St. Ephrem Harp of the Spirit Oriental Orthodox Mission of Olympia, WA

Anno Domini: On the Eighth Day of Christmas

2012-01-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
Grace and Peace in Anno Domini 2012 +

"On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me~"

The Eighth Day of Christmas
as
1--Feast: our Namesake
2--Parousia: Maranatha!
3--Mystagogy: "Christ's Peace" & Theosis
4--Beatitude: Gloria Dei vivens homo, autem vita hominis visio Dei.

Big Question:
Why does The Circumcision on the Eighth Day of Christmas
become the beginning of the New Year, Anno Domini 2012 ?

Short Answer:
Because the Public Naming of Jesus
-- the Incarnate Lord of History --
precisely in the blood-letting of circumcision,
a "cutting the Covenant" which
changes all history by fulfilling history itself.

Ps 143.11
For your Name's sake,
Lord, save my life; in your justice save my soul from distress.
Por amor a tu Nombre,
SEÑOR, vivifícame; por tu justicia, saca mi alma de la angustia.

Theotokos of Tender Mercy
written by Heather Durka

Gospels of Matthew and Luke:

But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us). [Mt 1.20-23, cf Isaiah 7.14]
And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the Name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. [Lk 2.21]

1
The 8th Day as Feast
of The Circumcision and the Naming of the Lord:

The Feast Day in Christian Tradition

Many people, Christian or not, use the western calendar’s New Year’s Day on 1 January as a time of taking stock, evaluating decisions, and making resolutions. It’s also the Church feast day commemorating the Circumcision and Name of Jesus.

Gloria in excelsis Deo

The Feast in Culture: Mere Comments

And that is the deep meaning of those glorious lists of "begats" which tin-eared modern exegetes assign to some plodding "Priestly" author, not seeing the connection with the redemption foretold. See comments on the Feast as a theme of "Sir Gawain and the Green Night":
...the poem begins and ends with a New Year's Feast -- and for the author and his audience, that was none other than the feast of the Circumcision. The author is careful, throughout the poem, to note the passage of the seasons in terms also of the passage of feasts in the life of the Church~

See also this sermon on The Circumcision offered by Fr. Robert Hart.
Jesus, Y’Shua, is a Hebrew name that means Salvation. . . .

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis ~
Happy New Year!

2
The 8th Day as Parousia in the Scripture and Liturgy of the Church:

The Eighth Day: the Peace of the New Jerusalem

The Eighth Day in Liturgy: Epiclesis and "Maranatha" in the Early Church.

Happy New Year!

3
The 8th Day as Mystagogy in Liturgy
of Theosis and the Eschaton:
Keeping the X in Xmas with the "Holy Sacrifice of the Mass"

Mystagogy, Theosis, Eschaton

OrthodoxWiki basics and resource links.

manger and circumcision, Cross and Eucharist

the Mystery of Bethlehem as the "House of Bread" for Eucharist,
the Manger as "feeding trough" for all creation,
the Circumcision as
a typos of the Cross,
the Living Sacrifice
the Qurban of Christ
in the Divine Liturgy of Holy Eucharist

"The Eighth Day" and the 8 Weeks:
The Orthodox Churches of the Middle East prepare for The Nativity over 8 Weeks.
This Oriental Advent is mystagogically reflected in the Feast of The Circumscision on the Eighth Day of the Nativity.
The Church's Liturgical Feast makes sacramentally present
the "cutting of the Covenant" and the public naming of the infant "Jesus" -- as do the initial Sundays of the Eight Weeks of Preparation for the Nativity:

Sanctification of the Church: Koodhosh Eetho

Dedication of the Church: Hoodhosh Eetho

The above 2 Sundays begin the Church's New Year on the Liturgical Calendar.
The theological and liturgical "ordo" of the Church's Calendar thus reveal,
as if an epihpany of The Eigthth Day of the Nativity,
a "theological anthropology" of this day as Sanctification and Dedication:
the beginning of a New Covenant and a New History for all the world, for all creation.
Happy New Year!

4
The Eighth Day of Christmas
and
the Eight Beatitudes of the Gospel:

The Eight Beatitudes in Spirituality

The Works of Mercy as a share in the Peace which comes "not of this world."

The Eight Beatitudes in Scripture Commentary

A briefing of textual attentions.

Gloria Dei vivens homo,

autem vita hominis visio Dei.

Happy New Year!

NEXT:
On The 12th Day of Christmas

Theophany Theology: A Cosmos Revealed

The Blessing of the Jordan Waters
in the Rites of Theophany
-- January 6, 2009 --
a sacramental "crossing over" into The New Jerusalem
and mystically attends us to The New Aeon.

Blessings to all in the New Year of Our Lord +

TIme Will Tell: Salvation History and Church Calendar

2011-11-15T08:05:00.000-08:00

Beginning the Church Year and the Advent of Christ:

Following upon our Sundays of the Holy Cross
-- these Seven Sundays a "liturgical icon" which recapitulate
our communion in the Eschaton,
our communion with the Seven Churches of the Book of Revelation --
we renew "the beginning and the end"
in the Church's Liturgical Year of seasons and feasts
-- on the 8th Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord.

Sinai St. Gabriel
written by Heather Durka

In each of these Sunday Gospels of the New Year,
we encounter the Archangel Gabriel in his mission to prepare us in receiving the Child of Bethlehem, the Lord of Heaven and earth, the Babe who is Pantokrator ~

Archangel Gabriel's mission for the Word Incarnate belongs as well to the initial Kukilions following the Epiclesis in the Anaphora.

The consecration of the "Mariological Assembly"
-- as the Ecclesial Body of Christ --
is carried through all the Kukilions,
but especially recollected as the choirs sing
Peace the bright archangel brought
hailing Mary fair,
favored is thy blessed lot!"

We open the pages of the Gospel Word . . .

St. John of Patmos
written by Heather Durka

... and again we sing in communion

with Zechariah and Elizabeth,
with Joachim and Anna,
with Joseph and Mary,
with the Shepherds,
with the Magi,
with the Angels,
we sing in communion:

"Holy Holy Holy!
Glory to God in the Highest!
Christ is born among us!"

Each of the 8 Advent Gospels
reveals a particular dimension
of the Spirit's Indwelling,
and a typos of Pentecost and of the Kingdom:
Sanctification Sunday (Koodhosh Eetho)
Dedication Sunday (Hoodhosh Eetho)
Annunciation to St. Zechariah
Annunciation to St. Mary
St. Mary visits St. Elizabeth
Birth of St. John the Baptist
Annunciation to St. Joseph
Sunday of the Genealogy of Christ
Christmas Day

Feasts of the Church Year

Beginning the Church Year of Feasts as an Advent of the Parousia
Christ in the Spirit in the Church

Sanctification Sunday and the Mysteries of the Kingdom
Last Sunday of October 2011

Dedication Sunday and the Catholica
First Sunday of November 2011

Regarding the Season
of Preparation for the Nativity

Ephrem the Syrian, John Cardinal Newmann, Georges Florovsky, and nun Macrina muse together upon the Annuciation

The O Antiphons of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel"

a Lutheran Pastor on Advent and the Coming of the Lord: Marantha!

SEE ALSO on the Preparation for The Nativity:
O Antiphons: Scripture and Song, Latin and English by a Calvinist-Cradle Catholic-Baptist convergence~

Logismoi's Calendrical Goings-On: "poetic elabourations, past and present, of these antiphons"based on the Sarum practice of beginning with the 16th and adding an extra antiphon, ‘O Virgo Virginum’, just before the Eve of the Nativity.

O Wisdom, O Sapientia: THE GREAT O ANTIPHONS OF ADVENT"> An online illustrated manuscript of the hymns, with links and references to poets and the liturgies

Logismoi on Poets and the monastic chant of Advent's "O Antiphons"

Logismoi's on the 'pagan Latin Prophets' of the Word
Weighing in on Augustine, Dante, T.S. Eliot, Fr. Anrew Louth, etc: Virgil's Eclogue "as a true Messianic prophecy made by the poet without a full understanding of what he was saying."

THE SEASON OF NATIVITY and THEOPHANY:

Nativity Season

Anno Domini: New Year's Day and The Eighth Day

Epiphany and Theophany

Theophany

Great Lent: Our Journey in His Baptism: the Revelation of the Waters of Theophany

On this Day: Maranatha , Come Lord Jesus!

2011-11-08T21:15:00.000-08:00

On this Day

Nov 13: Tribute to 100,000 Martyrs in Tbilisi

see also on the Feast, the Icons, and the Martyrs One hundred thousand Georgians sacrificed their lives to venerate the holy icons. One hundred thousand ... carried by the bloody current down the Mtkvari River.

See All Saints of Georgia
A decree of the Church Council of Ruisi-Urbnisi states: “We will not depart from thee, the Catholic Church which bore us in holiness, nor will we betray thee, our pride — Orthodoxy — to which we have always been faithful, for we have been granted the honor to know thee, the witness of the Truth Itself!”

And: A Georgian Revival, CNEWA

Here is a brief survey of Georgia's Christian identity and history including the Great Martyrdom:
"It would be difficult to find in world history such an example of martyrdom as that which happened in Tbilisi in 1226, when 100,000 faithful were crowned as martyrs because they refused to obey the orders of Jalal Uddin, the Shah of Khorezm.

From Around the Catholica:

Links Ecumenism Essays, St. Paul's Greek Church of Irvine

Ecumenical Considerations

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church: Historical Self-Understanding and Identity, by Fr. Dr. K. M. George

And the Cloud of Witnesses

Wisdom of the Saints

Links from St. Paul's Church in Irvine, CA.

September 14: Feast Of the Holy Cross

2011-09-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

In the 7 Sundays
comprising
the Feast of the Holy Cross,
we behold
the Sign of Jonah
and
the Hope of our Salvation.

We enter in faith
the culminating celebration of the Church's calendar year.

We enter in hope
the culminating celebration of this world and the world to come.

We enter in love
the Holy Mysteries of "Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

Jesus living in the Church, Jesus living in Mary,
Come live within us!

In the Holy Cross we enter the heart of the Mother of God,

and there we encounter
the maternal love
given to the beloved disciple
at the Foot of the Cross.

She is the great birth-giver of discipleship
-- and thus the Church itself -- the New Eve
"the Mother of All the Living" members
of the Body of Christ.

Note here the "re-capitulation" of Pentecost

in the Feast of the Holy Cross.

And through time and history

see the "Anno Domini" as an epiphany of the Church

Just as for your sake he became
High priest, sacrifice, and libation;

you, for his sake, become
temple, priest, and
sacrificial offering.

The Coptic Cross
of
the Church of Alexandria

Easter Mysteries: Gardener, Bridegroom, Lamb of God

2011-04-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Christ Is Risen!

XT PANTOKRATOR
written by the hand of H Durka

The Mystery of the Risen Christ
Fr. Boris Bobrinskoy, trans. Fr John Breck
EXCERPTS and excursus:

The entire message,
indeed the very essence of Christianity
can be summed up
in the Church's triumphal cry
on the night of Holy Pascha:
"Christ is truly risen!"
...
All Christian theology,
all Holy Tradition,
is nothing other than
a ceaseless meditation of this
"One Thing Needful"
Lk 10:42.

Every aspect of the Church's life, the theology of the Holy Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils, biblical exegesis, liturgical theology, Christian hymnography, the spiritual experience of the saints, the experience of our own response to the Vision and Apocalypsis of the Beloved Disciple of 1 John 4:10 ~

Everywhere and at all times the Mystery of Christ is the most fundamental Christian reality, in which every symbol of faith is grounded and from which all the richness of Church tradition flows forth.
...

Holy Week Around The World

2011 WORLDWIDE EASTERN CHURCHES: Holy Thursday and Holy Friday PHOTOS

Malankara Orthodox Church:

Celebrating Pascha Around The World

Passion Week and Easter Service Pages

PHOTOS HG Alexios Mar Eusebius @ 2011 Holy Week, St. Gregorios Church, Edmonton

PHOTOS Palm Sunday at Orthodox Seminary, Kottayam

PHOTOS Good Friday Services at Orthodox Seminary, Kottayam

VIDEO: Good Friday Services at Orthodox Seminary, Kottayam

Ecumenical Notes, FYI:

Reflectiions Upon
Tribulations and Heavenly Liturgy,
Ecology and Catholica:

Xt the Gardener and Bridegroom
Armenian theologian Vigen Guroian
experiences Easter Theology
in his garden
and in Church.

Catholic Orthodox Dialog 2011

2011-04-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Churches meet in Rome
for Eighth Theological Dialog, Jan 25 - 28, 2011
the papers presented included

COPTIC ORTHODOX
"The Petrine Office and the Question, Who Established the Church of Rome?: Coptic Orthodox Perspective," by Metropolitan Bishoy of Damiette;

ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX
"Communion and Communication that Existed Between Our Churches Until the Mid-Fifth Century of Christian History and the Role Played by Monasticism: The Ethiopian Experience," by Archdeacon Daniel Seife Michael Feleke;

ANTIOCHIAN SYRIAN ORTHODOX
"The Communion and Communication that Existed Between Our Churches Until the Mid-Fifth Century of Christian History As Well As the Role Played by Monasticism: The Tradition of Antioch," by Archbishop Theophilus George Saliba;

ROMAN CATHOLIC
"Communion and Communication Among the Churches in the Tradition of Alexandria," by Father Mark Sheridan, OSB;

ROMAN CATHOLIC
"The Role of Monasticism in the Development and Communion of the Churches," by Father Columba Stewart, OSB;

ARMENIAN ORTHODOX
"The Reception of the Ecumenical Councils in the Armenian Tradition (VIII-XV cc.)" and "Communion and Communication," by Archbishop Yeznik Petrossian;

INDIAN ORTHODOX
"Communion and Communication Between the St. Thomas Christians of India and Other Churches till Mid-Fifth Century A.D. - Indian Orthodox Perspective," by Metropolitan Dr. Gabriel Mar Gregorios;

SYRIAN ORTHODOX
"Communion and Communication Between the St. Thomas Christians of India and Other Churches till Mid-Fifth Century A.D. - A Syrian Orthodox Perspective," by Metropolitan Dr Kuriakose Theophilose;

ROMAN CATHOLIC
"Communion and Communication Among the Churches: Rome in the Pre-Constantinian Era," by Prof. Dietmar W. Winkler, Consultant to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

BENEDICT XVI: TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION
. . . Through you I gladly extend fraternal greetings to my venerable Brothers, the Heads of the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

. . . We must be confident that your theological reflection will lead our Churches not only to understand each other more deeply, but resolutely to continue our journey decisively towards the full communion to which we are called by the will of Christ.

Anamnesis: Sacramental Eschtatology

2011-04-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

The Qurban of Christ
voiced and offered
as It was,
as It is,
as It shall be:
in the Spirit
in the One Catholic Church

"This anaphora is mercy, peace, sacrifice and thanksgiving!"

click on the "image block" to enlarge for reading ease

Continue reading, with LINKS to More Here on Pentecost, the Last Things, the Diptychs

And Read Even More Here on Pentecost and Church

Fr. B. Varghese:
"West Syrian Liturgical Theology," ch 8

St. Ephrem's Prayer for Lent 2011

2011-03-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

The Lenten Prayer
of St. Ephrem

O Lord and Master
of my life,
take from me
the spirit of sloth,
despair, lust of power,
and idle talk.

Grant rather
a spirit of
chastity,humility,
patience, and love
to me Thy servant.

O Lord and King,
grant me to see my own errors, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou unto the Ages of ages. Amen.

See Also

Ephrem, Basil, Paul, and Benedict on Great Lent: "The Crown of the Year"

Read this entire post with additional RESOURCE LINKS FOR LENT

Liberation in Egypt, Christian Copts Persecuted. Prayers for All

2011-03-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

So let us pray for one another:

Extremist Islamists Persecute Christian Copts in Egypt

World News.com: Attacks on Egypt's Copts

BBC World News: Egypt's Copts Persecuted

Liberation in Egypt,Christian Copts Persecuted. Prayers for All

full post with additional links

So let us pray for one another
remembering
Cairo and Alexandria,
The 1915 Aremnian Genocide
Here Commemorated VIDEO
and
Here Commemorated PHOTO w Essay

Tripoli
Mogadishu,
Rwanda, Kosovo,
the Congo and ongoing conflicts,

Ivory Coast

let us never forget

The Holodomor

The Shoah

let us always see
everywhere about us
our ongoing conflicts worldwide,

everywhere
and
within
us

that this violence

also
touches
the womb

of
Christ

Remember: Our Place in the Cosmos

See: Earth, A Home For Life

Liturgics: VIDEO Seminars, Rev. Dr. KM George. Kottayam

2011-03-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Excellent Video Seminars in English

Rev. Dr. K.M. George,
Principal, Orthodox Theological Seminary,
Kottayam, Kerala, INDIA
Holy Qurbana: Theology, History,Spirituality

See More by Fr K. M. George:

Holy Qurbana Terms and Traditions

and
Worship in Sacred Music and Hymns, Holy Icons and Sacred Images, Human Languages and Sacred Language

Coptic Patriarch blesses the Youth of Egypt, 2011

2011-03-01T21:09:00.000-08:00

His Holiness Pope Shenouda III met with a small committee from the members of the Holy Synod on Tuesday morning 15th February 2011, and they issued the following statement:
The Coptic Church salutes the Egyptian youth of 25th January, 2011

Coptic Orthodox English Liturgy, September 2009.
celebrated by Fr. Mauritius Anba Bishoy,
Cathedral Sharm El-sheikh, Egypt.

St. Ephrem's Prayer for Great Lent

2011-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

The Lenten Prayer
of St. Ephrem

O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth,
despair, lust of power, and idle talk.

Grant rather a spirit of chastity,
humility, patience, and love
to me Thy servant.

O Lord and King,
grant me to see my own errors, and not to judge my brother,
for blessed art Thou unto the Ages of ages. Amen.

See Also Our Mission Post 2010:

Ephrem, Basil, Paul, and Benedict on Great Lent: "The Crown of the Year"

and

The Great Lenten Prayers of St Ephrem

Prayer and the Church Fathers: Lenten Resources

The Hymns on Fasting of Ephrem the Syrian

many links to the texts
and from the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

SouthWest Diocese USA: Prayer Books

PDF and PowerPoint: Sleeba Prayer Book, Kymtha Prayer Book, Common Prayer Book, Lenten Prayer Book

Lenten Prayer Book PDF

NorthEast Diocese USA,

Audio Links for Passion Week Hymns, St. Mary's Cathedral, Philadelphia

Indian Orthodox Service Books: Feasts, Sacraments, Liturgical Hours

See also:
IOC Great Lenten Prayers arranged by PP Joykutty, Detroit, USA Word.Doc Format

Egypt's Copts Persecuted. Prayers for All Peoples

2011-03-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

So let us pray for one another:

Extremist Islamists Persecute Christian Copts in Egypt

World News.com: Attacks on Egypt's Copts

BBC World News: Egypt's Copts Persecuted

Nearly 4000 Muslims Attack Christian Homes in Egypt, Torch Church

9 Christians Killed, 150 Injured in Attack By 15,000 Muslims and Egyptian Army

see also:
USA Copt Association

MULTI LINKS World News.com: Egypt's Revolt re. Attacks Muslim vs Christian

Updates:
Coptic Christian Killed in Cairo Sectarian Clashes

13 Dead After Attack on Copts

Chaos as clashes in Egypt kill 13
fighting began when a Muslim mob attacked thousands of Christians protesting the burning last week of a church in Soul, a village just south of Cairo.
The Muslims torched the church amid escalating tensions over a love affair between a Muslim woman and a Christian man. The relationship set off a violent feud between the couple's families. The woman's father and a cousin of the man were killed.

