SS. Mary & Stephen's Byzantine Catholic Churches

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Ask a crowd of Christians whether they believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and all hands will go up. Ask the same crowd whether they live like Jesus, and most of those same hands will come down. Why is this? Why is it so hard to bridge the gap between belief and real life?

Respected author, professor, and psychologist Gary W. Moon thinks it has to do with our hyper-intellectual but non-experiential method of living the Christian life. In this winsome book Moon provides a thirty-day apprenticeship with Jesus, whereby readers will actively practice being with Jesus day in and day out. Each day's reading uses compelling stories and scripture to illustrate a point and closes with a suggested apprenticeship activity.

This review is from: Apprenticeship with Jesus: Learning to Live Like the Master (Paperback)

Gary Moon is a hybrid of comedian and story teller. 

As reading the stories will leave you laughing out loud and gasping for air. 

I have done this for just about every story (especially the first one). 

And although I start with humor, I alway end in awe of the seriousness of Christian formation and the importance of becoming an apprentice of Jesus. 

This is becuase after the story there is a REFLECTION section and then APPRENTICE ACTIVITY. 

These sections are extremely helpful, especially the apprentice activity as it helps to stress the fact that becoming like Jesus is a daily process that occurs over time. 

In addition the appendix of the book have illustrations showing how to setup up outlook to remind you of devotional and prayer times. I found this extremely helpful and realistic, as many things are not done, simply because they are forgotten. Adding it to our schedule makes it more real and makes the apprentice activity, whether mediating,or memorizing scripture more consistent. 

So it is without reservation that I recommend this book. 

Knowing that this book will do your heart [ Prov 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.] good and your soul. 

For more in depth analysis of the issues covered in this book see his: Falling for God: Saying Yes to His Extravagant Proposal.

Reading the Bible with Obedience

FIRST OF ALL, when reading Scripture, we are to listen in a spirit of obedience. The Orthodox Church believes in divine inspiration of the Bible. Scripture is a "letter" from God, where Christ Himself is speaking. The Scriptures are God's authoritative witness of Himself. They express the Word of God in our human language. Since God Himself is speaking to us in the Bible, our response is rightly one of obedience, of receptivity, and listening. As we read, we wait on the Spirit.

But, while divinely inspired, the Bible is also humanly expressed. It is a whole library of different books written at varying times by distinct persons. Each book of the Bible reflects the outlook of the age in which it was written and the particular viewpoint of the author. For God does nothing in isolation, divine grace cooperates with human freedom. God does not abolish our individuality but enhances it. And so it is in the writing of inspired Scripture. The authors were not just a passive instrument, a dictation machine recording a message. Each writer of Scripture contributes his particular personal gifts. Alongside the divine aspect, there is also a human element in Scripture. We are to value both.

Each of the four Gospels, for example, has its own particular approach. Matthew presents more particularly a Jewish understanding of Christ, with an emphasis on the kingdom of heaven. Mark contains specific, picturesque details of Christ's ministry not given elsewhere. Luke expresses the universality of Christ's love, His all-embracing compassion that extends equally to Jew and to Gentile. In John there is a more inward and more mystical approach to Christ, with an emphasis on divine light and divine indwelling. We are to enjoy and explore to the full this life-giving variety within the Bible.

Because Scripture is in this way the word of God expressed in human language, there is room for honest and exacting inquiry when studying the Bible. Exploring the human aspect of the Bible, we are to use to the full our God-given human reason. The Orthodox Church does not exclude scholarly research into the origin, dates, and authorship of books of the Bible.

Alongside this human element, however, we see always the divine element. These are not simply books written by individual human writers. We hear in Scripture not just human words, marked by a greater or lesser skill and perceptiveness, but the eternal, uncreated Word of God Himself, the divine Word of salvation. When we come to the Bible, then, we come not simply out of curiosity, to gain information. We come to the Bible with a specific question, a personal question about ourselves: "How can I be saved?"

As God's divine word of salvation in human language, Scripture should evoke in us a sense of wonder. Do you ever feel, as you read or listen, that it has all become too familiar? Has the Bible grown rather boring? Continually we need to cleanse the doors of our perception and to look in amazement with new eyes at what the Lord sets before us.

We are to feel toward the Bible with a sense of wonder, and sense of expectation and surprise. There are so many rooms in Scripture that we have yet to enter. There is so much depth and majesty for us to discover. If obedience means wonder, it also means listening.

We are better at talking than listening. We hear the sound of our own voice, but often we don't pause to hear the voice of the other person who is speaking to us. So the first requirement, as we read Scripture, is to stop talking and to listen - to listen with obedience.

When we enter an Orthodox Church, decorated in the traditional manner, and look up toward the sanctuary at the east end, we see there, in the apse, an icon of the Virgin Mary with her hands raised to heaven - the ancient Scriptural manner of praying that many still use today. This icon symbolizes the attitude we are to assume as we read Scripture - an attitude of receptivity, of hands invisibly raised to heaven. Reading the Bible, we are to model ourselves on the Blessed Virgin Mary, for she is supremely the one who listens. At the Annunciation she listens with obedience and responds to the angel, "Be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38). She could not have borne the Word of God in her body if she had not first, listened to the Word of God in her heart. After the shepherds have adored the newborn Christ, it is said of her: "Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). Again, when Mary finds Jesus in the temple, we are told: "His mother kept all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:5l). The same need for listening is emphasized in the last words attributed to the Mother of God in Scripture, at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee: "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it" (John 2:5), she says to the servants - and to all of us.

In all this the Blessed Virgin Mary serves as a mirror, as a living icon of the Biblical Christian. We are to be like her as we hear the Word of God: pondering, keeping all these things in our hearts, doing whatever He tells us. We are to listen in obedience as God speaks.

Understanding the Bible Through the Church

IN THE SECOND PLACE, we should receive and interpret Scripture through the Church and in the Church. Our approach to the Bible is not only obedient but ecclesial.

It is the Church that tells us what is Scripture. A book is not part of Scripture because of any particular theory about its dating and authorship. Even if it could be proved, for example, that the Fourth Gospel was not actually written by John the beloved disciple of Christ, this would not alter the fact that we Orthodox accept the Fourth Gospel as Holy Scripture. Why? Because the Gospel of John is accepted by the Church and in the Church.

It is the Church that tells us what is Scripture, and it is also the Church that tells us how Scripture is to be understood. Coming upon the Ethiopian as he read the Old Testament in his chariot, Philip the Apostle asked him, "Understandest thou what thou readest?" And the Ethiopian answered, "How can I, unless some man should guide me?" (Acts 8:30-31). We are all in the position of the Ethiopian. The words of Scripture are not always self-explanatory. God speaks directly to the heart of each one of us as we read our Bible. Scripture reading is a personal dialogue between each one of us and Christ - but we also need guidance. And our guide is the Church. We make full use of our own personal understanding, assisted by the Spirit, we make full use of the findings of modern Biblical research, but always we submit private opinion - whether our own or that of the scholars - to the total experience of the Church throughout the ages.

The Orthodox standpoint here is summed up in the question asked of a convert at the reception service used by the Russian Church: "Do you acknowledge that the Holy Scripture must be accepted and interpreted in accordance with the belief which has been handed down by the Holy Fathers, and which the Holy Orthodox Church, our Mother, has always held and still does hold?"

We read the Bible personally, but not as isolated individuals. We read as the members of a family, the family of the Orthodox Catholic Church. When reading Scripture, we say not 
"I" but "We." We read in communion with all the other members of the Body of Christ, in all parts of the world and in all generations of time. The decisive test and criterion for our understanding of what the Scripture means is the mind of the Church. The Bible is the book of the Church.

To discover this "mind of the Church," where do we begin? Our first step is to see how Scripture is used in worship. How, in particular, are Biblical lessons chosen for reading at the different feasts? We should also consult the writings of the Church Fathers, and consider how they interpret the Bible. Our Orthodox manner of reading Scripture is in this way both liturgical and patristic. And this, as we all realize, is far from easy to do in practice, because we have at our disposal so few Orthodox commentaries on Scripture available in English, and most of the Western commentaries do not employ this liturgical and Patristic approach.

