This blog is written by a monk and is about monasteries and the spiritual life, both Catholic and Orthodox.
Pages
- Home
- IMAGO DEI; (icons and articles)
- BELMONT ABBEY, OUR MOTHER HOUSE
- PACHACAMAC MONASTERY - OUR MONASTERY
- HOLY RESURRECTION MONASTERY
- SITE MAP OSB: BENEDICTINE ORDER
- LEARN OR PREPARE PLAINCHANT: THE WHOLE GRADUAL ONLINE
- A WONDERFUL ORTHODOX CONVENT: ST ELIZABETH'S CONVENT, MINSK
- ECCLESIAL PEACE: This website and "Monks and Mermaids" belong to one another.
EXPAND YOUR READING!!
"Today the concept of truth is viewed with suspicion, because truth is identified with violence. Over history there have, unfortunately, been episodes when people sought to defend the truth with violence. But they are two contrasting realities. Truth cannot be imposed with means other than itself! Truth can only come with its own light. Yet, we need truth. ... Without truth we are blind in the world, we have no path to follow. The great gift of Christ was that He enabled us to see the face of God".Pope Benedict xvi, February 24th, 2012
The Church is ecumenical, catholic, God-human, ageless, and it is therefore a blasphemy—an unpardonable blasphemy against Christ and against the Holy Ghost—to turn the Church into a national institution, to narrow her down to petty, transient, time-bound aspirations and ways of doing things. Her purpose is beyond nationality, ecumenical, all-embracing: to unite all men in Christ, all without exception to nation or race or social strata. - St Justin Popovitch
Monday 4 January 2010
THE EPIPHANY (thanks to Mary Lanser of "Irenikon")
http://www.funmunch.com/events/epiphany/epiphany_blessings.shtml
The Feast of the Epiphany was established as a solemn feast in the Eastern Church in the middle of the IV century as proclaimed in the Apostolic Constitutions: "Let the Epiphany, in which the Lord manifested to us His own divinity, be to you the most honored festival and let it be celebrated on the sixth day of January." (cf. Apostolic Constitutions V, 13)
The Greek word "epiphany" means manifestation and applied by the Christians to the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it specifically meant the manifestation of His divinity. St. John Chrysostom (died 407) elucidates: "Why do we call this day Epiphany? Because Jesus Christ manifested Himself to all people, not when He was born, but, rather, when He was baptized. Until that time He was unknown to the people, as testified by St. John the Baptist, saying,: ‘There stands among you One, Whom you don’t know!’ (Jn. 1:26)." (cf. Homily on the Epiphany, 2)
In the Old Slavonic, the feast is called "Bohojavlenije," equivalent to the Greek "Theophany," which means the manifestation of the Godhead. This word, however, more clearly reflects the manifestation of the Blessed Trinity at Christ’s baptism as poetically described in the troparion of the Feast: "At Your baptism in the Jordan…"
The solemn baptism of the catechumens was also administered in the Eastern Church on the eve of the Epiphany since the IV century. The early Fathers of the Church referred to this as the Mystery of Illumination or Enlightenment. Thus the Epiphany was also called The Feast of Lights or The Day of Illumination (cf. St. Gregory of Nazianz, Oration XL, 1-6). Following this, our liturgical books still call the Sunday before and after Epiphany the Sunday before the Illumination and the Sunday after the Illumination. St. Proclus, the Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 447), gives us the following explanation: "Christ manifested Himself to the world; He filled it with light and joy; He sanctified the waters and diffused His light in the souls of men." (cf. Migne, P.G. 65, 757-761)
Since the solemn blessing of the water takes place on Epiphany, the feast is also known as the Feast of the Blessing of Water, popularly called "Vodokschi," an abbreviated form of the Old Slavonic term "Vodokresch," meaning the blessing of water.
The Solemn Blessing of Water, in commemoration of Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan, is the main feature of the Feast of Epiphany. St. Gregory the Wonderworker, in the homily quoted above, commented: "The Lord, Who has come upon the Jordan River, through its streams transmitted sanctification to all streams (of water)." And precisely, in our liturgical books, the blessing of water is referred to as The Blessing of Jordan, since it is considered as the re-enactment of Christ’s baptism. By His baptism in the Jordan, Our Savior imparted upon water a mystical power of sanctification, a "sign of heavenly streams" of divine grace. (cf. St. Gregory the Wonderworker, Ibid.)