Egyptian Armed Forces Fire At Christian Monasteries, 19 Injured

Egyptian Christians Enraged Over Court Acquittal in Christmas Eve Massacre

So let us pray for one another:
remembering
Cairo and Alexandria,
Tripoli and Mogadishu,
Rwanda, Kosovo, the Congo and ongoing,
now Ivory Coast

let us never forget

The Holodomor

The Shoah

let us always see
everywhere about us
our ongoing conflicts worldwide,

everywhere
within us
that this violence
also
touches
the womb

of
Christ

Syriac Malankara Liturgical Theology - Spirituality

2011-02-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

Excellent Video Seminars in English

Rev. Dr. K.M. George,
Principal, Orthodox Theological Seminary,
Kottayam, Kerala, INDIA

Holy Qurbana Terms and Traditions

Worship in Sacred Music and Hymns,
Holy Icons and Sacred Images,
Human Languages and Sacred Language

St. Ephrem Mission Overview - Links

2011-01-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome
to St. Ephrem Mission

Our Links to:

Church and Calendar Links;
Notes on St. Ephrem the Syrian;
IOC News, Seminary Life;
Christology, Ecclesiology, Ecumenism,
Liturgy, Icons, Ministries

Patron of the Our Mission

Icon of Our Holy Father Ephrem
written by the hand of Heather Durka

The script on the left:

Harp of the Spirit

and on the right:

Second Moses to Womankind

Notes on Ephrem the Syrian

Ephrem's 3 Harps

Ephrem of Nisibis in the Church's liturgy and history
with more Resource LINKS updated 2010

Eprhem on Eucharist: Qurbana as Living Medicine, Metanoia, Mystagogy
Griffith, Modern Theology

Ephrem on Eucharist: Pentecost - Qurbana - Church
Griffith, Modern Theology

(1) Ephrem: wiki resource

(2) see also orthodox wiki on Ephrem

Scholarly biography of Ephrem the Syrian

Ephrem's Influence On The Greeks

Taylor, Hugoye

Ephrem: Inspiration to Byzantine Artists

Gavrilovic, Hugoye

Spiritual Father for Whole Church: Universal Appeal of Ephrem the Syrian

Griffith, Hugoye

Icon of the Many-Eyed Six-Winged Seraph
written by Heather Durka

Christ and Church:
koinonia, metanoia, theosis
liturgical and iconographic styles
Ecclesiology and The Catholica

What is Orthodoxy?

A word of Introduction to the Church by Rev.Dr.V.C.Samuel

Tradition vs. Traditionalism

CONTINUITY AND CREATIVITY by Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan -- A reflection upon the Communion of the Saints: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."

The People of God

George C. Papademetriou: an Orthodox understanding of the people of God.
God's creation of the human person as being in God's image is the place to begin for our understanding of the idea of the term "people of God."
excerpt:

The concept "people of God" is based primarily on biblical presuppositions and a patristic understanding of ecclesiology. The people of God is the pleroma of the church; quahal, the congregation of God's people.
The history of Israel is the history of the people of God, seen particularly in God's promise to Abraham and the covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai.
The creation of the Church by the Incarnate Logos of God established a new relationship with God's people that draw into the covenant all races and all human persons.

Orthodox Ecclesiology: Understanding the Church through Christology and Pneumatology

Oriental Orthodox Wiki-info

Christology in the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches

Heavenly Liturgy: Hymns of the Seraphim, Eternal Praise, Liturgy as Icon

Patristics: Syriac Typology see also page sidebar links:

"Qurbana-Qurbono
re Naming the Mysteries"
"Rabbula Gospels and Syriac Scripts"
"Syriac to Aramaic re West-East"
"Korban, Exodos to Pesaho-Pascha"
"Syriac Hymns
re Madrasha - Memre
vis-a-vis
Byzantine Kontakia"

Syriac Teaching Songs: catechetics and mystagogy

"fides quaerens intellectum"
vis-a-vis
"fides adorans mysterium":

a Syriac "Phenomenlogy of Disclosure"
the Mystery-Symbol called "raza (sing.), raze (plur.)":

as anamnesis and eccelsiology ~
living kerygma re Eschatological Fulfillment
christology + pneumatology

Eccelsiology and Ecumenism

FOCUS BLOG

FOCUS: fellowship of orthodox christians united to serve.
FOCUS home page

IOCC: International Orthodox Christian Charities

Ecumenical Resources

Ecumenical Notes FYI

Ecclesiology and Liturgy Resources

and in spanish: "Eclesiología católica y eclesiología ortodoxa"

Heavenly Liturgy
and
the Liturgical Year:

Christology,
Icons,
Eccelsiology
and
Ecumenism.

Welcome - Introduction

Ethiopian Theotokos
written by the hand of Heather Durka

LITURGICAL SEASONS:
The Liturgical Calendar as a Theology of Seasons and Scripture

Calendar and Scripture Readings

Liturgical Calendar: continuous for easy scrolling entire year, with Scripture Links

Monthly Calendar: Liturgical Feasts links to Scriptures

News - Events
of the

Armenian, Coptic, Eritrean,

Malankara, Syrian
and
Eastern Orthodox Churches

On The Street, the Gift Of Life

Our Attitude to the Foetus

Lee Gatis

Faith, Reason and Politically Correct Death

Francis J. Beckwith

On The Churches, the mission to be one in Christ:

Let us pray for one another
remembering Cairo and Alexandria,
Aremnia and Tripoli, Mogadishu,Rwanda,
Kosovo, the Congo, Ivory Coast,
Let us never forget
The Holodomor and The Shoah ~

Let us always see
everywhere
about us
and
within us
the womb of Christ
+

Oriental Orthodox Blog

THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE: ROMAN CATHOLIC AND ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES Rome: Jan 25-28, 2011

VIDEO 2010: Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches

Photos in links above and below

Benedict XVI greets Orthodox Brothers in Christ

OBL: Orthodoxy Beyond Limits

International Orthodox Christian News Blog.
occasional traditionalisms, but usually reliable

Indian Orthodox Christian News

Malankara Orthodox TV. Online News in Text and Photo

Indian Orthodox Herald Newspaper Blog

News from the Catholicate

click here: ICON -- Indian Christian Orthodox Network

new ICON videos: Liturgies Interviews Events

Indian-Orthodox.net

Ecological Commission

IOC North America:

NorthEast American Diocese of the Indian Orthodox Church

Northeast Clergy Retreat 2010
Eastern USA Regional Conference 2010

SouthWest American Diocese of the Indian Orthodox Church

The NorthWest USA Regional Conference 2010

Mar Gregorios Orthodox Christian Student Movement (MGOCSM) all America and Canada

More Info: CHURCH CALENDAR

THE LITURGICAL YEAR AND CANONICAL PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH

An introduction by Rev. Fr. Dr. George Pulikottil and Rev. Fr. Dr. Mathew C Chacko. We are entering into another Liturgical Year in the Indian Orthodox Church by celebrating Purification and Sanctification of the Church this November 2, 2008.

Calendar Origins West and East

On the Origins of the Western Calendar

by Fr. Dale Johnson,
excerpt courtesy Shroro Syriac Orthodox Christian Digest:

How a Syriac Patriarch assisted the Gregorian Calendar's development
by way of Syrian monk librarians
helping Muslim scholars
to read Greek geometry
and the mathematics of Egypt and India...
The original 9 member commission to reform the Julian calendar under Pope Gregory XIII:

Christoph Clavius, German Jesuit
Cardinal Sirleto,

Vincentius Laureus Bishop of Mondovi
Antonio Lilius (Giglio) doctor of medicine
Petrus Ciaconus
Seraphinus Olivarius, Vatican jurist
Ignatius Dantes, Dominican friar (Ignazio Danti) and map maker
Teofilus Martius, Benedictine monk
and ...
Ignatius Nemet Allah I, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch

CHANT

Beth Gazo Music: Liturgical Chant of the Church

St. Mary's Malankara Orthodox Syrian Cathedral of Philadelphia

Chant Resources at Malankara Indian Orthodox Church website
and
Chant resources at Mar Gregorios Orthodox Christian Student Movement of All America and Canada

Syriac Treasury of Chants: Beth Gazo d-ne`motho
with links to the syrian modal system
see also: Guide to the 8 Modes and this link for examples: SyriacMusic.com

Feasts
of the Church Year

Beginnings

Beginning the Church Year of Feasts: an Advent of the Parousia
Christ in the Spirit in the Church
The Festal Calandar: an Apocalypsis of the Beginning and the End
The Church Year as a typos of Pentecost and The Kingdom
Sanctification Sunday and the Mysteries of the Kingdom
Dedication Sunday and the Catholica

Nativity Season
New Year's Day and The Eighth Day, A.D. 2009
Epiphany and Theophany
Theophany: Cosmos - Temple - Communio

Great Lent: Our Journey in His Baptism: the Revelation of the Waters of Theophany
Re-Turning to Great Lent, 2009

Paschal Season: Christ Our Pasch
March 25: Annuciation and Ecclesia Orans

Ephrem on the Feast, Mary's fiat and Pentecost,
The Qurban of Christ in the Spirit in the Church:
Ecclesia Orans and the Mysteries of the Eighth Day

Hosanna Sunday: The Bridegroom, The Wheat, The Veil
The Easter Journey: a Liturgical Parousia of the Kingdom
Resurrection 2010 AD
Pascha 2009: Go to Gallilee, where you will see Him as He promised!
Ascension of the Lord

Pentecost, the Feast of the Church
Pentecost 2010 AD
Pentecost 2009 AD
Pentecost re. The 8th Day
Pentecost: Ascension to Epiclesis and Parousia

Pentecost and the Heavenly Liturgy of the Church:
Notes from Fr.B.Varghese "West Syrian Liturgical Theology":
Pentecost and Eschaton: A Cloud of Wintesses"
Pentecost: In-Gathering One Catholic Communio in Christ
Pentecost: The Diptychs and The Last Things

Transfiguration and Translation
Transfiguration: Midsummer Vision of the Feast, The Icon, and the Journey upon the Holy Mountain
Transfiguration: Epiphanic Light
The Taboric Light as 4 Dimensions of the Eighth Day:

discipleship and beatitudes
communio and theosis
mystagogy and mysterion
sanctus and gloria

More on The Transfiguration of the Lord
Transfiguration Tradition: St. Makarios and Macarian Themes

Endings

2010: Dormition and Translation of Theotokos, Assumption of Virgin Mother, Ascension of St. Mary
2009: Ascension of St. Mary

7 Sundays of the Holy Cross
Holy Cross: The Crown of the Calendar Year and Salvation History in Christ

NEW links re Indian Orthodox Sacred Art:

Mar Baselius School of Icon Writing & Liturgy

This School is a part of the Mar Baselius Catholicos Academy of Research (BACA) Kandanad East Diocese (Ernakulam District of Kerala State, South India)
of the Malankara Orthodox Church,
under leadership of His Grace Dr Thomas Mar Athnasius Metropolitan.
The School aims at developing an Indian system of iconography
as well as promoting icons in the entire Malankara Church.

Indian Orthodox Iconographer. VIDEO interview

Mural Traditions of Kerala Churches in India

Early iconographic images in the Indian Orthodox mileau. "The roots of the extant mural tradition of Kerala could be traced as far back as the 7th - 8th centuries A.D."

Kerala Church Architecture

various influnces, including Syrian Orthodox iconographic murals

The Stone Crosses of Kerala

There are two types of rock crosses in Kerala Churches broadly classified as St. Thomas cross and Nazraney sthambams.

Icons and the Oriental Orthodox Churches

Ethipiopian and Coptic Sacred Art

Earliest Illustrated Bible Found In Ethiopian Orthodox Monastery

See more Ethiopian sacred art here
and coptic sacred art here
and more coptic sacred art at the LA Coptic Diocese here
and this Coptic page with extensive links
See also various Coptic church images
and this page from the Coptic Monastery of The Holy Virgin

Seminarian News:

Our Malankara seminarians at St. Tikhon's Eastern Orthodox Seminary

Photos and Profiles of students and faculty, Young Adult Retreat, Visitors . . .

Blessings upon our 2008 Graduating Seminarians Graduation Photos and links to the Theological Programs for our seminarians at St. Vladimir's Seminary and St. Tikhon's Seminary.

Our Malankara Orthodox Theological Seminary in India

Kottayam

New Site:

Nagpur

February, 2011: our seminary was blessed with the visit of HG Alexios Mar Eusebius, Metropolitan of SouthWest Diocese, USA, as our Retreat Father for the Three Day Lent.
His Grace was accompanied by Dn. Gabriel from Spokane, WA. Formerly a faculty member, Eusebius Thirumeni has been for part of our seminary for a long time -- since its inception. He also held the position of Bursar and played a critical role in the growth of our seminary from its beginning.

Recent Site Visits
from Around the World

note:
green dots indicate 10 visits
white dots indicate 10+ visits

Dormition Translation Assumption: the Ascension of St. Mary

2010-08-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

On the Dormition and Ascension of St. Mary the Mother of God

The Oriental Orthodox Churches name the dormition of the God-bearer as
"The Festival of the Ascension of St. Mary,"
a symbol of the life and pilgrimage of the Church itself.

Roman Catholics prefer to emphasize "the Assumption" of the Theotokos into Glory, the Byzantine Churhes focus on "the Falling Asleep in Christ, the Dormition" of the Theotokos. The entire Church Tradition bears witness to the Mystery of "the Translation" of the Theotokos: the body of her life, the body of her life-history, her life in Communion with Christ in the Spirit in the one Ecclesia Christi

This Marian Feast invites us
to encounter Christ,
to embrace fully and in all Finality the life of CHrist in the Spirit ~
such that we become wholly Christ-like: we are to become "divinized in Christ" through all the gifts of the Spirit given to the Church in Pentecost, and continuing now in the Church, in the light and life and love of the very same Spirit!

Theotokos
written by Heather Durka

for link to more on
The Translation of the Theotokos
see the end of this post

Other Links to the Feast:

2010 NYTimes slideshow
Festal Procession, St. Mary's Malankara Indian Orthodox Church, Long Island, NY.

Dormition Icon and text, University of Balamand, Lebanon

See pdf texts on the Dormition by St. John of Damascus and St. Gregory Palamas

Early Fathers on the Feast of the Dormition and Ascension

John the Theologian: The Dormition of the Holy Theotokos
Melito of Sardis: The Passing of Blessed Mary
Joseph of Arimathea: The Passing of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Cyril of Jerusalem: Homily on the Dormition
Evodius of Rome: Homily on the Dormition
Theodosius of Alexandria: Homily on the Dormition
John of Damascus: Homilies on the Dormition of the Virgin

Coptic image of The Dormition:

Scroll down for scene inside "The Church of the Holy Virgin" at Syrian Monastery, Egypt.

EXCERPT: The mid-seventh century...Egypt saw a blossoming of... iconographic programs, often covering more ancient works. This was no more true than in the monasteries of the Wadi Natrun. The Wadi and its importance to Coptic Christians dates back to the 4th century AD with the arrival of St. Macarius the Great ~

Read more:

The Monastery of St. Macarius (Deir Abu Magar)

Unique to Egypt and her Monastery Mosaics and Icons
In the monasteries of the Wadi Natrun...an Annunciation mosaic icon was discovered in the Church of the Holy Virgin which had been covered over by a scene depicting ascension in about 1225. The annunciation image could have been created as early as about 710 AD, when Syrians purchased the monastery. This remarkable work is not only inspiring because of its grand style, but also its rich iconography. It depicts the Holy Virgin, seated on a throne, listening to the archangel's message. She is surrounded by four prophets, consisting of Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, holding scrolls with Coptic inscriptions. In the background is the town of Nazareth. This theme is unique to Egypt.

The Icon of the Dormition of St. Ephrem
shows the Mystery of St. Mary's Dormition as a prototype
of all the members of the Body of Christ...
As the Lord said to the beloved disciple, "Behold your mother"
-- so too to Ephrem and all the baptized faithful.

Another side of this Feast in the Spirit on August 15
as
The Translation of the God-Bearer :
The Spirit carries Mary within
the entire entitas of her life and her ongoing fiat
into the Heavenly Liturgy:

the Annunciation: March 25
Ecclesia Orans
and
Theologia Prima

FYI:

Iconographic Painting of "the Dormition" by el Greco, discovered in 1983

Midsummer Vision: The Feast of August 6

2010-08-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

typical icon of
The Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor

Our Lord preached to tens of thousands,
but took only three with Him to ascend the Holy Mount of Tabor.
And so those three, lifted into the Mysteries of Glory,
became vessels of light to illumine the Kingdom.

TODAY each of us partakes of that very journey
up the Mount when we gather into "the chapel light"
of the very same Mysteries of the Kingdom,
singing "By Thy Light we see the Light, Jesus full of Light."

Read More from Our post in 2007

Reflections on Scripture and Transfiguration:

Icon of Christ the Lightgiver
written by the hand of Heather Durka

Transfiguration: Taboric Light of the Word, Pentecost, and Liturgy :

Transfiguration in the Epistles of Peter
Transfiguration in the Gospel of John
Transfiguration in the Gospel of Matthew
Transfiguration in the Gospel of Mark
Transfiguration in Mark: The Cry of the Centurion

Transfiguration as
Beatitude
Communio in Sacris
Mystagogy
Liturgy

Excerpts from our post On Becoming Light:

• The biblical image of the Deity as luminous is central to patristic theological and spiritual vision.
• “O God, you started the work of creation with light in order that the whole creation may become light.”
• “it initiates us into the mystery of the future” and our final destiny.

