"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Continuing our Byzantine theme, today is the Cherubikon (The Cherubic Hymn):
We, who mystically represent the cherubim, and sing to the life-giving Trinity the thrice-holy hymn:let us lay aside all earthly cares, that we may welcome the King of All, invisibly escorted by angelic hosts. Alleluia.
We’re going to be going Byzantine for the next few weeks. Today, the Trisagion (The Thrice Holy)…
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.
When doing apologetics, I personally find it best to vary the approach I take. Every person is wired differently and a well-crafted explanation which would convince one person may completely fail with someone else.
Often when Catholics and Protestants talk about Mary, they jump straight into the “big” topics: the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, Intercession, the title “Mother of God” etc. However, I have often found it helpful to rewind the conversation when I see things moving in this direction. Instead of speaking about specific doctrines, I like to talk about Marian devotion at its most a basic level.
So, in today’s post I would like to present a dialogue between a Protestant (“Pete”) and a Catholic (“Catherine”), modeled on some conversations I’ve had where I have used this approach…
Last week we had some Taizé chant, so I thought this week we’d have a Byzantine chant, “O Virgin Pure”:
We’re back to classical music for this week: “Sancte Deus” performed by All Angels. If you attend the Byzantine liturgy or pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the lyrics should sound familiar…
Sancte Deus
(Holy God)
Sancte Fortis
(Holy and mighty)
Sancte et Immortalis, miserere nobis
(Holy and immortal one, have mercy on us)
Today is the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul, two of the great pillars of the Church:
This morning at the Byzantine liturgy I was struck by how the themes of patience and perseverance came up again and again in the Liturgy of the Word. The Apostolic Reading (roughly equivalent to the Second Reading in the Roman Mass) even contained my life verse where St. Paul talks about how the grace of God operates through our weakness 🙂
If I had been the one to choose the Readings today I would have probably chosen other readings, so during the Liturgy I pondered why the Church chose those particular passages…
In part, I think it might be due to the fact that Peter and Paul were not only great leaders of the Church, but they were also martyrs, enduring suffering and offering their lives to God in the most radical way. I think by focussing on the theme of patient endurance the Church is teaching us that we are all called to do the same, to be patient in adversity and to allow the “fertilizer of life” to yield fruit within us (Romans 5:1-5) and to offer our entire lives to the Lord.
At the end of the First Century, Clement of Rome wrote a letter to the Church at Corinth. The Church at Corinth was having difficulties (again). This time they had rebelled against their clergy, so St. Clement wrote to them to resolve the issue. During the course of his letter, he spoke about how envy and jealousy had caused havoc and destruction in the lives of different Old Testament characters. He then turned to, what was for Clement, very recent events:
But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. Through envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars of the Church have been persecuted and put to death.
Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience – Pope St. Clement of Rome (c. AD 96)
As you can see, Clement reminds the Corinthians of Peter and Paul, examples of those who patiently endured and, who for their fidelity, won crowns of eternal life.
Since today is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, it is also my Feast Day, since I took the name “Peter” at my Confirmation. I always make a point of celebrating my Feast Day, so I’ll be sure to pick up something delicious for dessert later 🙂
Do you celebrate your feast day? If so, what do you do?
A few weeks ago I did a post on the subject of Christians and tattoos, linking to a couple of articles which addressed that question from different perspectives. As a result, some of my Christian friends started talking about their tattoos on Facebook…
Despite my own feelings on the subject, I found the whole thing fascinating. So, in a follow-up post, I asked people to submit a picture of their tattoo and the story behind it. Below are the three submissions I received.
Points will be deducted for spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Don’t worry, that wasn’t one of them… 🙂