Akathist to the Theotokos or "Stand up, Stand up, for Mary?"

I've could have used something to lean on last night, with all that standing! :)
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We have all heard the expression, If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times! Well, that can be said for the phrase, O Most Holy Theotokos, Save us! which I may not have heard a thousand times last night at my 96th visit to my Orthodox parish but it certainly seemed like it. I guess it is appropriate since the Akathist to the Theotokos is a service of the Church that honors Mary in her role in Salvation.

When I first arrived five minutes before the service, I only saw two cars in the parking lot and I got nervous. Maybe I got it wrong and they are not having the service tonight. But people started showing up. I walked in the nave and thought, should I sit in the comfy chairs with the cushions or the steel chairs in the back row. Steel chairs seems more penitential but I realized that it didn't matter. Reader John told me last week that Akathist means literally to stand. So I really wouldn't have a lot of time to sit, anyway.

Yes, we said, O Most Holy Theotokos, Save us, a lot - and by save us we mean save us by her prayers - but in reality the whole service is about Christ. Almost every phrase about Mary was connected to her role in the incarnation. Of course, we venerate Mary. With no Mary, there is no Christ taking on human flesh! Her part in Salvation is crucial, she deserves the honor.  That being said, I wouldn't recommend the Akathist to the Theotokos be the first service an inquirer attends, especially a Protestant. They would be scandalized in what they perceive as Mary Worship.  It isn't and I believe the Orthodox have a more balanced view on Mary than our Roman Catholic brothers but for a Protestant, it wouldn't be something they understand. The veneration of Mary (and all the Saints, now that I think about it) is something you really don't get until you are part of the Church.  Now, I know I'm not (yet) but I've been hanging around the Orthodox for over two years with almost a hundred visits under my belt and I guess I am coming to understand the mindset of the Church. Yes, I'm not an insider yet but I'm working on it!

A beautiful line I heard during the Service went something like this: We see this strange birth; let us be strangers to the world. Pretty profound, eh? Since we witness the virgin birth and God's strange dealings with humanity, let us be strangers to this world and long for the heavenly kingdom.  The Akathist was chock full of nuggets like that.

I have not been getting to as many services during Great Lent as I wanted to but I am grateful for the ones I do attend.  It seems if people are doing spiritual battle with a lot of fasting and extra prayer,then the additional services are really needed for the Faithful. God bless Fr Gary as he leads them!

Now I wonder if some zealous new convert would ever re-write the old hymn "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus" and make it about Mary and try to get it added to the Akathist? I'm sure that wouldn't be a good idea but you know how people are :)

God grant you strength during Great Lent!

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I Made it to another Pre-Sanctified Liturgy!

           

My favorite part of the Presanctified Liturgy!

It's got to be said: The Presanctfied Liturgy is beautiful! On my 95th time at my Orthodox parish, I was just as moved as before with the beauty of the Psalms and prayers of the people as they (we) prostrated ourselves during Great Lent.  Fr. Gary was joined by Fr. Sergious so when it came time for "Let my prayer arise" part, the mournful, longing psalm was chanted in harmony.  If this ain't worship, I don't know what is!

The video of the song for those who have never heard it is above. It is not from my parish but the song is the same.

:

When I first walked in (early for a change) I noticed the Cross in the center of the Nave, beautifully adorned with flowers and there was a rug before it. A thought occurred to me as I approached to venerate, that I should do prostrations first. But, I didn't.  I guess I am still a bit too self-conscience about things.  I felt a bit rebuked when, after I returned to my seat, a kid came in, on his own and did three prostrations. Oh, for the humility of a child!

Speaking of children, it was funny to see one little girl go around and venerate the Icons.  She opted for metanies instead of full prostrations before the Cross and when she got to St. Kathrine's Icon, she couldn't reach it so she kissed her fingertips and jumped, trying to touch her crown, it seemed. She gave this several attempts and a lady was just about to go over to her (and pick her up, I believe) when she reached St. Kathrine's crown on her own. The lady and I looked at each other and started chuckling.

