Monday of Cheese Week

The gateway to divine repentance has been opened: let us enter eagerly, purified in our bodies and  observing abstinence from food and passions, as obedient servants of Christ who has called the world into the heavenly Kingdom.  Let us offer to the King of all a tenth part of the whole year, that we may look with love upon His Resurrection.--Sessional Hymn at Orthros after the 2nd reading from the psalter in the first tone

Let us make haste to wash away through fasting the filth of our transgressions, and through acts of mercy and compassion to the needy let us enter into the bridal chamber of the Bridegroom Christ, who grants us the Great Mercy.--Sticheron at Psalm 140 at Vespers in plagal fourth tone.

Selections of the First Kathisma of the Spiritual Psalter of St. Ephraim the Syrian, First Stasis

Blessed is he who loves repentance; which saves all sinners, and does not delight in sin, that he might not appear ungrateful before God our Saviour.-- Spiritual Psalter # 1

I bow down to Thee, O Master; I bless Thee, O Good One; I beseech Thee, O Holy One; I fall down before Thee, O lover of mankind; and I glorify Thee, O Christ; for Thou, O Only-Begotten Master of All, O Only Sinless One, was, for the sake of me, an unworthy sinner, given up to death on the cross in order to free the soul of a sinner from the bondage of sin.--Spiritual Psalter # 2

Thus, as Thou hast always heard me, so now do not scorn my prayer.  For Thou seest that my mind, like a prisoner, seeks Thee, the Only True Saviour.--Spiritual Psalter # 3

Ordinary time resumes

For the first time since late January, the church hours, particularly Orthros and Vespers have returned to exclusive use of Octoechos, the book of 8 tones.  No longer do priests, chanters and the congregations derive part or all of their hymnography from the Triodion or the Pentecostarion.  For 5 months, the church has been thoroughly invested in Lent, the Passion, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and the Ascension of our Lord, Jesus Christ and the sending of the Paraclete and the commemoration of all saints.  Now, we go back to the humdrum of "ordinary time."

I have said before that there is nothing ordinary about ordinary time.  This is a great time to develop our relationships with Christ but also His saints as God is glorified in them.  The services are, in general, shorter.  For instance, this morning was a 4th class feast on a Sunday which means there was no special hymns save for the Apolytikion of the Martyrs.   Not only were my fellow chanter and I able to chant the entire service without skipping anything, but we were allowed to chant each of the Kathismata hymns according to the melody Τον Ταφον, Σωτηρ, read the Kontakion and Oikos of the Resurrection and the Synaxarion of the saints of the day, but chant the entirety of the αινοι (Praises) which includes all of Psalms 148, 149 and 150.  I can't remember the last time we were able to do it.  In short, it was glorious.

What came across as a very ordinary day was a day of enhanced prayer using the church's sources of the psalter and Octoechos.  No great feast day is in our midst (save for that of Sts. Peter and Paul in two weeks time) and no huge saint is on the calendar, but this is the great time to get back to basics, to really strengthen the framework of prayer, both at church and at home so that we are prepared for the great feasts to come.

So, enjoy ordinary time and get to know the saints.  They pray ceaselessly for us and know us; we should also know them as God is glorified in them.

Monday of Cheeseweek

The gateway to divine repentance has been opened; let us enter eagerly, purified in our bodies and observing abstinence from food and passions, as obedient servants of Christ who has called the world into the heavenly Kingdom. Let us offer to the King of all a tenth part of the whole year, that we may look with love upon His Resurrection.--Sessional Hymn after the Second Psalter Reading at Orthros, 1st Tone

Want Chalcedonian Theology? Better come to more than just the Liturgy!

This past weekend, we were very fortunate to have a visit from Fr. Patrick Reardon, pastor of All Saints Orthodox Church in Chicago. Fr. Patrick is the author of many books (none of which I admit I have read, but will get to eventually) including, Christ in the Psalms, Christ in the Saints, Chronicles of History and Worship, etc.. His talk was on the saints and what that means especially in an age of apostasy in which we now live.

The Q&A session was all over the place with questions ranging from hymnography to dogmatic theology to systematics to hagiography to icons to Scriptural exegesis. In short, there was something for everyone.

