‘Plain Vanilla’ Orthodoxy

The last couple of years have been very interesting for our unusual community: unusual not for the characters we have (though we have to admit to having some very colourful, interesting and individual parishioners), but for the massive geographical dispersion of our parishioners, and the determination of those living so far away to be part of a parish that is faithful to Orthodox Tradition

Last Sunday saw ‘commuters’ from the Forest, Bath, Chippenham, Swindon, Oxford, Mells and Warminster in addition to our locals.

Devoted and loyal regular parishioners not only living in South Wales, but in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset are part of our parish family – and I intentionally use the word family, despite its banal misuse by so many organisations.

Why do people come such distances?

For the beauties of an exquisite Orthodox temple crammed with icons, shrines and sacred antiquities?  Definitely not. For architectural grandeur and monuments of the sacred arts?  Definitely not, as imposing as Nazareth House is! For a Slavic club with the opportunity to immerse oneself in East Slavic culture and language? Despite our Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and Serbs, given the numbers of British parishioners, probably not. For a gigantic choir whose voice echoes in the lofty cupolas?  Despite our talented but tiny choir, definitely not. For a thronged meal in trapeza after Liturgy?  With no facilities apart from toilets and a sink, definitely not.

So, why make such a journey?

Whilst some parishioners have come to us after happy times in more distant communities because we are their nearest parish with weekly services, others have come as ‘refugees’  from parishes where Sacred Tradition is neither cherished nor kept, but rather rejected and destroyed in favour of self-determined renovationsist attempts at user-friendly man-centred imitations of Orthodox life.

Some have come from communities where clergy make their own personal decisions about what is correct and what is incorrect, what is changed, what is re-invented and what is omitted – sometimes based on modernist, liberal, heterodox ideas learned and absorbed from mentors, from the baggage of former lives as non-Orthodox clergy, or in conscious conformity to political agendas that have been dressed up as Church teaching.

Some parishioners have belonged to parishes where clergy project their personal ideologies, views and preferences onto their communities and those in their spiritual care, so that the faithful sometimes automatically accept what they are taught is the norm, and presume that the whole Orthodox world believes and does the same as them!

Some parishioners have come from parishes where ethnic identity, culture and language are at the forefront, but the most basic Orthodox Christian teaching has been lacking.

Sadly, detractors and mischief-makers have sometimes labelled those who have joined our parish as malcontents chasing ultra-Orthodoxy/hyperdoxy or tilting at windmills; as ultras who think they know better than their former clergy; as searchers for the spiritually exotic and obscure, those who are searching for some unattainable Orthodox Shangrila… but this is where we have to be forthright and direct in saying NO!

Our parishioners, old or new, are not obscurantist academics, intellectuals, deluded false-zealots or fantasists, but everyday, normal people living normal Orthodox lives of Faith.

They are people who want to live in the totality and purity of Orthodox Christianity, to struggle to acquire the Holy Spirit in the fulness of Sacred Tradition, not adulterated or diluted versions of Faith.

They are people who love God, who love the saints, who love their Orthodox Faith and love the Church of Christ.

They are people who study the Sacred Scriptures, who read the lives of the saints, who seek spiritual knowledge and enlightenment – and as a result begin to sense when something is wrong, and subsequently wish to discuss in places where discussions are forbidden, to ask questions of those who are not willing to be questioned or to give answers!

As bogolubtsy – God lovers – they simply want 100% Orthodoxy and the fullness of Faith… nothing fancy, nothing different, nothing extra-special – just straight-forward Orthodoxy: with dignified worship, spirtual-teaching, pilgrimages, and the company and fellowship of other straight-forward, informed and conscientious people living their Faith fully, and finding their life’s meaning in the Lord.

Though maximalist, the Orthodoxy confessed in our community is far from ultra, exotic, hyper-correct or obscure. It’s simply traditional Orthodoxy conforming to the Gospels, the Law of God, the Ecumenical Councils, the holy fathers and Sacred Tradition: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

This is reflected in what we believe, what we preach, what we do, what we don’t do, and the way we do things. Others may do things differently, but we are clear in our ways.

For example…

Whilst recognising that some jurisdictions receive converts by economia, with chrismation, our standard reception by baptism is nothing strange, but simply Patristic practice: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

Our insistence on the baptismal norm being triple-immersion, not pouring, is not ultra-stictness, but simple obedience to canonical Orthodox tradition and the praxis of our Church from its beginning: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!


Our refusal to commune miaphysite Christians, who are outside the communion of the Eastern Orthodox Church, is not zealotry or sectarianism, but obedience to patristic teaching, the Ecumenical Councils and holy canons: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

Recognising that other jurisdictions have different practices, our ROCOR insistence on regular confession, especially before Holy Communion, is not some new-fangled thing invented by East Slavs, or ‘hyperdoxy’, but simple Orthopraxis: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!OOOMmm

Our belief that we go to confession to confess all of our sins, and not just when we need to tackle ‘the big ones’ (as taught in some places), is not obscurantism, but the teaching of the holy fathers of the Church: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

When we ask for modest dress and the covering of heads by our ladies in church during services, it’s not cultural baggage, Old Believerism or Old Calendarist zeal, but humble obedience to the authority of Holy Scripture and the expression of basic Sacred Tradition: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!OOO

When we refused multiple or disposable spoons during the covid pandemic, this was not extremist blind-zealotry, but simple, straight-forward Faith in the the inviolability of the Lord’s Body and Blood, and the confession of the most basic Orthodox belief: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

Our refusal to abandon the Divine Liturgy,  confessions and communion of the Holy Mysteries during the same period was nothing above or beyond, but just regular Orthodox spiritual sacramental life administered by ordinary Orthodox clergy: plain vanilla Orthodoxy.


Our insistence on a strict eucharistic fast – with compassion and economia for those who not being able to do so – is not over-strictness (and we know that this in not obeyed in some places!), but simple Sacred Tradition: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

Our insistence on liturgical strictness and preserving our inheritance, to pass on to future generations is not externalist formalism, but the treasuring and preservation of Sacred Tradition in the life of the Church: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

Our faithfulness to fasting PROPERLY throughout Great Lent and Holy Week, not just in the first and last weeks, is simply submission to Orthodox tradition, rather than self-willed, self-appointed pick-and-mix rebellion: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!OOO

Our refusal to recognise or accept graceless schismatics as Orthodox, whatever heterodox views Orthodox leaders in ancient patriarchal sees may opine, is not wilful insult, jealousy or jurisdictional in-fighting, but faithfulness to Orthodox ecclesiology and the Faith of the Church: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

When our faithful turn to their spiritual-fathers for guidance and for a blessing for new undertakings, journeys, the praxis of their spiritual-lives, and big life decisions and events, this is not guruism or some sort of out-of-date spiritual archeology, but living spiritual tradition handed down and preserved in every generation: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

Our loyalty to the Patristic Calendar does not mean we believe those using the Gregorian Calendar to be unOrthodox or deficient, but rather testifies to our recognition of the calendar as a sign and source of the spiritual and liturgical unity of the vast majority of Orthodox Christians in the world, who have preserved this tradition: plain vanilla Orthodoxy!

We are a very ordinary little parish with no wealth or property, no temple of our own, with few resources other than our people – but in them, we have all the wealth we need.

We have people fervent in Faith, some of whom willingly travel long distances, who face discomfort, who incur not inconsiderable costs for travelling and invest hours on journeys.

We have people whose spiritual-lives are fervent and demonstrate the love they have for all whom they hold in their prayers, who honour the saints day by day and whose whole being is centred on the Lord.

We have people who labour day by day to make the Beatitudes reality in their lives, labouring for the Kingdom of Heaven.

We have people who are not daunted by constantly setting up and putting away all that is needed for worship, but struggle on in the hope that, one day, we will have our own temple.

We have people who generously support the needs of the parish, those in need, and the mission, charitable work and labours our Church Abroad in so many parts of the world.

We have people who grab every opportunity for pilgrimage, and who  travel to support the clergy in our other missions. These people come together week by week, month by month, in one building yesterday, a different one today, and who knows where tomorrow?

We have people who have been courageous enough to oppose sacrilege and the rejection of the canons and Orthodox Tradition; sadly leaving brothers and sisters they love.

And for what?

For straight-forward, plain-speaking, non-modified, unrenovated, unabbreviated, non-woke, unadulterated, 100% original… PLAIN VANILLA ORTHODOXY!

There’s a lot to be said for plain vanilla!!!

Preparing For the Nativity: Drawing Near to Bethlehem

Dear brothers and sisters, warmest greetings to you as we celebrate the memory of St Spyridon the Wonderworker, as so many of you are also marking the western Christmas celebrations with non-Orthodox family and friends.

