On this, the 7th Sunday of Pascha, we commemorate the three hundred eighteen God-bearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council held in Nicaea of Bithynia (Asia Minor). We also remember the translation of the relics of St. Theodore the General (319), St. Theodore of Rostov (1023), the finding of the relics of Sts. Basil and Constantine, princes of Yaroslavl (13th c.), St. Ephraim, Patriarch of Antioch (545), Venerable Zosimas of Phoenicia (Syria, 6th c.), the glorification of St. John of Kronstadt. Sixth Tone.
To make the Sign of the Cross, we put the fingers of our right hand together as follows: We bring the tips of the first three fingers together (the thumb, index and middle ones), and bend the last two (the "ring" and little fingers) against the palm.
The first three fingers together express our faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as the Trinity one in essence and indivisible, and the two fingers bent show how the Son of God, when He came down from Heaven, being God, became man; that is, they signify His two natures - divine and human.
In order to make the sign of the Cross, with our fingers in this position, we touch our forehead, for the blessing of our mind, our stomach, for the blessing of our internal feelings, then our right and left shoulders, for the blessing of our bodily strength.
The sign of the Cross gives us great strength to repel and conquer evil and to do good, but we must remember to make the sign of the Cross correctly and without haste, otherwise it will not be the sign of the Cross, but just waving our hand around, which only gladdens the demons. By making the sign of the Cross carelessly we show a lack of reverence for God. (From The Law of God, by Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy, published by Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, pp. 23-24.)
In order to express to God our reverence before Him and our worship of Him, during prayer we stand, and do not sit; only the sick and elderly are allowed to pray sitting down.
In recognizing our sinfulness and unworthiness before God, and as a sign of our humility, we make bows during prayers. There are bows from the waist, when we bow from the waist, and to the ground, when we bow down on our knees and touch our head to the ground (a prostration). (Ibid., p. 25.)
The clergy (that is, specially ordained people who celebrate the Divine Services) are our spiritual fathers. Bishops and priests sign us with the sign of the Cross. This is called a blessing.
When the priest blesses us, he forms the Greek letters IC XC, that is, Jesus Christ, with the fingers of his hand. This means that through the priest our Lord Jesus Christ Himself blesses us. Therefore, we must receive the blessing of the clergy with reverence.
When we hear in church the words of blessing, "Peace unto all" and others, in reply to them we should bow without making the sign of the Cross.
In order to receive a personal blessing from a bishop or a priest, we should place our hands in the form of a cross: the right hand on the left with the palms upward. When we have received the blessing we kiss the hand that blesses us - we kiss, as it were, the invisible hand of Christ the Saviour Himself. (Ibid., p. 36)
We must go to church and we must go at least every Sunday and feast day. Going to church is not something we do when it is convenient or when we feel like it. It is a basic of the faith and we must practice it regularly.
We must go to church to pray. It is easy to do the right thing for the wrong reason - to go to church to enjoy the social contact or coffee hour. But we are called to church to form the body of Christ, to worship God, and to pray for the entire world. When the priest says the litanies for the bishops, the president, travelers, good weather, etc., we must participate in the prayer by responding with "Lord, have mercy."
The Orthodox Church is not just a "house of prayer;" it is a temple of God. It is where we offer the holy sacraments. God is always present in church, in the reserved sacrament kept on the Holy Table. The angels and saints are there too. As St. John of Kronstadt said, "The church is heaven upon earth; for where the throne of God is, where the awesome sacraments are celebrated, where the angels serve together with man, ceaselessly glorifying the Almighty, there is truly heaven." It is true that we can pray anywhere, but it is also true that the church is God's house and we must go to church to pray before His Holy Altar. (Adapted from an article by the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania.)
The Holy Sacraments have been given to us by God for our spiritual nourishment and salvation. They are administered by the Church. Our whole life must be centered around the Church and receiving the sacraments. We must participate in Confession and Holy Communion as often as possible; we must receive the sacrament of marriage when we wish to marry; we must have our children baptized and Chrismated; and we must receive Holy Unction when we are ill.
It is our responsibility to receive the sacraments with preparation, humility, and reverence. Again quoting St. John of Kronstadt, "Reverence with all the powers of your soul all the sacraments. Say to yourself in respect of every sacrament before the celebration or communion of it, 'This is God's mystery - I myself am only the unworthy witness or partaker of it.'"
We cannot neglect receiving the sacraments - the gifts God has given us. It is not appropriate to say, "No, thank you" to God. (Ibid.)
The proper preparation for receiving Holy Communion is (1) to go to Confession; (2) to fast from midnight on from all food and drink; (3) to be at peace with all men; and (4) carefully and prayerfully to read the Service of Preparation for Holy Communion from an Orthodox Prayer Book. (For those who commune frequently, it is sufficient to have come to Confession within the last four to six weeks.) Also, after we receive Holy Communion, we must read the Prayers of Thanksgiving after Holy Communion from an Orthodox Prayer Book.
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
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; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father; by Whom all things were made;
Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from the heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man; And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried; And arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures; And ascended into the heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; And shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life; Who proceedeth from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the prophets. In One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the age to come. Amen.
+ If one tenet of catholic dogma were renounced, another, then another, and finally one after the other would be abandoned, first by custom then by right. . . . On the other hand, once there is a beginning of mixing new with the old, foreign ideas with genuine, and profane elements with sacred, this habit will creep in everywhere, without check. In the end, nothing in the Church will be left untouched, unimpaired, unhurt, and unstained.
The Church of Christ, the zealous and cautious guardian of the dogma deposited with it, never changes any phrase of them. It does not diminish them or add to them; it neither trims what seems unnecessary nor grafts things superfluous; it neither gives up its own nor usurps what does not belong to it. But it devotes all its diligence to one aim: to treat Tradition faithfully and wisely; to nurse and polish what from old times may have remained unshaped and unfinished; to consolidate and to strengthen what was already clear and plain; and to guard what already was confirmed and defined.
- St. Vincent of Lerins (5th c.)