Inquirers, those seeking to enter and join the Orthodox faith, or those transferring from other parishes are invited to attend our New Member Class.

For those interested in more, our series of Catechumen Classes follow the New Member Class, and provide a deeper look at the Scriptures, basic Orthodox Christian doctrine and practices, and spiritual life.

The next New Member Class will take place on

Saturday, Feb. 11th at 11 am.

This class is the introductory class for entrance into the Church and contains much information about,

What the Gospel is (and what it isn’t);

• What the Church is;
• Beliefs of Christians;
• Practices of Christians;
• Benefits of Membership;
• Expectations of Membership;

and more!

Join us for this excellent opportunity to meet other Christians, and set your foot on the journey to Christ, and membership in His Holy Body.

Contact Fr. John for more information.

This coming Saturday, we will be hosting one of our LIVING FAITH classes; this time the topic is the Divine Liturgy, the oldest and original form of Christian worship, and a living tradition still utilized by the 300 million Orthodox Christians alive today.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I celebrating the Divine Liturgy in Soumela, Turkey

Composed almost entirely of quotations from the New and Old Testaments, and encompassing the Christian understanding of Creation, Redemption, Incarnation, Gospel, Sacrifice, Resurrection, Ascension and Parousia, this ancient liturgy is alive and vibrant and celebrated almost daily by thousands of clergy on every continent and at the North and South poles. (Even the smallest Orthodox Churches celebrate at least one or two liturgies per week).

This class will be held at 11 am in the upper classroom of St. George Church. There is no charge for this class, though a notebook and pen are recommended.

If you would like more information about this class, contact Fr. John at 777-8750.

What a pleasure and a joy it is to see a family where love and peace prevail between husband and wife, where the husband and wife share each other’s joys and sorrows, thus mutually lightening all life’s difficulties. By contrast, how sad it is for a husband and wife when dissension exists between them – when no tender feelings attract them to each other.

Unfortunately, there are today not a few marriages where, instead of mutual respect and peace between husband and wife, there are quarrels and complaints about each other.

From what does this result? There are certainly many reasons, but the principal one is having chosen the wrong person to marry. Holy Scripture teaches us a beautiful lesson on this subject in the case of our forefather Abraham (Gen. 24). And so, let us Christians recall the marriage of the patriarch Isaac, Abraham’s son.

When Abraham was a hundred and forty years old and his son was forty, Abraham called his faithful servant Eliezer to him and said:

“I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.”

The servant swore to him concerning the matter and left without delay for Mesopotamia, where Abraham’s brother Nahor lived. After reaching the city of Harran, Eliezer stopped by a well of water and began to say a prayer in his mind:

“O Lord God of my master Abraham! … Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: And let it come to pass that to whom I shall say, ‘Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink,’ and she shall say, ‘Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also’: let the same be she that Thou hast appointed for Thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that Thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.”

Before he had done speaking, Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, came to the well. When Eliezer asked her for water to drink, she hastened to give him and the camels water.

And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the Lord. And he said,

“Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, Who hath not left destitute my master of His mercy and His truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”

When Rebekah’s family learned about Eliezer, why he had come to Mesopotamia, and how the Lord had showed him a wife in Rebekah for his master’s son, they did not begin to contradict him, but gave their full consent to the proposal presented by Abraham’s servant.

They said,

“Behold, Rebekah is before thee. Take her and go, and let her be thy master’s son’s wife, as the Lord hath spoken.”

They called Rebekah, and said to her, “Wilt thou go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.” When the servant returned home, he told Isaac all the things that he had done. And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Saint Gregory the Theologian refers to Isaac’s marriage with Rebekah as an example of Christian behavior before marriage and says,

“When you mean to take a wife, don’t go running to people, but to God. Tell God, ‘Appoint for me the one whom You have prepared for me in Your Providence.’ Entrust this matter to God, and He will reward you for granting such a great honor to Him.”

And so, in wishing to enter into marriage, one should, above all else, pray diligently to the Lord, Who knows the human heart, that He Himself would arrange the marriage according to His will, pointing out the chosen person and blessing the marriage with His grace.

