Saturday, February 04, 2006

The harmony of the Divine Liturgy

…what…is the baptismal formula? [In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit] It is essentially no more and no less than an expression of the dogma of the consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity. Thus, everything that precedes the Creed is a preparation for 'attending' to the word 'consubstantiality,' ὁμοούσια. 'Consubstantiality' is precisely 'wisdom.'

The idea behind this order of the liturgy is clear: mutual love alone is the condition of 'unity of thought,' ὁμόνοια, the one thought of those who love one another, in contrast to the external relation to one another which yields nothing more than 'similarity of thought,' ὁμοίνοια, on which secular life is based: science, social life, government, etc. But 'unity of thought' provides the ground that makes possible joint confession ὁμολογήσομεν, i.e., understanding and acknowledgement of the dogma of consubstantiality, ὁμοούσια. In or through this unity of thought, we come into contact with the mystery of the Triune Divinity.
St. Pavel (Florensky)

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