Categories: reading, parish-life, spiritual-journey
Date: 07 March 2007 19:11:26
I managed to escape work for a while last night [I had to stay back and tidy up some things, and then return after Liturgy, thankfully only briefly] to attend the Liturgy of the Presanctified. Our priest has set up an altar and icons in his garage, so that we can use his place for services during the week and this don't have to book and set up the hall we currently hire. And he has done a great job: a very intimate setting, and, with it being smaller than the hall, the incense is contained that little bit more and hangs in the air that little bit longer. Wonderful.
As we journey through Lent, as I mentioned in a previous post, the tones, or melodies, of the hymns change, as well as some of the hymns and liturgical responses changing also. They are sung a bit more slowly, and, to me, they have a more solemn nature. We also kneel more frequently during services. It truly is a blessed time of the Church year. Cute story of the night: one of the kids, under 2, pressing his hands against his chest, mimicking our crossing ourselves each time we did it [Orthodox tend to do a great deal of the signing of the Cross during services]: so very cute.
During Lent, the Scripture readings in the Orthodox Church's lectionary are taken from Genesis, Isaiah and Proverbs: and we read through them almost in their entirety. Each of these books, as Genesis, as Fr Alexander Schmemann writes in Great Lent, "corresponds to one of the three basic aspects of the Old Testament: the history of God's activity in Creation, prophecy, and the ethical and moral teachings." These readings had their origin when Lent was the main time for those to be baptised to be catechised in the faith. And today, these readings still keep their purpose:
Our Christian faith needs this annual return to its biblical roots and foundation for there can be no end to our growth in the understanding of Divine Revelation. The Bible is not a collection of dogmatic "propositions" to be accepted and memorized once for all, but the living voice of God speaking to us again and again, taking us always deeper into the inexhaustible riches of His Wisdom and Love ... What for the Fathers and Saints was endless joy, interest, spiritual and intellectual growth, is for so many Orthodox today an antiquated text with no meaning for their lives. It is to be hoped, therefore, that as the spirit and significance of Lent are recovered, this will also mean the recovery of the Scriptures as true spiritual food and communion with God.Great Lent, p. 41, SVS Press, 2001