Monastic Tonsure (Vol V, Ch 8)

To be taught Jan 25, 2020

From Michael Ruse:

Some writers of the Church, like Dionysius the Areopagite, considered taking monastic vows and living as a monk to be a sacrament. Monastic tonsure is much like baptism. Accepting death to gain life. It is done once in your life, like baptism, and that submersion into death begins a new path in life that requires bearing one’s cross. It represents a spiritual death and joy in resurrection of one’s spirit. The monastic clothing and accessories symbolize the meaning of monasticism, which primarily focuses on contemplation. That contemplative life is, in fact, a battle done with prayer. For this reason, when the abbot gives a monk a prayer rope, it is called a sword.  

How can you become more dead? You could choose to become a monk. There are many similarities between monasticism and marriage. Just as with marriage, becoming a monk requires the participation and agreement of the community, the priest presides, the Eucharist is celebrated, and most of all, a requirement of a willing heart without compulsion. Marriage and monasticism must be freely chosen. Just as in a marriage, there is a paradoxical mixture of mourning and joy that reminds us that spiritual joyfulness comes from mourning over a realization of our own woundedness. Just as a monk leaves family and familiar life behind, so too does a man leave his father and mother to be joined to his wife. There is a leaving and union that happens in both types of spiritual yokes. 

Another important aspect of monastic tonsure is found in the story of the Prodigal Son. It is a passage that is contained in the liturgy for the tonsuring a monk into the small schema. It is a story that reflects a free decision to repent from a realization of powerlessness and a wounded life but also from a recognition that we are not completely helpless if we go to our Father’s house. It’s a father-son relationship that is restored. Becoming a monk is also a husband and wife story that reflects how Jesus Christ loves His Church and he gives everything for us. The order of services contains wedding terminology. The word to describe a decision to be a monk is “betrothal.” This wording indicates that a lay person enters into a monastic community as if by marital vows. Join us all Saturday, Jan 25, 2020, at 4:00 p.m. to learn more of this beautiful, encouraging yoke that Christ has given us another way to unite ourselves to the Holy Trinity. 

Marriage (Vol V, Ch 7)

To be taught on Jan 18, 2020.

From Michael Ruse:

Metropolitan Hilarion discusses marriage not from the starting point of morality, law, customs, not even from its liturgical formation, because it is a mystery or sacrament. Like the Eucharist and other sacraments, we are changed by them. The liturgical hymns, psalms, and rites of marriage come from its mystical nature. Later sections on Formation, Betrothal, and Crowning can only follow from this essential reality. 

Our modern understanding of marriage doesn’t seem to distinguish itself essentially from how pagans or Greco-Roman culture tended to view marriage as primarily a contract for benefiting society, a pretext for leveraging oneself economically or a just a “voluntary cohabitation.” 

Against those secular kinds of views, this chapter hits at the core. Metropolitan Hilarion in agreement with the saints of East and West explains that marriage is a matter of how we are created. Mankind is made up of two in one, male and female. That idea comes from the book of Genesis. The mystical importance of the marital union comes not from its ability to produce children, neither its legal, nor any other specific earthily aspect of it. The image of marriage comes from the union of Christ and the Church, shown most mystically in the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity, as St. John Chrysostom says, is the living image of marriage. Join us Saturday, Jan 18, 2020, to get a picture of the Orthodox understanding of marriage.

Unction (Vol V, Ch 6)

To be taught Dec 14.

From Michael Ruse:

The holy oil of the Church heals our pain. In our modern age, just as in the age of paganism and classical antiquity, we still strive to find remedies for our body and mind. The world seems to be thrown in a crisis of mental health and there is also a fascination with books that teach us how to achieve wholeness on our own. There is a genuine yearning for bodily health through education, diet, exercise, pills and food products. These ideas assume that the physical world can help us heal entirely. So too, in the Orthodox Church, we also use matter like oil to find not only physical cures but spiritual rejuvenation. 

The sacrament of unction heals the sickness of the body and the soul. That isn’t a superstition or a throwback to pagan worship of nature. In fact, the Old Testament and the Gospels tell us about the use and symbolism of oil in Jewish religious contexts. Oil was also a common product with various uses in many Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures, and oil was as familiar as bread and wine. Oil represents almost everything we need and want out of life: health, love, beauty, happiness, friendship, joyfulness, and harmony with God and mankind. That may all sound “new-agey” but it is actually Orthodoxy. 

