Categories: uncategorized
Date: 22 January 2006 09:46:18
A nice surprise today, when our Archbishop (God grant him many, many years!) came to our parish today for Divine Liturgy. He gave a wonderful sermon, exhorting us to have a true and deep personal relationship with God, and, futhermore, to deeply desire this relationship and work towards strengthening it. He also gave an overview of the various fasting seasons of the Orthodox Church, and talked about our "pilgrimage" during Great Lent, via repentance and expectation, to the joy of Pascha (Easter).
Our parish priest is on holidays this month, so we have a visting priest which is a great blessing. He chants wonderfully, and loudly.
Matins is a joyous service to attend: the hymns and readings and prayers all contribute to the celebration of the Liturgical Feast being celebrated. The Canon, or Katavasias, is one of my favourite parts of the service: wonderful hymns exhorting us to reflect and meditate on Christ's Incarnation, and the praise that comes from this. Often these will also span the entire Old Testament, with reference made to Noah or to Isaiah (or another of the Prophets) or the three youths placed in the furnace: a great help in recalling God's plan of salvation.
As we approach the Feast of the Presentation, the standard hymns have been replaced with the Canon for the Presentation of our Lord, written by Cosmos the Anchorite (you'll notice Ode 2 is not said: it has an extremely penitential theme, so it is only sung during Lenten weekday Matins):
Ode One: The sun of old passed over the depth of the tempest begetting dry land; for the water dried up on both sides like a wall for the people to pass through its depth, singing songs well pleasing to God, and shouting, "Let us praise the Lord; for by glory He has been glorified."Ode Three: O Lord, the confirmation of those who put their trust in You, confirm Your Church which You have bought with Your precious blood.
Ode Four: Your virtue, O Christ, has covered the Heavens; for when the tabernacle of Your holiness came, Your Mother, free of corruption, and You did appear in the Temple of Your glory borne in arms as a babe, the whole creation was filled with Your praise.
Ode Five: When Isaiah saw God symbolically on a high altar, surrounded by the angels of glory, he lifted his voice, crying, "Woe is me, wretched man: for I have foreseen God incarnate, the Light not apprehended by night, and the Lord of peace."
Ode Six: When the old man saw with his own eyes the Salvation that was revealed to the nations, he cried to You, saying, "O Christ, You are my God, coming from the presence of God."
Ode Seven: You do we praise, O Word of God, who moistened in the fire the God-speaking youths, and dwelt in an incorruptible Virgin, singing in true worship, "Blessed are You, God of our Fathers."
Ode Eight: The youths striving for true worship, standing in the midst of unbearable fire and not hurt at all by the flames, sang a song of divine praise, saying, "Bless the Lord, all His works, exalt Him still more to the end of ages."
Ode Nine:
Be You a light, My God,
To my vision and my mind;
With paeans that I may
Praise You among mankind.Let us magnify, O believers, the first-born Son, the eternal Word of the Father, First-born of a Mother who knew no man; for we have beheld in the shadow of the law and the Scriptures a sign, that every first-born male that opens the womb is called holy to God.