30th Anniversary of Fr Alexander Schmemann's Repose

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Today is the 30th anniversary of the repose of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, who died on this date in 1983.  The OCA website has as its lead article today a nice summary of Fr. Alexander's life and accomplishments.  Fr. Alexander was both a brilliant mind and a charismatic personality.  

I had the honor of studying at St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York while he was the dean and still a healthy and dynamic presence on campus.  (I graduated in 1981 and Fr. Alexander became sick with the cancer that would take his life in 1982).  I studied Liturgical Theology with Fr. Alexander for,  I believe, two years, and I had other courses with him.  

My approach toward liturgical theology and the Liturgy more specifically has once and for all been shaped by Fr. Alexander. He was a very great presence in the chapel as he loved to serve as the chief celebrant often during Saturday night vigils, the Liturgy and many of the Feast Days. Serving the paschal Liturgy with Fr. Alexander my last Pascha at the seminary while I was a deacon, was one of the great "highlights" of my three years at St. Vladimir's.  

When Sophia was born, he made a point of visiting our modest apartment in Yonkers that was off campus, spending some time with us and giving Sophia his blessing.  

Regardless of his flaws and faults, I consider him to have been a great man who had a profound vision of the potential of Orthodox Christianity in North America, and who imparted that vision to his students in a lively and inspiring fashion.  

I have never met a person who seemed to enjoy life to the extent that Fr. Alexander did.  But this was always in the context of an Orthodox worldview that he grasped organically and intuitively. He may have been the key figure behind the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in America in 1970.  

I made a point of returning to New York for Fr. Alexander's funeral at St. Vladimir's.  This, too, was an extraordinary and unique experience.   When I said good-bye to one of his daughters before leaving for my return trip home, and commenting to her on the over-all effect of the funeral service, she smiled as she said that it was just like Pascha!  There is a fourteen-minute youtube video of his funeral, and many more resources that can be accessed from the OCA website.

I would highly recommend his books to you, if you have yet to read anything  that he has written.  The starting point would be his classic For the Life of the World...

-- Fr Steven

• OCA Article for the 30th Anniversary of Fr Alexander Schmemann's Repose.
  
• For a wealth of additional information and links please visit www.schmemann.org.

Eucharistic Beings, in a Eucharistic Society, centered on the Eucharist

Dear Parish Faithful  & Friends in Christ,

We recently heard the Gospel reading from St. Luke in which Christ healed ten lepers, but only one  leper - and a Samaritan at that - returned to Him to offer thanksgiving:

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed,  turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face as Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.  Now he was a Samaritan.

This prompted Jesus to ask out loud:   

"Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" ( LK. 17:11-19)  

Therefore, in addition to the healing of the ten lepers that occurred instantaneously — "And as they went they were cleansed" — and which demonstrated that Jesus was not made unclean by close proximity to these lepers; we encounter what is perhaps an even deeper meaning to this narrative, and that would be the centrality of thanksgiving in one's relationship with God. 

The nine lepers who were healed, but who failed to return before Christ to praise God and offer thanksgiving for their healing, may have rejoiced in their new-found good health; but perhaps they remained in a self-absorbed preoccupation that blinded them to the real nature of their healing, and thus made that healing not as thorough, complete, and "holistic" as it was meant to be.

Perhaps we should add that in no way was Jesus being petulant or even petty in demanding thanksgiving from those who He had helped (unlike us when we are offended when we do not receive our "deserved" thanksgiving when we render someone a favor or good deed).  To state the obvious, Jesus does not need such a response to satisfy any interior motivations or hidden agendas!  The Lord's sole concern is that His heavenly Father be glorified for His great mercy and acknowledged as the source of all that is "good."  Christ wants us to manifest our "eucharistic" nature often obscured by a self-generated sinfulness that leaves us "missing the mark" (the meaning of the Gk. word for sin - amartia).

To be thankful  (from the Gk. eucharistia or thanksgiving) is a profound biblical reality and practice:  "O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good ..."  This is just as dominant a theme in the New Testament as in the Old:  "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth ..."  This brings to mind just how thoroughly we stress the role of thanksgiving in our lives as Christians. 

I would stress three inter-related themes that hopefully characterize our lives and of which we are quite conscious:

1) We are "Eucharistic beings."  Created according to the image and likeness of God we receive our lives and all that is in the world around us as a gift from our Creator.  We are not self-sufficient beings, but dependent upon God for all things.  We are fully human when we are eucharistic, offering thanksgiving to God in a spirit of humility and gratitude.  Thus, it belongs to our deepest human nature - our very interior structure - to be eucharistic.  A non-eucharistic person is dehumanized in the process.

2)  We belong to a "Eucharistic society."  This is one more way of describing the Church.  It is as members of the Body of Christ that we fulfill our role as eucharistic beings by a constant sense of thanksgiving and gratitude.  The Church supports the world and is the "place" within the world where the eucharistic dimension of our humanity is expressed on behalf of the entire world and creation:  "Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee on behalf of all, and for all."  And that offering is made with a deep sense of thanksgiving.  For within the Church we respond with faith to the ultimate Gift of God, and that is Christ, the Savior of the world.  If the world fails in its vocation to be eucharistic, we continue to uphold the world by precisely being eucharistic.

3)  We receive the Eucharist.  Here, the term Eucharist refers to the very Body and Blood of Christ, or Holy Communion as we also call it.  The Divine Liturgy can be called the Eucharistic service of the Church in and during which we receive the Eucharist after we thank God for the entire economy of our salvation:  "And we thank Thee for this Liturgy which Thou hast deigned to accept at our hands ..."  Ideally, at least, we want to arrive at church for the Liturgy not with a sense of fulfilling a "religious obligation," but imbued with a deep sense of thanksgiving before our "awesome God" Who has done everything possible to endow us with His Kingdom which is to come.  Unworthy though we may be, God has made us worthy to receive the Eucharist as a foretaste of the heavenly banquet in His eternal Kingdom.

