THE principal Divine Service of the Christians is called the “Thanksgiving” or Eucharist, and yet thanksgiving itself is often a lost virtue even among Orthodox Christians.  We ask for what we want, or think we want, but rarely bother to give thanks, so the following article is, we believe, timely.  The writer of the piece reproduced below, then an Archimandrite, is now Bishop of Oreoi, and, during the indisposition of His Eminence Metropolitan Cyprian, the Acting President of the Holy Synod in Resistance of the Church of Greece.

 

Christian Gratitude

A Fundamental Hallmark

of Orthodox Spirituality

 

by Archimandrite (now Bishop) Cyprian

 

The text of this article, translated from the Greek, is taken from an address by Father (now Bishop) Cyprian, a brother of the Holy Monastery of Sts. Cyprian and Justina in Fili, Greece.  It was delivered on 4th October, 1999 (Old Style), at the convocation held annually at the Novotel Convention Center, in downtown Athens, to honor the Name Day of Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili.

 

Our Much-Revered Metropolitan and Spiritual Father, Beloved of Christ:

 

My heart is inundated with sincere joy at this moment, because, by the Grace of Christ our Savior, I am fulfilling an obedience which, although very difficult, is at the same time very gratifying.  The great difficulty in question concerns my many inadequacies, of which you have assuredly always been well aware; and I ask your forgiveness for these.  However, the great delight involved derives from the fact that this evening, at our annual Eucharisteria [Thanksgiving],¹ we are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of your Episcopacy.

 

This anniversary is very important for our monastic Brotherhood, for your wider flock, and for our Church; it is an anniversary which prompts us to undertake an historical retrospective of two decades filled with accomplishments for the glory of God.  Such an anniversary is, naturally, a source of special joy and gladness for your spiritual children.

 

Now, every happy anniversary is directly bound up with gratitude; that is, it reminds us of, and underscores, our debt of gratitude and thanksgiving both to our Lord and to the people whom His philanthropic right hand has used as instruments for His glory, for our sanctification, and, in general, for the progress of His salvific work.

 

I hope, therefore, our Most Reverend Metropolitan, that you will allow me, rather than mentioning those historic stages in your twenty years as a Hierarch that portray your contribution to the Church, to focus my attention, instead, on the topic of gratitude.

 

Let me take this opportunity to proclaim with a loud voice, from this podium, that we are most deeply grateful to you, since, among many other things, you have taught us, and continue to teach us, in word and deed, that very gratitude which is the predominant component of your personality.  Hence, let my address this evening, which centers on gratitude, be viewed as a spiritual repayment to Your Eminence for your untiring toils, during twenty continuous years, for our edification and consolation.  I invoke the protection and strengthening of our Lady Theotokos and our Holy Patrons, Saints Cyprian and Justina, that, by your prayers, I might expound on this subject.

 

I shall, at the onset of my address, pose a crucial question: Is gratitude really a matter of concern in our crisis-ridden era?  Unfortunately, this question is raised not only by worldly people, but also by pious Christians, who not only do not practice gratitude in their lives, but who neither reflect on it nor perceive its absence as a serious deficit.  This constitutes, in the fullest sense of the term, a very grave sin.  How, indeed, is it possible for Christians, who are deemed worthy of the greatest gift—that is, of being members of the Body of Christ—, to be unaware that gratitude is the fundamental hallmark of Orthodox spirituality and an indispensable element of our Christian identity?