We also greet them as they celebrate the Lord’s Nativity, and hope and pray that this will be a time for reflection upon eternal values and truths, far from the ephemeral frippery that sums up what has become little more than a mid-winter festival for many people.

As a youth I loved –  and continue to love – the homely poems of Sir John Betjeman, particularly appreciating his poem ‘Christmas’, now rather old-fashioned, but with eternal questions that must still challenge us to today…

And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?

And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

As we continue our Advent journey, when the baubles and tinsel of western Christmas are put away, we will hopefully have a little space and time to reflect upon the wonder beneath the questions that Betjeman asked – “And is it true… that the Creator of heaven and earth and all that is was born and laid in the manger, and that each time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy, the God-Man, our Saviour Jesus Christ continues to be Emmanuel – “God With Us” – in His self-sacrifice and self-giving of the Holy Mystery of His Body and Blood?

In our Orthodox liturgical culture, we are reminded of this by the melismos icon in which it is the Christ-Child Who is worshipped on the diskos of the eucharist, with either angels or St John Chrysostom and St Basil the Great in supplication on each side – for it is the very Christ-Child laid in the manger in the Cave of Bethlehem, and who received the gifts of the magi Who gives Himself as His Gift to us.

We are reminded of this at the covering of the Holy Gifts at the end of the proskomedia, as the priest takes the metal star-cover, and placing it over the Lamb (and the commemorative particles) says the words,

“And the star came and stood over the place where the Young Child was.”

At the melismos of the Liturgy – the fracturing and dividing of the Lamb before communion – it is the One Who was the Young Child Who is divided for the Communion of His children with His Most Pure Body and Most Precious Blood:

“Broken and distributed is the Lamb of God: broken, yet not divided; ever eaten, though never consumed, but sanctifying them that partake thereof.”

With this in mind, as we enter the last fortnight of the Nativity Fast, culminating in the Nativity Liturgy on Sunday 7th January – according to the Civil Calendar – we should seek to partake of that great wonder – that He Who is equally the Child of Bethlehem and the Risen Saviour and Victorious Conqueror of death and hell calls us and invites us to His supper:

“Take, eat, this is My Body which is broken for you for the remission of sins… Drink of it, all of you; this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins.”

In today’s Gospel for the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, we hear of those who were to busy to come to the supper that a certain rich man arranged, and to which they were invited…

“The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”

Though our prime understanding of this is the refusal of the Old Israel to respond to God’s persistent and determined call for their return to Him, through His servants, the Holy Forefathers and Prophets, we should not be complacent as the New Israel and children of the Resurrection, but also see it as a cautionary warning to us.

Christ has given us the feasts of the Church and the perpetual feast of His Mystical Supper as a foretaste of the Kingdom, as a token of His love, and as the Banquet of His Church, to which all are called, regardless of age, social status, learning or knowledge, as the very ones who were called from the highways and hedges by the servants seeking new guests to bring to their master’s supper.

Like the Passover lamb of the Exodus, we cannot partake of Christ the New Passover UNLESS we partake of the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world: the Lamb of God worshipped by the shepherds in the cave, Who is the Word Who became flesh and dwelt among us on that first Christmas night.

In these last days of the Fast, we prepare to meet the New Born Saviour as that very Lamb of God, Who was born and laid in the manger, to take away the sins of the world; clothed in Adam’s flesh to carry the Cross and to defeat the power of death and hell through the very flesh which He had put on; and in the coming feast of the Nativity He calls us to Himself, to each of us to worship and adore, but also to be joined to Him and have Him abiding in us through the Holy Mysteries.

As we approach the coming feast, we do not travel as magi, with costly gifts, but in our journeys of Faith many of us have travelled a very long way; far from the people we once were; far from the ideas we once held or the lives we once led; far from the things that we once thought to be the priorities of life, signs of success, well-being or achievement; far from the attachments and earthly things that once held us; and during that journey we have encountered much, perhaps changed much, and hopefully learned much – but not in terms of intellectualism and worldly knowledge, but in the simple and true wisdom that Christ has revealed and gives us, for we know that “God is the Lord, and has revealed Himself to us”

This revelation is the great gift of Christmas – God’s salvific gift of Himself to us and for us – and for those of us who preserve and live the Orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic Faith, this gift is one which is never exhausted as the Holy Mysteries of the Church are continually given to us, for our renewal and transformation, with the Eucharist as the greatest sign of Christ’s Gift to each of us, as precious individuals Whom He loves and cherishes.

To return to St Spyridon – his life as a simple rural shepherd, turned shepherd-of-souls after the death of his wife, when he was chosen and consecrated as bishop of Tremithus in Cyprus, reminds us that it is God “Who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit.” It is in God that all Truth and all Wisdom is to be found, and that Truth and Wisdom was incarnate, and entered the world as a Person.

St Spyridon could almost be one of the simple shepherds who were in the hills tending their flocks by night. Unlike the Cappadocian Fathers, this simple soul did not receive a great classical education; he did not study grammar, logic, or rhetoric… mathematics, philosophy or theology; he did not know the classical Greek educational traditions or the great places of learning – and yet he was enlightened and made not only a TRUE theologian (who knows God rather than only knowing about Him), but also a wonder-worker, whose innumerable miracles never cease.

In him, divine-love, truth and wisdom made their dwelling, because his heart became the cave and the manger in which Christ found a home.

We are each called to approach the coming feast of the Nativity, like the simple shepherds, and with the simplicity and faith possessed by St Spyridon, knowing that the human heart and even the most complex and complicated lives, opened and surrendered to the New-Born Saviour in humility, faith, hope and love, can be transformed and the greatest of places, in which all things become possible through the love and mercy, and the in-dwelling of the Grace of God.

Let us approach the coming feast with awe, faith and love, desiring the Saviour to change us, banishing darkness, confusion and fear, and bringing us light and life.

In seeking Him as Light and Life, let us fast and pray, beseeching the Lord 

”…as Thou didst consent to lie in a cave and in a manger of dumb beasts, so consent also to lie in the manger of mine irrational soul and to enter into my defiled body.”

– daring to approach when we see the Deacon present the Holy Gifts at our Nativity Liturgy, hearing those familiar but ever awesome words,

“With the fear of God and faith, draw near – Со стра́хом Бо́жиим и ве́рою приступи́те.”

And, we know that our drawing near is only possible because the Love of God and God of Love did not simply draw near to us, but came searching for us when we were lost, reconciling us with Him, making peace between earth and heaven by becoming like unto us in the scandal of the Incarnation, in the seeming impossibility of the birth of the God-Man in the Cave of Bethlehem, in the shocking dereliction and suffering of the Cross, and in the glory and victory of the Life-Giving Resurrection.

This is the promise of the coming feast, hiding within the New-Born Child, the whole economy of salvation.

Troparion of the forefeast, Tone 4: Make ready, O Bethlehem! Be thou opened unto all, O Eden! Adorn thyself, O Ephratha! For in the cave the Tree of Life hath sprung forth from the Virgin. Her womb is shown to be a noetic paradise, in the midst of which is the divine Tree, whereof eating, we shall live, and not die as did Adam. Christ is born, that He might restore His image which fell of old!

Greetings For the Exultation of the Cross – the Tree of Life

The Cross is the guardian of the whole world! The Cross is the beauty of the Church! The Cross is the strength of kings! The Cross is the support of the faithful! The Cross is the glory of the angels and the wounder of the demons!”

(Exapostilarion)

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Greetings for the feast of the Exultation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

Contrary to the logic of the world and the mockery of the modern day equivalent of the Jews (for whom the Cross was a stumbling block) and the Greeks (for whom the Cross was foolishness), today, we joyfully celebrate the feast.

In our temples, we surround the Cross with herbs and flowers, venerating it as a precious treasure and source of sanctification, blessing and healing.

Prostrating ourselves and venerating it, we chant, “Before Thy Cross we bow down, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify.”

In our cathedrals and monasteries, hierarchs and abbots bless the four corners of the earth, with the Cross as the sign of victory by which the demons are conquered, the powers of evil put to flight, and the world consecrated through God’s grace. We know that the powers of hell fear this very sign and painful reminder of their own defeat and impotence.

But, how can it be that a the Church came to recognise a Roman gibbet, a shameful tool of torture and death to be the sign of victory and the Tree of Life?

The early Christians and Fathers of the Church saw many types of the Cross in the Jewish scriptures: in the wood with which Noah built the salvific ark; in the the wood carried for Isaac’s intended sacrifice; in the rod of Moses, which divided the Red Sea, opening a path from slavery to freedom; in the cruciform raising of Moses arms, by which Israel defeated Amalek; in the bronze serpent set cross-wise on a pole for the healing of the Israelites bitten by the fiery snakes.