I was very touched when during communion, a young man seemed to be hanging about, waiting to go last and I wondered why. He approached Fr. Gary and the young man covered his mouth and said something to Fr. Gary. Fr Gary then presented the Chalice to the man, who reverently kissed it.  I almost started to cry. Here was a man who for some reason did not commune. Maybe he wasn't Orthodox, maybe he didn't feel himself sufficiently prepared to receive the Body and the Blood. Yet, he wanted to show his devotion so he approached the Chalice. Such humility and yet such devotion!

Fr Gary's homily was good. I appreciate his direct and humble style in preaching. There is no theatrics but rather a humble sharing in a straight forward way. He mentioned that even though we may feel unworthy to approach God at times, we shouldn't hold on to that opinion. After all, God thinks differently about it. He sent His Son so we could commune with Him.

I liked how at the end of the service, we leave we go up to Fr. Gary, who gives us a piece of blessed bread.  Because people have been fasting all day, I am sure they appreciate it. After service, I actually stayed for the agape meal. I didn't eat anything, though, because I had eaten dinner already. I had a very good cup of coffee (without milk, of course) which Tammy had made. She confessed that it was half regular/ half decaf and she said she scooted out of the service at a particular time just to plug in the coffee pot. If she had put the coffee on before the service, the coffee would have been overdone. As it was, I am glad she took the trouble. I love a good cup of coffee.

I had a conversation with Jack Hayford about something that has been troubling me lately about praying for the departed but I'll save that for a separate blog post. I do appreciate Reader Jack taking the time to talk to me before the Agape meal, considering he must have been very hungry.

I hope to make it to another presanctified liturgy again before Great Lent is over. The problem with me going is that the service is very long and I don't like to keep my son waiting for me to pick him up. I feel it's unfair to him. He took off last night.

But I"ll tell you, going to a pre-sanctified Liturgy is worth the trouble!

Under-dressed and feeling out of place on Visit number 94.

Feeling like a Hobo last night at Church!
photo by Sean Lamb, used under the creative commons license.
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Did you ever walk into a place and think, "Man, what am I doing here?" That's exactly how I felt last night when I went for what I thought was going to be an Akathist as scheduled on the parish calendar. Well, I forgot that Fr. Gary sent out an email telling us of a member of the parish falling asleep in the Lord and last night was the burial service for her.

I usually like to dress nicely for Vespers and all services of the Church but yesterday was a bit hectic. Since I've seen some people attend with jeans and sneakers in the past, I just contented myself with a nice shirt. And usually, during Vespers, the lights in the nave are very low so I don't feel like I am on display.   It turns out as I walk in Fr. Gary is saying some prayers over a casket and there are a bunch of people I don't know.  I sneak in quietly in the back and that's when I remember the email.  I saw immediately that I was under-dressed but I decided to stay if only to assist the newly departed by my prayers, feeble as they are.

I did recognize a few of the Vespers regulars and was touched by the devotion of one of them (the grandmother I mentioned last post) for she solemnly crossed herself at every opportunity and seemed to be in deep prayer.  Seeing her devotion, helped me forget about how I was dressed and join in the prayers myself.  There were three priests there. Fr. Gary, Fr. Sergieos and another priest whom I did not know and he chanted in a higher tone, tenor I think and it was nice.  Reader John was there and I have always been impressed how he would chant Psalm 50 (51) straight from memory! He did that last night, of course.  I also loved how during the prayers of the priests, the choir sang alleluia  not as a refrain but as background music.  It truly was beautiful.

Reader John read from the letter of Paul to the Thessalonians where we are urged not to mourn for those who die as the world mourns.  And, that sad joy that Paul talked about was very evident last night.  There is nothing but Hope for those whose Hope is in the Lord!

At the homily,  Fr. Gary told us how the newly departed  taught us by her departure to trust in the Lord.  He said it was ironic that her death (or any Christians death, really) is a testament of life for that is what we have in Christ.

I hightailed it out of there right after the homily.  Yes, I stayed to pray for the departed but I still think it was a bit disrespectful for me to show up dresses as I was so I had no intention of staying for the "coffee and cake" I noticed was set up in the parish hall. I wonder, how much "service" was left after the homily? Did I miss much?   Next time, I go to Church, I am going to make sure I am dressed up.

