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DORMITION OF THE THEOTOKOS ORTHODOX CHURCH
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MEDITATIONS ON GREAT LENT: DAY 1
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Posted by deaconalex in Great Lent
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Beloved, we have begun the Lenten journey. In the distance we behold the true
light of our Lord’s Resurrection. The path seems long but the Church has posted
several billboards along the way to guide us and has offered special services to
nourish us.
On the first days of Lent we read the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete. This
canon is a masterpiece of compunction and pious prose. The canon helps us to
adopt the proper mindset that we will need throughout our Lenten journey. Ode
Four of the canon captures this spirit. The ode pierces us and calls out to us
to repent. The season of Lent is a time or repentance, it is the Spring Cleaning
of the soul, so to speak. The Christian must always bear a contrite spirit, a
spirt of repentance and love for God and neighbor. Great Lent beckons us to
renew our efforts.
Ode Four
1st Choir: Heirmos: The Prophet heard of Thy coming, O Lord, and was afraid, for
Thou wast about to be born of a Virgin and shown unto men, and he said: I have
heard Thy report and was afraid; glory to Thy power, O Lord.
1st Choir: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Disdain not Thy works, forsake not that which Thou didst fashion, O righteous
Judge; though I alone have sinned as a man, more than any man, O Friend of man;
but as Lord, Thou always hast the authority to forgive sins.
2nd Choir: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The end doth draw nigh, O my soul, it doth draw nigh, and thou dost not take
care, thou dost not prepare. The time is growing short. Arise! The Judge is near
at the doors. Like a dream, like a flower, the time of life doth pass by. Why
are we troubled in vain?
1st Choir: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Rouse thyself, O my soul! Consider the deeds that thou hast wrought, and bring
them before thine eyes and let the drops of thy tears stream down. Say with
boldness thy deeds and thoughts unto Christ, and be justified.
2nd Choir: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
There hath been no sin in life, nor deed, nor evil, wherein I have not
transgressed, O Saviour, having sinned, in mind and word and volition, and
disposition, and will and action, as no one else hath ever done.
1st Choir: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
For this am I condemned, for this am I the wretched one judged by mine own
conscience, which constraineth me more than anything else in the world. O my
Judge, Redeemer, and Knower of my heart, spare and deliver, and save me Thy
servant.
2nd Choir: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The ladder, which he that was great among the Patriarchs saw of old, O my soul,
is a model of mounting by action and ascent by knowledge. If, therefore, thou
wouldst live by action, knowledge and divine vision, be thou made new.
1st Choir: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Because of need the patriarch endured the burning of the day, and bore the frost
of night, making gains daily, shepherding, striving, slaving, in order to win
two wives.
2nd Choir: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
By the two wives understand action and knowledge in divine vision; in Leah,
action, as one having many children, and in Rachel, knowledge, as much toiling.
For without labours, O my soul, neither action nor contemplation shall have
success.
1st Choir: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Triadicon: Speaking of things Divine, I know Thee to be undivided in essence,
unmingled in persons, even the one Threefold, One Godhead, as being of one
Kingdom and one throne. I cry unto Thee the great Song, that in the Highest is
thrice sung in hymns.
2nd Choir: Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Theotokion: Thou gavest birth, thou art a virgin, and through both thou
remainest by nature a virgin; He that was born reneweth the laws of nature, and
the womb bringeth forth without travail. Wherever God willeth, the order of
nature is overcome; for He doeth whatsoever He willeth.
After the Sixth Ode of the canon is change the Kontakion:
My soul, my soul, arise, wherefore dost thou slumber? The end is drawing nigh,
and thou shalt be troubled. Arouse thyself, therefore, that Christ God may
spare thee, for He is everywhere present and filleth all things.
This beautiful, yet short troparion is our anthem during these first days of
Lent. May we be deemed worthy to complete this Lenten journey in peace, drawing
ever so near to our Saviour through a spirit of humility and deep repentance.
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CONTEMPLATION ON THE THEOTOKOS – THE HOPE OF CHRISTIANS
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Posted by deaconalex in 7 Hymns
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“Virgin Theotokos, the hope of Christians, protect, watch and save those who
have placed their hope in you.” 9th ode for the fest of the Entry of the Lord
into the Temple, Feb. 2
The Church, like a loving mother, seeks to nourish us daily and even frequently
throughout the day. It is for this reason that the hours, days, weeks, and
cycles of the year have been carefully dedicated to the Lord, with services and
prayers prescribed for our edification and healing. Not only is the Church like
a loving mother, but she is also like a Hospital, tending to her sick offspring.
The Hymns of the Church can be a beautiful elixir and remedy for those things
that ail us. One can receive such consolation from the hymns to the Theotokos,
called the Theotokia. Hymns are composed for each day of the week, based on the
Resurrectional mode (tone) assigned. For example, the Theotokia hymn assigned
for Monday Orthros in the Third Mode:
“Every man rightly runneth for refuge where he can be saved; and what other
refuge is there like unto thee, O Theotokos, who shelterest our Souls.”
This is a sweet, short, and simple prayer and easy to chant. Such a lovely
offering we can make in a few short moments yet it is so rich and edifying that
it can ease our soul for hours.
We are in tumultuous times. Peace does not come from without but from within. In
those moments of anxiety and worry, lean on those gifts the Church offers and
utter/chant these short hymns and fortify your soul, for it is from within that
we achieve peace, and this is through the Grace of our God.
Most holy Theotokos save us.
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AN EXPLANATION OF THE HOLY WEEK SERVICESOF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
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Posted by deaconalex in 6 Great Feasts
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by Kyr Moses, Metropolitan of Toronto
PASSION (HOLY) WEEK
We have now reached the great solemn days of Passion Week, when we remember how
our Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed, seized, tortured and crucified, died, was
buried, and arose from the dead. The services of Passion Week, beginning with
Lazarus Saturday, show us in symbols, readings and chants the story of Our
Saviour’s love and sacrifice “unto death” for our sake.
PALM SUNDAY
On Palm Sunday we shall stand with green branches in our hands and listen to the
“Hosanna”, like the multitudes in Jerusalem welcoming “Him Who cometh in the
name of the Lord,” and like the children waving palms and shouting for joy. In
the Gospels of the first three days of Passion Week we shall hear Christ’s final
teachings to His disciples and the people; His stern rebukes to the proud, cruel
Pharisees and scribes; His prophecy of His resurrection and second coming. In
the house of Simon the Leper, where Jesus was having a meal, we shall see the
sinful woman enter to anoint His head and feet in love and repentance, and we
shall compare her to Judas, the disciples whose greed incited him to betray his
Maser for a paltry sum of money. Then we shall follow Jesus to the “upper
chamber” where He and His disciples partook of His Mystical Supper, that is, the
first celebration of the Eucharist of His Most Holy Body and Blood. and then to
the Garden of Gethsemane. There our Lord and God Jesus prayed in agony.
Concerning our Saviour’s prayer before His Passion, Saint John Chrysostom says,
By saying, “If it be possible, let it pass from me,” He showed His humanity; but
by saying, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt,” He showed His virtue
and self-command, teaching us even when nature pulls us back, to follow God.
(Homily 83 on the Gospel of Matthew)
Saint Cyril of Alexandria delves further into this matter, and he asks:
For what reason, O Lord, [were You grieved and distressed]? Were You also
terrified at death? Did You, being seized with fear, draw back from suffering?
And yet did You not teach the holy apostles to make no account of the terrors of
death, saying, Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul (Matt. 10:28). Moreover, if any one were to say that the grace of spiritual
fortitude is Your gift to the elect, he would not err from the truth; for all
strength is from You, and all confidence and heartiness of mind in every more
excellent encounter. You are by nature Life, and the cause of life. We look for
You as a Saviour and Deliverer, and the Destroyer of corruption. From You all
receive their life and being. You have made every thing that breathes. The
angels are for You, and from You, and by You, and so is the whole rational
creation. Unto You the blessed David spake concerning us, Thou wilt send forth
Thy Spirit, and they shall be created; and Thou shalt renew the face of the
earth (Psalm 103:32). How, therefore, are You grieved, and sore distressed, and
sorrowful, even unto death? For plainly You knew, in that You are God by nature,
and know whatsoever is about to happen, that by enduring death in the flesh You
would free from death the inhabitants of all the earth, and bring Satan unto
shame — that You would set up a trophy of victory over every evil and opposing
power: that You would be known by every one, and worshipped as the God and
Creator of all. You knew that You would despoil Hades — that You would deliver
those that are therein, from bonds that had endured for many ages; that You
would turn unto Yourself all that is under heaven. These things You Yourself
announced to us of old by the holy prophets. We have heard You clearly saying,
when You were like unto us, Now is the judgment of this world: now will the
prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall
draw all men unto Me (John 12:31-2). Amen, Amen, I say unto you, that if a grain
of wheat fall not into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit (John 12:24).
For what reason, therefore, are You grieved and sore distressed? Yes, He says,
not unbefittingly am I found thus in anguish. For I know indeed that by
consenting to suffer the passion upon the Cross, I shall deliver all beneath the
heaven from every evil, and be the cause of unending blessings to the
inhabitants of the whole earth. I am not unaware of the unloosing of death, and
the abolition of physical corruption, and the overthrow of the tyranny of the
devil, and the remission of sin. But nonetheless it grieves Me for Israel the
firstborn, that henceforth He is not even among the servants. The portion of the
Lord, and the cord of My inheritance, will the portion of foxes (Ps. 62:10), as
it is written. . . . He who had the promises is utterly stripped of My gifts:
the pleasant vineyard with its rich grapes henceforth will be a desert land, and
place dried up, and without water. For I will command the clouds that they rain
no rain upon it (Esaias 5:6). I will break through its hedge, and it shall be a
spoil; and I will beat down its wall, and it shall be trampled under
foot (Esaias 5:5). And tell me then, what husbandman, when his vineyard is
desert and waste, will feel no anguish for it? What shepherd would be so harsh
and stern as, when his flock was perishing, to suffer nothing on its account?
These are the causes of My grief; for these things I am sorrowful. For I am God,
gentle, and that loveth to spare. I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner,
but rather that he should turn from his evil way and live (Ezek. 18:23). Right
is it, therefore, most right, that as being good and merciful, I should not only
be glad at what is joyful, but also should feel sorrow at whatsoever is
grievous.
But that He pitied Jerusalem, as being well aware of what was about to happen,
and that it would have to endure all misery because of its crimes against Him,
you may learn even from this. For He went up from Judea to Jerusalem, and, as
the Evangelists says, When He beheld the city, He wept over it, and said, Would
that thou, even thou, hadst known the things of thy peace; but now they are hid
from thine eyes (Luke 19:41). For as He wept over Lazarus, in pity for the whole
race of mankind, which had become the prey of corruption and of death; so we say
that He was grieved at seeing Jerusalem all but involved in extreme miseries,
and in calamities for which there was no cure.
And that we might learn what was His wish concerning Israel, He told the
disciples, that He is in grief and anguish. For it would have been impossible
for them to have learned what was hidden within Him, if He had not revealed by
words what His feelings were.
And this too I think it necessary to add to what has been said; that the passion
of grief, or malady, as we may call it, of sore distress, cannot have reference
to the divine and impassive nature of the Word; for that is impossible, inasmuch
as It transcends all passion; but we say that the Incarnate Word willed also to
submit Himself to the measure of human nature, by being supposed to suffer what
belongs to it. Since, therefore, He is said to have hungered, although He is
Life and the cause of life, and the living Bread; and was weary also from a long
journey, although He is the Lord of hosts; so also it is said that He was
grieved, and seemed to be capable of anguish. For it would not have been fitting
for Him Who submitted Himself to emptiness (Phillip 2:7), and stood in the
measure of human nature, to have seemed unwilling to endure human things. The
Word of God the Father, therefore, is altogether free from all passion; but
wisely and for the dispensation’s sake He submitted Himself to the infirmities
of mankind, in order that He might not seem to refuse that which the
dispensation required; yea, He even yielded obedience to human custom and laws
only, as I said, He did not bear anything of this in His own nature.
Together with Christ’s grieving Mother and John, the disciple He loved best, and
with the other women, we shall stand watch by His Cross. We shall follow as His
body is carried to the grave in the garden, and there leave His Body to rest
till the Resurrection’s glorious morning.
This is why through all Passion Week’s mournful services there runs the strain
of bright hope of forgiveness, of triumph over sin and death, and of Our
Saviour’s victory over Satan, Hades, and mortal corruption.
LAZARUS SATURDAY AND PALM SUNDAY
On Saturday we remember how Jesus raised His friend Lazarus from the dead. He
knew Lazarus was grievously ill, but He waited till he died before He answered
Martha and Mary’s call for Him. Jesus knew that His own death on the Cross was
near. He knew how terrified and bewildered His disciples would be, how they
might doubt that He was indeed the Christ. So He waited till Lazarus had been
dead four days to bring him back to life, so that His disciples would see that
He had power over life and death and was indeed “the Resurrection and the Life.”
It was this miracle that prepared Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem and
gave us the certain assurance of the physical resurrection of all the dead.
The Synaxarion (i.e. the explanation of each daily feast) says the following:
Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, the friends of Jesus, had given Him
hospitality and served Him many times (Luke 10:38-42; John 12:2-3). They were
from Bethany, a village of Judaea. This village is situated in the eastern parts
by the foothills of the Mount of Olives, about two Roman miles from Jerusalem.
When Lazarus — whose name is a Hellenized form of “Eleazar”, which means “God
has helped” — became ill some days before the saving Passion, his sisters had
this report taken to Jesus, Who was in Galilee at that time. Nonetheless, He
remained in that place for yet two more days until Lazarus died; then He said to
His disciples, “Let us go into Judaea that I might awake My friend who
sleepeth.” By this, of course, He meant the deep sleep of death. On arriving at
Bethany, He consoled the sisters of Lazarus, who had been buried four days
already. Jesus groaned in spirit and was troubled at the death of His beloved
friend. He asked, “Where have ye laid his body?” and He wept over him. When He
drew nigh to the tomb, He commanded that they remove the stone, and He raised
His eyes aloft, and giving thanks to God the Father, He cried out with a loud
voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” And he that had been dead four days came forth
immediately, bound hand and foot with the grave clothes, and Jesus said to those
standing there, “Loose him, and let him go.” This is the supernatural wonder
wrought by the Saviour that we celebrate on this day.
According to an ancient tradition, it is said that Lazarus was thirty years old
when the Lord raised him; then he lived another thirty years on Cyprus and there
reposed in the Lord. His grave is situated in the city of Kition, having the
inscription: “Lazarus the four-days dead and friend of Christ.” In 890 his
sacred relics were transferred to Constantinople by Emperor Leo the Wise, at
which time undoubtedly the emperor composed his stichera for Vespers, “Wishing
to behold the tomb of Lazarus. . .”
The Dismissal Hymn (which is used also on Palm Sunday) and the Kontakion of
Lazarus Saturday are as follows:
The Dismissal Hymn. First Tone
In confirming the common Resurrection, O Christ God, Thou didst raise up Lazarus
from the dead before Thy Passion. Wherefore, we also like the children bearing
the symbols of victory, cry to Thee, the Vanquisher of death: Hosanna in the
highest; blessed in He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.
The Kontakion. Second Tone
To those on the earth, * the Joy of all, Christ God, the Truth, * the Light and
the Life, * the Resurrection of the world, * in His goodness hath now appeared
and is become the true archetype * of the Resurrection of all, * bestowing
divine forgiveness on all men.
PALM SUNDAY celebrates Christ’s triumphal entry into the holy city of Jerusalem.
When the people heard of His coming, great crowds rushed to the city gates to
meet Him. They spread their cloaks on the road and strewed palm leaves in His
path. Children waved green boughs and all sang, “Hosanna to the Son of David?
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” At
Palm Sunday matins, after the Gospel lection about the entry into Jerusalem, the
priest blesses palm leaves or other appropriate green branches. The people hold
them with lighted candles during the canon, in which the refrain “Hosanna in the
highest” is chanted again and again. Palm Sunday is one of the twelve great
feasts of the Church.
In addition to the above, the Synaxarion of Palm Sunday gives us this
information:
On March 18, which was a Sunday, five days before the Passover of the Law, Jesus
came from Bethany to Jerusalem. Sending two of His disciples to bring Him a foal
of an ass, He sat thereon and entered into the city. When the multitude there
heard that Jesus was coming, they straightway took up the branches of palm trees
in their hands, and went forth to meet Him. Others spread their garments on the
ground, and yet others cut branches from the trees and strewed them in the way
that Jesus was to pass; and all of them together, even the children, went before
and after Him, crying out: “Hosanna: Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of
the Lord, the King of Israel” (John 12:13). This is the radiant and glorious
festival of our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem that we celebrate today.
The tender branches of the palm trees symbolize Christ’s victory over the devil
and death. The word Hosanna, being translated, means “Save, I pray,” or “Save,
now.” The foal of an ass, and Jesus’ sitting thereon, and the fact that this
animal was untamed and considered unclean according to the Law, signified the
former uncleanness and wildness of the nations, and their subjection thereafter
to the holy Law of the Gospel.
Together with the Dismissal Hymn “In confirming the common Resurrection, O
Christ God. . .”, we chant also the hymns below during this joyous service:
Another Dismissal Hymn. Fourth Tone
As by baptism we were buried with Thee, O Christ our God, so by Thy Resurrection
we were deemed worthy of immortal life; and praising Thee, we cry: Hosanna in
the highest; blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.
The Hypakoë. Plagal of Second Tone
Though formerly they praised with branches, afterwards the ungrateful Jews laid
hold of Christ God with staves; but ever honouring Him with unchanging faith as
our Benefactor, let us continually cry to Him: Blessed art Thou who comest to
recall Adam.
The Kontakion. Plagal of Second Tone
Being borne upon a throne in Heaven, and upon a colt on the earth, O Christ God,
Thou didst accept the praise of the Angels and the laudation of the children as
they cried to Thee: Blessed art Thou Who comest to recall Adam.
HOLY AND GREAT MONDAY
Beginning with Holy and Great Monday, the week of our Saviour’s Passion begins.
The first three days recall Christ’s last teachings with His disciples. These
teachings inspire the readings and chants. The services consist of Great
Compline, Matins, Hours, and the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified with Vespers.
Gospels are read at Matins and Liturgy. Also the whole (up to the Passion) of
the four Gospels is read during Hours in the first three days of Passion Week,
and all the Psalms: the Psalms remind us how the coming and sufferings of Christ
were awaited and foretold in the Old Testament. The Gospels tell of His life in
the world; His teaching and miracles prove that He was indeed the Son of God,
Who of His own free will suffered for our sake though He was without guilt.
At Matins after the great litany we do not hear the usual joyous verses, “God is
the Lord, and hath appeared unto us.” Instead, a mournful “Alleluia” is chanted.
And to inspire us to watch and pray in these solemn days, this troparion is
chanted:
Behold, the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night, and blessed is that
servant whom He shall find watching; and again unworthy is he whom He shall find
heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, lest thou be borne down with sleep, lest
thou be given up to death, and be shut out from the Kingdom. But rather rouse
thyself and cry: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God; through the Theotokos, have
mercy on us.
After the canon, which speaks of Christ’s coming Passion, another special hymn —
an Exapostilarion — is chanted. It is like a cry of our soul as if it saw from
afar Christ’s radiant mansions and felt how unworthy it was to enter them:
Thy bridal chamber, O my Saviour, do I behold all adorned, and a garment I have
not that I may enter therein. Illumine the garment of my soul, O Light Bestower,
and save me.
On Holy and Great Monday the Church tells us the parable of the barren fig tree.
It is the symbol of those who think only of outward goodness which does not come
from the heart. The Gospel also tells about our Lord Jesus Christ’s prophecies
about the fall of Jerusalem, wars, and tribulations and the end of the world.
The Synaxarion for Holy and Great Monday has the following edifying account:
The holy Passion of our Saviour begins with this day; and first of all, the
all-comely Joseph is taken as a prefiguring of Christ. He was the eleventh son
of Jacob, but his own brethren came to envy him and cast him into a pit. Later
they sold him to foreigners, and by them he was sold again in Egypt. Because of
his chastity, he was slandered and cast condemned into prison. Finally, he was
led forth from thence with great glory and was honoured as a king. He became
lord over all Egypt and a provider of wheat for all the people. Because of all
these events, he typifies in himself the Passion and the subsequent
glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ (see Genesis, ch. 37-41).
To the commemoration of Joseph is added also the narration of the fig tree,
which, on this day, the morning of March 19, was cursed and subsequently dried
up because of its unfruitfulness. It portrayed the Jewish synagogue, which had
not produced the fruit demanded of it, that is, of virtue and piety, and which
was stripped of all spiritual grace by means of the curse (Matt. 21:18-20).
The Kontakion of this day is most instructive:
The Kontakion. Plagal of Fourth Tone
Jacob lamented the loss of Joseph, but that noble one was seated in a chariot
and honoured as a king; for by not being enslaved then to the pleasures of the
Egyptian woman, he was glorified by Him that beholdeth the hearts of men and
bestoweth an incorruptible crown.
HOLY AND GREAT TUESDAY
On Holy and Great Tuesday we listen to Jesus’ replies to the wily questions of
the Pharisees and scribes, who tried to trap Him; to His stern rebukes of their
cruelty and deceit. The parables of the Ten Maidens and of the Talents remind us
how we should always keep watch on our conscience and use in God’s service any
gift or talent we have received from Him. The Gospel then tells Christ’s
prophecy of His second coming and the Last Judgment. It ends with the awful
warning: “Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son
of Man is betrayed to be crucified.”
The Synaxarion and the Kontakion of this day emphasize the gravity of God’s
examination of our life and the account we will have to give of ourselves:
Today we bring to mind the parable of the ten virgins, which Jesus related
together with other such parables, as He was coming to His Passion. This parable
teaches us that the accomplishment of the great work of virginity should not
make us careless in other matters, especially in almsgiving, wherewith the lamp
of virginity is made radiant. Furthermore, it teaches us that we should not be
remiss about the end of our life, but should be prepared for it at every moment,
like the wise virgins, so that we may meet the Bridegroom, lest He come suddenly
and the doors of the heavenly bridechamber be shut, and we also, like the
foolish virgins, hear that dread sentence: “Amen, I say unto you, I know you
not” (Matt. 25:1-13).
The Kontakion. Second Tone
Being mindful of the hour of the end, O my soul, and fearing because of the
cutting down of the fig tree, labour diligently with the talent that was given
thee, O hapless one, and be watchful and cry: Let us not remain outside the
bridal chamber of Christ.
HOLY AND GREAT WEDNESDAY
On Great Wednesday the Church remembers the act of contrition and love of the
sinful woman who poured precious myrrh-oil on our Saviour’s head, and, though
she did not know it, “prepared Him for burial.” And in contrast we hear of the
dark act of Judas, whose greed led him to betray his Master. All the readings
and chants of the day warn us to beware of greed and love of money, which could
tempt even a disciple of Christ. We too can betray Him, if we let greed and
selfishness get hold of us, while every deed of humility and love at once brings
us near to Him.
Concerning these incidents recorded in the holy Gospels, the Synaxarion has the
following account:
Two women — say the more discerning interpreters of the Gospel — anointed the
Lord with myrrh; the one, a long time before His Passion; the other, a few days
before. The one was a harlot and sinner; the other, chaste and virtuous. The
Church commemorates this reverent act today. While mentioning herein the person
of the harlot, it also mentions Judas’ betrayal; for, according to the
historical account in Matthew, both of these deeds took place two days before
the Passover, on March 21, which was a Wednesday.
That woman, then, anointed Jesus’ head and feet with very precious myrrh, and
wiped them with the tresses of her hair. The disciples, especially the
avaricious Judas, were scandalized, supposedly because of the waste of the
myrrh. Jesus reproved them and told them not trouble the woman. Indignant, Judas
went to the high priests, who were gathered in the court of Caiaphas and were
already taking counsel against Jesus. On agreeing with them to betray his
Teacher for thirty pieces of silver, Judas sought from that time opportunity to
betray Him (Matt. 26:14-16). Because the betrayal took place on Wednesday, we
have received the tradition from Apostolic times to fast on Wednesday throughout
the year.
It is on this day also that one of the most beautiful and compunctionate hymns
ever composed is chanted in the Holy Church. This hymn, composed in the early
part of the ninth century by the nun Cassiane, has as its theme the anointing of
our Saviour’s feet by the harlot:
The Troparion of Cassiane
O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins perceived Thy divinity, and
taking upon herself the duty of a myrrh-bearer, with lamentation she bringeth
Thee myrrh-oils before Thine entombment. Woe unto me! saith she, for night is
become for me a frenzy of licentiousness, a dark and moonless love of sin.
Receive the fountains of my tears, O Thou Who gatherest into clouds the water of
the sea. Incline unto me, unto the sighings of my heart, O Thou Who didst bow
the Heavens by Thine ineffable condescension. I will kiss Thine immaculate feet
and wipe them again with the tresses of my head; those feet, at whose sound Eve
hid herself for fear when she heard Thee walking in Paradise in the cool of the
day. As for the multitude of my sins and the depths of Thy judgments, who can
search them out, O Saviour of souls, my Saviour? Do not disdain me, Thy
handmaiden, O Thou Who art boundless in mercy.
The Kontakion for this day continues the theme of contrition and remorse, and
confronts us with our unworthiness before God:
The Kontakion. Fourth Tone
Though I have transgressed more than the harlot, O Good One, I have in no wise
brought forth streams of tears for Thee; but in silence, I supplicate Thee and
fall down before Thee, kissing Thine immaculate feet with love, so that, as
Master that Thou art, Thou mayest grant me the forgiveness of debts, as I cry to
Thee, O Saviour: From the mire of my deeds do Thou deliver me.
HOLY AND GREAT THURSDAY
The Gospels of Holy and Great Thursday tell how our Saviour and His disciples
came to Jerusalem to celebrate His last feast of the Passover; how He washed
their feet. They tell the story of that Mystical Supper when our Lord ordained
the Mystery of His Most Holy Body and Blood “for the remission of sins and life
everlasting”. They speak of Christ’s instruction to the Apostles, and how He
told them that they would all forsake Him that night; they speak of Peter’s rash
promise that he would always remain faithful; of Christ’s vigil in the garden;
of how He was seized and led away to the high priest’s court; of the scene in
the courtyard; of Peter’s three-fold denial and his grief; of the high priest’s
mocking questions; and of how Jesus, wearing the crown of thorns, beaten and
insulted by the soldiers, was led before Pilate.
