The Name of our Lord Jesus Christ was given by revelation: “You shall name Him ‘Jesus’” (Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31), and “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

When, with faith and trust, we call upon the Name of Jesus, we enter His presence. Over time, we become “a temple of God” (I Corinthians 3:16), whose “sins have been forgiven through His name” (I John 2:12). And, because we’re confessing our need for Christ, who said “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), we’re beginning to embody the first beatitude — “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

This simple prayer — “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” — succinctly joins Christ’s sinless divinity to our broken humanity, very gradually ordering our inner life. Its simplicity and ease of use — when part of a whole Christian lifestyle of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and a pursuit of virtue, so that we do not attempt to enter the “bridal chamber” of the heart without a “wedding garment” (Matthew 22:12) — is how, over time and by the grace of God, we practice St Paul’s words to “pray without ceasing” (I  Thessalonians 5:17).


How to Pray The Jesus Prayer
Like all prayer, the Jesus Prayer must be offered from a life of obedience and thankfulness, which attracts the Holy Spirit who then “intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). Also, one should practice the Jesus Prayer with the guidance of a spiritual father.

Generally, there are two ways of offering the Jesus Prayer, each with its own benefit but serving different purposes: in "the inner room, the closet, having closed your door, praying to your Father in secret” (Matthew 6:6); and, in our outer life, while doing our various tasks (Luke 18:1).


The “Inner Room”
The first and primary way — the “inner way” — is the intentional practice of getting quiet, “closing the door” on all external distractions, and offering the Prayer naturally, without affect, while gently focusing on the words of the Prayer and rejecting all other incoming thoughts and imaginings. Reciting the Prayer aloud is permissible though not necessary; in fact, one may just silently mouth the first part — “Lord Jesus Christ” — on inhalation, then silently mouth the second part — “have mercy on me” — upon exhalation.
There’s no set formula; rather, we do “what works”.

This, when learning how to pray the Jesus Prayer, is best done in sessions of about ten minutes or so — manageable for active life but without “biting off more than we can chew” spiritually.

The purpose of a distraction-free setting is to learn how to just be in the presence of the Lord. We accept our reality, we accept whatever we’re feeling, and, with simplicity, offer the Prayer mindfully. Any thoughts or imaginings that come to mind — anything other than the Jesus Prayer — should be brushed aside as intrusive. Emergencies may arise that need our attention, of course, but otherwise we keep our attention in the “inner room” — always retuning the mind to the heart — and pray.

Thoughts and feelings during the Jesus Prayer will come and go. That, in fact, can be instructive in that they reveal to us what we’ve been preoccupied with lately and what has been filling our minds instead of the peace and stillness of the Holy Spirit. But, we let
these thoughts pass without attention or frustration and return to offering the Prayer from the heart, in a spirit of relaxed surrender. A prayer rope can be a helpful tool for keeping on track, offering one repetition as our fingers pass along each knot.

It’s permissible to have as many ten-minute sessions of “closeted” prayer in a day as one desires, but a good beginning is at least one each day, or each morning and evening. Don’t try to feel anything; don’t imagine anything. Pray simply and from the heart.


The “Outer Way”
The second way — the “outer way” — is simply to say the Jesus Prayer throughout the course of a day: driving the car, going the shopping, making a meal, mowing the lawn, waiting in line, doing household chores. But during this “uncloseted” offering of the Prayer, we don’t brush aside every thought: while driving, one must be alert; while shopping, one must be attentive; while cooking, one must be aware; while going about our various tasks, one must still “live in the world”. In these cases, offering the Jesus Prayer is a simple way to offer “all our life unto Christ our God” (The Divine Liturgy).

“And that believing, you may have life in His Name”.
— John 20:31

Prayer is our path toward freedom, for it connects each of us with divine strength to overcome our passions and become who God designed us to be. Without prayer there is only madness.
You can use a daily Prayer Rule from any standard Orthodox Prayer Book, or you can use either of these suggestions:

SHORTER Rule

1. Upon waking, take a moment to quiet the senses,
   then begin with the Great Doxology:

Glory to Thee who hast shown us the Light.
Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, and good will among men.
We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks unto Thee for Thy great glory.
O Lord, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty;
O Lord, the Only-Begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Spirit.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, who takest away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us,
Thou who takest away the sins of the world.
Receive our prayer, Thou who sittest at the right hand of the Father, and have mercy on us. For Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord, O Jesus Christ,
to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name forever - yea forever and ever. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of our Fathers,
and praised and glorified be Thy Name forever. Amen.
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we do put our hope in Thee.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
Lord, Thou hast been our refuge in all generations.
I said: be merciful unto me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.
Lord, I have fled unto Thee: teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God.
For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.
O continue Thy lovingkindness unto them that know Thee.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal: have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal: have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal: have mercy on us.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
both now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Holy Immortal: have mercy on us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal: have mercy on us.

2) Next, read the Epistle and Gospel for the day:
The Epistle and Gospel passages for today can be found here: https://www.antiochian.org/liturgicday

3) Finally, offer ten minutes of the Jesus Prayer:
Sit comfortably, and in a spirit of relaxed surrender, recite “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”. Thoughts and feelings will come and go, but always return to a mindful offering of the Prayer. This simple prayer succinctly joins Christ’s divinity to our broken humanity, gradually ordering our inner life. For more on the Jesus Prayer, see the article available at St Elizabeth’s.

LONGER Rule
1) Upon waking, take a moment to quiet the senses,
then begin with the Great Doxology (above):

2) Then, offer the Trisagion Prayers:
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth,
who art everywhere present and fillest all things;
Treasury of good things and Giver of life,
come and abide in us and cleanse us from every impurity,
and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us (thrice).
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

All-holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, cleanse us from our sins.
Master, pardon our iniquities.
Holy God, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name's sake.
Lord, have mercy (thrice).
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name:
Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:
now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Having arisen from sleep, we fall down before Thee, O Blessed One,
and sing to Thee, O Mighty One, the Angelic Hymn:

Holy, holy, holy art Thou, O God. Through the Theotokos have mercy on us.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

From my bed and sleep Thou hast raised me; O Lord, enlighten my mind and my heart, and open my lips that I may praise Thee, O Holy Trinity: Holy, holy, holy art Thou, O God. Through the Theotokos have mercy on us.

Both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Suddenly the Judge shall come, and the deeds of each shall be revealed, but with fear we cry out in the middle of the night: Holy, holy, holy art Thou, O God. Through the Theotokos have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy (twelve times).

We bless Thee, O God most high and Lord of mercies, who ever workest great and mysterious deeds for us, glorious, wonderful and numberless: Who providest us with sleep as a rest from our infirmities and as a repose for our bodies tired by labor. We thank Thee that Thou hast not destroyed us in our transgressions, but in Thy love toward mankind Thou hast raised us up as we lay in despair that we may glorify Thy majesty. We entreat Thine infinite goodness: enlighten the eyes of our understanding and raise up our minds from the heavy sleep of indolence; open our mouths and fill them with Thy praise that we may unceasingly sing and confess Thee, who art God glorified in all and by all, the eternal Father, the Only-begotten Son, and the all-holy and good and life-giving Spirit: now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Here may be added your own private devotions and intercessions, using your own words or other Orthodox prayers. Then, conclude the Trisagion Prayers with, “Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen”.


3) Next, read the Epistle and Gospel for the day:
The Epistle and Gospel passages for today can be found here: https://www.antiochian.org/liturgicday


4) Finally, offer ten minutes of the Jesus Prayer:
Sit comfortably, and in a spirit of relaxed surrender, recite “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”. Thoughts and feelings will come and go, but always return to a mindful offering of the Prayer. This simple prayer succinctly joins Christ’s divinity to our broken humanity, gradually ordering our inner life.
For more on the Jesus Prayer, see the article available at St Elizabeth’s.

An expressly liturgical language is intended not only to function as a suitably dignified medium, but also to cultivate an awareness of the division between the sacred and the profane. This division is evident in every material manifestation of the Church — in her architecture, her vestments, her music, her iconography. In each of these the Church has her own mode of expression which is quite different from that of this world.

Many object to such a distinction, maintaining that it is a false dichotomy that lessens the immediacy of God in the world. On the contrary, Orthodoxy’s assumption of material forms that differ from those of this world is an assertion of the two central realities of man’s relationship with God, namely, a) that man has fallen away from God, and b) that God has come to man to restore him. Man’s fall is apparent in the secular arts, material expressions of a fallen mind, products of a nature tainted by sin; God’s presence in creation takes perceptible form in the Church, which manifests God’s deifying grace and the transformation thereby of created substance.

If the Church’s art were identical with that of fallen man, then there would be no material expression of our sanctification, and the Church would have surrendered its witness to man’s redemption, since our redemption is made possible by the assumption of materiality (specifically, of our human nature) by the Immaterial. Man’s mode of expression is influenced by man’s sinfulness, while the Church’s mode of expression is divinely inspired, and they cannot be identical. Thus, the existence of an expression unique to the Church is evidence not of God’s distance from man but of His presence in our midst.

Man is a fallen creature, and the purpose of the Church in the world is the deification of man, not the humanization of God. The Church — that is, Christ — achieves man's deification through participation in created human nature, and man appropriates this deification by participation in the Divine, in the life of the Church. This meeting of the Divine and the human occurs not only on an intellectual plane, but in everything that pertains to man, including his physical senses. The influence that even the secular arts (such as painting, literature, and music) have on the soul is very great, because of the integral unity of man's body and soul.

