Click here for the September 30, 2018 Bulletin

STANDING GUARD AT THE DOOR OF OUR HEARTS…

In the Russian tradition of Holy Orthodoxy, it is customary to carve on the back of wooden crosses or engrave on the back of metal ones, the prayer “Save and Protect” (“Spasi i Sokhrani”). On the instrument which won our salvation and forgiveness from sin, the prayer illustrates that the Cross’ efficacy continues to this day. Its power to save us and to protect us is still offered by its Victim over against the deceptive lure of the world, its clever promises of pseudo-happiness and contentment and the danger of life lived “fully” — but lived without God.  This and other perils were clearly part of the experience of the holy Apostle Paul as he traveled preaching the Gospel “on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the heathen, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, and danger from the teaching of false brethren.” (2 Corinthians 11:26)  Seen or unseen, hidden or in plain sight, there are real dangers that threaten the spiritual life of the Christian disciple today, indeed, threaten all well-meaning human persons who search in their hearts, perhaps unknown to them, for the God who can bring peace to their existential restlessness. It is ultimately the threat of life lived without ultimate meaning and purpose – it is life lived as empty.
 
At the beginning and end of October, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Protection of the Theotokos. (Protecting Veil of the Theotokos)  In the Russian tradition it is celebrated on October 1 and in the Greek tradition on October 28. The event commemorated occurred in 911 AD at the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Blachernae in Constantinople. The city was in great fear and under siege by invaders. On October 1, during the All-Night Vigil for Sunday, in the presence of hundreds of people, St. Andrew the Fool-for-Christ, a well-known ascetic, lifted up his eyes and saw the Heavenly Queen, the Protectress of the whole world, standing in the air and praying, and covering the people with her omophorion (in Russian, Pokrov (Покров), in Greek Skepi (Σκέπη). Seeing this, St. Andrew said to his disciple, St. Epiphanios: “Do you see, brother, the Queen and Mistress of all, praying for the entire world?” Epiphanios replied: “I see, holy father, and I tremble.”  The Protecting Veil of the Theotokos, seen only by these two ascetics, symbolized for those in that historic Church and in the city, a covering, a hiding place, a protection from all danger and peril. From that point on, the Mother of God became known as the “Protectress” of the Church, the one who guards the souls and bodies of each member, the one who, as we implore at Divine Liturgy of the feast to: “Protect us with thy precious Veil and deliver us from every ill, by entreating Christ, Thy Son and our God, to save our souls.” (Apolytikion, Protection of the Theotokos, Tone 4) 
 
These sentiments echo the oldest surviving prayer to the Theotokos that was discovered in Egypt some 100 years ago. It was a prayer from the latter part of the 2nd century, approximately 100 years after the last Gospel, by St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, was written: “We turn to you for protection, holy Theotokos. Listen to our prayers and help us in our needs. Save us from every danger, glorious and blessed Virgin.” Even the ancient Church of Christ knew well that after Him, the Mother of God could offer protection and defense from the spiritual and temporal threats to us. Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-+604) was said to have carried the Icon of the Holy Protection through the streets of Rome to ask for an end to an outbreak of the plague.  In the Patristic tradition, the Theotokos was a refuge, a “port in the storm”, the New Eve, and a sentry who stood watch over the hearts of the disciples of her Son. It is here we see yet another facet of her life.  St. Irenaeus of Lyons writes in Against the Heresies the following: “And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.  For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.”  The Holy Mother of God’s protection from danger and threats comes because she is “the undoer of knots.” She has a hand in unbinding what paralyses us and unraveling the stranglehold our passions have on us. Why? Because as the great Irenaeus tells us, she was a woman of extraordinary faith. It was this ability that drew even the unsuspected to her and would move poets like William Wordsworth to pen: “Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrossed with the least shade of thought to sin allied. Woman! above all women glorified, our tainted nature’s solitary boast.” (from The Virgin)
 
Mary’s quiet presence in the Gospels reveals her truest work. When told by the Archangel Gabriel that she would bear a son who would snatch all people from the jaws of sin and death, she did not allow the puzzle to thwart her submission and her joy – “Be it done unto me according to thy word.” When the young Jesus was lost and in the Temple, teaching His elders, Mary’s personal anxiety did not get in the way of her deference to the mission and ministry of Jesus. When at the wedding at Cana, she told the stewards to “Do whatever He tells you”, again, her attitude of submission saved embarrassment for the wedding couple and caused Jesus to miraculously change water into wine. At the foot of the Cross she stood in silence, remembering the words of the aged Simeon: “A sword of sorrow will pierce thy heart.” (Lk. 2:35) She stood, she mourned, she gave God back His only Son.  Mary always knew how to smooth the way, remove obstacles, and undo the knots in people’s lives. St. Dimitry of Rostov aptly describes it: “The most blessed Protectress hastens to us to help us in the most difficult times, when destruction is come upon us, and she guards us from the deceptive sheen of briefly sparkling worldly vanity, from the voices of pride and vainglory, from the storm of the passions….in moments of peril the speedy Helper of the Christian race guards and protects us with her invisible intercession.” (from a Sermon of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God)
 
Have you ever stopped to think about Mary as YOUR protector and guardian of your heart and soul? What are the “knots” in your life that keep you from genuine happiness? Family discord? Parent/child conflict? Personal sins or habits? Deep hurts between husband and wife? A gnawing sense of shame or guilt? The absence of peace in your home? A feeling of estrangement from God?  Daily anxieties and worries? Physical illness or emotional stress? The pain of loneliness?  All of us have some kind of “knot” in our lives that cries out for undoing.  St. Nicholas of Ochrid teaches us what we need to do: “The Most Pure Mother of God, through her appearance in glory and light, with her Protecting Veil, protects all who run to her with tears, prayer, and faith. She appeared and she still appears in order to open our spiritual eyes in faith.” (from a Sermon on the Day of the Protection of the Theotokos)  Tears, prayer and faith — bring them to your Protectress, to the one who knew the pain of discipleship, who, as a human person, believed in and submitted to God’s will for her life. Persistently call upon her and believe that, slowly but surely, those knots will undo, untangle, unravel and you can then feel the joy of the Living God deep in your heart and soul. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ!  
 
Faithfully your servant,Fr. Dimitrios