Nothing ordinary about "ordinary" time

As we celebrated the Feast of All Saints yesterday and kick off the Apostles' Fast today, so we also return to the usually non festal "ordinary" time. This is when the offices have little to no special variables, Vespers and Orthros of the Sundays will generally have no additional special hymns and the rubrics are generally simplified. And as "ordinary time" coincides roughly with the start of summer, there is also a noticeable drop off in "normal" church related activities, let alone attendance at Liturgy by the faithful.

When I was at the Monastery of St. Gregory Palamas last year in July, I remarked to the abbot, Fr. Joseph, that being here during the fasting and festal seasons would really be spiritually beneficial to me as opposed to the ordinary cycle of services. Fr. Joseph was puzzled by my statement and then he looked at me and said that there is nothing ordinary about ordinary time. He said that this season is the best time of all to become reacquainted and develop relationships with the saints whom we may not know very well. And developing relationships with them, we develop their love for Christ since Christ is glorified in His Saints. That really got me thinking and forced me to really reevaluate what I had said.

For the past four months, we have used the Triodion and the Pentecostarion service books. Now, we must put them away for the Paraklitike and the Octoechos, at least for another year. Sure, it's easy to get excited about the Great Lenten fast with its struggle and its austerity, to rejoice in the Resurrection of Christ and his 40 days on earth, culminating in the sending of the Holy Spirit. We go from fasting to feasting and then we seem to be in an in-between area. The Apostles' Fast is not as austere as the Great Lenten Fast and its variability of length from four days (new calendar) to four weeks makes it very easy to just cast aside as something not very important.

It's easy (or maybe just easier) to see the Christ in Christmas or in Pascha or in any other fasting and feasting season. The challenge is to embrace Christ just the same in a non-festal setting by honoring and venerating His Saints. As many people go to the gym at this time of year getting in shape for beach season, this is the perfect chance for us to pray the "ordinary" prayers with the "ordinary" saints to embrace what is extraordinary, the grace of our Lord, still poured out even on a regular old day.

The Sunday of All Saints

On the Western Calendar, the feast of all Saints is celebrated on November 1. On the Eastern Calendar, the festival is the last Sunday of the Pentecostarion, one week after the Great Feast of Pentecost. According to legend, this feast was established after a certain Roman (i.e. Byzantine) Emperor lost his wife and asked the Patriarch of Constantinople to have her glorified as a saint. The Patriarch responded that though the woman was certainly good and saintly, glorification and commemoration on the Church calendar are not done by simple request even if the one making the request is God's viceroy on Earth (as the Emperor was known in the Byzantine Theocracy). However, the Patriarch convened a local council which decided that a certain day should be set aside for the commemoration of all saints, those who are famous pillars of the Church such as the Theotokos, the Forerunner, St. Basil the Great to those who are not so famous pillars such as our mothers and fathers and all who have completed the course of this life in the faith. This day commemorates those saints whom we know and who are known only to God. We commemorate them all and we beseech them for their continued intercessions on our behalf (which they do anyway).

This festival is aptly placed a week after Pentecost. The troparion of the feast of Pentecost says that "through them (i.e. the Apostles who are called fishermen) thou hast drawn the world into Thy net." Those whom we glorify as saints have been drawn into the net by the Apostles' and subsequent generations' preaching and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This feast then is an extension of the feast of Pentecost.

The word saint is often used in a way that can be quite contentious between members of different Christian confessions. For Protestants, the predominant definition of a saint is anyone who has died in the Lord. For Catholics and Orthodox, the predominant definition of a saint is someone who has been glorified and honored by the Church. Catholics and Orthodox won't balk at the Protestant definition as an addendum to their own addition but Protestants will often balk at the Catholic and Orthodox definition because they, mistakenly, attribute the honor and veneration paid to saints as idolatry if not outright polytheism. I once remember a story that my Lutheran grandmother (herself born and raised in Germany prior to coming here in the 1950s) refused to attend a Lutheran Church because its name was taken from St. John. "Lutherans don't have saints," she said.

