Therapeutic Life of the Church

The Orthodox Church is herself a hospital for the soul, and a living, therapeutic organism that can make us whole, and bring healing of body and soul. It is not a legalistic or juridical institution wherein we are expected to plead our case before an angry judge, trying to convince him we are worthy of mercy. The Church is not about rules or ritual, but about participating in the spiritual therapy intended to cure us of the sickness of sin and to restore us to spiritual wholeness and health.

This spiritual therapy is to be found in the ascetic and mystical (sacramental) life of Orthodoxy. Just as a hospital treats physical health and sickness with the individual in mind, in order to maximize the benefit, so does the Church offer her therapy in a way that meets individual needs. This therapy leads to transformation of self and the restoration to holiness.

It’s all about becoming, not being, about transformation of ourselves and our restoration to holiness, not making God keep a bargain with us to give us what we want or expect. This is because each one of us has a different complex of illnesses and we respond in different ways to the various spiritual therapeutic regimens available to us in the Church. The bottom line is that we avail ourselves to the healing, therapeutic life of the Church. Just as a hospital would be worthless to us if we failed to show up for a scheduled surgery, so too must we avail ourselves for the therapy the Church of Christ has to offer us.

Shamelessly stolen from Abbot Tryphon of All-Merciful Saviour Orthodox Christian Monastery, Vashon Island, WA.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

Some may ask how Christians can believe in a God for whom there is no evidence, no way to know that he exists.  Here is Fr. Maximos’s answer to that from Kyriacos Markides’s book The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality:

We can and must study God. And we can reach God and get to know Him… Christ Himself revealed to us the method. He told us that not only are we capable of exploring God but we can also live with Him, become one with Him. And the organ by which we can achieve that is neither our senses nor our logic but our hearts.

…

Those who wish to investigate whether God exists must employ the appropriate methodology which is none other than the purification of the heart from egotistical passions and impurities. If people manage to cleanse their hearts and still fail to see God, then they are justified by concluding that indeed God is a lie, that He does not exist, that He is just a grand illusion. Such people can reject God in all sincerity by saying, ‘I followed the method that the saints have given us and failed to find God. Therefore, God does not exist.’

In the mid-80′s, a massive influx of Evangelical Christians from the Campus Crusade for Christ movement flooded the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese. Several thousand of these courageous men and women now make an integral part of the Orthodox Church here in America. They brought with them a love for evangelism, the study of scripture, and youth ministry, and have been instrumental in making Orthodox Christianity understandable to Americans. Their influence continues to have a profound impact today at many evangelical universities, such as Biola University here in California. This is the story of the group in Memphis, TN that became St. John Orthodox Church.

Holy Week is a very busy time in an Orthodox Church.  There is at least one service every day, and some of them are quite long, but I think if you can follow the path toward Pascha, the Resurrection will be that much more meaningful and real.  I say “I think” because there are several of these that I’ve never been to myself at this point… This following is adapted from the list of services at St. John.  Other churches will do somewhat different things, but I thought this was a good overview of the last leg of this journey toward Pascha.

Holy Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings

Bridegroom Orthros services are so called from the haunting theme song which begins:

Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight
And happy is that servant whom he shall find watching,
But behold, unworthy is that servant whom he shall find heedless… (cf Matt. 25:1 ff, Luke 12:35 ff)

Our Lord is the Bridegroom whom His beloved bride, His people, were not ready to
receive. At these services we read the scathing prophesies addressed these three
days to the leaders of Israel (Matthew 21:18 – 23:39). Will we be ready when He
comes again?

Holy Wednesday Evening

Unction: We bless oil and members are anointed with it for healing, for Our Lord’s death and Resurrection are for this as well: “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). At this service the choir sings the first part, but the second half is mostly readings.

Holy Thursday afternoon

We serve the Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil celebrating the Mystical Supper at which Our Lord washed His disciples’ feet and instituted the Eucharist.

