Theology, Poetry and the Liturgical Life of the Church

"Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet."

+ St. Pophyrios Kavsokalyvia

"Poetry is Theology par-excellence"

+ Prof. R. S., An Orthodox Professor in Toronto

++++++++++++

Trisagion in East Syriac (in the Georgian Orthodox Church)

Here is an amazingly beautiful setting of the Trisagion in East Syriac sung Georgian-style. It seems that part of the Assyrian population of the Republic of Georgia who belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church still use some Syriac liturgically. ( http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2014/04/syriac-in-georgian-chant.html )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArO4CGG6EFY

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkZza4YeAJ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjjnqlYwDvk

Worship as a 'Category'

A very moving guest post by an Orthodox Young Adult who wrote the following communiqué a few years ago: 

"Here I am, another long night with no sleep. I usually don't offer my reflections or thoughts on forums or on the internet for many reasons...

1) It is hard for me to communicate on the internet, and if you know me well... I usually don't reply to text messages or private messages. I don't know why, but usually I prefer that I speak to the person face to face to avoid any misunderstandings. Smiley faces just don't do the job all the time :P

2) I am beginning on my journey in the Orthodox Church. For those who know me, I was born Orthodox but spent many years of my life away from the Church and now I am, by the grace of God returning to Christ and His Church. So for me to offer my reflections on certain Church teachings would be a dangerous task that can mislead others.

I ask you my dear readers to keep these things in mind, are you ready? Great, let us begin... From what I'm seeing and hearing, I believe that there are a lot of youth who have lost touch with the Church, and I am one of them. I am not lying just to be "humble", I am simply being honest with you so you know that what I am going to talk to you about is from what I am personally going through.

The Paschal Canon

"O Great and Holiest Pascha, Christ! O Wisdom, Word and Power of God! 

Grant that we may partake of Thee more perfectly in the unending Day of Thy Kingdom." 

+ Paschal Canon

"Father, I desire that they also, Whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me where I am, to behold My glory which Thou hast given Me in Thy love for Me before the foundation of the world." 

The Odes of The Paschal Canon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edZ12iknxmk

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

+ From the Gospel of St John the Theologian

The Mystery of Holy Week

The Mystery of Holy Week
by Fr Stephen Freeman
http://glory2godforallthings.com/2014/04/07/the-mystery-of-holy-week-2/

For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1Co 15:16-19 NKJ)

Healing the Unspeakable: The Life of Saint Mary of Egypt

Healing the Unspeakable: The Life of Saint Mary of Egypt
by Presbytera Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald
(FitzGerald, Kyriaki Karidoyanes. "Healing the Unspeakable: The Life of Saint Mary of Egypt" in "Encountering Women of Faith: The St. Catherine's Vision Collection, Volume 2" Edited by Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2011) 173-194.)


"The power of Your Cross, O Christ, has worked wonders,
for even the woman who was once a harlot 
chose to follow the ascetic way.
Casting aside her weakness, bravely she opposed the devil; 
and having gained the prize of victory, 
she now intercedes for our souls."

+ Adapted slightly from the “Canon of St. Mary of Egypt,” in The Lenten Triodion, 

trans. Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber, 1978), 448.

Saint Silouan and the Mystery of God

Reblogged from http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/saint-silouan-and-the-mystery-of-god/

St Silouan and the Mystery of God

by Fr John Breck

The Praises of Kiahk

The Praises of Kiahk

by Hegomen Pishoy Kamel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVQGr-ijDkk

The praise of Kiahk (also called "7 and 4") on the Eve of Sunday is the praise of every eve of Sunday all year, since Sunday is the day of the Resurrection when the Church stays awake until daybreak. Eventually, it contacts the dawn of eternity, whose sun never leaves, because the Lord Jesus, the true Light, the Sun of Righteousness, will be its light. This article explains the parts of the Midnight Praise during Kiahk.

The Dance of Isaiah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRW867zBKNA

Rejoice, O Isaiah! The Virgin is with child,

And shall bear a son Emmanuel,

Who is both God and Man,

And Orient is His Name,

Whom magnifying we call, the Virgin blessed.

