The Book of Needs varies depending on the culture, time, government, and who has compiled it. Metr. Hilarion focuses on a few of the orders of service in it and molebens, which has become a popular Russian practice. The versions of the Book of Needs can change in volume and number of service orders offered by the priest. This book has its own category of ritual and sacramental blessing. It’s practical for many different situations because it doesn’t require extemporaneous prayers for each event that happens in a Christian’s life. What objects and situations are used for is an important consideration when learning about how the Orthodox Church blesses objects, endeavors, and events. The most important idea is that Christians develop an awareness of the holiness of ritual and sacramental services and the blessed objects that we own. Not that we become more attached to things in the world because they are blessed, but that we have a different relationship and forethought about what we own and how we use them for ourselves and others. The rites and sacraments of the Church don’t happen in a vacuum. Historical experience informs our judgments, values, and our religious habits.
We know that matter is ordinary. Orthodox theology is aware of the difference between the worldly cities and the heavenly Jerusalem, the secular places and the holy places. In Holy Orthodoxy, the veneration of relics is practiced. They often bring healing and sanctification and blessing to Christians. The inner perfection in Christ through awareness that the saints and martyrs have attained to has also spread to physical objects and places in the world. We do not venerate just any object in nature like the pagans of old. But we see, smell and taste holiness in the air of people who have been purified in Christ and become holy vessels who attract us to them. Just as sin and the bad behaviors of others spread through a person, through Christ’s Victory and the intercession to the Holy Spirit, holiness spreads through the saints and martyrs back into others’ lives and surroundings, whether seen or unseen by people. Orthodox Christians do not seem to be advocating for a kind of utopian society on earth like many other religions have preached and modeled. But we can see it at times hopefully and we can experience it now that will continue in the future age. For this reason, icons have their own service order for blessing and sanctification.
Naturally, culture and government become major influences on how devotion, akathists, molebens, and the Book of Needs are formed and used, or not used at all. In 2017, the Moscow Patriarchate mandated that all parishes in the Russian Orthodox Church must serve a moleben for those members who attended the 1917-1918 council. A moleben is the equivalent of the Greek paraklesis service. It is a prayer service done with supplication or thanksgiving. Supplication is to ask for something humbly. It’s an awareness of one’s place and who God is. It’s tied to body language and words and thoughts. Education, weather, healthcare, warfare all have molebens that humbly ask for help for all those involved. These can change drastically from generation to generation. Some may not have access to education, others may not have access to safety because of wars. Some may live under peaceful governments, others under highly divisive political atmospheres. Some are able to travel, others not. The needs can change in an instant. Traditionally, Christians focused on the eucharistic service and daily cycle of services as the center of a person’s worship practice. Over time some Christians have turned molebens and akathists into a more focused and private devotional life almost in place of the eucharist and the Typicon, which is a book that orders and gives this daily cycle of prayers a rhythm for Christians. Also in 2017, a moleben was offered on Kiev’s Vladimir Hill in honor of Orthodox Christianity’s history among the Russian peoples, and it was broadcasted publicly. While the U.S. has had Orthodox immigrants and missionaries in Alaska, one might wonder if we will have an Orthodox history for ourselves given how important it is in Metr. Hilarion’s five volume series and given how deeply rooted the identity of America is in Protestantism. If the numerous and warring Slavic and Finnic tribes didn’t organize themselves under the Scandinavian Rurik dynasty, there wouldn’t be a Russian Orthodox Church as we know it today, and not a Russian culture as we recognize it. No molebens either. The next volume covers the history and canonical structure of the Orthodox Church in its cultural context.