Holy Thursday evening

Orthros of Holy Friday: During it we read twelve Gospel readings of Our Lord’s crucifixion, interspersed with some of the most beautiful hymns of the whole year. In the middle of this service a large Cross is placed in the center of the Church for veneration.

Holy Friday morning

Royal Hours of Holy Friday: We again contemplate the crucifixion, reading sections from the Gospel readings from the previous service.

Holy Friday afternoon

Great Vespers of Holy Saturday: The Epitaphios, a fabric with an image of the Lord laid in the tomb, representing the burial cloth of the Lord, is carried in procession and laid in the bier, which is covered with flowers. In some traditions, the bier represents His Tomb. In others, it represents the “Unction Stone” on which He was laid and wrapped in the clean linens and spices before He was placed in the tomb.

Holy Friday evening

Orthros of Holy Saturday: The Epitaphios is carried in procession around the Church. The many readings and hymns of the Holy Friday services present us with many the different facets of the awesome and compelling mystery of our Lord’s Passion. It is at this service that the Epitaphios taken from the bier to the altar, symbolizing Christ’s body being placed in
the tomb, which will also be the place of Resurrection.

Holy Saturday morning

Initiation of new members and Divine Liturgy: This is the ‘Blessed Sabbath’ on which God rested — in the Tomb, the real meaning of Genesis 2:2. It is the most appropriate time for Baptism, as those baptized are ‘buried’ with Christ to share His Resurrection (Romans 6:3-4). Lent has its origin as the last intensive preparation for those who would be baptized this day. Today we read from the 15 Old Testament readings appointed that illuminate Baptism, including the Creation from Genesis, and the Exodus, and we read the first Resurrectional Gospel from Matthew 28.

Holy Saturday night (and into Sunday morning)

Paschal Service: This is THE service of the year for Orthodox, and no one wants to miss it. At midnight all lights in the Church are put out. This is the darkness and silence of the Tomb. Finally the bishop or priest comes out of the altar with a candle. Everyone comes forward and lights a candle from this light. Carrying the candles, we make an outdoor procession to the front door of the Church. There we hear the greeting ‘Christ is Risen!’ for the first time and reply, ‘Indeed He is Risen!’ We will greet each other this way for forty days. We go into the Temple, now brightly lighted, and sing the joyous Paschal Orthros and the Divine Liturgy, and receive the Body and Blood of the Risen Lord. After this service we go to the Parish Hall and find the tables sagging with every kind of good food, and we celebrate together until quite late.

Pascha, Sunday afternoon

We gather for the joyous Paschal Agape Vespers (the Gospel is read in many languages) and more feasting.

St. Jacob Netsvetov, Enlightener of the Peoples of Alaska

It’s just over two weeks until our Chrismation into the Orthodox Church, and Janna and I have finally settled on our patron saints. Janna is taking St. Seraphim of Sarov, and I have decided on St. Jacob (Yakov Netsvetov) of Alaska.

I found St. Jacob in my search for saints named “James” (my real first name).  In Greek, “James” (for example, St. James, the brother of our Lord) is Iakovos, which is also the name of the Old Testament Jacob.  So I expanded my search to Yakovs, which is the Slavic form… and this Yakov/Jacob happens to be close to us in time and location, as well as my connection to Russia, having taken several years of the language as well as visiting Russian many years ago on a school trip.

Edit: The short bio I had originally published here has been moved to its own page.

Because of all the hoopla around the internet regarding a certain video of a guy that hates religion, I found the following interview with Fr. Thomas Hopko discussing “Spirituality vs Religion”. Watch this:

Fr. Hopko is a prominent Orthodox Christian lecturer and speaker, well-known both in Orthodox and ecumenical circles. He served as a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and as a delegate from the Orthodox Church in America to the Assemblies of WCC in Uppsala, Sweden; and Nairobi, Kenya. He was also President of the Orthodox Theological Society in America from 1992 to 1995.