"Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ. Jesus.. . greet also
the church in their house" (Romans 16:3 and 5).
Aquila and Prisca together with the church in their house. send you hearty
greetings in the Lord" (Corinthians16:19)..
At first glance. St. Paul appears to be making a simple geographical statement: a certain community meets at a certain address. But if we read these lines in the light of the Gospel revelation that God is our Father, and look again into the pastoral epistles of St. Paul with their directions to organize the local church on a familiar basis, then we realize that St. Paul is hinting at a profound transformation of the family itself. The Apostolic Churches did not merely meet at someone's house: they were at someone's house: they were someone's house.
Of course the members were not just those related by blood: "But to all who received him. who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. who were born. not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man. but of God" (John 1: 12).
Is it any wonder that the head of such family-churches was called father, that the members greeted each other as brother and sister. and that even after centuries of expansion the chief bishop of a local church was called patriarch. father-ruler? To this day in both Greece and Russia the parish priest himself the father of a natural family, is called "daddy" by his spiritual children.
What is it that creates such family-churches. that gathers the members into one, and that nourishes them and fosters their brotherhood? It is the family meal. at which bread and wine by the power of the Holy Spirit are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. so that those who feast at that banquet might themselves be transformed into members of
Christ's Body.
The Natural Family Church
All of this has a profound effect on the way we look upon the family and the home. For us. because the home is the icon of the church. it becomes a domestic church. The mystery of marriage consecrates the domestic church. (It is interesting to note that the same hymns are sung at a wedding as the bride and groom circle the sacramental table. as at an ordination when the priest-to-be is led around the holy table. A wedding is an ordination for service in the domestic Church Husband and wife are called to a unique sharing in Christ's priesthood by their holy crowning. Their home is their Church.
A Church is known not so much by its architecture or its interior design, but by the function it plays: the activities it nurtures. A Church must be hallowed by the blood of gracious sacrifice, and perfumed by the incense of fervent prayer, echoing God's word and re-echoing man's response in humble adoration. Anything less and we have Shakespeare's "bare ruined choirs".
Our mothers and fathers must rediscover their role as priests of the home. The parents bless their children, the food that nourishes them, and preach the most eloquent of sermons by the nobility of their conduct. They enable their family to celebrate the fasts and feasts of the year. The children, too. should learn to assume roles in the domestic church as soon as practical: they can help read the daily scripture passages, assist in the preparation of the foods proper to their tradition and tend the light before the icons.
Living out Your Vocation
There are a few cautionary notes. however. If you have not been accustomed to living out your vocation as a domestic Church. many of the practices suggested below will seem artificial and you will feel self-conscious about implementing them. In that case, try one practice at a time: perhaps one as a New Year's resolution, another as a Lenten practice. etc. Gradually the family will assimilate those external practices which manifest that your house has become God's house. "a house of prayer."
Secondly. our motivation in all of this is not based on a determination to preserve folkloric traditions. Folklore is a beautiful expression of the human spirit. If certain customs are part of your ethnic background by all means preserve what is yours. but Christianity is not about ethnic folkways. "There is neither Jew nor Greek. there is neither slave nor free. there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Our motivation is not ethnocentric but Christocentric. "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). Our goal is to preserve faith in Christ Jesus and to celebrate that faith in joy until he
comes again.
Thirdly, the author is unashamedly eclectic in assembling the ways by which the Eastern Christian tradition incarnates fidelity to Christ in the domestic Church. Ethnic purists might have included only those practices hallowed by their own tradition. and excluded those from other sources. I feel that the scattering of Eastern Christians. both Catholic and Orthodox. from every ethnic tradition. Ukrainian and Greek. Middle Eastern or Middle European. and their in gathering in the New World - the United States. Canada. Australia. South America - is actually a gift of grace. Because all Christian life is an exile from paradise and a pilgrimage of return to the Tree of Life. God bestowed the grace of exile from their earthly fatherland upon chosen souls in order that they might teach all of us what it means to pine as longingly for the heavenly kingdom as they do for their earthly fatherland. But we are not alone in our pilgrimage. Living in the New World we can garner the riches of all Eastern Christian traditions and adapt them to our current needs.
What does it matter if the custom of Easter baskets is Slav and I am a Greek? What more beautiful expression can we find for our Easter joy at the fully-laden table. symbol of the Eucharist. as St. John Chrysostom (neither Slav nor Greek) writes in the catechetical address read at all Easter Matins? Why should it matter that the Serbs keep name days best of all and I am an Italo-Albanian? Is there any way better than the Slava to bring home the reality that we are the spiritual sheep of the Lord's flock and he calls us each by name and we recognize the sound of the Good Shepherd's voice? If pious Ukrainians share the deep spiritual significance of the holy supper on Christmas Eve with their Melkite neighbors, will they not let their Middle-Eastern fellow Byzantines show them how to sanctify Theophany by the making of holy doughnuts and to hallow the feast of the Cross by a holy bonfire?
