(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.

The Glory of God

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS BORN!  GLORIFY HIM!

One of the great Orthodox homilists of the 19th c. was St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (+1867). He combined great rhetorical skills with a deep knowledge of the Scriptures and an in-depth awareness of the inexhaustible resources of Orthodox theology. In one of his many Nativity homilies, Met. Philaret chose as his main focus, the following text from St. Luke's Gospel: 

And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest! (Lk. 2:13)

There follows in this homily a remarkable passage about the meaning of the term "the glory of God." I have seen this passage cited by later Orthodox theologians (such as Vladimir Lossky and John Meyendorff), in numerous publications because of its penetrating depth into the biblical and theological concept of the glory of God. It is more than timely to read these words during the Nativity season as we join the angels in precisely praising God with the words "Glory to God in the highest!" This text forms the deepest content of the ancient hymn known as the Great Doxology:

Glory is the revelation, a manifestation, a reflection, an externalization of inner perfection. God, from eternity, is revealed to Himself in the eternal birth of the Son of God, and in the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit, both of whom are one in essence with the Father. In this way, unity in the Holy Trinity shines forth essentially in an undimmed and unchanging glory.

God the Father is the Father of glory (Eph. 1:17), the Son of God is the brightness of His glory (Heb. 1:3), and Himself has the glory which [He] had with the [Father] ... before the world was (Jn. 17:5). Equally, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of glory (I Pet. 4:14). The blessed God who is above all glory abides in His own internal glory, so that He does not require any other witnesses and does not need any participants in His glory.

However, since, by His endless goodness and love, He desires to communicate His blessedness to have gracious participants in His glory, He moved outward with His endless perfections, and they are manifested in His creation. His glory appears to the heavenly powers, is reflected in mankind, and is dressed in the beauty of the visible world. He gives it, and it is accepted by its participants, and then it returns to Him, and this circle of the glory of God comprises the blessed life and the prosperity of creation.

 

Toward the end of the same homily, Met. Philaret draws the faithful into this glorification of God in the presence of the Mystery of the Incarnation with the following rhetorical flourish:

This is the glorious mystery and mysterious power of this day! Heavenly servants of the light saw the dawning of this glory before we ever did, and immediately, having turned to Him, they declared, Glory to God in the highest! Now it is no longer the morning, but the full day of this glory. Let our doxology rise up. Let it go up also to the inhabitants of Heaven. Let our own words rise up in the joyful ecstasy of the heart to the very throne of the Almighty: "Glory to God in the highest!"

The Entrance of the Theotokos - Sanctifying Time through the Feasts of the Church

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

"Today let Heaven above greatly rejoice ..."

I will assume that today began and will continue as a normal weekday for just about everyone who reads this email communication. In addition to our responsibilities, tasks, appointments and over-all agendas, that may also imply the tedium associated with daily life. Another day will come and go, never to be repeated again in the unceasing flow of time ... 

However, today (November 21) also happens to be one of the Twelve Great Feast Days of the Church's liturgical year:  The Entrance of the Theotokos Into the Temple. For those who came to the service this evening, that will hopefully be more apparent; but if we "keep time" with our Church calendar, as well as with our regular calendars, we may not be "caught off guard" by the coming of the Feast. The festal cycle of the Church sanctifies time. By this we mean that the tedious flow of time is imbued with sacred content as we celebrate the events of the past now made present through liturgical worship. Notice how often we hear the word "today" in the hymns of the Feast:

"Today let us, the faithful dance for joy ... " 
"Today the living Temple of the holy glory of Christ our God, she who alone among   women is pure and blessed ..." 
"Today the Theotokos, the Temple that is to hold God is led into the temple of the Lord ..."

