful observations are made in this book about figures ranging from desert fathers to Albert Einstein. Sister Nonna dedicated the book “to all people whom other people have thrown away. It shows that God does not throw away people.” Who would not want to read a book with a dedication like that?

+ The Sayings of the Desert Fathers – The Alphabetical Collection, Benedicta Ward (editor and translator). Here are the multitude of aphorisms, anecdotes and wisdom sayings of the great desert fathers arranged alphabetically (the Gk. alphabet, that is) from the letters Alpha to Omega, and everything in between. These are the words of life from the great pioneers of Christian asceticism and the spiritual life. We read the words of Sts. Anthony the Great, Arsenius, and Macarius the Great and a host of other spiritual guides. An endless source of wisdom that can be read through the years.

+ How To Be A Sinner by Dr. Peter Bouteneff. This is an excellent new book that is endlessly insightful when answering the difficult question: What does it mean when I call myself a sinner? Dr. Bouteneff takes us on a journey down the “royal road,” avoiding a dark, guilt-ridden path of self-lacerating; and a superficial therapeutic approach designed to relieve us of any deep responsibility for our sins. Balanced and honest, this book will surprise you with its probing analysis.

+ Thirty Steps to Heaven by Vasilios Papavassiliou. Fr. Vasilios “walks” us up the Ladder of Divine Ascent by “translating” St. John’s classic monastic text The Ladder of Divine Ascent into a style and analysis that has a layperson living in the world primarily in mind. Yet, his commentary is not “watered down” so as to lose the depth and challenging vision of St. John. Very accessible and very practical for today’s Orthodox Christian. 

+ First Fruits of Prayer – A Forty Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew by Frederica Mathewes-Green. Similar in style and tone to Fr. Vasilios’ book mentioned right above. But here this prolific contemporary Orthodox author takes us through the classic Canon of St. Andrew, chanted on the first four evenings of Great Lent; and then again on the Thursday of the Fifth Week of Great Lent. Fine resource for rhe scriptural content of St. Andrew’s famous work.

 

Also visit our Great Lent Resource Section on our parish website for more books and aids, and join us for the Journey!

Hymns to the One Triune Divinity

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT - The Fifth Day

Spare the work of Thine hands, O Savior, and as the Shepherd, seek the lost sheep that has gone astray. Snatch me away from the wolf and make me as a lamb, safe among the sheep of Thy pasture. 

- Canon of St. Andrew, Thursday of the First Week, Ode 8

 

Yesterday evening was rather extraordinary in that I think there were between fifty and sixty worshipers present at the fourth and final part of the Canon of Repentance. At the end of the service, the line of everyone waiting to venerate the icons seemed to keep growing and stretching for a very long time. And, as presvytera Deborah commented to me afterwards, it struck her how everyone seemed very focused and attentive to the singing and chanting of the Canon, together with the other powerful prayers throughout the Compline Service. It was the culmination of a week-long response to the Canon by the parish. In other words, a very good beginning to our collective lenten effort. I hope to see many of the parish faithful present this evening for the first of our Presanctified Liturgies that are so crucial to the lenten journey. The Presanctifed Gifts are the Manna from heaven - the Bread of Life - that sustains through the "desert of the Fast."

Perhaps a component of the Canon that we can "take for granted" as a usual feature of many canons are the hymns to the Trinity that come after the various troparia of the Canon and which always follow the Glory ... Now and ever ...These are some of the Church's most expressive trinitarian hymns, their placement, and the setting and atmosphere of this service - a kind of prayerful stillness that allows for deeper concentration - have a deep effect on the praying heart as we glorify the life-giving Trinity. The paradox of the Three-in-One is thus prayerfully manifested throughout the service. These examples hopefully reinforce the point:

I confess Thee as undivided in Essence unconfused in Persons, One Triune Divinity, co-reigning and co-enthroned! And to Thee, I raise the great Thrice-holy hymn that is sung on high. (Ode 4)

O Trinity, simple and undivided, consubstantial and of One Nature. We praise Thee, Light and Lights, One Holy and Three Holies, God the Trinity! Sing, O my soul, and glorify the Life and Lives, the God of all. (Ode 7)

O Eternal Father, Co-eternal Son and Gracious Comforter, the Spirit of Righteousness, Father of the Divine Word, Word of the Eternal Father, and Living and Creating Spirit. O Trinity, One in Unity, have mercy on me! (Ode 8)

Truly, we are Trinitarian Monotheists!

 

The First Day: 'My Wretched Life'

Dear Parish Faithful,

"The tendency to over-emphasize external rules about fasting in a legalistic way, and the opposite tendency to scorn these rules as outdated and unnecessary, are both alike to be deplored as a betrayal of true Orthodoxy. In both cases the proper balance between the outward and the inward has been impaired."

- "The Meaning of the Great Fast" by Archbishop Kallistos Ware

_____

This evening, we will begin the four-part Canon of Repentance by St. Andrew of Crete. The very first troparion (stanza) of those incredibly rich work begins as follows:

How shall I begin to mourn the deeds of my wretched life?