If Abraham’s servant, acting merely as a middleman, thanked God for finding a bride for the bridegroom, should not the hearts of the bridegroom and bride be filled with far greater thankfulness?

Not only do the bride and bridegroom have to thank the Lord, Who brought them together and decreed them to walk the path of earthly life as one, but also to pray to Him to send down His mercy for their future.

Let them recognize that they cannot build their happiness and a well-ordered marriage only by their own strength, without God’s blessing. Let them together pray to God to bless their union and to send down His grace so that they may live in love, single-mindedness and chastity, fulfilling God’s commandments.

Yet, how many people are there among us who left their marriage to God’s will and, when wishing to enter into marriage, thought first and foremost of receiving God’s blessing for it? Is it not true that all of us are busy primarily with earthly cares and thoughts?

How many men, before choosing a life-long partner, try to become familiar, not with a maiden’s manner and behavior, but with how much property and various possessions she owns, how noble a family she is descended from, and so on.

Young men and women! Remember that a marriage made by mercenary calculations is rarely happy. A marriage that is not concluded for sincerity, mutual trust and the joining of hearts degrades those who enter into it, and consequently it often brings much evil, creating possibilities for family dissension, reproaches and mutual insults.

Saint John Chrysostom told those under his obedience,

“I entreat you not to look for money and riches in a maiden, but for good characteristics: modesty, piety and godliness; these are better than countless treasures. “Let us say someone grew rich by his wife. Isn’t such an example shameful? I hear many people say things such as, ‘I would rather bear extreme poverty than receive riches by  a wife.’”

And indeed, one who chooses a rich wife chooses for himself a master rather than a wife and helper. On the other hand, one who marries someone of equal or lower position acquires a faithful helper for himself.

Poverty disposes a wife to save her husband, to listen to him in everything, to obey him, and to care assiduously about household work. A sensible, good and temperate wife, even if poor, also deals with poverty better than a peevish and evil wife with riches. And so, riches and money are useless if we cannot find goodness in our wives.

Strong mutual love between a husband and wife serves as a further foundation of a happy marriage. The same love must serve as an incentive for the bridegroom and his bride to get married.

Moreover, one must look not at physical beauty, but at the beauty of [the] beloved’s heart.

“Time washes away physical beauty, and sickness eats it up,”

says Saint John Chrysostom,

“but beauty of the heart is beyond all changes. The former arouses anger and produces jealousy, but the latter is not susceptible to similar passions and knows no vainglory.”

Nothing beautifies a person, or gains his or her favor, more than a good heart. Therefore, the Holy Father teaches each of us to try to know the inner appearance when we see someone attractive; and if this is not beautiful, to ignore the attractive looks.

Fathers of families! Imitate the solicitude of the forefather Abraham, who tried to find a godly wife for his son; for he did not seek for riches by her, nor fame of her family, but only nobility of heart.

And you, mothers of families, beautify your daughters not with gold or expensive clothes, but with modesty and meekness. A meek and decorous woman will encourage her husband to be a child-loving father and to take part himself in household work.

Translated by Paula Genis from Semyia Pravoslavnavo Khristianina.

Source

Beginning Nov. 15th (the beginning of the Advent/Nativity Fast), we will once again be embarking on our annual challenge event to read through the entire New Testament (aloud) by Christmas! This is a great endeavor and exercise and you should join it! Read with your spouse as an Advent discipline!

Join the many of us who do this every year and prosper your soul in the effort. You won’t be the same. Remember, we begin Nov. 15th!

If you are a veteran of this event, you can see that the schedule is quite a bit different this year. For those who would prefer the old New Testament Challenge schedule, CLICK HERE.

The New Testament Challenge is kind of a tradition here at St. George Church. We invite you to join us in this 40 day offering and make more time for the reading of Holy Scripture this Advent.

The 2011 New Testament Challenge

I encourage all St. George members to look carefully and quietly at this video of St. Panteleimon Cathedral in Abkhazia, in Georgia. Abkhazia is near the Black Sea. This beautiful Cathedral has a very rudimentary altar and iconostasis (rather like our own parish – event the Little Entrance is made in the same way). Observe the faith, beauty, and piety of these people – yet another pure expression of the faith of Orthodox Christians.