Armenian Orthodox theologian Vigen Guroian
Coptic Orthodox theologian Andrew Youssef:

On Morality in the Light of the Transfiguration:

Transfiguration, Liturgy and Eschatology re. Moral Action

Only in Luke's Gospel
do we encounter
Tabor as an epiphany of the 8th Day,
and only here in all the New Testament
is Jerusalem's Golgotha specifically named as that Epiphanic Reality
which the exodos of
"The 2nd Book of Moses" was only its type:

Preaching Christ Crucified at the Feast of the Transfiguration
Fr. Steven C. Salaris, All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church

Transfiguration: Epiphanic Light
"But I tell you truly, there are some standing here
who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God."
Now about eight days after these sayings
he took with him Peter and John and James
and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying ...
Lk 9.27

Icon of the Mandylion
written by the hand of Heather Durka

The Taboric Light
as 4 Dimensions of the Eighth Day:

sanctus - gloria
communio - theosis
discipleship - beatitudes

Transfiguration of the Lord mystagogy - mysterion

The Transfiguration of the Lord brings us into the Mystery of the Lord as He is in Himself: "Glorious, uncreated, self-existing; eternal, adorable, consubstantial~"
These Divine Names are the praises we sing just after the "Theh've" for the Holy Qurbana's 3rd, and consummate, 3-fold Blessing:
Through this litugical praise of the Divine Name,
the faithful choirs mystically enter "the Great Elevation" of the Holy Gifts for the Holy Ones. The choirs are sharing the Mystery of the Revelation which Peter, James, and John encountered on Mt. Tabor

Christ Pantocrator
written by the hand of Heather Durka

OLD TESTAMENT PRESENCE
IN NEW TESTAMENT EVENT
Jane M. deVyver, M.A., M.Th., Ph.D.

In this study of the meaning of the Transfiguration, we will deal with several issues: why did Peter suggest making three tabernacles (skénai) and what is the significance of the Greek word, skéné; and, why was it Elias and Moses who appeared with Christ? In dealing with these two issues, we will be led to a consideration of the Shekhinah (2) and of the significance of the cloud from which God spoke. Essentially, the answers to these questions are rooted in the Old Testament.

Transfiguration Tradition: St. Makarios and Macarian Themes

"In Macarian understanding of Christ's transfiguration on Mt. Tabor,
the duality of inner and outer in visio Dei is attempted through in a new metaphor of the transformational vision-- Christ's Body of Light."

Through the festal cycle we encounter the spiritual light of Tabor in the liturgies of the Church, in the life of the Theotokos, in the lives of the saints ~

Ascension of St. Mary

7 Sundays of the Holy Cross
behold the Sign of the Jonah
and the Hope of our Salvation

July 2010: FYI News Links

2010-07-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Conversations here and abroad, fyi:

Catholicos Elect Launches Website "MarMakarios.org"

Ecological Commission

The NorthWest USA Regional Conference 2010 see photos here.

Northeast Clergy Retreat 2010

Eastern USA Regional Conference 2010 see photos at here.

Also at the 2010 Eastern Conference: Ecumenical Dialog:
The Inaugural Address Text
by Dr. Michael Kinnamon at the 2010 Conference,
with the video of the Inaugural Address below:

Dr. Michael Kinnamon bio
The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) clergyman and a long-time educator and ecumenical leader, is the ninth General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.

And other voices among us here and abroad:

Let Us Be Reconciled With One Another – Shubqono Tenny Thomas, Indian Orthodox Herald

Apostolic continuity in history and eschatology commentary by Macrina on Zizioulas' "Theology of the Church"

Pentecost 2010: An Apostolic In-Gathering of One Catholic "Communio" Fr.B.Varghese, West Syrian Liturgical Theology

Eucharistic Ecclesiology: The Diptychs and The Last Things Fr.B.Varghese, West Syrian Liturgical Theology

Thanks for this video link to Notes on Arab Orthodoxy.
"Fr. Sidney Griffith: lecture and question-answer session re history of Arab Christianity at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, Illinois.

n.b.
During my graduate studies at CUA
I audited a superb class on the Syriac Fathers
instructed by Fr. Griffith ~

A friend who attended the same patristics class with me at CUA
is Dr. Edward Alam, of Lebanon's Notre Dame University.
Dr. Alam is General Secretary for the international Council for Reasearch in Values and Philosophy.
See their page for Annual Seminars
and their page on International Conferences 2010 for a review of the global dialog.

Dr. Alam has also traveled extensively in Kerala, India, to re-visit the liturgical tradition of the Syriac Liturgy so well conserved in the Orthodox Church of India.

Pentecost and Eschaton: A Cloud of Witnesses

2010-06-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

B. Varghese:
"West Syrian Liturgical Theology," ch 8
and the Eighth Day in the Holy Mysteries:

click on the "image block" to enlarge for reading ease

Pneumatology
and
The New Aeon,

epiclesis and koinonia in the Holy Qurbana:

The Holy Spirit makes
the liturgical Assembly
an ecclesial Parousia and
an eschatological Doxology.

the Great Intercessions and Diptychs of the Anaphoroa

as Mission and Apokatastasis:

excerpts:

It is the revelation of the Church as the Epiphany of the Kingdom of God:
...the ingathering of all in Christ,
...the unity of all in Christ.

Read More Excerpts
Notes from the Gospels and Didache, Ephrem and the Fathers,
to Bouyer and deLubac, Schmemann and Zizioulas:

on "The Last Things and the Sacraments"
from Fr. Baby Varghese's book
West Syrian Liturgical Theology.

click on the "image block" to enlarge for reading ease

Pentecost: In-Gathering One Catholic Communio

2010-06-16T10:00:00.001-07:00

Syriac and Byzantine Ecclesiology:

the Catholica
re Commmunion Temple and Mystery:

Assembly, Access, Oblation
knushyo, qurobo, qurbono

Fr. B. Varghese:
"West Syrian Liturgical Theology," ch 7
and the Eighth Day in the Holy Mysteries:

click on "image block" to expand and review:

Pentecost: The Diptychs and The Last Things

2010-06-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

The Diptychs
as Parousia
and Communio Sanctorum

B. Varghese:
"West Syrian Liturgical Theology," ch 7
and the Eighth Day in the Holy Mysteries:

click on "image block" to expand and review:

Pentecost 2010

2010-05-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Tongues of Fire,
Voices in the Spirit:

The Way of the Saint
Father Thomas Hopko: There are certain characteristics which belong to all saints, whoever they were and whenever they lived. Among these characteristics are the following ~

Mother Maria Skobtsova: Saint of the Open Door
Jim Forest: “No amount of thought will ever result in any greater formulation than the three words, ‘Love one another,’ so long as it is love to the end and without exceptions.”

Father Lev Gillet: The Monk in the City, a Pilgrim in many worlds
by Fr. Michael Plekon: Fr. Lev writes in "Orthodox Spirituality," 2nd. ed., (Crestwood NY: SVSP, 1978 ), pp. x-xi:
The whole teaching of the Latin Fathers may be found in the East,
just as the whole teaching of the Greek Fathers may be found in the West.
Rome has given St. Jerome to Palestine.
The East has given Cassian to the West and holds in special veneration that Roman of the Romans, Pope Gregory the Great.
St. Basil would have acknowledged St. Benedict of Nursia as his brother and heir.
St. Macrina would have found her sister in St Scholastica.
St. Alexis the "man of God," "the poor man under the stairs," has been succeeded by the wandering beggar, St. Benedict Labre.
St. Nicolas would have felt as very near to him the burning charity of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Vincent de Paul.
St. Seraphim of Sarov would have seen the desert blooming under Father Charles de Foucauld's feet, and would have called St. Thérèse of Lisieux "my joy."

gloria Dei vivens homo
vita autem hominis visio Dei

The Grandeur of Covenant Theology
Coming of age in the Gift of the Spirit, from agnostic to Evangelical to Presbyterian to Catholic

Pentecost, Babel, and the Ecumenical Imperative
continuing the journey in terms of the Oneness of the Church of Christ

"The day will come when our two Churches will fully converge"
The complete text of Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople,
to the Synod of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church,
delivered in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday, October 18, 2008

A Holy Alliance between Rome and Moscow Is Born
The common objective: the "new evangelization" of Europe. A delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church visits the Vatican, which publishes an anthology of the patriarch's writings.

The Role of the Bishop of Rome in the Communion of the Church in the First Millennium
2008:
Joint Coordinating Committee for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.

Chalcedon Canon 28: Yesterday and Today
Very Rev. John H Erickson, St. Vladimir Seminary

Orthodox-Catholic Theological Dialogs

5th meeting 2008: Oriental Orthodox and Roman Catholic Theological Dialog

6th meeting 2009: Oriental Orthodox and Roman Catholic Theological Dialog

7th meeting 2010: Oriental Orthodox and Roman Catholic Theological Dialog

Photos and Report of the meetings in Lebanon 2010

Orthodox Divine Liturgy in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica followed by veneration of his relics
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the burial site of St. Peter in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Concelebrating were Archbishops Kirill of Yaroslavl and Rostov and Feognost of Sergiev Posad.

Greek Orthodox Resources, St. Paul's in Irvine CA
Dialogue Among Christians: Orthodox Participation in the Ecumenical Movement

Unity, Division, Reunion -- in the light of Orthodox Ecclesiology
Alexander Schmemann,
Annual Conference of the Fellowship of S. Alban and St Sergius
at Abingdon, England in August 1950.

Florovsky on The catholicity of the Church
Archpriest George Florovsky: The theanthropic union and the Church. The inner quality of catholicity. The transfiguration of personality. The sacred and the historical. The inadequacy of the Vincentian canon. Freedom and Authority. The Church: her nature and task: The catholic mind. The new reality. The new creation. Historical antinomies.

Petros Vassiliadis: ECCLESIAL WITNESS
EUCHARISTIC THEOLOGY, THE CONSENSUS FIDELIUM, AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF THEOLOGY TO THE EUCHARISTIC THEOLOGY, THE CONSENSUS FIDELIUM, AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF THEOLOGY TO THE ECCLESIAL WITNESS

Toward Healing Church Schism: Overview and Psycho-theological Reflection
Fr. George Morelli: What Can We Do to Achieve Unity Between Catholics and Orthodox?

Catholic and Malankara Syrian Orthodox: Interchurch Marriages
First Trilateral Agreement on Interchurch Marriages
between the Catholic Church and the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church

Catholic and Orthodox: CHURCHES in INDIA agree to share services
Dec 18 2009: THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India (UCAN)
Catholic and Orthodox Churches have agreed to share priestly services and infrastructure in a major development in their often troubled 356-year-old history.

As a first step, the Churches have agreed to share churches for Sunday Mass outside Kerala.
Recent meetings between the two also explored the possibility of sharing cemeteries and the services of priests at funerals.

Zizioulas on the Ecclesia
Macrina's notes on Zizioulas'
"Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church."

gloria Dei vivens homo
vita autem hominis visio Dei

Many Lamps are Lightened from the One
Andrei Orlov and Alexander Golitzin on "Paradigms of the Transformational Vision in Macarian Homilies"

Symeon the New Theologian: On the Divine Light

Gregory of Nyssa: Luminous Darkness

Gregory Palamas: Knowledge, Prayer and Vision

Eschatology and final restoration (apokatastasis) in Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximos the Confessor
Andreas Andreopoulos:
The restoration of all however, a valid possibility according to the Church, although not a doctrine, has a special place in the hopes of saints who pray for the redemption of their enemies, and it expresses our hope for the charity of God. Possibly the honorable silence expresses this hope, which in spite of the danger of determinism, becomes almost a certainty in this light:

If even one human being is able to forgive and pray for the salvation of the entire cosmos, wouldn't God's providence find a way to make it happen?

Await the New Jerusalem
Very Rev. John Breck:
...the new Jerusalem of the prophet's vision, the "heavenly Kingdom" that images glorified life in eternal communion with God. This is what we long for: to "return," paradoxically, to that place we have never yet truly known, but which we hold in our minds and hearts as the fulfillment of every hope, every longing.

Like Israel, our return in the grace and power of our Lord is promised to us not only for our own sakes, but for the sake of "the nations." As we declare in the Liturgy, our salvation and the fulfillment of our most urgent desire is accomplished "for the life of the world."

The prophet's voice addresses the Church just as it addressed the Jerusalem of old: "Arise, shine, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!" That glory, that radiant splendor, has shown out of the darkness of the tomb, to illumine for all peoples the pathway that leads toward the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, whose light is the glory of God and whose lamp is the Lamb, slain and risen.

"May I not forget you, O Jerusalem!"

The Church in St. Maximus' Mystagogy
George Dion Dragas:

The Church as the Eikon of God the Creator
The Church as the Eikon of the World
The Church as the Eikon of the Sensible World
The Church as the Eikon of Man
The Church as the Eikon of the Soul

The Bible as the Eikon of Man and the Church
The World, Man, and the Church

Resurrection, Anno Domini 2010

2010-04-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

Pantokrator
written by the hand of H. Durka

The Mystery of the Risen Christ Fr. Boris Bobrinskoy,
trans. Fr John Breck EXCERPT:

The entire message,
indeed the very essence of Christianity
can be summed up
in the Church's triumphal cry on the night of Holy Pascha:
"Christ is truly risen!"
...
All of Christian theology,
like all of the two thousand year old treasure
of Holy Tradition,
is nothing other than a ceaseless meditation
of this "One Thing Needful" (Lk 10:42).

This is true in every aspect of the Church's life,
whether it be the theology of the Holy Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils,
biblical exegesis, liturgical theology, Christian hymnography,
or the spiritual experience of the saints,
which is the experience of the People of God as a whole.

Everywhere and at all times
the Mystery of Christ is the most fundamental Christian reality,
in which every symbol of faith is grounded and from which
all the richness of Church tradition flows forth.
...

Ecumenical Notes, FYI:
On Tribulation, Heavenly Liturgy and the Catholica:

Singing Christ is Risen in Many Tongues

Byzantine Chant in English, Ukrainian, Greek, Latin and Church Slavonic

Xt the Gardener and Bridegroom

Armenian theologian Vigen Guroian experiences Easter as "a call to our senses." ... And at this time of year and beyond, Vigen Guroian does real theology in his garden as richly as in church.

April 24: Armenian Genocide Memorial
His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians,
...visited the Memorial to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 at Tsitsernakaberd
and paid tribute to the Eternal Memory of the 1.5 million Armenian victims.

Armenian Catholicos Aram I visits INDIA
KOTTAYAM:
At the invitation of His Holiness Baselios Marthoma Didymus I, Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan, the supreme head of the Orthodox Church of the East,
His Hloiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
stressed the importance of the ecumenical movement in the 21st Century.

Delivering his keynote address at the ecumenical meet held at the Indian Orthodox Theological Seminary here on Thursday, the Catholicos reiterated his admiration for the multi-cultural and multi-religious society in India which has championed the cause of unity in diversity.

The Catholicos also recalled the contributions made by eminent scholars including the late Bishop Paulos Mar Gregorios and M.M. Thomas to the world ecumenical movement.

Catholicos-designate Paulos Mar Milithios of the Orthodox Church presided.

Catholicos Aram I and Catholicos Baselius Mar Thoma Didymos I of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church jointly offered prayers at Devalokam .

Ecumenism in India: Orthodox - Catholic

SOC and Catholics in India
India: Jacobite Syrian Orthodox and Catholics agree to share services

Towards a New Ecumenism Christos Yannaras on Pascha and the Catholica
... " to be able one day to sing together that by death one can conquer death."

Greek Orthodox Ecumenical resources

Orthodox - Muslim meetging, April 2010:

Patriarch of Moscow, Chairman of Caucasus Muslim Board, Catholicos of All Armenians: trilateral meeting of the religious leaders of Russia and Transcaucasus – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshuqur Pasha-zade as chairman of the Caucasus Muslim Board, and Supreme Patriarch Catholicos Karekin II of All Armenians took place on 26 April 2010, during the World Summit of Religious Leaders in Baku.

Orthodox-Catholic Theological Dialogs

2010: Hierarchs and Clergy confer in Lebanon
on the Middle East Question
also
meeting with the President of Lebanon
Photos and Report of the meetings in Lebanon 2010

Palm Sunday: The Bridegroom, The Wheat, The Veil

2010-03-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

John 12.1-33:

Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table. Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was filled with the scent of the ointment. . .

note how the passage concludes, 12.20-33:

... Now the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. In all truth I tell you, unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me, must follow me, and my servant will be with me wherever I am. If anyone serves me, my Father will honor him. Now my soul is troubled.
What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour?
But it is for this very reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name!
A voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and I will again glorify it.' The crowd standing by, who heard this, said it was a clap of thunder; others said, 'It was an angel speaking to him.' Jesus answered, 'It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours. 'Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself.'
By these words he indicated the kind of death he would die.

Icon of Christ offering wheat to the Theotokos
written by the hand of H Durka

Stomen Kalos, Stand in Beauty

2010-03-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

And Mary replied:
"Behold, I am the servant of the Lord;
let it be to me according to your word."

The Annunciation
the Mysteries of Mary's fiat

Theotokos of Tender Mercy
written by the hand of Heather Durka

Ecclesia Orans:

Our Lenten Journey to Easter
is carried within
Mary's fiat
at the Annuciation

In the Church's ongoing Pentecost,
the Great Archangel Gabriel names to us anew
the Qurban of Christ:
Barekhmor,
how awesome is this hour
and how dreadful is this moment,
O my beloved,
wherein the Holy Spirit from the topmost heights
takes wing and descends and hovers and rests
upon this Eucharist here present
-upon this Ecclesia Orans -
and sanctifies it for our salvation.
Be in calm and awe,
while standing and praying.

A Lenten "Ecclesia Orans"

2010-02-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

Coptic Divine Liturgy of St. Basil, Fraction Prayers for Great Lent:

Master and Lord, God Almighty
Who sent His Only-Begotten Son to the world ...
taught us that fasting and prayer cast out devils,
as He said:
This kind cannot come out by anything,
except by prayer and fasting.

Fasting and prayer are those which raised Elijah to heaven and saved Daniel from the lions' den.
Fasting and prayer are those which Moses pursued, until he received the Law and the Commandments written with the Finger of God.
Fasting and prayer are those which the people of Nineveh pursued, so God had mercy upon them and forgave them their sins and lifted His wrath away from them.
Fasting and prayer are those which the prophets pursued, and prophesied concerning the advent of Christ many generations before His coming.
Fasting and prayer are those which the Apostles pursued, and they preached to all nations and made them Christians, and baptized them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Fasting and prayer are those which the Martyrs pursued, until they shed their blood in the Name of Christ, Who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate.
Fasting and prayer are those which the righteous, the just, and the cross-bearers pursued, and dwelt in the mountains, deserts, and holes of the earth, because of their great love for Christ the King.

And we, too, let us fast from all evil, in purity and righteousness;
and let us proceed forth to this holy sacrifice, and partake of it with thanksgiving ~

Again from St. Ephrem "On Reproof":

Let us be builders of our own minds
into temples suitable for God.

If the Lord dwells in your house,
honor will come to your door.

How much your 'honor' will increase
if God dwells within you.

Be a sanctuary for Him, even a priest,
and serve Him within your temple.

Just as for your sake He became
high priest, sacrifice, and libation;

You, for his sake, become
temple, priest, and
sacrificial offering.