Is this just a bit "too much" when I begin to examine my own life? Is it really "wretched?" If this question comes to mind in a moment of sober reflection outside of the actual service of the Canon, then perhaps this passage for consideration from Frederica Mathews-Green may shed some light on the use of such language by St. Andrew:

"If you are unused to devotional writings of the first millennium, this initial plunge may seem bewildering. In contrast to today's emphasis on reassurance, this prayer is raw and challenging. Do you judge it too alien, or inapplicable to your situation? Consider letting it judge you, in a sense, and to allow yourself to be brought into line with an earlier attitude toward the urgency of sin. For the ancient Christians, repentance was a gift which must be sought and prayed for; it doesn't come naturally, because we are so blind to our true selves. Yet that knowledge is the only way to liberation and joy. Are you willing to ask God to help you acquire true repentance?"

- From First Fruits of Prayer - A Forty Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew, p. 4.

When I hear these words of St. Andrew, what also comes to mind is the famous Protestant hymn "Amazing Grace," and the verse in that hymn in which the author/singer confesses: "wretch that I am." Yet, before we detect too much similarity of thought here, I would claim that the basic presuppositions between the Orthodox and Protestant background to this honest confession are quite different; thus rendering the two confessions rather distinct and not open to an easy assimilation of one tradition with another. In some forms of Protestant theology/anthropology a person is born "a wretched sinner." This is the supposed effect of "original sin." Thus, from conception itself, a person is guilty before God and our very human nature is corrupt and deserving of punishment by the wrath of God. This is openly expressed in Calvinism, but also in other forms of Protestantism.

Yet, not so in Orthodoxy. For the Orthodox, we are not guilty sinners from our very conception or birth. Human nature, though marred by sin and death-bound as it is, remains good as coming from God. No one is born a guilty sinner. (And certainly no one is "predestined" to eternal punishment!) We are born into a sinful, broken and, again, death-bound world. We will eventually sin (all sin and fall short of the glory of God as the Apostle Paul teaches), and in the process disfigure our good human nature, and become a "wretch" in that very process. And it can get pretty ugly if we take a good look at the world around us.

But sin is not natural, and there is no "sin of nature." Only human persons sin, and we are then guilty of our personal sin(s). Sin, in our Orthodox understanding, is a "sickness" from which we need to be healed; not a legalistic situation of standing guilty before God the Judge deserving of punishment.

That is why that very opening troparion with which I began this meditation ends with the plea: "In Your compassion, O Christ, forgive my sins." We know that this is what God desires for us, for God desires all human beings to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Tim. 2:4).

When thinking of what we are meant to be, and what we can become by the grace of God, it is indeed liberating to confess that my deeds (as well as my words and thoughts) have led to a "wretched life" if and when I fail in that vocation. Without at all having to worry if I am one of the predestined "elect," I am confident in the merciful healing power of Christ.

So, I would emphasize that these basic presuppositions behind these seemingly similar confessions of sinfulness by both the Orthodox and the Protestants, render the meaning of each quite distinct from each other.

Preparing for Great Lent - The Great Canon, and a Summary of Great Lent

Dear Parish Faithful,

This particular year, I would like to strongly encourage everyone to make the effort to be present in the church and praying for at least one of the four evenings on which we will sing and chant the Canon of Repentance by St. Andrew of Crete.

These four evenings are, of course, the first four of Great Lent. This year that would be March 2 - 5. The service begins at 7:00 p.m. and lasts a little over an hour. I cannot think of a better way to begin the lenten season; or better the lenten spring. 

Besides the compunctionate text of the Canon, there is also the very "atmosphere" of the church which helps us to still our restless minds and focus on our need to absorb the service and fill our minds with the thought and need for repentance. I fully understand commitments and obligations that cannot be ignored, but the first week of Great Lent especially, is not the time for entertainment and events that can be postponed or deferred to another time. And I would encourage parents to bring your children/teens on one of those evenings. Therefore, mark your calendars and make this a priority in your lives.

I have attached an excellent summary of Great Lent prepared by Mother Paula (our former parishioner Vicki Bellas), who resides at the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, PA. What Mother Paula did was carefully read Met. Kallistos Ware's article on "The Meaning of Great Lent" and then summarize the main points in a very accessible and helpful form. This article is probably the best that one could read about the meaning and content of Great Lent. It serves as the Introduction to Met. Kallistos' translation of The Lenten Triodion, the indispensable liturgical book used throughout Great Lent and Holy Week. Unfortunately, this seminal article has not been published independently of the Triodion. I encourage everyone to take a careful look at Mother Paula' summary for a host of insights into Great Lent that are meant to be translated into practice on the part of the faithful. Please raise any questions that come to mind when reading through this. Good material, possibly, for post-Liturgy discussions.

 Notes on The Meaning of Great Lent