May God grant rest to Olga Romanofsky and may her memory be eternal!

Thanks for reading.

More of the Same and That's Okay with me!

It may be the "Same old, Same Old" at Vespers but it sure ain't Boring

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Saturday night marked the 93rd time I worshiped at my Orthodox Parish.  What a right thing to do, to just spend time praying the Psalms, chanting the Hymns and focusing my attention upon the Holy Trinity! Worshiping at Vespers is something I may not always want to do at the time but when I set my heart to do it, I am always glad I did. And isn't that why people were put on this earth, to commune with God? So I am glad that after all this time, I have not "dropped out" of going to Vespers, even though my life would be so much easier in many ways if I just perused "The Protestant Path."

One delightful thing I did notice at Vespers....If you remember, I once wrote about how a grandmother kept making the sign of the cross on her grandson. You can read about it here. Well, She was back and right before Vespers began I saw her pointing to the ceiling at each corner , as she held her grandson in her arms, saying, "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." Yes she was teaching her grandson about the Four Evangelists. How wonderful that Icons can be used to teach the little ones! Later on, the toddler was asleep on the chairs. One good thing about the Orthodox, since we stand so much for worship, the grandmother wasn't using the chairs anyway!

This Friday, I hope to make it to the Akathist and I'll, of course, blog about it!

I hope everyone is having a blessed Lent. I have tried to increase my "spiritual activities" and have been making good use of the chotki that Fr Ken gave me when he was just a lowly deacon. :)  He gave that to me back in August of 2010, over two years ago and I am only now using it pretty consistently. Better late than never, eh? Here is where you can read about that!

See you next time and thanks for reading!

There's a First Time for Everything!

There's the First Shave and then there's....well, read below!
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You would think as I approach a hundred visits to my Orthodox Parish that I wouldn't have anymore firsts. Well, on this my 92nd time I can say I attended my first Presanctified Liturgy. I had always thought that a Presanctified Liturgy would just be like Vespers with communion tacked on.  Well, I was a bit wrong.

I arrived a bit late because I was having a conversation on Facebook with my son.  It was a good conversation where we got to "share each other's heart." We both do better writing than talking so it was good. I picked up a service book in the Narthex. Well, it turns out it said Wednesday so after trying to find my place, I went back out to look for another book.  Nothing.  I went back to my seat (where I stood, of course- This is an Orthodox Church, after all) and I am ashamed to say I cannot remember the lady's name but she is always very nice to me, asking me how the job search is going. Well, she saw my lost look on my face and handed me her book and went back to stand next to her husband.

After awhile I found my place.  Psalm after Psalm after Psalm. I felt like I was at a monastery. At least, when ever I would hear podcasts about monasteries, they would always mentioned how they covered the entire book of Psalms in a week (I think during Great Lent).  I had always thought that would bore me.  But, it did not! The choir led us in an easy to follow chant and we sailed on through them.  I've said it before and I'll say it now: There is so much Scripture in Orthodox worship, it puts us Evangelicals to shame!

It was strange to hear no bells as Fr. Gary incensed the Icons and us.  But, that is just to draw our attention to the non-celebratory penitential aspect of Great Lent.  And speaking of penitential - Yes, we did prostrations. Last week, I was stuck in the middle aisle with chairs in the way but this time I moved out and did a proper prostration when indicated.

I was really moved during the service.  At one point, Fr Gary was chanting about Christ as Victor (if memory serves) and I almost expected Christ Himself to walk out the Royal Doors.  It was also very moving when he did the entrance with the Gifts.  We were all to prostrate as he did this so I didn't even see Fr Gary process  I am wondering, did he leave the Sanctuary with them or would all of the movement been within the Sanctuary? If you know, comment below :)

The most moving part of the service when Fr. Gary chanted in a slow, almost mournful voice, Let my prayer arise and we responded with prostrations.  This was truly worship! And I believe it captured what Great Lent is supposed to be: Joyful Sorrow!