Notice also the young age of those chanting and singing in the choir. Beautiful!

Glory to Jesus Christ!

By Archbishop Peter (L’Huiller)

The Archbishop of New York and New Jersey in the Orthodox Church in America, Archbishop Peter was a renown expert in Canon Law, the Typikon, and Liturgical tradition.

What is the “Lukan Jump”?

The annual cycle of the Gospels is composed of four series:

1. The Gospel of St. John (read from Pascha until Pentecost Sunday);

2. The Gospel of St. Matthew (divided over seventeen weeks beginning with the Monday of the Holy Spirit – from the twelfth week, it is read on Saturdays and Sundays while the Gospel of St. Mark is read on the remaining weekdays);

3. The Gospel of St. Luke (divided over nineteen weeks beginning on the Monday after the Elevation of the Holy Cross – from the thirteenth week, is is only read on Saturdays and Sundays, while St. Mark’s Gospel is read on the remaining weekdays);

4. With the exception of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Gospel of St. Mark is read during the Lenten period on Saturdays and Sundays.

Why, after the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, is the reading of the Gospel of St. Matthew suddenly interrupted and why do we start then with the reading of St. Luke?  At first glance, this jump appears to be arbitrary, more especially as there is no parallel in the reading of the Epistles.

To be sure, there is nothing arbitrary, although throughout the centuries the rationale has been forgotten.  First, let us keep in mind that the fact that the reading of the Gospel of St. Luke follows the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross is merely coincidental and the theological reason lies elsewhere.  Actually, the change is related to the chronological proximity of the commemoration of the Conception of St. John the Baptist celebrated on September 23rd.  In later Antiquity, this feast marked the beginning of the ecclesiastical New Year.

Thus, the reason for starting the reading of the Lukan Gospel toward the middle of September can be understood.

This is based on a vision of Salvation History:  the Conception of the Forerunner constitutes the first step of the New Economy, as mentioned in the stikhera of the matins of this feast.  As we know, the Evangelist Luke is the only one to mention this Conception (Lk. 1:5-24).  Later on, the introduction of new feasts, especially that of the Nativity of the Theotokos (September 8th), contributed to the downgrading of the significance of the Conception of St. John.

The Orthodox in the East have always observed the “Lukan Jump.”  In Russia, this tradition vanished, obviously because its rationale was not known.  However, some decades ago, on the advice of the great liturgical specialist, the late Professor Uspensky, the Russian Church decided to come back to the old practice of the “Lukan Jump.”

Since this action implies a connection between the cycle of the “Sanctorale” (Menaia) and the cycle of the feast, the date of which is determined by the date of Pascha, there is a practical difference between the Churches following the Julian Calendar and those using the Revised Julian Calendar with regard to the timing of the “Jump.”  Let us finally notice that the calendars published by the “Russian Church Abroad” continue to ignore the jump re-established recently by the Moscow Patriarchate.

From Jacob’s Well
Newspaper of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey
Orthodox Church in America, Fall 1992

In the beginning…

 BIBLE STUDY ON THE PENTATEUCH

Beginning Wed. Sept. 14th, immediately after Vespers, we will begin a lengthy, in-depth study on the Books of the Torah – the Five Books of Moses, beginning with Genesis.

This study will be done with the eye of the Church, which means we will pay close attention to elements which in nature are Trinitarian, Christological and Ecclesiological. We will also be highlighting and explaining how these readings are utilized in the Church’s Festal Menaion and other liturgical texts. This is a year long Bible Study and will take us through the entire liturgical year.

If you would like to participate in this study you will need:

• Your Bible (Orthodox Study Bible is preferred, but not necessary)
• A copy of the book “Genesis, Creation & Early Man” by Fr. Seraphim Rose*
• A notebook, pen and highlighter (if you use highlighters)

Sign up at the Parish Bulletin Board or see Fr. John to enroll.

* This book is about to be reprinted by St. Herman Press by the end of August, and will be ordered by our bookstore. If you want a copy, or will participate in this class, inform Fr. John by this Sunday.

Choral Music Workshop

Sat. Sept. 24th – A day of music and singing techniques! 