O Holy Martyrs,

who fought the good fight and have received your crowns,

Entreat ye the Lord,

That He will have mercy on our souls.

Glory to Thee, O Christ God.

The Apostles boast,

The Martyrs Joy,

whose preaching was the Consubstantial Trinity.

Worship as Evangelism

"C.S. Lewis says, "If something is not eternal, it is eternally out of date." Look at the rock charts. By the time you compose a service based on this week's style and get it approved by a liturgical committee  you'll be ages behind the fashion and have to start again. And there's no guarantee you're inspiring truth about God. It is not a service tested by centuries of praying saints. I'd rather struggle to pray like St. John Chrysostom myself. It's more sure. And it will take me a lifetime to get all I can out of it."

+ Sister Magdalen of Essex, "Conversations with Children: Communicating our Faith," (Essex: Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, 2004) 194-6. ISBN 1 874679 21 5

Here's a transcript of Fr John Parker speaking about attention to beauty in the Divine Liturgy. Similar to Khoria Frederica's talk "Beauty and Liturgy", Fr. John Parker draws attention to how liturgy done beautifully can draw those present into the life of Christ. There is however a subtle tension, on one end we strive to do things beautifully, yet we also know that prayer and sacramental life springs forth as a gift, from the presence of and in our Lord Christ.

Fr. Peter Galadza in a talk entitled "Liturgy: Where the Holy One Seeks Us" describes this tension concerning beauty saying:

"So the real God, the Living One, will never conform to our expectations, whether good or bad. God has promised to be there, in these sacramental liturgical realities, but it is He who comes, not our fabrication of Him. So it's very interesting, I have a personal note here...my work as a liturgist will only amount to something if I can get my students to be in Church no matter how bad, how uninspiring, and how dull the service is. In other words if Chirst has promised to be there, who am I to play hard to get? Continuing with the lover kind of dynamic. Now if you take that linear logic to its linearly logical conclusion, you're going to end up with folks who say "no matter how we do it God's here." You know the "ex opere operato" approach which is the bane of all liturgizing. 

So again it's a matter of balancing the two, in other words, we have to be convinced that something is happening there and it's my duty, my obligation, my salvation to be there whether it's very exciting or it's nice or not, and at the same time, those of us especially who are in the ministry who are doing the liturgical ministry have to serve, have to sing, have to act as if it were just the opposite. In other words as if it really did depend on me articulating every word, me producing the most beautiful sounds a member of the choir, me caring for the appointments in Church being as aesthetically marvelous as they can be, but at the end of the day, it is about Christ having promised to be there. And so us saying "it's not going to be too good today" but I'm there anyway. Why? because this is not just an emanation of my consciousness."

+ Fr. Peter Galadza, "Liturgy: Where the Holy One Seeks Us" 

Today some jurisdictions or some congregations might feel inclined to adopt mega-church trends because these trends imply greater relevance to today's youth and the tastes of the future generation. Some may suggest Christian Contemporary Music be added into the typikon of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy because such an adoption is appealing to North American culture. Some may argue that mega-church ethos is beautiful and 'soul-stirring' and a life-line to 'dry' traditional services of the Orthodox Church.

This approach and opinion even might have cultish following due to popular perception of a lack of beauty in one's liturgical rites. This 'lack of beauty' in turn may have its roots in misplaced liturgical theology that has resulted in liturgical rigorism or the reduction of liturgy to pietist utilitarianism. Fr John Romanides once said "when theology is false, then Christianity is reduced to activities." Every Orthodox Rite (Byzantine, Coptic, Armenian, Russian, etc) faces the temptation to reduce the Orthodox life to moralist principles, pietistic pursuits, isolationalism, and her liturgical ethos to activities of legalist rigorism or activities of market choice (ie. Liturgy becomes just one of the many functions of an Orthodox cultural center, the outward obligation of the efficient Orthodox organization, or the activity we want to quickly rush so that we can get on with our mega-church programmes and methodologies).