The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem

O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency,
lust for power, and idle talk.

But grant unto me, Thy servant,
a spirit of chastity, humility,
patience, and love.

Yea, O Lord and King,
grant me to see my own faults,
and not to judge my brothers and sisters.
For blessed art Thou
unto ages of ages.
Amen.

And from St. Paul
Rm 12:1-18

A Living Sacrifice

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Gifts of Grace

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Marks of the True Christian

Let love be genuine.
Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection.
Outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
Never be wise in your own sight.
Repay no one evil for evil,
but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you,
live peaceably with all.

On the Keeping of Lent
St. Benedict's Rule, ch 49

The life of a monk ought always to be a Lenten observance.

However, since such virtue is that of few,
we advise that during these days of Lent
he guard his life with all purity
and at the same time
wash away during these holy days all the shortcomings of other times.

This will then be worthily done,
if we restrain ourselves from all vices.

Let us devote ourselves to tearful prayers,
to reading and compunction of heart,
and to abstinence.

The Crown of the Year: Great Lent

2010-02-09T22:06:00.000-08:00

the Crown of the Year

The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency,
lust for power, and idle talk.
But grant unto me, Thy servant,
a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults,
and not to judge my brothers and sisters.
For blessed art Thou unto ages of ages.
Amen.

More on the Prayer of St. Ephrem

Saint Ephrem's Hymns on Fasting

On the Passion of the Saviour
by Our Venerable Father Ephrem the Syrian:
"One of the most interesting passages in the poem is that which describes the Holy Spirit as having come forth in the form of a dove and rent the veil of the Temple at the moment of the Lord's death":

Likewise the Holy Spirit,
who is in the Father,
when he saw
the beloved Son
on the tree of the Cross,
rending the veil,
the temple’s adornment,
suddenly came forth
in the form of a dove.

More texts by St. Ephrem

Hagiography of St. Mary of Egypt

From the Coptic Church:
by prayer and fasting the disciples set forth the Great Commission (of Mt 28),
by prayer and fasting the martyrs offer their lives,
by prayer and fasting in her lenten journey
the Church receives the Crown of the Year.

From the Coptic monk Matthew the Poor:
Monastery of St. Macarius in Wadi el-Natroun, Egypt:
"The point to understand is that fasting is a divine act of life, which we receive from Christ complementary to baptism and fullness. Since its beginning the Church has been occupied with infusing into its own body the acts of Christ’s life so they would become life-giving acts to all its members." On Fasting by Matthew the Poor

by St. John Chrysostom
On Fasting
Fasting is the change of every part of our life. . . Besides, we have a Lord who is meek and loving (philanthropic) and who does not ask for anything beyond our power. Because he neither requires the abstinence from foods, neither that the fast take place for the simple sake of fasting, neither is its aim that we remain with empty stomachs, but that we fast to offer our entire selves to the dedication of spiritual things, having distanced ourselves from secular things. If we regulated our life with a sober mind and directed all of our interest toward spiritual things, and if we ate as much as we needed to satisfy our necessary needs and offered our entire lives to good works, we would not have any need of the help rendered by the fast.

by Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev
Christ the Conqueror of Hell
The Descent of Christ into Hades in Eastern and Western Theological Traditions

Again from St. Ephrem, 2nd mêmrâ "On Reproof"

5 by Alexander Schmemann:

On Fasting and Liturgy

Great Lent

Of Water and the Spirit: A Liturgical Study of Baptism

For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy

Church, World, Mission: Reflections on Orthodoxy in the West

Other Lenten Reflections

Armenian scholar Vigen Guroian:
On Paradise, Pascha, and Springtime ~
Links to Guroian essays and podcasts

by the Czech president and poet Vaclav Havel, 1995
Forgetting We Are Not God:
What is lacking in the only meaningful way of dealing with future conflicts between cultures? Wherein lies that forgotten dimension of democracy that could give it universal resonance? I am convinced that it lies in what I have already tried to suggest-in that spiritual dimension that connects all cultures and in fact all humanity.

by David B. Hart, 2003
Christ and Nothing :
Christ's sacrifice as 'Qurban': "The cross of Christ is not simply a sacrifice, but the place where two opposed understandings of sacrifice clashed. . ."

And in this season moving us into Pascha,
we recollect ourselves in the Lord's own Exodos and Qurban:
the Victory of the Holy Cross,
the Feast of Salvation History,
the Feast of our Baptism and our Discipleship,
the Crown of the Martyrs
and the teleological End of the Ages.

HG Paulos Mar Gegorios LINKS

2010-01-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

HG Dr Paulos Mar Gregorios

Paulos Mar Gregorios, Star of the East

Wiki: Paulos Mar Gregorios

RESEARCH PAPERS & LECTURES

texts by HG Dr. Paulos Mar Gegorios

Research on Gregorian Vision

MOSC Forefathers Page: HG Dr. Paulos Mar Gegorios

Books authored by HG Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios

Pope John Paul II and the Indian Orthodox Church

by HG Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios
re the visit of 1986 by JPII to India. Online text: PDF file

Love’s Freedom: The Grand Mystery

A Spiritual Autobiography by Paulos Mar Gegorios

GURU GREGORIOS (1922-1996): A SMARANANJALI

Fr. Dr. K. M. George

HG Mar Makarios LINKS

2010-01-15T20:27:00.000-08:00

HG Dr. Thomas Mar Makarios

MOSC In Memoriam +HG Dr. Thomas Mar Makarios

Catholicos Elect Launches Website: marmakarios.org

www.MarMakarios.org

Bio +HG Dr. Thomas Mar Makarios

ICON TRIBUTE: +HG Dr. Thomas Mar Makarios

Alma College:

Alma College Remembers +HG Dr. Thomas Mar Makarios

Alma College Memorial +HG Dr. Thomas Mar Makarios

Epiphany - Theophany 2010

2010-01-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Denho - Danaha
The Dawn
Epiphany
Theophany

Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21,22; John 1:29-34:

Baptism of Jesus, Mt 3.13-17, ESV w script cross-ref links

The Baptism of Jesus: wiki resources

The Baptism of Jesus: orthodoxwiki resources

Matthew 3:13-17:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Revelation 22.1-4:

Then he showed me the river of the water of life,

bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.

The baptism in the Jordan
courtesy of coptic.net

Maranatha!
Rev 22:16-17:
I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches.
I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."
And let the one who hears say, "Come."
Let the one who thirsts come forward,
and the one who wants it freely receive
the gift of life-giving water.

Theophany Theology: A Cosmos Revealed

The Blessing of the Waters
in Theophany

reveals the sacramental cosmology of the New Aeon: A patristic light upon this cosmology is Hymn 8 on the Epiphany, by St. Ephrem. In the waters of Genesis Ephrem beholds a kind of prime matter of the cosmos; in the waters of the Jordan Ephrem witnesses a New Creation in Christ.

St. Ephrem's Hymn 14.19-22
on the Epiphany:

Small is the river whereto You have come,
that You should lodge therein and it should cleanse You.
The heavens suffice not for Your mightiness;
how much less shall Baptism contain You!

The womb is smaller than Jordan;
yet was I willing to lodge in the Virgin:
and as I was born from woman,
so too am I to be baptized in Jordan.

Lo! the hosts are standing!
the ranks of Watchers, lo! they worship!
And if I draw near, my Lord, to baptize You,
I tremble for myself with quaking.

The hosts and multitudes call you happy,
all of them, for that you baptize Me.
For this I have chosen you from the womb:
fear not, for I have willed it.

15 hymns on the Epiphany

An Epiphany of The Eighth Day

2010-01-01T22:50:00.001-08:00

Big Question:
Why does The Circumcision on the Eighth Day of Christmas
become the beginning of the New Year Anno Domini?

Short Answer:
Because the Public Naming
of the Incarnate Lord of History in "cutting the Covenant"
changes history itself by fulfilling it.

Happy New Year!

Ps 143.11
For your Name's sake,
Lord, save my life; in your justice save my soul from distress.
Por amor a tu Nombre,
SEÑOR, vivifícame; por tu justicia, saca mi alma de la angustia.

Gloria Dei vivens homo, autem vita hominis visio Dei.

Theotokos of Tender Mercy
written by the hand of Heather Durka

The Eighth Day of Christmas
as
Feast, Parousia, Mystagogy, Beatitude

The 8th Day as Feast
of The Circumcision and the Naming of the Lord:

The Feast Day in Christian Tradition

The Feast in Culture: Mere Comments

And that is the deep meaning of those glorious lists of "begats" which tin-eared modern exegetes assign to some plodding "Priestly" author, not seeing the connection with the redemption foretold. See comments on the Feast as a theme of "Sir Gawain and the Green Night":
...the poem begins and ends with a New Year's Feast -- and for the author and his audience, that was none other than the feast of the Circumcision. The author is careful, throughout the poem, to note the passage of the seasons in terms also of the passage of feasts in the life of the Church~

See also this sermon on The Circumcision offered by Fr. Robert Hart.
Jesus, Y’Shua, is a Hebrew name that means Salvation. . . .

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis ~

The 8th Day as Parousia
in the Scripture and Liturgy of the Church:

The Eighth Day: the Peace of the New Jerusalem

The Eighth Day in Liturgy: Epiclesis and "Maranatha" in the Early Church.

The 8th Day as Mystagogy
in Liturgy, of Theosis and the Eschaton:

Mystagogy, Theosis, Eschaton

OrthodoxWiki basics and resource links.

The Eighth Day of Christmas and
the Eight Beatitudes of the Gospel:

The Eight Beatitudes in Spirituality

The Works of Mercy as a share in the Peace which comes "not of this world."

The Eight Beatitudes in Scripture Commentary

A briefing of textual attentions.

Gloria Dei vivens homo, autem vita hominis visio Dei.

NEXT:
On The 12th Day of Christmas

Theophany Theology: A Cosmos Revealed

The Blessing of the Jordan Waters
in the Theophany Liturgy -- January 6, 2010 --

The baptism in the Jordan

courtesy of coptic.net

a sacramental "crossing over"
into
The New Jerusalem
of
The New Aeon.

Blessings to all in 2010,
the New Year of Our Lord,
Fr. Michael Durka

September 14: Feast of the Holy Cross

2009-09-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

In the 7 Sundays
comprising
the Feast of the Holy Cross,
we behold
the Sign of the Jonah
and
the Hope of our Salvation.

We enter in faith
the culminating celebration of the Church's calendar year.
We enter in hope
the culminating celebration of this world and the world to come.

We enter in love the Holy Mysteries of "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." We enter the heart of the Mother of God, and we encounter the maternal love that she gives to the beloved disciple at the Foot of the Cross. She is the great birth-giver of discipleship -- and thus the Church itself -- the New Eve who is "the Mother of All the Living" members of the Body of Christ.

Note here the "re-capitulation" of Pentecost

in the Feast of the Holy Cross.

And through time and history

see the "Anno Domini" as an epiphany of the Church.

From St. Ephrem in his second mêmrâ
"On Reproof"

Let us be builders of our own minds
into temples suitable for God.

If the Lord dwells in your house,
honor will come to your door.

How much your 'honor' will increase
if God dwells within you.

Be a sanctuary for him, even a priest,
and serve him within your temple.

Just as for your sake he became
High priest, sacrifice, and libation;

you, for his sake, become
temple, priest, and
sacrificial offering.

Transfiguration, St.Mary, and the Holy Cross

2009-09-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Transfiguration: Taboric Light of the Word, Pentecost, and Liturgy
Links to Further Reflections on Scripture and Transfiguration:

Transfiguration in the Epistles of Peter
Transfiguration in the Gospel of John
Transfiguration in the Gospel of Matthew
Transfiguration in the Gospel of Mark
Transfiguration in Mark: The Cry of the Centurion

Transfiguration: Christ the Light-Giver
Read more On Becoming Light

Transfiguration: Epiphanic Light
Only in Luke's Gospel do we encounter Tabor as an epiphany of the 8th Day,and only here in the entire New Testament is Jerusalem's Golgotha specifically named as that Epiphanic Reality which the events of "The 2nd Book of Moses" was only its type. The Taboric Light as 4 Dimensions of the Eighth Day:

discipleship and beatitudes
communio and theosis
mystagogy and mysterion
sanctus and gloria

Icon of Christ the Lightgiver
written by the hand of Heather Durka

Transfiguration of the Lord
The Transfiguration of the Lord
brings us into the Mystery of the Lord
as He is in Himself:
"Glorious, uncreated, self-existing;
eternal, adorable, consubstantial~"

These Divine Names are the praises we sing just after the "Theh've" for the Holy Qurbana's 3rd, and consummate, 3-fold Blessing.

Through this praise of the Divine Name,
the faithful mystically enter "the Great Elevation" of the Holy Gifts for the Holy Ones. Liturgically we are sharing the Mystery of the Revelation which Peter, James, and John encountered on Mt. Tabor.

Transfiguration Tradition: St. Makarios and Macarian Themes

Ascension of St. Mary
In the Festival of the Ascension of St. Mary,
a symbol of the life and pilgrimage of the Church itself.

7 Sundays of the Holy Cross
behold the Sign of the Jonah and the Hope of our Salvation

Aug. 15: Dormition and Ascension of St. Mary

2009-08-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

On the Dormition and Ascension of St. Mary the Mother of God

The Oriental Orthodox Churches name the dormition of the God-bearer as "The Festival of the Ascension of St. Mary," a symbol of the life and pilgrimage of the Church itself.

This Marian Feast invites us to encounter Christ,
to embrace His life in the Spirit, such that
we become wholly Christ-like:
to become "divinized in Christ"
through all the gifts of the Spirit
given to the Church
in Pentecost.

May the joy of the Feast and its promise in Christ be upon you,
Fr. Michael Durka +

Theotokos
written by Heather Durka

Other Links to the Feast:

Dormition Icon and text, University of Balamand, Lebanon

See pdf texts on the Dormition by St. John of Damascus and St. Gregory Palamas

Early Fathers on the Feast of the Dormition and Ascension

Coptic image of The Dormition:

The Monastery of St. Macarius (Deir Abu Magar)

FYI:

Iconographic Painting of "the Dormition" by el Greco, discovered in 1983

Transfiguration: Christ the Light-giver

2009-08-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Becoming Light:

Fr. K.M. George, "The Silent Roots."
Orthodox Perspectives on Christian Spirituality
Geneva, WCC Publications, 1994) 20-21;

here in the context of Benedict's "conversatio morum"
as quoted by Macrina at A Vow of Conversation

excerpt:

The biblical image of the deity as luminous
is central to the patristic theological and spiritual vision.

How thoroughly the Johannine celebration of the image of light
has penetrated the Eastern spiritual vision is clearly seen in Egyptian and Syro-Palestinian desert spirituality, the writings of seminal theologians like the Cappadocians, the hesychast tradition of Mount Athos, Russian spirituality, as well as in the liturgical texts and the practice of iconography.

“God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” is the message John proclaims, which, he testifies, he and his fellow apostles heard from Jesus Christ himself (1 John 1:5).

The incarnate image of that light was Christ himself. “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). This glorious light has become the life of the world and so the whole creation now is animated by it. The highest aspiration in the Eastern view thus consists not only in walking in this light, which constitutes our ethical being, but in becoming light itself, participating fully in the divine glory.

The image of resplendent divine light is a visual symbol that relates the fleeting experience of beauty in our senses to the abiding beauty of heavenly Jerusalem through the incarnate image of Christ, “the image of the invisible God” and the “effulgence of God’s glory”.

The destiny of creation is to become luminous and transparent to the source of all being. As one of the prayers of the Eastern church says: “O God, you started the work of creation with light in order that the whole creation may become light.”

The patristic vision of the mutually transparent choirs of angels that encircle and dance around the luminous throne of light and its confident faith in humanity’s possibility to participate in this radiant choreography of beauty is not a metaphorical embellishment to theology, but it is theology at its best.

Icon of Christ the Lightgiver
written by the hand of Heather Durka

This aesthetic vision is decisive for God-language, and it flows into an ensemble of colours, sounds, smell, taste, gestures and rites.

The hope is that the thick, heavy matter that now weighs us down in various forms shall become incandescent by participation in the divine light. As Gregory of Nazianzus, the poet-theologian, says of the transfiguration of Christ, “it initiates us into the mystery of the future”.

The light of Tabor, the mount of transfiguration,
is for Gregory and other teachers of the church
the symbol par excellence of
the beauty and goodness of created nature;
and light signifies its final destiny as well.

This aesthetic experience is unquestionably true to the essential meaning of the incarnation, which signifies the participation of created nature in the experience of divinization, as formulated in the famous dictum of Athanasius that “God became a human being that human beings may become divine”.

The conviction that all matter, including inorganic matter, carries the potential of transfiguration underscores the sacramental vision and spiritual practice of the Eastern church.

Transfiguration: Epiphanic Light

2009-08-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

August 6:
The Transfiguration of the Lord

The Feast in 4 Dimensions of The Eighth Day

Only in Luke's Gospel
do we encounter Tabor as an epiphany of the 8th Day,
and only here in the entire New Testament is Jerusalem's Golgotha
specifically named as that Epiphanic Reality
which the events of "The 2nd Book of Moses" was only its type.

Lk 9.27-31
“But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God." Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodos, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

1— as spiritual ascent, trekking up the holy mountain – as a typos of whole-hearted discipleship

the Gospel’s Eight Beatitudes as ora et labora

2— as Liturgical Epektasis and Mysterion:

communio in sacris, communio sanctorum
see also Fr.B.Varghese on the West Syriac Liturgy -- Notes from the Gospels, Didache, Ephrem ... to Bouyer, deLubac, Schmemann, and Zizioulas

3— as Mystagogy, a singular gift embodied in Christ-like love:

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. St. Paul, Gal. 2.20

Dilige et quod vis fac.St. Augustine, Sermo 1 Jn 7, 8

4— as Worship and Prayer, in both worlds – now and unto the Ages of Ages:

Gloria Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei. St. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 4, 20, 7

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.”

Holy Holy Holy -- what the Seraphim handed on to us in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4

The Transfiguration of the Lord
brings us into the Mystery of the Lord...

Through the liturgy's praise of the Divine Name,
the faithful mystically enter "The Great Elevation" of the Holy Gifts for the Holy Ones...

We are participating in the Mystery of the Revelation which Peter, James, and John shared on Mt. Tabor...

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke each give the transfiguration miracle a prominent role.

John the Beloved, the only evangelist actually at the miracle on Tabor, alone of the four evangelists does not include this miracle in his gospel testament-- if all we see are words.

But the Gospel of John the Evangelist is, in a sense, a vision of one who has never ceased witnessing that Light of Tabor in Spirit and truth.

Icon of St. John of Patmos
written by the hand of Heather Durka

Read More on Taboric Light ~ Johannine Transfiguration on the Lucan Road to Emmaus.