The Choir at St. George is the crown jewel of our liturgical celebrations. Because we are increasing in the number of liturgical services, we are adding music to our choral repertoire. This Choral Music Workshop will help choristers of every level improve their skills, and increase their abilities.

We will be learning how to breathe properly, the importance of good breath control and the mechanics involved in sound breathing techniques. We will also be learning about proper word formation, the mouth and tongue as a sounding board and good warm-up exercises to do before coming to church.  We will spend the morning talking about all the things necessary for producing a good clean sound and teamwork. We will not delve into complicated music theory, just the basics so that everyone can have fun learning and not feel overwhelmed.

All choir members are expected to attend but anyone can attend who is thinking about joining the choir or who just wants to learn. This is the same workshop which Pres. Deborah has held in other missions and churches, including some in Arizona!

Whether you’ve been thinking about joining the Choir, or just wanted to learn more of the music we sing on Sunday, join us!

RSVP with Pres. Deborah today, and mark Sept. 24th on your calendar!

Adapted from a lecture given at a seminar on Orthodox Church Music. This article appeared in The Burning Bush, a publication of the Holy Dormition Romanian Orthodox Monastery in Rives Junction, Michigan in 1994.

Preliminary Considerations

Anyone who studies Church music, knows that it is a dry matter and that it is not easy to make it understandable. We write this not because it is an interesting subject to speak about, but because it is necessary.

We are often questioned by people unfamiliar with Church music:

“Why do you sing this music in church?”

or

“This kind of melody sounds strange to me”;

or if you go to St. Vladimir’s Seminary, one seminarian or another will tell you how odd Byzantine music is, or some of the Greek priests will point out that the Russians sing secular music in church, and so on.

It is obvious that Jesus did not sing with His Apostles after the Holy Supper in a recitative Bahmetev style; nor did they exercise their voices in interminable trills with Turkish inflections. On the other hand, we will not put an end to these kinds of discussions; they will continue for many years. However, we as American Orthodox want to know which is the true Orthodox music and, if it is possible, to adapt it to the American language and spirit. There are certain conditions necessary for studying this subject:

1) To be at home with this subject, one must have musical, linguistic and theological preparation.

2) No one can fully understand liturgical music without profound appreciation of the Liturgy itself – its structures, its ideas. The ceremonial acts of common worship have always evoked the use of expressive arts: painting, poetry, music. These three arts are tightly connected in the Orthodox Church. If you sing Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov in a purely decorated Byzantine church, it might be beautiful, but not adequate. On the other hand, in St. Sophia Church in Los Angeles you can sing anything, even Romeo and Juliet. You may be impressed by the naturalistic paintings, electrical devices, but you forget to make the sign of the cross.

3) There is general agreement among musicologists, that words and music in the Orthodox Church are inseparably linked together because the composer and the poet were one and the same person — a union frequently found in the Byzantine Church up until the tenth century. Composing both lyrics and melodies, these God-inspired artists were referred to as hymnographers. This fact is important in the Orthodox Church, even today, because the pattern formulae of the eight tones cannot be replaced with personal compositions. For instance, I cannot say I have a more beautiful melody for the Christmas Kontakion than the traditional one; this simply cannot be expressed in the Orthodox Church.

Changes in Church Music

Scholars consider what happened in Russia in the eighteenth century a lamentable fall. The Byzantine Znameny chant was banned from the Church and Western polyphony invaded Russian liturgical singing. It is as though one would cover the frescoes of a beautiful cathedral with cheap lithographic prints, Renaissance style.

All these misunderstandings occur because we are very much European in our image of beauty. Beautiful in the Bible does not have any connection with the aesthetically beautiful. Instead of our sharp distinction between beautiful and ugly, Christianity poses another antithesis: sacred or profane? Orthodox music, being part of the Divine Service, could not be a matter of aesthetic speculation subjectively because in other religions we may discover good and beautiful, but you cannot find holiness anywhere except in the Christian Church.