Perhaps, beauty might be way for us to raise the bar so to speak. So while there might be a temptation to appeal to reductionist and mega-church trends and methods, a more important direction would be to invest in the depth and richness of our Orthodox Tradition, trying as much as we can to pray with attention to beauty. For some Orthodox jursidictions where localized persecution or a history of imposed reductionism has caused liturgical ethos to lean towards functionalism or minimalism, looking at how other Orthodox jurisdictions pray with beauty and how hymnology is being adapted to local vernacular can be very encouraging.

Lord have mercy on us. Je Nai Nan. May we see the beauty of the infinite in our theology, in our liturgical life, in all we do.

"In the words of Father Alexander Schmemann, 'the Christian is the one who wherever he or she looks, everwhere sees Christ and rejoices in Him.' We are to go out, then, from the liturgy and see Christ everywhere."

+ Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

+ + +

Worship as Evangelism
By Fr John Parker
http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/lordsendme/worship_as_evangelism
December 07, 2012, Length: 30:07

In this episode, Fr John Parker discusses the difference between ‘worship evangelism’ and ‘worship as evangelism’, and encourages us to offer to God the most beautiful worship of which we are capable, and to ‘get out of the way’ for visitors—so that they can encounter God.

Transcript

What is worship for? Part 2

What is Worship For? Part 2
By Khoria Frederica Mathewes-Green

Posted on Thursday, September 19, 2013 at
http://www.frederica.com/writings/what-is-worship-for-part-2.html

Yesterday I wrote on “What is Worship For?”, but I forgot to answer the question. I said that it is not the time for evangelism, and shouldn’t be designed with non-believers in mind. But what is it for?

Worship is for God; we could expand that and say worship is for believers to offer to God. But even once we’re clear that worship is the work of the believing community, there’s a possible confusion. We might think the purpose of worship is to give believers a good worship experience.

This is subtle, because a worship leader might think the best way to worship is to arrange the songs and other elements to move and inspire worshippers, who will then turn whole-heartedly to God. In fact, that might sound like exactly what worship is supposed to do. But it’s another mis-direction. It leaves us focused on the process inside the worshipper, instead of on God.

In the first place, this is manipulative; it makes the hour of worship a process imposed on churchgoers, aimed at directing their thoughts and emotions into the right channels. People can usually sense when they’re being manipulated. Men, especially, hate to have their emotions tampered with, and I expect this is a reason most congregations are predominantly female, and we assume that women are more religious than men are (though that’s obviously not the case with conservative varieties of Islam and Judaism).

I recall a chapel service at a Christian college where two girls with guitars were leading the audience in a hymn that featured the line, “I lay my head upon his chest.” Every time that line came around, the male professors near me would just stop singing.
But some people might actually like this focus on their worship experience, feeling that it’s appropriate for churches to serve their preferences, just like restaurants do. Church-shopping is common, as people sample many different churches in their search for the one that feels best.

Unfortunately, the church that feels most comfortable is not the one that will challenge you. We are called to deep change, transformation in Christ, and the hard work of overcoming the poison of habitual sin. If you search till you find a church that feels just right, it’s likely to reinforce you as you already are.

A focus on the worshipper also burdens him, because it means worship succeeds or fails based on how he feels. He can look around during a hymn and notice others who look moved or inspired, while he himself feels nothing. He wonders if there is something wrong with him. Maybe his faith is too weak; maybe God has rejected him. Since the general mood during worship is upbeat (except for those times everyone is directed to be serious instead), the person who comes in feeling less than chipper will know that good manners requires holding it in. Church-time can come to seem very artificial. When you’re worried or sad it’s painful to be around happy people. Singing a hymn about how God takes care of me when I’m sad doesn’t really help.

  I got an email this morning from a person who said he attended a church meeting where one of the newer leaders wanted to remove the Creed and the general confession from the Sunday service, because they were a “turn off.” This led to a discussion of the purpose of worship, and he said that, for him, it was about “alignment.” In worship he comes into the presence of God, and is lined up with him, so to speak. In our daily lives we turn away from God through our anxieties and temptations; our attention is scattered in all different directions. In worship, as we face the Lord, we are brought into right order with him.
This alignment is like what happens to a steel needle when it is brought into contact with a magnet. When the needle is manufactured it’s not magnetic, because the atoms inside are pointing in all different direction. But when the needle is touched by a magnet, those atoms begin to turn. They become aligned as the magnet is; they become magnets themselves.

