Episode Details

This evening we continued to discuss the path of a virtuous life. Saint Theophan begins to instruct the young Anastasia and us about how we are to prepare ourselves to receive the Holy Eucharist: the period of time set aside for fasting, the confession of our sins, and the reception of holy communion. It becomes very clear that Saint Theophan is speaking about something that shapes the whole of our life. We are not to fast haphazardly, allowing our thoughts to stray or to linger in daydreams. Our attention is to be kept upon God especially when we are in Church. To let the thoughts stray is to lose sight of Who it is that we stand before. We must always remember that we come before God Our fear and love of Him should shape our actions. We are to do all in our power to warm our hearts with devotion. When necessary we must force ourselves to do everything that we can to make ourselves ready.

In letter 33 he begins to speak to Anastasia about her conduct at home. When she returns from church it is not to dive back into distractions. Rather, she is to rush to her room, the place of solitude and silence and linger in the communion of love that she has just entered. Overwhelmed with the great Mystery in which God has privileged us to participate, we can only cry out “Lord have mercy.”

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Text of chat during the group:

00:12:32 Margie: Greetings

00:18:58 Fr. David: http://traditionalorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2010/06/approaching-constant-govenie.html

00:23:01 Mark Cummings: https://www.howtopronounce.com/russian/govenie

00:25:29 Eric Williams: I think it's Old Church Slavonic and pronounced approximately go-vyeh-nyee-eh.

00:35:02 Fr. John (Ivan) Chirovsky: This Old Church Slavonic word govenie is still used today in modern Ukrainian as hoveennia-говіння.  Russian uses it without any changes to the spelling but they pronounce in Russian as govyenyeeeh.  It is integral to a petition in the Great Litany or Ektenia of Peace used in the Divine Liturgy of St John  Chrysostom as well as services like Matins and Vespers.  "For this holy church and for all who enter it with faith, reverence (blaho-hoveennia) and fear of God, let us pray to the Lord.  So blaho means good, suggesting that it is possible to have bad or improper hoveennia as well as good.  It is trying to capture a unified attitude of spirit, soul (feelings-willing, thoughts, desires), and body.  Of course sin disintegrates where the incensive, appetitive and intellective powers of the soul as well as the proper relationship of body, soul and spirit are disordered.  And so this attitude is really about an entire holistic as well as holy lifestyle rather just a singular feeling or thought or desire.    

00:35:46 Eric Williams: Thank you, Fr Ivan! I knew you'd come through with correct pronunciation. :)

00:40:38 Fr. John (Ivan) Chirovsky: The verb form in Ukrainian is hoveety-говіти.  This is trying to capture the way in which one participates in worship services as an extension or being interwoven or integrated with the way one lives.  It makes sense that the way you "are", or "is" in front of God doesn't change because you walk into or out of a church building.  Existence is integrated.  This is why some church fathers speak of the liturgy after the liturgy.  If one's mode of li