The Shepherd, January 2010
THE COMING MONTH
BECAUSE Pascha falls so very early this year, already in January we not only have the normal celebrations according to the Menaion (the monthly cycle), but we also enter upon the Paschal cycle of services. The Lenten Triodion (the service book which is used in the preparatory weeks before Great Lent, during Great Lent and through Holy Week) begins on Sunday 11th / 24th January, just a few days after the celebration of the Lord’s Baptism at the Great Feast of Holy Theophany (Tuesday 6th / 19th January). This means that three of the special pre-lenten Sundays fall within January, those of the Publican and Pharisee, of the Prodigal Son, and of the Judgment. The fourth, that of Forgiveness, when we commemorate the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, falls on the 1st / 14th February, and Great Lent itself begins on the next day - we are with our first forebears sitting over against Paradise, lamenting our fall.
The month, however, begins with the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord, as this (1st / 14thJanuary) is the eighth day after His Nativity in Bethlehem. This feast is often forgotten by believers nowadays, and, is popularly somewhat overshadowed because it is also the day of the commemoration of Saint Basil the Great, who is greatly loved among the Orthodox, but it is one of tremendous significance. The fact of our Saviour’s circumcision shows the reality of His incarnation; in it He sheds blood for the first time as a foreshadowing of His Passion. On this day, He receives the name, Jesus, which tells of His saving ministry. In submitting to the Law, which He had blessed for His Chosen People, He shows us the way of obedience. And He confirms that He was of the male sex and therefore, He is our Paschal Lamb without blemish (see Exodus 12:5). On the holiest day of the year, the Paschal Canon sings: “Christ revealed Himself as of the male sex when He opened the Virgin’s womb, and as a mortal was He called the Lamb. Thus, without blemish is our Pascha, for He tasted not corruption; and since He is truly God, perfect was He proclaimed.” Here, on this often-neglected feast in the middle of Winter, we have a foretaste of that paschal truth. Because it is also St Basil’s day, on this day we celebrate the Liturgy of St Basil, rather than that of St John Chrysostom, as we do on most days of the year.
A still greater celebration is that of the Holy Theophany, which is numbered among the Twelve Great Feasts of the year and falls on 6th/19th January, this year a Tuesday. Primarily, this celebrates the Baptism of our Saviour by John in the Jordan, which, as our Saviour was in absolutely no need of cleansing or Baptism, inaugurates our Baptism. We have chosen quotes from the Fathers this month to illustrate the Church’s teaching on this fundamental Mystery. Liturgically, this feast is celebrated with even greater ceremony than Christmas, because although the cycle of services for the feast is almost identical with that at the Nativity - both are feasts of the manifestation of the Lord as God Incarnate - we now also have two Blessings of the Waters. One is performed in church, so that the faithful may have a supply of holy water to take home, and so that the priest has a quantity, with which to blesses the homes of his congregation to which he is invited for this purpose, and the other blessing is celebrated outside, at the seashore, at a lake or river, to show that the blessing extends to all creation.
It may be appropriate here to mention the three blessings of homes that are customary among Orthodox Christians. There is a blessing when one moves into a new house, and for this the priest is called. In the appointed service, he sprinkles the rooms with holy water, anoints the four outer walls with holy oil, and censes each of the rooms. This dedicates the house as a Christian home. Further there is an annual blessing, at Theophany, when he is invited again, to come and bless the house with the water blessed at that Great Feast, thus renewing the blessing. Then every month, besides the Greater Blessing of Waters at Theophany, there is a Lesser Blessing performed in our churches, usually on the first day of the month, and the faithful may take this water to bless their homes themselves (we have it in the urn in the church), by sprinkling each room. A similar sprinkling may be done also, as and when any unpleasantness occurs in the home. In fact, there is fourth blessing of the home, but this occurs when a new house is about to be built, and so in our Western society it is rarely done, although we did have that service, as many of you will remember, before we started the building of the new Monastic House at Brookwood.
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