Reflecting on these experiences and difficulties, we decided to compile and publish a Missal. We based it on the upcoming Second Edition of the 2025 Proposed Book of Common Prayer, a slight revision of the First Edition. For the additional elements, we largely took from the 1933 English Missal. With this Missal, the priest will find anything and everything necessary for the celebration of the Mass throughout the Church Year.

The Saint Botolph’s Missal will be released on Sunday, 3 May 2026: the Feast of the Invention of the Cross. We will be offering a personal size edition for $60. This will be a print on-demand, hardcover book. Please feel free to pre-order now on Barnes and Noble.

We will also be offering an Altar Edition. This is a hardcover, sewn book. Due to budget-constraints, we were not able to order a large quantity ahead of release. Therefore, please feel free to reach out to us to order an edition. Buying multiple copies will reduce the per-copy cost. But the cost of just one will be about $600.

Please look forward to a video in the upcoming week, featuring the Altar Edition!

Other Upcoming Publications

Along with the Missal, we have other upcoming publications: Second Editions of our current offerings!

2025 Proposed Book of Common Prayer, Second Edition

We are so thankful for the input from so many people! From typos to rubrical suggestions, we are grateful for the support and assistance! The Second Edition will feature a few corrections in the Lectionary, a more consistent ennumeration of Red Letter Days, corrections and clarifications in the Pastoral Rites, as well as the inclusion of the Easter Vigil!

However, the most significant change will be in the construction and binding of the book itself! It will be our first publication to move from on-demand printing to higher quality printing, featuring Smyth-sewn binding and thinner paper. We are finishing discussions with the printer and will be able to provide a price-point and release date very soon!

Saint Botolph’s Breviary

This publication is less of a Second Edition and more of a successor to our very popular Office book. It will be a hardcover on-demand printing of the Office Book, with the addition of all of the Hymns, Versicles, and Antiphons for every Festival and Common of the Church Year! It will be based on the 2025 Proposed Book of Common Prayer, Second Edition. Please look forward to it! We expect a Q3 or Q4 2026 publication date.

Prayer Book Hymnal, Second Edition

As mentioned above, this Hymnal had certain oddities and a very specific goal which may not have been shared by many other people. The chief of these oddities was the inclusion of the full non-noted Mass propers. The Second Edition will feature the noted Hymns, along with Versicles, Antiphons, and Collects. Additionally, a second Office Setting, a full noted setting for the Great Litany, and a greater selection of Devotional Hymns will be provided. Please look for a Q4 2026 publication date.

Moving Forward

After our next round of publications is finished, Apologia Anglicana will take at least a year-long hiatus from print publishing. We want to give time for these publications to be used and appreciated. While editors can always see room for improvement in their publications, we must be content and happy in the works as they stand.

Apologia Anglicana will return to our focus on our online articles. There have been many liturgical reflections which time and energy have prevented us from writing and posting on this website. Moving forward with a solid foundation, we are confident that we will be even better equipped to write these articles with greater consideration and reflection.

Thank You for Your Support

We greatly appreciate the support of all who subscribe. But especially we give our whole-hearted thanks to those who made paid subscriptions. This allows us to do what we do. It is greatly appreciated. Without your support, our work would not be possible.

The virtue of spiritual friendship ought to be the model of the highest relationship. And it is not only accessible but necessary for men to cultivate and treasure, especially in our times. In the present day, so many deviant and unsatisfying relationships are not only practiced but promoted. And they are not only promoted but established as the ideal. While some are obviously degenerate, as will be shown, others are not as easily identified as such, and so become common and not sufficiently addressed even within Christian contexts.

And sadly, this affects relationships not only among men but even misunderstands the purpose and nature of marriage. Our present disordered perspectives reveal a broken understanding of the self and of the other in relation to the self. And while these all may seem to be very different problems, they actually from this same brokenness. This spiritual friendship—this call to follow Christ in this intimate and deep relationship—requires the transformation of the mind in a real and prudent vulnerability.

Read more

The Scriptures witness to the virtue of spiritual friendship: a relationship exalted even above the holy bond of matrimony. However, as matrimony has been mocked and defiled, spiritual friendship has been abandoned. This desert of love has caused our most basic relationships to be confused, disordered, and empty. The relationship between members of the same sex, especially between males, has been the most affected. The masculinity crisis, as well as the growing problem of sexual confusion, are expressions of this problem which can only be solved by the authentic and deep love of friendship.

David & Jonathan

The chief example of friendship is between David and Jonathan. In their relationship, we encounter two strong men, wholly devoted to the Lord. However, they are not only simply two men working for the good of the Church but uniquely united to each other. We see the beginning of the friendship as David enters the household of Saul.

The friendship between David and Jonathan is described as not just a joint working or pursuing similiar life goals. Rather, it is the union of souls. The soul of David is knitted, joined and united to, the soul of Jonathan. This imagery mirrors marriage: just as in marriage two become one flesh, in friendship: two become one soul.

This union is expressed in true love, not merely willing the good of the other generally but good will and charity in common life. Jonathan gives his royal vestments to David. When David is called to take the throne, Jonathan does not resist him, even though David is taking what would have been Jonathan’s, had the Lord not taken it away from Saul! Rather, Jonathan works constantly for the good of David as they both seek to follow the Lord together.

Our Lord Jesus Christ

This intimate union is seen in Our Lord himself. Friendship, being the union of souls and hearts, becomes the perfect image for union with Christ. As discussed in the Orthodox Devotion to the Sacred Heart, salvation can be considered simply the uniting of our hearts to Christ’s Most Sacred Heart. Our Lord says,

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

—John 15:13–15

It is fitting that Our Lord would describe our salvation is such intimate terms. We are called to love Christ deeply as Jonathan deeply loved David, through great striving, sacrifice, and devotion.

It is important to note that friendship is not a relationship conditioned on transaction or exchange. That is, one does not enter true friendship for the sake of something about the other. Rather, one enters into a true relationship with the other for the sake of the love of the other itself. It is for this reason that Our Lord is not simply a great (or even the greatest) example of friendship. Rather, he is the very model and measure of all friendships, for he has nothing to gain of us (and everything to suffer) and yet enters into friendship with men out of love for them alone. And we can only enter true friendship with him if we love him for his own sake, no matter the cost.

And because we are called to love him without exception, we give everything to Christ without exception. Jonathan participated in Christ not just by loving David and knitting his heart to him, but also by showing his love by giving gifts, not for what will be received in return (for Jonathan did not know the kindness David would show to his son) but for the sake of the love of the other.

We are, of course, called to love every man. And no true love (even generally) can be based on advantage. However, friendship goes beyond this command. As we have many loves and obligations, there is an order of loves. This is seen even in Our Lord himself. He not only loved his disciples, but even called them friends! However, only one—St. John the Divine—did he call ‘the disciple whom he loved’ (John 19:26), the very one—at the Last Supper—‘whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side,’ (John 13:23) whom even St. Peter—the head of the apostles—sought in order to approach Our Lord.

This shows the intimacy of friendship, the degrees of loves we have, friendship being the highest, since it is eternal, for even if the body dies, the soul remains, even united to its true friends (chiefly and centrally, Our Lord).

True Friendship and Its Cheap Copies

Aelred of Rievaulx was an 12th century Anglican Cistercian abbot, living in the midst of the Great Schism. In his work Spiritual Friendship, he describes true friendship (spiritual friendship), as well as two other kinds of relationships—only called friendship by their bare likeness to true friendship—worldly friendships and friendships of pleasure.

Aelred recalls his love of Cicero, who wrote On Friendship. However, in the pursuit of the Christian life, Aelred bemoaned that Cicero did not have the richness of the Scriptures. His work, then, is a reflection upon friendship from the Scriptures and the Fathers: a sort of baptising of Cicero’s work.

Spiritual Friendship

Aelred rightly defines spiritual friendship as:

He further explains how friendship is a virtue.

Friendship is that virtue, therefore, through which by a covenant of sweetest love our very spirits are united, and from many are made one (Cicero, Amic 25.92; cf. Cicero, Amic 21.81; cf. Ambrose, Off 3.134; cf. Aelred, Spec car 3.6.39; cf. Bernard, Ep 53.). Hence even the philosophers of this world placed friendship not among the accidents of mortal life but among the virtues that are eternal (Cf. Cicero, Amic 9.32.). Solomon seems to agree with them in this verse from Proverbs: ‘a friend loves always’ (Proverbs 17:17). So he obviously declares that friendship is eternal if it is true, but if it ceases to exist, then although it seemed to exist, it was not true friendship.

Here it becomes clear the high estate of friendship. It is not just an enjoyment or convenience of the other. And it seems to not be immediate. Like other high virtues, we grow into its perfection. For example, Christians have the virtue of charity: love of Christ and neighbour. However, the Christian life is spent moving from an imperfect charity (for we do not perfect love nor perfectly obey God’s law) into greater perfection. In fact, charity (in its fullest and most complete sense) is only truly obtained once we rest in Christ and have been completely sanctified or deified.

In the same way, the virtue of friendship begins at the bond with the other, and it grows as both pursue Christian perfection together, which necessarily involves agreement with each other, if they are both pursuing Christ. And this friendship grows by the entrusting of the heart, that is, the whole self.

Furthermore, a friend is called the guardian of love, or, assome prefer, the guardian of the soul itself (Isidore, Etymologiae 10.4). Why? Because it is proper for my friend to be the guardian of mutual love or of my very soul, that he may in loyal silence protect all the secrets of my spirit and may bear and endure according to his ability anything wicked he sees in my soul. For the friend will rejoice with my soul rejoicing, grieve with it grieving (Romans 12:15), and feel that everything that belongs to a friend belongs to himself (Cf. Acts 4:32).

He makes its practical application and enjoyment even clearer here:

But how happy, how carefree, how joyful you are if you have a friend with whom you may talk as freely as with yourself (Cicero, Amic 6.22), to whom you neither fear to confess any fault nor blush at revealing any spiritual progress, to whom you may entrust all the secrets of your heart and confide all your plans. And what is more delightful than so to unite spirit to spirit and so to make one out of two (Cf. Augustine, Conf 4.6.11; CCSL 27:45; Pine-Coffin, Confessions, 78; Ambrose, Off 3.131)?

The intimate image of friendship, seen in the biblical accounts, is likewise seen here. And this friendship is not merely mental be truly enjoyed in the whole person, expressed even in the body. Because of this, and due to Aelred’s deeply scriptural focus, he teaches on even the meaning of the holy kiss in the Scriptures and how it applies to spiritual friendship.

Aelred effectively lays out the various meanings of kissing in the Scriptures, beyond just the physical, without removing the proper place of the physical. And they all have a proper place within spiritual friendship, chiefly of the spiritual.

Of course, there may be concern and apprehension as to go about the proper living of these kisses within the spiritual friendship. In one sense, Aelred’s elucidation is simply showing how the theme of kissing in the Scriptures is an apt illustration for the intense unity between friends.

Indeed, much could be said of how every relationship has been corrupted, when kissing itself is seen as sexual (of course, the mouth is not a sexual object at all!). My heart broke when there was supposed scandal over a father kissing his son on the lips, sexualising not only a child (we see how far we have gone) but the familial love and affection.

In the other sense, however, since there are physical kisses which are not rejected from the realm of spiritual friendship, such could be used by fetishists as an over-correction of our degenerate age. The path forward would seem to be the same as all pursuits of virtue with pitfalls on either side: the life of Christ, which is the concrete life of the Church.