St. Basil the Great (died 379) affirms that the blessing of water came to us as a "mystical tradition" (of. On the Holy Spirit, XXVII, 66) and that the water, through the prayer and blessing of the priest, receives a "quickening power of the Holy Spirit." (Ibid, XV, 35) St. Ambrose (died 397) also taught that it was the Holy Spirit Who "consecrated the waters through the prayer of the minister." (cf. On the Holy Spirit, L. I. c. VII, 88) Consequently, in the prayer for the blessing of the water we always find the epiklesis—the invocation of the Holy Spirit.
The oldest prayer for the blessing of the water was preserved for us in The Euchologion of Serapion (died. after 362), the Bishop of Thmuis in Lower Egypt. It is almost certain that the prayer itself dates back well before his time and is also witness to the early practice of the Church. The Apostolic Constitutions, VIII, 39, attribute the authorship of the first prayer for the blessing of water to St. Matthias the Apostle.
According to Armenian sources, the original author of our ritual of the Solemn Blessing of Water was St. Basil the Great who composed it during his visit in Jerusalem in 377 A.D. This ritual was probably used in Antioch in 387 when St. John Chrysostom delivered his homily on the Baptism of Christ, saying: "This is the day on which Christ was baptized and through His baptism sanctified the element of water. Wherefore, at midnight on this feast, all (faithful) draw of the (holy) water and store it in their homes, because on this day the water is consecrated."
It seems that St. Basil’s ritual was later revised by St. Proclus of Constantinople (434-447) and, finally, by St. Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem (634-638) who composed the introductory sticheras and rearranged the entire ritual according to the customs of the Alexandrian Church. For this reason, our present ritual of The Solemn Blessing of Water is ascribed to St. Sophronius of Jerusalem.
Our Trebnik contains another ritual for blessing water called The Simple Blessing of Water. This ceremony can be taken at any time of the year but it is used especially on the first day of August (in commemoration of the Holy Cross) and also on the occasion of a pilgrimage. An example of this is the custom of blessing the water at the Lourdes Grotto at Mount St. Macrina in Uniontown, Pa. during the annual Assumption Pilgrimage.
Among the various petitions mentioned in the ceremony during the blessing of the water is the sanctification of homes. With this the Church imposes a duty and obligation upon the priests to bless the homes of the faithful entrusted to their pastoral care at the beginning of the New Year. Theologically speaking, the blessing of homes constitutes an invocative blessing, meaning that by his prayer and by the sprinkling of the Holy Water the priest invokes God’s protection upon the home and those living in it. The prayer, reprinted on the back cover, best explains its meaning.
As our souls, so also our homes become tainted by the sins of those living in them and, consequently, lose God’s protective power. Every year, then, at the Feast of the Epiphany, they should be blessed again to secure for them God’s blessings and protection. Just as the faithful cleanse their soul of sin at least ONCE A YEAR, and the church is blessed with the newly blessed water every year, so should the homes of the faithful be yearly blessed to invoke God’s blessings and protection on it and its inhabitants.
As we renew the insurance on our home every year, so we should renew our insurance of God’s protection and his blessing which is of greater importance and more effective. As we welcome our priest during the holy season of Epiphany to bless our home, let us be mindful that he is bringing to us the "blessing of Jordan," and that unless God protect and bless our home, we "labor in vain." (Ps. 127:1)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Search This Blog
La Virgen de Guadalupe
Important Christian Literature
- "Cyberdesert" the Fathers on Prayer & the Christian Life
- "On Inmages" (Hilary of Poities John Damascene
- Abandonment to Divine Providence (Jean-Pierre de Caussade
- Ascent of Mount Carmel (John of the Cross)
- Augustine Baker (home page)
- Augustine Baker OSB "Sancta Sophia"
- Conferences of St John Cassian
- Confessions & Enchiridion (S> Augustine)
- Life of St Benedict (S. Gregory the Great)
- On St Symeon the New Theologian (i-pod)
- On the Gospel of St John and the "Epistle to the Hebrews (S. John Chrysostom)
- Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers vol. 1 (S. Athanasius)
- Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers vol.2. (S. Athanasius)
- Revelations of Divine Love (Julian of Norwich)
- Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of he Gospels, Sermons on the Gospels (S> Augustine)
- Spiritual Canticle of the Soul
- St Dionysius "Mystical Theology"
- St John of the Cross "The Dark Night of the Soul."
