The Nativity Cycle (Vol IV, Ch 8)

From Michael Ruse:

We are all born without clothes and we all die without taking them with us. That natural cycle is a fact. In this chapter, the Nativity cycle emphasizes what the Eternal Word put on for our salvation, human flesh, and what we must put on, Christ Himself, so that we can die with Him and live with Him.  

 How should we live and plan our lives? The Nativity cycle offers us an answer that includes doing something in time but also stepping outside of created time and into the ages created by the Holy Trinity since the beginning. 

 What happened in the Old Testament isn’t so different than what has happened in the New Testament except that the Incarnation of the Son of God has now come into and conquered the world and recreated it, He now rules all things, and He has fulfilled the will of God the Father. During the Nativity Cycle, the Menaion and liturgical texts of the services highlight some Orthodox themes and the mystery of baptism. 

1.     Jesus Christ is taken care of by his Mother, the Most-Holy Theotokos, and they flee from the slaughter of children in Bethlehem by the evil king, Herod. We too look for refuge, nurturing, and protection from the Mother of God. We are already persecuted in the world and we already are in danger for following Christ.

2.     Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law and freed us from curse on us. He teaches us how to fulfill the Law through Him. 

3.     St. John the Forerunner baptized Christ in the Jordan. The waters of the deep are sanctified with his divine energies and we are cleansed from sin through our baptism in Christ. 

4.     Jesus Christ was circumcised as a child on the eighth day. We put off our old ways through baptism and we enter into relationship with Christ and His Church. 

5.     Just as Jesus Christ remembered and fulfilled what the prophets and Old Testament righteous have taught about Him. We too follow Christ and take the prophets as our saints too, we find our family and genealogy in Christ, as the Apostle Matthew has written it down.

6.     The Righteous Simeon held the Creator in his hands. We hold him within our bodies and carry him with us everywhere. 

7.     The Righteous Simeon proclaimed that Jesus Christ will go down into Hades to tell the good news to Adam. Likewise, we die in Christ and go out to tell everyone of the gospel to free them from enslavement to sin and captivity by death. 

8.     In glorification, Moses saw “back parts of God” and Simeon beheld Jesus Christ face to face. So too we are able to see Christ glorified as the true Light of the world. 

These are all true and real in the Orthodox Church, not because they are nice philosophies or were compiled correctly. They are verified because they were experienced and witnessed by humankind, and we can still experience these realities in the Orthodox Church today. 

The Feast of Theophany is another part of the Nativity cycle and it originated in the East. It was known in early times as “the day of lights.” The phrase refers to “enlightenment” (not the New Age idea) and another phrase we confess every Sunday, “Light from Light” in the Symbol of Faith. The baptism and theophany of Jesus Christ also reveals to us the true Light as three Lights who have come into the world to save us, and so the Feast of Theophany contains an important trinitarian teaching. The final feast in the Nativity cycle is the Meeting of the Lord that ends in February and liturgical texts follow the four gospel readings. What would anyone expect if God came into the world? Mercy, peace, forgiveness of sins, light, miracles, healing, spiritual cleansing, revelation of truth, and salvation from death. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. to learn more about the liturgical details of the Nativity Cycle. 

Divine Services from the Beginning of the Church Year (Vol IV, Ch 7)

From Michael Ruse:

The Most Holy Theotokos, Mother of God, is closely tied to the celebration of Exaltation of the Cross. When we take Scripture and Tradition together in the experience of the Liturgy, the two cannot be venerated too far from each other. A barren womb gives birth, a virgin conceives a child from God, and the wood of the Cross gives all light and life to mankind. 

The triumph over nihilism, chaos and the devil come to a conclusion with the Most Holy Theotokos’ miraculous birth and Christ’s conquering of death and the deep chaos of the serpent through the Cross. Our history was prefigured through the Cross a long time ago and we who live in the Orthodox Church are now in the middle of it. 

In the Church year, we venerate Mary, the Mother of God, and the Cross of Christ close in time. They can be taken as celebrations of victory, not a mere remembrance of a list of tragedies. The Menaion of the Church lists many well-known Old Testament names who show us the Cross of Christ:  Moses’ parting of the Red Sea, Joshua’s outstretched arms, the cross-shaped blessing from the patriarch, Jacob, on Manasseh and Ephraim, Aaron’s miraculously budding-rod, and Jonah’s three-day trip into the abyss of a whale. How do we know that these events happened in the Old and New Testament? How do we really know that Empress Helen found the true cross of Christ? How do we know that our prayers to Mary are right? A very practical test in the real world is that the Cross of Christ heals our heart, body and mind. 

The Formation of the Yearly Cycle of Worship (Vol IV, Ch 6)

From Michael Ruse:

All of the martyrs, beheaded saints, veneration days, feasts, fasting, abstinence rules, and processions between the sanctuary and the people or even between cities, as anciently practiced from Jerusalem to Bethany, seem like foolishness not only to people who don’t believe in or don’t know about Christ, but also to many Christians nowadays from other traditions or sects. Starting around the fourth century, Christians in large cities began sharing their local church traditions of venerating martyrs and saints as well as different feast days like Theophany and Christmas. Jerusalem, for example, gave the Church the Exaltation of Cross, which we have just celebrated. 

In Chapter 6, Metropolitan gives us the teaching of the Holy Fathers, especially during the fourth century. He gives us the evidence written to compare to the evidence seen in the Orthodox Church today. He not only tells us but shows us the beautiful “exchange of feasts” between East and West, all of which helps increase our love for the Holy Trinity and helps us imitate the way of the saints so that we might also be enriched by their, “invincible devotion to their King and Teacher.” 