In the Church, sanctified creation generates spiritualized arts that adorn, express, and elucidate the Mysteries (sacraments) of the Church, and so are a means of man's sanctification and deification; hence iconography and chant and the literary corpus of the Church are Mysteries in their own right. These spiritualized arts exert on a man's soul a perceptible influence that contends with that wielded by secular arts, and they finally surpass the latter in influence by virtue of their capacity to deify.

For this reason, it is important that the iconography and the chant used in church adhere strictly to the norms established by the Fathers, for exposure to the pure expression of the Church's Mysteries immerses one in their deifying influence. In the words of Saint Paul, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).


— from The Pentecostarion,
Holy Transfiguration Monastery,
1990; pp 19-20.

After His Resurrection and before His Ascension, our Lord Jesus gave His disciples this command: “Go forth into all the world and make disciples of all the nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:8). This is the glorious mission of the Church.

When a person responds to the will of God — who "desires that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4) — a process begins of learning to walk the Orthodox way toward “the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). That “Orthodox way” is simply called The Church, which Holy Scripture calls “the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Timothy 3:15), and the process of joining the Church is called the catechumenate.

Three Stages
No one converts to the Orthodox Church; all conversion is to the radiant fullness of Christ alone. And the ancient Orthodox path that nurtures that conversion is analogous to the path toward marriage. Just as there are three stages toward marriage — courtship, engagement, marriage — so are there three stages toward becoming Orthodox Christian — inquirer, catechumen, member.

• a) The inquirer is exploring, gathering information, considering options, evaluating the theology and practice of Orthodox Christianity, and usually responding to some deep spiritual call within themselves to seek a greater fullness of Christian experience. They visit an Orthodox Church, attend divine services, do some reading, have some conversations, get to know Church members, just inquire. There is no particular time frame for this process.

• b) Over time, the inquirer may sense that God is calling them to “walk the narrow way” (Matthew 7:14) within the Orthodox Church — to, in a sense, get engaged. Here, they speak with the parish priest about becoming a catechumen. Just as getting engaged means that the single person respectfully forsakes all others and dedicates to one partner for a lifetime, so does becoming a catechumen mean that the inquirer respectfully forsakes all other Christian or religious traditions and dedicates to the Orthodox way for a lifetime. Obviously, it’s a serious decision.

The catechumenate is a time of purification and focus. Joining the Church isn’t like joining a gym or club, and is certainly not a “denominational switch”, but is rather a real and life-long and binding commitment. A one-year catechumenate (1) presupposes that the catechumen will actively engage in the weekly spiritual and communal life of the parish, but also will make radical changes to any former behaviors or associations, or ways of managing time, that have been harmful to the goal of living a dedicated Christian lifestyle. And avoiding a critical or judgmental spirit toward any former confessions, and persons in them, will be important.

The catechumen demonstrates their readiness to join the Orthodox Church when:

1. they are a weekly participant in the divine services;
2. they’re developing relationships within the parish;
3. they’re participating fully in both the fasts and feasts of the church year; (2)
4. they’re maintaining a daily prayer and Scripture practice.

They’ll need to attend catechetical events and will be encouraged to visit other local Orthodox parishes and monasteries, to get a larger sense of the Orthodox Tradition they’re joining. As the catechumen nears baptism — or chrismation only, if the diocesan bishop determines a previous baptism in another Christian tradition is valid — they’ll consult with the parish priest about acquiring a patron saint and taking on a sponsor in the Faith — sometimes called a godparent (who is of the same sex as the catechumen).

• c) Then, by the grace of God, and usually at the Divine Liturgy on the morning of Great and Holy Saturday, the catechumen becomes a member. And strengthened by the deifying sacramental grace of the Church, the journey of a lifetime — and beyond — begins!

The Typical Flow of the Initiatory Process (4)
A Time of Inquiry for the Seeker (minimum of three months)

• Attending services, reading, meeting with clergy and laity, research, counting the cost

The Catechumenate — Part One (minimum of one year)

• Prayer of Enrollment as a Catechumen, Renunciations, and Signing with the Cross
• Faithful attendance at Divine Services and the Great Feasts
• Required Reading or Podcasts

The Catechumenate — Part Two (second half of Great Lent)

• Selection of a Patron Saint and Parish Sponsor
• Sponsor attests that Catechumen knows The Creed and is ready for reception
• Life Confessions

Final Preparations in Holy Week (the week before Great and Holy PASCHA)

• Attendance at Holy Week Services
• Exorcisms, Renunciations, and Affirmations on Great and Holy Friday

Great and Holy Saturday Baptismal Liturgy

• Procession to Baptismal Font at Little Entrance of the Liturgy
• Prayers of Preparation and Blessing of Font
• Blessing of the Oil of Gladness and Anointing
• Baptism by Triune Immersion and Emersion
• Clothing in White Baptismal Garments
• Sealing with Holy Chrism
• Washing and Tonsure
• First Holy Communion

PostBaptismal Rite (Bright Week)

• Attendance at Agape Vespers and Bright Week services

Other Baptismal Feasts as Alternates

• Following Orthros of Pentecost, Theophany, or Lazarus Saturday, or at the Discretion of the Parish Priest and Diocesan Bishop

(1) One year is usual. But just as each person is unique, so is the length of each catechumenate unique. A longer catechumenate is not a sign of concern.

(2) The Twelve Great Feasts are: The Nativity of the Theotokos, September 8; The Exaltation of the Cross, September 14; The Presentation of the Theotokos, November 21; The Nativity of Christ (Christmas), December 25; The Baptism of Christ (Theophany), January 6; The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, February 2; The Annunciation, March 25; The Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), the Sunday before Pascha; The Ascension of Christ, forty Days after Pascha; Pentecost, fifty Days after Pascha; The Transfiguration of Jesus, August 6; The Dormition of the Theotokos, August 15.

(3) For a helpful overview of the lifestyle of an Orthodox Christian believer, consult How Shall We Live: the Rhythms of Christian Life, available at St Elizabeth’s

This is a general guide. Since each person is unique, the timing of the catechumenate process is also unique. It’s the spiritual journey that’s important, not a strict schedule. Some may choose, or (4) need, a longer preparation. Each person, with the help and discernment of the parish priest, will hear the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit in his or her own distinct timbre.

by St Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
(7 February 1906 - 2 December 1991)


The Church is without beginning, without end, and eternal, just as the Triune God, her founder is without beginning, without end, and eternal. She is uncreated just as God is uncreated. She existed before the ages, before the angels, before the creation of the world — before the foundation of the world, as the Apostle Paul says (Ephesians 1:4). She is a divine institution and in her dwells the whole fullness of divinity (Colossians 2:9). She is an expression of the richly varied wisdom of God. She is the mystery of mysteries. She was concealed and was revealed in the last of times. The Church remains unshaken because she is rooted in the love and wise providence of God.

The three Persons of the Trinity constitute the eternal Church. The angels and human beings existed in the thought and love of the Triune God from the beginning. We human beings were not born now, we existed before the ages in God’s omniscience.

The love of God created us in His image and likeness. He embraced us within the Church in spite of the fact that He knew of our apostasy. He gave us everything to make us “gods” [Psalm 82:6; John 10:34-36], too, through the free gift of grace. For all that, we made poor use of our freedom and lost our original beauty, our original righteousness, and cut ourselves off from the Church. Outside the Church, far from the Holy Trinity, we lost Paradise, everything. But outside the Church there is no salvation, there is no life. And so that compassionate heart of God the Father did not leave us exiled from His love. He opened again for us the gates of Paradise in the last of times and appeared in the flesh.

With the divine incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God, God’s pre-eternal plan for the salvation of mankind was revealed again to men. In his epistle to Timothy the Apostle Paul says, “Beyond question, the mystery of faith is great. God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory” (I Timothy 3:16). The words of the Apostle Paul are dense in meaning: divine, heavenly words!

God in His infinite love united us again with His Church in the person of Christ. On entering into the uncreated Church, we come to Christ, we enter the realm of the uncreated. We the faithful are called to become uncreated by grace, to become participants in the divine energies of God, to enter into the mystery of divinity, to surpass our worldly frame of mind, to die to the “old man”, and to become immersed in God (Colossians 3:9, Romans 6:6, Ephesians 4:22). When we live in the Church, we live by Christ. This is a very fine-drawn matter, we cannot understand it. Only the Holy Spirit can teach us.

In the Church We are all One and Christ is the Head
The head of the Church is Christ and we humans, we Christians, are the body. The Apostle Paul says: “He is the head of the body, of the Church” (Colossians 1:18). The Church and Christ are one. The body cannot exist without its head. The body of the Church is nourished, sanctified and lives with Christ. He is the Lord, omnipotent, omniscient, everywhere present and filling all things, our staff, our friend, our brother: the pillar and sure foundation of the Church. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the basis — everything. Without Christ the Church does not exist. Christ is the Bridegroom; each individual soul is the Bride.

Christ united the body of the Church with heaven and with earth: with angels, men, and all created things, with all of God’s creation with the animals and birds, with each tiny wild flower and each microscopic insect. The Church thus became the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23), that is, of Christ. Everything is in Christ and with Christ. This is the mystery of the Church.

Christ is revealed in that unity between His love and ourselves: the Church. On my own I am not the Church, but together with you. All together we are the Church. All are incorporated in the Church. We are all one and Christ is the head. One body, one body of Christ: “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (I Corinthians 12:27). We are all one because God is our Father and is everywhere. When we experience this we are in the Church. This is our Lord’s wish for all the members of the Church as expressed in His great high-priestly prayer: that they may be one (John 17:11,22). But that’s something you can only understand through grace. We experience the joy of unity, of love, and we become one with everyone. There is nothing more magnificent!