In the Greek language there is a wordplay between eleos (mercy) and elaion (oil). In the New Testament, oil and healing are brought together in the sacrament of unction. The Apostle James in Jerusalem records this sacrament and it influences the practice and meaning of unction thereafter. But Metropolitan Hilarion reminds us that the “spiritual healing” comes to us not from mere molecules of oil, but it comes from faith in the prayers that are said in giving the oil. 

He also discusses who is meant to receive the sacrament of unction. It was intended for the healing of soul and body. The restriction of the service to the dying only, as in Roman Catholicism, or to the general public without specific need of physical healing, sometimes the Byzantines or Russians, are both a little out of step in keeping with the original meaning of unction, which was to find outer and internal wholeness through the forgiveness of sins with faith that the bodily healing would follow.  When we reflect on all the sacraments discussed so far, which are baptism, chrismation, eucharist, confession, ordination, then we start to see that the Church’s purpose is to bring healing to body and soul, and even today the whole world seeks these in various ways. Metropolitan Hilarion explains that although modern physicians are a most highly regarded profession in the Church, we shouldn’t forget to also consult our priests, spiritual fathers, and the sacraments of the Church, which can be said to be the most proven and trustworthy therapy we can receive for our spiritual well-being on earth. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. to discuss these topics more in detail. 

The Sacrament of Holy Orders (Ordination) (Vol V, Ch 5)

To be taught Dec 7.

From Michael Ruse:

Why do we need priests or church hierarchy to be Orthodox Christians? The hierarchical structure of the Orthodox Church is built by the apostles on Jesus Christ. The whole hierarchical structure continues the apostolic mission. The Holy Spirit is given to each generation of Christians through hands out-stretched in prayer because God gave the apostles this power. The cheirotonia (laying on or stretching out of hands in Greek) is a well-known Old Testament gesture that guided the blessings of generations of righteous before the incarnation and it continues. Three holy orders have always been recognized: bishops, priests, deacons. They all serve at the altar and they all help us heal in various ways and to learn about God. By serving and offering the eucharist during liturgy they all help us in an essential way for our spiritual growth. The orders of the Church are holy because they bestow what’s holy to us from God. 

Like ordinary water and oil, so too the laying on of hands and the spoken word in services can be taken as mere words or gestures. But they are not just empty words or objects. It’s not just earthily hands that, though we know our hands have no power in themselves, bestow graces since only through the Holy Spirit all things can be given life, and all dead material substances can become a sacrament for us. Baptismal water, the blessed oil, the bread and wine, and also the laying on of hands continue to give us the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Church. 

When the purpose of the Church is approached in this way with Jesus Christ as the healer and our medicine, which is the Eucharist, we can understand why the three holy orders are so essential and beneficial for our salvation. Metropolitan Hilarion has selected many important prayers and liturgical texts for ordaining readers, deacons, priests (presbyters), and bishops. Those prayers boldly proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the physician” of the people and ruler over the Church, that Jesus Christ completes the work, that the Holy Spirit is the giver of all grace coming from the laying on of hands from bishops and priests. That grace from the Holy Spirit strengthens us with healing and blessings. We also need to live in communion with other Christians as we’ve already learned in previous volumes. This chapter shows us that nothing can be done without other Christians and the Holy Trinity. Becoming a reader, a deacon or deaconess, a priest, or a bishop involve the working of the Holy Spirit to bless what the holy orders set out to do in the Church. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. for a discussion on holy orders. 

Repentance (Confession) (Vol V, Ch 4)

To be taught Nov 30.

From Michael Ruse:

Is the confession of a Christian’s sins an ancient Church practice? It was connected to baptism and it was connected to bringing individual Christians back into communion with the Church itself. It was exactly what Jesus did with many of his miracles on earth, and so too it can be said forgiveness in confession and repentance that follows is a miracle. Confession was a matter of personal salvation and unity with the entire Orthodox Church and everyone in the local church community. 

