Uncategorized – Page 12 – The Tao of Holy Orthodoxy

December 29, 2017January 3, 2018

45. In This Together: Body and Soul

The sickness in your soul affects your body and, likewise, what you do with your own body affects your soul. Think about how a soul is sickened when a person allows his or her body to be moved by the passions of lust, gluttony, or sloth (laziness). If you sin by saying something you should not have said because you allow anger to influence you, your body becomes an instrument and victim of the sin rooted in your soul. You can use your body to do evil and further injure your soul or, instead, you can choose to use your body to do good and contribute to your soul’s healing and transformation.

Proper physical acts of worship and veneration performed with your body are honest expressions of the faith, humility, reverence, fear of God, repentance, and love within your heart. These actions of your body also help you to acquire and maintain a proper inner attitude. So, these physical actions work two ways: They are outward expressions that flow from you inner soul and also act as outward physical therapeutic exercises that help you cultivate and nurture your inner soul.

The Prostration

As Orthodox Christians, we use our bodies to worship God. We also use our bodies to venerate the Saints and the sacred things of the Church. We seek to encounter the Divine Grace with our bodies. Making a prostration is one way your body participates in the therapy of your soul. Command your body, the same body that falls into sin because of pride, to humble itself by falling before your Master and King.

A prostration is made this way: Stand up. Make the sign of the Cross, kneel on both knees, place your hands on the ground and touch your forehead to the ground. Stand up again.

The act of making a prostration teaches us that when we fall into sin, the proper response is always to rise up in repentance.

Of course, just because you make a prostration doesn’t mean you are truly humble. Remember that prostrations are expressions of humility and repentance, but they also may help you to acquire real humility and genuine repentance within. If you don’t feel very humble, make prostrations anyway. Humble your body to remind your soul to be humble before God.

The Bow (“metania”)

Often, instead of making a full prostration, we make a low bow while reaching with the right hand toward the floor. You may touch the floor with the tips of your fingers or just reach toward it as an expression of humility and reverence. Then stand straight up again and make the sign of the Cross. (Some people may make the sign of the Cross before the bow, instead of after it.)

The Kiss

In the Orthodox Church, we often worship God and venerate holy things with a kiss. Orthodox people sometimes kiss each other on the cheeks as a sign of fellowship.

When you approach the Holy Icons of Christ and the Theotokos in the Narthex, make a bow (or three) and kiss the Icons reverently with love. Preferably, kiss the hand or feet (if shown) of the one depicted. At different times, the priest may offer you the Gospel Book, a Cross, an Icon, or some other sacred thing to venerate with a kiss.

When wearing lipstick, a woman should not kiss the Icons or anything else since the wax and pigment can soil or damage sacred things. If she is wearing lipstick, an air kiss in which the lips do not actually touch the thing is fine.

When done properly, these physical actions of worship and veneration express the condition of the soul through the body, contribute to the healing of the soul, and teach you to keep your body and soul aligned.

Read: Genesis 18.1-4; Leviticus 9.24; Number 22.31; Judges 13.20; 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 24.8; 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 28.14; Psalm 95.5-6; Matthew 2.10-11; Luke 24.1-7; Luke 5.12; Revelation 7.11-12

December 23, 2017January 3, 2018

44. Holy Icons

Yousis Theotokos

Holy Icons in the Narthex

Holy Icons, the sacred images of the Orthodox Church, splendidly adorn the interior spaces of our Orthodox temples. When entering the Narthex, you will likely encounter an Icon depicting Jesus Christ as a man and another showing Him as a child, held by His mother, the Virgin Mary. Typically in an Icon of Christ as an adult, a halo surrounds the Lord’s head with three Greek letters identifying Him as The Existing One or The One Who Is, meaning that He is the God without beginning, unconfined by space and time. In the Icon of Christ as a child with His Mother, the child bears the halo as mentioned, and is held lovingly by His mother, who is identified as the Mother of God. These icons provide strong affirmations that Jesus Christ is both God, The Existing One, and a human being, born as one of us from a human mother.