The important thing is for us to enter into the Church — to unite ourselves with our fellow men, with the joys and sorrows of each and everyone, to feel that they are our own, to pray for everyone, to have care for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for them just as Christ did for us. In the Church we become one with every unhappy, suffering, and sinful soul.

No one should wish to be saved alone without all others being saved. It is a mistake for someone to pray for himself, that he himself may be saved. We must love others and pray that no soul be lost, that all may enter into the Church. That is what counts. And it is with this desire one should leave the world to retire to a monastery or to the desert.

When we set ourselves apart from others, we are not Christians. We are true Christians when we have a profound sense that we are members of the mystical body of Christ, of the Church, in an unbroken relationship of love — when we live united in Christ, that is, when we experience unity in His Church with a sense of oneness. This is why Christ prays to His Father saying, that they may be one (John 17:22). He repeats the prayer again and again and the apostles emphasize it everywhere.

This is the most profound aspect, the most exalted meaning, of the Church. This is where the secret is to be found: for all to be united as one person in God. There is no other religion like this; no other religion says anything of this sort. They have something to say, but not this mystery, this exquisite point of the mystery which Christ demands and tells us that this is how we must become, that he wants us to be His.

We are one even with those who are not close to the Church. They are distant on account of ignorance. We must pray that God will enlighten them and change them so that they too may come to Christ. We see things in a human light, we move on a different plane and imagine that we love Christ. But Christ, who sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous, (Matthew 5:45) tells us: Love your enemies (Matthew 5:44). We need to pray that we may all be united, united in God. Then, if we live out this prayer, we will achieve corresponding results; we will all be united in love.

For the people of God there is no such thing as distance, even if they be thousands of miles apart. However far away our fellow human beings may be, we must stand by them. Some people regularly telephone me from a town on the edge of the Indian Ocean — Durban is what it’s called, if I am pronouncing it correctly. It’s in South Africa, two hours drive from Johannesburg. Indeed, a few days ago they came here. They were taking a sick person to England and they came here first to ask me to read a prayer. I was very moved.

When Christ unites us, distances don’t exist. When I leave this life it will be better. I’ll be closer to you.

The Christian Religion Transforms People and Heals Them
Our religion is the religion of religions. It is from revelation, the authentic and true religion. The other religions are human, hollow. They do not know the greatness of the Triune God. They do not know that our aim, our destiny, is to become “gods” [Psalm 82:6; John 10:34-36] according to grace, to attain likeness with the Triune God, to become one with Him and among ourselves. These are things the other religions do not know. The ultimate aim of our religion is that they may be one (John 17:11,22). Here the work of Christ finds completion. Our religion is love, it is eros, it is enthusiasm, it is madness, it is longing for the divine. All these things are within us. Our soul demands that we attain them.

For many people, however, religion is a struggle, a source of agony and anxiety. That’s why many of the “religiously minded” are regarded as unfortunates, because others can see the desperate state they are in. And so it is. Because for the person who doesn’t understand the deeper meaning of religion and doesn’t experience it, religion ends up as an illness, and indeed a terrible illness. So terrible that the person loses control of his actions and becomes weak-willed and spineless, he is filled with agony and anxiety and is driven to and fro by the evil spirit.

He makes prostrations, he weeps, he exclaims, he believes he is humbling himself, and all this humility is a work of Satan. Some such people experience religion as a kind of hell. They make prostrations and cross themselves in church and they say, “we are unworthy sinners”, then as soon as they come out they start to blaspheme everything holy whenever someone upsets them a little. It is very clear that there is something demonic in this.

In fact, the Christian religion transforms people and heals them. The most important precondition, however, for someone to recognize and discern the truth is humility. Egotism darkens a person’s mind, it confuses him, it leads him astray, to heresy. It is important for a person to understand the truth.

Long ago when people were in a primitive state they didn’t have houses or anything. They would go into caves without windows. They would block up the entrance with stones and branches so that the wind didn’t blow in. They didn’t realize that outside there is life, oxygen. When he is enclosed in a cave, a person is worn down, he becomes ill, he is destroyed, whereas when he is outside he is revitalized. Can you understand the truth? Then you are out in the sun, in the light; you see all the magnificence of creation; otherwise you are in a dark cave. Light and darkness. Which is better? To be meek, humble, peaceful, and to be filled with love, or to be irritable, depressed, and to quarrel with everyone?

Unquestionably the higher state is love. Our religion has all these good things and is the truth. But many people go off in another direction. All those who deny this truth are psychologically ill. They are like those children who became delinquent or anti-social because they lost their parents, or because their parents divorced or quarreled. And all those confused people find their way into various heresies. The confused children of confused parents.

But all these confused and anti-social persons have a strength and perseverance and achieve a great many things. They succeed in bringing normal and peaceable people into subjection. They influence other like-minded people and they prevail in the world because they are in the majority and find themselves followers. Then there are others who, although they do not deny the truth, are nevertheless confused and psychologically ill.

Sin makes a person exceedingly psychologically confused. And nothing makes the confusion go away — nothing except the light of Christ. Christ makes the first move: Come unto me all you who labor (Matthew 11:28). Then we accept this light with our good will, which we express through our love towards Him, through prayer, through our participation in the life of the Church, and through the sacraments.

Often neither labour, nor prostrations, nor crossing ourselves attract God’s grace. There are secrets. The most important thing is to go beyond the formal aspects and go to the heart of the matter. Whatever is done must be done with love.

Love always understands the need to make sacrifices. Whatever is done under coercion always causes the soul to react with rejection. Love attracts the grace of God. When grace comes, then the gifts of the Holy Spirit come. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are the things which a healthy soul in Christ should have.

With Christ a person is filled with grace and so lives above evil. Evil does not exist for him. There is only good, which is God. Evil cannot exist. While there is light there cannot be darkness. Nor can darkness encompass him because he has the light.


+ + +


St Porphyrios (1906-1991) was an Athonite monk known for his
gifts of spiritual discernment. He was officially recognized as a
saint by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2013.
His feast day is December 2.

Communities, like individuals, are unique; still, we all share the human condition. So it is that groups assembled deliberately to form themselves into genuine community routinely go through certain stages in the process.
These stages, in order, are: pseudo-community, chaos, emptiness, and community.

Pseudo-community
The first response of a group in seeking to form a community is most often to try to fake it. The members attempt to be an instant community by being extremely pleasant with one another and avoiding all disagreement. This attempt — this pretense of community — is called “Pseudo-community.” It never works.
In pseudo-community, conflict is avoided and individual differences are suppressed. Nice people are so accustomed to being well-mannered that they are able to deploy their good manners without even thinking about what they are doing. In pseudo-community, it is as if every individual member is operating according to the same book of etiquette. The rules of this book are: Don’t do or say anything that might offend someone else; if someone does or says something that offends, annoys, or irritates you, act as if nothing happened and pretend you are not bothered in the least; and if some form of disagreement should show signs of appearing, change the subject as quickly and smoothly as possible — rules that any good hostess knows. It is easy to see how these rules make for a smoothly functioning group. But they also crush individuality, intimacy, and honesty, and the longer it lasts the duller it gets.
In the stage of pseudo-community, the group is characterized by polite interaction as individuals "test the waters" of relationship, operating on the assumption that group members have few differences that divide them. But as the members of the group begin to grow together, the previously unspoken differences begin to emerge. Typically, people deal with this discomfort by seeking to "fix" others or to "convert" people to their point of view. Pseudo-community then gives way to limited listening, high emotional energy, and a significant level of frustration. Everything feels chaotic.

Chaos
In the stage of chaos, individual differences are, unlike those in pseudo-community, right out in the open. Only now, instead of trying to hide or ignore them, the group is attempting to obliterate them. Underlying the attempts to fix and convert is not so much the motive of love, but the motive to quickly return everyone and everything to “normal” — and the motive to win, as the members fight over whose norm will prevail.
The stage of chaos is a time of fighting and struggle. This, in and of itself, is not the problem. Fully developed communities also fight and struggle, only they have learned to do so effectively. The struggle during chaos is chaotic. It is not merely noisy, it is unproductive. The disagreement that arises from time to time in a genuine community is loving and respectful and usually remarkably quiet — even peaceful — as the members work hard to listen to each other. Not so in chaos. If anything, chaos, like pseudo-community, is boring, as the members continually swat at each other with little or no effect. It has no grace or rhythm. Indeed, the predominant feeling an observer is likely to have in response to a group in the chaotic stage of development is despair. The struggle is going nowhere, accomplishing nothing, and relationships feel like they’re falling apart forever. It is no fun.
Since chaos is unpleasant, it is common for the members of a group in this stage to attack not only each other, but also their leader. “We wouldn’t be squabbling like this if we had effective leadership.”
In one sense, they are quite correct; their chaos is a natural response to a relative lack of direction. The chaos could easily be circumvented by an authoritarian leader — a dictator — who assigned them specific tasks and goals, with punishments for underperforming. The only problem is that a group led by a dictator is not, and never can be, a genuine community. Community and totalitarianism are incompatible, for then what holds the group together are rules and policies, and not love.
The proper resolution of chaos is not easy. Because it is both unproductive and unpleasant, it may seem that the group has degenerated from pseudo-community into chaos. But chaos is only dangerous if members settle for it and let it win. However, what if members were to see chaos as a stage of growth?

