Category Archives: feasts

Then he took him up in his arms…

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P1120397 altar w beamsLight, joy, glory… If you don’t know the story of what happened when Jesus was presented in the temple at 40 days old, skip to the bottom of this post and read the account from Luke before going on.

It’s been a few days now since we celebrated the feast of The Meeting of the Lord. It’s interesting that the Orthodox usually know it from the perspective of Simeon and Anna, but it is also called The Presentation of Christ, from the point of view of Jesus’s parents.

As I’ve mentioned more than once, it is one of my favorite feasts (I’ve written about it before), so I was expectant and so glad that I was able to be at Divine Liturgy on what can be an inconvenient day — this year February 2nd was a Monday. But I had missed church the day before and was feeling very needy.meeting-Lord-temple0001 oca

We began with Matins, and every element of the service beginning with the refrain, “Let every breath praise the Lord!” seemed to be calculated to straighten up my bent soul. By means of the most aromatic incense, the chandeliers swinging, the Six Psalms, and many more gifts known and unknown, many kinks in the conduit were at least temporarily untwisted so I could receive the light and the joy.

I got the usual goosebumps when the gospel for this feast was read. Oh, dear Simeon! What must it have been like for you to hold The Christ in your old arms?… knowing not just as information but in your very heart and flesh that this infant was your own God and Redeemer? To help us meditate on this, the words of a hymn ascribe to Christ the words, “I am not held by the Elder; it is I Who hold him, for he asks Me for forgiveness.”

simeon-god-receiverThat hymn was part of yesterday’s remembrance of Saint Simeon the God-Receiver and also St. Anna the Prophetess. We remember them especially the day following the event in which they figured. But it’s still not time to leave the nourishment of this feast behind: The Leavetaking of The Meeting of Our Lord is not until next Monday, and by then we won’t be too sad to say good-bye because we will be well into the pre-Lent period, the Sunday of the Prodigal Son being the day before.

In the Church calendar we have these layers of history and sacrament and celebration constantly orienting us to the deepest realities of life. The light and truth that we draw from the lives of the saints and from the events of our salvation history are not random ideas in our individual heads, but are shared experience with the whole Church family as we worship together by means of all the graces and sacraments pertaining to each season.

St. Nikolai on this day encourages us to contemplate joy, and his homily elaborates: “Just as the bleak forest clothes itself in greenery and flowers through the breath of spring, so every man – regardless of how arid and darkened he is by sin – becomes fresh and youthful from the nearness of Christ. For the nearness of Christ is like the closeness of some life-giving and fragrant balsam that restores health, increases life, and gives fragrance to the soul, to the thoughts and to the words of man.”

I came home from church with a candle from among the stack that had been blessed, as this feast is also Candlemas. Candlelight is reminding me to hold on to the joy that has been given to me, and to be renewed in it every morning. Let every breath praise the Lord!

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21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;

23 (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)

24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,

28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

We are watered by mystical streams.

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“Today the whole creation is watered by mystical streams.”THP1120160crp

This was one of the lines from the rich 7th-century composition of Patriarch Sophronios of Jerusalem, which was among the readings of Theophany and the Great Blessing of Water that we heard yesterday. More than ever before, I experienced the feast as a shining of The Light of the World and the refreshment of The Living Water, partly because of words like this in the service.

The quantity of verbal expression of various aspects of our faith is really overwhelming, and I can only process what seems to be a small fragment, each time when the different feasts roll around again.

First we celebrated Divine Liturgy in our “big church.” I had the same experience as last week, in the way the morning sun streamed down through a high window and hit me in the face. This time I wasn’t completely blinded; if I squinted just so, the candles and lamps flickering around the church appeared, for those few minutes, as they might outdoors on a foggy night, perhaps carried by worshipers in a procession of the “Feast of Lights.”

It happens that a photo was posted to our parish Facebook page, taken by someone who was there that day last week, and it shows the church with the bright beam that angled across the altar and nave and fell on me. Mr. Glad said, “You need to find another place to stand,” and I answered, “Oh, no, I like it when that happens.” Actually, I don’t often get to be in that place.TH ray of sunlight 1-2-15crp Both times I was on the left in front of a pillar. On Theophany, when the light was coming in the chandeliers were also being set swinging nearby; we were singing a hymn, and the sweetest incense was beautifying the air to honor the Lord.

After Liturgy we processed to the “little church” for The Blessing of Water, accompanied by the bells and singing together. The service opens with:

THP1120222light and water 15“The voice of the Lord upon the waters cries out, saying, ‘Come all of you, receive the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of the fear of God, of Christ who has appeared.’”

We heard multiple readings from Isaiah such as, “Ho, everyone that thirsts: come ye to the water.”

And more images from the exuberant service of blessing:

The land and the sea have divided between them the joy of the Lord….

King of all, you accepted also to be baptized in the Jordan by the hand of a servant, so that, having sanctified the nature of the waters, you, the sinless one, might make a way for our rebirth through water and Spirit and re-establish us in our original freedom.

The Jordan turned back and the mountains leapt as they saw God in thetheophany light and water pouring 15 flesh, and the clouds uttered their voice, marveling at what had come to pass, seeing Light from Light, true God from true God, the Master’s festival today in Jordan; seeing him drowning the death from disobedience, the goad of error and the bond of Hell in Jordan and granting the Baptism of salvation to the world.

On the home front, Theophany was the day Mr. Glad wanted to take down the Christmas tree. I resisted that idea for a long time, though I tried not to reveal my stubbornness. We had an easier time getting it out than we’d had installing it.

