19 January 2009

O Higher than the Cherubim!

O higher than the cherubim,
More glorious than the seraphim,
Lead their praises, alleluia!
Thou, Bearer of the Eternal Word,
Most gracious, magnify the Lord!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
--LSB 670:2

[We sang it during Distribution on Sunday]
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15 comments:

  1. Rev. Paul T. McCain5:42 PM

    Of course any Christian believer is higher than the cherubim and seraphim, no?

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  2. William Weedon5:54 PM

    Give that boy a cigar. He GETS the Mary/Church connection.

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  3. Anastasia Theodoridis5:59 PM

    A cigar from me, too.

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  4. William Weedon6:10 PM

    Anastasia,

    From your stories about your mother in her hay-day, I can SEE her with the cigar; but I'm having trouble seeing YOU with one! :)

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  5. William Weedon6:10 PM

    Well, it doesn't matter. We've given the cigars away without smoking them to Paul!

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  6. Rosko6:50 PM

    I'll donate a cigar too.

    That was something I was taught by my OCA priest during my catechesis, that all in the Church are higher than the Holy Angels. That said, the Most Holy Theotokos is indeed our example.



    PS- My Captcha was "whiti" which I originally read as "whitey". Racist blogger, LOL.

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  7. Rev. Paul T. McCain6:55 PM

    Yea, I read it in some old letter somewhere, can't quite sure figure which.

    Still no reason to go all gah-gah over Mary, to the extreme that the so-called Orthodox do. I mean, do we have to start smooching her picture?

    Feeling feisty.

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  8. William Weedon8:05 PM

    What a Kraut... even with an Irish name!

    We love you, Paul.

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  9. Chris Jones8:36 PM

    do we have to start smooching her picture?

    Wrong question, pastor. We don't have to "smooch her picture" (as you put it); we get to smooch her picture. You see, we love her. She is our mother.

    Do you love her, pastor? If not, why not? And if so, why squawk about "smooching her picture"? Unless (which God forbid) you are an iconoclast.

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  10. Rosko10:10 PM

    What Mr Jones said.

    Likewise, I have no problem "smooching" "pictures" of the Holy Saints of North America, the Obscure Celtic Saints, The Theotokos, or even Christ. Likewise, I "smooch" the chalice after I have recieved communion. You see, "smooching" things is a way to show them honor, both inwardly and outwardly.

    Have you ever kissed a picture of someone? I have. My father fell asleep in the Lord a dozen years ago this June, I have but one accessible photo of him, I "smooch" it all the time.

    I just got out of Divine Liturgy for Theophany, and had no qualms about "smooching" a "picture" of the baptism of Christ, a cross depicting His Holy Image, etc.

    So, please, Pastor, lay off the Orthodox, especially when we simply make a comment that Orthodox thinking on a given matter is in line with the 'official' thinking of another confession.

    I hope that the above has not made me seem like a kook convert. Tone does not come across in text.

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  11. Anastasia Theodoridis7:24 AM

    William, it's sort of like knowing how to tie a man's necktie, although not wearing one myself. (I don't actually know how to do that, either, but it seems I ought to!)

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  12. Anonymous9:50 AM

    I have to confess I kiss the crucifix before and after praying the Rosary.

    And on Good Friday Catholics kiss the Crucifix in adoration of His Sacrifice.

    Sigh.

    I'm a smoocher, too.

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  13. Dcn Latif Haki Gaba SSP10:22 AM

    Trying to catch up on some blog reading, I want to affirm that the Rev. McCain has made an astute point. And it, the truth he confesses, makes it all the more odd to see Lutherans claim that the stanza under question is unscriptural (as I recall observing a couple months ago in the e-world) when it comes to the most holy Ark of the New Testament.

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  14. Dcn Latif Haki Gaba SSP12:30 PM

    It reminds me, in fact, of how upset some Lutherans have got when I refer to Mary as Holy Mary, as if we don't confess the holiness (along with the sinfulness) of all the Baptized.

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  15. Dcn Latif Haki Gaba SSP8:43 PM

    Now that I am home from work, I see that it could conceivably be inferred from my last comment that I think that the Mother of God was sinful. I do not, in fact, want to say that about her. This is not to say, dogmatically, that she was sinless; it is merely to say that I see no reason to ascribe sin to her. And I see nothing objectionable with traditional Patristic and Lutheran statements to the effect of her sinlessness.

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