"Hymn of Entry"

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Have any of you read this book?
Hymn of Entry, Liturgy and Life in the Orthodox Church by Archimandrite Vasileios, SVS Press.

I just received it in the mail today, and am about 20 pages into it.

 

[Photini]

Here is an excerpt from the chapter about Icons, which I found very interesting. The book as a whole is addressing "unity" as known in the Orthodox Church. But I found this passage very interesting in regards to the recent movie that is out... The author is the Abbot of the Stavronikita Monastery on Mount Athos. It was first published in 1974.


4) The World of Transfiguration

The icon of the Transfiguarion is no brighter than the icon of the Crucifixion. The Lord's face does not "shine" at the Transfiguration more than any other icon of Him. In iconography the Transfiguration is not an isolated and seperate even, but a manifestation of the grace and mysterious illumination that fills everything and gives it life. All iconography is tranfigured space, with a new order, structure and interpenetration. It is the world of the Transfiguration, the world of the uncreated illumination. So he who has a spiritual sense can see the uncreated brilliance, invisible to the naked eye, that has glorified dark and bright alike. Light-colored faces are not invariably more pleasant and bright than those in deep and dark colors. Spiritual joy cannot be perceived by the mere senses, nor is it confined simply within shades of color, just as the mystery of theology is not bound by "certain formulations and creations of the mind." (1)
You cannot ask for Tranfiguration or for anything else in the Church from a human point of view, by the criteria of created things. The grace of the Transfiguration has shone everywhere and strangely altered everything, pain and joy, life and death. Everything interpenetrates. It is everywhere and nowhere. It is perceived and understood in an unaccustomed way.
In iconography, the clothed body is not more modest than the naked. Here everything is filled with contrite devotion because it is inwardly holy, newly created and pure. In spiritual life also, after much ascetic effort and pain and contritionm the saints are clothed in the same simplicity and freedom of Paradise as prevails in the icon. Man becomes like a baby child and goes about unassuming and defenceless, because he has "for food and drink the clothing that fire which is divine." (2)
The Lord's expression is calm and divinely peaceful as He sits on the foal of an ***, entering Jerusalem on the eve of the Passion. Later, when He is mocked and buffeted in the courtyard of the High Priest, He keeps the same undisturbed tranquility, mingled with a deep sorrow at the consequences of sin for His creature. On the Cross He preserved His serene glory from before the ages, which He had with God before the world was made (John 17:5). Upon the Cross the Orthodox Church sees Him as King of Glory. And finally, when He is raised from the dead, there appears before us the same peaceful and, one might almost dare to say, sad face. This reverend and "sad" face of the Victor in the blinding light of the Resurrection literally crushes every bar and every sorrow. It gives relief to the humbled heart. With one glance He draws all who are in bondage to the festival of eternal joy. He gives an invitation that passes over no one. The Lord of life and death neither becomes angry when He is mocked--"He who was struck for the race of men and did not grow angry"(3)--nor does He become proud when He is raised from the dead. Always and everywhere He preserves His divine serenity. Always and everywhere He saves the whole man and our life.

(cont. on next post.)

 

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5. Giver of Comfort


If the icon spoke a different language, it would torment man. If it relied on historical accuracy, it would merely be saying to us: You did not have the luck to be there then and see these events as those who crucified the Lord saw them.
If the icon depicted Christ suffering pain on the Cross, like a condemned man and rejoicing at the Resurrection, it would leave us prey to the vicissitudes that lead to death, in the thrall of our passions. It would not give us anything beyond what we already had ourselves.
If the icon depicted night and day in romantic shades, it would leave us in the prison of the created world which we have come to know so well since the fall. If it feared the night, if it could be obscured by natural darkness, then we should be in the position of the unbaptized; we should fear death, and death would cut short our hope in life. We should remain in the territory of death.
If the icon used perspective, it would put us, in a harsh if polite manner, outside Paradise and outside immediate participation in its world, like the foolish virgins; instead of our being partakers in the Wedding, it would throw us out into the darkness and cold of objective vision, into deception.
In other words, if the icon remained on the level of a religious picture, when it spoke to us of the fact of salvation it would merely be offering us an artistic diversion to make us forget, if possible, the prison and the territory of death. It would be a mockery.
As it is, it is Deliverance. The icon is not a representation of events. It is not an idol that has been manufactured; it is Grace incarnate, a presence and an offering of life and holiness.
Orthodox iconography is a witness to the victory over death won by the Author of life and His friends. The laws of iconography are the laws of spiritual life; its power, the power of the Resurrection. And one enters the world of the icon and learns its language through repentance and humble veneration, not through observation and mere artistic training. The colors speak silently and the forms reveal what is without form to those "who venerate the mystery in faith." (4)
What a disappointment, what a temptation to unbelief you find the approach to Christ "according to man": seeing Christ in the flesh, depicting Him in a painting as an ordinary man of His time, thinking that you will come nearer to the truth about Him the more faithfully you manage to copy the landscape of Palestine or present the area as it was at that period.
The icon, by contrast, doess not create romantic images for you or illusions about that time and place. It does not evoke in you human memories of bygone ages, events or civilizations. The icon is a life-giving presence. It brings before you the transparancy of transfigured history and matter: it brings you to the wedding of the created and uncreated. Into the area where everything is true and free from sorrow--even the transient and ephemeral, yet without its transient and ephemeral nature being destroyed. Instead these things, motionless in a sure and boundless movement of life, enable you to drink from the exultation which wells up from the Tomb of Life.
You stand before the icon with fear, yearning and joy. You stand before it. You venerate it. You suck from it, you drink it in. You feed insatiably on it. What nourishes you now can never be exhausted. Those who show veneration and what they venerate ar alike in the power and sanctifying grace of the Spirit who has neither beginning nor end.
When you have learned to venerate the icons of Christ, of the Most Holy Mother of God and of the saints, to venerate them bending the whole of your being towards them, then you have learned the path which brings you to the spring of life without end. "Come, ye faithful, let us approach the tomb of the Mother of God, and let us embrace it, touching it sincerely with our hearts' lips and eyes and foreheads. Let us draw abundant gifts of healing grace from this ever-flowing fount." (5)


1. St. Basil the Great, quoted by Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos, "On the Hesychasts." Philokalia 4, p.259

2. St Macaruis of Egypt, Homily 14

3. Toparion at Matins, Holy Thursday.

4. Verses at Lauds on Sunday, tone 5

5. Second Kanon of the Dormition, ninth ode.