(Vespers of the Feast)

 

Again, we do not merely commemorate the past, but we make the past present. We actualize the event being celebrated so that we are also participating in it. We, today, rejoice as we greet the Mother of God as she enters the temple "in anticipation proclaiming Christ to all." Can all - or any - of this possibly change the "tone" of how we live this day? Is it at all possible that an awareness of this joyous Feast can bring some illumination or sense of divine grace into the seemingly unchanging flow of daily life? Are we able to envision our lives as belong to a greater whole: the life of the Church that is moving toward the final revelation of God's Kingdom in all of its fullness? Do such questions even make any sense as we are scrambling to just get through the day intact and in one piece, hopefully avoiding any serious mishaps or calamities? If not, can we at least acknowledge that "something" essential is missing from our lives?

I believe that there a few things that we could do on a practical level that will bring the life of the Church, and its particular rhythms into our domestic lives. As we know, each particular Feast has a main hymn called the troparion. This troparion captures the over-all meaning and theological content of the Feast in a somewhat poetic fashion. As the years go by, and as we celebrate the Feasts annually, you may notice that you have memorized these troparia, or at least recognize them when they are sung in church. For the Entrance of the Theotokos Into the Temple, the festal troparion is the following:

Today is the prelude of the good will of God, of the preaching of the salvation of mankind, 
The Virgin appears in the temple of God, in anticipation proclaiming Christ to all, 
Let us rejoice and sing to her: Rejoice, O Fulfillment of the Creator's dispensation!

 

A great Feast Day of the Church is never a one-day affair. There is the "afterfeast" and then, finally, the "leavetaking" of the Feast. So this particular Feast extends from today, November 21, until Friday, November 25. A good practice, therefore, would be to include the troparion of the Feast in our daily prayer until the leavetaking. That can be very effective when parents pray together with their children before bedtime, as an example. Perhaps even more importantly within a family meal setting, would be to sing or simply say or chant the troparion together before sitting down to share that meal together. The troparion would replace the usual prayer that we use, presumably the Lord's Prayer All of this can be especially effective with children as it will introduce them to the rhythm of Church life and its commemoration of the great events in the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary.

Do you have any Orthodox literature in the home that would narrate and then perhaps explain the events and their meaning of the Great Feast Days? Reading this together as a family can also be very effective. A short Church School session need not be the only time that our children are introduced to the life of the Church. The home, as we recall, has been called a "little church" by none other than St. John Chrysostom. Orthodox Christianity is meant to be a way of life, as expressed here by Fr. Pavel Florensky: 

The Orthodox taste, the Orthodox temper, is felt but is not subject to arithmetical calculation. Orthodoxy is shown, not proved. That is why there is only one way to understand Orthodoxy: through direct experience ... to become Orthodox, it is necessary to immerse oneself all at once into the very element of Orthodoxy, to begin living in an Orthodox way. There is no other way. (The Pillar and Ground of the Truth)

 

As this Feast Day falls during the Nativity Fast, the Church calendar tells us that "fish, wine and oil" are allowed today.

[NOTE: Special articles and resources on the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos and all the Great Feasts are available on our parish website.]

On Joy and Worship: Two Guest Reflections

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

A couple of "guest reflections" for today...

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First, Dan Dake wrote a fine observation based on a passage from  Fr. Alexander Schmemann's Journal:

This morning I read in The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann 1973-1983:

 

This morning during Matins I had a ‘jolt of happiness,’ of fullness of life, and at the same time the thought: I will have to die! But in such a fleeting breath of happiness, time usually ‘gathers’ itself. In an instant, not only are all such breaths of happiness remembered but they are present and alive – that Holy Saturday in Paris when I was a very young man – and many such ‘breaks.’ It seems to me that eternity might be not the stopping of time, but precisely its resurrection and gathering. The fragmentation of time, its division, is the fall of eternity. (75)

 

This theme emerges again and again in his journals. Joy! Happiness! Vibrancy of life! It can seem unrealistic or, at least, inaccessible for the more ordinary among us. But I began to question this assumption. Fr. Schmemann does not seem extraordinary in the sense that he has moments of joy, moments of happiness, moments of the kingdom breaking into what we might otherwise call ‘the mundane.’ We all have these moments from time to time. What makes him different, then, I wondered? And then it struck me. Fr. Schmemann does not merely notice these breaks of joy, he cherishes them. He puts them down in his journal, he recalls them to mind. He dwells on the particular fragrance of a purple azalea. He relishes the ruckus of his grandchildren and their vibrancy of life. He savors the pleasure these moments of joy supply. In short, he attends to whatever is lovely, good, and pure, to whatever is a manifestation of the kingdom of God.