The readings and chants of Matins dwell on Judas’ betrayal, on “the dark night”
which settled in his soul. We pray that we may keep ourselves from greed and
deceit, and be made pure by partaking of the holy Mysteries of Christ’s Body and
Blood. The Dismissal Hymn after the “Alleluia” at Matins speaks of this:
The Dismissal Hymn. Plagal of Fourth Tone
When the glorious disciples were enlightened at the washing of the feet, then
Judas the ungodly one was stricken and darkened with the love of silver. And
unto the lawless judges did he deliver Thee, the righteous Judge. O thou lover
of money, behold thou him that for the sake thereof did hang himself; flee from
that insatiable soul that dared such things against the Master. O Thou Who art
good unto all, Lord, glory be to Thee.
The Synaxarion and the Kontakion also re-iterate the themes of Christ God’s
betrayal at the hands of “an incorrigible disciple”:
On the evening of this day, which was the eve of the feast of unleavened bread
(that is, the Passover), Jesus supped with His twelve disciples in the city. He
blessed the bread and the wine, and gave us the Mystery of the Divine Eucharist.
He washed the feet of the disciples as an example of humility. He said openly
that one of them was about to betray Him, and He pointed out the betrayer by
revealing that it was he “that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish.” And after
Judas had straightway gone forth, Jesus gave the disciples His final and sublime
instructions, which are contained in the first Gospel reading of the Holy
Passion. After this the God-man went forth to the Mount of Olives, and there He
began to be sorrowful and in anguish. He went off alone, and bending the knees
He prayed fervently. From His great anguish, His sweat became as it were great
drops of blood falling to the ground. As soon as He had completed that anguished
prayer, lo, Judas came with a multitude of soldiers and a great crowd; on
greeting the Teacher guilefully with a kiss, he betrayed Him.
Subsequently, Jesus was apprehended and taken prisoner to the high priests Annas
and Caiaphas. The disciples dispersed, but Peter, who was more fervent than the
others, followed Him even into the court of the high priest, but in the end
denied that he was His disciple.
But our divine Teacher was brought before the lawless Sanhedrin and was
interrogated concerning His disciples and His teaching. The high priest adjured
Him before God that He tell them whether He was truly the Christ. And having
spoken the truth, He was judged guilty of death, supposedly as one who had
blasphemed. Then they spat in His face, beat Him, smote Him with the palms of
their hands, and mocked Him in every way, throughout the whole night until the
morning.
The Kontakion. Second Tone
Taking the Bread into his hands, the betrayer stretcheth them forth secretly and
receiveth the price of Him that, with His own hands, fashioned man. And Judas,
the servant and deceiver, remained incorrigible.
On this day the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great is celebrated together with
Vespers. Before the Great Entrance, instead of the Cherubic Hymn, the special
hymn of Great Thursday is chanted:
Of Thy Mystic Supper, O Son of God, receive me today as a communicant; for I
will not speak of the Mystery to Thine enemies; nor will I give Thee a kiss as
did Judas; but like the thief do I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord, when Thou
comest in Thy Kingdom.
This hymn is also chanted before and during Communion.
In cathedral cities where there is a bishop the ceremony of “the washing of the
feet” is kept. At the end of the Liturgy the Book of Gospels is carried to the
middle of the cathedral. Then the bishop in full vestments comes out of the
Sanctuary and takes his seat on a raised platform. He is followed by twelve
priests who sit six at each side of him. They represent the twelve Apostles. Two
deacons bring out a basin, a jug of water and a towel. After some prayers, the
head deacon reads the Gospel story of how Jesus at the Last Supper rose, took
off His upper garment, tied a towel round His waist and washed the disciples’
feet. While this is read, the bishop rises, takes off his vestments, keeping
only girdle and stole, ties the towel round his waist, takes up the basin and
washes the feet of each priest. He goes down one row and up the other till he
comes to the senior priest, who represents St. Peter. Here the deacon stops
reading. The priest rises and repeats St. Peter’s words: “Lord, dost Thou wash
my feet?” The bishop answers in Jesus’ words and they repeat the scene till the
bishop washes “Peter’s” feet. Then the bishop puts on his vestments and himself
read Jesus’ words why He, their Lord and Master, had done this humble service to
his disciples: “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have
done to you.” This ceremony is a very ancient custom and is acted to remind us
more clearly of the lesson given us by Jesus: that no service is too low for
those who would truly follow in His steps.
On Holy Wednesday night the Orthodox Church administers the Mystery of the Holy
Unction for the bodily and spiritual health of the participants. At this
Mystery, the oil is consecrated by prayer and the clergy anoint the people.
When this is done, the priest recites the prayers for the remission of sins,
while the clergy hold over the heads of the people the open Gospel.
HOLY AND GREAT FRIDAY
Holy and Great Friday is the most solemn day of Passion Week. In awe and
trembling, we stand before the Cross on which our Saviour died and we see the
image of Him dead, lying in our midst, on the Epitaphios. The whole narration of
our Lord’s Passion is given at Holy Thursday Matins service. It is usually
called “the Service of the Twelve Gospels”. A tall Crucifix usually stands in
the middle of the church with many candles lighted round it. After the Six
Psalms and the Great Litany, the choir sings “Alleluia” and the Troparion of
Holy and Great Thursday. The priest and deacon come out of the Sanctuary
carrying the Great Book of Gospels. It is placed on a podium and the priest
begins the reading. The whole story of the Passion is read from the four
evangelists and is divided into twelve parts. It begins with the “Gospel of the
Testament” and the prayer at the Mystical Supper, in Saint John’s Gospel, and
goes right through the four Gospels to the burial of Christ by Joseph of
Arimathea. Before [???] and after each reading the choir sing, “Glory to Thy
long-suffering, O Lord, glory to Thee”. Between the readings special verses are
read and chanted. They speak of Judas’ betrayal; of the cruelty of the Jews; of
Jesus’ infinite patience and meekness; of the awe of all creation when the Lord
of all was nailed to the Cross between two thieves. The canon has only three
odes. All recount the Passion and foretell the glory of the Resurrection. Matins
ends shortly after the twelfth Gospel.
When Friday, March 23 dawned, Jesus was sent bound from Caiaphas to Pontius
Pilate, who was then governor of Judaea. Pilate interrogated Him in many ways,
and once and again acknowledged that He was innocent, but to please the Jews, he
later passed the sentence of death against Him. After scourging the Lord of all
as though He were a runaway slave, he surrendered Him to be crucified.
Thus Jesus was handed over to the soldiers, was stripped of His garments, was
clothed in a purple robe, was crowned with a wreath of thorns, had a reed placed
into His hand as though it were a sceptre, was bowed before mockery, was spat
upon, and was buffeted in the face and on the head. Then they again clothed Him
in His own garments, and bearing the cross, He came to Golgotha, a place of
condemnation, and there, about the third hour, He was crucified between two
thieves. He was blasphemed by those who were passing by, was mocked by the high
priests, and by the soldiers was given vinegar to drink mixed with gall. About
the ninth hour, He cried out with a loud voice, saying, “It is finished.” And
the Lamb of God “which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) expired on
the day when the moon was full, and at the hour when, according to the Law,
there was slain the passover lamb, which was established as a type of Him in the
time of Moses.
Even lifeless creation mourned the death of the Master, and it trembled and was
altered out of fear. Yet, even though the Maker of creation was already dead,
nonetheless He was pierced in His immaculate side, and Blood and Water flowed
out therefrom. Finally, at about the setting of the sun, Joseph of Arimathea
came with Nicodemus (both of them had been secret disciples of Jesus), and they
took down the supremely holy Body of the Teacher from the Cross and anointed it
with aromatic spices, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. When they had
buried Him in a new tomb, they rolled a great stone over its entrance.
These awesome and saving sufferings of Jesus Christ are what we commemorate
today, and in remembrance of them, we have received the Apostolic commandment
that a fast be observed on every Friday.
Dismissal Hymn. Plagal of Fourth Tone
When the glorious disciples. . . (see Holy and Great Thursday).
Kontakion. Plagal of Fourth Tone
Come, let us all praise Him Who was crucified for us; for Mary beheld Him on the
Tree, and said: Though Thou endurest the Cross, yet Thou art my Son and my God.
Dismissal Hymn at the End of Matins. Fourth Tone
Thou didst ransom us from the curse of the Law by Thy precious Blood. Nailed to
the Cross and pierced with the lance, Thou didst pour forth immortality for men.
O our Saviour, glory be to Thee.
HOLY AND GREAT SATURDAY.
On the day after Friday, which was Saturday, March 24, the high priests and
pharisees gathered together before Pilate and asked him to have Jesus’ tomb
sealed until the third day; because, as those enemies of God said, “We have a
suspicion that His disciples will come and steal His buried body by night, and
then proclaim to the people that His resurrection is true, as that deceiver
Himself foretold while He was yet alive; and then the last deception shall be
worse than the first.” After they had said these things to Pilate and received
his permission, they went and sealed the tomb, and assigned a watch for
security, that is, guards from among the soldiers who were appointed to guard
the city (Matt. 27:62-66).
Dismissal Hymns. Second Tone
The noble Joseph, taking Thine immaculate Body down from the Tree, and having
wrapped It in pure linen and spices, laid It for burial in a new tomb.
Glory.
When Thou didst descend unto death, O Life Immortal, then didst Thou slay Hades
with the lightning of Thy Divinity. And when Thou didst also raise the dead out
of the nethermost depths, all the powers in the Heavens cried out: O Life-giver,
Christ our God, glory be to Thee.
Both now.
Unto the myrrh-bearing women did the Angel cry out as he stood by the grave:
Myrrh-oils are meet for the dead, but Christ hath proved to be a stranger to
corruption.
Kontakion. Plagal of Second Tone
He that shut up the abyss is seen to be dead, and as a mortal man, the Immortal
One is wrapped in linen and myrrh, and placed in a grave. And women came to
anoint Him weeping bitterly and crying out: This is the most blessed Sabbath-day
whereon Christ, having slept, shall arise on the third day.
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WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU FIRST VISIT AN ORTHODOX CHURCH
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy
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The Orthodox Church building is a sacred space. Though Orthodox Churches come in
all shapes and sizes, they all share some common archectural features.
The first you will notice when you enter the Church is small room that precedes
the body of the Church. This room is called the Narthex and it serves as an
informal place where parents can bring their young children for feeding and
other care during the services. It also the place where Catechumens, those
preparing to be received into the Orthodox Church, will stand during the second
half of the Divine Liturgy.
The Narthex leads to the Nave, which is the Church proper. It is in the Nave of
the Church where the Divine Services are conducted. The Nave features practical
items as well as furnishings and features that are distinct.
Entering the Nave, you will note the Templon and Iconostasis at the far end.
This serves as the “veil to the Holy of Holies” and separates the Altar from the
Nave. In Orthodox Church architecture, the Altar is always facing to the East,
towards Jerusalem. The Iconostasis is adorned with icons of the Savior, the
Mother of God (the Virgin Mary, as known in the western tradition), Saint John
the Baptist, the Saint to whom the Church is dedicated, and the Archangels
Gabriel and Michael. Some Churches may have a more elaborate design but the
aforementioned icons are common to all Churches.
In the center of the Templon, which is the name of the structure upon which the
Iconostasis is mounted, are the Royal Doors. Like in a palace, the Royal Gates
is the entry way for the King of All. The clergy will enter the Altar most
frequently from the side doors. There are prescribed times during the Diving
Liturgy and Matins when the clergy enter through the Royal Gates. The Royal
gates are often adorned with icons and you will notice a curtain – the “veil of
the temple”. These curtains may be opened and closed during the services.
On the walls of the Church you will many icons of Christ, the Mother of God (in
Greek, Theotokos), and Saints. These icons are windows into Heaven. The Saints
were ordinary people, that came from every walk-of-life, and they are examples
for us to show us that we too can lead a holy life.
Many Orthodox Churches are illumined with oil lamps and beeswax candles, giving
the Church a heavenly glow. The air is filled with the fragrance of incense,
reminding us of the worship of Ancient Israel. Our ears are filled with the
sound of chants and bells, rung in joyous jubilitation.
Worship in an Orthodox Churches reaches each of our five senses and demonstrates
that worship is an act that affects our entire being.
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ATHONITE HYMN TO THE PANAGIA FOR TIMES OF GREAT NEED
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Posted by deaconalex in 7 Hymns
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Under thy protection, O Panagia our Lady, do all thy servants unworthily run and
supplicate thee, O most pure one. Hasten to deliver all of us from every danger
and necessity and from a sudden death, which destroyeth utterly and finally. We
know that thou art capable to consummate all things that thou dost want to do.
Lady of the universe, the hope and the protection of the world, O Maiden full of
grace, come hearken unto us who pray to thee.
Translated by St. Anthony’s Monastery. To see written music:
Byzantine | Western
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CONTEMPLATIONS ON MEATFARE SUNDAY AND THE LESSON ON THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
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Posted by deaconalex in 2 Pearls-sayings from the Fathers
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Coming of Christ
“Now we have come to the Gospel about the Last Judgment. It determines
everything, for everyone and forever. “And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into life eternal” (Mt. 25:46). Here everything is
summed up; everything is clear, unchangeable, eternal. Here God’s Truth meets
with God’s Mercy, and God’s Love with the Wisdom of God.
We walked away from Christ’s manger from which we received the spirit of
adoption (sonship). On the Day of the Lord’s Circumcision, our New Year, we
consciously dedicated ourselves to the service of the Lord in the coming year.
On the day of the Lord’s Baptism, we received the special Grace to do God’s
will. But on the very first steps of our new life we did not stand fast, but
yielded to temptation and sinned. It is not without reason that the very first
Sunday after the Baptism called to us: “Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at
hand” (Mt. 4:17). And with all the subsequent Gospels the Holy Church has been
teaching us how to repent. She has given us wonderful images of repentance:
Zacchaeus changed his whole life. The Publican was justified by his prayer: “God
be merciful to me a sinner” (Lk. 18:13). And the Prodigal Son returned to his
Father. All this is true, all this happened, and it has been repeated thousands
of times throughout the history of Christ’s Church. And all of this exists right
now; all this is possible for both you and me.
And the picture of the Last Judgment, which might startle us, does not disrupt
our cycle of Gospel readings. It gives them meaning, makes them more exact, sums
up for us all that was before in the Church and all that will be further on.
After all, to be placed at the right side of the King and to hear His voice:
“Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom” (Mt. 25:34) — this is the
purpose of our life. But we rarely think about this and often forget it.”
These are the words of a truly righteous man! The blessed Archbishop Andrei has
many profound yet simple sermons that touch our hearts deeply as he speaks in
such a sweet and simple manner that each of us can understand. Christian, ponder
these words after you read the Gospel assigned to this day. Consider these words
clearly and you will see this is the meter by which we should calculate our
successes in life!
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WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK?
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith
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What is holding us back?
We recently heard the Gospel lesson in which the Lord was asked a question that
should be on the very top of our mind.
“16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I
do that I may have eternal life?”
… if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt 19:16-17
Very often the Lord would answer inquiries through the words of sacred
scripture. In the Gospel lesson, the Lord calls
the inquirer to remember the Laws of Moses and what was given to the Israelite
people. We are familiar with these Commandments
as is the inquirer in this Gospel passage. In fact even today there be many who
are familiar with the Commandments. Many believe this is
all they need to be saved. But the Lord proves that more is needed, much more.
Consider this, after the Lord enumerated from the great Commandments, the
inquirer answered in this manner, “The young man said to Him, “All these things
I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”
Indeed, it sounds like this young man was a good man, following the Laws of
Moses but there was still one thing lacking. Our Lord, the Knower of hearts,
understood that there was still
something holding back this young man from the path of salvation. This man
treasured the wealth of Earthly things to that which is eternal. This is quite
evident when we hear that young man departed from the Lord
with great sorrow, for he was rich.
Like the entirety of the sacred Gospels, these words are timeless and speak to
each and every one of us. Christians, find a moment of quiet this evening and
ask yourself, be honest, what is it that binds you from eternal life?
What is holding you back?
Imagine for a moment the despair of this situation! The Lord instructs His
Disciples that it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Who
then can be saved? So that we do not fall into despair, as did the Disciples,
our Lord reassured them and us that
though the situation looks quite dire, do not lose hope for “with God all things
are possible.” What is required is for us to make the first move by casting
aside those things that are holding us back – the Lord will do the rest.
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FOREFEAST OF THE DORMITION
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith
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In faith, O ye people, leap for joy while clapping your hands; and gather in
gladness on this day with longing and shout in radiant jubilance. For the
Theotokos cometh nigh to departing from the earth unto the heights; and we
glorify her with glory as the Mother of God in our unceasing hymns. Dismissal
hymn for the Forefeast of our Lady’s Dormition.
Concerning the celebration of the Forefeast, in her wisdom the Church of God has
set aside special days of commemoration prior to the great feasts of the Lord
and His Mother. On this day we increase our preparation for the feast of the
Dormition as if we were anticipating the arrival of an honoured guest. For
truly, who in all creation was more honoured than our most-holy Lady Theotokos.
For in her, humanity has found a great model of piety, love, humility, patience,
and all of the other virtues. What more can we say, we need only look to the
divine services of the Church for enlightenment and to help us render love,
honor, and worship that is due to the Mother of God:
“Acclaiming the Feast of Exodus in anticipation”, “let us praise the honorable
repose of the Mother of God”: “For the Mother of God, the Golden ark, now
prepares to pass over from earth to heaven”, and, “For tomorrow the Queen of
all, bound for the mansions of Heaven, commits her soul into the hands of the
Son”.
Singing “the Forefeast” hymns and “celebrating the all-splendid memory of your
honored Dormition”, “Coming to the tomb of the Virgin let us faithful begin
striving to offer up divine incense”, “at Her divine burial with one mind with
the heavenly hosts” “let us sing a hymn at her burial”.
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THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith
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Tags
Pascha
Christ is risen! These three words give great joy to the faithful and are the
most important words ever heard by man.
Following the Resurrection of our Lord, all creation was changed in a manner
that mankind cannot fully comprehend. This is an event of the greatest
significance, for the entire cosmos.
This event was foretold, for Christ Himself mentioned aforetime to His Disciples
concerning His passion and Resurrection. Greater still, the Lord spoke many
things to Israel concerning His authority, for He uttered things that NO ONE
could ever say:
> Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in
> me, though he were dead, yet shall he live… John 11:25
>
> I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who
> is to come, the Almighty. Rev. 1:8
>
> Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to
> the Father but through Me. John 14:6
>
> Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I
> am.” John 8:58
>
> Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever
> came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I
> am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and
> out, and find pasture. John 10:7-10
>
> Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou
> blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my
> Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the
> works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
> John 10:36-37
>
> Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and,
> behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
> Rev. 1:17-19
>
> I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that
> beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he
> purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15:1-3
These are only a few of the many direct quotes of our Lord in which He
articulates His divine power. Concerning His authority:
> For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have
> life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also,
> because he is the Son of man. John 5:26-27
These words are irrefutable. These words have changed mankind forever. These
words have established the universe, who can reject them?
Sadly, others have altered these words to suit their own dogma. Outside the
Church, these words can be manipulated and adjusted to suit anyone. Without the
revelation and Grace given to the Church it is impossible to fully comprehend
things beyond human understanding.
One might notice that many of these quotes originated from the Gospel of Saint
John. Saint John the Theologian, also called Saint the Divine, was a revealer of
great mysteries. His Gospel is so profound that the early Church did not open
this sacred scripture until a catechumen was baptized and illumined. It is no
coincidence that the Gospel reading for the holy day of Pascha is from Saint
John. Further, the following Sundays of Pascha also draw from his Gospel to
reinforce and set clearly the teaching that Christ is the Son of God. To the Son
is given all authority and this is witnessed by the Father and the Holy Spirit!
This is the greatest authority!
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BE RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF YOUR MIND
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith
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Ephesians, 4:23-32
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for
we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let
him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may
have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your
mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may
minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be
put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Be ye renewed and put on the new man, created after the image and likeness of
our Lord. After the Resurrection, all things are renewed. We are renewed in
spirit. The Church reminds us of this very fact for the week following the great
Pascha is call the Renewal Week!
What can we do about his renewal? What do we need to do to renew ourselves? We
read in scripture that we must take action, we must knock on the door, we must
seek. St. Paul answers this in one of his Epistles to the Church in Ephesus.
We can capture the essence of his teaching a single word, PURIFICATION. Remember
those joyful words from the Canon of Pascha: “Let us purify our senses and we
shall behold Christ, radiant with the inaccessible light of the Resurrection,…”
Purification of the flesh is an easy concept to grasp, but how do we purify our
senses? Again, we need only look to the Church for the answer. To paraphrase
Saint Paul: put away lying, be not angry, don’t sin, and don’t hold any
grudges. He is teaching the Church to fulfill the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord. But Saint Paul adds to the commandments delivered to Moses: “grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed”. How strange this must have
seemed to his hearers. Beloved Orthodox Christians, we are sealed by the Holy
Spirit after our Baptism. We are counted among the flock of our Saviour.
Christ has asked us to be like Him: “And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath
forgiven you.”
Christian, purify your senses, putting aside the tumult of the world and all the
distractions and trappings. Seek after Christ!
Christ is risen!
Jesus Christ, the Merciful
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SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY AND ICONOCLASM
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith
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The first Sunday of Great Lent is a landmark for us on our journey to Pascha. In
the weeks prior we heard lessons of humilty and the dangers of pride, of
repentance and forgiveness. The final weeks of the pre-Lenten Triodion taught us
that our love of God is made manifest by our love for our neighbor and that our
life on Earth is a life in exile. Adam’s sin has separated us from paradise but
the Saviour is the door and the way that leads us back.
Why is it that the Fathers set forth this first Sunday to make remembrance of
all those who contested for the faith, preserving it undefiled by heresy? Why
such an emphasis on the final Ecumenical Council, which condemned Iconoclasm? As
we will find in the coming weeks, each Sunday of Great Lent teaches us something
new, something that is critically important for our salvation. This begins with
true faith. Before we can begin our struggle to God, we must have right belief.
True faith is what strengthens us for struggle. True faith helps us see the
virtue in ascetic exercise. Through the Grace of God, true faith is what leads
us to salvation.
This may sound odd, but we must become “new iconoclasts” shattering the false
icons and images of worship of this new world. The world no longer recognizes
the divinity of Christ. It no longer offers reverence to His sacred images. The
world has replaced the icon of Christ, it has replaced the icon that man was
mean to be – made in the image and likeness of God – with a new creation of
selfishness, laziness, and apathy. Beloved, we must cast aside the new icons of
this sad time.
May our Lord strengthen us in our struggle, not only during Great Lent, but
throughout our lives that we may be deemed worthy to return again unto that
blessed promised land.
Good Strength for this most blessed season!
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THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE – A STORY THAT NEVER GETS OLD
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith
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Beloved faithful, Kalo Triodio – best wishes to you all as we get our boarding
passes and make preparation for Great Lent!
The Church shows us in many places the blessed act of preparation. In many of
the hymns we hear: “Make thou ready”. And so the Holy Spirit has guided the Holy
Fathers to institute the three precursory Sundays to Great Lent as a time of
preparation.
In the first selection from the Triodion, we hear a Gospel lesson that has
become so familiar to us, the lesson concerning the prayers of the Publican and
the Pharisee. Our Saviour spoke quite clearly of this event as if it really
happened, as if He beheld it in person. Indeed, our Saviour was present and
further, He heard the utterances from deep within the hearts of these two men
for it was to our Saviour – Christ our God- that these men prayed!
Though this event occurred once in time, it has played-out countless times
throughout the centuries and continues to occur today, in our own lives. How
many times have we played the role of the Pharisee? And how many times have we
prayed from the depths of our soul, as did the Publican, when he spoke those
most profound and repentant words, “God be gracious to me the sinner”.
Great and plentiful are the teachings in this Gospel! First we must consider why
this Gospel is placed here, why would the Fathers ask us to consider these words
at this time? The Gospel teaches us the right attitude for prayer and further
shows us a wonderful example of repentance and humility. Repentance is a return,
a turning away from a path of lawlessness and lasciviousness to the path of
righteousness. We will see the great example of this in a few short days in the
Gospel of the Prodigal Son.
Beloved, if we are honest with ourselves, we will clearly see that we are at
time the Pharisee and that at times we are also the prodigal. Great Lent is the
training ground to bring us back on track. These lessons remind us of the power
of heartfelt and humble prayer. Consider for a moment the prayer of the
Pharisee. He was likely speaking the truth of the zealousness of his religious
practice of prayer, tithing, fasting, etc. But his prayer was sullied by his
vaunting and foolish boasts, mocking and condemning those around him, including
the Publican. How often have we done this? Yes we have the TRUE FAITH but have
we acted as TRUE CHRISTIANS?
A word about the Publican and what this means to us today. By now, we are aware
of the social standing of the Publican. We know from the story of Zaccheus that
they were despised among the people. One could even say their title became a
curse. Consider who are the Publicans that surround us today. They are likely
the homeless, the less fortunate, those struggling with passions, sins, and
addictions. What hope they have is the knowledge of their plight. Hope in God is
the only thing that they have, it is their only glimpse of light. Have we tried
to extinguish that light? Have we condemned them by placing ourselves into the
role of the Pharisee? Do we say in our hearts, “I have the true faith, woe be to
all others?” Do we condemn others? Have we exalted ourselves from our so-called
pietism? Or, have we followed the praxis in prayer of the Publican, unable to
lift our eyes to heaven or to even see those around us, crying from our heart
“God, be gracious to me the wretch, more lowly than all those around me”; and
yes, confessing that we are sinners.
Why doesn’t the Gospel reveal the after-story for the Publican? In a manner it
has, look to the Gospel of Zaccheus. I am not stating that the two men are one
in the same but I am reminding you that Zaccheus experienced a great event when
he recognized his sin and repented – changing his very way of thinking. Truly he
left justified after beholding our Lord face-to-face, confessing his sin and
repenting! So great was his repentance that he restored any unlawful gain
through a four-fold repayment! It is not out of the realm of possibility that
the Publican in today’s Gospel followed the same path Zaccheus, for he likely
knew of his awakening.
Christians, seize the day, grasp the opportunity and start now, at this very
minute, and return to your Fathers house, walking on the path of repentance!