Becoming light

excerpts from the nun Macrina at A Vow of Conversation, quotes Malankara Orthodox Priest-Theologian Rev. K.M. George in "The Silent Roots: Orthodox Perspectives on Christian Spirituality,"
and therein reference to Ss. Gregory Nazianzus and Athanasius of Alexandria:

The biblical image of the deity as luminous is central to the patristic theological and spiritual vision.

How thoroughly the Johannine celebration of the image of light has penetrated the Eastern spiritual vision is clearly seen in Egyptian and Syro-Palestinian desert spirituality, the writings of seminal theologians like the Cappadocians, the hesychast tradition of Mount Athos, Russian spirituality, as well as in the liturgical texts and the practice of iconography. “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” is the message John proclaims, which, he testifies, he and his fellow apostles heard from Jesus Christ himself (1 John 1:5).

The incarnate image of that light was Christ himself. “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). This glorious light has become the life of the world and so the whole creation now is animated by it.

The highest aspiration in the Eastern view thus consists not only in walking in this light, which constitutes our ethical being, but in becoming light itself, participating fully in the divine glory....As one of the prayers of the Eastern church says: “O God, you started the work of creation with light in order that the whole creation may become light.”

The patristic vision ... of beauty is not a metaphorical embellishment to theology, but it is theology at its best. This aesthetic vision is decisive for God-language, and it flows into an ensemble of colours, sounds, smell, taste, gestures and rites. The hope is that the thick, heavy matter that now weighs us down in various forms shall become incandescent by participation in the divine light.

As Gregory of Nazianzus ...says of the transfiguration of Christ, “it initiates us into the mystery of the future”. The light of Tabor, the mount of transfiguration, is for Gregory and other teachers of the Church the symbol par excellence of the beauty and goodness of created nature; and light signifies its final destiny as well.

This aesthetic experience is unquestionably true to the essential meaning of the Incarnation, which signifies the participation of created nature in the experience of divinization, as formulated in the famous dictum of Athanasius: “God became a human being that human beings may become divine”. The conviction that all matter, including inorganic matter, carries the potential of transfiguration underscores the sacramental vision and spiritual practice of the Eastern Church.

And in that "mystagogy of the Future"
-- so much a benedictine "conversatio morum" --
let us recollect Fr. Schmemann's insight
on the epiphanic Mysterion of the Assembly:
More on Transfiguration in the "Sacrament of the Assembly"

Which brings us to the Originating Mystery per se:

St. Andrei Rublev, who made known the light of Heaven through his humble and magnificent icon of the Holy Trinity, from 1409 (when he was commissioned to do the icon) until 1425 (when it was finished) would sit before the icons all day on feast days when he did not work. In the light of the icons he was elevated into the light of Heaven, and in that light he could see light, and "transmitted" -- or better, "translated" -- that same light into his icon of the Trinity.

Rublev's central angel: the communion of love
Read More

The feast "shows us how we see" the Holy Mysteries of our salvation
in the sacraments, in the liturgy, in the icons,
and in our journey of conversion.

The Transfiguration Feast
has everything to do
with the Parousia,
with the Coming of the Kingdom
with the Victory of the Cross.

By the light of the Transfiguration Miracle
and with the eyes of faith we see, from Glory to Glory,
a "plethora in blessings" in the Divine Light of "The 8th Day."

Read More on Makarios the Great and Transfiguration

Our Lord preached to tens of thousands,
but took only three with Him to ascend the Holy Mount of Tabor.
And so those three, lifted into the Mysteries of Glory,
became vessels of light to illumine the Kingdom.

TODAY each of us partakes of that very same journey up the Mount
when we gather into "the chapel light"
of the very same Mysteries of the Kingdom,
singing
By Thy Light we see the Light, Jesus full of Light.

May your journey in Christ,
be radiant in the Light of Tabor.
Fr. Michael Durka +

Further Reflections --
Fr. Patrick Reardon on Scripture and Transfiguration:

Transfiguration in the Epistles of Peter

Transfiguration in the Gospel of John

Transfiguration in the Gospel of Matthew

Transfiguration in the Gospel of Mark

Transfiguration in Mark: The Cry of the Centurion

Armenian Orthodox theologian Vigen Guroian and
Coptic Orthodox theologian Andrew Youssef:
On Morality in the Light of the Transfiguration

Transfiguration: Liturgy and Eschatology re. Moral Action

In a word, we embrace the Word through the life-long, all-encompassing and all-fulfilling "Fiat!" of Mary His Mother

Coptic Icon
of
the Dormition and Ascension
of the Theotokos

Indian Orthodox Iconographer video

2009-05-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

A video news clip about an Indian Orthodox iconographer:
Rev. Dr. Georgy Joseph
B.A., B.D., M.Sc.(A.Psy.), M.Th., D.E.H.M.

courtesy of Malankara Orthodox TV, 2009 July Archives #2

Pentecost 2009

2009-05-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

The Feast as The ongoing Event of Revelation and Incarnation and Communion:
Christolgy as
discipleship and theosis,
Communio sanctorum, Communio in Sacris.

Ascension of the Lord, click to read entire post
In Himself, Jesus has raised our humanity into Heaven's Glory.
That is why the members of His Body are able to to encounter and to share in all the Mysteries of Salvation.

The Ascension, followed by and united to Pentecost, makes available to us a real life in the Way of the Incarnate Word, the Lord of Heaven and earth:
We hear the Word,
we do what the Word says,
we become the living, acting Body of the Word, the Totus Christus.

Often we hear the phrase "What would Jesus do?"
Our answer is: "He is doing now what He has ALREADY been doing all along!"
The Lord has made Himself present and acting through the Spirit in the Church, so that "what He is doing" is in what we are doing in the Spirit as the living members of His one Body.

Pentecost, click to read more, "from Ascension to Epiclesis"

Icon of St. John the Theologian
written by the hand of Heather Durka

With the Theolgian of Patmos we remember the 7 Words of the Cross, and receiving Mary as our Mother.

With St. John we too read the letters of the Apostle Paul,
who recollects us in the Life-giving Cross of Col 1.24.

In that Johannine vision
we carry within our discipleship the Victory of the Cross,
the crown of the Church's yearly liturgical pilgrimage into the New Jerusalem,
the very journey of our Life in Christ,
the mystagogy of all Salvation History,
the Revelation to the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse,
and the embodiment of Paul's Apostolic Martyrion
in and to the Catholica and "for the sake of the world":

1 Cor. 4.9-13
For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

Gal. 2.20
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Gal. 6.14
But far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

In a word, we embrace the Word through the life-long, all-encompassing and all-fulfilling "Fiat!" of Mary His Mother

Coptic Icon
of
the Dormition and Ascension
of the Theotokos

PASCHA 2009

2009-04-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

Alleluia,
He is Risen!

Come share with us
the beauty of the Lord in the New Jerusalem,

Christ the Light of the East –

Alongside the very first disciples,
we witness the ongoing Mystery of the Resurrection
in our own present day with the Eyes of Faith:

In His Light we see the Light~

Just as the Angel told them,
"Go to Galilee where you will see Him as He Promised!"

Icon of the Messenger
written by the hand of Heather Durka

In Holy Qurbana with all the saints of Heaven and earth
we sing together the joyful hymn of hope that always begins
our Divine Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem:

By Thy Light, we see the Light,
Jesus full of light;
Thou true light dost give the Light to Thy creatures all.
Lighten us with Thy glad Light,
Thou the Father's Light Divine.

Salvation and the Easter Mysteries:

Icon of the Face Not Made by Human Hands,
The Mandylion
written by Heather Durka

Christ the Conqueror of Hell:
Bp H. Alfeyev, excerpt:
Icons of the Resurrection of Christ
never depict the resurrection itself, i.e., Christ coming out of the grave.
They rather depict ... to be more precise, the rising of Christ out of hell ~
one of the most mysterious, enigmatic, and inexplicable events in New Testament history.

In today’s Christian world, this event is understood differently.
How can these … points of view be reconciled?
What was the original faith of the Church?
What do early Christian sources tell us --
and what is its soteriological significance?
Read More

Annuciation - Epiclesis - Pentecost AD 2009 and The Hour

2009-04-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

Blessings in the Feast of the Annunciation

Ephrem on the Annunciation
of the Word Incarnate in the womb of the Virgin:

excerpt:
It was fitting that the Architect of the works of creation should come and raise up the house that had fallen and that the hovering Spirit should sanctify the buildings that were unclean.

Thus, if the Progenitor entrusted the judgment that is to come to his Son, it is clear that he accomplished the creation of humanity and its restoration through him as well.
He was the live coal, which had come to kindle the briars and thorns.
He dwelt in the womb and cleansed it and sanctified the place of the birth pangs and the curses.

The flame, which Moses saw, was moistening the bush and distilling the fat lest it be inflamed. The likeness of refined gold could be seen in the bush, entering into the fire but without being consumed.

This happened so that it might make known that living fire which was to come at the end, watering and moistening the womb of the Virgin and clothing it like the fire that enveloped the bush.
Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron I.25
cf. Macrina, A Vow of Conversation

Luke 1.35-38
And the angel answered her,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be called holy —
the Son of God

St. Gabriel of Sinai
written by Heather Durka

And Mary replied to the Angel Gabriel,
"Behold, I am the servant of the Lord;
let it be to me according to your word."

Maranatha
O Come Emmanuel
and
the Mysteries of Mary's Fiat

Lk's Magnificat: Seven Mariological Antiphons fulfill OT typology

O Come Emmanuel

excerpt:
The stanzas of this favorite Advent hymn are based on seven ancient antiphons (refrains) for the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). ...Each is based on Scripture and all were composed to remind the Church that this Creation will end and Jesus will come back to rescue His people and bring them to eternal life.

Theotokos of Tender Mercy
written by the hand of Kh. Heather Durka

Ecclesia Orans:

Our Lenten Journey to Easter
-- and to the Eschaton and into the New Aeon --
is carried within
Mary's fiat
at the Annuciation

Heavenly Liturgy:

every liturgy of the Church an Anamnesis of
Mary's Fiat and
the overshadowing of the Spirit

Vigils of the the Syriac Qurbono, Mawrbo:
every Sunday Divine Liturgy begins in the Vigil Hours of Prayer, where the Church stands before the Gates of Paradise as the priest, deacons, and choirs pray before the Great Veil of the Altar ~
The Magnificat at Night
Standing before the central door to the sanctuary,
the priest makes the sign of the Cross
and with upraised hands
says the following prayers before chanting the Angelic Hymn
Glory to God in the highest

Sanctify us by Your holiness, O Lord, Who are all holy.
You have willed to be born of the holy Virgin Mary
in order that with purity we may commemorate her
and be protected by her prayers.
We raise to You praise in this her feast
now, always and forever.
Amen.

And in the same Syriac Divine Liturgy,

in the in-gathering, the Assembling of the Faithful,
in the Assembly itself as the Bride of Christ
in the Preparation of the Gifts,
in the Proclamation of the Gospel,
in the Blessing of the Censer and Great Incensations
in the Great Dyptichs of Heavenly Intercession and Communion,
in the Elevation of the Gifts: + Holy for the Holy +
in the Kukilions, mariological hymns for the Bride of Christ
in the pre-communion Procession of the Mysteries
in the Communion of the Faithful,
in the Seraphic Hymns of Holy Communion
in the Thanksgiving and Dismissal Prayers
in the radix of this whole and entire, singular Mystery of the Overshadowing of the Spirit in the Anaphora of St. James of Jerusalem,

The Mysteries of the Qurban of Christ in the Church:
The Deacon:

Barekhmor,
how awesome is this hour
and how dreadful is this moment,
O my beloved,
wherein the Holy Spirit from the topmost heights
takes wing and descends and hovers and rests
upon this Eucharist here present
and sanctifies it for our salvation.
Be in calm and awe,
while standing and praying.

cf.litugy text, SOR.CUA

On the Origins of Worship on Sunday
and
The Mystery of the Eighth Day

A Mariological Ecclesiology:
Mary the New Eve
Mother of the Body of Christ
Mother of the Members of the Body
and
Mother Church

cf.
Alexander Schmemann's "Introduction to Liturgical Theology":
ch.2 excerpt:
The Church is praying ‘in order to surround God with common prayers as with an army, gathered together in a single place....’ This idea of the praying Church, ecclesia orans
clearly corresponds to the whole spirit of early Christian ecclesiology, to the liturgical piety of the pre-Nicene Church. . . . There is good reason to regard the principle of the Ordo i.e., of that co-relation and conjunction of the Eucharist with the liturgy of time in which we recognize the fundamental structure of the Church’s prayer, as having existed from the very beginning in her ‘rule of prayer,’as the real principle of this rule.

Schmemann: Ecclesia Orans, Ordo and Eschatological Mystery (pdf)

Schmemann: Intro To Liturgical Theology. Click on google 'Table of Contents' chapter links

Fagerberg on Schmemann: Theologia Prima, esp see p 77-78

see 'Table of Contents' to review scope of Ecclesia Orans and lex orandi lex credendi

See also:

S.H. Griffith on
"fides adorans mysterium"
in the thought of St. Ephrem

Annunciation - Pentecost - Church: Ephrem on Qurbana

Regarding the Ecclesia Orans in "the fiat of eucharistic liturgy":
Qurbana as an anamnesis of "the Word made flesh" at the Annuciation

Ecclesia Orans

Pentecost 2007
with thanks to
St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church of Irvine, CA

The Blessing of Holy Muron in the Armenian Church:
an expression of the Spirit:
in the Oils of Anointing and
the Assembling of the Anointed Ones,
Ecclesia Orans

Photos of the Armenian Orthodox Church for the Blessing of the Holy Muron held in the Mother See of the Holy Etchemiadsin of the Armenian Orthodox Church

In the Annuciation
and the Church's ongoing Pentecost,
the Great Archangel Gabriel names to us anew
the Qurban of Christ:

Barekhmor,
how awesome is this hour
and how dreadful is this moment,
O my beloved,
wherein the Holy Spirit from the topmost heights
takes wing and descends and hovers and rests
upon this Eucharist here present
- this Ecclesia Orans -
and sanctifies it for our salvation.
Be in calm and awe,
while standing and praying.

Re-Turning to Great Lent, 2009

2009-02-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

The First Sunday of Great Lent
starts by commemorating the first miracle performed by Jesus:
turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee.

A common translation (NRSV) of Jn 2.3-4:

When the wine gave out,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
“They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?
My hour has not yet come.”

An english Peshitta translates the last line: "My turn has not yet come."

Layers of meaning in such a turn of events
in the words of the Word we "behold the man"
recollecting the turns and transformations of His Hour:

the body of history and humanity that thirsts for salvation,
His Body that suffers Gabbatha and Golgotha,
His Body that gloriously lives as the Church;
His hour at Pentecost that will anoint and transform her with the Spirit anew, all within her own ongoing fiat to the promptings of the same Spirit who conceived Him in her body~

Just as reception of the Holy Eucharist forms the Body of Christ in us,
so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us,
as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ:
from humble birth to the full stature
of a human life transfigured
in the Divine Light of Theosis, or Deification.

--Excerpt from Kalapurayil essay below

The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem

O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency,
lust for power, and idle talk.

Grant unto me, Thy servant,
a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love.

O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults,
and not to judge my brothers and sisters.

Blessed art Thou unto the Ages of ages.
Amen.

Prayer of St. Ephrem for Great Lent

Saint Ephrem's Hymns on Fasting

On the Passion of the Saviour
by Our Venerable Father Ephrem the Syrian:
"One of the most interesting passages in the poem is that which describes the Holy Spirit as having come forth in the form of a dove and rent the veil of the Temple at the moment of the Lord‘s death":

Likewise the Holy Spirit,
who is in the Father,
when he saw
the beloved Son
on the tree of the Cross,
rending the veil,
the temple’s adornment,
suddenly came forth
in the form of a dove.

More texts by St. Ephrem

Hagiography of St. Mary of Egypt

by Fr. Matthew the Poor
Monastery of St. Macarius in Wadi el-Natroun, Egypt:
"The point to understand is that fasting is a divine act of life, which we receive from Christ complementary to baptism and fullness. Since its beginning the Church has been occupied with infusing into its own body the acts of Christ’s life so they would become life-giving acts to all its members." On Fasting by Matthew the Poor

by St. John Chrysostom
On Fasting
Fasting is the change of every part of our life. . . Besides, we have a Lord who is meek and loving (philanthropic) and who does not ask for anything beyond our power. Because he neither requires the abstinence from foods, neither that the fast take place for the simple sake of fasting, neither is its aim that we remain with empty stomachs, but that we fast to offer our entire selves to the dedication of spiritual things, having distanced ourselves from secular things. If we regulated our life with a sober mind and directed all of our interest toward spiritual things, and if we ate as much as we needed to satisfy our necessary needs and offered our entire lives to good works, we would not have any need of the help rendered by the fast.

by Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev
Christ the Conqueror of Hell
The Descent of Christ into Hades in Eastern and Western Theological Traditions

The Liturgical Year as a Transforming Parousia
excerpts of essay by Joseph Kalapurayil, posted at St. Gregorios IOC, San Francisco.

Just as reception of the Holy Eucharist forms the Body of Christ in us,
so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us,
as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ:
from humble birth to the full stature of
a human life transfigured in the Divine Light
of Theosis, or Deification.

By following this cycle of the Church Liturgical Calendar, we can get into the rhythm and flow of the Christian story, to experience it, to learn it, to re-live it through the telling and the doing.

Far from being simply a calendar, the liturgical year in the life of the Church is the life of Christians living in community as brothers and sisters - in awareness of God's kingdom, remembering the entire communion of Prophets, Apostles, Saints and all of God's people on Earth and in Heaven, being renewed by God's saving love, helping one another, witnessing Christ's good news, and waiting for the fullness of the coming Kingdom according to God's timing...

In entering and participating in these eternally present events, we are changed; we are transformed. This allows us to proclaim with Saint Paul:
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.(Gal 2:20)

But, there is a certain order to the Church’s presentation of the Gospel teachings and the primary events of our Sacred History.

Sacred word and image comes alive in these services, offering the participant the greatest encounter with our Living Tradition.

All this effort culminates in the ultimate goal of the Christian and the dynamic essence of the Liturgical Year: a means to bring about our UNION WITH CHRIST.

The Church invites us, through our participation in the Liturgical Year, to re-live the entire life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We enter union with our Lord: in His Nativity, His growth in Nazareth, His ministry, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. ‘Each liturgical feast renews and in some sense actualizes the event of which it is a symbol; it takes the event out of the past and makes it immediate. The liturgical year is, for us, a special means of union with Christ.’

Just as reception of the Holy Eucharist forms the Body of Christ in us, so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us, as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ: from humble birth to the full stature of a human life transfigured in the divine light of Theosis, or Deification. This is the path of sanctity, the path of sainthood.

See Also Observing Great Lent essay by J. Kalapurayil

Theophany: Cosmic Liturgy

2009-01-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

Revelation 22.1-4:
Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.

