Thursday, April 4, 2013
Mystagogy on Tracing the Origins of the Presanctified Liturgy.
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During the period of Great Lent, except Saturdays and Sundays, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated, which is the result of two factors. First, during this period the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, which is paschal and festive in character, is inconsistent with the character of the period. Canon 29 of the Synod of Laodicea (363) ruled: "During the period of Great Lent bread is not offered, except Saturday and Sunday only." Canon 51 of the same Synod also forbids the celebration of the memorials of the martyrs on fasting days during Great Lent and requires them to be transferred to Saturday or Sunday, because the celebration of the memorials of the martyrs are connected with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.
According to the testimonies of the Fathers of the Church (Cf. Basil the Great, Epistle 93 to Caesaria the Patrician, PG 32,484) Christians received Communion regularly on Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and as many times during the week the Divine Liturgy was celebrated. The faithful received the Precious Gifts in the way we receive the antidron today. They Communed from a portion of the Body of Christ which is immersed in the Precious Blood, and that which remained was kept so they may receive on days when it was not possible to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. The same tactic was followed by the hermits, who were alienated from organized monastic communities and were not able to participate in Eucharistic gatherings that took place during the week. To receive Communion properly prepared they formulated a Service. Here is the origin of the Presanctified, which included excerpts from the Divine Liturgy, prayers before and during Communion, and thanksgiving prayers.
The Presanctified does not include essentially anything but the transfer of the presanctified Gifts from the prothesis to the altar, and Communion prayers which are accompanied by preparatory and thanksgiving prayers. The first testimonies for this liturgical type is found in the Chronicon Paschale (7th cent.) and in the Quinisext Ecumenical Synod held in Constantinople in 692 ("On every fasting day of Holy Great Lent, except Saturdays and Sundays and the day of the Annunciation, a Presanctified Sacred Liturgy is done."). In various places different types of the Presanctified Service were formed, which are attributed to James the Brother of our Lord and preserved only in the Diakonika (Codex Sinia 1040), and the Alexandrine attributed to Mark the Evangelist, from which is preserved the prayer "After Receiving the Holy Mysteries" (Codex Paris Gr. 325). It is already seen in the West in the seventh century (Gelasian Sacramentary) and it was only celebrated on Good Friday...
According to the testimonies of the Fathers of the Church (Cf. Basil the Great, Epistle 93 to Caesaria the Patrician, PG 32,484) Christians received Communion regularly on Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and as many times during the week the Divine Liturgy was celebrated. The faithful received the Precious Gifts in the way we receive the antidron today. They Communed from a portion of the Body of Christ which is immersed in the Precious Blood, and that which remained was kept so they may receive on days when it was not possible to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. The same tactic was followed by the hermits, who were alienated from organized monastic communities and were not able to participate in Eucharistic gatherings that took place during the week. To receive Communion properly prepared they formulated a Service. Here is the origin of the Presanctified, which included excerpts from the Divine Liturgy, prayers before and during Communion, and thanksgiving prayers.
The Presanctified does not include essentially anything but the transfer of the presanctified Gifts from the prothesis to the altar, and Communion prayers which are accompanied by preparatory and thanksgiving prayers. The first testimonies for this liturgical type is found in the Chronicon Paschale (7th cent.) and in the Quinisext Ecumenical Synod held in Constantinople in 692 ("On every fasting day of Holy Great Lent, except Saturdays and Sundays and the day of the Annunciation, a Presanctified Sacred Liturgy is done."). In various places different types of the Presanctified Service were formed, which are attributed to James the Brother of our Lord and preserved only in the Diakonika (Codex Sinia 1040), and the Alexandrine attributed to Mark the Evangelist, from which is preserved the prayer "After Receiving the Holy Mysteries" (Codex Paris Gr. 325). It is already seen in the West in the seventh century (Gelasian Sacramentary) and it was only celebrated on Good Friday...