By this complex act of attention, he creates within himself a ballast of the kingdom. He bears through whatever storms, trials, and tribulations confront him because he has stored up the treasures of the kingdom of God within himself. These weights bear him into the joy of the kingdom. They are a ballast of joy.

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And from Jenny Harkins, a parish "neophyte" who entered the Church just last Sunday. Jenny has taken on St. Mary of Bethany as a patron saint and Communion name. In honor of St. Mary, Jenny wrote the following fine "Prayer Poem:"

 

 

My prayer poem:

St. Mary of Bethany, holy sister of hours past, 

May the posture of my heart ever echo Your devotion at the Master's feet, My gaze as yours, fixed on His, In every face I meet.

Strong and steady, may I bear His living torch Long into the night, Pray my bent-will be broken and a fragrant offering of worship rise, Humble and contrite. 

Like your abandoned adoration in the broken Alabaster jar, Let me love our King extravagantly, no depth or Length too far,

His pouring down, mine welling up In a circle ever growing, An unbroken fountain of love ever fresh Overflowing

May our union splash and soak and save the lost,
Pray I keep the oil burning for our Bridegroom’s returning, No matter what the cost

And sweet sister, as you wept for your brother With our Lord, please pray for mine: A spiritual resurrection into Kingdom light!

 

Guest Meditation on Beauty in Orthodox Worship

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Today, I am offering a "guest meditation" from our catechumen, Jennifer Harkins. Jenny read the essay by Archbishop Kallistos Ware, "The Theology of Worship," that I shared a small passage from a couple of days ago. There are some very fine observations and insights into Orthodox worship in what you will read below. Hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I did:

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Reading this essay felt like sitting with a great physician who could describe my own condition better to me than I could express on my own! Archbishop Ware articulated so clearly and comprehensively what I have felt and known on an instinctive level, but hardly been able to communicate. As he opens with the posture in which we stand before God with our “double attitude... of hope and fear, of confidence and awe,” it’s as if he opens my fists before me to reveal that these paradoxical feelings I’ve been holding are each true and right. There has been this unspoken attraction but also tension in my spirit upon entering more fully into Orthodox worship, where my “nous” tries to apprehend at once the God who “dwells in light unapproachable,” with the “God of personal love, uniquely close, around us and within us.” The latter perspective is more familiar but I have been hungry and strongly pulled towards the transcendent, holy, “the Wholly Other” aspect of our God. 

When we fell prostrate, head to the floor as a whole congregation so many times during Lent and Holy Week, I realized in that movement how starved I was to see and reverence the immense holiness of our Lord. My spirit has felt like a dry sponge soaking up the apophatic mindset in attempting to describe and worship such a One. I am thankful for coming to know Jesus as my friend in Protestantism, but the friendship takes on even deeper meaning when the glorious fullness and transcendence of the Holy Trinity is acknowledged appropriately with awe and trembling. Though foreign in a sense, nothing feels more natural than to lie prostrate and cry “Lord have mercy!” 

The next section of the essay so insightfully worded what feels almost indescribable in nature, the “total act of worship.” “We are to stand before God with the entire person: with the conscious mind, certainly, but also with the aspects of our inner self that reach out into the unconscious; with our instinctive feelings, with our aesthetic sense, and likewise with that faculty of intuitive understanding and of direct spiritual awareness which, as we have noted, far surpasses the discursive reason.” His description of the facets of Orthodox worship which usher in these many layers of total worship makes so much sense and is heartily affirmed in my personal experience of them. From making “use of the primary realities of human existence, such as bread and water, light and fire,” to the beautiful and poetic texts, music, splendor of the priestly vestments, color and lines of the holy icons, design of the sacred space, and symbolic gestures such as the sign of the cross and offering of incense... These all resonate with and reflect upon the many-faceted diamond of a human’s worship- this human at least!