Carnal Friendship

Seeing how highly exalted spiritual friendship is, we can move to those friendships so called, beginning with carnal friendship. This is the ‘friendship’ of the passions, divorced from reason and consisting wholly of affection. One-night stands are emblematic here. However, it is not necessarily sexual at all!

One can easily think of a friendship which bound by a common enjoyment or pursuit, and it continues as long as the pleasure of the joint activity remains. The modern equivalent may be considered the guy you regularly party with. He is great to be around, fun to hang out with, and may even be reliable in many ways. However, the friendship can only abide as long as the common activity continues and is sufficiently enjoyable. The pursuit of virtue can never be mentioned, at least not in depth, lest the vibe be ruined. This shallow relationship is obviously no friendship at all, and it tends away from true friendships.

Worldly Friendship

The second kind of faux-friendship is the worldly friendship. This unites two people by achieving a perceived end, and it begins and survives only inasmuch as both are useful to the other in that end. On one hand, there are relationships which resemble worldly friendship which are not necessarily sinful, even though they are primarily transactional. For example, no injustice is wrought by relating to the cashier or salesman only inasmuch as facilitates the transaction. On the other hand, however, those relationships should at least be undergirded by general Christian charity. Worldly friendship is wicked in that it lacks this proper foundation. We recognise this in imprudent and sleezy salesmen, especially when they try to market the relationship as friendship, creating a false sense of familiarity and commeraderie.

When worldly friendship proper is formed, it becomes an opportunity for us of the other, which is often seen in drinking buddies. However, even when basic Christian charity is there, such as with coffee hour friends, it is necessarily casual and does not meet the desire of the heart.

In either situation, while both may share much about themselves, such as work, family life, and hobbies; this only continues while the drinks are good and the location convenient. The main problem here is not the drinking buddy per se. Rather, it becomes a true problem when (1) this is the height of one’s friendships, (2) the heart is shared thus confusing the relationship, and (3) it is not sufficiently grounded upon Christ and thus tends towards vice. However, this type of false friendship is higher than carnal friendship, since it can more easily be turned into something true.

The Virtue Presented for Us

Upon reflection, it becomes clear how absent and foreign this great virtue is to us. It is not so much opposed but forgotten. In its fulness, it is a category of relationship which is simply not a category in the minds of men today. And we all suffer for it. We misunderstand ourselves and others, and this affects not only our relationships but even how we imagine and live out all our different sorts and relationships. This disordered mindset is seen by a further practical application of spiritual friendship upon our present-day lives, which is discussed in our next article.

Hallowe’en

Hallowe’en enters us into this celebration, because it is a Vigil day. A Vigil is a day of preparation (usually by fasting) for a major Feast Day. For example, the Feast of the Assumption is on 15 August, so the Vigil of the Assumption is on 14 August. Therefore, if Mass were said on the morning of the 14th, then the liturgical colour would be violet (the penitential colour). We most commonly encounter a Vigil on 24 December, the Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord, that is, Christmas Eve.

This is seen in the word ‘Eve’ (or ‘Even’), the day of preparation, that is, the Vigil.

Hallowe’en (Hallow Even) is simply the Vigil of All Hallows, preparing for the Festival of All Hallows. This is seen in the Collect (prayer) for the day:

O Lord, our God, multiply upon us thy grace: and grant, that by our holy profession we may follow after the gladness of them, whose glorious festival we prevent (prepare for). Through.

On this day, we pray that just as all the saints who rest in Christ confessed him as their Lord and God, and indeed lived that confession out in their lives all by God’s grace, so we may do the same in our lives.

The Mass readings for that day especially emphasise this. The Epistle is Revelation 5:6, a vision of the angels and the elders before the heavenly throne, worshiping God and praising the Lamb of God, proclaiming his worthiness to have died for the sins of men and be victorious. The Gospel is Luke 6:17, Jesus’ beatitudes from the Sermon on the Plain. This is to encourage the Church to not only believe rightly but also to live rightly.

All Hallows

The Feast of All Hallows is the celebration of the work of Jesus Christ, who in conquering sin and death, frees his elect people from sin and death. Throughout the year, we celebrate many saints who lived and died in Christ. However, they are many faithful Christians who lived and died in Christ, about whom we do not know. And yet, just like the great saints with their own Festivals, they too are with Christ in Paradise, for having been united to Christ in this life, they enjoy him in the next.

Therefore, on this great Festival, we celebrate Our Lord, who is glorified in his saints (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:10). We celebrate the victory of Christ being applied to and experienced by his people. And we pray that we may abide in him, trusting in his promises, so that we too may victorious in Christ over sin and death, even after we fall asleep.

Resurrection of the Dead

There is another element of All Hallows which provides fruitful reflection on a very much forgotten doctrine in America. All Hallows celebrates the victory of Christ over death, which means death really has no more sting. In this victory, not a single human person is excluded. That is, the jaws of death are broken so much that he can trap no one.

The Christian hope is not that we spend our everlasting days as disembodied spirits. Rather, just as God made man as a body-soul composite, also did he redeem man as a body-soul composite. He did so by becoming a man, sharing the same humanity we have, sin excepted. And so since Jesus Christ, as God and man—as body and soul—defeated death, so no man can be trapped by death. The horrible condition of a disembodied spirit will be the fate for no man in the end.

St. Paul creates this parallel between the fruits of Adam and the fruits of Christ. From Adam comes death, that is, our broken, sinful human nature, our decay, and ultimately consignment in hell as a broken spirit. And yet, from Christ, comes the resurrection of the dead. And this is for ‘all’. Just as all die, so shall all rise from the dead. Just as Our Lord’s tomb was empty, so shall every human person’s tomb be empty in the End.

St. Paul, against the Jews and to the governor, preaches the Resurrection of the Dead. However, the resurrection of the just and the unjust will be very different. One will be in glory, the other will be in punishment. One will be rewarded as whole person—body and soul—and the other will be punished as a whole person—body and soul. And this will come in the End. In the meantime, both the just and the unjust suffer without their bodies. Though, one is in peace while the other is in torment. It is this middle state, between now and the End, which gives reason for the final day of Hallowtide: All Souls Day.

All Souls

All Souls Day is a day for commemorating the faithful departed. The Scriptures teach us to pray for another so that we may grow into the fulness of Christ. This is to aid each other in our sanctification. But this sanctification and growth does not cease once we die, for none of us die wholly conformed to Christ, full of all virtues and bereft of all vice. Rather, once we die, Christ completes our sanctification. And just as we pray for each other as Christ is sanctifying us on earth, so we should pray for those whom Christ is sanctifying after death.

Another motivation for our prayers for the dead is their unnatural state: departed from their body. While not much is revealed on the time or condition between this life and the Resurrection, it is most often described in dark (even if hopeful) terms. And if we are so changeable and easily able to continually repent with our body, it can only be supposed that it is harder after we die. So, we pray for their sanctification, as well as their eventual resurrection, trusting in Christ who works our salvation.

Consumerist Appropriation

There has been a panic around Hallowe’en about supposedly evil or plainly consumeristic elements. And, of course, we should oppose the secularisation (or even Satanification) of all Holy Days and Festivals. We know this very well with Christmas. Neo-pagans try to turn it into a polytheistic celebration of the solstice. At the same time, less innovative unbelievers turn it into a celebration of drunkenness, gluttony, avarice, and all sorts of illicit pleasures. Our response is not to end the celebration of Christmas (contra the Puritans) but rather to celebrate it well!

Unfortunately, blatant and unrepentant lies get spread around, just as they do around Christmas and Easter. Just like Christmas and Easter, they try to deceive the ignorant into thinking the holiday is ‘really pagan’. They spin a faux-history and then describe modern wickedness which occurs in some places on that day. It is an affront to Christ himself, who is Truth.

We must remember that the supposedly pagan practices are both (1) recent and (2) unoriginal. Wicca, for example, was invented in the 20th century. Other sorts of neo-paganism and witchcraft cannot trace their history before (if we are being very broad and generous) the High Middle Ages. How could it? Paganism was conquered with the Resurrection of Christ. This is not just what our faith informs but also what history recounts. The oracles stopped being able to give guidance. As St. Athanasius recounts,

And whereas formerly every place was full of the deceit of the oracles , and the oracles at Delphi and Dodona, and in Bœotia and Lycia and Libya and Egypt and those of the Cabiri , and the Pythoness, were held in repute by men’s imagination, now, since Christ has begun to be preached everywhere, their madness also has ceased and there is none among them to divine any more.
On the Incarnation 47

Given that the oracles stopped working, how could they be revived except by a pale imitation of what modern men might think they did? Likewise, if we look at neo-paganism’s symbols, they are shown to be highly unoriginal. For example, the pentagram and the upside-down cross are often trotted out. However, the pentagram is a Christian symbol of the Five Wounds of Christ. This, in fact, is an element in the 14th century work Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as the Holy Pentangle.

Likewise, the upside-down cross is simply the Cross of St. Peter, who was crucified upside down. The most these neo-pagans can do is take Christian language and symbolism and try to pervert it for their own devises. But this perversion should distract us from the true things. We should not join them in their perversions but embrace the holy signs and days.

Just as we seek to celebrate Christmas well, we ought to celebrate Hallowe’en well! Not just with autumn colours, orange leaves, and pumpkin spice (any unbeliever can appreciate those things!). But rather with Christ as the centre. He truly conquered death, so we can behold death and not be afraid. A truly Christian heart can appreciate the skull: a symbol of the need to die well and the trust in Christ to save us from death. While others without hope shudder at the prospect of death, we can appreciate the skull, laugh at the devil, and trust in the victory of Christ.

O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is gracious : and his mercy endureth for ever.

We are beyond thankful to Our Lord and joyous in his abundant grace for our upcoming publications. We have seen the great need for liturgical resources in the American Prayer Book Tradition for Orthodox use. Seeing this need, we have spent the last couple years on a revision of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, which has been proposed for use in the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate. Additionally, we have made an Office book consisting of the Office portions of the BCP, as well as a hymnal containing the Antiphons, Hymns, and propers for all of the Festivals of the Church Year.

Please pray for these projects to bear fruit, for future premium editions, and for the success of future productions.

For your convenience, we have put the books with their full description and links to order below.

2025 Proposed Book of Common Prayer

Very few books have made such an impact upon English-speaking Christians as the Book of Common Prayer. It provided not only the main services of the Church within a single volume, but it also presented a way to live out the Christian life within the life and patterns of the Church. A revision of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the 2025 Proposed Book of Common Prayer achieves the same goal: an accessible book for priest and lay alike to live the English liturgical tradition within the life of the Orthodox Catholic Church.

This Book contains beautiful and important liturgies, such as the Daily Office, a daily cycle of prayers throughout the hours of each day, centred on the Psalms and other Scriptures. It also contains Litanies, the Holy Mass (with relevant preparation and thanksgiving prayers), and the unique Collects for every Sunday and major Feast Day. This Book will be a welcome and fruitful addition to the prayer life of any Christian, wanting to connect to the practice and faith of the ancient church.

The Orthodox Church, in her re-evangelisation of the West, has sought to receive and make whole the traditions of those Christians who find their home in her. Due to this, she has embraced the liturgical traditions of Anglicans seeking the ancient faith and Catholic Orthodoxy, without abandoning their authentic customs and rites. The fruit of this has been English Rite liturgies within the Orthodox Church. This volume seeks to advance this mission by presenting to the Church a full Book of Common Prayer.