Metanoia is the Greek New Testament word for repentance. It means more concretely a turning of one’s mind. Repentance is a mind-changer. Metropolitan Hilarion brings together two concepts that are very closely related, but not always accepted in certain individuals or religious Christians. That repentance and the literal confession of one’s sins to Christ before a priest in the Church as a witness go together.  The idea that we have to do something physical, confession, parallels the topics covered on baptism and the use of chrismation oil. Our whole body and soul are involved in salvation. Most Christians don’t take issue with “repentance,” in itself as an idea but many do have various beliefs about practicing the confession of sins. 

There are not a few ancient Christian sources that illuminate for us how confession was done and what was expected come from Scripture itself, the Didache, the Psalms, Church Fathers like St. Cyril of Alexandria, and the Apostolic Constitutions. 

Metropolitan Hilarion brings up an important point that seems to go counterclockwise from our common American, Protestant culture. He says that the beginning of our repentance happens when we confess our sins (expectedly more than once in a lifetime), and with those confessions Jesus Christ continues to purify and bring us to new life. 

Other more practical questions are addressed as well. For instance, how often and how much detail should I include in a confession? How should I organize my confession? One way of organizing one’s confession mentioned in the chapter is to follow the Ten Commandments, which came from God. The order of confession is a rich section of the chapter because it includes the prayers that go along with our confession and help open our heart to the powerful cures that Jesus Christ has given to his Apostles, bishops, and priests in His Church for our healing. Just as Jesus healed the body of many people during his ministry, so too he has given this power of forgiveness to us who confess them before Christ Himself. 

The Eucharist (Vol V, Ch 3)

For the class on 11/23

From Michael Ruse:

When we are thankful, we are full of life and joy, as Metropolitan Hilarion explains in the opening pages of Chapter 3 on the Eucharist. The Greek word, eucharistia, means thankfulness. It’s the basis of our spiritual growth in the Orthodox Church. The eucharist brings us into communion with God. That union happens between us as physically as the elements of food and drink that we incorporate to keep our bodies and brains working everyday. 

 According to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, this divine food unifies us with the bishop, the Church, and with Jesus Christ. Unity is in terrible doubt nowadays, but this kind of divine unity stretch beyond medical science and research, political boundaries, and cultural ties. Cultures sometimes develop and become invested in what they eat, or not eat, as one of the important identifiers of cultural belonging. In the eucharist, we actually become Jesus Christ’s “kinfolk," although Metropolitan Hilarion does not identify Orthodoxy as a culture among others. There is a striking difference between how we normally view food, nutrition and life in comparison to holy communion in the liturgy. We do not change the bread and wine, “the deified flesh of Christ,” into our blood like normal digestion, but in reverse, the body and blood of Christ changes us completely into Himself. With the voice of the Orthodox Church, John Chrysostom reminds us that Jesus Christ’s body and blood has “curative” powers and only He can give the life. That life is found in nothing else and in no one else is a foundational concept in the Orthodox Church. Some divine effects, since it is a reality, of receiving communion include: unity with the Trinity, driving away demonic influences, angels come near to us, our souls shine a little brighter, and our understanding becomes clearer. 

If you’ve ever wondered what our Church Fathers taught about the Eucharist, how often can we receive communion, what are preparation rules for communion, or if you want to gain more understanding of the deep symbolic and unifying reality of the Eucharist, then this chapter will surely enrich you. 

There are clear ways for us to become prepared to receive such an awesome change of our own body and soul. Some of these daily and weekly preparations are prayer, fasting, confession, and attending services. The Fathers of the Church discussed who is “worthy” to approach communion and how often, which is a practical question to ask. The ancient Church assumed all would approach communion, but if needed, there was some preparation. Because receiving communion has “a purifying effect on a person,” the best practice is to be ready in the moment to always receive Jesus Christ in the liturgy. In this way, there is nothing we can hold in our own power to reach God because He has already come down to us in divine bread and wine to give us all of His Life. The eucharist in the Orthodox Church, then, has many, huge impacts on the customs and ordinary beliefs we hold about unity, life, and health. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. to discuss how to prepare best, according to the Orthodox Church, for the only food that satisfies the soul and heals the body. 