I don't want to get into all the arguments as to how the Orthodox veneration of the saints is not an heretical practice. I will say that if the Word of God (Christ and also His icon of Scripture) is the basis of the faith then the gift and seal of the Holy Spirit is the means to live the faith (hence, tradition). We commemorate our brothers and sisters who have lived the faith and even in death are still are brothers and sisters in the kingdom. Every Liturgy, Office or pray we pray is not done by us alone but by the bodiless powers and by the saints as well, offering prayers before the dread judgment seat of Christ. We are not alone; the saints will not let us be alone. When we pray, they are there with us. When the Priest begins the Liturgy with "Blessed is the Kingdom..." we are no longer on earth. We are translated, mystically, to the heavenly abode where we stand alongside those who have departed the faith. Our prayers become one and the same. When we commemorate the saints, we are commemorating those standing right next to us, both manifest and unseen.

Through the prayers of all the saints, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy upon us and save us.

The People and the Epiclesis

Liturgical innovation and/or the conflation of various Orthodox traditions as well as the importation of distinctly Western (i.e. Roman) practices are in full swing particularly within the Antiochian Archdiocese but can be seen to a lesser extent even in the Greek Archdiocese. One of the particular innovations has to do with the confusion of prayers/actions specifically reserved for the clergy and those reserved for the people. This is no more apparent than in the epiclesis prayer.

When the priest calls down the Holy Spirit he says the following:

P: And make this the Body of Thy Christ.

The people then respond:

Pe: Amen.

P: And make this the Blood of Thy Christ.

Pe: Amen.

P: Changing them by Thy Holy Spirit.

Pe: Amen. Amen. Amen.

This is the way it is done in Antiochian and Greek parishes. But it is patently incorrect. The "Amens" are the prerogative of the Deacon only. If there is no deacon, the "Amens" are again reserved to the priest. However, because of the continued absence of deacons and also because of the influx of converts from Protestant backgrounds where there is no distinction between clergy and laity, the people have taken the deacon's role for themselves. The people should be singing the hymn "We hymn Thee, We bless Thee" but this hymn has even been moved to be sung AFTER the epiclesis. It makes no sense to place it there since we should be hymning and blessing the Lord because He is transforming the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Alexander Lebedeff has this to say about such liturgical innovation:

Similarly, the proclaiming aloud of three "amens" after the epiclesis is another uncalled-for expression of fervor, meaning it is not specified in the rubrics of the service. The service books state clearly that the three "Amens" are said by the Deacon. It does not say: "and the people say—amen, amen, amen."

Again, this is an example of laypeople usurping the prerogative of the Deacon, who participates actively in the consecration of the Holy Gifts, and gives both the invitations ("Bless, Master, the Holy Bread." etc.) and the responses, including the "Amens." It would be inappropriate for the altar servers to participate in these responses, even though they are right there and can see and hear what is occurring. During the epiclesis, the choir is singing the solemn hymn "We sing unto Thee...", the Royal Doors are closed, and the faithful stand in silent prayer that should not be interrupted by any amens, however well-intentioned. In order to even know when the exact moment to say these amens occurs, the congregation would have to hear the words that the Priest is supposed to pronounce quietly during the singing of the hymn. Either the Priest would have to say them quite loudly, drowning out the singing, or the singing would have to stop so that you could hear what the Priest was saying. Both would be a violation of the order of the service (as is any reading aloud by a Priest of any prayer meant to be read quietly or silently).

Actually, there are a variety of dynamics indicated in the services for prayers. Some are said quietly (in a low voice), some are said loudly (in a great voice), some are said silently (no voice). We should humbly defer to the holy authors of these services and follow their directions. Whenever we want to introduce something "of our own," we not only violate the service rubrics, but we violate the unity of the church.

All such "unique" practices should be patiently and lovingly eliminated.

The entire article can be referenced here.

