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Forgotten Catechetics We Sould Know as Orthodox Christians while Attending Church
By Very Rev. Alexander Kile, Archimandrite
The purpose of Catechetics (Greek Orthodox Religious Education) is to help build up the Body of Christ by nurturing every Christian in the life of personal communion with the Holy Trinity and our continual spiritual development toward Theosis.
Catechetics encompasses every aspect of Christian Orthodox life. From the home to the parish, from youth work to every aspect of adult church community activity, the "holy work" of religious education under-girds the continuing spiritual development of Orthodox Christians of every age.
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The Church
THE CHURCH is the Temple of God, the House of God where the Holy Spirit lives and dwells in it since its consecration. It is a Holy place that is why we have to be very respectful while we are in the House of God. We should also be dressed appropriately. His precious Body and Blood are in the Tabernacle 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
This is the reason that we cross ourselves when we pass from an Orthodox Church. This is also the place where people enroll in Christianity, through baptism and become a member of the Body of Christ.
This is the place where Christians come to save their souls and find refuge and comfort to their personal problems.
This is the factory of prayer and rescue of sins of every Christian soul. That is why we have to be respectful and walk in it with great respect and fear of God.
The Church has three parts:
The Narthex (Narthicas)
The First part of the Church where a few icons stand.
The Pangari, the furniture from where we purchase the candles, is also located here.
Always on the right of the Narthex stands the icon of the Virgin Mary and to the left the Patron Saint of the church. Also on the right, is the stand holding the icon of the feast of the day, and on Sundays, the icon depicting the Gospel, which is put there during the matins service.
The Main Church
The second part is the Main Church, which represents the faithful Christians on this world who pray to God. The Main Church is divided to 2 spaces.
The first space of the Main Church is where the seats are, where the faithful stand and follow the services and pray.
The second space is called the SOLEA. It is the space where all the sacraments and processions take place. In the Solea the throne of the Bishop is located to the right, on the left, the pulpit where the Gospel is read when there is a deacon or a Bishop in the Divine Liturgy, and the stand for the chanters.
The Altar (IERON VEEMA)
The Third part is the Altar (IERON VEEMA) representing the Heaven. It is separated from the Solea with an icon screen, which is called ICONOSTASION. The icon screen has 3 doors. The Center door is called the Royal Door; only clergy can pass through the Royal Door; on the left and on the right are two doors depicting the icons of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel as guardians to the Gates of Heaven. On the top of the Icon screen is the sign of the Cross. Under the Cross are the icons depicting the main events in the life of Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. On the top of the Royal Door is the icon of the Last Supper giving the message that this is the place where the Last Supper takes place every Divine Liturgy. At the old churches under the icon of the Last Supper at the top arch of the Royal Door a sun shaped icon hangs. In the center of this icon an eye is depicted. It is the eye of God that sees everything on the world. This comes from the beginning of the Old Testament, from the story of Cain and God in the book of Genesis. Facing the Altar on the right of the Royal door, is the icon of Jesus Christ, He sat at the Right Hand of the Father, and next to Him is always the icon of Saint John the Baptist, who Baptized Him. On the left side of the Royal Door is the icon of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus Christ and next to Her on Her right is the icon of the Saint or the event to which the Church is dedicated.
In the center of the Altar is the Altar table, which represents the tomb of a martyr. A martyr is a person who died by shedding his /her blood for the Christian faith. Relics of the martyrs are kept in a special compartment of this Altar table, which has on it the Gospel Book representing Christ. The Tabernacle holding the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and candles are also on the Altar table. Behind the Altar are the fans representing the great angels Cherubim and Heroubim who fly around the throne of God. There is a big Crucifix just behind the altar table to remind us of the extreme sacrifice of the Son of God on Golgotha. With His Holy and Precious Blood He washed the sins of the world, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
On the left side is the Oblation table (Proskomidi) representing the cave of Bethlehem and that is where the icon of the Nativity is placed. In this place the priest prepares the communion; behind it is the place where he washes his hands before preparing the Holy Communion. Therefore every part of the Church is considered Holy Ground.
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The Candles
The candles represent the sacrifice that we do for God; before Christ people slaughtered animals as a sacrifice.
With the ressurection of Christ, the sacrifice is represented with the purchase of a candle for the health of each member of the family or friend. Also we light candles for the soul of a deceased Orthodox person.
With this purchase you give something of your own to God, and at the same time you help the House of God, which is explained in the New Testament by St. Paul the Disciple. When Christians go into the church, they buy and light several candles which also represent the light of Christ and the hope of everlasting life. When we light a candle, we pray for the person for whom we lit it for. So the candles have to be respected and to let them burn for respected times.
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The Icons
Icons are painted pictures which depict an event from the life of Christ or the portrait of a person who reached sainthood. We do not worship them but just venerate them and pray on them. They are also called "windows to heaven". During the course of the history of the church some icons became miraculous because of the miracles they performed through the command of God. The veneration of the icons has been in practice from the first day of Christianity; the catacomb walls are filled with frescoes.
The veneration of icons was also confirmed with the decision of the VIIth Ecumenical Synod in VIIIth century. We do not worship icons, we only venerate them with faith, great respect and pray on them.
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The Matins Gospel
On Sundays during the Matins service the priest reads the Gospel that explains the Resurrection of Christ. After that the priest comes through the Royal Doors into the Solea and holds the Gospel to the side that has the icon of the Resurrection.