In all of these, the meaning and vision was of healing, deliverance, freedom, salvation, victory and restoration.

As inheritors of the early Christian understanding of the prophetic and prefigurative voice of the scriptures in image and symbol, and as heirs of their spiritual approach to the Cross, we celebrate and honour it in its glorious, life-giving fulness.

Like the early Christians, seeing beyond the Saviour’s pain and suffering in His accepting, embracing, carrying and enduring the Cross, we see life, liberation, the restoration of humanity and the redemption of Adam and Eve, and of all humanity with them.

Thus, over twenty centuries after an instrument of torturous death was transformed and consecrated by the Saviour’s sacrificial love, obedience, humility, and His total outpouring of self, we Orthodox Christians hymn and venerate the Life-Giving Cross as the Tree of Life, the destruction of hell and the death of death.

Whilst some heretics are loathe to even acknowledge the reality of the crucifixion and the form of the Cross, we embrace it with enthusiastic devotion and deep love – having been sealed with its precious image in Holy Baptism and Chrismation; wearing it around our necks; being signed with it upon our heads in confession as we are assured of Christ’s forgiveness for the penitent; anointed with its form in Holy Unction; tracing its image upon ourselves in prayer and divine worship, and being blessed with that same figure.

In the hymns of Paschal matins, we boldly declare that “through the Cross, joy hath come to all the world…”, and exulting in this joy, we are mindful that at the heart of the meaning of the Cross is the reckless and limitless love of God, of which the sacrificial-love of the Cross was sign of the absolute nature of that love in which God held His Creation from its very beginning.

Desirous for the redemption and restoration of His children from the very moment of their fall, in that love, in the economy of salvation, He sought to heal like by means of like, entering into creation itself to effect the healing and salvation of the fallen.

Just as sin, disobedience and death entered the world through wood – by the Tree of Knowledge – so righteousness, obedience, and restored life would be effected through the Wood: the Tree of the Cross, which has become for us the Tree of Life.

He Who was raised up on this Tree, of His own will, was the very Immortal Word of God and Creator of Whom St John tells us, “All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created…”

As the first Adam fell through approaching a tree in disobedience, and the fruit of that tree was death, so the second Adam approached His Tree in obedience, and the fruit of that Tree is life!

This is proclaimed by the Church’s hymns for the feast, in which we reflect that the tree was healed by a Tree, chanting in matins,

“Of old, in paradise, a tree stripped me naked, the enemy bringing about mortality through eating; but the Tree of the Cross, bearing for men the vesture of life, hath been planted in the ground, and the whole world hath been filled with all manner of joy.”

From the height of that Tree, Christ, the Wisdom, Word and Power of God created anew: making of humanity and the world a new creation, whose conception is signalled by the words of the sacrificed Lamb of God, “It is done.”

As the earth quaked, the sun was eclipsed, the Veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom, and the bodies of the saints rose from their graves, the awesome, life-giving and world-changing power of the Cross was first manifested in the labour pains of a new world born and created from the height of the Cross.

Year by year, we celebrate this wonderful mystery in this feast of the Exultation, knowing that those who love the Cross of Christ, embracing its message of sacrificial love, selflessness and obedience in their lives are themselves exalted by the Cross just as much as we exalt the Cross on this joyful feast.

St Ephrem the Syrian poetically speaks of the Cross as a bridge spanning the jaws of death, and leading to ‘the land of the living’:

“He who was also the carpenter’s glorious son set up his Cross above death’s all-consuming jaws, and led the human race into the dwelling place of life. Since a tree had brought about the downfall of mankind, it was upon a tree that mankind crossed over to the realm of life. Bitter was the branch that had once been grafted upon that ancient tree, but sweet the young shoot that has now been grafted in, the shoot in which we are meant to recognise the Lord whom no creature can resist.

We give glory to Thee, O Lord, who raised up Thy Cross to span the jaws of death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living. We give glory to Thee who put on the body of a single mortal man and made it the source of life for every other mortal man.”

On this feast, we glorify the Lord and His Life-Giving Cross, by which hell was defeated and stripped bare as the Risen Lord led our first-father and first mother with the saints of the Old Israel across this wondrous bridge from death to life. 

In labouring to follow Him, Who wishes to exalt and raise us up by His Cross, let us rejoice and celebrate in the radiant joy of the feast.

“Come then, my brothers and sisters, let us offer our Lord the great and all-embracing sacrifice of our love, pouring out our treasury of hymns and prayers before him who offered his Cross in sacrifice to God for the enrichment of all.”

(St. Ephrem the Syrian, 306-373 AD)

As the Tree of Life, and the sign of selfless cruciform-love, let us live with the Mystery and meaning of the Cross, as the centre of our lives: our axis mundi stretching from earth to heaven.

Amen.

J

THE APOSTLES’ FAST: PREPARING FOR CONFESSION

During Great Lent, and the other fasts of the Church Year, it is customary for all Orthodox Christians to go to confession to their priest. Properly this should be done several times a year, the exact frequency depending upon how often one is blessed to receive the Holy Mysteries and on the counsel and blessing of one’s spiritual father. As a preparation for this sacramental confession and to help one examine one’s conscience before coming to confession, the following questions are sometimes distributed in parishes and, although of course the list is not exhaustive, it may be a help to those of our readers who are Orthodox Christians.

Sins Against God

Do you pray to God in the morning and evening, before and after meals?

During prayer have you allowed your thoughts to wander?

Have you rushed or gabbled your prayers? or when reading in church?

Do you read the Scriptures daily? Do you read other spiritual writings regularly?

Have you read books whose content is not Orthodox or even anti-Orthodox, or is spiritually damaging?

Have you pronounced the name of God without reverence, joking? Have you asked God’s help before starting every activity?

Have you made the sign of the Cross carelessly, thoughtlessly? Have you sworn? Have you murmured against God?

Have you sinned by forgetting God?

Have you been slack in attending church?

Have you consecrated even part of the feast days, particularly Sundays and the Twelve Great Feasts, to God?

Have you tried your best to attend church on these days? or have you spent them more sinfully than ordinary days?

If unable to attend church for some reason, have you nonetheless tried to devote some part of these days to prayer and spiritual reading?

Have you joined with people not of the Faith in prayer, or attended their worship services?

Have you kept the fasts?

Have you behaved irreverently in church, or before the clergy and monastics?

Have you laughed or talked in church, or moved about unnecessarily, thus also distracting other people from prayer?

Have dressed modestly and in a becoming manner when in church?

Have you tried to pay reverent attention to the readings, hymns, and prayers in church?

Have you striven to pray with the service, crossing yourself, etc., or have you rather simply stood and day-dreamed?

Have you prepared for the services beforehand, looking up the Scriptural readings, making sure you have the texts to follow the service etc., especially if the service will be in a language you do not readily understand?

Have you ever left church after the Divine Services, and particularly after receiving the Holy Mysteries and immediately engaged in light talk and thus forgotten the blessings and graces you have received?

Have you been ashamed of your Faith or the sign of the Cross in the presence of others?

Have you made a show of your piety?

Have you used your Orthodox Faith or its teachings merely to browbeat others or belittle them?

Have you used it as a shield or excuse for your own inadequacies rather than humbling yourself?

Have you believed in dreams, fortune telling, astrology, signs and other superstitions?

Do you give thanks to the Lord for all things?

Have you ever doubted God’s providence concerning yourself?

Do you at least try to perceive His purpose in all the things that come upon you?

Sins Against Your Neighbours

Do you respect and obey your parents?

Have you offended them by rudeness or contradiction?

(These two apply also to priests, superiors, teachers and elders.)

Have you insulted anyone?

Have you quarrelled or fought with anyone? Have you hit anyone?

Are you always respectful to old people?

Are you ever angry, bad tempered or irritable?

Have you called anyone names? Do you use foul language?

Have you derided any that are disabled, poor, old or in some way disadvantaged?

Have you entertained bad feelings, ill will or hatred against anyone?

Have you forgiven those who have offended you?

Have you asked forgiveness from those whom you have offended?

Are you at peace with everyone?

Have you left the needy without help when you could have helped?

Have you attended the sick or elderly when they have asked you to do so?

Have you shown kindness and attention to all, remembering that God is expecting just such an attitude from you?

Have you hit animals without a cause or been cruel to them, or neglectful of those in your care?

Have you stolen anything?

Have you taken or used other people’s things without asking?

Have you kept money or things that were lent you without returning them?

Have you wasted your employers’ time or resources? Have you taken things from work for your own use, used the firm’s phone or other facilities for your own purposes without permission or repayment?

Are you obstinate, and do you always try to have your own way?

Have you been inconsiderate of other people’s feelings?

Have you tried to have your revenge against those who have offended you?

Have you harboured resentment? Have you deceived people?

