We Have Completed the Forty Days

Today we mark the completion of the Forty Day Fast that has prepared us for our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection. Whether we have made good use of this time, or whether we have squandered it in distractions and sinful passions, we now come to the greatest and holiest week of the year.

May Christ, who came to Bethany to raise his friend Lazarus from the dead as a sign of his coming victory over death itself, bless us as we enter into the Passion Week.

The following hymn, sung at the Presanctified Liturgy assigned for today (though sadly not served by us this year), reminds us of what lies behind us and before us at this moment.

We have completed the forty days that profit our souls. Let us sing: “Rejoice, city of Bethany, home of Lazarus! Rejoice, Mary and Martha, his sisters! Tomorrow Christ will come and raise your dead brother to life. Bitter and unsatisfied, hell will hear His voice. Shaking and groaning, it will release bound Lazarus. The assembly of Hebrews will be amazed. They will greet Him with palms and branches. Though their priests and elders look on Him with envy and malice, the children shall praise Him in song: ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord,// the King of Israel!’”

If anyone would like to listen to the full Presanctified, we recorded it last year and that recording appears below.

Metropolitan Tikhon on Church Closure

The OCA website has posted an address by Metropolitan Tikhon on the closure of churches. In it he reflects on his own experience of quarantine and what it means to participate lovingly and humbly in our current efforts to protect others from infection.

A video link is followed by the text below.

https://www.oca.org/media/video/primatial-message-of-his-beatitude-metropolitan-tikhon

Primatial Message of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon

April 6, 2020

My beloved children,

I pray that each of you is keeping physically healthy and is managing to stay spiritually and emotionally strong during these unusual and uncertain times.

On this fifth Sunday of Great Lent, I offer to you a brief word as your primate and father in Christ.

Above all, I encourage you not to dwell on the many “why?” questions but rather to discern in your hearts the “how?” of our present situation.

As He hung upon the Cross, our Lord Jesus Christ did indeed cry out to the Father: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” But if we pull back from that one moment of agony and observe the whole of our Lord’s Passion, we will see that, in so many ways, He is showing us “how,” that is, giving all of humanity the example of sincere obedience, of extreme humility, and of divine love. He is showing us how to receive the great gift of life everlasting and how to change our own lives through that gift.

How, then, can we best approach the present circumstances we find ourselves in?

I myself have been wrestling with this difficult task of shifting my thinking from “why” to “how.” In the past 21 days, I have not celebrated any divine services nor have I been able to attend a live service or receive Holy Communion.

I voluntarily placed myself in quarantine at the Chancery because of the strong possibility that, on several occasions, I may have been exposed to the virus. Although by your prayers I am in good health, I remain in quarantine out of obedience to the civil directive that all travellers from the State of New York must quarantine themselves.

Now I find myself at the Saint Arsenius Skete of the monastery of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, yet still unable to pray in person with my brothers. I am grateful for their prayers and for their daily delivery of food, which they carefully place outside my door.

Like many of you, my life has become a series of “zoom” meetings on the one hand, and periods of complete isolation on the other. These have been both difficult and inspiring.

Over the past few weeks, I have electronically interacted with close to 200 individuals. I have met twice with the entire Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America, once with the Chancellors of our dioceses, and three times with the members of the Executive Committee of the Assembly of Bishops. 

Together with my brother bishops, we have consulted with our clergy, with physicians and medical professionals, with ethical experts, and legal consultants. I have participated in daily briefings with my chancellor and my personal secretary and Archdeacon, as well as with other Chancery staff.

All of us, together, have reviewed the pastoral and liturgical implications of the path that lies before us. During this process, the Holy Synod has carefully listened, prayerfully considered, and extensively discussed the various options, and has provided a series of directives which are available on the Coronavirus Resource page on our website.

In addition to the Church-wide directives, each bishop has provided further direction to his diocese. None of us finds joy in rendering such directives and I suspect that none of you is thrilled to receive them.