Holy Icons express Truth

Holy Icons express Truth visually in paint as the Holy Scriptures express the Truth in words with ink. These symbolic images are more than humanly-inspired art. An Icon teaches the Holy Tradition of the Church and invites the viewer to participate in the spiritual reality beyond the Icon itself.

Icons before the Incarnation of Jesus Christ

In the ancient times recorded in the Old Testament, before the Birth of Jesus Christ into the world, God commanded His people not to make images of Him. The God Who created everything that exists, fills the universe, and sustains the universe did not have an image that could be portrayed. No image made by human hands could possibly represent the invisible God Who is present everywhere at once. Having revealed Himself to His people, the Israelites, God warned them against making and worshipping idols as idols. When they did rebelliously incorporate idols into their worship, influenced by the pagan cultures around them, they inevitably drifted away from the real God Who loved them and fell into spiritual confusion. God taught His people that He was not like the false gods worshipped by their pagan neighbors. The True God showed His presence, sometimes as cloud, smoke, and fire, but no image made by human hands could properly express the Mystery of the One Who Is. How could a human being presume to depict the One who is invisible, limitless, and without boundary, size, or shape?

God did not completely forbid the Israelites from making images. In fact, He instructed them to weave images of the angelic Cherubim into the curtains of the Holy Tabernacle. God also told the Israelites to make two solid-gold statues of Cherubim, facing each other with wings outstretched toward the other, to sit on top of the Ark of the Covenant. The images in the Tabernacle reflected the heavenly reality because the Tabernacle served as a reflection of heaven on earth. These images identified the Tabernacle as God’s Palace, the Holy of Holies as His Throne Room, and the Ark of the Covenant as both His Divine Throne on earth and as His Footstool (considering that God fills the whole universe).

On one occasion, God commanded the Israelites to make a bronze serpent, raised upon a pole as a sign of God’s love for His people, His faithfulness to them, and His power to heal. Whoever looked upon the bronze serpent would receive healing from a snake bite. (Later in history, the serpent was destroyed because the Israelites began worshipping it as an idol.) The proper meaning of the bronze serpent is found in the meaning of the Cross.

When King Solomon built his magnificent Temple in Jerusalem to replace the mobile Tabernacle, he directed his craftsmen to carve beautiful images into the wooden walls and doors, and then to overlay the wood with gold. In the most sacred room, the Holy of Holies, Solomon placed two enormous statues of cherubim to overshadow the Ark of the Covenant with their broad, majestic wings.

Holy Icons after that Incarnation of Jesus Christ

The Old Testament contains the Story of God’s work in human history to prepare the world for the Birth of Jesus Christ. Through His Birth, the Uncreated Son of God, Who Is equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit as God, came into the world through a human woman as one of us, a human being. The One Who cannot be contained by the universe was laid in a simple manger in a rustic cave. The invisible One became visible as “the image [that is, the icon] of the invisible God” (Colossians 1.15, NKJV).

Why can we make an image of God today when it was forbidden in Old Testament times? This is the reason: God gave Himself an image by becoming a man. His human nature was seen with human eyes and, therefore, can be depicted with human hands. We also depict the Saints (the holy ones) of God who have become like Christ and in whom the saving, transforming Divine Presence dwells, sanctifies, and shines.

Holy Icons remind us of the Story and our place in it.

Holy Icons remind us of our place in the Story of salvation, which extends from the beginning of time through the history of Israel in the Old Testament to the life of Jesus Christ on earth and the ministry of His Apostles on through the history of the Church until today. The Holy Icons help us remember God’s continuing Presence and work within human history. The Icons likewise remind us of the Saints, our spiritual ancestors who lived in different times, places, and culture, and how God changed their lives and worked through them to touch the lives of others.

Holy Icons remind us of the mystical reality and our place in it.

As the Holy Icons portray salvation history, they also portray the mystical aspect of reality invisible to human eyes. As Orthodox Christians, we participate in this mystical reality. The Icons help us to remember that God and His Saints, along with the Angels, are present with us today. When we gather for heavenly worship in our Orthodox temples, all the Saints from every age and place who have completed this life in faith and have gone on to be with Christ are present with us in worship.