We then had a string of intercessions. When it came to the Intercessions of the Catechumens, I remembered Jim Martin, Tiffany and Ben who will be received into the Church on Pascha! I wasn't even offended when Fr. Gary chanted  Catechumens, Out! And I didn't even make the joke to myself "I've been thrown out of better places than this," because the truth is, I haven't! :)

After the people received the Gifts, three people came to me and gave me the bread of fellowship. That's a great way to include people who aren't able to receive the Holy Mysteries yet.

Fr. Gary gave a very short homily because he knew that some people have been fasting all day! When I looked at my phone to see the time, I saw that nearly two hours had passed. That didn't bother me but my other son (not the one I chatted with on Facebook)  was waiting for me to pick him up from work since the service began so I scooted on out. But before we left, instead of kissing a Cross that Fr Gary was holding, he gave us all some blessed bread. That was very nice!

So this is my first Presanctified Liturgy. Hopefully, it won't be my last!

Using a canon to combat Sin...

Not exactly the Canon of St. Andrew...

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...St. Andrew of Crete's Canon, that is! On Tuesay night, I went to Church and our parish, like many parishes has services everyday in the beginning of Lent so I was fortunate to be able to make it on this my 91st time at my Orthodox Parish.

What first struck is as we prayed through the canon is how much Scripture is cited. By every petition a Scripture reference was placed so we knew where that phrase we were praying came from. I daresay I got more Scripture in one night than I have gotten from 6 months at my protestant parish.  Along with these Scriptures, which highlighted our own sinfulness, there were a lot of Lord, have Mercy's. And that is fine with me because I know I need His mercy.  I must say, my back did ache a bit from all the metanies we did. I guess I need to work out so I can be fit for Orthodox Worship! And the times we did prostrations was hard for me because I was standing in the middle and there were chairs in front of me so I ended up doing prostrations toward the side while everyone else did them facing front.  Jim Martin, who was next to me, wisely stood at the end of the aisle so he could move and not be hampered by chairs.

Fr Gary's homily was good. He said it was refreshing to hear the prayers of the Canon of St. Andrew because, in it, St. Andrew makes no excuses for his sin. Rather, he owns up to them. This is something we must do, even though it is much easier to just make excuses.

May God help me to confront my own sins this lent and may all of you forgive me, a sinner, of any offenses I have done against you.

Thrown out...of the Garden!

Thrown in a pool- lots of fun!
Thrown out of Paradise: Not so much...
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I didn't make it to the Video class last night but I did manage to get to Vespers, making this the 90th time I worshiped at my Orthodox parish.  We commemorated THE EXPULSION OUT OF THE GARDEN. I say commemorate for surely Adam leaving Eden is nothing to celebrate. In his homily, Fr. Gary talked about how, in the Church's hymnody, Adam is pictured outside the Garden, weeping bitterly. No longer would he live in paradise. No longer would he commune with God.  Yet Christ changed all that! During Great Lent, the Church offers us a way to get back with God.  Adam, did not fast- having eaten the fruit, he was expelled from the Garden. Moses, however, after fasting for 40 days, saw the Face of God. So maybe now we are, like Adam, weeping bitterly because we only see paradise from afar.  Yet, through Christ, we are restored!

Fr. Gary also mentioned how we commemorate St. Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Enlightener of Ireland.   I had always thought the Orthodox celebrated this famous Saint on a different day.  But I guess I was wrong. He mentioned the story (probably a myth) of how St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland.  We should, he said, do the same thing during Great Lent. Only instead of driving out snakes, we should drive out our sins.  Good advice, I think.

Had a short conversation with Jim Martin (who started a new blog on fly-fishing, by the way. check it out here!) He said, since I'm not working, we should meet for coffee some morning. He is able to break away from the office whenever he wants to.  I'm looking forward to that. I'd really like some time to sit down and talk to him, asking how he feels about being only months away from entering into the Church.  (And I love that his daughter is, too!)   Coming into the Church certainly is the right step to take in reversing us being thrown out of the Garden! In Christ, Paradise is restored!