As an example of what it means to interpret Scripture in a liturgical way, guided by the use made of it at Church feasts, let us look at the Old Testament lessons appointed for Vespers on the Feast of the Annunciation. They are three in number: Genesis 28:10-17; Jacob's dream of a ladder set up from earth to heaven; Ezekiel 43:27-44:4; the prophet's vision of the Jerusalem sanctuary, with the closed gate through which none but the Prince may pass; Proverbs 9:1-11: one of the great Sophianic passages in the Old Testament, beginning "Wisdom has built her house."

These texts in the Old Testament, then, as their selection for the feast of the Virgin Mary indicates, are all to be understood as prophecies concerning the Incarnation from the Virgin. Mary is Jacob's ladder, supplying the flesh that God incarnate takes upon entering our human world. Mary is the closed gate who alone among women bore a child while still remaining inviolate. Mary provides the house which Christ the Wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24) takes as his dwelling. Exploring in this manner the choice of lessons for the various feasts, we discover layers of Biblical interpretation that are by no means obvious on a first reading.

Take as another example Vespers on Holy Saturday, the first part of the ancient Paschal Vigil. Here we have no less than fifteen Old Testament lessons. This sequence of lessons sets before us the whole scheme of sacred history, while at the same time underlining the deeper meaning of Christ's Resurrection. First among the lessons is Genesis 1:1-13, the account of Creation: Christ's Resurrection is a new Creation. The fourth lesson is the book of Jonah in its entirety, with the prophet's three days in the belly of the whale foreshadowing Christ's Resurrection after three days in the tomb (cf. Matthew 12:40). The sixth lesson recounts the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites (Exodus 13:20-15:19), which anticipates the new Passover of Pascha whereby Christ passes over from death to life (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7; 10:1-4). The final lesson is the story of the three Holy Children in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3), once more a "type" or prophecy of Christ's rising from the tomb.

Such is the effect of reading Scripture ecclesially, in the Church and with the Church. Studying the Old Testament in this liturgical way and using the Fathers to help us, everywhere we uncover signposts pointing forward to the mystery of Christ and of His Mother. Reading the Old Testament in the light of the New, and the New in the light of the, Old - as the Church's calendar encourages us to do - we discover the unity of Holy Scripture. One of the best ways of identifying correspondences between the Old and New Testaments is to use a good Biblical concordance. This can often tell us more about the meaning of Scripture than any commentary.

In Bible study groups within our parishes, it is helpful to give one person the special task of noting whenever a particular passage in the Old or New Testament is used for a festival or a saint's day. We can then discuss together the reasons why each specific passage has been so chosen. Others in the group can be assigned to do homework among the Fathers, using for example the Biblical homilies of Saint John Chrysostom (which have been translated into English). Christians need to acquire a patristic mind.

Christ, the Heart of the Bible

THE THIRD ELEMENT in our reading of Scripture is that it should be Christ-centered. The Scriptures constitute a coherent whole because they all are Christ-centered. Salvation through the Messiah is their central and unifying topic. He is as a "thread" that runs through all of Holy Scripture, from the first sentence to the last. We have already mentioned the way in which Christ may be seen foreshadowed on the pages of the Old Testament.

Much modern critical study of Scripture in the West has adopted an analytical approach, breaking up each book into different sources. The connecting links are unraveled, and the Bible is reduced to a series of bare primary units. There is certainly value in this. But we need to see the unity as well as the diversity of Scripture, the all-embracing end as well as the scattered beginnings. Orthodoxy prefers on the whole a synthetic rather than an analytical approach, seeing Scripture as an integrated whole, with Christ everywhere as the bond of union.

Always we seek for the point of convergence between the Old Testament and the New, and this we find in Jesus Christ. Orthodoxy assigns particular significance to the "typological" method of interpretation, whereby "types" of Christ, signs and symbols of His work, are discerned throughout the Old Testament. A notable example of this is Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem, who offered bread and wine to Abraham (Genesis 14:18), and who is seen as a type of Christ not only by the Fathers but even in the New Testament itself (Hebrews 5:6; 7:l). Another instance is the way in which, as we have seen, the Old Passover foreshadows the New; Israel's deliverance from Pharaoh at the Red Sea anticipates our deliverance from sin through the death and Resurrection of the Savior. This is the method of interpretation that we are to apply throughout the Bible. Why, for instance, in the second half of Lent are the Old Testament readings from Genesis dominated by the figure of Joseph? Why in Holy Week do we read from the book of Job? Because Joseph and Job are innocent sufferers, and as such they are types or foreshadowings of Jesus Christ, whose innocent suffering upon the Cross the Church is at the point of celebrating. It all ties up.

A Biblical Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, on every page of Scripture, finds everywhere Christ.

The Bible as Personal

IN THE WORDS of an early ascetic writer in the Christian East, Saint Mark the Monk: "He who is humble in his thoughts and engaged in spiritual work, when he reads the Holy Scriptures, will apply everything to himself and not to his neighbor." As Orthodox Christians we are to look everywhere in Scripture for a personal application. We are to ask not just "What does it mean?" but "What does it mean to me?" Scripture is a personal dialogue between the Savior and myself - Christ speaking to me, and me answering. That is the fourth criterion in our Bible reading.

I am to see all the stories in Scripture as part of my own personal story. Who is Adam? The name Adam means "man," "human," and so the Genesis account of Adam's fall is also a story about me. I am Adam. It is to me that God speaks when He says to Adam, "Where art thou?" (Genesis 3:9). "Where is God?" we often ask. But the real question is what God asks the Adam in each of us: "Where art thou?"

When, in the story of Cain and Abel, we read God's words to Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?" (Genesis 4:9), these words, too, are addressed to each of us. Who is Cain? It is myself. And God asks the Cain in each of us, "Where is thy brother?" The way to God lies through love of other people, and there is no other way. Disowning my brother, I replace the image of God with the mark of Cain, and deny my own vital humanity.

In reading Scripture, we may take three steps. First, what we have in Scripture is sacred history: the history of the world from the Creation, the history of the chosen people, the history of God Incarnate in Palestine, and the "mighty works" after Pentecost. The Christianity that we find in the Bible is not an ideology, not a philosophical theory, but a historical faith.

Then we are to take a second step. The history presented in the Bible is a personal history. We see God intervening at specific times and in specific places, as He enters into dialogue with individual persons. He addresses each one by name. We see set before us the specific calls issued by God to Abraham, Moses and David, to Rebekah and Ruth, to Isaiah and the prophets, and then to Mary and the Apostles. We see the selectivity of the divine action in history, not as a scandal but as a blessing. God's love is universal in scope, but He chooses to become Incarnate in a particular comer of the earth, at a particular time and from a particular Mother. We are in this manner to savor all the uniqueness of God's action as recorded in Scripture. The person who loves the Bible loves details of dating and geography. Orthodoxy has an intense devotion to the Holy Land, to the exact places where Christ lived and taught, died and rose again. An excellent way to enter more deeply into our Scripture reading is to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Galilee. Walk where Christ walked. Go down to the Dead Sea, sit alone on the rocks, feel how Christ felt during the forty days of His temptation in the wilderness. Drink from the well where He spoke with the Samaritan woman. Go at night to the Garden of Gethsemane, sit in the dark under the ancient olives and look across the valley to the lights of the city. Experience to the full the reality of the historical setting, and take that experience back with you to your daily Scripture reading.

Then we are to take a third step. Reliving Biblical history in all its particularity, we are to apply it directly to ourselves. We are to say to ourselves, "All these places and events are not just far away and long ago, but are also part of my own personal encounter with Christ. The stories include me."

Betrayal, for example, is part of the personal story of everyone. Have we not all betrayed others at some time in our life, and have we not all known what it is to be betrayed, and does not the memory of these moments leave continuing scars on our psyche? Reading, then, the account of Saint Peter's betrayal of Christ and of his restoration after the Resurrection, we can see ourselves as actors in the story. Imagining what both Peter and Jesus must have experienced at the moment immediately after the betrayal, we enter into their feelings and make them our own. I am Peter; in this situation can I also be Christ? Reflecting likewise on the process of reconciliation - seeing how the Risen Christ with a love utterly devoid of sentimentality restored the fallen Peter to fellowship, seeing how Peter on his side had the courage to accept this restoration - we ask ourselves: How Christ-like am I to those who have betrayed me? And, after my own acts of betrayal, am I able to accept the forgiveness of others - am I able to forgive myself? Or am I timid, mean, holding myself back, never ready to give myself fully to anything, either good or bad? As the Desert Fathers say, "Better someone who has sinned, if he knows he has sinned and repents, than a person who has not sinned and thinks of himself as righteous."