I adore Fr. Schmemann’s description of the Divine Liturgy, it is “before everything else, the joyous gathering of those who are to meet the risen Lord and to enter with Him into the bridal chamber. And it is this joy of expectation and this expectation of joy that are expressed in singing in and ritual, in vestments and in ceasing, in that whole ‘beauty’ of the liturgy...” 

Archbishop Ware’s third point of praying without ceasing was a beautiful challenge to me. This concept seems to be my Mt. Everest, how to move beyond specific times and places and let prayer “be an all-inclusive attitude, embracing every object and every moment; that my whole being would be a “continuing act of worship, an uninterrupted doxology.” In my prayer for St. Mary of Bethany’s intercession, I ask her to let the living torch burn strong and steady long into the night, because it kindles so brightly in prayer times, various solo activities, and at church and then I struggle to “maintain the flame” of love and worship in mundane life around the house and work with the family. I’m praying towards a deeper internalization of communion with the Lord so that prayer isn’t just “something we do or say or think, but something that we are!” So that as Paul Evdokimov said, I can be the priest of my whole life and “take all that is human, and turn it into an offering and a hymn of glory!”

Beauty in Orthodox Worship

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

"Beauty will save the world."

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

Last Sunday, the homily focused on the Liturgy, something of a "reminder" of what we are hopefully experiencing as we move from one Lord's Day to the next on our lifelong journey. The Liturgy allows us to experience, here and now, what we hope to experience in a manner beyond understanding and description, in the Kingdom of God. 

I have simultaneously been re-reading a brilliant essay by Archbishop Kallistos Ware entitled, "The Theology of Worship." This is from his collected essays in the book The Inner Kingdom. After speaking of prayer and worship more-or-less on the personal level, he speaks of our prayer and worship in the collective context of the Divine Liturgy. Beauty is essential to Orthodox worship as God is the ultimate Source of Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Often, there is a good deal of misunderstanding about the "symbolic" nature of the ritual actions of the Liturgy. Are they really necessary? Would it not be better and "purer" to simplify the Liturgy and dispense with ritual all together. Our whole Tradition responds with a resounding "NO!" Here is a short passage from Archbishop Kallistos as to why the symbolic gestures and ritual of the Liturgy are absolutely essential to its celebration - and to our thirsty souls:

"To an Orthodox Christian it is of the utmost importance that the act of worship should express the joy and beauty eof the Kingdom of heaven. Without the dimension of the beautiful our worship will never succeed in being prayer in the fullest sense, prayer of the heart as well of the reasoning brain. This joy and beauty of the Kingdom cannot be properly expounded in abstract arguments and logical explanations; it has to be experienced not discussed. And it is above all through symbolic and ritual actions - through the burning of incense, through the lighting of a lamp or candle before an icon - that the living experience is rendered possible. These simply gestures express, far better than any words, our whole attitude towards God, all of love and adoration, and without such actions our worship would be grievously impoverished."

The Inner Kingdom, p. 65

The Awesome God and the Holy Angels

Dear Parish Faithful,

I have been reading a very interesting book entitled Angels [and Demons] - What Do We Really Know About Them. The book is already about twenty-five years old. The author is Peter Kreeft who is a philosopher teaching at Boston College and King's College (I am not certain if he is still teaching, as he is now eighty-three years old). He is also a deeply committed Roman Catholic, and a very prolific writer who has written at least eighty books.

 

On the whole, most of his books can be called "popular," meaning written in a way that make them quite accessible to a wide-ranging audience. At times, he can certainly display his skills as a philosopher when necessary. He is clearly a Christian apologist, that is one who writes in defense of the truthfulness and reasonableness of the Christian Faith. For many he is seen as something of a late twentieth - early twenty-first century American version of C.S. Lewis, a writer that Peter Kreeft greatly admires. 