St. Dionysios the Areopagite, through his book Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, became one of the main pillars upon which Byzantine art was built. Speaking of music, he asserts that any sacred music is transmitted from heaven. As a result, the musician is simply a humble hymn-writer, his faith making him an instrument of Divine Grace. He knows that he can compose and sing melodies which came into the world as an echo of the heavenly hymns sung by angels. That is why the artist in the service of the Orthodox Church is not permitted to treat his subjects freely but is limited by liturgical directions. The vast treasury of Byzantine melodies was developed from a limited munber of archetypes transmitted by the angels to inspired persons, and the Church musician is bound to keep as closely as possible to these models. One would be mistaken to see here a lack of imagination on the part of the musician or the painter of icons. For example, the iconographer must give the idea of the saint, not a resemblance of the human being who was a saint.

Music in the Early Church

The oldest musical tradition is common to the synagogue and to the Church, of course. We know from the Acts of the Apostles that after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the newly-baptized continued “daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house” (22:16). In a passage in his Epistle to the Ephesians (5:19), St.Paul tells the followers of Christ to speak to themselves

“in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”

From a historical point, psalmody was the greatest legacy of the synagogue to Christianity. Generally speaking, the initial formulae and cadences of the Psalm-tunes changed very little. It is very close to the Russian method of reciting the Psalms in church.

We also inherited from the synagogue the litanies or the congregational prayers of supplication and intercession, the chanted prayer of the priest, acclamations and interjections like “Amen,” “Hosanna,” “Alleluia.” Even the beginning of the liturgical workday with Saturday afternoon is a Jewish inheritance, and the liturgical calendar starting with September. Now you see where the roots are, where we should search for the roots of Church sacred art.

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians makes mention not only of Psalms, but also of hymns and spiritual songs. But by hymns in the early Church we understand the fourteen canticles taken from the Bible, and which have remained parts of the Orthodox hymnography up until this day. In their musical form, the canticles are related to the Psalms. They are plainly chanted during Great Lent, without flowery melodies.

Immediately after the Apostolic period, the element of Psalmody is less often mentioned than that of the spontaneous hymn. The entire Eastern Church in particular was partial to hymns. Many heretics, like the Gnostics, tried their hands in the writing of hymns, and their disciples neglected the Psalms. Then the Church had to take radical measures. The ecclesiastical authorities complained that the lectors under the influence of heretical hymns, cared too much for singing and paid too little attention to reading or reciting. The Council of Laodicea (361) had to take radical measures, strictly prohibiting the singing of nonscriptural texts. Especially monks of strict rule – the hermits — rejected every kind of singing. Read this story from the Patericon:

Abba Pambo had sent his disciple from the monastery in the desert to Alexandria to sell some of the products of their manual labor. The disciple returned after sixteen days, having spent his nights in the vestibule of the church of St. Mark, where he saw the ceremonies and heard the singing of the troparia. The abbot, observing that the disciple was troubled by something, asked for the reason. They young monk answered that he felt that they wasted so many days in the desert, singing neither canons nor troparia such as he had heard at Alexandria. To these complaints the abbot answered in despair that he saw the time coming when the monks would abandon their rigid discipline pronounced by the Holy Spirit, and would give themselves over to songs and melodies. What kind of contrition, what kind of tears could result from the troparia…, when the monk stands in his church or his cell and raises his voice like the oxen?… The monks did not immigrate into this desert in order to perform before God, and to give themselves airs, and to sing songs, and to compose tunes, and to shake their hands, and move from one foot to another. We should offer our prayer to God in great fear and trembling, with tears, sighings, in reverence and in a spirit of contrition with moderate voice.

Now you can see what a struggle it was to introduce melodies into the Church.

Syrian Influence on Church Music

Ironically enough, the first Christian hymns were those of the heretics; they employed more literary and musical artistry to emphasize their wrong doctrine against the Orthodox Church. St. Ephraim the Syrian was the first hymnographer who composed troparia against the heretics. Through him Syrian poetry exerted a decisive influence upon Byzantine hymnography for many decades to come. So Byzantine hymnography shows unmistakable signs of Syrian, not Greek, influence. The simplest form of hymn at this time was the troparia. Gradually the Psalms lost their dominant position and were superceded by the insertion of the troparia, because troparia were sung between the verses of the Psalms.