Have I gained the boldness of Saint Mary Magdalene, her constancy and loyalty, when she went out to anoint the body of Christ in the tomb (John 20:l)? Do I hear the Risen Savior call me by name, as He called her, and do I respond Rabboni (Teacher) with her simplicity and completeness (John 20:16)?

Reading Scripture in this way - in obedience, as a member of the Church, finding Christ everywhere, seeing everything as a part of my own personal story - we shall sense something of the variety and depth to be found in the Bible. Yet always we shall feel that in our Biblical exploration we are only at the very beginning. We are like someone launching out in a tiny boat across a limitless ocean.

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 118 [119]:105).

Dialogue with the Churches of the East

50. In this regard, it must first be acknowledged, with particular gratitude to Divine Providence, that our bonds with the Churches of the East, weakened in the course of the centuries, were strengthened through the Second Vatican Council. The observers from these Churches present at the Council, together with representatives of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities of the West, stated publicly, at that very solemn moment for the Catholic Church, their common willingness to seek the re-establishment of communion.

The Council, for its part, considered the Churches of the East with objectivity and deep affection, stressing their ecclesial nature and the real bonds of communion linking them with the Catholic Church. The Decree on Ecumenism points out: "Through the celebration of the Eucharist of the Lord in each of these Churches, the Church of God is built up and grows in stature". It adds, as a consequence, that "although these Churches are separated from us, they possess true sacraments, above all — by apostolic succession — the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby they are still joined to us in a very close relationship".⁸²

Speaking of the Churches of the East, the Council acknowledged their great liturgical and spiritual tradition, the specific nature of their historical development, the disciplines coming from the earliest times and approved by the Holy Fathers and Ecumenical Councils, and their own particular way of expressing their teaching. The Council made this acknowledgement in the conviction that legitimate diversity is in no way opposed to the Church's unity, but rather enhances her splendour and contributes greatly to the fulfilment of her mission.

The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council wished to base dialogue on the communion which already exists, and it draws attention to the noble reality of the Churches of the East: "Therefore, this Sacred Synod urges all, but especially those who plan to devote themselves to the work of restoring the full communion that is desired between the Eastern Churches and the Catholic Church, to give due consideration to these special aspects of the origin and growth of the Churches of the East, and to the character of the relations which obtained between them and the Roman See before the separation, and to form for themselves a correct evaluation of these facts".⁸³

51. The Council's approach has proved fruitful both for the steady maturing of fraternal relations through the dialogue of charity, and for doctrinal discussion in the framework of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. It has likewise proved most fruitful in relations with the Ancient Churches of the East.

The process has been slow and arduous, yet a source of great joy; and it has been inspiring, for it has led to the gradual rediscovery of brotherhood.

Resuming contacts

52. With regard to the Church of Rome and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the process which we have just mentioned began thanks to the mutual openness demonstrated by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI on the one hand, and by the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I and his successors on the other. The resulting change found its historical expression in the ecclesial act whereby "there was removed from memory and from the midst of the Church" ⁸⁴the remembrance of the excommunications which nine hundred years before, in 1054, had become the symbol of the schism between Rome and Constantinople. That ecclesial event, so filled with ecumenical commitment, took place during the last days of the Council, on 7 December 1965. The Council thus ended with a solemn act which was at once a healing of historical memories, a mutual forgiveness, and a firm commitment to strive for communion.

This gesture had been preceded by the meeting of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem, in January 1964, during the Pope's pilgrimage to the Holy Land. At that time Pope Paul was also able to meet Benedictos, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. Later, Pope Paul visited Patriarch Athenagoras at the Phanar (Istanbul), on 25 July 1967, and in October of the same year the Patriarch was solemnly received in Rome. These prayer-filled meetings mapped out the path of rapprochement between the Church of the East and the Church of the West, and of the re-establishment of the unity they shared in the first millennium.

Following the death of Pope Paul VI and the brief pontificate of Pope John I, when the ministry of Bishop of Rome was entrusted to me, I considered it one of the first duties of my pontificate to renew personal contact with the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I, who had meanwhile succeeded Patriarch Athenagoras in the See of Constantinople. During my visit to the Phanar on 29 November 1979, the Patriarch and I were able to decide to begin theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and all the Orthodox Churches in canonical communion with the See of Constantinople. In this regard it would seem important to add that at that time preparations were already under way for the convocation of a future Council of the Orthodox Churches. The quest for harmony between them contributes to the life and vitality of these sister Churches; this is also significant in view of the role they are called to play in the path towards unity. The Ecumenical Patriarch decided to repay my visit, and in December 1987 I had the joy of welcoming him to Rome with deep affection and with the solemnity due to him. It is in this context of ecclesial fraternity that we should mention the practice, which has now been in place for a number of years, of welcoming a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate to Rome for the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, as well as the custom of sending a delegation of the Holy See to the Phanar for the solemn celebration of Saint Andrew.

53. Among other things, these regular contacts permit a direct exchange of information and opinions with a view to fostering fraternal coordination. Furthermore, taking part together in prayer accustoms us once more to living side by side and helps us in accepting and putting into practice the Lord's will for his Church.

On the path which we have travelled since the Second Vatican Council, at least two particularly telling events of great ecumenical significance for relations between East and West should be mentioned. The first of these was the 1984 Jubilee in commemoration of the eleventh centenary of the evangelizing activity of Saints Cyril and Methodius, an occasion which enabled me to proclaim the two Holy Apostles of the Slavs, those heralds of faith, co-patrons of Europe. In 1964, during the Council, Pope Paul VI had already proclaimed Saint Benedict patron of Europe. Associating the two Brothers from Thessalonica with the great founder of Western monasticism serves indirectly to highlight that twofold ecclesial and cultural tradition which has proved so significant for the two thousand years of Christianity which mark the history of Europe. Consequently it is worth recalling that Saints Cyril and Methodius came from the background of the Byzantine Church of their day, at a time when the latter was in communion with Rome. In proclaiming them patrons of Europe, together with Saint Benedict, it was my intention not only to reaffirm the historical truth about Christianity in Europe, but also to provide an important topic for the dialogue between East and West which has raised such high hopes in the period since the Council. As in Saint Benedict, so in Saints Cyril and Methodius, Europe can rediscover its spiritual roots. Now, as the second millennium since the Birth of Christ draws to a close, they must be venerated together, as the patrons of our past and as the Saints to whom the Churches and nations of Europe entrust their future.

54. The other event which I am pleased to recall is the celebration of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus' (988-1988). The Catholic Church, and this Apostolic See in particular, desired to take part in the Jubilee celebrations and also sought to emphasize that the Baptism conferred on Saint Vladimir in Kiev was a key event in the evangelization of the world. The great Slav nations of Eastern Europe owe their faith to this event, as do the peoples living beyond the Ural Mountains and as far as Alaska.

In this perspective an expression which I have frequently employed finds its deepest meaning: the Church must breathe with her two lungs! In the first millennium of the history of Christianity, this expression refers primarily to the relationship between Byzantium and Rome. From the time of the Baptism of Rus' it comes to have an even wider application: evangelization spread to a much vaster area, so that it now includes the entire Church. If we then consider that the salvific event which took place on the banks of the Dnieper goes back to a time when the Church in the East and the Church in the West were not divided, we understand clearly that the vision of the full communion to be sought is that of unity in legitimate diversity. This is what I strongly asserted in my Encyclical Epistle Slavorum Apostoli ⁸⁵ on Saints Cyril and Methodius and in my Apostolic Letter Euntes in Mundum ⁸⁶ addressed to the faithful of the Catholic Church in commemoration of the Millennium of the Baptism of Kievan Rus'.

It is God who brings people to the door of the Church and who convinces them that they should enter - however, we must keep the door to the Church open and visible. Hence, Byzantine evangelism must center on the Church - the beauty of the building, the beauty of the services, the availability and accessibility of the services. Byzantine evangelism is served by beautiful icons, gold onion domes and crosses rising against the sky, the smell of incense, the pious and holy singing of the services. Byzantine evangelism is served by our visibility as Byzantine Catholic Christians in the world.