Emptiness
Emptiness is the hard part. It is also the most crucial stage of community development; it is the bridge between chaos and community. Emptiness begins when individuals stop depending on others to bring them peace. They take responsibility for their thoughts, their thought processes, and their reactions. During this stage, members begin to empty themselves of barriers to communication, including:

• Expectations and Preconceptions. Until such time as we can empty ourselves of expectations and stop trying to fit others and our relationships with them into a preconceived mold, we cannot really listen, hear, or experience.
• Prejudices. Prejudice, which is more often unconscious than conscious, comes in two forms. One is the judgments we make about people without any experience of them whatsoever. Even more common are the judgments we make about people on the basis of very limited experience. One reason to distrust instant community is that community-building requires time — the time to have sufficient experience to become conscious of our prejudices and then to empty ourselves of them.
• The Need to Control. The need for control — to ensure a desired outcome — is at least partially rooted in the fear of failure. For me to empty myself of my over-controlling tendencies I must continually empty myself of this fear. I must be willing to fail; I must be willing to be humbled; I must be willing to be a part of something that was not fashioned by my preferences.

The stage of emptiness in community development is a time of sacrifice, and sacrifice hurts. Such sacrifice hurts because it is a kind of death, the kind of death that is necessary for rebirth. But even when we realize this intellectually, such dying is still a fearsome adventure into the unknown. Sometimes, members of the group will feel paralyzed between fear and hope — fear that the group is destructing, but hope that it is actually being reborn.

Community
The process of emptying provides room for a group to receive the gift of community. Differences still exist but they are no longer devastating. Instead, they are acknowledged, accepted, and transcended as people have committed, not to each getting his or her own way, but to being one Body in Christ. The people in community empathize with one another; there is a great level of understanding. Discussions, even when heated, never get sour and motives are not questioned. Members resolve conflicts with patience and grace. They listen and understand, respect each others’ gifts, accept each others’ limitations, celebrate their differences, and respectfully encourage each other to grow. They share each others’ pains, bind each others’ wounds, and commit to struggle for salvation together
rather than against each other.
A group in community is characterized by a sense of profound respect, appreciation, and joy. Everyone is stronger and wiser for having journeyed together. Then, the true meaning of community is realized — that there is no community without communion, and there is no communion without Christ.
Each of these stages — pseudo-community, chaos, emptiness, and community — is part of a healthy fellowship. The fellowship will continue to cycle through all the stages, and along the way will acquire skills that enable them to move confidently through the stages, instead of being stuck in places of division.

— adapted from Peck, M. Scott. The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

How Shall We Live?
The Rhythms of Christian Life

Orthodoxy is the path toward freedom. To be free from sinful passions so that we can grow into who God designed us to be — this is the Orthodox way. And to rise into the radiant perfection of Jesus Christ — this is the goal and the joy of the Christian! Just as all the fullness of God dwells in Christ (Colossians 2:9), so is all the fullness of Christ intended to dwell in us. This and only this — bearing His image, growing in His likeness — is what it means to be truly human.

God embeds rhythms into nature to nurture biological life. Too, He embeds rhythms into His Church to nurture spiritual life. Through living these rhythms in the Body of Christ — daily, weekly, monthly, yearly — we, by the grace of God, heal from the horror of sin and grow in the likeness of God, “maturing into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Not rules but rather therapies, these rhythms provide for the well-being of “spirit, soul, and body” (I Thessalonians 5:23). God desires that we be ourselves, without pretense, and strive to love Him from our hearts.

The longer one is in the Church, the more accustomed to this path toward sanity one becomes.

The PRESENT
Moment by moment, the Christian strives to “belong to Christ” (I Corinthians 3:23), mindful that we are His and He is ours, practicing a gentle watchfulness over our senses, our thoughts, words, and actions, so that we “do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31). Foundational virtues in every situation for the Christian are love, humility, repentance, thankfulness, stability, and honesty with oneself. Christianity is lived: it is spiritual and theological, yes, but it’s always “in the room” — sometimes, our faith is simply about whom we can serve, what we can tidy, how we can beautify.

The DAILY Rhythm (Prayer/Holy Scripture/Peace and Love)
The daily rhythm of Christian life involves prayer, Holy Scripture, serving others, thankfulness, striving for purity of heart by renouncing immorality, and a commitment to accept whatever the day brings with peace of soul and conviction that God is in all and over all.

Each day begins and ends with mindfulness of God, who is our Strength for handling all that both the day and night will bring. Morning and evening prayers, so necessary for growth, can also be adapted to circumstance. God’s energy is imparted to us through the daily reading — or listening — of Holy Scripture. And small acts of service and kindness — what we might call hospitality or almsgiving — beautify the soul and the world around us.

Throughout the day, other remembrances of God and our identity in Him can involve practicing silence, giving thanks, spiritual reading or listening, renouncing immorality, stepping outdoors, nurturing relationships, serving the poor, creative labor, finding joy, engaging uplifting art or music, or reciting The Lord’s Prayer or The Jesus Prayer.

The WEEKLY Rhythm
(Great Vespers/Matins/Divine Liturgy/Holy Communion/Fasting/Fellowship)
The weekly rhythm of Christian life centers around both the preparation for, and the reception of, the glorious “Medicine of Immortality” that is Holy Communion — typically at the Sunday morning Divine Liturgy.
Preparation to receive the Body and Blood of Christ begins with striving to live the daily rhythm described above, then continues with vital participation in Great Vespers on Saturday evening, and — either that evening or on Sunday morning — mindfully reading or listening to the Prayers in Preparation for Holy Communion. Following Sunday

Theosis: the deification of the entire human person in Christ to share in the very life of God. Morning and Evening Prayers can be found in most Orthodox Prayer Books, in the Orthodox Study Bible, or on our website https://stelizabethtn.org/prayers.

Daily Scripture readings can be found in the Orthodox Study Bible, or on-line by entering “Orthodox Daily Readings.” For suggestions for a daily prayer and Bible discipline, consult the parish priest. The usual form of the Jesus Prayer - “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” - can be adapted to fit a variety of circumstances: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, thank You for Your love,” or, “…give me patience,” or “…be with (name).”

The PreCommunion Prayers carry us along the way of the Cross and Empty Tomb: taking us down in humility then upward in the cry of faith.

Morning Matins and Divine Liturgy with the reception of Holy Communion, a joyful spirit of abundant thanksgiving — we’ve partaken of God! — is preserved in us through the Prayers of Thanksgiving After Holy Communion.

As the week continues, fasting on Wednesday (mindful of Christ’s betrayal) and Friday (mindful of Christ’s crucifixion) humbles the flesh, keeps us spiritually sensitive, and prepares us to receive again next Sunday the “Bread come down from heaven” (John 6:41).
And if one can attend a mid-week service at church, that’s a great boost, too!

The MONTHLY Rhythm
(Holy Confession/Forgiveness/Reconciliation and a Fresh Start)
The monthly rhythm of Christian life involves the Mystery of Reconciliation — or, the Sacrament of Confession.

When sin has broken our fellowship with God and others, the Church provides the Mystery of Reconciliation. Ideally, the Christian takes advantage of this healing sacrament every four to eight weeks or so, but also as the conscience needs. This monthly (or so) rhythm of regular confession — with a priest ordained to hear confessions and communicate the forgiveness of God — helps us take our spiritual sickness and healing seriously, and moves spiritual life away from mere feeling and emotion and into deeper practice.

Why regular confession?
"If we judge ourselves, we will not be judged” (I Corinthians 11:31). Because the Mystery of Reconciliation involves confession of personal sin, it’s our practical way of “judging ourselves” so that we might escape the judgment by God. By accepting Confession's gentle rebuke now, we escape the Judgment's great rebuke later; by enduring temporary shame now, we escape eternal shame later.

To unlock the great benefit of Confession, the Christian strives to repent of the sins confessed by, with the help of God, “replacing” them with virtue — such as silence instead of gossip, patience instead of outburst, gratitude instead of complaining, acts of love instead of acts of hostility.

The YEARLY Rhythm
(Pascha/Great Feasts/Seasonal Fasts/Great Saints)
The yearly rhythm of Christian life involves participating in at least the twelve Great Feasts and four Great Fasts of the Church Year, with Great and Holy Pascha as the radiant axis around which it all revolves. Participating in each of these feasts and fasts places us into the stream of Christ’s own life, enabling us to literally receive — because of the Holy Spirit in the Church — the grace of the events as they are happening.

The Twelve Feasts are:

• The Nativity of the Theotokos (September 8);
• The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14);
• The Entrance of the Theotokos in the Temple (November 21);
• The Nativity of Christ (December 25);
• Theophany, or the Baptism of Christ (January 6);
• The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (February 2);
• The Annunciation (March 25);
• Palm Sunday; (ii)
• The Ascension of Christ; (ii)
• Pentecost ((ii) all of which fall on different dates from year to year)
• The Transfiguration of Christ (August 6);
• The Dormition of the Theotokos (August 15).

The Four Fasts are:

• The Nativity Fast (the forty days before Christmas);
• Great Lent (the forty days before Holy Week and Pascha);
• The Apostles’ Fast (after Pentecost);
• The Dormition Fast (from August 1 to August 14).

The yearly cycle also includes commemorations of great saints and wonderworking icons - all reminding us that heaven is real and this life with its sorrows is not all there is. These daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythms of the Church come together to form one life. They are not chores on a To-Do List or ways of earning God’s favor, but expressions of the search for divine life. And as the saints who’ve lived them show, they work.

