'Trusting the grace'

I quote from part of my reply to bardcat in http://bardcat.livejournal.com/320516.html?view=3585540#t3585540. (I am the 'Michael across the waters' in his 7th paragraph.)

‘Why not join hands and trust the grace’ – I fear I am not quite there yet. I fear that certain ‘liberal Christian’ stances, while sounding reasonable according to criteria like equality and probably acceptable from a Bible-only hermeneutic, are subtly wrong in terms of God’s anthropology and can block grace at a deeper level. I hesitate to condemn – other than express my deep dislike of own church’s cheap use of anti-gayness as an identity badge ­–, but I ask for the right not to join in the dance. Perhaps my heart will expand later to embrace more, but I am not sure.

Adam's lament (and mine a bit too)

There is, in the Orthodoxy service books for the start of Lent, a most beautiful text, in the form of a lament by Adam on his ejection from Paradise.

Funny, I thought this morning, I can’t remember it. So I went to the service book and checked

Then I realized. The text is read by the reader, interspersed with verses sung by the choir, during the first censing of the church by the deacon at Saturday evening vespers.  It is linguistically quite complex in Slavonic (probably calqued fairly directly on the Greek), too complex for me to pick up by ear. Added to that, readers are, unfortunately, rather more inclined to display the fact that they can read fluently, in other words fast, than show any concern for comprehension by the audience.

As it was me doing the censing, being more concerned to steer an even course, not hit anything or anyone, not lose the charcoal, not catch the tail of my orarion in the grating, and to look tolerably pious in the process, it needless to say it passed totally over my head. And I rather suspect over nearly everyone else’s.

For anyone else who missed it in similar circumstances, here are the third and fifth strophes, in English and in Slavonic (Old Church Russian):

“O precious Paradise, unsurpassed in beauty, tabernacle built by God, unending gladness and delight, glory of the righteous, joy of the prophets, and dwelling of the saints, with the sound of thy leaves pray to the Maker of all: may He open unto me the gates which I closed by my transgression, and may He count me worthy to partake of the Tree of Life and of the joy which was mine when I dwelt in three before.”

…

“Adam sat in paradise and, lamenting his nakedness, he wept: ‘Woe in me! By evil deceit I was persuaded and led astray, and now I am an exile from glory. Woe in me! In my simplicity I was stripped naked, and now I am in want. O Paradise, no more shall I take pleasure in this joy; no more than I look upon the Lord my God and Maker, for I shall return to the earth whence I was taken. O merciful and compassionate Lord, to Thee I cry aloud: I am fallen, have mercy upon me.’”

Раю́ всечестны́й, красне́йшая добро́то,/ богозда́нное селе́ние,/ весе́лие неконча́емое и наслажде́ние,/ сла́во пра́ведных, проро́ков красото́,/ и святы́х жили́ще,/ шу́мом ли́ствий твои́х Соде́теля всех моли́,/ врата́ отве́рсти ми, я́же преступле́нием затвори́х,/ и сподо́битися дре́ва живо́тнаго прия́ти, и ра́дости,// ея́же пре́жде в тебе́ наслади́хся…..

 

Ада́м изгна́н бысть из рая́ преслуша́нием,/ и сла́дости изве́ржен, же́нскими глаго́лы прельще́нный,/ и наг седи́т, села́, увы́ мне, пря́мо рыда́я./ Те́мже потщи́мся вси вре́мя подъя́ти поста́,/ послу́шающе Ева́нгельских преда́ний:/ да си́ми благоуго́дни бы́вше Христу́,// рая́ жили́ще па́ки восприи́мем.