liturgy

Secret Prayers vs. PA (Public Address System)

“I would like people not to forget this: why is it forbidden to read the secret prayers aloud? Why is it very harmful for the priest and the bishop to start reading the secret prayers aloud. The question why the Holy Fathers forbade reading them aloud must be explained…it is completely unOrthodox and it must be feared.”

“If the secret prayers are read aloud, then we will see renovationism: old grannies and all sorts of youths will know the secret prayers. And there will be blasphemy. And then he who is serving the liturgy and declaiming the secret prayers will forget that is standing before God. He will admire himself, he is emptied. The mystery is performed, of course, but he will go away, darkened in mind, with heaviness.”

“For example, this is what I have seen with Bishop …, who should be avoided. Here he is reading away with his emotions, haughtily declaiming the secret prayers, admiring himself and using his nervous system to influence those around him. And apart from heaviness and emptiness, no-one gets anything out of it. This is why St Seraphim of Sarov never dared to read the secret prayers aloud. He would have robbed himself, wouldn’t he? And this is what they don’t understand…”

— Fr. Sampson (Life of Fr Sampson -’Talks and Teachings of the Elder Hieroschemamonk Sampson’, source: [Orthodox England])

Rejoice, O Eve; Thou art Redeemed

“O pure one, Mother of the Word that appeareth newly from thee, O closed door, verily, as we behold the dark shadowy symbols pass away, we glorify the light of the truth and bless thy womb as is meet.” – Ninth Ode of the Second Canon of Christ’s Nativity in Tone One

Theology as Theosis

“This aspect of theology is especially emphasized by St. Maximus the Confessor. According to Maximus, theology is the last and highest “stage” of spiritual development in man; it is the accomplishing mode of a Christian’s experience of deification. Maximus interprets this experience as a liturgical one, exercised by man in the world before God. As a culmination of this “cosmic liturgy,” man receives in grace God’s communication, that is, the knowledge of the Holy Trinity in theologia.” – p. 42 [Light from the East: Theology, Science, and the Eastern Orthodox Tradition, by Alexei V. Nesteruk]

“It is clear from this passage that theology for Maximus–that is, the knowledge of God as he is in himself–is granted only in the mystical union with God, at the last stage of deification, which is not an instant act but is preceded by a long spiritual development (katharsis). This highest state of union with God was granted to saints–for example, to Moses, who on the Sinai mountain, entered the mysterious darkness of God, and to apostles at the mountain of transfiguration. Developing this insight by Maximus, St. Gregory Palamas argued later that it is the saints who are the only true theologians, for only they received the full communion with God: “Through grace God in His entirety pentrates saints in their entirety, and the saints in their entirety penetrate God entirely. By virtue of the saints and the Faithers, theology acquires, so to speak, an extended historical dimension, because “the Fathers are liturgical persons who gather around the heavenly altar with the blessed spirits. Thus they are always contemporary and present for the faithful.” This is why Patristic theology is the living, incarnate Orthodox faith, which never agest and is always present in the mind of the church.” – p. 42, Ibid.

Runway Lights in the Desert

“Angels are the light of monks, and monks are the light of men.”

Comment: Orthodoxy is not actually a belief system; it’s more closely understood as an asceticism. The essence of the Faith, in every aspect, is ascetic. Even our theology is apophatic – or negative theology – a theology of prayerfully removing from our minds all false images. In fact, standing in prayer is our most basic ascetic activity and study of theology, and the Church’s prayers are monastic prayers. Our fasts, likewise, are the monastic fasts. So it is with the many pious labours of the faithful. Our Bishop, who stands with us as our champion, like David calmly facing the giant Goliath, is usually a monastic. Unlike him, we may be married, but even marriage, lived out in an Orthodox manner, is an ascetic feat. With the monks, we are all engaged in a continual war with the passions, remembering that, in a war, it is possible to be defeated. The Orthodox are at war with Death, the ultimate affliction, the Enemy, the ultimate foe of creation, and the World, the ultimate delusional system. The monks are the warrior caste among us, training us in the strategies and tactics of battle. The monks go before us in theosis, as runway lights in the desert for all we “lay-ascetics’. We refer to the monks as earthly angels, the earthly hosts, surrounding us at all times with prayers, amid more angels than stars. There are banners in the invisible world, trumpets in this seeming silence, incense thick in the air, and the din of heroes. – DD

The fullness of God and Man

“We must, then, maintain that Christ has two energies in virtue of His double nature. For things that have diverse natures, have also different energies, and things that have diverse energies, have also different natures.” – St. John  Damascene

Christ, fully God, fully Man

“O faithful, let us acclaim the lover of the Trinity, great Maximos who taught the God-inspired Faith, that Christ is to be glorified in two natures, wills and energies: and let us cry to him: Rejoice, O herald of the Faith.” – Kontakion to St. Maximus the Confessor

Christology Explained Simply

“He being one Son, dual in Nature, not dual in Person. Wherefore, do we confess, preaching the truth that Christ our God is perfect God and perfect Man.” – (Troparion of the Resurrection on the Feast of the Holy Forefathers).

Comment: It has been said many times that if one attended all the unabbreviated services of the Church – the full cycle of Holy Week, marriages, funerals, makings of catechumens, etc., this would teach one the entire doctrine of the Church, for nothing is rightly believed that is not prayed, and nothing is rightly prayed that cannot be believed. -DD

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