- The City of God (S. Augustine)
- The Cloud of Unknowing
- The Divine Names & Mystical Theology (S. Dionysius the Areopagite)
- The Inarnation (St Athanasius)
- The Life of St Teresa of Avila OCD
- The Practice of the Presence of God (Br Lawrence)
- The Rule of S. Benedict
- Works of Suplicius Severus, S. Vincent of Lerins, and S. John Cassia
Monastic Links
Followers
Orthodox Monasteries Throughout The World
Benedictine Order -website
Orthodox Monasticism in Patristic and Monastic Studies
My Blog List
-
-
Replies to Questions about the targeting of Hazara community members by ISIS; whether the FCDO meet – Hazara representatives to discuss the continuing violence and persecution facing their community in Afghanistan; how they act on their admission that “minority groups such as the Hazara people face discrimination and attacks”; and why they wont publish their latest Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability assessment on Afghanistan - Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL42...1 day ago
-
More Face-Saving - Next week a high-profile conference will be held marking the centenary of the Catholic Church’s first ever council in China, drawing a slew of experts an...1 day ago
-
Teaching Iconography in the Twenty-First Century - [image: Study Group final image, - result of 6.5 months of work and studies.]Sharing our teaching method, I invite fellow iconographers to share their view...2 weeks ago
-
What About Me, Says Patriarch of Alexandria - Source: spc.rs What about me? Patriarch of Alexandria Theodore responded with a letter to the appeal of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porphyry, in which H...8 months ago
-
It’s Time to Say Goodbye - Christ is Risen! After almost 20 years of keeping a blog, I’ve decided I will close down this site at the end of summer, 2022. You can find my posts on th...1 year ago
-
When America Met Thich Nhat Hanh - . by Jim Forest I first met Thich Nhat Hanh in May 1966. At the time Lyndon Johnson was America’s president. The steadily rising level of US troops in Viet...2 years ago
-
The Byzantine Gender Reveal - When I see the way my wife comforts our children, I see God as the Mother loving them through her. I may not see this image of God perfectly, but I kn...3 years ago
-
Certain brethren of good repute and holy life (XXI) - CHAPTER XXI. Of the Deans of the Monastery 26 Feb. 28 June. 28 Oct. Should the community be large, let there be chosen from it certain brethren of good rep...3 years ago
-
Gov. Cuomo’s Theological Confusion - Abridged from “Governor Cuomo and God’s Noncompetitive Transcendence” By Bishop Robert Barron Last week, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, made a ra...4 years ago
-
Being Like Our Lady in the Time of Pandemic - Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice ~ Being Like Our Lady in the Time of Pandemic - Friar David L. Jones We find ourselves in the eye of a tornad...4 years ago
-
Get It - I haven’t updated this blog in over six years, so probably no one is going to read this post, since all my former readers gave up on me a long time ago. Bu...4 years ago
-
‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ - Please consider giving a few dollars to a family in desperate need. GoFundMe Advertisements6 years ago
-
Greatness in Repentance - When God described Nineveh as being the great city, He was not considering its ignorance and sin, but looked with great joy at its profound repentance ...8 years ago
-
Over 9,000 people killed, 20,000 wounded during conflict in Donbas — UN - GENEVA, /TASS/. More than 9,000 people — both civilians and military, have been killed and over 20,000 have been wounded as a result of the conflict ...8 years ago
-
Temporarily – No Comment - God willing, the content of this blog will be migrated to its new site, starting sometime after midnight (here in East Coast America). I have been asked to...11 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
No comments:
Post a Comment