Have you gossiped?

Have you told untruths?

Have you judged and condemned others?

Have you taken pains before approaching for confession to be reconciled with all?

Sins Against Yourself

Have you been proud? Do you boast of your abilities, achievements, family, connections or riches?

Do you consider yourself worthy before God?

Are you vain, ambitious? Do you try to win praise and glory?

Do you bear it easily when you are blamed, scolded or treated unjustly? Do you think too much about your looks, outward appearance and the impression you make?

Have you sinned in thought, word or deed, by a look or glance, or in any other way against the seventh commandment? (Adultery, fornication, all extra-marital sexual relationships with others, masturbation, engaging in unnatural sexual acts, fantasising, pornography, etc.)

Have you envied anyone anything? Have you been over-sensitive?

Have you been lazy? Have you done your duties heartily?

Have you wasted your time, energy or abilities in things that do not profit the soul?

Have you become obsessive about anything? Have you been despondent or listless?

Have you had thoughts of committing suicide?

Have you brought a curse on yourself or others or ill-wished them, being impatient?

Have you a weakness for alcohol? Have you drunk too much, or become dependent on drink?

Have you taken drugs, other than necessary medicines? Have you smoked?

Have you watched television too much or indiscriminately? Have you given yourself up to any other similar pastime which wastes your time and energy and might have harmed you?

Have you been greedy, either with regard to food or to possessions?

Have you indulged in comfort-eating? Have you become accustomed to eating between meals?

Have you been picky about your food, or wasteful of foods, forgetting that so many people are without proper nourishment? Have you been extravagant? Have you been wasteful? 

Do you care for and seek first the salvation of your soul, the spiritual life and the kingdom of God, or have you put earthly considerations in the first place?

Is there any other sin, which burdens your conscience, or which you are ashamed to tell?

Anyone preparing for confession must ask God to help his resolve to tell all his sins. A penitent should prepare for confession and collect his thoughts regarding his sins at least a day before confession. The most valuable thing in the eyes of God is the confession of the sin which weighs most on the conscience.Continue reading

PEACE AND TRANQUILITY AT PENNANT MELANGELL

Arriving in Pennant Melangell at dusk on Friday, it was a joy to be greeted by the shrine church in its ancient llan, with yew trees possibly older than the Christian presence in the valley – knowing that at any hour during the night, I could walk down the lane from the pilgrim shepherd’s hut, push open the great door and pray in the chancel of the church, beside the imposing arcaded-shrine containing St Melangell’s relics.

After supper in the beudy bach *, I did so, heading down the lane in the long, late midsummer twilight, to pray beside the shrine, casting light on the high gabled-canopy with a single candle. The owls in the wooded valley sides were the only audible sound apart from the chanting of night prayers. Even as I returned along the lane, the sky was still not dark, though the last light over the mountains was to fade within minutes – the owls continuing, with the breeze gently stirring the grass in the neighbouring meadow, and the sound of the river beyond the boundary of trees.

There are few places where we can experience such peace, free from the encroaching noise and disruption of the world: a place where the chink of a teacup on a saucer, or the bang of a closing window seems not only loud, but intrusive; places that make us tread softly and carefully, not wishing to assault the gentle quietness which envelopes us with the mundane noises of the world; places in which to turn the pages of a book slowly, pray softly, and wash the supper things noiselessly.

In this enclosure of peace, it was wonderful to wake to the gentle buzzing of bees, frantically tumbling from yellow poppy to yellow poppy, and oddly amplified in the enclosed tube of fox-glove flowers. Such was the number of bumble bees that the borders hummed with their industrious presence.

Of course, the ascetical fathers likened monastics to honey-bees, collecting the sweet nectar of divine grace through their spiritual labours, and this image can be used for the monastics who laboured at Pennant Melangell in lives of constant spiritual industry for the sake of the Kingdom of God, so much so that the sweetness of God’s Grace still touches the constant stream of pilgrims who come to honour St Melangell and to seek her intercessions and merciful care.

Our great blessing was to do this by celebrating her feast – albeit a day late – by offering the sacrifice of the Holy and Divine Mysteries no more than an arm’s length from the raised stone chest containing her sacred relics.

In this sacred celebration, we entered not only into communion with the Saviour, through His Body and Blood, but in the offering of the Eternal Sacred Banquet, we entered more deeply into fellowship and communion with St Melangell, herself, and all of the saints from ages past.

Seeking her intercessions, we joined our prayers with hers, as a common and shared offering of prayer and praise to the Great High-Priest, honouring her memory in our hymns and commemoration, as one who offered herself as a sacrifice of prayer and praise to the Lord.

It was a great honour and blessing to be able to celebrate the Liturgy, and we were touched and humbled by the great warmth and hospitality afforded to our pilgrims who had travelled from Wilstshire, Dorset and Cambridge, as well as our South Wakes parishioners.

My prayer is that St Melangell’s example, and the reality of her intercessions, will touch each and every one of our pilgrims, affording them strength and courage, so that like her and the wise-virgins of the Gospel for her feast, we may all be ever-vigilant and watchful in lives dedicated to Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church. 

Glory to God, for affording us such a great blessing, and thanks to Him for the saints, as our guides and exemplars.

* ‘little cow house’ – converted for use by pilgrims

The Leave-Taking of Pascha

Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is Risen!

On this Leave-Taking of Pascha, we celebrate the last day of the feast, which we will ‘give up’ at the end of the Ninth Hour before celebrating vespers for the feast of the Lord’s Ascension, but even though the Paschal season now draws to an end, the Paschal Mystery through Christ’s victory on the Cross is eternal, and not only humanity, but also the universe is changed for ever. Death is despoiled and Hades is overthrown, for Christ our eternal joy and our eternal Pascha is arisen..

We must endeavour to preserve our Paschal joy in each and every day of our lives, by living in thanksgiving for the victory of the Cross, the death of death and the shattering of Hades, and the Life-Giving Resurrection, struggling – in times of trial, temptation and affliction – to confront ourselves with the wonderful, unchanging reality of the Resurrection, and the promise it contains for those who seek to live the Paschal Mystery.

No matter what darkness may beset human life, no matter how tired or ill, how poor, how hungry or afflicted we are, nothing can change the reality of Christ’s victory, especially for those who have been initiated into the Paschal-resurrectional life through the Holy Mysteries of baptism and chrismation, and through the constant spiritual renewal the Lord offers us in confession and Holy Communion, seeking to raise us up, even in this earthly life.

Whilst the fullness of the Paschal Mystery is to be revealed in the life of the age to come, the power of the Lord’s Resurrection is already at work in the Church and in the lives of her children.

The words of the Paschal Homily of St John Chrysostom, read during the Paschal Matins, must remain words of power and encouragement for us throughout the Christian life, but especially at times when we feel weak, tempted or helpless.

“O Death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?

Christ is risen! And you, O Death, are annihilated!

Christ is risen! and the demons are cast down!

Christ is risen! And the angels rejoice!

Christ is risen! And life reigns!

Christ is risen! And the tomb is emptied of its dead:

For Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the first fruit-fruit, the Leader and Reviver of those who had fallen asleep.”

Through prayer and spiritual labour, fortified by the Holy Mysteries, let us live and abide in the joy of the Resurrection, so that it may be made an abiding and constant reality and qualitative presence in our lives.

This cannot be maintained in passivity and spiritual laziness, but only by active spiritual-labour in Christ-centred lives… and if our lives are truly Christ-centred they will always be Paschal, and the light and joy of the Resurrection cannot be eclipsed or taken away from us.

Christ is Risen! Live in His Resurrection each and every day of your lives.

“Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the Only Sinless One. We worship Thy Cross, O Christ, and Thy holy Resurrection we hymn and glorify, for Thou art our God, and we know none other beside Thee; we call upon Thy Name. O come, all ye faithful, let us worship Christ’s holy Resurrection, for, behold, through the Cross joy hath come to all the world. Ever blessing the Lord, we hymn His Resurrection, for having endured crucifixion, He hath destroyed death by death.”

In Christ – Hieromonk Mark

Mid-Pentecost: Happy Feast!

Having come together at the Mid-feast between Thy Resurrection and the divine coming of Thy Holy Spirit, O Christ, we praise the mysteries of Thy wonders. Wherefore, on this day do Thou send down Thy great mercy unto us.

Dear brothers and sisters – Christ is Risen!

On this day of Mid-Pentecost, we celebrate the mid-point between the great feasts of Pascha and Pentecost-Trinity, and as the festal texts make clear, it is a day which looks both back and forward.

In the verses on “Lord, I have cried…” we chant,

There is come now the middle of those days which commence with the saving Arising and which are sealed by the sacred Pentecost. Illumined by both feasts and joining both, we come to render glory and honour beforehand to the regal Ascension.

