It is no coincidence that the symbolic figure of the Orans on the walls of the catacombs, representing the Christian soul waiting upon the Spirit, should take the form of a woman.īut the widows, although they intercede and receive revelations, do not act as celebrants at the Eucharist. Although it is the calling of every Christian, male as well as female, to pray for others and to listen to God, yet woman by virtue of her gift for direct and intuitive understanding seems especially blessed to act as intercessor and prophet. It is noteworthy that the particular role assigned to them is the ministry of intercession and prophecy. While one of the three is entrusted with charitable or social work, the other two have tasks immediately connected with prayer and worship. The three widows are not just elderly ladies who arrange the flowers and prepare cups of tea, but they constitute a specific ministry or order recognized by the Church they are more or less equivalent-although not actually given such a title-to the deaconesses mentioned elsewhere in early Christian sources. Next we see that the ministry includes women as well as men. There is no clericalism, no concentration of responsibility exclusively in the hands of a single full-time ‘professional’. First of all we observe the size and diversity of the local parish ministry. There are surely several things to interest us here. After them it goes on to speak of three widows, ‘two to persevere in prayer for all who are in temptation, and to receive revelations when such are needed and one to help the women who are ill’.(1) The Apostolic Church Order does not stop, however, with the deacons. The parochial staff is larger than is customary today but, apart perhaps from the bishop, most of the others are doubtless earning their own living with ordinary jobs. Thus far there are no great surprises, except that the reader seems to rank higher than the deacons. He is assisted in the parish worship by two or more presbyters, by a reader, and by three deacons. This begins by mentioning the bishop, who is not yet a distant administrator but still the immediate head of the local community, the normal celebrant at the Sunday Eucharist. If we had been visiting a church beside the Nile soon after the year 300, what kind of a parish ministry might we have found? For an answer, let us turn to the fragmentary document known as the Apostolic Church Order. Philoptochos – Love for the poor at Saint Paul’sĮxcerpted from “Man, Woman and Priesthood, edited by Peter Moore, SPCK, London, 1978 The Three Widows.A book in the icon of Jesus Christ may seem out of proportion, but it is a symbolic reference to the Word of God generated from Christ and moving closer to us. Gold represents heaven and eternity red, divine life blue, purity and white, the divine energies used only for the Resurrection and Transfiguration of Christ. For example, halos in the icons of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the saints, and the angels represent the presence of the Holy Spirit. Icons are full of symbolic meaning and are therefore not intended to give a realistic image but rather a divine one. On this day, the faithful believers do a procession carrying icons as an assertion of the triumph of Orthodox belief over the iconoclasm heresy. And this day continues to be remembered in the Orthodox Church each year on the first Sunday of Great Lent known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The year 843 marks the defeat of the iconoclasts during the reign of Empress Theodora. Accordingly, iconogrphers throughout history have used the original icon as a guide. Saint Luke is credited with painting the first icons of Christ and the Virgin Mary. John of Damascus (627-749) argued that we do icons of Jesus Christ because we as humans have seen Him in the flesh as the incarnate Son of God. In addition, icons which are images of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, the Saints and angels serve as our "windows to heaven".Ĭontrary to the iconoclasts' belief, the most influential spokesman for the support of icons, St. This is evident through the smell of burning incense, hearing the prayers and praises in vocal hymns, tasting the Eucharist, and touching of relics. These elements utilize our senses as humans to help us in such a spiritual experience. To help us in this endeavor, the fathers of the Church have incorporated several elements of the physical world in God's worship. Throughout the Sunday Divine Liturgy, for instance, we raise adorations to God, and venerate the Theotokos (The Mother of God) the Saints and angels, and continuously ask for God's mercy on us. When Orthodox Christians stand in Church to pray, their hope is to undergo a spiritual experience, one that praises God and brings them closer to Him.
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