When we are thus aligned with God we are made one with him, transformed by his power. We don’t just become like him, in a superficial or analogical way; we actually become bearers of his presence, as the Burning Bush was filled with fire.

My correspondent wrote that, while describing this process, he said, “I speak the ancient words” of the liturgy. That’s a potential complication. In churches where the tradition is to put worship together almost from scratch every week, the authority for that worship resides in the pastor and worship leaders. Its depth is limited to the depth of their own wisdom, insight, and prayer life. Liturgical churches simply have an advantage here, because they don’t have to generate the content of their worship. The ancient liturgies still exist, and some churches have never stopped using them for all 2000 years. The Orthodox Eucharistic service is like a rack railway, one that is designed to climb a mountain. I can get on the train on Sunday morning, and it will carry me all the way to the top. It doesn’t matter whether I have emotions about worship or not; the Liturgy itself does the work.

As I said, this is more complicated for churches with a tradition of assembling the worship service new each week, but that does give you the freedom to try out the ancient prayers and services. They’re can be found in books and on line. I think it is less successful to just stick in a few ancient prayers, because you’re not wise enough to be an editor of those ancient texts; but if that is all you can do, it’s still something.

Years ago I met a young woman who told me she attended “the Celtic service at the First Baptist Church.” When I did a double-take she said, “The Boomers want a contemporary service, with rock music and all, but the young people, of course, want something more traditional.” They had located ancient Celtic prayers via the internet and were worshipping with vestments, candles, and incense (until the smoke alarm gave them too much trouble).

One thing that surprised me after I became Eastern Orthodox was that there was far less emphasis on believers being united with each other in worship. Previously, the prayers and hymns about communion were all about community. Now, they’re about the power of Christ’s presence in the sacrament and my unworthiness and unpreparedness to receive it. Communion does unites me to other worshippers, of course, but the understanding that the bread and wine really become Christ’s Body and Blood push other thoughts to the side.

I should clarify that I’m not recommending that go back to worship styles and hymns of a few decades or a century ago. That’s still a part of the culture we inhabit today, and it’s probably not disruptive or challenging enough to make a difference. Worship from thousands of years ago, from entirely different languages and cultures, has more of a chance of shaking you up.

Finally I have to ask, to what extent is worship supposed to teach the faithful? The Orthodox liturgies and prayers are full of meaty content, apparently intending that worshippers will understand and remember it, and not designed solely to glorify God. If you imagine that you were an illiterate peasant 1500 years ago, about the only time you would hear the scriptures would be during worship. The icons on the walls would serve as a picture bible, presenting the important scenes of bible and church history. The worship experience—the embroidery, incense, vestments, jewels and so forth—would be the most beautiful thing you encountered all week. Since everything is set to music, you can take it with you, and bring it to mind during the week. Some of the more important prayers are sung three times. We learned our ABCs by singing them over and over, and we learn church history and theology the same way.

I’m always impressed, on the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, at the amount of detail the hymns give us in describing the heresy of Arius, the arguments against him, and even  his miserable end (he went into an outhouse and, it sounds like, exploded—yes, we sing even about this). We’re not singing these things in order to inform God about it. It must be intended to teach worshippers history and theology that they should know.
Likewise, it is right that there be a sermon or homily expounding the day’s scripture readings. An ancient practice is the moment when worshippers greet each other with a holy kiss—we see this referenced in St. Paul’s letters. So having insisted all this time that worship ought to be directed to God, I must admit that some elements teach and inform worshippers as well.

With that allowance, however, we still must answer the question “What is worship for?” with “Worship is for God.” We need to worship God, because it puts us in right “alignment” with him. God doesn’t need our worship; God doesn’t need anything the human race can offer. But when we drift from him we become scattered and confused. Worship brings us before our Creator, the only source of love that is worthy of the name. The more we focus on him alone, forgetting about ourselves, the more we will be healed.

What is worship for?