This life of Christian rhythm is the same for all Orthodox persons, but each internalizes its grace differently, uniquely, personally. Together in community, each deep heart becomes a “partaker of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4) and a healing presence in our broken world (Exodus 33:14).

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• Fasting is abstaining from - or limiting, depending on circumstance - food, drink, and extraneous activities while engaging in activities profitable to the soul. Typically on Wednesdays and Fridays, Orthodox Christians fast from meat, fish, eggs, dairy, olive oil, and various amusements.
• A Guide to Preparing for Confession is available from the church.
• “Participating” means attending the church services celebrating the feast, and looking for ways to “embody” the event at home through iconography or other beautifications or acts of charitable service.

Who Am I Now?
The Vows and Vision of Baptism
Deeply momentous in one’s life — even echoing into eternity — is the Mystery of Baptism. The Holy Spirit descends to do His transfiguring work. Vows are made and a vision is given to the newly-illuminated warrior of Christ.
To help us recall the glory to which we are called, here are excerpts from the Baptism and

Chrismation services:
From the EXORCISM

• "Look upon Thy servant; prove him/her and search him/her, and root out of him/her every operation of the Devil. Rebuke the unclean spirits and expel them, and purify the works of Thy hands; and exerting Thy strong might, speedily crush down Satan under his/her feet; give him/her victory over the same, over his foul spirits; that having obtained mercy from Thee, he/she may be worthy to partake of Thy heavenly Mysteries; and may ascribe unto Thee glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages”.
• "Open the eyes of his/her understanding that the light of Thy Gospel may shine brightly in him/her. Yoke unto his/her life a radiant Angel, who shall deliver him/her from every snare of the adversary, from encounter with evil, from the demon of the noonday, and from evil visions”.
• "Expel from him/her every evil and impure spirit which hideth and maketh its lair in his/her heart.”
• "Make him/her a reason-endowed sheep in the holy flock of Thy Christ, an honorable member of Thy Church, a child of the light, and an heir of Thy Kingdom; that having lived in accordance with thy commandments, and preserved inviolate the Seal, and kept his/her garment undefiled, he/she may receive the blessedness of the Saints in Thy Kingdom”.
• "Dost thou renounce Satan, and all his angels, and all his works, and all his service, and all his pride?”
• "Hast thou renounced Satan?”
• "Dost thou unite thyself unto Christ?”
• "Hast thou united thyself unto Christ?”
• "I bow down before the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Trinity, One in Essence and undivided”.

From the PRAYERS

• "O Master, Lord our God, call Thy servant (name) to Thy holy Illumination, and grant unto him/her that great grace of Thy holy Baptism. Put off from him/her the old man, and renew him/her unto life everlasting, and fill him/her with the power of Thy Holy Spirit, in the unity of Thy Christ, that he/she may be no more a child of the body, but a child of Thy kingdom”.
• "That he/she may prove himself/herself to be a child of the Light, and an heir of eternal good things...That he/she may be a member and partaker of the death and resurrection of Christ our God...That he/she may preserve his/her baptismal garment and the earnest of the Spirit pure and undefiled unto the dread Day of Christ our God, let us pray to the Lord”.
• "Because of the tender compassion of Thy mercy, O Master, Thou couldst not endure to behold mankind oppressed by the Devil; but Thou didst come, and didst save us. We confess Thy grace. We proclaim Thy mercy. We conceal not thy gracious acts. Thou hast delivered the generations of our mortal nature. By Thy birth Thou didst sanctify the Virgin’s womb”.
• "Let all adverse powers be crushed beneath the sign of the image of Thy Cross”.
• "For Thou hast said, O Lord: Wash ye, be ye clean; and put away evil things from your souls. Thou hast bestowed upon us from on high a new birth through water and the spirit”.
• "Grant that he/she who is baptized therein may be transformed; that he/she may put away from him/her the old man, which is corrupt through the lusts of the flesh, and that he/she may be clothed upon with the new man, and renewed after the image of Him who created him/her; that being buried, after the pattern of Thy death, in baptism, he/she may, in like manner, be a partaker of Thy Resurrection and having preserved the gift of Thy Holy Spirit, and increased the measure of grace committed unto him/her, he/she may receive the prize of his/her high calling, and be numbered with the first-born whose names are written in heaven”.
• "Blessed is God, Who illumineth and sanctifieth every one who cometh into the world: now and ever, and to ages of ages”.

From the ANOINTING with OIL

• The servant of God (name) is anointed with the oil of gladness; in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...unto the healing of soul and body...unto hearing of faith...Thy hands have made me and have fashioned me...that he/she may walk in the way of Thy commandments, O Lord”.

From the BAPTIZING

• “The servant of God (name) is baptized in the Name of the Father...and of the Son...and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”.
• "The servant of God (name) is clothed with the garment of righteousness, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”.
• "Vouchsafe unto me a robe of light, O Thou who clothest Thyself with light as with a garment: Christ our God, plenteous in mercy”.

From the CHRISMATING

• “Do Thou, the same Master, compassionate King of all, grant also unto him/her the seal of the gift of Thy holy, and almighty, and adorable Spirit, and participation in the holy Body and the Precious Blood of Thy Christ. Keep him/her in Thy sanctification; confirm him/her in the Orthodox faith, deliver him/her from the Evil One, and from the schemes of the same. Preserve his/her soul in purity and uprightness, through the saving fear of Thee, that he/she may please Thee in every deed and word, and may be a child and heir of Thy heavenly kingdom”.
• "O Thou who, through holy baptism, hast given unto Thy servant remission of sins, and hast bestowed upon him/her a life of regeneration: Do Thou, the same Lord and Master, ever graciously illumine his/her heart with the light of Thy countenance. Maintain the shield of his/her faith unassailed by the enemy. Preserve pure and unpolluted the garment of incorruption, wherewith Thou hast endowed him/her, upholding inviolate in him/her by Thy grace, the seal of the Spirit, and showing mercy unto him/her and unto us, through the multitude of Thy mercies”.
• "Keep him/her ever a warrior invincible in every attack of those who assail him/her and us; and make us all victors, even unto the end, through Thy crown incorruptible”.
• "Thou art justified. Thou art illumined. Thou art sanctified. Thou art washed...Thou art baptized. Thou art illumined. Thou hast received anointment with Holy Chrism. Thou art sanctified. Thou art washed: in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”.

From the PROCESSION and DISMISSAL

• "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia!”
• "Again we pray for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, and visitation for the newly-illumined servant of God (name), and his/her sponsor (name), and his/her parents; and all here present; and for the pardon and remission of their sins”.
• "O Thou Who didst receive Baptism in the Jordan for our salvation, Christ our true God, through the intercessions of His all-immaculate Mother, and of all the Saints, have mercy upon us and save us, forasmuch as He is good and loveth mankind. Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy upon us and save us. Amen”.

A Cleansing Confession
A Practical Guide
When fellowship with God and each other has been broken by sin, the Church — since its earliest days — provides a way to restoration: the Sacrament of Confession (or, much better, Reconciliation), in which we experience forgiveness from God, unburden the soul, and restore fellowship with God and each other.

Why confession? Because sin separates us from God — our Source of Life, our Salvation, our Everything — and from each other, and even from our true selves. Whatever is in us becomes part of us, and Confession is the process of getting all those sinful impurities out and turning them over to God “who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4).

Three elements form this blessed Mystery: contrition, that we may accept the seriousness of our sins; honesty, that we may make a clear and heartfelt confession to God in the presence of a priest ordained to comfort and guide; and forgiveness, that we may know with full assurance that, by His tender grace, we are truly restored and reconciled to God and to ourselves and to the Body of Christ.

A Few Suggestions
See Confession as a Gift — view the Mystery of Reconciliation as a cleansing, renewing privilege given by God to the Church. Take this gift seriously and keep a grateful attitude because the Lord wants us to know His forgiveness!

Spend Time in Preparation — find a quiet place to be alone; put some effort into preparing. One way to prepare is, when settled, to make the Sign of the Cross, read Psalm 51 (50, in the Orthodox Study Bible). Then, be patient and silent, and ask the Lord to bring to your mind any sins that have hurt yourself, your relationship with others, and your relationship with Him. A thorough confession brings thorough freedom: “Whatever is bound on earth is
bound in heaven, and whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).

Write Down your Confession — long sentences are not necessary, but bringing a list with a word or two for each sin can help you avoid forgetfulness and keep you on track.

Consider Your Relationships — call to mind specific persons (even yourself!) and consider any sins you have committed, or hold, against him or her:

• self/body
• wife/husband
• child(ren)
• parent(s)
• sister(s)/brother(s)
• relatives
• church members
• acquaintances, co-workers, etc.
• the poor and less fortunate
• humanity and creation

Be Specific — confess acts of sin, not the conditions of sin. For example, rather than confess “stress” or “anger” or “frustration,” confess the specific sins you have committed from feeling stressed or angry or frustrated — it is from those the Lord wants to heal us.

Go Forth in Peace! — depart from the Mystery of Reconciliation with the full assurance of God’s bountiful and long-suffering forgiveness! Feel the joy of the angels over one’s genuine repentance!

Confess Regularly — a general guideline for the frequency of confessing is every four to eight weeks. But, also confess anytime as needed for the unburdening of the soul.

These questions may help with self-reflection.

