Marriage after Divorce - Church and State particulars

truefiction1 said:

Fr. Matt, are you aware of any cohabitation ceremonies for elderly couples that are done in the OCA? Last year I read a story about a certain saint matching up an elderly pair because it had been revealed to him by God that this was his will for those two. Seraphim of Vyritsa perhaps? I don't recall who it was.

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truefiction1 said:

Alright, thanks. I guess I'll figure out what's what eventually.

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It is futile to talk of reform without reference to form.
To take a case from my own taste and fancy, there is nothing I feel
to be so beautiful and wonderful as a window. All casements are
magic casements, whether they open on the foam or the front-garden;
they lie close to the ultimate mystery and paradox of limitation
and liberty. But if I followed my instinct towards an infinite
number of windows, it would end in having no walls. It would also
(it may be added incidentally) end in having no windows either;
for a window makes a picture by making a picture-frame. But there
is a simpler way of stating my more simple and fatal error.
It is that I have wanted a window, without considering whether
I wanted a house. Now many appeals are being made to us to-day
on behalf of that light and liberty that might well be symbolised
by windows; especially as so many of them concern the enlightenment
and liberation of the house, in the sense of the home.
Many quite disinterested people urge many quite reasonable
considerations in the case of divorce, as a type of domestic liberation;
but in the journalistic and general discussion of the matter there
is far too much of the mind that works backwards and at random,
in the manner of all windows and no walls. Such people say they
want divorce, without asking themselves whether they want marriage.
Even in order to be divorced it has generally been found necessary
to go through the preliminary formality of being married; and unless
the nature of this initial act be considered, we might as well be
discussing haircutting for the bald or spectacles for the blind.
To be divorced is to be in the literal sense unmarried;
and there is no sense in a thing being undone when we do not know
if it is done.

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rusmeister said:

A chief danger to us fallen people in discussing the legality or canonicity of marriage (in general) is that of playing Philadelphia lawyer with the topic to seek perceived personal advantage rather than looking at any canons or laws in the light of what marriage is in the Church, and to Christendom in general. Not that anyone is doing that here, but the whole discussion still bears that air or sense of other people doing so.

A little piece from the first page of the book I got translated into Russian. It’s a great intro to the unusual style of GK that seems to go off in crazy directions, and then bring it together to an astounding point:

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buzuxi02 said:

Huh???
There is no marriage service for elderly in the Orthodox church. Once you hit a certain age you are expected to seek out the Lord not your personal urges, hence older widows were put on the rolls. St. Paul and the Fathers' speak about this. No service even exists for people past the age of procreation to couple up.
Is this some sort of 30 second prayer to bless their cohabitation or an actual wedding sacrament ( not that I would call it a mystery) ? The Orthodox marriage service are full of fertility prayers. You cut out the dance of Isaiah and much of everything else? Cut out half of the begining and middle such as these petitions:

...That there may be given unto them soberness of life, and fruit of the womb as may be most expedient for them; let us pray to the Lord.

That they may rejoice in the beholding of sons and daughters; let us pray to the Lord.

That there may be granted unto them the happiness of abundant fertility, and a course of life blameless and unashamed; let us pray to the Lord...

You aren't left with much except for a mockery of a wedding.

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All4Christ said:

Thankfully marriage is for more than just children though, considering those faithful who are in the childbearing age upon marriage yet do not successfully conceive and carry a child despite the prayers.

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