[acceraStoof]

I wanted to start a new thread for this but couldn't figure out how to do it.

In a small way it has to do with Shawn's claim that the Orthodox don't know their gospel so I'll post it here.

The orthodox liturgy

Something happened to me this morning and even though it might be inappropriate to mention it, I wanted to share it. The last couple of days I have been part of a discussion started by a poster from another tradition, who claimed that the orthodox are ignorant of the gospel.

Every weekday my husband and I listen to the morning Orthodox liturgy on the radio and this morning while I was listening I was also thinking about some of the things we had been talking about on this thread. A vision/thought came to me. I saw the words of this beautiful liturgy being said all over the world twice a day and at all hours of the day, given the different time zones, going up to heaven. Our liturgy is full of glory to God, of praise, of wonder. The Lord’s prayer, the Creed, the passages from the Holy Gospel and from the Apostles, each day, every day, twice a day.

I listened so carefully this morning to the beautiful words of our Liturgy/Service, and especially, the reverence with which the passages from the New Testament are repeated. I also better understood something Elder Paisios says in one of his books. I’m writing from memory now : he said that monks all over the world, especially those on the Holy Mountain, pray each day, all day, for all the people in the world. This is our Orthodox liturgy.

How someone can say that people who attend church twice a day, as lots of people here in Greece do, who listen carefully to our liturgy twice a day all their lives, can be ignorant of the gospel is obviously an indication of ignorance of this particular situation. This is not the issue however and it is even quite unimportant.

I wanted to post this message because of the joy I am feeling after this experience.

I also thought about the fact that the gospel and apostle passages for that particular day are read but not explained and then realized that people are free to meditate on them all day and come to their own understanding. This is what Christian meditation is - not the eastern version of meditation but our own Christian Orthodox version.

I also wondered if the Roman Catholics celebrate the same liturgy every day, twice a day. I confess that I don't know - and this is an example of my own ignorance.

What a wonderful thing our daily Liturgy is. What a blessing for those who decide to become priests. What a blessing for all of us.

Effie