Participation in the Life of the Church

Having served as a parish priest for just about 44 years now, I’ve heard this cliché, “participation in the life of the Church,” more times than I could ever count.

Then I saw the following two paragraphs from Lisa Rose and Laura Wolfe in Patterns for Life: An Orthodox Reflection on Charlotte Mason Education (2022) in a post by Fr. Andrew Morbey two weeks ago:

As Orthodox Christians, we are exceedingly blessed because we are given a roadmap for spiritual health through the life of the Church. Following the cycle of fasts and feasts, partaking of the sacraments, practicing a rule of prayer, and seeking spiritual guidance all provide us with the context to address the unique spiritual challenges of our lives in ways that are both healthy and help unfold the mystery of God’s image within us. We follow the patterns of spiritual health in the Church because we trust with patience in the work of the Holy Spirit, knowing that spiritual growth is happening even when we cannot discern it in ourselves.

The Orthodox Church in particular makes a specific use of oral tradition in its beautiful practice of liturgy. By going to Vespers and Matins and Liturgy every week and just listening, we come into contact with the most perfect kind of mind-food there is in the form of hymnography, prayers, and Scripture. Attention to the verses and stichera (hymns inserted between the verses) can teach a layman more actionable theology than a whole bookshelf of modern spiritual self-help books. These riches are absorbed by even the youngest children and especially because of iconography, people with all levels of literacy can understand. There is no requirement that one needs to even know the mechanics of reading before he can participate in these relationships of understanding.

Then I saw this reflection posted the very same week by our dear Fr. Lawrence Margitich which I’d like to take the liberty to paraphrase here:

… All this is well and good, but, somehow extraneous and even unknown for many. We have a serious conflict in our current culture, because for very many of us, Saturday evening is indeed a “protected time”- but for various activities which often do not include worship. After a long work week, a person genuinely has to recharge, and besides that, do housework, chores and errands, or perhaps meet with family and friends. These things are good and necessary activities, but let us also recognize that we have to struggle to enter into the holy mystery of the Lord’s Day. Simply put, participation at Vespers or Vigil on Saturday or the eves of Great Feasts can be a wonderful gift to us, and a profound– dare I say essential–aspect of our preparation for receiving Holy Communion at the Divine Liturgy. I encourage you to consider all of this. I challenge everyone to attend the Vigil this year on Saturday August 5 for the feast of Transfiguration and again on Monday, August 14 for the beautiful Vigil on the eve of the Dormition of the Mother of God.

— Archpriest Stephan