Holy Icons are windows to heaven that help us pray.

The Holy Icons serve as windows to heaven that help us pray. When we see an icon of Christ with our eyes, we look through it with our hearts (the eyes of the soul) to perceive Christ Himself. When we look upon an icon of a Saint or Angel, we see with our human eyes paint on a piece of wood, but with our hearts we look beyond it to the one depicted. Standing before the Holy Icons, we focus our hearts and offer our prayers. We speak with Christ in intimate prayer, face to face, before His Icon. We also ask for the Saints to boldly pray for us, interceding on our behalf, and we request that the Angels watch and protect us.

We worship God and venerate Icons, though which we encounter God’s Grace.

We Orthodox Christians worship one God, the True and Living God – The Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No other God exists and we serve none other. To direct worship toward a created thing rather than the Uncreated Creator would be idolatry, completely contrary to the Orthodox Way. That would not make sense at all. We worship God alone and venerate (honor) both His Saints and those sacred things made holy by His Presence. For this reason, we venerate Holy Icons like we venerate the Holy Gospels, and other things within the Church that bring us to participation in God’s Grace. During Christ’s ministry on earth, a woman received healing by just touching the edge of His clothes. Later, people received healing through handkerchiefs and aprons touched by St. Paul. Others sought healing just by touching St. Peter’s shadow. Likewise, we may also experience the Grace of God through the Holy Icons when we use them properly for our benefit according to the Orthodox Way.

The whole Church affirms the place of Icons in the spiritual life

When iconoclasts (icon-destroyers) desecrated Holy Icons in earlier centuries, the whole Church affirmed the proper place of Icons at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in AD 787. Iconoclasts rose up again for a short time, but the Icons were restored to the churches once and for all in AD 843. Every year, Orthodox Christians gather to commemorate the final restoration of Icons by celebrating the Triumph of Orthodoxy. This day celebrates the restoration of the Icons specifically, but also the triumph of the Truth Faith (Orthodoxy) over false opinions (heresy), generally. On this Sunday of Orthodoxy, as it is also known, we proclaim with one voice:

As the prophets beheld, as the Apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the Teachers have dogmatized, as the Universe has agreed, as Grace has shown forth, as Truth has revealed, as falsehood has been dissolved, as Wisdom has presented, as Christ awarded, thus we declare; thus we assert, thus we preach Christ our true God, and honor His Saints in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in Churches, in Holy Icons; on the one hand worshiping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord; and on the other hand honoring as true servants of the same Lord of all and accordingly offering them veneration.

This is the Faith of the Apostles, this is the Faith of the Fathers, this is the Faith of the Orthodox, this is the Faith which has established the Universe!

Keep a proper approach to Icons and other sacred things

In order to maintain a proper spiritual understanding of Holy Icons (and other sacred things), be attentive to these three instructions:

1) Worship God alone and reverently venerate what God has sanctified (made holy) by His Presence: Never confuse the Uncreated with the created. In other words, always recognize the distinction between the Creator Himself and what He has made.

2) Maintain unity of the spiritual and material. Do not separate the physical (material) and the spiritual aspects of reality as though they are disconnected. God created the physical world as very good. He made you – body and soul. You encounter God through your human body and in your human body. Salvation encompasses soul and body. So, keep your body and soul in spiritual unity. Also, recognize that you can encounter the spiritual world with your soul and body through physical things.

3) Always recognize that what makes things holy is the Presence of God: Remember that Grace is not a created power, but it is the Uncreated God Himself – His Presence. If you forget that God Himself is present within holy things, you may fall into a pagan notion that holy things contain some magical power by themselves. Neither Holy Icons nor Holy Water or anything else contain power on their own. The protecting, healing, transforming Power we encounter through the sacred things that we venerate is not an it, but a He.