Maranatha!
Rev 22:16-17
I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches.
I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."
And let the one who hears say, "Come."
Let the one who thirsts come forward,
and the one who wants it freely receive the gift of life-giving water.

Theophany Theology: A Cosmos Revealed

The Blessing of the Waters
in Theophany
reveals the sacramental cosmology of the New Aeon: A patristic light upon this cosmology is Hymn 8 on the Epiphany, by St. Ephrem. In the waters of Genesis Ephrem beholds a kind of prime matter of the cosmos; in the waters of the Jordan Ephrem witnesses a New Creation in Christ.

St. Ephrem's Hymn 14 on the Epiphany:
19. "Small is the river whereto You have come,
—that You should lodge therein and it should cleanse You.
—The heavens suffice not for Your mightiness;
—how much less shall Baptism contain You!"

20. "The womb is smaller than Jordan;
—yet was I willing to lodge in the Virgin:
—and as I was born from woman,
—so too am I to be baptized in Jordan."

21. "Lo! the hosts are standing!
—the ranks of Watchers, lo! they worship!
—And if I draw near, my Lord, to baptize You,
—I tremble for myself with quaking."

22. "The hosts and multitudes call you happy,
—all of them, for that you baptize Me.
—For this I have chosen you from the womb:
—fear not, for I have willed it.

15 hymns on the Epiphany

New Year's Day and The Eighth Day, A.D. 2009

2009-01-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

The Eighth Day of Christmas
as
1--Feast: our Namesake
2--Parousia: Maranatha!
3--Mystagogy: "Christ's Peace" & Theosis
4--Beatitude: Gloria Dei vivens homo, autem vita hominis visio Dei.

Big Question:
Why does The Circumcision on the Eighth Day of Christmas
become the beginning of the New Year, Anno Domini 2009 ?

Short Answer:
Because the Public Naming of Jesus
-- the Incarnate Lord of History --
precisely in the blood-letting of circumcision,
a "cutting the Covenant" which
changes all history by fulfilling history itself.

Ps 143.11
For your Name's sake,
Lord, save my life; in your justice save my soul from distress.
Por amor a tu Nombre,
SEÑOR, vivifícame; por tu justicia, saca mi alma de la angustia.

Gospels of Matthew and Luke:
But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us). [Mt 1.20-23, cf Isaiah 7.14]
And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the Name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. [Lk 2.21]

1
The 8th Day as Feast
of The Circumcision and the Naming of the Lord:

The Feast Day in Christian Tradition

The Feast in Culture: Mere Comments

And that is the deep meaning of those glorious lists of "begats" which tin-eared modern exegetes assign to some plodding "Priestly" author, not seeing the connection with the redemption foretold. See comments on the Feast as a theme of "Sir Gawain and the Green Night":
...the poem begins and ends with a New Year's Feast -- and for the author and his audience, that was none other than the feast of the Circumcision. The author is careful, throughout the poem, to note the passage of the seasons in terms also of the passage of feasts in the life of the Church~

See also this sermon on The Circumcision offered by Fr. Robert Hart.
Jesus, Y’Shua, is a Hebrew name that means Salvation. . . .

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis ~

Happy New Year!

2
The 8th Day as Parousia in the Scripture and Liturgy of the Church:

The Eighth Day: the Peace of the New Jerusalem

The Eighth Day in Liturgy: Epiclesis and "Maranatha" in the Early Church.

Happy New Year!

3
The 8th Day as Mystagogy in Liturgy
of Theosis and the Eschaton:

Mystagogy, Theosis, Eschaton

OrthodoxWiki basics and resource links.

manger and circumcision, Cross and Eucharist

the Mystery of Bethlehem as the "House of Bread" for Eucharist,
the Manger as "feeding trough" for all creation,
the Circumcision as a typos of the Cross.

The 8th Day and the 8 Weeks:
The Orthodox Churches of the Middle East prepare for The Nativity over 8 Weeks.
This Oriental Advent is mystagogically reflected in the Feast of The Circumscision on the Eighth Day of the Nativity.
The Church's Liturgical Feast makes sacramentally present
the "cutting of the Covenant" and the public naming of the infant "Jesus" -- as do the initial Sundays of the Eight Weeks of Preparation for the Nativity:

Sanctification of the Church: Koodhosh Eetho

Dedication of the Church: Hoodhosh Eetho

The Eight Beatitudes in Spirituality

The Works of Mercy as a share in the Peace which comes "not of this world."

The Eight Beatitudes in Scripture Commentary

A briefing of textual attentions.

Gloria Dei vivens homo, autem vita hominis visio Dei.
Happy New Year!

NEXT:
On The 12th Day of Christmas

Theophany Theology: A Cosmos Revealed

Dedication Sunday, Hoodhosh Eetho

2008-11-09T13:37:00.000-08:00

Hoodhosh Eetho

Nov. 8, 2009

Notes on Dedication Sunday as
an original sense of the Catholica:
The wholeness of Christ in
the whole and entire Communion of the Saints;
i.e.,
Pneumatolgy and the Synergy of the Catholica:
in Mary and the Church we encounter the Totus Christus of the Heavenly Liturgy.

In the 8 Sundays before Christmas,
this second Sunday of the Church Year of Salvation History
reflects upon, and liturgically embodies, Mary's fiat in Luke's Gospel (Lk 1.38).

Just as Mary wholly dedicates herself to the Sanctifying Spirit
and therein conceives the Word in her womb,
so too
the Church dedicates herself to the Sanctifying Spirit,
wherein the Glorious Christ is conceived "in totu" in her members
-- i.e.,
whole and entire in His Mystical Body, the Church.

Acts of the Apostles, 2.42:
This very Dedication is the living and the original Pentecost,
the dedication of those disciples who are "born of water and the Spirit"
and who continue
wholly dedicating and devoting themselves "to the teaching of the Apostles and the common life, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers."

The Apostles' Creed summarizes precisely this baptismal economy in its concluding word:
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and Life Everlasting. Amen

This mission of the Spirit animates the communion of the saints, the christological transformation that forgives sins and raises the dead.

Thus the Spirit in the "communion of the saints" is both a Sanctification and a Dedication. Moreover, the "Sanctification from the Spirit" is received through a consummating ecclesial Dedication.

So the Dedication is an "ecclesial fiat" which,
precisely as a liturgical fiat of the Communion of the Saints,
enacts and embodies the wholeness,
i.e., the catholicity
of the Son's Salvific Mission. Here is "the essential act" of the one and whole Church in the Spirit of Christ.
This "dedicating fiat" is the singular Communal Act that "makes" the Church what it is.

The Pnematological Epiphany of the Diptychs
Thus the Spirit acts in the Church:
The synergies of Divine Love within the Liturgical prayer of the Totus Christus:
The Spirit sanctifies the Catholica, the whole and entire Mystical Body of Glorious Lord and all His Members, through the intercessory dedications of the Anaphora.
The Diptychs are this fiat made by the Communion of Saints.

Within the overall Qurban of the Liturgy,
the Anamnesis includes, as the consummating Dedication of the Epiclesis,
the intercessions of the Communio Ecclesiae.

Dynamis - Exousia - Parousia
The communio sanctorum is "present in power" through the Anamnesis.
The Spirit's mission upon "the Holy Things for the Holy Ones" consecrates the Church as a "Communio in Sacris," a sacramental Parousia of the Heavenly Kingdom.

The Diptychs name us as children to grace and brethren in the Lord's own Divine Sonship.

The Holy Spirit overshadows and tabernacles upon the Blessed Virgin;
the same Spirit -- "Who completes and perfects all that is and all that will be" --
is the Gift of Sanctification Sunday, the First Sunday of the Church Year.
The Catholica of Christ is the Gift of the Second Sunday of the Year, and the Sanctifying Gift of the Epiclesis made present in the Diptychs of the Anaphora.

Indeed,
Holy Gifts for the Holy One!

Excerpt from Bishop Ware, "The Orthodox Way":

Read more, re. Pentecost - Epiclesis; Diptychs - Church.

Ecumenical Notes: on the Spirit in the Church:
a perichoresis of the Word in the Spirit in the Church--

Online Audio Hymns of the Syriac Church:
This website offers audio excerpts of liturgical hymns from the Syriac Liturgies of the Church.

Sunday of the Consecration of the Church

The Blessing of Holy Muron in the Armenian Church:
expression of Sanctification and Dedication
in the Liturgies of Anointing and the Anointed Ones

See more here

Photos and text of speech delivered by H.G. Thomas Mar Athanasios of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church on the Occasion of the Mooron Koodasha of the Armenian Orthodox Church held in the Mother See of the Holy Etchemiadsin of the Armenian Orthodox Church

United Through Our Holy Muron

The Blessing of the Holy Chrism is an important milestone in the life of the Church. The ingredients for the Holy Chrism symbolize the perfection of virtues whose fullness and sacramental unity is our Lord Jesus Christ. But the process of creation of the Holy Muron exemplifies the richness and unity of the fabric of the Armenian Church, clergy and lay working together in a structure that is truly unique among Churches.

The right to bless the Holy Chrism (or Muron) is reserved solely for the consecrated head of the Church, the Catholicos of All Armenians. But every level of the faithful participates in the process up to the point of blessing.

The ingredients for the Holy Chrism are brought to Armenia from countries around the world. Lay and clergy alike participate in the gathering and transport of the elements. Like the Armenian nation today, all blend together upon reaching the Homeland. Members of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin give offerings of prayer and incense during the process of creation. As the ingredients are combined, the brotherhood themselves assemble from being scattered around the world, called together by the act of blessing the Muron.
read entire text here:
the Armenian Church Mother See click on link in lower right corner for explanation essay, "United Through Our Holy Muron."

the Word breathing forth Love

Verbum Spirans Amorem

cf, St.Thomas, ST 1.43.5.ad2

Amanesis Epiclesis Diptychs, Kukilion - Quqliun

2008-11-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

Anaphora and Anamnesis,
-- Epiclesis into Diptychs into Kukilions / Quqliuns

Syriac Liturgical Theology
with special attention to
the Malankara Syriac Rite
of the Indian Orthodox Church

West Syrian Liturgical Theology

Fr. Baby Varghese
Published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004
ISBN 0754606198, 9780754606192
excerpts:

The Anphora and the Great Cloud of Winesses
Florovsky on the Communion of the Saints:
"communio in sacris"
and
"communio sanctorum"

re. Nicholas Arseniev and Georges Florovsky:

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Communion,
"on earth as it is Heaven":

The first Watch of Morning Prayer:
Kukilions - Quqliuns
on the significance of the Qaumo of Lilyo

Athanasius on Adam and the Priestly Watch of the Catholica:

On Mary and our humanity and Theosis:

ON THE DIPTYCHS

One in Christ,
the Catholic Church and the Communion of the Saints:

Eucharist Bishop Church:
cf Zizioulas: Where the Eucharist is, there is the Catholic Church

Thus the reading of the Diptychs
is an Anamnesis of the oneness and catholicity of the Church,
. . . the bond of love that unites each and eveyone,
. . . the Book of Life~

Holy things for the Holy!

Verbum Spirans Amorem

Sanctification of the Church: Koodhosh Eetho

2008-11-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

The Sunday of Koodhosh Eetho

Nov. 1, 2009

The Church Year and the Advent of Christ:

Following upon our Sundays of the Holy Cross -- a "liturgical icon" which recapitulates our communion in the Mysterion and Parousia of the Resurrection and the Eschaton --

we encounter again "the beginning and the end"
in
the Oriental Orthodox Church's Liturgical Year of seasons and feasts
-- on the 8th Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord.

Sinai St Gabriel, written by K. Heather Durka

In each of these Sunday Gospels of the New Year,
we encounter the Archangel Gabriel in his mission
to prepare us in receiving the Child of Bethlehem,
the Lord of Heaven and earth, the Babe who is Pantokrator ~

Archangel Gabriel's mission for the Word Incarnate
belongs as well to the initial Kukilions
following the Epiclesis in the Anaphora.

The consecration of the "Mariological Assembly"
-- as the Ecclesial Body of Christ --
is carried through all the Kukilions,
but especially recollected as the choirs sing
Peace the bright archangel brought
hailing Mary fair,
favored is thy blessed lot!"

We open the pages of the Gospel Word . . .
and again with Zechariah and Elizabeth, with Joachim and Anna, with Joseph and Mary,
with the shepherds and the magi, we sing in communion with the angels, "Holy Holy Holy! Glory to God in the Highest! Christ is born among us!"

Each Gospel reveals a particular dimension
of the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a typos of Pentecost and the Mysteries of the Kingdom named through these 8 Sundays before Christmas:

Sanctification Sunday (Koodhosh Eetho)
Dedication Sunday (Hoodhosh Eetho)
Annunciation to St. Zechariah
Annunciation to St. Mary
St. Mary visits St. Elizabeth
Birth of St. John the Baptist
Annunciation to St. Joseph
Sunday of the Genealogy of Christ
Christmas Day

Online Audio Hymns of the Syriac Church:

Sunday of the Consecration of the Church

In these 8 Sundays we encounter Advents of the New Israel in our own lives and the whole of salvation history.

May the Spirit prepare our hearts in faith, hope, and charity~
Fr. Michael Durka +

Church and Sanctification Feast 2008

2008-11-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

The Beginning of the Church's Liturgical Year, 2008:

"Witness to the Last Things":

B. Varghese: "West Syrian Liturgical Theology"

ch 8,
Eschatology & Pneumatology - Liturgy & Church
-- an insight into the Liturgy and the Feast:

The Sanctification of the Church
and
our Consecration unto the Eighth Day.

Notes from the Gospels, Didache, Ephrem and the Fathers
to Bouyer, deLubac, Schmemann, and Zizioulas

excerpts:

St. John of Patmos, written by K. Heather Durka

West Syriac Theology: Church and Feast

2008-11-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

The Beginning of the Church's Liturgical Year:

"Witness to the Last Things":

B. Varghese: "West Syrian Liturgical Theology"

ch 8,
Eschatology & Pneumatology - Liturgy & Church
-- an insight into the Liturgy and the Feast:

The Sanctification of the Church
and
our Consecration unto the Eighth Day.

Notes from the Gospels, Didache, Ephrem and the Fathers
to Bouyer, deLubac, Schmemann, and Zizioulas

excerpts: click on the "image block" to enlarge for reading ease

St. John of Patmos,
written by Heather Durka

Patristic Typology: Ephrem's Syriac Mystagogy

2008-10-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

Ephrem's Syriac Theology:
typology, verbal iconology, Syriac Mystagogy
aspects
of Ephrem's 3 Harps of the Spirit

from “Spirit in the Bread; Fire in the Wine”
The Eucharist as Living Medicine in the Thought of Ephraem the Syrian,
Dr. Sidney H. Griffith, Catholic University of America, Semitics Dept.

(1) Semitic Typology:

as Verbal Icon and as Sacramental Iconology

(2) A Phenomenlogy of Disclosure:

the Mystery-Symbol as Anamnesis:
Raza as living Kerygma and as Eschatological Fulfillment
via the Incarnation and Paschal Mysteries

(3) Again, to review and proceed
in a Semitic context,
and uniquely Syriac Mystagogy: Raze as
christology + pneumatology = ecclesiology

from christological focus into

the Eschatological Communion
of
the Church's Liturgy and
the believer's Identity in Christ:
"christianus alter Christus"

Thus writes S.Griffith:
"Syriac-speaking Christians...
developed an incredibly rich tradition of symbolic theology of the Eucharist, almost an iconology, the fruit of meditating on the Word of God in song and prayer, in the context of the liturgy, not so much in the mode of fides quaerens intellectum, ...

(4) but very much in the exercise of fides adorans mysterium ...

Qurbana - Qurbono: Naming the Mysteries Then and Now

2008-10-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

more links updated Oct 18, 2008

History, Geography re.
Usage:
Qurbana - Qurbono
Malka - Malko
Mar - Mor

Revisiting the history and geography of "QURBANA" in the Syriac Language:

Recollecting a Theology of Qurbana:

Ephrem, Qurbana, the Early Syriac Church

“Spirit in the Bread; Fire in the Wine”:
The Eucharist as Living Medicine in the Thought of Ephraem the Syrian, by Dr. Sidney H. Griffith, Catholic University of America, Semitics Dept.,
excerpt:
Continuing excerpts of this essay by Griffith

Read more Syriac & Patristics Studies Excerpts :

Syriac Fathers Symposium
Jacob of Sarugh,Oct 2008

Excursus:
the meaning of sacrifice in light of the Qurban of Christ:
Korban to Qurbana: Israel's Exodos re. Christ's Pasch
origins and usage of the word:
from "the korban of Torah" to
"the liturgical Qurbana" of the Christian Church
brief synopsis with links to online resources

Rabbula Gospels and Syriac Scripts

Syriac re the Aramaic Language: Western and Eastern, 5 historical expressions

Overview of Syriac Literature

excerpts:
Syriac Madrasha and Memra,
Greek-Arabic philosophy, sciences via Syriac Christianity,
Church Fathers and Sufi Mystics re. Divine Love

Source Texts:

Sebastian Brock: Introduction to Syriac Studies

“Spirit in the Bread; Fire in the Wine”
The Eucharist as Living Medicine in the Thought of Ephraem the Syrian,
Dr. Sidney H. Griffith, Catholic University of America, Semitics Dept.

Sidney H. Griffith, CUA Semitics
CUA Semitics Dept.

Sebastian Brock
Oxford Oriental Studies

The Seven Sundays of the Holy Cross AD 2008

2008-10-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

As we continue the 7 Sundays of the Feast of the Holy Cross,
we behold the Sign of the Jonah and the Hope of our Salvation.

We enter in faith the culminating celebration of the Church's calendar year.
We enter in hope the culminating celebration of this world and the world to come.
We enter in love the Holy Mysteries of Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

The Victory of the Holy Cross
is celebrated in every Holy Qurbana
The Eucharistic Liturgy is a sacramental encounter and embodiment of the Lord's Paschal Mysteries.
Within the "mercy - peace - sacrifice - thanksgiving" of the Anaphora,
the Great Dyptychs and Elevation of the Gifts
announce and encounter, respectively,
the Communion of the Saints in the One Holy Trinity:
a Heavenly Communion with us now
in the Mysteries of the Liturgy,
the Mysteries of the Church per se.

At this precise "theological kairos" now
the priest and choirs of the Holy Qurbana
pray the Kukilions of the Royal Daughter Sion and the Virgin Mother of God.

And precisely here the Victory of the Cross is chanted in the Kukilion:
By Thy Cross, O Jesus Lord,
By Thy Mother's praying word,
take from us and from our path
punishments and rods of wrath.

Then follow the Kukilions of the Patronal Saints and the Beloved Departed,
which as a whole embodies sacramentally the Kairos, Presence, Dynamis, and Koinonia of the Heavenly Liturgy.