And in the sixth ode of the canon, the theme of light continues:

The mid-point of Pentecost hath come this day. By the former feast it is illumined with the most divine radiance of the divine Pascha, and by the latter feast it is made to shine with the grace of the Comforter.

Yet even though we use these prepositions, we are aware that the Resurrection and the Descent of the Holy Spirit are the constant and ongoing source life and light in the Church, and the foundation of faith.

On this day, we rejoice in the Paschal feast we are still celebrating, and the great feast of Pentecost, yet to come in our yearly celebration, but by which the Church was born.

Within the week, as a mid-point, the feast also connects the Sunday of the Paralytic with the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, with references to last Sunday’s commemoration of the healing of the paralytic and next Sundays commemoration.

Between the pool of Bethesda and the well in Sichar, and the events commemorated, the hymns are rich with water language and symbolism, looking to the Lord as the living water, and grace flowing upon the Church and its faithful.

We celebrate Christ’s teaching in the Temple, celebrating the Saviour as the Holy Wisdom, and a number of theologians and Church historians have postulated that today was the altar-feast of the ancient churches dedicated to Christ the Wisdom of God.

The doxasticon of the vespers apostikha refers to the Lord as “the Wisdom that fashioned the world”, and in the eighth ode of the canon we chant that,

…the Wisdom of God came into the temple at Mid-feast and taught that He is truly Christ the Messiah, from Whom there cometh salvation.

And the stikhera on the Praises repeat this motif –

The Divine Wisdom and Might, the effulgent Light of the Father, the eternal Word, the Son of the living God, came in the flesh into the temple and imparted His holy words of instruction unto the Jews…

The church has also connected the teaching in the Temple with the episode in which the twelve-year-old Saviour remained within the sacred-precincts with the elders of the Law, when “all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” Thus, icons for the feast commonly show the child Saviour seated among them.

But, rather than provide a second-hand observation of the hymns of the feast, I would rather simply encourage parishioners to pray the canons of Mid-Pentecost, and encounter the rich and varied verbal-iconography in prayer and worship within each parish home.

Wishing you a happy and holy feast.

In Christ – Hieromonk Mark

First Canon, Tone IV

Ode I, Irmos: Through the deep of the Red Sea, * marched dry shod Israel of old, * and by Moses’ outstretched hands, * raised in the form of a cross, * the power of Amalek was routed in the wilderness.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

The great benefactions and gifts, the graces and divine illuminations of Thine incomprehensible and divine Incarnation, do Thou abundantly pour forth and shine upon us, O Master.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

At Mid-feast Thou hast come, O Christ, manifestly sending forth the radiant flashes of Thy Godhead; for Thou art the joyous Festival of the saved and the Cause of our salvation.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou art become wisdom, righteousness from God, and redemption for us, O Lord. Thou dost convey us from earth to the height of Heaven, and dost grant us the Divine Spirit.

Most holy Theotokos save us.

Thy flesh knew not corruption in the sepulchre, O Master. Rather, inasmuch as it was formed without seed, it received not corruption, for in a transcendent manner it was not subject to the order of nature.

The Second Canon, in Tone VIII: A Composition of Andrew of Crete

Ode I, Irmos: Thou didst make the sea a wall; * Thou didst overwhelm boastful Pharaoh in the deep * together with his chariots. * Thou didst save the people dry-shod, O Lord, * and didst lead them forth to a mountain of sanctification, as they cried: * We shall sing a song of victory to Thee, our God, * for Thou hast been glorified.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Clap your hands, O ye nations; lament, O ye Hebrews. For Christ, the Giver of Life, hath broken asunder the bonds of Hades, and hath raised up the dead and healed sicknesses by a word. This is our God, Who granteth life unto them that believe in His Name.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst show a wonder by changing the water into wine, O Master, Who didst change the rivers of Egypt into blood. Thou didst also raise up the dead, accomplishing this sign in these latter times. Glory be to Thine ineffable counsel, O Saviour; glory be to Thy self-abasement, whereby Thou hast renewed us.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou art an ever-flowing stream of true life, O Lord; Thou art our Resurrection. Willingly didst Thou become weary, O my Saviour, and willingly didst Thou thirst, submitting to the laws of nature. And when Thou camest to Sichar in the flesh, Thou didst ask the Samaritan woman for water, that Thou mightest drink.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst bless the loaves and multiply the fish, O incomprehensible God; Thou didst fill the people bounteously and didst promise an ever-flowing spring of wisdom to them that thirst. Thou art our God, O Saviour, Who givest life unto them that believe in Thy Name.

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

I glorify the Three Who are co-beginningless and of equal sovereignty: the Father, Who is beginningless God; the Son, Who is co-beginningless; and the Spirit, Who is co-eternal with the Son; one essence in three Hypostases. I praise and honour one supreme sovereign Principle of the beginningless Godhead and Essence.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Thou alone didst contain within thy womb the Creator, O Birthgiver of God, ineffably conceiving Him in the flesh yet remaining a Virgin, while thy virginity in no wise suffered harm. Do thou ever entreat Him unceasingly on behalf of thy flock, since He is thy Son and God.

Katavasia: Thou didst make the sea a wall…

Ode III, Irmos: Thy Church, O Christ, rejoiceth in Thee crying aloud: * Thou, O Lord, art my strength, * my refuge and foundation.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst open unto the Church the springs of life-creating waters, O Good One, and didst cry: If any zealous man thirst, let him come and drink.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst say plainly that Thou wouldst be lifted up from earth unto Heaven, and Thou didst promise to send the Holy Spirit from thence.

Most holy Theotokos save us.

The Lord, Who by nature is life-creating and Who was born of a Virgin, hath granted incorruption unto all the faithful, since He is compassionate.

Irmos: My heart is established, * my horn is exalted in my God, * my mouth is enlarged against mine enemies, * and I rejoice in Thy salvation.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Do not judge a judgment according to appearance, O ye Jews; thus, as it is written, said the Master when He came unto the temple and taught at the Judaic Mid-feast.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Do not judge a judgment according to appearance, O ye Jews, for Christ is come. The Prophets named Him: He that cometh from Sion and hath restored the world.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Even though ye believe not His Words, O ye Jews, be convinced by the works of the Master. Why do ye deceive yourselves and disregard the Holy One, of Whom Moses wrote in the Law?

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

If the Messiah must assuredly come, O ye Jews, then the Messiah hath now come, Who is Christ. Why do ye deceive yourselves and disregard the Righteous One, of Whom Moses wrote in the Law?

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

We worship Thee, O Father, Who art beginningless in Thine essence, and we piously praise Thy beginningless Son and the All-Holy Spirit, O ye Three Who are by nature one God.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Though Thou art one of the Trinity, Thou didst assume flesh, neither undergoing change in Thine essence nor burning the uncorrupted womb of her that gave birth to Thee, O Lord, Who art wholly God and Fire.

Katavasia: My heart is established in the Lord…

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Sessional Hymns, in Tone VIII: At Mid-feast Thou didst stand in the Temple’s court * in a god-befitting manner * and didst cry aloud: * Let him who doth suffer thirst now draw nigh unto Me and drink. * He that drinketh of the sacred water that I shall give, * from within shall the springs of My teachings issue forth. * Whosoever doth believe that the Divine Father hath sent Me, * and that I came forth from Him, * with Me he shall be glorified. * Therefore we cry unto Thee: * Glory be to Thee, O Christ God, * Who dost cause the streams of Thy great love for mankind, * to abundantly well forth unto us, Thy servants.

Ode IV, Irmos: Beholding Thee, the Sun of righteousness, * lifted up upon the cross, * the Church now standeth arrayed and doth worthily cry aloud: * Glory to Thy power, O Lord!

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Having shattered the gates of death by Thy might, Thou hast made known the ways of life; and Thou didst open the gates of immortality unto them that cry with faith: Glory be to Thy power, O Lord.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Since Thou Who art beginningless dost have in the grasp of Thy hand the beginning of all things, and dost hold fast their middle and final end as well, Thou didst stand in the midst and cry aloud: Come, O ye of godly mind; enjoy the divine gifts.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Since Thou as God hast authority over all things, and as one mighty didst destroy the dominion of death, O Christ, Thou didst promise to send the Holy Spirit, Who proceedeth from the Father.

Most holy Theotokos save us.

O all-immaculate Mother who knewest not wedlock, thou dost bestow grace abundantly upon those who praise thee; and from the Word Who is before the ages and Who was born from thee, thou dost entreat for the forgiveness of their offences.

Irmos: With noetic eyes the Prophet Habbakuk * foresaw Thy coming, O Lord; * wherefore he cried aloud: * “God shall come out of Theman!” Glory to Thy power! * Glory to Thy condescension!