We have a common vocation as "Eucharistic beings," that belong to a "Eucharistic society," and who receive as a free gift of grace the Eucharist.  For this we are profoundly thankful to God!

'Eucharistic Beings' or consumers? — Restoring a proper balance to Thanksgiving.

Jesus Christ with the First 'Eucharistic Beings'

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,


"O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever!"  (Psalm 136:1)

In an article entitled “A Moveable Fast,”  the scholar Elyssa East summarized the history of our American Thanksgiving, and the intentions and practices of the early New England colonists toward this national feast.  Initially, she writes,Thanksgiving was built around the Christian rhythm of fasting and feasting.  Bearing that in mind, she also offered her own commentary on how this national celebration has changed over the years:

In the nearly 400 years since the first Thanksgiving, the holiday has come to mirror our transformation into a nation of gross overconsumption, but the New England colonists never intended for Thanksgiving to be a day of gluttony.  They dished up restraint along with gratitude as a shared main course.  What  mattered most was not the feast itself, but the gathering together in thanks and praise for life’s most humble gifts. Perhaps this holiday season we could benefit from restoring a proper Thanksgiving balance between forbearance and indulgence.

This sounds like a fair commentary on how the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend is now approached and practiced by contemporary Americans.  What adds further to this confusion is not simply the matter of  anticipating a good feast on Thanksgiving Day and enjoying the guilty pleasure of over-eating together with family and friends; but the fact that “overconsumption” and “indulgence” are hardly limited to one day’s  big meal.  Those terms are now more appropriately directed toward “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” - two days of an almost obscene consumerism.  There seems to be a perceptible shift away from the food feast toward the frenzy of shopping and spending with a zeal that would possibly be admirable if it was only directed toward something not so openly and unabashedly self-indulgent.  The only restraint is in the size of one’s pocketbook; but if that empties out there is always the credit card!  We may soon reach the point when our neighbor will no longer greet us with the conventional “have a happy Thanksgiving.”  Rather, it may become “have a successful Black Friday!”  Clearly, a sense of balance and proportion has disappeared from the lives of many Americans, as consumerism displaces a sense of thanksgiving.

Over the next four days what will predominate in your lives as Orthodox Christians?  Will you fail to come to church for the Service of Thanksgiving Day  this evening, but somehow manage to “shop until you drop" at the stores for Black Friday?  How does such a choice hold up to your theoretical priorities - that "in theory" we place God above all?  Are we better described as Eucharistic beings or as consumers?  When presented with a choice,  will it be for the Church and what the Church represents; or will it be “the world” and what the world represents?

I realize that it is easy to be critical of our consumer-driven society. And perhaps priests and pastors “over-indulge” in just such a predictable routine.  My intention, at least, is not to moralize or chastise.  After all, I am also a consumer!  Rather, I am more-or-less thinking out loud, and sharing the questions raised by such thinking.  Once the holiday weekend is behind us, can we “pick up where we left off?”  That further question only makes sense if indeed we had begun to observe the Nativity Fast in anticipation and preparation for the Feast on December 25, and then postponed that effort for the weekend that we are now hoping to enjoy.  When we return to the normal routines of our daily lives, do we have the strength and commitment to embrace “the Orthodox Way” of life that understands only too well the pitfalls and temptations of overconsumption and indulgence? 

The “battle of the calendars” is perhaps never so fierce as during these last few weeks before Christmas.  We can do the “jingle-bell rock,” or we can curb our passions.   When we were baptized – no matter how many years ago - we prayed that God would strengthen us as “invincible warriors of Christ our God;” and that we would “keep the Orthodox Faith.”  And that vocation is tested on a daily basis - especially when the temptation toward "indulgence" is so strong.  I hope that everyone can find a balance between enjoying Thanksgiving Day and the family traditions that surround it; while at the same time keeping sight of the very reason that allows us to be eucharistic beings  in the first place.  And that reason is Christ.

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 yesterday evening, that may 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 be 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 Monday, 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 Our Father.  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?  (This will also be the focus of the homily on Sunday). 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.]

The Nativity Fast: Reawakening Our Zeal for God

Dear Parish Faithful,

[We have now entered] the forty-day fasting season that leads us toward the Feast of the Lord's Nativity.  Every year the radical nature of the Incarnation should startle us by its very mysteriousness and by the depth of the love of God that it so marvelously reveals.

Every household should plan out its own "domestic strategy" of prayerful observance of the fast.  This strategy is one of the tools that we use in the "spiritual warfare" that is always being waged, often under the surface of normal daily life.  Sensitivity to this spiritual warfare means that we are not unduly distracted or lost in the rush of daily affairs to such an extent that we forget about our relationship with God outside of Sunday's Liturgy.  It means that we are concerned about the health and well-being of our souls as much as that of our bodies.  It further means that we do not continually put off or postpone our return to God under the excuse of being overwhelmed with life's problems.

The Nativity Fast is thus an essential tool in reawakening our zeal for God, and a commitment to repent and return to the "one thing needful."  On a more focused level, it will protect us from turning the Christmas season into a whirlwind of shopping, spending, eating and drinking.  We will learn patience and self-discipline as we await the Feast to fully celebrate.  And it will mean that we will be able to identify ourselves as practicing Orthodox Christians.