We are confident that this will be fruitful for all who use it and a prized treasure for many. As it has begun to be used faithfully by many, we hope for its eventual official reception into the Orthodox Church.

Order on Barnes & Noble!

2025 Proposed BCP Office

The impact of the Book of Common Prayer upon American religion and spirituality can hardly be overstated. We are blessed to live in a time when, as Americans are entering the Orthodox Catholic Church, they are bringing their traditions with them. And our shepherds, inspired by the love of Christ, receive us with joy.

Provided in this Book are the Office portions of the 2025 Proposed Book of Common Prayer, designed for use in the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate. It provides Mattins, Evensong, and the Minor Hours. Along with the Psalter are the Collects for Sundays & Red Letter Days and other important everyday rites.

We pray that it will serve you well and bring you to the true worship of the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Order on Barnes & Noble!

Prayer Book Hymnal

The Prayer Book Hymnal is a supplement to the 2025 Proposed Book of Common Prayer (BCP). It provides the Office propers (with hymn notation) for every Feast Day of the Church Year. Additionally, it contains the propers of the Mass for all Feast Days not found in the BCP. This is present along with Services for the Office and Mass, noted Ferial Hymns, and other paraliturgical hymns. And for extra benefit in a parish context, there is a selection of devotional hymns most desirous through the year.

If you are interested in living the full English Orthodox liturgical tradition, or simply want a few more prayers and hymns for your Daily Office, the Prayer Book Hymnal will be an amazing and fitting contribution to your library!

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This Collect shows a common theme in our liturgical life: the circular motion of prayer, worship, and oblation. Due to our fallen and limited perspective, we can view interactions with God as a give-and-take. This may be the idea of ‘I give this and God gives that’, or perhaps ‘I ask for this so that God may give me that’. However, there is no competition in an authentic relationship with Christ. Rather, it is I who live in Christ and He who lives in me. As St. Paul teaches us,

It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. —Philippians 2:13

The Most Holy Trinity, superabundant in love, always first works in us. He who is Good is the Source of All Good. So He works in us to do all good things: even our prayers for good things come from Our Lord, since it is itself a good work.

So, the Lord moves us to request good things so that we may received good things. And it does not end there; indeed, we then return all we have and offer it back up to the Lord and receive blessings in return. This is the circular motion of grace.

This is the framework within which the Collect is prayed. We ask for our prayers (both our intentions and the object requested) to be themselves purified, that Our Lord may give us grace to offer him pure prayers so that His return of grace may be even more glorious and amazing.

Liturgical Motion of Grace

We see this constantly in the liturgies of the Church. For example, Antecommunion so concludes:

We beseech thee mercifully to incline thine ears to us who have now made our prayers and supplications unto thee; and grant that those things which we have faithfully asked according to thy will, may effectually be obtained, to the relief of our necessity, and to the setting forth of thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Having offered our ‘worship, praise, and thanksgiving’, we ask for the grace to offer it even better through our lives: that we be so inclined to His will that we only offer the purest of sacrifices.

Anglican Mass

This is seen most excellently in the Sacrifice of the Mass, and is seen in not just the Anglican Rite but also in the Roman and Constantinopolitan Rites. In the Anglican Rite, the Priest offers the Bread and Wine. He prays,

we, thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before thy Divine Majesty, with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make; having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same.

This shows that we are offering the sacrifice unto the Father, and that the act of offering is itself a gift of God (being thanksgiving for what has already been given) which we then pray will result in the further appreciation of God’s grace.

The Priest then continues,

And we thine unworthy servants beseech thee, most merciful Father, to hear us, and to send thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon these thy gifts and creatures of Bread and Wine, that, being blessed and hallowed by his life-giving power, they may become the Body and Blood of thy most dearly beloved Son, to the end that all who shall receive the same may be sanctified both in body and soul, and preserved unto everlasting life.

Here we see the high point of the Mass, the offering of the sacrifice is completed. And, upon being graciously received by the Most Holy Trinity, He then sends His grace for the transubstantiation of the gifts and the blessing of His People.

Roman Mass

This is motion is also excellently seen in the Roman Mass. Similarly, the Priest offers the Bread and the Wine, beseech the Father,

Upon which vouchsafe to look with a favorable and serene countenance, and to accept them as thou wert graciously pleased to accept the gifts of thy just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham, and that which thy high priest Melchisedech offered unto thee, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.

Special emphasis is placed in the Roman tradition on the need for the Lord to truly receive the sacrifice. As the Scriptures teach us, it is possible to offer false sacrifice, strange fire, rejected worship. Therefore, the liturgy guides the Priest to ask for the acceptance of the sacrifice at various times, finally concluding in the fulfilment of these requests.

We humbly beseech thee, almighty God, to command that these things be borne by the hands of thy holy angel to thine altar on high, into the presence of thy divine majesty, that so many of us as shall partake at this altar of the most sacred Body and Blood of thy Son, may be filled with all heavenly benediction. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

The offering concludes with the Bread and Wine being elevated even up to the Lord’s own high altar in heaven. And how else can they be elevated but by being transubstantiated, so that we may feed on the Body and Blood of Our Lord?

Constantinopolitan Mass

Finally, we see this in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. We have been analysing the Invocations in the previous liturgies, but this is succinctly and clearer seen in the petitions after the Invocation, where the Deacon prays,

That our God, who loveth mankind, receiving them upon his holy, heavenly, and ideal Altar for an odor of spiritual fragrance, will send down upon us in return his divine grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit, let us pray to the Lord.

We see the signficance of the theology of prayer in the Collect for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity. This is not just true of our personal prayers, but it permeates the whole Christian life, seen most excellently in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The 1549 BCP is a product of the liturgical reform at a time which strongly favoured standardisation and simplification (both amongst Anglicans and Romanists). Due to this, the Book of Common Prayer contained no extra rites for Good Friday. The elaborate system of lessons and responses were omitted in favour of standard Mass propers. Additionally, this resulted as well in the elimination of Good Friday as a day for the Liturgy of the Presanctified, instead allowing a proper Mass to be said. Because of this, one would pray Mattins and Evensong, perhaps along with Holy Communion or only Antecommunion.

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Today, we enter into the Church’s chief day of mourning. Her most somber day. At the same time, this day she pays special attention to pray for all sorts and conditions of men with orations unique to their state.

The Book of Common Prayer features these Collects for Good Friday.

Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

This Collect begins with not the main event of the day but its fruit: our being made sons of God through Christ: becoming the Lord’s family. It proceeds to then establish the main event and tone for the day: the death of Our Lord. And not only his death only but the whole mystery of his Passion. It is important to note how the mention of his death is not divorced from its fruit and, therefore, in a subtle way points to his Resurrection.

In the Prayer Book Tradition, this Collect was taken from the end of the Holy Wednesday Mass, during the markedly penitential bowing of the head, to be used for Good Friday. In the 1549 BCP, it found its place as a Good Friday Collect (first merely for Mattins and later as part of a set of three Collects) until it was later moved to be the first of the three Collects.

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee. Through.

This Collect proceeds to introduce the supplicatory element of Good Friday, beginning with a prayer for the Catholic Church and all her members. This is taken from the Solemn Collects. The Solemn Collects are a set of nine prayers, each for a certain person or group of people, chanted after the readings but before the Veneration of the Cross and the Liturgy of the Presanctified.

The first five Solemn Collects are focused on the Church: as a whole, then especially the bishop, then especially the ordained, then especially the King, then especially the catechumens—the very fringe of the Church, it could be said.

This Collect in particular is taken from the Solemn Collect for ‘all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, for all Subdeacons, Acolytes. Exorcists, Door-keepers, Confessors, Readers, Virgins, and Widows: and for all the holy people of God.’ While it has a special emphasis on clerks and consecrated persons, it is also zooms out to capture all members of the Church. This zoomed out perspective is emphasised here in the Prayer Book Tradition while retaining the special attention to ‘vocation and ministry’.

O merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics; and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

This Collect concludes the set of Good Friday Collects, praying not for the Church but rather from the Church looking out into the world. It begins in the first clause by calling back to the Collect for Ash Wednesday—the first day of Lent—which, by this point, was prayed every day since until Palm Sunday.

It then turns its focus to the specific groups the Church intercedes for, desirous of their conversation: Jews, Turks, infidels (that is, those without faith), and heretics. Two features are especially notable in this list.

First, the inclusion of ‘Turks’ as its own unique group is interesting. While older prayers focused on the groups of heretics & schismatics, Jews, and infidels; this reveals both a consideration of Moslems as their own category (both politically and religiously) and a special concern for their conversion. Keep in mind that Constantinople had fallen to the Turks not even 100 years prior to the composition of this prayer.

Second, one may wonder why ‘heretics’ are specified but not also ‘schismatics’. While it is not exactly certain, it should not be supposed that schismatics were not seen to be in need of prayers. The danger of schismatic groups (whether Romanists or radicals) was greatly felt, and would only be more intensely felt over time. This is seen in the Office’s Prayer for All Sorts and Conditions of Men as well as in the Litany. Rather, ‘heretics’ could be considered to encapsulate both heretics and schismatics, especially since both receive a single Collect in the Solemn Collects. Or, the prayer for the Catholic Church could be considered a sufficient prayer for her unity (and, therefore, against schismatics).

This Collect concludes with a supplication for their conversion, keying into how they are in their miserable state: neglect of Our Lord and his Word. The solution, then, is Our Lord bringing them to himself, the Good Shepherd. This is especially important to consider in light of the readings during Holy Week which (in both our current Prayer Book and in the original 1549) speak of Christ as the Good Shepherd, making it fresh in the mind by Good Friday.

One final note on the Collect: it makes the most basic Christian claim of the Church being the true Israel and, therefore, we the true Israelites. As St. Paul teaches, the Catholic Church is the New Jerusalem and our Mother. And this was not lost in the Prayer Book Tradition by any means. Just as Abraham, looking forward, had faith in Christ; we likewise, looking back on his finished work, have that same faith which likewise unites us to him.

If the previous Collect captured the first five Solemn Collects for the Church, then this Collect could be said to capture the last four Solemn Collects, which focused outward and beseeched God for his mercy and salvation upon: the world, heretics and schismatics, Jews, and pagans.

Comparison with the Sarum Collect

In our current rite, since the extra ceremonies of Good Friday (including the Solemn Collects) are restored, the Prayer Book Collects end up only being said during the Daily Office. The Sarum Collect for Good Friday (the same as the Roman) is as follows.

O God, from whom Judas received the punishment of his guilt, and the thief the reward of his confession, grant unto us the effects of thy propitiation: that as in his passion Jesus Christ, our Lord, gave unto both the divers rewards of their merits; so he may take away the transgressions of our old nature, and bestow upon us the grace of his resurrection. Who liveth.

This Collect immediately sets the scene of Our Lord’s Crucifixion. It contrasts Judas’ betrayal and despair with the Good Thief’s faithfulness and trust in his confession of Our Lord.. The former receiving punishment; the latter receiving his just reward: the effects of Our Lord’s propitiation which is available to all of us. Therefore, we are called to take off the old man and put on the new, in light of the coming feast of Our Lord’s Resurrection.