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

If the Messiah must come, then Christ is the Messiah, O ye lawless ones; Why do ye not believe in Him? Behold, He is come, and the things He doeth bear witness to Him: He made the water into wine and strengthened the paralytic by a word.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Since ye do not understand the Scriptures, ye are all deceived, O ye lawless Hebrews; for Christ is truly come and hath enlightened all mankind, showing forth many signs and wonders among you. In vain do ye deny Him Who is the true Life.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Christ cried unto the Jews: One work have I shown unto you, and already ye marvel. Ye circumcise a man even on the Sabbath, He saith; Why then do ye accuse Me, Who have raised up a paralytic by a word?

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

I have done many works; for which work, then, do ye stone Me? cried Christ unto the Jews, reproaching them. For by a word I have made a man completely whole; judge not according to appearance, O ye men.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou Who workest through the Apostles and Who, together with the Spirit, dost Thyself rest in the Prophets, O Christ, Thou immaculate Offspring of the Father’s nature, Thou didst lead the nations up unto knowledge of Thee through Thy signs.

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

O Trinity, undivided Unity; beginningless Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Thou Trinity in Unity; O life-creating, uncreated God, equal in honour and in rank: Save those who praise Thee, and deliver them from dangers and afflictions.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

O Bride of God and pure Virgin Mother, who didst contain God in thy womb while He yet remained uncircumscribed: Cease not to intercede on our behalf, that through thee we may be delivered from adversities, for unto thee do we ever flee for refuge.

Katavasia: With noetic eyes the Prophet Habbakuk…

Ode V, Irmos: Thou, O Lord, who camest into the world, * art my light, * a holy light turning from the darkness of ignorance * those who sing Thy praises in faith.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Having reached the middle of the divine feasts, let us be godly-wise and zealously adorn ourselves with the perfection of divine virtue.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

How truly sacred is this present feast; for it marketh the mid-point of the great feasts and doth shine forth from both.

Most holy Theotokos save us.

The mind of the Archangel is not able to comprehend Thine ineffable and most pure birthgiving from a Virgin, O my Saviour, Who art plenteous in mercy.

Second Irmos: O Lord our God, bestow Thy peace upon us; * O Lord our God, take us for Thy possession; * O Lord, besides Thee we know none other: * and we call upon Thy Name.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Having adorned Thine Apostles with miracles and magnified Thy disciples with wonders throughout the World, Thou hast glorified them and bestowed upon them Thy Kingdom, O our Saviour.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

The disciples have enlightened all the ends of the earth with miracles and teachings, and in diverse ways they preached the word of Thy Kingdom, O Christ Saviour.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

We send up praise unto Thy Kingdom, and we offer a hymn unto Thee Who didst appear on earth for our sake and didst enlighten the World and restore Adam.

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

Glory be to Thee, O Holy Father, Unbegotten God. Glory be to Thee, O timeless, Only-Begotten Word. Glory be to Thee, O Divine Spirit, of one throne and of one essence with the Father and the Son.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Thy womb is become a holy table which holdeth the Heavenly Bread, whereof he that eateth dieth not, as the Nourisher of all hath said, O Birthgiver of God.

Katavasia: O Lord our God, bestow Thy peace…

Ode VI, Irmos: The church crieth out unto Thee O Lord, * “I will sacrifice unto Thee with a voice of praise * having been cleansed of the blood of the demons’ * by the blood that for mercy’s sake flowed from Thy side.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

The mid-point of Pentecost hath come this day. By the former feast it is illumined with the most divine radiance of the divine Pascha, and by the latter feast it is made to shine with the grace of the Comforter.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

While standing in the temple, O Christ, Thou didst speak unto the assemblies of the Jews and didst reveal Thine own glory, thereby manifesting Thy consubstantiality with the Father.

Most holy Theotokos save us.

Be thou my protection and mine unshaken rampart, O only Mother of God. Redeem me from the stumbling-blocks of the world, and illumine me by thy divine effulgence.

Second Irmos: The billows of life trouble me like the waters of the sea, * O Lover of Mankind. * Wherefore, like Jonah I cry unto Thee, O Word: * Raise up my life from corruption, O compassionate Lord.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

O Jesus, Who takest care for all the ends of the earth, Thou didst go up to the temple at Mid-feast, as John hath said, and taught the multitudes the Word of truth.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst open Thy lips, O Master, and didst preach to the world the Most Pure Father and the All-Holy Spirit, preserving Thy kinship with both even after Thine Incarnation.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst accomplish the work of the Father and didst confirm Thy words by Thy deeds, for Thou didst perform healings and signs, O Saviour, raising the paralytic, cleansing lepers, and resurrecting the dead.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

The beginningless Son received a beginning and became a man, taking upon Himself that which is proper to our nature. And at Mid-feast He taught and said: Hasten ye unto the ever-flowing Spring, that ye may draw forth life.

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

We all glorify the one Godhead in Trinity, the uncreated and undivided essence in three Hypostases, even the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Who while being Three are One.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

We praise thee who didst remain a virgin after giving birth; thee alone do we glorify as both Virgin and Mother, O pure Maiden, Bride of God; for from thee God truly became incarnate and thus quickened us.

Katavasia: The billows of life trouble me…

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Kontakion, Tone IV: Having come to the Mid-feast of the Judaic Law, * O Master and Creator of all things, * Thou didst cry unto those present, O Christ God: * Come hither and draw forth the water of immortality. * Wherefore, we fall down before Thee and faithfully cry aloud: * Grant unto us Thy compassions, ** for Thou art truly the Well-spring of our life.

Ikos: With the streams of Thy Blood do Thou Water my soul, which is grown dry and barren because of mine iniquities and offences, and show it forth to be fruitful in virtues. For Thou didst tell all to draw nigh Thee, O all-holy Word of God, and to draw forth the water of incorruption, which is living and which washeth away the sins of those who praise Thy glorious and divine arising. Unto them that know Thee as God, O Good One, grant from on high the strength of the Spirit, which verily was borne by Thy disciples, for Thou art truly the Well-spring of life for all.

OdeVII, Irmos: In the Persian furnace the youths and descendants of Abraham, * burning with a love of piety * rather than by a flame of fire, * cried aloud saying: * Blessed art Thou in the temple of Thy glory, O Lord.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Having dispelled the power of death by Thy might, O Saviour, Thou hast made known unto all mankind the path of life. With thankfulness they cry to Thee: Blessed art Thou in the temple of Thy glory, O Lord.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Beholding Thee bearing flesh, the assemblies of the Hebrew people did not recognise Thee, O Word of God; but we sing to Thee: Blessed art Thou in the temple of Thy glory, O Lord.

Most holy Theotokos save us.

Rejoice O sanctified and divine tabernacle of the Most High; for through thee, O Theotokos, joy hath been granted to those who cry: Blessed art thou among women, O most immaculate Lady.

Second Irmos: The Chaldean furnace, burning with fire, * was bedewed by the Spirit * through the presence of God; * and the children chanted: * O God of our fathers, Blessed art Thou!

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou Who art rest for all didst grow weary in the flesh; Thou Who art the well-spring of miracles didst willingly thirst. Thou didst seek after water, O Jesus, promising living water.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst converse with a Samaritan woman, O Lord, thereby reproving the mindlessness of the lawless Hebrews, insofar as she believed Thee to be the Son of God, and they denied Thee.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

O Saviour, Thou ever-living well-spring, Thou didst promise to grant living water which springeth forth, the water of immortality, unto those who with faith receive Thy Spirit, which proceedeth from the Father.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

With five loaves Thou didst feed the thousands that hungered, and made the child’s morsels to be more than enough for yet another multitude, O Saviour. Thus showing Thy glory unto Thy sacred disciples.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

He that eateth Thy Bread shall live forever, and he that drinketh Thy Blood abideth in Thee, my Saviour, and Thou abidest in him, and Thou shalt raise him up at the last day.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou madest Thy dispensation wondrous, O Master, confirming by miracles Thy divine authority. Thou didst drive out illnesses, raise up the dead, and enlighten the blind, since Thou art God.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst cleanse the lepers and restore the lame; Thou didst strengthen the paralytics and heal the blood-streaming woman, and didst walk upon the sea. Thus showing Thy glory unto Thy sacred disciples.

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

We worship Thy timeless Father and the grace of the Spirit, which Thou as God didst apportion unto Thine Apostles, sending them forth to preach, O Lord.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Thou didst contain within thy womb the uncontainable Word, thou didst suckle at thy breasts Him that nourisheth the world and didst hold in thine arms our Sustainer, O pure Birthgiver of God.