Nevertheless, I would hope that all of us would find some consolation in the very act of love we offer for our brothers and sisters through our obedience to the directives of the bishops, but even more so, through our obedience to our present circumstances.

True obedience means going where we might not want to go, just as our Lord, on his way to His passion. Our Lord, in his divine and human person, shows us both the human struggle of passing through painful events and the divine grace that comes through our voluntary acceptance of those events.

Above all, we should remember that we are each voluntarily undergoing a little hardship for the sake of our brothers and sisters.

We are not fasting from Holy Communion because we fear that the precious body and blood of Christ might spread disease but rather because even our gathering together in Church is a risk for transmission of the virus.

We are not refraining from Church attendance because the government is trying to infringe upon our first amendment rights but rather because we don’t want to infect our own friends and relatives, or our priest and his family.

We are not keeping social distance from each other because we dislike or distrust our fellow humans but precisely because we do love them and we don’t want them to die an unnecessary death.

In the life of the martyr Polycarp of Smyrna, we are offered “an example of martyrdom which is conformable to the Gospel.” In contrast to another man, Quintus by name, who pridefully hurried to sacrifice himself as a martyr but then denied Christ, Saint Polycarp, we are told

…lingered that he might be delivered up, even as the Lord did, to the end that we too might be imitators of him, not looking only to that which concerneth ourselves, but also to that which concerneth our neighbors.  For it is the office of true and steadfast love, not only to desire that oneself be saved, but all the brethren also.

So I will conclude by encouraging all of us to grow in true and steadfast love, to not only think about our own salvation, our own health, our own good, but rather to look upon our present hardship as an opportunity for us to grow spiritually and to enter more deeply into communion with Christ in our hearts.

For our bishops, this is the time to provide direct pastoral guidance and leadership;

For our clergy, this is the time to strengthen those aspects of their ministries beyond their liturgical service at the altar;

For our faithful, this is the time to remember that communion with Christ is not limited to our partaking of Holy Communion but is something that we can have through our own personal prayer, even if we are unable to participate in the Holy Week and Paschal services this year.

I will speak more with you during the coming days, but in the meantime, I ask that we all may find strength in our Lord Jesus Christ as we enter into the sixth and final week of this very trying season of Great Lent.

For the Life of the World

We have now returned to the regular Sunday Divine Liturgy in our parish after a period of its absence, though only a small number of us are blessed by the bishop to serve it. Many have been listening to the service online. We are reminded that at every Liturgy God renews his union with the human race and the world in which it lives. According to the prayers of the Liturgy of Saint Basil that we served during the Sundays of the Fast, through the Liturgy Christ offers himself “for the life of the world.”

These are the very words of Christ when he speaks of his body and blood (John 6:51). They were also used as the title of the famous reflection on sacraments and liturgy by Alexander Schmemann.

There is a Russian proverb that states the Second Coming will not occur as long as the Liturgy is being offered by Christians on earth. When the last remaining priest standing before the last remaining altar finishes serving the last Divine Liturgy, however, our Lord will come again in judgment—because there will be no more reason to delay it. This proverb is not part of our Orthodox faith, but it is inspired by it. It brings to attention in a startling way the importance of the Liturgy that every parish offers to God.

It is a great blessing that as we leave the Forty Days of the Fast behind at the end of this week and prepare for Passion Week, we know that we will continue to offer the Liturgy at our church.

Church Shutdowns in Historical Perspective

The demolition of Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, 1931

Many of our parishioners are familiar with the blog and podcast of Father Stephen Freeman. He recently posted a letter (quoted in a book by Serge Schmemann, son of the famous theologian) written by an Orthodox Christian in Communist Russia. It reflects on what it is like not to be able to attend the divine services of the Great Fast and Pascha. In this case, the persecuted believer had been deprived of them for four years. His indomitable joy in the face of a “church shutdown” far greater in scope and duration than what we are going through at the moment may be an encouragement as we head into the sixth week of the Fast.