Mystagogically and anagogically,
the Parousia of the New Aeon
is sacramentally present in these very Kukilions;
the Trintarian "with us now" of the Great Elevation
is conjoined to the Communion of Saints
in the Divine Liturgy of the Holy Qurbana.

So too the Calendar of the Church Year:
the cycle, progression, and culmination of Feasts
proclaims the Church's own self-understanding and witness
as the Mystical Body of Christ
and the Paschal Victory of the Holy Cross.

We finish the year with Marian Feasts and the 7 Sundays of the Holy Cross.
The chronology of the feasts becomes "a kairos of the Mysteries":

Through the Marian Feasts of the Church
we enter the heart of the Mother of God,
and we encounter the maternal love
that she gives to the beloved disciple at the Foot of the Cross.

St. Mary is the great birth-giver of discipleship -- and thus the Church itself -- the "New Eve" who is "Mother of All the Living" -- all the members of the whole and entire Body of Christ.

Thus we are brought into the Victory of the Cross precisely through the blessings given through the Theotokos at the Foot of the Cross, the blessings given through "the Priestly Qurban" of the Lord in His Pasch.

From St. Ephrem in his second mêmrâ "On Reproof":

Let us be builders of our own minds
into temples suitable for God.

If the Lord dwells in your house,
honor will come to your door.

How much your 'honor' will increase
if God dwells within you.

Be a sanctuary for him, even a priest,
and serve him within your temple.

Just as for your sake he became
High priest, sacrifice, and libation;

you, for his sake, become
temple, priest, and sacrificial offering.

Note here the "re-capitulation" of Pentecost

in the Feast of the Holy Cross.

And through time and history

see the "Anno Domini" as an epiphany of the Church.

Rabbula Gospels and Syriac Scripts

2008-10-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Syriac Scripts

from estrangelo to serto:
Jacobite and Maronite, Chaldean and Assyrian

Rabbula Gospels:
illuminating a "Lectio Divina"
in North Syria, 586 AD
the Monastery of St. John
of Beth Zagba

Syriac re Aramaic: Western and Eastern

2008-10-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

Sebastian Brock: Introduction to Syriac Studies

History, Geography, Usages:
Qurbana - Qurbono
Malka - Malko
Mar - Mor

Korban to Qurbana: Exodos to Passover to Pasch

2008-10-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

korban pesach pesaho pascha
>> korban, qurban >> Holy Qurbana

Passover:
excerpt
The term Pesach also refers to the lamb or kid
which was designated as the Passover sacrifice, called the Korban Pesach in Hebrew.

Korban:
excerpt
It is known as a Korban in Hebrew
because its Hebrew root K [a] R [o] V (קרב)
means to "[come] Close (or Draw Near) [to God]"
which the English words "sacrifice" or "offering" do not fully convey.

Sacrifice:
excerpt
In Judaism, a sacrifice is known as a Korban from the Hebrew root karov meaning to "[come] Close [to God]."
The centrality of sacrifices in Judaism is clear, with much of the Bible, particularly the opening chapters of the book Leviticus, detailing the exact method of bringing sacrifices. Sacrifices were either bloody (animals) or unbloody (grain and wine). Bloody sacrifices were divided into holocausts (burnt offerings, in which the whole animal was burnt), guilt offerings (in which part was burnt and part left for the priest) and peace offerings (in which similarly only part of the animal was burnt). Yet the prophets point out that sacrifices are only a part of serving God, and need to be accompanied by inner morality and goodness.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, ritual sacrifice ceased except among the Samaritans (see). Maimonides, a medieval Jewish rationalist, argued that God always held sacrifice inferior to prayer and philosophical meditation. However, God understood that the Israelites were used to the animal sacrifices that the surrounding pagan tribes used as the primary way to commune with their gods. As such, in Maimonides' view, it was only natural that Israelites would believe that sacrifice was a necessary part of the relationship between God and man. Maimonides concludes that God's decision to allow sacrifices was a concession to human psychological limitations.

In the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches,
as well as among some High Church Anglicans, the Eucharist ... is seen as a sacrifice.
It is however, not a separate or additional sacrifice to that Christ on the Cross; it is rather the exact same sacrifice, which transcends time and space: “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev. 13:8)

Propitiation:
excerpt
The Hebrew (kaphar), means "to propitiate, to atone for sin."
According to Scripture, the sacrifice of the Law only covered the offeror's sin, and secured divine forgiveness for that year. The Old Testament sacrifices never removed man's sin.
Propitiation is translated from the Greek (hilasterion), meaning "that which expiates or propitiates" or "the gift which procures propitiation".
The word is also used in the New Testament for the place of propitiation,
the "mercy seat". Hebrews 9:5.
There is frequent similar use of (hilasterion) in the Septuagint, Exodus 25:18 ff. The mercy seat was sprinkled with atoning blood on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:14), representing that the righteous sentence of the Law had been executed, changing a judgment seat into a mercy seat (Hebrews 9:11-15; compare with "throne of grace" in Hebrews 4:14-16; place of communion, Exodus 25:21-22).
Another Greek word, (hilasmos), is used for Christ as our propitiation. 1 John 2:2; 4:10, and for "atonement" in the Septuagint (Leviticus 25:9). The thought in the Old Testament sacrifices and in the New Testament fulfillment, is that Christ completely satisfied the just demands of a holy God for judgment on sin, by His death on the Cross of Calvary.

Propitiation vs. Expiation
excerpt
The Greek word hilasterion is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew kapporeth which refers to the Mercy Seat of the Arc.
Hilasterion can be translated as either "propitiation" or "expiation" which then imply different functions of the Mercy Seat.
Propitiation literally means to make favorable and specifically includes the idea of dealing with God’s wrath against sinners.
Expiation literally means to make pious and implies either the removal or cleansing of sin.
The idea of propitiation includes that of expiation as its means, but the word "expiation" has no reference to quenching God’s righteous anger. The difference is that linguistically the object of expiation is sin, not God (i.e. sin is removed, not God).
Linguistically, one propitiates a person (makes them favorable), and one expiates a problem (removes it). Christ's death was therefore both an expiation and a propitiation. By expiating (removing the problem of) sin God was made propitious (favorable) to us.

Qurban & Sacrifice:
“Christ and Nothing” by David B. Hart
excerpt
In a narrow sense, then, one might say that the chief offense of the Gospels is their defiance of the insights of tragedy--and not only because Christ does not fit the model of the well-born tragic hero. More important is the incontestable truth that, in the Gospels, the destruction of the protagonist emphatically does not restore or affirm the order of city or cosmos. Were the Gospels to end with Christ's sepulture, in good tragic style, it would exculpate all parties, including Pilate and the Sanhedrin, whose judgments would be shown to have been fated by the exigencies of the crisis and the burdens of their offices; the story would then reconcile us to the tragic necessity of all such judgments. But instead comes Easter, which rudely interrupts all the minatory and sententious moralisms of the tragic chorus, just as they are about to be uttered to full effect, and which cavalierly violates the central tenet of sound economics: rather than trading the sacrificial victim for some supernatural benefit, and so the particular for the universal, Easter restores the slain hero in his particularity again, as the only truth the Gospels have to offer. This is more than a dramatic peripety. The empty tomb overturns all the "responsible" and "necessary" verdicts of Christ's judges, and so grants them neither legitimacy nor pardon.

In a larger sense, then, the entire sacrificial logic of a culture was subverted in the Gospels. I cannot attempt here a treatment of the biblical language of sacrifice, but I think I can safely assert that Christ's death does not, in the logic of the New Testament sources, fit the pattern of sacrifice I have just described. The word "sacrifice" is almost inexhaustible in its polysemy, particularly in the Old Testament, but the only sacrificial model explicitly invoked in the New Testament is that of the Atonement offering of Israel, which certainly belongs to no cosmic cycle of prudent expenditure and indemnity.

It is, rather, a qurban, literally a "drawing nigh" into the life-giving presence of God's glory. Israel's God requires nothing; He creates, elects, and sanctifies without need--and so the Atonement offering can in no way contribute to any sort of economy.

It is instead a penitent approach to a God who gives life freely, and who not only does not profit from the holocaust of the particular, but who in fact fulfills the "sacrifice" simply by giving his gift again. This giving again is itself, in fact, a kind of "sacrificial" motif in Hebrew Scripture, achieving its most powerful early expression in the story of Isaac's aqedah, and arriving at its consummation, perhaps, in Ezekiel's vision in the valley of dry bones. After all, a people overly burdened by the dolorous superstitions of tragic wisdom could never have come to embrace the doctrine of resurrection.

I am tempted to say, then, that the cross of Christ is not simply a sacrifice, but the place where two opposed understandings of sacrifice clashed.
Christ's whole life was a reconciling qurban: an approach to the Father, a real indwelling of God's glory in the temple of Christ's body, and an atonement made for a people enslaved to death. In pouring himself out in the form of a servant, and in living his humanity as an offering up of everything to God in love, the shape of the eternal Son's life was already sacrificial in this special sense; and it was this absolute giving, as God and man, that was made complete on Golgotha. While, from a pagan perspective, the crucifixion itself could be viewed as a sacrifice in the most proper sense--destruction of the agent of social instability for the sake of peace, which is always a profitable exchange--Christ's life of charity, service, forgiveness, and righteous judgment could not; indeed, it would have to seem the very opposite of sacrifice, an aneconomic and indiscriminate inversion of rank and order. Yet, at Easter, it is the latter that God accepts and the former He rejects. . .

Syriac Hymns: Madrasha, Memra re Kontakion

2008-10-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Syriac Literature:

Christian Hymns: Syriac Madrasha and Memra re. the Greek Kontakion

Greek Science, Medicine, Philosophy: via Syriac Christian Scholars into the Arabic World

Source Text:

Sebastian Brock: Introduction to Syriac Studies

Madrasha and Memra in Syriac Liturgical Poetry:

Syriac as a Bridge Culture
Syriac Christians writing in Baghdad
c. 850 AD:
the Arabic World receives Greek philosophy, medicine, science
via
Syriac Christian libraries and scholars

Syriac translations c. 1000 AD:
Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Sogdian, Middle Persian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Chinese:

The Scope of Syriac Literature:
3 Periods -- Patristic, Arabic, Modern
Christian and Sufi Mystics

August 15: St.Mary's Dormition - Ascension - Assumption

2008-08-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

On the Dormition and Ascension of St. Mary the Mother of God

The Oriental Orthodox Churches name the dormition of the God-bearer as "The Festival of the Ascension of St. Mary," a symbol of the life and pilgrimage of the Church itself.

This Marian Feast is an invitation for all of us to encounter Christ, to embrace His life in the Spirit, to become most Christ-like: to become "divinized in Christ" through all the gifts of the Spirit given to the Church in Pentecost.

May the joy of the Feast and its promise in Christ be upon you,
Fr. Michael Durka +

Theotokos
written by Heather Durka

Other Links to the Feast:

Dormition Icon and text, University of Balamand, Lebanon

Early Fathers on the Feast of the Dormition and Ascension

Coptic image of The Dormition:

Scroll down for scene inside "The Church of the Holy Virgin" at Syrian Monastery, Egypt.
EXCERPT: The mid-seventh century...Egypt saw a blossoming of... iconographic programs, often covering more ancient works. This was no more true than in the monasteries of the Wadi Natrun. The Wadi and its importance to Coptic Christians dates back to the 4th century AD with the arrival of St. Macarius the Great ~Read more:

The Monastery of St. Macarius (Deir Abu Magar)

FYI:

Iconographic Painting of "the Dormition" by el Greco, discovered in 1983

Transfiguration: Taboric Light of the Word, Pentecost, and Liturgy

2008-08-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

Aug 6, 2008

The Transfiguration of the Lord brings us into the Mystery of the Lord...
Through the liturgy's praise of the Divine Name, the faithful mystically enter "the Great Elevation" of the Holy Gifts for the Holy Ones...

We are participating in the Mystery of the Revelation which Peter, James, and John shared on Mt. Tabor...

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke each give the transfiguration miracle a prominent role.

John the Beloved, the only evangelist actually at the miracle on Tabor, alone of the four evangelists does not include this miracle in his gospel testament-- if all we see are words.

But the Gospel of John the Evangelist is, in a sense, a vision of one who has never ceased witnessing that Light of Tabor in Spirit and truth.
Read More on Taboric Light ~
Johannine Transfiguration on the Lucan Road to Emmaus.

Icon of St. John of Patmos
written by the hand of Heather Durka

Becoming light

excerpts from the nun Macrina at A Vow of Conversation,
quotes Malankara Orthodox Priest-Theologian Rev. K.M. George "The Silent Roots: Orthodox Perspectives on Christian Spirituality," and therein St. Gregory Nazianzus and St. Athanasius of Alexandria:

The biblical image of the Deity as luminous is central to the patristic theological and spiritual vision.
The highest aspiration in the Eastern view thus consists not only in walking in this light, which constitutes our ethical being, but in becoming light itself, participating fully in the divine glory. ...As one of the prayers of the Eastern church says:
“O God, you started the work of creation with light in order that the whole creation may become light.” The patristic vision ... of beauty is not a metaphorical embellishment to theology, but it is theology at its best.
and ... “it initiates us into the mystery of the future”.
The light of Tabor, the mount of transfiguration, is ... the symbol par excellence of the beauty and goodness of created nature; and light signifies its final destiny as well.
This aesthetic experience is ... true to the essential meaning of the Incarnation, which signifies the participation of created nature in the experience of divinisation, as formulated in the famous dictum of Athanasius: “God became a human being that human beings may become divine”.

And in that mystagogy of the Future -- so much a benedictine "conversatio morum" -- let us recollect Fr. Schmemann's insight on the epiphanic mysterion of the Assembly:
More on Transfiguration in the "Sacrament of the Assembly"

Which brings us to the Originating Mystery per se:

St. Andrei Rublev, who made known the light of Heaven through his humble and magnificent icon of the Holy Trinity, from 1409 (when he was commissioned to do the icon) until 1425 (when it was finished) would sit before the icons all day on feast days when he did not work. In the light of the icons he was elevated into the light of Heaven, and in that light he could see light, and "transmitted" -- or better, "translated" -- that same light into his icon of the Trinity.

Rublev's central angel: the communion of love
Read More

The feast "shows us how we see" the Holy Mysteries of our salvation
in the sacraments, in the liturgy, in the icons,
and in our journey of conversion.

The Transfiguration Feast
has everything to do with the Parousia,
the Coming of the Kingdom and the Victory of the Cross.

By the light of the transfiguration miracle and with the eyes of faith we see, from Glory to Glory, a "plethora in blessings" in the Divine Light of "The 8th Day."

Read More on Makarios the Great and Transfiguration

Our Lord preached to tens of thousands,
but took only three with Him to ascend the Holy Mount of Tabor.
And so those three, lifted into the Mysteries of Glory,
became vessels of light to illumine the Kingdom.

TODAY each of us partakes of that very same journey up the Mount
when we gather into "the chapel light"
of the very same Mysteries of the Kingdom,
singing
By Thy Light we see the Light, Jesus full of Light.

May your journey in Christ,
be radiant in the Light of Tabor.
Fr. Michael Durka +

Further Reflection --
Fr. Patrick Reardon on Scripture and Transfiguration:

Transfiguration in the Epistles of Peter

Transfiguration in the Gospel of John

Transfiguration in the Gospel of Matthew

Transfiguration in the Gospel of Mark

Transfiguration in Mark: The Cry of the Centurion

Armenian Orthodox theologian Vigen Guroian
and
Coptic Orthodox theologian Andrew Youssef
On Morality in the Light of the Transfiguration

Transfiguration: Liturgy and Eschatology re. Moral Action

Ephrem on Eucharist: Pentecost - Qurbana - Church, part 2

2008-07-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

“Spirit in the Bread; Fire in the Wine”: The Eucharist as Living Medicine in the Thought of Ephraem the Syrian, by Dr. Sidney H. Griffith, Catholic University of America, Semitics Dept., excerpt:

Teaching Songs in the Anaphora:

A Mystagogy, Medicine, and Metanoia

Eprhem on Eucharist : Qurbana and Living Medicine

2008-06-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

"fides quaerens intellectum"
vis-a-vis
"fides adorans mysterium":

~ "almost an iconology,
the fruit of meditating upon the Word of God
in song and prayer, in the context of the liturgy":

Teaching Songs re. qurbana
in the assembly's liturgical anaphora and anamnesis,
sacrifice and sacrament,
mandatum and mission ~
the living Medicine of Holy Thursday and Pascha (Pesah, Pesaho):

Blessings upon our Graduating Seminarians

2008-06-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

St. Tikhon's Seminary's 66th Annual Commencement
[click to the seminarian blog for more photos and story]
On Saturday, May 24th, St. Tikhon's Seminary held its 66th Annual Commencement. This year's commencement speaker was His Emminence, the Most Reverend SERAPHIM, Archbishop of Ottawa and the Archdiocese of Canada. Fifteen individuals completed the Masters of Divinity program and our very own Dn. Daniel Mathai was one of them. Semassan's family was here to show their love and support as well as Nicholovos Thirumeni who awarded his degree to him. We offer our congratulations and best wishes to Semassan and all those who graduated. May God continue to bless and guide them in the ministry He has prepared for them.

Commencement 2008 at St Vladimir’s Seminary

At St Vladimir’s Seminary, the Class of 2008 joyfully celebrated their commencement under a big white tent on Saturday, May 17.
List of Graduates, Degrees, and Theses
There were twenty-nine students graduating in five academic programs and for the first time, the ceremony included the awarding of hoods to the graduates. The seminarians received twelve Master of Divinity degrees, eight Master of Arts degrees in General Theology, two MAs in Religious Education, five Master of Theology degrees, and two Doctor of Ministry degrees.

His Beatitude Metropolitan Herman, of the Orthodox Church in America and president of the seminary, was joined by His Grace Antoun, Bishop of Miami and the Southeast of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in handing out the degrees. Representing the Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Syrian Church was The Very Rev. Dr P.S. Samuel Cor-Episcopa.
SVS Photo Gallery with our Malankara Seminarians

Pentecost: Ascension to Epiclesis and Parousia

2008-06-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

The 50th Day of Easter:
Pentecost Sunday

Pentecost – Harvest of the Holy Spirit
(Edited excerpt adapted from Fr. James Puthuparampil OIC, Bethany Ashram:)

The liturgy of Pentecost is one of the privileged occasions for us
to bear witness to the axiom that the norm of prayer is the norm
of faith ... lex orandi lex credendi.

Since this understanding is deeply biblical in character, before dealing with the liturgical aspect, it would be good to highlight here Christ’s words about the person and activities of the Holy Spirit:
If I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you;
but if I go, I will send Him to you.
Jn 16:7
Read more, click here to full Pentecost post.

