“Unless I see… I will not believe.”

Like Thomas, we doubt. We question. We seek. We embrace.

Welcome to the online enquirer’s group for Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. This blog is designed as asupplement to ongoing fellowship, corporate worship, interpersonal dialogue, and independent study in the Orthodox Faith.

This site is managed by three main contributors: Father Anastasios Gounaris, Dr. David Carlson, and Judith Burns. Please email them directly with any questions about joining this group.

April 10th Discussion

All are welcome to join in a discussion of Great Lent: Journey to Pascha in the library following Liturgy on April 10th.

April 3-9 Reflection

This is the last week of our study of great Lent.  I invite you to reflect on how reading Great Lent has deepened your understanding and experience of the following:

• Lent as a time of preparation and entire life of the Church as preparation
• The spiritual meaning and significance of fasting
• The themes, structure, and spiritual  significance of the Lenten Liturgies
• The effort and meaning of “taking Lent seriously”
• The meaning of Communion and  preparation for Communion
• The Eucharist as the essential Sacrament of the Church

March 27-April 2 Reflection on Reading

Reflection on Reading Great Lent

We have completed reading Great Lent.  Now, I invite you to reflect on that reading as it pertains to your journey to Pascha this Lent.

Schmemann stresses the need to “take Lent seriously” and suggests ways to do so. These spiritual practices include:  attendance at Lenten services, prayer and fasting, alms giving, and learning.

• Which of these practices are you keeping?
• Are you experiencing these practices more as obligation or as an increased desire for communion with God?

The spiritual journey of Lent is one of repentance. This is a time of bright sadness.  A time of sadness that leads to repentance and joy of forgiveness.

• How are you experiencing this bright sadness?

March 20-26 Discussion Questions

Holy Things For The Holy

1. What is religious secularism and how is it manifest in American Christianity?
2. Why are the sacraments the essential foundation of church life founded on Christ?
3. Why is sacramental reform needed and what is the criterion for this reform?
4. How does Schmemann explain the cause for the practice of  infrequent communion by the laity?
5. Why is the common misunderstanding of the meaning of being worthy to receive communion really an act of pride?
6. Why does preparation for communion entail awareness of Christian principles beginning with prayer, repentance, and love for Christ?
7. How are worthiness to receive communion, confession, and absolution rightly understood and related?
8. How and why has the role of the Priest in regard to absolution been misunderstood?  What is the initial Orthodox understanding of this role?
9. What would be the significance of the rediscovery of Eucharist as the essential sacramental act of the Church?

March 13-19 Discussion Questions

Lent In Our Life

1. What is the difference between observing Lent and taking Lent seriously?
2. Why is it  important to prepare for the lenten fast and experience Lent as preparation for Pascha?
3. Why does Schmemann consider attendance at Forgiveness Sunday Vespers, Great Canon of Saint Andrew, and Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts essential to keeping Lent?
4. What is a Christian fast?  How and why is it related to prayer and alms giving?
5. What is the significance of understanding Lent as a time of spiritual effort? What types of effort does Schmemann suggest are required to make Lent “Lent in Our Life”?
6. When Lent is taken seriously what is rediscovered?

March 6-12 Discussion Questions

The Lenten Journey

1. How does the penitential Canon of Saint Andrew relate to the lenten journey?
2. What is the distinction between spiritual and liturgical meaning of  Sabbath and The Lord’s Day?
3. What is the purpose and spiritual journey of the Saturdays of Lent?
4. How are the Sundays of Lent a journey back to the roots of the Christian faith?
5. What is the meaning of the “liturgical today,” and how is this meaning too often misunderstood?
6. What is the spiritual journey of: (1) the first half of Lent, (2) mid-Lent to the Week of the Palms; and, (3) the Week of the Palms?
7. How is the error of approaching worship as either rational or sentimental corrected by understanding and experiencing liturgical celebration as re-entrance into the event celebrated?
8. How does understanding and experiencing the whole life of the church as commemoration and remembrance move the lenten journey from obligation to partaking of the all embracing Today of Christ?

February 27 – March 5 Discussion Questions

The Liturgy Of The Presanctified Gifts

1. What are the rubrics for celebrating Divine Liturgy during Lent?
2. How do the rubrics for the celebration of Divine Liturgy relate to the meaning and observance of a total and an ascetical fast?
3. In what way does the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts express the Orthodox understanding of: (1) the presence of Christ and the Kingdom in liturgy, (2) communion, (3) the festal nature of the celebration of the Eucharist, (4) Eucharist as essential food and as strength for the lenten journey?
4. Has Schmemann’s explanation of the liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts been helpful as you prepare to participant in this liturgy this Lent?

February 20-26 Discussion Questions

The Lenten Worship

1. What are the characteristics of lenten worship that serve to soften our hearts to experience the realities of the spirit and hidden thirst for communion with God?
2. What is bright sadness? How is it expressed in lenten worship?
3. Why, and in what ways, is the emphasis of lenten worship on repentance?
4. How are sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk related? With what consequence?
5. How are chastity, humility, patience, and love related? With what consequence?
6. Why does Schmemann consider prostrations the lenten rite par excellence?
7. Why are the scripture readings for Lent from the Old Testament; specifically, Genesis, Proverbs, Isaiah, and Psalms?
8. What would the recovery of The Lenten Triodion make possible?

GREAT LENT IS COMING!

This is truly developing into an interesting discussion.  Fr. Schmemann’s book is a classic – which deeply influenced me in my journey toward Christ and the Holy Priesthood.  You cannot read this book too many times because, each time you open it you are a different person who is confronted with novel challenges in life.  I look forward to participating in this journey with all of you – and to hopefully attracting new participants to this forum.  Please do your part and help spread the word!

February 13-19 Discussion Questions

The Journey to Pascha and Preparation for Lent

1. What is the gift of Lent?
2. How is Pascha both beginning and end?
3. Why is there a need for a preparatory time before Lent?
4. How would you define repentance?
5. How do desire, humility, return, judgment, and forgiveness relate to repentance and preparation for Lent?
6. How is praying for the dead an essential expression of God’s love?
7. Why are fasting and forgiveness the necessary conditions for liberation from sin?