One of the nice things about attending a church that is physically so much smaller than the one I've been attending is that a) line of sight is *excellent* and b) I can hear things that I might not necessarily hear in a larger church building.
There are, during both the Mass and the Divine Liturgy, prayers that the priests say in a 'low voice'. You know, quietly, and not loudly for the congregation to hear. It's not like they're secrets, or anything, the text for the Mass can be found online, or in different missals, etc. However, at Holy Trinity, Fr. Ioannis says some of them loudly enough that everyone hears (I sometimes wonder if he forgets about the mic attached to his vestments), but only some of them. And anyway, even the ones that he says quietly, the room is small enough that even in the last pew you can hear him.
So, something struck me on Sunday. You'll know how you can read and hear something over and over again, but then something about it will suddenly just stick out and you think, 'huh. has that been there the whole time?' Listening to Fr. Ioannis on Sunday, one of the 'quiet' prayers during the Anaphora, something stood out. Here's the text of that prayer:
'Together with these blessed powers, merciful Master, we also proclaim and say: You are holy and most holy, You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit. You are holy and most holy, and sublime is Your glory. You so loved Your world that You gave Your only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. He came and fulfilled the divine plan for us. On the night when He was delivered up, or rather when He gave Himself up for the life of the world, He took bread in His holy, pure, and blameless hands, gave thanks, blessed, sanctified, broke and gave it to His holy disciples and apostles, saying:'
The bit that stuck out, as silly as this may seem, is the 'Your world'. Which, I mean, it's true, but we never really think about it, do we? We think of it as 'the' world. Something that God made so He'd have some place to put us, and stuff for us to interact with. And we sort of feel like we own it. But we don't, not really. Everything is basically on *loan* to us.
It's God's world, we just live here.
"And we sort of feel like we own it. But we don't, not really. Everything is basically on *loan* to us.
ReplyDeleteIt's God's world, we just live here. "
So true! I wonder if we got over this attachment of thinking of things are "ours" if we would be more generous and caring and giving and maybe take better care of the earth. We are stewards rather than owners.
This reminds me a bit of my post where I likened God to "the State." My thought was that even life is God's and life is on loan from God so if we sin against another , we are ultimately sinning against God. This is why in my mind, God can forgive ALL sins and there aren't some He cannot forgive unless the wronged one forgives first (as the Quran teaches).
This post reminded me of that thought...it all belongs to Him. We can't even sustain ourselves without Him making our brains work, our hearts pump blood, our lungs to breath in and out. Awesome God!
*nods* See, I knew you'd get it! :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I get it too! Hallelu Yah!
ReplyDeletecaraboska,
ReplyDeleteI actually thought about you when I had this thought. It reminded me of the post I did a while back about the horror of thinking that we cease to exist after we die, and you said something about how it was only horrific if you don't understand, deeply, how God didn't *have* to give us life in the first place. (I paraphrase of course.) I think I might understand what you were saying just a little bit better now. :) I learn *so much* from you, my dear.