The specific task that we as Byzantine Christians have in evangelism is the practical expression of God's love to mankind. Byzantine evangelism is greeting visitors as they come to the Church and then modeling (neither instructing nor condemning the visitor) for them proper behavior and demeanor in the Church. Byzantine evangelism is hospitality offered to share meals, to provide shelter and clothing as needed. Byzantine evangelism is to pray for our neighbor and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Byzantine evangelism is going to the soup kitchen and serving there - Byzantine evangelism is giving to the poor without regard for "how the money will be used". Byzantine evangelism is visiting the sick in hospitals and praying for them. Byzantine evangelism is going the prisons and offering comfort and kindness to the imprisoned. Byzantine evangelism is loving your enemies. Byzantine Evangelism is loving your neighbor as yourself. If we ALL did these things then our Churches would be open and filled with light and glory drawing all who see her by the grace and action of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. We don't have to preach on street corners, we don't have to have "events" or revivals or seminars as evangelistic tools - we simply have to be Byzantine Catholic Christians "to the max" without reservation or compromise. That is Byzantine evangelism.

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2011

Open the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible and feel at home with the Word of God. Through accessibly written information and engaging visuals that highlight and clarify significant areas of Scripture, readers will easily gain an understanding of these ancient texts that can be carried into today s world. Using the authorized translation in the New American Bible, Revised Edition, this lasting volume is ideal for both personal use and group Bible study. The valuable information in the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible is offered in small notes and inserts that accompany the Bible texts as well as in expanded essays, articles, and graphics. Key symbols help readers quickly identify the type of information they need, such as explanations, definitions, dates, character and author profiles, archaeological insights, personal prayer starters, and insights connecting Scripture and its use in today s church. Colorful maps, timelines, photographs, and charts further enhance the study experience. Longer articles are dedicated to explaining study Bible fundamentals, the Catholic Church s use of the Bible, and the people and places of the biblical world.

This review is from: Little Rock Catholic Study Bible (Hardcover)

I don't get excited about study Bibles - same old-same old varying only by the interests of those putting the Bible together. I do get excited about the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible. Why? 

1. It doesn't talk down to the reader but rather explains difficulties plainly. For example, browsing in Proverbs one proverbs gave information about the status of children in order to make the proverb understandable. The next Proverb said that the proverb was difficult - even when the Septuagint was translated people couldn't make sense of it. 
2. The layout is inviting and information is provided where needed and in digestible units - an example of the ideal application of information theory. 
3. Icons are used to identify the type of notes; cross-references are shown on the side separated from the more "technical" footnotes at the bottom. 
3. Notes include ones related to spiritual grow (prayer starters) and application (social justice) as well as the expected notes to help one understand the Scripture itself. 
4. Notes often parallel scriptures in unexpected ways, showing scripture interpreting scripture. Paul vs. Peter, Gospel vs. Epistle ... 

My only complaint - this wasn't available 20 years ago.

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2008

This new edition brings back into print a pioneering work that sold almost 70,000 copies in its first edition.

In this comprehensive guide to contemplative prayer, George Maloney, S.J., a leading exponent of the Eastern Orthodox spiritual tradition in the decades after Vatican II, opens up this tradition of prayer--in particular the Jesus Prayer--to Western Christians in a clear and practical manner. Unmatched as a readable and complete guide to Eastern spirituality during its fifteen-year history of publication, it fills a void in the spirituality market for today's readers as well.

This review is from: Prayer of the Heart: The Contemplative Tradition of the Christian East (Paperback)

If you have read 'The Art of Prayer' and/or any volume of the Philokalia, but feel a bit distanced from them due to historical and cultural language that is not your own, or are merely confused by their depth and detail, this book by George Maloney does much to clear things up. If you have read other books on hesychasm, Eastern Christianity's 'way of stillness', this book may also serve as inspiration to begin, or continue, to pursue this practical, potentially transformative spiritual path. If you are a Christian seeking a spiritual path or practical asceticism that goes beyond mere faith, or are a seeker with a Bhakti (devotional) temperament and an understanding of the need for being still (meditative practice), coupled with an emotional attraction to Jesus Christ, this book could serve as a valuable guide. If you are simply interested in learning what Eastern Orthodoxy's 'Prayer of the Heart' is all about, I know of no clearer introduction than this, with the exception of the 'Way of the Pilgrim'.

All your sons shall be taught by the LORD,

and great shall be the prosperity of your sons.  

(Isaiah 54:13)

In Ecclesiastes 12:12, the author with a heavy heart notes that there is no end to the number of books that can be written – so much to study, so little time.  Despite that sentiment, I welcome the new bookTAUGHT BY GOD written by Daniel Fanous.  While there is a veritable tsunami of books on the Scriptures from non-Orthodox writers, there is just beginning a trickle of books from Orthodox scholars. Fanous’ book is one of the few that is scholarly,  respects and uses both Patristic commentaries and also modern scholarship, and is accessible to the informed but not scholarly reader.  The book weaves a tapestry of ideas old and new together as it endeavors to make sense of some of the difficult sayings of Jesus.  For those who perhaps have felt some frustration in reading the Bible because some of the sayings of Christ are difficult to understand, this book encourages you to look exactly at and into the hard sayings.  It invites you to think through the Bible – it is after all God’s Word not just a good book and so you should be willing to be stopped in your thinking and be forced to wrestle with the text.

In a day and age when many Orthodox seem afraid of the 21^st Century and its philosophical assumptions and post-Christian thinking, Fanous doesn’t dodge difficult questions, nor is he fearful of ambiguity in the Scriptures, or disagreements among Orthodox Patristic writers in how to interpret difficult texts.  It is his willingness to recognize diversity and ambiguity in the way a text can be read which makes this book so valuable.   He is not shying away from controversy but opens to us all the fact that interpreting Scriptures is a spiritual pursuit and a difficult one, but it is also an adventure into the treasury of God’s Word. 

As St. John Chrysostom wrote:

“…the Holy Scriptures… they are not simply words, but words of the Holy Spirit, and hence the treasure to be found in even a single syllable is great. … we are listening to God speaking to us through the tongue of the inspired authors.”

Fanous picks up on Chrysostom’s theme which is reflected in the title of the book – as we read the Scriptures or listen to them proclaimed in Church – we are to remember we are being taught by God.   This we must not forget.  And God’s revelation is given by God to His chosen people, so it is with those people, in that history, through the Church that we come to a full understanding of God’s will. Scripture is never alone, for it is the revelation of and witness to Jesus Christ.  The words were written by men and women inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Thus the Bible is a Trinitarian book whose meaning is revealed in the life of the Holy Trinity.  It is a text with a context, and Fanous helps us understand that context.

Throughout the book Fanous wrestles with the questions:  What did Jesus mean?  and What did the New Testament authors intend when they penned the words which became our Scriptures?   He approaches the questions not with the idea to tell us what to think, but really to help us learn how to think as we read God’s Word.

Chrysostom taught by St. Paul

Fanous’ interpretive success is based in what the Great Antiochian biblical scholars such as St. John Chrysostom did- give careful attention to details, to the exact phrases, words and sentences of the Scripture he is investigating.   For example, commenting on Matthew 5, Fanous writes: “To begin, we should note that Jesus did not say in any of the six cases ‘Moses said,’  but rather, ‘you have heard that it was said’…. At hand, therefore, is a discussion of the interpretation of the law—what was heard—not the law itself.”  Fanous places Jesus solidly in the rabbinic tradition of Judaism – Jesus comes to fulfill the law, not abolish it, but also to give Torah its full and proper meaning.  Jesus is thus not in opposition to Torah, but fulfills it and reveals its complete meaning to us.

I read a fair number of scholarly scripture commentaries each year.  As a result, much of what Fanous writes was already familiar to me – I recognize many of the modern biblical scholars he quotes and I appreciate his use of ancient Christian and Jewish commentaries to help shed light on the difficult sayings of Jesus.  The text to me was very readable, and a joy in that it was written by an Orthodox Christian from an Orthodox point of view.