Complete article here.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
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(Pravoslavie) - On March 27, the Olympic champion Ilias Iliadis visited the Vatopedi Monastery on the Holy mountain of Athos where during his meeting with the Monastery's Superior, elder Ephraim, he gave his Olympic medal as a gift to the wonder-working Icon of the Mother of God Paramythia ("Exhortation", "Joy and Consolation"), reports Agionoros.ru.Ilias Iliadis was a champion at the Olympics in Athens (in 2004). In 2012, at the Olympics in London, the Greek judoist won the bronze Olympic medal and pledged to make a gift of this award to the Icon of the Mother of God Paramythia.
Right after his victory in the struggle for the bronze prize, Ilias Iliatis proclaimed: "I praise God! This medal will go to the Holy mount of Athos".
It should be noted that Ilias Iliadis had visited Vatopedi Monastery several days before the beginning of the Olympic games. He asked for a blessing and prayers from Archimandrite Ephraim, the Superior of the Monastery. "The elder’s support will help me during the Olympics a great deal," the athlete said then.
You may ask, "What about the nun that lives at the Village right now?" I had heard she would be moving to this new facility, but the below is a bit nebulous on that point. As for "Why not a men's monastery," the answers I have received so far have been rather political and unsubstantiated so I will refrain from posting them. This is wonderful news for the Antiochian Archdiocese and American Orthodoxy as the Church flies to heaven on two wings: the parish and the monastery. Monasticism is essential for the health of the Church even if the experience of monasticism in America has been at times contentious and difficult.
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(antiochian.org) - The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America has completed the purchase of property and buildings in York County, Pennsylvania for the establishment of the Convent of St. Thekla, a female monastic community. The property is located in Glenville, Pennsylvania and consists of 51 acres of land which includes a four-bedroom “move-in-ready” house, a two-story barn, and a three-car garage with an attached workshop. The property also has a pond, and includes 30 acres of farmland and seven acres of woodland.
The original plan for the Convent called for it to be built on a parcel of land which is on the main property of Antiochian Village. However, it became clear that the cost of doing this would be too high, especially given that it would have required that all the infrastructure (road, water, electricity, and sewage) be made available at the site. There was also the risk that environmental concerns (such as the discovery of endangered plant life or animals) could have seriously impacted the building plans. The purchase was funded by a combination of the money that had been raised by the Antiochian Women through their multi-year fundraising effort, an endowment fund that had been set aside many years ago for this purpose, and generous donations from individual members of the Archdiocese Board of Trustees.
The property is approximately a 40-minute drive from our parish of St. John Chrysostom in York, Pennsylvania, and is a one-hour drive from both Harrisburg airport and BWI airport. This central location allows the property to be reached by a 3½-hour drive from the NY/NJ Metropolitan area, as well as a 3½-hour drive from Antiochian Village.
We have undertaken a search for the abbess of the community, as well as women who are candidates to join the community as female monastics. The candidates are both existing nuns as well as women who feel a calling to the monastic life.
This is a most exciting development, and we ask for prayers that the Lord will greatly bless these efforts, and the women who will eventually form this monastic community.
Photo gallery available here.
Monday, April 1, 2013
I had, until now, links to several Orthodox Christian Network resources on the sidebar of the blog. They seem to be experiencing a malware issue which caused some readers to receive a message warning them about visiting. I have temporarily removed these sidebar links until their issue is resolved.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
From the blog Juicy Ecumenism:
Christian churches of any sort are right to be careful and thoughtful about the specific causes and organizations to which they do and do not give their public support, as such decisions are important part of what they tell a watching world about their faith and about the triune God. And if a church cannot or will not take the time to examine what a given organization actually does, it makes little sense to bestow a blank-check ecclesial endorsement on the organization’s activities.
So what exactly is accomplished by all but one of the jurisdictions of Eastern Orthodoxy in the United States being member communions of the National Council of Churches (NCC)?