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2020/04/04/a-different-pascha-1928/

Father Paul Lazor on Great Lent (Part 5)

This week we have had the opportunity to listen to the reflections of one of the Orthodox Church in America’s priests reflect on the meaning and experience of the Great Fast. Today’s blog post offers the final part of those reflections by Fr. Paul Lazor.

Father Paul Lazor on Great Lent (Part 4)

Below is part four of Father Paul’s Lenten reflections. If you missed the link to part three, it was contained within yesterday’s post announcing our service of the Great Penitential Canon.

The Great Penitential Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete

This evening at 6:30 our parish will live stream in audio the service of the Great Penitential Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete. Thursday of the fifth week of the Great Fast assigns this beautiful and demanding work to be served in full, unlike the first week when it is served in four parts. And in connection with it, the life of Saint Mary of Egypt, which represents a quintessential example of repentance, is also read. This is particularly appropriate this year, as the day falls on the feast of Saint Mary of Egypt (April 1).

The Great Canon is a comprehensive reflection on the biblical record of sin. It includes numerous allusions to figures in the Old Testament that may not be as readily familiar to us as they were to Saint Andrew, who spent his life as a monk reading and reflecting on holy scripture. Therefore, the article at the following link on “The Who’s Who of the Great Canon” may be helpful.

http://www.pravmir.com/the-whos-who-of-the-great-canon-of-st-andrew-of-crete/

And to remind people of the Canon’s beauty, the following is a Slavonic recording of its kontakion (hymn), My Soul, My Soul, Arise!

Finally, for those who have been enjoying earlier installments, below is the third part of Father Paul Lazor’s reflections on Great Lent.

Father Paul Lazor on Great Lent (Part 2)

Below is the second part of a really beautiful reflection on Great Lent by Father Paul Lazor of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary.

Father Paul Lazor on Great Lent (Part 1)

This week on our parish blog a series of episodes from a talk given by Father Paul Lazor of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary are being posted for any who would like to hear a very experienced pastor reflect on the experience of Great Lent. A link to the first episode is below. Its original opening was cut off, so it starts somewhat abruptly.

The Sunday Divine Liturgy

Today we celebrated the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, though with only four of our people according to the instructions of our bishop. Nevertheless, what a joy many of us felt both in the temple and at home listening to an audio streaming of it. A section of the Liturgy was filmed that included the scripture readings, the homily, and the litanies for the catechumens and the faithful (as well as a prayer for deliverance from the Coronavirus). However, the video has so far overwhelmed our uploading capacity, and so for now we will have to wait before it can be posted.

In the meantime, the photos above and below show the paten at the proskomedia. Above is how it looked before commemorations of parishioners and their loved ones were made, and below after that.

The Proskomedia

Chalice and paten standing on the proskomedia table. On the paten are the Lamb (center) surrounded by commemorative particles of the Theotokos (left), Elizabeth and other saints (right), and the Orthodox living and departed (front). Very small particles are piled on either side of the living and departed for those parishioners who have requested prayer by the priest.

As our small group of four (priest, deacon, choir director, and altar server) prepares to offer the Divine Liturgy, all of our parishioners are encouraged to provide the names of those they love to be commemorated at the proskomedia.

This is a part of the Liturgy that occurs before the opening proclamation “Blessed is the Kingdom . . .” It takes place at a small table in the northeastern corner of the sanctuary. During it, the priest prepares the bread and wine that will be offered at the anaphora, the central part of the Liturgy when the Holy Spirit descends on us and transforms the offered gifts into the body and blood of Christ.

At the proskomedia, the priest cuts a large cube-shaped piece of bread called the Lamb and places it at the center of the plate called the paten. He then surrounds the Lamb with particles of bread taken from the prosphora loaves. These include particles commemorating saints including the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, Saint Elizabeth, and many others. The priest also takes particles from the prosphora commemorating our ruling hierach, the clergy, and various others. These others include “this God-protected land and its Orthodox people” as well as “all Orthodox Christians who have departed this life in hope of the resurrection, of life eternal, and of communion with thee O Lord.” But the commemorations of the proskomedia do not end there.