MY RELATIONSHIP with SELF
Have I mistreated myself? Have I been proud? Have I been vain or ambitious? Do I bear insults or rejection humbly? Have I been sensitive or had my feelings hurt? Am I self centered? Have I envied anyone of anything? Have I been lazy? Have I endured my illnesses with grace? Have I failed to give thanks to God for who He has made me to be? Have I cared for both the body and the soul God has entrusted to me? Have I overeaten? Have I engaged any media that is spiritually or physically damaging? Have I missed church for any reason not worthy of a blessing? Have I been attached to material possessions? Have I been impatient or anxious about anything? Have I dwelt on previous sins?

MY RELATIONSHIP with OTHERS
Have I taken anyone for granted? Have I withheld love or forgiveness from anyone? Have I spoken carelessly or too much? Have I lied? Have I failed to honor the Image of God in everyone I’ve met? Have I neglected anyone poor or in need? Have I failed to share the Gospel of Christ with anyone out of embarrassment? Have I failed an opportunity to share the Orthodox faith with anyone? Have I been respectful of the elderly? Have I quarreled or fought with anyone? Have I mocked or made fun of anyone? Have I been unwilling to rejoice in the blessings of others? Have I ever hoped for bad things to happen to anyone? Have I forsaken anyone in need? Am I stubborn? Do I always try to have my own way? Have I gossiped? Have I lied or been deceptive? Have I desired to punish anyone? Am I at peace with all?

MY RELATIONSHIP with GOD
Have I failed to give thanks to God in all things? Do I pray to God daily? Do I read Holy Scripture and other spiritually nourishing books? Have I rushed my prayers or been distracted in church? Have I been ashamed of my faith? Have I made a show of my piety? Have I kept the Church fasts to the best of my ability? Have I taken the Lord’s name in vain? Have I ever doubted God’s care for me? Do I ask for God’s help before starting every activity? Does my mind wander during church? Have I come to Holy Communion unprepared? Have I tithed or kept my pledge to my church?

Orthodox Christianity teaches that a clear distinction exists between the uncreated God and the created world. God is good, and because God created the world, the world is good; but it is also fallen, and as a result we face additional distinctions: between old and new 1, death and life 2, profane and sacred 2, all the degrees of shadow and the very Light Itself 4. Salvation may be understood as the growth of the human person from the former categories to the latter – from the old, the dead, the profane, and the shadows, to the new, the life, the sacred, and the light. This journey of salvation is presented to us in profound ways in the style and forms of ancient Christian worship.

Consider, for example, our use of liturgical language. The language we use in our worship services contains an elevated style worthy of the elevated message it is intended to convey – the message of salvation.  So, liturgical language itself is intended to reinforce within the worshipper a sense of the distinction between the world of men that he leaves behind, and the world of God he is called to enter. And it’s not just language; church architecture, music, iconography, vestments, each of these is, within the Church, a unique mode of expression that is divinely inspired.

There are those who believe that a worship service should not recognize the distinction between the sacred and the profane. For them, church aesthetics often imitate secular aesthetics – contemporary rock bands instead of liturgical music, inspirational posters instead of icons, “cell groups” instead of sacraments. But all this may have a dangerous consequence: the world of God disappears.

If the Church’s art forms are identical to the art forms of fallen man, then there would be no material expression of our salvation, and the Church will have surrendered the very core of Her witness on earth. Our salvation is only possible because the Immaterial God assumed material creation (that is to say, God, who is Spirit 5, took upon Himself flesh and human nature) 5, so the Church uses material creation both to announce the truth of the Incarnation in all its fullness, and to enable our personal participation in the Lord who ascended into heaven, carrying our creation with Him. 7

Man’s modes of expression are corrupt, and therefore inadequate to the task of acquiring knowledge of God because they flow from our sinful state. The Church’s modes of expression, however, are divinely inspired. 8 So, the two modes cannot be identical. The unique material art forms within the Church, therefore, do not suggest God’s distance from our fallen world, but, on the contrary, proclaim His presence within our midst.

Consider two core realities of man’s relationship with God: first, that we have fallen away from God; and second, that God has come to restore us to Himself. The Church proclaims both, but accomplishes this not by pulling God down into our falleness but by raising man up to God’s perfection. Worship, for the Orthodox Christian, is not the act of making God real to us – that has already been accomplished in Christ – but of making ourselves real to God 9.

Christ achieves man’s deification through His participation in created human nature, and man appropriates this deification by participation in the Divine, especially in the sacramental life of the Church. This meeting of the human and the Divine is a total, physical experience, limited not to the intellect, but opened to all that pertains to man, including his five senses. Secular art exerts enormous influence on the soul, precisely because the human is an integrated unity of body and soul, physical and spiritual. The Church, then, uses matter – or material creation – to produce spiritualized art forms that adorn, express, and clarify the sacramental Mysteries of the Church, and so those spiritualized art forms are themselves a means of man’s deification. Iconography, chant, hymnody, these are Mysteries in their own right, because they, and not the secular arts, possess the capacity to deify.

For this reason, our language and iconography and chant must be different from the fallen world’s, and must conform strictly to the norms established by divinely-inspired Church Fathers, whose own souls were purified to the point where they became clear conduits of this deifying influence 10.

Considering this necessary relationship between the possibility for salvation and the sacred art used to proclaim that possibility, can we say, then, that how a group of Christians worships tells the world what they believe about the Incarnation of Jesus Christ?

-Adapted from The Pentecostarion, published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, Massachusetts

Footnotes

1. II Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:9-10; Hebrews 8:8-9.
2. Deuteronomy 30:19-20; John 5:24; Romans 5:17.
3. Exodus 3:5; Matthew 21:12-13; 1I Timothy 4:7.
4. John 3:19; I Corinthians 4:5; Ephesians 5:8; Colossians 2:17; I Thessalonians 5:5; Hebrews 10:1.
5. John 4:24.
6. I John 1:1-3.
7. Ephesians 4:8-10.
8. Ephesians 1:22-23.
9. John 10:14-15; I Corinthians 15:47-49.
10. I John 3:3.

Orthodox Christian worship of God is an experience that engages both the mind and the body with all its senses. Visitors notice many Scriptural texts “come to life” during their visit – our use of music, psalms and other Scripture texts, incense, icons, and sacraments, call to mind the liturgical worship of the early Church. These material expressions of spiritual worship are “copies of the true” worship in heaven (Hebrews 9). Orthodox worship is not “modern” – in the sense of mimicking popular secular styles of music and art – but is at once ancient and relevant, contemplative and engaging.

The Bible is the sacred written record of God’s involvement with His creation – a record received, written down, transmitted, protected by the Church for all ages, and proclaimed for the salvation of the world. The word of God that is Holy Scripture – Old and New Testaments – is distinguished from the Word of God who is the Christ, the Son of the Father and the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Bible is the sufficient and inspired written testimony to Christ – from Whom all Scripture derives its authority, about Whom all Scripture speaks, and toward Whom all Scripture points.

by Frederica Mathewes-Green

Welcome to the Orthodox Church! There are a number of things about our worship that are different from the services of other churches, whether Roman Catholic, liturgical Protestant, or evangelical. In an effort to help alleviate confusion, here are twelve things I wish someone had explained to me the first time I visited an Orthodox church.

1. A Sense of Holiness
If you are from a Protestant or non-liturgical tradition, you may feel overwhelmed the minute you walk in the door of an Orthodox church. You will find yourself surrounded by a blaze of color in the priests’ vestments and the icons that adorn the walls. The pungent odor of incense will assault your nose, possibly making you sneeze. Rich, deeply moving but unfamiliar music will fill your ears.
All around you people will be doing things – lighting candles, kissing icons, making the sign of the cross, bowing, standing in prayer – everything but sitting still. To someone accustomed to four bare walls and a pulpit, all this may seem pretty strange.  It is important to remember that none of this is an end in itself.
Everything we see, hear, smell, touch, taste or do in the Orthodox Church has one purpose and one purpose only: to lead us closer to God. Since God created us with physical bodies and senses, we believe He desires us to use our bodies and senses to grow closer to Him.

2. Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus
In the Orthodox tradition, the faithful stand through nearly the entire service. Really. In some Orthodox churches, there won’t even be any pews, just a few chairs scattered at the edges of the room for the elderly and infirm. Expect some variation in practice: older churches, especially those that purchased already existing church buildings, will have well-used pews. In any case, if you find the amount of standing too challenging, you’re welcome to take a seat. It gets easier with practice.

3. By This Sign, Pray
To say that we make the sign of the cross frequently would be an understatement. We sign ourselves whenever the Trinity is invoked, whenever we venerate the cross or an icon, and on many other occasions in the course of the Liturgy. But people aren’t expected to do everything the same way. Some cross themselves three times in a row, and some finish by sweeping their right hand to the floor. Often before venerating an icon, people will cross themselves twice, bowing each time with their right hand to the floor, then kiss the icon, then cross themselves and bow again. Don’t worry; that doesn’t mean you have to follow suit.
We cross with our right hands, touching forehead, chest, right shoulder, then left shoulder to end over the heart, the opposite of Catholics/Episcopalians. We hold our hands in a prescribed way: thumb and first two fingertips pressed together, the last two fingers pressed down to the palm. Here as elsewhere, the Orthodox impulse is to make everything we do reinforce the Faith. Can you figure out the symbolism? (The three fingers held together represent the Trinity; the two fingers against the palm represent the two natures of Christ.)