Immerse yourself in the whole spiritual life

Venerate the Holy Icon of Christ and worship the Living Christ depicted therein with all your being. Honor the Holy Icons of the Saints and Angels that depict these faithful servants of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. Standing before the Holy Icons, collect your mind, focus your heart, and offer your prayers and worship to the Son of God who took our image. Before the Icons of the Saints, ask those who are alive in Christ to offer prayers to God on your behalf. Request the Holy Angels and Archangels to watch over you and protect you on your journey. Immerse yourself in the whole healing life of the Church, taking advantage of every gift bestowed by God. As one of the many sacred therapeutic gifts God has given to us for our healing, make use of the Holy Icons for your salvation, for the benefit of others, and to the glory of God.

Be a living Icon of our Lord for the sake of others

Remember that you have been made according to the Image of God. Strive with all your soul to become a clear representative Icon of Jesus Christ so that those who know you may see Christ through you and learn what it means to bear His likeness.

Read: Genesis 1; Exodus 20.4-5; 25.17-22; 26.31; Numbers 21.4-9; 1 Chronicles 28.2; 3 Kingdoms (1 Kings) 6.14-37; 7.1-39; 4 Kingdoms (2 Kings) 18.1-8; John 3.12-17; Luke 8.3-48; Colossians 1:15-18; Acts 19.11-12; Acts 5.12-16.

December 13, 2017December 13, 2017

43. The Orthodox Temple

The word church holds several meanings. It may refer to the Holy Orthodox Church as a whole or a jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church, such as the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Greek Orthodox Church, or Orthodox Church of Japan. It may refer to a local community of Orthodox faithful in a particular city or town. The word church may also refer to the Orthodox temple, the church building where Orthodox Christians gather regularly for prayer, worship, education, fellowship, and service. The Orthodox temple is the physical, tangible center of the life of the living church who gathers there.

The presence of an Orthodox temple in a city, town, or countryside is a statement that the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe is present in that place, cares for all the inhabitants, and calls each one to take refuge in the Church so that they may be healed. For Orthodox Christians, the temple reminds us who we are, who we are called to be in the world, and our future destination.

The inside of the Orthodox temple is divided into three parts:

The Narthex
The Nave
The Holy Sanctuary

When you go into the temple through the main doors, the Narthex is the first room you enter. Since Orthodox temples are oriented toward the East, the Narthex is the westernmost room. The Narthex is particularly associated with catechumens, who have left the ideologies, distractions, and sinful lifestyles of the fallen world to seek the motherly protection of the nurturing Church. This room is a place of transition between the world outside, corrupted by death and ignorance of the true God, and the temple inside, a place where people hear the Truth, encounter the living God, and seek salvation from death.

As a catechumen, you have willingly entered a time of transition on a journey toward reception into the Church. Feel at home in the Narthex as you prepare yourself for reception into the Holy Orthodox Church in due time.

The Narthex provides a space for Orthodox Christians to prepare themselves for entering beyond the Narthex into the central and largest room in the temple, the Nave. As the Narthex represents the catechumens, the Nave represents the faithful, who are members of the Orthodox Church.

The Nave symbolizes a ship. In fact, the word nave means ship. We are reminded of how God saved humanity during the Great Flood by safely preserving Noah and his family in the Ark (a large ship) and by ensuring secure passage to dry land. Orthodox Christians enter into the safety of the Church, securely passing through the chaotic storms of the world toward safe harbor in the Kingdom of Heaven.

At the east end of the Nave stands a large screen, called an Iconostasis, that holds Holy Icons (sacred images) and separates the Nave from the most sacred room beyond it, the Holy Sanctuary. In some Orthodox temples (Western Rite) a Rood Screen bearing a Cross, but without icons, may serve the purpose of an Iconostasis.

The Holy Doors in the middle of the Iconostasis lead from the Nave into the inner Sanctuary, which is often overshadowed by an apse (a half-dome). Representing the Kingdom of Heaven, the Sanctuary is reserved for the clergy and those altar servers blessed to work in the Sanctuary to assist the clergy. Typically, only Orthodox men with a blessing from the Bishop or Priest should enter into the Sanctuary.

