"Glory to the Father...."
Orthodox are big on the Trinity. The joke goes that the reason we allow up to three Church marriages (ie, two ecclesiastical divorces) is "one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit"!
Western Christianity teaches too, that God is One, in Three Divine Persons. But They're mentioned by Name much more often in Orthodox Liturgy and private prayer. Some analysts say the West emphasizes God's Unity, the East His Trinity; others say the West's emphasis is on the shared Divine Essence, the East's on the Hypostases or Persons.
Whatever the case, after the Lord Have Mercy's the most frequent Orthodox prayer is "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen." GLORY! Like Uncreated Light!
We also make the Sign of the Cross very often, whenever the Trinity are mentioned by Name, as well as many other times. (And the original way, from right to left.) They couldn't even make My Big Fat Greek Wedding without it! (It's near the beginning, in the restaurant, when the old folks are discussing the possibility of Toula never getting married.)
As Homo adorans, humanity's Number One task is to give Glory to the Trinity. Orthodoxy even teaches that you can see the Trinity in the Old Testament (BTW, Yahweh is Christ!), though the dogma wasn't clear historically until the Incarnation of the Logos.
Western Christianity teaches too, that God is One, in Three Divine Persons. But They're mentioned by Name much more often in Orthodox Liturgy and private prayer. Some analysts say the West emphasizes God's Unity, the East His Trinity; others say the West's emphasis is on the shared Divine Essence, the East's on the Hypostases or Persons.
Whatever the case, after the Lord Have Mercy's the most frequent Orthodox prayer is "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen." GLORY! Like Uncreated Light!
We also make the Sign of the Cross very often, whenever the Trinity are mentioned by Name, as well as many other times. (And the original way, from right to left.) They couldn't even make My Big Fat Greek Wedding without it! (It's near the beginning, in the restaurant, when the old folks are discussing the possibility of Toula never getting married.)
As Homo adorans, humanity's Number One task is to give Glory to the Trinity. Orthodoxy even teaches that you can see the Trinity in the Old Testament (BTW, Yahweh is Christ!), though the dogma wasn't clear historically until the Incarnation of the Logos.
posted by me at 9:06 AM
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