Category Archives: church

Feasting – Water and Light

church, feasts, Theophany, water

I’m glad that in the Orthodox Church we can enjoy the blessings of each major feast for at least several days following, as it makes it possible for me to catch up after not having a computer for a while, and still be current.

Theophany, January 6, celebrates the baptism of Christ and His revealing as the Son of God. There is the blessing of water:

“It begins with the singing of special hymns and the censing of the water which has been placed in the center of the church building. Surrounded by candles and flowers, this water stands for the beautiful world of God’s original creation and ultimate glorification by Christ in the Kingdom of God.” [all my quotes are from this site]

“It is the faith of Christians that since the Son of God has taken human flesh and has been immersed in the streams of the Jordan, all matter is sanctified and made pure in him, purged of its death-dealing qualities inherited from the devil and the wickedness of men. In the Lord’s epiphany all creation becomes good again, indeed ‘very good,’ the way that God himself made it and proclaimed it to be in the beginning when ‘the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters’ (Gen 1:2) and when the ‘Breath of Life’ was breathing in man and in everything that God made (Gen 1:30; 2:7).

…and there is the rich troparion of the feast that sang itself again and again in my mind, and in my thankful heart, for days:

When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest! For the voice of the Father bare witness to Thee, calling Thee his Beloved Son. And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, confirmed the truthfulness of his Word. O Christ our God, who hast revealed Thyself and hast enlightened the world, glory to Thee!

I read once a comment from a Lutheran man who had attended a conference on Orthodoxy. He said that it seemed to him the central theme of the Lutheran Church was justification, and the central theme of the Orthodox was The Holy Trinity. What a huge difference he saw!

And so it has always seemed to me, that every other Christian group or institution gets a bit sidetracked, focusing on a part of the whole, while in Orthodoxy you find God Himself in Three Persons, united in Love, at the center–an unfathomable treasure store of Life and Wisdom and whatever one might need.

The Feast of Theophany includes the revelation of the Trinity, and the Enlightening of the World (Epiphany) by that revelation. There is so much to comprehend just in this one event, I know I can only grasp a fragment. But maybe year by year I will take in a little more. Last week I was quite overwhelmed with what I understood, and I do thank God for all He has done.

Near Nativity

Advent, church

This fresco of the Nativity of Christ is on the wall at church, where I was blessed to attend Matins this morning. It was dark at the beginning of the service, with only a few candles burning. I held a candle to light The Six Psalms as I was chanting. As the service progressed, and light came through windows, this icon and others were revealed more clearly.

Our Flower Lady had brought buckets of white, red, and pink poinsettias, and garlands of berried branches to adorn the church. The chandelier was strung with fir branches and ribbons. Altar cloths are bright satin red.

I wanted to take pictures to capture the beauty, but then I realized that the impression is not only visual–the sensory input is part of it, through the sights I describe, the sounds of the hymns, the smells of incense and beeswax. But what really makes it worth passing on can’t be carried over to mine or anyone’s next moment, and that is the presence of God.

Merry Christmas!

Homesick in Our Homes

church, history, home, poetry
Christmas Poem by G.K. Chesterton

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.

Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost—how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky’s dome.

This world is wild as an old wife’s tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall all men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

Thanks to semicolon where I found this poem today, a good reminder of important truths of the season.  This Advent period is when we remember how we are “homesick in our homes.” The reality of that estrangement and fallenness and longing is a good bit of why we get physically sick, or sick and tired of various features of our earthly life.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

St Herman

church, history, people, quotes,

On December 13th we remember the repose of St Herman of Alaska, a monk who was sent from Russia to America in 1794 as part of the original Russian Orthodox mission to Alaska.

Many stories of his more than four decades there can be found here, the following among them:

The Aleuts related that when Father Herman was still alive and lived on Spruce Island, the local inhabitants used to go to the Elder for some reason or other. And more than once it happened thus: They approached the chapel where he celebrated divine services, and they heard superb choral singing, a multitude of voices singing. They wondered where the people had come from. And all this time the singing was clearly audible, and such harmonious, sweet singing . . .

They opened the door into the little chapel, and there Father Herman stood alone reading, chanting half aloud, celebrating the Lord’s service. And of course he was alone and there was no one there with him. … And such a thing was noticed more than once. It was angels of God who sang praises to the Lord with him.

The biography of Father Herman records the following incident. The Elder was asked: “How do you live alone in the forest, Father Herman? Don’t you become bored?”

He replied: “No! I am not alone there! God is there, as God is everywhere. Holy Angels are there. How can one become bored with them? With whom is it better and more pleasant to converse, with men or with Angels? With Angels, of course!”

I am most familiar with this quote from Father Herman, which is included in the icon of him in our church and is worth meditating on the year round: “…let us make a vow to ourselves, that from this day, from this hour, from this very moment, we shall strive above all else to love God and to fulfill His Holy Will!”