“And beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures

the things concerning himself.”  (Luke 24:27)

The Jesus Prayer

Fr. Thomas Hopko

The most normal form of unceasing prayer in the Orthodox tradition is the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer is the form of invocation used by those practicing mental prayer, also called the “prayer of the heart.” The words of the prayer most usually said are “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The choice of this particular verse has a theological and spiritual meaning.

First of all, it is centered on the name of Jesus because this is the name of Him whom “God has highly exalted,” the name given to the Lord by God Himself (Luke 1:31), the “name which is above every name.” (Philippians 2:9-10, cf Ephesians 1:21)

…for there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

All prayer for Christians must be performed in the name of Jesus: “if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)

The fact that the prayer is addressed to Jesus as Lord and Christ and Son of God is because this is the center of the entire faith revealed by God in the Spirit.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus answered, “Blessed are you…for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven…and on this rock I will build my Church…” (Matthew 16:16-18)

That Jesus is the Christ, and that the Christ is Lord is the essence of the Christian faith and the foundation of the Christian church. To believe and proclaim this is granted by the Holy Spirit.

…no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:3)

… every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:11)

In calling Jesus the Son of God is to acknowledge God as His Father. To do this is, at the same time, to have God as one’s own Father, and this too is granted by the indwelling Spirit.

And when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:4-6)

When we cry “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God … (Romans 8:15-16)

Thus, to pray “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” is already to be a child of God, and already to be certain that the Holy Spirit is in you. In this way, the Jesus Prayer brings the Spirit of God into the heart of man.

“Have mercy on me a sinner” is the publican’s prayer. When uttered with humble conviction it brings divine justification. (cf. Luke 18:9-14) Generally speaking, divine mercy is what man needs most of all. It is for this reason that the numberless repetition of the request for the Lord’s mercy is found everywhere in the prayers of, the Church.

And finally, all men are sinners. To know this is a fact, and to confess it with faith is to be justified and forgiven by God. (cf. Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14:1-3)

The Jesus Prayer basically is used in three different ways. First as the verse used for the “prayer of the heart” in silence in the hesychast method of prayer. Second as the continual mental and unceasing prayer of the faithful outside the hesychast tradition. And third as the brief ejaculatory prayer used to ward off temptations. Of course, in the actual life of a person these three uses of the prayer are often interrelated and combined.

In the hesychast method of prayer the person sits alone in a bodily position with his head bowed and his eyes directed toward his chest or his stomach. He continually repeats the prayer with each aspiration and breath, placing his “mind in his heart” by concentrated attention. He empties his mind of all rational thoughts and discursive reasoning, and also voids his mind of every picture and image. Then, without thought or imagination, but with all proper attention and concentration he rhythmically repeats the Jesus Prayer in silence – hesychia means silence – and through this method of contemplative prayer is united to God by the indwelling of Christ in the Spirit. According to the fathers, such a prayer, when faithfully practiced within the total life of the Church, brings the experience of the uncreated divine light of God and unspeakable joy to the soul. Its purpose is to make man a servant of God.

…the mind when it unites with the heart is filled with unspeakable joy and delight. Then a man sees that the Kingdom of heaven is truly within us.

When you enter the place of the heart…give thanks to God, and praising His mercy, keep always to this activity, and it will teach you things which you will learn in no other way.

…when your mind becomes established in the heart, it must not remain idle, but it should constantly repeat the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” and never cease.

For this practice, keeping the mind from dreaming, renders it invincible against all suggestions of the devil and every day leads it more and more to love and longing for God. (St. Nicephorus, 14th c., Discourse on Sobriety)

To practice the hesychast method of prayer requires always and without exception the guidance of a spiritual guide, one must not use this method unless one is a person of genuine humility and sanity, filled with all wisdom and peace. To use this method without guidance or humble wisdom, is to court spiritual disaster, for the temptations that come with it are many. Indeed, the abuses of the method became so great in recent centuries that its use was greatly curtailed. Bishop Theophan tells that the bodily postures and breathing techniques were virtually forbidden in his time since, instead of gaining the Spirit of God, people succeeded only “in ruining their lungs.” (cf. The Art of Prayer, lgumen Chariton, ed.)

Such abusive and abortive used of the method – itself something genuine and richly rewarding were already known in fourteenth century Byzantium when St. Gregory Palamas defended the tradition. And evidence exists from as early as the fourth century to show that even then people were using the prayer foolishly and to no avail by reducing it to a “thing in itself” and being captivated by its form without interest in its purpose. Indeed, the idolatrous interest in spiritual technique and in the pleasurable benefits of “spirituality” and “mysticism” are the constant temptations of the spiritual life – and the devil’s most potent weapon. Bishop Theophan called such interest “spiritual hedonism”; John of the Cross (16th c. Spain) called it “spiritual gluttony” and “spiritual luxury.” Thus, by way of example from various times and places, come the following admonitions.

Those who refuse to work with their hands under the pretext that one should pray without ceasing, in reality do not pray either. Through idleness…they entangle the soul in a labyrinth of thoughts…and make it incapable of prayer. (St. Nilus of Sinai, 5th c., Texts on Prayer)

As long as you pay attention only to bodily posture for prayer and your mind cares only for the external beauty of the tabernacle (i.e. proper forms), know that you have not yet found the place of prayer and its blessed way is still far from you.

Know that in the midst of all spiritual joy and consolation, that it is still more necessary to serve God with devotion and fear. (St. Nilus of Sinai, Texts on Prayer)

It is natural for the mind to reject what is at hand and dream of something else to come … to build fantasies and imaginings about achievements before he has attained them. Such a man is in considerable danger of losing what he has and failing into self-delusion and being deprived of good sense. He becomes only a dreamer and not a man of continual prayer (i.e. a hesychast). (St. Gregory of Sinai, 14th c., Texts on Commandments and Dogmas)

If you are truly practicing the continual prayer of silence, hoping to be with God and you see something sensory or spiritual, within or without, be it even the image of Christ, or an angel, or some saint, or if an image of light pervades your mind in no way accept it…always be displeased with such images, and keep your mind clear, without image or form…and you will suffer no harm. It has often happened that such things, even when sent by God as a test before victory, have turned into harm for many…who have then done harm to others equally unwise…leading to pride and self-conceit.

For the fathers say that those who live rightly and are faultless in their behavior with other men…who seek God with obedience, questioning and wise humility…will always be protected from harm by the grace of Christ. (St. Gregory of Sinai, Instructions to Hesychasts)

The use of the Jesus Prayer outside the hesychast method for unceasing prayer is to repeat the prayer constantly and continually, whatever one is doing, without the employment of any particular bodily postures or breathing techniques. This is the way taught by St. Gregory Palamas in his short discourse about how unceasing mental prayer is the duty of all Christians. (see p. 130) Anyone can do this, whatever his occupation or position in life. This also is shown in The Way of the Pilgrim.

The purpose and results of this method of prayer are those generally of all prayer: that men might be continually united with God by unceasing remembrance of His presence and perpetual invocation of His name, so that one might always serve Him and all men with the virtues of Christ and the fruits of the Spirit.

The third method of using the Jesus Prayer is to have it always ready for moments of temptation. In this way, as St. John Climacus has said, you can “flog your enemies, i.e. the temptations, with the name of Jesus for there is no stronger weapon in heaven or on earth.” (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 21) This method works best when one practices the prayer without ceasing, joining “to every breath a sober invocation of Jesus’ name.” (Evagrius of Pontus) When one practices the continual “prayer of the heart,” and when the temptations to sin enter the heart, they are met by the prayer and are defeated by grace.

Man cannot live in this world without being tempted. When temptation comes to a person, there are only three possible results. Either the person immediately yields to the temptation and sins, or he tries to ward off the temptation by the power of his will, and is ultimately defeated after great vexation and strife. Or else he fights off the temptation by the power of Christ in his heart which is present only by prayer. This does not mean that he “prays the temptation away.” Or that God miraculously and magically descends to deliver him. It means rather that his soul is so filled with the grace and the power of God that the temptation can have no effect. It is in this sense that the Apostle John has written: “no one who abides in Christ sins.” (1 John 3:6)

He who sins is of the devil…The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God commits sins; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin for he is born of God. By this may be seen who are children of God, and who are children of the devil. (I John 3:8-10)

One becomes a child of God, born of God in the Church through baptism. One continues as a child of God and does not sin only by continual prayer: the remembrance of God, the abiding in Him, the calling upon His name without ceasing in the soul. The third use of the Jesus Prayer, like the first two, is to accomplish this end: that man might not sin.