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THE RAINBOW, A SIGN OF THE COVENANT BETWEEN GOD AND MAN
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And the Lord God said to Noe, This is the sign of the covenant which I set
between
me and you, and between every living creature which is with you for perpetual
generations. I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of covenant
between me and the earth. And it shall be when I gather clouds upon the earth,
that my bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which
is between me and you, and between every living soul in all flesh, and there
shall no longer be water for a deluge, so as to blot out all flesh. And my bow
shall be in the cloud, and I will look to remember the everlasting covenant
between me and the earth, and between every living soul in all flesh, which is
upon the earth. And God said to Noe, This is the sign of the covenant, which I
have made between me and all flesh, which is upon the earth. Genesis 9:12-17
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Man is corrupt, loathsome, and foolish. He has corrupted and turned aside the
things of God! In days of old, the Lord brought a flood upon the Earth. When the
rains ended and the waters subsided from the land, the Lord made a covenant with
man, sealing it with the bow in the heavens.
Today, man has taken this symbol of the Lord’s promise, using it to mark
abomination! Man is his arrogance has forgotten the covenant with the Lord. Man
has cast aside the Lord’s promise of the Rainbow, turning it from a blessing to
a curse, from a sign of peace, into a symbol of false tolerance, self-love, and
sin.
Today all things are permissible for man as he has seemingly destroyed God,
raising up for himself instead a deity of his own fashioning. Indeed, man is
corrupt, completing abominable works. Man has lost godly-knowledge. God cannot
be destroyed, instead man destroy himself, slowly and generation-by-generation.
Man is now held captive in the bonds of sin and the Evil one.
The words of the Psalmist ring true in our very day:
> The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have
> done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. 2 The LORD looked down
> from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did
> understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all together
> become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 4 Have all the
> workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and
> call not upon the LORD. 5 There were they in great fear: for God is in the
> generation of the righteous. 6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because
> the LORD is his refuge. 7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of
> Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall
> rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Psalm 14
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GOD’S MERCY IN OUR LIFE
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GOD’S MERCY IN OUR LIFE
To a certain respected bishop there once came a man who was in great
despondency, as if weighed down by something, and he asked the bishop what he
should do: his life had turned out not at all as he had wished and supposed, and
in place of happiness he had total dissatisfaction and an oppressed state of
soul.
The bishop listened to his complaint and, taking a sheet of paper, said: “You
know, let us compile a small list of your misfortunes. Perhaps your wife has
left you?”
“No, Vladika,” the man replied despondently.
“Perhaps your disobedient children have run away from home and have become
drug-addicts or drunkards?”
“No, Vladika, this misfortune has not occurred to me.”
“Has your house burned down?” the bishop continued to ask, writing down the
answers.
Again the man replied in the negative.
“Have you lost your job?” was the bishop’s next question; and again the man
replied that he had not.
“Perhaps you have an incurable disease?” the bishop finished his questions, and
on receiving a negative reply and seeing that he had exhausted the list of his
possible misfortunes and catastrophes, the bishop said to him:
“Well, I advise you to return home, make your own list of the mercies God has
shown you, and then return to me and we will talk.”
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
Indeed, in every human society and in every individual who belongs to it there
can be observed a dissatisfaction and oppressed spirit similar to this man’s,
occurring as the result of a seeming disorder and failure in life.
This unhappy man came to a bishop with his complaints about life; but bishops
also, it would seem, have grounds to be dissatisfied with their fate–they are
swallowed up by purely administrative work in their dioceses, they have to
examine unpleasant cases and quarrels, they are constantly in public, being
deprived of prayerful concentration, and in worldly gossip they are subjected to
judgment and often slander.
If we look deeply into the life’s path of a priest, perhaps we will see there
also reasons for dissatisfaction in his personal life–the frequent impossibility
of being “all things to all men,” which evokes judgment on the part of his
flock, while every relaxation he makes in anything immediately evokes reproaches
for his lack of firmness; while his lawful strictness can push people away. ‘
And if we turn to monastics, here we too can see great difficulties. Monasticism
is true loneliness, as the Greek root of this word indicates (monos, “alone”).
The monk in his loneliness conducts an unceasing battle, as if with himself. His
battle against human passions is greater than that waged in human society.
Spiritual discipline and the strictness of obedience, even against his own will,
constant labor, vigils and fasts, a constant restraining of his own will–always
and in everything he is alone.
And what of laymen? Each of them is dissatisfied with something. Let us take,
for example, motherhood. To be a mother is a joy, but at the same time how many
cares there are, often there is no time to pray in peace or to read or to rest
from daily labors; and how often a mother’s heart is grieved by family quarrels
and outbursts of dissatisfaction; and how much do disobedient, careless children
weigh upon a mother! And what fear she has for their lives, how upset she can be
over their fate, and how many difficulties there are in their moral upbringing
and their contacts with others. And to all this is added great material
difficulties and the grief of illness,
So it is that a mother, or a father, or a single person could well compose a
list of complaints, griefs and sorrows such as the bishop asked of the
despondent man: and there is no end to this list.
But look about you, O man, and learn to value what you have been granted to have
in God’s unceasing mercy towards you.
Should a bishop not rejoice? Is he not a successor of the Holy Apostles? Is he
not a preserver of the Divine Truth, a proclaimer of the good tidings of Christ?
And a priest, although it is true he has no life of his own, but by God’s mercy
he has the whole fullness of spiritual life. He is the performer of Christ’s
Mysteries; by his prayers the “mercy of peace” descends to earth, and in his
heartfelt cries at the altar is invoked and made real the descent of the Holy
Spirit on the Holy Gifts of the Body and Blood of Christ. Monasticism is a
sacrifice and a voluntary martyrdom. But this kind, according to the testament
of the Apostle Paul, more than anyone else is capable with mind and heart to
enter “within the veil” (Heb. 6:19) that separates earth from heaven, Is not
this the highest mercy of God?
And you who live in the world: think on what I have said. Even if there have
occurred to you all those misfortunes about which the bishop asked the
despondent man, by this the abyss of God’s mercy to you has not even been
touched. Have you ever stopped to value the freedom which you possess? Have you
rejoiced at the wondrous beauties of nature set by the Lord before you at every
step?. Have you valued as you should the joy of knowing the wisdom of the
sciences? Have you looked with love into the eyes of your wife or children, and
have you thanked the Lord that you are one family with them, and they with you?
Do you realize and understand the joy of having your own church, sanctified by
prayer, and of being in the bosom of the true Church, of approaching with
trembling the Mysteries of the Church, being united in them with Christ? Has the
Lord not placed in your soul the grace of sincere prayer; has He not directed to
you on your life’s path the deprived and offended, so that you might know the
joy of heartfelt kindness in the happiness of giving alms?
There is no end to this inspiring list. But do you occupy yourself with the
contemplation of God’s mercy towards you; humble-yourself more frequently, pray
more from the heart, labor spiritually, and then you will ignite in your heart
the true joy of Pascha, of the Resurrection of Christ.
ARCHPRIEST VALERY LUKIANOV
St. Alexander Nevsky Church, Lakewood, New Jersey
published in Orthodox America, Issue 3, Vol. 1, No. 3
September, 1980
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THE CHARACTER AND PATH OF THE ORTHODOX MISSION
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THE CHARACTER AND PATH OF THE ORTHODOX MISSION
> Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to
> harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life
> eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice
> together. St. John 4: 35·6
WHEN OUR LORD Jesus Christ began to serve the people, He called upon
simple-hearted men to follow Him. Sensing with their hearts the Divine nature of
the new Teacher, they abandoned everything and followed Him, becoming then, and
for two thousand years to come, witnesses of His Divinity before the entire
world. At the same time they began to resemble Him, His heavenly qualities
reflected in them. It was this Divine love, like a holy fire, that wounded their
hearts, and they could not but exuberantly proclaim His teaching of the new
birth. I am come to send fire on the earth (St. Luke 12: 49), said our Lord,
and the hearts of His followers became alight with His Divine supernatural
light. Think ye that I am come to give peace on earth? l tell you, Nay, but
rather division (St. Luke 12: 51) , said our Lord, and His followers cut
themselves off from the world that lies in evil (I John 5: 19) to become
partakers of Heaven, which already in the flesh they bad begun to experience.
Follow Me, said our Lord, and His disciples followed, calling to others: Come
and see our Divme Master (St. John 1: 4}, 46). And they too went and became new
beings.
Such is the nature and the fervor of the Orthodox Mission. At no particular
period of Church history can it be said to have attained perfection, for it has
always been a prominent part of the Orthodox life, the life in Christ. The
Apostles began this mission, the Martyrs strengthened it, the Church Fathers
defended it, and all Orthodox Christians throughout the centuries continue it by
living and witnessing Christ. The Orthodox Church has never devised a plan nor
organized an administrative apparatus for the persuasion and conversion of the
heathen. The Orthodox approach has always been direct, the call to share
the Church’s life of grace being most effectively preached by the life of
holiness the missionary himself leads. The extraneous means used in the Western
missions to attract converts are foreign to the Orthodox idea of mission.
Perhaps the most exemplary, and certainly the most far-reaching, of Orthodox
missions was that of Sts. Cyril and Methody, the 9th century enlighteners of the
Slavs. In modern times, almost unknown to the West, there has been the splendid
and fruitful eastbound missionary movement whose leading representatives came
from the famous Caves Monastery of Kiev in the early 18th century. The one who
took the lead among these missionaries was Metropolitan Philothey, a great
podvizhnik, though as yet uncanonized. Others followed. St Innocent of Irkutsk,
who manifested sanctity so radiantly that he was the first of these men to be
canonized and thus became the heavenly protector of the newly-won lands;
Sts. John of Tobolsk, Sophrony of Irkutsk, and Paul of Tobolsk; not to
mention many others who have not yet been canonized. Thanks to the
vigorous efforts of these men, by the end of the century Orthodoxy had
reached distant America, where new apostles, the equal of the earlier
missionaries and in the same spirit, were revealed.
All of these men were inspired by deep fervor and faith, gifts of God which they
were impelled to share with those who were still in the darkness of unbelief.
The vast new territory, out of the shores of the Amur River and the Pacific,
gave them ample ground for their holy activity. They had a common approach to
missionary labor. They would choose the most suitable place, build a monastic
type dwelling enclosed by a fence against the ways of the world, with a church
which served as the center of a Christian family-like community and where was
celebrated the daily round of services; and then, having the Holy Spirit in
their hearts, they would open the doors to those who hungered for the Word of
God. The natives would come, and soon a family of the new brothers would be
strong enough to carry on by themselves; and the missionary, God’s servant,
would move to more distant regions to bring to others the heaven-sent tidings of
the Kingdom of God.
Today, when the Christian Gospel has reached almost the last corner of the world
and modern inventions have reshaped man’s whole mode of life, the Orthodox
mission remains the same. Let not the wise of this world tempt young missionary
vigor to seek new, “modern” ways that promote success; there are none outside
the tested Orthodox Church. True, this path is narrow, hard, and dangerous·- but
it is the shortest path to the goal, which is living contact with God. All other
paths lead astray, inevitably bringing both pastor and flock to complete
submersion in the spirit of worldliness, to a State of spiritual sleep hidden
behind a facade of activity where they only fancy to be saving their souls. The
multitudes of modern sects furnish numerous examples of a claim and a desire for
Christian witness that are proved inadequate by the total absence in them of
genuine experience of the spiritual life, which is, in the words of Bishop
Theophan the Recluse, an entirely different world, into which no human wisdom
penetrates.
It is the Orthodox mission to open a door upon this other world, to manifest the
right (ortho) teaching (dox) first of all in one’s own life, and then to invite
those who stand outside to come and see and, if they have the heart to accept
the new birth in Christ, to partake of the life of grace within the Church that
is the only preparation here below for eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. My
joy, says St. Seraphim, acquire the Spirit of Peace (the Holy Spirit) and
thousands around you will be saved.
Orthodox Word, November-December 1965
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PROPHET DANIEL AND THREE HOLY YOUTHS
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THE 17TH OF THE MONTH, MEMORY OF THE HOLY PROPHET DANIEL AND OF THE THREE HOLY
YOUNG MEN:
ANANIAS, AZARIAS AND MISAEL
When Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, captured Jerusalem 597 years before the
birth of our Lord, he went back to his distant land, taking with him Jehoiachin,
King of
Judah, many of the nobles of the city, and the sacred things from the Temple of
God. The eight-year-old Daniel and his three companions, all of them handsome
youths of royal lineage, were among those selected for instruction in the
language and literature
of the Chaldeans under the chief of the palace eunuchs, to qualify them for the
King’s service. The chief eunuch gave them new names, so Daniel became known as
Belteshazzar, Ananias as Shadrach, Misael as Meshach and Azarias as Abednego.
Daniel kept all the precepts of the law blamelessly even though he was living
among pagans. He would not touch the food he was offered from the royal table
and yet he and his companions strengthened by fasting and prayer, appeared more
lively and better looking on a diet of vegetables and water than the
other children of the court. God also gave them wisdom and knowledge in full
measure, so that they surpassed all the learned men of the Kingdom. In addition,
Daniel received the gift of interpretation of
dreams and visions.
When three years had passed, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which greatly
troubled his spirit. Since his wise men and soothsayers were incapable of
interpreting it, he ordered all of them to be put to the sword, including the
young Israelites. But God revealed the King’s dream and its interpretation to
Daniel in answer to the earnest prayer of His servants. The shining statue that
Nebuchadnezzar had seen standing before him was an allegory of the course of
times to come. Its golden head represented the Kingdom of the Chaldeans; its
silver breast and hands, the Kingdom of the Medes and Persians which would
follow after; its belly and thighs of bronze, the Hellenic Kingdom of Alexander
the Great; and its iron legs, the Empire of the Romans. The stone
Nebuchadnezzar had seen cut from the mountain by no human hand and which reduced
to dust that great image of the pagan Empires was the figure of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who took flesh at the end of time in order to establish an eternal
spiritual kingdom, Holy Church, which nothing will ever be able to destroy. The
King gave
thanks to the God of Daniel, whom he made. ruler over the whole of Babylonia and
prefect of all the wise men of the Kingdom. The King allowed Daniel to remain at
court, but he appointed his three young companions over the affairs of the
province of Babylon.
Daniel’s reputation with prince and people grew yet greater when he skilfully
discovered the guilt of the two lascivious elders, who falsely accused the
chaste Susanna of fornication because she rejected their advances.
In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue of
himself and commanded all the satraps, governors, councilors and magistrates of
his Kingdom to fall down and worship it, when they heard the musical instruments
strike up. Notwithstanding the threats of the dreadful tyrant, the Three Young
Men would not obey the impious command, and remained faithful to the worship of
the one and only true God. Certain Chaldean officials, who were jealous of their
high standing, seized the
opportunity of denouncing them to the King. Trembling with rage at their report,
Nebuchadnezzar ordered the burning fiery furnace, which had been prepared for
all who disobeyed his command, to be heated seven times more than usual, and he
had the
Three Young Men cast into it. Speaking in the name of the entire Hebrew people,
Ananias, Azarias and Misael addressed a prayer full of humility to God. They
acknowledged the offences of their fathers, and recognized the true judgement
and equity of God in the exile that He had brought upon them, in the
mistreatment
they suffered at the hands of the impious King and, finally, in the torment of
fire. The servants who were busied feeding the furnace were burnt by the flame
which broke out from it in the very moment that the Angel of God descended and
drove out the fire,
enveloping the Young Men in a cool, dewy breeze. Dancing for joy around the
Angel, they changed their prayer into a hymn of thanksgiving. Having first of
all invoked the thrice-holy name of the Lord, they called upon all the orders of
creation to join with
them so as to praise and highly exalt the Lord for ever: Angels, heavens,
elements, seasons, land, sea, mountains and animals and the sons of men,
including the souls of the righteous dead. Having surveyed the whole of
creation, they named themselves as the least and most humble of all, exclaiming:
Praise, bless and worship the Lord, sing praise to Him and highly exalt Him for
ever; for He has rescued us from Hell; He has saved us from the hands of death;
He has delivered us from the midst of the burning fiery furnace!” They were
forgetful of nothing that has been created and, as they danced, they gathered
all things around the Word of God, mysteriously figured in human form by the
Angel who had come down into the fire to save them.
Nebuchadnezzar himself, on looking into the furnace, saw and recognized the
Angel, thus prefiguring the conversion of the pagans: Lo, I see four men
loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and
the appearance of the fourth is like a son of God (Dan. 3:25). Telling them to
come forth, he and all his courtiers saw that the fire had been powerless to
leave even the slightest smell of burning upon them. The King therefore
glorified God, restored the Three Young Men to honourable positions, and decreed
that anyone who blasphemed the God of Israel should be put to death.
In the same year, Nebuchadnezzar had another terrifying dream, which Daniel
alone was able to interpret by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and which was
fulfilled after twelve months. In the very moment that the King was exulting in
pride at the splendour of his power, God punished him, cutting him down like
the tree he had seen in his dream. He became mad, was deprived of his kingship,
and was driven from among men to wander in the open air with the beasts of the
field, until such time as, humbled, he would confess his offence and pray to the
Lord. The kingship was then restored to him for seven years.
After the death of Nebuchadnezzar (562 BC) and the troubles that followed, the
kingship eventually passed to Belshazzar (548 BC). One day during a great feast,
he had his guests served wine in the sacred vessels taken from the Temple in
Jerusalem. As they were drinking to the honour of their false gods, the fingers
of a man’s hand suddenly appeared on the wall writing enigmatic words, which
cast great fear upon the King and his guests. Once again, only Daniel was able
to make the matter plain in revealing to Belshazzar that the end of his reign
had come. That very night, the King was slain and Darius the Mede came to power.
Seeing that Daniel was wiser and more illustrious than all the great men of the
Kingdom of the Medes and Persians, Darius appointed him first of the three
presidents to whom all the satraps were accountable. The other presidents. as
well as the satraps, were jealous of his favour with the King, and sought a
ground of complaint against him. Knowing Daniel’s piety, they persuaded the King
to decree that whoever made petition to any god or man except the King for
thirty days should be cast into the lions’ den.
Unshakeable in his love for God and fidelity to the Law, Daniel continued openly
to fulfill his usual rule of prayer, turning towards Jerusalem thrice a day.
When his disobedience was denounced to Darius, the King was sick at heart for,
although he admired Daniel’s
piety, he was constrained by his own decree to have him cast into the lions’
den. But once again God sent his Angel, who calmed the beasts. When, early next
morning the remorseful King, ill anguish of spirit, had the stone slab taken
from the mouth of the den, he was amazed to see Daniel sitting among the lions,
which were gambolling with joy around him, whisking their tails and coming up to
have their manes stroked, as though they were doing obeisance to another Adam.
Darius had the Prophet taken out of the den and restored to honour, while his
enemies were cast into it and devoured by the ferocious animals.
Daniel showed up the deceitfulness of idolatry to the people of Babylon by
revealing the trickery of the priests of the temple of Bel, who used to go into
the temple at night through an underground passage, and eat the offerings left
on the idol’s table, so
that the people would believe Bel was alive. He also made plain the absurdity of
worshipping a creature devoid of reason, by killing without using a weapon the
dragon they worshipped as a god. But this enraged the Chaldeans who, for a
second time, obliged the King to throw his favourite into the lions’ den. There
Daniel was visited by the Prophet Habbakuk (Avvacum) who was miraculously
transported from Judea in the twinkling of an eye, to bring him a meal and to
show God’s favour towards him (cf. 2 Dec.).
As well as the ability to interpret dreams and visions, Daniel also received
revelations from God about the consummation of the present age. In the first
year of Belshazzar’s reign, he saw four huge beasts appear, standing for the
great pagan Kingdoms that
would devour mankind. The first, which looked like a lioness, represented the
Babylonian Empire; the second, resembling a bear, stood for the Empire of Persia
which was to last for about 220 years; behind it came a leopard, signifying the
Hellenic Empire of
Alexander the Great (336-23 Be), which was superseded before long by a fourth
beast, armed with ten horns, standing for the Roman Empire.
The book of the Prophet Daniel predicts what the Apocalypse of Saint John
confirms; namely, that at the end of the age, when revolutions, wars, and
discord in the ten symbolic kingdoms which take their origin from the Empire-or
rather from the civilization- of Rome, have brought in the reign of confusion
over mankind, and iniquity has reached its culmination upon earth, then
Antichrist will arise. In him will be the sum of all the malice of Satan, and by
lying words and deceitful wonders, he will have
himself worshipped as God.
In a vision of the end of time, Daniel saw the throne of God approaching like a
flame of fire. Under the appearance of the Ancient of Days, clothed in white
raiment shining with light, God the Father took his seat to examine the book of
the conscience of
each person and to pass Judgement on the world. Whereupon the Son of man, our
Lord Jesus Christ, waged the final battle against Antichrist and cast him
headlong into unquenchable fire. Then the angels presented the Son of man before
the throne of the Father to receive principality, power, glory and everlasting
Kingship over all peoples, tribes and languages in Heaven, on earth, and
under the earth in order to make manifest to the whole universe that He is the
Lord, the Son of God, First-born of God before all Creation, and that in
becoming the First-born from the dead (CoL 1:18) He
has restored our corrupted human nature, revealing in His Body the first-fruits
of our resurrection and of our eternal glory.
In other visions concerning the times to come, God made further things clear to
Daniel, especially about the tyrannical reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (175-64),
himself a prefiguration of Antichrist, who would cause the sacrifices and
worship of the Lord to
cease and would place the abomination of desolation in the Temple of God itself
(Dan. 9:27). Daniel learnt from the Angel Gabriel in a vision that the people
would be able to return to Jerusalem after seven weeks of years, (i.e. after
forty-nine years), thereby
predicting the restoration of the worship of God in the Holy City. This was
accomplished by the anointed prince Zerubbabel, and the priests Ezra and Joshua
(Dan. 9:25, Ezra 3:8) and was to signify the final restoration of the whole of
mankind by the true anointed one, the Lord Jesus Christ, sixty-two weeks of
years later, namely
after 434 years (Dan. 9:26).
In the third year of Cyrus, King of Persia, Daniel, greatly beloved of God; was
deemed worthy of the vision of the Word Himself in the likeness of a man clothed
in linen, whose loins were girded with pure gold. His body was like beryl, his
face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms
and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the
noise of a multitude (Dan. 10:6).
Astonished beyond measure, the Prophet fell on his face and would have expired
if the Angel of the Lord; had not comforted and strengthened him before
unfolding what would befall in the course of time – the wars between Alexander’s
successors, and
the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes – which prefigure the final contest (at
the appearance of Antichrist) of the righteous whose names are written in the
Book of life.
God revealed more plainly to Daniel than to all the other prophets that at the
Last Day
those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:2), and that the righteous
will shine like the sun in its glory. The Prophet wanted to know the times and
circumstances of all
these things, but the Lord replied: Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut
up and sealed until the time of the end, until many shall be chosen, made white
and cleansed by fire… But go your way till the end, take your rest, and you
shall arise to receive your inheritance at the end of the days (Dan.
13:9-10,13).
Two years after the return of his people to the land of their fathers the holy
Prophet died in peace at the age of eighty (c. 534-30 Be). The Three Young Men
also died in peace and, according to tradition, they and Daniel were among the
righteous dead who arose
at the time of the Crucifixion of Christ (Matt. 27:52-53).
THE SYNAXARION
The Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church
By HIEROMONK MAKARIOS OF SIMONOS PETRA
Translated from the French by Christopher Hookway
VOLUME Two
Holy Convent of The Annunciation of Our Lady
Ormylia (Chalkidike) 1999
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WE NEED A LITTLE VISIT FROM THE REAL SAINT NICHOLAS
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WE NEED A LITTLE VISIT FROM THE REAL SAINT NICHOLAS
BY TERRY MATTINGLY
It happens in August or, at the very latest, September. You are reading the
company newsletter. You turn the page and there it is in bold type—the date of
the official Christmas party. Once, it was on December 23, then December 15,
then December 10. It might even creep as early as December 6. Or perhaps the
shock hits when your children start school and hear about plans for the Winter
Solstice concert.
Christmas keeps expanding and morphing at the same time, spreading like an
endless parking lot at a shopping mall. There may as well be teams of turkeys
pulling the display-window sleighs and garlands of mistletoe and twinkle lights
wrapped around the Jack-O-Lanterns.
And at the center of it all is the nonsectarian superman in the red-and-white
suit. He’s the jolly driver on a cultural steamroller called “The Holidays,” the
patron saint of a consumer-friendly creed of wonder, goodness, generosity, and
vague faith. Young Mara Wilson, star of the 1994 movie Miracle on 34th Street,
summed up these cultural rites: “This movie is about having faith in someone who
can take care of you—like your mother, your father, or Santa Claus, or the tooth
fairy, or God.”
Hear that? Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and God.
We look at the calendar and it all seems normal, because these patterns are a
way of life for millions. We look at the calendar and we think that there is
nothing we can do. We look at the calendar and we simply do not know what to
say.
Perhaps we need to say: “O righteous Nicholas, in Myra you were shown forth as a
holy minister fulfilling Christ’s holy Gospel: for you did lay down your life
for your flock and people and, O saint, you saved the innocent from unjust
death.”
We need help. Perhaps this is a job for St. Nicholas.
Dressed Like A Bishop
Just before dawn on the morning of December 6, my wife and I tiptoe happily
through the house.
We know what we will find when we enter each bedroom—a pair of socks and shoes
ready to receive candy, fruit, and a few simple gifts. To add our own silly
wrinkle to centuries of tradition, we let our children put their shoes inside
laundry baskets, which gives us extra room.
Nearby, there’s an icon of a bishop in red robes, with a white stole over his
shoulders containing a trinity of crosses. His hair and beard are white and his
face is thin, which is natural for a monk accustomed to years of fasting. His
right hand is raised in blessing and he holds a golden Gospel book in his left.
The feast day of St. Nicholas is December 6. In the fourth century, he served as
bishop of the city of Myra in Asia Minor and, for centuries, he was one of
Christendom’s most beloved saints. This is not the man that we see in parades
staged by merchants at Thanksgiving. The real St. Nicholas is the patron of
orphans, sailors, and all who are in distress. Ironically, he also is the saint
of merchants and pawnbrokers.
“St. Nicholas is supposed to be the very image of charity and concern for
others, especially the poor,” Father Constantine White, dean of St. Nicholas
Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, D.C., once explained to me. “There is some
link there to gift-giving, but nothing that resembles what has happened with
Santa Claus.”
Children in this parish, and others with the same name, often do not connect
their patron saint with the commercialized character on TV. In other churches,
St. Nicholas may not be mentioned at all. For this to change, it would take
concerted efforts in Orthodox homes and parishes.
“I can guarantee you this,” said Father Constantine, “any man in a red suit who
shows up at this church around Christmas is going to be dressed like a bishop.”
What Happened To St. Nicholas?