Besides the troparia, another type of liturgical poetry is the kontakion. The rise of this new poetic form is associated with the name of St. Romanos the Melodist. To this day, no kontakia earlier than his have been found in Byzantine manuscripts. St. Romanos, too, was of Syrian origin. In vain the Greeks say that Byzantine music comes from old Greek melodies of the ancient theater. To illustrate this point, I want to quote from the eighteenth stanza of St. Romanos’ kontakion for Pentecost:

Why do the Greeks boast and puff themselves? Why do they dream of Arathos the thrice-accursed? Why do they err after Plato? Why do they love Demostenes the feeble? Why do they not see that Homer is a vain dream? Why do they speak of Pythagoros who rightly has been silenced? And why do they not listen to those so whom the All-Holy Spirit appeared? Let us praise, brothers, the voices of the Disciples, because they captured all men by divine power and not by fine words.

This passage clearly shows how much the holy hymnogaphers were against pagan culture.

The third type of liturgical poetry, the canon, was first fashioned by St. Andrew of Crete. This canon is read even today during Great Lent. Later hymnographers like St. Cosmas of Maiuma and his step-brother St. John of Damascus patterned their canons after this prototype. The first liturgical octoechos was composed not by St. John, but by Severus, the monophysite patriarch of Antioch in the fifth century. St. John only changed the content to eliminate the heresies. So, the entire modal system of the eight tones is also of ancient Syrian extraction.

The Decline of Byzantine Music

After St. John of Damascus until the fourteenth century, Byzantine music was in decline. The type of hymnography used during this time was sticheras, attributed to monks of Studion monastery: Theodore, Joseph, etc. John Kukuzel from Mt. Athos had so complicated the simple Orthodox chant with folkloric influences and trills that today we have to purify the Byzantine melodies from useless ornamentation, returning it to its primitive simplicity. Otherwise we cannot put English words to Byzantine melodies.

In Orthodoxy, we believe that melodies should never prevail over liturgical ideas. Music should emphasize the meaning of the sentence, not lose it in a maze of trills or melismatic formulae. Both the Holy Fathers and the heretics wanted to preach their doctrine through music, but, unfortunately, the heretics were more often successful in this respect because of the simplicity of their melodies

Conclusion — What is Needed to Develop Orthodox Church Music in America

In conclusion, considering that almost every nation today has an Orthodox Church of its own, one question must be posed: what kind of music can we adopt for the Orthodox Church in America? I think there is only one good answer to this question. We must adopt the Orthodox formulae of the eight tones, transmitted by the Holy Fathers because, as we mentioned before, the artist is not permitted to use personal melodies for the liturgical text. Congregational chant is very important. In the Orthodox conception people participate, not only attend. They are concelebrants, because structrually our liturgical services are dialogues between the people and the priest. The priest does not say, “Peace be to you, choir,” or “Mr. Cantor,” but he says, “Peace be to you all.” And we all must reply, “and to you, Father.” You cannot delegate the cantor of the choir to pray for you. The Church is not a stage where only the priest and the choir perform. Only by participation can you feel that you are a part of the liturgy. The voices of a congregation worshiping in unison is more impressive than a performance by a small choir.

The adaptation of Byzantine melodies for English words is no easy task. First of all, it is necessary to have the same liturgical language in all the Orthodox churches in America. Secondly, the spirit of the American language is simple, clear, synthetic; so is Byzantine music. You cannot adapt to English words Greek, Arabic or Romanian folkloric trills; they must be eliminated and melodies returned to the simplicity of Byzantine Church formulae.

Surely in the long run, the American Orthodox cantors will add their personal flowers to the Byzantine music in English. I am quite sure that the Church melodies will undergo the influence of American country music or even American Negro spirituals, but to make its entrance into America’s art and mode of life and to be assimilated, Byzantine music must first be reduced to the essentials.

Source: The Burning Bush

by Fr. John A. Peck

Dormition is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Christian faith, so we here at St. George Church, are offering an article on Dormition and a few things which we hope you will find valuable as you prepare this festal sermon.