He is also very much a Thomist, a Roman Catholic who is deeply inspired by the medieval theologian, Thomas Aquinas. I have only read about two or three of his books, and I do find them very insightful and "thought-provoking," as we like to say. As Orthodox, we would disagree with certain things he claims, but the point is he offers a very compelling case for basic Christian Truth.

Be that as it may, in this book I am reading about angels, he makes a slight digression to examine and critique the philosophy of materialism, the belief that only material reality exists. This come under a section in which he is answering the questions: Can you prove spirits exist? Can you prove materialism is untrue? He begins with three short statements:

1. Nonmaterialists don't demand of materialists that they prove matter is real. Why does the materialist demand that we prove that spirit is real?

2. We appeal to common experience. Most people experience both their bodies and their souls, or spirits, or minds.

3. Materialism is insulting. if it is true, we are only sophisticated animals or machines.

It is his fourth point, picking up from and developing point 3, that I find a bit more compelling and worthy of sharing as a strong philosophical argument against materialism:

4.  If you are a machine, then you can't change or control what you do any more than the environment of the earth can help evaporating water. All acts of thinking and choosing are nothing but movements of atoms, or material energy., like gravity or electricity. How then can some of these atom movements be true and others false? You don't say that the evaporation that happens on the surface of another lake is false. They simply both happen. So if acts of thinking are just material events that happen, like evaporation, it makes no sense to call some true and others false. In that case, it makes no sense to call the thought of materialism true and of nonmaterialism false. The theory contradicts itself; it undercuts itself. If it is true, nothing is true, including it. Matter is not true; matter is neither true nor false; matter just is. If nothing but matter exists, then nothing is true, including the thought of materialism. (Angels [and Demons], p. 48-49)

(As Orthodox, we are less inclined to say that "matter just is." We think of matter as also filled with the divine energies - and for this reason, matter cannot be manipulated for the wrong purposes - but as used in his argument, his statement makes a point). Materialism, of course, is atheistic, and therefore actually nihilistic, no matter how "optimistic" one is about life in this world. It is a bankrupt philosophy that cannot ascribe real meaning to anything. But materialists do not act like the materialist that Peter Kreeft analyzes. They seek meaning in life, as well as they love and have "moral values." But none of this can be philosophically defended. Thus, there is a real disconnect between a materialist worldview and the desire to live moral and meaningful lives.

On a very different subject, now that I am dealing with this book, Peter Kreeft takes on the question: Are angels comforting? He writes simply:

"In the end, yes, but not always in the beginning. All the current angel books seem to assume that angels are comforting. Yet every time a real angel appears in the Bible, he has to say "Fear not!" And angels do not use superfluous words. Like Jesus and unlike popular spiritualists and occultists, they are laconic."

But he then continues this specific question by examining and defining what is meant by religious "fear" as that word is associated with God in the Bible. Not in anyway capitulating to our contemporary inclinations toward superficiality — even when discussing "religion" or "spirituality," —  Kreeft writes:

Religious fear, or awe, is an essential ingredient of all true religion, yet it has been systematically exiled from modern, "psychologically correct" religion. What irony! — the thing the Bible calls the "beginning of wisdom" is the experience modern religious educators and liturgists deliberately remove or try to remove from our souls: fear and trembling, adoration and worship, the bent knee and the prone heart. The modern God "is something I can feel comfortable with." The God of the Bible, in contrast, is "a consuming fire." (see Psalm 104:4 and Heb. 12:29).

Rabbi Abraham Heschel, when told by a student that it must be gratifying to spend his life amid the "comforts of religion," replied, "God is not an uncle. God is not nice. God is an earthquake." The same applies to God's angels.

And of course "fear" does not mean "craven fear" or "fear of an evil tyrant." It means awe. But this is much more than "respect," which is how the biblical term fear  is usually interpreted today. No. You don't just "respect" God. You "respect" the value of money, or the power of an internal combustion engine, or the conventions of politeness. You smile politely and take account of it. Only a fool does that to God. Refusal to fall flat on your face proves that the God you have met is simply not the real God.

