29 May 2007

On Prayer and the Monarchy of the Father

First, the caveat: I confess the Athanasian Creed. I believe that in this Trinity none is greater or less than another.

And yet I also note that Scripture is very clear about the Monarchy of the Father - one thinks of 1 Cor. 15 among other passages.

What I have found striking is this: the Son prays, for He lives to intercede for us. The Spirit prays for us with groans to deep for words. To whom do they pray if not to the person of the Father? But Scripture nowhere depicts the Father as praying; the very notion makes no sense. He is the recipient of all prayer: both ours and the prayers raised by the Second and Third Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

Thus one is struck with how the Church quite naturally prays to the Father in the liturgy - overwhelmingly so. Not that there is not historic prayer to the Son (the "stir up" collects of Advent) or to a lesser extent to the Holy Spirit (the frequent plea for Him to "come" in the hymns for Pentecost) or even naming all three persons (the collect for this coming Sunday), but that these others have nowhere near the frequency of our liturgical prayers addressed to the Father.

In this the Church's prayer confesses the order of our salvation, for it was the Father who sent the Son into the flesh and it was the Son who sent the Spirit from the Father who brings us to the Son to receive His gifts that He might at last present us to the Father. The Father is thus source and goal, and we are then given the shocking and glorious insight that we are being invited into is nothing less than the inner-life of the Trinity, that our prayer be offered through the Son and in the Spirit (and thus with the Second and Third Persons) to the Father.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now my ruby hatpin has had to join its fellow back in the pincushion without having seen action.

love,
Anastasia

P.S. The majority of Orthodox prayers, ISTM, are to the Holy Trinity.

Fraser Pearce said...

Dear Pr Weedon,

How things seem to you seem to me.

I'm not expert on Eastern Orthodox prayer, but I note that at the consummation of the Holy Eucharist (that is, right before the holy, holy - and so at that point where it seems to me we are at the epicenter of the Church's liturgy) they pray like we do in the West -to God the Father (the Thou in the prayer is, unless I'm mistaken, God the Father). Naturally their prayer is, like ours, Trinitarian. Perhaps Anastasia or others may have a comment as to whether this 'consummation' prayer is in fact a particularly significant one for the Orthodox. (Also: what is ISTM?)

You may also be interested to note that the Catholics, in the catechism (quoting the Council of Toledo VI), refer to the Father as 'the source and origin of the whole divinity'. This seems to go along with what you wrote.

In Christ,

Fraser

William Weedon said...

ISTM = It seems to me

Anonymous said...

Hello, Fraser,

Yes, that prayer ais addressed to the Father.

Notice, though, it is immediately preceded by, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you."

And the prayer itself include two Trinitarian references, as well: "Thou art the same from everlasting to everlasting, Thou, and Thine only-begotten Son, and Thy Holy Spirit..."

And, "We give thanks unto Thee, and unto Thine only-begotten Son, and unto Thy Holy Spirit..."

Then comes the Holy, holy, holy, which clearly refers to the Trinity, but with emphasis upon the Son, when we get to, "Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord...

love,
Anastasia

Anonymous said...

Oops, sorry, Frazer, I seem to have answered a question you didn't ask, and to have left the one you did ask unanswered!

You wanted to know whether this prayer is of particular significance to the Orthodox. Well, yes, it is, but for us the "centerpiece" comes aferwards, at the Epiclesis, when we invoke the Holy Spirit to come down upon the gifts of bread and wine and make them into the Body and Blood of Christ.

We believe that is when and how the miracle happens. The Holy Spirit does it in answer to all our prayers.

Not the priest does it by quoting Christ, nor yet Christ's words do it when a priest quotes them. Such a notion, which sounds a bit magical to our ears, is like the filioque in being very convenient for Rome, as it enhances the power of her clergy, and in turn, of the pope.

Some of us super-suspicious Orthodox, like me, even tend to think that's probably *why* such a notion was introduced, orignally: it gave supernatural powers to Roman priests.

Anastasia

William Weedon said...

Anastasia,

Do note the words of St. John Chrysostom, prod. Jud. 1:6:

It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered.

As well the famous words of St. Ambrose:

For that sacrament which you receive is made what it is by the word of Christ...The Lord Jesus Himself proclaims: "This is My Body." Matthew 26:26 Before the blessing of the heavenly words another nature is spoken of, after the consecration the Body is signified. He Himself speaks of His Blood. Before the consecration it has another name,after it is called Blood. And you say, Amen, that is, It is true. Let the heart within confess what the mouth utters, let the soul feel what the voice speaks. (On the Mysteries, 52,53)

Or Gregory of Nyssa in The Great Catechism, 37.

These are at least three places I know of that the change is attributed to the Words - and they are NOT all Roman. :)

Anonymous said...

Yes, well, I'll have to read those in context. That same St. John Chrysostom, of course, is the one who wrote the Divine Liturgy we use!

This is from http://orthodoxwiki.org/EpiclesisOrthopedia


In the Epiclesis (or epiklesis), God's Holy Spirit is called on to come down "upon us and upon these gifts" (the bread and wine), so that they may become "truly the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" . A distinction is usually made between the invocation over the people (called a 'communion' epiclesis) and the one over the Gifts of bread and wine (called a 'consecratory' epiclesis). This is the main supplication in the Eucharistic Prayer.
The Orthodox Church believes, that the Holy Spirit is always "everywhere present and fills all things." The invocation of the Holy Spirit at the Divine Liturgy is the solemn affirmation that everything in life which is positive and good is accomplished by the Spirit of God.
During the Epiclesis, the people join their hearts to the words and actions of the priest as he petitions God to make these gifts holy. The bread and wine offered in remembrance of Christ, are the gifts to be changed into the Body and Blood of Christ.
The form of the epikleses vary from anaphora to anaphora. The consecratory epiclesis of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom is as follows:

Again we offer unto Thee this reasonable and bloodless worship, and we ask Thee, and pray Thee, and supplicate Thee: Send down Thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts here offered.

And make this bread the precious Body of Thy Christ.

(Amen)

And that which is in this cup, the precious Blood of Thy Christ.

(Amen)

Making the change by the Holy Spirit.

(Amen, Amen, Amen )

That these gifts may be to those who partake for the purification of soul, for remission of sins, for the communion of the Holy Spirit, for the fulfillment of the Kingdom of Heaven; for boldness towards Thee, and not for judgment or condemnation.



The Epiklesis was a great dispute between Orthodox Church and other churches that needed to know how the change takes place and at what moment does it take place.

The Orthodox Church has always held the view that it is a mysterious reality, and that it is not within the power of our minds to apprehend it. It comes by the way of prayers. Not a moment of consecration. They look upon the entire Eucharistic Prayer as forming a single and indivisible whole, so that the three main sections of the prayer, Thanksgiving, Anamnesis, and Epiclesis, all form an integral part of the one act of consecration.


love,
Anastasia

William Weedon said...

The citation from Chrysostom is especially important. You could probably read it in the Greek very easily. It's in Migne PG 49, 380. That passage is cited throughout the West. Among other places, it is quoted in the Lutheran Formula of Concord and in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The one in Nyssa is pretty interesting too, I recall. But I no longer have the volume that had it in it.