The Priest and His Ordination
Very often, just before ordination, those who are weak or overly judgmental, or perhaps excessively self-demanding, possessing an over-scrupulous conscience, succumb to the well-known condition of faintheartedness and the desire to run away without looking back, lest the burden they take upon themselves will prove to be overly excessive. Such a temptation deserves an answer. One must not, in these last minutes before ordination, hesitate or vacillate, remembering that a “double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). For those who find these last minutes so painful and agonizing, the firm hand of the confessor [OL: who heard the confession of the candidate and affirmed that there were no impediments to ordination], the encouraging voice of a real friend can and must supply help to the weakening conscience of the candidate. Here it is imperative to point to the grace of the Holy Spirit, “Which healeth that which is feeble and fills that which is wanting.”
These last hours may be safely compared to a personal Gethsemane, a temptation to forsake God. Father Sergius Bulgakov spoke about “dying” before his ordination. …
[And at the ordination, the] most awe-inspiring words of the bishop, spoken in an undertone into the ear of the candidate: “Raise your eyes into heaven and ask God for forgiveness of your sins and the bestowing upon you the purity of priesthood.” These words like lightening from heaven, pierce the person’s soul, like a fiery sword, they cut off all the sinfulness from him …and] they grasp the hearer with the words of prayer: “O, divine grace, which always healeth that which is ailing and completes that which is wanting, vouch for the most devout deacon, (Name), to be a presbyter; let us pray for him, and bring down upon him the Grace of the Holy Spirit.”
…
The final moment at last: the handing to the new priest the discos with a particle of the Holy Lamb with these words, “receive this pledge, bear its agonizing existence until the day of the Terrible Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now the new priest is no longer a mere layman, he is a theurgist and a celebrant of Sacraments. This is no longer someone who is merely bearing the title of father, but is in fact Father. He must, according to St. Gregory the Theologian, “Stand with the angels, give glory with archangels, offer up the sacrifice on the rock of the Sacrificial Altar and perform the Holy Rite with Christ, recreate creation, reclaim the image of God, work in the mines of the world and above all – to be like God and create gods.” (from pages 102-110)
Fr Kyprian does a masterful job here communicating the significance of what is going on. I’ll also admit that it’s good to review this, with one’s personal experience of ordination so often lost in the fog of what is happening when it takes place. Ordination is in many respects a personal Transfiguration, not unlike Moses’s transformation at Mount Sinai, when his face shone such that felt compelled to veil his face. Once transformed, there is no going back, as only the healing and completing grace of the Holy Spirit matters.
Sure, there are those who for a variety of reasons may no longer exercise the priestly office, and they are deposed because it is required for the good of the Church, for the Gospel and the Church’s confession of it. Yet in no small way deposition maims a man, and this result must never be left unconsidered when caring for a deposed priest.
I recommend this book to my brethren, if only for its contemporary (relatively speaking) reflections on what it is to be and to serve as a priest in our time.
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M. Stankovich:
June 21st, 2013 at 1:28 pm
It is quite obvious from where the young Alexander Schmemann derived his “zeal” for liturgical theology and how these words and explanations by Fr. Kyprian struck him as so “astonishing” and “like nothing I had ever heard.”
I would also note that while the symbolism of transfiguration and Moses veiling his face is, indeed rich, you cannot forget that the Deacon “candidate” stands in the center of the church with the veil of the “offering,” the sacrifice, over his head and is ordained at the time of the “offering of the gifts”; during the singing of the Cherubic Hymn, the prayer of the bishop has spoken of Him “who offers and is offered.” And in the end, fully vested, a priest is buried with his face “veiled” as the offering.
A very positive & inspiring series from an unfortunately neglected “Parisian!”