Such practices need to stop. I'm no ordained Deacon and thus I should not say Amen. Neither are the people in the nave. This work is only being done in the sanctuary, the result of which will then be carried out and distributed to the faithful. Then, we may say "Amen, amen, amen" to our hearts' content.

To Kneel or Not To Kneel? That is the question.

At my church today we had a voters meeting to vote on what new pews would grace our nave. Really the question that was posed to the congregation was what type of wood would be used--oak or mahogany? In the end, oak won out simply because it was cheaper. It should have been a really short meeting, but like all voters meetings, this one just dragged on because other issues, not illegitimate ones, kept coming up.

One of the issues raised was whether kneelers would be part of the pew deal. It was not and it was not even part of the bid. So, a motion was made that new bids be sought out including kneelers as part of the deal. The motion failed. The arguments put forward for kneelers was that several parishioners kneel (on Sundays and at other times) during the epiclesis when we call down the Holy Spirit to make the bread and wine the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and that kneeling is done as "pious custom" to honor this meeting of Heaven and Earth.

While I do not doubt the sincerity or the piety of the people who do such an act, it is a Western innovation that has crept into the Eastern Rite, especially here in America. As one of the proponents mentioned, a great number of churches of the Eastern Rite have both pews and kneelers to accommodate the faithful despite the fact that such is never found in the churches of the Old World. (I'm not going to get into arguments about whether pews are appropriate or not. That is for another time). However, just because all of the other churches have given into this innovation doesn't mean that we should as well.

Nevertheless, this issue got me thinking about when it is appropriate to kneel and when it is not. I think it has no place on Sundays as Sunday is always an anti-Pascha (i.e. mini-Pascha) and to kneel implies penitence when we should be rejoicing at our Lord's triumph over death. We also do not kneel at any service between Pascha and Pentecost when it returns on Vespers of Pentecost Day. Such is the rationale behind the 20th Canon of the First Ecumenical Council (Coincidentally, today we commemorated the 318 fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea). But does that preclude all kneeling?

As indicated earlier, kneeling does not always have to be an action of lamentation or sorrow or penitence. There can be a "joyful knelling" if you will and a lot of shades of gray in between.

I don't have the necessary learning to parse all the arguments for and against kneeling in various contexts, but the late Archbishop CHRISTODOULOS of Athens once wrote something about this very issue. You can read it here on the MYSTAGOGY blog. For what it is worth, I believe that kneeling is part of the Western Rite inheritance which has jumped rites to the Eastern Rite. When, however, kneeling is called for in the rubrics of the Eastern Rite, it actually should be understood for the faithful to make a prostration. When the epiclesis occurs on a Liturgy for a feast day, outside of the Pentecostarion period, I will prostrate at the words "changing them by the Holy Spirit."

But read it and make your own judgments. I believe that this is one of those American spins on Orthodox faith and practice and tradition that can really divide people from the greater Truth that should be proclaimed in our churches each and every week.

Hard Times for Candlestick Makers

Hard Times for Candlestick Makers



One of the things this article does not mention is that Orthodox churches use a lot of candles made from beeswax. Now, the population of bees, for some unknown reason, has declined though some scientists have speculated that the reason is due to some mutated genetic virus.

Also, the decline in the use of candles across all Christian confessions is probably due to many people thinking that candles are somehow too "Romish" and thus that practice must be excised from any pious practice. I didn't think that the light of Christ only had a monopoly on the Roman Catholics!

New blog

Directed by my fellow blogger Chris Orr, I've added a link to the blog Again and Again which is authored by Fr. Milovan Katanic. I strongly suggest you visit his site and read what he has. Especially read his bit on the Ascension.

Many years, Father!

The Glorious Ascension of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ

Forty days after His Resurrection from the Dead, the Orthodox Church today (as well as the Western confessions) celebrate our Lord's Ascension into Heaven and His sitting at the Right Hand of God the Father. I was privileged for the first time to be able to celebrate the entire cycle of the feast (Vespers last night, Orthros and Liturgy this morning) and some insights came to me as to why this feast is so important and significant. Thanks to Fr. Peter Pappas at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church for giving me some food for thought. And especially a great many thanks for allowing me to chant Orthros with you in both Greek and English.