It is interesting to note that while the Prayer Book’s first Collect begins with the fruit and then proceeds to the Crucifixion and Passion, this Collect begins immediately with his Crucifixion and then proceeds to its fruit, concluding with a direct mention of his Resurrection.

A Consideration of the Modern Roman Rite

In the Novus Ordo, both the theology of the Church as the New Jerusalem and the Solemn Collect for the Jews were radically altered. The new Solemn Collect for the Jews is said thus:

Let us pray also for the Jewish people, to whom the Lord our God spoke first, that he may grant them to advance in love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. (Prayer in silence. Then the Priest says:) Almighty ever-living God, who bestowed your promises on Abraham and his descendants, hear graciously the prayers of your Church, that the people you first made your own may attain the fullness of redemption. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Orémus et pro Iudǽis, ut, ad quos prius locútus est Dóminus Deus noster, eis tríbuat in sui nóminis amóre et in sui fœderis fidelitáte profícere. (Prayer in silence. Then the Priest says:) Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui promissiónes tuas Abrahæ eiúsque sémini contulísti, Ecclésiæ tuæ preces cleménter exáudi, ut pópulus acquisitiónis prióris ad redemptiónis mereátur plenitúdinem perveníre. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

It is important to keep in mind that this is the current expression of the faith of the Roman Church (lex orandi, lex credendi). And it certainly reflects the theological shift made in the Second Vatican Council. Even those who do not use this rite (such as traditionalists and Uniates) still are called to adopt this as their faith.

As discussed in What is Faith?, faith is trust in Christ’s promises. Abraham himself had faith in Jesus Christ, as did all those righteous faithful of the old covenant. As St. Jude teaches, Jesus Christ watched over the Israelites crossing through the Red Sea. St. Paul, throughout the entire book of Romans, grounds the doctrine of justification by faith on the reality that the faith of the Old Testament Patriarchs, by which they were justified, is the same faith by which we are justified.

This is why the Church has always asked to receive an increase of faithfulness, while praying for those outside the Church to receive faith. This is seen, beyond our previous considerations, in our Good Friday prayer for the Jews, which the Roman Church used to hold and cherish:

Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that our God and Lord would take away the veil from their hearts; that they also may acknowledge Jesus Christ, our Lord. . . . Almighty and everlasting God, who deniest not thy mercy even to the faithless Jews: graciously hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of this people: that they, acknowledging the light of thy truth, which is Christ, may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same . . . Amen.

In contrast, Rome has not only omitted this prayer but even now prays the very opposite! She ascribes faithfulness to those who know not Our Lord (asking for them to increase in it), as if they were members of the Church. How can this be the case, unless we are not the true Israelites and (God forbid!) Our Lord not the true Messiah?

When we pray for heretics and schismatics today, let us keep Rome in mind. For she has fallen so far from her previous place of grandeur and primacy within the Catholic Church. Let us also pour out our hearts unto the Lord for the conversion of all men, especially for those Jews who do not currently know and love the Christ.

The first Advent of Our Lord was promised throughout the Old Testament. It was upon these promises and prophecies that the Patriarchs (Abraham being especially notable) had faith in Christ. And like them, it is from all of the Scriptures that we ourselves know Christ, and, having faith in him, we hope and love. Even though we first encounter them by the means of our teachers (parents, priests, catechists, etc.), they all work to bring us closer to the Scriptures, in a right understanding of them. (This relationship between the Scriptures and the Church is treated in-depth in Sacred Scripture & the Authority of the Catholic Church.)

This impacts not only our study but also our entire lives. For our whole lives should be formed by God’s Word, so we should spend our lives dwelling in his Word. For it is by acquaintance with the written Word that we grow closer to the person of the Word. This is seen excellently in the Daily Office. Every Christian is called to offer his morning and evening sacrifice, and the Office—the very prayer of the Church—provides a helpful framework for offering those sacrifices, praying the Psalter, reading the Scriptures, and offering prayers and canticles unto God.

The Epistle for the Mass today emphasises this. We read from Romans,

Whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

As we continue our season of expectation by fasting, we are reminded of the importance of understanding more deeply the content of our faith.

History of the Collect

This Collect is original to the 1549 Book of Common Prayer. It is a composition of Cranmer, part of his famous Advent Collects. This Collect, like last week’s, is the fruit of deep reflection on the Scriptures. It is timed well as a reminder, after the first week of fasting, of the foundation of our hope, the reason we fast, and how we should model our lives.

This is in contrast to the Sarum/Roman Collect, which continues the ‘Stir up’ theme:

Stir up, O Lord, our hearts to prepare the way of thy Only Begotten: that by his coming we may be counted worthy to serve thee with purified hearts. Who livest.

It serves as a similar kind of reminder, after our first week of fasting, of the proper disposition we ought to have in Advent. We must prepare ourselves, by continuation in good works generally, to celebrate the first Advent of Our Lord and in waiting for the second Advent of Our Lord.

Finally, it must be noted the different styles of the Collects. It is clear that the Prayer Book Collect is written in English. It reflects English style not only in its emphases but also in its length. This is opposed to the Sarum/Roman Collect which, having been written first in Latin, packs much meaning in a punch, so to say.

On the other hand, however, this season is marked by great expectation of the great Feast Day to come: the Nativity of Our Lord, the Lux Mundi. There is a greater joy to it than Lent, and it expects a ‘lesser’ (so to say) Feast than Easter. This is seen in the Advent fast being shorter (4 weeks) and the fasting being less rigourous (only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays).

In the season of Advent (as has been written at length elsewhere), we focus on the two Advents of Our Lord: his first Advent in the Manger and the second Advent in the End. Before the first Advent, the world was in the darkness. Even the faithful dead were in the darkness of Hades, though comforted by their hope in the Light to come, who would deliver them to Paradise. Likewise, as we await the second Advent, we are in a ‘vale of tears’ in this life and even upon death await our resurrection, though comforted by Our Lord’s mercy in both of these states.

The Collect for Advent I highlights these elements of the Advent season.

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

This Collect comes form the first Book of Common Prayer (1549) and is a composition of Cranmer. It masterfully ties together the themes of our present heaviness, our expectation of Christmas, and the great hope. In the first clause, it calls to mind the penitential nature of Advent, that we take a special effort to put on the new man, our growth into the fulness of Christ. The second clause focuses on the reason for our fasting: to prepare for the Feast Day of Our Lord’s Nativity, who likewise (though, without the darkness of sin) humbled himself for our salvation (notably, this involved fasting). In the third clause, the great Christian hope is presented. This is not merely avoiding hell or even having an eternal but our own resurrection at the Last Day, to a joyful life in Christ. Of course, the Collect concludes with one of the standard Collect endings.

In fact, this Collect so well captures the season of Advent that it is said for every day of Advent, the Prayer Book equivalent of the commemoration of the Advent Feria in the Roman Rite.

The Latin of the Collect also provides an interesting feature for our reflection.

Da nobis, quæsumus omnipotens Deus, ut abjectis operibus tenebrarum, induamur arma lucis, in hac mortali vita, in qua Jesus Christus Filius tuus cum magna humilitate ad nos visitandos advenit, ut in extremo die, quo rediturus est cum gloria Majestatis suæ, ad judicandos vivos et mortuos, resurgamus ad vitam immortalem. Per eum qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Sancti Spiritus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

We see here both the initial Advent ‘ad nos visitandos advenit’ and also the second Advent, which is really not a disconnected Advent but a return: ‘rediturus’.

It is notable that this Collect is quite different from the Sarum/Roman Collect for the First Sunday of Advent.

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy power, and come, that we may be accounted worthy to be rescued by thy protection; from the threatening dangers of our sins to be set free by thy deliverance. Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Prayer Book Tradition returns the ‘stir up’ language (which has its own liturgical importance). However, it is seen on the Sunday Next Before Advent, a feature of the pre-Advent season, found also in the Sarum/Roman Collect for the same. It is not focused so much on the season or the Feast Day to come as much as it focuses on our reliance on God’s grace for our deliverance from sin.

I pray that your Advent fasting and preparation for Christmas may be fruitful.

Mary, a lowly woman, was predestined to bring forth the Saviour of the world: God Himself. Such a great vocation—that is, to become the Mother of God—required a great preparation by God Himself.

Preparation for Vocation

When God sends someone out on a vocation, He prepares him first. God gives each man the grace for his own calling. For example, to prepare him for his prophetic vocation, the Lord sends a seraph to the Prophet Isaiah. The seraph touches his lips with a burning coal, saying to him:

And it touched my mouth and said, ‘Look, this has touched your lips and will take away your transgressions and will purge away your sins.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?’ And I said, ‘Look, I am here; send me!’

Isaiah 6:7-8

Isaiah is cleansed and sanctified in preparation for being sent.

Mary's Vocation: Virgin and Mother

Because of this, the Lord himself will give you a sign: Look, the virgin will conceive in the womb and will bear a son, and you will call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

The Prophet Isaiah shows that St. Mary’s vocation is twofold: to be both virgin and mother; and that she will receive a preparation proper for these callings. First, to be a virgin, she would live her life consecrated to such a calling, living in the Temple from the age of three until the age of twelve when she was given to the widower, St. Joseph (Protoevangelium of St. James 7-9).

Second, to be the Mother of God, as opposed to merely a station in life, involves the whole person. To be the mother of Jesus, who has no human father, is to necessarily be the giver of his human nature. Jesus’ human nature comes exclusively from Mary, since Jesus is, as St. Paul emphasizes, a son of Adam to redeem the sons of Adam, ‘God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,’ for those under the law (Gal. 4:4).

To provide for Jesus’ human nature, the Father could not have just created ex nihilo another instance of humanity. Instead, Jesus needed to truly be a son of Adam like all men. Therefore, Mary as the source of Jesus’ humanity needs her nature prepared for the Incarnation. In His very Incarnation, He has the end in mind.

Our Lord—by taking human nature from Our Lady alone—saves all men who have that very same nature of Our Lady. Christ, by the instrument of His human nature, works the salvation of man.

Therefore, since Mary was to provide—from her very self—the instrument for the salvation of the world, her very self would need to be prepared for this purpose.

Can Jesus Save Himself?

Given that Our Lady needed to provide Our Lord’s instrument of salvation, then—at some point—it needs to be made wholly immaculate, for darkness scatters from light; both sin and divinity could not dwell in the same person, since He is without sin. This is not to say that Christ is unable to scatter the darkness and cleanse from sin, for—as we see in the Haemorrhaging Woman—His mere presence and touch does not become defiled but cleanses the defiled.

Rather, the issue is that natures do not exist on their own but are always hypostatised: instantiated in a person. And the quality of sin—from a sinful nature—could never be ascribed to the divine person of the Son. Also, if it were made immaculate in the person of Our Lord, then He would not be the great High Priest. This is because this unique, plenary dispensation of saving grace would come from the merits and work of Christ on the Cross, from which all grace and salvation flows. And the Cross itself is possible because the Word Incarnate acts as both high Priest & Victim. However, as that great High Priest, unlike a merely human and fallen high priest—who ‘is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people’ (Heb. 5:3)—Jesus Christ does not offer the sacrifice for Himself. Instead, it is only offered for those who are in sin.

Therefore, if Jesus Christ does not offer the sacrifice for Himself, then it cannot be applied to Himself. The problem then becomes apparent: the human nature of Jesus Christ cannot be purified while it is truly His.