What is Worship For?
By Kh. Frederica Mathewes-Green

Posted on Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at http://www.frederica.com/writings/what-is-worship-for.html

A pastor in the UK wrote me asking, “What is worship for?” He said that his denomination was encouraging pastors to make worship more “user-friendly” in order to attract new members, and that this initially seemed to him a reasonable evangelistic strategy. A scripture cited in support of this approach was Acts 15:19, “We should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God.” But as he read this scripture in context, it looked to him like it was written of people who were already Christian believers, and would not be required to accept Jewish practices. It didn’t address the case of people entirely outside the faith. He wrote to ask, “Who are church services for? Believers or unbelievers?”

Trisagion Hymn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1KA9alS-Vo

Holy Ascension Orthodox Parish with Bishop Basil

Funeral Hymns and Beauty

"lead me back to be refashioned into that ancient beauty of Your likeness."

There's so much that Orthodox funeral rites (in this case the funeral rites of the Byzantine Orthodox Rite) actually say about life and our relationship with God. Metropolitan Anthony Bloom mentions that encountering God is both beautiful and terrifying, salvation and also judgement. Beauty is beheld and our fallen state is put under direct light, we are made aware simultaneously of the distortions we have inflicted on ourselves and the immense beauty that is the masterwork of God in us.

Which is why Liturgy done beautifully brings us to the Kingdom. Remember us O Lord.

http://youtu.be/9SNIuHcg_zA

Parakesis

Paraklesis to the Theotokos In English
(Supplicatory Canon to the Most Holy Theotokos)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZg-Es-IdaE

Service of the Small Paraklesis to the Most-Holy Theotokos

The Paraklesis, or Service of Supplication

http://www.stspeterandpaulboulder.org/Pages/Documents/Booklets/Paraklesis.pdf

Compiled at the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver ©2008

Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen. Wishing you and your families a blessed and joyful Pascha (Feast of Resurrection)!!!

http://youtu.be/q3exhc29WpQ

Paschal Homily of St John Chrysostom

The Holy Week Litanies (Coptic Rite)

The Holy Week Litanies (Coptic Rite)

http://youtu.be/W2_9QixNksY

Let us beseech God to have mercy and compassion upon us, to hear us and support us, and to accept the prayers and supplications of His saints on our behalf at all times, and forgive us our sins.

Congregation: Lord Have Mercy

Music in Orthodox Worship

Music in Orthodox Worship
By Fr Ernesto Obregon

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/fr-ernesto-on-music-in-orthodox-worship

Orthodox worship involves the whole body and all its senses. One quote from an Orthodox website says, “Orthodox Church art and music has a very functional role in the liturgical life and helps even the bodily senses to feel the spiritual grandeur of the Lord’s mysteries.” In many Orthodox worship settings throughout the world, there are literally almost no spoken words. All words are chanted (sung). In fact, chanting styles have developed to try to guarantee that what is said is understood.

On Orthodox Worship

"I suppose some people have zeal, but the point is actually not to have a bunch of emotional ecstasy. Worship, like all of Orthodox life, is to be sober – absolutely not dour or down-in-the-mouth, but primarily connecting with God in the innermost center of our being – which in Orthodox Theology is the heart, but please do not understand this as having to do with emotionalism.

On Worship

"It’s not “limiting” God nor “legalistic” to be faithful to what He gave us. The worship “in spirit and in truth” is precisely the vast tradition of Orthodox liturgical worship given by Christ and then elaborated within the Church. To worship in spirit and in truth does not mean that that deposit from Christ is abandoned in favor of the whims of modern taste and secular culture. Christ Himself kept the Jewish calendar and participated in synagogue and temple liturgy, so interpreting His words in such a way as to draw condemnation of His own actions doesn’t really make much sense"

+ Fr Andrew Stephen Damick

A recent post by Fr Andrew Stephen Damick discusses the appeal of the "Rock Band and Sermon" package that has become the tradition of American Evangelical Mega-church approaches. 

Sometimes these trends also have appeal among Orthodox living in the Lands of Immigration. One might hear that there is 'worship' music and then there is Liturgy or Liturgical music, but such dichotomies and categories feed into the secular presuppositions and also imply that Liturgy is not worship but something else.