Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 21

From a Roman Catholic source:

Agia Sophia

This is a fascinating documentary that I recommend to anyone who--like me--is at all interested in history and architecture, especially the churchy kinds.

A couple things to pay attention to as you watch this: First of all, you will see several beautiful aerial shots of the cathedral as is today; remember that the minarets surrounding it and the huge gold crescent at the peak of its dome were not there when it was built. The dome, of course was topped by a cross.

Also, you may notice the images of seraphim on the pendentives in the interior of the church, just below the dome. These are mosaics that were very recently--like last year!--discovered and exposed. They had, like all the sacred imagery in the church, been plastered over when the Turks took over in 1453. You can read more about them here.

And one last thing. The cathedral is not named in honor of St Sophia.  The word "άγία," although it can be translated as "saint" (which comes from the Latin word "sanctus," meaning "holy"), in this case refers to the Holy Wisdom--or Aγία Σοφία--of God. (see 1Co 1.20, 2.7; James 3.17)

Enjoy.

Contemporvant

I just wanted to remind you of the sorts of cool, relevant things that you will me missing out on when you decide to start attending Orthodox Liturgy.
(from Byzantine, TX)

Mother and Child

Bach: Mass in B Minor

So there we were: Two Orthodox Christians, sitting in a Presbyterian church, listening to an Episcopalian choir performing the music of a Lutheran.

Two Saturdays ago, Kathryn and I saw the Oakland Choral Society (which is not an Episcopal choir, per se, but is populated by some of our Episcopalian friends) perform Bach's Mass in B Minor at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, which is a lovely pseudo-Gothic behemoth next to the War Memorial. (if you were at our wedding reception you now where it is.) It was a beautiful performance of one of my very favorite choral works by my hands-down favorite composer of sacred music. Bach's Mass in B Minor was cobbled together using leftover bits from other discarded works, but, even so, it is so powerful and beautiful that I'm nearly brought to tears every time I hear it.

But for all the many hundreds of times that I have listened to this piece, it never really occured to me to pay much attention to the words. This performance was the first time I had heard it since becoming Orthodox, and as I followed along with the performance I was struck by how closely the words of the Latin Mass match those of portions of the Orthodox liturgical services. In some places it's nearly verbatim.

The words of Bach's Mass are the standard words used in every choral Mass and are, with the exception of the first three lines, in Latin. A choral Mass is typically divided into six sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Angus Dei. Sometimes those are divided further. Here are the sections:

I. Kyrie
Kyrie eleison; Christe eleison; Kyrie eleison
(Lord have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy)

This is the only portion of the Latin Mass that is not in Latin. Rather, it is in Greek, and I have done some research to find out why that is and no one seems to know. But it is a very familiar phrase to anyone who has been to an Orthodox Divine Liturgy, where we say "Lord, Have Mercy" about fifty times throughout the service.

II. Gloria
Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis. Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te, gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam, Domine Deus, Rex cœlestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis; qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus, Iesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

(Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise You, we bless You, we adore You, we glorify You, we give thanks to You for Your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God the Father. Lord Jesus Christ, only begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, who taketh away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us; You who take away the sins of the world, hear our prayers. Who sits at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us. For You are the only Holy One, the only Lord, the only Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father, Amen.)

This section matches almost word-for-word The Great Doxology (from Matins):
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men. We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory. O Lord, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty; O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and O Holy Spirit. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy on us; Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For Thou only art holy; Thou only art the Lord, O Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

III. Credo
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem... (I believe in one God, the Father Almighty...)

This is the Creed (a.k.a., the Nicene Creed, a.k.a., the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) and I won't include the entire thing here. The version used in the Latin Mass is the same one used in all Western (i.e. Roman Catholic and Protestant) churches and matches that used in the East (Orthodox--both Eastern and Oriental--and Byzantine Catholic) except for two elements:

Where the original Creed says "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, true God of true God...," the Latin version adds "God from God" right before "Light of Light.": "Deum de Deo, lumen de lúmine, Deum verum de Deo vero..."

The other addition is that of the Filioque, which the Latin text adds to the line "And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father..." so that it reads "Et in Spíritum Sanctum, Dóminum et vivificántem: Qui ex Patre Filióque procédit."

IV. Sanctus
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth; pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis

(Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts; Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest.)

This section matches the Anaphora from the Divine Liturgy, which is directly following the Creed:
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest!

V. Benedictus
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis

(Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.)

This is simply a continuation of the Anaphora:
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!

VI. Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

(Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.)

This isn't an exact match, but it's pretty close to a repeat of the Great Doxology from Matins:
Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy on us;
Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

Much of this is simply quoting the Bible, so it shouldn't be too surprising that the services match so closely. Here is the final part of Bach's Mass, called Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace), for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.

Making God Seen

The following is from the Protestant Daily Devotions radio ministry:

Cults of personality expand the masks of celebrities into distortions of false perfection. We create demigods from the clay of human beings, and project upon them our own desires of virtue or corruption, imagining them to be impossibly perfect saints or sinners. One can never be wholly either. When the object of a personality cult wields power - political, ideological, or theological - through words, office, or action, then dangers of distortion appear. This is evident when our need for stability crosses paths with a preacher or politician's charisma, projecting to them holiness or perfection that belongs to only God.

We could take a cue from Orthodoxy, whose priests stand with their backs to their congregation, leading a liturgy that is neither clever nor impassioned, but simply beautiful, like stone smoothed by centuries of rhythmic tides. It's an austere ritual, in the sense of - there's nothing new here; it's sublime, in the sense of - creating a clearer view into Heaven. The priest can be any priest. Who he is, what he looks like, how he speaks, and what he thinks matter little. He hasn't written the service that he officiates. It isn't about him or his prowess. He's an interchangeable functionary draped in brocaded robes, obscured by incense, and, as such, never points to himself, a flawed human, pointing ever and only to the Perfection of the Mysterious Divine. That is the role of every priest or preacher - invisibility, while making God seen.