One could think of the liturgical year as if it were a picture of the services and feast days during a cycle of 365 days, from September to September: in short, the liturgical year could be reduced to a practical diagram, to a calendar. The liturgical year is, in fact, expressed as a calendar, but simply to identify it with a calendar would be totally inadequate. One could also say that the purpose of the liturgical year was to bring to the minds of believers the teachings of the Gospel and the main events of Christian history in a certain order. That is true, but this educational, pedagogical, function does not exhaust the significance of the liturgical year. Perhaps we could say that its aim is to orientate our prayer in a particular direction and also to provide it with an official channel which is objective, and even, in a certain way, artistic. This, too, is true, but the liturgy is more than a way of prayer, and it is more than a magnificent lyric poem. The liturgy is a body of sacred ‘signs’ which, in the thought and desire of the Church, have a present effect. Each liturgical feast renews and in some sense actualises the event of which it is the symbol; it takes this event out of the past and makes it immediate; it offers us the appropriate grace, it becomes an ‘effectual sign’, and we experience this efficacy to the extent that we bring to it a corresponding inclination of our soul. But still, this does not say everything. The liturgical year is, for us, a special means of union with Christ. No doubt every Eucharist unites us intimately with Christ, for in it He is ‘both He who offers and who is offered’, in the same way that every prayer, being the prayer of the members of the mystical body, shares in the prayer of Him who is the head of the body and the only one whose prayer is perfect. But, in the liturgical year, we are called to relive the whole life of Christ: from Christmas to Easter, from Easter to Pentecost, we are exhorted to unite ourselves to Christ in His birth and in His growth, to Christ suffering, to Christ dying, to Christ in triumph and to Christ inspiring His Church. The liturgical year forms Christ in us, from His birth to the full stature of the perfect man. According to a medieval Latin saying, the liturgical year is Christ Himself, annus est Christus

Father Lev Gillet, The Year of Grace of the Lord: A Scriptural and Liturgical Commentary on the Calendar of the Orthodox Church, 1-2.

Book Description

Series: Bible | Publication Date: June 17, 2008

The FIRST EVER Orthodox Study Bible presents the Bible of the early church and the church of the early Bible.

Orthodox Christianity is the face of ancient Christianity to the modern world and embraces the second largest body of Christians in the world. In this first-of-its-kind study Bible, the Bible is presented with commentary from the ancient Christian perspective that speaks to those Christians who seek a deeper experience of the roots of their faith.

Features Include:

• Old Testament newly translated from the Greek text of the Septuagint, including the Deuterocanon
• New Testament from the New King James Version
• Commentary drawn from the early Church Christians
• Easy-to-Locate liturgical readings
• Book Introductions and Outlines
• Subject Index
• Full-color Icons
• Full-color Maps
• This review is from: The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today's World (Hardcover)For purposes of full disclosure, allow me to say, first off, that I'm a practicing Catholic Christian of the Latin Rite, whose previous experience as a teacher of the English Language Arts will hopefully provide a unique perspective regarding the offerings of this particular Bible. I've been in possession of the leather-bound edition since I received it two months after my original pre-order; it's taken me a couple years, but I've really come to love it. As I mentioned in the title of this treatise, this Orthodox Study Bible has recently dethroned my trusty, old-RSV New Oxford Annotated Bible as my study Bible of choice. I had little notion that this would happen. Understand that I have quite an extensive collection of Bibles of the most varying translations that I use for comparative study; but, probably like you, I also have a preferred Bible to go to by default for prayerful reading. Over the last two years, I just found myself picking up the OSB more and more and the NOAB less and less. Allow me to articulate exactly why: 
• 
  The case for the Septuagint Old Testament: 
  The unique and most compelling reason to acquire the OSB: it is the only complete Bible in English to be published with the Greek OT right next to the NT. If you have one of those reference Bibles, I'm sure you've noticed that many of the OT quotes used in the NT mismatch when you actually look them up, sometimes to a great degree--this is because Jesus and the disciples quoted from the Septuagint Greek, as opposed to other Hebrew sources, a vast majority of the time. This is so, because Greek was the common language of antiquity in the region and the Septuagint translation (which includes the apocryphal/deuterocanonical "hidden books" of the "second canon") was completed more than a century before Christ's birth. By the time of Jesus' ministry, it was in widespread use by Jews throughout Palestine, particularly outside of Jerusalem by those who couldn't speak or read Hebrew. Bear in mind: the Hebrew OT that 99% of modern English Bibles are translated from rely on Masoretic Hebrew (Hebrew with fixed vowels) whose manuscripts didn't exist until the high middle ages, approximately the 9th century AD--almost a thousand years after Christ! By then, the philosophy behind Jewish biblical scholarship had transformed immensely and the original meaning of certain passages were irrevocably changed. Isaiah 7:14 is the classic casualty of this: Masoretic Hebrew renders "young woman" while Septuagint Greek renders "virgin"--a pretty significant paradigm shift. Ever wonder why the OT books of the Christian Bible are in their current order as opposed to the way the Hebrew Bible orders them? That's right, the Septuagint lists them in order of Law, Histories, Writings, and Prophecy; the NT books are similarly ordered by Gospel, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation. In the end, the Masoretic/Septuagint wars will rage on; but the latter is still the most ancient and reliable source of the OT, it's quoted extensively by the Fathers of the early Church, and it was the de facto scriptures of Jesus and His Disciples. If you don't already have a Septuagint, it's well worth picking one up, and the OSB version is preferable to the aging Brenton translation and even to the flawed-NRSV-based NETS (if you're a conservative practitioner of your faith, it's really hard to take the NRSV seriously with its intentionally literal-but-unorthodox renderings of scripture and its politically-motivated gender-sterilized language). 
  
  The case for the New King James Version New Testament: 
  Other reviewers have mentioned a distaste for the NKJV and, though I can empathize somewhat as a Catholic, I must humbly admit I'm rather fond of it. Perhaps it's because of my teaching background, but I have a respect beyond the average non-Protestant for the old KJV due to its indisputable impact on linguistic and literary spheres ever after (doctrinal ramifications notwithstanding). The result of this is that it has shaped our ear in the English-speaking world--its rhythms and cadences so familiar to us in certain passages that we take it for granted. The NKJV retains the phraseology and eloquence of its predecessor to an extent unmatched by any other contemporary translation, while updating the language and spelling to much needed modern standards. Because it adheres strictly to the formal equivalence methodology, it maintains a vocabulary and style in accordance with high English--this is not a "dumbed-down" translation like many other popular ones out there. The result is that the Bible still reads like sacred scripture--which it should. Now, some of you may be indignant of the fact that the NKJV relies on the Textus Receptus, a Reformation Era-variant of Byzantine text-type manuscripts compiled by Erasmus. Instead, you may prefer your NT to be translated from the substantially older but far less prevalent Alexandrian text-type manuscripts--the "Critical Text." Well fear not, my friends, for though the OSB maintains TR renderings in the body of scripture, all variations from the Majority Text as well as the Nestle-Aland/UBS editions are comprehensively footnoted--you still get the best of both worlds. 
  