1. Preach the Gospel

Don’t forget to tell your friends the Good News! The only reason we are celebrating Dormition at all is because of the incarnation, suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the feast of the Dormition is, indeed, a feast of resurrection! Be sure to make this connection to every listener with clarity. You may wish to treat this feast as a real opportunity to preach the Resurrection to those who may never get another chance to hear it!

This is a resurrectional feast!

2. About the Feast Itself

The word ‘Dormition’ simply means ‘falling asleep’ – the biblical idiom for a believer’s death.

The Dormition (Falling Asleep) of the Theotokos is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on August 15. This feast is called the Assumption in the western Roman Catholic churches, and commemorates the death, resurrection and glorification of the Virgin Mary, Christ’s mother. It proclaims that Mary has been “assumed” by God into the heavenly kingdom of Christ in the fullness of her spiritual and bodily existence.

The Tradition of the Church is that Mary died as all people die, not “voluntarily” as her Son, but by the necessity of her mortal human nature which is indivisibly bound up with the corruption of this world.

In the Gospel of the feast, however, in the liturgical services and in the Dormition icon, the Church proclaims as well that Mary truly needed to be saved by Christ as all human persons are saved from the trials, sufferings and death of this world; and that having truly died, she was raised up by her Son as the Mother of Life and participates already in the eternal life of paradise which is prepared and promised to all who

“hear the word of God and keep it.” (Luke 11:27-28)

The services of the feast repeat the main theme, that the Mother of Life has

“passed over into the heavenly joy, into the divine gladness and unending delight” of the Kingdom of her Son. (Vesper verse)

The Old Testament readings, as well as the gospel readings for the Vigil and the Divine Liturgy, are exactly the same as those for the feast of the Virgin’s nativity and her entrance into the Temple. Thus, at the Vigil we again hear Mary say:

“My soul magnifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:47)

At the Divine Liturgy we hear the letter to the Philippians where St. Paul speaks of the self-emptying of Christ who condescends to human servitude and ignoble death in order to be

“highly exalted” by God his Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

And once again we hear in the Gospel that Mary’s blessedness belongs to all who

“hear the word of God and keep it.” (Luke 11:27-28)

Thus, the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos is the celebration of the fact that all men are “highly exalted” in the blessedness of the victorious Christ, and that this high exaltation has already been accomplished in Mary the Theotokos. The feast of the Dormition is the sign, the guarantee, and the celebration that Mary’s fate is, the destiny of all those of “low estate” whose souls magnify the Lord, whose spirits rejoice in God the Saviour, whose lives are totally dedicated to hearing and keeping the Word of God which is given to men in Mary’s child, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world.

Finally it must be stressed that, in all of the feasts of the Virgin Mother of God in the Church, the Orthodox Christians celebrate facts of their own lives in Christ and the Holy Spirit.

What happens to Mary happens to all who imitate her holy life of humility, obedience, and love.

With her all people will be “blessed” to be “more honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim” if they follow her example. All will have Christ born in them by the Holy Spirit. All will become temples of the living God. All will share in the eternal life of His Kingdom who live the life that Mary lived.

In this sense everything that is praised and glorified in Mary is a sign of what is offered to all persons in the life of the Church. It is for this reason that Mary, with the divine child Jesus within her, is call in the Orthodox Tradition the Image of the Church. For the assembly of the saved is those in whom Christ dwells.

3. About The Dormition Fast

For the first fourteen days of August during each year, the Holy Orthodox Church enters into a strict fast period in honor of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary.

Every Orthodox Christian is aware and generally knows the reason behind the fasts for Pascha and Christmas. But while they may know of the Dormition Fast, few follow it, and more than a few question why it is there, neither knowing its purpose.

First, given the pervasive misunderstanding of the purpose of fasting itself, a refresher on its purpose is always a good idea. There is a perception that we should fast when we want something, as though the act of fasting somehow appeases God, and seeing us “suffer” gets Him to grant our request. Nothing can be further from the truth. It is not our fasting that pleases God, it is the fruits of our fast (provided we fast in the proper mind set, and do not merely diet) that please Him.

We fast, not to get what we want, but to prepare ourselves to receive what God wants to give us. The purpose of fasting is to bring us more in line with another Mary, the sister of Lazarus, and away from their sister Martha, who in the famous passage was

“anxious and troubled about many things.”