Since Christ does not ‘save Himself’, nor could sinfulness be ascribed to the divine person, the human nature He was to receive must have been made immaculate in the person of Our Lady. This is why the dignity of Mary’s divine maternity necessitates her salvation. To be the Mother of God, to provide Our Lord an immaculate instrument of salvation, Mary’s human nature, in her person, is made all-holy and immaculate.

The Moment of Mary’s Salvation

Having established that Mary’s divine maternity necessarily involves her plenary sanctification, the Scriptures must be searched for the moment of that salvation. On the one hand, and as I had previously argued, her vocation begins at her conception. So, it is proposed that the fullness of preparation occurs then. However, each man’s vocation involves his self in some sense, which begins at conception. Or, rather, every member of the elect God has chosen ‘in him before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4). Therefore, the moment of preparation must be determined by what is necessary for the vocation itself.

For Our Lady, it was not necessary that her salvation be effected at the very moment of her conception. Rather, the grace of God is capable of fully healing man of every defect, brokenness, and sin: just as He will do for every member of His elect in the eschaton. Indeed, that is the message of the Gospel! The universality of sin in all men is central to the Gospel of the one man who overcomes sin and death.

As St. Paul reflects on the Scriptures’ treatment of man’s fallen condition,

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

Romans 5:12-14

It is this totality of man’s sinfulness, the subjection of all mankind to death that required one man, Christ Jesus, to be the wholly sinless Saviour. The Fathers are insistent on this reality: Jesus Christ is the only man since Adam who was wholly and entirely without sin. St. Augustine, the Hammer of Pelagians, needed to take great effort to emphasise this.

From this bondage, then, we are set free by the Lord alone. He who had it not, Himself delivers us from it; for He alone came without sin in the flesh.

-St. Augustine, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John, 41:5.

And as well:

For He came in the flesh, that is, in the likeness of sinful flesh, but not in Sinful flesh, because He had no sin at all; and therefore became a true sacrifice for sin, because He Himself had no sin.

-St. Augustine, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John, 41:5.

Therefore, knowing that Christ alone is without even sin in the flesh (that is, original sin and concupiscence), the Scriptures can be sought also for His relationship with His Mother and the rest of mankind.

In the Likeness of Sinful Flesh

St. Paul teaches that God sent His Son ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin’ (Romans 8:3). How is it that Our Lord could be in the likeness of sinful flesh if He is sinless and if Our Lady were devoid of all sin from conception? Rather, Our Lord is unique in being conceived in the likeness of sinful flesh but not as sinful flesh. St. Augustine exegetes this passage in such a manner.

Whilst by those who faithfully read, faithfully hear, and faithfully hold fast the Holy Scriptures, it cannot be doubted that from that flesh, which first became sinful flesh by the choice of sin, and which has been subsequently transmitted to all through successive generations, there has been propagated a sinful flesh, with the single exception of that “likeness of sinful flesh,”—which likeness, however, there could not have been, had there not been also the reality of sinful flesh.

-St. Augustine, A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants, Chapter 58 (36)

Therefore, Our Lord, being the Son of Our Lady, was made in the likeness of sinful flesh: Our Lady’s flesh, a daughter of Adam. This excludes her from having received the grace unique to Our Lord: being sinless flesh (that is, being preserved from original sin and concupiscence at her conception). However, knowing that St. Mary was indeed fully conformed in holiness, we need to look to the Scriptures for indications of the moment of her salvation.

Mary: Full of Grace

When St. Gabriel appears to St. Mary, he announces her to be favoured or graced. This is often rendered in devotional and Latin texts as ‘full of grace’. Much has been said in light of this traditional rendering, but the literal sense of the verse must be considered primarily. κεχαριτωμένη comes from the verb ‘to favour (or grace), and it is formed in a way to indicate that it has already happened to her, simply meaning: favoured woman. While many make much of this word, it can certainly be said that it indicates that she has thus far been faithful. And it shows that the Lord’s favour does not start here but rather leads here.

St. Gabriel, giving the Lord’s promise and the means by which it will occur to Our Lady, explains:

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Luke 1:35

This passage makes clear that the Incarnation, that very event which gives the reason for her sanctification and vocation, will be wrought through the descent of the Holy Spirit and divine overshadowing. It is here, then, that the Scriptures indicate the completion of her salvation: the moment of plenary salvation, sealed by Our Lady with her obedient faith: ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word’ (Luke 1:38). Because of this, when Our Lady visits St. Elizabeth, she can truly say of her: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!’ (Luke 1:42). And, as Our Lady chants, her excelling blessedness is due to ‘God my Saviour’ (Luke 1:47) who saved her from all sin.

Mary: the Perfect Christian

Given that Our Lord is uniquely sinless and that Our Lady’s sinlessness did not occur until the Annunciation, it is clear that Our Lady would have been conceived in original sin and suffered from concupiscence. However, far less than denigrating the Mother of Our Lord, this exalts her! For having suffered in the same quality of nature as all of us, she showed the perfect struggle against sin. It is very telling that while St. Augustine ascribes the unique privilege of being sinless flesh to Our Lord, he takes great care to not ascribe the grace of never having chosen to sin (to follow the concupiscence of the flesh) to only Our Lord, since it is also true of Our Lady. For at every movement of concupiscence, she overcame by the Lord’s grace. It can truly be said of her most perfectly that Jesus Christ trampled Satan under her feet (Romans 16:20).

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What’s in a Heart?

This devotion grounds itself first in the concept of the heart in the Old Testament. The heart is constantly used in the Scriptures to refer to the ordering of the total person. For example, after the Fall:

And the Lord God having seen that the wicked actions of men were multiplied upon the earth, and that every one in his heart was intently brooding over evil continually, then God laid it to heart that he had made man upon the earth, and he pondered it deeply.

Genesis 6:5 (Brenton LXX)

On the one hand, man—in his whole person—orients himself as much as he can away from God. On the other hand, God—out of the abundance of His Heart’s compassion for man—wholly seeks out to fix man’s heart. The heart is, in a sense, the entire focus of salvation history. Therefore, salvation will involve bridging the gap between man’s heart and God’s Heart. For example, those who pray the Psalms will be familiar with the call to full obedience to the Lord and the need of His People to constantly trust in His Mercy. This obedience, trust, and love is contained in the call to:

Lead me, O Lord, in your way, and I will walk in your truth. Let my heart be made cheerful to fear your name.

Psalm 85

The Scriptures are not literalistically speaking about man’s physical heart. Neither are they dividing the human person by speaking of one part but not the others. Rather, this part of man—his heart—signifies the totality of his person, which is called to be perfectly conformed to God’s heart. This is fully accomplished in the Incarnation.

The Incarnate Heart of God

The Son perfectly unites the heart of man and the Heart of God in His very person through the Incarnation, in which He reconciles all things in Himself. He reveals that in the economy of salvation, the heart of man is united to, divinised by, and conformed to the Heart of God. What is promised to man is simply what has been accomplished in the composite hypostasis—the composite Heart—of Christ in His two united natures.

This is seen in the Blessed Virgin herself who first experienced salvation in its fulness. St. Simeon reveals to her that her path would be like her son’s:

Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

Luke 2:34-35

Here we see again the Scriptures’ theme of the heart: being used in both senses. In the one sense, he refers to the physical piercing of Our Lord’s physical heart, when His side was wounded. However, this serves also as a sign of His redemptive suffering and affliction in His very person. This is why St. Simeon can then turn to Our Lady and say that she, in a similar manner, will be be pierced in her soul, leading to the revelation of ‘many hearts’.

Of course, physical hearts do not contain thoughts, nor did the Lord perform open heart surgery on His enemies. Neither are the Scriptures excluding some parts of people by focusing on the heart or the soul. This is abundantly clear of Our Lady in iconography, which has been inspired by this episode.

Therefore, the Gospel message essentially and primarily concerns the heart. It is the conversion of man’s heart. This conversion of man’s heart, beginning with St. Mary’s, is nothing less than divinisation (theosis). For man’s heart to be wholly conformed to and united to God’s is for the whole person to be united and conformed to the composite hypostasis of the Son and, therefore, enter the life of the Trinity.

The Sacrificial Heart of Christ

The supreme act of Jesus Christ, of course, is His sacrifice of Himself for mankind. This supreme sacrificial love is the ultimate act of the Heart of God for man. The significance of the Sacred Heart and salvation is not lost on the Fathers. The Fathers often reflect on the significance of the wounded side of Christ as the source and means of man's salvation. For example, St. Augustine of Hippo reflects:

And [Noah's Ark] having a door made in the side of it certainly signified the wound which was made when the side of the Crucified was pierced with the spear; for by this those who come to Him enter; for thence flowed the sacraments by which those who believe are initiated.

City of God 15:26:1

Continuing with this analogy that St. Augustine makes between Noah's Ark and the Body of Christ, if the wounded side is the door, where does it go? It could only go to the Heart of God Itself. True salvation is union with and rest in the Heart of God.

This emphasis on the physical is focused on the spiritual: how it reveals God Himself and His love for mankind. This reveals the sacramental framework and mindset of the Scriptures and the Fathers. Constantly in the liturgy—East & West—His mercy and kindness and love for mankind is emphasised. Singling out these divine energies does not exclude the others but simply focuses our attention and provides a unique purpose to our prayer. As St. Ambrose prays:

Hail, noble and precious Blood, flowing from the wounds of my crucified Lord Jesus Christ, and washing away the sins of the whole world!

St. Ambrose's Prayer in the Prayers before Holy Communion

St. Ambrose calls out to the Blood itself (even putting Jesus Christ in the third-person) not to exclude other parts or to worship this part in addition to the person of Christ. Rather, St. Ambrose calls out to the Blood of Christ to worship the unique hypostasis of the Son and call upon His energies of mercy and His work of salvation. This eventually develops into the post-schism western tradition of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart after the Great Schism

While this devotion to the wounded side and the framework of the heart in theosis is certainly biblical and patristic, it was continued in the West after the schism. Of course, being divorced from the Church, gross devotions and practices grew around the Orthodox devotion. However, simple logical conclusions and true devotional reflection was achieved in the West, at least for a time.

For example, Bonaventura sees clearly, from the patristic emphasis and devotion to the wounded side of Christ:

In order that the Church might be taken out of the side of Christ, in his deep sleep on the Cross, and that the Scripture might be fulfilled which saith: They shall look on him whom they pierced: it was divinely ordained that one of the soldiers should pierce his sacred side with a spear, and open it. Then forthwith there came flowing out blood and water, which was the price of our salvation, pouring forth from its mountain-source, in sooth, from the secret places of his Heart, to give power to the Sacraments of the Church, to bestow the life of grace, and to be as a saving drink of living waters, flowing up to life eternal for those who were already quickened in Christ. Arise, then, O soul beloved of Christ. Cease not thy vigilance, place there thy lips, and drink the waters from the fount of salvation.

Book of the Tree of Life, num. 30

Likewise, built on this theological truth which was already present in, and is now embraced again by, the Orthodox Church; the later devotions develop into prayers such as,

O Sacred Heart of Jesus! living and life-giving fountain of eternal life, infinite treasure of the Divinity, flowing furnace of love. Thou art my refuge and sanctuary. O my adorable and loving Saviour, consume my heart with that fire wherewith Thine is ever inflamed; pour from Thy love, and let my heart be so united with Thine that my will may be conformed to Thine in all things. Amen.

