Re-Turning to Great lent
The First Sunday of Great Lent
starts by commemorating the first miracle performed by Jesus:
turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee.
A common translation (NRSV) of Jn 2.3-4:
An english Peshitta translates the last line: "My turn has not yet come."
Layers of meaning in such a turn of events
in the words of the Word we "behold the man"
recollecting the turns and transformations of His Hour:
The Liturgical Year as a Transforming Parousia
excerpts of essay by Joseph Kalapurayil, posted at St. Gregorios IOC, San Francisco.
By following this cycle of the Church Liturgical Calendar, we can get into the rhythm and flow of the Christian story, to experience it, to learn it, to re-live it through the telling and the doing.
Far from being simply a calendar, the liturgical year in the life of the Church is the life of Christians living in community as brothers and sisters - in awareness of God's kingdom, remembering the entire communion of Prophets, Apostles, Saints and all of God's people on Earth and in Heaven, being renewed by God's saving love, helping one another, witnessing Christ's good news, and waiting for the fullness of the coming Kingdom according to God's timing...
In entering and participating in these eternally present events, we are changed; we are transformed. This allows us to proclaim with Saint Paul:
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.(Gal 2:20)
But, there is a certain order to the Church’s presentation of the Gospel teachings and the primary events of our Sacred History.
Sacred word and image comes alive in these services, offering the participant the greatest encounter with our Living Tradition.
All this effort culminates in the ultimate goal of the Christian and the dynamic essence of the Liturgical Year: a means to bring about our UNION WITH CHRIST.
The Church invites us, through our participation in the Liturgical Year, to re-live the entire life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We enter union with our Lord: in His Nativity, His growth in Nazareth, His ministry, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. ‘Each liturgical feast renews and in some sense actualizes the event of which it is a symbol; it takes the event out of the past and makes it immediate. The liturgical year is, for us, a special means of union with Christ.’
Just as reception of the Holy Eucharist forms the Body of Christ in us, so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us, as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ: from humble birth to the full stature of a human life transfigured in the divine light of Theosis, or Deification. This is the path of sanctity, the path of sainthood.
See Also Observing Great Lent essay by J. Kalapurayil
starts by commemorating the first miracle performed by Jesus:
turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee.
A common translation (NRSV) of Jn 2.3-4:
When the wine gave out,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
“They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?
My hour has not yet come.”
the mother of Jesus said to him,
“They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?
My hour has not yet come.”
An english Peshitta translates the last line: "My turn has not yet come."
Layers of meaning in such a turn of events
in the words of the Word we "behold the man"
recollecting the turns and transformations of His Hour:
- the body of history and humanity that thirsts for salvation,
- His Body that suffers Gabbatha and Golgotha,
- His Body that gloriously lives as the Church;
- His hour at Pentecost that will anoint and transform her with the Spirit anew, all within her own ongoing fiat to the promptings of the same Spirit who conceived Him in her body~
Just as reception of the Holy Eucharist forms the Body of Christ in us,
so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us,
as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ:
from humble birth to the full stature
of a human life transfigured
in the Divine Light of Theosis, or Deification.
so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us,
as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ:
from humble birth to the full stature
of a human life transfigured
in the Divine Light of Theosis, or Deification.
--Excerpt from Kalapurayil
essay below
essay below
The Liturgical Year as a Transforming Parousia
excerpts of essay by Joseph Kalapurayil, posted at St. Gregorios IOC, San Francisco.
Just as reception of the Holy Eucharist forms the Body of Christ in us,
so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us,
as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ:
from humble birth to the full stature of
a human life transfigured in the Divine Lightof Theosis, or Deification.
so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us,
as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ:
from humble birth to the full stature of
a human life transfigured in the Divine Lightof Theosis, or Deification.
By following this cycle of the Church Liturgical Calendar, we can get into the rhythm and flow of the Christian story, to experience it, to learn it, to re-live it through the telling and the doing.
Far from being simply a calendar, the liturgical year in the life of the Church is the life of Christians living in community as brothers and sisters - in awareness of God's kingdom, remembering the entire communion of Prophets, Apostles, Saints and all of God's people on Earth and in Heaven, being renewed by God's saving love, helping one another, witnessing Christ's good news, and waiting for the fullness of the coming Kingdom according to God's timing...
In entering and participating in these eternally present events, we are changed; we are transformed. This allows us to proclaim with Saint Paul:
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.(Gal 2:20)
But, there is a certain order to the Church’s presentation of the Gospel teachings and the primary events of our Sacred History.
Sacred word and image comes alive in these services, offering the participant the greatest encounter with our Living Tradition.
All this effort culminates in the ultimate goal of the Christian and the dynamic essence of the Liturgical Year: a means to bring about our UNION WITH CHRIST.
The Church invites us, through our participation in the Liturgical Year, to re-live the entire life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We enter union with our Lord: in His Nativity, His growth in Nazareth, His ministry, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. ‘Each liturgical feast renews and in some sense actualizes the event of which it is a symbol; it takes the event out of the past and makes it immediate. The liturgical year is, for us, a special means of union with Christ.’
Just as reception of the Holy Eucharist forms the Body of Christ in us, so too does celebration in the Liturgical Year form Christ in us, as we are also collectively transformed into the Body of Christ: from humble birth to the full stature of a human life transfigured in the divine light of Theosis, or Deification. This is the path of sanctity, the path of sainthood.
See Also Observing Great Lent essay by J. Kalapurayil
posted by Fr. Michael Durka @ Saturday, February 16, 2013
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