Excerpt from Bishop Ware, "The Orthodox Way":
Note the theological epiphanies through the Spirit:
1
Incarnation;
Baptismal Theophany;
Trans-
figuration;
Pentecost;
2
The Sciptural Word in the Church, cf Acts 2.42 re "the breaking of the bread and the prayers": Anaphora, Anamnesis, Epiclesis;
3
Communio in the Name as "communio sanctorum" and "communio in sacris": Theosis as Christification of "our whole life in Christ" -- the Presence and Parousia of Emmanuel, God is with us!

And thus:
The Coming of the Holy Spirit: Pouring oil to overflowing
EXCERPT:
"It has been said that the Orthodox Church is the Church of the Holy Spirit
... Every prayer, every liturgical and sacramental action of the Eastern Church is done through an invocation to the Holy Spirit. His Presence and Activity ... is truly the original Pentecostal Church.

"Our mystical life is one of constant 'in-spiration' and our prayer life is our living link with the Spirit; ... which is, as the Fathers taught, the 'epiclesis of our Lord and Saviour' which we constantly call down on our souls to conform them to Christ.

"In the Spirit, we become
a community of priests, the Royal Priesthood,
called upon to constantly invoke the sacramental and mystical Name of Jesus
over ourselves and those around us
and upon the entire world God has created.
We do this as a priestly exercise to sanctify everything
in Christ
through the Holy Spirit
to the Glory of God the Father."
(end excerpt

All icons, and particularly this Icon of Hospitality and the Holy Trinity, are a liturgical mystagogy of the Parousia and Judgement at the Eschaton.
Written by the hand of St. Andrei Rublev some 25 years after he received the commission, the entire Icon mediates a sacramental epektasis of the Kingdom of God and the Heavenly Liturgy:
the Eucharist at the Heart of the Trinity --
the Eucharistic Life that is given us in the Original and Ongoing Pentecost of the Church of Christ that is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

Symposium: Jacob of Sarug, 6th Century Syriac Christianity

2008-04-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

Symposium on Jacob of Sarug & His Times: Studies in Sixth Century Syriac Christianity

On the occasion of its 50th Anniversary,
St. Mark’s Cathedral is holding an international symposium
24 - 26 October 2008 in Teaneck, New Jersey.

See: Georgias Press Info on Symposium

The symposium speakers are:

• Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University

• Sharbil Alexandre Bcheiry, Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese

• Sebastian P. Brock, University of Oxford

• Sidney Griffith, The Catholic University of America

• Mary Hansbury, Philadelphia

• Amir Harrak, University of Toronto

• George A. Kiraz, Beth Mardutho & Gorgias Press

• Edward G. Mathews, St. Nerses Seminary

• Kathleen McVey, Princeton Theological Seminary

• Aho Shemunkasho, University of Salzburg

• Lucas Van Rompay, Duke University

Symposium Chair: George A. Kiraz
Symposium Secretary: Jack C. Darakjy, Esq.

Paschal Season

Pascha and Pentecost, Mysterion and Martyrion: The Parousia of the Church's Liturgies of Easter

Our Pasch in Christ

2008-03-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

We began our Lenten Journey into the Pasch of the Lord
with the Sunday of the Wedding Feast of Cana.

From there we encounter the Sunday Gospels of
the Leper,
the Paralytic,
the Canaanite Woman,
the Crippled Woman,
the Man Born Blind,
the Saturday of Lazarus and the Entrance of the Bridedroom on Hosanna Sunday.

Each Gospel bears witness to the Bridegroom and the Lamb,
who comes to heal and purify His beloved, "to wash her in the bath of the water and the word" (Eph 5) and to embrace her and transform her, for she is betrothed to Him from before the Foundation of the World.

Amen, Alleluia, Amen!

These miracles bring before us the Lord's all-encompassing solicitude for suffering humanity. Through our Lenten Journey of repentance and conversion, the Lord summons us out of the tomb of our sinfulness, our brokenness, our very death. We hear Christ weep for his beloved friend--
And then we hear Christ command the dead: “Lazarus, come forth!”

In this Living Word across more than two millenia of our history,
and precisely here and now
and precisely in our suffering and our need,
the Lord who loves us now calls us to the Wedding Feast of the Bride and the Lamb,

Amen, Marantha, Come!

Now we hear anew the Living and Final Word of Sacred Scripture ~
the revealing and consummate Word and Vision of the Heavenly Liturgy in
the Apocalypse of John.

Thus we meet the Bridegroom of Hosanna Sunday, and then the Risen Lord of Easter.

In the Season of Pesaho (Pascha)
alongside the very first disciples we stand and witness "in both worlds" this New Aeon "with the Eyes of Faith"
-- Stomen Kalos! --
the ongoing Mysterion and Exousia of the Resurrection that is present and in power here in our own present day: In His Light we see the Light!

Just as the Angel told them, "Go to Galilee where you will see Him as He Promised --" we go to Holy Qurbana. We sing together -- with all the saints of Heaven and earth, with all the glorious company of the "Clouds of Witnesses" gathered from all Salvation History -- the joyful hymn of hope that always begins our Divine Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem,

By Thy Light, we see the Light, Jesus full of light!
Thou true light dost give the Light to Thy creatures all.
Lighten us with Thy glad Light,
Thou the Father's Light Divine!

A sense of awe and wonder pervades the Great and Holy Week.
Recollected and renewed in the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the Lord, we share the angels’ cry of “Holy! Holy! Holy!”

In every Oriental Orthodox Church there is a Great Veil drawn across the sanctuary, representing the Veil in the Temple of Jerusalem – and the veil of Moses on Sinai, and back to the very Veil of Paradise –
all renewed and transformed through the Spirit of Pascha and Pentecost.

The same Spirit of Pentecost animates the Holy Mysteries of the Church and the sacraments.
The Spirit is in the Church TODAY, mystically unveiling the Lord in the breaking of the bread just as on the Road to Emmaus two millennia ago,
and again mystically unveiling, through all history unto The 8th Day,
the Lord of Glory to whom the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”
(cf. Rev 22.17)

Amen, Alleluia, Maranatha!

Hosanna Sunday: The Bridegroom, the Wheat, the Veil

2008-02-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

John 12.1-33:
Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table. Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was filled with the scent of the ointment. . .

note how the passage concludes, 12.20-33:

Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. These approached Philip, who came from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put this request to him, 'Sir, we should like to see Jesus.' Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together went to tell Jesus. Jesus replied to them: Now the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. In all truth I tell you, unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Icon of Christ offering wheat to the Theotokos

Whoever serves me, must follow me, and my servant will be with me wherever I am. If anyone serves me, my Father will honor him. Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour? But it is for this very reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name! A voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and I will again glorify it.' The crowd standing by, who heard this, said it was a clap of thunder; others said, 'It was an angel speaking to him.' Jesus answered, 'It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours. 'Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself.' By these words he indicated the kind of death he would die.

Note the symbols of the Faith in the Gospel Witness:

Bethsaida in Gallilee, ie the "House of Fishing" in Galilee as a typos of the Church also named in John 21 with the "153 fish in the net" (153 symbolizes the whole of the then known species that live in the waters -- ie, live in the created cosmos).
From Andrew to Philip of Bethsaida to Jesus : Greek names symbolizing "man” moving to “brotherly love" and from the "first called apostle" through the brothers to Jesus, "the God who saves."
Now the hour first named in the Wedding at Cana becomes the hour of Glory named in the grain of wheat that falls and dies. . .

The Icon of the Theotokos (of the Yaroslav typos) reveals this very "Johannine Word" of the Bridegroom and the Lamb: in the gift of wheat that the Son offers His mother she of the Wedding Feast encounters the hour of the sacrificial Qurban in the Cross.

Christ "in this hour turns to name his dying anew" as a "lifting up" -- ie, a "qurban" -- as that precise consummation of The Single Hour that holds also The Mystery of Holy Saturday and "the Descent unto Hades" as well as the Jordan's Theophany and the Light of Tabor's Transfiguration, typologically connected here to the Johannine Resurrection Appearance to the Apostles at the Sea of Galilee, and the eschatological Judgment at The Second Coming in Glory.

Regarding the Veil that is rent in the Temple:
On the Passion of the Saviour
by Our Venerable Father Ephrem the Syrian, with the comment:
"One of the most interesting passages in the poem is that which describes the Holy Spirit as having come forth in the form of a dove and rent the veil of the Temple at the moment of the Lord‘s death":

Likewise the Holy Spirit,
who is in the Father,
when he saw
the beloved Son
on the tree of the Cross,
rending the veil,
the temple’s adornment,
suddenly came forth
in the form of a dove.

More texts by St. Ephrem

Church, Bible, Liturgy: The Veil in the Temple of the New Jerusalem
"In every Syriac Church there is a ‘veil’ drawn across the sanctuary, representing the veil in the temple of Jerusalem, and the sanctuary itself is held to be the ‘Holy of Holies’: the place where God Himself [is encountered] in the New Covenant with his people. This scene is recalled at the beginning and the end of every office of prayer and the sense of wonder and mystery which inspires it fills the whole liturgy...and reference to ‘our father Adam and our mother Eve’, takes the Mystery of Salvation back to the first man and woman, and sees Christ descending to Sheol...to proclaim the message of salvation to all the dead and to raise up Adam and Eve.

See Also on
Biblical Typology, Syriac Liturgy, Ephrem the Syrian :
Beggiani in Theological Studies, 2003
Typological Approach of Syriac Sacramental Theology

Sebastian Brock's in Hugoye Journal of Syriac Studies, 1999
St. Ephrem in the Eyes of Later Syriac Liturgical Tradition

Great Lent: The Crown of the Year

2008-02-27T13:58:00.000-08:00

the Crown of the Year

The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency,
lust for power, and idle talk.
But grant unto me, Thy servant,
a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults,
and not to judge my brothers and sisters.
For blessed art Thou unto ages of ages.
Amen.

More on the Prayer of St. Ephrem

Saint Ephrem's Hymns on Fasting

On the Passion of the Saviour
by Our Venerable Father Ephrem the Syrian:
"One of the most interesting passages in the poem is that which describes the Holy Spirit as having come forth in the form of a dove and rent the veil of the Temple at the moment of the Lord's death":

Likewise the Holy Spirit,
who is in the Father,
when he saw
the beloved Son
on the tree of the Cross,
rending the veil,
the temple’s adornment,
suddenly came forth
in the form of a dove.

More texts by St. Ephrem

Hagiography of St. Mary of Egypt
From the Coptic Church:

by prayer and fasting the disciples set forth the Great Commission,
by prayer and fasting the martyrs offer their lives,
by prayer and fasting in her lenten journey
the Church receives the Crown of the Year

From the Coptic monk Matthew the Poor:
Monastery of St. Macarius in Wadi el-Natroun, Egypt:
"The point to understand is that fasting is a divine act of life, which we receive from Christ complementary to baptism and fullness. Since its beginning the Church has been occupied with infusing into its own body the acts of Christ’s life so they would become life-giving acts to all its members." On Fasting by Matthew the Poor

by St. John Chrysostom
On Fasting
Fasting is the change of every part of our life. . . Besides, we have a Lord who is meek and loving (philanthropic) and who does not ask for anything beyond our power. Because he neither requires the abstinence from foods, neither that the fast take place for the simple sake of fasting, neither is its aim that we remain with empty stomachs, but that we fast to offer our entire selves to the dedication of spiritual things, having distanced ourselves from secular things. If we regulated our life with a sober mind and directed all of our interest toward spiritual things, and if we ate as much as we needed to satisfy our necessary needs and offered our entire lives to good works, we would not have any need of the help rendered by the fast.

More on The Crown of the Year

by Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev
Christ the Conqueror of Hell
The Descent of Christ into Hades in Eastern and Western Theological Traditions

5 by Alexander Schmemann

On Fasting and Liturgy

Great Lent

Of Water and the Spirit: A Liturgical Study of Baptism

For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy

Church, World, Mission: Reflections on Orthodoxy in the West

Other Lenten Reflections

Armenian scholar Vigen Guroian:
On Paradise, Pascha, and Springtime ~
Links to Guroian essays and podcasts

by the Czech president and poet Vaclav Havel, 1995
Forgetting We Are Not God:
What is lacking in the only meaningful way of dealing with future conflicts between cultures? Wherein lies that forgotten dimension of democracy that could give it universal resonance? I am convinced that it lies in what I have already tried to suggest-in that spiritual dimension that connects all cultures and in fact all humanity.

by David B. Hart, 2003
Christ and Nothing :
Christ's sacrifice as 'Qurban': "The cross of Christ is not simply a sacrifice, but the place where two opposed understandings of sacrifice clashed. . ."

Heavenly Liturgy: Hymns of the Seraphim, Eternal Praise, Liturgy as Icon

2008-02-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

"The words of the Sanctus come from the Seraphim. In this hymn the language of the liturgy is not simply modeled on celestial worship, it actually uses the same words as the heavenly liturgy. Not all the words of the liturgy, however, can make such a claim. Yet most are taken from the Scriptures. I have already mentioned several parts of the liturgy drawn directly from the Bible, for instance, the Kyrie Eleison and the Agnus Dei; but let me illustrate the point by reference to one of the ancient liturgies of the Church, the Liturgy of St. James used at Jerusalem and other places in Palestine and Syria. . .
Again and again in their comments on the hymn of the Seraphim, the Church Fathers speak of what Isaiah "heard" or "saw" or what was "handed over to us by the Seraphim. So let us allow the historical critics to pursue their theories about where John got his information about the Holy, holy, holy being sung in heaven and consider the vision itself. If the accounts in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 are viewed in their own terms, that is as visions, they give us a precious insight into Christian worship. Some of the words we use in the Liturgy, in this case the words of the Sanctus, are not human words crafted by mortals. They are words on loan from Angels and Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim and are to be treated with reverence."
excerpt from
Angels and Archangels: The Worship of Heaven and Earth,
by Robert Louis Wilken Read more here

An Epiphany of Christmas and The Eighth Day

2008-01-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

Theotokos of Tender Mercy
written by the hand of Heather Durka

The Eighth Day of Christmas
as
Feast, Parousia, Mystagogy, Beatitude

The 8th Day as Feast of The Circumcision and the Naming of the Lord:

The Feast Day in Christian Tradition

The Feast in Culture: Mere Comments

And that is the deep meaning of those glorious lists of "begats" which tin-eared modern exegetes assign to some plodding "Priestly" author, not seeing the connection with the redemption foretold. See comments on the Feast as a theme of "Sir Gawain and the Green Night":
...the poem begins and ends with a New Year's Feast -- and for the author and his audience, that was none other than the feast of the Circumcision. The author is careful, throughout the poem, to note the passage of the seasons in terms also of the passage of feasts in the life of the Church~
See also this sermon on The Circumcision offered by Fr. Robert Hart.
Jesus, Y’Shua, is a Hebrew name that means Salvation. . . .

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis ~

The 8th Day as Parousia in the Scripture and Liturgy of the Church:

The Eighth Day: the Peace of the New Jerusalem

The Eighth Day in Liturgy: Epiclesis and "Maranatha" in the Early Church.

The 8th Day as Mystagogy in Liturgy, of Theosis and the Eschaton:

Mystagogy, Theosis, Eschaton

OrthodoxWiki basics and resource links.

Theosis

"Plain Talks" on a Major Doctrine of Orthodoxy by Fr. Anthony Coniaris

The Eighth Day of Christmas and
the Eight Beatitudes of the Gospel:

The Eight Beatitudes in Spirituality

The Works of Mercy as a share in the Peace which comes "not of this world."

The Eight Beatitudes in Scripture Commentary

A briefing of textual attentions.

Gloria Dei vivens homo, autem vita hominis visio Dei.

NEXT:
On The 12th Day of Christmas

Theophany Theology: A Cosmos Revealed

The Blessing of the Jordan Waters
in the Theophany Liturgy
-- January 6, 2008 --
a sacramental "crossing over" into The New Jerusalem
and shows us the cosmology of The New Aeon.

Blessings to all in 2008, the New Year of Our Lord,
Fr. Michael Durka +

Advent of Christ in the Church - Cosmos - Communio

2007-11-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

The Church Year and the Advent of Christ

Following upon our Sundays of the Holy Cross, which recapitulate our communion in the Mysterion of the Resurrection, we arrive at The Sunday of Sanctification of the Church, Koodhosh Eetho.
Here begins the Oriental Orthodox Church's Liturgical Year of seasons and feasts -- on the 8th Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord.

Sinai St Gabriel, written by K. Heather Durka

In each of these Sunday Gospels,
we encounter the Archangel Gabriel in his mission to prepare us in receiving the Child of Bethlehem, the Lord of Heaven and earth.

We open the pages of the Gospel Word . . .
and again with Zechariah and Elizabeth, with Joachim and Anna, with Joseph and Mary, with the shepherds and the magi, we sing in communion with the angels, "Holy Holy Holy! Glory to God in the Highest! Christ is born among us!"

St John of Patmos, written by K. Heather Durka

Read More Advent 2004

In these 8 Sundays we encounter Advents of the New Israel in our own lives and the whole of salvation history.
Each Gospel reveals a particular dimension of the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a particular typos of Pentecost and the Mysteries of the Kingdom:
Sanctification Sunday (Koodhosh Eetho)
Dedication Sunday (Hoodhosh Eetho)
Annunciation to St. Zechariah
Annunciation to St. Mary
St. Mary visits St. Elizabeth
Birth of St. John the Baptist
Annunciation to St. Joseph
Sunday of the Genealogy of Christ
Christmas Day

Read More, Advent 2006

May the Spirit prepare our hearts in faith, hope, and charity~
Fr. Michael Durka +

Indian Orthodox Christian News

2007-11-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Indian Orthodox Christian News

click here: ICON -- Indian Christian Orthodox Network

THE LITURGICAL YEAR AND CANONICAL PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH

Synopsis of the Syriac Malankara Liturgical Cycle

by Rev. Fr. Mathews George

And on the Church and Advent

Beginnings and "Endings in the Mysteries":

: the Church's pilgrimage and parousia, Sacred History and the Sacramental Mysteries of the Kingdom.

And this on Baptism and Eschaton

St. Mary: Daughter Sion and Mother of God, Mother of the Church and our Theosis in Christ.

"Exodos in Christ": fiat and Passover in St. Mary and the Church

Calendar Readings

Monthly Calendar Pages of the Liturgical Feasts and the Sunday Scriptures in the Malankara Orthodox Church

Another Liturgical Calendar, feastal cycle is continuous for easy scrolling

On the Christ and the Church: koinonia, metanoia, theosis

What is Orthodoxy

A word of Introduction to the Church by Rev.Dr.V.C.Samuel

FYI: a spanish language perspective on ecumenism and unity:

Recursos Teológicos: Eclesiología católica y eclesiología ortodoxa.

FYI: A New Year of Formation:

Our Malankara seminarians at St. Tikhon's Eastern Orthodox Seminary

Photos and Profiles of students and faculty, Young Adult Retreat, Visitors . . .

Our Malankara Orthodox Theological Seminaries in India:

Nagpur

Kottayam