How to Be an Orthodox Christian

In this episode, Dcn. Seraphim takes us through to the end of the first half of the Divine Liturgy and the dismissal of the Catechumens. According to mystical interpreters such as St. Maximus the Confessor, everything up to this point corresponds to the incarnation, life and teaching of Christ, and the "Church Age" culminating in the Last Judgement, which means everything that follows takes place in the Age to Come. Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

In this episode, Dcn. Seraphim takes us through the first few lines and movements of the Divine Liturgy itself, the highest expression of worship which the Church can offer to the Holy Trinity. From the opening blessing, the petitions of the Great Litany, and the movements of the Little Entrance, he shows how the Divine Liturgy is a fundamental communal act: every order of the Church, every state of humanity, and all three Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity are addressed as the Church moves through the history of redemption towards the age to come. Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

With much fear and trembling, Dcn. Seraphim begins our mini-series on the Divine Liturgy itself, the great "public work" of Christ on behalf of the Church, and the whole world. Many people may not be aware that everything actually begins with a small, quiet, mysterious service, one in which the priest and deacon prepare the gifts, the bread and wine which will become the body and blood of God Himself. In this service, we see all of creation revealed as existing for the purpose of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, as both time and space are revealed as iconic realities, and Dcn. Seraphim gives some practical advice for how we should think about this revelation as we prepare our hearts to participate in the Divine Liturgy. Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

The ancient Hours turn the passing of the workday into a remembrance of salvation. Dcn Seraphim traces the biblical practice of prayer at fixed times and walks through the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours: sunrise offered with the work of our hands, Pentecost at midmorning, the darkness of the Cross at noon, and Christ's death and the promise to the penitent thief in the afternoon. The Hours free us from the tyranny of the clock and fill the day with the presence of Christ. Dcn Seraphim closes with practical ways for laypeople to recover small moments of fixed prayer without attempting to imitate a monastic schedule. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rG775rFoxjmoBNht9d9yHijpw6Nnw6e8?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

Matins begins in darkness with six psalms read in profound stillness and ends with the Church singing, “Glory to Thee who hast shown us the light.” Dcn Seraphim follows this morning watch from the Hexapsalmos — with its voices of waking, suffering, thirst, abandonment, mercy, and hope — through the proclamation “God is the Lord,” the appointed psalms and hymns, and the Sunday Gospel carried into the midst of the people. He explains how the eleven Resurrection Gospels gather frightened, doubting, grieving, and guilty disciples around the risen Christ, and how the canon teaches the Church to read the songs and images of the Old Testament as fulfilled in Him. The Magnificat, the Praises, and the Great Doxology finally summon the whole creation into the light. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yqEFAz7rAhqN4aFRoIt07lFBN7V2cOQM?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

Outside, the sun is going down; inside the church, a new day has already begun. In this introduction to the daily cycle of Orthodox worship, Dcn Seraphim explains why the Church begins each day at sunset and how Vespers teaches Christians to experience time not as an empty succession of appointments but as a creation filled with memory, prayer, fasting, and feasting. He follows the service from Psalm 103 and the open doors of Paradise through humanity's exile, the evening incense and changing hymns, the entrance of the clergy, and the ancient hymn “O Gladsome Light,” in which the setting sun points to Christ, the uncreated Light. Old Testament readings, litanies, and the Song of Symeon lead the congregation toward peaceful rest after beholding the beginning of Christ's salvation. Along the way he explains how the service books and liturgical cycles fit together and offers newcomers practical guidance for attending, listening, and allowing Vespers to prepare them for Sunday and the great feasts. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14R60JXC6Gv2pUdg9yPcjvcwb2X6VZkKM?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

Remembering his first Divine Liturgy, Dcn Seraphim describes his realization that an Orthodox church is already full before the visible congregation arrives: Christ and His Mother, the angels, apostles, prophets, martyrs, and saints surround the earthly Church in worship. Beginning with the image and likeness of God and the Orthodox teaching of theosis, he explains who the saints are, why death does not remove them from the body of Christ, and why asking their prayers neither replaces direct prayer to Jesus nor diminishes His unique mediation. He then distinguishes veneration from the worship owed to God alone, grounds the honor given to icons and relics in the Incarnation and resurrection of the body, and considers the special place of the Theotokos, the recognition of saints by the Church, and the relationship between Christians and their patrons. The saints are not a decorative addition to Christianity, but human lives in which the grace of Christ has become visible. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wc1D4LJgS2EO-cL2pc4fakIXOQxCDUAP?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

In Orthodox funerals, we simultaneously embody two realities the world has difficulty holding together: this is terrible, and Christ is risen. Dcn Seraphim explains why death is an enemy rather than a harmless transition, why the Christian hope is the resurrection of the whole human person rather than the soul's escape from the body, and how Christ destroys death from within by entering it Himself. He offers practical counsel on preparing for death and calling the priest, then walks through the care of the body, the funeral service, the final kiss, burial, and the Church's continuing prayer for the departed. Along the way he considers cremation, organ donation, miscarriage and stillbirth, suicide, and other difficult circumstances that require pastoral care rather than speculation. The episode closes with the grain of wheat planted in the earth: the baptized body laid in the grave in grief, reverence, and the hope of resurrection. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13Un05dLcuZ5AQ4EOARP4yyEPSLPGhyS3?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

Whose hand rests upon a man's head at ordination? Beginning with his own ordination to the diaconate, Dcn Seraphim explains that the priesthood belongs to Christ, the one eternal High Priest, and that bishops, priests, and deacons receive particular ministries within His priesthood rather than possessing spiritual authority of their own. He shows how ordained ministry serves rather than replaces the royal priesthood of every baptized Christian, traces apostolic succession from Christ and the apostles through the laying-on of hands, and describes the distinct work of the bishop, priest, deacon, reader, and subdeacon. The episode then walks through the Orthodox ordination rite: the procession around the altar, the prayer that divine grace heals what is infirm and completes what is lacking, the cry of “Axios,” and the vesting of the newly ordained man. Dcn Seraphim closes by considering what clergy and people owe one another — faithful teaching, reverent service, prayer, honesty, accountability, practical support, and mercy — as they work out their salvation together in the body of Christ. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ub5iFJAGN6hCXhyfKSWoPA11qudSLKaA?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA

Beginning with the rite of monastic tonsure, Dcn Seraphim presents monasticism as a total offering of one's life to God and a counterpart to the self-offering of Christian marriage. He traces its roots through Christ's counsels in the Gospels, St. Paul's teaching on celibacy, and the life of St. Anthony the Great, then explores the communal, skete, and eremitic forms of the monastic life. Drawing on St. John Climacus, St. Basil the Great, St. Paisius Velichkovsky, and the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers, he explains the promises of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability without romanticizing either asceticism or spiritual authority. Finally, he shows how monasteries have preserved the Church's daily worship, the Jesus Prayer, the Philokalia, and the practice of spiritual counsel, and what Christians living in the world can learn from their witness without pretending to be monks themselves. Handouts and resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1chsUEqgt-1Be9u00Orh0qHYs9NzVnN3r?usp=sharing Music Used: Cherubic Hymn, Romanian Chant, Tone 8 Choir of St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA