Church on Rotation

Lead article from current newsletter.

We seem to be a people who are church on a rotating basis. Okay, I’m being a little silly, but note that I wrote “are church on a rotating basis” – because when we participate in the acts and worship of church we are church! Many of us have accepted as a fact that our church membership and participation are diminishing, and there is certainly truth to that, as when I look out at the congregation on any given Sunday. We lose some of our members through death every year, and others simply drift away or move somewhere else. 

But looks can be deceiving. What I think is really going on is participation by rotation! We are a parish on the move. I would boldly say that we as a parish are the face of the future church. No, we don’t have drive-up Communion – and we never will, of course. But we do have a community of people whose lives are constantly on the move in many directions. We have parents who visit their grown children who have moved out of state. We have families involved in all sorts of activities locally and not so locally which take place during our liturgical gatherings and community events. And so from week to week, from Sunday to Sunday, I have begun to notice that we are indeed a community on rotation! Not that anyone planned it or put together a schedule of rotation, but that is what we have become! And that is what makes us the face of the future church. 

So rather than lament about attendance on any Sunday, I am grateful for those who are there, knowing that many of those who are there on any given Sunday might not be there the following Sunday! Nothing wrong with that; we are a church on the move. And on the whole, I think we are moving in a good direction. We are growing spiritually, if not always materially. But I trust in God and God’s Son and Spirit – Trinity one in essence and undivided.

To help you evaluate your own rotation in life, I offer this very beautiful prayer by John of Dalyatha, from the 8th century, as quoted in The Name of Jesus, by Irénée Hausherr (pages 103-4). And perhaps your rotation will bring you around once in a while to that which you are, namely the church.  Fr. Constantine Sarantidis

O Lord Jesus Christ our God, as you wept over Lazarus and shed tears of sadness and compassion for him, accept these bitter tears of mine.

By your passion heal my passions, by your wounds comfort my wounds, by your blood purify my blood, and spread over my body the life-giving perfume of your body.

The gall which your enemies offered you brings sweetness to my soul so it loses the bitterness which the enemy poured upon it.

May your body stretched on the wood of the cross make my mind fly toward you when the demon tries to drag it down below.

May your head which had to rest on the cross lift up my head when I am insulted by enemies.

May your sacred hands nailed to the cross by unbelievers draw me up toward you from the abyss of perdition, as you promised.

May your face which was so often struck by cruel men make my face shine again after it has been disfigured by sin.

May your spirit which you gave back to your Father on the cross lead me to you by your grace.

I am without a heart that mourns and looks for you; I lack the spirit of penance and compunction that brings children back to their heritage.

I cannot weep, O Lord.

My mind is clouded with earthly concerns and cannot direct its attention in sorrow.

My heart has grown cold from a multitude of temptations and can no longer warm itself with tears of love for you.

But may you, O Lord Jesus Christ, treasury of blessings, grant me perfect repentance and a sorrowful heart that I may set myself to follow you with all my strength.

Without you I can do nothing good.

Give me your grace, O generous one!

May the Father who from all eternity engendered you from his bosom renew in me the features of your image.

I have abandoned you, but do not abandon me.

I have strayed away from your flock, but come and look for me and lead me back to your pasture; give me a place among the sheep of your chosen flock and feed me, and them, with the delights of your divine mysteries.