  The case for the commentary: 
  If you're strictly an academic, you may find this to have a limiting appeal; but if you consider yourself a member of the faithful laity, you'll get quite a lot out of this. Even if you're a Christian of Reformation descent, you'll appreciate the uniqueness in character of the OSB commentary because it's the only modern one available that doesn't depend on the historical-critical method to explain passages. Instead, it's comprehensively Christological, even in the OT where it succeeds in pointing out both significant and obscure messianic prophecies. The result is an OT commentary that approaches scripture with the same Christ-centered worldview that is readily present in the NT. If you're an Eastern/Greek Orthodox Christian, my guess is that you're more likely to love it than not despite its simplistic nature when compared to the depth and breadth of the writings typical of Church Fathers. In my humble opinion, the OSB commentary's simplicity is its strength for ordinary study or prayerful reading. As someone who occasionally refers to the Haydock edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible for shedding light on certain difficult scripture passages, I find the OSB's concise, pointed commentary to be a refreshing change, in contrast to Haydock's sometimes excessive wordiness for normal use. Sure, for more in-depth study you'll certainly want an additional source, but the vast majority of the time, and for the vast majority of people out there, the OSB's solidly patristic commentary is a sight for sore eyes. If you're an Eastern Rite Catholic, this will fit you like a glove since it has the various apocryphal books not even included in the deuterocanon--it even has scripture notes referencing the Chrysostom Liturgy. If you're a Roman Rite Catholic, like me, trust me: there's no better modern, complete Bible out there that's made to bolster your faith like this one. The single-volume Navarre Bible is hopefully in the works and, as of this writing, the NT of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible is available for pre-order with the OT probably years away. The potential benefits to such future volumes would be references to papal encyclicals, pertinent teachings from the Catechism, and explanations by intellectual giants like Dr. Scott Hahn, Curtis Mitch, or other faithful scripture scholars. The OSB commentary, along with the introductions to each book, purposely limits its scope to the wisdom of the Holy Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils of the first millennium. While this may sound like a detractor at first, it has one substantial benefit: these are the teachings that predate any Reformation, or subsequently needed Counter-Reformation, as well as the Great East-West Schism. Essentially, these are the teachings of Christ's Church when that Church was One: singular and united. 
  
  Formatting notes: 
  Again, as someone who reads significant amounts of literature, I have a real appreciation for the OSB's adherence to Modern Language formatting--it's something that goes largely unnoticed by most, but you'll appreciate it once you have it. Why is this important in the first place? Proper formatting allows for increased reading speed, comprehension, and overall pleasure. Now, the NKJV, itself, conforms to standard spelling, punctuation, and usage, as would be expected. However, this is the only Bible I've ever found that is paragraphed correctly. This is huge, and once you experience it, you'll loathe to go back to anything else, especially verse-by-verse Bibles. Sure, there are alternatives out there that paragraph the text according to content--even my old NOAB or the Cambridge Paragraph Bible does that. But not even these highly respectable editions provide line breaks during conversations where there's an extensive exchange in dialogue; John 8:12-40 provides a great example. Other alternatives don't paragraph for lengthy quotations either; take a look at Acts 2. Likewise, the full biblical text is set in a two-column format to aid reading speed as well as to assist in skimming, if needed; it's also graced with section headers within the chapters themselves for easier searching. The font is a nicely-readable 11-point for the text and about 8-point for the footnotes and commentary. Overall, the page layout is among the most practical and beautiful I've seen in any study Bible. 
  
  Other observations of note: 
  One major upshot to the beneficial formatting choices is the page thinness. In order to pack the wealth of information contained in this veritable library into a single volume, the pages evidently had to become nearly tissue-paper thin. Despite this, text ghosting from the other side is surprisingly minimal--I just worry about dropping this one day and forever creasing a couple hundred pages for its lack of resilience. Also, the tome measures about 7x10x2, so it's a bit larger than your average personal Bible. The bonded leather is elegant and sturdy but suffers some minor-but-still-somewhat-irritating curl after use. The pages are gold-edged and the Bible has that overall humble and reverent appearance and feel that Bibles should have for the sacred scripture they contain. 
  The OSB does suffer one logistical drawback shared, for example, by the Douay-Rheims Bible (the traditional Catholic Bible translated from the Clementine Vulgate): the verse numberings can sometimes be a little off standard (the industry standard being set by an OT in Hebrew and a NT in Greek). In the case of the Douay, this is a result of translating from scriptures in Latin. With regard to the OSB, the occasional verse discrepancy occurs only in the Greek-based OT. Outside the Septuagint Psalter, I've found such a phenomenon to be an extreme rarity, though. The Greek-based NT follows versification standards, as would be expected. 
  As someone who, himself, is more accustomed to Masoretic Hebrew renderings in the OT from my NOAB, making the adjustment to Septuagint Greek is an occasionally surprising endeavor, but always a fruitful one. Since the NKJV OT was the base translation for this particular version of the Septuagint, many beloved passages you're used to are nearly identical; Psalm 23 is a good example that remains virtually unchanged. Others, like Proverbs 3:5 are completely different, showing, instead, a much closer relationship to the deuterocanonical book of Wisdom, chapter 8. Such Easter eggs are prevalent throughout the text and make having the Septuagint well worth it, even just for comparative study. 
  The full-color, high quality, iconic illustrations are a blessing, and further aid the sense of actually being in church as you read. 
  For all that you're getting, the OSB's price point is just right for both bonded leather and hard-bound. The publisher has also more or less recently come out with a red, genuine leather edition that is significantly pricier, but it sports a beautiful and ornate gold cover design. 
  
  In the end, the Orthodox Study Bible is a God-send (quite literally in many senses). If you're less interested in getting to know the "historical Jesus" as portrayed by scholars in most study Bibles, and more interested in meeting with Our Lord and Savior as understood by saints, "Highly recommended" would be an understatement. 
  
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  Ad majorem Dei gloriam!

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The word Gospel is used all the time in the media, by religious people, and even as a genre of music. But what is the Gospel?

The Gospel is the good news that:

I. Jesus is the Messiah. 

II. Christ is risen!
III. We can be saved.

So what does this mean?

I. Jesus is the Messiah

It’s apparent to anyone who’s awake these days that there’s something wrong with the world. Of course, it’s not just the world that has something wrong with it, but as Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts.” Every human being has evil in his heart, whether he sees it or not, and this evil separates him from God, his Creator (Rom. 3:23; 1 Jn. 1:10). This is what sin is.

The word sin means “to miss the mark.” Sin is therefore not only separation from God but also the failure to live up to the full potential of what God created us to be, created beings filled with the uncreated energy of God Himself, in intimate communion with our Creator, united with Him in both body and soul (Eph. 4:13).

Jesus, Who is the eternal Son of God Who became a human being, just like any of us, is therefore our Messiah (“Christ,” “anointed one”) because He came to Earth to save us from the separation of sin and from the power of death. Because He is both God and man, He bridges within Himself the gap that formed because of sin. His coming was foretold in the ancient Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament), and when He came about 2,000 years ago, history was forever changed.

II. Christ is risen!

The greatest moment in the history of the world was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Leading up to that moment was His birth from the Virgin Mary by the will of God the Father and by the power of God the Holy Spirit (Lk. 1:35). He grew up as one of us, lived, gathered His disciples around Himself, healed the sick, and taught about the Kingdom of God.

The defining moments of Jesus’ life on Earth were His suffering and death on the cross, followed by His miraculous bodily resurrection from the dead. Although people had been raised from the dead before in the history of God’s work with mankind, Jesus was the first to raise Himself from the dead, showing that He is God (Jn. 2:19).

Because Jesus is fully God, He has the power not only to forgive sins and restore mankind to sinlessness, but also to transform human persons to grow into the likeness of God Himself. And because Jesus is fully man, His deity filled His humanity and made possible the restoration and divinization (being filled up with and changed by God’s presence) of every aspect of what it means to be human.

To affirm that Christ is risen is to bear witness to and experience this reality, that sinful people can be united to Christ and healed of our spiritual wounds, given freedom from the power of death and separation from God (Heb. 2:14).

III. We can be saved.

Most of the time, when people talk about being “saved,” they only have in mind whether they will go to Heaven when they die. But salvation in Christ is much more. Because of Who Jesus Christ is, both God and man, He made possible the way for us to become like He is (Eph. 4:13; 1 Jn. 3:2). We can become by His grace what He Himself is by nature. That is, we can become human beings filled up with the divine presence. We who are made in God’s image can also take on His likeness, showing the presence of God to the whole world in our own presence.

This process requires participation in the life of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:18), repenting of sins (turning around and changing one’s life), being baptized into His death and resurrection (Col. 2:12), followed by being anointed with the gift of the Holy Spirit (chrismation/confirmation, Acts 2:38), and then partaking of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist (Jn. 6:53-56). This lifelong, sacramental, mystical experience of God Himself gradually changes flawed human beings into grace-filled, divinized sons and daughters of God.

The process of salvation involves a lifetime of struggle against our sinful tendencies, a serious dedication to put away the “old man” and to put on the “new” (2 Cor. 5:17). In doing so, sinners gradually transform into saints, the high calling of every man, woman and child on Earth.

So what about the Church?