What happened to this beloved saint? Church history indicates that Nicholas was
born into wealth and apparently gave his inheritance to the poor. He was elected
bishop at age 30 and was listed as a participant in the Council of Nicea. When
theological debate was not enough, Nicholas is said to have punched out the
heretic Arius, who argued that Jesus was not fully divine. Later, the bishop was
imprisoned under the Emperor Diocletian and released under Constantine. He died
on December 6,343.
A famous tradition is captured in an icon called the Charity of St. Nicholas,
which shows him visiting a poor family at night, carrying a bag of gold. The
father could not provide dowries for his daughters, which meant they could not
marry. Nicholas rescued them from slavery or prostitution by dropping gold coins
through a window. The gifts fell into their stockings, which had been hung up to
dry.
The story of the white-haired saint in red robes, bringing gifts in the night,
grew in popularity through the centuries especially with children.
The rest is history. Sailors spread the saint’s fame along the European coast
and, over time, his lore blended with other legends, especially after the birth
of Protestantism. The result: Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Père Noël; and
many others, including Sinter Klaas, who came with the Dutch to a settlement
that became the media and advertising capital of the world-New York City. Then
an Episcopalian named Clement C. Moore wrote the 1823 poem, “A Visit from St.
Nicholas,” with its immortal words, “‘Twas the night before Christmas.” Then the
legendary cartoonist Thomas Nast, Coca-Cola, Sears, and armies of ad agencies
got hold of St. Nick.
Today, it’s hard to see the holy bishop in the fat, sassy, and omnipresent
images of Santa Claus. It’s a struggle to link his life with the words of Christ
that are read at the saint’s feast: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the
kingdom of God; Blessed are you that hunger, for you shall be satisfied; Blessed
are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. . . .”
Embracing The Real St. Nicholas
I am convinced there are two timely reasons for Holy Orthodoxy to embrace St.
Nicholas again and strive to celebrate his feast day as part of what should be a
quiet, reflective, penitential time of year—Nativity Lent (Advent in the West).
First, I think we can publicly deliver this message to our culture: “Yes, there
is a St. Nicholas.” If churches put that headline on top of advertisements in
local newspapers, I think people would pay attention. A search on the World Wide
Web for resources about St. Nicholas will find references in the most unlikely
of places, even in sites linked to Baptist churches, the Assemblies of God, and
other Protestant groups. Some people are searching for their Christian roots.
The bottom line: We can give the man his day, calling attention to the start of
a season that should set us apart from our culture. And we can tell our children
the truth about the modest gift-giving traditions linked to this saint, along
with telling them the stories of his unique bond with the poor. We can urge our
children, during Nativity Lent, to focus on giving to others.
In fact, I think our churches can offer St. Nicholas as a unique and evocative
figure to help us call attention to an urgent need-increased efforts to help
those caught in crisis pregnancies and their children, born and unborn. He is,
after all, the patron saint of endangered and distressed children. Each week of
Nativity Lent, the faithful could bring diapers, baby food, blankets, clothes,
and other necessities to be distributed in mission projects in the community.
Can you think of a more powerful, appropriate saint to serve as patron for our
pro-life efforts?
Second, I think that we must find a way to reclaim the uniqueness of the
pre-Christmas season, if we are ever going to manage to celebrate a Nativity
Feast that is more than a riot of consumerism followed by bowl games and the NFL
playoffs.
The timing may be right. For many Americans, “The Holidays” have become a
nightmare, a time of spiritual whiplash when what is supposed to be a season of
joy often turns into an acid bath of cynicism and failed dreams.
The respected church-growth researcher Lyle Schaller once told me that there are
two times each year when people who rarely if ever attend church are open to
stepping inside a sanctuary. As everyone knows, there are flocks of Easter
Christians who choose that season to get dressed up and make their annual
appearances at church. But if Easter is the season of choice for marginal
Christians, Christmas is the time when unchurched people-or those who have been
inactive for years-may sneak into worship.
Many crave true beauty in a season of tinsel and cheap sentiment. Many seek
fellowship during a time of year that pours salt into the wounds of those with
broken families and fading dreams. Others may survive the blitz of high-pressure
advertising, shallow parties, crazed shopping, long journeys, tense family
reunions, and dumb TV specials and then say, “Didn’t Christmas used to mean more
than this? Where is the wonder of Christmas?”
The time to celebrate Christmas is in the twelve days of Christmas, not in
Nativity Lent. I am convinced that if our churches openly offer a unique, holy,
and sane approach to celebrating these seasons, some souls will come seeking
shelter from the storm.
Yes, there is a St. Nicholas. He was a saint who served his Master well. Yes, he
points forward to the Mother and her Holy Child and the true meaning of
Christmas.
We have these gifts and we must share them with others.
Prof. Terry Mattingly is associate professor of mass media & religion at Palm
Beach Atlantic College and a senior fellow at the Council for Christian Colleges
and Universities. He writes the national “On Religion” column for the Scripps
Howard News Service in Washington, D.C. He is a member of St. Mary’s Orthodox
Church in West Palm Beach, Florida.
From Again Magazine, Vol. 23, No. 4, October-December, 2001, p. 4,5.
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HINDRANCES TO PRAYER — ST JOHN OF KRONSTADT
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Hindrances to Prayer — St John of Kronstadt
During prayer there sometimes occur moments of deadly darkness and spiritual
anguish arising from unbelief of the heart (for unbelief is darkness). Do not
let your heart fail you at such moments, but remember that if the Divine light
has been cut off from you, it always shines in all its splendour and greatness
in God Himself, in God’s Church, in heaven and on earth, and in the material
world in which “His eternal power also and divinity” are visible. Do not think
that truth has failed, because truth is God Himself, and everything that exists
has its foundation and reason in Him. Only your own weak, sinful and darkened
heart can fail in the truth, for it cannot always bear the strength of the light
of truth, and is not always capable of containing its purity, but only if it is
being, or has been, purified from its sins, as the first cause of spiritual
darkness. The proof of this you may find in yourself. When the light of faith or
God’s truth dwells in your heart, only then is it tranquil, firm, strong, and
living; but when this is cut off, then your heart becomes uneasy, weak as a reed
shaken by the wind, and lifeless. Do not pay any attention to this darkness of
Satan. Drive it away from your heart by making the sign of the life-giving
Cross!
When praying, keep to the rule that it is better to say five words from the
depth of your heart than ten thousand words with your tongue only. When you
observe that your heart is cold and prays unwillingly, stop praying and warm
your heart by vividly representing to yourself either your own wickedness, your
spiritual poverty, misery, and blindness, or the great benefits which God
bestows every moment upon you and all mankind, especially upon Christians, and
then pray slowly and fervently. If you have not time to say all the prayers, it
does not matter, and you will receive incomparably greater benefit from praying
fervently and not hurriedly than if you had said all your prayers hurriedly and
without feeling: “I had rather speak five words with my understanding … than ten
thousand words in a tongue.”
As after having unworthily communicated, so also after having prayed unworthily
and coldly, our soul feels equally ill at ease. This means that God does not
enter our heart, being offended at its unbelief and coldness, and allows the
evil spirit to nestle in our hearts, in order to make us feel the difference
between His own presence and its yoke.
Sometimes during prayer you feel a kind of estrangement from God, and despair.
Do not be carried away by such a feeling; it proceeds from the Devil. Say in
your heart: “I despair not of salvation, reprobate as I am; and emboldened by
Thine immeasurable compassion, I come unto Thee. If there is any hope of
salvation for me, if Thy loving mercy can overcome the multitude of my
transgressions, be Thou my Saviour.”
When praying with people, we sometimes have to pierce through with our prayer as
if it were the hardest wall – human souls, hardened and petrified by earthly
passions – to penetrate the Egyptian darkness, the darkness of passions and
worldly attachments. This is why it is sometimes difficult to pray. The simpler
the people one prays with, the easier it is.
From A Treasury of Russian Spirituality by G.P. Fedotov
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GREAT LENT HAS BEGUN. ITS FIRST WEEK IS ENTIRELY DEDICATED TO REPENTANCE.
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GREAT LENT HAS BEGUN. ITS FIRST WEEK IS ENTIRELY DEDICATED TO REPENTANCE.
A SERMON BY SAINT PHILARET
Great Lent has begun. Its first week is entirely dedicated to repentance. Both
the Great Canon and nearly all this week’s prayers call upon the human soul to
undertake the penitential struggle and repent to the Omniscient God, Who is
always ready to accept the repentant sinner.
Repentance is twofold. One kind of repentance is that by which one who has given
himself over to sin and, until then, has lived a completely un-Christian life
should repent: far from God, without God’s law, far from the Church, he was a
slave to his passions. But he has come to his senses; his conscience has spoken.
Perhaps a good book has brought him to recognize this: in any case, he wants to
repent. In this case, repentance is not simply a recognition of sins with the
request that the Lord forgive them; this repentance – as implied by the very
word in Greek, metanoia, which is translated as “repentance” – involves a
“conversion,” i.e., a turning around, a decisive turn in another direction. In
other words, a complete change of life. As the great Elder Ambrose of Optina
said, for such repentance is needed neither years, nor months, but a moment.
Recall Mary of Egypt: she had been plunged in the abyss of sin; she was
literally whirled about in “the abyss of sin.” But she, obeying some inner
feeling, went to the Holy Land, where she wanted to venerate the sacred
Live-Giving Tree. She saw how people approached it, but some force evidently
held her back. This was the moment when the grace of God touched her soul, and
she suddenly and immediately understood all the ugliness of her life and all the
horror of what she had committed. One single moment, and all was decided. She
turned to the Heavenly Queen, that she might become her Helpmate in repentance.
And then, after this good decision, she immediately venerated this great Holy
Object unhindered and, inspired by God’s mercy, left for the desert to undertake
those extraordinary labors and struggles that turned her from a human into an
angel. For we know that when the great ascetic, St. Zosimas, saw her there, he
was “filled with utter astonishment,” as it says in the canon. He was filled
with utter astonishment because he thought he was seeing not a person, but an
angel in the flesh: he saw how she crossed over the Jordan as on dry land; he
saw how she was lifted up into the air in prayer. Her repentance was already so
complete, her spirit was already so enflamed in aspiring towards God, that her
very body, which had once so sinned, was so spiritualized and transfigured that
it followed the soul in ascent and rose up to God. This is what repentance is
for someone who has seen that he has not been living rightly. Then came her
penitential labors, for they made her an earthly angel and a heavenly person.
But the moment of repentance was a decision accepted immediately, and the rest
was its fulfilment.
The Church prays for all: “That we may complete the remaining time of our life
in peace and repentance.” This prayer was prayed by great God-pleasers when they
were in church. This means that repentance, as contrition and the battle with
sin, should be an inseparable part of everyone’s life. Bishop Theophan the
Recluse, that great instructor of the spiritual life, said that every
Christian’s breath coming out of his chest, so long as he lives, should not
simply by an exhalation of air from the lungs, but should be a penitential sigh.
Man always feels himself to be a prisoner to sin and calls upon God’s mercy in
penitential prayer. This kind of repentance should be one’s constant companion.
It is for this that we pray: that all the time left to us, all the “remaining
time of our life,” be completed in peace and repentance, so that repentance
would be inseparable from us. When man thus bears repentance, he becomes
increasingly aware of the greatness of God’s mercy and of his own sinfulness.
One of the great ascetics, St. Sisoes the Great – someone who had raised the
dead by his prayers – was dying. The monks gathered at his grave, to his
deathbed, and it turned out that they were not the only to have come. The
Elder’s face lit up, and he said: “Here they have come; they have come.” The
others did not see, but his eyes were already opened to the heavenly world; he
saw how other righteous ones had come to greet him, the righteous one. “Here
have come the prophets; here have come the monastic saints; here have come the
Apostles,” he said. His face lit up even more, and he began to speak with
someone quietly. Those who had gathered asked him: “Abba, with whom are you
speaking?” He said: “The angels have come to take me, but I was asking that they
leave me time for repentance.” Everyone knew that he was perfect, and said with
astonishment: “Abba, you have no need of repentance.” The humble Elder replied:
“I truly do not know whether I have even begun.” But after these humble words,
in which the depth of his humility so shone forth, his face shone like the sun,
and he said: “Here the Lord is coming and saying: ‘Bring Me the vessel chosen
from the desert.’” With these words, his soul left his body like a flash of
lightening and everyone, filled with awe, quickly dispersed. This is how this
humble ascetic looked upon the need for repentance.
May we always have this sincere prayer to God, beloved, that the Lord might help
us during this “remaining time of our life” – however long or short His
Providence grants us to live – to live our life in “peace and repentance.” Amen.
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PREPARING FOR PASCHA
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 3 Teachings on the
Faith
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Great Lent, Pascha, Triodion
PREPARING OURSELVES FOR PASCHA
Preparation is an essential part of Orthodox spirituality. It is for this reason
that the Church has established that each major feast day be preceded by a
period of fasting and spiritual preparation. The greatest feast in Christendom
is the Resurrection of Christ, Great and Holy Pascha. It is called the Feast of
feasts and Festival of festivals. Since it is the greatest of feasts, the period
of preparation for Pascha is the most intense. The period of ten weeks which
lead to Holy Pascha is contained in a book called the Triodion. The Triodion can
be divided into three different sections, the first which, commonly called the
Triodion, consists of the four Sundays: 1) the Publican and the Pharisee 2) the
Prodigal Son 3) the Second Coming and 4) the expulsion of Adam from Paradise.
These commemorations remind us of the message of repentance which we recently
heard from St. John the Forerunner and later from Christ Himself: “Repent, for
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The parable of the Publican and the Pharisee
teaches us that true repentance cannot accompany arrogance and judgmental-ness
and that, “whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted.”
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, we are taught that we have freewill, the
inheritance we have received from the Father. We may squander it on loose living
or we may remain close to the Father. When we decide to return to God in a
contrite heart and desire only to be a servant of God and not even a son, which
is our birthright, we must lift ourselves up from the mire of sin and set out on
the road to return to the Father. Then, while we are still afar off, God will
run out to meet us and embrace us and kiss us, then will He kill for us the
fatted calf. On the other hand, those who have not fallen so far away must not
begrudge our repentant brethren nor God for receiving them joyfully.
After these two Sundays the message becomes more severe. Having been taught that
God is merciful, lest we take advantage of His mercy, we are reminded of the
coming judgment and the eternal fate of sinners. He calls all men His brethren
and requires that we also treat them thus, saying: “Inasmuch as ye have done
good or evil unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me” (c.f. Matt. 35: 41-45). This day is called Meat-fare Sunday because it is
the last day on which we are permitted to eat meat until the great day of
Pascha. During the week which follows, which is called Cheese-fare week, we are
permitted to eat of all foods, save meat: dairy products, fish, wine, and oil,
even on Wednesday and Friday. Also, during Cheese-fare week the services
gradually begin to take on a Lenten character: on Wednesday and Friday of this
week, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated and Alleluia is chanted during Matins
instead of God is the Lord. In this way, the Church begins to prepare us for the
Great Fast, on the one hand comforting us with the consumption of all foods,
save meat, and on the other hand transforming the services into Lenten ones.
On Cheese-fare Sunday, the last day before the Great Fast, we remember the
expulsion of Adam from Paradise. The two themes of repentance and fasting are
united in this day’s hymnography, for the first commandment God gave to Adam and
Eve was to fast from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Having violated this commandment, and being cast out of Paradise, Adam sat
opposite Paradise and wept. For it is only through fasting and repentance that
we may attain Paradise.
On the following day, Clean Monday, the stadium of the virtues is opened, the
Great Fast. Let those who wish to enter, gird themselves for the good struggle
of the Fast, for those who lawfully compete shall be justly crowned.
So be it, through the prayers of our holy fathers. Amen.
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LET US COMMIT OURSELVES UNTO CHRIST OUR GOD
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy
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The most sacred adornment of the Church is the body of the faithful. Each babe,
child, young adult, adult, and elderly person in attendance is a beautiful pearl
and a priceless gem.
Often, indeed very often, we hear these words in the litanies throughout our
divine services. In committing ourselves to Christ our God, we fulfill the great
commandment to love our God with all of our heart, our mind, our soul, nay every
bit of our substance. In committing ourselves unto Christ our God, we also
commit ourselves into His great and abundant mercy. What greater consolation,
what greater joy, what greater blessing can there be than to rest in our Lord’s
loving embrace.
One might ask, “how do we commit ourselves unto Christ?” We look at the words
and teaching of those who have united themselves to Christ, the Saints. Saint
John Chrysostom uttered these awesome words as he breathed his last: “Glory be
to God for all things.” In all things – joys and sorrows, temptations and
trials, worries and fears – let us utter these words from the depths of our
heart – “Glory be to Thee O God for all things that Thou hast set in order from
me.” When we place our total trust in our God, we have no fears and no worries.
To quote a popular contemporary phrase, “if God leads us to it, He will lead us
through it.”
Blessed is our God Who loves us without end!
Amen
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ON THE RECENT EVENTS IN JERUSALEM AND THEIR ECCLESIOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 3 Teachings on the
Faith
≈ Comments Off on On the Recent Events in Jerusalem and their
Ecclesiological Underpinnings
Beloved in Christ,
On May 25/26 of this year, the Patriarch of Constantinople met with Pope Francis
to commemorate a similar meeting which took place between their predecessors 50
years prior. This of course refers to the meeting in Jerusalem in 1964 of Pope
Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras.
Many in the press refer to this event as a historic rapprochement between
Catholics and Orthodox to try to restore Christian unity after nearly 1,000
years of estrangement. To many Orthodox, this was an event of great concern. The
meeting and subsequent lifting of the Anathema of 1054 may have started to heal
“the Great Schism” as it is know to history, but it caused great estrangement
within Orthodoxy. Never before has an anathema been lifted. This single act
implies that the previously held erroneous belief was no longer an error, that
it mystically healed itself. To some this act was symbolic, to others it
signified a crowning moment to the Ecumenical movement, to which World Orthodoxy
was now deeply entrenched.
The following article will further enlighten the pious and observant that the
events, both recent and from 1964, are truly more than a symbolic gesture and
threaten the ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church. What could not be won in
Florence and Ferrara in a decade has slowly come to realization since 1924.
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– ~~~ – + – ~~~ – + ~~~
ON THE RECENT EVENTS IN JERUSALEM AND THEIR ECCLESIOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS
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“But if,” they say, “we had devised some middle ground between the dogmas (of
the Papists and the Orthodox), then thanks to this we would have united with
them and accomplished our business superbly, without at all having been forced
to say anything except what corresponds to custom and has been handed down (by
the Fathers).” This is precisely the means by which many, from of old, have been
deceived and persuaded to follow those who have led them off the steep precipice
of impiety; believing that there is some middle ground between the two teachings
that can reconcile obvious contradictions, they have been exposed to peril.
[St. Mark of Ephesus (+1444)]
That which is required of every Orthodox [Christian] is to pass on the good
uneasiness to the heterodox, in order that they may understand that they are in
delusion, so as not to falsely be at peace with their thoughts and be deprived
in this life of the rich blessings of Orthodoxy and in the next life the much
greater and eternal blessings of God.
[Elder Paisios the Athonite (+1994)]
We observe, however, that nobody in a higher position than our own is raising
his voice; and this fact constrains us to speak out, lest at the Last Judgment
we should be responsible for having seen the danger of Ecumenism threaten the
Church, and yet not having warned her Bishops.
[Saint Philaret of New York, the Confessor (+1985)]
† † †
What is one to make of the recent events in Jerusalem commemorating the
50th anniversary of the meeting of Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI,
during which the Patriarch of Constantinople, along with the Archbishop of the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and other hierarchs of the Patriarchate, met with the
Pope of Rome to conduct joint prayer services and issue joint statements? What
problems, if any, do these meetings and statements pose to us as Orthodox
Christians and to our Orthodox Faith? And, what, in the final analysis, is the
essential theological problem at stake here?
These are some of the questions that many faithful ask, and they deserve a
thorough answer in return. This short article will attempt to provide some
answers, or at least the beginnings of such answers.
Those who would see in these ecumenical gatherings an overwhelmingly positive
development speak of them as “exchanges of generosity, goodwill and hope,” and
“exchanges in the spirit of Christian love” which are “true expressions of the
faith of the Apostles, the Fathers, and the Orthodox.” The champions of these
gatherings never fail to admit that “although there are serious differences”
between the Orthodox Church and Catholicism “which must not be overlooked,
nevertheless our faith demands that we join together and witness to our shared
Christian commitments.” This is how a well-known American Orthodox theologian
referred to the Jerusalem event and I believe he is accurately repeating the
general conception among supporters.
If, however, we are to understand the meaning of these events in a spiritual and
theological manner, we must go beyond the tired clichés and overused platitudes
and examine the underlying ecclesiology which is either being implied or being
expressed by the Patriarch and his supporters during these meetings. It is quite
easy, and unfortunately quite common even among Orthodox Christians, to be
satisfied with the flowery language of love and reconciliation and not pay
attention to the deeper significance of the theology being expressed in word and
deed. If we are to avoid such a pitfall and assist others in the same, we must
acquire an Orthodox mindset and judge these important matters within the
Orthodox framework and criteria.
The underlying problem here that few discuss is the ecclesiological implications
of the Patriarchate and its supporters’ new view of the Church. If the
Jerusalem meeting and the accompanying gatherings (such as those in Paris,
Boston and Atlanta) are judged to be destructive of Church unity and
to undermine the mission of the Church, it is not, of course, because of the
flowery language of love and understanding incessantly used on all sides, but
because they are not grounded in the Orthodox Faith, in Orthodox ecclesiology.
If, however, our representatives in these meetings are not expressing an
Orthodox teaching on the Church, what are they expressing?
Unfortunately, there is no shortage of previous statements by hierarchs of the
Patriarchate of Constantinople one could reference in order to answer this
question. Citing them is both beyond the scope of this article and unnecessary,
for in remarks made by the Patriarch of Constantinople in his first speech given
in Jerusalem on May 23rd, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the essence of
the new ecclesiology is clearly articulated:
The One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, founded by the “Word in the
beginning,” by the one “truly with God,” and the Word “truly God”, according to
the evangelist of love, unfortunately, during her engagement on earth, on
account of the dominance of human weakness and of impermanence of the will of
the human intellect, was divided in time. This brought about various conditions
and groups, of which each claimed for itself “authenticity” and “truth.” The
Truth, however, is One, Christ, and the One Church founded by Him.
Both before and after the great Schism of 1054 between East and West, our Holy
Orthodox Church made attempts to overcome the differences, which originated from
the beginning and for the most part from factors outside of the environs of the
Church. Unfortunately, the human element dominated, and through the accumulation
of “theological,” “practical,” and “social” additions the Local Churches were
led into division of the unity of the Faith, into isolation, which developed
occasionally into hostile polemics.
Note that the Patriarch states:
1. The One Church was divided in time.
2. That this division was the result of the dominance of human weakness. It is
not stated, but it follows that this human weakness was stronger than the Divine
Will for the Church He founded.
3. That the various groups, parts of the One Church, which resulted from this
division each “claimed” to be the authentic and true Church. The implication
here is that none of them, including the Orthodox Church, can rightfully lay
claim to being exclusively the One Church.
4. And, yet, somehow, in spite of these competing groups all exclusively
claiming authenticity and truth, the Church is one. Once again, it follows from
all that is said that this oneness exists only outside of time, since the
Church, as he said, was divided in time.
In order to gain a total picture of the new ecclesiology being presented, we
should add to these views on the Church the Patriarch(ate)’s stance vis-à-vis
Catholicism, which was on exhibit in both word and deed throughout the Jerusalem
event. In all of the promotional material and patriarchal addresses,
Catholicism—which synods of the Church and saints have for centuries now
considered to be a heretical parasynagogue—is considered to be a Local Church,
the Church in Rome. Likewise, the current Pope is considered to be a
“contemporary successor of the early apostle [Peter] and current leader of the
ancient church [of Rome].” The Patriarch has also referred to the current Pope
as his brother bishop, co-responsible for the good governing of the One Church.
He considers the sacraments performed by the Pope and his clerics as the
self-same mysteries of the One Church. Thus it is not surprising that he views
the Church as divided in history and yet somehow still one, if only outside of
history.
What can we now say of this image of the Church presented by the Patriarch? We
can say that:
1. It is in total harmony with the Second Vatican Council’s new ecclesiology as
laid out in the conciliar documents Lumen Gentium and Unitatis Redintegratio.
2. It is entirely at odds with the vision of the Church presented in relevant
conciliar documents of the Orthodox Church, such as the decisions of the Council
of 1484, the Patriarchal Encyclicals of 1848 and 1895, and in the writings of
those Holy Fathers who have expressed the mind of the Church on the subject,
such as Sts. Gregory Palamas, Nectarios of Pentapolis, Mark of Ephesus, Paisios
Velichkovsky, and many others.
The Patriarch and his supporters are aligning themselves and attempting to align
all of Orthodoxy with the ecclesiological line drawn during the Second Vatican
Council. This new ecclesiology allows for a division of the Church “in time,”
such that the Orthodox Church and Catholicism are considered “two lungs” of the
One Church—yet nevertheless divided. In this ecclesiology, the universal Church
includes both Catholicism and all other Christian confessions. It is supposed
that the Church is a communion of bodies that are more or less churches, a
communion realized at various degrees of fullness, such that one part of the
Church, that under the Pope, is considered “fully” the Church, and another part
of the Church, such as a Protestant confession, “imperfectly” or only
“partially” the Church. Thus, this ecclesiology allows for participation in the
Church’s sacraments outside of her canonical boundaries, outside of the one
Eucharistic assembly, which is antithetical with a properly understood
“Eucharistic ecclesiology.”
Hence, the ecclesiology expressed in word and deed by the Patriarch of
Constantinople and the ecclesiology of Vatican II converge in the acceptance
of a divided Church, or a Church rent asunder by the heavy hand of history. It
might be characterized as ecclesiological Nestorianism, in which the Church is
divided into two separate beings: on the one hand the Church in heaven, outside
of time, alone true and whole; on the other, the Church, or rather “churches,”
on earth, in time, deficient and relative, lost in history’s shadows, seeking to
draw near to one another and to that transcendent perfection, as much as is
possible in “the weakness of the impermanent human will.”
In this ecclesiology, the tumultuous and injurious divisions of human history
have overcome the Church “in time.” The human nature of the Church, being
divided and rent asunder, has been separated from the Theanthropic Head. This is
a Church on earth deprived of its ontological nature and not “one and holy,” no
longer possessing all the truth through its hypostatic union with the divine
nature of the Logos.