As we’ve already heard it taught recently on Sunday that our fasting or feasting is not just for our own benefit, but for others too. Our life in the yearly worship, Metropolitan Hilarion seems to say, is formed and revolves around the formation of Christ’s life and death. Come join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. to learn about some must-know details of how our Orthodox worship forms us into Christ who guides us into all kinds of beneficial exchanges. 

The Formation of the Yearly Cycle of Worship (Vol IV, Ch 5)

From Michael Ruse:

All of the martyrs, beheaded saints, veneration days, feasts, fasting, abstinence rules, and processions between the sanctuary and the people or even between cities, as anciently practiced from Jerusalem to Bethany, seem like foolishness not only to people who don’t believe in or don’t know about Christ, but also to many Christians nowadays from other traditions or sects. Starting around the fourth century, Christians in large cities began sharing their local church traditions of venerating martyrs and saints as well as different feast days like Theophany and Christmas. Jerusalem, for example, gave the Church the Exaltation of Cross, which we have just celebrated. 

In Chapter 6, Metropolitan gives us the teaching of the Holy Fathers, especially during the fourth century. He gives us the evidence written to compare to the evidence seen in the Orthodox Church today. He not only tells us but shows us the beautiful “exchange of feasts” between East and West, all of which helps increase our love for the Holy Trinity and helps us imitate the way of the saints so that we might also be enriched by their, “invincible devotion to their King and Teacher.” 

As we’ve already heard it taught recently on Sunday that our fasting or feasting is not just for our own benefit, but for others too. Our life in the yearly worship, Metropolitan Hilarion seems to say, is formed and revolves around the formation of Christ’s life and death. Come join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. to learn about some must-know details of how our Orthodox worship forms us into Christ who guides us into all kinds of beneficial exchanges. 

Sunday Services and Daily Services (Vol IV, Ch 5)

From Michael Ruse:

In the Orthodox Church, Saturday vespers is the first worship service of the week. Metropolitan Hilarion focuses on the content of the stichera, or verses in Greek, that are sung during the daily services. The stichera often recall Christ’s death on the Cross and His Resurrection, have Trinitarian and Christological dogmatic content, and speak of the Theotokos and Virgin Mary in what’s called a theotokion. Each day of the week focuses on a canon or mood. On Tuesday, the St. John the Forerunner is included with other verses and canons. On Thursday, St. Nicholas and the apostles are commemorated, and on Saturday, all types of saints and martyrs are commemorated as well as prayers for the departed. In many of our discussions in Volume IV, we have been looking at the practical and spiritual aspects of time, calendars, how we structure our lives around it and how it even points to our cultural identity. Imagine if we could rename the days of the week based on Orthodox themes rather than Saturn, the Moon, or the Germanic goddess Freya. If resurrectional hymns, stichera and canons make up the bulk of what we are singing and thinking about during a single week, what might that imply for living out our Orthodox faith daily? Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. to see how the Orthodox Church divides time into verses.

The Formation of the Weekly Liturgical Cycle (Vol IV, Ch 4)

From Michael Ruse:

We now start Part Three with The Weekly Cycle of Divine Services. There is a brief part on the Formation of the Weekly Liturgical Cycle that is followed by Chapter 5 on the Sunday Services and Daily Services. 

 Vespers is the first worship service of the week. That makes it the best preparation for Sunday worship service. Just as God rested, often depicted in icons as sitting restfully, after creation, so Christ rested after his “remaking” of all mankind through His incarnation, death, burial and resurrection. So, Christ’s resurrection and incarnation through Mary, the Theotokos fill much of the content of the stichera (verses in Greek) of the daily and weekly cycles that will be covered in Chapter 5. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. for catechesis in daily and weekly liturgical cycle of the Church and vespers at 6:00 p.m

The Divine Liturgy (Vol IV, Ch 3)

From Michael Ruse:

We will conclude Chapter 3 with the section pp.196-214. Then, we will begin Part III, The Weekly Cycle of Divine Services. The section will cover the Conclusion of the Liturgy and the origins, development and content of the Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts. After or before the liturgy, so-called “private” services like akathists, weddings, baptisms and panikhidas may be offered. Metropolitan Hilarion’s concern for the practical and theological order of worship and the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church is highlighted by his reference to Bishop Afanasy Sakharov on services after liturgy. 

 The liturgy of the pre-sanctified gifts is not performed as a part of the eucharistic liturgy that we’ve already discussed, but the content of the prayers is connected, especially in the litany of the priest. That prayer clearly proclaims that Christ is in the mysteries as He is described in the English language as “unseen, unutterable, hidden treasures, invisible King.” We can be prepared for all of these realities by participating in the earlier prayers of the faithful that concern our senses that, “by the life-giving death of Thy Christ has translated us from corruption to incorruption, do Thou free all our senses from deadly passions.” 

 The tone of the liturgy of the pre-sanctified gifts may have certain features of veneration that may look similar to the Roman Catholic “adoration,” but Metropolitan Hilarion argues that the liturgy of the pre-sanctified gifts wasn’t a transplant from the West. 

 There are also important prayers for catechumens awaiting baptism or needing more instruction through Old Testament readings. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and learn how to extend the liturgy’s conclusion to the rest of our day and week into our homes and jobs.