Prayer to the Sacred Heart from the Orthodox St. Ambrose Prayer Book

This devotion and logical conclusion of the Fathers also developed within the Church in her Eastern Rite. For example, St. Dimitri of Rostov prays directly to not just the Blood and Side of Christ but also to His Heart!

Rejoice, heart ever-living, which for our sake was wounded by deathly sorrows, sadness, and the lance.

Jesus Crucified: The Baroque Spirituality of St Dimitri of Rostov

The mention of the lance is especially important, since it shows the organic connexion between devotion to the pierced side of Christ and devotion to His Heart.

It is interesting that the eastern tradition also contains this emphasis on Our Lord's mercy and sweetness with the imagery of fire to describe the love and mercy of Christ for man:

Therefore, reject not my supplication, but hearken unto me in Thy goodness, and strengthen my heart in Thy fear; and let Thy grace be upon me, O Lord, like a fire consuming the impure thoughts within me. For Thou, O Lord, art the Light above all lights, the Joy above all joys, the Repose above all repose, the True Life, and the Salvation that abideth unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Akathist to Our Sweetest Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ

But What about the Marie Lady?

It is important to keep the missionary ethos of the Orthodox Church in mind when discussing the reconciliation of lost branches back to the Tree. The Church recognises that schismatics and even pagans can create correct logical deductions from what God has revealed (either in nature or revelation). Therefore, when approaching the post-schism development of the Sacred Heart devotion, it is important to not throw away everything for having come from papists, for even schismatics and heretics can correctly understand the Fathers and come upon an important truth (already present in and stolen from the Orthodox Church).

While popularised by modern apparition and scandalous Roman ‘saints’, the Sacred Heart devotion itself developed in its current form in the West centuries before any supposed apparitions about the Sacred Heart were reported. And it is here that another missionary principle of the Church must be kept in mind: the Church always must evaluate and purify anything she would receive from those being reconciled to her.

Marguerite-Marie Alacoque's supposed apparitions are highly questionable and her life scandalous (as has been written elsewhere). However, the essence of the Orthodox mission of the Western Rite is to restore the western bodies to the Orthodox Church not by a destruction of our heritage but (just like all of us individually) by purification and absolution from all sins and errors. So, when Anglican and Roman bishops, priests, and laymen desire entry into the Orthodox Church, they bring all the treasures of their tradition as a gift to the Church. In turn, the Church elevates those treasures not by destroying them but washing them of all stain, error, and superstition; making them truly pleasing to God.

And this is exactly the situation of the Sacred Heart. Any errors or superstitions which have attempted to pervert the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ are rejected and overthrown. And a true Orthodox devotion is offered to the Most Holy Trinity.

The sacred and divine teaching of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, founded on unwavering intellect and faith, preserved in purity, and upheld by the holy disciples and apostles, along with the sacred ordinances and canonical norms, harmoniously preserved and upheld by the most just judgment, including the seven ecumenical councils, directed and energised by the same Holy Spirit, honouring and safeguarding the proclamation and the unchangeable canonical decrees with utmost sincerity and unwavering commitment. We reject those who have been excommunicated but cherish and receive those who are worthy of acceptance, such as those who are in agreement with us in faith and those who are deserving of honourable respect as teachers of piety. Thus, being mindful of these matters and proclaiming them with fervour in thought, speech, and every vocal expression, we neither subtract nor add anything, nor do we adulterate in any way. For the removal or addition, instigated by the evil arts of heretical movements, introduces condemnation of the uncondemned and reproach against the Fathers that is unjustifiable. But exchanging deceitful words for the pronouncements of the Fathers is much more difficult. Therefore, this holy and ecumenical council, embracing and sanctifying the original standard of faith with divine ardour and intellectual rectitude, establishes and strengthens the foundation of salvation in it, thus declaring to all to think and preach accordingly. "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty," (and so on until the end.)

Thus, with this confession of faith, we were baptised, and through it, the word of truth has demonstrated the complete destruction and overthrow of every heresy. We inscribe ourselves as brothers, fathers, and fellow clergy of the heavenly citizenship to those who hold this conviction. But if anyone, departing from this sacred symbol handed down from our blessed and holy fathers until our time, should dare to write and designate a creed, attempting to diminish the authority of the confession of those divine men and to include it within their own fabricated doctrines, presenting this common teaching to the faithful or even to those who are returning from some heresy, and thereby adulterating or falsifying the antiquity of this sacred and venerable standard, let them be boldly condemned in accordance with the already pronounced verdict of the holy ecumenical councils before us. If such a man is a cleric, we utterly reject and cast him out; if he is a layman, we consign him to anathema.

Canon 1

Regarding those who were condemned by Rome, so it is also the case with Constantinople.

This holy and ecumenical Council has decreed that so far as concerns any clerics, or laymen, or bishops from Italy that are staying in Asia, or Europe, or Africa, under bond, or deposition, or anathema imposed by the most holy Pope John, all such persons are to be held in the same condition of penalisation also by the most holy Patriarch of Constantinople Photius. That is to say, either deposed, or anathematised, or excommunicated. All those persons, on the other hand, whom Photius our most holy Patriarch has condemned or may condemn to excommunication, or deposition, or anathematisation, in any diocese whatsoever, whether clerics or laymen or any of the persons who are of prelatical or priestly rank, are to be treated likewise by most holy Pope John, and his holy Church of God of the Romans, and be held in the same category of penalisation, with no regard for the altogether newly-invented honours pertaining to the most holy throne of the church of the Romans and to her presider—neither now, nor in the future.

Canon 2

That bishops who become monks are deprived of their rank.

Though hitherto some bishops, having descended to the habit of monks, have been forced nevertheless to remain in the height of the prelacy, they have been overlooked when they did so. But, with this in mind, this holy and ecumenical Council, with a view to regulating this oversight, and readjusting this irregular practice to the ecclesiastical statutes, has decreed that if any bishop or anyone else with a prelatical office is desirous of descending to monastic life and of replenishing the region of penitence and of penance, let him no longer cherish any claim to prelatical dignity. For the monks’ conditions of subordination represent the relationship of pupilship, and not of teachership or of presidency; nor do they undertake to pastor others but are to be content with being pastored.

Wherefore, in accordance with what was said previously, we decree that none of those who are on the prelatical list and are enrolled pastors shall lower themselves to the level of the pastored and repentant. If anyone should dare to do so, after the delivery and discrimination of the decision hereby being pronounced, he, having deprived himself of his prelatical rank, shall no longer have the right to return to his former status, which by actual deeds he has vitiated.

Canon 3

Concerning those who strike and imprison bishops.

If any layman, after becoming a man of authority, and conceiving a contempt for divine and imperial injunctions, and laughing to scorn the dread statutes and laws of the Church, shall dare to strike any bishop, or to imprison one, without reason or cause, or for a fictitious reason or cause, let such a one be anathema.

La gracia del Señor Jesucristo, y el amor de Dios, y la participación del Espíritu Santo sea con vosotros todos. Amén.

2 Cor 13:14

El pilar doctrinal más importante de la Iglesia Ortodoxa es aquella de la Santísima Trinidad. Se nos fue revelada por el mismo Jesucristo a sus Apóstoles, y ellos a los Santos Padres quienes se encargaron de definirla por medio de los Santos Concilios Ecuménicos. Este dogma nos enseña que Dios es uno en esencia, pero tres en hipóstasis o personas. A su vez, es uno de los dogmas más polémicos porque distingue a la Iglesia Ortodoxa de las demás iglesias de occidente.

La Iglesia Ortodoxa firmemente confiesa que hay un solo Dios en tres hipóstasis distintas: el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo. Para nosotros, Dios existe en tres personas divinas que se mantienen estrechamente unidas y se comunican entre sí de forma natural, total, eterna e inseparable. Sin embargo, cada una de estas personas mantiene su identidad y características únicas, sin confundirse ni mezclarse entre sí. La unidad de las operaciones en la Santísima Trinidad no pasa como ocurre con los seres creados en la que existe una unidad en analogía, sino que es una unidad en su sentido más literal. De ahí que, para la fe ortodoxa, si la esencia divina es una, su operación (o energía) es una también. Esto último lo iremos desarrollando con el pasar del tiempo.

Retomando lo que hemos mencionado anteriormente, las tres hipóstasis se distinguen unas con otras por sus propias características personales, a pesar de compartir la misma esencia divina. El Padre, en su modo de existencia, es ingendrado (agennetos). El Hijo, en su modo de existencia, es «engendrado» (gennetos). El Espíritu Santo, en su modo de existencia, procede (ekporeuetai). Estos tres modos, o características individuales, expresan las relaciones eternas de las personas divinas en Dios.

Acerca de esto, San Fulgencio de Ruspe comenta en su obra La Trinidad diciendo:

En resumen, tenemos que el Padre es uno, el Hijo otro y el Espíritu Santo otro; en hipóstasis, cada uno es distinto, pero en naturaleza son iguales. En este sentido, Jesús dice: ‹El Padre y yo somos uno›. Nos enseña que ‹uno› se refiere a su naturaleza y ‹somos› a sus hipóstasis.

El Padre

Debemos saber y comprender que la fe ortodoxa confiesa que hay un solo Dios que existe antes de todo, sobre todo, y en todo, y por encima de: el Padre. Esta confesión la encontramos en el credo nicenoconstantinopolitano, confesamos «un solo Dios» quien es «el Padre Todopoderoso.» El Padre es completamente incausado y sólo él es el fundamento y la fuente de la Divinidad contemplada en el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo; sólo él es el autor, causa incausada inicial de todo lo que existe, sea visible o invisible. Como San Tarasios enseña,

Consideramos al Padre como no originado y como la fuente: como no originado porque es ingénito, y como fuente porque es el generador del Hijo y el que envía al Espíritu Santo, ambos por esencia procedentes de Él y en Él desde toda la eternidad.

4th cent., par. 92

Es decir, existe solamente una sola causa y un solo principio (arche) en Dios: la hipóstasis del Padre. San Gregorio Palamás denomina al Padre como el «principio generador en Dios» (theotes theogonos ho Pater) del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo, quienes toman su subsistente de Él. En esta comunión (koinonia) con su arche, ambas hipóstasis son iguales a Él en su esencia, gloria, energía.

Como podemos observar, en la economía Trinitaria explicada por la Iglesia Ortodoxa, el foco de atención se sitúa siempre en la monarquía del Padre, que, como única fuente de divinidad, causa la hipóstasis del Hijo por generación, y la hipóstasis del Espíritu Santo por procesión. De esta forma, salvaguardamos el dogma de la Unidad en la Trinidad porque radica en que hay una sola fuente de la Divinidad: el Padre que es el principio de las dos hipóstasis que son inseparables de Él: el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo.

El Hijo

El Padre tiene un solo Hijo, que, por una parte, no tiene principio porque es eterno, pero, por otra parte, no carece de principio porque tiene al Padre como principio, fundamento y fuente; sólo de él surgió antes de todos los siglos de forma incorruptible, sin cambio, impasible, por generación, sin sufrir ninguna división, siendo Dios de Dios. Se le llama también «Verbo» o «Logos» de Dios tal como enseña el evangelio de Juan en el capítulo 1, versículo 1.