At the center of the Holy Sanctuary sits the Holy Altar, where the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons stand during the Divine Services. On top of the Holy Altar lays the Holy Gospel Book. Underneath the Gospel Book, rests the Antimens, a folded cloth signed by the Bishop and bearing an icon of Christ’s Body. The signature of the Bishop verifies that this particular congregation is truly an Orthodox church, under the pastoral authority of an Orthodox Bishop. A Blessing Cross lays next to the Gospel Book. The Tabernacle and a Seven Branch Lampstand stand at the far end of the Altar.

The Censor, used by the clergy to offer incense to God, remains near the Altar. At appointed times, incense, usually frankincense, is placed on the fiery charcoal in the censer. The Priest blesses the smoking incense, offering it as a sweet-smelling gift to God and asking God to give us His Grace in return. After the incense is blessed, the Priest or Deacon censes the Altar and all the temple, including the Icons and the people, who are living Icons made according to the image (icon) of God. Since God has appeared to human beings as smoke or cloud throughout salvation history, the smoke helps us remember that God is present with His people in His temple. The incense is also a visible sign of our prayers rising to God, mingled with all the prayers of the Saints. Of course, in the eyes of God the purity of the offering is not determined by how pleasant the incense smells, but by the purity of heart of the faithful who offer their prayers. In addition to smelling the fragrance and seeing the smoke of the incense, we also hear the twelve bells on the Censer ring, which encourage us to keep proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world in the spirit of the Twelve Apostles.

Arches are often part of our temple architecture. Heaven can be symbolized as a circle, such as a dome in the ceiling, and the earth symbolized as a square. An arch, the union of a circle and square, reminds us that when Orthodox Christians worship, heaven and earth meet. The Icons of the Saints and Angels in the temple also emphasize this realty. This sacred space where heaven and earth meet is the hospital where we offer to God ourselves and, in return, He gives us the Divine Medicines, the Holy Mysteries, that we might be healed from sin and death.

Orthodox temple architecture, designed for people to gather, also teaches us that we are not saved alone, but together as the Church. We are on the Ship together because we all need saved from the chaos, death, and darkness of the outside world. It helps us remember that we are on a journey. In order to reach our destination we must stay on the proper course. While we each have individual problems and needs, we are all healed together by the same Medicines in the same Hospital by the One Physician.

Make the Orthodox temple your spiritual home, your family home, and the tangible, geographic center of your spiritual life, around which everything you do revolves. Bring yourself here regularly and often to offer your whole being to God that He may give to you in return His Divine Grace.

Read: Exodus 3; 13.21-22; 19; 25-30; 33.7-23; 40.1-38; 2 Kingdoms (2 Samuel) 7; 3 Kingdoms (1 Kings) 6-8; Isaiah 6.1-8; Psalm 84, 140 (141); Ezekiel 10; Luke 1.5-25; 1 Peter 2.1-10; Isaiah 56.1-8; Malachi 1.11; Revelation 4; 8.3-4; 21.1-27

November 29, 2017

42. Perseverance with Patience

runners race legs pexels-photo-618612

As a catechumen, you have begun training for a race. This long-distance event will be your life as an Orthodox Christian, running toward the fullness of salvation. Run with all your strength to win! Take care not to launch off in a flash at first, but to tire or lose interest later, when the running becomes difficult. Never give up. Be persistent and focused. Stay consistent and unwavering in your commitment to keep running toward the prize. When you have doubts about going on, find encouragement in your teammates, your fellow believers, who run alongside you. Remember that the Saints who in the generations before you have faithfully run the race with single-minded focus and have finished it victoriously, now stand to cheer you on from the stands. Run with energetic endurance and unwavering determination.

spring-tree-flowers-meadow-60006

As you practice determination, also practice patience. Work hard to bring good health to your soul and to love others, but wait calmly and soberly to see the benefits of your investment.

Patience does not mean sitting around and doing nothing. Patience is active. It means actively waiting in time while enduring whatever situation you encounter with inner prayer, steady faithfulness, and solid trust in God.

Having patience does not mean that difficulties will eventually be resolved as you want or that your prayers will be answered according to your own opinion of what God should do. Patience does not necessarily give you the situation you want, but allows you to endure any situation well for the benefit of your soul. It is easy for you to think you are a patient person when your patience has not been tested. Patience is gained and strengthened by practicing it in times when being patient is difficult and things are not going as you like.