Baptism and Chrismation (Vol V, Ch 2)

Class scheduled for Nov 16, 2019

From Michael Ruse:

Alexander Schmemann in Of Water and Spirit, said, “When the real fight begins the bright and colorful uniform is of no use and is replaced with battle fatigues.” What does baptism and battle have in common? Metropolitan Hilarion quotes him to explain that the fight for our own soul begins with baptism and chrismation. 

In St. Cyril of Jerusalem’s Catechetical Lectures, he exhorts catechumens to take confidence in the sacraments, “the devils tremble and angels recognize the seal of the Holy Spirit’s saving seal.” In the Orthodox understanding of baptism and chrismation, these entry sacraments into the Church require the body, physical elements like water and oil, and also a believing heart of the newly illumined Christian. Why do we have to use water and oil? St. Cyril of Jerusalem says in anticipation that water purifies the body and the Holy Spirit the soul. We are saved body and soul, since God made both of them to be unified. 

The Fathers of the Church understood water’s symbolism well. It was a “noble elements” of the world along with earth, wind and fire. It is also rich in symbolism when the Scriptures are read in line with Orthodox Christian services of baptism and chrismation. Genesis and the Holy Spirit, Elijah and his river crossing, the Red Sea, and the Jordan all contain water as a washing and new, good beginning, not to mention the ritual washing of clothing in Leviticus and Numbers. But baptism is also a Janus word, which has a dual meaning. It signifies both life and death. That’s what Christian baptism does: we die in Christ and we are given life in the Holy Spirit. 

In Greek, baptism means, a plunging or immersion. We’re plunged into death just as Christ Jesus was plunged into Hades and resurrected from the dead. We are dead to passions in baptism. Not only that, but we are also dead to a sinful way of looking at ourselves, the world and people. We’re then sealed in the Holy Spirit to live a spiritual life. But nowadays we might forget that we also have to denounce another way of life that is based on our former sinful life and the author of the first sin, the devil himself. This renunciation of Satan explains why we are exorcised at baptism and chrismation and when we become a catechumen. We have to know not only the good that we stand for but the evil that stands against us before and after baptism.  We also have to believe that “the mystical seal” will be recognized by the Master at the end of time. 

This chapter also explores other questions like, how many baptisms are there? Is it a good idea to delay baptism or baptize infants who do not intellectually understand baptism? Other forms of baptism are recognized: martyrdom by blood, repentance and the gift of tears, and by the Holy Spirit. 

Chrismation, Chrism and Christ are etymologically related to each other in the Greek language. We are anointed with holy oil called chrism and Christ means Anointed. The other topics of the chapter cover rituals and sacraments associated with baptism and chrismation such as formulae, order of the service, choosing a baptismal name, white robes, water blessing, immersion, anointing of the oil, baptismal procession, and the symbolism of the eighth day tonsure of the catechumen. Join us all this Saturday at 4:00p.m. and find out how to prepare and enter into the Church, into the battle, and into a new spiritual life that is as real as the elements of the world. 

Sacraments in the Orthodox Understanding (Vol V, Ch 1)

Class scheduled for 4pm Nov 9, 2019:

From Michael Ruse:

A 12th century German mystic, woman saint, and doctor of the Western Church wrote: 

The light which I see thus is not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun. I can measure neither height, nor length, nor breadth in it; and I call it "the reflection of the living Light." And as the sun, the moon, and the stars appear in water, so writings, sermons, virtues, and certain human actions take form for me and gleam.

This Western mystic from the Rhineland was the nun, Hildegard von Bingen. She called her experience an umbra viventis lucis (a shade of living light in Latin). Her vision not only sounds very much like the teaching on glorification and illumination spoken of by the Eastern Church Fathers and experienced by modern Orthodox saints, but it also gives us a way of looking at what sacraments are and how they work within us in the Orthodox Church. 

From the understanding of the Orthodox Church, we receive the sacraments as a “living light” that direct us toward becoming more like the Holy Trinity, as Metropolitan Hilarion explains at the end of this chapter. The difference between scholasticism and hesychasm or “the path of deification” is directional. Who is infusing who with what?  