Though this is one of the 12 great feasts, Ascension is often forgotten because it always falls on a Thursday and not everyone can get off work to go to Liturgy. At the same time, I think a lot of Christians, particularly Orthodox Christians, get discouraged when we come to Ascension because no longer do we chant "Christ is Risen" which we have done several million times since April 4 and the services return, more or less, to their "normal" mode. At the same time, though this feast is often forgotten, by both Eastern and Western Christians, I think that is a blessing in disguise. If it were more mainstream, how long would it be before the secularists who have so convoluted Pascha and Nativity with the Eastern Bunny and Santa Claus come up with some sort of secular alternative to this or even to our next feast, Pentecost? So, maybe we should rejoice in this little secret.

It's always disheartening to see Orthodox Christians not take the feasts of the Church seriously. I'm not speaking of those Orthodox Christians, of course who cannot make it because of their work and/or family schedules, but those who don't go simply because they have no desire to. Yet, at the same time, we should rejoice that even though the seats are left empty by our fellow man, the saints in Heaven and the Angels and Archangels together celebrate with us.

But, at the same time, I believe that most people don't really understand what Ascension is all about. They, as a whole, know the Gospels which record this event where Christ ascended into heaven giving his final commandment to the Apostles to love and forgive one another and that will be bound and loosed on earth will also be bound and loosed in heaven. OK, so what's the point then of his Ascending to heaven?

Our Lord spent 40 days here on earth following His Resurrection from the dead. He appeared to many, not as a spirit but as the God-Man, the Theanthropos. Every time he appears, He still appears with the wounds suffered from His Crucifixion. He doesn't appear as if He had his wounds treated. Why is this important?

Our Lord ascended into heaven while he still wore human flesh, wounds, sores and all. The Ascension is the deification of the flesh. We must remember that the bedrock of our theology is that God became man so that everything we have become through sin would be healed. Christ took our flesh up to heaven and that flesh sits at the right hand of the Father. Christ came not to destroy but to save!

We are often taught to fight against the body. This is erroneous. We are taught to war against the flesh. It is the flesh that is our enemy, but it is at the same time it is the source of our salvation. Bishop BASIL once said that the fallen Angels would never be saved because they have no flesh. Without flesh, they have not the means of repentance. Now that Christ has come, has been crucified, has been raised from the dead and has now ascended into the heavens, our repentance becomes strengthened not in spite of the flesh, but because of it! Our Lord did not come and do all these things simply to say "You are forgiven. Go and live life as you want because I will always forgive you." As he ascended and deified the flesh, Christ did command us to love and forgive one another. But he commanded us to do that because we now can do that since our flesh is no longer the burden it used to be. We have been changed! Ascension has done that.

There will be a general Resurrection at the Last Judgment. All men, Christian and not, will be resurrected as Christ promised. But the Ascension is only for the saved. St. Gregory Palamas says that "the Resurrection is connected with all men, but the Ascension only with the saints." Going further, Metropolitan HIEROTHEOS says this:

This is said from the from the point of view that by His Resurrection Christ conquered death and gave the gift of Resurrection to all. All will be resurrected on the day of Christ’s Second Coming, both righteous and sinners, but not all will be taken up. Only the righteous, the deified will be found worthy of this great experience. The Apostle Paul confesses: “And those who have died in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (I Thess. 4:16-17).

My thanks to Chris Orr at Orrologion for providing these quotes.

Christ's Pascha is for all men since all will be resurrected to be judged. Christ's Ascension is only for the saved who will become partakers of the essence of God through His energies (2 Peter 1:4). This is the bonafide Christian holiday! Though non-Christians and nominal Christians celebrate Nativity and Pascha, Ascension is not for them! It is for us!

So, let us go forth this day, rejoicing that the flesh is deified and that this holiday confirms our salvation through Christ our Lord and God and Saviour. Amen.