Katavasia: The Chaldean furnace, burning with fire…

Ode VIII, Irmos: Having spread his hands, Daniel closed the lions jaws * in their den; * while the zealously pious youths, * girded with virtue, * quenched the power of the fire and cried aloud: * Bless ye the Lord, all ye works of

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Having arisen from the grave as one comely, and adorned with the glory of the Godhead, O Lord, Thou didst appear unto Thine Apostles and didst promise to send the power of the Spirit unto those who cry aloud: Bless ye the Lord, all ye works of the Lord.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

In a manner befitting Thee, since Thou as God art the Supreme Author of life, Thou didst slay Hades and didst well forth eternal life unto all, wherefore the graces of these radiant days now constitute a most clear image of the everlasting life of those who cry: Bless ye the Lord, all ye works of the Lord.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou didst cause rays of righteousness to shine upon the world like the sun, O Christ, in that Thou didst send Thine Apostles unto the world. Bearing Thee, the incomprehensible Light, they drove away the darkness of ignorance, and cried: Bless ye the Lord, all ye works of the Lord.

Most holy Theotokos save us.

Behold now, a prince and ruler hath manifestly come from the tribe of Judah, for thou, O all-immaculate one, hast given birth to Him Who is the Expectation of the nations which were set aside for Him aforetime. Yea, thou hast borne Christ, to Whom we chant: Bless ye the Lord, all ye works of the Lord.

Irmos: O ye angels and ye powers of heaven, sing to Him Who sits upon the throne of majesty, and is glorified unceasingly as God: bless, praise and exult Him above all for ever.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Come, O ye peoples, and behold Him Who is praised upon a throne of glory, being blasphemed by lawless people. And as ye behold Him, praise Him as the Messiah, Who was foretold by the Prophets.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Thou art truly the Christ, Who hast come into the world. With Thee there is salvation and the remission of the failings of our fathers; Thou art indeed the Life of those who have come to believe in Thee.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

As it is written, the Wisdom of God came into the temple at Mid-feast and taught that He is truly Christ the Messiah, from Whom there cometh salvation.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

On the Sabbaths and on all days Christ wrought manifest signs, healing those in diverse illnesses. But the deceitful people were consumed with malice and wrath.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

The Jews bitterly reviled Christ and said: On the Sabbath did this Man hath healed the paralytic who had lain sick for many years, therefore He hath transgressed the Law.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Christ said to the Jews: Did not Moses in giving you the Law command that ye be circumcised? Yet ye circumcise on the Sabbath, lest the Law of your fathers be broken.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

They that were wholly ungrateful and who of old had sojourned in the wilderness, out of malice cast blasphemies at their Benefactor. They wagged their unjust tongues while they meditated vain things.

We bless the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Lord.

Of a truth, the Trinity is one God, without the Father leaving that which is proper to Himself and assuming Sonship, nor with the Son transforming His attributes into procession. But I glorify the Three apart and together, as Light and God, throughout the ages.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Tell us, O Theotokos: How didst thou give birth unto Him Who hath shone forth timelessly from the Father and Who is praised together with the Holy Spirit? – except in a manner known only to Him Who was well-pleased to be born from thee.

Katavasia: Seated upon the throne of glory, * and unceasingly glorified as God, * O ye angels and heavens bless, ** hymn and supremely exalt Him throughout all ages!

Ode IX, Irmos: A cornerstone not cut by hand O Virgin, * was cut from thee the unhewn mountain: * even Christ, Who hath joined together the disparate natures; * therefore rejoicing we magnify thee, * O Theotokos.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Since we have learned from Christ a new and unprecedented way of life, let us all be especially diligent to preserve it until the end, that We may enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

O Life-Giving Saviour, Thou didst clothe my mortal nature with the garment of immortality and the grace of incorruption, and didst raise it up together with Thyself. Thou didst lead it unto the Father, having dispelled my warfare of many years.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Since we have been restored again to the life of Heaven by virtue of the mediation of Him Who emptied Himself even so far as to assume the form of a servant and hath exalted us, let us magnify Him as is meet.

Most holy Theotokos save us.

All we the faithful have put our trust in thee, and we acclaim thee with songs of praise as the root, source, and cause of incorruption, O Virgin, for thou didst well forth for us the Hypostatic Immortality.

Irmos: Virginity is alien to motherhood, * and childbearing is a thing strange to virgins: * yet in thee, O Theotokos, both have come to pass. * Therefore we, and all the nations of the earth, * without ceasing call thee blessed.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

At the Judaic Mid-feast, O my Saviour, Thou didst go up to Thy temple and didst teach all. And the Jews marvelled and said: Whence knoweth this Man letters, having never learned?

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

My Redeemer performed wonders and signs, welling forth gifts of healings. He drove away illnesses and healed the ailing, but the Jews raged with frenzy at the multitude of His miracles.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

My Redeemer cried out as He reproached the disobedient Jews: Judge not according to appearance, but judge ye a righteous judgment. For the Law also commandeth that every man be circumcised, even if it be on the Sabbath.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

As Thou didst promise, O Saviour, Thou didst grant the greater miracles unto Thy disciples when Thou didst send them to preach Thy glory unto the nations. And they proclaimed unto the world Thy grace and Resurrection and Incarnation.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

Christ said unto the Jews: If ye circumcise a man on the Sabbath that the Law might not be broken, why are ye now angry with Me, in that by a word I have made a man completely whole? Ye judge according to the flesh.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

O Word, Who didst heal the withered hand by a word, do Thou heal the earth of my heart, which hath long ago become parched, and show me forth as one fruitful, that I also might bring forth fruit in fervent repentance, O Saviour.

Glory to Thee our God, Glory to Thee.

I lie upon my bed of pain, O Word. Make me to stand aright by cleansing my leprous heart and enlightening the eyes of my soul, even as Thou didst raise up the paralytic who lay upon his bed.

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

It is alien to the lawless to reverence the beginningless Trinity, even the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Omnipotence, through Whom the whole world was established by the might of His power.

Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Thou, O Virgin Mother, didst contain in thy womb Christ, the Giver of life, Who is One of the Trinity; Whom all creation praiseth and before Whom the thrones on high tremble. Do thou beseech Him, O all-blessed one, that our souls be saved.

Katavasia: Virginity is alien to motherhood…

Troparion, Tone VIII: At Mid-feast give Thou my thirsty soul to drink of the waters of piety; * for Thou, O Saviour, didst cry out to all: * Whosoever is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ** Wherefore, O Well-spring of life, Christ our God, glory be to Thee.

 

The Sunday and Week of the Paralytic

Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is Risen!

Happy St Mark’s Day!

On this feast of the Holy, All-Praised Apostle and Evangelist Mark, we congratulate our devoted Deacon, Father Mark, on his nameday. May God give him strength in his labours, and grant him many, blessed years!

After a rather minimal congregation, last Sunday, we were glad that the second bank-holiday weekend did not affect numbers, so that things were a little more normal, with forty adults in addition to the clergy, plus our parish children.

This was our oltarnik Oswald’s penultimate Cardiff Liturgy before leaving for the continent, on the first leg of the journeyman year of his apprenticeship.

We were very glad that after the considerable tidy-up – that we face every week – we were able to have social-time across the road in Brodie’s with him and our other young people. We will miss his icon stall in church, and I was glad that I finally remembered which icon I wanted last week, when Oswald had a bank-holiday event, at Woodchester Mansion, the home of his workshop and master.

And so, I returned home with the icon “Noli me tangere” (Do not touch me), showing the Risen Lord appearing to the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles, St Mary Magdalene. Though it was too late for the Sunday of the Myrrh-Baring Women, this icon will be ready for St Mary’s feast in July.

I have already encouraged anyone with spare or loose euros to bring them to church, as these would be most useful and welcome for our young parishioner as he starts his journey. So, please find your change and currency left-overs for Oswald.

As announced in church, we will be making a parish pilgrimage to Glastonbury on Saturday 20th May, hopefully beginning our day with a moleben to St Brigid and the saints of Glastonbury on Bride’s Mound, in Beckery, the site of an early monastic site, with Irish associations. We will then visit the abbey, before heading to the Tor and Chalice Well, possibly visiting the rural-life museum in the abbey barn, if time permits and pilgrims are so inclined! Anyone interested should email Tracy: t_sbrain@icloud.com

Today brought additions to the summer Walsingham Pilgrimage, from 24 – 27th July, and anyone others interested should contact me, Norman or Georgina asap, as I believe there are still some places left. We would love to see more parishioners join those of us who are taking advantage of Fr Dean’s kind invitation to join him and Butetown parishioners, once again.

I also announced that, unfortunately, we will be unable to celebrate our Ascension Day Liturgy in St Mary Butetown, as hoped, so I will check the possibility of celebrating in Nazareth House and make an announcement in the next few days. However, I am very glad to announce that we are able to return to St Mary’s for Friday Study Group, looking to commence on Friday 19th May at 19:00, meeting every fortnight. On these Fridays, confessions will be heard in St Mary’s before and after the sessions if needed.