This truth of becoming united with God is not easy to calculate or to analyze like weather patterns, personality tests, data charts or even advanced metaphysical inquiry. It is not only the truth of it, but also the beauty of Light that surpasses rational thought, although our minds too are integrated with Jesus Christ. Just as light passes through a small window of a church on a Sunday morning and children try to grab the single ray beaming down and keep it, so too is our own reasoning limited when we try to capture the sacraments into our own hands in this way. Often times the result of humanistic reasoning is to make pictures appear differently than what they are by manipulating and connecting points that are not meant to be connected. Our humanistic categories rearrange icons with different pigments, lines, and shadings with a goal toward unity. But what kind of icon would we create? All forms of sacraments, especially those outlined in the Great Book of Needs, connect us to the Holy Trinity and all the saints. 

The Eucharist gives birth to and connects to most of the sacraments. Metropolitan Hilarion reminds us of keeping the mindset that sacraments are interconnected, not isolated events. It’s preferable, overall, to be thankful and marvel at the mysteries rather than to dissect them with rigorous methods. The implication is that the long-term effects of such a scholastic or abstract mindset even in some Orthodox circles could have detrimental fallouts in the faith of Christians. In the development of the Western Church, there were scholarly men who tried to approach theology, including “sacramentals,” the cross, grace, salvation and Jesus Christ, the Godman from this kind of primarily metaphysical and rational explanation with sincere faith. The major scholastic characters in Europe were Anselm, Abelard, and Aquinas. The long-lasting scholastic approach of Latin theology, Metropolitan seems to suggest, is one of the reasons why the Byzantines did not make such distinctions between “sacramentals” and sacraments. 

But to draw some boundaries around what is and isn’t a sacrament is necessary and helpful for those in the Orthodox Church to discuss. The Orthodox Church understands that the mysteries are wide and many, like an umbrella of light that gives us strength in all points and needs of our daily life. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. to learn about the sacramental understanding of Orthodoxy. 

Divine Services from the Beginning of the Apostles’ Fast to the End of the Ecclesial Year (Vol IV, Ch 11)

For class on 11/2/2019

From Michel Ruse:

This chapter concludes Volume IV and it completes the cycle of church feasts. The Orthodox Church began its new year on September 1. The first feast of the new year was on September 8, the Nativity of the Theotokos and the last great feast of the liturgical year ends on August 15, The Dormition of the Theotokos. Why does the whole cycle of the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church start and end with Mary, the Mother of God? Protestant groups may be indifferent, or they may denounce any kind of veneration of the Virgin Mary. Roman Catholics often have a different perspective from us. They have veneration of many Marian Apparitions, but they have feasts that are similar to Orthodox Christians (September 8 and August 15). 

Metropolitan Hilarion starts this chapter with The Apostles’ Fast in Honor of Saints Peter and Paul, and the Holy Apostles. He could have spent some time on the importance of St. Peter in Rome or the unique deaths of the Apostles. He spends most of his attention on an important teaching of the Orthodox Church that is as old as the Old Testament and as new as the New Testament. That we all can become illumined. We can experience this transformation that can make our "faces shine" like Jesus Christ on Mt. Tabor at the Transfiguration. 

Our whole experience of time on earth should reflect on the example of the holy family of Joachim and Anna who gave the world a place – rather a person – Mary, the Mother of God, to dwell and to save our souls. We should reflect on the holy Apostles who were miraculously translated (except St. Thomas who doubted) to be present with Mary at her falling asleep and resurrection into the arms of Jesus Christ. Where should we be throughout the year? We should be close to the Virgin Mary and Her Son, Jesus Christ. 

The liturgical cycle seems to suggest that just as the whole world began anew with Mary’s visitation from St. Gabriel and was transfigured by the birth of Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary, which shook up kings, authorities, and demons, our time in the Church begins and ends with the Virgin Mary. She is the “mediatrix” of the world, as we say in the liturgy. 

Her death is tender, courageous and special to us as Orthodox Christians. An icon gives us an example of how we should approach our own death. When she was lying on her bed about to fall asleep, she is shown not dressed in burial linen but in infant swaddling clothes. Our death is our rebirth, and the first one to receive us and bring us into a new life is Jesus Christ Himself.