Divine Services from the Beginning of the Apostles’ Fast to the End of the Ecclesial Year (Vol IV, Ch 11)

For class on 11/2/2019

From Michel Ruse:

This chapter concludes Volume IV and it completes the cycle of church feasts. The Orthodox Church began its new year on September 1. The first feast of the new year was on September 8, the Nativity of the Theotokos and the last great feast of the liturgical year ends on August 15, The Dormition of the Theotokos. Why does the whole cycle of the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church start and end with Mary, the Mother of God? Protestant groups may be indifferent, or they may denounce any kind of veneration of the Virgin Mary. Roman Catholics often have a different perspective from us. They have veneration of many Marian Apparitions, but they have feasts that are similar to Orthodox Christians (September 8 and August 15). 

Metropolitan Hilarion starts this chapter with The Apostles’ Fast in Honor of Saints Peter and Paul, and the Holy Apostles. He could have spent some time on the importance of St. Peter in Rome or the unique deaths of the Apostles. He spends most of his attention on an important teaching of the Orthodox Church that is as old as the Old Testament and as new as the New Testament. That we all can become illumined. We can experience this transformation that can make our "faces shine" like Jesus Christ on Mt. Tabor at the Transfiguration. 

Our whole experience of time on earth should reflect on the example of the holy family of Joachim and Anna who gave the world a place – rather a person – Mary, the Mother of God, to dwell and to save our souls. We should reflect on the holy Apostles who were miraculously translated (except St. Thomas who doubted) to be present with Mary at her falling asleep and resurrection into the arms of Jesus Christ. Where should we be throughout the year? We should be close to the Virgin Mary and Her Son, Jesus Christ. 

The liturgical cycle seems to suggest that just as the whole world began anew with Mary’s visitation from St. Gabriel and was transfigured by the birth of Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary, which shook up kings, authorities, and demons, our time in the Church begins and ends with the Virgin Mary. She is the “mediatrix” of the world, as we say in the liturgy. 

Her death is tender, courageous and special to us as Orthodox Christians. An icon gives us an example of how we should approach our own death. When she was lying on her bed about to fall asleep, she is shown not dressed in burial linen but in infant swaddling clothes. Our death is our rebirth, and the first one to receive us and bring us into a new life is Jesus Christ Himself. 

The Paschal Cycle (Vol IV, Ch 10)

From Michael Ruse:

Class on 10/26/2019…

How do we know what the truth is? Converts, inquirers, “cradle” Orthodox and many other camps of people want to know the answer to this question during these confusing times, especially when it’s about religion or politics. Metropolitan Hilarion gives a kind of pericope (verses that are cut out to form a unified thought, Greek) that connect to this question and the themes spoken of in the liturgical texts of the Paschal Cycle. 

 In the first section, he starts with the resurrection of Christ. The great litany in the Paschal Canon of St. John of Damascus says, “This is the day of resurrection. Let us be illumined, O people.” How can we become “illumined?” Because Christ was buried and resurrected, the open door to illumination is how He lived his life on earth. His death and resurrection not only freed us as individuals from “corruption,” but the whole world can be saved. Since our bodies are made of the same elements as the universe, when we become incorrupt and illumined, likewise the universe is saved and enlightened through Jesus Christ. 

The second section discusses the Sundays from Pascha up to Pentecost that are called Antipascha (in place of Pascha, Greek). They include The Sunday of Thomas, The Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, The Sunday of the Pool of Siloam, The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman and The Sunday of the Blind Man. All of these feasts speak of our need of spiritual healing and renewal as a “springtime of our souls” (Pentecostarion. Orthros. Ode 1, Sunday of Thomas). Unlike other Christian groups, the Orthodox Church doesn’t need to manufacture revivals or call councils for an aggiornamento (an organizational bringing up to date) in order to let a more modern mindset help us cope with a changing world. The Church has already experienced the Holy Spirit blowing fire on the Apostles and we have already left the royal doors open during the entire week of Pascha, which represents the tomb of Christ that renews our souls. The Holy Spirit can blow freshly on our lives every year during the Antipascha. All of these feasts in the Paschal cycle and Antipascha Sundays show us that the Way of Christ is to be purified, illumined, and glorified with Him. As a burial rite we hymn on Great Friday at Orthros, “O thou who puttest on light like a garment.” We too want to put on this light after we’ve been healed like the Samaritan woman and the Blind Man. 

The next feast, The Ascension of the Lord, teaches us that Christ was glorified when he ascended to His Father, and that He will return glorified. So too, we must become glorified in Jesus Christ. The cloud that appears when Jesus Christ ascended to heaven is not some kind of explainable weather pattern or hyper-abstract, psychological cloud, but it is the real glorification of God the Father through Jesus Christ in Holy Spirit. There are many more hymns, stichera, and troparia that reference “Light,” “illumination” and other enlightening realities in this chapter. 

Pentecost shows us that the Holy Spirit “illumines our souls” and “guides into all truth.” The Pentecostarion of the Sunday of Thomas says, “The queen of hours with splendor openly ministers to this light-bearing day.” When the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles, political and racial divisions were nullified, and all nations were brought into spiritual unity through the Holy Spirit. Truth cannot exist outside of this reality and experience. The Holy Trinity is “the one indivisible light who is known in three hypostases.” When people in the Church are purified, illumined and glorified, there we will find the truth through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the only infallible source of goodness, truth, and beauty. Come join us this Saturday at 4:00p.m. to find out how to walk the ancient Way of Jesus Christ.  

Divine Service from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee until Great Saturday (Vol IV, Ch 9)

From Michael Ruse:

Class on 10/12/2019…

This chapter can be summarized with Metropolitan’s own words that “the Savior’s death and resurrection put an end to hell’s power over the human race.” Because of that conquest in Jesus Christ, the cyclical destruction of human lives, the sheer waste of life that we see and have read about, is returned to life in the body. God creates us new from “a field strewn with bones,” as he says. How should we respond to such a sweeping statement about reality? We are given the example of how the Publican and the Pharisee approach God in their outward and inner postures of prayer, which may be the decisive point in preventing wars and violence. It’s no coincidence that the foundation for getting ready for Great Lent and the rest of the liturgical services hinges on this scene of a great sinner and a morally superior man at prayer. 

 There are lot of liturgical verses that we chant during the divine services from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee until Great Saturday and Metropolitan Hilarion presents us with these verses on every page.  If we reflect a little, there are many new sounds and tunes that the world plays. We hear people in their cars listening to familiar songs to start the day. Blaring music keeps us motivated to stay in coffee shops and to buy clothes in department stores. A song on the radio recalls some special moments. We could ask ourselves, what’s really worth singing about? Metropolitan Hilarion highlights stichera from major services that form the sections, which includes: Preparation for Great Lent, The Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, The Divine Services of the First Week of Great Lent and The Great Canon of Repentance, Sundays of Great Lent, The Annunciation of the Most-Holy Theotokos, Lazarus Saturday and the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, and Holy Week. 

 Metropolitan Hilarion  helps us see the big picture in worship with these divine services so that we do not lose sight of what’s important to sing about and who are worthy of all praise in preparation for our own death and resurrection. Come and see how the Orthodox Church has some of the most beautiful and true verses. The theological topics are rich for meditation. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m.