First, we must ask what the effective purpose of the NCC is today. Its member communions include neither the Roman Catholic Church nor more than an increasingly narrow fraction of American Protestants. Given its growing narrowness, penchant for divisive rhetoric, and the rather unloving, disdainful ways in which NCC leaders take pains to distance themselves from other Christians, especially evangelicals, it is clear that the NCC’s noble founding goal of Christian unity is not much of a priority for current NCC leaders.
The NCC has served a purpose in the past with its New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) Bible translation and its annual Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. But the former is a fait accompli while the latter represents only a tiny fraction of the NCC’s work. So neither of these is the council’s raison d’être.
No, the first and foremost effective purpose of the modern NCC is to promote the values of theologically liberal/heterodox Protestantism and to use the name and resources of churches as a politically convenient tool to promote partisan public-policy agendas, including ones that directly oppose clear Scriptural teachings.
Devout Eastern Orthodox prize their church’s identity as the bearer of what they see as unbroken Christian tradition. Of course, important parts of this tradition’s moral teachings are the basic Christian moral values of valuing the lives of unborn children and honoring the God-given boundaries of sex only within man-woman marriage.
Yet over the years, IRD has documented numerous instances of the NCC defending abortion and/or homosexual practice while demonizing those who stand up for Christian values (at least nominally shared by Eastern Orthodox leaders) on such issues. To say nothing of the over-the-top interpersonal rudeness that NCC staffers have been known to aim at Christians who do not share their liberal Protestant values...
So what exactly is accomplished by all but one of the jurisdictions of Eastern Orthodoxy in the United States being member communions of the National Council of Churches (NCC)?
First, we must ask what the effective purpose of the NCC is today. Its member communions include neither the Roman Catholic Church nor more than an increasingly narrow fraction of American Protestants. Given its growing narrowness, penchant for divisive rhetoric, and the rather unloving, disdainful ways in which NCC leaders take pains to distance themselves from other Christians, especially evangelicals, it is clear that the NCC’s noble founding goal of Christian unity is not much of a priority for current NCC leaders.
The NCC has served a purpose in the past with its New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) Bible translation and its annual Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. But the former is a fait accompli while the latter represents only a tiny fraction of the NCC’s work. So neither of these is the council’s raison d’être.
No, the first and foremost effective purpose of the modern NCC is to promote the values of theologically liberal/heterodox Protestantism and to use the name and resources of churches as a politically convenient tool to promote partisan public-policy agendas, including ones that directly oppose clear Scriptural teachings.
Devout Eastern Orthodox prize their church’s identity as the bearer of what they see as unbroken Christian tradition. Of course, important parts of this tradition’s moral teachings are the basic Christian moral values of valuing the lives of unborn children and honoring the God-given boundaries of sex only within man-woman marriage.
Yet over the years, IRD has documented numerous instances of the NCC defending abortion and/or homosexual practice while demonizing those who stand up for Christian values (at least nominally shared by Eastern Orthodox leaders) on such issues. To say nothing of the over-the-top interpersonal rudeness that NCC staffers have been known to aim at Christians who do not share their liberal Protestant values...
Complete article here.
From the blog Get Religion:
The reporter who passed this one along to us wrote, simply:
they just make it real easy for you guys, don’t they?
Another reporter on Twitter put it:
That NYT correction has to be throwing @GetReligion HQ into all-hands-on-deck mode. “I need EVERYONE ON THIS NOW!”
Sadly, we’ve had such reason to be down on general religion coverage in recent weeks, that I’m not even sure anyone is surprised by this. But still. But still.
The New York Times published a fairly straightforward story about Pope Francis’ first Urbi et Orbi message. With this paragraph:
The New York Times published a fairly straightforward story about Pope Francis’ first Urbi et Orbi message. With this paragraph:
Easter is the celebration of the resurrection into heaven of Jesus, three days after he was crucified, the premise for the Christian belief in an everlasting life. In urging peace, Francis called on Jesus to ”change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace.”
Yes, the professionals at the New York Times are confused about what Easter marks. If you were satirizing the poor state of the Grey Lady’s understanding of religion, this would seem over-the-top. And yet it’s real...
Complete article here.
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