This ecclesiology is, without doubt, at total odds with the belief and
confession of the Orthodox in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The
Church of Christ, as the Apostle Paul supremely defined it, is His body, the
fulness of him that filleth all in
all (τὸ σῶμα Αὐτοῦ, τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσι πληρουμένου). The fullness
of Christ is identified with the Body of Christ which is, like Christ when He
walked on earth in time, as Theanthropos, visible and indivisible, being marked
by divine-human characteristics. As Vladimir Lossky has written, all that can
be asserted or denied about Christ can equally well be applied to the Church,
inasmuch as it is a theandric organism. It follows, then, that just as we could
never assert that Christ is divided, neither could we countenance the Church
ever being divided. (cf. 1 Cor 1:13).
The Church, it goes without saying, was founded, established, spread, and exists
to this day in time (and will exist until the Second Coming, and beyond). This
is so because the Church is the Theanthropic Body of the Christ, who
entered into time, walked, died, rose, ascended and is to return again in time.
The Church is the continuation of the Incarnation in time. And just as our Lord
was seen and touched and venerated in the flesh, in time, so too does His Body,
the Church, continue—united and holy—in time. If we were to accept the division
of the Church, we would be accepting the nullification of the Incarnation and
the salvation of the world. As this new ecclesiology of a “divided church”
ultimately annuls man’s salvation, it could be rightly considered as heresy.
Our belief in the unity and continuity of the Body of Christ, our confession of
faith, this dogma of the Church, is based on nothing less than the divine
promises of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when he said such words as these:
“When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” (Jn.
16:13).
“I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock [of faith] I will
build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt
16:18).
“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Mt 28:16).
“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I
have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33).
Likewise, from the mouth of Christ, the divine Apostle Paul, we hear more
promises of the indivisibility and invincibility of the Church:
“And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over
all things to the church, Which is His body, the fulness of him that filleth all
in all.” (Eph 1:22-23).
“The house of God, which is the church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Tit 3:5).
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” (Eph 4:5).
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”(Heb 13:8).
And, from the Apostle of Love, John the Theologian, we read that it is our faith
in the God-man and His divine-human Body that is invincible and victorious over
the fallen spirit of this world, which is above all, a spirit of division:
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1 Jn 5:4).
So, then, has not the Spirit of Truth led His Church into “all truth”? Or, are
we as Orthodox only advancing a “claim” of authenticity and truth? Has He not
guarded His Church so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it? Or,
has “human weakness” overcome Christ’s Body? Has He not remained with us,
guiding us even until today and on to the end of time? Or, does He no longer
exist as One “in time”? Has not our faith in the God-man overcome the world and
the spirit of division? Or, is it, as the Patriarch supposes, that the “human
element” and “human weakness” has overcome our faith and the unity of the Body
of Christ?
To better understand the impossibility of both the Orthodox Church and
Catholicism maintaining the identity of the One Church while being divided over
matters of faith, let us look briefly at the marital union. In marriage, a man
and a woman are united in Christ. There exists a three-fold unity, or a unity
between two persons in a third Person. This is no mere human accord. This is a
theanthropic unity, a manifestation of the mystery of the Incarnation and thus
of the Church, according to the divine words of the Apostle Paul: This is a
great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Eph 5:32).
All unity in the Church is theanthropic. Indeed, truly united human beings are
only to be found in the Church, for in the Church alone does man put on
divine-humanity (Gal 3:27), the human nature of Christ. As the fallen,
unredeemed human nature is hopelessly broken and divided within itself,
separated from the principle of his unity, God, man can only be united by
“putting on” a new human nature, the human nature of the God-man, which takes
place in the mysteries, first of which is baptism. Therefore, we are restored to
unity in ourselves, between ourselves and with God only through unity with the
God-man in His human nature, in His Body, the Church.
Has there been division? Has the “marriage” fallen apart? Know that first one of
the two persons ceased to exist “in Christ,” fell away from Christ, and only
then from the other. This human division is necessarily preceded by a break in
communion with the Divine Person in which the two persons were united. Something
similar can be said on the ecclesiastical plane.
The Patriarch maintains that even though “the Local Churches were led into
division of the unity of the Faith” and “the One Church was divided in time,”
nevertheless both the Orthodox Church and Catholicism are united to Christ and
manifest this unity with Him in common sacraments. This is impossible, however,
for if both were united to Christ, they would necessarily be united to one
another, since they find their unity in Christ. Simply put: if we are both in
Christ, we are united. If we are divided, we can’t both be in Christ. In terms
of ecclesiology, this means that both can’t be “the Church.”
From the moment that one holds that the Church is divided, he can no longer hold
that the members of the Church are united to the theanthropic nature of the Body
of Christ. The Church that is envisioned is necessarily a merely human organism,
in which the “dominance of human weakness and of [the] impermanence of the will
of the human intellect” reigns and brings division.
We can also see this truth evidenced in the words of the Apostle of Love, the
beloved Evangelist, John the Theologian. He states that if a man say,
I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. (1 Jn 4:20). Similarly, since
love unites us to God, if we say that we are united with God but divided from
our brother, we do not speak the truth. Furthermore, on the ecclesiastical
plane, if we say that the “churches” are both united with God but are divided
between themselves, we do not speak the truth. For, if both are united to God
they would also be united to one another, since unity in the Church is in and
through Christ.
Based on this new teaching from the Patriarch(ate), some maintain that a “false
union” has already been forged. Most dismiss this claim straightaway. It is true
that the common cup, at least officially and openly, was not at stake in
Jerusalem or immediately anywhere. However, a type of “false union” has
undeniably been established on the level of ecclesiology. For, when the
mysteries of a heterodox confession are recognized per se, as the very mysteries
of the Church, and, likewise, their bishops are accepted and embraced as bishops
of the One Church, then have we not already established a union with them?
Have we not a union both in terms of recognizing their “ecclesiality” (i.e., the
One Church in Rome) and in adopting a common confession of faith with respect to
the Church?
If we recognize their baptism as the one baptism, it is inconsistent not to
recognize the Eucharistic Synaxis in which their baptism is performed. And if we
recognize their Eucharist as the One Body, it is both hypocritical and sinful
not to establish Eucharistic communion with them immediately.
It is precisely here that the untenable nature of the Patriarchate’s stance
becomes apparent. The fact that the Church has never accepted inter-communion
with Catholicism witnesses not to just some tactical decision or conservative
stance, but to her self-identity as the One Church and to her view of
Catholicism as heresy. If this were not the case, it would be as if we are
playing with the mysteries and the truth of the Gospel. As St. Mark of Ephesus
famously expressed it, the “cutting off of the Latins” was precisely because the
Church no longer saw their “church,” their Eucharistic assembly, as if in a
mirror, as expressing the “Catholic” Church in Rome. Their identity was
no longer that of the Church, but of heresy.
From all that has been written here, it should be clear that there are eternal
consequences from every new departure from “the faith once delivered,” and the
new ecclesiology is no exception. By ignoring the contemporary voices of the
Church—from St. Justin Popovich to the Venerable Philotheos Zervakos, to the
Venerable Paisios the Athonite—those who went to Jerusalem espousing the new
ecclesiology are leading their unsuspecting followers out of the Church and
those already outside further away from entry into the Church.
This new ecclesiology is the spiritual and theological challenge of our day to
which every Orthodox Christian remains indifferent to his own peril, for it
carries with it soteriological consequences. In the face of a terribly divisive
and deceptive heresy, we are all called to confess Christ today, as did our
ancient forbearers in the days of Arianism. Our confession of faith, however, is
not only in His Person in the Incarnation, but His Person in the continuation of
the Incarnation, the Church. To confess the faith today is to confess and
declare the unity of His divine and human natures in His Body, the one and only
Orthodox Church—unmixed, unchanged, undivided and
inseparable (ἀσυγχύτως, ἀτρέπτως, ἀδιαιρέτως, ἀχωρίστως). [Oros of the Fourth
Ecumenical Council].
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KINDLING THE DIVINE SPARK
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith, Pascha
≈ 1 Comment
After the bright and radiant feast of Pascha, many have commented that they feel
a bit of a let-down. Holy Week is truly an incredible and moving week. The
Divine Services are beautiful and unique, filled with beautiful hymns and
emotion as we follow our Saviour to His voluntary Passion. Renewal Week is
bright and jubilant, though quiet.
We may ask, how we can keep the brilliant flame of the Resurrection of our Lord
burning in our hearts?
For Orthodox Christians the answer is simply this, we do not merely observe the
Resurrection but we must participate in it. How else can our lives be
transformed? How else can we truly say that “yesterday I was buried with Thee O
Christ and today I arise in the arising”?
Here are some practical things we can do to add more fuel to keep the flame in
our hearts burning with Paschal joy:
* Attend the Divine Services during Renewal Week
* Read the Paschal Hours twice daily, once in the morning and again in the
evening.
* Read the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of John to deepen our
understanding of the events we have recently witnessed.
* Greet brothers and sisters-in-Christ with the joyful proclamation that Christ
is Risen
* Chant the hymns of the Paschal Canon or the Paschal Service, even in small
parts. The words of the hymns supercede even the most majestic of man-made
poetry.
* Visit the sick, infirm, or elderly members of our communities to share with
them the joy of the Resurrection. Breaking of the Paschal eggs, nibbling on
Paschal breads and treats, and sharing the Paschal joy can be a wonderful
form of alsmgiving.
* Read from the Fathers concerning the Resurrection.
Christ our everlasting Pascha is arisen from the Grave!
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CHRISTIAN UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN IS AN ASCETIC PODVIG OF ITS OWN KIND
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy
≈ Comments Off on Christian upbringing of children is an ascetic podvig of its
own kind
Beloved, the following article written by Saint Nikolai – a luminary of the 20th
century – is a helpful reminder to each of us of the importance of bringing our
children to Church at a tender young age.
As the Saint bids, bring them so that they “may assimilate the beauty of the
Father’s House”.
CHILDREN IN CHURCH Children in Church
by Bishop Nicholas Velimirovic
We all know the gospel story of Christ and the children: Then they brought
little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked
those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and
said to them: “Let the little children come to Me and do not forbid them, for of
such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:13-15). Christ’s disciples forbade parents
with children to come near Him, fearing that the children will somehow disturb
the Lord. They thought, as many of us do today, that children and infants are
not able to assimilate spiritual things. How did Christ react to this? He became
indignant. He was greatly displeased. We know that the meek and long-suffering
Christ became indignant only when truth was suppressed by delusion, for
instance: the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the desecration of the temple by the
money-changers etc. And the truth is certainly that which the Lord Himself
teaches us: of such is the kingdom of God. And embracing the children, He placed
His hands on them and blessed them. Take note when reading this short segment
from the Gospel, that the children were brought to Christ, they were too young
to even be led to Him, let alone come to Him by themselves. The message to
Christians is clear: bring your Children to Christ, bring them to Church,
baptize them, have them commune the Holy Mysteries, bring them in your arms
while they are still infants, that they might with their simple five senses
assimilate the beauty of the Father’s House: the holiness of the icons, the
piety of the chanting, the sweet smell of incense, the taste of the prosphora,
the prayerful silence of the congregation and the presence of familiar faces all
gathered in communal prayer. Even the youngest children instinctively strive
towards God and are more receptive than adults to goodness and Divine grace. We
must nurture in them the feeling that they are in their Father’s House. That
feeling will not be conceived within them of its own accord, if we do not guide
them to it, if we do not bring them to Church. Much is expected of Orthodox
parents and a Christian upbringing of children is an ascetic podvig of its own
kind. Part of the Christian upbringing is also teaching your child how to behave
in Church. If a child quietly moves through the Church, or if a baby “sings”
occasionally, it certainly does not disrupt the services, but is a part of the
general atmosphere of the Church as a large family. Naturally, if there is a
real disruption, such as loud crying or talking, the parent will, according to
his or her own discretion, take the child out of the church or react
appropriately. The easiest and most natural way to teach a child how to behave
in church is by bringing them to all services, to stay with them from the
beginning to the end and to teach them by our own example. We must behave in a
Christian way and follow all of the Church’s commandments not only during
services, but also at every moment of our lives and in every place. No man can
serve two masters and our inconsistency will certainly confuse our children and
sooner or later have a negative impact on them, if in Church we behave as “pious
Christians” and elsewhere as “people of this world.” And so, again: bring your
children to church. No Christian is indifferent to the scene presented by a
crowd of children all waiting in line to receive the Holy Mysteries: some are
quiet, some unruly, some are carried in their parents’ arms, some take their
first tottering steps towards the Holy Cup, having barely learned how to make
the sign of the Cross and pronounce the sweet name of our Lord, while in the
older ones one can already discern an adult Christian. But on each and every one
of those angelic faces one can see, without exception, pure childlike joy,
complete trust and staunch faith in the Divine grace they are about to receive.
If it should happen, later in life, that their faith weakens, and they fall away
from God and the Church due to many temptations and the immorality of today’s
world, God will not abandon them, as He never abandons a person who carries deep
within him the seeds of goodness. When something frightening befalls them, and
they begin to recognize their own limitations and helplessness, as they reflect
on the purpose of life, long forgotten memories of their Father’s House will
re-awaken in them and the grace of God will once again touch their souls to take
them back to the right Path, the only one which leads to salvation.
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ROUSE THYSELF FROM SLEEP CHRISTIAN FOR THE CONTEST IS AT HAND
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Posted by deaconalex in Great Lent
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My soul, my soul,arise! Why are you sleeping?
The end is drawing near, and you will be confounded.
Awake then and be watchful, that Christ our God may spare you,
Who is everywhere present and fills all things.
Kontakion – First Week of Great Lent
Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour…
> Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their
> lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.And five of them were wise, and
> five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil
> with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While
> the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there
> was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then
> all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto
> the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise
> answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye
> rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy,
> the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the
> marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins,
> saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto
> you, I know you not.
>
> Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of
> man cometh. Matthew 25 1-13
Christian, rouse thyself while the day is young. Store up virtues for the day of
the feast when all peoples will be gathered from the four corners of the world.
On that day, Who shall speak for us? Who will be our advocate? What can we say
in our defense? Use your talents wisely that you may repay what is owed.
Beloved, may our Lord grant us to be worthy to attend the wedding banquet
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HYMNS OF GREAT COMPLINE
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy
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Beloved, entering the Great and soul-saving Lent the Church provides many
beautiful hymns to help us along the lenten journey.
In the following hymn, we are assured that we are never truly alone for God is
always with us,
> Yea, I will put my trust in Him, and I shall be saved through Him.
In the Plagal of the 2nd tone:
God is with us; know, ye nations, and be vanquished.
For God is with us.
Give ear, even unto the utmost part of the earth.
For God is with us.
Ye that have prevailed, even ye be vanquished.
For God is with us.
For though ye should prevail again, yet again shall ye be vanquished.
For God is with us.
And whatsoever counsel ye shall take, the Lord shall bring it to nought.
For God is with us.
And whatsoever word ye speak, it shall not abide in you.
For God is with us.
And the fear of you we shall not fear, neither shall we be troubled.
For God is with us.
But we will sanctify the Lord our God, and He shall be our fear.
For God is with us.
And if I put my trust in Him, he shall be my sanctification.
For God is with us.
Yea, I will put my trust in Him, and I shall be saved through Him.
For God is with us.
Behold, I and the children which God hath given me.
For God is with us.
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.
For God is with us.
We that dwell in the land and shadow of death, a light shall shine upon us.
For God is with us.
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.
For God is with us.
Whose government is come upon His shoulder.
For God is with us.
And of His peace there is no end.
For God is with us.
And His name shall be called the Angel of great counsel.
For God is with us.
Wonderful Counsellor.
For God is with us.
The mighty God, He that hath authority, the Prince of peace.
For God is with us.
The Father of the age to come.
For God is with us.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
For God is with us.
Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
For God is with us.
God is with us, know, ye nations, and be vanquished; for God is with us.
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FINDING THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 3 Teachings on the
Faith
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Editor’s note:
Beloved, to some the notion that the Orthodox Church is THE New Testament Church
may seem high-minded. There is a clear lineage dating back to the Apostles, the
first Bishops of the Church, and their Disciples – Saint Polycarp of Smyrna,
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, and Saint Clement of Rome. These fathers are written
in the Acts of the Apostles. Since the beginning, the Presbytery (Greek for
Elders) served the Church and the faithful flock.
> Acts 14:23 And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had
> prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
That we may know that the Church grew and existed in many places:
> Romans 16:16
> Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.
Of a truth, the Orthodox has always held firm in the canon that it holds the one
faith, which was celebrated everywhere, always, and by all.
The Oldest New Testament fragment. From the Gospel of St. John
Finding the New Testament Church
by Fr. Jon E. Braun
Coming off a couple of decades of heightened awareness of our need for a
personal knowledge of Christ—notably evidenced through such phenomena as the
Jesus Movement and the charismatic renewal—most thinking Christians are
realizing something else is needed: the rediscovery of the historic Church.
Often, in heated reaction to dated and dead Protestant liberalism, we would hear
evangelical preachers in the late sixties and early seventies say, “All you need
is Jesus!” Such statements often got rave reviews, but just a little thoughtful
reflection quickly showed such a simplistic religion to be shallow and
unfulfilling. More and more, that kind of existential reductionism is being
tempered with a renewed emphasis on the whole impact of the Incarnation, the
coming in the flesh of the Son of God. There must be more to Christianity than a
private, internalized individualism. If all we needed was Jesus, why would
Jesus have promised, “I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18)?
But our need for the Church begs a question, a crucial question. Which Church?
The easy answer, of course, and a correct answer, is, “the New Testament
Church.” But this isn’t A.D. 65, and we aren’t in old Jerusalem or Colosse. We
are in the twentieth century and our challenge is to find the New Testament
Church in our day, being sure it is historically identical to the Church of the
Apostles—the one Christ Himself established.
Starting in the twentieth century with the plethora of choices available to us
is difficult. For we have hundreds of denominations and sects claiming to one
degree or another to be the New Testament Church. The Roman Catholic Church
makes that claim based on its apostolic succession. Baptist churches are
unwaveringly confident they hold to the New Testament Faith. Often a Church of
Christ will have a sign outside reading, “Founded in Jerusalem, 33 A.D.,”
thereby staking the claim to be the original Church. And the list goes on.
Granted, many groups have maintained, or even rediscovered, important aspects of
the New Testament Faith. But who is right? Or is the pluralism crowd
correct—that essentially everybody is in and ties for first place?
Back to Church One
There is a predictably reliable way to tackle the problem of who is right.
Rather than trying to decide which of the over 2,500 Christian groups in North
America keeps the original Faith best by studying what they are like right now,
we can start from the beginning of the Church itself and work our way through
history to the present.
The birthday of the Church was Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit descended on
the Twelve Apostles in the Upper Room. That day some 3,000 souls believed in
Christ and were baptized. When the first Christian community began, “they
continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).
From Jerusalem, the Faith in Christ spread throughout Judea, to Samaria (Acts
8), to Antioch and the Gentiles (Acts 13), where we find new converts and new
churches throughout Asia Minor and the Roman Empire.
From the pages of the Gospels and Epistles, we learn that the Church was not
simply another organization in Roman society. The Lord Jesus Christ had given
the promise of the Holy Spirit to “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). With
the fulfillment of that promise beginning at Pentecost, the Church was founded
with a status far above that of a mere institution. Saint Paul was right on
target in Ephesians 2:22, where he called the Church the “dwelling place of God
in the Spirit.” The Church was a living, dynamic organism, the living Body of
Jesus Christ. She made an indelible impact in the world, and those who
participated in her life in faith were personally transformed.
But we also discover in the New Testament itself that the Church had her share
of problems. All was not perfection. Individuals in the Church sought to lead
her off the path the Apostles had established, and they had to be dealt with
along with the errors they invented. Even whole local communities lapsed on
occasion and had to be called to repentance. The Church in Laodicea is a vivid
example (Revelation 3). Discipline was administered for the sake of purity in
the Church. But there was growth and a maturing even as the Church was attacked
from within and without. The same Spirit who gave her birth gave her power for
purity and correction, and she stood strong and grew until she eventually
invaded the whole of the Roman Empire.
The Second Century and On
As the procession of the early Church moves from the pages of the New Testament
and on into the succeeding centuries of her history, it is helpful to trace her
growth and development in terms of specific categories. Therefore let us look
first at a category important for all Christian people: doctrine. Did the Church
maintain the truth of God as given by Christ and His Apostles? Second, what
about worship? Is there a discernible way in which the people of God have
offered a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to Him? Third, we will consider
Church government. What sort of polity did the Church practice?
1. Doctrine: Not only did the Church begin under the teaching of the Apostles,
but she was also instructed to “stand fast and hold the traditions which you
were taught, whether by word or our epistle” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). The Apostle
Paul insisted that those matters delivered by him and his fellow Apostles, both
in person and in the writings that would come to be called the New Testament, be
adhered to carefully. Thus followed such appropriate warnings as “in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ . . . withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and
not according to the tradition which he received from us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6).
The doctrines taught by Christ and His disciples are to be safeguarded by “the
church . . . the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15) and are not
open for renegotiation.
Midway through the first century, a dispute over adherence to Old Testament laws
arose in Antioch. The matter could not be settled there, and outside help was
needed. The leaders of the Antiochian church, the community which had earlier
dispatched Paul and Barnabas as missionaries, brought the matter to Jerusalem
for consideration by the Apostles and elders there. The matter was discussed,
debated, and a written decision was forthcoming.
It was James, the “brother” of the Lord and the first bishop of Jerusalem, who
gave the solution to the problem. This settlement, agreed to by all concerned at
what is known as the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), set the pattern for the use
of Church councils in the centuries ahead to settle doctrinal and moral issues
that arose. Thus, in the history of the Church we find scores of such councils,
and on various levels, to settle matters of dispute, and to deal with those who
do not adhere to the Apostolic Faith.
In addition to this well-known controversy, the first three hundred years of
Christian history were also marked by the appearance of certain heresies or
false teachings, such as super-secret philosophic schemes for “insiders” only
(Gnosticism), wild prophetic programs (Montanism), and grave errors regarding
the three Persons of the Trinity (Sabellianism).
Then, in the early fourth century, a heresy with potential for Church-wide
disruption appeared and was propagated by one Arius, a presbyter in Alexandria,
Egypt. He denied the eternality of the Son of God, claiming, contrary to the
Apostles’ doctrine, that the Son was a created being who came into existence at
a point in time and thus was not truly God. This serious error crept through the
Church like a cancer. Turmoil spread almost everywhere. To solve the problem the
first Church-wide, or ecumenical, council met in Nicea in A.D. 325 to consider
this doctrine. Some 318 bishops, along with many priests and deacons, rejected
the new teaching of Arius and his associates and upheld the Apostles’ doctrine
of Christ, confirming “there never was a time when the Son of God was not,” and
issued a definition of the apostolic teaching concerning Christ in what we today
call the Nicene Creed.
Between the years 325 and 787, seven such Church-wide conclaves were held, all
dealing first and foremost with some specific challenge to the apostolic
teaching about Jesus Christ. These are known as the Seven Ecumenical Councils,
meeting in the cities of Nicea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople.
For the first thousand years of Christian history, the entire Church, save for
the heretics, embraced and defended the New Testament Apostolic Faith. There was
no division. And this one Faith, preserved through all these trials, attacks,
and tests, this one Apostolic Faith, was called the Orthodox Faith.
2. Worship: Doctrinal purity was tenaciously maintained. But true Christianity
is far more than adherence to a set of correct beliefs alone. The life of the
Church is centrally expressed in her worship or adoration of God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. It was Jesus Himself who told the woman at the well, “the
hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23).
At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the Communion service, when
He took bread and wine, blessed them, and said to His disciples, “This is My
body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me,” and, “This cup is
the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:19, 20). From New
Testament books such as Acts and Hebrews we know that the Church participated in
Communion at least each Lord’s Day (Acts 20:7, 11). And also from such first-
and second-century sources as the Didache and Saint Justin Martyr, we learn the
Eucharist was kept at the very center of Christian worship after the death of
the Apostles.
And just as the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets were read in the temple
worship and the synagogue in Israel, so the Church also immediately gave high
priority to the public reading of Scripture and to preaching in her worship,
along with the eucharistic meal.
Even before the middle of the first century, Christian worship was known by the
term “liturgy,” which means literally “the common work” or “the work of the
people.” The early liturgy of the Church’s worship was composed of two essential
parts: (1) the Liturgy of the Word, including hymns, Scripture reading, and
preaching; and (2) the Liturgy of the Faithful, composed of intercessory
prayers, the kiss of peace, and the Eucharist. Virtually from the beginning, it
had a definable shape or form which continues to this day.
Modern Christians advocating freedom from liturgy in worship are usually
shocked to learn that such spontaneity was never the practice in the ancient
Church! A basic pattern or shape of Christian worship was observed from the
start. And as the Church grew and matured, that structure matured as well.
Hymns, Scripture readings, and prayers were intertwined in the basic foundation.
A clear, purposeful procession through the year, honoring in word, song, and
praise the Birth, ministry, death, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and marking crucial issues in Christian life and experience, was
forthcoming. The Christian life was lived in reality in the worship of the
Church. Far from being routine, the worship of the historic Church participated
in the unfolding drama of the richness and mystery of the Gospel itself!
Further, specific landmarks in our salvation and walk with Christ were observed.
Baptism and the anointing with oil, or chrismation, were there from Day One of
the Church. Marriage, healing, confession of sin, and ordination to the ministry
of the gospel were early recognized and practiced. On each of these occasions,
Christians understood, in a great mystery, grace and power from God were being
given to people according to the individual need of each person. The Church saw
these events as holy moments in her life and called them her mysteries or
sacraments.
3. Government: No one seriously questions whether the Apostles of Christ led the
Church at her beginning. They had been given the commission to preach the gospel
(Matthew 28:19, 20) and the authority to forgive or retain sins (John 20:23).
Theirs was by no means a preaching-only mission! They built the Church itself
under Christ’s headship. To govern it, three definite and permanent offices, as
taught in the New Testament, were in evidence.
a. The office of bishop. The Apostles themselves were the first bishops in the
Church. Even before Pentecost, after Judas had turned traitor, Peter declared in
applying Psalm 109:8, “his bishopric let another take” (Acts 1:20, KJV).
The word “bishopric” refers to the office of a bishop and its use obviously
indicates the “job description” of the Apostles as being bishops. Some have
mistakenly argued that the office of bishop was a later “human” invention. Quite
to the contrary, the Apostles were the New Testament bishops, and they appointed
bishops to succeed them to oversee the Church in each locality.