Angels (as distinct from devils - fallen angels) always do us good. They warn, rescue, guide, and enlighten. So the end result is indeed comforting. But not at first. True religion never begins in comfort. It begins in repentance and humility and fear." (Angels [and Demons], p. 62-63)

This is very important for us to realize today, as "therapeutic religion" is becoming pervasive. In this approach, even if not articulated openly, it is God who is serving us, rather than we who are serving God. But it is more important to experience the reality that Peter Kreeft is defending.  And this always brings us to the beauty and power of the Liturgy. 

We do not come to the Liturgy - at least primarily - to be comforted by God; rather we come to worship God in all of God's majesty, power, glory and beauty: Holy God! Holy Mighty! Holy Immortal! Have mercy on us! And before every Vespers service: "Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and our God!"   God is the "awesome God," but God is not a remote deity. God is simultaneously "Our Father." This balance - or paradox - is at the heart of the Orthodox understanding and experience of God.

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.

However, and admittedly, there is one prayer that is usually read while the choir is singing (at least that is what we do here in our parish); and that 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.

 

 

 

To Whom - or What - Do We Bow Down?

Dear Parish Faithful,

Whenever we venerate the Cross liturgically, as now during the Feast of the Exaltation/Elevation of the Cross, we sing that powerful hymn, "Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify." 

That hymn, which is sung three times, is accompanied by our three prostrations, as we actually/literally bow down before the Cross in adoration of our Lord Who ascended the Cross for our salvation. This is an act of worship, in that we worship Jesus Christ - "One of the Holy Trinity" - as our Lord, God and Savior. 

The outward act of making a prostration is meant to be an expression of our inward faith precisely in Christ. The outward manifests the inward. The Apostle Paul writes of the "outer person" and the "inner person." (II Cor. 4:16) All of this is well and good, as this is all an aspect of our liturgical piety; this is what we "do" as Orthodox Christians.

Yet, once we leave the church, does the Holy Trinity remain the one reality that we actually worship? 

The question is a meaningful one, because the object of our worship is what we love and trust; what we desire to have enter into our lives and to direct our lives toward. What we worship is what moves us and inspires us. We could further say that what we worship is our "passion," so to speak. (I once heard Mother Ines from Guatemala say that a nun has a "passion" for God). Here is where we will gladly expend our resources of time and energy, and our actual "resources." 

The issue is complicated, because there is so much to tempt us toward other objects of worship. Do we actually worship money, sex or power - an unholy trinity if ever there was one! Of course. we say that we don't, but what is working on the inside - the "inner person?" 

If those three are too crass, and if we are joyfully beyond the temptation to worship such obvious false idols, there is still more than enough to capture our minds and hearts. The choices are limitless, as we all know. And the more abstract - or "good" or "worthy" - the more subtle the temptation. Recall the words of the Apostle Paul, who gave us the classic definition of idolatry when he wrote about those who worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. (Rom. 1:25) 

So, are we outwardly bowing down before the Cross as a nice "religious rite" because that is what is expected of us, while we are actually bowing down inwardly to something else apart from God. We certainly want to avoid a kind of "religious dualism" that manifests itself in a church life and a secular life, each with its own object of worship - the true and living God or the many gods of idolatry.

What a privilege to be able "bow down in worship" before the Lord Who was crucified, raised and glorified for our salvation! Not an empty idol that will ultimately disappoint us, but the Savior of the world! As we proclaim at each and every Liturgy: "For Thou art our God and we know no other than Thee!" 

Forty Shopping (and Fasting) Days Until Christmas

Dear Parish Faithful,

Here is a meditation from a few years back - and one that is also in my new book in a slightly different form - that I do not overly hesitate to send yet again, because the issues presented here for us to think hard about ("meditate"), are certainly with us today and are far from being resolved: "There is nothing new under the sun." I hope everyone is prepared to make a real effort to embrace the forty-day Nativity Fast on a level that works for you and your family and that commits us to the life of the Church in a meaningful manner. If we are not prepared, perhaps what you read here will alert you to the Season we are now entering. 

