In the last issue of this article, I introduced the Mystagogical Catechesis attributed to St. Cyril and indicated that the last two lectures, given to new converts after their initiation into the Church, dealt with the Eucharist. In these two … Continue reading
Category Archives: Learning About the Practices of Our Religion
After Constantine established the New Rome – Constantinople – the Great Church of the capital, Holy Wisdom, became the center of ecclesiastical and liturgical influence. The rite of the Great Church gradually spread further afield to become, by the end … Continue reading
In the fourth century, while Arians rallied around appropriate slogans such as ‘There was a time when he (the Son) was not’, the defenders of what was to be defined as true doctrine were led by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, … Continue reading
Origen’s teaching about the Christian mystery and the Liturgy is the soil from which grew one strand in the Byzantine tradition of liturgical interpretation. Developed by Dionysius the Areopagite in the fifth century and Maximus the Confessor in the seventh, … Continue reading
To the third century, if not earlier, may be traced the roots of that symbolic interpretation of the Liturgy which was to become an integral part of the Byzantine tradition. The third-century Alexandrian theologian Origen, building upon an earlier tradition, … Continue reading
Till the fourth century portraits of Christ were rare. The earliest iconographic representations seem to have been of the apostles, especially of Peter and Paul, though Christ was shown in scenes from the Gospels. Towards the end of the third … Continue reading
The ceremonies of the Great Water-Blessing took hundreds of years to develop. The primary prayer for the blessing of water is from Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (+641). The form of the rite was developed between the 14th to 16th centuries. … Continue reading
In the last issue of this article I began sharing thought about the birth of Icongraphy. Sometimes the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist were depicted but usually in a rather allusive manner. Certain scenes from the Old and New … Continue reading