Occasionally, the objection is still heard that the offices of bishop and
presbyter were originally identical. It is true the terms are sometimes used
interchangeably in the New Testament while the Apostles were present, but it was
the understanding of the entire early Church that, with the death of the
Apostles, the offices of bishop and presbyter were distinct. Ignatius of
Antioch, consecrated bishop by A.D. 70 in the church from which Paul and
Barnabas had been sent out, writes just after the turn of the century that
bishops appointed by the Apostles, surrounded by their presbyters, were
everywhere in the Church.
b. The office of presbyter. Elders or presbyters are mentioned very early in the
life of the Church in the Book of Acts and the Epistles. It is evident that in
each place a Christian community developed, elders were appointed by the
Apostles to pastor the people.
As time passed, presbyters were referred to in the short form of the word as
“prests,” then as “priests,” in full view of the fact that the Old Covenant
priesthood had been fulfilled in Christ and that the Church is corporately a
priesthood of believers. The priest was not understood as an intermediary
between God and the people, nor as a dispenser of grace. It was the role of the
priest to be the presence of Christ in the Christian community. And in the very
capacity of being the presence of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ, the priest
was to shepherd the flock of God.
c. The office of deacon. The third order or office in the government of the New
Testament Church was that of deacon. At first the Apostles fulfilled this office
themselves. But with the rapid growth of the Church, seven initial deacons were
selected, as reported in Acts 6, to help carry the responsibility of service to
those in need. It was one of these deacons, Saint Stephen, who became the first
martyr of the Church.
Through the centuries, the deacons have not only served the material needs of
the Church, but have held a key role in the liturgical life of the Church as
well. Often called “the eyes and ears of the bishop,” many deacons have become
priests and ultimately entered the episcopal office.
The authority of the bishop, presbyter, and deacon was not anciently understood
as being apart from the people, but always from among the people. But the people
of God were called to submit to those who ruled over them (Hebrews 13:17), and
they were also called to give their agreement to the direction of the leaders
for the Church. On a number of occasions in history, that “Amen” was not
forthcoming, and the bishops of the Church took note and changed course. Later
in history, many Church leaders departed from the ancient model and usurped
authority for themselves. In the minds of some this brought the ancient model
into question. But the problem was not in the model but in the deviation from
it.
It should also be mentioned that it was out of the ministry and life of the
Apostles that the people of God, the laity, were established in the Church. Far
from being a herd of observers, the laity are vital in the effectiveness of the
Church. They are the recipients and active users of the gifts and grace of the
Spirit. Each one of the laity has a role in the life and function of the Church.
Each one is to supply something to the whole (1 Corinthians 12:7). And it is the
responsibility of the bishops, the priests, and the deacons to be sure that this
is a reality for the laity.
The worship of the Church at the close of its first thousand years had
substantially the same shape from place to place. The doctrine was the same. The
whole Church confessed one creed, the same in every place, and had weathered
many attacks. The government of the Church was recognizably one everywhere. And
this One Church was the Orthodox Church.
After A Thousand Years—A Parting of Ways
Tensions began to mount as the first millennium was drawing to a close. They
were reaching the breaking point as the second thousand years began. While
numerous doctrinal, political, economic, and cultural factors began to work to
separate the Church in a division that would be the East and the West, two giant
issues ultimately emerged above others: (1) should one man, the pope of Rome, be
considered the universal bishop of the Church? and (2) should a novel clause be
added to one of the Church’s ecumenical creeds?
1. The Papacy: Among the Twelve, Saint Peter was early acknowledged as the
leader. He was spokesman for the Twelve before and after Pentecost. He was the
first bishop of Antioch and later bishop of Rome. No one challenged his role.
After the death of the Apostles, as leadership in the Church developed, the
bishop of Rome came to be recognized as first in honor, even though all bishops
were equals. But after nearly 300 years, the bishop of Rome slowly began to
assume to himself a role of superiority over the others, ultimately claiming to
be the only true successor to Saint Peter. The vast majority of the other
bishops of the Church never questioned Rome’s primacy of honor, but they
patently rejected its claim to be the universal head of the Church on earth.
This claim became one of the major factors leading to the tragic split between
the Western and Eastern Church which we will soon be considering.
2. The Addition to the Creed: A disagreement about the Holy Spirit also began to
develop in the Church. Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father? Or does He
proceed from the Father and the Son?
In John 15:26, our Lord Jesus Christ asserts, “But when the Helper comes, whom I
shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the
Father, He will testify of Me” (italics mine). This is the basic statement in
all of the New Testament about the Holy Spirit “proceeding,” and it is clear: He
“proceeds from the Father.”
Thus when the ancient council at Constantinople in A.D. 381, during the course
of its conclave, reaffirmed the Creed of Nicea (A.D. 325), it expanded that
Creed to proclaim these familiar words: “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and
Life-Giver, who proceeds from the Father, who is worshiped and glorified
together with the Father and the Son . . . ”
But two hundred years later, at a local council in Toledo, Spain (A.D. 589),
King Reccared declared that “the Holy Spirit also should be confessed by us and
taught to proceed from the Father and the Son.” The King may have meant well,
but he was contradicting the apostolic teaching about the Holy Spirit.
Unfortunately the local Spanish council agreed with his error.
Because of the teaching of the Holy Scriptures as confessed by the entire Church
at Nicea and at Constantinople and for centuries beyond, there is no reason
to believe anything other than that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.
Period!
But centuries later, in what was looked upon by many as a largely political
move, the pope of Rome unilaterally changed the wording of the universal creed
of the Church. Such an independent action was bound to evoke a strong response
from the Eastern bishops. They saw it as a flagrant violation of the
long-established practice that no universal creed could be altered or changed
apart from the corporate action of an ecumenical council. Though this change was
initially rejected in both East and West, even by some of Rome’s closest
neighboring bishops, the pope eventually convinced the Western bishops to
capitulate to it. Although this change may appear small, the con-sequences have
proven disastrous—both from a theological and an historical perspective. This
issue represented a major departure from the Orthodox doctrine of the Church. It
became another instrumental cause leading to the separation of the Roman
Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Schism
Conflict between the Roman pope and the East mounted—especially in the West’s
dealings with the Eastern bishop, or patriarch, of Constantinople. It was even
asserted that the pope had the authority to decide who should be the bishop of
Constantinople—something which violated historical precedent, and which no
Orthodox bishop could endure. The net result of this assertion was that the
Eastern Church, and in fact the entire Christian Church, was seen by the West to
be under the domination of the pope.
A series of intrigues followed one upon the other as the Roman papacy began
asserting an increasing degree of unilateral and often authoritarian control
over the rest of the Church. Perhaps the most invidious of these political,
religious, and even military intrigues, as far as the East was concerned,
occurred in the year 1054. A cardinal, sent by the pope, slapped a document on
the altar of the Church of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople during the Sunday
worship, excommunicating the patriarch of Constantinople from the Church!
Rome, of course, was flagrantly overstepping its bounds by this action. Some
very sordid chapters of Church history were written during the next decades.
Ultimately, the final consequence of these tragic events was a massive split
which occurred between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox
Church. While some disagree that the West departed from the New Testament Church
at this point, the reality remains that the schism was never healed.
As the centuries passed, conflict continued. Attempts at union failed and the
split widened. Orthodox Christians agree that in departing from the tradition of
the Church the West had deviated from historic Christianity, and in so doing,
set the stage for countless other divisions which were soon to follow.
The West: Reformation and Counter-Reformation
During the succeeding centuries after A.D. 1054, the growing distinction between
East and West was indelibly marked in history. The East maintained the full
stream of New Testament Faith, worship, and practice. The Western or Roman
Catholic Church, after its schism from the Orthodox Church, bogged down in many
complex problems. Then, centuries after Rome committed itself to its unilateral
spirit of doctrine and practice, another upheaval was festering—this time not
next door to the East, but inside the Western gates themselves.
Though many in the West had spoken out against Roman domination and practice in
earlier years, now a little-known German monk named Martin Luther launched an
attack against certain Roman Catholic practices that ended up affecting world
history. His famous Ninety-Five Theses were nailed to the church door at
Wittenburg in 1517. In a short time those theses were signalling the start of
what came to be called in the West the Protestant Reformation. Luther sought an
audience with the pope but was denied, and in 1521 he was excommunicated from
the Roman Catholic Church. He had intended no break with Rome. Un-responsive to
Luther’s many legitimate objections concerning the novel practices of the
now-separated Western Church, Rome refused to budge or bend. The door to future
unity in the West slammed shut with a resounding crash.
The protests of Luther were not unnoticed. The reforms he sought in Germany were
soon accompanied by the demands of Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, John Calvin in
Geneva, and hundreds of others all over Western Europe. Fueled by complex
political, social, and economic factors, in addition to religious problems, the
Reformation spread like a raging fire into virtually every nook and cranny of
the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Church’s Western ecclesiastical monopoly
was greatly diminished and massive division replaced its artificial unity. The
ripple effect of that division continues even to our day.
If trouble on the continent were not enough, the Church of England was in the
process of going its own way as well. Henry VIII, amidst his marital problems,
placed himself as head of the Church of England instead of the pope of Rome. For
only a few short years would the pope ever again have ascendancy in England. And
the English Church itself would be shattered by great division.
As decade followed decade in the West, the many branches of Protestantism took
various forms. There were even divisions that insisted they were neither
Protestant nor Roman Catholic. All seemed to share a mutual dislike for the
bishop of Rome and the practice of his church, and most wanted far less
centralized forms of leadership. While some, such as the Lutherans and
Anglicans, held on to a basic form of liturgy and sacrament, others, such as the
Reformed Churches and the even more radical Anabaptists and their descendants,
questioned and rejected many biblical ideas of hierarchy, sacrament, historic
tradition, and other elements of historic Christian practice, no matter when and
where they appeared in history, thinking they were freeing themselves of Roman
Catholicism.
To this day, many sincere, modern, professing Christians will reject even the
biblical data which speak of historic Christian practice, simply because they
think such historic practices are “Roman Catholic.” To use the old adage, they
“threw the baby out with the bathwater,” without even being aware of it.
Thus, while retaining in varying degrees portions of foundational Christianity,
neither Protestantism nor Roman Catholicism can lay historic claim to being the
true New Testament Church. In dividing from the Orthodox Church, Rome forfeited
its place in the Church of the New Testament. In the divisions of the
Reformation, the Protestants—as well-meaning as they might have been—failed to
return to the New Testament Church.
The Orthodox Church Today
But that first Church, the Church of Peter and Paul and the Apostles, the
Orthodox Church—despite persecution, political oppression, and desertion on
certain of its flanks—miraculously carries on today the same Faith and life of
the Church of the New Testament. Admittedly the style of Orthodoxy looks
complicated to the modern Protestant eye, and understandably so. But given the
historical understanding of how the Church has progressed, the simple
Christ-centered Faith of the Apostles is clearly preserved in its practices,
services, and even its architecture.
In Orthodoxy today, as in years gone by, the basics of Christian doctrine,
worship, and government are never up for renegotiation. One cannot be an
Orthodox priest, for example, and reject the divinity of Christ, His Virgin
Birth, Resurrection, Ascension into heaven, and Second Coming. The Church simply
has not left its course in nearly 2,000 years. It is One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic. It is the New Testament Church. The gates of hell have not prevailed
against it.
But Orthodoxy is also, in the words of one of her bishops, “the best-kept secret
in America.” Though there are more than 225 million Orthodox Christians in the
world today, many Americans are not familiar with the Church. In North America,
the Orthodox Church until recently has been largely limited to ethnic
boundaries, not spreading much beyond the parishes of the committed immigrants
that brought the Church to the shores of this continent.
But the Holy Spirit has continued His work, causing new people to discover this
Church of the New Testament. People have begun to find Orthodox Christianity
both through the writings of the early Church Fathers, and through the humble
witness of Orthodox Christians. On a personal note, I am a part of a group of
nearly 2,000 ex-Protestant evangelicals who were received into the Antiochian
Archdiocese of the Orthodox Church in the spring of 1987 as the Evangelical
Orthodox Mission. Orthodox student groups are springing up on a number of
American campuses. The word is getting out.
What does this identity of the Orthodox Church with the New Testament Church
mean as far as the other churches in Christendom are concerned? Many have
retained much of the truth of Orthodox Christianity. Some pretend to be the New
Testament Church but are seriously off-base, leading people far astray from
Christ and the Church. Other modern churches have preserved truth in greater or
lesser degree.
But groups which possess some or much of the truth are one thing; the New
Testament Church is another.
What is it that’s missing in the non-Orthodox churches—even the best of them?
Fullness. The fullness of the New Testament Faith is to be found only in the New
Testament Church. Being in the New Testament Church doesn’t guarantee all those
in it will necessarily take advantage of the fullness of the Faith. But it does
guarantee the fullness is there for those who do.
For those who seriously desire the fullness of the New Testament Faith, action
must be taken. There must be for these a return to the New Testament Church.
Being aware of this ancient Church is not enough. In America, people have had
ample opportunity to investigate and decide about the Roman Catholic faith, the
Baptist, the Lutheran, and so on. Not so regarding the Orthodox Church. Let me
make three specific suggestions that will provide you with a tangible means to
look into Orthodox Christianity and to decide for yourself if it is not the
Church for which you have searched.
1. Visit: Look up “Orthodox” or “Eastern Orthodox” in the “Church” section of
your Yellow Pages. Ask for the whereabouts of the nearest Orthodox parish. Pay a
visit—several visits. Meet the priest, and ask him to help you study and learn.
And be prepared to be patient. Sometimes a portion of the Liturgy is not in
English! But the service books will help out here.
2. Read: There are a number of books and periodicals immensely helpful to people
seeking to learn about the Orthodox Church. Let me mention a few: The Orthodox
Church, by Timothy (Bishop Kallistos) Ware (Penguin); The Orthodox Faith, by
Father Thomas Hopko (4-volume set, Orthodox Christian Publications Center); the
writings of the Apostolic Fathers (several editions available); Feed My Sheep,
by Metropolitan PHILIP Saliba (Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press); AGAIN Magazine
(Conciliar Press).
3. Write: Conciliar Press (P.O. Box 76, Ben Lomond, CA 95005) can help put you
in touch with an Orthodox church and supply you with a book list including other
recommended reading. Send your name and address and a request for information.
In a day when Christians are realizing anew the centrality and importance of the
Church as the Body of Christ, the doors of Orthodoxy are open wide and the
invitation is extended to come and see. Examine her Faith, her worship, her
history, her commitment to Christ, her love for God the Father, her communion
with the Holy Spirit.
The Orthodox Church has kept the Faith delivered once for all to the saints for
nearly two thousand years. In her walls is the fullness of the salvation which
was realized when “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John
3:16).
by Fr. Jon E. Braun
Coming off a couple of decades of heightened awareness of our need for a
personal knowledge of Christ—notably evidenced through such phenomena as the
Jesus Movement and the charismatic renewal—most thinking Christians are
realizing something else is needed: the rediscovery of the historic Church.
Often, in heated reaction to dated and dead Protestant liberalism, we would hear
evangelical preachers in the late sixties and early seventies say, “All you need
is Jesus!” Such statements often got rave reviews, but just a little thoughtful
reflection quickly showed such a simplistic religion to be shallow and
unfulfilling. More and more, that kind of existential reductionism is being
tempered with a renewed emphasis on the whole impact of the Incarnation, the
coming in the flesh of the Son of God. There must be more to Christianity than a
private, internalized individualism. If all we needed was Jesus, why would
Jesus have promised, “I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18)?
But our need for the Church begs a question, a crucial question. Which Church?
The easy answer, of course, and a correct answer, is, “the New Testament
Church.” But this isn’t A.D. 65, and we aren’t in old Jerusalem or Colosse. We
are in the twentieth century and our challenge is to find the New Testament
Church in our day, being sure it is historically identical to the Church of the
Apostles—the one Christ Himself established.
Starting in the twentieth century with the plethora of choices available to us
is difficult. For we have hundreds of denominations and sects claiming to one
degree or another to be the New Testament Church. The Roman Catholic Church
makes that claim based on its apostolic succession. Baptist churches are
unwaveringly confident they hold to the New Testament Faith. Often a Church of
Christ will have a sign outside reading, “Founded in Jerusalem, 33 A.D.,”
thereby staking the claim to be the original Church. And the list goes on.
Granted, many groups have maintained, or even rediscovered, important aspects of
the New Testament Faith. But who is right? Or is the pluralism crowd
correct—that essentially everybody is in and ties for first place?
Back to Church One
There is a predictably reliable way to tackle the problem of who is right.
Rather than trying to decide which of the over 2,500 Christian groups in North
America keeps the original Faith best by studying what they are like right now,
we can start from the beginning of the Church itself and work our way through
history to the present.
The birthday of the Church was Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit descended on
the Twelve Apostles in the Upper Room. That day some 3,000 souls believed in
Christ and were baptized. When the first Christian community began, “they
continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking
of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).
From Jerusalem, the Faith in Christ spread throughout Judea, to Samaria (Acts
8), to Antioch and the Gentiles (Acts 13), where we find new converts and new
churches throughout Asia Minor and the Roman Empire.
From the pages of the Gospels and Epistles, we learn that the Church was not
simply another organization in Roman society. The Lord Jesus Christ had given
the promise of the Holy Spirit to “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). With
the fulfillment of that promise beginning at Pentecost, the Church was founded
with a status far above that of a mere institution. Saint Paul was right on
target in Ephesians 2:22, where he called the Church the “dwelling place of God
in the Spirit.” The Church was a living, dynamic organism, the living Body of
Jesus Christ. She made an indelible impact in the world, and those who
participated in her life in faith were personally transformed.
But we also discover in the New Testament itself that the Church had her share
of problems. All was not perfection. Individuals in the Church sought to lead
her off the path the Apostles had established, and they had to be dealt with
along with the errors they invented. Even whole local communities lapsed on
occasion and had to be called to repentance. The Church in Laodicea is a vivid
example (Revelation 3). Discipline was administered for the sake of purity in
the Church. But there was growth and a maturing even as the Church was attacked
from within and without. The same Spirit who gave her birth gave her power for
purity and correction, and she stood strong and grew until she eventually
invaded the whole of the Roman Empire.
The Second Century and On
As the procession of the early Church moves from the pages of the New Testament
and on into the succeeding centuries of her history, it is helpful to trace her
growth and development in terms of specific categories. Therefore let us look
first at a category important for all Christian people: doctrine. Did the Church
maintain the truth of God as given by Christ and His Apostles? Second, what
about worship? Is there a discernible way in which the people of God have
offered a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to Him? Third, we will consider
Church government. What sort of polity did the Church practice?
1. Doctrine: Not only did the Church begin under the teaching of the Apostles,
but she was also instructed to “stand fast and hold the traditions which you
were taught, whether by word or our epistle” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). The Apostle
Paul insisted that those matters delivered by him and his fellow Apostles, both
in person and in the writings that would come to be called the New Testament, be
adhered to carefully. Thus followed such appropriate warnings as “in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ . . . withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and
not according to the tradition which he received from us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6).
The doctrines taught by Christ and His disciples are to be safeguarded by “the
church . . . the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15) and are not
open for renegotiation.
Midway through the first century, a dispute over adherence to Old Testament laws
arose in Antioch. The matter could not be settled there, and outside help was
needed. The leaders of the Antiochian church, the community which had earlier
dispatched Paul and Barnabas as missionaries, brought the matter to Jerusalem
for consideration by the Apostles and elders there. The matter was discussed,
debated, and a written decision was forthcoming.
It was James, the “brother” of the Lord and the first bishop of Jerusalem, who
gave the solution to the problem. This settlement, agreed to by all concerned at
what is known as the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), set the pattern for the use
of Church councils in the centuries ahead to settle doctrinal and moral issues
that arose. Thus, in the history of the Church we find scores of such councils,
and on various levels, to settle matters of dispute, and to deal with those who
do not adhere to the Apostolic Faith.
In addition to this well-known controversy, the first three hundred years of
Christian history were also marked by the appearance of certain heresies or
false teachings, such as super-secret philosophic schemes for “insiders” only
(Gnosticism), wild prophetic programs (Montanism), and grave errors regarding
the three Persons of the Trinity (Sabellianism).
Then, in the early fourth century, a heresy with potential for Church-wide
disruption appeared and was propagated by one Arius, a presbyter in Alexandria,
Egypt. He denied the eternality of the Son of God, claiming, contrary to the
Apostles’ doctrine, that the Son was a created being who came into existence at
a point in time and thus was not truly God. This serious error crept through the
Church like a cancer. Turmoil spread almost everywhere. To solve the problem the
first Church-wide, or ecumenical, council met in Nicea in A.D. 325 to consider
this doctrine. Some 318 bishops, along with many priests and deacons, rejected
the new teaching of Arius and his associates and upheld the Apostles’ doctrine
of Christ, confirming “there never was a time when the Son of God was not,” and
issued a definition of the apostolic teaching concerning Christ in what we today
call the Nicene Creed.
Between the years 325 and 787, seven such Church-wide conclaves were held, all
dealing first and foremost with some specific challenge to the apostolic
teaching about Jesus Christ. These are known as the Seven Ecumenical Councils,
meeting in the cities of Nicea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople.
For the first thousand years of Christian history, the entire Church, save for
the heretics, embraced and defended the New Testament Apostolic Faith. There was
no division. And this one Faith, preserved through all these trials, attacks,
and tests, this one Apostolic Faith, was called the Orthodox Faith.
2. Worship: Doctrinal purity was tenaciously maintained. But true Christianity
is far more than adherence to a set of correct beliefs alone. The life of the
Church is centrally expressed in her worship or adoration of God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. It was Jesus Himself who told the woman at the well, “the
hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23).
At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the Communion service, when
He took bread and wine, blessed them, and said to His disciples, “This is My
body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me,” and, “This cup is
the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:19, 20). From New
Testament books such as Acts and Hebrews we know that the Church participated in
Communion at least each Lord’s Day (Acts 20:7, 11). And also from such first-
and second-century sources as the Didache and Saint Justin Martyr, we learn the
Eucharist was kept at the very center of Christian worship after the death of
the Apostles.
And just as the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets were read in the temple
worship and the synagogue in Israel, so the Church also immediately gave high
priority to the public reading of Scripture and to preaching in her worship,
along with the eucharistic meal.
Even before the middle of the first century, Christian worship was known by the
term “liturgy,” which means literally “the common work” or “the work of the
people.” The early liturgy of the Church’s worship was composed of two essential
parts: (1) the Liturgy of the Word, including hymns, Scripture reading, and
preaching; and (2) the Liturgy of the Faithful, composed of intercessory
prayers, the kiss of peace, and the Eucharist. Virtually from the beginning, it
had a definable shape or form which continues to this day.
Modern Christians advocating freedom from liturgy in worship are usually
shocked to learn that such spontaneity was never the practice in the ancient
Church! A basic pattern or shape of Christian worship was observed from the
start. And as the Church grew and matured, that structure matured as well.
Hymns, Scripture readings, and prayers were intertwined in the basic foundation.
A clear, purposeful procession through the year, honoring in word, song, and
praise the Birth, ministry, death, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and marking crucial issues in Christian life and experience, was
forthcoming. The Christian life was lived in reality in the worship of the
Church. Far from being routine, the worship of the historic Church participated
in the unfolding drama of the richness and mystery of the Gospel itself!
Further, specific landmarks in our salvation and walk with Christ were observed.
Baptism and the anointing with oil, or chrismation, were there from Day One of
the Church. Marriage, healing, confession of sin, and ordination to the ministry
of the gospel were early recognized and practiced. On each of these occasions,
Christians understood, in a great mystery, grace and power from God were being
given to people according to the individual need of each person. The Church saw
these events as holy moments in her life and called them her mysteries or
sacraments.
3. Government: No one seriously questions whether the Apostles of Christ led the
Church at her beginning. They had been given the commission to preach the gospel
(Matthew 28:19, 20) and the authority to forgive or retain sins (John 20:23).
Theirs was by no means a preaching-only mission! They built the Church itself
under Christ’s headship. To govern it, three definite and permanent offices, as
taught in the New Testament, were in evidence.
a. The office of bishop. The Apostles themselves were the first bishops in the
Church. Even before Pentecost, after Judas had turned traitor, Peter declared in
applying Psalm 109:8, “his bishopric let another take” (Acts 1:20, KJV).
The word “bishopric” refers to the office of a bishop and its use obviously
indicates the “job description” of the Apostles as being bishops. Some have
mistakenly argued that the office of bishop was a later “human” invention. Quite
to the contrary, the Apostles were the New Testament bishops, and they appointed
bishops to succeed them to oversee the Church in each locality.
Occasionally, the objection is still heard that the offices of bishop and
presbyter were originally identical. It is true the terms are sometimes used
interchangeably in the New Testament while the Apostles were present, but it was
the understanding of the entire early Church that, with the death of the
Apostles, the offices of bishop and presbyter were distinct. Ignatius of
Antioch, consecrated bishop by A.D. 70 in the church from which Paul and
Barnabas had been sent out, writes just after the turn of the century that
bishops appointed by the Apostles, surrounded by their presbyters, were
everywhere in the Church.
b. The office of presbyter. Elders or presbyters are mentioned very early in the
life of the Church in the Book of Acts and the Epistles. It is evident that in
each place a Christian community developed, elders were appointed by the
Apostles to pastor the people.
As time passed, presbyters were referred to in the short form of the word as
“prests,” then as “priests,” in full view of the fact that the Old Covenant
priesthood had been fulfilled in Christ and that the Church is corporately a
priesthood of believers. The priest was not understood as an intermediary
between God and the people, nor as a dispenser of grace. It was the role of the
priest to be the presence of Christ in the Christian community. And in the very
capacity of being the presence of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ, the priest
was to shepherd the flock of God.
c. The office of deacon. The third order or office in the government of the New
Testament Church was that of deacon. At first the Apostles fulfilled this office
themselves. But with the rapid growth of the Church, seven initial deacons were
selected, as reported in Acts 6, to help carry the responsibility of service to
those in need. It was one of these deacons, Saint Stephen, who became the first
martyr of the Church.
Through the centuries, the deacons have not only served the material needs of
the Church, but have held a key role in the liturgical life of the Church as
well. Often called “the eyes and ears of the bishop,” many deacons have become
priests and ultimately entered the episcopal office.
The authority of the bishop, presbyter, and deacon was not anciently understood
as being apart from the people, but always from among the people. But the people
of God were called to submit to those who ruled over them (Hebrews 13:17), and
they were also called to give their agreement to the direction of the leaders
for the Church. On a number of occasions in history, that “Amen” was not
forthcoming, and the bishops of the Church took note and changed course. Later
in history, many Church leaders departed from the ancient model and usurped
authority for themselves. In the minds of some this brought the ancient model
into question. But the problem was not in the model but in the deviation from
it.