Fasting is intended to bring us to the realization of

“the one thing needful.”

It is to help us put God first and our own desires second, if not last. As such it serves to prepare us to be instruments of God’s will, as with Moses in his flight from Egypt and on Mt. Sinai, as well as our Lord’s fast in the wilderness. Fasting turns us away from ourselves and toward God. In essence it helps us become like the Theotokos, an obedient servant of God, who heard His word and kept it better than anyone else has or could.

So why do we fast before Dormition?

In a close-knit family, word that its matriarch is on her deathbed brings normal life to a halt. Otherwise important things (parties, TV, luxuries, personal desires) become unimportant; life comes to revolve around the dying matriarch. It is the same with the Orthodox family; word that our matriarch is on her deathbed, could not (or at least should not) have any different effect than the one just mentioned.

The Church, through the Paraklesis Service, gives us the opportunity to come to that deathbed and eulogize and entreat the woman who bore God, the vessel of our salvation and our chief advocate at His divine throne. And as, in the earthly family, daily routines and the indulgence in personal wants should come to a halt. Fasting, in its full sense (abstaining from food and desires) accomplishes this. Less time in leisure or other pursuits leaves more time for prayer and reflection on she who gave us Christ, and became the first and greatest Christian.

In reflecting on her and her incomparable life, we see a model Christian life, embodying Christ’s retort to the woman who stated that Mary was blessed because she bore Him: blessed rather are those who hear His word and keep it. Mary did this better than anyone. She heard the word of God and kept it so well, that she of all women in history was chosen not only to hear His Word but give birth to it (Him). So while we fast in contemplation of her life, we are simultaneously preparing ourselves to live a life in imitation of her.

That is the purpose of the Dormition Fast. (source)

4. Why Is Dormition So Important?

The eminent Orthodox theologian, Fr. Sergei Bulgakov, beautifully expresses the high regard which the Orthodox Christians have for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, for her special role in the salvation of mankind, when he affirms,

“The warm veneration of the Theotokos is the soul of Orthodox Piety.”

St. John of Damascus, one of the great Orthodox fathers, pointed out that when the Blessed Virgin Mary became the Mother of God and gave birth to Christ, the Redeemer of Mankind, she became the mother of mankind. We call the Virgin Mary “Theotokos”, from the Greek, which means “The Birth-Giver or the Bearer of God.”

Why not refer to her simply as the Blessed Virgin Mary? Because, there are many holy Marys who were virgins, but there is only one Theotokos.

This is the highest title that can be bestowed upon any member of the human race.

The Theotokos, the Virgin Mary, was

“blessed amongst women,”

and she was chosen

“to bear the Savior of our souls.”

We, therefore, as Orthodox Christians, consider her to be the Queen of all the saints and the angels.

Knowing that she holds such a high place in the Kingdom of Heaven and that she is eternally present at the throne of God interceding for mankind, we, as good Orthodox Christians, must pray for her love, guidance, and protection. We must never forget to ask for her intercessions in times of sickness and danger, and we must constantly thank her for her care and her prayers in our behalf.

The word “paraclesis” has two different meanings: the first is “consolation,” from which the Holy Spirit is called the “Paraclete,” or “Consoler”; the second is “supplication” or “petition”. The Service of the Paraclesis to the Theotokos consists of hymns of supplication to obtain consolation and courage. It should be recited in times of temptation, discouragement or sickness. It is used more particularly during the two weeks before the Dormition, or Assumption, of the Theotokos, from August 1 to August 14.

The theme of these Paraclesis Services centers around the petition…

“Most Holy Theotokos, save us.”

Since these Paraclesis Services to the Theotokos are primarily petition for the welfare of the living, let the whole Church pray for you during the first fifteen days of August and especially on the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos on August 15th.

5. Special Blessings on Dormition

It is the custom in some churches to bless flowers and herbs on the feast of the Dormition.

It is the final Great Feast on the Christian Calendar. Thus, as a symbol of all believers, the liturgical year begins with the Nativity (birth) of the Theotokos, and ends with her Dormition (falling asleep).

Source: Preachers Institute