Con el fin de ilustrar esta idea, tengan esto en cuenta: el Padre es «la mente suprema» que posee en sí mismo el «Verbo [o Logos] supremo» que es «siempre coexistente con la mente». Es en el Verbo donde el Padre posee el conocimiento perfecto de «todas las cosas que son bondad». Si el Padre es eterno, sin principio e increado; entonces el Verbo comparte los mismos atributos del Padre. No hubo, ni hay, ni habrá un solo momento en el que el Hijo no esté con y en el Padre. El Padre y el Hijo están unidos eternamente tal cual como enseña la Escritura.

Al Verbo (o Logos) de Dios se le denomina «Hijo» porque es engendrado por el Padre desde la eternidad y es totalmente idéntico al Padre en esencia. Puesto que su causa y principio es el Padre, no es el autor y principio de la Divinidad inteligible en la Trinidad, sino que es el autor y principio de todas las cosas creadas porque por él se hicieron todas las cosas. Por tanto, el Hijo no posee la acción de engendrar ni de espirar porque esto le pertenece exclusivamente al Padre.

San Ambrosio, en su homilía del Evangelio de San Lucas, menciona lo siguiente: «El Hijo es primero, y por consecuencia, coeterno, porque Él tiene al Padre con quien Él es eterno».

El Hijo es la imagen perfecta del Padre, como lo enseña el apóstol San Pablo en su carta a los Colosenses.

El Espíritu Santo

El Espíritu Santo, en la teología ortodoxa, puede considerarse como el amor eterno del Padre al Hijo. Para explicar mejor esto, nos basaremos en lo que San Agustín, en su obra En la Trinidad y que San Gregorio Palamás tomaría en su obra Los Ciento Cincuenta Capítulos. Dicho de cierto modo, cuando el Padre engendra al Hijo, este le ama y el amor sale del Padre y llega al Hijo. De este modo, identificados a tres figuras presentes: está el amado, el que ama y el amor en esta comunidad. El amor del que ama al amado es el Espíritu Santo y su existencia manifiesta la consubstancialidad del Padre y del Hijo.

Entonces, Iglesia Ortodoxa confiesa que el Espíritu Santo tiene como principio causal al Padre (el que ama), pero se manifiesta eternamente por medio del Hijo (el amado). De este modo, en el Occidente ortodoxo se pretendía explicar la consubstancialidad del Padre y del Hijo cuando los arrianos lo ponían en duda. El Patriarca Gregorio de Chipre, a propósito de este tema, utilizaba una analogía para ilustrar la posición ortodoxa. Tomemos de ejemplo al propio disco solar, que representa al Padre, mientras que los rayos que emanan de él representan al Hijo de Dios, y la luz o resplandor es una imagen del Espíritu Santo. Ahora bien, como señala el Patriarca Gregorio, los rayos transmiten la luz del sol, pero no son la fuente de la luz, es decir, no causan la existencia de la luz, ni le añaden nada, porque sólo el disco solar causa la luz. A partir de esta analogía es que se puede comprender las enseñanzas de los Santos Padres de la Iglesia, quienes hablaban de que el Espíritu Santo procede del Padre por medio del Hijo. De esta forma es como los ortodoxos comprendemos este término.

En contraste, en el Occidente moderno, existe una confusión entre el origen hipostático del Espíritu Santo (que es únicamente del Padre) y su manifestación eterna (del Padre por medio del Hijo). Al no diferenciar en ambos puntos, y creer que para que haya consubstancialidad entre el Padre y el Hijo, el Espíritu debe proceder hipostáticamente de ambos, o bien terminamos mezclando las hipóstasis del Padre y del Hijo o afirmamos que la característica del Padre de ser inoriginado y ser el arche de las otras personas de la Trinidad no es propio de su hipóstasis sino de la esencia divina, lo que significa que el Hijo y el Espíritu son idénticos al Padre hipostáticamente, cayendo en un sabelianismo. ¿Cómo podría recibir el Hijo al Espíritu Santo si el Hijo causase al Espíritu Santo?

Conclusión

Como podemos observar, la fe ortodoxa confiesa fielmente la doctrina de la Santísima Trinidad y la resguarda al enseñar la monarquía del Padre en la que sostiene al único principio causal de la Divinidad. Se distingue de las concepciones occidentales en las que se utilizan otros métodos de explicación (como aquella de las relaciones de oposición de Tomás de Aquino y que analizaremos después) u otras provenientes de teólogos protestantes en sus diversas confesiones.

Esta creencia también la encontramos en el credo nicenoconstantinopolitano, el cual recitamos todos los ortodoxos en la Divina Liturgia, recordando el misterio de Dios revelado a nosotros por medio de Cristo Jesús.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2 Corinthians 13:14

The most important doctrinal pillar of the Orthodox Church is that of the Most Holy Trinity. It was revealed to us by Jesus Christ through His apostles, and they through the Holy Fathers who were commissioned to precisely define the doctrine in the Holy Ecumenical Councils. This dogma teaches us that God is one in essence, but three in hypostases (or persons). Because of this, it is one of the most controversial doctrines since it distinguishes the Orthodox Church from the other churches of the West.

The Orthodox Church firmly confesses that there is only God in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. For us, God exists in three divine persons who intimately maintain unity and communicate with each other naturally, totally, eternally, and inseparably. However, every one of these persons maintains His own identity and unique characteristics without confusion or mixture with the others.

The unity of the operations in the Most Holy Trinity does not occur as a created series whose unity is analogical. Rather, it is a singular unity in its most literal sense. Here, for the Orthodox Faith, if the divine essence is one, its operation (or energy) is also one. The three persons distinguish themselves—one from another—by their proper personal characteristics, even while sharing the same divine essence. The Father, in His mode of existence, is uncaused (agennetos). The Son, in His mode of existence, is begotten (gennetos). The Holy Spirit, in His mode of existence, proceeds (ekporeuetai). These three modes, or individual characteristics, express the eternal relation of the divine persons in God.

The Father

We must know and understand that the Orthodox Faith confesses that there is only one God who exists before all, above all, and in all: the Father. We find this confession in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed; we confess ‘one God’ who is ‘the Father Almighty’. The Father is completely uncaused and only He is the foundation and fount of divinity, contemplated in the Son and the Holy Spirit. Only He is the author, initial uncaused cause of all which exists, whether visible or invisible. As St. Thalassios teaches:

We regard the Father as unoriginate and as the source: as unoriginate because He is unbegotten, and as the source because He is the begetter of the Son and the sender forth of the Holy Spirit, both of whom are by essence from Him and in Him from all eternity.

4th cent., par. 92

That is to say, there only exists one sole cause and one sole principle (arce) in God: the hypostasis of the Father. St. Gregory Palamas refers to the Father as the ‘generating principle in God’ (theotes theogonos ho Pater) of the Son and the Holy Spirit, who take their subsistence from Him. In this communion (κοινωνίᾱ) with their head, both persons are equal with Him in their essence, glory, and energy.

As we can observe, in the Trinitarian economy explicated by the Orthodox Church, the focus of attention is situated always on the monarchy of the Father, who, as the unique fount of divinity, causes the hypostasis of the Son by generation and the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit by procession. By this, we safeguard the dogma of the Unity in the Trinity, situating it in the sole fount of divinity.

The Son

The Father has one sole Son, who, on the hand, does not have principle because He is eternal, but, on the other hand, does not lack principle because He has the Father as principle, foundation, and font; only from the Father springs forth from before all ages incorruptible form, without change, impassible, by generation, without suffering any division, being God of God. He is called called the ‘Word’ or ‘Logos’ of God, just as the evangelist teaches in John 1:1.

This can be illustrated by the Father being the ‘Supreme Mind’ who possesses in Himself the ‘Supreme Word’ who is ‘always coexistent with the Mind’. It is in the Word where the Father possesses perfect knowledge of ‘all that which is good’. If the Father is eternal, without principle and uncreated, then the Word shares the same attributes of the Father. There never has been, neither is, neither will be a single moment in which the Son is not with and in the Father. The Father and the Son are eternally united, as the Scriptures teach.

The Word (or Logos) is called ‘Son’, because He is begotten by the Father from eternity and is completely identical to the Father in essence. His cause and principle is the Father. The Son is not the author and principle of the Trinity's intelligible Divinity but is He by which all created things that were made are made.

St. Ambrose, in his homily on the Gospel of St. Luke, mentions:

The Son is first, and by consequence, co-eternal, because He has the Father, with whom He is eternal.

The Son is the perfect image of the Father, as St. Paul teaches in his epistle to the Colossians.

The Holy Ghost

The Holy Ghost, in Orthodox theology, can be considered as the eternal love from the Father to the Son. To better explain this, we must ground ourselves in St. Augustine’s On the Trinity and St. Gregory Palamas’ 150 Sentences. When the Father begets the Son, He loves Him and the love leaves (or proceeds) from the Father and arrives at the Son. Thus, in the Trinity three figures are present: the Beloved, the Lover, and the Love in this Communion. The Love by which the Father loves the Son is the Holy Ghost, and His existence manifests the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son.

Understanding this, the Orthodox Church confesses that the Holy Ghost has the Father (the Lover) as His causal principle, but He is manifested eternally by means of being received by the Son (the Beloved). Thus, when the Orthodox West encountered Arians doubting this doctrine, it explained the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son with the Holy Ghost.

Patriarch Gregory of Cyprus, to explain this, used an analogy to explain illustrate the Orthodox position. We can take the sun as representing the Father, the rays as the Son, and the light (or splendour) as the Holy Ghost. Now, as Patriarch Gregory teaches, the rays transmit the light of the sun, but they are not the source of the light, that is to say, they do not cause the existence of the of the light, neither do they add anything, because only the sun itself causes the light. Part of this analogy is that the teachings of the Holy Fathers of the Church can be understood, who said that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father by means of the Son. This is how the Orthodox understand that phrase.

In contrast, in the Modern West, there exists a confusion between the hypostatic origin of the Holy Ghost (uniquely from the Father) and His eternal manifestation (from the Father by means of the Son). By not differentiating between both, and by believing that the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son requires the Spirit to proceed hypostatically from both, the Modern West ends up either confusing the persons of the Father and the Son or affirming that the Father's characteristic of being unoriginate and the principle of the other persons of the Trinity is not proper to His person but to the divine essence. And if what distinguishes the Son and the Spirit is hypostatically identical to the Father, then Sabellianism is unavoidable.

Worst of all, the modern western confusion loses the reality of the communal love of the Trinity and the Holy Ghost as Love and Gift. For if the Son causes the person of the Holy Ghost, how could He receive Him as Love and Gift?

Conclusion

As we can see, the Orthodox Faith confesses faithfully the doctrine of the Most Holy trinity and safeguards the teaching of the Monarchy of the Father, that He is the unique causal principle of the Divine Persons. This distinguishes the faith from later western conceptions which use other methods of explanation (such as Thomas of Aquinas' relations of opposition, the even later Protestant theologies, and others which we will see later).

This belief is the foundation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which all Orthodox recite in the Mass, recounting the mystery of God revealed to us by means of Christ Jesus.

Nosotros, en Apologia Anglicana, esperamos que en sus últimas semanas de Cuaresma la están pasando bien. He estado reflexionando del significado de nuestro cambio de misión. En Apologia Anglicana, buscamos ser un testigo occidental firme de la Ortodoxia Católica. Para llevar a cabo esto, y en celebración de la fiesta de San Tikhon de Moscú, estoy feliz de darle la bienvenida a Juan, del blog Insitum Verbum, a Apología Anglicana (por favor, no confundir con el Youtuber).