It should also be mentioned that it was out of the ministry and life of the
Apostles that the people of God, the laity, were established in the Church. Far
from being a herd of observers, the laity are vital in the effectiveness of the
Church. They are the recipients and active users of the gifts and grace of the
Spirit. Each one of the laity has a role in the life and function of the Church.
Each one is to supply something to the whole (1 Corinthians 12:7). And it is the
responsibility of the bishops, the priests, and the deacons to be sure that this
is a reality for the laity.
The worship of the Church at the close of its first thousand years had
substantially the same shape from place to place. The doctrine was the same. The
whole Church confessed one creed, the same in every place, and had weathered
many attacks. The government of the Church was recognizably one everywhere. And
this One Church was the Orthodox Church.
After A Thousand Years—A Parting of Ways
Tensions began to mount as the first millennium was drawing to a close. They
were reaching the breaking point as the second thousand years began. While
numerous doctrinal, political, economic, and cultural factors began to work to
separate the Church in a division that would be the East and the West, two giant
issues ultimately emerged above others: (1) should one man, the pope of Rome, be
considered the universal bishop of the Church? and (2) should a novel clause be
added to one of the Church’s ecumenical creeds?
1. The Papacy: Among the Twelve, Saint Peter was early acknowledged as the
leader. He was spokesman for the Twelve before and after Pentecost. He was the
first bishop of Antioch and later bishop of Rome. No one challenged his role.
After the death of the Apostles, as leadership in the Church developed, the
bishop of Rome came to be recognized as first in honor, even though all bishops
were equals. But after nearly 300 years, the bishop of Rome slowly began to
assume to himself a role of superiority over the others, ultimately claiming to
be the only true successor to Saint Peter. The vast majority of the other
bishops of the Church never questioned Rome’s primacy of honor, but they
patently rejected its claim to be the universal head of the Church on earth.
This claim became one of the major factors leading to the tragic split between
the Western and Eastern Church which we will soon be considering.
2. The Addition to the Creed: A disagreement about the Holy Spirit also began to
develop in the Church. Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father? Or does He
proceed from the Father and the Son?
In John 15:26, our Lord Jesus Christ asserts, “But when the Helper comes, whom I
shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the
Father, He will testify of Me” (italics mine). This is the basic statement in
all of the New Testament about the Holy Spirit “proceeding,” and it is clear: He
“proceeds from the Father.”
Thus when the ancient council at Constantinople in A.D. 381, during the course
of its conclave, reaffirmed the Creed of Nicea (A.D. 325), it expanded that
Creed to proclaim these familiar words: “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and
Life-Giver, who proceeds from the Father, who is worshiped and glorified
together with the Father and the Son . . . ”
But two hundred years later, at a local council in Toledo, Spain (A.D. 589),
King Reccared declared that “the Holy Spirit also should be confessed by us and
taught to proceed from the Father and the Son.” The King may have meant well,
but he was contradicting the apostolic teaching about the Holy Spirit.
Unfortunately the local Spanish council agreed with his error.
Because of the teaching of the Holy Scriptures as confessed by the entire Church
at Nicea and at Constantinople and for centuries beyond, there is no reason
to believe anything other than that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.
Period!
But centuries later, in what was looked upon by many as a largely political
move, the pope of Rome unilaterally changed the wording of the universal creed
of the Church. Such an independent action was bound to evoke a strong response
from the Eastern bishops. They saw it as a flagrant violation of the
long-established practice that no universal creed could be altered or changed
apart from the corporate action of an ecumenical council. Though this change was
initially rejected in both East and West, even by some of Rome’s closest
neighboring bishops, the pope eventually convinced the Western bishops to
capitulate to it. Although this change may appear small, the con-sequences have
proven disastrous—both from a theological and an historical perspective. This
issue represented a major departure from the Orthodox doctrine of the Church. It
became another instrumental cause leading to the separation of the Roman
Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Schism
Conflict between the Roman pope and the East mounted—especially in the West’s
dealings with the Eastern bishop, or patriarch, of Constantinople. It was even
asserted that the pope had the authority to decide who should be the bishop of
Constantinople—something which violated historical precedent, and which no
Orthodox bishop could endure. The net result of this assertion was that the
Eastern Church, and in fact the entire Christian Church, was seen by the West to
be under the domination of the pope.
A series of intrigues followed one upon the other as the Roman papacy began
asserting an increasing degree of unilateral and often authoritarian control
over the rest of the Church. Perhaps the most invidious of these political,
religious, and even military intrigues, as far as the East was concerned,
occurred in the year 1054. A cardinal, sent by the pope, slapped a document on
the altar of the Church of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople during the Sunday
worship, excommunicating the patriarch of Constantinople from the Church!
Rome, of course, was flagrantly overstepping its bounds by this action. Some
very sordid chapters of Church history were written during the next decades.
Ultimately, the final consequence of these tragic events was a massive split
which occurred between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox
Church. While some disagree that the West departed from the New Testament Church
at this point, the reality remains that the schism was never healed.
As the centuries passed, conflict continued. Attempts at union failed and the
split widened. Orthodox Christians agree that in departing from the tradition of
the Church the West had deviated from historic Christianity, and in so doing,
set the stage for countless other divisions which were soon to follow.
The West: Reformation and Counter-Reformation
During the succeeding centuries after A.D. 1054, the growing distinction between
East and West was indelibly marked in history. The East maintained the full
stream of New Testament Faith, worship, and practice. The Western or Roman
Catholic Church, after its schism from the Orthodox Church, bogged down in many
complex problems. Then, centuries after Rome committed itself to its unilateral
spirit of doctrine and practice, another upheaval was festering—this time not
next door to the East, but inside the Western gates themselves.
Though many in the West had spoken out against Roman domination and practice in
earlier years, now a little-known German monk named Martin Luther launched an
attack against certain Roman Catholic practices that ended up affecting world
history. His famous Ninety-Five Theses were nailed to the church door at
Wittenburg in 1517. In a short time those theses were signalling the start of
what came to be called in the West the Protestant Reformation. Luther sought an
audience with the pope but was denied, and in 1521 he was excommunicated from
the Roman Catholic Church. He had intended no break with Rome. Un-responsive to
Luther’s many legitimate objections concerning the novel practices of the
now-separated Western Church, Rome refused to budge or bend. The door to future
unity in the West slammed shut with a resounding crash.
The protests of Luther were not unnoticed. The reforms he sought in Germany were
soon accompanied by the demands of Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, John Calvin in
Geneva, and hundreds of others all over Western Europe. Fueled by complex
political, social, and economic factors, in addition to religious problems, the
Reformation spread like a raging fire into virtually every nook and cranny of
the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Church’s Western ecclesiastical monopoly
was greatly diminished and massive division replaced its artificial unity. The
ripple effect of that division continues even to our day.
If trouble on the continent were not enough, the Church of England was in the
process of going its own way as well. Henry VIII, amidst his marital problems,
placed himself as head of the Church of England instead of the pope of Rome. For
only a few short years would the pope ever again have ascendancy in England. And
the English Church itself would be shattered by great division.
As decade followed decade in the West, the many branches of Protestantism took
various forms. There were even divisions that insisted they were neither
Protestant nor Roman Catholic. All seemed to share a mutual dislike for the
bishop of Rome and the practice of his church, and most wanted far less
centralized forms of leadership. While some, such as the Lutherans and
Anglicans, held on to a basic form of liturgy and sacrament, others, such as the
Reformed Churches and the even more radical Anabaptists and their descendants,
questioned and rejected many biblical ideas of hierarchy, sacrament, historic
tradition, and other elements of historic Christian practice, no matter when and
where they appeared in history, thinking they were freeing themselves of Roman
Catholicism.
To this day, many sincere, modern, professing Christians will reject even the
biblical data which speak of historic Christian practice, simply because they
think such historic practices are “Roman Catholic.” To use the old adage, they
“threw the baby out with the bathwater,” without even being aware of it.
Thus, while retaining in varying degrees portions of foundational Christianity,
neither Protestantism nor Roman Catholicism can lay historic claim to being the
true New Testament Church. In dividing from the Orthodox Church, Rome forfeited
its place in the Church of the New Testament. In the divisions of the
Reformation, the Protestants—as well-meaning as they might have been—failed to
return to the New Testament Church.
The Orthodox Church Today
But that first Church, the Church of Peter and Paul and the Apostles, the
Orthodox Church—despite persecution, political oppression, and desertion on
certain of its flanks—miraculously carries on today the same Faith and life of
the Church of the New Testament. Admittedly the style of Orthodoxy looks
complicated to the modern Protestant eye, and understandably so. But given the
historical understanding of how the Church has progressed, the simple
Christ-centered Faith of the Apostles is clearly preserved in its practices,
services, and even its architecture.
In Orthodoxy today, as in years gone by, the basics of Christian doctrine,
worship, and government are never up for renegotiation. One cannot be an
Orthodox priest, for example, and reject the divinity of Christ, His Virgin
Birth, Resurrection, Ascension into heaven, and Second Coming. The Church simply
has not left its course in nearly 2,000 years. It is One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic. It is the New Testament Church. The gates of hell have not prevailed
against it.
But Orthodoxy is also, in the words of one of her bishops, “the best-kept secret
in America.” Though there are more than 225 million Orthodox Christians in the
world today, many Americans are not familiar with the Church. In North America,
the Orthodox Church until recently has been largely limited to ethnic
boundaries, not spreading much beyond the parishes of the committed immigrants
that brought the Church to the shores of this continent.
But the Holy Spirit has continued His work, causing new people to discover this
Church of the New Testament. People have begun to find Orthodox Christianity
both through the writings of the early Church Fathers, and through the humble
witness of Orthodox Christians. On a personal note, I am a part of a group of
nearly 2,000 ex-Protestant evangelicals who were received into the Antiochian
Archdiocese of the Orthodox Church in the spring of 1987 as the Evangelical
Orthodox Mission. Orthodox student groups are springing up on a number of
American campuses. The word is getting out.
What does this identity of the Orthodox Church with the New Testament Church
mean as far as the other churches in Christendom are concerned? Many have
retained much of the truth of Orthodox Christianity. Some pretend to be the New
Testament Church but are seriously off-base, leading people far astray from
Christ and the Church. Other modern churches have preserved truth in greater or
lesser degree.
But groups which possess some or much of the truth are one thing; the New
Testament Church is another.
What is it that’s missing in the non-Orthodox churches—even the best of them?
Fullness. The fullness of the New Testament Faith is to be found only in the New
Testament Church. Being in the New Testament Church doesn’t guarantee all those
in it will necessarily take advantage of the fullness of the Faith. But it does
guarantee the fullness is there for those who do.
For those who seriously desire the fullness of the New Testament Faith, action
must be taken. There must be for these a return to the New Testament Church.
Being aware of this ancient Church is not enough. In America, people have had
ample opportunity to investigate and decide about the Roman Catholic faith, the
Baptist, the Lutheran, and so on. Not so regarding the Orthodox Church. Let me
make three specific suggestions that will provide you with a tangible means to
look into Orthodox Christianity and to decide for yourself if it is not the
Church for which you have searched.
1. Visit: Look up “Orthodox” or “Eastern Orthodox” in the “Church” section of
your Yellow Pages. Ask for the whereabouts of the nearest Orthodox parish. Pay a
visit—several visits. Meet the priest, and ask him to help you study and learn.
And be prepared to be patient. Sometimes a portion of the Liturgy is not in
English! But the service books will help out here.
2. Read: There are a number of books and periodicals immensely helpful to people
seeking to learn about the Orthodox Church. Let me mention a few: The Orthodox
Church, by Timothy (Bishop Kallistos) Ware (Penguin); The Orthodox Faith, by
Father Thomas Hopko (4-volume set, Orthodox Christian Publications Center); the
writings of the Apostolic Fathers (several editions available); Feed My Sheep,
by Metropolitan PHILIP Saliba (Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press); AGAIN Magazine
(Conciliar Press).
3. Write: Conciliar Press (P.O. Box 76, Ben Lomond, CA 95005) can help put you
in touch with an Orthodox church and supply you with a book list including other
recommended reading. Send your name and address and a request for information.
In a day when Christians are realizing anew the centrality and importance of the
Church as the Body of Christ, the doors of Orthodoxy are open wide and the
invitation is extended to come and see. Examine her Faith, her worship, her
history, her commitment to Christ, her love for God the Father, her communion
with the Holy Spirit.
The Orthodox Church has kept the Faith delivered once for all to the saints for
nearly two thousand years. In her walls is the fullness of the salvation which
was realized when “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John
3:16).
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THE NATIVITY SERMON BY SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 3 Teachings on the
Faith, 6 Great Feasts
≈ Comments Off on The Nativity Sermon by Saint John Chrysostom
THE NATIVITY SERMON BY SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
December 1, 2013
I behold a new and wondrous mystery!
My ears resound to the shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but loudly
chanting a heavenly hymn! The angels sing! The archangels blend their voices in
harmony! The cherubim resound their joyful praise! The Seraphim exalt His glory!
All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead herein… on earth and
man in heaven. He who is above now, for our salvation, dwells here below; and
we, who were lowly, are exalted by divine mercy!
Today Bethlehem resembles heaven, hearing from the stars the singing of angelic
voices and, in place of the sun, witnessing the rising of the Sun of Justice!
Ask not how this is accomplished, for where God wills, the order of nature is
overturned. For He willed He had the powers He descended. He saved. All things
move in obedience to God.
Today He Who Is, is born ! And He Who Is becomes what He was not! For when He
was God, He became man-while not relinquishing the Godhead that is His…
And so the kings have come, and they have seen the heavenly King that has come
upon the earth, not bringing with Him angels, nor archangels, nor thrones, nor
dominions, nor powers, nor principalities, but, treading a new and solitary
path, He has come forth from a spotless womb.
Yet He has not forsaken His angels, nor left them deprived of His care, nor
because of His incarnation has He ceased being God. And behold kings have come,
that they might serve the Leader of the Hosts of Heaven; Women, that they might
adore Him Who was born of a woman so that He might change the pains of
childbirth into joy; Virgins, to the Son of the Virgin… Infants, that they may
adore Him who became a little child, so that out of the mouths of infants He
might perfect praise; Children, to the Child who raised up martyrs through the
rage of Herod; Men, to Him who became man that He might heal the miseries of His
servants; Shepherds, to the Good Shepherd who was laid down His life for His
sheep; Priests, to Him who has become a High Priest according to the order of
Melchizedek; Servants, to Him who took upon Himself the form of a servant, that
He might bless our stewardship with the reward of freedom (Philippians 2:7);
Fishermen, to the Fisher of humanity; Publicans, to Him who from among them
named a chosen evangelist; Sinful women, to Him who exposed His feet to the
tears of the repentant woman; And that I may embrace them all together, all
sinners have come, that they may look upon the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world!
Since, therefore, all rejoice, I too desire to rejoice! I too wish to share the
choral dance, to celebrate the festival! But I take my part, not plucking the
harp nor with the music of the pipes nor holding a torch, but holding in my arms
the cradle of Christ!
For this is all my hope! This is my life! This is my salvation! This is my pipe,
my harp! And bearing it I come, and having from its power received the gift of
speech, I too, with the angels and shepherds, sing:
“Glory to God in the Highest! and on earth peace to men of good will! “
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PROOF THAT DECEMBER 25TH IS THE ACTUAL DATE OF CHRIST’S BIRTH
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith, 6 Great Feasts
≈ Comments Off on Proof that December 25th is the actual date of Christ’s birth
Tags
Christmas, Nativity
Christ’s Birth in December
In recent years, the skepticism concerning the accuracy of the December birth of
Christ has increased. More and more we hear that December is arbitrary or that
it was instituted by the church without any real proof, or further still that it
was chosen to challenge an established pagan celebration. After all, some say,
where does it say this date in the Bible?There is ample proof, according to both
historical record as well as Tradition.
Note: The date date of Christmas, December 25th, falls on Jan. 7th when
calculated using the Julian calendar due to the 13 day difference. A discussion
concerning the Julian calendar and so-called Revised Julian calendar is beyond
the scope of this article.
Understanding The Tradition
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, provenance concerning the time of Christ’s birth
can be traced to the early years of the third century.
Saint Clement of Alexandria,(c. 150-215) stating in his famous work the
Stromata:
> And there are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s
> birth, but also the day;
In the dawn of the Third Century (circa 170-240) Saint Hippolytus of Rome offers
December 25th as the actual date. This information is gleaned from the fourth
book of commentary of Hippolytus on the Prophetic Book of Daniel in the passage
n 4.23.3:
> For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem,
> eight days before the kalends of January [December 25th], the 4th day of the
> week [Wednesday], while Augustus was in his forty-second year, [2 or 3BC] but
> from Adam five thousand and five hundred years. He suffered in the thirty
> third year, 8 days before the kalends of April [March 25th], the Day of
> Preparation, the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar [29 or 30 AD], while Rufus
> and Roubellion and Gaius Caesar, for the 4th time, and Gaius Cestius
> Saturninus were Consuls.” (tr. Tom Schmidt).
One may certainly question how the Saint derived this date. Clearly other extant
writings from that time make similar claim, from which we may reason that the
date was known amongst the Christians in Rome and in the west.
There are others offering additional evidence of this date of the Nativity of
our Lord. Saint Justin Martyr (100-165), lends further testimony to the
existence of historical data in his noted Apology (a detailed explanation of the
Christian faith addressed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius), which stated that
Jesus was born at Bethlehem according the record of the census:
> as you can ascertain also from the registers of the taxing (Apol. I, 34).
Another writer of the early Christian era was Tertullian (160-250), who wrote
concerning the census:
> the census of Augustus: that most faithful witness of the Lord’s nativity,
> kept in the archives of Rome” (Against Marcion, Bk. 4, 7).
The first of the Eastern Fathers to support to December birth date was Saint
John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), the Archbishop of Constantinople. Saint John was a
prolific author whose writings on the Bible and the Christian faith are still
widely read.
Saint John Chrysostom claimed the December 25th date was supported by the actual
census/tax records of the Holy Family when they registered in Bethlehem. Saint
John was not the only one who referred to these tax records. As mentioned
above, he had reliable sources from which to lay his claim. Further, that others
refer to the similar source gives evidence that the records were in existence at
that time. This is significant as it ties the date to a historic record – the
event of the census, the records of which would have been available in Rome at
that time.
The institution of the Feast was a new custom in the East during Saint John’s
time of service and he defended it as something providential and God-pleasing.
To paraphrase Saint John, this feast was no novelty:
> from Thrace to Cadiz this feast was observed rightly, since its miraculously
> rapid diffusion proved its genuineness.
It was not long after when Saint Gregory Nazianzen also championed the great
feast in Constantinople.
On the basis of these testimonies, the evidence is difficult to dismiss
concerning the antiquity of the December birth. As we see with many things in
the Church, things blessed by God will not remain hidden, for as the divine
Psalmist hath said:
> Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonders which Thou hast wrought, and Thy thoughts
> there is none that shall be likened unto Thee.
THE ROMAN / PAGAN CONNECTION
Some contemporary scholars have argued that December 25th was initially set
forth as a pagan festival, which was dedicated in 274 by the Roman emperor
Aurelian to celebrate the birth of the Sun god, Sol Invictus. They further
claim that the Church sought to “Christianize” this pagan celebration. Looking
at previous practice among the pagan Emperors, we may infer with reason that it
may have been quite the contrary. A prime example may be seen in the early 2nd
century AD when the Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a temple to
Venus over the site of Golgotha. The early Christian author Eusebius claims, in
his Life of Constantine, that the site of the Church had originally been a
Christian place of veneration, but that Hadrian had deliberately covered these
Christian sites with earth, and built his own temple on top, due to his hatred
for Christianity.
As noted earlier, the assertion of Saint Hippolytus of Rome for a December 25th
date predates the pagan celebration by approximately 60 years.
It is perfectly reasonable to accept the possibility that a pagan holiday could
have been instituted to cover over a feast of the Lord.
This article was not meant to be an exhaustive study on this topic but rather a
chance to provide record supporting the long held Christian Tradition for the
Birth of Christ. In a time when the love of God has grown cold in the hearts of
men, it is no small wonder that any still cling to this sacred Feast in its true
solemnity as a joyous celebration of the salvation of mankind.
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WE DRAW NIGH TO BETHLEHEM TO BEHOLD THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR
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Posted by deaconalex in 2 Pearls-sayings from the Fathers, 3 Teachings on the
Faith, 6 Great Feasts
≈ Comments Off on We draw nigh to Bethlehem to behold the Birth of our Saviour
Bethlehem, the City of David, lies before us. With anxious enthusiasm we draw
ever so closer to that place of our desire, to sit with the Shepherds as they
worship along side the manger in the cave, offered by the Earth for a refuge for
her Creator:
> To the Unapproachable the Earth doth offer a small cave
How fitting, the Lamb of God should be born in the place used as a shelter for
the newborn and yearling lambs. He Who shall take away the sin of the world is
wrapped in swaddling bands, from His birth already foretelling the great Mystery
for which He was sent into the world.
Our hearts yearn to hear the angelic voices singing glory to our God and wishing
to all men, peace and goodwill. Let us follow with the shepherds in the deep of
night to behold the Daystar and Son of Righteousness.
Behold the words of a luminary of our very age…
The Nativity of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son (Galatians
4:4) to save the human race. And when nine months were fulfilled from the
Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel had appeared to the Most-holy Virgin in
Nazareth, saying, Rejoice, thou that art highly favored … behold, thou shalt
conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son (Luke 1:28, 31), at that time there
went forth a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the people of the Roman Empire
should be taxed.
In accordance with this decree, everyone had to go to his own town and be
registered. That is why the righteous Joseph came with the Most-holy Virgin to
Bethlehem, the city of David, for they were both of the royal lineage of David.
Since many people descended on this small town for the census, Joseph and Mary
were unable to find lodging in any house, and they sought shelter in a cave
which shepherds used as a sheepfold. In this cave – on the night between
Saturday and Sunday, on the 25th of December- the Most holy Virgin gave birth to
the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. Giving birth to Him without pain
just as He was conceived without sin by the Holy Spirit and not by man, she
herself wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, worshiped Him as God, and laid Him in
a manger. Then the righteous Joseph drew near and worshiped Him as the Divine
Fruit of the Virgin’s womb. Then the shepherds came in from the fields, directed
by an angel of God, and worshiped Him as the Messiah and Savior.
The shepherds heard a multitude of God’s angels singing: Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14). At that time
three wise men arrived from the east, led by a wondrous star, bearing their
gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. They worshiped Him as the King of kings,
and offered Him their gifts (Matthew 2).
Thus entered the world He Whose coming was foretold by the prophets, and Who was
born in the same manner in which it had been prophesied: of a Most-holy Virgin,
in the town of Bethlehem, of the lineage of David according to the flesh, at the
time when there was no king in Jerusalem of the lineage of Judah, but rather
when Herod, a foreigner, was reigning.
After many types and prefigurings, messengers and heralds, prophets and
righteous men, wise men and kings, finally He appeared, the Lord of the world
and King of kings, to perform the work of the salvation of mankind, which could
not be performed by His servants. To Him be eternal glory and praise! Amen.
The Prologue of Ochrid, by Saint Nikolai
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STS. BONIFACE THE MARTYR OF TARSUS AND AGLAIS THE RIGHTEOUS
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy
≈ Comments Off on Sts. Boniface the Martyr of Tarsus and Aglais the Righteous
DECEMBER 19/ January 1
Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Wondrous is God in His Saints. Great is the love of our God for us that He ever
gives us the Saints as guides and intercessors. To the faithful, it is no
coincidence that we celebrate the valiant Martyr Boniface on this day.
Below, we have included the testimony of his martyrdom. On this New Year’s Day,
there is much we can glean from this hagiography, perhaps the greatest is the
example of repentance from the Saint. As you read, consider how the early life
of the Saint and his choices in life reflect the choices of many in this day.
His martyrdom is a testament, a loud proclamation of the wonders of true
repentance. Through true repentance and seeking God we are empowered to face
down the cruelest of situations.
Sts. Boniface and Aglais. The account of their lives was copied from:
http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?FSID=103583.
“The Holy Martyr Boniface was the slave of a rich young Roman woman named
Aglaida and he dwelt with her in an iniquitous cohabitation. But they both felt
the sting of conscience and they wanted somehow to be cleansed of their sin. And
the Lord granted them the possibility to wash away their sin with their blood
and to finish their life in repentance.
Aglaida learned that whoever keeps relics of the holy martyrs in the home and
venerates them receives great help in gaining salvation. Under their influence,
sin is diminished and virtue prevails. She arranged for Boniface to go to the
East, where there was a fierce persecution against Christians, and she asked him
to bring back the relics of some martyr, who would become a guide and protector
for them.
As he was leaving, Boniface laughed and asked, “My lady, if I do not find any
relics, and if I myself suffer for Christ, will you accept my body with
reverence?” Aglaida scolded him, saying that he was setting off on a sacred
mission, but he was not taking it seriously. Boniface pondered her words, and
during the whole journey he thought that he was unworthy of touching the bodies
of the martyrs.
Arriving at Tarsus in Cilicia, Boniface left his companions at the inn and
proceeded to the city square, where they were torturing Christians. Struck by
the beastly horrible torments, and seeing the faces of the holy martyrs radiant
with the grace of the Lord, Boniface marveled at their courage. He embraced them
and kissed their feet, asking them to pray that he might be found worthy to
suffer with them.
The judge asked Boniface who he was. He replied, “I am a Christian,” and then
refused to offer sacrifice to idols. They stripped him and hung him upside down,
beating him so hard that the flesh fell from his body, exposing the bone. They
stuck needles under his nails, and finally they poured molten tin down his
throat, but by the power of the Lord he remained unharmed. The people who
witnessed this miracle shouted, “Great is the God of the Christians!” Then they
began to throw stones at the judge, and then they headed for the pagan temple,
in order to cast down the idols.
On the following morning, when things had quieted down somewhat, the judge
directed that the holy martyr be thrown into a cauldron of boiling tar, but this
also caused the sufferer no harm. An angel come down from Heaven and bedewed him
as he stepped into the cauldron. The tar overflowed the cauldron, splattering
and burning the torturers themselves. St Boniface was then sentenced to
beheading by the sword. Blood and a milky fluid flowed from his wounds.
Beholding such a miracle, about 550 men believed in Christ.
St Boniface’s companions, waiting for two days at the inn for him in vain, began
searching for him, thinking that he had gotten drunk somewhere. At first their
search was without success, but finally they came across a man who had been an
eyewitness to the martyr’s death. The man also led them to the place where the
decapitated body lay. St Boniface’s companions tearfully begged his forgiveness
for their unseemly thoughts about him. After they ransomed the martyr’s remains,
they brought them back to Rome.
