Dear brothers and sisters,
After the rigours of the first week of the Great Fast, with the penitential themes of the Great Canon of Repentance, our Sunday celebration in St Faith’s offered a festal day, as we celebrated the Triumph of Orthodoxy and the restoration of the Holy Icons in 842, and the institution of this annual feast in 843. through the faith of the most-pious sovereigns, the Empress Theodora and her son, the Emperor and Autocrat Michael III. May their memory be eternal!
If we mention Orthodox Christianity to people, one of their primary associations is the central place of icons in our worship and culture.
The icons, rooted in the Lord’s Incarnation, with its material, physical, and representational possibility through the Saviour’s coming in the flesh, are not simply a physical manifestation of our Faith, but a sign of God’s entry into the physical realm of His creation.
In His prologue, St John the Theologian wrote that “…the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.» (John 1:14), and through the icons of the Lord, we continue to proclaim with St John, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.” (1st letter of St John 1:1)
St John of Damascus, a defender of the veneration of the Holy Icons wrote, “I boldly draw an image of the invisible God, not as invisible, but as having become visible for our sakes by partaking of flesh and blood. I do not draw an image of the immortal Godhead, but I paint the image of God who became visible in the flesh.”
When we encounter the icons we remember that “God is the Lord, and hath revealed Himself to us.” (Psalm 118:27), above all in the Incarnate Lord, Who is the perfect expression of the meeting of the Divine and the human, the heavenly and earthly, Spirit and matter/creation, the Uncircumscribable and the circumscribable.
In their reflection of Him, this meeting is also manifested in the lives of the saints, and, by extension, in the Holy Icons, through which we are able to physically express our spiritualw relationship with God, with the Mother of God and the Saints, recalling that St Basil clearly reminds us that, “ the honour given to the icon passes to the prototype.” Thus in our veneration of the Holy Icons, we worship God and honour the Theotokos and the Saints, through whom He has revealed and manifested His Grace, blessing the world through the God-pleasers who have shown us the path of the Christian life.
It was wonderful to e surrounded by so many icons in St Faith’s yesterday: some of the icons being people’s name-saints; others icons especially dear to our brothers and sisters; others important icons in the life of our Church, through which God has poured forth grace, miracles and healing.
After the Cross, the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, led us in our procession, and the fact that we followed the Saviour’s Life-Giving Cross and the Mother of God, along with the saints, sums up what should be the true Christian life.
May the Holy Icons always be our window and invitation into the heavenly life, and into eternity and the glory of the age to come!
I am starting this week with a quiet few days after last week’s daily services in Cardiff and “abroad” – and what a wonderful week it was!
From Monday to Thursday, Great Compline with the Great Canon was chanted in the Oratory Church, and the Akathist to the Lord’s Saving Passion was chanted on Friday. In the coming weeks, this will be chanted in Nazareth House on Thursday evenings.
I would encourage the faithful to continue to turn to the Great Canon in their personal prayers throughout the Fast, and we will, of course, chant the whole Great Canon in the matins of Thursday of the fifth week.
The first Saturday of the Feast, that of St Theodore was celebrated in Warminster, where we were blessed with a quiet and prayerful Liturgy in the sun bathed Chapel of St Lawrence, where we enjoyed a Lenten lunch after the service. Thanks to our Wessex faithful for their labours and dedication. Those unable to attend through illness and family commitments were very much in our prayers.
This week, there will be a Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts in Father Luke’s lovely garden chapel in Llanellion Wednesday at 18:30, and this will be repeated every few weeks during the Fast.
In Cardiff, we will chant the akathist in honour of the Lord’s Saving Passion in Nazareth House at 18:00 on Thursday, and we will celebrate the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified in the Oratory at 14:00 on Friday – St David’s Day according to the Patristic Calendar!
We know that the time of our akathists in Nazareth House will change, but at the moment the Sisters have heard no news of forthcoming evening masses.
I will be able to hear confessions both before and after the Thursday and Friday services, but would appreciate an indication of any pre-service confessions, so that I know how early to arrive.
On the second Saturday of the Great Fast, we will celebrate the Divine Liturgy and a memorial service in Prestbury United Reformed Church, in Cheltenham at 10:00, and the variables for the Liturgy may be found at the orthodoxaustin website: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bRkhlpW0u0FFlAOy5yWLlQlGE6HYway1/view
On this coming Sunday of St Gregory Palamas, we will again celebrate Liturgy in St Faith’s, Llanishen, as we are still awaiting permission to move to St Philip’s.
Trapeza will hopefully be rather less rushed than on the last two Sunday’s, but can we please encourage every able person to roll up their sleeves to help tidy up, and please be proactive in looking for jobs that need doing, and ask if you can help in any way. This wil be greatly appreciated.
As clergy, Father Mark and I want the chance to join parishioners and talk with them at trapeza, and especially to welcome visitors, but for the last two Sundays have had no opportunity to do so, or to eat and drink anything before leaving Cardiff as we are still packing, together with young Stefan, until the last minute.
Let’s all please work together so that we can have fellowship and share time together after Liturgy, and young people… please take the lead! We are greatly blessed to have so many young people, and this is their chance to contribute to parish life.
This coming Sunday is dedicated to St Gergory (Palamas) of Thessaloniki, and the variables for the Liturgy may be found here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17D-3ciEAFOPCa4QGyZn7HDHrVClTQDJD/view
As previously announced, the Lenten service of Holy Unction will be celebrated in our diocesan cathedral on Saturday 29 March at 14:00, and both Father Mark the Younger and I will concelebrate with our bishop in the Holy Mystery.
Though I mooted the idea of travelling by hired bus, due limited numbers of attendees and the cost of transport, we hope that parishioners will car-share to attend this celebration. The bishop has given the exceptional blessing for the Mystery to be celebrated in parishes without the presence of a bishop.
Though this is normal in some local Churches, it is not in ROCOR, where the unction is celebrated in assembly/sobor, hence its Slavonic name of soborovanie.
Only baptised and recently confessed Orthodox Christians may receive Holy Unction, with the blessing of their spiritual father, and no child who is not yet confessing partakes of this Holy Mystery.
Once we have news about St Philip’s we can discuss Holy Week and Pascha and publish our service schedule. Until then, we are unable to speculate. Please continue and pray for a smooth and favourable relocation to Tremorfa, and soon!
Asking your forgiveness for Christ’s sake.
May God bless you all! Good strength in this second week of the Fast.
In Christ – Hieromonk Mark
