Wonder Volume 4: Number 8
Church - Not Just a Sunday Thing
In our increasingly hectic lives, many Christians struggle constantly with the temptation to relegate religious worship and participation in Church to small, carefully boxed-off locations in our lives - generally Sunday morning. This is an unfortunate state of affairs for the human person, which Fr Alexander Schmemann once described primarily as worshiping beings (homo adorans). More concerning still is the general lack of awareness that many of us have of the depth and complexity of worship within the Church. Few Orthodox Christians know of the many other services that the Church celebrates, and fewer still feel comfortable enough with the non-Sunday services to participate in them. In this month’s edition of Wonder, four authors examine various non-Eucharistic celebrations. These include the All-Night Vigil, the Paraklesis, the Weekly Cycle within the Church calendar, and a brief overview of the relationship between Sabbath and Sunday. We hope that these reflections will foster within the readers a comfort and familiarity with the broader cycle of worship within the Church, so that each of us can engage with the rhythm of prayer and worship that the Church unceasingly keeps.
Participating in the Resurrection: The All-Night Vigil
Dn Gregory Ealy
Paraklesis: Ill am I in body; Ill am I also in soul
Ms Christina Andresen
The Weekly Cycle
Mr Brad Vien
The Weekend Predicament
Dn Jason Ketz
More information about the authors is available here.