On the eve of their arrival an angel appeared to Aglaida in her sleep and told
her to prepare herself to receive her former slave, now the brother and
fellow-servant of the angels. Aglaida summoned the clergy, and she received the
holy relics with great reverence. Then she built a church on the site of his
grave and dedicated it to the holy martyr. There she enshrined his relics,
glorified by numerous miracles. After distributing all her wealth to the poor,
she withdrew to a monastery, where she spent fifteen years in repentance, then
fell asleep in the Lord. She was buried beside St Boniface. The sins of the one
were washed away by his blood, the other was purified by her tears and
asceticism. Both were found worthy to appear unsullied before our Lord Jesus
Christ, Who desires not the death of a sinner, but that he should turn from his
wickedness and live (Ezek. 33:11).
We pray to St Boniface for deliverance from drunkenness.” (taken from:
http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?FSID=103583)
Apolytikion of St. Boniface in the Fourth Tone
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee received the prize of the
crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since he
possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the
demons’ strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls,
since Thou art merciful.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
Thou didst offer up thyself of thine own choosing as a spotless sacrifice to Him
that for thy sake, O Saint, shall soon be born of a Virgin Maid, O all-renowned
and wise crown-bearer Boniface.
(The two hymns above are taken from:
http://goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=344&type=saints)
Another Apolytikion of Sts. Boniface and Aglais (amateur translation)
The boast of martyrs, you followed fervently, you confessed Christ before the
unfaithful valiantly, O wise Boniface, therefore as an inexhaustible treasure, O
Martyr, you gave your body to the righteous Aglais, from which the world is
watered with deliverance and mercy.
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CONCERNING THE DORMITION OF OUR ALL HOLY LADY AND MOTHER OF GOD
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Posted by deaconalex in 3 Teachings on the Faith, 6 Great Feasts
≈ Comments Off on Concerning the Dormition of our All Holy Lady and Mother
of God
On the 15th of the month, we celebrate the DORMITION,
or the TRANSLATION to HEAVEN, of our All Glorious
Sovereign Lady, the MOTHER of GOD and EVER-VIRGIN MARY
When it pleased Christ our God to call His mother to Him,
He sent an angel three days beforehand, to give her this
news: Coming to her, the angel said to her who is full of
grace: “This is what your Son says: ‘The time has come to call My
mother to Me.’ Do not be afraid at this news, but rather rejoice, for
you are going to eternal life.” Welcoming this message with great
joy, the Mother of God, filled with an ardent desire to rise up to her
Son, went to the Mount of Olives to pray there in tranquillity, as she
often did. An amazing miracle was then wrought: at the moment
when the All-Holy reached the top of the hill, the trees planted there bent
their branches, bowing down and glorifying the Queen of the world like
reason-endowed servants.
After having prayed, the All-Holy returned home to Mount Zion. When she went
into the house, it suddenly began to shake. Giving thanks to God, she had, the
house-lamps lit and called together her kinsfolk and friends. She herself set
everything in
order, prepared her deathbed and gave orders that all be made ready for her
funeral. To the women who came at her summons, she revealed the news of her
departure to heaven and, as proof, gave them the palm branch, the symbol of
victory and incorruptibility, that the angel had given her. Still held by the
bonds of the world, her companions heard this news with copious tears and
groans,
begging the Mother of God not to leave them orphaned. She reassured
them, saying that she was indeed going to heaven but would nonetheless continue
to protect both them and the whole world by her prayers. At these words, the
women stopped their weeping and hastened to make the preparations. The All-Holy
also told them to give the only two robes that she possessed to two poor widows
who were her constant companions and friends.
She had scarcely spoken these words when the house was shaken once again by a
noise like thunder, and it was filled with clouds, bearing the Apostles,
assembled from the furthest parts of the world. It was thus that the whole
Church, in their persons, was mystically present to celebrate the funeral of its
sovereign Lady. To
the choir of the Apostles was joined that of the Hierarchs such as’ Saint
Hierotheus (4 Oct.), Saint Dionysius the Areopagite (3 Oct.) and Saint Timothy
(22 jan.). Their eyes full of tears, they said to the Mother of God: “If you
were to stay in the world and live among us, we would, of course, have great
consolation, O Lady, as
it would be as though we saw your Son and our Master. But as it is now according
to His will that you are taken to heaven, we are weeping and lamenting as you
see. But we rejoice at all that has been arranged for you.’ She replied: ‘O you
disciples and friends of my Son and my God, do not turn my joy to sorrow but
bury my body and keep it in the position that I shall take on my deathbed.'”
At these words, Saint Paul, the chosen vessel, arrived in his turn. He threw
himself at the feet of the All-Holy to venerate her, and addressed this praise
to her: “Rejoice, O Mother of Life and object of my preaching, for although I
never saw Christ in the flesh, it is Him, in seeing you, that I believe I
behold.”
After having made her last farewells to all those present, the All Immaculate
laid herself down on her deathbed, settling her body as she wished it, and
offered ardent prayer to her Son for the preservation of peace in the whole
world. Then, having given her blessing to the Apostles and hierarchs, she, with
a smile, peacefully gave her soul, white and more resplendent than any light,
into the hands of her Son and her God, who had appeared together with the
Archangel
Michael and a host of angels. Her death came about with no suffering or anguish,
as her childbearing had been without pain.
Peter, the leader of the Apostles, then intoned the funeral hymn and his
companions took up the bier, preceded by others present who carried torches and
accompanied the cortege with their chanting. SaintJohn the Theologian was at
their head, holding the palm of victory in his hand and followed in silence by
the crowd
of disciples. Angels could also be heard, joining their voices to those of men,
so that heaven and earth were entirely filled with this threnody in honour of
the sovereign Lady of the world. The air was purified by the ascending of her
soul, the earth was sanctified by the burial of her body, and many of the sick
recovered their health.
Not being able to bear this sight, the leaders of the Jews aroused the people
and sent them to-overturn the bier bearing the life-giving body. But divine
justice forestalled their dark design, and they were all struck with blindness.
One of them, the priest Jephoniah, who, with greater daring, had succeeded in
laying hands on the holy bier, also had his hands cut off at the elbow by the
sword of divine wrath, and his severed arms hung on the bier, presenting a
pitiable sight.
Brought to repentance by the punishment, Jephoniah wholeheartedly embraced the
Faith; and, at a word from Peter, he was healed and became for his companions an
instrument of salvation and healing. When he was given a branch of the Mother of
God’s palm, he laid it on the eyes of his companions and healed, at one and
the same time, their physical and spiritual blindness.
Arriving in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Apostles buried the most holy body of
the Mother of God and remained there for three days, their prayers unceasingly
being accompanied by angelic hymns. In conformity with a disposition of divine
Providence, one of the Apostles (Thomas, according to some), was not at the
funeral.
He only reached Gethsemane on the third day, and was unconsolable
at not having a last sight of the deified body of the All-Holy.
The Apostles therefore, with one accord, decided to open the tomb in order to
let him venerate the holy body. When they raised the stone that closed the
entrance, they were all filled with amazement on finding that the body had
disappeared and that only the shroud remained, empty and keeping the shape of
the body. It was an irrefutable proof of the translation to heaven of the Mother
of God:
her resurrection and the ascension of her body, united again with her soul,
above the skies in the close company of her Son, to be our representative and
advocate before God.’ Mary, ‘daughter of Adam’ but having become truly ‘Mother
of
God’ and ‘Mother of Life’ in giving birth to Him who is the Fullness of Life (cf
Jn 14:6) thus passed through death. But her death was no dishonour, for,
overcome by Christ, Who submitted to it by His own will for our salvation, the”
condemnation of Adam became a ‘lifegiving death’ and the principle of a new
existence. And the tomb of Gethsemane, as well as the Holy Sepulchre, appeared
as a ‘bridal
chamber’ where the wedding feast of incorruptibility is made radiant.
It ‘was fitting, indeed, that, conforming in all things to Christ our Saviour,
the most holy Virgin should follow all the paths trodden by Christ to spread
sanctification throughout our nature. After having followed Him in His Passion
and having ‘seen’ His Resurrection, she now had the experience of death. As soon
as she was parted
from the body, her most pure soul found itself united with divine Light; and her
body, having lain a short time in the earth, was soon raised by the grace of the
risen Christ. This ‘Spiritual Body,’ was received into heaven as the tabernacle
of God-became-Man, as the throne of God. It is the most significant part of the
Body of Christ, and had often been likened by the holy Fathers as the Church
itself,
the dwelling-place of God among men, the first-fruits of our future state and
the source of our divinisation. Through the womb of Mary most chaste, the Mother
of God, the Kingdom of heaven has been opened to us, and this is why her
translation to heaven is a cause of joy for all believers, having thus acquired
a guarantee that,in her person, it is the whole of human nature, having become a
Christ-bearer, that is called to abide in God.
________________________________________________________________
This feast was fixed on 15 August and made obligatory in the whole of the East
by Emperor Maurice (582-6O2). The practice spread widely, thanks to the eulogies
given by the holy fathers and great Church orators on this feast: 55 Andrew of
Crete, john Damascene, Germanus of Constantinople, Theodore the Stoudite,
Gregory Palamas, etc.’
The term ‘Assumption: that was recently adopted as dogma by the Roman Catholic
Church (1950), as a corollary to the Immaculate Conception (1854), leaves the
ambiguous question that the Mother of God, having been free of the heritage of
Adam (original sin and its consequence, death), did not die but was taken, body
and soul, to heaven.
Source: THE SYNAXARION, The Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church Compiled
by HIEROMONK MAKARIOS OF SIMONOS PETRA
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ALL CHURCH LIFE IS A MANIFESTATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 2 Pearls-sayings
from the Fathers, 3 Teachings on the Faith
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" According to the teaching of the Apostle, all Church life is a manifestation
of God’s Holy Spirit; each manifestation of love, each virtue is the action of a
gift of the Spirit. Everything is produced by one and the same Spirit. According
to the words of the Apostle Peter, people are but stewards of the manifold grace
of God. The Spirit of God has, by Its own power, penetrated the entire body of
the Church and given various spiritual gifts to each of its members, making
possible a new life for mankind. It unites all into one body, unifying in such a
way as to instill a kind of love in the hearts on men which, in their natural
state, cannot be a principle of their lives and relationships with other
people."
Holy New Martyr Archbishop Ilarion (Troitsky) Christianity or the Church
Beloved, let us also ponder the words of the Holy Gospel of Saint Matthew
concerning the talents bestowed upon each and everyone of us, for each of us are
stewards of those talents – the gifts from God. Mark that the essential element
of the gift is not in the number of talents given to each, but in how each makes
it manifest:
Matthew 25:14-30
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who
called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to
every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and
made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s
money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents,
saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained
beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast
been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter
thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst
unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou
into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee
that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where
thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou
hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou
knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at
my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten
talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but
from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Let us be made worthy to hear these joyful words from our Saviour: "…Well done,
thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I
will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord…."
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THE THIEF WHO PRAYED DAILY TO THE THEOTOKOS
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 2 Pearls-sayings
from the Fathers, 3 Teachings on the Faith
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THE THIEF WHO PRAYED DAILY TO THE THEOTOKOS
By St. Kosmas Aitolos
A man named John was defeated and he became a thief. He became the captain of a
band of one hundred thieves, but he had great reverence for the Theotokos. Each
morning and evening he read the service of Supplication to the Theotokos.
Wishing to save him because of the great reverence he had for the Theotokos, the
gracious God sent a holy monk who was immediately captured by the thieves.
The monk said to them: "I beg you to take me to your captain because I have
something to tell you for your own good."
They took him to the captain and he said: "Ask all the men to come so that I can
tell you something."
The captain called them and they came. The monk said: "Aren’t there any more?"
"I have a cook," the captain replied.
"Ask him to come." But when he came, the cook was unable to look at the monk and
turned his face aside.
The monk then said to the cook: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I command
you to tell me who you are, who sent you, and what you are doing here."
The cook replied and said: "I’m a liar and I always speak falsely. But since you
have bound me with the name of Christ, I can’t but tell you the truth. I’m the
devil and I was sent by my superior to work for the captain and to wait for the
day when he wouldn’t read the service of Supplication to the Theotokos to put
him into hell. I have been watching him now for fourteen years and I have never
found a day when he hasn’t read the service."
The monk said: "I command you in the name of the Holy Trinity to disappear and
no longer tempt Christians." And immediately the devil disappeared like smoke.
The monk then taught the thieves. Some became monks, others married and did good
works and were saved. This is why I advise you all, men and women, to learn the
service of Supplication and to use it in your prayers. And if you wish, take the
book The Salvation of Sinners, which contains the seventy miracles of the
Theotokos, of which I told you one so that you might understand.
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TENDING THE GARDEN OF OUR HEART
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If the husbandman wishes to have a rich harvest, he must work early and late,
weed and aerate, water and spray, for cultivation is beset by many dangers that
threaten the harvest. He must work without ceasing, be constantly on the watch,
constantly alert, constantly prepared; but, even so, the harvest ultimately
depends wholly on the elements, that is, on God.
The garden that we have undertaken to tend and watch over is the field of our
own heart; the harvest is eternal life.
Tito Colliander
"Way of the Ascetics"
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DIRECTIONS FOR THE ORTHODOX FAITHFUL WHEN NO CHURCH IS NEARBY
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 2 Pearls-sayings
from the Fathers, 3 Teachings on the Faith
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In these days, called by some the "post Christian age", it is becoming
increasingly difficult for the faithful to attend Orthodox services. What are
the Orthodox to do? Consider the words of the Blessed Raphael, Bishop of
Brooklyn in his‘ Pastoral Epistle to his flock, at a time when travel was much
more difficult, Orthodox Churches were much fewer and farther between. Here is a
most illuminating section of this epistle:
"Therefore, as the official head of the Syrian Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic
Church in North America and as one who must give account (Heb. 13:17) before the
judgment seat of the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls (I Pet. 2:25), that I have
fed the flock of God (I Pet. 5:2), as I have been commissioned by the Holy
Orthodox Church, and inasmuch as the Anglican Communion (Protestant Episcopal
Church in the USA) does not differ in things vital to the well-being of the Holy
Orthodox Church from some of the most errant Protestant sects, I direct all
Orthodox people residing in any community not to seek or to accept the
ministrations of the Sacraments and rites from any clergy excepting those of the
Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, for the Apostolic command that the
Orthodox should not commune in ecclesiastical matters with those who are not of
the same household of faith (Gal. 6:10), is clear: "Any bishop, or presbyter or
deacon who will pray with heretics, let him be anathematized; and if he allows
them as clergymen to perform any service, let him be deposed." (Apostolic Canon
45) "Any bishop, or presbyter who accepts Baptism or the Holy Sacrifice from
heretics, we order such to be deposed, for what concord hath Christ with Belial,
or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" (Apostolic Canon 46)
As to members of the Holy Orthodox Church living in areas beyond the reach of
Orthodox clergy, I direct that the ancient custom of our Holy Church be
observed, namely, in cases of extreme necessity, that is, danger of death,
children may be baptized by some pious Orthodox layman, or even by the parent of
the child, by immersion three times in the names of the (Persons of the) Holy
Trinity, and in case of death such baptism is valid; but, if the child should
live, he must be brought to an Orthodox priest for the Sacrament of Chrismation.
In the case of the death of an Orthodox person where no priest of the Holy
Orthodox Church can be had, a pious layman may read over the corpse, for the
comfort of the relatives and the instruction of the persons present, Psalm 90
and Psalm 118, and add thereto the Trisagion ("Holy God, Holy Mighty," etc.).
But let it be noted that as soon as possible the relative must notify some
Orthodox bishop or priest and request him to serve the Liturgy and Funeral for
the repose of the soul of the departed in his cathedral or parish Church.
As to Holy Matrimony, if there be any parties united in wedlock outside the pale
of the holy Orthodox Church because of the remoteness of Orthodox centers from
their home, I direct that as soon as possible they either invite an Orthodox
priest or go to where he resides and receive from his hands the Holy Sacrament
of Matrimony; otherwise they will be considered excommunicated until they submit
to the Orthodox Church’s rule.
I further direct that Orthodox Christians should not make it a practice to
attend the services of other religious bodies, so that there be no confusion
concerning the teaching or doctrines. Instead, I order that the head of each
household, or a member, may read the special prayers which can be found in the
Hours in the Holy Orthodox Service Book, and such other devotional books as have
been set forth by the authority of the Holy Orthodox Church."
Source: http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/hawaweeny.aspx
His Grace, the Right Reverend [Saint] Raphael Hawaweeny, late Bishop of Brooklyn
and head of the Syrian Greek Orthodox Catholic Mission of the Russian Church in
North America, was a far-sighted leader. Called from Russia to New York in 1895,
to assume charge of the growing Syrian parishes under the Russian jurisdiction
over American Orthodoxy, he was elevated to the episcopate by order of the Holy
Synod of Russia and was consecrated Bishop of Brooklyn and head of the Syrian
Mission by Archbishop Tikhon and Bishop Innocent of Alaska on March 12, 1904.
This was the first consecration of an Orthodox Catholic Bishop in the New World
and Bishop Raphael was the first Orthodox prelate to spend his entire
episcopate, from consecration to burial, in America
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INTERESTING ARTICLE CONCERNING THE DA VINCI CODE MOVIE/BOOK
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 2 Pearls-sayings
from the Fathers, 3 Teachings on the Faith
≈ Comments Off on Interesting article concerning the Da Vinci Code movie/book
I recently discovered this fascinating article. This is worth reading as it goes
deeper than simply debunking this book and the falsehoods upon which is based,
rather it diffuses a lot of mis-information that has been spread by such as the
Jeh. Witnesses and other protestant organizations.
The author presents his argument in a Fiction vs. Facts format for easy reading…
DEBUNKING THE DA VINCI CODE
http://www.stnicholaspdx.org/2007/12/01/41.debunking-the-da-vinci-code/
BY FR. STEVEN TSICHLIS
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CONQUERING ANGER
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from the Fathers, 3 Teachings on the Faith
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Meekness is a rock overlooking the sea of anger, which breaks all the waves that
dash against it, yet remains completely unmoved.
St. John Climacus
"The Ladder of Divine Ascent" (Step 24)
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BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 2 Pearls-sayings
from the Fathers, 3 Teachings on the Faith
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In vain does one strive to learn if one does not strive for purity of faith and
life. The heavenly world is revealed not to the learned but to the pure.
Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic "The Prologue from Ochrid"
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CELLPHONES AND PRAYER
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Posted by deaconalex in 1 General Articles about Orthodoxy, 2 Pearls-sayings
from the Fathers, 3 Teachings on the Faith
≈ Comments Off on Cellphones and prayer
Often times writers try to capture their reader’s attention through clever
wordplay, catchy subjects, and other gimmicks. I suspect not a few would see
this subject and muse to themselves that Fr. Alexander is really reaching this
time!
Allow me to explain…
This evening my son taught me a valuable lesson. He helped me to realize the
importance of focus and attentiveness during prayer. So what does a cellphone
have to do with prayer, some may ask. Well, a metaphor or parable can be an
incredible instructive tool.
As my son was saying his evening prayers, I noticed that he was a bit distracted
with the Lego project he is working on. It made realize how important
attentiveness is. So, I tried to find a contemporary example that I could use
with him to help him understand.
How many times have we been engaged in a conversation with someone when all of a
sudden, you hear that blllliiiiiiing alerting the owner that they just received
a text message, a new email, or even a new phone call. Isn’t it annoying when
our conversation is interrupted? Don’t we feel like we are not valued? Sure, we
all have been on the other side of this tale, asking our acquaintance to standy,
hold on, wait while we "take this call". So, you say, but what does this have to
do with prayer?
DISTRACTION! Pure and simple. How little value we feel when we are speaking to
someone who is distracted. Don’t we feel like the person believes that we are
less important than what is going on with their cellphone/smartphone? Are we
guilty of this with our Lord? When we pray, are we easily distracted? Do other
things take precedence? If our communication with God is interrupted, are we
truly gaining anything? Wherever our thoughts are during prayer, this is where
our heart is. .
A prayer that is wrought with distraction is a wasted opportunity! When we love
someone with all of our heart, we eagerly await the next time we will see that
person or the next time we speak with them! Let us seek after our Lord will all
of our attention, with all of our heart, with all of our might!
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BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH
29 Monday Apr 2024
Posted by deaconalex in Great Lent
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“Behold, the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night, and blessed is that
servant whom He shall find watching; and again unworthy is he whom He shall find
heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, lest thou be borne down with sleep, lest
thou be given up to death, and be shut out from the Kingdom. But rather rouse
thyself and cry: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God; through the Theotokos have
mercy on us.”
Last evening was the start of Great and Holy Week and the Church invited with
the service of Matins. The Matins services during the first three days are know
as the Bridegroom Services and the above hymn is featured to establish this
theme. Christ as the Bridegroom of the Church is an important and Biblical
reality promoted by the Orthodox Church. There are some who argue against this
notion but looking closer at scripture their arguments carry no weight. Isaiah,
the Evangelist of the Old Testament, speaks to ancient Israel:
“For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer
the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. Isaiah,
54:5“
The Prophet speaks directly to the Church. Our Lord is the Lord of Sabaoth – the
Lord of Hosts. The Church chants unto God during Great Compline with these
words: “O Lord of Hosts, be with us, for we have no other help in affliction,
save Thee; O Lord of Hosts have mercy on us.” In the Orthodox Liturgy we also
call out to the Triune God and chant, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, Heaven
and Earth are full of Thy Gory, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He that comes
in the name of the Lord.” The worship of the Orthodox Church is the fulfillment
of these prophecies. What was known to the Prophets in shadows and types is now
known to us in deed and word.
Behold the words of the Evangelists concerning Christ as the Bridegroom:
He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who
stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So
this joy of mine has been made full. John 3:29
And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long
as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the
bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. Luke 5:34
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself
up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of
water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her
glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy
and blameless. Ephesians, 5:25-27
During the first service Bridegroom Service in Matins of Holy Monday, served on
Palm Sunday evening, a procession is made during which the priest carries the
icon of Christ the Bridegroom into the church.
Christ the Bridegroom or Nymphios
Some traditions will use the icon of Christ “the extreme humility” but both
invite us into the incredible love of our Saviour for His Church. The Bridegroom
troparion is sung during this procession, and the icon is brought to the front
of the church and remains there until Holy Thursday. The icon depicts Christ
bearing the marks of his suffering, yet preparing the way for a marriage feast
in his Kingdom.
Christ – Extreme Humility
About the Services
On Holy Monday, the Blessed Joseph, the son of Jacob the Patriarch, is
commemorated because he is seen as a prototype of Christ. “And Pharaoh called
Joseph’s name Zaphnathpaaneah” Gen 41:45, which means a Saviour.
Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, thrown into a pit and sold into slavery by
them for 30 pieces of silver. In the same way, the Lord was rejected, betrayed
by his own, and sold into the slavery of death and like Joseph forgave and
spared his brothers during the famine when they came to him, so too, Jesus
Christ offers himself as a sacrifice and forgives all those who come to him in
faith.
During the service the Gospel reading for the day is of the Barren Fig Tree,
which Christ cursed and withered because it bore no fruit. The fig tree is
representative of those who have heard God’s word, but who fail to bear the
fruits of faith. Originally the withering of the fig tree was a testimony
against those Jews who rejected God’s word and his Messiah. It is also a warning
to all people, in all times, of the importance of not only hearing the God’s
word, but putting it into action.
Monday evening also includes this kontakion:
“Having realized the hour of the end, O my soul, and having feared at the
cutting down of the fig tree, labour with the talent that was given thee, O
hapless one, and be watchful and cry: Let us not remain outside the bridal
chamber of Christ.“
Holy Tuesday evening
On Holy Tuesday, the Parable of the Ten Virgins is read. It tells the story of
the five virgins who filled their lamps in preparation for receiving the
bridegroom while the other five allowed their lamps to go out and hence were
shut out of the marriage feast. This parable is a warning that Christians must
always be prepared to receive the Lord when he comes again. The theme of the day
is reinforced by the exaposteilarion hymn:
I see Thy Bridal Chamber adorned, O my Savior, but have no wedding garment that
I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me.
Holy Tuesday’s Bridegroom Matins also includes commemoration of Kassiani, who
was a great hymnographer from the 9th century. According to the Synaxaristi not
many details of her life have been recorded but she has remained in
ecclesiastical history for her great hymns. Repentance and love for Christ is
the theme of the wonderful Hymn of Kassiani which is chanted on this night,
reminding all that they may be forgiven if they repent.
The text of the hymn, based on the account of the sinful woman who is introduced
by the Evangelist St Luke in his Gospel (7:36-50). Kassiani contrasts the
repentance of the sinful woman with Eve’s fall (Gen. 3:8-11):
The woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Your divinity, O Lord,
received the dignity of a myrrh-bearer, for with lamentation she brought
fragrant myrrh to You before Your burial. And she cried: Woe is me, for love of
sin and stings of lustful passion envelop me as the night, dark and moonless. As
You cause the clouds to drop down the waters of the sea, accept the fountain of
my tears. As by Your indescribable condescension You bowed down the heavens, so
incline to the groaning of my heart. I shall kiss Your most pure feet and wipe
them with the hair of my head, those same feet whose sound Eve heard at dusk in
Paradise when she hid herself in fear. Who can count the multitude of my sins?
Who can measure the depths of Your judgments, O Saviour of my soul? Do not turn
away from me, Your servant, for You have immeasurable mercy.
Tuesday evening also includes this kontakion:
“I have transgressed far more than the harlot, O Good One, yet have never
brought you showers of tears; but entreating in silence, I fall before you, as I
kiss your immaculate feet with love, that as Master you may grant me forgiveness
of offences, as I cry out, O Saviour: deliver me from the filth of my works.”
These services are more than historical recollections of events from the life of
the Savior, they are invitations for us to purify ourselves and to remain ever
vigilant all the days of our life:
“Let us all love the Bridegroom, O all ye brethren; and thus like lamps let us
all keep ourselves ready, shining forth with the virtues also and right faith,
that, like the wise virgins of Christ the Lord, we all may be ready to enter
with Him to the marriage feast, ye faithful; for, being God, the Bridegroom doth
bestow the incorruptible crown on all as a gift“.
The Bridegroom services glorify God, Who gave His selfless love to the Church,
for He is Truly the Bridegroom of the Church. As Orthodox Christians, let us
avail of Great Lent and even more of Holy Week as an opportunity for spiritual
rebirth and recommitment to a life in Christ.
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