This morning coming downstairs I was startled by the bare space where the tree had been, but I quickly thought of how we have entered the season of house blessings, when by prayer and faith we will receive much more than we have lost — indeed, a different order of gifts, the “mystical streams” that are so hard to capture in words but impart the very Light of Christ Himself.

Christ Himself told us about these realities, as we read in the Gospel of John, when he said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’….whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

This is the best way to enter a new year.

Exaltation of the Cross

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But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…          -Galatians 6:14

Thy Cross is for all men a well of blessings and a cause of thanksgiving. Thereby for them that believe in thee, weakness is turned into strength, shame into glory, and death into life.
-St. Leo the Pope (d. 461)

Monument of St. Sava is seen in front of the temple during Good Friday in Belgrade

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross — September 14

I feel too tired to write a blog post today, but I couldn’t let this feast go by without mention. It isn’t always possible for me to get to Vespers or Vigil on Saturday evenings, but last night I did. I love the hymns that we sing at the feast of the cross. In the Orthodox Church, when we sing something like:

“Before Thy Cross we bow down O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify,” we actually prostrate ourselves on the floor for each of three refrains. (Many hymns have this triplet aspect to them, as a reminder of the Holy Trinity.)

If you are struggling with a bad attitude, it’s amazing how effective this kind of behavior can be in setting you on a better track, and helping you to pray. This morning at Divine Liturgy we had more of the same majestic hymns, and “O God, save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance… preserve Thy habitation!”

The Church is the habitation of Christ. His presence fills His temple, and today our new chandeliers were set to swinging for the joy of Him being among us.

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In our church bulletin we have for this week a pertinent quote from Fr. Basil Zebrun of Fort Worth, Texas:

“…when we are told in today’s Gospel, ‘Turn away from yourself, take up your Cross, Follow Me (Mark 8:34) — we are not called to something dark and frightening; we are told by God: ‘Open yourself to love! Do not remain a prisoner of your own self-centeredness.’ Do not be, in the words of St. Theophan the Recluse, ‘like  a shaving of wood which is rolled around its own emptiness.’ Open yourself up! Look — there is so much to love, there are so many to love! There is such an infinity of ways in which love can be experienced, and fulfilled and accomplished.

“Open yourself and love (others) — because this is the way of the Cross! Not the way which the two criminals trod together with Christ to be punished for their crimes; but the wonderful way in which giving oneself unreservedly, turning away from self, existing only for the other, loving with all one’s being so that one exists only for the sake of the other — this is the Cross and the glory of the Cross.”

Mary also was given a gift.

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This week we Orthodox celebrate one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church, The Birth of Christ’s mother Mary, whom we Orthodox call the Theotokos. This name, which means God-bearer, honors Jesus Christ in that it contains the statement of our belief that He is “…very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”

In this article about the feast Fr. Alexander Schmemann tells us that Mary’s birth was not unlike that of any other human, with all its gifts and potential. Putting it that way, though, belies the immensity of what happens when someone is born, if you believe Fr. Alexander who says that “…with each birth the world is itself in some sense created anew and given as a gift to this new human being to be his life, his path, his creation.” This is hard for me to wrap my head around; probably because it’s something that the heart has to learn.

Mary was given this gift – and she gave the world a great gift. Certainly she played a big role in our salvation history, and we love her for it, and love to celebrate her birthday.

These excerpts are from a slightly longer article here: On The Nativity of The Theotokos

Nat_Theot

THE BIRTH OF THE THEOTOKOS:

Son of God, Son of Man… God descending and becoming man so that man could become divine, could become partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), or as the teachers of the Church expressed it, “deified.” Precisely here, in this extraordinary revelation of man’s authentic nature and calling, is the source of that gratitude and tenderness which cherishes Mary as our link to Christ and, in Him, to God.

And nowhere is this reflected more clearly than in the Nativity of the Mother of God. Nothing about this event is mentioned anywhere in the Holy Scriptures. But why should there be? Is there anything remarkable, anything especially unique about the normal birth of a child, a birth like any other?

The Church began to commemorate the event with a special feast…because, on the contrary, the very fact that it is routine discloses something fresh and radiant about everything we call routine and ordinary, it gives new depth to the unremarkable details of human life…. with each birth the world is itself in some sense created anew and given as a gift to this new human being to be his life, his path, his creation.

This feast therefore is first a general celebration of Man’s birth, and we no longer remember the anguish, as the Gospel says, “for joy that a human being is born into the world” (Jn. 16:21). Secondly, we now know whose particular birth, whose coming we celebrate: Mary’s. We know the uniqueness, the beauty, the grace of precisely this  child, her destiny, her meaning for us and for the whole world. And thirdly, we celebrate all who prepared the way for Mary, who contributed to her inheritance of grace and beauty….

And therefore the Feast of her Nativity is also a celebration of human history, a celebration of faith in man, a celebration of man. Sadly, the inheritance of evil is far more visible and better known. There is so much evil around us that this faith in man, in his freedom, in the possibility of handing down a radiant inheritance of goodness has almost evaporated and been replaced by cynicism and suspicion.

This hostile cynicism and discouraging suspicion are precisely what seduce us to distance ourselves from the Church when it celebrates with such joy and faith this birth of a little girl in whom are concentrated all the goodness, spiritual beauty, harmony and perfection that are elements of genuine human nature. Thus, in celebrating Mary’s birth we find ourselves already on the road to Bethlehem, moving toward the joyful mystery of Mary as the Mother to God.

—Fr. Alexander Schmemann