In fact, the greatest number of names offered do not belong to specific saints or members of the clergy. They belong to the members of our parish who are, with the saints, members of the body of Christ. A membership list is kept by the proskomedia table for this purpose.

But the commemorations do not end with parish members either. They continue with all those people parishioners have asked the priest to pray for. This is why every member of our church is encouraged to send in names for commemoration. And, finally, even those who are not Orthodox are remembered at the proskomedia, not with particles of bread (for these particles are eventually placed within the chalice and therefore symbolize eucharistic union with Christ), but by name over the paten.

This is the purpose and meaning of the proskomedia. Even when many of our parishioners can not attend the Liturgy, as in these days of pestilence, they can be assured that they are being remembered in prayer and that through prayer they are being united with Christ in the Eucharist.

The Anaphora of Saint Basil the Great

Priests and a deacon pray the Cherubic Hymn during the Divine Liturgy

This Sunday, after two weeks without divine services, our bishop has blessed us to serve the Divine Liturgy in light of a recent modification of our state’s very strict ban on public gatherings. As with all Sundays of Great Lent, the Liturgy prescribed is that of Saint Basil the Great. It contains many beautiful and profound prayers, but the two long prayers contained within the part known as the anaphora are the heart of the service. The second of those two prayers is printed below, along with the responses that follow.

Priest: Together with these blessed powers, loving Master, we sinners also cry out and say: Truly You are holy and most holy, and there are no bounds to the majesty of Your holiness. You are holy in all Your works, for with righteousness and true judgment You have ordered all things for us. For having made man by taking dust from the earth, and having honored him with Your own image, O God, You placed him in a garden of delight, promising him eternal life and the enjoyment of everlasting blessings in the observance of Your commandments. But when he disobeyed You, the true God who had created him, and was led astray by the deception of the serpent becoming subject to death through his own transgressions, You, O God, in Your righteous judgment, expelled him from paradise into this world, returning him to the earth from which he was taken, yet providing for him the salvation of regeneration in Your Christ. For You did not forever reject Your creature whom You made, O Good One, nor did You forget the work of Your hands, but because of Your tender compassion, You visited him in various ways: You sent forth prophets; You performed mighty works by Your saints who in every generation have pleased You. You spoke to us by the mouth of Your servants the prophets, announcing to us the salvation which was to come; You gave us the law to help us; You appointed angels as guardians. And when the fullness of time had come, You spoke to us through Your Son Himself, through whom You created the ages. He, being the splendor of Your glory and the image of Your being, upholding all things by the word of His power, thought it not robbery to be equal with You, God and Father. But, being God before all ages, He appeared on earth and lived with humankind. Becoming incarnate from a holy Virgin, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, conforming to the body of our lowliness, that He might change us in the likeness of the image of His glory. For, since through man sin came into the world and through sin death, it pleased Your only begotten Son, who is in Your bosom, God and Father, born of a woman, the holy Theotokos and ever virgin Mary; born under the law, to condemn sin in His flesh, so that those who died in Adam may be brought to life in Him, Your Christ. He lived in this world, and gave us precepts of salvation. Releasing us from the delusions of idolatry, He guided us to the sure knowledge of You, the true God and Father. He acquired us for Himself, as His chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Having cleansed us by water and sanctified us with the Holy Spirit, He gave Himself as ransom to death in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending into Hades through the cross, that He might fill all things with Himself, He loosed the bonds of death. He rose on the third day, having opened a path for all flesh to the resurrection from the dead, since it was not possible that the Author of life would be dominated by corruption. So He became the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, the first born of the dead, that He might be Himself the first in all things. Ascending into heaven, He sat at the right hand of Your majesty on high and He will come to render to each according to His works. As memorials of His saving passion, He has left us these gifts which we have set forth before You according to His commands. For when He was about to go forth to His voluntary, ever memorable, and life-giving death, on the night on which He was delivered up for the life of the world, He took bread in His holy and pure hands, and presenting it to You, God and Father, and offering thanks, blessing, sanctifying, and breaking it:

Priest: He gave it to His holy disciples and apostles saying: Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you and for the forgiveness of sins.