4. What, No Kneeling?
Generally, we don’t kneel on Sundays. We do sometimes prostrate. This is not like prostration in the Catholic tradition, lying out flat on the floor. To make a prostration we kneel, place our hands on the floor, and touch our foreheads between our hands. At first, prostration feels embarrassing, but no one else is embarrassed, so after awhile it feels more natural.  Sometimes we do this and get right back up again, as during the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, which is used frequently during Lent. Other times we get down and stay there awhile, as during a portion of the eucharistic prayer.
Not everyone prostrates. Some kneel, some stand with head bowed, or sit crouched over. Standing there feeling awkward is all right, too. No one will notice if you don’t prostrate. In Orthodoxy there is an acceptance of individualized expressions of piety, rather than a sense that people are watching you and getting offended if you do it wrong.  One former Episcopal priest said that seeing people prostrate themselves was one of the things that made him most eager to become Orthodox. He thought, “That’s how we should be before God.”

5. Pucker Up
We kiss things. When we first come into the church, we kiss the icons (Jesus on the feet, and saints on the hands, ideally). You’ll also notice that some kiss the chalice, some kiss the edge of the priest’s vestment as he passes by, the acolytes kiss his hand when they give him the censer, and we all line up to kiss the cross at the end of the service. We kiss each other (“Greet one another with a kiss of love.” 1 Peter 5:14) before we take communion. When Catholics/Episcopalians pass the peace, they give a hug, handshake or peck on the cheek; that’s how Westerners greet each other. In Orthodoxy different cultures are at play: Greeks and Arabs kiss once on each cheek; the Slavs come back again for a third. Parishes with lots of American converts may give a hearty bear hug. Follow the lead of those around you and try not to bump you nose.  The usual greeting is “Christ is in our midst,” with the response, “He is and shall be.” Don’t worry about getting it wrong. The greeting is not the previously familiar “The peace of the Lord be with you,” nor is it “Hi, nice church you have here.”

6. Blessed Bread and Consecrated Bread
Only Orthodox may take communion, but anyone may have some of the blessed bread. Here’s how it works: the round communion loaf, baked by a parishioner, is imprinted with a seal. In the preparation service before the Liturgy, the priest cuts out a section of the seal and sets it aside; it is called the “Lamb.” The rest of the bread is cut up and placed in a large basket and blessed by the priest.  During the eucharistic prayer, the Lamb is consecrated to be the Body of Christ, and the chalice of wine is consecrated as His Blood. Here’s the surprising part: the priest places the Lamb in the chalice. When we receive communion, we file up to the priest, standing and opening our mouth wide while he gives us a portion of the wine-soaked bread from a spoon. He also prays over us, calling us by our first name or by the saint-name which we chose when we were baptized or chrismated (received into the Church).  As we file past the priest, we come to an altar boy holding a basket of blessed bread. People will take portions for themselves and for visitors and non-Orthodox friends around them. If someone hands you a piece of blessed bread, do not panic; it is not the eucharistic Body. It is a sign of fellowship.

7. No General Confession?
In our experience, we don’t have any general sins; they’re all quite specific. There is no complete confession prayer in the Liturgy. Orthodox are expected to be making regular, private confession to Christ in the presence of their priest.  The role of the pastor is much more that of a spiritual father than it is in other denominations. He is not called by his first name alone, but referred to as “Father Firstname.” His wife also holds a special role as parish mother, and she gets a title too, though it varies from one culture to another. Some of the titles used are “Khouria” (Arabic), or “Presbytera” (Greek), both of which mean “priest’s wife;” or “Matushka” (Russian), which means “Mama.”  Another difference you will probably notice is in the Nicene Creed, which may be said or sung, depending on the parish. In the Creed we affirm that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, but we don’t add “and the Son,” as Western denominations do. In this we adhere to the Creed as it was originally written.

8. Music, Music, Music
About seventy-five percent of the service is congregational singing. Traditionally, Orthodox use no instruments, although some churches will have organs. Usually a small choir leads the people in a capella harmony, with the level of congregational response varying from parish to parish. The style of music varies as well, from very Oriental-sounding solo chanting in an Arabic church to more Western-sounding four-part harmony in a Russian church, with lots of variations in between.  This constant singing is a little overwhelming at first; it feels like getting on the first step of an escalator and being carried along in a rush until you step off ninety minutes later. It has been fairly said that the Liturgy is one continuous song.  What keeps this from being exhausting is that it’s pretty much the same song every week. Relatively little changes from Sunday to Sunday; the same prayers and hymns fall in the same places, and before long you know it by heart. Then you fall into the presence of God in a way you never can when flipping from prayer book to bulletin to hymnal.

9. No Shortcuts
Is there a concise way to say something? Can extra adjectives be deleted? Can the briskest, most pointed prose be boiled down one more time to a more refined level? Then it’s not Orthodox worship. If there’s a longer way to say something, the Orthodox will find it. In Orthodox worship, more is always more, in every area including prayer. When the priest or deacon intones, “Let us complete our prayer to the Lord,” expect to still be standing there fifteen minutes later. The original Liturgy lasted something over five hours; those people must have been on fire for God.
The Liturgy of St. Basil edited this down to about two and a half, and later (around 400 A.D.) the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom further reduced it to about one and a half. Most Sundays we use the St. John Chrysostom Liturgy, although for some services (e.g., Sundays in Lent, Christmas Eve) we use the longer Liturgy of St. Basil. When you arrive for Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning, worship will already be in progress and you will feel chagrined at arriving late. You are not late; the priest, cantors and some parishioners are just winding up Matins, which began about an hour before. Divine Liturgy follows on its heels, with the posted starting time only approximate. Before Matins, the priest has other preparatory services; he will be at the altar for a total of more than three hours on Sunday morning, “standing in the flame,” as one Orthodox priest put it. Orthodoxy is not for people who find church boring!

10. I’m Just Wild About Mary
We love her and it shows. What can we say? She’s His Mom. We often address her as “Theotokos,” which means “Mother of God.” In providing the physical means for God to become man, she made possible our salvation. Not that we think she or any of the other saints have magical powers or are demigods. When we sing “Holy Theotokos, save us,” we don’t mean “save” in an eternal sense, as we would pray to Christ; we mean “protect, defend, take care of us here on earth.” Just as we ask for each other’s prayers, we ask for the prayers of Mary and the other saints as well. They’re not dead, after all, just departed to the other side. Icons surround us, in part, to remind us that all the saints are joining us invisibly in our worship.

11. The Three Doors
Every Orthodox church will have an iconostasis before its altar. “Iconostasis” means “icon-stand.” In a mission parish it can be as simple as a large image of the Virgin and Child on an easel on the left, a matching image of Christ on the right. In a more established church, the iconostasis may be a literal wall, adorned with many icons. The basic set up of two large icons creates, if you use your imagination, three doors. The central opening, in front of the altar itself, usually has two doors, called the “Royal Doors,” because that is where the King of Glory comes out to the congregation in the Eucharist. Only the priest and deacons, who bear the Eucharist, use the Royal Doors.  The openings on the other sides of the two main icons, if there is a complete iconostasis, have doors, with icons of angels; they are termed the “Deacon’s Doors.” Altar boys and others with business behind the altar use these, although no one is to go through any of the doors without an appropriate reason. Altar service – priests, deacons, altar boys – is restricted to males. Females are invited to participate in every other area of church life. Their contribution has been honored equally with that of males since the days of the martyrs; you can’t look around an Orthodox church without seeing Mary and other holy women. In most Orthodox churches, women do everything else men do: lead congregational singing, paint icons, teach classes, read the epistle and serve on the parish council.

12. Are Americans Welcome?
Flipping through the Yellow Pages in a large city you might see a multiplicity of Orthodox churches: Greek, Romanian, Carpatho-Russian, Antiochian, Serbian, and on and on. Is Orthodoxy really so tribal? Do these divisions represent theological squabbles and schisms?  Not at all. All these Orthodox bodies are one church. The ethnic designation refers to what is called the parish’s “jurisdiction” and identifies which bishops hold authority there. There are about 6 million Orthodox in North America and 250 million in the world, making Orthodoxy the second-largest Christian communion.  The astonishing thing about this ethnic multiplicity is its theological and moral unity. Orthodox throughout the world hold unanimously to the fundamental Christian doctrines taught by the Apostles and handed down by their successors, the bishops, throughout the centuries. They also hold to the moral standards of the Apostles – abortion and homosexual behavior remain sins in Orthodox eyes.  One could attribute this unity to historical accident. We would attribute it to the Holy Spirit.  Why then the multiplicity of ethnic churches? These national designations obviously represent geographic realities. Since North America is also a geographic unity, one day we will likewise have a unified national church – an American Orthodox Church. This was the original plan, but due to a number of complicated historical factors, it didn’t happen that way. Instead, each ethnic group of Orthodox immigrating to this country developed its own church structure. This multiplication of Orthodox jurisdictions is a temporary aberration, and much prayer and planning is going into breaking through these unnecessary walls.  Currently the largest American jurisdictions are the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, the Orthodox Church in America (Russian roots), and the Antiochian Archdiocese (Middle Eastern roots). Services will differ in the language used, the type of music, and a few other particulars, but the Liturgy is substantially the same in all. I wish it could be said the every local parish eagerly welcomes newcomers, but some are still so close to their immigrant experience that they are mystified as to why outsiders would be interested. Visiting several orthodox parishes will help you learn where you’re most comfortable. You will probably be looking for one that uses plenty of English in its services. Many parishes with high proportions of converts will have services entirely in English.

Orthodoxy seems startlingly different at first, but as the weeks go by it gets to be less so. It will begin to feel more and more like home, and it will draw you into the Kingdom of God. I hope that your first visit to an Orthodox church will be enjoyable, and that it won’t be your last.