The faithful come to worship and venerate the Resurrection of Christ, because every Sunday, except for Palm Sunday, is considered Easter in the Orthodox Faith. After people have venerated the Gospel Book, the priest takes it in procession and places It on a stand in the Narthex for whoever comes to the church to venerate the Resurrection of Christ.
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SE YMNOUMEN, SE EVLOGHOUMEN (We Praise Thee, We Bless Thee)
It is a very important Hymn during the Divine Liturgy where the priest prays and asks the descent of the Holy Spirit to transform the bread into the Body of Christ and the wine into the Blood of Christ.
Through his priestly power, He blesses the tray and the cup and then he kneels. The entire congregation also kneels and prays and asks for any good thing from the power of the Holy Spirit, which descends from Heaven and changes the bread and the wine and jumps from the Altar table to the congregation and blesses them.
Some canons of the Church forbid kneeling on Sundays because Christ is Resurrected, as we do not kneel from Easter until the Day of the Pentecost.
In America, since the time of Archbishop Athenagoras, it has become tradition for the faithful to kneel on Sundays during this Holy moment. The reason for this is that our people work and do not have the chance to attend the Divine Liturgy during the week therefore we can kneel on Sundays. The Exception is during the Pentecost.
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The kissing of the right hand of the Clergy
This is a tradition that comes to us from the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament people kissed the hands of their father out of respect and of the Rabies', as chosen people of God. In the New Testament people kissed the hands of the disciples, priests and deacons because they carried the power of the Holy Spirit through their priesthood from the day of their ordination. Another reason the faithful kissed the priests' hand was because they used their hand to distribute the Holy Communion. That is why by kissing the hand of a clergy we show our respect to the Holy Spirit, which is carried by the clergy. Kissing the hand of the priest has nothing to do with the personality or character of the person who is clergy. That is another kind of respect.
Especially we must kiss the hand of the Bishop, who carries the Apostolic Succession. We never shake hands with a clergy. By doing so we express that we do not recognize his power of forgiving sins and blessing, which is clearly written in the Gospel, so we do not believe in Jesus Christ's teachings. The shaking of hands belongs to the secular world, not in the ecclesiastical world.
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When do I Cross myself?
During the Divine Liturgy when we hear the mentioning of the Holy Trinity (The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), which is usually the conclusion of a petition, we do our cross.
Also, we cross ourselves when we sing the Hymn or we recite Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal. We bow our heads when the priest or the bishop is blessing us with his hand or cross. Also we cross ourselves when we venerate an icon, the Gospel, the Holy Cross or a relic of a Saint. We never cross our selves when we kiss the hand of a clergy.
We cross ourselves when we wake up and say our morning prayers, and before and after any meal, when we leave our house for the first time in the day, when we start our car, when we enter into an Orthodox Church, when we pay a visit to a Christian grave at the cemetery, when the epitaphios procession passes, when the Holy Communion passes in front of us during the Great Entrance in the Divine Liturgy, when we hear the Hymn "Christ is Risen…", whenever the name of the Virgin Mary is mentioned during services or sacraments. Also when we say our prayers before going to sleep at night.
As Orthodox Christians we should know these things and talk to and teach them to our children. When we attend the Divine Liturgy we should participate by opening the book of Divine Liturgy, which is located on the pews, and pray at the same time.
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Holy Communion
I hear that some people, especially concerned mothers, do not bring their children to receive communion because they are scared of different diseases. The Orthodox Church uses one Holy Spoon and one Holy Chalice to distribute the Holy Body and Holy Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we do not believe that we are receiving the same Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, then we are not worthy to receive Holy Communion.
At the Last Supper our Lord took the bread and said:"THIS IS MY BODY WHICH IS BROKEN FOR YOU AND FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS" then he took the cup with the wine and said:" THIS IS MY BLOOD WHICH IS SHED FOR YOU FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS". ALSO He said: "DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME".
He gave this message to the disciples and through the disciples to the clergy to perform the Holy Communion for the faithful Christians to be united in Him. So at the end of the Divine Liturgy we do not receive bread and wine but the real BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. The bread and the wine are transformed into Christ during the Divine Liturgy with the power of the Holy Spirit.
That is why we fast and we go to confession in order to cleanse ourselves from every sin in order to receive Jesus Christ in us and be united with Him.
If the concern of these people were true, then we would not have any clergy left alive now and in the history of the HOLY Church because at the end of the Divine Liturgy the priest consumes everything that is left in the Holy Chalice.
There have been instances in which priests in the hospital have given Holy Communion to patients dying with AIDS and other diseases and still consumes the rest of the prepared Holy Communion and nothing has happened to any of the clergy.
SO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE RECEIVING THE REAL BODY AND BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE HOLY COMMUNION. This is the command of our Lord who instituted the Divine Liturgy and the Holy Communion at the Last Supper, as His Last will to the Disciples and to all Christians before His Crucifixion and death. At his first appearance after HIS GLORIOUS Resurrection He gave two commands to the disciples to forgive or retain the sins and to go all over the world to preach whatever He taught them and Baptize them in the Name of the Holy Trinity. In His teaching the Last Supper is His Last will before sacrificing Himself for the sins of the world.
So even to think of it is considered a sin, because we question and do not believe the teachings of the Son of God.
May His Name be glorified forever and ever Amen
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