How we live in the Orthodox Church today, we can claim with confidence, is how Orthodox Christians lived a thousand years ago, even beyond. The Apostles trampled the earth after the death and resurrection of Christ harboring in them the experiences and counsel learned through their life with Christ, they learned through the daily witness of three years of His ministry. Mostly everything was given to them in the form of oral tradition, or word of mouth. Stories, commandments, and parables they deciphered through their spiritual state, their repentance, their faith, their observance of Christ. Not only did they have the intellectual knowledge of the Words of Christ, but they also knew how to act and observe with the Mind of the Church.
Today, much of what Christ spoke about has been preserved for us; written down in the Holy Scriptures, in the Traditional Manuscripts of the Church, exemplified by Christ’s saints who lived the same life of the Apostles and then documented this for us as one of the many clouds of witness that help us with our day-to-day as Orthodox Christians as we strive to garner the Mind of the Church.
But are we as observant as the saints and Apostles? When I say Mind of the Church, I must remind the reader that we describe something much vaster than a reasoned understanding of what we need to do. It is how we live and act in our daily interactions with our neighbors, our families, and with each other during Church Services and, especially, right after the Divine Liturgy as we move away from the sanctuary and into the outer parts of the Temple to sit down and have fellowship with each other.
Abbott Silouan of the Monastery of St. Archangel Michael in Cañones, New Mexico speaks to us about the need to understand the Church Temple as a sacred space where we learn the needed response to the hymns, the iconography all around us, the clergy, each other, and most importantly, the center of all of it, the Body and Blood of Christ presented to us in the Chalice as we partake of healing, redemption, and everlasting life. And, how this behavior in Church affects our children, and reflects how we live in the outside world.
He states,
We abuse the souls of children by not instilling attention and reverence in them. Is there a greater tragedy than allowing the corruption of the world to cover over what is godly in them? Sadly, coloring books, toys, and even iPad distract many children from the liturgy’s sacred act, and few be the parents with ample tact to draw them to attention and reverence- the mystic fact. Uncultivated through neglect, and thus unresponsive to sacred space, children are sown with confusion. What is the purpose of the church temple? Perhaps the parents themselves lack catechesis in the mystogogy of rational worship as reason endowed response.
Let us focus on that last sentence. As the adults in this dialogue are we not the ones who bear most responsibility for our children but also our own Orthodox lives? Do we draw ourselves back when we need to refocus on this sacred space? For do not our children look to us to set this example in how we observe the words Christ left to the Apostles, who then left these observances, words, and behaviors to Christ’s Church to preserve? How many of us, both converts and cradle, can list off our intellectual accomplishments in understanding the Church Canons, scolding a priest when he falls short on the internet, our prowess to polemicize with heterodox Christians on the same platform, defend beloved social issues, or defend the nation by debating the other political party that we have an aversion too and swear are trying to destroy our American democracy?
But what should be our priority, and what is the best determiner for our observance of the Mind of the Church? In my experience, our lack of this needed Mind is greatly magnified in our behavior right after the Divine Liturgy ends. The period right after the Divine Services is a crucial period where we should be filled with the silent joy that results from coming face-to-face with the Risen Lord and partaking of His Body in Blood. Instead, how many of us rush straight out the doors of the Temple ready for the next event, getting the prepared food in the coffee hour area? I ask, what greater food is there than the One we just consumed during the Divine Liturgy? Is it not better for us to exemplify further observance of this event, in the meantime, being an example to our children by praying the end of service prayers of thanksgiving? And of course, priests and deacons can help with this by not scheduling Sunday School right after services, which gives parents and children opportunity to bolt out the door and lose all trace of what just occurred. Also, it may be helpful for priests not to hold a long, drawn-out announcement period right after the end of the service where the church atmosphere turns into a comedy show, transforming the temple into an entertainment venue losing all trace of the Grace that exists right after the Sanctification of the Gifts, and the Angels of the Lord that are present with us still during this time.
But what about coffee hour? Now this may look differently for different parishes, but we should look at how we conduct ourselves in the little things during this time to see if our behavior and observance meets the Mind of the Church. The food and drink we partake in during coffee hour is just an extension of the Diving Liturgy and Who was consumed during the Divine Services. The importance of coffee hour is not whether we get something to eat, but rather the time spent with our brothers and sisters in continuation of the joyous fest of the Lord. It’s not meant to be a moment where we change our mindset and start observing the world. And for most of us, it is not meant to be a time where the number one priority is to rush in line and fill our plates with food. Alas, it may be a time to focus on our brothers or sisters who may need to eat something due to a faintheart, or because they are pregnant, or most importantly, to think of potential parishioners who may not have the opportunity to eat as many meals during the day as you do. Do these things cross our mind as we move towards the food table? Are we thinking of each other or are we thinking with the old American attitude of taking care of number one – a sacred space of Christ where we are commanded to serve the least of these and love our neighbors transformed into that of a lab where only the fittest to survive get to eat.
And finally, brothers and sisters, our words. What do we talk about during coffee hour? Let us be mindful of the words that come from our lips during this period. The period right after church is not a time where we move to the worldly realm of conversation, or even a period where we as Orthodox Christians look to move into a deep conversation about Church theology if it means ignoring others or not listening to each other. I am guilty of all of this myself. So, I do not type these words lightly.
Coffee hour may be the only period during our busy week we have to see our Church family, and time is better served in finding someone you may not have spoken too in a long time, someone you notice is new to the parish, or someone you see is alone and may be having a hard time. Just asking them how they are doing and then sitting there in silence and listening.
As Abbott Silouan ends in his encyclical,
Yet, our life is constant repentance, re-orientating our minds on high. Be it the monk continually pulling his mind back to attention, or a parent his children back to reverence, the energy of repentance is one. Let us all daily dive deeper into the virtues of reverence and attention: the two eyes of the soul without which the inner man will remain blind. May we help our children attain unto spiritual vision by drawing them then into the glorious light of attention. May we always preserve their longing to go to church because how we act and move there is different – because God is there.
Let us strive to remain in our sacred space as long as we can to maintain the Mind of the Church in the little things.
Brothers and sisters, let us start small but aim big. Be merciful to each other and yourselves. There is an even greater need today to help our mission priests as they work in the Lord to be an example to us in the Mind of the Church and create even more sacred spaces. Please give generously to Share the Faith. May the Risen Lord be merciful to all of us!
Reverend Deacon Christopher Purdef.