Salvation is both an event and a process. The event of our salvation is the historical reality of the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ; the process of our salvation is the growth of a person from being the “image” of God to becoming the “likeness” of God (Gen 1:27). In baptism is our nature reborn; in obedience is our nature perfected. We are saved not only by the historical reality, not only as we shed vice and acquire virtue, but also by the Second and Glorious Coming Again of Christ and His favorable judgment upon us. Salvation, then, is a past event, a present experience, and a future hope.

Icons – sacred art portraying Christ and those persons made holy by – flow from a proper understanding of the Incarnation. God, who is Spirit, became Man, who is Flesh, and the material world will never be the same again. If God used material creation to reach for us, we can use material creation to reach for Him (John 1:1,14; Colossians 1:15-20; Hebrews 1:1-4). Icons have been part of Christian worship since the beginning, as they helped spread the faith “in pictures” to those who had no access to written Scriptures. Icons are NEVER worshipped, only venerated. Worship is reserved for God alone, and the veneration offered to an icon “passes through” the icon to the person depicted, a person who himself or herself depicted Christ in word, deed, and thought. Why are icons special to those who venerate them? Imagine if a dearly-loved one passed away, and the only thing by which to remember him or her was a photograph.

Notice how, in John 20, Christ breathed upon His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” That’s one example of a principle of Christianity: physical acts carry spiritual power. The greatest physical act filled with spiritual power is The Incarnation. The Incarnation – when a spiritual God became material flesh and blood – is like a stone thrown into the pond of the universe: ripples of grace go forth through the whole material world. Classical Christianity – what Christians have believed everywhere, in all places, and at all times – has a positive and holistic worldview: creation is filled with opportunities to discover and express the glory of the Incarnate God. The water of baptism, the oil of healing, the beeswax of candles, the tree sap of incense, the wood and color of icons, the pulp of a bible, the grapes and wheat of Holy Communion – these are examples of how Orthodoxy uses creation to worship the Creator. And the singing? One early Church writer answers that this way: “He who sings, prays twice.”

“Orthodox” describes that Church that understands itself to be the living continuity of the faith and life established by Jesus Christ, given to His apostles, described in the Bible, and practiced and passed on by those Christians associated with the ancient centers and earliest centuries of Christian history.

More ancient than Protestantism (16th century) and Roman Catholicism (11th century), this faith “once and for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) is expressed as a life of constant remembrance of God, of the spiritual and physical pursuit of holiness, and in a worship of God that is biblical, liturgical, musical, vibrant, focused not on “self” but on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Today, approximately 300 million Christians worldwide belong to the Orthodox Christian Church

Becoming Orthodox in Spite of the Internet

by Richard Barrett, The Word, May 2005, Volume 49 No. 5 : Page 17

The Internet provides an unprecedented amount of information on virtually any topic, all at the click of a mouse. Fly-fishing, comic book collecting, the history of woodcarving, how to knit sweaters for your dog – it’s all out there. Some of it is even useful. Not only that, it so happens that there are a huge number of websites out there devoted entirely to Orthodox Christianity. Sounds like a wonderful thing, doesn’t it? Well, maybe not. The Internet has the potential to be the biggest stumbling block over which an inquirer might trip. As somebody who was recently received into the Church after a two-year period of inquiry and instruction, I certainly found this to be the case.

I still recall my first time in an Orthodox church, and my reaction to it. It was St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Seattle, Washington – a seventy-year-old building, with a very tall and ornate iconostasis, candles and icons covering virtually every space on the walls, and decades’ worth of incense permeating everything. As a liturgical environment, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before, and it all added up to a very tangible awareness of the presence of God. You could have knocked me over with a feather. My reaction came in three stages. First, while still in the nave, I felt compelled to light candles. Second, before leaving the premises, I dropped about $50 at their book counter. Third, as soon as I got home, I did a Google search on “Orthodox Christianity” and browsed through the hits.

Sound familiar? And why not? That’s how we’ve been trained, in this age of the Information Superhighway. When I was a little kid, if a new topic of interest made itself known to me, the first thing I would do was to go to the library and look it up there, but the Internet makes it so that you don’t even have to leave your home. Googling “Orthodox Christianity” gives you lots of interesting-looking web pages right off the bat: the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese home page, the Orthodox Church in America home page, something called “orthodoxinfo.com,” the Orthodox Christian Fellowship site, another page called “Orthodox Ireland,” a document called “Celtic Orthodoxy – the Celtic Orthodox Christian Revival”… hmm. And here’s a site run by something called “The American Orthodox Church” that claims to be the “Voice of American Orthodox Catholic Christianity.” A note on the page says, “The American Orthodox Church was originally established in 1927 with the blessings of the Holy Patriarchate of Moscow. No other so-called ‘Mother Church’ or jurisdiction has been in existence until 1971 972 and this is why we are the true Mother Church in the USA and Canada.”

And herein lies the problem with the phenomenon of “Internet Orthodoxy.” There is no barrier to entry with respect to posting pages on the World Wide Web; anybody with a computer and a phone jack can publish anything they want and make it accessible to anyone using a search engine. (Or, as UC Berkeley computer science professor Robert Wilensky puts it, “We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”) There is a lot out there that the wide-eyed inquirer can easily encounter, which he or she simply will not have the spiritual maturity to deal with. At least two of the sites listed above are going to be controversial for people within the Church; how in the world is an inquirer who might not even have attended a service yet going to make any sense of it.

Which brings us to another issue – no amount of information and no amount of reading is going to make one Orthodox. Knowledge will not bring one into the Church; the Holy Spirit has to do that. That sounds like a horrible thing to say in our rational day and age, but the books and websites are, plainly, no substitute for prayer, going to services, establishing a relationship with and receiving instruction from a priest. I truly wonder how today’s inquirers would do with the early practice of catechumens knowing nothing of the Mysteries of the Church until after their baptism – and not even being told exactly what was happening to them in their baptism until after it was already done!

The Church at that time held that knowledge wasn’t going to do one a lot of good until he was already part of the family and could put that knowledge in context. Perhaps, in this I time of unrestricted, instantly available information, there’s something we can learn from that. In this “do-it-yourself’ world, the truth of the matter is that you cannot teach yourself to be Orthodox, regardless of how good the instructional materials seem to be. A close family member of mine is undergoing her own inquiry right now; we recently had a conversation where she told me about having spent three-quarters of her day reading things on the Internet, but she hadn’t yet been to a service. I gently suggested that the next thing she needed to do was to go to a Divine Liturgy, and that perhaps she had better not read anything more until she had done so. If you want to learn more about the Church, go to church. It’s that easy, and that difficult.

Something else that one is likely to encounter on the Internet: chat rooms, discussion groups, mailing lists, newsgroups, whatever you want to call them, proclaiming to be places where one can discuss Orthodoxy. I spent a lot of time in these early on in my inquiry, and for my part, I found the tone of most of these to be as un-Christian as one could get – petty, contentious, often with the overall message of “my jurisdiction is holier than your jurisdiction,” and frequently becoming dominated by arguments over secular politics. What also would inevitably occur is the appearance of non-Orthodox and sometimes non-Christian posters who weren’t truly interested in honest discussion, but rather just being gadflies. Even in some of the milder of these groups, where, in theory, jurisdictional discussions were off limits, it seemed that folks had a tendency to be on a fairly short fuse, and exchanges could turn into yelling matches rather quickly. I reached a point where I realized that these groups were distracting my catechesis; they were in no way contributing to it. It was so much “godless chatter,” of which St. Paul counseled avoidance (1 Timothy 6:20).

Are there good uses of the Internet for the inquirer and catechumen? Of course. The home pages for the canonical Orthodox jurisdictions, as well as for most individual parishes, provide a lot of wonderful information, and the outside links they provide are, in general, quite trustworthy. There are excellent resources out there with respect to the Orthodox approach to prayer, liturgical texts, setting up the home icon corner, as well as a wonderful database of the writings of the Church Fathers. Other websites have made the acquisition of previously not-so-easy-to-find liturgical items a fairly simple matter – prayer books, icons, prayer ropes, incense, home censers, candles, recordings of the music of the Church, and so on. At the same time, it is also true that many of the suppliers of these items are themselves of a questionable status; that’s not to say they’re off limits, but the inquirer visiting some of these online establishments must exercise caution and discernment about where they venture on these sites. Perhaps, if a local parish has an ordering relationship with an established supplier, the inquirer is better off going that route – and that way, the parish will benefit. Ask your priest, once you have a relationship with one.

For my part, I can honestly say that I became Orthodox in spite of the Internet, rather than because of it. It wasn’t until I decided that I would limit my exposure to those sites run by a canonical jurisdiction or to online shops, and avoid nearly everything else, that a lot of things became clearer for me on my road to conversion. At most, an inquirer’s Ortho-surfing needs to judiciously supplement, rather than supplant, their attendance at services, prayer, and talking to a priest. If you want to know more about the various historical and doctrinal issues, your local parish has either a good library, a well-stocked book counter, or both, and the priest can suggest which books to read. Books are still no substitute for going to church, but at least it is more likely that a book by a reputable author and publisher will have been carefully vetted in a way that a website probably will not have been.

Unfortunately, the signal-to-noise ratio with respect to what’s out there on the Net is so low, the wheat will sit right next to the chaff and most inquirers – and frankly, most Orthodox laity – won’t be able to tell the difference. If you still want to attempt to use the Internet as a resource, a search engine is only going to give you a list of hits that will be, at best, confusing once you start working your way through all of them. Better to start out with the home pages of the canonical jurisdictions, and take note of the pages to which they’ve linked.

But hey, a Google search is still great for figuring out how to spin thread from cat hair.