Melody of Prayer
Just as a Church without prayer is no Church at all, our domestic Churches must resound with the heavenly melody of prayer. It is especially important for children to see their parents pray. Our wedding ceremony still repeats the ancient truth: the prayers of parents make strong the foundations of houses. In the morning, before each meal, at night: these are the privileged times for parents to exercise the priesthood of the laity within their homes.
An Eastern Church cannot be conceived apart from its icons, so the domestic Church is blessed by the luminous presence of these windows into the heavenly realm. The icon corner, traditionally opposite the main entrance of the home or at least, at a major focal point should contain the icons of the family patrons. A family feast day could be chosen - perhaps that of the parish Church or of the region in the "old country" - and its icon given pride of place. The holy cross standard of victory, should be conspicuously displayed. The Slavic custom of surrounding the icons on three sides by an embroidered cloth is a particularly fitting sign of honor. In front of the icons a lamp should hang, its flickering flame a visible sign of the warmth and light of God's grace in the home, as it also represents the family members' minds and hearts raised to God in prayer. Beneath the icons should stand a table with the hand-censer, holy water from the feast of Jordan, holy oil from Great Wednesday, the parents' wedding crowns, the Gospel, and a prayer book. It is especially fitting that children become the sacristans of the domestic Church. Providing they are mature enough to do so. they could light the coal and incense the home on Saturday evenings and the vigils of feasts. They could tend the holy light brought from Church on Easter.
God is With Us
From its inception, the family can function as domestic Church. "Ordained" priests of the domestic Church by their wedding, parents can see to it that every family event is an invitation to God to become man in their midst. When children are born, they are named on the eighth day according to our liturgy. What a splendid occasion for a renewal of our baptismal consecration to the Holy Trinity! The icon of the newborn's patron is added to the icon corner. The priest comes to the home to serve the short office of naming. On the fortieth day the newborn is initiated fully into Christ's Church by receiving all three Mysteries of Christian initiation: Baptism. Chrismation and Holy Eucharist. It would be wonderful if all of our children received the Body and Blood of Christ from the first moments of their lives!
Priests of the domestic Church must re-learn the truth that they. too. can bless according to their baptismal calling. Mothers and fathers must invoke God's blessing through the sign of the cross on their children. Those preparing food must bless it as a sign of gratitude to God from whom all blessings flow. All must regain the ease of blessing themselves in public before beginning any activity, for all is undertaken in the name of the Lord.
The bread to be sanctified into the Body and Blood of Christ should come from those requesting the Divine Liturgy for a special intention. It is so much more personal than merely requesting the Holy Sacrifice and making an offering. The children find making bread such a joyful experience. Taking the extra care to make prosphora. impressing it with the seal - Just as we were "sealed" with the Holy Spirit at Chrismation - is to offer oneself along with the bread in order that both be transformed. When the priest accepts the prosphora, he can remove the particles to be hallowed and return the rest of the loaf as antidorion to be shared among those by whom and for whom the Divine Liturgy was requested.
The cycle of fasts and feasts especially, but not exclusively, requires the loving care of our faithful women and girls. If fasting is a form of unspoken prayer, then shopping for foods that fulfill the requirements of fasting, and the preparation of these foods is a great way to fill the home with the sweet savor of prayer. The painstaking preparation of special festal dishes is not just an exercise in gourmet cookery; it is a tangible, edible way of experiencing what the psalmist sang. "Taste and see how sweet the Lord is:'
Since the Church on earth is a Church of sinners, sin will also be experienced in the domestic Church. It is here, then, that forgiveness must first be sought: here that repentance must begin. Simple words of forgiveness could be exchanged by all prior to confessing before the priest in church.
"Now the wages of sin is death" St. Paul tells us. One of the heaviest crosses to bear is the death of our loved ones. Here. too, the domestic Church lightens the burden of our grief by bidding us to make the boiled wheat to be blessed in sacramental memory of the dead. The wheat is the seed that must be buried if it is to live again. It is mixed with honey and raisins and nuts because "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones.
From the cradle to the grave we. priests of the domestic Church. are called to experience the truth that matter is grace-bearing. The sight of the holy icons, the smell of the incense. the hearing of the traditional greetings, the touch of the sign of the cross, and the taste of the Bread of Life and the Wine of Immortality. cause all our senses to invite us to proclaim Christ in all and through all.