I cannot remember exactly how this came up, but Fr. Patrick revealed something that I have never fathomed before: The main liturgies of the Orthodox Church (i.e. the Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great) are pre-Chalcedonian. This, of course, refers to the Fourth Ecumenical Council which convened at Chalcedon in 451 to discuss and clarify the doctrine of Christs' Hypostatic Union which was an extension of clarifying Mary as Theotokos at the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431. I never had thought of that before.

The Liturgies of St. John and St. Basil then predate Chalcedon. I should be very clear that despite the clear presence of Chalcedonian theology, there is NOTHING heretical or unorthodox about either of these. The liturgies were in place for a long time, but the hours, such as Vespers and Orthros did not come into their settled format until much later, way after Chalcedon.

My priest makes it very clear that if people want to really know their faith, they should come to Orthros on Sundays. Few do, preferring the Liturgy only. And that's fine because the Liturgy is a great gift to us from God in which we receive the life giving Eucharist of our Lord. Coming to Orthros and not staying to pray Liturgy with the rest of the Christian family is not a good idea.

But the hymnography of Orthros and Vespers is so rooted in the Ecumenical tradition following both Sts. Basil and John. Such great hymnographers as Romanos the Melodist, St. John Damascene, St.Cosma, etc. synthesize and weave such great tapestries of the dogmas of the church together to really proclaim the fullness of the faith. Again, if one really wants to understand their faith, Orthros and Vespers are a must.

Want to know and live the Orthodox faith? Pray Orthros

In a follow up to what I wrote yesterday at being at home during the Liturgy, my priest gave a sermon today about ways for us in this "ordinary" time to still remain connected to Christ through the faith that He has bestowed upon us through the Church. I was actually quite shocked that Fr. Don, though I do know he is very liturgically minded, actually did not mention the Liturgy and the offices of Vespers and Orthros as ways of not only educating oneself in the faith but also in living and practicing the faith. What he mentioned were all good things: reading Scripture, having and keeping a rule of prayer, reading lives of the saints (his main focus of today's homily), etc.. But I was still floored that praying the Liturgy and the offices was not explicitly mentioned especially as we usually have only four people besides the priest and us chanters at Vespers on most Saturday evening and only one or two who make it through 90% or more of Orthros on Sunday morning. Heck, most people who come for Liturgy come late, some coming after the Cherubimic Hymn!

Despite Fr. Don's lack of a plug for Orthros, he has told me many times that if people really wanted to know and to live the Orthodox faith, there is no better office than Orthros. It is no coincidence that it is my favorite office to chant with all the variables and hymns. No other office of all the Orthodox services can compare to Orthros. On Sunday, it is a mini-Pascha. All the hymns, except if there is a major commemoration or Feast of the Mother of God, are dedicated to the incarnation of our Lord and His Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. Those are the bedrocks of our theology--God becoming man and the God-man enduring death to raise us up from corruption.

Reading books is a fine practice and I'm not mocking it (I'm a bibliophile myself) but if I were a priest (and I cannot and should not ever be one) instructing catechumens or even cradle Orthodox about the faith, I would be less insistent on using books such as Bishop KALLISTOS' The Orthodox Church or Fr. Anthony Coniaris Introducing the Orthodox Church or Metropolitan HILARION's The Mystery of Faith or any other of Fr. Schmemann's or Fr. Hopko's fine tomes to teach the faith, but insist more that they make the effort to come for Orthros every Sunday. Sure, it means you have to get to the church at 8:45 rather than 10:00 and you have a lot more psalm readings and such, but it is worth it. Plus, the fact that hardly anyone attends gives you the perfect atmosphere to absorb everything that you hear in near silence (save for my obnoxious chanting style!) and contemplate it. Plus, reading any of the aforementioned volumes, to explain the faith, one will find that the explanations involve quotations primarily from Orthros!

Orthros is a gem of the church. I wish and hope more people would try and search it out. Praying Orthros is a great way to feed the mind as preparation to feed the soul at the Divine Liturgy!

Just my opinion, of course.

Hymn of the Day

Second sessional hymn (i.e. poetic kathisma) after the second reading of the Psalter for Orthros on the feast.

Tone 4 to the melody "Joseph was amazed":

O river Jordan, what has thou seen to be amazed? "I have seen Him naked who cannot be seen, and I trembled," said he. "How should I not tremble before Him and turn back?" The angels, beholding him, were afraid: heaven was filled with wonder and the earth shook, the sea and all things visible and invisible withdrew. Christ has appeared in the Jordan to sanctify the waters.