Deb on the run

Aug. 12, 2006

Afterfeast

Posted in Church life and general ramblings of a Spiritual nature

Last Sunday was The Feast of the Transfiguration. Its one the big Feasts of the Church and as a result, this past week we continued (or were encouraged to continue) to remember this important event in the life of Christ by adding one of the Transfiguration hymns (called a Kontakion) to our prayers.

On the Mountain You were Transfigured, O Christ God,
And Your disciples beheld Your glory as far as they could see it;
So that when they would behold You crucified,
They would understand that Your suffering was voluntary,
And would proclaim to the world,
That You are truly the Radiance of the Father!

When I think of the Transfiguration, I think of St. Peter - trying to DO something.... thats so like a man... and so human. Thinking of this particular passage also, for some very strange reason, reminds me of Sir Ector in Excalibur. My husband and I are probably the only two people on the planet who have seen that movie more than once (I think we're in the double digit ourselves). So I'll setit up.   Arthur has just pulled the sword from the stone and Sir Ector (his adoptive father) walks up and asks,
   "Did you pull the sword from the stone, Arthur?"
    "I did father and I beg your forgiveness." To which, Sir Ector, the fount of elderly wisdom, replies,
    "Well, you must put it back!!".

If I had been there, I'm sure I would have had a "What IS he thinking?" look on my face.

Such a human, earthly response though. The Divine comes thundering into our worlds and its just too much so we respond with the practical: build tents or putting things back where they belong. Totally missing what is really going on.

Tonight at vespers we had the Leavetaking of the Transfiguration. I'm sorry to see this hymn go as I enjoy contemplating it and thinking about all those involved. Did they get it? Did they remember the Transfiguration when He gave Himself up?

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Comments

Aug. 13, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Dixie

Hey Deb, how did you know you were supposed to add the Transfiguration kontakion to your prayers this past week? Did your priest tell you this or do you have some kind of reference book? Where I have been working these past two plus weeks there is no Orthodox church so I haven't been able to go to the Liturgy and learn this. Don't remember it from last year either...but I could have missed that liturgy as well. Anyway...cool to know. (I also didn't know about retiring the trisagon prayer...what ?...during the 40 days after Pascha?...glad you thought to post it.)

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Aug. 14, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by debdillon

Dixie - I learned about the Transfiguration stufff from our Church School coordinator. He sent out an email with information for observing the Transfiguration Feast as a family.

As for the Pascha one- Its not the whole Trisagion prayers that are ommited, only the prayer to the HS that begins "Oh Heavenly King.." But talk about tripping one up! I finally had the Trisagion memorized, and then I had to skip the beginning! :) Anyway, I found information off the interent - perhaps Mimi's blog? or was it Grace's (This Side of Glory)? I can't remember. But, no my priest didn't tell me.

Also, I found this link while preparing this blog entry to be informative: http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/Afterfeast . I am going to go out on a limb to assume that all those listed with Afterfeasts also have a recommended hymn to sing during that time. Of course, don't quote me on this - I'm no Orthodox expert. And just to proove it - after I wrote this blog entry about leaving this hymn behind - what did we sing yesterday during DL??? Transfiguration Kontakion. Show's you how much I know :)

The understanding of time in Orthodoxy is often confusing to me.

Deb

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Aug. 15, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Anonymous

I believe the link was on Grace's blog. It is my understanding that you sing the Troparion during the afterfeast, which is *usually* eight days, but varies from feast to feast. On our church calendar, it will say "Leavetaking of the Feast of...." on it, so I sing the tropar until that date.

It's also something that I've only recently been instituting.

- Mimi

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