Home for the Holiday

Sacrament of Chrismation

"My blood has been mingled with your blood,
and I come to the understanding of how
I have also been made one with your own godhead.

I have become your own most pure body:
A member of that body, scintillating and truly sanctified, radiant, transparent, and light-emitting…

What was I once? And what have I now become?

How awesome to think of it. Where shall I sit?

What shall I touch?
Where shall I rest these limbs

that have become your very own?

These members that are now so terrible and mighty,
how shall I use them, to what work shall I now set them?

- “Hymns of Divine Love”

St. Symeon the New Theologian

Last Sunday, while the western world was celebrating Easter, the Orthodox Church was commemorating the entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem - called Palm Sunday. This was made even more special for me as it was also the day that I was Chrismated as a new member of the Universal and Apostolic Orthodox Christian Church. To restate that in less formal terms; I became an Orthodox Christian through the ceremony of anointing of oil; the seal of the Holy Spirit.

It was a beautiful process, beginning on Friday with a meeting with my parish priest, Fr. Steven, for a private prayer of confession to God. Then on Sunday, before the whole church - I and another catechumen, or convert, were formally welcomed into the church - receiving the Eucharist for the first time as Orthodox, and then kisses, handshakes and hugs from everyone in the Parish.

I AM HOME!

I was surprised by the impact of my first communion within Orthodoxy. I have taken communion before as a Protestant, but the reverence and power was lacking. In Orthodoxy the Eucharist is rightly called the "Mystical Supper." It is indeed a mysterious experience that is indescribable. I may sound crazy, but it is not just a symbol. What happens in the Eucharist is deeply significant and real. See the quote from St. Symeon above

What first drew me to Orthodoxy, and continues to hold me, is its view of life that holds each moment as significant and meaningful. Christ's incarnation was not just an historical event, but heralded the process of ongoing transformation for all of creation. The physical no longer stands in opposition to the spiritual. Because of the incarnation everything is being made new and holy.

The Orthodox view of the Bible is that it is true on many levels, often beyond the literal understanding. Passages from the Old Testament, which to most Protestants seem obscure, become alive with meaning when illuminated by the understanding of the Church Fathers as they, in deep wisdom, relate them to events in the life of Christ.

This week (Monday, April 17th - Sunday, April 23rd) is Holy Week in Orthodox Christianity. Every night this week there are worship services that are rich in significance and meaning. Their culmination on Sunday with the celebration of Pascha is going to be AWESOME!!

"Christ is in our midst - He is and always shall be...................."