Apologia siempre ha tenido interés en el idioma castellano, pero nunca tuvo los recursos necesarios para ello. El énfasis de Insitum en la apologética Ortodoxa en el castellano complementa y expande nuestra habilidad para traer la Ortodoxia Occidental a Occidente.

Por favor, esperen la subida de un artículo de Juan para mañana o para el Domingo de Ramos.

San Tikhon, ruega por nosotros.

We at Apologia Anglicana hope your Lent and Passiontide have been going well. I have been reflecting on the significance of our change in mission. At Apologia Anglicana, we seek to provide a firm Western witness of Catholic Orthodoxy. To do this, and in celebration of the Feast of St. Tikhon of Moscow, I am glad to welcome Juan, from the blog Insitum Verbum, to Apologia Anglicana (not to be confused with the YouTuber).

Apologia has always had the concern for Spanish language apologetics but never had the resources to do much of it. Insitum's emphasis on Orthodox apologetics in the Spanish language complements and widens our ability to bring canonical Western Orthodoxy to the West.

Please expect an article by Juan by tomorrow or Palm Sunday.

St. Tikhon of Moscow, pray for us.

V. What do you ask of the Church of God?
R. Faith.

Catechumen Prayers

Over the past year, I have been blessed to continue the mission and work of Apologia Anglicana. At the same time, through my well-enjoyed time at the Davenant Institute, I have been able to spend time in prayer and study. I have written much about the catholic faith. The most foundational of my articles was on communion, and the consummation of all my studies has been on the faith.

I am convinced, from studying the Scriptures, the Fathers, and the Reformers that obedience to Jesus Christ requires Christians to be in visible communion with each other. To do this, as I've worked out in Faith: Reception vs. Reconstruction, we all must seek or maintain visible communion with (and receive the faith from) those catholic churches which have not lost it and have not fallen away.

As St. Augustine teaches, to be catholic requires visible communion with the other catholic churches. Many bodies, such as the Continuum, embarking on their own reconstruction projects, are isolated; they all—even the Romanists—fall into the Problem of Protestantism. But the Body of Christ is neither divided nor invisible, neither as a whole nor in the connexion between its members.

Christ is both head and body. The head is the only begotten son of God and the body is his Church, bridegroom and bride, two in one flesh. Whoever dissents from Holy Scripture concerning the head is not in the Church, even if he is found in all places in which the Church is designated. And, in return, whoever is in agreement with Holy Scripture concerning the head and is not in communion with the unity of the Church is not in the Church, since he separates himself from the witnessing of Christ himself concerning Christ’s body, which is the Church. … whoever indeed believes that Christ Jesus came in the flesh, as has been said, and that he rose in the same flesh in which he was born and suffered and that he is the son of God, God from God, one with the Father, the unchangeable Word of the Father, through whom all things were made, but nevertheless so separates himself from the body, which is the Church, that his communion is not with the entirety wherever it is extended but is found in some separate part; it is clear that he is not in the Catholic Church.

On the Unity of the Church, par. 7

The West fell away in its exaggerated papal claims and accretions. The faith was maintained and continued to be taught by the eastern churches. They truly are, and always have been, catholic; they don't need to reconstruct. And I am blessed to have the opportunity to enter into communion with them through Antioch’s Western Rite.

Impact on Apologia Anglicana

Apologia Anglicana has always been committed to explaining and defending the English expression of authentic catholicism. However, the mission has always been defective, since it has depended upon reconstructing the catholic faith instead of receiving it from orthodox catholic churches. This defect will finally be fixed and made whole by a change in mission: a commitment to explaining and defending the orthodox catholic faith in its uniquely English expression, which is found authentically in communion with the canonical Orthodox Churches. This will involve discussions and explanations, for example, of Western Orthodoxy.

We will be adding contributors who are excited about and committed to this mission. I myself, as a catechumen, will remain editor but will not be writing to give myself the silence and time needed to process this change. We will be unlisting or recategorising heterodox content.

Please pray for Apologia Anglicana during this time.

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3:16–17

The Baptism of Christ shows the work of the Trinity. Just as the Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father to the Son before all ages, likewise He is given by the Father to the Body of Christ, so that all who are incorporated into His Body may receive that same Gift. Man does not work to receive the Holy Spirit. He does not somehow become a meet vessel through his own preparations. Rather, the Gift of the Holy Spirit first comes to him and conforms him to Christ. And this Gift works faith in man.

It is foundational to the Gospel that faith is a gift. Of course, the Bible is given to man as a gift, but that is the rule of faith not faith itself. Faith is the belief and trust in God's Revelation which is given to man. Man does not create or manufacture this right belief based on the best data (whether biblical, historical, or otherwise). In fact, this faith (since it is founded in the all-knowing Lord) corrects and determines our best data. Rather, right belief is freely given to man by the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Church.

This faith—not simply the rule of faith but the right belief itself—was given once and for all to the saints: the Church. Just as Christ's sacrifice is ‘full, perfect, and sufficient’ and never needs to be repeated, likewise His sufficient gift of faith to His Church never needs to be re-given or re-completed. The Church, always having the faith, is entrusted with guarding the deposit and communicating it to man in every age. And since this gift of faith is final, and secured through the promised Spirit of Truth (as discussed in Sacred Scripture & the Authority of the Catholic Church), the Church Catholic never fails to believe and teach the right faith. Rather, she hands down this gift purely in every age, confronting heresies and settling doctrinal disputes once and for all.

Of course there are communities which fall away and chase after heresies and false beliefs or fall away due to disobedience and schism. However, there will always exist in historical continuity a bishop and his faithful gathered around the Lord's Supper giving the same faith as given at Pentecost. And it will always be the ministry of those orthodox and catholic churches to give that faith to all of mankind through the power of the Holy Spirit who will never let His gift be destroyed from the face of the earth.

Reconstruction

If this is the case, then there is never an occasion where the pure, true faith ever needs to be reconstructed based on the best data; it simply needs to be found and received. The Protestant Reformers were right when they looked at the Church around them and saw that it was not catholic and that the pure faith of the Fathers was corrupted with papal accretions. However, their response was not to then receive the right faith from where the Church had continued to exist and to preserve it. Rather, an ecclesiastical despair brought them to reconstruct the faith based on the Fathers & the Scriptures. However, this never solves this despair. Rather, this reconstructed faith will then be re-reconstructed as new data or insight comes to light, as the West has experienced for some time now.

This betrays a key misunderstanding about faith: if you don't have it, you can't receive or make it from yourself. Faith must be received from the Holy Spirit through the Church, because the faith was deposited to the Church with the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Theology within the Church

It is difficult—if not impossible—to find a Father of the Church whose theological imagination could envision Christian men trying to work out the Catholic faith outside of the context of the visible Catholic Church. The despair is fundamentally incompatible with the trust and hope our Fathers in the faith had in Our Lord’s promise to always be with His Church.

And it is trust in a true promise. For those who find themselves in a community built upon reconstruction, it cannot be proper to merely inherit this despairing reconstruction. Man is not simply a blank slate with no history. Rather, he brings forth his fathers to the present, and he needs to reflect on their virtues and vices. True piety is recognising the sins of one’s fathers and replacing those sins with the corresponding virtues in oneself. Therefore, if isolation from the rest of the Body of Christ is inherited, then one should recognise that it is not rightly ordered and join oneself to where the Church has always been.

Just as every member of the body is visibly connected to the others and all animated by the same soul, likewise every member of the Body of Christ must be visibly united in communion with the others to be animated by the same Spirit. As discussed in Refusing Communion, communion is not a mere legal agreement or a compromise on ‘essentials’ (as if the Scriptures taught such a category). Rather, communion is true unity in the same faith. This communion expands across space and time; it is the communion of saints, all holding and passing down the same faith in every age.

The responsibility of every Christian is to hold the catholic faith in authentic communion with the rest of the Catholic Church. Just as a finger is dead when severed from the body, likewise no Christian can live while severed from the visible and historical reality of the Church existing from Pentecost until today. As St. Augustine rightly notes:

Christ is both head and body. The head is the only begotten son of God and the body is his Church, bridegroom and bride, two in one flesh. Whoever dissents from Holy Scripture concerning the head is not in the Church, even if he is found in all places in which the Church is designated. And, in return, whoever is in agreement with Holy Scripture concerning the head and is not in communion with the unity of the Church is not in the Church, since he separates himself from the witnessing of Christ himself concerning Christ’s body, which is the Church. … whoever indeed believes that Christ Jesus came in the flesh, as has been said, and that he rose in the same flesh in which he was born and suffered and that he is the son of God, God from God, one with the Father, the unchangeable Word of the Father, through whom all things were made, but nevertheless so separates himself from the body, which is the Church, that his communion is not with the entirety wherever it is extended but is found in some separate part; it is clear that he is not in the Catholic Church.

On the Unity of the Catholic Church, par. 7.

Where to Go?

The doctrine requires the reflection by all Christians: do I believe the same faith within the same Church teaching it from Pentecost unto today without change? This poses a unique problem for those in communities which come from the Reformation. The Reformation recognises that the Catholic faith was lost in the West. Even if one wants to describe it as only partially corrupted or sullied or eclipsed, the Reformation claim that certain truths of the Catholic faith ceased to be believed in the West cannot be minimised. There are two solutions:

1. The Catholic faith is not always present in the Church, so each Christian has to reconstruct the faith based on the best data, and this reconstruction needs to focuses on every doctrine which can be up-for-grabs in every age.

2. The Catholic faith was given to the Church and will always be kept in the Church through the ministry of the bishops teaching their faithful, so if a man lacks the faith, he must find where it is still being taught and submit to that teaching.

The former is a works-based theology; the latter is a grace-based theology.

Appendix: Infallible Certainty?

It is essential for spiritual balance to reflect on one’s intentions when discerning these issues. Unfortunately, this conversation and reflection has often been sullied by a neurotic and scrupulous obsession with certainty. To exalt the Church, many denigrate the Scriptures and say that the Scriptures are so obtuse, and man’s reason is so dark, that he cannot actually know the Scriptures, so he needs to blindly submit to the Church (as if one’s virtue of faith could be outsourced) in order to have ‘infallible certainty.’

While it is true that man’s reason is darkened by sin, that does not impute blame upon the lantern of the Scriptures which guides him. And if man’s reason cannot understand the Scriptures with certainty, how does adding church documents help? In every age, the Church’s teaching has been misunderstood and misconstrued. Every clarification, to this scrupulous mind, is not a new opportunity of infallible certainty but to further misinterpretation and confusion.

No. We do not seek the Church for supposed infallible certainty. Such a search is built on the error and illness of skepticism. It comes from hell and leads only back to hell, for it will eventually come after one’s knowledge of not only the Scriptures but also the Church and even Christ Himself. Rather, we seek the Church because it is from her that we receive the light of faith.

Man’s intellect will always be fallible. However, we are bound to seek Him who loves us and leads us to Himself. It is only in man’s recognition of his own brokenness and fallibility that he truly appreciates that it is to Christ’s Body that we owe joyful obedience in the Spirit. And this gift of faith actually enables us to faithfully read the Scriptures, not isolated and alone but as taught and guided by our orthodox fathers in the catholic faith. Let us seek not a phantasm of certainty but the obedience of faith.

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