When Jesus came to Earth, He founded a living community to be His Body of which He is the Head. This community , called the Church, began on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, soon spread throughout the Roman Empire, centered in the ancient cities of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem and then later beyond the imperial borders.

Over time, as heresies (false teachings) arose, various groups broke off from that first community of Christians. That original community remains, however, passing on the faith and experience given by Christ to His Apostles from one generation to another, without adding or subtracting anything.

by Father Daniel Forsythe (adapted)

Short answer: You'll find the church to be full of friendly people, lively and reverent worship, lots of singing, lots of children. We look forward to meeting you! 

Following is a longer answer of what you should expect on any given Sunday. 

Medium Answer: Our Liturgy typically lasts around an hour and fifteen to twenty minutes. In that time, there is much standing and singing. You will notice people lighting candles and saying prayers. Some will be reverencing the icons. You'll notice the smell of incense. (If you have previously had problems with incense irritating you, it was most likely the poor quality of incense used. Ours is not likely to cause you irritation.) You'll hear the bells attached to the censor. You'll see our iconography, our iconostas, and the priest's vestments. You will notice that people of all ages, from infant to elderly, worship together at the same Liturgy. You will hear all our voices rise up in song to praise the Lord. These sights and sounds are likely to be new and different. Many visitors prefer to take all this in on the first visit and do not attempt to follow along in the pew book. If you would like, you can stand with one of our Liturgy Guides who can explain the Liturgy to you. The average parishioner dresses in slacks and a nice shirt for the men and a skirt with blouse, a dress, or slacks and a dress shirt being average for the women. As we have fasted before receiving the Eucharist, we are happy to have refreshments in the Hall immediately after Liturgy. You are invited to share the food and drink, as well as your impressions, with us. 

The Long Answer

Upon Arrival: You should expect to be greeted, sometimes by several people, when you walk in. They will help you collect the liturgical books and offer to sit with you to explain what is happening during the Liturgy if you wish. If you would prefer to be on your own, simply say so. If no one greets you immediately, just wait a moment or two. We are a very friendly parish and it won't be long before someone says hello. 

If you arrive a little early, you might think you are late because we are already praying. Feel free to enter and pray with us or pray in preparation for the Liturgy. If you are early and you hear bells, that is Father incensing during the Proskomedia or preparation. Take the opportunity to pray with any of the icons in the church, light a candle, watch what is going on, open the Liturgical books to the front and to pray any of the prayers before Communion or simply experience the preparation for the Liturgy. 

The Beginning of Liturgy:   Once Liturgy starts expect a great deal of signing. There is only one prayer in the entire Liturgy that is spoken instead of chanted. The books provide the musical notations if you want to follow along; but visitors often prefer to keep the book closed and to join in when they catch on. "Lord have mercy," and, "Grant this, O Lord." are two places you will likely catch on very quickly and be able to join in if you wish. 

Our temple is arranged in a traditional Byzantine style, with iconography encircling the nave, an icon screen (or iconostas) separating the nave from the altar (or sanctuary), and a tetrapod in the front center with an icon for veneration. You'll see people go up and make the Sign of the Cross and kiss the icon when they enter the temple. When they enter their pew, people will also bow from the waist toward the Holy Table. You are welcome to do so this as well. Incense is used throughout the Liturgy. Our incense is of excellent quality and has a beautiful bouquet. It very rarely causes irritation to any parishioners. The priest's censer has 12 bells on it, one for each of the apostles which you will frequently hear. One bell is silent and represents Judas Iscariot. Many people are moved by the sights, sounds, scents, and bells of the church. If you find this to be the case, consider yourself in good company. According to the Russian Primary Chronicle, when Vladimir the Grand-Prince of Kiev sent scouts out to determine the true faith, they returned to him after attending Divine Liturgy saying they did not know whether they were in Heaven or on Earth. 

The Processions:   There are several times that the priest leaves the altar. Two of these are for processions. First is the Little Entrance, in which the priest carries the Gospels to the people. Parishioners give various signs of reverence and respect to the Word made present among us. You will see people bowing or crossing themselves when the Gospels pass by them. The second procession, or Great Entrance, is when the priest brings the gifts of bread and wine through the people to the altar. This is in remembrance of Christ's entrance into Jerusalem as he was preparing for His sacrifice. You'll notice people reaching out and touching the hem of Father's phelonion (the cape that he wears) to attach their prayers to the prayers he is carrying forward to the altar. You and your children are welcome to do so as well. 

The Bible Readings:   We have two Bible readings each Sunday, one usually being from the New Testament and one from the Gospel. A parishioner chants the first reading and Father or a visiting Deacon always chants the Gospel. During the Gospel reading, all the children go forward to stand with Jesus in the Gospel. It helps them to pay attention and brings them closer to Christ through the Word. If you have children, they are welcome to go up as well. Don't worry if they are a little late. We don't mind and you aren't bothering anyone to send them up there to hear about the Lord. At the end of the Gospel reading, Father lets all the children (and any adults with them who wish to) kiss the Gospel as a sign of respect for the Word of God. 

The Children and Youth:   You might notice that our church is full of children and youth; and they all are present throughout Liturgy. There are several reasons for this. First, the Lord himself told us to let the little children come to Him and that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. Second, the Lord told us that we are all to become like little children if we wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Third, we believe that all of creation has a role to play in worshipping the Lord. This includes little babies and the fidgety toddlers. Fourth, we commune all children which would be difficult to do if they were in a nursery. Fifth, we find that the children are generally well behaved and like to participate in the worship. With an active liturgy full of singing and movement, their fidgetiness is not lessened and they have an outlet for their desire to express themselves and participate. If your children aren't accustomed to it yet, feel free to take them to the Narthex and to watch and listen from there. 

Communion:   Another thing you'll notice is the two times the people process forward to the front of the temple. The first time is during the Eucharist. All Catholics and Orthodox who are in good standing may receive; and all others may bow their heads for a blessing. [Orthodox Christians are urged to respect the norms of their churches.] Children who are not yet communed or adults who are non-Catholics sometimes go forward for this blessing and sometimes stay standing in their pews. You may do either. If you see Father bending over, he's probably blessing a child in the womb or communing a child. You'll notice that we receive the Body and Blood of the Lord together on a golden spoon. This is the Byzantine tradition. You'll see that all the people cross their arms over their chest, right over left, in an X for Xhristos: Christ. They'll open their mouths, tilt their heads back, keep their tongues in, and won't say anything. What Father will say is, "The Servant of God [name] receives the most precious Body and Blood of our Lord God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and for life everlasting." To young children he will say, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." 

On special feasts...

The Antidoran and Veneration of the Cross:   The second time we all process toward the front of the church is at the end of Liturgy. The server has a bowl of bread called antidoran. The communion Lamb was cut out of this same loaf, so this is a bread of fellowship that we can all share. It is especially there for anyone who did not receive the Eucharist, like our visitors, so that we can break bread and eat from the same loaf together. Father is standing behind the server with a cross in his hand. He gives a Christian greeting, usually, "Glory to Jesus Christ!" You'll see us all kissing the cross out of respect, many people will then kiss Father's hand out of respect for the Lord who comes to them by the priest's hand, and they'll respond to the greeting with, "Glory to Him forever!" Sometimes visitors are a little taken aback, never having seen this before. Your options are 1) to not go forward and to not receive the bread of fellowship, 2) to go forward to receive the bread of fellowship and to then turn out of the line before going forward to Father, 3) to receive the bread and to say "Good morning," to Father or even to respond with the proper greeting but to refrain from kissing the cross, or 4) to receive the bread and kiss the cross and say the greeting and be proud of yourself for getting it all down on the first try. If you choose options 1, 2, or 3, that just means you need to visit again to work your way up to option 4. 

A Last Word:   There are bound to be any number of other things you will notice on your first, second, and third visits. Most people keep noticing things, such as the prolific use of Biblical quotes and allusions throughout the Liturgy, for months and even years after their first visit. All you need to know is that you are welcome to worship with us, that you don't need to know or do anything but to come, and that we look forward to meeting you. You'll find St. Mary & Stephen's to be full of friendly people, lively and reverent worship, lots of singing, lots of children, and to have a fellowship hour afterwards which you shouldn't miss. 

We'll see you this Sunday, then?