This week will see confessions on Thursday, as I would like a quiet Friday before the monthly Liturgy for our Cheltenham Mission.

Those requiring confessions on Thursday should email me before noon on Wednesday.

The Cheltenham Liturgy will be celebrated in Prestbury United Reformed Church, as usual, with confessions from 09:15, and the Hours and Liturgy commencing at 10:00. Everyone is most welcome, and there will be a bring-and-share lunch after the service. We will call at Nazareth House on the way home, and any remaining confessions may be heard at that time. Email me please.

Please continue to make the celebration of the Paschal season a reality in your homes, with the joy of the season’s prayers and hymns in your daily spiritual-life. Some new parishioners are unaware of the glory of the Paschal Canon, which I encourage the faithful to continue to use throughout the season. However, the Paschal Canon in our prayerbooks is as used on the night of Pascha only, whereas after that night we also add Theotokia (troparia to the Mother of God). This full text, with the Theotokia may be found here:

https://www.stmaryofegypt.org/files/library/Bright-Week—Preparing-for-Holy-Communionb.pdf  

… an excellent ongoing addition to our prayers during Pascha.

Atgyfododd Crist!

Hieromonk Mark

Paschal Greetings – Christ is Risen!

“Come receive the light, from the never-setting light; and glorify Christ who has risen from the dead.”

Dear brothers and sisters,

Christ is Risen! Христос воскресе! Hristos a înviat! Χριστός ἀνέστη!

As we reflect on the meaning of the resurrection in the life of the Church and the lives of individual believers, we can all too easily forget the sheer confusion and uncertainty of the first Pascha for the apostles and first Christians: traumatised and confused, and mourning the Saviour’s death – especially after the wonder of the raising of Lazarus and His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

After the euphoria of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, their world had come crashing down around them: collapsed and swallowed in spiritual, mental and emotional darkness.

At the death of the Saviour, there was darkness over all the land as the sun was eclipsed, but we should remember that, ironically, darkness also characterised the moment of the resurrection in the last hours of the night, in which the Saviour rose from the dead in the Divine Dawn, as the “Everlasting Sun of Righteousness”.

The imagery and symbolism of Christ the Light dominates our Paschal night: as the faithful carry candles circumambulating the temple; as the priest repeatedly censes the Church with the Troitsa candlestick in his left hand and the censer in his right, making the sign of the cross with the recurring joyful cry – “Christ is Risen!”

Reflecting the miracle of the Holy Fire, in Jerusalem, in Byzantine tradition, at the end of the midnight office the priest emerges from the sanctuary into the darkened temple chanting,

“Come receive the light, from the never-setting light; and glorify Christ who has risen from the dead.”

The sustained light-symbolism is not just a poetic and allegorical detail, but presupposes that the light of Christ is desired, to illuminate those who follow Him and to bring spiritual-light to those surrounded by the darkness of the world, whatever it makes of Christ. During the Liturgy, the Prologue of the Gospel of St John was read, declaring this very point:

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

Sadly, the world still has little understanding of the Light of the World, who dawned from the tomb, but for us, as those who have been baptised into His death and resurrection, we celebrate this wondrous dawn in the feast, and are called to be light-bearers, reflecting the light of Christ.

Just as the flame of Pascha spreads around the temple from candle to candle before our symbolic processional-journey seeking the Body of Christ, so the light of Christ must be carried in our hearts and illumine our lives, so that we become participators and heralds of the Light of the World: burning with the flame of faith, hope and love.

No matter how confusing and fearful the world is, in ever-deepening darkness, with the swelling persecution of Faith, sinister socio-political agendas, growing authoritarianism unnoticed by the masses, and the wholesale violent rejection of traditional Christian values and morality, the light of the resurrection cannot be taken from those who truly believe in Him, Who has risen for the dead; despoiling Hades and trampling down death by death; bestowing life upon those in the graves.

The greater the darkness that surrounds us, the brighter even the smallest burning flame appears, and however much the looming darkness of the world grows, Christ our Light and Life is risen, and nothing can change the reality of His victory and the radiance it sheds upon the world.

As the third ode of the Paschal Canon reminds us,

“Now all things are filled with light: heaven and earth, and the nether regions. So let all creation then celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, by which it is strengthened.”

Now, walking in the light and radiance of our Paschal celebration of the resurrection, we must not only ensure that nobody and nothing is allowed to rob us of the light and joy of the resurrection, but also take the flame of Faith and the light of the Risen Christ into the surrounding darkness, so that others may be kindled and delivered from fear, hopelessness and uncertainty.

Like those passing the Paschal flame to others around them in our wonderful Paschal celebration, we must do this spiritually in our darkening, suffering world, shedding the Light of Christ upon friend, colleague, neighbour, and those whom our lives touch, through words and deeds – even if simply in unrecognised and hidden acts of kindness, generosity and love in His Name.

One of the abiding memories of Pascha will be the wonderful sight of our Greek friends in the greyness of the first light, guarding the Paschal in their lanterns as they headed homewards through the quiet streets.

As that flame went with them, may this also be the spiritual reality of Pascha for each and everyone of us, as we take Christ the Light and Life into our streets, homes, families, workplaces, schools and colleges – taking head to the Saviour’s words, recorded by St John the Theologian,

“Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

May we shed His light upon the world.

Christ is Risen!

Fr Mark

SPIRITUAL KINSHIP AND OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL

Just at the time in which it was relevant, I noticed my little book of homilies of Fr Daniel Sysoev, wedged into a gap between stacks of books in my cell – and it opened to a little homily on spiritual kinship.

In confession, I constantly encourage the faithful to labour to build their relationship and kinship with their guardian angel and the saint whose name they bear. Both are heavenly protectors who wish to be spiritual kin, and not ritual static figures in Orthodox spiritual identity.

As even a cursory glance at the canons and prayer to the Guardian Angel makes clear, our angelic companion has REAL influence over not only our actions, but also our minds, with all of their complications and problems, especially when we are afflicted by mental trials and temptations.

Just as God respects our freedom and will, and does not force or coerce us in the events and actions of life, neither do our guardian angels, but rather ever-vigilantly await our cries and calls for help, wanting us to align our will with that of God, who created both them and us. It is in this alignment and obedience to the Lord, and in knowing and pursuing our need for angelic assistance – the gift of God – that we are able to build bonds of kinship, regardless of time and space, physicality and immateriality.

Our Guardian Angel wants to be part of our life; to share in each hour day, as a sign of God’s love and care for us. But… we must want this for it to become an actualised reality.

Fr Daniel – a martyr for the Faith – wrote,

“The angels of God can be people’s friends, and, as we know, we share a friendship with our guardian angel, be it only to a small degree. I hope that we will all feel warmly toward our guardian angels, that we may try to greet them and pray to them, and that they will look after us. If we try to do good things with their help, it will give rise to that friendship that can blossom beyond the limits of time… Each person must find spiritual friendship which transcends both time and the difference between beings, between people and angels, so that we may enkindled together and glorify the Trinity, from whom we draw this strength.”

So… make sure that WITHOUT FAIL, you pray to your guardian angel EVERY day.

If you have time, don’t simply turn to the Canon to the Holy Guardian Angel when preparing for Holy Communion, but as often is possible.

If you have time to pray it every day, do so… and let each of us be mindful that we mistakenly turn to all manner of people first, in need, emergency and trouble, rather than turning to our guardian angel.

We need to correct ourselves and start reacting spiritually to the trials of life.

Our guardian angel is waiting to hear us – waiting to help in every trial and adversity.

Morning Prayer:

O Holy Angel, who standest by my wretched soul and my passionate life: do not abandon me, a sinner, neither depart from me because of my lack of self-control. Leave no room for the evil demon to gain control of me through the violence of this mortal body. Strengthen my weak and feeble hand, and instruct me in the path of salvation. O holy Angel of God, the guardian and protector of my wretched soul and body: forgive all the sorrows I have caused you, every day of my life. If I have sinned in this past night, protect me during this day. Keep me from every adverse temptation, that I may not anger God by any sin. Pray to the Lord for me, that He may establish me in His fear and make me, His servant, worthy of His goodness. Amen.

Evening Prayer:

O Angel of Christ, my holy guardian and protector of my soul and body, forgive me all wherein I have sinned this day, and deliver me from all opposing evil of mine enemy lest I anger my God by any sin. Pray for me, a sinful and unworthy servant, It that thou mayest show me forth worthy of the kindness and mercy of the All-holy Trinity, and of the Mother of my Lord Jesus Christ, and of all the saints. Amen.