~ Fr. Steven

______________

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Forty Shopping (and Fasting) Days Until Christmas

Today, November 15, we will observe the first day of the 40-day Nativity/Advent Fast, meant to prepare us for the advent of the Son of God in the flesh, celebrated on December 25.  (The Western observance is from the four Advent Sundays before Christmas). For some/many of us this might very well catch us unaware and unprepared.  However, as the saying goes, “it is what it is,” and so the church calendar directs us to enter into this sacred season today.  This indicates an intensification of the perennial “battle of the calendars” that every Orthodox Christian is engaged in consciously or unconsciously.  The two calendars – the ecclesial and the secular – represent the Church and “the world” respectively.  Often, there is an underlying tension between these two spheres. 

Because of that tension between the two, I believe that we find ourselves in the rather peculiar situation of being ascetical and consumerist simultaneously.  To fast, pray and be charitable is to lead a simplified life that is based around restraint, a certain discipline and a primary choice to live according to the principles of the Gospel in a highly secularized and increasingly hedonistic world.  That is what it means to be ascetical. And to be an ascetic is not to be a fanatic, but to follow the words of Christ who taught us to practice "self-denial" (MK. 8:34). It further means to focus upon Christ amidst an ever-increasing amount of distractions and diversions. Even with the best of intentions and a firm resolve that is not easy!  From our historical perspective of being alive in the twenty-first century, and leading the “good life” where everything is readily available, practicing any form of voluntary self-restraint is tantamount to bearing a cross.  Perhaps fulfilling some modest goals based on the Gospel in today’s world, such as it is, amounts to a Christian witness, unspectacular as those goals may be.   

Yet, as our society counts down the remaining shopping days until Christmas; and as our spending is seen as almost a patriotic act of contributing to the build-up of our failing economy; and as we want to “fit in” – especially for the sake of our children – we also are prone (or just waiting) to unleashing the “consumer within” always alert to the joys of shopping, spending and accumulating. When you add in the unending “entertainment” that is designed to create a holiday season atmosphere, it can all get rather overwhelming.  Certainly, these are some of the joys of family life, and we feel a deep satisfaction when we surround our children with the warmth and security that the sharing of gifts brings to our domestic lives.  Perhaps, though, we can be vigilant about knowing when “enough is enough;” or even better that “enough is a feast.”  An awareness – combined with sharing - of those who have next to nothing is also a way of overcoming our own self-absorption and expanding our notion of the “neighbor.”

Therefore, to be both an ascetic and a consumer is indicative of the challenges facing us as Christians in a world that clearly favors and “caters” to our consumerist tendencies.  To speak honestly, this is a difficult  and uneasy balance to maintain. How can it possibly be otherwise, when to live ascetically is to restrain those very consumerist tendencies?  I believe that what we are essentially trying to maintain is our identity as Orthodox Christians within the confines of a culture either indifferent or hostile to Christianity.  If the Church remains an essential part of the build-up toward Christmas, then we can go a long way in maintaining that balance.  Although I do not particularly like putting it this way, I would contend that if the church is a place of choice that at least “competes” with the mall, then that again may be one of the modest victories in the underlying battle for our ultimate loyalty that a consumerist Christmas season awakens us to. The Church directs us to fast before we feast.  Does that make any sense? Do we understand the theological/spiritual principles that is behind such an approach?  Can we develop some domestic strategies that will give us  the opportunity to put that into practice to at least some extent?  Do we care enough?

The final question always returns us to the question that Jesus asked of his initial disciples:  “Who do you say that I am?”  If we confess together with St. Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then we know where we stand as the “battle of the calendars” intensifies for the next forty days. In such a way, these forty days will result in a meaningful journey toward the mystery of the Incarnation rather than in an exhaustive excursion toward a vapid winter holiday. The choice is ours to make.