People: Amen.

Priest: Likewise, He took the cup of the fruit of vine, and having mingled it, offering thanks, blessing, and sanctifying it.

Priest: He gave it to His holy disciples and apostles saying: Drink of this all of you. This is my blood of the new Covenant, shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins.

People: Amen.

Priest: Do this in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this Bread and drink this Cup, you proclaim my death, and you confess my resurrection. Therefore, Master, we also, remembering His saving passion and life giving cross, His three; day burial and resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and enthronement at Your right hand, God and Father, and His glorious and awesome second coming.

Priest: Your own of your own, we offer to you on behalf of all and for all.

What follows soon after this prayer is the consecration of the Eucharist. Though only a very small number of necessary servers have been blessed to serve the Liturgy, all of our parish members will be commemorated by name in connection with the offering of the holy gifts.

The Star That Causes the Sun to Appear

The “Morning Star” Venus Just before Sunrise

Yesterday on the feast of the Annunciation we as a parish had the opportunity (because of the hard work of our choir director) to pray at home the akathist to the Theotokos. This work is the original form of hymnography called by that name. It literally means “non-sitting hymn,” as opposed to the kathismas, or Psalter readings, during which we are invited to sit. Saint Romanos the Melodist was its author, and many more akathists have been composed over the centuries. One of the most beautiful recent ones is the akathist Glory to God for All Things, the work of an Orthodox priest suffering in an Communist prison camp.

The akathist to the Theotokos that we prayed yesterday contains, within a dazzling series of poetic statements, one particularly striking declaration:

“Rejoice, star that causes the Sun to appear!”

It is a beautiful statement about the Incarnation.

In the early evening, the planet Venus often appears as the first star in the sky, heralding the coming of many others that will soon fill the sky. It is called the “evening star,” and is more luminescent and therefore beautiful than any other (hence its being named after Venus). So also the Virgin Mary is the greatest of the saints who “points the way” (the name of our principal icon of her) toward Christ.

In this she is like John the Baptist, the “forerunner” who was quoted by the Evangelist John as declaring: “I am sent before him” (John 3:28). Moreover, like the evening star, she diminishes the moment Christ comes into the world, the way Venus simply disappears from the morning sky at daybreak. In this way the Theotokos lives out John the Baptist’s statement about Christ: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Virtually all of our hymnography about the Theotokos is shaped by the theme of the Incarnation, and it is good to celebrate the Annunciation during the Great Fast which is otherwise focused mainly on the Passion and Resurrection. The Virgin Mary serves the Incarnation the way the brightest of all stars relates to the sun: full of beauty, she fades with the appearance of Jesus Christ.

Holy Annunciation

Today is the feast of the Annunciation, on which we Orthodox Christians (along with many non-Orthodox Christians) celebrate Archangel Gabriel’s annunciation to the Virgin Mary that she would become the Theotokos, the Birthgiver of God. This feast almost always falls during the course of the Great Fast, but since it is one of the Great Feasts we celebrate it with the Divine Liturgy of John Chrysostom, even if (as this year) it falls on a weekday when only the Presanctified Liturgy would otherwise be served. This morning it was celebrated at our sister parish of Saint Anne in Corvalis, Oregon by Father Stephen and a few servers and choir members only. A recording of the Liturgy is available through the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpGSeiA_eHI

On the Cross, Again

As we arrive at the one-week mark of our parish’s cancellation of services, we find ourselves on the eve of the Great Feast of the Annunciation. This reminds us of how much we have lost this year during Great Lent. But it occurs during the Week of the Cross, and so to remind us of our opportunity to join our Lord Jesus Christ in bearing the cross, the following homily from this past Sunday by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, author of Orthodoxy, and Heterodoxy, may help.

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/asd/2020/03/22/prepare-now-to-return-to-church/