Avoid the trap of worry. If worrying worked, you should probably do more of it, but worry doesn’t work to your benefit. It enslaves you and blurs your thinking. It doesn’t produce anything good in your soul, effectively change other people, or solve external problems. Worry makes you anxious, driving out peace. In this condition, your problem will become the focus of your life. Rather than worrying, patiently trust in God. If you can’t seem to find patience, ask God for help and find strength through the Church.

Grass grows slowly. Little flowers pop up in a field and open up over time. Tiny seeds produce huge, mighty trees with thick branches full of fruit, but all this happens incrementally, too slow to sit and watch. If you practice patience, you will peacefully accept what happens between now and the future, when you grow toward greater health and maturity. If you are living the Way diligently, the time may seem slow, but it is not wasted. Indeed, it is necessary. This is the process of growth.

Read: Philippians 3:12-17; Hebrews 12.1-2; 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5; Philippians 4.4-9; Matthew 6.25-34; Galatians 5.22-23

November 27, 2017August 27, 2018

41. Give Thanks. Beware of Despair.

despair alone

When you are attacked by bad thoughts, remember that you cannot control whether a thought enters your rational mind. If someone says to you, “Please, do not think of a yellow car,” your mind might immediately form an image of a yellow car. You are not responsible for being attacked by a bad thought, but you are responsible for whether you accept or reject the bad thought. If you reject it, there is no sin.

If you have a bad thought, you may be tempted to become despondent (depressed) and to fall into the deep pit of despair (hopelessness) because you imagine yourself to be too good or too spiritually advanced to have such bad thoughts. Pride deceives you into imagining that you are high and mighty, until reality smashes your ego-tower to bits and you fall hard on your face. If you see your own imperfection with a sober view of yourself, remaining grounded in humility, bad thoughts will not cause you such distress.

pig in pen

Do not despair over your past sins, either. It is healthy to feel ashamed that you have sinned. Shame is good if it drives you to repentance, but avoid guilt that keeps you stuck, lying in the thick mud like a pig, self-reflecting on what a miserably sinful person you are. Guilt prevents you from making progress. Like the Prodigal Son, get up, repent, and be reconciled to God. If you sense that God is distant, you are the one who created the distance. God made you, loves you, and awaits your return so that He can bless you. He desires to forgive you so that your sins are removed from you as far as the East is from the West.

shoes pexels-photo-609771

Even if you feel alone and depressed, you are not really isolated from your fellow human beings unless you choose to isolate yourself. Sometimes, we tend to separate ourselves from the help we need most. Keep seeking the guidance of your priest for fatherly counsel and remain connected to the community of the Church. We all need the care of the physician and the Hospital. God works through our fellow human beings to heal us and move us toward our destiny.

Thank you pexels-photo-268344

A good medicine for despondency, despair, and anxiety is giving thanks. Giving thanks is natural for the human being who has been healed and perfected. It is effective therapy for those of us still in the process of healing.

Remember everything good that God has given you and be thankful. Always be thankful. Even give thanks for difficulties because these experiences, by the power of God, can be transformed into opportunities for growth in character, maturity of faith, strength, and good health. Do this by cultivating your humility. If you are prideful, you will focus on whatever you want and whatever you think you need, but lack. If you are humble, you will be thankful for what you already have been given as a blessing.

Maintain a thankful inner disposition, but don’t stop there. Go beyond thankful thoughts and feelings to outwardly express your inner thankfulness through action. Wishing a friend “Happy Birthday!” as you place a personal card and generous gift into her hands is superior than just harboring a thought about it. Give thanks to God in the morning and throughout the day as an expression of loving thankfulness. Your effort to genuinely offer thanks to God and to others will soften your heart so that you are able to receive more of the good, healthful, healing Gifts that God desires to bestow upon you.

Read: Ezekiel 33.11, Psalm 103.12; Psalm 139.1-16; Psalm 118; Luke 17.11-19