Back to the future
Or at least the present. It's been a busy two weeks. We started the adult education program at church and that has been a bit of a challenge. Next week my wife and I are presenting on the Orthodox understanding of marriage. It feels a little strange, only having been married about eight months, but there are two things to keep in mind.
First, we are not supposed to talk as experts, but as people walking the same path towards Christ. It is not different, in a way, from giving presentations on any theological topic: as seminarians we may know more 'theology' than the average parishioner, but we most often lack the life experience that most parishioners have. All we can do is give them the theology and given them examples from the little experience that we do have of how we made tried to live the theology we know. Which brings me to the second thing to remember. We have only been married a bit over eight months, but it has been a journey of over five years to get here and it had plenty of difficult moments along the way. By the grace of God, we made it through them all.
One final thought. I just noticed that I said "celebrate the start of Lent." A Freudian slip, if I ever saw one :)
First, we are not supposed to talk as experts, but as people walking the same path towards Christ. It is not different, in a way, from giving presentations on any theological topic: as seminarians we may know more 'theology' than the average parishioner, but we most often lack the life experience that most parishioners have. All we can do is give them the theology and given them examples from the little experience that we do have of how we made tried to live the theology we know. Which brings me to the second thing to remember. We have only been married a bit over eight months, but it has been a journey of over five years to get here and it had plenty of difficult moments along the way. By the grace of God, we made it through them all.
One final thought. I just noticed that I said "celebrate the start of Lent." A Freudian slip, if I ever saw one :)
posted by Virgil Petrisor at 8:12 PM
2 Comments:
Don’t bother. I could read on CNN’s news bar on the Good Friday Day that “today Christians all over the world are celebrating the crucification and death of Jesus”. And, you can bet, that is not a Freudian slip at all.
That is an interesting way for a news organization to present Good Friday. As for me, I love the lenten period. It is a period of penitence, of added services, of fasting, of extra temptations even, but the light of Pascha - at least in my limited experience and understanding - penetrates through. It is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. It is also much more than that, because it is not a distant light (although in time it may not be here) but one that shines, if you will, from inside as well as all around us. At the presanctified liturgies we celebrate during Great Lent, the priest at one point chants "The light of Christ enlightens all." It is with that sort of view that, even though it is not euphoric, I tend to think of the great lent as a celebration nonetheless.
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