Saint Nicholas
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Mission
Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ within the Eastern Catholic Tradition
Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Mission
Raleigh, NC
SaintNic
Prayer Before Reading Scriptures
Before Reading Sacred Scripture
O Lord Jesus Christ,
open the eyes of my heart,
that I may hear Your word
and understand and do Your will,
for I am a sojourner upon the earth.
Hide not Your commandments from me,
but open my eyes, that I may perceive the wonders of Your law.
Speak unto me the hidden and secret things
of Your wisdom.
On You do I set my hope, O my God,
that You shall enlighten
my mind and understanding with
the light of Your knowledge,
not only to cherish those things
which are written, but to do them;
that in reading the lives and sayings
of the saints I may not sin,
but that such may serve for my restoration, enlightenment
and sanctification, for the salvation of my soul,
and the inheritance of life everlasting.
For You are the enlightenment of those
who lie in darkness,
and from You comes every good deed
and every gift.
Amen.
The Bible and the Liturgy
"The prayer of the church is always biblical - i.e., expressed in the language, images, and symbols of the Holy Scripture. If the Bible contains the Divine Revelation to man, it is also man's inspired response to that Revelation and thus the pattern and the content of man's prayer, praise, and adoration. For example, thousands of years have passed since the Psalms were composed; yet when man needs to express repentance, the shock of his entire being at the challenge of divine mercy, he still finds the only adequate expression in the penitential Psalm beginning "Have mercy on me, O God!" Every imaginable situation of man before God, the world, the other man, form the overwhelming joy of the God's presents to the abyssal despair of man's exile, sin, and alienation has found its perfect expression in this unique Book which, for this reason, has always constituted the daily nourishment of the Church, the means of her worship and self-edification"
- Fr. Alexander Schmemann
Liturgy, the bible and language
"The Orthodox Church uses many languages in her worship (Greek, Slavonic, English, etc.) and yet has basically one LITURGICAL LANGUAGE. It is that of the Holy Scriptures, of the Bible. In order to understand the liturgy, it is not enough simply to translate in into an "understandable" language (English in America, for example). One must yet learn its biblical form and contents, i.e. [expressions,] images, comparisons, references and, in short, the whole system of expressions taken directly or indirectly from the Bible. This biblical character of the Christian liturgy is explained, first, by the fact that the first Christians, being Jews, naturally used the forms and the expressions of the Jewish cult, of which the Christian worship is a direct continuation. In the second place, the great Christian writers who composed the liturgical hymns and prayers were deeply rooted in the Bible; saw in it the source of all Christian thinking and teaching. They naturally used the language to which they were accustomed. The Bible is thus the key to understanding on the liturgy, just as the liturgy is the living explanation of the Bible. Together they constitute the two essential foundations of the Church's life."- Fr. Alexander Schmemann
Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Mission
Raleigh, NC
SaintNic
